Latest / Admonition Podcast / Revelation 12 (Lesson 2) - Aaron Cozort - May 10, 2026
Transcript
- 0:00Good morning.
- 0:00Good to see everyone this morning.
- 0:02Take the Bibles, if you will, and open them to Revelation chapter 12.
- 0:06We continue our study in the book of Revelation.
- 0:14We'll begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our study.
- 0:17Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you've blessed us with, grateful for the life that we have, the opportunities that we have to
- 0:27come together, to glorify your name, to praise you, to worship ah you, and to bow before your throne.
- 0:35Lord, we pray that as we open these pages of scripture, we might understand the things that we have read.
- 0:42that we might grow to a greater understanding of your providence and your will and your protection and your service of your church as it exists in this world.
- 0:53Lord, we pray that you will be with us as we go throughout our daily lives.
- 0:57May we always have confidence in you.
- 1:00May we always rely upon your name and your authority and not our own.
- 1:07Lord, we pray that you will be with those who are struggling because of illness.
- 1:12because of injury, because of uh difficulties physically in their health.
- 1:17Lord, we pray that you give them strength and comfort and that they have the ability to regain the desired health that they would like to have.
- 1:26All this we pray and ask in Jesus name, amen.
- 1:28Chapter one opens up.
- 1:30John is worshipping on the Lord's Day.
- 1:32He hears a voice behind him.
- 1:34He turns around to see the one who is speaking.
- 1:37It is the manifestation of Christ in a glorified state.
- 1:42holds Christ holds the seven stars in his right hand and it's the seven churches of Asia Minor.
- 1:50uh He's surrounded by seven golden lampstands and it's the messenger of the seven churches.
- 1:56When you find
- 1:58a figure that shows up later in the book and it's explained and interpreted in the midst of the book, you can pretty well just hold on to that figure and assume that what the text
- 2:12tells you that is, is what that is.
- 2:14So if you see stars falling from heaven, you should not immediately assume that uh it's the uh final return of Christ and the end of time and uh
- 2:26some nuclear explosion, it might be churches succumbing to the influence of Satan.
- 2:34But as you go through the text, you find John goes into that open door in chapter four.
- 2:40He goes into the throne room of God and he sees the glory of God.
- 2:45He sees the glory of God's throne and before the throne is a sea of glass.
- 2:53That is a perfectly
- 2:55Have we ever in our modern vernacular termed a sea or a body of water as a sea of glass?
- 3:07Absolutely.
- 3:09When you get near a body of water and it's so still, there's no ripples, there's no movement, you just see yourself.
- 3:17You see the reflection, just right off the top.
- 3:21We use that terminology.
- 3:23The Bible uses that idea that there's a time when the seas are calm, when they're uh reflective, and there's a time when they're tumultuous.
- 3:35You're going to see that coming up.
- 3:37All right.
- 3:37So the seas before the throne, God is there.
- 3:41The elders are before the throne.
- 3:43The beasts are before the throne.
- 3:45Everyone's praising God.
- 3:47Everyone's declaring God is worthy.
- 3:50And of course, they're also going to declare
- 3:52the Lamb, the Messiah, also worthy.
- 3:55The Messiah begins to open the scroll and the revelation begins to be seen.
- 4:01The visions and the signs that the book tells us in chapter one is what the message of the book is.
- 4:08It's given in signs and symbols through the angel to John so that John might tell the church what the church needs to know.
- 4:17And so, the seal begins to be opened, you see that first horse and then the second horse, the third horse, fourth horse.
- 4:23You see the Christians under the altar who've died for the testimony of God, and they're crying out and asking, how long, Lord, are you going to allow our deaths to continue?
- 4:40They're told to rest for a little while.
- 4:42They're given white robes.
- 4:43The next seal is opened and the son...
- 4:46turns dark, the moon turns to blood, sky starts falling, all these things start happening, and the rich people, the mighty people, the people of prominence and power run and hide
- 5:01themselves and call upon the mountains to fall on them to protect them from the wrath of the Lamb.
- 5:08That happens in seal number six.
- 5:11It is a foretaste.
- 5:13It is a forecast of God
- 5:16answering the prayers of the saints.
- 5:21In chapter seven, you've got to pause.
- 5:24You've got a, uh wait a minute, hold on, don't start yet, message.
- 5:32Because we need to seal the people of God.
- 5:36We need to mark the people of God.
- 5:38The people of God are going to be marked multiple times in the process of the book.
- 5:43They're going be marked again.
- 5:45coming up in just about a chapter or two.
- 5:48But the marking is just a clear statement.
- 5:51There are those who belong to God and there are those who don't belong to God.
- 5:56Here in a little bit, we're going to find those who belong to the beast.
- 5:59They're going to be marked because Satan wants to know who belongs to him too.
- 6:05And he wants to exclude those who don't, okay, because it's leverage.
- 6:10So, the trumpets come forth.
- 6:12This is all inside the seventh seal.
- 6:15And the seven trumpets begin to sound and we have partial judgment in trumpets one, two, three, four, five, six.
- 6:23In the last three trumpets, four, five, six, or sorry, five, six, seven, you have three woes.
- 6:32And we're in the sounding of the seventh trumpet right now.
- 6:37We just saw as we ended the last chapter, one last partial judgment, a tenth of all the people died.
- 6:45All right, one last partial judgment in trumpet number six.
- 6:49We're about to get trumpet number seven.
- 6:52But in the midst of that and all the things that were going on in these trumpets, there was another pause.
- 6:59An angel who holds the little book, who's got one foot on the land and one foot on the sea, comes forward to John and John is told to take the little book.
- 7:10So John goes, the angel says, give me the little book and John eats the book.
- 7:14just like Ezekiel did, and it was sweet in his mouth, as sweet as honey, just like Ezekiel's message was, but it was bitter in his belly, just like Ezekiel's message was.
- 7:25Ezekiel lived in a time when God's people in the form of a nation, Judah, were about to be judged and the nation was about to fall.
- 7:38He lived in a time in between the first or the the second carrying away and the third carrying away where he's prophesying that Jerusalem is going to fall and the nation is
- 7:49going to go entirely into captivity and all the prophets, air quotes there, all the prophets in Judah were saying no, no, it's all over.
- 8:00The people who went away, they were the bad people.
- 8:03We're the good people.
- 8:04We're the people of God.
- 8:05God saved us.
- 8:06We're never going to lose the city of Jerusalem.
- 8:10And Ezekiel is going to write to them as God gives him instruction and he's going to measure the city and he's going to measure the temple and he's going to go look inside the
- 8:21temple and he's going to go into the temple and at the heart of the temple he's going to find a secret room in the holiest of holies where there are priests worshipping idols.
- 8:35at the very core of Judah, Jerusalem, and the worship were those who were given over to idolatry inside the very temple of God.
- 8:49and the message from Ezekiel is, oh, not only are you gonna fall, God's going to get his war wagon, he's gonna do battle with you.
- 8:58And you're going to fall entirely because you are rotten from the inside out.
- 9:06And so the picture and the message is bitter.
- 9:10Now, John's gonna be given a message about a temple.
- 9:16and John's going to told, you tell them that the temple's gonna be trodden on the outside, but the inside, not gonna be touched.
- 9:25The inside was pure.
- 9:28The church was going to survive the coming trouble.
- 9:32So then another figure is shown.
- 9:34You have the two witnesses.
- 9:36On one side, you've got uh the high priest.
- 9:40On the other side, you've got the uh leader of the people.
- 9:43If we use Zechariah's imagery of the two olive trees in both figures, in all the figures you have here in this picture, you have God's people, God's people, God's people, God's
- 9:54spokesman, God's people.
- 9:56It's just a continual set of images that represent the leadership of
- 10:02God's actual people and not those who just claim to be.
- 10:07And the point that is made in chapters 10 and 11 is that God's witnesses are going to speak, God's people are going to remain faithful to Him, the world is going to kill them,
- 10:18they're going to torture them, they're going to do harm to them, but they're not going to be able to touch them when their life is over.
- 10:27And so their power and their reach is limited.
- 10:31Chapter 12 opens up with the woman and the dragon.
- 10:37Lots of discussion over who the woman is.
- 10:40Lots of discussion over who the dragon is.
- 10:43The dragon is interpreted in the text.
- 10:46We're told that the dragon is Satan, the devil.
- 10:49So we don't have to wonder who the dragon is.
- 10:51It's Satan, the devil.
- 10:53All right.
- 10:54But we also see it represented in the nation that is persecuting the people of God.
- 11:04It's not the devil.
- 11:07because the devil's a dragon.
- 11:09It's the devil in his persecuting power of a government.
- 11:17Okay?
- 11:18And that government is looking to consume, to kill this woman.
- 11:25Chapter 12 opens up in verses one through six.
- 11:30The woman gives birth and the dragon loses battle number one.
- 11:34In chapter 12, you're going to find
- 11:37that the dragon is a three-time loser.
- 11:41He's going to lose once, he's going to lose a second time, and he's going to lose a third time.
- 11:46Every time the dragon tries to accomplish anything, he loses.
- 11:53And the point to the Christians is, you don't have anything to be worried about from Satan.
- 11:59He's never going to win.
- 12:02But
- 12:02The woman is uh one of those figures that people struggle with because they wonder, well, is the woman here, the woman over in chapter 17?
- 12:12No.
- 12:12The woman in chapter 17 is a harlot and she's killing the Christians.
- 12:18That's not the woman here.
- 12:20The woman here gives birth to the Messiah.
- 12:25The woman here is protected by God.
- 12:29The woman here is desired to be destroyed by the dragon and he does not succeed.
- 12:34The woman here has a crown of 12 stars or a garland of 12 stars upon her head.
- 12:42It's the people of God.
- 12:46Seen from a corporate perspective, that is from a group.
- 12:52One of the things that's important to realize when you dig into the text of scripture is that
- 12:57individual people of God succumb to the power of Satan.
- 13:04That sometimes a portion of the people of God collectively succumb to the power of Satan and fail to be faithful to God.
- 13:15But all the way through history, from the beginning all the way to the end, God's people collectively have never been defeated by Satan.
- 13:27have never turned away from God.
- 13:30The point that you should understand from the Old Testament, from the history of Israel, is God always had His remnant, and His remnant was never defeated.
- 13:43His remnant was never touched by Satan.
- 13:46Did they go through hard times?
- 13:48Sure they did.
- 13:49Did they have struggles?
- 13:50Sure they did.
- 13:52Did many of them die at the hand of persecutors?
- 13:55Absolutely.
- 13:56persecutors inside and outside of God's people in Old Testament Israel.
- 14:02But they never lost to Satan.
- 14:04Not one time.
- 14:06And so the picture here of the woman is of those who are represented by the number 12, that is the number of God's people, who are represented by those who give birth to the
- 14:18Messiah, which was God's people.
- 14:22It is represented by those who are
- 14:24able to escape the attack and the onslaught of Satan in Old Testament pictures by going through the waters.
- 14:32It is those who are protected by being taken out into the wilderness.
- 14:37All of these are pictures of God's people and they're Old Testament pictures of God's people.
- 14:42Let's start with chapter 12 verse 1 and I know we've covered some of this but since it's been two weeks we'll kind of rehash just a little bit of it as we go through.
- 14:52Now a great sign appeared in heaven.
- 14:54a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head, a garland of 12 stars.
- 15:01This is a woman of light, not a woman of darkness, not a woman of evil, not a woman of reproach.
- 15:10She's a woman clothed with brightness and glory and light.
- 15:15Okay?
- 15:17Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
- 15:22and another sign appeared in heaven.
- 15:24Now notice, John's gonna remind you, by the way, these are just signs.
- 15:27These are pictures.
- 15:29This isn't telling a historical event.
- 15:34He says, another sign appeared in heaven, behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head.
- 15:45This is a representation of
- 15:51a power that desires to fight against God.
- 15:56And it's represented in Daniel's picture from Daniel 7.
- 16:03It's represented as an indescribable beast the way that Daniel describes the beast.
- 16:10It's represented though with crowns and heads and horns.
- 16:20That tells you something about it.
- 16:23If you go read Daniel chapter seven, it tells you that it's a government.
- 16:28It tells you that it is a people that oppose the kingdom of God because they have a kingdom on this earth.
- 16:38Okay?
- 16:39So it is Satan, but it isn't Satan in the sense of it's not the person of Satan.
- 16:47It is Satan in his governmental influence, okay, and his persecuting influence.
- 16:55Now notice, his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
- 17:01You remember the people who dwell in heaven in the book of Revelation?
- 17:04Who are they?
- 17:11Good people or bad people?
- 17:12Righteous people or unrighteous people?
- 17:13The people who dwell in heaven, who are they?
- 17:16Righteous people.
- 17:17The people who dwell in the earth, who are they?
- 17:22unrighteous people.
- 17:24If a third of the stars go from being in heaven to on the earth, what happened to them?
- 17:33They became unrighteous.
- 17:36Now, in Revelation two and three, what does Jesus say to the churches in which there are moral issues, doctrinal issues, that if they will not repent?
- 17:53Their candlestick will be removed and he will come and make war with them.
- 17:57That makes them the enemies of the Messiah.
- 18:02And they're the churches.
- 18:05This dragon, his influence, his power, his persecution affects the church.
- 18:16And churches fall.
- 18:18Congregations lose to this dragon.
- 18:22Not all of them.
- 18:23of them.
- 18:26John's telling the Christians, he's telling the church, he's telling those who are faithful, he says, you're going to see some of your brethren give up.
- 18:37You're going to see some of them succumb to the influence of the dragon and they are going to depart from the faith and they are going to lose.
- 18:48And it's going to look like it saved their life.
- 18:52It's gonna look like it was the thing that kept them from being killed.
- 18:57So you're gonna be influenced to go do the same thing.
- 19:01says, don't do it.
- 19:03You're giving in to a loser.
- 19:05Notice, his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
- 19:11And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born.
- 19:20mental image here you got a doctor waiting to receive the baby as the mother gives birth nope not a doctor it's the dragon and he's waiting to kill the baby as soon as it comes
- 19:30out
- 19:33And yet, notice what happens.
- 19:36She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God and His throne.
- 19:44Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1260 days.
- 19:55Watch the figure.
- 19:56Number one, Satan goes, yeah, I know the Messiah is coming.
- 20:00I've read all the prophets.
- 20:03I know that the Messiah is going to be born in Israel.
- 20:07I know that the Messiah is going to be born, the King of the Jews.
- 20:12I know that the Messiah is going to come forth from Bethlehem.
- 20:16I know all of those things.
- 20:19And when he comes out, a killing.
- 20:23Did that actually happen?
- 20:26An attempt to kill the Messiah when he was just entering the world?
- 20:32Absolutely it did.
- 20:34Was it successful?
- 20:36No.
- 20:39The woman gives birth, the child is born, the child is in a vulnerable state and yet Satan swings and misses.
- 20:52Satan loses number one.
- 20:54But he doesn't just lose with the child.
- 20:58He loses with the people of God who bring forth the child.
- 21:04And so the picture here of the woman is that she's taken into the wilderness and she's
- 21:09fed for three and a half years.
- 21:12What picture is that from the Old Testament?
- 21:18Elijah.
- 21:19Here comes the government.
- 21:22Here comes the king of Israel Ahab and he wants Elijah dead because Elijah said it's not going to rain for three and a half years and he sends people everywhere to go find Elijah
- 21:34and they search high and low all throughout the nation.
- 21:39Nowhere is Elijah found.
- 21:40Why?
- 21:40Because Elijah's been taken out into the wilderness and he's being fed by ravens.
- 21:46And then Elijah's being taken to a foreign land to tire and being fed by a widow who had nothing.
- 21:56God protects His people.
- 22:01But there's another picture, Egypt.
- 22:05When Israel is leaving Egypt, where does God take them to protect them from the enemies of Israel?
- 22:14In the wilderness.
- 22:16Out on Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai, they didn't go to Mount Sinai because there was a great big city there where they could live comfortably.
- 22:23There was nothing there.
- 22:27It was a place where someone would take sheep and let them graze because there was nothing there.
- 22:37Israel's taken to Sinai.
- 22:40Israel is then taken out into the wilderness after they reject the Lord and will not go in.
- 22:45Kind of like some stars fell, right?
- 22:49And then God takes them out into the wilderness and for 40 years their shoes don't wear out, clothes don't get any holes in them.
- 22:58They're fed by God every morning for 40 years.
- 23:04You see, God is making it clear just the same way the book of Hebrews has Hebrews chapter 11, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.
- 23:14That's what John's doing in Revelation.
- 23:16He's saying, go look at the Old Testament and tell me, when did Satan ever win?
- 23:22Identify one single time Satan ever won.
- 23:26Now, what are you worried about?
- 23:29Notice what else he says.
- 23:31She fled into wilderness where she has a place prepared.
- 23:34that they should feed her there 1260 days.
- 23:39And war broke out in heaven.
- 23:40Now this, this of course is back at the beginning of time.
- 23:44This is where Satan and his his followers, uh they, they decided to rebel against God.
- 23:51And this is no watch this.
- 23:57The Messiah comes forth and the Messiah sends up into heaven out of Satan's reach.
- 24:05This is a Daniel 7 picture, remember?
- 24:09In Daniel 7, who comes to the ancient of days?
- 24:18Turn over to Daniel chapter 7.
- 24:32Verse seven, I saw in the night vision and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful, terrible, exceedingly strong.
- 24:39had huge iron teeth.
- 24:41It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet.
- 24:47It was different from all the beasts that were before it.
- 24:50It had 10 horns.
- 24:52I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots.
- 25:01And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous, that is blasphemous words.
- 25:09I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated.
- 25:13His garment was white as snow.
- 25:15The hair of his head was like pure wool.
- 25:17His throne was a fiery flame.
- 25:19Its wheels a burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came uh and came forth from before him.
- 25:25A thousand thousands ministered to him.
- 25:28Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
- 25:31the courts were seated and the books were open.
- 25:34The fourth beast comes up, he's devouring, he's conquering, nothing can stand in his way.
- 25:42He looks like he's just gonna have the run of the place until John looks at heaven and he sees the one who sits on the throne and there are multitudes surrounding him and
- 25:54judgment's gonna begin.
- 25:56not the final judgment, not the last day, not the end of time, the judgment of the beast.
- 26:05But then notice, I watched, then because of the sound of the pompous or blasphemous words which the horn was speaking, I watched till the beast was...
- 26:18playing.
- 26:21and its body destroyed, given to the burning flame.
- 26:25As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
- 26:32I watched in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven.
- 26:38Now how did the child escape?
- 26:42when I'm in heaven.
- 26:43How did Jesus go back into heaven?
- 26:47in the clouds.
- 26:49Now, he didn't go as a baby, but he was the child of God's people.
- 26:58And he ascended back into heaven and he was untouched by the devil.
- 27:02Now notice, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him.
- 27:09Then to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom.
- 27:12that all peoples nations languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed in
- 27:21Matthew chapter 16 in plain spoken language what did Jesus say he came to build?
- 27:28church.
- 27:30And what did he say the gates of Hades would not affect?
- 27:36His church.
- 27:38When we say the gates of Hades, what is Hades?
- 27:45It's the grave.
- 27:47It looks like the dragon wins when Jesus is put on the cross.
- 27:56Even the apostles turn and flee.
- 27:59Even the apostles begin to doubt.
- 28:01The apostles are hiding come Sunday morning when they should have known that three days later the temple that was destroyed is going to be brought back.
- 28:13looked like the devil won, except the devil didn't win because Jesus ascended from the grave and came forth and was victorious and ascended to the Father never to die again.
- 28:31Rome didn't win.
- 28:33The devil didn't win.
- 28:35It looked like he won for a moment.
- 28:39It looked like the devil won for a moment when Egypt and its armies was behind the people of God and the sea was in front of them and there's a wall of water on one side and an
- 28:50army on the other and it looks like it's all over.
- 28:54till God delivers His people.
- 28:59Now.
- 29:02Notice what happens.
- 29:05The child escapes.
- 29:07The Messiah is untouched.
- 29:11So what does the dragon do?
- 29:13He follows him up into heaven and go make war.
- 29:18Remember something that Paul teaches us.
- 29:21Paul teaches us that our battle, our warfare, isn't with physical powers, with earthly powers, but with spiritual powers and spiritual might and spiritual dominions.
- 29:40There's a point that we need to understand.
- 29:42Every battle that we face in this life has already been decided in heaven.
- 29:50Every warfare that we face as a church has already been won in heaven.
- 29:55It's only upon us to stay on the right side.
- 30:00So the child goes into heaven, the child goes to his throne, the child goes to the ancient of days and Satan falls on his tail.
- 30:07But watch this.
- 30:09Child's not gonna do war with Satan.
- 30:12The child is so far beyond Satan, he doesn't need to do war with Satan.
- 30:16He sends a messenger.
- 30:20War broke out in heaven.
- 30:22Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
- 30:33So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.
- 30:40He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
- 30:44The point is, the devil tries to win on the earth, fail.
- 30:49So the devil takes the war up into heaven, fails.
- 30:54Where is the devil?
- 30:56The ruler.
- 30:58Nowhere.
- 31:01Where is the devil the influencer?
- 31:03Only over those whom he deceives.
- 31:08The devil reigns over nothing except those who give their power, their lives, and their abilities to him.
- 31:23He has no authority in heaven.
- 31:25He has no authority on earth.
- 31:28He just loses everywhere he goes.
- 31:33Now notice something as you look at this.
- 31:38The term Michael, the name Michael is an Old Testament picture.
- 31:45Turn back to Exodus chapter 15.
- 31:52Exodus chapter 15.
- 31:59After the people come through the Red Sea and after they come forth out of the Red Sea and the Egyptian army is destroyed, Moses writes a song and the people sing the song of Moses.
- 32:16by the way, in Revelation, we're going to read about the song of Moses and the Lamb.
- 32:22Okay?
- 32:24Hold on to that for a few chapters.
- 32:27But in Exodus chapter 15, verse, let's begin in verse 7.
- 32:33In the greatness of your excellence you have overthrown those who rose against you.
- 32:38You sent forth your wrath and consumed them like stubble.
- 32:41And with the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the flood stood upright like a heap, the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
- 32:50The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils.
- 32:56My desire shall be satisfied on them." The mindset of Pharaoh and his government and his army was all my people just gave Israel all the plunders of Egypt and I'm gonna go get
- 33:11them.
- 33:13And it's all gonna be mine.
- 33:15Notice, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
- 33:21You blew with your wind.
- 33:23The sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- 33:27Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
- 33:34The name Michael means who is like God.
- 33:41the very name of the angel that is described as the one who God sends forth, the child sends forth, the child doesn't go to battle with Satan, the child doesn't even need to go
- 33:50to battle with Satan, he sends a messenger.
- 33:55and he sends a messenger whose name is, Who's Like God.
- 34:02because the point of Exodus, the point of Egypt was always, there's nobody like God.
- 34:09Now the devil, the dragon, the government, the all-powerful mighty ruler of the world wants you to believe he's like God.
- 34:21and he's defeated by a messenger whose name is asking the question, who is like God?
- 34:28Go ahead, give me an answer.
- 34:30Who's like God?
- 34:31Nobody.
- 34:34Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
- 34:37Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, you stretched out your right hand?
- 34:43The earth swallowed them." Now, hold on to that phrase.
- 34:49The earth swallowed them.
- 34:51You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed, you have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.
- 35:01Moses writes, God, you used the earth and you protected us from the enemy who is like you.
- 35:11All right, go back.
- 35:13So Satan goes into heaven and he does warfare in heaven and he loses again.
- 35:20So when he loses again, where does he go?
- 35:22Well, there's no place found for him in heaven.
- 35:24So he goes back to the earth to go persecute the woman again.
- 35:28Who's the woman?
- 35:30God's people can't do anything in heaven, got no authority there and keep losing, so I'm going go back to the earth and try again.
- 35:39So notice what happens.
- 35:40uh Beginning in uh verse 9, so the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.
- 35:51He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
- 35:54Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God.
- 36:00and the power of his Christ have come.
- 36:02For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down." Real quick, before we proceed.
- 36:13What does the name Satan mean?
- 36:19Accuser.
- 36:21What does Satan do when Satan is before God in the book of Job in Job chapters 1 and 2?
- 36:30He accuses, based upon no shred of evidence.
- 36:36He accuses Job of being one who would only be faithful to God if God continues to protect him.
- 36:47Job will only be faithful to you because you've built a hedge around him.
- 36:52Nobody can touch him.
- 36:55Satan makes it clear, God, Job is only faithful to you because he's rich.
- 37:00and he's got luxury and he's got abundance and nothing can touch him because you won't let me.
- 37:08So God says, no, that's not why Job's faithful.
- 37:12You can take everything that he's got, but you can't take him.
- 37:16You can't touch him.
- 37:19And Satan enacts the policy, having been the accuser of taking away all of Job's things, all of Job's possessions, all of Job's children.
- 37:33And what does Job do?
- 37:38bows down and declares there's no one like God.
- 37:45The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of Lord.
- 37:49And Job's wife comes to him and says, why don't you curse God and die?
- 37:54Because Satan comes back and accuses Job.
- 37:59Well, you know, everybody will give everything for their life, but you won't let me touch him.
- 38:06So God says you can touch him, but you can't kill him.
- 38:09And so Satan takes Job and he takes away his health.
- 38:12He takes away his happiness.
- 38:14He takes away his home.
- 38:16He takes away everything he's got.
- 38:17And he's sitting now in the city, dump scraping open sores with pottery shards.
- 38:25And his wife comes to him and says, why don't you curse God and die?
- 38:28And he says, why are you talking like the foolish women?
- 38:33Who is like the Lord?
- 38:39You remember what the apostles say to Jesus after many who believed in Jesus turned back and walked with him no more.
- 38:49After many who had been his disciples said, these things are too hard, who can understand?
- 38:57And Jesus said to his apostles, will you go away also?
- 39:04What was Peter's reply?
- 39:08Lord, to whom shall we go?
- 39:12You have the words of eternal
- 39:17Peter in that moment testified the same thing that Job did.
- 39:22If I leave God, who am I going to?
- 39:26Who is like the LORD?
- 39:28You see, God's people have been accused by Satan and accused by Satan and accused by Satan for generations after generations after generations for millennia.
- 39:41And Satan's always wrong.
- 39:45because Satan always loses.
- 39:47God's people know it.
- 39:50So notice what happens.
- 39:53Now salvation has come.
- 39:56Salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God.
- 40:04Day and night has been cast down and they overcame him.
- 40:06Now notice how God's people win because it's not how most of us think.
- 40:14That's not how most of us imagine God's people winning.
- 40:18We often imagine God's people winning because they outlast Satan, like Job.
- 40:24We imagine God's people winning because God delivers them and they just go on into glory.
- 40:33That's not how God tells John the people are going to win.
- 40:39You remember the message which John was given by the angel?
- 40:43Sweet in your mouth is the Word of God.
- 40:47Bitter in your belly.
- 40:48The message is not one of happiness and flowers and roses and everything's perfect.
- 40:56We read, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
- 41:12people of God win.
- 41:15because they do not deny Christ even to the point of being killed for their testimony.
- 41:28You see, the devil's perspective is everybody will say something to keep their life.
- 41:37And he's been proven wrong over and over and over and over and over again.
- 41:42Because the Christians overcome by the power of the blood of the Lamb.
- 41:48They're washed in the blood.
- 41:51They overcome by the word of their testimony, which was the message of God.
- 41:59And because they love God more than they love their lives.
- 42:04So if you kill them,
- 42:06You might take their physical life, but you'll never take their soul.
- 42:13We read in verse 12, therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.
- 42:20Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short time.
- 42:31A pronouncement of danger, of that which is coming is going to affect not the people of God primarily, but the people of the earth.
- 42:43that the one who they think is their leader, the one who they think is their deliverer, the one who they think is the power has deceived them and will turn on them and do harm to
- 42:53them.
- 42:57That's exactly what's going to happen.
- 43:00So we get to the end of chapter 12 and beginning of chapter 13, but let's just mention as we close, let's read verses 13 through 17 just to notice this final defeat.
- 43:11Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.
- 43:17But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time from the presence
- 43:27of the serpent.
- 43:28So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might
- 43:32caused her to be carried away by the flood, but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon had spewed out of his
- 43:42mouth." What did Moses say had delivered the people of God from Pharaoh?
- 43:52He said, God parted the waters, God congealed the bottom of the sea, and we went forth, and then the earth swallowed them up.
- 44:05This isn't forecasting some great thing that occurs in some nuclear warfare.
- 44:12This is Exodus language.
- 44:15The devil tries, the devil fails.
- 44:17The devil tries again, the devil fails.
- 44:19The devil tries one final time and he fails again because the devil is not the ruler of this world.
- 44:26The devil is not the final authority in this world.
- 44:28The devil is a deceiver and the only authority he has is over those who allow themselves to be deceived.
- 44:37So then notice.
- 44:38We'll we'll close.