Matlock | 20/09/26 | Revelation 12 | Neal Garratt

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every Sunday.

With me.

Praise the Lord.

He is king of all the earth.

Okay, keep that in your mind.

So important.

And then I want to read what I read when I preached on the beginning of Revelation last time.

This is from uh Phil Moore's book on Revelation, which is excellent.

It says the last book of the Bible is not primarily about weird beasts, strange allegories, and encoded details about the final years of planet Earth.

It's a book which focuses on one great fact, which trumps all the others throughout history.

It's a simple fact, but a fact that changes everything.

God is on the throne of the universe, and he is working out his strategies from the control room of heaven.

I love that quote.

God is on the throne of the universe, and he is working out his strategies from the control room of heaven.

And we need to remember that as we go through the next three chapters, particularly, and as we go on in Revelation.

And we need to remember what we also said on that very first week.

Revelation 1 verse 8 says, I am the Alpha and Omega.

Revelation 1:8

The beginning and the end, says the Lord God.

I am the one who is and who always was, and who is still to come, the Almighty One.

That's what we need to keep in our minds, okay?

Hallelujah.

He's the beginning and the end.

Who was, he is, and he is to come.

Past, present, future.

The same God.

So Revelation 12 lays bare the fact that the enemy is engaged in a war for your soul, whether you realize it or not.

His goal is to alienate you from Christ and claim you as his own.

He doesn't care about you, he has no good intentions towards you.

He simply wants to use you in his futile attempt to defeat God's plan.

But he never will.

Hallelujah.

John's letter is a warning to us to remain vigilant and to endure to the end, despite the enemy's best efforts to accuse us and deceive us, which he constantly does.

Those two words come up a lot in this chapter: deception and accusation.

That's what he does all the time.

In your week, he will accuse you of all kinds of things and tell you that you're not worthy.

And we need to come against that with the truth, which we're going to look at in a minute.

So I want to look at the main characters in this chapter.

We're going to split it into two because it's quite a long chapter.

So we're just going to read verses one to six.

Then I witnessed in heaven an event of great significance.

I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

She was pregnant and she cried out because of her labor pains and the agony of giving birth.

And I witnessed in heaven another significant event.

I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his head.

His tail swept away one third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth.

He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born.

She gave birth to a son who was to rule over the nations with an iron rod, and her child was snatched away from the dragon, and was caught up to God and to his throne.

And the woman fled into the wilderness where God had prepared a place to care for her for 1,260 days.

Okay, so we've got three main characters.

We've got the woman, we've got Satan, the dragon, and we've got Jesus.

And I want to look at each one, and then we'll go through into the next bit of the chapter.

So initially you might think, well, the woman is obviously Mary, because she gives birth to Jesus.

But I think it's much more in it than that.

The woman here is describing covenant Israel, the people of God.

And this is really important for us to understand.

Yes, Mary gave birth to Jesus, and she is a Jew.

Important.

But the only other time that the description that is here about the twelve stars on her head and so forth is from the symbolism, if you like, is only found in one other place, and that is in Joseph's life in the Old Testament, from which originates the twelve tribes of Israel.

So this is Satan attacking and trying to destroy God's chosen people, the people of Israel.

He hates them because Jesus was born from this race of people, and they are God's chosen people.

A covenant relationship forever.

And that is very important.

Genesis 17, verse 7.

Genesis 17:7

This is God speaking to Abraham.

He says, I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation.

This is an everlasting covenant.

I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

It's an everlasting covenant.

Now, I don't know if you remember, but when we were looking in the book of Ruth, I spoke about the difference between a covenant and a contract.

Because that's what happens in the book of Ruth.

Boaz loves Ruth.

But the other guy who is closer to her being her kinsman redeemer doesn't look at it in those terms.

He wants to do it in a legal way, and that's where we looked at cover contract.

And we're used to contracts, aren't we?

You get a contract of employment, it says you do this for us, and we will pay you that much, and you can have that much holiday.

That's the contract.

You sign it and you sign your life away.

That's it for 30 years.

Whatever.

I wish I hadn't.

That's another story.

But that's a contract.

God does not have a contract with his people.

He has a covenant.

And that is a huge difference.

A cover contract is based in law.

What is the covenant based in?

Grace and love.

So important.

A sacred binding promise based on love and loyalty.

Isn't that beautiful?

A sacred binding promise based on love and loyalty.

Not based on effort or work or rewards or what you do for us.

No.

It's based on grace.

It's based on love that God loves the children of Israel.

Whether they sin on them, he still loves them.

And they do sin all the way through the Old Testament.

Time and time and time again, they let God down.

Doesn't let stop his covenant love.

Because if it was a contract, he would stop it.

Sorry.

You're fired.

What are you doing?

Where's this golden calf come from?

Sorry, that's not in your contract of employment.

But no, it's not a contract, it's a covenant based in love, and God loves his people, Israel.

And it's an everlasting covenant.

It hasn't stopped.

It's going into the future, it's going to the end of the world.

And as you read Revelation, you will see that the Jewish people and Jerusalem in particular are absolutely integral in what God is going to do in the final days of the world.

Absolutely integral.

I'm not preaching on that today, unfortunately.

I'll see if I can wangle it, but that's a preach for another day.

But it's absolutely integral.

Now listen.

Not only has God made a covenant with Israel, his chosen people, he has made a covenant with you.

When you get saved, God makes an everlasting covenant with you.

But it is nonetheless a covenant relationship for eternity.

So when you sin, and when you let God down, does he break that covenant with you?

No.

Because of Jesus.

You sin, we let God down.

If it was a contract, we'd be all over the place.

But it's not, it's a covenant, it's a totally different type of love.

And we may never fully understand this until we get to glory.

But it is a beautiful thing that when we sin, he says, You can come back to me and you can ask for my forgiveness and you receive my forgiveness.

Doesn't break the contract, might break the relationship because sin separates us from God.

But he says, No, come to me, I forgive you.

And when I forgive you, it's cast away as far as from the east is from the west.

It's not even in my memory banks anymore.

That's the God we have.

That's the God Israel have.

It's a beautiful picture.

Now, don't think that I am trying to make a political point about Israel.

I'm not.

What I'm doing is telling you what the Bible says.

That's very different.

Is everything that Israel does right?

No, it isn't.

Does Israel sin?

Yes, they do.

And they will have to come before God and account for their actions just as we will.

But we're covered by the blood of Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Hebrews 10, verse 16 and 17 says, This is the new covenant I will make with my people.

Hebrews 10:16

That's us.

On that day, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.

And he says, I will never again remember their sins and their lawless deeds.

You see, it's not outside in anymore, it's inside out.

He comes and he writes his law on your heart.

When you sin, you don't need someone to come and tell you, you know that you have sinned and you've let God down.

How do you know?

Because it's inside you, it's in your spirit.

And you come and you say, Lord, I shouldn't have said that.

I'm so sorry.

Forgive me.

And he does.

Because he loves us with a covenant love.

Verse 19, Hebrews 10, verse 19 says, So, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place.

Hebrews 10:19

How?

Because of the blood of Jesus.

Not because of anything we do, because of the blood of Jesus.

Okay, that's the first bit.

So, Satan, the fiery red dragon.

You don't get any marks for guessing who that is.

It's pretty obvious.

And Satan tried to kill Jesus as soon as he was born, as we've just read.

Herod killed all the firstborn sons because he was desperate to kill Jesus.

But you can see what's going on behind Herod.

There is Satan who is making him do that because he's desperate to kill Jesus and to stop God's plan.

But as we read about earlier on, God is in the control room of heaven.

Nothing is going to stop God's plan.

And that's as true today as it was 2,000 years ago.

God's plan will be fulfilled, and the enemy knows he is done for.

This is why there has been anti-Semitism for as long as the Jewish people have existed.

This is why empire after empire set their sights on Israel.

A tiny and seemingly inconsequential people.

It's because they are not inconsequential.

They are not insignificant.

They were right in the middle of God's plan to save humanity, and they still are today.

When we understand this, so much of what is happening in the Middle East begins to make sense.

Okay?

It's important we get that.

That's what the Bible says.

So the child is born.

And this child is the God's answer to humanity's plight.

No matter what Satan tries to do, he cannot thwart God's plans.

Hallelujah.

Verse 5, she gave birth to a son who was to rule all nations with an iron rod.

And this is a prophetic statement from the Old Testament, which was fulfilled later on in Revelation 19, verse 5, which says this.

Revelation 19:5

At the cross, Satan thought he had a great victory as Jesus was crucified and died.

Three days later, as Jesus rose from the dead, all his evil plans came to nothing.

And he had played into the perfect, righteous plan of God the Father.

Hallelujah.

Jesus is then taken to heaven and is now with Father God in that control room that we spoke about earlier.

This is the truth that Satan hates to hear.

Revelation 1, verse 17 says, Don't be afraid, I am the first and the last.

Revelation 1:17

I am the living one.

I died, but look, I am alive forevermore, and I hold the keys of death and hell.

That's Jesus.

And you know, the enemy would come and have us believe that he holds the keys to death and hell.

That's the lie, deception.

He is a deceiver from the beginning, the word says.

He's constantly twisting the truth and making it into a lie.

Jesus holds the key of death and hell.

Okay, that's the first part of Revelation 12.

We're gonna go in the second part, and we're just gonna go from verse 7.

Then there was war in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels.

And the dragon lost the battle, and he as his angels were forced out of heaven.

This great dragon, the serpent, the ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world, was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.

I'm just gonna stop there for a second.

I just want to encourage us just by this first bit of this little passage.

Satan wanted to be like God, he wanted to be worshipped like God, and he puts himself on the same level as God.

So it's like God and Satan, they're opposite, and that is a lie of the enemy.

They are not opposite, and how can you tell they're not this passage?

Look what happens.

He is defeated by Michael, the archangel, not by God, not by Jesus.

He's defeated by another angel.

And Jeff Thompson says this, and I love this.

When God wanted Satan dealt with, he didn't even get off his throne.

I love that.

He gave the assignment to Michael, and Michael prevailed.

God and Satan are not counterparts.

There is no scale of comparison that contain both God and Satan because God is so completely other, he is peerless.

Satan said, I will be like the most high.

But Michael's name means who is like God?

And the answer is no one.

I love that.

Who is like God?

No one.

You see, God's up here, Satan's down here, and yet in our minds, he elevates himself.

I am the same as God.

I have all the same powers and the same authority.

No, you don't.

You need to be declaring these things in your lives as Satan comes and attacks you.

You have to come against him with truth because he's a deceiver and he deceives us into thinking things that are not right.

You have to name it.

You have to say to him, listen, you're a deceiver.

What you're saying is not true.

But so often in our lives we don't, we take on what he tells us.

He comes and he says, You sinned yesterday so badly, you miserable, nasty little sinner.

God doesn't love you.

God's given up with you.

And he just plants little things in our minds.

You will never be good enough.

You need to come back to him and say, I know I'm never going to be good enough, but Jesus was good enough.

And that's where I stand is that Jesus is my righteousness.

It's not what I do, it's what Jesus did on the cross.

That's the truth.

And you need to come against him with truth all the time.

When God wanted Satan dealt with, he didn't even get off his throne.

I love that.

Brilliant.

It's a good book.

Okay.

The rest of these verses we're going to just carry on reading.

Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, It has come at last.

Salvation and power in the kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth, the one who accuses them before our God day and night.

And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.

And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who live in the heavens, rejoice.

But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing he has little time.

When the dragon realized that it had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

But she was given two wings, like those of a great eagle, so she could fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness.

There she would be cared for and protected from the dragon for time, times and half a time.

Then the dragon tried to drown the woman with a flood of water that flowed from his mouth, but the earth helped by her, opening its mouth and swallowing the river that gushed out from the mouth.

Of the dragon.

And the dragon dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children, all who keep God's commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus.

And the dragon took his stand on the shore beside the sea.

And then next week we go into Revelation 13.

The warning here is that things are going to get harder and not better in the second half of the tribulation.

Phil spoke about the first half last week.

And if you if you've missed a week, I really encourage you to go back and listen to the talks because they do follow on, and there are lots of bits that join together, as you can see from today.

So they're going to have to flee from Jerusalem at some point, which comes later on.

And Jerusalem is the epicenter of what is going to happen as time gets close, as we've already said.

Okay, important.

But as you can see from those verses, God is going to protect the woman, which is Israel.

He's going to protect them.

They may have to leave Jerusalem, they may have to go into the wilderness, but God will protect them.

But also, as well as Israel, we are in this as well.

We are going to be attacked as Christians.

You can see it already happening in society.

Already, if you're a Christian, your voice is diminished.

You're not allowed to wear crosses in places of work, and you're not allowed to pray for people and so forth.

It's just happening more and more and more.

And probably in this country it's not particularly in your face, whereas it is in other countries.

We know that people are losing their lives for Christ.

In countries around the world.

Things are going to get worse.

And that's why you always have to remember the truth.

That as things get worse, and you know, people say to me, just talking about life, they say, I don't know what the world's coming to.

It's a thing we say, isn't it?

Kind of we despair at what is going on in the world.

But you can know what the world is coming to.

Because Jesus has revealed it through John.

And that is that Jesus is in control.

No matter how bad things get, he is in control.

When Jesus made the declaration from the cross, it is finished.

That is exactly what he meant.

In Colossians, Paul tells us the impact of Jesus dying as the perfect sacrifice.

He says, You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

Then God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave all our sins.

He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Hallelujah.

In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

This is truth.

This is so, so important.

Jesus' death put an end to Satan's right to stand in the throne room of heaven and list out all the reasons why you and I deserve to be punished for our sins.

You know, it says in that first passage, he goes before God and accuses his people.

Think about that for a minute.

You sin, Satan goes before God and says, you know that person that says they're a Christian, they did this.

It accuses all the time.

But Jesus took all our sin and shame and nailed it to the cross once and for all time.

Satan's weapon of condemnation has been taken away.

His power has been limited.

He has no influence anymore in heaven, but continues to accuse and deceive on the earth amongst God's people.

He's declared war on Israel as God's chosen people, and it's declared war on all who have accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

But Christ has won, and sin and death are defeated.

Jesus' blood avails for you and me.

Hallelujah.

It stands in our place, and Satan's accusations come to nothing because of Jesus.

Don't listen to him, don't accept what he says.

He is a deceiver and accuser.

This is the truth, and this should be on your fridge if it isn't already.

Romans 8 verse 1.

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You're in Christ Jesus this morning.

There is no condemnation for you, even though the enemy will continually condemn you.

You have to come against him with truth.

This is the word of God.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Hallelujah.

And later on in Romans 8, Paul says this who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?

No one.

No one.

For God Himself has given us right standing with himself.

Who then will condemn us?

No one.

For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us.

And he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

Hallelujah.

In Revelation 12, John says how we can defeat the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of testimony.

So important.

We always come back to the blood of Jesus.

Even during our worship this morning, we were just saying, it's because of what you have done, Jesus.

Because you died for me, your blood was shed.

I can stand here in robes of righteousness.

You know, when someone gets saved, Claire's mum got saved a few weeks ago.

What is the first thing we said to her is go and tell somebody.

Go and speak it out.

Why do you do that?

You do that because it's a witness for you.

First of all, that you're saved, it's a witness for Jesus, and it's a witness against the enemy.

You're speaking out and you're hitting him where it hurts.

Because you're saying in that moment, I've come out of your kingdom and I've come into Jesus' kingdom.

And that's what he hates.

Because Jesus gives us the way back to God.

Jesus fulfills God's master plan, which he's had from the beginning of the world, it says.

From the beginning, before the foundation of the world, he has his plan.

Jesus fulfills it, and we're in it.

It's a wonderful gospel.

It is a wonderful gospel.

Hallelujah.

Speak it out.

Declare what God has done for you.

It's powerful.

We stand here because of the blood of Jesus, don't we?

And we sang before the throne of God this morning.

Uh I asked Susan to do it for us, and it was fantastic.

Listen to this verse.

When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, which he will do, by the way.

Okay?

He will do that.

When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free.

For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.

What a gospel we have.

It's all because of Jesus.

He looks at Jesus.

If you've watched The Chosen, you'll know that when the person took their lamb to be sacrificed, there's one particular um part of that where he takes the lamb and the lamb has got a limb, and he says to him, You can't use that lamb.

It has to be a perfect lamb.

You need to take it away.

So he does.

He takes the lamb away and he comes back with a perfect lamb, which is what is required.

But the point is this.

They don't look at the person bringing the lamb.

They look at the lamb.

Is the lamb perfect?

Yes, it is.

It can be sacrificed.

No, it isn't, it's rejected.

Jesus is the perfect lamb of God.

Who takes away the sin of the world.

The perfect lamb of God.

And when God looks at you, if you're in Christ, he sees the perfect Lamb of God.

And he says, My wrath is satisfied because of what Jesus did.

And you are free.

We need to live in that freedom day by day.

This is the truth we need to hold on to as things get harder and more difficult.

Jesus, however much I fail, you never failed.

Hallelujah.

Just to finish, Fillmore says this, and I thought this was really good.

He says, make no mistake, Satan is your bitter enemy, and he longs to devour you.

Don't ignore him, don't give ground to him, and don't play games with sin.

Instead, let your faith be your shield to deflect his accusations and get ready to take the fight into his own territory.

John tells us three times that he has been thrown down in defeat.

Use that knowledge to remind him he is a defeated foe.

Hallelujah.

That's the truth we need to live in day by day.

As he comes and accuses you, even this week, as he comes and condemns you, comes to try to deceive you, come against him with truth and see him flee.

You have the authority to do it.

Hallelujah.

Things are going to get difficult, things are going to get tough.

But the thing we always remember is Jesus is in control.

He is king of all the earth.

Hallelujah.

Okay, I'm done.

Shall we just stand?

Yeah, thank you, Neil.

That was great.

Could you put the words of that uh song that we sang on?

I don't know who's there.

Is that Claire or is that you?

I can't say that.

Is it somebody else?

So Lord, we stand before the throne of God.

We have a strong and perfect play because you are our great high priest, and your name is love.