Good morning.
Someone beat me to it.
Well, we always like to open by saying welcome.
If you are here visiting Hosanna for your first time
or if you're joining us online, welcome.
We're so glad you're here to worship us today
here at Hosanna Christian Fellowship.
I am Pastor Nathan, and this morning we're going to be
continuing our look at Revelation chapter 12
and really this grand look, this grand overview look
at spiritual warfare in an overview sense.
You know, you may or may not agree,
but I think most of you would agree that it's not hard
to look around the world today and see that evil is everywhere.
Evil is pervasive.
And in that thought, the devil would like nothing more
than for all of us to believe that he doesn't exist.
He would like nothing more for us to believe that
there's no such thing as good and evil,
that there's no such thing as moral and immoral.
There's no such thing as any of that,
but just everything is relative.
The devil would love for us to believe that
because then it leads to, well, what we see in the world today,
the concept of moral relativity and people just having
their own truth, and you do you and live however you want,
and there's no guidelines of any kind.
And if the devil can get us to believe that there's no good
and evil and no moral or immoral, then he could also get us
to believe that there is no shouldn't or should do,
one way or the other, no right and wrong.
And if he could get us to believe that, well, then thus,
the natural extension of that is if there's no right and wrong,
well, then there's no concept of reward for doing good
or justice or punishment for doing evil.
But the reality is that there is a God, there is a devil,
there is right and wrong, there is good and evil,
and above all of that, it really is a picture that there is a war
for your soul.
There is a war going on for the souls of mankind,
one that has been raging for thousands and thousands of years,
one that is primarily unseen in the heavenly realms,
but at certain points in history has manifested in physical reality.
But this unseen war is a war that is happening around us
all the time.
Job was made aware of this, not at first, but after all of the trials
that Job went through, he was made aware of the spiritual nature
of the difficulties he had been going through,
that it was part of a spiritual battle for his soul.
If you guys remember the story from the book of Job,
God and the devil had had an unseen conversation about Job,
considering Job himself, a conversation Job knew nothing about,
and that then manifested in the physical realm
as Job went about living out his life,
and the devil brought all of these difficulties into his life
with the loss of his livelihood, the loss of his property,
the loss of his family, the loss of his physical health.
There was a time when Jesus came to Peter and said,
Peter, the devil has been asking me for you.
He wants to sift you like wheat.
And I think that was a moment where Peter got a glimpse
into this unseen war raging around all of us for his life.
Chapter 12 here in Revelation, this chapter we're looking at today,
gives us all a rare behind-the-scenes look
at this spiritual unseen war,
at this war that's raging all the time.
And we're going to see where this war rages,
where this war has raged, and where this war will rage
as we look at a place that is populated by the devil
and his unholy host of fallen angels
fighting against the angels of God.
It's really a picture of a battle between the forces of light and darkness.
And the verses we're going to be looking at today in Revelation 12
point out a few things that I believe the devil does not want you to know,
things that he works very hard to keep from your knowledge
about a very important, effective tactic
that he uses against God's people.
And we're also going to see how to overcome that tactic.
But what we're going to see this morning is a war in heaven
and then the devil's wrath on earth during the tribulation time.
And we have to understand as we look at these verses
and contemplate what they mean for us,
that if you're a growing, thriving Christian,
if you're walking with the Lord, if you're in prayer,
you're in worship, you're in study, you're growing in him,
if that's you, you're a target of the enemy.
You are a target of the enemy.
Now, if you're not a target of the enemy,
if the devil doesn't harass you and come against you in your life,
if there's no spiritual warfare in your life,
well, that can possibly be indicative that you don't belong to God
or you're not doing much for his kingdom.
Because if you're not a threat, he doesn't feel the need to come against you.
But here in chapter 12, we're going to see a little bit of the devil's personality.
That he is always fighting.
He is always making accusations.
He is always exalting himself in his pride.
That's who the devil is, and that should be a warning to all of us,
to any of us who exhibit those characteristics in our lives.
Because if we are like that, if we are acting and behaving like that,
then we're simply reflecting the personality and the character of Satan himself.
And Scripture is pretty clear that we reflect the character of the one we are born of.
1 John wrote a lot about this where he said,
those that are born of God reflect the character of God.
Those who are born of Satan reflect the character of Satan.
And if he can't keep you from becoming saved,
if he can't keep you from giving your life to Jesus Christ, receiving forgiveness,
if he can't keep you from becoming a child of God,
then he and his minions are going to do everything they can
to keep you from leading others to the salvation that you have.
He will do everything he can to tempt you into disobedience,
to tempt you into doing things and living certain ways
that are poor witnesses and bad reflections of Christ.
He will try and lead you into places that would cause other people to go,
if that's what a Christian's like, I don't want to be one.
And after he does that, he then accuses you,
condemns you both in your own ear and before God Almighty.
As he stands to put you down and say, God, look at this child of yours
that is such a sinner, so disobedient.
They don't love you. How can you love them?
And the devil works overtime to do this, but the day is coming,
and we're going to see it today in Revelation 12,
when he will finally be kicked out of heaven permanently,
barred from God's presence permanently, no longer able to accuse us, the brethren.
And when that happens, he will be furious.
He will be furious, not just because his favorite thing to do
is taken away from him, he loves to accuse Christians,
but because that means that his time to mess with God's people is coming to an end.
And that is going to make the devil very angry.
We're going to get into all that this morning, but first let's pray,
and then we're going to spend some time worshipping God,
because we are God's people.
If you know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior this morning,
that means that you have confessed that Jesus is God,
that he is your Lord and Savior, he is the master of your life,
and we love him, we love him and we praise him,
we worship him because of what he's done,
because of the salvation that we have through his shed blood on the cross.
We praise him for that, we're so grateful.
But that also means that we are saved then from the wrath to come,
that our future is an eternity in heaven, in paradise with our Creator,
and that's glorious, amen. Let's pray.
Father God, we love you and we thank you, Lord.
We ask that you would bless us today, that you would speak to us today, God,
as we study your word, Lord.
We are literally looking into the future of what is to come upon this planet, God,
and there is so much to encourage us, Lord, on how to live now.
God, as we are in this age of grace, this church age, God,
where we are still here on earth, Lord, people saved,
filled with the Holy Spirit and called to go out and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And Lord, we know that in this age the devil is working overtime.
To deceive people, as your word calls him, a deceiver.
Lord, that he does everything he can to get people to believe that God isn't real,
that you aren't real, that there's no need for salvation,
that there is no good, no evil, no morality,
no need for forgiveness, no judgment to come, God.
He works so hard to deceive people into that.
And Lord, it's just a reflection of his character and his nature.
God, we have the hope that one day he won't be able to do that anymore.
God, we know that one of his greatest tools to come against the people of God, the church,
those that believe in you, God, today is to stand before your very throne and accuse us.
And Lord, he accuses us in our own ears all day, every day,
trying to get us to question our salvation, trying to get us to question our commitment to you.
And Lord, we rebuke that in Jesus' name.
We are so grateful, God, that you live within us and greater is he who is in us than he who is in this world.
So Lord, bless us today, speak to us today, encourage us today.
God, if someone in here needs to be rebuked today, we ask that you do that too.
Lord, we love you. You're our Father. You love us. We trust in that.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Well, we are, as I said earlier, in Revelation chapter 12.
We're going to be looking at verses 7 through 17 this morning.
And the first half of Revelation, what we saw there was a great symbolic display in heaven.
John says he saw a great sign, and that phrase great sign meant great symbolic display.
So we understood moving forward from that that the characters being introduced,
or at least some of the characters being introduced, were symbolic of other things.
And so we saw the woman, the dragon, and the child.
And if you want to dive into that and our interpretation of what that means and who those characters are,
you can get our study from last time on our YouTube channel.
But after John sees these three characters, the scene he's looking at then turns to a great war.
And that's where we pick it up here in verse 7.
It says, Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.
The dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail,
and there was no place for them in heaven any longer.
So the scene shifts, and I want you to notice the origin and the location of this war.
It tells us that the war broke out in heaven.
Now this might contradict the mental picture that some of us often have of heaven, right?
When we think of heaven, we're thinking of soft lights and gentle music, right?
We're thinking of clouds and people sitting on those clouds in white robes playing harps, right?
Serene, blissful, right?
But what John sees here in heaven is war, battle, fighting all there in heaven.
And it gives us a glimpse into what's going on there, what's in heaven,
because the scripture is very, very clear that as of today and up until this point in tribulation
that we're looking at in Revelation 12, which we are not yet at, Satan still has access to heaven.
Now that may be shocking to some of you.
That may surprise some of you because we always think of, well, Satan, he's in hell, right?
He's sitting in the big red throne and he has his pitchfork and he's there running things there in hell,
but Satan's not in hell yet.
As of right now, chronologically, Satan is not in hell yet.
In fact, up until we get to the end of things, Satan has never been in hell.
And he won't be in hell until later, which we will read about when we get there in Revelation.
And when he's finally there, when he's finally sent to the lake of fire, the place of final judgment,
he's not going to be ruling and reigning.
He's not sitting on a big red throne.
He's not carrying his pitchfork of authority.
He's not the guy in charge of everything.
In fact, when Satan ends up in hell, he's going to be the chief prisoner.
He is tormented.
He is possibly punished more than anyone else is there.
But today, today, Satan spends most of his efforts before the very throne of God,
and that might surprise you.
But we read about that in Job chapter 1 verse 6 and Job chapter 2 verse 1.
There's a story there that tells us as the angels were coming before God to present themselves before God Almighty,
it tells us that Satan also came with them to present himself before the Lord.
So we see in that picture that Satan had access into heaven to the very throne of God, to the very presence of God.
And what we read about in Job, you might ask the question, well, what is Satan doing there in heaven?
He's accusing Job.
That's what we read about in Job.
The conversation more or less goes like this.
God's like, hey, Satan, where have you been?
He doesn't call him bro.
No, but where have you been, Satan?
And Satan's like, well, I've been going to and fro on the earth back and forth, just kind of roaming around cruising.
And then God says, well, have you considered my servant Job?
God knows Satan is an accuser.
So have you considered my servant Job?
God says that he's a man of perfect integrity who fears God and turns from evil.
And then Satan goes on to accuse Job of a whole lot of things.
Oh, he just serves you because you've blessed him.
He just serves you because you give him things.
Look, take everything away from him.
Let me mess with him, and Job will turn on you in a heartbeat.
And then so on the story goes in Job as Job goes through all his difficulties.
We also read in Zechariah chapter 3 verse 1.
It says, then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord.
And this was a picture that the prophet was having of the high priest standing before the Lord in heaven.
And it says, with Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.
Now we'll get into this idea of Satan being an accuser later,
but the picture is what we see in Scripture is that Satan has access to heaven.
He's not yet consigned to hell.
Now you might go, well, wasn't Satan defeated at the cross?
Right? Isn't that what we preach? Isn't that what we teach?
Yes, Satan was defeated at the cross as Jesus Christ, God himself in the flesh, died on the cross
as the atoning sacrifice for all of mankind and then went into the grave and then rose again.
He defeated Satan in all of that. He defeated him.
And because of what Jesus did through faith in Christ, we also have victory over Satan now here in this life.
But although he was defeated at the cross, although the sentence was pronounced,
his sentence hasn't been fully carried out yet.
That's the picture that we have.
At this point in Revelation, at chapter 12, we're right around the midpoint of the seven-year tribulation period,
the final seven years of this age of history on earth.
And what we see here is another attempt by Satan to overthrow God and to take ultimate authority from the heavens.
I say another attempt because Satan already rebelled against God in times past.
And he was kicked out of heaven.
The idea of him being kicked out of heaven at that point was that he didn't live there anymore,
but he was still able to come visit.
And so although Satan was kicked out once and although he goes back to accuse,
here what we're going to read about today is the second attempt by Satan to overthrow God.
And he loses again and he is cast down to the earth and this time he is barred from heaven permanently.
As verse 8 tells us, there was no place for them in heaven any longer.
And then after the tribulation period, as we continue through Revelation,
we'll find that he is then going to be bound in the abyss for a thousand years during the millennial reign of Christ.
And after that thousand-year reign of Christ, he will be released again for a period of time.
We will discuss why that happens when we get there.
But that's then where Satan then continues his deception on the people on earth until finally,
ultimately he will be cast into the lake of fire, permanently, completely,
separated from God's presence and always for all time.
But the picture of all of this is we see throughout Scripture that Satan is a relentless,
never giving up, always fighting, always trying to find a way to usurp authority from God.
This is who he is and what we see of him here in Revelation 12 is him making one last attempt to take authority from God.
Now we see that he's here fighting against someone very particular,
the fourth character that is introduced in these few chapters we're looking at, Michael the Archangel.
It tells us that it's Michael and his angels that are fighting against the dragon.
Now we know the dragon is Satan from verse 9.
We'll get there when we look at that.
But I want you to notice something very important is John is seeing this warfare take place in heaven.
It's not Satan fighting against God personally.
See, we often think good evil, God, devil, right?
And we often think that the battle is between God and Satan.
But that's not the picture we see here.
What we see is two created angelic beings and their forces under their command battling it out.
It's a very important understanding that Satan is not God's counterpart.
He's not God's opposite.
He's not the yin to his yang.
He's not the black to his white.
That's not who Satan is.
Satan is not God's negative.
He is not the opposite of God.
He doesn't have the same attributes of God.
God is almighty.
God is forever.
God is infinite.
Satan is a created being, incidentally created by God.
Now Satan's opposite or Satan's opposite would be closer to Michael the Archangel
because we do read in scripture that Satan was one of the, what they call the chief princes,
the angels at the top of the hierarchy there.
That Satan was, in some cases they say that his body was seemingly made of music and musical instruments
and that's why people go, Satan was the worship leader in heaven.
He was one that would bring praise to God Almighty.
He was one of the big dogs, right?
He was right up there with Michael.
Him and Michael actually in a time they were co-servants of God in heaven.
Think about that.
And yet we read that Lucifer, Satan himself, rebelled and fell.
But the idea there is if Satan tried to go after God directly, it wouldn't even be a fight.
I mean that would be like an ant going up against a giant.
It's like, are you kidding me?
Right? You're just this pitiful, annoyance squish, you're gone.
That's the picture of Satan was trying to go after God.
I mean because God is Almighty.
That means that the mighty, God is all of it.
Right? God is Almighty.
He has no equal.
There is no yin to his yang.
And so thus Satan's endeavor, Satan's battle, Satan's warfare against God
and as with any endeavor against God Almighty must and will ultimately fail.
Now if that's true that Satan's going to ultimately fail, why does he fight?
Why does he keep fighting knowing he can't win?
Well in general he hates God.
He hates God. He just hates him.
He hates God and everything he stands for and he just wants to hurt God in any way he can.
He wants to cause God grief and pain in any way he can.
And that's just a general context that Satan hates God because God kicked him out.
But contextually where we're at here in Revelation, specifically with the understanding.
And I know there's other interpretations of this, but the interpretation I hold to is that the woman
that we saw in verse 1 is symbolic of the nation of Israel.
And then the child that we saw in the first half of Revelation 12 was representative of the Messiah
that she gave birth to, that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of mankind, was birthed
through the nation of Israel.
And then add to that we know that Israel is God's chosen people.
He loves them. They're a special people to God and they have been and they always will be.
We see the picture that Satan then having failed to stop the birth of the Messiah,
which we dealt with in our last message, why is he fighting?
Because he hates God's people. I couldn't stop the Messiah from being born.
But there's promises that involve God's people about the Messianic kingdom to come.
And so if I could wipe out all of God's people, well then God's plans can't come to fruition.
And ha ha, I messed with God.
And so he has been laboring and will labor specifically during the seven-year tribulation
against God's people to wipe out specifically Israel, God's chosen people,
in an attempt to prevent the Messianic kingdom of God.
That's one of the reasons why he keeps fighting.
The other reason why he keeps fighting is because he just simply wants people to worship him
instead of God. He wants the worship.
That was incidentally his original desire that got him kicked out of heaven in the first place.
We read in Isaiah chapter 14 starting in verse 12, it says,
Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens.
And this is speaking of Satan, who was a shining morning star.
He was an angelic being and he has fallen from the heavens.
You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground.
You said to yourself, I will ascend to the heavens.
I will set up my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of God's assembly in the remotest parts of the north.
I will ascend above the highest clouds.
I will make myself like the most high.
But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the pit.
That was Satan's original rebellion.
I'm bringing all this worship to God. I want to be worshiped.
I think I should be worshiped.
As a matter of fact, I think I want to create my throne above God's throne
so people will worship me instead of him and God's like, boink, get out.
But what we see in the tribulation period is that Satan will specifically enforce
worship of himself right around the midpoint of the tribulation.
As you study the chronology of the tribulation, you got those first three and a half years
where the Antichrist comes on the scene, this global leader who seems to solve the world's problems.
One of the things he solves is the problems in the Middle East, makes a treaty with Israel.
Hey Israel, you know what? I figured out a way for you to rebuild your temple on the Temple Mount.
I think it's going to be in such a way where you don't even have to deal with the Dome of the Rock
and the Muslim Mosque there. You guys can cohabitate. Oh, how awesome.
Everybody's together. This is wonderful.
And then for three and a half years, the Jews, they build their temple and they reinstitute their sacrifices
and the Jewish nation are like, okay, now finally we can be right with God because our temple's back
and we could do the animal sacrifices.
And during that time, God raises up 144,000 Jewish witnesses.
He raises up two witnesses specifically who are in Jerusalem.
Say, in Israel, you're missing the point.
It's not about the animal's blood. It's about the blood of the lamb.
And so they're witnessing for three and a half years and Israel's going about their thing going,
hey, it's all good. But at the midpoint, we read about this event called the Abomination of Desolation
where the Antichrist will set up an image within the temple, demand to be God,
demand that people worship him instead of God. Say, worship this image of the beast.
And we're going to see that happen.
And some think that it's a reanimated Antichrist, possibly the man, the Antichrist who is now possessed
by the devil himself. He was fueled and led and empowered by Satan.
But this whole scene is Satan himself wanting to be worshiped.
My man, the one I'm controlling or I've possessed, I'm not sure there's different interpretations of that.
But the point is, is Satan is setting up worship of himself in God's temple.
What a picture of what he already tried to do in heaven.
Now, right around this time in the heavenlies, then, we're reading that Satan then tries to conquer heaven
one final time.
Now, what's interesting is whenever we read about Michael, the archangel,
you go through scripture and there's these chief princes on the bad side,
and there's these rulers, these archangels in heaven.
But they're not all named. Just a couple are named, but Michael is one of them.
And every time we read about Michael, the archangel, every time we read about Michael, the archangel,
he is seen and depicted as guarding or the guardian of Israel specifically.
In the book of Jude, you had Michael disputing with Satan over the body of Moses.
And Moses is kind of the father of the nation, right?
You go back to Abraham, you come to the line.
Moses is the one that kind of led Israel out of Egypt, and so he didn't birth the nation,
but he brought the law and all of that.
And so Moses is definitely connected to Israel and that whole idea.
In Daniel chapter 10, we read a story about Daniel praying to God about specifically Israel's fate,
Israel's future.
And then Daniel prays for three weeks, and then an angel shows up and says,
Hey Daniel, the moment you started praying, God sent me with the answer, but guess what? On the way.
The demon who's in charge of Persia stood against me in that whole area and all of that,
stood against me and fought against me and tried to prevent me from getting to you.
But then what does it tell us?
Michael came to help me.
And it calls him there one of the chief princes.
And then later on in Daniel chapter 12 verse 1,
Michael is specifically called the one who stands watch over Israel, God's people.
So whenever we see Michael specifically named,
it's always in connection with Israel, the nation Israel, the people, the Jewish people.
It's always connected with something going on with them, some battle, some protection, some guarding.
And this is incidentally another reason why I believe that the woman in Revelation chapter 12
is the nation of Israel and not the church and not something else.
And when we see Michael brought into the equation, it's in connection with the nation of Israel.
So Satan, however, having desecrated God's temple on earth and scattered God's chosen people,
as we're seeing through the tribulation period, he's then defeated in heaven again.
And we read in verse 9.
So the great dragon was thrown out.
The ancient serpent, the one who is called the devil, and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world,
he was thrown down to earth and his angels with him.
Now we do know that the fallen angels, the ones that went with Satan,
we saw in the beginning of the chapter, the one third that went with him, we call them demons, right?
But they are fallen angels.
And notice here how Satan is described.
There's a few different phrases to describe him.
The first one is the great dragon.
We spoke about that in our last message.
But the idea of this great dragon, he's called the great red dragon earlier in the chapter,
is this picture of this horrific, fearsome, devouring, destructive monster,
which is a great depiction of who Satan is.
But then he says the ancient serpent, that should make you think back to the Garden of Eden.
The ancient serpent, the serpent that came into the garden to deceive Adam and Eve.
Then he is called the devil.
That word devil in the Greek is diabolos, right?
You may have heard in another language, diablo, right?
The devil.
But the word actually is where we get our English word diabolic.
When you call someone diabolic in English, what you're doing is referring to that they're extremely wicked,
extremely cruel, extremely evil.
That is someone who is diabolic.
And so this word that is used here for Satan is that word.
Now, what the meaning of the word diabolos is, is slanderer.
And slander is basically false or malicious statements made about another that is intended to damage their reputation.
That's what slander is.
When you say something to somebody about someone else, and it's not true,
and you know that the point of what you're saying is to damage their reputation, that's slander.
And so the devil is calling him the slanderer.
And then the word Satan there, and that word literally means adversary.
Satan is the adversary, the one who stands against God and all who belong to him.
And so again, the picture, if you belong to God,
if you have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ through your faith and his finished work on the cross,
if you belong to God, the devil is your adversary.
He's your enemy.
And you are his enemy.
You have to think about that.
Now, this is a good thing.
It's a good thing that Satan's your enemy, because if he's not your enemy, he's your friend.
And I don't want Satan as my friend.
You shouldn't want Satan as your friend, you know?
Satan isn't the worst enemy you could have.
Who do you think is the worst enemy you could have?
God Almighty.
That would be the worst enemy you could have.
And matter of fact, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 31 says it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I'd rather have God as my friend and Satan as my enemy any day.
And so it says he is the one who deceives the whole world.
He's a deceiver.
Right?
Overt evil is bad enough.
You know, like evil that is just plainly evil.
Right?
That's bad enough.
But evil, the worst kind of evil in my opinion, is the kind that is covered up with a facade of goodness.
That's just evil, right?
And we know that the Bible tells us that Satan is a liar.
Jesus himself said Satan was a liar from the very beginning.
In this age, what he does now is he covers up his evil and what he's trying to tempt us to and the wrong he's trying to do.
He covers it up with these veneers of goodness to make it look okay.
And it's all lies.
That's how he does it.
He lies to us about freedom and sexuality and choice and God and life.
He lies to us about it to get us to do that which is disobedient to God.
He raises up false religious systems and then says, pick any one of them.
They all lead to God.
He lies by telling Christians, your faith should be private.
You should keep your faith to yourself.
Don't go tell people about Jesus.
That's annoying.
That's obnoxious.
They don't want to hear about that.
And it's a lie.
He lies by telling believers, you know, if you disagree with something the word says, well, it was just written by man anyways.
So.
Well, I disagree.
Well, that word didn't even exist in the Bible until 1954.
So therefore.
He's a liar.
Or as long as you come to church once in a blue moon, just live however you want.
You're all good.
You checked in.
You know, some of you watching online, I love you to death.
I really do.
But some of you, not all of you, but some of you are still staying home and watching.
And you're really just making excuses at this point.
And I love you guys.
I really do.
And a lot of you, you have good reason to be home.
Right.
There's health issues.
There's mobility issues.
But some of you, some of you, you know, you know, Holy Spirit's been knocking on your heart.
I need to go back to church and fellowship with my family.
But excuse after excuse.
And so I'll just leave that with you.
OK.
But I love you.
Please, please don't be mad at me.
But Satan deceives.
He deceives by spreading false doctrines.
He deceives by diluting truth.
And I think his greatest attack, his greatest spiritual deception is an attempt to keep people away from the truth of the gospel.
Right.
He tries to get people to believe you don't need God.
There is no God.
There is no right and wrong.
So therefore, you don't need salvation.
You don't need forgiveness.
It's your own personal choice.
You can do whatever you want.
Oh, 1 John chapter 5 verse 19.
It says, We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
That word sway means his control, his influence.
But it's a heavy statement John makes there in 1 John that essentially what he's saying is like, look, if you're saved, you belong to God.
And the whole world is wrong.
And you know it.
The whole world.
The whole world is under the sway.
Even the people that say, I reject that.
I just there is no God.
There's no Satan.
And Satan's going, awesome.
Keep believing that.
Because you're under the sway of me is what the devil says.
So he does all this by deception, deceiving, lying, trying to get people.
And in today's age, just go, oh, there is no devil.
There is no God.
There's no right and wrong.
There's no penalty.
There's no reward.
There's no judgment.
And so they go about their lives blindly.
But verse 10, we hear a loud voice in heaven.
And it doesn't tell us the source of the loud voice, just where it came from.
It said, then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, the salvation and the power and the kingdom
of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come.
Because the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God day and night
has been thrown down.
So what we're seeing here is a proclamation is being made in heaven about what is coming
to pass.
The whole process of what is happening here in heaven that Satan has been cast out.
He has been barred from heaven permanently at this point.
And his time to mess with mankind is coming to an end.
But notice what he is called here, accuser.
The accuser, the accuser of our brothers and sisters.
This is what has been one of, if not the most effective tactics of Satan throughout history.
It is an effective tactic of his.
He accuses us in our own ears and he accuses us before God.
This is what it sounds like.
You call yourself a believer after you did that.
You think God's going to hear your prayers?
Don't bother praying.
He's not listening to you, you filthy, disgusting person.
What are you doing at church?
You're too bad to be around those people.
Man, if they knew who you really were, they'd run you out the door.
I know Jews, specifically Jewish people that are constantly bombarded with these thoughts.
You're not special to God.
You're not God's chosen people.
I mean, look at how he lets the world treat you.
You think God would do that if you were special to him?
He accuses us.
He accuses our brothers and sisters.
It says he does it both day and night.
Both day and night.
That's why he said earlier that most of his work today, Satan's work, is before the throne of God.
Accusing us.
He's got minions galore.
Not more than they're in heaven, but he's got a lot.
He sends them throughout the world, but he's accusing us day and night.
He's so subtle in his ways, right?
He comes before you and he tempts you with sin.
He's like, oh, you know, this thing you shouldn't be doing, do it.
This thing that God has spoken to you, I shouldn't engage in that.
No, no, God didn't really say that, did he?
Right?
That's what he said to Eve in the garden.
Did God really say?
Satan's go-to is question the word of God.
Did God really say?
He says, go ahead and do it.
You'll get away with it.
No one will find out.
Is it really that bad?
And then you do it, right?
You yield to the temptation.
Then he goes, sinner!
You are condemned!
You deserve to go to hell!
God, look what your kid did!
Oh, I'm going to go tell God on you.
Everybody's going to find out.
Wow, you're such a horrible person.
And then he just does the cycle over and over.
Hey, do this thing.
Come on, come on.
It's all right.
It's all good.
You do it.
And then he condemns.
That's what it means by him being the accuser.
But here, during the tribulation period,
the time is coming where he loses the coup in heaven,
and he is kicked out of heaven,
and he is cast down to earth.
The time is coming where Satan will no longer be able to
stand before the throne of God and accuse you to your God.
God's going to say, enough!
Get out!
Permanently!
You can't come here anymore!
And Satan is going to be angry about it.
What did verse 12 say?
It says that the devil has come down to the earth with great fury.
Why?
Because he lost his most effective tactic against us.
This great fury that happens at this midpoint of tribulation
as there's a war in heaven, he is cast down.
You're barred.
You're done, Satan.
No more.
And a matter of fact, not only are you done,
you can't accuse the brethren anymore to God,
but your time is coming.
You only got three and a half years left.
And Satan is upset, and he just goes bonkers.
And that's why we call the second half of the tribulation
the great tribulation.
Because those who claim Christ, especially those of Israel,
fall under incredible persecution, it says there.
So it's all the hate, all the fury, all the anger that Satan has towards God
is now as he's cast out, it's turned on all who would call in the name of Christ.
All of God's people, he's just going to turn his fury upon them ferociously.
And for this last three and a half years,
Satan, his demons, barred from having any access to God's throne,
and it gets real bad.
And we read about some of that already,
where he's given the key to the abyss,
and he lets the demons, the bad demons, out of the spiritual jail,
and they go out and they torment people,
and then the four fallen angels go out and they're allowed to kill people,
and all this stuff that is taking place.
And so the battle in heaven now fully rages upon the earth
through the second half of tribulation.
Verse 11, but they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb,
by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives
to the point of death.
So the they there, it's referring back to the brothers and sisters
that we just talked about, those that are accused by Satan day and night.
If you even step back a few verses previously,
it's those that are accused by Satan who then are saved out of the whole world
that Satan is working to deceive.
So it's a picture of those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.
There's two understandings of exactly who these people can be.
One of them is, if you remember, during tribulation,
there are still Jews and Gentiles on the earth worldwide, right?
There's the 144,000 witnesses, there's the two witnesses in Jerusalem.
So evangelism is still happening during the tribulation,
and people are still getting saved during the tribulation.
I believe that the church is raptured out at this point,
that prior to the tribulation, the church is taken out of the world,
and I believe scripture supports that.
I fully acknowledge there's other interpretations,
but that's what I see in scripture.
And so the church is gone, and yet evangelism is still happening
because God has a remnant there that are preaching the gospel,
the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, the two witnesses.
And so these people, these brothers and sisters,
could be referring specifically to what we call the tribulation saints.
These are people that believe in Jesus during the seven-year tribulation period,
and these are people that are then slaughtered, it said earlier in Revelation,
for their faith in Christ, that they are aggressively, just viciously slaughtered.
How dare you believe in Jesus? And they are killed for their faith.
And these are the ones that during tribulation, they're going,
hey, God, how long until you avenge our blood?
God's like, hold on, not yet, not yet, right?
However, this phrase, brothers and sisters, and the way this is all worded here,
could also just simply be a reference to all believers of all time,
because the devil has been accusing believers since the very beginning.
So it could be referring to either one there, but the point is, is they.
These brothers and sisters, these who were saved out of the whole world,
these who were accused by the devil, it says they won their victory,
they conquered Satan, all his accusations, all his lies, all his deception, by three things.
These are three things, and I want you guys to take note of these things.
The first one is the blood of the lamb.
They conquered him by the blood of the lamb.
They were washed clean from all sin, all wrongdoing, all guilt,
or specifically, contextually, anything accusable, anything condemnable,
by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
The blood of Christ is, was, and will always be how anyone is saved.
It is, and will always be, the method by which anyone is saved,
both Jew and Gentile, it's through Jesus, it's through his shed blood on the cross.
That's why Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and life,
and nobody comes to the Father but by me, because it's his work.
It's what he did on the cross is the atoning sacrifice, and that's a great thing,
because if clearing you and me of the guilt of our sin was based on anything we've done, right?
Well, gosh, Satan has quite a bit of evidence on every single one of us to the contrary, doesn't he?
Satan has plenty of evidence that we are indeed guilty.
So it's not on anything we've done that clears us of the guilt of breaking God's law, it's the blood of Christ.
It's his sacrifice.
Satan lies to us about God all the time.
God doesn't love you, God's not listening, but he doesn't need to lie to God about us, does he?
He doesn't need to go to God and make up stuff that we've done wrong and make up ways that we've fallen,
because he has all the evidence, and we give him plenty every single day, don't we?
We say something, we think something, we do something, and we're like,
dang it, I know that was wrong, and Satan's like, aha!
And he adds that to his trove of evidence, but Jesus, the Bible says, is our advocate.
Jesus argues for us in every single item that Satan reads off of his record of evidence.
Jesus goes, covered by the blood.
Oh yeah, but he said this, covered by the blood.
Well, he thought this, covered by the blood.
Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood.
And Satan's like, reads the next thing, blood.
And you can't lose with a lawyer like that, right?
You can't lose.
You can't lose, it's all paid for, it's all covered.
You know, Satan may stand there and say, Nathan, God, Nathan's a sinner.
He said this, and he said that.
And I think God just looks at Satan and is like, I already knew Nathan's a sinner.
That's not news.
But Jesus died for all of it.
So what else you got?
And he has nothing.
He has nothing on me, he has nothing on you if you put your faith in Jesus Christ.
There is no accusation.
In fact, Romans says there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
That's a beautiful truth.
That is a beautiful truth, especially today, when Satan comes whispering in your ear and accusing you.
I can't believe you call yourself a Christian.
I can't believe you think you're going to serve in ministry.
I can't believe you think you're going to do this and do that.
And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, covered by the blood.
And you can't say anything against it.
The blood of the lamb, incidentally, it's a majorly important concept in Scripture.
We might think of like, what are the important concepts in Scripture?
And you might think of the love of God, right?
Love of God's important Scripture.
And in the New Testament, the concept of the love of God is mentioned 290 times.
But the atonement by the blood is mentioned over 1,300 times in the New Testament.
Why?
Because our standing before God is based on the finished work of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.
That's the whole standing is based on that.
It's not of our own works.
We don't get into heaven by listing our accomplishments.
We don't get into heaven by listing what we've done.
It's purely by the shed blood of Christ.
And we stand before God now and then.
And incidentally, in this life, we defeat Satan in our lives by the finished work on Calvary 2,000 years ago.
The cross is the very first step in overcoming Satan's most effective tactic against you.
He accuses you.
You plead the cross.
He brings accusation into your life.
You say the blood covers that.
And that makes Satan mad.
Spurgeon said, nothing provokes the devil as much as the cross.
Why?
Because when you apply the cross to your life, when you make Jesus your Lord and Savior,
when you claim the forgiveness that the blood has applied to your life,
and I'm washed clean by his perfect blood, you are forgiven of all sin forever.
No accusation can ever stand against you at that point.
You are clear.
Satan loses his hold on your life.
He loses the war for your soul.
Now you in this room are watching today.
Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
Have you received him?
I mean, can you say today, I stand firm today.
I stand in victory over Satan and in victory against all his accusations
because the blood of Jesus has covered me and washed me clean.
Can you say that today?
Many of us can.
Some of you maybe not.
Some of you have never applied that to your life,
and so Satan's going to come into your life constantly,
and he's probably doing it right this very second, saying God will never forgive you.
That's a lie.
The shed blood of the Lamb, Jesus himself, ensures that God will forgive you.
You just have to apply it to your life.
You have to receive that free gift.
That's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's what the blood of the Lamb is.
Now the second thing that they won their victory,
they conquered Satan by, it says, is by the word of their testimony.
Word of their testimony, it means that they shared what God had done in their lives.
That's the idea there.
Nothing shakes the grip of Satan over a life,
I think, more than the joyful realization and declaration of what God has done.
When you realize what God has done in my life, I've received him,
gosh, the hold Satan has just dissipates.
God loves me.
He will forgive me of everything.
He has forgiven me of everything.
I could have a brand new life right now.
I just confess my sin to him,
receive him as my Lord and Savior and follow him.
I'm free.
And when that's your testimony, man, he really can't do a whole lot in your life.
When a person realizes that and experiences that,
they can't help but to tell others about it.
But when the saved person starts evangelizing and starts sharing the gospel,
you're invading Satan's territory.
You're invading Satan's territory.
You've gone from defense, Jesus died for me, I'm good,
to offense, Jesus died for you.
You can receive him today.
When you do that, you're moving into territory that is under his sway,
as we looked at earlier, telling those that are born of him,
those that are unsaved, that they can be forgiven and set free as well.
They can have the hope of eternal life.
They can be forgiven and the devil hates that.
Hates that.
So what does he do?
He tries to get you to not evangelize.
If he can't get you to evangelize, the next step is he tries to get you all caught up in theological
and apologetical debates all day long.
Right?
People bring up these weird, obscure things and it's good to have an answer for those things.
It's good.
But I think what's more powerful than all of that is your testimony,
the word of your testimony.
Right?
When you say, this is what God did in my life personally,
people can't refute that.
No, he didn't.
You weren't there.
I'm telling you my personal experience.
This is who I was.
This is how I used to live.
I gave my life to Christ.
This is how my life has changed.
It's different.
You can't refute that.
People will try.
But that's powerful.
I still run into people today that I was in high school with and they go, what do you do?
What?
Yeah, I'm a pastor.
Did I hear you correctly?
Did I get that opportunity?
Yeah, Jesus changed my life.
I used to party with you.
I know.
We did a lot of terrible things, but you know what?
That's not who I am anymore.
And to share that testimony is way more powerful than let's argue the theology of the Trinity.
Now, yeah, have an answer, right?
Study those things, but don't neglect your testimony.
Your personal testimony is very intimidating to the enemy because it brings conviction of heart.
Your personal testimony allows the person standing before you to see the evidence of a changed life right there.
The evidence is standing right before them.
And so if you're a believer, you have a testimony.
So share it.
Tell the truth.
Share the truth of what God has done in your life.
It's so powerful.
And guess what?
You already know what God did in your life, so you don't need to have to go to four years of Bible college to know what God already did in your life.
I don't know what to say.
Tell them what God did.
The third thing that they won their victory and they conquered Satan by is that they did not love their life.
They said they did not love their lives to the point of death, simply meaning that they were prepared to die for the truth.
They didn't consider life more valuable than their commitment to Christ.
They didn't consider, you know, this life and the things of this life more valuable than the gospel truth.
And so they were ready even to die for it if it came to that.
So how did they overcome?
They had a true, genuine faith.
They had an ongoing testimony and they endured.
And that really is the essence of true Christianity.
They live this life.
And when we live this kind of authentic life based upon the blood of Jesus, pleading the blood of Jesus, I am saved, I am forgiven by the blood of Christ,
and then we live with this ongoing testimony of what God has done and what he's doing in our lives, and we just want to share that with people,
and we endure all the attacks of the enemy.
Verse 11 says what?
We conquer him.
You have victory.
You want to have victory over Satan today?
Plead the blood of the lamb.
Share the word of your testimony and endure.
And you can endure because God himself lives within you.
Stay close to him and you will have victory.
Verse 12, and we'll do this real quick.
Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them.
Woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you with great fury because he knows his time is short.
And so heaven rejoices.
You know, yay, the devil's finally been cast out.
You know, that guy stinks anyways.
We don't want him here.
You know?
And they're just like, he's evil, he's wicked, he's horrible.
He brings these accusations.
It's like, ah, just get him out.
He's finally gone.
Celebration.
But woe to the earth and the seas.
And that's kind of an encapsulating term of the whole creation.
So by extension, those who are still down there, woe, because the devil is ticked off and his temper tantrum will be mighty.
Verse 13, when the devil saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male child.
So we touched on this a bit in our last message, remembering that the woman is a great sign.
She's a great symbolic display.
Again, I believe she's representative of the nation of Israel for reasons I shared in the previous message.
But one of those big reasons is which, that the nation of Israel, the woman, gave birth to the male child, who will, it says, rule all nations with an iron rod.
It's interesting, that word rule there means shepherd.
And then in Revelation 19, 15, when it's talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ, it tells us this.
He will rule them with an iron rod.
He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty.
And so the male child is Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
So he persecutes her.
He ramps up his persecution because he knows, tying him short.
And then verse 14, it says, the woman was given two wings of a great eagle so that she could fly from the serpent's presence to her place in the wilderness,
where she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time.
From his mouth, the serpent spewed water, like a river flowing after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood.
But the earth helped the woman.
The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth.
So the dragon was furious with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring,
those who keep the commands of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus.
And so, again, this is all symbolic stuff, right?
Because the woman is symbolic, the eagle wings are symbolic.
But when we look here that the devil's time is short, it tells us how much time he has.
And he uses this interesting phrase here, time, times, and a half of time, right?
And people go, just like, I know it's in English, we can use English we understand, right?
It's like, what does this even mean?
Well, this phrase, time, times, and half a time, it's found in two places, here in Revelation 12 and in Daniel chapter 7.
And in both places, this phrase, time, time, and half a time, is always linked to the concepts of 1,260 days or 42 months.
And you know, you math that out, that's three and a half years.
And so, like in Revelation 12,6, it said the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God to be nourished there for 1,260 days.
And then here in verse 14, it says the woman fled to her place in the wilderness where she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time.
So the common understanding is that time, times, and half a time is equivalent to 1,260 days, which is equivalent to three and a half years.
So the idea here is that for the last three and a half years of the great tribulation, she is then protected by God.
But Satan, he's full of great fury because he only has three and a half years left.
And he's barred, fully barred from heaven now, and so he pours out all his wrath on her and he's ticked.
He's not allowed into the presence of God anymore to make accusations.
He's now confined to the earth realm.
So he just goes ballistic trying to prevent the plan of the coming Messianic kingdom by wiping out every Jew he can.
And we've seen that already in the past, right?
Hitler, we're going to wipe out all the Jews.
And times throughout history, people for one reason or another were going to wipe out all the Jews.
It's been a plan of Satan all along.
But we see this aggressiveness coming from him.
And I believe in the last three and a half years of tribulation, there's going to be a new, intensely aggressive wave of anti-Semitism that we've never seen before on the earth.
But God protects her.
God protects his special people by giving her eagle wings to flee from the serpents present into the wilderness.
Now, again, since the woman is a great symbolic display, the eagle wings are symbolic as well, right?
John is seeing this and he's describing the symbolic display.
But the image of the eagle wings further supports the idea that the woman is symbolic of the nation of Israel.
And this is why.
There are exactly the same or very similar analogies often used throughout scripture to depict God's protection over Israel specifically.
Okay.
For example, in Exodus 19, 4, when Israel was delivered out of Egypt, he said, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagle wings and brought you to myself.
In Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse 11, where God was speaking of his care of Israel specifically referred to as the offspring of Jacob, he goes, He watches over his nest like an eagle and hovers over his young.
He spreads his wings, catches him and carries him on his feathers.
And then in Isaiah, chapter 40, after the Jews had been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, they were getting a prophecy that they would indeed make it back to Israel safely.
And it says there, But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles.
And so the idea of the woman having eagle wings just ties back to symbolism we've already seen throughout scripture that again, the woman is the nation of Israel.
So we have the serpent that spews water.
And again, images are symbolic here, so the water is likely symbolic.
This could be there's there's not a whole lot to really tie this to in that sense.
But one of the common understandings is that it could be literal water, a literal flood that is coming through Israel to wipe out Israel.
But more than likely, since it is symbolic, it refers to a prophecy in Ezekiel, chapter 38 and Joel, chapter one, where there is a king from the north who comes down with an army like a flood to destroy Israel.
And it's a prophecy of something to come in the future.
And so this idea that that this flood coming from the north spewed forth or from the devil or empowered or led by the devil could be this this army.
And a lot of commentators believe that there's going to be a Russian army comes down from the north to invade Israel during the tribulation period.
Then you see the earth helping the woman by swallowing up the flood that also aligns with the prophecy in Ezekiel, chapter 38.
Because in Ezekiel 38, we see that this army that is coming from the north like a flood, there is a devastating earthquake in Israel that destroys the whole army.
And so the earth opening up to swallow the flood there ties all that together.
And so then after that, Satan, who again is just furious that his attack on the nation of Israel fails, turns his attention to the believing remnant.
And it says he went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus.
So contextually tying to the interpretation, this is a remnant within Israel that are still believing in Jesus as the Messiah.
But there are other people that say it's talking to all believers, both Jew and Gentile, during this time who put their faith in Jesus.
But the idea there is that God is protecting his people.
So the overall point of this chapter, the whole chapter 12, is that Satan has waged war against God.
That war has started back eons in history.
He rebelled against God. He took a third of the angels with him.
They were cast out of their dwelling place in heaven, but Satan still had access to heaven the whole time up until this point in tribulation.
He has some kind of access to the throne of God where he loves to tell on you and me.
He's just a big tattletale.
Runs in there every time. Guess what Nathan did?
Guess what Nathan did?
Over and over and over.
And he tattles on you and me, and he tattled on saints of God like Job and other prophets and others throughout history.
One day he will show up in an attempt of final takeover of heaven during the tribulation period, but he fails.
He's cast down to the earth. He's permanently barred from any access to heaven or the throne of God.
That eventually and ultimately is going to lead to a time where he is cast out forever, out of God's presence fully and completely into the lake of fire.
We'll read about that in Revelation chapter 20.
But Satan's going down.
He's going down and he knows it.
But he is not satisfied until he takes as many with him as possible.
He wants to do that because he knows it will hurt God.
It's probably Satan's only satisfaction.
Every time a creation of his, a human being, dies without salvation, I imagine Satan's just like, yay, because that hurts God.
That breaks God's heart.
The Bible tells us that God wants none to perish, but all to have everlasting life.
So Satan is going to push forward and fight and fight and pump his ego so he could get worship and get people to worship him, whether they know it or not.
And really, I mean, Satan knows the Bible.
He knows the end.
He knows what's to come.
But if he can keep millions of people from salvation in Jesus Christ, if he could keep millions of people from the gospel, well, if he's going down with a ship, he wants everybody to sink with him.
But are you one of those people today standing without the testimony?
The testimony of being washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ?
Do you stand before this, before God this morning without the atoning sacrifice applied to your sins?
Are you standing before God without any of that because it's only that atonement that tames the accusations of the dragon.
It's only the blood of Christ that stops that.
It's only the blood of Christ that takes the sting out of all of that.
It's not you.
It's not what you've done.
It's not your efforts.
It's not your actions.
It's Jesus.
Jesus is the only one who can save.
Now, I know I'm saved.
I know that I've conquered the devil.
I know God sees me as his child, and I have great confidence in that.
Why?
Because I trust in the blood of Jesus who died for me, who paid the price for my sin in every day of my life.
Yeah, I marvel.
I marvel at the wonderful love that God has for me, that he took a sinner, a mean, hurtful, selfish, wicked sinner,
and transformed me into something that could reflect and shine the glory of God.
That just baffles my brain.
But I hang on to it.
I cling to him, and I know that I'm his child.
And so every time the devil shows up and says, no, you're not, I might get out of here, dude.
You're a horrible person.
I know.
But God washed me clean, and I'm trying every day to live for him.
Well, you know you want to do the thing.
Oh, stop tempting me.
You know you want to do the thing.
Ah, you gave in to the thing.
You're going to hell.
No, I'm not.
I'm sorry I did the thing, but God forgave me.
He loves me.
I'm washed clean.
That is my testimony, and that continues every day of my life.
And it's a testimony that I will share.
I will live as his witness till the day I die.
But Satan is fighting for your soul.
He is fighting with everything he has to keep you from finding forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Every lie he can spew, everything he can think of to keep you from putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Don't let him win.
You have sinned against God.
God is just and holy, and he's going to judge that sin one day.
But today, now, he has made a way to say, look, I paid the price for your wrongdoing.
It was my blood shed on the cross.
You put your faith in that.
You trust on that.
You call out to me for salvation and forgiveness.
Guess what?
It's available to you.
Heaven is available to you.
New life now is available to you.
And God would do everything he can short of forcing you to receive that.
He won't force you, but he wants to tell you about the grace and the mercy and the salvation and the forgiveness that he has for you.
And in fact, he has gone to the extreme length of telling us in advance what is going to happen on this earth in the book of Revelation before it happens.
So that we would be able to exercise our intellect, our heart, our mind to make the intelligent choice to escape the wrath to come, to conquer the servant, that dragon, the devil, the deceiver, the accuser, and receive hope and joy and peace and new life in Jesus Christ.
That's what's available to you today.
So we're going to pray and I'm going to give you an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today.
And I pray.
I know he's been knocking on your heart today.
Respond.
Receive the gift.
Let's pray.
Father God.
Lord, there are some here in this room today, God, that have been fighting against you, against truth, Lord.
They've been hearing the lies of the devil.
They've been hearing the lies of Satan.
And they have entertained those thoughts that God is not real.
And they have entertained those thoughts that there is no good and evil and that there is no moral and immoral and that there is no reward or judgment, Lord.
And Satan has had a grip on their life.
But God, I believe that they have heard this message today and you've brought them here either to the room or to our live stream, God, to hear the truth of the gospel that you so desperately love them.
That you love them so much that you came to this earth 2000 years ago to die on the cross for their sin.
To shed your blood for their sin.
To be the atoning sacrifice for their sin.
That through faith in you they would be forgiven.
Washed clean.
Set free.
To become unaccusable by the devil.
And so while we're praying with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you want to receive Jesus this morning, if God is speaking to your heart, you know you need to receive him because you never have.
Maybe you've come to church, maybe you've read the Bible here, but you've never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Just where you're seated right now, I just want you to raise your hand and say, I need to receive Jesus this morning.
I need to be saved.
God bless you on the side.
Anybody else?
God is speaking to you this morning.
I see you in the back.
Both of you.
Anybody else? God is pulling on your heart right now.
You know he's speaking to you and you need to receive this.
Because I guarantee the devil is fighting to kill you before you get the opportunity.
If you want to receive Jesus, say, just raise your hand where I can see it and I'm going to pray with you.
God bless you in the middle.
Anybody else?
All right, if you're watching online and God is speaking to your heart, obviously I can't see you.
But if you want to receive Jesus, just shoot a note into the chat real quick and say, I want to receive Jesus Christ.
Anybody else before we pray?
All right, for those of you that are receiving Jesus this morning, I want you to just pray this prayer with me.
There's no specific magic in the words, right?
It's not the words you say.
It's the meaning in your heart.
But I want to lead you in this prayer of confessing your sin and receiving Jesus.
And so pray with me.
Say, Jesus, I know I've sinned against you.
I know I've broken your law.
I've listened to the devil for too long.
I've heard his lies for too long.
I don't believe his lies anymore.
God, I believe in the truth of your word.
I believe in the truth of the gospel.
I believe you died for me.
I believe you shed your blood for me.
I receive it.
Thank you for loving me so much.
Thank you for giving me the hope of heaven.
Help me, Lord, to tell people about what you've done in my life.
Help me, Lord, to endure for you.
I love you.
It's in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
For those of you that prayed that prayer, God bless you.
Welcome to the family of Christ.
If you prayed online, God bless you.
You know, this is a relationship that you have embarked on with God, your creator, right?
The devil's going to keep attacking you.
You don't think that's going to stop, right?
But now you can just say, step off, bro.
I don't need to listen to you, all right?
The Holy Spirit now indwells you as the Bible promises.
You are filled with the Holy Spirit of promise.
And we want to help you on this journey, this relationship you've just started.
So at the front here on the pews or in the back as you're leaving today,
we have what's called a new believer's packet, okay?
I encourage you to get one of those.
It has a bunch of resources in there to help you on this relationship you've started.
There's worship resources.
There's scripture resources.
There's all kinds of stuff in there.
If you're online and you received Christ today and you want to get one of our new believer's packets,
just let us know.
Our chat moderators will connect with you privately.
Or you could email us through our website and we'll mail it out to you.
We're so blessed to be able to help you in this.
But guys, the time is short.
And we are called to redeem the time.
Now, we still have time until His tribulation comes.
But that doesn't mean we should take our foot off the gas and wait.
If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have a testimony that He has changed you.
Tell people about that.
And I believe God is going to use that testimony to stir up hearts that they, too, would come to know Him as well.
Amen?
All right, God bless you guys. Let's worship.