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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good afternoon everybody. It's great to see everybody here tonight. If we can go and find our seats we'll go ahead and get started. Once everybody has found his seat, let's go ahead and find a hymnal and we'll turn to song number 232 and 32 song number 232 tell me the story of Jesus song number 232 song number 232 tell me the story of Jesus everybody sing it out together on the first tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever was heard tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed his birth glory to God in the highest peace and good tidings on earth tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever was heard fasting alone in the desert tell of the days that are past how for our sins he was tempted yet was not a minute last tell of the years of his labor tell of the sorrow before he was despised and afflicted homeless rejected tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever was heard tell of the cross where they nailed him writhing in anguish and pain tell of the grave where they laid him tell how he liveth again love in that story so tender clearer than ever I see stay let me weep while you whisper love plays a ransom for me tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever was heard great singing everybody let's all open up the service with a word of prayer Lord we love you and we just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church such a great church to gather together and and sing on you Lord we just ask that you fill this room with your spirit and bless this church in Jesus name Amen all right for our next song let's go to song number 103 song number 103 under his wings those who know it's singing out song number 103 song number 103 under his wings I sing it out together on the first and tempest are wild still I can trust him I know he will keep me he has redeemed me and I am his child under his wings under his wings who from his love can safely for refuge in sorrow how the heart yearning returns to his rest often Oh there I find comfort and there I am who from his love can safely under his wings oh what precious enjoyment there will I hide oh shelter protected no evil can harm me resting in Jesus I'm safe under his wings my soul shall abide, safely abide, forever. Good evening thanks so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church if you'd like a bulletin if you didn't get one already lift up your hand nice and high and hopefully our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin also we have on the front the memory verse that we're working on Proverbs 31 verse 20 and then we have our service times are so winning times there and then our regional times also church stats down below and then on the right we have the list of our expecting ladies we have a lot of ladies there to be in prayer for and then we like to go over our prayer list on Wednesday nights so I'm gonna quickly go over that we've been praying for Brother Hall for his leg to continue healing I've been praying for Miss Negara's health we've been praying for the Cooley stepdad's cancer treatments we've been praying for brother Oz his brother we've been praying for the names grandmother for her vision health and salvation we've been praying for the Carlson's mother Rebecca for her health also mrs. Miller asked for prayer for her friend Tamra the Goodwins are asking for prayer for job and the Spurgeons are asking for prayer for the father's health and then John Nichols is asking for prayer for a job also the weather's we were praying for Miss Emma good some good news I guess they're looking to go home from the hospital tomorrow so thank you so much for those who are praying for the weather's and Miss Emma that's pretty much all I have as far as prayer requests that are in the bulletin I'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family and we'll pray for those that are here thank you Heavenly Father for this evening and for this church service thank you so much for so many ladies are expecting and what a blessing that is I pray they be with these ladies through their pregnancy please help their children's development I pray that you'd give them an easy birth and give them a timely birth I pray that you would help also our church family that's struggling with illnesses or sickness struggling with health issues I pray if possible you would just give them just a miracle and speedy recovery please also just give them wisdom please help give them comfort during this tribulation and this difficulty please also just bless our church family that needs a job or needs a family member or friends who hear the gospel or needs favor I pray that you would just be with them I pray that you would also just be with our church family that's out sick that they could get back into church and that they would recover quickly and I pray they just help using our church to share the gospel light and that we would just continue to serve you in Jesus name we pray Amen on the back we know about our preaching class is going to continue on the 17th so if you would like to participate 2 p.m. on that Saturday also the congratulations to the Shelley family on the birth of Adeline May she was born on the 1228 a.m. on the 30th six pounds seven ounces and 19 inches long thank you so much yeah thank you they're doing great and it's really wonderful to have another baby girl thank you so much for all your prayers that's pretty much all I really have as far as announcements we'll go ahead and sing our third song one thing I did want to mention have you already mentioned the conference at Verity for their youth okay there is a it's not really our church specifically but very Baptist Church is having a youth conference again this this year it's gonna be in the spring and I know some people are already interested I think they're supposed to send us a poster we might get that I'll look up the details but if you are interested we'll probably have a combined sign-up sheet just so those people can collaborate with each other I know a couple people were asking but just to put that on the radar there is a youth rally youth conference is gonna be happening in the spring at Verity Baptist Church I'll make sure to get the details of all of that in the bulletin probably on Sunday and then we might even have a sign-up sheet just to put that on your radar otherwise we're gonna sing Psalm 139 if you get in your special handouts Psalm of the week Psalm 139 all right that was Psalm chapter 139 in the handout or in your King James Bible Psalm chapter 139 Psalm 139 everybody singing out together surely thou will slay the wicked surely thou will slay the wicked Oh God depart from me therefore ye bloody men depart from me therefore ye bloody men Oh Lord that hate me do not I hate them oh Lord that hate me and not I agree with those that rise up against me Oh they speak against me wickedly for they speak against me wickedly and my enemies take thy name in vain and my enemies take thy name in vain do not I hate them oh Lord that hate me do not I hate them oh Lord that hate me and am not I agree with those that rise up against me do not I hate them oh Lord that hate me I hate them with perfect hatred I hate them with perfect hatred I count them my enemies I count them my enemies do not I hate them oh Lord that hate me do not I hate them oh Lord that hate me and am not I agree with those that rise up against me do not I hate them oh Lord that hate me great singing everybody now as the offering plates are being passed around go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 12 that's Revelation chapter 12 you you you Revelation chapter 12 the Bible reads and there appeared a great wonder in heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars and she being with child cried travailing in birth and pained to be delivered and there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven it did cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days and there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not neither was their place found anymore in heaven and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceive it the whole world he was cast out into the earth that his angels were cast out with him and I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now was come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea for the devil has come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time and when the dragon saw that he was cast under the earth he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood and the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth and the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ let's bow our heads forward a prayer father God we thank you for revelation chapter 12 and for tonight's Bible study I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and able him to expound on this chapter to us Lord with clarity of mind and help us to draw connections and to learn as much as possible from the sermon tonight we love you and in Jesus name I pray in man so here in Revelation chapter 12 and one thing we kind of even noted in the previous chapter is sometimes with the Bible do is it will go back in time to a previous period and it'll start explaining events leading up to and to where we left off in the story so as to provide more context and really you'll even see Hollywood and movies sometimes emulate this style of the Bible where you're in the middle of a story and before they continue the story they kind of go back to a prior period to give a little bit more context before they push the story forward just so you can see everything from all the right angles and I believe that's exactly what Revelation chapter 12 does here again where we kind of go back to a previous period of time to build a context so that we can then push the narrative forward again and so you know one way to kind of even look at it is some people would say that the book of Revelation it's almost as if it was cut in half and you kind of have a pretty consistent chronology or a timeline of events in the first portion of Revelation and then it kind of starts over in Revelation chapter 12 and pushes forward and then even goes beyond where we left off in Revelation chapter number 11 that's another good way of looking at it but simply stating when we look here in Revelation chapter 12 something definitely changes as far as our timeline context when we were in Revelation chapter number 11 it kind of ended with all of Daniel's 70th week being completed we have essentially what would be leading us up to the millennial reign of Christ Christ's return the destruction of the wicked so when we get here in chapter 12 it's almost as if it just completely starts over completely changes gears for a moment so it says here in verse 1 and there appeared a great wonder in heaven so that also kind of gives you an indication you know he saw the conclusion of all these events and then now he's seeing some kind of another event or some kind of a new vision some kind of a new wonder while he's having these visions because the main context of Revelation hasn't started over what was the main context well in Revelation chapter 4 John was caught up into heaven and he's seeing all kinds of different visions and different things are playing out for him so this is just the next event the next vision that John is seeing now he sees a wonder in heaven what is this wonder a woman clothed with the Sun and the moon under feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars now when it comes to the Bible itself there is always a possibility where something could be interpreted many ways and they're all correct so I don't think that you could ever look at anything in the Bible and say there's only one application or one thing that's significant I think there can lots of times be many applications many things that are significant for the sake of this sermon though I'm gonna basically give you my interpretation of what many of these things are meaning and try to carry those through the text that does not mean there are other applications or other ways that these things could be looked at or interpreted but I believe that there is a major context or major way these things are being applied and that's what I want to focus in on is what the main aspect of this chapter is really trying to lay down we see a woman clothed with the Sun that's a unique phrasing what does that really look like I have no idea but I think that we can learn what the significance of that means okay and I'm not gonna go to every single verse I want you to go to a few verses with me but keep your finger here and go to Psalm 132 go to Psalm 132 first of all I'm just gonna kind of give you some answers I believe when it talks about the woman that is talking about mankind I want to just it just mankind in general okay and I could prove that in a lot of places in Scripture that that is a possible interpretation or something the Bible provides us for but I believe that it's very consistent when you understand this passage it kind of really cut rings true that the woman is consistently picturing just mankind in general we're not saying saved or unsaved tall short we're just saying everyone we're just saying man in general just man as a whole we're not even talking about that current time period we're talking about all the way from Adam and Eve to the last people that are ever born we're just saying all of mankind okay and specifically of course the main context would be mankind up to this point right men's that men that have already been born and they're on this earth now this woman is clothed with the Sun what is the Sun really just represent in general it represents light okay the Sun represents light if we were to look at its counterpart the moon it represents what the dark and we kind of have these two things contrasted light and dark Sun and moon these things are kind of opposites what is the Bible really emphasized when it talks about the Sun or light this is a picture of God's righteousness this is a picture of righteousness in general and how mankind is supposed to be what mankind is supposed to be clothed in righteousness they're supposed to be clothed in God's righteousness this is not necessarily saying this is always the case I'm not saying this is what is happening it's more of what should be happening that mankind should be clothed with God's righteousness and of course those who get saved they end up being clothed with God's righteousness he puts a robe of righteousness on them and that's essentially what makes us righteous is God putting righteousness on us but just generally speaking we as mankind we're supposed to work in the day we're supposed to live in the day we're supposed to be in the light we're supposed to be light I mean there's a lot of different references in the Bible that talk about this and so generally speaking mankind is supposed to be clothed with God's righteousness this is I believe the the picture here of Revelation chapter 12 verse 1 and if you look at Psalm 132 look at verse number 9 let thy priests be clothed with righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy so kind of a similar idea here is how the priests are supposed to be clothed with righteousness you know in the Old Testament the Old Testament priests were clothed with very specific garments they're supposed to be linen garments they're supposed to be very white now a linen garment is a little bit different than a woolen garment because a linen garment is made of a plant-based product it's not an animal-based product is a plant-based product plants often take a lot of work from man you're not going to just get a linen garment you have to then take the crop you have to you know bleach it and you have to tie it together and sew it together and do all these different things I mean basically to have a linen garment it takes a lot of man's effort whereas when we talk about an animal garment you just cut that thing off and slap it on okay so it definitely represents two different things and it really pictures you know man's work and effort and energy and it being white pictures of being righteous and it pictures the idea that the priests were supposed to be righteous that they're supposed to have works the Levites were there to work hard for God and they're supposed to do God's righteousness do God's works and God created man to do works God created man to do works of righteousness when he created Adam in the garden he didn't want him to sit around and play Xbox he wanted him to work he wanted him to tend the garden he wanted him to do some labor you know God gave us seven days and six of them are for laboring I mean that's a big majority of the time they're supposed to be here it's supposed to be laboring working Jesus Christ confident constantly referenced working putting his disciples to work he himself worked very hard and so God is a God that works God is a God that creates and works and does things and he wants us to do the same thing he wants us to be in the light go to Genesis chapter number four now let's contrast that what do we typically even associate with the moon would be darkness the fact that it's nighttime and what a mankind not necessarily the whole period of time but what is the vast majority of our time in the dark supposed to be sleeping I mean you know it's kind of when we're sleeping it's when we're supposed to take our rest when we're not really doing that much people who work in the night are often associated with those who are doing wicked things they're sending their doing evil oftentimes darkness represents they're not being light they're not being righteousness they're not being goodness involved in that particular work and so think about the most sinful activities that are going on in this world they're pretty much all done in the night time whether that be a casino whether that be fornication and prostitution whether that be drinking and going to bars these things are typically associated with what with the night time because they're works of darkness and the Bible tells us that we're not supposed to allow sin and darkness to rule over us but rather we are to rule over darkness and when we have this picture this picture of a woman close to the Sun but then notice that the moon was under what under feet what is that kind of symbolize that you've conquered something if something's under your foot showing that you're exerting power and authority over that look what it says in Genesis chapter four verse seventeen this is about Cain but it says in verse seventeen and Cain I don't know why I'm thinking of this verse it's just for seven I wrote seventeen and I was meaning to write seven verse seven if they'll do as well shout they'll not be accepted and if they'll do is not well sin lie at the door and under these shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him so according to the Bible we are not supposed to allow sin to rule over us we're supposed to rule over sin and I believe that's also pictured here in the idea of mankind is supposed to be clothed in righteousness clothed in the light and they're supposed to rule over what rule over the darkness rule over wickedness and the evil that's in there additionally this woman is then crowned with twelve stars go view with Isaiah sixty two for a second go to Isaiah sixty two now if we're thinking about mankind in general you know this this crown isn't the whole part of the woman it's just it's just a specific part of the woman right she has this crown twelve stars I think it's pretty easy for a lot of people to maybe recognize what that could be but I believe that pictures the nation of Israel and we have the twelve stars signified as being the twelve tribes of Israel this is similar to a prophecy given unto Joseph where he saw his mother and father being the son of the moon and then him and his brother being these twelve stars as it were and so we kind of have a picture even in the Old Testament of the twelve stars being the twelve tribes of Israel I believe it's the same thing and how Israel is supposed to be a crown of the woman what is the crown it's the high point it's the point of beauty it's the point of authority it's a lot of different aspects to a crown and that's what Israel is supposed to be Israel is supposed to be the crown of humanity it is supposed to be the authority of humanity is supposed to be the beauty of humanity is supposed to be every single aspect the best aspects of humanity is supposed to be the nation of Israel and this is God's plan for Israel it was his plan in the Old Testament is his plan in the New Testament and it's his plan in the millennial reign Israel is always to be the crown of humanity now I want to show you kind of a loose reference of this in the book of Isaiah chapter 62 look at verse number one for Zion's sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth and the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness and all kings thy glory and thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name thou shalt also be a crown of glory and the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God so when God's talking about Zion when he's talking about this nation of Israel and he's specifically referencing Jerusalem and Zion he's saying you're going to be like a crown and so I believe that this is kind of a loose parallel but it shows you the same concept of how Israel is to be this crown of humanity so if we lived in the Old Testament what God would truly want us to do is to migrate and travel to and join and be a part of the nation of Israel whether you were physically born in the nation of Israel or not you could sojourn and join the nation of Israel become part of their tribe and I believe that's what everyone should have done in the Old Testament God would have them travel to and join and be a part of the nation of Israel and of course you would then be circumcised physically you would then have to observe the Passover physically and in the New Testament God has the exact same plan but now it's a spiritual sojourn now you don't join a physical nation of Israel you join a spiritual nation of Israel by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and getting saved and that circumcision is a circumcision of the heart when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you get a new heart created in righteousness and you observe the Passover by putting your faith in the Passover lamb the Lord Jesus Christ and you get that blood applied to the doorpost of your heart and that's what makes you a citizen of the spiritual nation of Israel and you are the crown you are the glory of humanity and you are to be the authority of humanity on things spiritual we are that nation of Israel and there's coming a day in the millennial reign when there will be no longer a distinction between physical Israel and spiritual Israel but they will be one that in the millennial reign you will have all of Israel will be saved all Israel will be physically saved spiritually all of it we will be and we will be that crown to the humanity on the earth on the earth we will be that light to lighten the Gentiles we will be that light unto the rest of the world and Jesus Christ will literally rule and reign in Zion where the crown is at its forefront and so some people say oh you replacement theologists act like all the promises to Israel have been you know just disappeared or something no I didn't they were replaced that doesn't mean they went away I got them I replaced the Jew okay I replaced the physical Jew because I'm a spiritual Jew we didn't take the promises didn't go away the people rejected them and I got grafted in I got adopted in I got to be a blessing and come into this spiritual nation and so no longer am I you know a stranger I'm a citizen of the nation of Israel and you would say oh that's a New Testament doctrine it is but at the same time in the Old Testament I could have joined the nation of Israel I could have become a part of those people so there was never a time when you couldn't be a part of God's chosen people when you couldn't be a part of his nation and right now God's chosen people is a spiritual nation of believers and the Old Testament it was a group of spiritual believers that happened also live in Israel at that time and of course there's probably a handful of people outside of the nation of Israel that were still saved but they just weren't really doing much for God of course in the Old Testament those who were saved were a part of the nation of Israel and at that time there was always a group of people that were physical Israel who were not saved it was a mixed multitude it was a mixing of the two so when we look at this analogy I believe it makes sense to look at this as we have mankind supposed to be clothed in God's righteousness they're supposed to conquer over the darkness the crown of the woman is Israel and you know you could think of I'm not gonna go to this place in the Bible go back to Revelation chapter 12 but when we talk about Eve it says her specifically is the mother of all living so that's another reason why I believe mankind is then symbolized as a woman because we have a woman the female is kind of picture of mankind additionally when you talk about the group of people that's that's distinct the saved only they're considered what the bride of Christ so often when God talks about a cluster of humanity he uses it in a feminine word to kind of describe them right the woman or he may describe them as the bride so you kind of have that aspect that doesn't mean that it isn't a group of lots of men because it is but just as a as a whole we're kind of pictured as a woman in that sense and so we have this woman picturing mankind it says in verse number two it's going to talk about her giving birth verse two and she being with child cried travailing in birth and pain to be delivered so this this woman's gonna give birth notice she's in pain okay childbirth is pain I don't know if you need the Bible to tell you that or not but travailing and you know what look at what it says and she being with child cried there's nothing wrong with you ladies screaming while you're giving birth okay the Bible says it the Bible has it in fact it doesn't even need you don't even need permission you are gonna do it anyways okay but you men just realize it's okay they're screaming if the nurses are like calm down honey just be like back off okay she can cry all right it's in the Bible all right let me show you verse look at verse three and there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born so there's a woman that's going to give birth but then there's this other creature a red dragon and it has seven heads and ten horns and it's drawn a third part of the stars of heaven and it wants to devour this specific child so if we kind of continue with our analogy here we have the woman picturing mankind and and what does mankind actually deliver us it delivers us the Lord Jesus Christ who is not only the Son of God but he's also the Son of Man who's not only the root of David he's the offspring of David and so without mankind we wouldn't even have the Lord Jesus Christ mankind actually brings us the Lord Jesus Christ who hates the Lord Jesus Christ the devil who's pictured here as the red dragon and the red dragon wants to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ this is constantly the case there's many poise of the devil throughout the Bible and throughout the Bible's timeline to destroy Jesus to destroy the lineage of Jesus Christ when you read through the Kings and the Chronicles you'll notice that there's this constant theme of individuals trying to destroy that lineage that kingly lineage of David to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ being born if you could snuff out the lineage of King David well that's going to eliminate a lot of prophecy of the Bible how is the Lord Jesus Christ going to be the son of David if the lineage of David gets snuffed out but you know what God kept that lineage going all the way up to the Lord Jesus Christ to bring us the Lord Jesus Christ that's why it's so important when you look at Matthew chapter number one you look at Luke chapter number three it provides us genealogies showing us how the Lord Jesus Christ came from David specifically and how he is that righteous heir he is the rightful heir because we don't really have Kings today but an important aspect of a king is that he has the right lineage that he has to be from the lineage of the king that the king produces the next king in the next king in the next thing it's not someone that can just come out of nowhere and end up becoming the king no it has to come to the right lineage and the same as with the Lord Jesus Christ that he is coming to the lineage of King David so he's the rightful heir of that throne whereas the devil tries to kill them through Atholiah and he tries to kill them through King Herod King Herod tries to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ when he's born in the manger in Bethlehem and so you have constant times where this has been the case but of course he failed the red dragon is not successful in destroying I also think when we talk about this it's not so much just one event I think this is just talking about just generally we're really doing is we're just taking the whole narrative of the Bible and we're just symbolizing it in this one illustration like the whole symbol of the entire Bible is simply just illustrated in this one example Cain killed Abel that is also a picture of the devil trying to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ and him coming to this earth but God provided another seed Seth and so we still got the Lord Jesus Christ okay so you have to understand that the devil's attempt from the very beginning has always been to snuff out this child being delivered from the woman whether that be Abel whether that be Josiah whether that be the Lord Jesus Christ himself of course that's the ultimate goal but if he could stop it at any point he would have and so I don't think that this this this picture is just that one example I think it's all of them I think it's just showing these are the this is the big picture of the Bible the devil's constantly trying to destroy babies and he was trying to destroy specifically the lineage to give us the Lord Jesus Christ that's why abortion is so satanic I mean there's there's nothing godly about destroying babies and destroying the lineage and the loins the devil is the one that hates the commandment that God gave I mean what was the first commandment that God gave on the man and woman in the Bible in Genesis chapter number one is to be fruitful and multiply as commandment number one in the Bible that is the first thing you read as instructions to men now of course we understand in Genesis chapter two when we roll back the clock there was technically a few things that God said unto Adam before he gave that specific commandment so chronologically it's not the first one but is the first one as far as reading the Bible is the first one is what's laid out in Scripture it's the first one that we recognize as reading the Bible and what does the devil want to do he wants to destroy mankind he hates being fruitful he hates the multiplication he hates man the devil hates mankind he hates the woman and this is just ringing through you know we talk about him he says he has seven heads and ten horns I believe that's the culmination of the devil's efforts because we kind of have this seventh Kingdom being the seventh Babylonian type Kingdom these ten horns are the pictures of the ten kings talking about this end times fulfillment and how their ultimate goal is going to be to destroy the woman to destroy mankind to destroy every person born and unborn because the devil just hates mankind okay you have to understand who the devil really is he just hates every single person now it says in verse five and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne so in this analogy we're definitely talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who was risen from the dead caught up into the clouds he went back up into the clouds and he's in the throne so here's the problem for the red dragon here's the problem for the devil he can't kill Jesus because he's in heaven he can't kill Jesus because he already did and he already conquered him right the devil did kill the Lord Jesus Christ but unfortunately here's the problem he rose again and the devil has no power anymore death hath no more dominion over him is what the Bible says so he can't die ever again so the devil's already been conquered he's already been defeated that's why the Bible says we're already victorious we've already won the game's already over okay and this child was caught up to his throne notice that the baby the baby it's God's throne because Jesus is God and it's his throne verse 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three square days so I believe it is giving this symbol and I believe this symbol kind of just encompasses from Genesis chapter 1 all the way up to Revelation chapter 11 and everything that we've been talking about and it's kind of just bringing us it just bringing us this narrative bringing us this context so that we understand kind of what's happening now the 1260 days that's what that means here with 1203 score score means 20 so 3 times 20 is 60 so we have a thousand 260 days this is mentioned a couple different ways in the Bible I believe it's talking about that first half of Daniel's 70th week which is symbolized as 42 months or a time times and half a time or 1260 days okay however you want to look at it's all talking about the same period if you really look at Daniel's 70th week you pretty much have two periods of 42 months or 1260 days you have 1260 days 1260 days and then you just have an extra 30 tagged in at that end point but this first half is kind of what's just being alluded to now as we keep developing Revelation chapter number 12 that's also what we've been talking about in Revelation chapter number 4 to 11 that was that 1260 days that we were talking about okay so the Bible it's like it told us all these things are gonna happen in that period and then now we're getting this analogy to just kind of get an idea of what's the essence of this what is what's really kind of happening behind the scenes if we could put on spiritual glasses and see why all this chaos and what's really happening it's really just this red dragon trying to destroy this woman meaning what that the devil just wants to destroy mankind the devil hates man so I don't know if you remember Revelation chapters 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 what was happening millions and millions of people are dying blood I mean we're talking about wars and famine and pestilence and this wasn't from God this is coming from the devil this is like the devil's wrath on mankind because he hates mankind riling people up getting people to hate each other getting all the nations to go against each other this is just the devil's mastermind at trying to destroy humanity by killing itself by destroying itself by taking his minions and allowing them to just rain terror on the earth ok now look at verse number seven there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon the dragon fought and his angels and prevail not neither was their place found any more in heaven and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceive of the whole world he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him now verse 9 is a really important verse because it kind of helps us in one verse tie all these different labels together and we understand who these people are number one the great dragon is the same person as the old serpent now I like that it used that word old because who are we talking about we're talking about the old we're talking about that first creature mentioned in Genesis the serpent was subtle more subtle than any other beast of the field that old serpent the devil and he symbolized as a few different beasts in the scriptures a dragon a serpent he's called the devil and he's Satan and you know it's important because some of these terms can be applied to other individuals there's more than one devil in the Bible but this is the devil right just kind of like we're sons of God but then there's the Son of God so we kind of have to understand the distinction between these individuals also you know I think what's interesting this is a side note but every creature we really have in the Bible apart from things like the cherubim and seraphim things like that things that are described in earthly terms we all see right like when we talked about serpent this isn't like some mythical creature or beast that we've never heard of before this is something that's a common regular day creature if you live in Australia you'll find all kinds of serpents okay in Texas you can find rattlesnakes and all kinds of different serpents that exist so to me when we talk about all the different creatures mentioned in the Bible and specifically even revelation you have a lion a bear you have different creatures that we all are very familiar with but it also mentions a dragon that makes me believe that dragons are a real beast that has really existed and if you actually look up a lot of information on dragon history it appears that there has been some creatures called dragons in the past there's a many cities and towns in Europe that are named after the famous dragon that was slain whether you look at ancient history is regarding Chinese history I mean their calendar they have a calendar where they have it based on all these different animals and they have different years it'll be like year of the rat it's like well that's a great year right I guess you know I guess you call that year of the Jew right because of the tunnels but year year they have year of all these everything well they have year of the dragon too well why would the Chinese also have the same pattern where they have all these animals that they use to denote certain timelines and they just have this one random thing that doesn't really exist or maybe just like the Bible it really is a creature that does exist there really is such a thing as a dragon there's a lot of literature there's a lot of history there's a lot of artifacts there's a lot of pottery there's a lot of drawing there's all kinds of crazy thing there's people that believe there's dragons that exist today I'm not necessarily saying I believe that I don't know I'm not going to say that it's not possible because it is possible but I do believe that at least at some point in human history there has been dragons these are real beasts real creatures and the Bible never seems to indicate that the dragon is this mythical creature that doesn't exist but rather the Bible always has spirit or carnal truths to expound spiritual truths so I believe this dragon must have been an actual beast you have creatures mentioned the Bible like Leviathan which is kind of a water type serpent you have all kinds of different mentions of a fiery flying dragon in this in the texture in the text or in the scripture so I believe that there really was dragons and that's a picture of the devil why the dragon is kind of a an ominous beast it's one that breathes fire it's one that devours things it's kind of pictured as evil it's pictured as just a destructive force and I think that that's why the devil is symbolized as a dragon and the serpent shows the aspect of the devil's subtlety the serpent is one that could be right next to you and you don't even notice it because it's so slight so subtle and the dragon shows the destructive nature of the devil the devil is also pictured as even a lion because he's kind of the king of the jungle it's a fierce beast he devours as well so the devil is often pictured as beasts that devour or subtle just to give us some idea of his characteristics his attitude the way he operates notice that he's cast out of heaven so I would say this based on this text and we're going to read a little bit further down it seems as if the devil still has access to heaven even right now okay and that's kind of contrary to what looney tunes may tell you because they say the devil's in hell right now with a pitchfork but you know that that's not really mentioned in the bible ever the bible talks about constantly the devil transforming himself as an angel of light the bible in the book of jobe talks about him presenting himself before the lord in heaven the bible talks about the devil tempting jesus christ in the wilderness the bible talks about the devil entering judas iscariot and causing him to do all kinds of evil task and the bible talks about the devil in the future inhabiting the body of the anti-christ so the devil is very much alive and well according to the scripture he's a roaring lion going about seeking who he may devour he's walking to and fro throughout all the earth i mean that's what the bible describes the devil as is something that's actually transporting himself around the earth and obviously he has supernatural ability as far as transportation because when he's tempting jesus christ he's able to just basically appear in all kinds of different locations very quickly very subtly and so you know we don't know exactly what the devil is doing right now or where he's at but he's doing something he's doing some kind of works he's doing some kind of mischief trying to cause some to fall and apparently even at times he's in heaven doing work but he's gonna eventually be cast out and he he's fighting you know it's also interesting like we would think of the devil as being a spirit i mean i don't think anything would really you know he's kind of like a spiritual being he's this angelic being obviously even these type of spiritual angelic beings can touch stuff because how in the world do you fight or get cast out if there's nothing to touch right so apparently there's something to handle or to touch or whatever michael's grabbing the devil and throwing him down out of heaven okay they're having some kind of a real fight that's also it's just interesting that there's angels literally fighting like there's really spiritual battles happening that we can't even see and you know a lot of times we even affect those spiritual battles through our prayer you know daniel when he prays it actually affects how god allows the angels to go or to be sent or angels to do the work that they have so sometimes we may not realize the effectiveness or the power of our prayers but we need to realize there's a real spiritual battle raging constantly and that our prayers have an impact on that spiritual battle that is raging because the only reason that the devil is even allowed to do the things he's doing is because god is allowing him or permitting him and sometimes we need to ask we need to ask god to bind satan or to cast him out of certain areas or to not give him permission or access to certain things and i'm not trying to get charismatic on you or anything like that but i but you know there is some layers of truth to that that god does restrict the devil and does give him certain limitations he only allowed him to do certain things to jobe at certain times he'd put a hedge about him he only allows the devil to go into heaven for certain periods of time then he's cast out so obviously the devil can be bound in some ways and be restricted in some ways and so we need to have faith and pray to the lord to you know fight in this spiritual battle now it also says in verse number 10 it says and i heard a loud voice saying in heaven now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our god and the power of his christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our god day and night so you you kind of wonder like what is the devil doing in heaven well what the devil does best is falsely accusing people and of course we see this in jobe and i keep mentioning that but it kind of helps us see a little bit what's going on what does the devil constantly do in heaven he's falsely accusing jobe telling the lord like hey if you curse him then he'll stop serving you you know if you do something bad to jobe then he won't serve you the only reason jobe's serving you is because you've made him kenneth copeland because he's got all the planes and the houses and the cars and he's just living the high life you know if you took that away from jobe if jobe had to suffer a little bit well then he wouldn't really serve you and you know that should be the test for all of us is will you still be faithful to god will you still pray to god even when your life isn't going well and i know that you know no one will ever compete with jobe but we can still have our own struggles we can have our own difficulties and it's not to undermine the fact that you have real pain real suffering because you do now i appreciate sometimes people try to help you like well at least your life's not like jobe and it's like no one's ever is okay but at the same time you know we use that to motivate ourselves to say like hey it could be worse so let me just pick myself up a little bit but also you should realize sometimes you are going to just experience suffering sometimes life isn't going to be the best sometimes you are going to have difficulty sometimes you are going to have pain sometimes you are going to have loss i mean losing 10 children i just i can't even imagine i don't even have 10 children i only have six i can't even imagine losing one of them i really couldn't imagine losing six of them and then even worse if i had four other ones that i loved and my heart was dear to that i had to lose on top of that i just can't even imagine the pain and the sorrow and the suffering of thinking about them and all the memories you had with them and having lost them but you know what jobe was still someone who served god he didn't curse god he still loved the lord the lord gives the lord takes away blessed be the name of the lord that was jobe's attitude and that should be our attitude no matter what's going on in our lives you know we could lose a job we could lose a house we could lose a kid we could lose a spouse we could lose our health we could lose all kinds of things but you know what blessed be the name of the lord should be our attitude and the devil what he wants to do is he wants to be up there in heaven and whispering and saying you know what pastor shelly won't serve you joe won't serve you steadfast won't serve give them some protesters and they'll quit it's like where are the protesters you know and of course what the devil wants to do is he constantly wants to accuse and he constantly wants to and of course he really likes it when we do screw up when we do sin or we do make mistakes and then he gets up there and be like did you see what he did see what pastor jelly did you see what they did or whatever he didn't couldn't do that with joe he was really struck out but but then you know what i like i have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous and he's like oh put that on my account but you know it's just it just annoys all of all the people that are already dead in heaven just like why is this devil still up here you know still accusing people and still saying these type of things it's annoying right notice what it says which accused them before our god day and night just day and night the devil is just accusing apparently verse 11 and they overcame them by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they love not their lives and death that's an important verse here why is it that we can overcome the accusations of the devil even if they are true it's because we have the blood of the lamb and you know what saves us specifically what saves us is the word of our testimony we're saved by god's blood we're saved by the blood of jesus christ but that blood is applied to our account because we believed on the lord jesus christ and it's our testimony for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved i believe everyone that got saved called in the name of the lord and that is their testimony and they're saved by their testimony and they overcame by their testimony and their testimony isn't i repented of my sins the testimony isn't i gave up sin or i cleaned up my life or look at my works their testimony is the blood of the lamb and that's why they overcame keep your finger go to first john chapter five the bible is really clear what it means to be an overcomer it's one who believes on the lord jesus christ and that he is their testimony that our testimony is christ that our testimony is the gospel of the lord jesus christ some people say oh you think you can tell whether or not someone's saved yeah based on their testimony why do you think you're going to heaven well i'm a good guy go to church i'll read the bible well guess what that testimony doesn't overcome that this is the wrong testimony your hinduism is the wrong testimony you know allah's the wrong god buddy you have the wrong savior your works are not going to get you into heaven they're going to say but we prophesied in thy name and we've done many wonderful works wrong testimony i've never i never knew you first john chapter number five verse four says this for whatsoever is born of god overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith you know the word even means specifically so it's saying you know what overcame the world specifically our faith specifically our faith verse five who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that jesus is the son of god so notice it's our faith that saves us it's believing in jesus christ and putting our trust in jesus christ that saves us okay that's one of the essences of first john is how we're saved by putting faith in jesus christ go over to second corinthians chapter number four go to second corinthians chapter four but think about this whole context that we've been talking about in revelation chapter 12 it's a woman pitted against the red dragon what does the red dragon represent it represents the devil what does the woman represent mankind the devil wants mankind to be destroyed the devil hates mankind the entire theme of the bible is that we all have one enemy and that enemy is the devil all of mankind are on the same team and we're all pitted against the devil the devil hates every single person red yellow black and white they're all hated in his sight and something you have to understand is that we really fight against one enemy and that enemy is the devil the enemy of this world is satan that old serpent who beguiled eve and he wants to destroy every person you know i think that sometimes we can get a little bit narcissistic as christians and we think like oh satan just wants to attack me or satan's after me but think about this resist the devil and he'll flee from you think about this how many people in the new testament are possessed with demons that are saved zero you know who's possessed with devils unsaved people because the devil loves to torture and torment and hurt and destroy men these people many people that have had demons in their lives never even got saved many of the people in the bible they of course jesus delivered them from the demons at that point in time but there's been many people that have been tortured and horrible things have happened to them as a result of demons and they haven't got saved because the devil hates that person too it's not like the devil just hates save people he doesn't just hate save people he hates people the devil hates every single person and wants them all to be destroyed and so he has all these different methods and tools to destroy mankind like hinduism like the islam like judaism like atheism like the college campus all kinds of catholicism all kinds of fake christianity that is designed to destroy mankind cause them to go to hell because the devil wants everyone to go to hell with them and it's a very satanic philosophy but it is in the devil's heart for everyone to have to go to hell with them and for everyone to be destroyed and look what the bible says in second corinthians chapter four verse three but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost and whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of christ who is the image of god should shine onto them so notice that the contrast is the gospel versus the god of this world who's blinding the minds of them which believe not so who is it that's causing people to not get saved it's the devil it's the devil and his minions that are the ministers of of wickedness and evil and of darkness and they want people to be in darkness and they want people to die and go to hell why is it that we have the dark ages because the ministers of the devil were running the catholic church and they were trying to hide the gospel as much as possible and of course hiding in implying sight since they're the ones with the bible they were the ones with the scripture in that part of the world and they want it to be in darkness they don't want people to know what the gospel light is they don't want people to preaching the gospel that's why they killed men like william tendale for translating the bible that's why the catholic church killed william tendale for believing in salvation by faith why because it's the same devil that was getting into the hearts of those catholic ministers to fulfill his will of destroying mankind because the devil cares about only one thing people being destroyed and going to hell every negative thing that happens in this world is because of that when you say like why does why is there censorship online it's because the gospel is really effective online why i mean i was reading a book this week i've been helping with the homeschool this week since my wife is trying to recover from our sixth child and we were reading through american history and we were in the 1920s and 1920s it's it's kind of an interesting time in america it's a time of great prosperity because it's similar to the world war ii explosion because it was right after world war one so after a war time especially when you win there's often kind of this like high where you've been kicked into gear your economy's you know booming people are coming back from the military a lot of people have died so there's a lot of free infrastructure to take advantage of there's just a lot of things that kind of just make the economy and the environment go well plus there's a lot of inventions that were made through war time that now the general populace gets to so during this time a lot of people had extra free time it's a coffin called the roaring 20s a lot of sin prevailed in this time too because of the abundance of idleness and because of the fullness of bread and everything else but another aspect of the 20s that's pretty interesting in regards to you know this gospel is the radio the radio became kind of a big deal and you know who was some of the first pioneers and some of the main people using the radio were gospel preachers preaching the gospel for the first time on the radio where people could be reached with the gospel but here's the thing when's the last time they invited me to go on the radio the radio kind of got conquered you know and censored and taken over why so the gospel would stop being spread everywhere on the radio and then it's like you have tv and hey people are preaching the gospel and getting people saved on tv and then it's like that gets censored heavily and kind of shut down and then it's like you have the internet and youtube and that starts going out and it's like this pioneer world and a lot of people get reached and then it starts getting shut down it's for one reason because the gospel is reaching lots and lots of people and then the devil has to get his clutches on these technologies and these devices because he's got to shut that thing down because his one goal in life is for everyone to die and go to hell every single every single thing that the devil does is to try and accomplish this goal of blinding people why is it that so many churches have been corrupted and there's so many fake preachers because the devil wants to shut down the gospel and you know many churches that exist today were probably good when they started or even had good men that started them and it's just now bad fruit because the devil was able to come in and attack and destroy and to scatter and just do his work over time and so it's important for new churches and churches like ours to thrive and to grow and to keep doing the works because we're the only ones fighting the devil you know it's not the alex jones and info wars out there that's really accomplishing anything because what does it matter if people stop eating crickets but still go to hell what is it if people don't get the covid vaccine but still go to go to hell what is it if they become a giga chad but they still go to hell you know there's all this this truth movement but it's not the truth because there's only one truth jesus christ is the truth and so that's the only thing that really matters in this world and look i'm not against just general truths or fighting and stuff but you know they they want to make it this like war against uh we're warring against the the new world order and these global elites and blah blah blah you know all those individuals are just pawns of the devil and the devil has one goal to destroy the gospel message and cause people to die and the only thing that matters is preaching the gospel and getting people saved so if your efforts and your goals aren't getting people saved and reaching people with the gospel then it's in vain it's not really what we're supposed to be doing here and that's what overcomes is that testimony and we have to realize that this is a serious battle a serious war when you go back to revelation chapter number 12 go back there there's a lot of other verses i could share with you on this point but you know we're supposed to help people and take them out of the snare of the devil by preaching the gospel when we go and knock on doors we're trying to get them out of the catholic snare out of the pentecostal snare out of the the jehovah's witness snare that's that one's that one's a death trap you know we're trying to get them out of the atheist snare the college snare whatever it is that's out there they're all just snares of the devil tools of the devil to destroy mankind and he's always been wanting to do it and you know the reason why we overcome is because of the gospel but here's another thing it says and this is important in verse 11 notice it has a semicolon after testimony and then it says and so what overcomes is the gospel but also and they love not their lives unto death you don't have to die a martyr's death to go to heaven you don't have to die a martyr's death to be saved the bible doesn't teach that but of the people that are going to be willing to sacrifice their lives who are those individuals it's people who are saved the people are saved are the ones that will be willing to not love their lives even unto death and this is probably the most important point of this entire chapter for us today is that we need to be christians that are so spiritual and so spiritually minded that we would even not love our lives that we would be willing to even lay them down for the gospel's sake because it's going to come a day and i don't know if this will happen in a lifetime or not but there will be a group of christians that have to love not their lives unto the death they have to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the gospel message and for christ and you know if that's our generation then we need to be willing to make that kind of a commitment and that kind of a sacrifice and it's it's not easy you know i think it's important you say like why would i come to church on a wednesday night well if you can't come to church on wednesday night you won't be the people that love not your life under the death you realize that and it's like if you're gonna win some great competition you got to do a lot of practicing before you get there if you're going to run a marathon 26 miles you can't say like i started running last week but i'll be good by tomorrow to run a 20 you know you got to run a lot and have a lot of hard practices and really endure if you're going to be capable of running that full marathon just like if you want to be that christian at the end that's willing to lay down his life for the gospel's sake you were the christian that was willing to go to church on wednesday night i mean if you can't even go to church on wednesday night you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to be that person you're like i don't even go to church but i would die for christ okay peter hey why don't you quit fishing and then get converted and start coming to church and then we'll talk about how you're willing to lay down your life peter right there's a lot of peters that aren't converted yet there's a lot of peters that are like i'll die with you i'm ready to die right now but i'm not willing to go to church you're fooling yourself you're deceiving yourself because i'm not deceived and the rest of us probably aren't deceived and we know that when the times get tough you really won't be going i mean if you can't go to church now how are you going to go to church when it's under the threat of death you know there are people that live in this world that to go to church they are putting their life at risk if they live in certain countries maybe in china or other parts of the world just by meeting and having church or just by even taking a chance sometimes to approach a stranger and to give them the gospel they're putting their life on the line where they could be put in prison or go to jail if they approach the wrong person if they approach an informant i mean for us we're not that word we knock on the door and they say go to hell and slam the door and we're just like next door but think about approaching just a random person you don't know and thinking like if i approach this person and they're a feminist or a leftist or whatever and i start giving them the gospel they're going to take my name down and report me to the government and i could go to jail i could never see my family again and you know i think chinese prison i've heard is like really great like it's really nice you know and they never see you again i've heard it's some of the worst torture you could ever imagine you won't even go soul winning when it's free with zero threat of persecution but you're going to do it when it's actually with a threat of death or the person i mean you know you're just fooling yourself we need to be willing to do these things when it's easy and when it's free and we need to exercise our muscles to just already be in that pattern so that when it actually gets tough we're willing to just do it anyways we're willing to just press towards the mark and we're willing to to make the ultimate sacrifices because yeah is wednesday night church a sacrifice yeah it is is it is it giving your life no it's not even close it's not even anything you know similar and some people like why why do you get a church well you know maybe you go to church on wednesday night because your children will be that next generation and if you wanted your children to be those brave christians if you want to be looking down from heaven and be that great cloud of witnesses watching your children actually stand tall in those end times you are the ones that are dragging them to church on wednesday night well i don't drag my kids on church wednesday night we just watch looney tunes well you know what they're probably watching looney tunes during the end times too i mean you know i'm sorry that you're just so selfish and you don't care about your family and your children and the decisions that you're making but you know what as for me and my house we will serve the lord now look at this verse 12 therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them whoa to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the devil's come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath a short time it's kind of it's kind of interesting it's like hey everybody in heaven's like sweet we don't have to see the devil anymore but sucks for y'all it's like oh man it's rough for you guys though because this guy is coming hard verse 13 and when the devil saw that he was cast on the earth he persecuted the woman who's brought forth the man child and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent again because there's a lot of just symbolism here we can't necessarily know everything i'm just my personal understanding of this is that he's basically alluding to how the devil's kicked out of heaven probably right at the beginning of this 70th week and this time times and half a time is that 1260 days as previously mentioned and that's that first five seals that are mentioned in the book of revelation that we've already read through about this is where we have the guy on the white horse going forth to conquer this is where we have the war and we have the famine and the pestilence and the death and the ultimate destruction which is a picture of what the devil persecuting the woman it's not him persecuting christians it's him persecuting mankind it's him hating mankind him destroying mankind causing the whole world to try and destroy itself and to kill itself the devil would love nothing more than for us to all destroy each other and it seems like in some way mankind is preserved through the wilderness now i don't know what that means i kind of lean towards probably just literal that um in some ways because of war because of famine people escaping the mega population centers maybe going out on the rural countrysides are going to experience less what war famine pestilence death these type of things and apparently the god is able to sustain them for three and a half years which is is a big deal because that's multiple growing seasons crop seasons animal life cycle seasons to last three and a half years out in the countryside in the wilderness all these different areas you know it's intense and who knows what the world's going to be like it could be that major cities are like a no-go zone during the end times where it's just it's just a slaughter machine in a lot of the major you know cities in the world now again when you kind of get the big picture it seems like babylon is not having to go through this whatever babylon is is babylon all of america is it a section of america i don't know perhaps those in america aren't even really having experience this because during world war ii millions and millions of people are being destroyed the cities are being destroyed just mass chaos mass casualty horrible things are happening everywhere and people in america are just living their best life now okay women are playing baseball it's weird okay all right so you know i don't know what's going to happen are they going to draft the vast majority of american men and send them over to be slaughtered and killed and destroyed in war and is it going to be a another holy war where it's basically mankind against islam and they're going to march through europe and basically just europe's going to become a wasteland i don't know those things are very likely but just generally speaking if you're in the path of major war and army and whatever i'm not going to judge you if you flee into the wilderness the bible is even saying that these people are fleeing in the wilderness sometimes that makes sense i think that that could be a interpretation of this particular verse or scripture you know if you live in america nothing's really happening i don't think you should be hiding in the farm but obviously if there's death and destruction you know there's nothing wrong with fleeing into the next city to preach the gospel or that's a common message verse 15 says this and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause it to be carried away of the flood and the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth and the dragon was wrought with a woman went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of god and have the testimony of jesus christ so not only do we have this three and a half year period where he's persecuting the woman trying to destroy it but she's escaped in the wilderness apparently then the devil tries to kill her with a flood now again there's a lot of different options here and different things that people interpret this as just my personal opinion again i kind of lean towards this is very likely being a literal flood why well it makes sense for a lot of reasons to me number one if the devil's trying to kill mankind that's the goal he's trying to do it through death and war and famine but if everybody's kind of escaped to the countryside and all these different you know areas well it's gonna be hard to take troops to all those areas you can't necessarily take plague if they're growing their own crops and eating food off of the land so what would be the last option for the devil to basically destroy mankind well what if he floods the entire earth again you can't really escape that but there's something really special of why mankind can't die because of that it's all the way back to genesis isn't it where god already flooded the entire earth and then put a rainbow in the sky promising that he would never allow the earth to ever be flooded like that ever again now i don't think that god puts rainbows in the sky for no reason i don't think that god did that and there's no threat of a global flood ever again wouldn't that be a little bit weird if it's like there's literally no threat of a global flood and there's no possibility of ever happening again but i'm just going to tell you it's not going to happen either you know just like what if god said there's never going to be a time where green you know martians come and destroy mankind you're like but there are no green martians so that's kind of that's kind of a vain promise of something that's never going to happen right but what if god made that promise because in the end times the devil's going to literally try to destroy mankind with an actual flood then it would make that really significant wouldn't it and wouldn't it be interesting also that what is the symbol it's the rainbow and of course what is the devil love to use to mock god is the rainbow symbol he's constantly mocking god with the rainbow symbol and with his minions the sodomites and all these freaks marching up and down with rainbows trying to mock god and of course that's always what the devil tries to do is he tries to do what god says not going to happen god says hey we're never going to flood the earth he's like i'm going to flood the earth it's like no you're going to fail now i could be wrong and i'm totally willing to say that this is not the right interpretation maybe the flood is in reference to just this this period of time where you have these armies and people coming through and it's just a flood of men like it's a it's kind of a metaphor for armies or it's a metaphor for destruction you know that's a very possible interpretation but why i continue to think it's a flood is what i already said but then also notice that it says in verse number 16 and the earth helped the woman if you symbolize flood or make flood a metaphor now you have to also make the earth a metaphor what is the earth a metaphor for i have no idea but it does seem very easy to just say the earth is the earth and it does seem likely that the devil could try something to literally flood the earth and god causes some supernatural way for the earth to drink in that water and cause mankind not to die through the flood so i think that it's very possible that those two things are literal okay again this is a chapter filled with sim symbolic meanings the woman's not a real woman it symbols mankind right we get a lot of these things are symbols but a lot of these things are still also literal the fact that the satan is cast out of heaven is literal there's really a literal heaven and satan's really a really creature and he's really going to be cast out of heaven he was really fighting with michael so like a lot of these things are still literal okay so it's a mixture it's kind of difficult to discern but it also makes sense that the devil think about it he spent three and a half years trying to kill mankind through war and famine failed then he sends a flood on the earth to try and kill mankind whatever that is fails so then what does he do what's his next strategy what is his option well he's robbed a woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of god and the testimony of jesus christ well you know what if i can't kill every person then i'll just try to kill christians so then he gets focused in on the christians and this is where we get that fifth seal of him basically dying the anti-christ dying coming back to life and causing everyone to take a mark in his right hand or his forehead and he's going to go after those who don't worship the image of the beast which is going to for sure be christians we're not going to do that and so he's going to try and make war with us go to daniel chapter seven go to daniel chapter number seven i'm almost finished this evening but really interesting chapter a lot of symbolism it's really encompassed in just one idea the devil hates mankind and he wants to kill every person but he also wants to then focus it in on christians at one pacific time and period and this is what the bible says unfortunately about that daniel chapter seven look at verse 19 then i would know the truth of the fourth beast which was diverse from all the others exceeding dreadful whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass which devoured breaking pieces and stamped the residue with his feet and of the 10 horns that were in his head and of the other which came up and before whom three fell even meaning specifically of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spake very great things whose look was more stout than his fellow so we're talking about a beast again and the specific beast has again 10 horns that's familiar isn't it reminds us of this other beast that had the 10 horns picturing the 10 kings says in verse 21 and i beheld and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them so here's here's the sad part of the bible here's the bitter part of the bible is that in the fifth seal after not killing all of mankind the anti-christ and the devil will make war with christians and he's going to slaughter a lot of christians it also kind of gives me the idea or the impression that a lot of christians a lot of us that are fable will probably survive that first three and a half years because now it's kind of like symbolizing how now we're going to start losing like we're kind of like winning and kind of doing fine but then it just really honed in and man christians might are just going to have a big slaughtering here right at the very end but it's a short space it's about a 75 day and not everyone that's christian will die some will die some will have to love not their lives under the death but you know some will also be raptured some will also endure under the end and the bible says those who endured in the end were those who are counted worthy to have endured under the end i want to go to one more place go to luke chapter nine go to luke chapter nine you know that makes me feel like the people who went to wednesday night church are the more likely people to get raptured i come to wednesday night church so i can get raptured and they're like what you preach rivers or something it's like is there a special portal over the church no no but but isn't this consistent with what the bible teaches that hey pray that you're worthy to escape all these things of course it makes sense to me that god would want to preserve those who are faithful those who loved him those who are serving the ones that are just sitting home watching looney tunes you know there's no reason to preserve them anyways if if you think about a lot of the parables in the bible they're often illustrated through fruit and if you're looking at your fruit tree and you notice some of the fruit on the tree some fruit is not really going to ever mature and ever end up becoming ripe enough for you to eat you can just tell it's flawed or there's some issue with it what would you want to do is you want to prune that you want to take that fruit off so it's not sucking any extra nutrients but there could be a couple other pieces of fruit on there where they're doing great and they're going to become great but they just need a little extra time and so you're going to want to just baby them so they can get that full maturation and the full ripening and then you're going to pluck them off of that tree and you're going to handle them with care the ones that were right you're just picking them up and throwing them on the ground i believe this is a symbol of what god is going to do with christians in the end times the christians that are the rotten fruit not doing much he's going to pick them off the tree and they're going to be trodden underfoot of men on the ground and the ones that were producing he's going to let them just sit on that vine all the way to the end and then he's going to delicately pluck them off he's going to delicately carry them up into heaven and they're going to be the ones who are raptured that's what i believe look at luke chapter 9 verse 23 and he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it will you be the christian who decides to lose his life for the gospel's sake and those who try to preserve their lives will be destroyed you know this is also in context of lot's wife she wanted to preserve things and she had to look back and you know she was focused on this world and so she ends up turning into a pillar of salt whereas us we we should not be looking back we should not be caring about the things of this world we should be focused on the future focused on the spiritual focused on serving god laying down our lives denying ourselves we're the ones that keep the commandments of jesus christ you know that's what it said at the end of that passage is it said that ones who he's going after are the ones who keep the commandments of jesus christ not the ones who forsake the commandments not the ones who don't go to church and don't serve god and don't try to clean up their lives you know god created us here to do works we're supposed to be clothed with righteousness folks okay and so it's is there's a significance to serving god going to church reading the bible praying having a godly family i mean it's going to play a big part of the end times whether it's us our children grandchildren or whomever i don't know that but i do know this that the people that try to keep their lives are going to lose them and the people that lose their lives are the ones that are going to save them let's go to prayer thank you heavenly father so much for giving us so much wisdom from the bible thank you for giving us your righteousness and an opportunity to work and serve you thank you for giving us the truth so we could know who the real enemy is out there i pray that we would actually have love in our hearts towards the lost into this dying world that we'd love the woman and that we would go out there and minister and preach the gospel and try to get as many people saved and taken out of the snare of the devil and i pray that as we look to the future whenever these things come to pass that we would be encouraged and emboldened and you would strengthen our faith and you would help us to not love our lives but rather to love the gospel and that whether it be us or children or grandchildren or whomever that they would be willing to lay down their lives and that they would be willing to be faithful martyrs if need be and in jesus name we pray amen all right in closing let's go song number 105 song number 105 all that thrills my soul song number 105 song number 105 all that thrills my soul is jesus everybody's singing out together on the first who can share the heart like jesus by his presence all divine true and tender pure and precious oh how blessed to call him mine all that thrills my soul is jesus he is more than life to me and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed lord i see love christ so freely given grace of god beyond degree mercy higher than the heavens deeper than the deepest sea all that thrills my soul is jesus he is more than life to me and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed lord i see what a wonderful redemption never can a mortal know how my sin the red light crimson can be wider than the snow all that kills my soul is jesus he is more than life to me and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed lord i see everybody singing on the floor every need his hands are flying every good in him i see on his strength divine relying he is all in all to me all that kills my soul is jesus he is more than life to me and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed lord i see by the crystal flowing river with the ransoms i will see and forever and forever praise and glorify the king all that kills my soul is jesus he is more than life to me and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed lord i see great singing everybody you are all dismissed