There are some new folks, but remember if you bring somebody, then both you and the
other person will get a prize, will get an award for that.
And we said we were going to do something else.
Do you remember?
If you turned in your response card at the end, we were going to do two things with that.
Well, three things actually.
On the back, there were some prayer requests, and so those prayer requests have been prayed
for and will continue to be prayed for.
And in just a moment, if anybody had any questions, we're going to respond to a question.
And Jason's going to pass out tonight's response cards.
So you can just have that, but that will be for at the very end.
And if you have any questions or prayer requests, you can write those on the back.
And then as we get to the end and a song is played, you can respond to that.
And so before we have prayer and get going, there was a question that was turned in, and
the question says, is the pact for the future significant?
That's what the question was.
Is the pact for the future significant?
So first of all, we've got to figure out what the pact for the future is.
The pact for the future is a document, an agreement that's recently been agreed to by
the majority of the United Nations.
You can look this up online.
It's about a 42, 48-page document, and I think about 150 of the nations of the United Nations
have agreed that this is what they want to do.
Now in this pact for the future, there's a bunch of different things.
It talks about peace in our world.
That's a good thing.
We want to have peace.
And it talks about human rights for different individuals and different groups.
So that's a positive thing.
And then it talks about pollution and the environment and climate change and different
things like that.
And it's tackling, this document is about tackling a lot of these different issues,
these global issues that impact different nations.
And so is that significant?
So if you were just to read this document, if I'm just reading it from an unknowing perspective,
I would say this is a great document.
Yes, we want peace.
Yes, people need to have human rights.
Yes, there should be less pollution in the world.
And it seems like a really good thing.
And even within this pact for the future, it makes comments and says this is in part
of the United Nations 75th anniversary.
So that means the United Nations have been around for at least 75 years.
And so while those things seem good as they're written down, they haven't been accomplished
yet.
There's still war in the world.
There's still nations that don't give human rights to different groups of individuals.
There's still too much pollution in the world and different things like that.
And so yes, those are good things.
But is it accomplishable politically?
I would have my doubts just from that.
But what about biblically?
Is it significant biblically or prophetically?
There's a verse in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that says, I
got to find it here now, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Where is this verse that I was going to read?
It says, and I'm not finding the verse still.
I'm going to have to look it up.
It's the one that says when people say peace and safety.
Am I just missing that one?
Okay, 1 Thessalonians, I'm in the wrong one.
1 Thessalonians chapter 5, that's where it is.
1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 3.
I was thinking it was 3 verse 5 and I said 2.
But 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 3.
It says, we'll go back to verse 1.
It says, but concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I
should write to you.
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the
night.
We're going to talk about the second coming of Jesus tomorrow night.
We're going to talk about that.
And then it says in verse 3, for when they say peace and safety, that's kind of what
that pact for the future is talking about, peace and safety and human rights and all
these different things.
When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains
upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape.
But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day, the day of Christ's coming,
should not overtake you as a thief.
Therefore, verse 6, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
Just like we talked about last night, there's a lot of different signs of the times and
they're becoming more intense and more frequent as we come down to the end of the prophecy.
We are getting closer and closer to that day when Jesus comes.
And we are reminded that as that happens, it's not about a government that's going to protect
us, that's going to keep us safe.
It's not about the United Nations.
Our hope is in Jesus, that new kingdom that's going to be set up.
And so that pact for the future, it sounds like a really good thing.
It could be a good thing.
But like those that wanted to combine the nations, when we looked last night and it
said they shall not cleave one to another, it sounds pretty, but it's not going to impact.
It's not going to make a difference the way that the second coming of Jesus will make
an impact.
And so if you have any questions, write those on the back of that card that was just handed
out and we'll try to answer them tomorrow.
And I always say that a legitimate answer is, I don't know, but that's a great question.
I'll find out the answer for that as I investigate and study.
But let's bow our heads for a prayer and then we'll dive into tonight's topic.
Dear God, we thank you so much for bringing us here tonight.
Lord, we thank you just for the hope that we can have in Bible prophecy, that we can
look to you even when our world seems to be falling apart, even when it seems like it's
not going the way that it should, we can keep our faith and our trust in you.
Just guide and bless us tonight.
In your name we pray, amen.
So here on night two, our topic is Bible prophecies, greatest battle, or revelations, apocalyptic
battle.
You can go back to 1994 and there was a small country in Africa called Rwanda and a great
controversy, a great battle was brewing in Rwanda.
For decades and decades, two different groups of people, two different tribes, the Hutus
and the Tutsis had lived in Rwanda and they had gotten along.
They had learned to live with each other.
They had begun to go to school together, go to church together, go to the market together,
play soccer together and enjoy each other, to coexist peacefully.
But one terrible day in 1994, the president, who was a Hutu, got on his plane and the plane
took off and shortly after the plane took off, a missile came from the ground and shot
down the plane and it was destroyed and the president was killed, the president was assassinated
and no one knew who had done this.
No one knew what had happened.
But the government, the Hutu tribe, they immediately began to blame the Tutsis and so they wanted
to get revenge.
They wanted to seek out and destroy their rivals.
And so the government, the Hutus, began to call the rival tribe, they began to call them
enemies of the state.
They began to call them vermin.
They began to call them cockroaches and not just call them names, but they wanted those
cockroaches exterminated.
And so gangs of people, after the sun went down, would arm themselves with clubs or with
machetes and they would go from village to village, from house to house and they would
find those of the other tribe and they would kill the men, they would rape the women, they
would chop them to bits, chop them to pieces and wipe them out and to kill them and in
one hundred days, eight hundred thousand people in Rwanda died in one hundred days.
There was only eight million people in the country.
So almost one out of eight people were massacred, were killed.
And everywhere you turned, everywhere you looked, people's lives were lost.
It was one of the worst conflicts to ever hit the African soil.
And while this was happening, the United Nations didn't do anything.
That's why these documents, it's like, well, they sound good, but are they going to be
accomplished or anything?
The United States didn't step in and do anything.
This bloodshed, this tragedy was happening and no one seemed to care.
Just eight years later, in the year 2002, I happened to be in Rwanda.
That's a picture of me with a little bit more hair, a few less pounds there and I was doing
a seminar much like this, except it was a little bit different because it was outside,
it was in a soccer stadium and there was about three thousand people there hearing the gospel
preached each night.
But as I spent three or four weeks in Rwanda, people showed me around different parts of
the country and as we went around, they would point and say, okay, up on that hill, that's
where my father was massacred.
Or down this valley, you can see that little church, that's where my cousin is buried back
behind there.
Or this town, this is where my sister died.
And then you would meet many people who would be missing a hand or missing a limb as they
showed the scars and they showed the results of that genocide and those machete wounds.
And everyone that I met was...
But Revelation, Bible prophecy that we're going to dive into tonight talks about another
conflict, it talks about another controversy that everyone is affected by and it's far
worse than the Rwandan genocide and it surpasses any battle, any war that takes place on this
earth.
And so as we dive into this story, it's a controversy, it's a conflict that sometimes
people talk about the battle between good and evil, the battle between Christ and Satan.
Because we're going to see that the Bible tells us that it was Satan who first brought
sin onto our planet, into planet earth and that Satan has been working hard to pull people
away from Jesus.
And Jesus has been doing everything he can to pull people away from Satan and so there's
this conflict, there's this battle that goes back and forth and we're going to see that
the battlefield is earth, is planet earth and not just planet earth but it is our hearts
and it is our minds as we are making a choice each and every day which side we are going
to be on.
And so as we look at this we're going to examine tonight how did this great controversy begin,
how did sin come into our world that causes all this heartache and this pain, is there
a solution for this pain and this heartache?
And we're going to see that Revelation gives us some answers but as we begin we're going
to look at Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1.
We're going to kind of do just a quick survey through Revelation and then we're going to
settle into Revelation 12 for a few minutes.
But Revelation 1, the very book begins with the theme of the book.
It says the revelation of Jesus Christ and so this prophetic book is a book about Jesus
Christ and you can go just a few verses later to verse 5 and it says about Jesus the faithful
witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth.
And then it goes on and says to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own
blood to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
This book is telling us about Jesus.
In verse 8 Jesus is called the Alpha and the Omega.
Those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the A and the Z, the beginning
and the end.
In a chapter or two later we see Jesus walking in the candlesticks of the heavenly sanctuary.
In chapter 14 we see him on the throne.
It says I looked and behold a white cloud and on the cloud sat one like the son of man.
Revelation 14, 14 goes on and says having on his head a golden crown and in his hand
a sharp sickle.
This is a picture of Jesus' second coming.
We're going quickly here through Revelation.
We see Jesus standing in the midst of the great multitude, those who are saved and welcomed
into heaven.
In chapter 19 we see Jesus riding on a white horse as a conquering king.
And then finally the last two chapters of the book give us a beautiful picture of the
glories of heaven.
If you want to be cheered up in this dark world just spend some time tonight and read
Revelation 21 and 22.
This beautiful picture of heaven illuminated the glory of God.
And the book ends almost the last verse with a promise.
The Bible says in Revelation 22, 12, I am coming quickly, the words of Jesus.
And yet we see in this world, even with this beautiful picture of Jesus, we see a conflict.
We see a controversy taking place.
So turn over to Revelation chapter 12 now.
We're going to look at several verses here in Revelation 12.
And then we're going to go to the Old Testament and explore this same situation.
So in Revelation 12, starting in verse 7, the Bible says, Revelation 12 and verse 7,
it says, And war broke out, where?
War broke out in heaven.
Imagine that, war is happening in heaven.
And it goes on, it says, Michael and his angels fought the dragon, and the dragon and his
angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
So that great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old who is called the devil, and Satan,
who deceives the whole world, he was cast to where?
To the earth.
And so this war begins in heaven, and then Satan is cast out, and he's cast to earth,
and his angels are cast out with him.
And so we need to pause right here and figure out what is happening.
As we see here in Revelation chapter 12, something that could be a bit surprising and fascinating,
that the devil was at one point was in the glories of heaven.
Satan was once a faithful angel in the courts of heaven.
He was there with God, with Jesus, but somehow at some point, Satan lost his love for his
creator.
He began to turn away from God, and he didn't do it alone, but he began to plant these ideas
of doubt, these thoughts of rebellion, plant them in the minds of other angels.
Maybe some things like, you know, is God really a God of love?
Maybe God's way is not the best way for us angels to be living.
Maybe there's something else that God is keeping back for us.
Maybe we don't need to follow his laws and his principles.
And Satan began to plant these seeds of doubt into the minds of the angels until eventually
a full-scale rebellion, a war happened, and a portion of the angels sided with Satan and
tried to take over the throne of God.
And Revelation, as we just saw, tells us that God had no choice but to expel, to throw out
Satan.
And so Satan, once an angel of glory, became a fallen angel.
And where did he fall to?
He fell to earth.
And so then we see that this fallen angel, believe it or not, wants to instill that same
idea of rebellion onto our planet here, that maybe God really isn't a God of love.
Maybe God is not really, you know, all-knowing.
Maybe God's ways, God's rules, God's laws, maybe they aren't the best.
And so we see that our world, as we've fallen into this, we're full of, you know, tragedies
and heartache and so many different things that are part of this situation because of
this battle that started in heaven.
Now, how did this battle play out?
Well, Revelation is not the only book that talks about this.
There's at least two other prophets which give us some insight into this situation.
So we're going to go to the Old Testament now.
We're going to go to the book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah.
So kind of towards the end of the Old Testament.
So it's after the book of Psalms, which is kind of right in the middle.
And we're going to go to Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah chapter 14, because God gave the prophet
Isaiah a window into this controversy.
So Isaiah chapter 14, and we're going to start in verse 12, Isaiah 14 and verse 12.
The Bible says, How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.
Now what does Lucifer mean?
Lightbearer or my little footnote here says Daystar.
And so that is a name of Lucifer.
That is the name of Satan before he was cast out, that he was one of the glorious angels
of heaven next to the throne of God.
He was a lightbearer.
And it says, How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, O lightbearer, O Daystar, son of
the morning, how you were cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations.
Unfortunately, this lightbearer began to have, some people refer to it as eye problems.
Now he didn't need glasses, he didn't need contacts as sometimes we do.
But notice these next verses and how many times the pronoun I is used.
It goes on here and says, For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will be like the Most High.
Lucifer, Satan wanted to not just be close to God, he wanted to be God.
He wanted to be like the Most High.
He wanted to be in the throne of God.
This glorious, beautiful, mighty angel decided that the perfect love of God was not enough
and he wanted something more.
He wanted to take the place of God.
And so Lucifer, this fallen being, begins to lead this rebellion against his creator.
He wanted to be God.
It's a very sad story when you think about it because when he rebelled, he was not alone.
He was cast out of the perfect place of heaven along with all of the angels that decided
to follow him.
And he was cast out to where?
To earth.
And so he brings that same attitude, that same rebellion to our planet because he wants
to convince us that we can be like God.
We can take the place of God.
We don't need to follow God's principles or God's commandments.
And you might say, oh, I would never do that.
I would never do what Lucifer does.
And we may not use those words, but have we ever used the same excuse to God?
God, I know what your word says.
I know what the Bible says, but I don't want to do that right now.
Or I know what your commandments say, but that's really not convenient for me to live
my life that way.
Or I know what you ask of me, but I really just want to control my own life.
I want to make my own decisions.
I want to do my own thing.
And in a small way, when we do that, we're saying that, you know what, I know just as
much as God does, that I'm kind of a little God, that I don't need God's instruction.
I don't need God's guidance because I can make that decision for myself.
And that's following this example that Lucifer convinced those other angels to do.
But Isaiah is not the only Old Testament prophet that gives us a glimpse into this picture.
If you go towards the back of the Bible, just three or four more books, you're going to
find the book of Ezekiel.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and then there's a little book, and then Ezekiel.
So we're going to go to Ezekiel chapter 28.
And we're going to see another Old Testament prophet that is seeing this same incident
and it's going to help us to answer this question, how did Lucifer make this decision?
Ezekiel chapter 28.
We're going to pick up the story in verse 12.
It says verse 14 there, but in verse 12 it says, you were the seal of perfection, full
of wisdom and perfect and beauty.
Ezekiel 28 and verse 12.
And then we skip down to verse 14 and it says, you were the anointed cherub who covers.
A cherub is a mighty angel in heaven.
So this Lucifer here, God is talking to Lucifer.
You were a mighty angel.
And he goes on and says, I established you.
You were on the holy mountain of God.
This is talking about heaven.
You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones.
You were perfect in all of your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was
found in you.
So how was Lucifer created?
Was he flawed?
No, he was perfect in all of his ways until suddenly somehow this sinfulness, this iniquity
was found in him.
It goes on and says, by the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within
and you sinned.
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God.
And so this Lucifer created perfect, created perfect in all of his ways until this iniquity
was found from within.
This is important for us to understand.
We need to recognize that God did not create the devil.
God created an angel who was perfect, who was loyal, but this angel used his freedom
of choice to choose to go a different direction, that chose to do something else.
And this evil, this wickedness was found within him.
And so that leads us to another question about God.
Does God know the future?
You think God knows the future?
Does God know the end from the beginning?
I think the Bible tells us that he does.
And so that leads to the question, if God does know the future, then why did he create
Lucifer?
If Lucifer was going to turn, he was going to become the rotten apple, why would God
create him to begin with?
And I think the answer comes down to a concept that we can refer to as free will, free will,
the freedom to live our life, to make a choice.
You see, God did not create angels as robots.
God does not create us as humans.
We are not robots.
You know, a robot, you program it and it does beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Sorry, that's not a good robot sound.
Jason's laughing at me over here.
A robot just does what it is programmed to do.
Can a robot love?
No, you can only love by choice.
A love relationship requires you to choose to love someone.
And if you have the capability to choose to love someone, the flip side of that says you
have the capability to choose to not love someone.
And that's how we fall in love.
That's what love is all about, when you can choose to love someone and sometimes you choose
not to love someone.
We are not robots.
Sometimes it might be nice if our kids were robots, you know.
You could hit the button, plug a new chip in and hit the reboot button and suddenly
they're like, good morning, mother.
My bed is made.
My homework is done.
Thank you for the perfect omelet that you have made for breakfast.
And I'm ready for school.
That's a robot.
Having children, I see some children in here.
Children are sometimes messy.
Sometimes they're forgetful.
Sometimes they're belligerent, just like we all are.
But that's what makes us human, that we have the choice to love someone.
And that's a danger because there's also the choice to not love someone.
I have a little robot vacuum at home.
Maybe some of you have one too.
You hit the button and it vacuums the floor.
That vacuum does not love me.
I do not love that vacuum because often I find it somewhere stuck under the couch.
It's got the phone charger dragging around.
It's stuck in the bathroom and the battery's died because it closed the door and it got
stuck there all day.
My dog certainly does not love that little robot vacuum.
It just does what it's programmed to do.
That's not a love relationship.
A love relationship requires that freedom to choose to love, but that also is the danger
of choosing not to love.
And so God created us with the innate ability to choose.
We call it liberty.
There's citizens of this world and many different countries who would love to have the liberty
to make a choice to do something.
Our founding fathers of our country, they said that's an inalienable right that we
have liberty to make choices, to choose to do something and then to choose to not do
something.
And so as God created us, he created us and he created Lucifer with free will.
So that could lead to another question.
Okay, I understand that.
God gave everybody a choice, but why didn't he hit the backspace button, hit the delete
button when Lucifer messed up?
Why didn't he just, you know, that heavenly lightning bolt that wipe him out, erase him
from the universe?
Why didn't he just make that happen?
Why didn't he just make it so that he wouldn't be around anymore?
I think there's two reasons we can look at.
One is fear.
God does not want people to be afraid of him.
To be in a loving relationship, it has to be a choice.
We have to choose to love someone.
Imagine the scene where Lucifer is talking to the other heavenly angels and he's telling
them, oh, you know, I've got a better solution than God.
God's ways are not the best.
God is not fair.
God is not loving and all those commandments, forget those.
And then the next day the angels are like, hey, have you seen Lucifer?
Oh, did you see that bright light yesterday?
Yeah, Lucifer's, he's not around anymore.
Those other angels would, whoa, okay.
Well, I don't know, maybe God's way is the best way, but I don't know.
I'm not going to cross that line again.
And so there would be a fear that would be involved.
But in the New Testament, 1 John 4, 18, for instance, it says perfect love casts out fear.
If we're going to be loving God, it can't be about fear.
A healthy relationship is not based on fear.
If there's a relationship on this earth and it's based on fear, at best we would call
that a dysfunctional relationship.
At worst we would call it an abusive relationship if it was based on fear.
Love relationships cannot have fear based at all.
And so that's one reason why God couldn't do that.
And the second is because God is fair.
God doesn't want people to fear him, but also God is fair.
If Satan is claiming that God's ways are not accurate, that God's ways are not loving,
that God's ways are not the best, how could anybody know that?
Those angels, that universe, they'd only experienced that perfect loving situation with God.
They wouldn't have anything to compare that to.
And so to be fair, God had to allow that to play out just a little bit.
Lucifer, I'm going to give you an opportunity.
I'm going to give you a chance.
I'm going to kick you out of heaven, but I'm going to send you somewhere.
And if those people let you, I'm going to allow your program, your experiment to be
played out there so that all the angels, so that all the universe can know once and for
all which way is the best way.
And then when it's all said and done, the universe can say, okay, this is the way that
I want to follow.
And so Adam and Eve had a choice about who they wanted to follow, who they wanted to
listen to.
And unfortunately, they made the choice to listen to that voice of Lucifer instead of
the voice of God.
And now several thousand years later here on this planet, I think that we can see as
we're in the midst of this experiment, and I guarantee the rest of the universe can see
that this is not the best way, that God has a better method, God has a better way of running
the government.
And so this is the great controversy, this is the great battle that Revelation is all
about.
And sometimes we may think, you know, God is really just not fair.
Have you ever seen someone and, you know, the good things happen to the bad people,
but you know somebody who's such a sweet person, such a good person, and they're the ones that
end up with cancer or the car accident or whatever it happens to be.
And we would say, why, God, do you allow such bad things to happen to such good people?
And we can look back and say, well, if God stopped every evil thing in this planet from
ever happening, we would never get a true picture of what that method of sin, that way
of sin is really all about.
And we would never see just how much we truly and desperately need Jesus in our life.
And so even though there's so many tragedies and they break the heart of God, God does
not always stop them.
He allows them so that we can see how much we need Jesus in our life.
But he had given a safety switch.
Adam and Eve had to choose, they had to invite Satan to be with them, to allow his program
to take place.
And unfortunately, that's exactly what happened.
And so that battlefield moved.
It moved from heaven.
There was war in heaven.
And then that battlefield moved to this planet, moved to earth, starting with Adam and Eve
and has since come down to each one of our own hearts and our own minds.
We started in Revelation, the very last book.
We looked at some Old Testament prophets.
But let's go now to Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, because we need to see
how this situation came from the glories of heaven, how it came to this earth.
So we're going to go to Genesis chapter 3.
Chapters 1 and 2 talk about the creation of this world by God as he spoke things into
existence.
But chapter 3 happens still in the Garden of Eden, but we see this controversy coming
to earth.
So we're going to pick up the story in Genesis 3 and verse 1.
It says, now the serpent, who's the serpent?
What do we see in Revelation 12?
There was a serpent, there was a dragon, also called Satan or Lucifer.
So it's all tied in here.
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made.
And he, the serpent, the talking serpent, said to the woman, has God indeed said, You
shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall
not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.
Now what's going on here?
Was God clear?
Was there any mistake?
He said it back in chapter 2.
There was one particular tree, Don't eat from it or you will die.
Now in verse 4 it goes on and says, Then the serpent said to the woman, the very first
lie here, You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your
eyes will be opened and you will be like God.
And here's how they're like God, knowing good and evil.
They were created not to know evil, they were created to know only the goodness and the
love of God.
But Satan is telling them here, Oh, you're going to be like God.
You're going to have that same lie from Isaiah, that same lie from Revelation.
You're going to be like God, you're going to know good and you're going to know evil.
And it goes on and says, So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, that she took of its fruit
and ate.
And she also gave to her husband with her and he ate.
And so here we see a serpent here in the midst of the garden.
And he's here at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
This is the one tree that God had told Adam and Eve not to eat from.
Was there anything different about this tree?
I don't think so.
I don't think it looked different.
I don't think it smelled different.
I think the only thing that's different about it is God said, don't eat it.
And notice that that is where the serpent was.
The serpent was on the very tree that God had said to stay away from.
So if Adam and Eve had simply stayed away from that tree that God had said not to eat,
guess what?
That plan would not have worked out for Satan because they wouldn't have been there to be
tempted.
They wouldn't have been able to be tempted to eat from this one tree that God said not
to eat from.
All they had to do is stay away from it.
And yet they went right there where God had said not to go.
And then we see Satan telling this lie.
You will not surely die.
You see every time that God has something that is true, Satan has something that is
a lie.
For every truth that God has, the devil has an error, has a counterfeit.
And we're going to see that as we go on from night to night as we continue studying Revelation
that for every good thing that God has, Satan wants to take that away.
Satan wants to ruin that for us.
He wants to try to feed us a counterfeit.
And so Eve talks to this serpent.
She makes that mistake.
And she listens to his words and she tries to argue with him.
She tries to convince him to do something else.
But she falls for this line.
God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened.
You're going to have special knowledge.
You're going to be like God.
Look at me, I'm a talking snake.
You're going to have special powers.
And it says that she saw that it was something good to eat.
It was desirable.
And she took that fruit and she ate it.
And then it says she went on and she took some to her husband.
And her husband ate it as well.
And that is how they gave Lucifer, they gave Satan permission to begin his reign of terror,
we could say, on this earth.
They gave him permission to come in and show the universe what his way of ruling was all
about.
And that is what has led to heartache and what has led to so much suffering in our world
today because since then we are all born with a tendency to sin.
We are more likely to do wrong than we are to do right in many days.
And it's like a cancer growing within us.
We have a tendency to follow after Satan.
You see it with, sorry, Caleb, with young people again sometimes.
We don't have to teach children to be selfish.
I see several parents here.
You didn't have to teach your child to be selfish, to want to hoard the toys.
They do that naturally.
You have to teach your child to share.
I didn't have to teach my daughter Peyton to hold her little blue stuffed animal that
was named Blue and punch her brother if he tried to take it.
I didn't have to tell Brandon to his little yellow bear that he would hold that and not
share that with anybody.
That comes naturally.
We have to teach them, no, these toys are for everybody.
You can share your Legos with someone else.
It's okay.
Your friend can play with your Legos too.
We teach people not to fight.
And it's not just kids.
We have to teach our fellow employees, our neighbors how to get along, how not to fight
because we have a tendency towards evil.
And from this moment in the Garden of Eden, there's been two sides to this conflict.
There's been a side that's following after the devil and Satan and the dragon.
And then there's been a side that's following after Jesus.
And the very first gospel promise is in Genesis 3.15, Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, the
very first gospel promise here.
It says, I will pit enmity, I will pit conflict between you, between the dragon, between the
serpent and the woman, and between your seed, between those that are following the serpent
and those that are following God.
And then it says, he, the descendant of the woman, would bruise your head, snake, and
snake, you're going to bruise his heel.
Now which is worse, a foot wound or a head wound?
A head wound.
You can, if you get a foot wound, you might limp around a little bit, but you can survive.
But a head wound can lead to death.
And so this is the story of the gospel right here, that when Jesus comes, this descendant
of the woman is born, he's going to step on the head of the snake, Satan, and he's going
to be wounded for it, but Satan is going to be wiped out.
Satan is going to be defeated.
And from this moment in the Garden of Eden, we see these two sides, because in that moment,
God clothes Adam and Eve as they recognize that they're naked before each other.
And so an animal dies, there's a sacrifice that takes place, the first of all of those
sacrifices that point down towards Jesus.
And just a few pages later in Scripture, you see these two sides coming at head with each
other.
And there's so many that are on the wicked side that God says, I've got to start over.
And so with Noah and others, they build a massive boat, an ark.
And how many people get on that ark?
Do you remember?
There's only eight people that get on the ark.
There was room for so many more, but only eight got on.
But even after that flood kind of restarted things, immediately though, that sin continued
to rear up its head.
And just a chapter or two later, the people are trying to protect themselves from God,
and they're wanting to make sure that if God does anything like that again, that they can
save themselves.
And it says in Genesis 11 verse 9, therefore its name, this tower that they built, is called
Babel or Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.
And it was from this location where they built this tower of Babel or Tower of Babel that
that kingdom became known as Babylon.
And it became a kingdom that was steeped in man-made religion, people wanting to save
themselves, just like that Tower of Babel.
And last night, if you were here, we looked at this image and we saw all the different
kingdoms and how that system of man-made religion went through not just Babylon, but it continued
down through all of these political entities as well, through Persia and Greece and Rome.
This idea that man could save themselves.
And then as we come to the book of Revelation, we see this story being played out, because
in Revelation 12, right back where we started, just a few verses before where we started,
it's talking about a woman which represents God's people, and in this case, this is God's
people down through the ages, and that promised Messiah is about to come, about to be born.
And it says in Revelation 12, 4, the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give
birth.
This is, the Messiah is about to be born.
And then notice what it says, to devour her child as soon as it was born.
The Messiah had come to be born, but the dragon, Satan, wanted to wipe out the Messiah before
he could complete his mission.
As we've already seen, this dragon represents Satan.
And in Revelation 12, Satan is working through one of these kingdoms, he's working through
these legs of iron, he's working through pagan Rome to try to destroy Jesus.
You remember the nativity story, right?
When Jesus was born, what happened to the little children in Bethlehem?
They were killed because they wanted to wipe out baby Jesus, they wanted to destroy baby
Jesus and Mary and Joseph had to flee into exile to Egypt.
And then as he returned later and grew up, it was the Roman soldiers who led him down
the Via della Rosa, led him up to Golgotha as he laid down his life on the cross.
The mission of the Messiah was to bring peace and to bring healing and to bless those who
were sick, to bless the little children as he laid down his life on the cross.
But the dragon wanted to wipe that out, wanted to destroy Jesus.
And it says in Revelation 13, 2, the dragon gave him, gave this beast, this is the last
day beast that we're going to talk about on a future night, the dragon gave him his power,
his throne, and his great authority.
And so we see that there's these two sides throughout Scripture.
And we have to choose which side are we going to be on?
Are we going to be on this side of God's people, this side of the woman?
Because in Revelation 12 we see a situation here, Revelation 12 verse, excuse me, Revelation
14 verse 6.
It says, Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and
people.
It goes on saying, Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come.
And then it says, Worship him, worship him, the creator, worship him who made the heavens
and the earth and the seas and the springs of water.
So we're supposed to worship God.
We're called to worship God as our creator.
But we're warned about something because there's two sides in this conflict.
Verse 9, it says, The third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone
worships, this is the warning, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark
on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.
So we have a choice to make.
We have a dilemma.
Are we going to worship God as our creator?
Are we going to worship that beast power, worship that one who is, we're warned against?
Well, we have an option.
We have a choice.
But let me show you real quick, what is the end result for the devil?
What is the end result for Satan?
He started with a war in heaven.
But turn over to Revelation chapter 20 for just a moment.
Revelation chapter 20, we're going to see what happens to this devil.
He has an end result.
It says the devil, Revelation 20 and verse 10, the devil who deceived them was cast into
the lake of fire and brimstone.
That's the end result for the devil.
Or we could go back to Ezekiel 28 where we read about Lucifer created perfect until iniquity
was found in him.
Notice it goes on in Ezekiel 28, 8, 18 and it says, therefore I brought fire from your
midst and it devoured you and I turned you to ashes upon the earth.
You have become a horror and shall be no more forever.
That's the end result for Satan.
But we have an option to serve Jesus.
We've been called to worship Jesus as our creator.
And right back in Revelation 12 and verse 11, it says they, the people of God, they
overcame him, they overcame the dragon, they overcame Satan by the blood of the lamb and
by the word of their testimony.
That's what we can choose.
We can choose to follow Satan who's going to end in a lake of fire or we can overcome
him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.
So what does this lamb, what does this mean as we're coming down to our conclusion?
Jesus in the book of Revelation 27 times is referred to as the lamb, 27 times in the book
of Revelation because all through the Old Testament, those lambs from way back in the
Garden of Eden to the sanctuary to the temple, each one of those sacrifices pointed forward
to Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And so we are able to choose to be on the lamb's side.
So how can we make that choice?
Let's talk about this for just a second.
Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, this is a very familiar passage.
We've said that since Adam and Eve, we have all been, you know, our natural inclination is towards making mistakes.
But Romans 3 23, it says, for the wages, excuse me, it says, for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.
So according to this verse, how many people have sinned?
All.
So raise your hand if you've sinned.
Notice my hand is up.
The pastor's hand is up because it says all have sinned and are falling short of the glory
of God.
The next verse gives us even better news.
It's just over a page or two, Romans 6 23.
It says the wages of sin is death.
So if we've all sinned and the wages of sin is death, that means how many people deserve
to die?
All of us, all have sinned, the wages of sin is death, we all deserve to die because sin
separates us from Jesus and Jesus is the giver of life.
And that's not a good situation, but that's the situation that we find ourselves in.
Human beings have sinned and we've allowed Satan's program to come to this earth and
God's law says the wages of sin is death.
But God loves us.
God loves humankind.
He created humankind.
So the wages of sin is death, but notice what it goes on and says, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You go to work every day and once a week or every other week, you expect a paycheck.
That is your wages.
You've earned that.
But if you don't get it, you're going to be in the boss's office and say, where's my paycheck?
That's mine.
I earned it.
We've earned death, but Jesus gives us a free gift, a gift of salvation.
How can we get that?
Well, the most famous verse in the Bible, John chapter 3, we read it last night, John
chapter 3 verse 16.
Let's read this together, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.
That's the plan of salvation right there.
That is the gospel.
That Jesus came, that Jesus lived, that Jesus died, and that whosoever believes in him will
have that promise of eternal life.
Jesus took the death penalty that you and I deserve so that we can have the eternal
life that he deserves.
Jesus is the answer to our situation.
Jesus paid the death penalty for us.
Jesus took the blame for my sins.
Jesus offers forgiveness to the sinner, to me and to you.
And Jesus lets his perfect life count in place of your life.
Jesus took the blame.
So in our last few minutes here, we have to ask the question, how do I accept Jesus as
my Savior?
And you might think, whoa, this is a prophecy seminar.
Why are we talking about this?
What was that first verse of Revelation?
It said the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Because all prophecy is about pointing us to Jesus.
It doesn't matter if we talk about Antichrist, if we don't know about Jesus Christ.
So how can I accept Jesus as my Savior?
It's amazing that even among a group of Christians, oftentimes people don't quite have the concept.
But, there's three simple steps that we'll look at.
And the first is repentance.
We said we've all sinned.
Repentance simply means to begin to feel sorry for my sin, to recognize that I am a sinner
and to want to do something different.
To recognize that God's principles are not being lived out in my life.
And repentance says that I want to turn in a different direction.
I want to live my life for God.
John chapter 6 verse 44 says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
him.
Jesus draws us.
The fact that we're here tonight studying the Bible means that God has drawn you.
And that you've sensed that you need to know something else about Jesus.
And so God has drawn you to a place like this where we can spend an hour studying God's
Word.
Because I know you all have better things.
I said that wrong.
You have different things that you could be doing instead of spending an hour studying
God's Word.
But God has drawn you to this place.
So the step two is about confession.
It's about admitting that I have fallen short.
Admitting that I am a Savior.
And admitting I am a sinner and asking Jesus to be my Savior.
First John 1, 9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us for
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This is a promise here.
If we confess, we know what the answer is going to be.
I imagine that some of you maybe were like me at one age where you saw the pretty girl
at school and you wanted to ask her out.
But when you went to do that, perhaps you were a little nervous.
Why were you nervous?
Because you weren't sure what the answer was going to be.
But for this question, we know what the answer is going to be.
If we confess our sins, Jesus says your sins are going to be forgiven.
Not only that, but he's going to begin to cleanse you from unrighteousness.
And that's step three here, the conversion.
Letting God change.
Now as soon as we accept Jesus as our Savior, we're saved immediately right then.
But this step of conversion, of changing, that sometimes takes a little bit of time.
They say if you want to start a new habit, it takes about 21 repetitions for that habit
to get set in.
So, if that's once a day, that's three weeks that you have to do that.
But if you're having to stop doing a bad habit and replacing it with a good habit, well that's
going to extend that because you've got to stop the one and start the other.
But we know that God wants to do that for us.
God can change us.
God can transform us.
In Matthew chapter 26 and verse 41, Jesus says, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
What does that mean?
To watch and pray?
It means to pay attention a little bit.
It means to want to spend some time in God's Word.
Coming here for an hour is a great start, but what if you took some time when you're
not at a place like this to open up the Bible and to read for 10 minutes, for 15 minutes.
Where to do that?
I would recommend reading in Matthew or John or the book of Psalms and just reading a couple
chapters and saying, God, what do you want to say to me through your Word?
So you're watching, you're praying, you're letting God's principles be immersed in your
heart so that you can change.
So those steps, repentance and confession and conversion.
We read John 6, 37 where Jesus says, the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out.
That's what it's all about.
That's what prophecy is all about.
We've seen that there's a conflict between the devil and between Jesus.
We've seen where Satan is headed and we've seen that Jesus is calling us to be with him.
And we recognize that each one of us needs Jesus' perfect life to cover our sinful life.
And there may be some here today who are like, I have never ever accepted Jesus before.
Well, tonight's the night.
And there may be some here like, I accept Jesus every day, but I always am in need of
a renewal, of a revival, of a recommitment to him.
You've got a card that you received earlier in the night.
And I think there's something here that each one of us can fill out.
Jenica is going to come and sing for us in just a moment.
I'm just going to read through these different things because I believe that Jesus loves
me and died on the cross for my sins.
I think we can all, I hope that we can all say that.
And then it says, today I am accepting Jesus as my personal savior for the first time.
That may be, some of you may be doing that.
Praise the Lord.
Or perhaps, you'd like to rededicate your life for God.
Look through that.
If you have a question, if you have a prayer request, write those on the back of the card
and prayerfully fill that out.
Dear God, we thank you so much for this message that we are reminded that even though we live
in a world that is troubled, that is following the ways of Satan so often, that we know that
there is something better that is coming because Jesus wins this battle in the end.
And Lord, we can choose each day to be on Jesus' side.
And so Lord, thank you for your gift of salvation.
Thank you that you've taken our sins away and that you renew us and make us clean.
And Lord, I want to pray for each decision that was made tonight, for each person that's
here, I pray that you give them safe journeys as they travel home.
In your name we pray, amen.