Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace, April 7th, 2026

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Living Waters of Grace, April 7th, 2026 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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A weapon so odd, you see, how he did this, or what he did here,
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or how he treated his wife, or how he was ignorant and, you
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know, with his kids, or how he was slothful in his job, or how
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he had a lustful thorough or an unforgiving heart or a bitter
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attitude. All these things that we still
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struggle with as human beings that we asked the Lord to free
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us from so that we can walk closer to Him and be more holy
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and pure as He's holy. But we all still fail, don't we?
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And that's why we continually live in repentance that we say
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to the Lord, Lord, please forgive me, I don't want to be
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like that. I don't want to act like that.
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I don't want to do that. And the Lord is faithful to help
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us and grow us and mature us. It seems that some Christians
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have a wrong understanding of repentance.
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They think that repentance is something that you do once and
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then you have your golden ticket into heaven.
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As we just heard from Pastor Clark, repentance is a heart
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position. It's an ongoing way of living.
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As a follower of Jesus, you should be consistently asking
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God to reveal the areas of your life that are not pleasing to
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Him. And when He reveals them, you
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confess, repent, and then walk in the holiness provided by the
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cross. Now here's Pastor Clark in
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Revelation Chapter 12 with today's edition of Living Waters
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of Grace. Revelation chapter 12, Verse
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one. Now a great sign appeared in
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heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her
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feet, and on her head a Garland of 12 stars.
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Then being with child, she cried out in labour and and in pain to
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give birth. And another sign appeared in
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heaven. Behold, a great fiery red
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dragon, having 7 heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his
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head. His tail drew a third of the
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stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
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And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give
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birth to devour her child. As soon as it was born she bore
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a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and
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her child was caught up to God in his throne.
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Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place
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prepared by God that they should feed her there at 1260 days.
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As we study this Book of Revelation, it is a very, very
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difficult book to to teach on because there's so much imagery
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and so much allegory. And yet at the same time,
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there's literal things that we have to be aware of that are
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going to eventually come to pass.
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And I think the danger whenever you teach prophecy and you're
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involved with teaching things that are futuristic, we all have
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a tendency to sometimes just like be interested in
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information and gather perspective and think about
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times and seasons and that kind of stuff.
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But my heart as as a pastor is it that this word is not this
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information that somehow today in the midst of this study,
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you're going to encounter the Lord yourself in a deeper way.
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Christ is going to become more real to you that he's going to
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speak to you independent of even what I say is the thoughts go
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out in your mind as you hear these scriptures.
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You begin to think about the greatness of our God as we sang
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in that worship song worthy is the lamb.
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It was slain before the foundation of the earth.
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So we'll go through this slowly this morning.
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I looking at this chapter 12. We have a little bit extra time
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today because of the agape lunch.
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So the sermon sermon normally is about, you know, 3540 minutes a
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day. It'll probably be about 5 hours.
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So I hope you can have this kid. I see some of our visitors
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saying, well, it was nice seeing you guys.
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We're out of here. But anyway, verse one, the woman
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is described in heavenly images. Now some people as they study
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this would think that this woman is Mary, the Virgin Mary, but
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that isn't the case and we'll get into why that is not the
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proper interpretation of what this is all about.
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Whenever the Scriptures are teaching in Revelation these
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wild scenes in heaven, we have to keep in mind that many times
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these are allegories. And allegory is something that
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gives us a picture of a sign that will one day come to pass.
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Not the literal fixture, excuse me, picture of a dragon with 10
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horns or 7 crowns, that kind of stuff.
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And so we're going to think about this from a historical
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perspective, especially what's been lined, laid out for us in
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the book of Daniel. But this is a first of seven
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signs, this first verse that John relates to describing the,
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the, the great sign. And the first sign is, is the
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greatest sign because it's referring to the nation of
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Israel and also the Messiah. But as we look at chapter 12
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today and eventually 13 and 14, the main figures of this great
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tribulation will be described. And the great sign introduces
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the first of the seven this morning.
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And verse one, the woman who represents Israel #2 The second
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sign is the dragon that represents Satan #3 the manchild
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represents Jesus #4 the Angel Michael.
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Michael the Archangel head of the angelic army.
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The 5th sign is the offspring of the woman which will be the
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Gentiles who come to faith in the tribulation Number six.
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The beast out of the sea represents the Antichrist #7 The
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beast out of the earth represents the false prophet who
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will promote the Antichrist. Basically the PR agent who's
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going to go around and really advertise the signs and wonders
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of of Antichrist. Now we see that this woman is
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clothed with the sun. And as I said, the Bible uses
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these allegories and allegories communicate a message by means
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of symbolic figures. So there's no literal appearance
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of of this woman in a feminine form.
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But in the Scriptures, women often represent religious
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systems. In Revelation and other books of
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the Bible, we're told in Revelation chapter 220 about
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Jezebel, that's the system of the false teaching that the
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Christ is warning the church about in the last days.
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Revelation 17 two talks about the great harlot who's
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associated with false religion. In Revelation 19, seven through
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8, it refers to the bride of Christ associated with us, the
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church. So the woman's clothes with the
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sun and has this interesting picture of a of a moon under her
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feet and on her head a Garland of 12 stars.
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Now Genesis chapter 37 talks about the dream that Joseph had
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and Joseph obviously descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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God said that through the those guys, their seed, the nations of
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the earth would one day be blessed.
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So the sun represents in this particular section of revelation
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the the person of Jacob. The moon represents Joseph's
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mother, Rachel, and the 11 stars represent the sons of Israel,
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which bow down to Joseph in the dream.
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In this particular sign of revelation, Joseph is now among
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the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.
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And so we see in the Old Testament passages regarding
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Israel referred to as Zion. Jerusalem is often represented
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as a woman. And we don't have time to go
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into all the verses. You can check them out later.
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Isaiah 54, one through 6. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 20,
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Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 8 through 14, and Hosea chapter 2
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verses 19 and 20. If you look those verses up,
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you'll find it amazing that the scriptures utilize the feminine
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person as the as the nation of Israel.
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And so we see in verse 2 that this woman is with child and she
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cries out in labor and pain to give birth.
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And these are signs of the coming of the Lord when the
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earth begins to have this sense of uneasiness and and pain and
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and difficulty. It's giving us the indication
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that the Messiah is on his way to draw us out of this world for
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the rapture of the church and eventually at the end of the
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tribulation, the second coming of Christ.
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So we believe as a church and as an evangelical body in the world
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these days that we are in the last days and the birth pangs
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are already being made Evan evident, especially what's
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happening in the nation of Israel right now and the Mideast
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nations wanting to destroy Israel.
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Every day you look on the on the Internet and you can see some
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rogue nation, it's speaking and violently against the
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destruction of the nation of Israel.
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And so the woman gives birth. And if we compare this with
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verse 5, it says she bore a male child who was to rule all
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nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God
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and his throne. So it helps us to see very, very
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clearly that this is referring to Jesus.
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It says during the millennial Kingdom he will roll the earth
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for 1000 years with a rod of iron, meaning that everything
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will be under his authority. Like right now, even though God
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reigns and he's in charge and mankind still has this desire to
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be evil and to do evil and corrupt things, and horrible
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things happen every day because of sin.
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But when Christ comes and rules that thousand a year, everything
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will be under control. There won't be all these
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horrible things happening in a daily basis because Christ will
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be rolling and reigning from his throne in Jerusalem for that
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1000 years. So we see through this prophecy
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in verse 5 and this statement that the apostle John makes that
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this is clear that this is Jesus, the Christ is the Son of
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the living God. And the labor pain that Israel
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is experiencing describes the trials that Israel is currently
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going through and also will go through in greater degree in the
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last days. Think about what Israel went
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through during Christ's birth under the oppression of the
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ungodly nation of Rome. Jews since the beginning of time
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have been the most hated race on the face of the earth.
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Why is that? Well, the Bible declares the
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Jews to be God's chosen race, His chosen nation.
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Paul says in Romans the common is well the Jews didn't receive
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Messiah and so Christ had to bring the gospel to the
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Gentiles. And so many of us as Gentiles
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have been born into the Kingdom of God over the last 2000 years
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where the majority of the Jewish nation is still Pagan.
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Although there's a resurgence of many Jews coming to recognize
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Christ getting saved and and of course restored to their
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homeland in 1948 as a a literal nation.
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I mean a lot of exciting things have happened over the last 60
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years, but the power of the Holy Spirit being poured out in that
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nation will begin to really be experienced in a great degree
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during the last 3 1/2 years of that tribulation where many Jews
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will recognize that Christ is a Messiah.
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Many of them will be spared and protected the wrath of the
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Antichrist during that time as they're going to be hid in a
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special place. Many of them won't recognize
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that Jesus is truly the Messiah until he descends.
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And it says every eye will see him.
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And it says of those folks at that time who are alive, they'll
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look up and see him whom they've pierced and recognize that he's
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the Savior and they'll become believers at that very, very
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point in time. So we we see this, this labor
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pain that is beginning to be experienced a greater degree
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even in our own time today. And in verse 3, it says another
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sign appeared in heaven. And this is a really interesting
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creature, gives a lot to your imagination.
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And this is a fearful dragon that appears again, a sign, an
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allegory. The dragon represents the nature
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of this individual. He's one who has fierce power.
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He has a murderous nature. And this is the picture of the
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epitome or fullness of evil. The seven heads, the crown's
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represent him claiming royal authority.
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We know in the middle of the tribulation he's going to set
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himself up in the rebuilt Tabernacle and set himself up
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with audacity and claim that he is God and that he is demanded
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to be worshipped. And many people will be deceived
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thinking that he's he's the Messiah.
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He's the one that they were waiting for.
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The 10 horns represent the 10 kingdoms that will come into
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power at this time. There will be 10 nation
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confederacy. Some people believe this is the
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precursor of the European Union that's in place right now.
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Years ago, we used to think this is the revived Roman Empire.
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But as time goes on and we get a more of a picture as to what's
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happening on world events, we're much more aware now that this
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possibly might be this Mideast confederation made-up of
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countries like Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan, Northern Africa.
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It's just all those who truly are haters presently of Israel.
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So we'll have to wait and see how that all developed.
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But the parallel to this verse that we're looking at in verse 3
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comes from Daniel Chapter 7 verse 7 and 8.
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And that's something, again, in your own time you can look at.
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But it talks about these 10 nation confederacy or this
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influential power that will support the leadership of the
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Antichrist will be subdued by the little horn.
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The little horn is referred to in Daniel 7 Chapter 7 verse 8 as
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Antichrist and he's identified as the world roller of the great
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Tribulation who will reign over this 10 nation power block.
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In verse 4 we see the dragon looking to earth.
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He drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the
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earth. We see at this time that even
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though we studied a few weeks ago about the original upset of
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Lucifer in the throne room of God, he was the highest created
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Angel to reflect the glory of God.
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He became proud, wanted people to worship him.
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He wanted to set himself up as God.
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And of course he was cast from the heaven at that time with
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many of the angels. But we also see the interesting
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aspect though, that the fulfillment of the completeness
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of this event really doesn't come to pass until this middle
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of the tribulation. Because right now the Bible
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tells us that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood in
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Ephesians chapter 6, but principalities and powers, the
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rulers of darkness who are at work in this present world.
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So we have this celestial battle that's going on even as we
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speak, even today as a word of God is being preached around the
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world in Bible teaching churches.
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There's the force of the darkness that would want to come
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and divide into prevent the word from going forth.
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But then God's angels stand there with the sword defending
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the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the Church of Jesus
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Christ, so that the work can be done.
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And that's why Jesus says I will build my church and the gates of
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hell will not prevail against it.
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That gives us great confidence, doesn't it, to know that the
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Lord is able and faithful to accomplish his will regardless
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of the attacks that come against his Kingdom.
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And so we, we see that at this particular point in time,
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though, there's this, if you may, parenthetical moment of
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separation between 2 events here and the dragon referring to
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Satan will literally be cast out of the acts having access to the
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heavenly throne of God. You know, and Job, Satan has
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access to the throne. It's a mystery.
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And he goes, what about your servant Job?
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You know, you, you've protected him.
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How about if I hassle him and bring us some trials into his
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life, he'll end up rejecting you and cursing you and and God, God
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gives him permission to deal with with Job.
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Of course Job didn't deny deny God and he stayed faithful.
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But it's interesting though, that even as we speak, Satan is
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described as the accuser of the brethren, right?
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He goes before the throne of God.
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The Bible says night and day, accusing you and me as God's
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children for all the things that we've messed up in a weapon.
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So odd. You see how he did this or what
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he did here or how he treated his wife or how he was ignorant
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and you know, with his kids, or how he was slothful in his job,
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or how he had a lustful thought or an unforgiving heart or a
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bitter attitude. All these things that we still
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struggle with as human beings that we ask the Lord to free us
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from so that we can walk closer to him and be more holy and pure
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as he's holy. But we all still fail, don't we?
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And that's why we continually live in repentance that we say,
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the Lord Lord, please forgive me.
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I don't want to be like that. I don't want to act like that.
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I don't want to do that. And the Lord is faithful to help
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us and grow us and mature us. But nonetheless, the enemy has
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this access and the angelic dominion of evil enemies of God
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are working in this heavenly realm.
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Well, at this particular event in verse 4, this is when the
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enemy will be cast out of of that capacity, won't have this
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access anymore, and 1/3 of the angelic hosts will be with him.
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And it's good to realize that in spite of all this occurring, 2/3
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of the angelic beings are there to do the bidding and the will
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of God. And those two third angels are
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also assigned to you and me. All of us, as I said a few weeks
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ago, have a guardian Angel, don't we?
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We have a Angel that has been assigned to us, The Bible says
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in Hebrews aren't a ministering spirit sent forth to minister to
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them who are the heirs of salvation.
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And so, you know, it's an awesome thing to think about the
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fact that the Lord watches over me and you and yet he also has
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an emissary, an agent working from his throne room to be with
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us personally. And so a lot of us will have to
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give that Angel a hug, won't we someday in heaven and say, boy,
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you really had to put up with a lot with me.
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You know, thank you for for hanging in there.
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But anyway, we see that the enemy in verse for his whole
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desire was to devour obviously the nation of Israel, but also
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the child, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And we know way back in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, when the
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first prophetic verse was given to let the whole world know that
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in spite of us falling into sin, that God had chosen Messiah, the
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sea that would come one day, that would damage the impact of
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the evil 1 and thwart his purposes and His will.
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But the devil never gives up. You know, the Bible declares
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that he's the enemy till the end, till he's cast into the
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lake of fire. Someone reminds me all the time,
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no matter how things are going in your spiritual life or the
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church body or family, the devil's never sleeping.
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He's always trying to mess things up.
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He comes to steal and to rob and to kill and to destroy.
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That's his modus operandi 24/7. He is relentless.
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Even though he knows his day one day will be over, that's not
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stopping him for doing everything he can to try to
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destroy people's lives. And we know in the in the days
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of Christ's birth, what did he do with Herod?
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Herod was a very evil ruler and he had such an ego that he heard
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the prophecy about a king coming and he said I'm the king.
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He's worried about a baby. Chances are obviously wouldn't
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even be alive when the baby became a full adult to take over
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the kingship. And he was so paranoid and it
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really influenced by demonic activity and Satan that he sent
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the edict out that all the children, the first born males
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too would be killed and destroyed.
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Of course Christ was spared. We also know that he was rubbing
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his hands together whenever Judas was exposed as the one who
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would betray Christ. And when he went up and, you
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know, betrayed Christ for 40 pieces of silver, and Christ
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being taken to the cross, Satan thought he had won the victory,
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didn't he? But we know that the cross was
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not a place of defeat, was it? The cross was a place of the
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enemy actually having all his powers spoiled.
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It says in our Colossians that Christ spoiled and disconnected,
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so to speak, the satanic dominion of the enemy on the
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hearts and souls of human beings.
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Because once Christ rose again from the dead, he said it's
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finished. He conquered all these
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influences, and so it isn't the same now.
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And you need to remember that. I think sometimes people get
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very paranoid about the devil. Some churches have more focus on
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the devil than they do the Lord. They're always talking about
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rebuking the devil or casting the demons out or doing this and
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that. And Paul never said that.
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He said, what do we do? Look unto Jesus, the author and
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finisher of our faith, right for the joy that was set down before
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him. Despise the cross, yet endured
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the shame. You know we're more than
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conquerors right in Christ Jesus, so we don't have to worry
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about the evil. 1 The Bible says resist the devil and he will
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what, flee from you. I don't have to do battle with
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him. It's interesting that the
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Archangel Michael in Jude verse nine said whenever a lot of
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things are going on they were disputing about the whereabouts
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of Moses body and all the false teachings that Jude talks about.
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He said he would not bring a railing accusation against the
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devil right himself. And he's in charge of the
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angelic host in the sense of under the authority of Jesus
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Christ, Michael the Archangel, he said the Lord rebuke you and
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I. I'm very fearful when I hear
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people standing out there and shaking their hand at the devil
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and thinking that they somehow have the influence to in their
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own power and their own name and by their own faith make the
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devil run. And the devil, you know, he'll
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laugh, he'll say, like you said in the book of the Acts, you
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know Peter, I know, Paul, I know.
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But who are you? You don't want to mess with that
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stuff, right? You want to pray and resist the
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devil. And the Bible's clear that
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that's our responsibility and the evil one will flee from us.
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So we see in verse 5 that this male child who was to rule all
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nations, as I said earlier, is the one who will roll with a rod
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of iron during the millennial Kingdom.
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And this is interesting. And her child was caught up to
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to God and his throne. So again, the parenthetical time
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period of of the future and at the same time the past when
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Christ ascended and the book of the Acts is sit at the right
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hand of the father where he ever lives to make intercession for
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us before the throne of God night and day.
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In verse 6, it talks about the the woman fleeing into the
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wilderness. You know, in Matthew chapter 25,
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it gives the warning when this time comes to pass.
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It says, you know, don't be with child.
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I trust your journey won't be in the winter because this will be
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the worst time that any kind of event has ever occurred against
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the nation of Israel to destroy them.
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And so we see this group spoken about in verse 6 is the remnant
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of Israel. These are the ones that are
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elect by God's grace that don't even know at this particular
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point in time, many of them that they'll be part of the body of
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the bride of Christ. They don't understand the
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concept yet. They still don't know who
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Messiah is, many of these people.
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But God's going to spare many people and also those who come
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to Christ during that time and and Gentiles as well.
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In the Book of Revelation, Pastor Clark is taking us
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through all kinds of events and happenings that are predicted
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for the future. But for those who believe and
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follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to in heaven with
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Jesus. However, for those who are here
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on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that
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will unfold. The Bible talks about an
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Antichrist, false prophet, and of course that evil enemy Satan.
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Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to
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disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?
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The true Savior of the world is God and how he comes to rescue
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through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and
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God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take
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over for God in heaven was cast out, Satan will try to convince
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people on earth that he is the triune God to be worshipped
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instead of the legitimate God in heaven.
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It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his
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schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and
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Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.
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Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness
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that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait
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indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.
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We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want
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to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head
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over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with
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us today. And if you'd like to connect
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further with this ministry, find us on Facebook or YouTube.
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You can also download our mobile app at calvarychapelonline.com.
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Be sure to join us for weekly services at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
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Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601. This has been living waters of
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grace.