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[0:00] It is very difficult at times, but hopefully the Lord will lead us and we'll be able to see the truth that it contains. But John records for us here in Revelation chapter 12, A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

[0:16] And she was with child, and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.

[0:30] And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child.

[0:41] And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child was called up to God and to his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days.

[0:57] And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.

[1:09] And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old, who is called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.

[1:30] And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.

[1:41] But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

[1:54] But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness and to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

[2:12] But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river, which the dragon poured out of his mouth. Verse 17, So the dragon was enraged with a woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

[2:28] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. And Lord, we thank you for the truths which we have been able to read in the company of the believers. Lord, as we have stood together and we have read together the word of God, we pray that that word would speak to us.

[2:41] We pray, Lord, as has been sung, that you would speak to our hearts and minds, and that we would dwell in your holiness. And Lord, that we would understand your greatness. Give us a greater understanding of who you are.

[2:51] Lord, may there be a greater revelation of you, Lord Jesus, even in our midst today. And Lord, by that revelation, may you draw us closer together with one another and closer together to you.

[3:02] And we pray it all be for your glory and honor. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. We have recorded for us in Revelation chapter 12 a great scene, which John describes as a sign in heaven.

[3:17] The word sign there is signifying, showing us that this is not a record of actual events, but really a sign to display actual events. It is a sign or a picture of a reality that is going on.

[3:29] The word a sign or a great sign repeats itself throughout Revelation 12 and following. And we see it time and time again as John is trying to describe what God is revealing to him.

[3:42] And if you remember the book of Revelation, and we have to continuously put it in this frame or we will misinterpret its passages, the book of Revelation is not just a revelation of things to come, but it is a revelation of Jesus Christ in light of things to come.

[3:57] Because we get a greater understanding of who he is when we begin to see just the tip of the iceberg of what's going to happen at the end of the age, what we call eschatology or the end days.

[4:09] And we are not so much to focus on the events as we are to focus on the one who is over the events, and that is Jesus Christ. And hopefully when we read these passages and we see these truths, we do not stand in awe of the tragedy that is going to come, but rather we stand in awe and wonder of the Savior who is over the tragedy that is to come.

[4:31] That is a big difference, by the way. That is a big, big difference. It is one thing to be moved by the event. It is a whole other thing to be moved and drawn to the Savior.

[4:42] And as we read Revelation, our hope is that we are drawn more and more to the Savior, especially in light of the events recorded for us in Revelation chapter 12.

[4:52] Revelation chapter 12 records for us what I consider a cosmic battle of redemption. It is here that we see the cosmic battle and the warfare that goes on for the redemption of man.

[5:06] The reason I believe so many people fail to be as excited about their salvation as the Bible portrays it is because they fail to understand it in its truth and reality.

[5:17] We think of salvation as a decision that has been made, or we think of salvation as a personal choice, or we think of salvation as raising a hand and repeating a prayer and following a formula.

[5:28] And while all of these things are involved in salvation, this is not the totality of your salvation. As a matter of fact, no man is saved lest he be drawn to the Father. And that drawing to the Father, that coming to the Father through the blood of Jesus Christ, is such a wonderful truth and such a powerful reality, it ought to affect every aspect of our life.

[5:49] It ought to be the thing which causes us to wake up every morning rejoicing in who he is and all that he has done. It should shape and transform the way we live our life, from the things we listen to, to the things we watch, to the places we go, to the people we hang out with, and even choosing to hang out with people who aren't like us, so that we can introduce them to this wonderful thing called salvation.

[6:10] And what we see recorded for us in Revelation 12 is this cosmic battlefield for the redemption of man. Friend, listen to me. Before you ever knew, if you do know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, before you ever knew him, he knew you.

[6:25] The Bible tells us that your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundations of the world were laid, which means he saw you, and he looked at you, and he looked at me, and he said, there is one worth fighting for.

[6:38] And the battle that he fought is recorded for us in Revelation chapter 12. And it is this sign or this picture of the events of the redemption of man. And we see them, and we stand in wonder of them, not just in what is to come, but in what has already happened, and also in what is to come.

[6:58] Number one, when it comes to this cosmic battle of redemption, number one, we see the unstoppable purpose of God. The unstoppable purposes of God.

[7:11] All scripture must be read together. This is why I encourage, and I continuously encourage people, to get in some type of systematic Bible reading plan. And I say systematic Bible reading plan, not because I'm one that is really fond of following formulas or plans, but because if left to myself, there are certain portions of scripture which I would stay in.

[7:32] I remember when I came to Christ as my Lord and Savior. I came to Christ through reading and studying the book of Romans. And oh, how I fell in love with the book of Romans. And after falling in love with the book of Romans, I fell in love with the author of the book of Romans, which was Paul.

[7:45] And I could take you back now to my office, and I could show you this red New King James Bible that is sitting on the shelf of my office, which was the Bible that I carried to lunch with me every day. It is stained because, yes, I know our Bibles should be well taken care of, but I used to put mine in my lunchbox because I thought it was not a bad thing to wear a Bible out.

[8:05] And I would stick it in my lunchbox, and I would carry it with me. And if you opened it up right now, there are certain portions of that Bible which would fall out, and every one of them are the letters of Paul. Because when I came to Christ, God drew me through the writings of Paul, and left to myself, I read over and over and over the writings of Paul.

[8:22] We all have natural tendencies. But it is only when we begin to understand the Scripture in its totality, or in its entirety, from Genesis to Revelation, can we really understand the things that are going on.

[8:35] Because, see, God's work is not limited to the writings of Paul. Paul was serving a portion of the work of God. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until I began reading the Scripture in a systematic way, and even began preaching the Scripture in a systematic way, that God began to overwhelm me with some of the truths of Scripture.

[8:51] Some of you that are with us on Sunday nights, know that it is my common practice, at least for now. I don't know how long the Lord will leave us there, but at least for now. I started in Genesis my first Sunday night here, and we started Genesis 1, and just continued to preach through the Old Testament.

[9:05] And now we're in the book of Leviticus, and we are making our way very slowly, but very intentionally. And the reason being, is because Genesis chapter 1 to Genesis chapter 11, contain for us, what?

[9:16] Every problem of man. This is amazing. From Genesis chapter 1 to Genesis chapter 11, it contains every problem of man. It only took God 11 chapters to tell us what was wrong with us.

[9:28] But from Genesis 12 to the end of Revelation, we have God's solution to the problem of man. And we have God working out His plans and purposes. This is important. I'm listening, and I hope you are too.

[9:40] Listen. But Genesis 3.15 is what we call the Proto-Evangelium. Proto-Evangelium is the first mentioning of the Gospel. And it is in Genesis 3.15 that God makes a promise.

[9:52] And that promise is, the seed of a woman will crush the head of Satan. And Satan would bruise the heel of the seed of a woman. Very intentional promise, because seeds don't normally come from women, right?

[10:02] The seed of a woman, God makes a promise, will crush the head of Satan, the adversary, because the one that led man to rebel against God. Friend, what we're seeing is the very beginning of this battle.

[10:15] And you say, what does this have to do with Revelation 12? Stay with me. We're getting there, right? Because we see here the unstoppable purposes of God. John records for us, he said, I saw a great sign in heaven, and it was a woman who was clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet.

[10:30] And the twelve stars were around her head. Who is this referring to? Who is this speaking of? Many people believe that this is talking about the church. Some people believe this is talking about the new redeemed.

[10:40] Both of those are completely, I think, wrong. They cannot be right, because number one, the church is a bride who is engaged to be married, and therefore is not pregnant, because she has not been married yet, right?

[10:52] There is a wedding supper of the Lamb coming, and that is the end of the book of Revelation, in which his bride, he is betrothed to, through the sealing and the promise and the engagement ring of the Holy Spirit, who would be the church, who has not yet been wed to her bridegroom.

[11:07] The only one that we see in Scripture referred to as a woman in labor, and with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars, again, your mind automatically goes back to one of the dreams of Joseph found in Genesis 39, doesn't it?

[11:18] I mean, you just can't help but go there, because you've read that story, and you know that that's important, because Joseph had this dream that in one of his dreams, the sun and the moon bowed down to him, and eleven stars bowed down to him, right?

[11:29] They all revolved around him, because he is a twelfth star, because Joseph was a part of what? Oh, you're with me? The nation of Israel, right? Because God's promises in Genesis 12, God's working out his promise given in Genesis 3.15, the seed of a woman will crush the head of Satan, and in Genesis 12, God does something amazing.

[11:47] What does he do? He called Abram from the land of the Ur of the Chaldeans. Now, all of a sudden, we have to pay attention, because now that seed, that promise, again, you can trace the promises of God through the promise of the seed, for the seed of Abraham will conquer the land, and the seed of this one, and the seed of this one.

[12:03] And now we see that God is referring to the nation of Israel. The woman who is in labor, about to give birth at John, sees in heaven, is the nation of Israel. And we are introduced to this purpose of God.

[12:15] Why? Because, friend, listen to me. This is why it's important to know your scripture. And I know I'm throwing a lot of information at you, and I'm throwing it to you very quickly. I'm kind of throwing it on the wall, hoping it sticks. But it's sticking, right?

[12:25] This is why it's important, because Satan knows the Bible better than we do. And you know how he knows the Bible better than we do, because not only do we see this woman who's about to give birth, in the nation of Israel, every woman throughout the nation of Israel was hoping that her child would be the one that would deliver the nation.

[12:42] Their prayer is, may my child be the Messiah. May my child be the Messiah. Most of those women, every one of those women, had it wrong, except for Mary. The Mary was not even looking for it, because Mary was not yet married.

[12:52] So she was still a virgin. She had still not been with a man. So it kind of blew her mind that it would be her child, but it was a complete fulfillment of God's plans and purposes. I'm throwing a lot of this at you, because what we see now is we see the devil, the dragon, the red dragon, who is before the woman, trying to devour the child that is about to be born.

[13:11] This really doesn't make a lot of sense to us. But what I want you to see is, from the very beginning, understand as soon as God made that promise in Genesis 3, 15, the seed of a woman will crush the head of Satan.

[13:22] Satan did not like that promise, and he began to try to stop God's purposes. You say, how do you know he began to try to stop God's purposes? Because the Bible records for us the history of God's interaction and revelation to man.

[13:36] Not the fullness of history, but the history of God's interaction and dealings with man. Right? And what we find in Scripture is that the moment that promise is given, Satan says, okay, then I'll take care of that male child.

[13:48] I'll have Cain kill his brother Abel. Well, that didn't work because then Seth was born. Right? There was another male child because Cain was wicked and Abel was righteous. So Satan said, well, I'll move Cain to kill the righteous one.

[13:59] That way there'll be no redemption. Well, all of a sudden, Adam and Eve came together and they had a child named Seth. And through Seth came the righteous lineage. And the devil said, okay, well, if that's the case, then I'm going to send the sons of God down to cohabitate with the daughters of men.

[14:12] This would be fallen angels. I know this kind of blows our mind, but stay with me. And we see that in the days of Noah. What was Satan trying to do? Satan was trying to intermingle and corrupt the race of man. But there was a man who was found that was righteous and his name was Noah.

[14:25] So now all of a sudden we follow through Noah. And after the days of Noah, we have the building of the Tower of Babel and we have everything going on. And then we get to the Egyptian captivity and when there arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and Satan said, well, I'm going to get rid of all these Hebrew boys because God made a promise that a boy would crush my head.

[14:42] So he moved Pharaoh to slay all of the male children. The problem is, is one of them was thrown into the river Nile and he came out and his name was Moses, right? And then all of a sudden this righteous lineage continues to go through Moses.

[14:54] And so now the male children are still alive. He said, that's fine. I'm going to just kind of corrupt them with the people of the land and he moves them and they're there. But there is always this righteous remnant. And then he said, well, I'll send Nebuchadnezzar and he'll slay them.

[15:07] I'll send them to the Babylonian captivity. I'll send them to all these places. But what we see is that though he tried to slay them, it did not work because as Revelation records, the woman gave birth and then the child was called up to heaven.

[15:17] I like how we see it recorded for us in Warren Wiersbe's commentary. That semicolon right there contains 33 years of Jesus's earthly ministry. It says the woman gave birth, colon or semicolon, and then he was called up to heaven.

[15:32] And that semicolon was 33 years of his earthly ministry. John doesn't record that for us because he was called up to where? Where does the scripture say? Oh, wait a minute. Now I know you have it there.

[15:42] Jesus was, the child was called up to where? The throne of heaven. Where is it that Satan has wanted to be from the very beginning? The throne of heaven. All of a sudden, Satan watches this child.

[15:55] He's been seeking, trying to devour all along, go to the very place he's been wanting to attain all along. Why do we say this? Because it was God's purpose to send a child to redeem man.

[16:06] And throughout history, Satan has tried to stop that purpose. Friend, this is the application. What God has purposed, there is no power to stop. What God has planned will come about. What God is doing will be complete.

[16:20] That matters. Because if you know your word and you're in the word and you're in scripture, friend, listen to me. If you are, as Henry Blackaby used to say, knowing and doing the will of God, guess what?

[16:33] He will finish doing what he's called you to do. I don't know what you listen to on Sunday mornings. I hope you have a playlist. I think music's important. I think God gave us music, right? Some of my kids think I need to have a walk-up song, like a lot of athletes and everything, and sometimes I'm always thinking about that.

[16:49] Most of you, if I played like a walk-up song before the preacher started preaching, you would walk out because you might not like my playlist. But anyway, I don't know what your playlist is, but I hope that it's something that prepares your heart to worship. And the reason I think music is important is because everything in creation moves to a beat and has harmony to it, right?

[17:06] God orchestrates that. Just because Satan has hijacked some of our music, don't let him take it away from you. Let God redeem it, right? Redemption is God using what Satan has hijacked and renewing it and using it for his purposes.

[17:19] So one of mine that I like to listen to is There Ain't No Grave. I like that song by Bethel Music because it simply means there ain't no grave that can hold me down. There's nothing like that. And it just reminds me of this reality that Satan tries to stop God's purposes, but Satan can never stop God's purposes because his purposes and his plans are simply unstoppable.

[17:38] And John records that for us here in Revelation 12. The woman was about to give birth. The devil was there, wanted to devour the child. She gave birth to the male son. He was a male.

[17:48] He was a son. He was going to crush his head and Satan was there and he went up to heaven. Can't stop that. What God is planning and purposing to do in your life, friend, listen to me. This is important.

[17:59] If there's any other time in history where this was more important, I don't know when it was. Whatever God has planned and purposed to do in your life cannot be hindered or stopped. There is no power. There is no force.

[18:09] There is no person. There is no event that can stop what God is doing in your life through you, for you, and with you. It is just up to us to stay in the plans and purposes of God.

[18:22] So we see the unstoppable purpose of God. Number two, we see the undeterred enemy of God. The undeterred enemy of God. In his famous writings, C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, Screwtape Letters, that there are two great extremes which men tend to fall in.

[18:38] And he said these two great extremes in a nutshell is either to deny or to belittle the existence of Satan or the other extreme to exalt and magnify Satan.

[18:50] The two great extremes, and really we see it today, that man falls somewhere between two extremes that cause him great harm. To belittle or deny the existence of Satan and therefore not know who their enemy is or to exalt the position of Satan and we call them satanic worshippers.

[19:08] And these are two great dangerous extremes. We never want to give Satan more power than he is due. While he knows scripture better than us and while he is a powerful created being, he is not all powerful, he's not all knowing, and he's not all seeing and all being.

[19:22] Right? So which means Satan cannot be at work in your life, Satan himself cannot be at work in your life and my life at the same time because he is limited to time and space. Understand that? Well, if Satan made me do it and Satan made you do it and Satan's making everybody do it, then we're giving Satan more powerful.

[19:36] Sometimes, as James says, men sin because they're carried away by their own lust. Sometimes we made ourselves do it. We need to say that and we need to own that, right? Now, it may have been a demonic, satanic activity, but it does not mean he was there making us do anything because he is a limited being.

[19:55] He throws fiery darts, but that's all he can do. But we do not want to deny his existence either because we have an enemy and we need to know who our enemy is. There has been great harm that has fallen to the church simply because they do not know.

[20:08] The sports world shows us this, especially in the game of football. Even at the high school level of football, I would go so far as to say even at middle school level, even when I was helping coach middle school, normally on Sundays, then there would be a tape watched of the last week's game.

[20:23] So they would watch Friday night's game and you'd see exactly what we did wrong on Friday night. We would take time and we'd look over what happened wrong on Friday night. Sometimes that was Monday, sometimes it was Sundays.

[20:35] Your team typically depended on who the coach is. And the rest of the week was not spending watching what we did wrong, but it was spent watching the tape of the people we were getting ready to play, right?

[20:45] Because you need to know more of your enemy than you need to know more of your faults. The problem is that so many of us are spending so much time rewinding the tape of our mess-ups and not paying attention to the enemy we're facing.

[20:56] And we need to understand our enemy and John records that for us here. We need to see the undeterred enemy of God and God's people. Though he is defeated, he has not stopped because Satan thought that he had eventually wiped out this male child when he moved Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus and sent Jesus to the cross.

[21:16] But we know that cross was not a loss, it was a victory. We know that that cross became the final stake in the fate of Satan. That upon that cross he nailed the fate of Satan for all of eternity.

[21:29] We know that the battle was won, that it continues to rage on. But we also need to know, friend, that our enemy has not stopped. We still have an enemy.

[21:40] We see this here. It says that when this male child was caught up, we need to understand a little bit about him. It says, Then another sign appeared in heaven and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten hordes and on his head were seven diadems.

[21:52] Now again, this is a sign, this is not a literal picture. So Satan does not literally look like a red dragon walking around with seven heads and ten horns and diadems. This is a picture of him.

[22:03] The red represents blood and represents fury and anger. The ten heads and the ten horns or seven heads and the ten hordes and the seven diadems represent his power and his prestige upon the earth.

[22:14] He is the prince of this earth. Okay, we need to understand that he's the power and principalities of the air as well. He has two realms in which he works. He works on the earth and he works in the air in the heavenlies.

[22:26] It says, and his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth. So his tail sweeping away a third of the stars of heaven, literally a third of the angels who went with him.

[22:37] You understand why he has so much power upon the earth? It's because we have already seen that when the abyss was opened up, the pit, in a previous passage of Revelation, some two million demonic forces came forth.

[22:49] A two million man army, right, of demonic forces. And we see here, we do not know how many angels there are in heaven, but we know there are myriads upon myriads upon myriads. And a third of those chose when Satan revolted against God.

[23:04] The Bible tells us in Isaiah and even Ezekiel that Satan was created an angel of light. And being an angel of light, his position was to be one of the guardians of the throne of God.

[23:14] And he hung out so long in the throne of God, he decided he wanted to be on the throne of God. So he created this war in heaven. And the third, it says, the angels of heaven followed him.

[23:26] I don't know what they were thinking, but they did. And it says that they were cast out. Jesus himself says, I saw Satan cast out like the star of heaven. And he was cast out of heaven. But we need to understand, he is a dragon with authority and power.

[23:38] He is the serpent of old, which means he's the same one that was moving in the Garden of Eden. He is called Satan. Satan means deceiver or accuser. He is the great devil. But friend, understand this.

[23:50] Job makes it very clear. This is where we need to know who our enemy is. Job makes it very clear that while Satan has fallen from heaven, he has fallen from prestige and position in heaven, he still has access to heaven.

[24:03] Probably one of the most difficult things in all of scripture is that God brings up Job's name to Satan in heaven. God says, have you considered my servant Job? And we understand this.

[24:14] What we see is that Satan has three realms that he works in right now. I know this is deep, but stay with me. He has the realm of the earth, which he is the prince of the earth. It says, all of the keys of the earth have been given to him.

[24:25] Man gave them to him. That's why in the temptation of the wilderness, Satan could offer them to Jesus. Here, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus said, no, I don't want them from you. I'm going to gain them in my own battle, right? I don't need them from you, Satan, but all these belong to him.

[24:38] He is the prince in the principalities of the air. He is working in the heavenlies, that is, the realm above the earth, and he still has access to the throne room of heaven. I cannot completely understand it.

[24:50] All I can tell you is the Bible states it, and we have to accept it by there. We have to be, as Billy Graham once said, I do not know it, but I accept it by faith, right? He still has access into the throne room of heaven, and he is doing something there.

[25:03] He's not worshiping there. I want to tell you something. He's not there serving God. He's not there worshiping God. He is standing before the presence of God, my friend. Listen to me. and accusing you.

[25:16] So many times we wonder why these thoughts come to our mind. We wonder about our own faults and our own failures, and we wonder why we cannot move beyond them. But I want to tell you now, I'm talking to you about the great cosmic battle of your redemption.

[25:28] You have a Savior. If you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, who the Bible says, what? Lives daily to intercede for you.

[25:39] Now, why does he have to intercede for you? Are you arguing with God about your own salvation? Some of us do. God, I don't think I'm saved. I don't know what I'm saying. I don't understand. As J.D. Greer once said, stop asking Jesus into your heart.

[25:52] Understand what your salvation is. He didn't say that. That's a wonderful title book, by the way. It makes people go, what in the world are you talking about? Read it. Understand what the Bible says about salvation. Understand the truth of it. It's not about us asking.

[26:03] It's about him calling, right? So we see this. But why does Jesus live to intercede for us? Because while he is beside the right hand of the Father interceding before us, Satan is standing before the Father accusing us.

[26:17] He's sitting there going, oh God, do you know about Billy Joe? What about this? What about that? What about this? What about that? Look at this. Look at this fault. Look at this. He's there to revile us. He's there to cast us down. He's there to make us look bad.

[26:28] But the scripture says that if we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, he is there interceding saying, yep, paid for that one. Yep, paid for that one. Yep, covered that one.

[26:39] Oh, Father, my blood's got that one. Anything Satan brings up against me, Jesus trumps it and says, I have it covered. Whatever he accuses me of, he intercedes for me.

[26:50] This is the great battle we see. Friend, listen to me. Satan has not stopped just because he's been beaten. He continues. He is undeterred. He is there moving and he's there acting and he's there.

[27:02] And sometimes we need to understand this, that he moves, not sometimes, all the times because he's a limited being. He moves through individuals. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but man, he uses flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of the air and the spiritual forces of darkness.

[27:17] Throughout history, he has always moved through individuals. He needed Pharaoh to kill the male children. He needed Nebuchadnezzar to cast them into the fiery furnace, right? He needed all these people to do something. He had to cohabitate with the daughters of men.

[27:30] He needs to move through people. So sometimes, those accusations that come against us through people are being trumped at the throne of God by the interceder on our behalf.

[27:41] We need to understand that though he is defeated, he is still undeterred. But there is, this is the good news, coming a day, there is coming a day because he said, then I saw Michael and his angels waging war in heaven with the devil and his angels.

[27:57] Michael is the only angel considered in scripture or talked about in scripture that is called an archangel. Michael is referred to in the book of Daniel and other portions of the Old Testament as the protector of God's people.

[28:08] Michael is there who fought with the devil over the body of Moses. Michael is one who is seen as the, would be there. And some say, well, what brings this final great cosmic battle?

[28:19] Because after this battle is fought, it says that there is no longer a place found for Satan in heaven, that he is finally cast out of heaven, cast to the earth. There will be a day where he is cast from the earth into the lake of fire.

[28:30] For a thousand years he will be bound, then he will be released, and then later on he will be eternally cast into the lake of fire. But for that time and that day when Michael fights that battle and he rages that war in heaven and he finally cast him down, some say, well, what does it?

[28:47] Well, what makes Satan more mad than anything? There's people coming to God and worshiping God and rejoicing in God and being used of God. There's this great thing in 1 Corinthians 15.

[29:00] By the way, I've told you that the rapture of the church is seen in 1 Corinthians 15. It says, in that day the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then those who remain until then shall meet him in the air, meet Christ in the air, right?

[29:13] It's not the second coming of Christ because Christ never comes. He runs and sets foot on the earth. We meet him in the air. But do you know what kind of trumpet that is? It says, the trumpet of the archangel shall sound.

[29:25] Many people believe and I don't know if it's accurately so but I know that someday that the realm of Satan is the realm above the earth and that when the church passes through his realm because Satan sees us coming after that trumpet is blown, when the trumpet is blown and Christ is there waiting on us and the church ascends, Satan gets mad and Michael says, leave them alone and the battle rages on and finally there's this final defeat in heaven where Satan no longer has a place but friend, all I want you to know right now is he has not stopped, he's still moving, he's still accusing and he's still behaving as he always has.

[30:06] Number three, not only do we see the unstoppable purposes of God, the undeterred enemy of God, number three, we see the untouchable people of God. There has been no nation who has suffered more historically than the nation of the Jewish people.

[30:21] Anti-Semitism has been something that rose very early in the history of mankind as a matter of fact we see it rising time and time again. It was one of the great tortures of the early people in Britain, it was one of the great atrocities of the Crusades, it was one of the great atrocities of every world power and only Stalin but then eventually Hitler.

[30:44] Anti-Semitism has been this great tool because this is what we need to understand in Revelation 12 and I know I'm throwing a lot at you but do you see what happens when Satan is finally cast to the earth? He begins to wage war or wage war with she who was in labor that is the nation of Israel and now the focus goes to this great time called the time of tribulation.

[31:06] Because there is coming a day the Jewish people would long that their worst days are behind them but the reality is is that their worst days are still before them. We see multitude and multitude of death where Stalin ordered a killing of over 3 million Hitler's killing of over 6 million hoping to exterminate the world of the Jewish population but yet through it all they have remained.

[31:27] Some have referred to them as Moses' burning bush. They are a bush that is consumed as if by fire but will not ever be burned up because they will exist among the fire and the ordeal but they will never be annihilated and they will never be wiped out.

[31:43] And I told you that I thought the tribulation time was more of God calling his people back to himself during his judgment of the world for their sin, right? The tribulation time is not a time for the church.

[31:54] It is a time of God calling the nation of Israel back to himself. And we see this even here. We see that there are 144,000 sealed Jewish witnesses and those 144,000 are witnessing to their own people.

[32:10] The church has been raptured. The time of the Gentiles has come to a close. We see that in Revelation 6 and now God is dealing with his people as he dealt with them in the Exodus. As he dealt with them in the Babylonian captivity he will again deal with them in the time of tribulation.

[32:24] And we see this when Daniel refers to it as his 70th week in Daniel chapter 9 where they will make a packet in agreement for seven days which is seven years or a week. And they will make an agreement with the world ruler.

[32:36] We will get to that in Revelation 13 and 14. That world ruler is Satan. And they will make an agreement with him. And at the end or at the middle point the three and a half year mark that agreement will fall apart.

[32:48] Things will get bad. Anti-Semitism will pick up as if never before. And Satan will reveal himself as he always has been trying to destroy the remnant. Why? Because God's purpose still stands for and I want you to understand your scripture.

[33:02] We live in the church age but God's promises for the nation of Israel are still found in your scriptures. The Abrahamic covenant which was reiterated time and time again Paul refers to it in Romans 9, 10 and 11.

[33:16] God is not through with the nation of Israel because he made a promise to them, right? And God's purposes come about. So what we see is the accuser of the brethren says, well if I can't be in heaven and if I couldn't stop the church well I'm going to break this final promise of God and I'm going to destroy the nation of Israel.

[33:37] But there we begin to see the power of God to make his people untouchable because it says a place was given to her in the wilderness. No one knows where it is. No one needs to know where it is.

[33:48] But a place was given to her in the wilderness where God could hide her for a time and times and half a time. That's three and a half years. That's a year, two years, and half a year.

[33:58] Three and a half years that's what that means in scripture. During the latter part of the tribulation the worst part when Satan is opposing the nation of Israel when he's trying to annihilate the Jewish people those who have professed faith in Jesus Christ will be called out.

[34:12] Matthew records this for us where Jesus said that you need to in that day when you flee do not go back to your house and get anything from you. More for those who are in labor or nursing babies that you need to pray that that day will not be in a winter.

[34:24] He's speaking of a day when the Jewish people will flee the city and John is recording that for us here in Revelation 12 that during the height of their persecution God will give them a place and Satan will not be able to touch them.

[34:35] It says that he will pour forth water out of his mouth so as to flood them and the earth will open it up and will consume that water and it won't be able to touch them. No one knows what that flood is. Is it an army? Is it accusations?

[34:47] Is it anti-Semitism rising up as if never before? No one knows but what we do know is that God intercedes and that flood never touches them. His people are safe and it says so Satan the dragon will know that he can no longer touch them so then he will shift his focus on those who did not flee to those who remain and he will be with those people and he will accuse those people and some of them will die.

[35:08] This is what I want you to see from this. The people of God are untouchable to the works and the power of Satan as long as they stay with God and the purposes and plans of God.

[35:20] I remember one of the first sermons I ever preached I was a very young pastor and it was on a Wednesday night I wasn't even a pastor yet I was just filling the pulpit and I still have it handwritten awful sermon I mean if I just have to make a confession to you I mean just an awful sermon praise God for people that were very patient with me when I first started preaching but I remember the title I'll always remember the title and the title was The Untouchables and it's a truth that has stayed with me throughout scripture that we are untouchable until God is through with us and I really believe that with all of my heart with all of my soul with all of my might that it is appointed unto man once to die and listen to me we don't make the appointment we only keep the appointment we don't get to make how it's going to happen we don't get to make when it's going to happen we just keep it it's appointed but what we find in scripture and what we find in history is this reality that in spite of the opposition in spite of the plagues in spite of everything that came against God's people until God was through no one could touch them and we see this with the nation of Israel you say oh you're telling me the people of God don't die no sometimes they die sometimes they die natural death sometimes they die torturous death but I can promise you one thing they did not die and they will not die a day before or a day later than when God says it's time to come home the people of God are untouchable and we see this in scripture

[36:56] Satan is attacking them Satan is pursuing them and God is protecting them and they are there in his presence that does not mean I don't go out and take great risk listen I'll tell you this before I've told you this time and time again there's some things I'll never do because I think God gave me a sense of fear and wisdom right some things that I don't want to operate in a spirit of fear but I'm not going to go out here and jump off a cliff and I'm not going to test the Lord my God as Jesus said and see if I'm untouchable I'm going to walk forth in boldness and I'm going to walk forth in assurance that he has a plan and a purpose for me and I'm going to live my life for his glory and I'm going to fulfill that plan and purpose he has not called me to go jump off cliffs and take great risk maybe he's called you to do that but he hasn't called me to do that thank you Lord but I'm not going to do those things that he has not called me to do but as I do them I'm going to move forward in confidence knowing that though Satan may be pursuing and he may be accusing there's nothing he can do to me as long as God is using me and when my time is up and when my time is over it may look horrendous and the world may mourn and I pray some people may rejoice

[38:04] I don't know but my time is done listen friend even death can't touch the people of God because even those that Satan finds and he does accuse and destroy all he did was usher them into the presence of God he did not stop them from being the people of God what we see in Revelation 12 is the great cosmic battle of redemption I want you to understand this for the salvation of your soul a great war has raged on and on it will continue to move forward and continue to push forward until that last day when God's final bowls of wrath are poured out on all the watching world but until then God is fighting for the redemption of his people he is fighting calling people to himself we need to rejoice in that and we need to stand firm in those promises that God is using us for his glory and his honor would you pray with me Lord thank you so much for this day thank you for allowing us to gather together and look at your word

[39:06] Lord we pray that the truth of it would captivate our hearts and minds that it would draw us closer to you Lord we pray that in all things you would be glorified we pray oh God you would be magnified even in our presence and we ask it in Jesus name Amen God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you Thank you.

[40:10] Thank you.

[40:40] Thank you.

[41:10] Thank you.

[41:40] Thank you.