The War of the Ages: A Battle Beyond Earth

We're going to pick up tonight, you may have forgotten when we left off,

but we're going to pick up verses 5 and 6 of Revelation chapter 12,

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

and we're talking about the male child.

Let's go to Lord in prayer just for a moment again. Lord, we give you praise tonight.

Lord, I ask that you would help us as we focus on your word. God,

that you would just, through the power of your spirit, that you would just move

in our hearts and minds, Lord, and help us to not only understand your word,

but also to put it to heart, to put it to practice in Jesus' name.

Amen. So Revelation 12, verses 5 and 6, And she gave birth to a son,

Revelation 12:5

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.

And y'all probably remember this being referred to as back up some passages

back before this that we talked about in reference to the woman who is,

by the way, who represents who?

Israel, right? And in spite of all of Satan's relentless efforts,

Eastwood, to prevent it, the woman, Israel, gave birth to a son.

And the incarnation of the male child, who's the male child?

The Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of a descendant of David,

according to the flesh, it says in Romans chapter 1, Romans 9,

Romans 1 · chapter mention

was the fulfillment of prophecy.

We can look back through the Old Testament prophecies. Israel brought forth the Messiah, right?

The Bible actually emphasizes that Jesus, if you remember, was of Jewish lineage, right?

He was a son of Abraham. It talks about that in Matthew 1.1.

And a member of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of David, like we said.

But also, not only this, but Satan is, you know, is not able,

you know, nor will Satan be able to hinder Christ's coronation.

In other words, as we say in this passage.

And if you look back, it says he will rule all the nations with a what?

A rod of iron, right? A rod of iron during his earthly millennial kingdom.

And Psalm chapter 2, verses 7 through 9, actually indicates that this rule that

Psalms 2:7–9

it's talking about, it's a breaking, a shattering work of judgment.

In fact, that verb right there that means to rule, it carries the connotation

of destroy, in other words, as it does in chapter 2, verse 27 that we've already looked at.

But the Messiah, in other words, is going to come and he'll destroy,

what does it say in chapter 19 of Revelation, verses 11 through 21,

it lets us know all the nations,

destroy all the nations, and in his kingdom have dominion over the nations that

enter to populate that kingdom.

If you think about it for a moment, an iron rod is also one that cannot be broken.

Just as all of Satan's past efforts, think about it, to hinder Christ have failed,

so also will his future efforts fail. Amen?

Y'all, I've said this before. I mean, we have the victory in Christ.

I mean, we've won, okay? I understand that, yes, we're wrapped in this flesh

right now, but I want you to know, ultimately, we are the victors in Christ, and we have won.

And so this phrase, rod of iron, it speaks of the resoluteness of Christ's rule, if you will.

He's going to swiftly and immediately judge all sin and put down any rebellion.

And between Christ's incarnation and his coronation came his exaltation,

as we see in this passage, when he was called up to God and to his throne at his ascension, right?

Christ's exaltation, if you remember, signifies the Father's acceptance of his

work of redemption that he accomplished on our behalf, that we celebrate.

It talks about that in Hebrews 1, verse 3.

Hebrews 1:3

So Satan could not stop Christ from accomplishing redemption and therefore being

exalted to the right hand of the Father as a perfect Savior.

In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, remember Peter declared,

he said, God raised Christ up again, right?

Putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

That's one of my favorite verses. Acts chapter two, verse 24, right?

Let me say it again. God raised Christ up again, putting an end to the agony

of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

But though he is defeated, he is a defeated foe, Satan will not give up, will he?

Unable to stop Christ's birth, his ascension, or his rule, Satan still assaults

his people, God's people, right?

He's already instigated the genocidal massacre of Jews in Europe as well as

the death of countless thousands throughout history.

And during the tribulation, Satan will increase his efforts to actually destroy

the Jewish people so that the nation cannot be saved as the Bible promises.

In other words, even though he's defeated, he's still trying to do everything

he can to somehow mess up God's plan, right?

And so that there will be none left alive is what he wants to enter the millennial

kingdom. That's his goal.

He's going to seek to kill believing Jews. And as always, Israel,

and we talked about this before, will be his prime target.

And in a brief glimpse, if you will, of what will be described,

I think, more fully when we get on in verses 13 through 17, John noted in the

passage we read earlier that the woman fled where? You remember? What does it say?

To the wilderness where she had a place prepared by who?

God, right? so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days.

So God here is going to frustrate Satan's attempt to destroy Israel during the

tribulation by what? By hiding his people.

Hiding his people just as the Lord Jesus Christ predicted.

In fact, you say, really? Yes. In fact, let's go to, if you look back in Matthew

or look over in Matthew there, chapter 24, verses 15 through 21, listen to this.

He says, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation,

which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place,

and he has let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

Whoever is on the housetop must go down to get the things out that are in his house.

Whoever's in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.

But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days,

but pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath,

for then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the

beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. And that's in Matthew 24.

So Antichrist's desecration of the temple will send the Jewish people fleeing, again, where?

Into the wilderness. And the exact location where God will hide them is not revealed,

but it's probably somewhere east of the Jordan River and south of the Dead Sea

in a territory that was formerly occupied by Moab and Ammon and Edom.

But wherever it is, wherever their hiding place will be, they are going to be

nourished and defended by who?

God's going to do it. God's going to do it.

And just as their ancestors were during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness,

the length of Israel stay in hiding here, 1,260 days, you know how many years that is?

Y'all are good, three and a half years, right? He's going to hide them, three and a half years.

And that really corresponds to the last half of the tribulation.

The period Jesus called the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24, 21.

So those Jews who remain behind in Jerusalem will actually come under the influence

of the two witnesses, and many in that city are going to be redeemed.

They're going to be saved.

And eventually, in spite of Satan's efforts, in Romans 11, 26,

it lets us know this, all Israel will be saved.

In Romans 11, 26, but that great cosmic war of the ages between God and Satan

that began with Satan's rebellion is set to reach its climax, I guess you would say.

Because in this passage, John provided important background information on that

war, and he introduced the key figures, if you remember and you see here.

Then in his vision turned to a description of the war, both in its heavenly

and earthly places, and its inevitable outcome as well, letting us know what's

going to really happen here.

But nonetheless, we're going to look at this deeper, right? The war of the ages.

Now, normally I would stop right there because we finished a section,

but since we're only 10 minutes in, I'm going to have to go a little further tonight. Is that okay?

So the war of the ages is what we're upon. War in heaven.

Can you believe it? Revelation 12, verses 7 through 12.

Revelation 12:7–12

Listen to this, and it says, And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels

waging war with the dragon.

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.

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 and thrown down he who accuses them

before our God day and night.

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.

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.

Now i don't know about y'all but just a little bit in that passage you

know just think about this that the accuser of the brethren right

i know that probably jumped out at you and in satan's goal is to tear down the

people of god especially the jews right but did you get that in there where

he accuses is it just like part-time is it a part-time job for him no wait it's day and night man.

He never stops. Never stops.

But again, we have the victory. Amen. We have the victory in Christ.

In fact, in his classic book, The Screwtape Letters, anybody ever heard of C.S. Lewis? I hope you have.

I hope you've read his books. But he wrote, there are two equal and opposite

errors into which our race can fall about the devils.

One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel

an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail the materialist

or a magician with the same delight, is what C.S.

Lewis said in his book, The Screwtape Letters.

And I want y'all to know tonight, just think about that, because the same is

true of the leader of the demons, Satan, right?

He's please, church, when people hold any unbiblical view of him.

Which is easy to do today, right? In fact, whether they deny his existence or

worship him, the devil always seeks to create confusion about his true nature and his purposes.

You see, you know, the angel of light. I think about that old Petra song, Angel of Light.

You know, I see you, you know, glow in the night, but you only bring darkness to my soul.

You know, talking about Satan, because he was referred to as Angel of Light, right?

And so the Bible exposes Satan's devious and his deceitful nature.

What is it calling me? I probably remember this in John 8. Satan is called the

father of what? Lies, right?

Cautioning that he disguises himself, and I just mentioned this,

as an angel of light. In 2 Corinthians 11.

I mean, it's like he can't, some people, that's how they see this,

you know? It's like people that dabble in the occult or that begin to have an

interest unhealthy in the things of demons and those type things.

It's like he can disguise himself as an angel of light or somebody trying to do good, right?

You know, trying to work through somebody and do good in this world.

Y'all probably heard, and I'm just throwing this here just to think on this,

because you probably heard, you know, some of this thing with the Wiccans or

witchcraft and all that, You know, like, you know, you're going to have your

dark magic and your white magic, all that kind of stuff, right?

You see, that's Satan's deception. It's kind of like thinking that somehow somebody's

ever in control other than Satan himself, and he only seeks to destroy, right?

So he can disguise himself as all kind of things so that he can more easily deceive people.

You know, he can get the curiosity of somebody who is seeking things,

And so maybe they're out there trying to see what their future is in the tarot

cards or they're trying to look to the stars or whatever the case is.

But the Apostle Paul actually expressed his concern that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan.

For we are not ignorant of his schemes, he says in 2 Corinthians 2.

And something else we're challenged to do, y'all, in Ephesians 6, verse 11.

Ephesians 6:11

Y'all remember this verse. Put on the full armor of God. Amen?

The full armor of God. The Apostle Paul urged the Ephesians so that you will

be able to stand firm against the what of the devil? The schemes of the devil.

Right? So one of the most pervasive and persistent popular myths,

I think, about Satan pictures him like pitchfork, horns, and pointing tail.

Right? That's the devil. Okay?

Like I said, look, you know, you can stop thinking about it like this.

You know, when people are tempted or when they're there, it's not going to be

obvious sometimes like this is Satan, right? This is Satan.

Like I said earlier, sometimes it can be so alluring and so attractive where he deceives.

He deceives us. He deceives people.

And they're looking for something and he's not going to come out with a pitchfork,

you know, in the horns and everybody knows, oh, it's the devil.

I'm staying away. Right. No, he'll disguise himself as some kind of self-help

book or some kind of charismatic preacher or whatever you want to say.

He can disguise himself as all sorts of things just so people will buy into the lie.

And we think of him also as being in charge of hell, right?

You know, Satan in charge of hell. Well, in reality, how many of you know that

Satan is not in hell right now?

In fact, he's never been there. He will not be sentenced to the lake of fire

until his final rebellion is crushed at the end of the millennium.

That's in Revelation 20, verses 7 through 10. And when he does enter hell,

Revelation 20:7–10

Satan will not be in charge.

He'll be the lowest inmate there, the one undergoing the most horrible punishment

ever inflicted on any created being.

Far from being in hell, Satan currently, guess what, divides his time between roaming the earth,

1 Peter 5, 8, seeking someone to devour,

and that someone may be you, and being in heaven where he also engages in his

doomed attempt, as we saw, to overthrow God's person, purposes, plans, and people.

In fact, you see this in Job, right?

He has access to the presence of God at this point.

And so one way that he seeks to do that, again, we come back to this theme,

is by constantly accusing believers before God's throne, just like you did Job, right?

And we'll see that in verse 10 more here as you look at it.

But Satan just ceaselessly comes before God about the unworthiness of believers,

hypocritically appealing to God's righteousness to further his own unrighteous aims.

He's trying to cover every angle. The unachievable goal, though,

of Satan's accusations is to shatter the unbreakable bonds.

That inseparably link us believers, y'all, all of us, to who?

To the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8, 29 through 39. You remember that passage that it talks about,

that nothing's going to separate us from the love of God, and it goes on in

great detail, height or depth or anything.

But Satan's trying. There's no possibility of that happening.

You can say, woo, yeah, right? Because since no one can snatch a believer,

church, a true believer cannot be snatched out of the hands of Jesus or the Father.

It tells us that in John 10, 28 and 29.

Still, Satan works on earth to turn God's children against him and in heaven

to turn God against his children.

But as John proves, saving faith and eternal life are unbreakable realities.

And I know y'all are so grateful for that. I am. I mean, it's secure. It's accomplished.

As part of their war against God, Satan and his demon hosts also battle who,

according to the passage we read?

The holy angels, right? There's war in heaven. That's not surprising, is it?

Since Scripture describes the devil in Ephesians 2, 2 as the prince of the power

of the air, as well as the ruler of this world in John 12, 14, and 16.

His theater of operations, if you will, includes both the heavens and the earth.

And the war of the ages is being fought at every conceivable level.

Moral, ideological, philosophical, theological, and supernatural.

You name it. You know, on Wednesday nights, we're doing this series about hot

button topics, and we're looking at all these different issues,

biblical answers to social issues.

All those things that are going on, all those are attacks upon God and his children.

All those ways of thinking that are opposed to the biblical worldview that's

presented by God in Scripture, all of it.

And Satan's battle plan for the earthly phase of the war of the ages here is

brutally simple, brutally simple, to eliminate all those who serve God.

How many of you here have faced that reality? Satan wants to kill you.

He wants to destroy you. And he wants to steal from you.

That's his agenda. And if he could, he would kill them all. He would kill us all.

If not that, he would destroy their faith if that were possible.

Were he able to rid the earth of all those who serve God, the devil would achieve

his goal of unifying the entire world under his rule.

And it may be i think we probably need to think about this at this point that

such a reality will occur when the believers on earth are raptured to heaven

the rapture will be followed by what the tribulation and if that's that's where satan,

doesn't gain the fullest rule on the planet he'll ever have during the tribulation

and satan longs to be permanently what he is only temporarily,

the God of an unrighteous world,

to be worshiped.

He wants to be worshiped by who? Everybody, right?

And to achieve those goals, though, Satan desperately wants to prevent the Lord

Jesus Christ from establishing his kingdom,

both now spiritually in the hearts of men and women who are sitting here tonight

and children, and in its future millennial and eternal forms as well.

So Satan's evil plans will not succeed.

We can say, thank you, Lord, for scripture reveals that he's already a defeated

foe, like we started out with, like we talked about.

In anticipating his victory over Satan at the cross, Jesus said this in John chapter 12, verse 31.

John 12:31

He says now judgment is upon this world now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

To the Romans, Paul wrote, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Come on, right?

It didn't say that you and I are going to have the power to do it,

except through him, obviously, right?

But he is going to soon, the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet in Romans 16, 20.

Talks about that even back in Genesis 3, verse 15. Wow, it all goes back to Genesis, doesn't it?

Genesis 3:15

While the writer of Hebrews declared that through his death,

Jesus rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil.

It talks about this in Hebrews 2, 14.

In fact, in 1 John 4, 4, the apostle John declared, greater is he who is in

you than he who is in the world.

So though Satan was defeated at the cross church, his sentence has not yet been

fully carried out. Not yet.

And though he understands that his destiny is revealed in Scripture,

Satan just, regardless, nevertheless, he relentlessly continues to fight this

losing battle against God.

I guess he thinks that somehow he's going to pull a fast one on God,

right? And so the war of the ages will continue until Satan is incarcerated.

Temporarily, by the way, in the abyss to start with in Revelation 20,

1 through 3, and then permanently, as we will see in hell for all of eternity

in Revelation 20, verse 10.

Revelation 20:10

But this long supernatural war of Satan against God reaches its peak in this

passage, the sounding of the seventh trumpet in chapter 11, 15 through 17.

It'll anticipate Christ's triumph over Satan.

Although that final battle will not yet have been fought.

That's going to be in chapter 19, right? The effects of the seventh trumpet

sounding will be described in the beginning of chapter 15 that we're going to get to soon.

And the intervening chapters 12 through 14, which we're in 12 right now,

is going to just let us see the events of chapter 6 through 11.

It's going to kind of let us go back and take a look through those and expand on those, right?

Viewing them from Satan's perspective, in other words, basically is what it's going to do.

Viewing them from Satan's perspective. They recount the beginning of the war

of the ages with Satan's initial rebellion against God and describe its final

battle during the tribulation.

They also chronicle Antichrist's rule and his rise to power and the ultimate

failure on Satan's efforts.

I mean, Satan's defeated, y'all. He's defeated.

Though as he may try, he has lost the war, right? He's lost.

And so having introduced the combatants here in chapter 12, verses 1 through

6, John describes the first phase of Satan's final assault on God before Christ's return.

In verses 7 through 12, which describe that war in heaven that we read,

they can be divided into three sections, and that's where we're going to start picking up next week.

The battle, the victory, and the celebration.

Boy, I like those last two, right? The battle, I mean, but hey,

the battle belongs to who? The Lord, right? He's going to take care of it.

But the battle, the victory, I like that, and the celebration.

That's where we're going to pick up next week, and we'll talk about the battle to start with.