21 Jan, 2001

Conflict In Heaven And Earth

Rev. 12

How many of you have ever felt that the Bible is kind of big, and has a whole lot of confusing stuff in it? Have you ever wished that there was some way you could get a grip on the overall why and how of what it's all about? Have you ever wondered what God's game plan is, and wished you could make sense of it? I have good news for you: today is your day. Today is the day that we get to see where God paints in this part of the picture for you, and we all get to look at it.

But before we start, let me give you two hints about this picture: First, God has a conflict with Satan. This conflict has been going on for a long time, and provides the framework for all of the earth's history.
Second hint: God does not have a backup plan. God only has one plan for this world, for Satan, and for your salvation. And the sooner and better we can grasp that, the better off our lives will be.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Revelation 12 and verse 1. If you didn't bring your Bibles with you today, look on your bulletins, it's in there.

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."

If there is one overriding concern which has characterized earth since the time of the creation, if there was one overall factor that would include everything else in it, it would be the concept of war. Adam and Eve had not spent hardly any time in the Garden of Eden before they were drawn into a conflict between the powers of heaven and hell, and that war will continue until Jesus Christ finally puts Satan away once and for all. Something that is a constant through out earth's history is the war between the dragon, the woman, and her seed; the man-child that proceeds from the woman. Chapter 12 in Revelation gives us an overview of earth's history that illustrates that for us; past, present, and future.

First off, who is this woman? What is the woman? Verse one says: "There appeared a great wonder in heaven." The word wonder literally means a sign. This is a sign, a symbol, it is something that represents something else, and we need to know what it is. Over the years, there have been a lot of people that have had various interpretations over who this woman is.

The woman that founded the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy, taught that she was the woman, and the Christian Scientist religion was her child. (Thumbs down)

The Roman Catholic church teaches that the woman is the Virgin Mary, and that she was the one caught up to heaven, and this passage refers to the assumption of Mary bodily into heaven. Well that's all very nice, but the passage says that it was her child that was caught up to heaven, and that the woman fled into the wilderness. I don't know of any history anywhere that Mary fled into the wilderness after Jesus arose from the dead and went to heaven. (Thumbs down)

Some Protestant churches teach that the woman is the church. Verse two tells us that the woman gives birth to the child. If the woman is the church, then that means the church gives birth to Jesus. What's wrong with that picture? It's backwards. The church proceeds from Jesus, not Jesus from the church. So that can't work. (Thumbs down)

And then there are some that teach that the woman is Israel, and that makes perfect sense. (Thumbs up) The woman here is a sign that points us to Israel. Notice that the woman is clothed with the sun, she has the moon under her feet, and she has twelve stars on her head. Back in Genesis chapter 37, Joseph dreams a dream, and he tells his parents and brothers: "Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Gen 37:11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying."
Jacob understood that the dream of the sun, the moon, and the stars referred to himself and his wife and his sons, Israel and the twelve tribes.

Verse 2 tells us that the woman was with child, and "cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." Several of our women in here are mothers, did any of you had a long and difficult delivery? Several of you. How about 4,000 years for the nation of Israel, travailing to bring forth their Messiah? The words in the verse for pained and travail are both in the present tense. They are still travailing, and will continue to travail, until sometime during the tribulation, waiting for their Messiah.

Verse 3: "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born."

Once again, the word wonder here means a sign, a symbol of something. This dragon is the sign for Satan, and in these verses, we learn something about Satan, his plans, and his warfare against God.
Notice that the dragon has seven heads with seven crowns on them. The number seven stands for completeness. I believe that this tells us that Satan has a complete knowledge of the world, and how it works, a complete strategy to bring the world under his control. The dragon also has ten horns. Since a horn in scripture refers to power possessed or wielded, this could refer to the great power that Satan possess over the world.

In the book of Job we find the angels referred to as stars which sang at the creation of the world, and the word Lucifer itself even means; "Star of the Morning." When Satan rebelled, he took a third of the stars, the angels of heaven with him in his rebellion against God. Satan currently has access to heaven, and also to the earth. Satan and the fallen angels are trans dimensional creatures, they are able to transition back and forth between heaven and earth. During the tribulation, that will change, and we'll get to that in a minute.

The main thing for us to see this morning, is that Satan has always had one primary strategy in his war with God, and that is to prevent God's plans and purposes from coming to pass. The main way that he has done this, throughout history, was to try and stop the Messiah from coming. Verse 4 says that the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, to devour her child as soon as it was born. Satan has tried throughout history to stop the Messiah from coming to earth, because if he can frustrate God's promises, that is a major victory for him.

Satan motivated Cain to kill Abel, thinking that he would destroy the lineage through which Messiah would come. But then Adam and Eve had another son, Seth. Satan's angels corrupted the earth and the human race by interbreeding with mankind prior to the flood, knowing that if humanity was corrupted in such a way, the pure Son of God could not be born. But the Bible says that Noah was perfect in his generations. God preserved a pure lineage. Satan moved on Pharaoh to have all the male Israelite children killed, but God had Moses spared, and used him to deliver Israel from Egypt. Satan used King Saul to try and kill David, but God preserved David, and made promises to him that will be fulfilled when Christ sits on David's throne in the future, during the millennium.

There have been several times when the fate of all God's promises rested on just one person, when Jehoram became king in Israel, he killed all his brothers and all the princes of Israel. At the same time, the Philistines came and killed all Jehoram's wives and children, only one young son was left, but God preserved him, and the lineage remained intact. There was a woman named Athaliah who killed all the heirs of the throne, but God had the wife of the high priest hide the baby Joash from her, and God's promises continued on in one little child.

When Jesus was born, Satan moved Herod to kill all the little children around Bethlehem, but God led Joseph to take his family to Egypt. When Jesus was grown, Satan tempted Jesus with the same things he tempted Eve with, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It didn't work. Satan is the prince of the power of the air, he tried to kill Jesus out on the sea of Galilee by bringing up a storm. It didn't work.

Finally, Satan got Jesus crucified on a cross, and sealed Him up in a rock tomb, probably figured that would give him the upper hand over God. Easter morning, Satan was looking at an empty tomb, probably had that Wiley Coyote-over-the-cliff expression on his face.

Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Jesus took on Himself flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And Jesus Christ was successful, Hallelujah, the war has been won, the outcome has been decided, but the struggle still continues. If you want to make any sense out of history, if you want to understand the why and the how of what happens in the world, you have to frame things in terms of Satan's war against God. Otherwise, it will not make sense.

After His resurrection, Jesus Christ, the child of the woman, was caught up unto God, and to His throne, as we read in the last part of verse 5. As we go to verse 6, we need to realize that this is one of those places in the Bible that has a big gap in the timeline. Between verses 5 and 6 there is a time gap coming up on 2,000 years, because the end of verse 5 is the ascension of Christ outside Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago, and verse 6 is a future tribulation verse.

Notice, the church is not a part of this picture. Why isn't the church in this picture? Because in Revelation chapters 12 through 14, God only deals with the seven major players in the tribulation scenario: The woman, who is national Israel. The dragon, who is Satan. The man-child, who is Christ. The arch angel Michael. A saved believing remnant of the seed of the woman, 144,000 Israelites, 12,000 from each tribe. The beast out of the sea, and the beast out of the earth. Not the church. The church is not part of the action, it is in heaven. That doesn't mean you can nod off, because even if not all the Bible is about us, all the Bible is still for us, and God wouldn't have it in here if it wasn't profitable for us.

Verse 6: "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."
Satan knows that part of God's plan is for Messiah to rule and reign over the earth from the throne of David. Satan tried to destroy the Messiah, that failed. Satan's overall plan is still to show that God is unable to bring His plans and purposes to pass, so Satan keeps the same strategy, but picks a different target, Israel. If Satan can destroy the nation that the Messiah is to rule over, God's plan gets trashed. Satan wants to frustrate God. Satan knows he won't win, but he will settle for a tie. A stalemate. Unlike God, Satan has several back up plans, so he sets out to try and destroy Israel.

Apparently Israel flees into the wilderness at about the half way point of the tribulation, we will discuss where they might go to in a minute. Verse 7: "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

As we said before, Satan and the fallen angels are multi dimensional creatures, they can go to and from earth and heaven at will, but this puts an end to it. From this point on, the fallen angels are restricted to this planet, they apparently lose some portion of their powers and capabilities.

Verse 10: "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Rev 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." I suspect that this would be around the midpoint of the tribulation, three and a half years into it, three and a half years to go. The angel says that it is but a short time, however, three and a half years can be a long time when there is a war going on. World War Two lasted about five years, it was bad, horrible, and most of it was fought with what we now think of as old technology. Imagine three and a half years of global conflict fought with modern weapons while demons freely roam the earth. An ultimate nightmare.

Verse 13: "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Rev 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent."
Satan makes it a priority to destroy Israel, but God carries her to some place of safety in a wilderness somewhere. Keep your place in Revelation, turn to Daniel 11:41, and maybe we can see where it is they go to. Speaking of the Antichrist, it says: "He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon." Edom and Moab are modern day Jordan, including the region around Petra. If any of you saw the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," you saw a little part of Petra right at the end. Many people think Petra is the refuge. It is a huge, ancient city complex carved out of the rock down in the midst of some mountainous badlands out in the middle of nowhere, but only about 100 miles south east of Jerusalem. Now turn back to Rev 12:15.

Verse 15: "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth."
I have no idea what this means, and I don't think any body else does either. I do know that Petra is kind of a low spot in the surrounding mountains, the whole area is dry desert, and if you could somehow cause a great cloud burst in the area, a monsoon, it would be bad news. Major flash flood potential. Or maybe the flood refers to some overwhelming military operation. I can't tell you, I don't know. Don't worry about it.

Verse 17: "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Back in chapter 7 we read about 144,000 Israelites, 12,000 from each tribe that were followers of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. These would be the seed of the woman that Satan will go off to make war against. Since Satan can't seem to get to the woman in the wilderness, for whatever reason, he goes after what he thinks will be an easier target.

What lessons can we learn from this past, present, and future over view of Satan, and his ongoing war with the woman, and with her seed? Back at the start of this lesson, we said that this war between heaven and Satan has been the framework that all history fits into, and we said that God does not have a backup plan. Lets talk about that. First, the warfare part.

Turn to Daniel chapter 10 and verse 11. Daniel has been fasting and praying for three weeks, God apparently had delayed in answering him, and then an angel comes to him, verse 11:
"And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
Dan 10:12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
Dan 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
>From the moment that Daniel began to fast and pray, his words were heard, and God had an answer for him. However, there was a spiritual power, something or someone that the angel called "the prince of the kingdom of Persia," withstanding and restraining the angel so that he could not get to Daniel, and answer his prayer. The prince of the kingdom of Persia. Persia is modern Iran. Is modern Iran still opposed to the things of Christ? How interesting.

Turn over to Isaiah 24:20, that is a tribulation passage, it refers to what the Lord will do at the time of the tribulation. "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Isa 24:21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth." The host of the high ones that are on high. We get frustrated and defeated in our day to day Christian life because we forget the nature of the conflict.

Turn to Ephesians 6:10. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

There is a danger in modern warfare from what is called friendly fire. Is there anyone in here who does not know what the term friendly fire means? Friendly fire is what happens when a soldier is wounded or killed by coming under fire from his own people due to carelessness or ignorance. There is one weapon that causes more spiritual friendly fire casualties among Christians than all others combined: the lie. The lie.

Fallen angels, principalities and powers, will motivate Christians to do dumb things, thoughtless things, selfish things, un-Christian things that discourage and confuse other Christians. Satan and his followers always work through lies, and they always work through people. The result? Christians end up hurting other Christians with friendly fire. It happens in politics. It happens in business. It happens in the home. It even happens in the church. The mouth is the weapon, and the lie is the ammunition. Christians repeat the lying whispers that they hear in their heads, listening to lying spirits, and then wounding the people of God.

We need to pray for the things of God to succeed, and the things of Satan to be hindered and frustrated. There is a war going on, and one of the things that we need to do is get into the action. How do we war against the enemy? With prayer, and with speaking the truth in love.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, He gave them important guidelines. In Matthew 6:9 He says: "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
In Luke 11, He told them "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth."
When the Kingdom of God arrives, one of the things that will make it different from every other kingdom that has ever existed, is it will have no lies in it. None. It will be truthful in every respect. And the opposite of truth is what characterizes all of this world's secular life, and way too much of our Christian life: lies. All lies are of the devil. The devil is a liar and the father of lies.

When we pray for God's Kingdom to come, we need to pray that God will give us a love for the truth in every way. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us every time we lie, and ask Him to rid us of that devilish habit. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us a very tender conscience about lies; big lies, little lies, lies to our parents, lies to our kids, lies to our spouses. I want to stop right here: Would you be willing to ask the Holy Spirit right now, today - (hands) - to make you tender hearted about lies? Let's do that right now.

Pray for each other, that God will give us a sound mind, a mind that realizes when it is being whispered into by the enemy, being led off to follow a lie. Spiritual warfare means you know when the enemy is shooting at you. John; you are a big paintball enthusiast; if you fired a couple paintball rounds past my ear, would I hear and know that something was going on? Sure. OK, another question: Kathy has never played paintball; if you fired a couple rounds past her ear, even if she didn't know exactly what was happening, she would still know that something was happening that was not real good, right? Same principle: we need to realize and recognize when the enemy has engaged us. Satan's primary weapon is the lie, learn to recognize it. Don't let him use you to hurt another Christian with friendly fire. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a very tender conscience about lies and the truth.

The other part of what I want us to take away from this lesson today is that God does not have a back up plan. He never did, He never will. The only plan that He has ever had is the one that He has now, and that involves you and Jesus Christ. Everything begins when you trust Jesus Christ as Savior, that is the first thing you need to do to please God and get in a right relationship with Him. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then nothing else you have ever done or ever will do is worth anything, period.

If you think that you can make it on your own, or please God apart from Jesus Christ, you might as well try to swim across Boone Lake with a boat anchor in each hand, it's not going to happen. God has no other way for you to be saved than for you to trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation. Jesus said : "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Maybe you have all kinds of questions about why or how you should live after you get saved, maybe there is a lot you don't understand, that's OK. God doesn't ask you to figure everything out, He just wants you to be obedient. Maybe there is lot about the Bible that you don't understand, that's OK, there is a lot about the Bible that I don't understand. God didn't call us to be "know it all's," He called us to turn away from trusting in ourselves, repent of our sins, and trust Jesus Christ for salvation.

God only had one plan from the beginning of history, and a lot of times it hung on the balance of one frail human life, one person that Satan wanted desperately to destroy, so that God could be made out a liar and a loser, but God's plan never missed a beat. God's plan is perfectly on track, God's Word is still perfectly true, and God's Messiah, Jesus Christ is still the only way for men and women to be saved, and for Satan and all his works to be destroyed. There is no other plan in history that has any hope of success, don't you think it is time for all of us to get with the one that works?

If you have never trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, let me invite you today. He tells us; "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." If at some time you have made a profession of faith, but there is still something in your life that shouldn't be there, don't you think it is about time you made it right? God calls us to obedience and holiness. The obedience of trusting Christ for salvation, and the obedience of following Him in holiness.

Do you need to be obedient to Jesus Christ today? Is there something between you and God that needs to be made right? If there is, why not come up to this altar as we sing, and make it right with God?