Participants:
Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190009A
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00:01 Christ and Satan have a war going on.
00:03 And we better know what it's about, 00:05 because we are in the middle of it. 00:30 In the book of Revelation chapter 12 we get a 00:32 fantastic picture, again in symbols for the most part, 00:37 of this great controversy, this great fight, if you please, 00:41 this great war between Christ and Satan. 00:45 And we really need to know what it's all about. 00:47 As the book opens up in chapter 12, 00:50 we get this marvelous scene. 00:53 And so we want to go to chapter 12 00:55 and just listen to what it has to say. 00:57 Revelation 12:1-2 says, "Now a great sign appeared in heaven." 01:04 A great symbol in heaven. 01:06 And then it says, "A woman clothed with the sun..." 01:10 Now that would be a pretty good dress, wouldn't it? 01:12 To be clothed with the sun? 01:14 "...and the moon under her feet, 01:17 and on her head a garland," or crown, "of twelve stars." 01:23 Then it gives another picture that's kind of interesting. 01:25 So you have that picture in your mind, 01:27 this marvelously dressed woman with the universe, 01:32 if you please, the lights of the universe. 01:35 And then it says, "Then she being with child..." 01:40 Well that's interesting. 01:41 "...and she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth." 01:45 So where does all of this come from? 01:49 Well let's flash back again to the Garden of Eden. 01:51 You know the story well of the fall of Adam and Eve. 01:55 And I think we referred to it before in our series here 01:59 that when Jesus confronted Adam and Eve 02:02 after the fall and He told them what the consequences were, 02:07 one thing that He said to Satan and to Eve, 02:11 and that was that Eve's seed, the seed of the woman, 02:15 would bruise the head of Satan 02:21 and his evil angels, if you please. 02:24 I'm paraphrasing a little bit. 02:26 But the seed of Satan would bruise the heel 02:31 of the seed of the woman. 02:32 So now we have the woman in symbolic form 02:36 giving birth to the Messiah. 02:39 That has been all the hope all the way down 02:41 through centuries of time till Jesus appeared the first time, 02:45 the Messiah would come. 02:48 The Messiah that would bring great hope to the world. 02:52 And so this woman represents God's church, 02:54 both in one sense in its Jewish form, and then of course 02:58 by now in its Christian form. 03:01 Because this has become, in a sense, the new Israel. 03:06 The church of God gives birth to this man Child. 03:10 She's in pain to give birth. 03:13 Now in the book of Revelation, there are many contrasts. 03:17 And you have to watch those contrasts 03:19 because they're very informative. 03:20 There are two women in the book of Revelation. 03:24 One is here, clothed with the lights of the universe, 03:28 if you please, and then there is the woman that shows up 03:32 in Revelation chapter 17. 03:36 And she practices adultery. 03:39 Now we're not going to get into the adulterous situation, 03:42 but in contrast they're both supposed to be 03:45 faithful to the Lord. 03:47 But as time goes through, that time that we're moving through, 03:52 one becomes faithful and stays faithful, 03:55 and the other becomes unfaithful. 03:59 So there's two women, 04:00 and we're seeing the faithful one right now. 04:04 The other one, of course, is dressed as an adulterous. 04:09 And you can see that. 04:10 This one is clothed with the pure light of the sun. 04:13 Now that sun I think represents the glory of God 04:16 and the beauty of Christ's character and His goodness. 04:19 She's also standing on the moon. 04:21 Now what does a moon do? 04:22 A moon reflects the light of the sun. 04:24 So the church on earth that this woman represents, 04:28 it should be reflecting the wonderful character of Jesus. 04:32 Some years ago there's a little story about some people 04:36 who became shipwrecked and they were marooned 04:38 on some unknown island, 04:40 and they were afraid for their lives. 04:43 And so as they crept ashore and they were kind of 04:46 carefully trying to see who was there, 04:50 wondering if they might be getting eaten by cannibals, 04:54 they looked and suddenly they saw the spire of a church. 04:59 And then they all relaxed and they said, 05:01 "We're safe, we're safe." 05:02 Why? Because Christ changes people. 05:07 He changes our character. 05:10 And so this woman reflects the marvelous, wonderful 05:15 character of Jesus. 05:17 That's why she's standing on the moon. 05:19 And she has a crown of twelve stars, 05:21 which the Bible says are like the apostles. 05:24 So she's faithful. 05:25 She's faithful to the teachings of the apostles. 05:28 It's amazing to me nowadays how people can take the clear 05:32 teachings of Scripture and just make them try to say 05:35 anything they want them to say to fit their own agenda. 05:38 I was reading about a minister the other day. 05:41 I won't get into the subject 05:43 because it's kind of a hot potato. 05:45 But I was amazed at how he just moved Scripture 05:48 around and twisted it to fit some awful behavior. 05:54 Why? 05:56 Because people want to do their own thing. 05:58 They want to go their own way. 06:01 And that, of course, is what this controversy is all about. 06:04 Now, she is pregnant with the Son of God, in symbolic form. 06:08 And now Satan shows up, the great red dragon. 06:12 Revelation 12:2-3. 06:16 "Another sign appeared in heaven: 06:18 behold, a great, fiery red dragon 06:21 having seven heads and ten horns, 06:24 and seven diadems on his heads. 06:28 Now this, of course, is the enemy of Christ. 06:31 And he hates this man Child because he knows who He is 06:35 that's getting ready to be born. 06:37 "His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven..." 06:40 We're going to see a little bit later in the book of Revelation 06:43 how Michael and His angels fought against the dragon 06:46 and his angels. 06:48 Stars are sometimes symbolic of angels in heaven. 06:52 This controversy in heaven was so intense 06:56 that a third, it appears, of angels sided 07:01 with the great deceiver, Lucifer. 07:04 And it says, "His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven 07:08 and threw them to the earth. 07:09 And the dragon stood before the woman who was 07:12 ready to give birth, to devour her Child 07:15 as soon as He was born." 07:17 And of course, we know how Jesus was persecuted. 07:19 We know what happened on Calvary's cross. 07:22 But we thank God that Satan was not able to keep Jesus here. 07:26 Jesus lived that perfect life. 07:29 The grave cannot hold an innocent man. 07:32 And He was resurrected, so He's caught up to heaven, 07:35 as the text goes on. 07:38 Well this great red dragon is that old serpent 07:43 that was in the Garden of Eden. 07:44 Only he's on steroids with seven heads and ten horns. 07:49 And I know this is going to sound a little odd, 07:51 but this great red dragon is actually threatened by the woman 07:57 and her child. 07:59 He's threatened by them. 08:00 Well, he should be. 08:02 If you'll remember, in the wilderness of temptation 08:05 when Jesus met the devil, and He met them with the 08:08 temptations, or the devil met Him with the temptations, 08:11 the last temptation shows how desperate the devil was. 08:16 And this was a mighty victory for Jesus; 08:19 overcoming these three temptations. 08:21 They're the same temptations, by the way, that we all face. 08:25 But the devil, in one last desperate attempt, 08:28 says to Jesus, "Look, I'll give you all of the world 08:32 and its kingdoms. 08:33 You don't have to go through the suffering of the cross. 08:36 I'll just give them to you. 08:37 Of course, there's a little condition. 08:39 If you just fall down and worship me." 08:42 Of course Jesus repulsed him. 08:44 He says, "Get away from Me, Satan. 08:47 Go away. 08:48 Get!" as He said. 08:50 "Get out of here." 08:52 Because He said, quoting from Deuteronomy, 08:55 He said that, "Man shall worship the Lord God only, 09:01 and shall only serve Him." 09:03 My paraphrase. 09:05 So worship and service go together. 09:08 What Jesus really said to Satan, He says, 09:11 "No, I'm not going to get the kingdoms of 09:13 this world by worshiping you." 09:14 It was a false gift anyway because the one you worship 09:16 is the one you serve. 09:19 Jesus said, "No, I'm not going to get the 09:20 kingdoms of this world. 09:21 I'm going to get them. 09:23 Yes, it's going to cost Me pain and suffering, 09:26 and a great, deep, dark journey, 09:29 but I'm going to get them, not by worshiping you, 09:32 but by your eviction." 09:36 So this battle has been locked. 09:39 And we're seeing it played out here. 09:42 So we come now to Revelation 12:7-9. 09:50 "And war broke out in heaven." 09:53 War in heaven? 09:54 Sounds odd, doesn't it? 09:57 Heaven should be a place of peace, and tranquility, 10:00 and joy, and happiness. 10:03 But let me tell you this. 10:04 As we get into this great controversy 10:06 and what it's really all about, 10:09 it's all about selfishness, covetousness. 10:13 Any time you get people who are coveting, 10:15 any time you get people who are selfish, 10:18 you're going to get conflict, you're going to get war. 10:22 The only way that peace can be in the universe 10:25 is for all of us to have a heart of unselfish love. 10:29 I'm looking forward to that new earth 10:31 when we are going to live in a society of unselfish love. 10:35 I've got a whole program, we're going to talk about 10:38 that new earth and heaven, and what it's going to be like. 10:41 As I used to tell people, I'd show them a wonderful 10:44 book called, The Great Controversy, 10:45 as I was going through school, I used to tell them, 10:48 "You know, if you miss heaven, you've missed everything." 10:52 Well back to this great red dragon. 10:55 Jesus, of course, is caught up to heaven, 10:57 and now he takes out his rage on this woman, the church. 11:01 But now there's a flashback in history 11:04 to this war in heaven. 11:06 So let's finish Revelation 12:7-9. 11:09 "Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; 11:12 and the dragon and his angels fought..." 11:15 Now I think Michael here, I don't have time to 11:17 show it to you from Scripture, Michael here is a picture 11:21 of Jesus who is the head of the angels. 11:23 Now I want to hasten to add this so that nobody misunderstands. 11:26 Jesus is not a created being. 11:28 He always has been. He is the Almighty. 11:31 He is from everlasting to everlasting. 11:34 But sometimes He takes on the roll of the head angel, 11:38 the chief angel, the one who is in charge of the angels. 11:42 And I think that's the picture that's here. 11:44 Michael, the face of God. That's what the name means. 11:48 "Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; 11:51 and his angels fought..." 11:52 In other words, this deception became so powerful. 11:55 Satan is cunning. 11:57 Listen, if he can deceive a third of the angels of heaven, 12:00 you and I need the help of the Lord Jesus. 12:03 We need His help. 12:04 We need His power. 12:07 "...but they did not prevail, nor was a place 12:10 found in heaven for them any longer. 12:16 So the great dragon, the red dragon, was cast out, 12:20 that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, 12:24 who deceives the world; he was cast out to the earth..." 12:27 And that's why we're in the middle of it. 12:31 "...and his angels were cast out with him." 12:35 What about this war in heaven? 12:37 The Bible gives us some other glimpse of it. 12:39 And the book of Isaiah gives us a picture of what's going on 12:42 here under the symbol of Lucifer. 12:46 And it starts off with those sad words. 12:49 Lucifer, meaning, the light-bearer, 12:51 the covering cherub. 12:53 It starts off with those words, "How are you fallen from heaven, 12:58 O Lucifer, son of the morning." 13:00 It sounds like Jeremiah in his book of Lamentations 13:03 talking about the fall of Israel. 13:06 How could you fall? How could this happen? 13:09 How could war be introduced into heaven? 13:13 "How are you cut down to the ground, 13:16 that did weaken the nations!" 13:18 How could all of this happen? 13:20 Let me tell you, sin is a terrible thing. 13:23 Sin has consequences. 13:25 You know, in our world today, 13:26 we just take sin kind of lightly, you know. 13:28 "Oh, so what, you know. 13:29 I sinned, okay. Jesus, thank You, forgive me." 13:31 Sin is a terrible thing. 13:33 Thank God for the forgiveness of Jesus. 13:36 But it cost Jesus terribly to be able to forgive our sins. 13:41 No, sin has consequences. 13:43 And Jesus is in the business of getting it out of our life. 13:48 We'll be back to talk about the war in heaven. |
Revised 2019-07-31