Christ and Satan
have a war going on.
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And we better
know what it's about,
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because we are
in the middle of it.
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In the book of
Revelation chapter 12 we get a
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fantastic picture, again
in symbols for the most part,
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of this great controversy,
this great fight, if you please,
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this great war
between Christ and Satan.
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And we really need to
know what it's all about.
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As the book
opens up in chapter 12,
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we get this marvelous scene.
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And so we want
to go to chapter 12
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and just listen to
what it has to say.
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Revelation 12:1-2 says, "Now a
great sign appeared in heaven."
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A great symbol in heaven.
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And then it says, "A
woman clothed with the sun..."
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Now that would be a
pretty good dress, wouldn't it?
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To be clothed with the sun?
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"...and the moon under her feet,
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and on her head a garland,"
or crown, "of twelve stars."
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Then it gives another picture
that's kind of interesting.
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So you have that
picture in your mind,
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this marvelously
dressed woman with the universe,
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if you please, the
lights of the universe.
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And then it says, "Then
she being with child..."
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Well that's interesting.
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"...and she cried out in labor
and in pain to give birth."
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So where does all
of this come from?
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Well let's flash back
again to the Garden of Eden.
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You know the story well
of the fall of Adam and Eve.
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And I think we referred to
it before in our series here
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that when Jesus
confronted Adam and Eve
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after the fall and He told
them what the consequences were,
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one thing that He
said to Satan and to Eve,
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and that was that Eve's
seed, the seed of the woman,
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would bruise the head of Satan
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and his evil
angels, if you please.
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I'm paraphrasing a little bit.
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But the seed of
Satan would bruise the heel
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of the seed of the woman.
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So now we have the
woman in symbolic form
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giving birth to the Messiah.
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That has been all
the hope all the way down
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through centuries of time till
Jesus appeared the first time,
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the Messiah would come.
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The Messiah that would
bring great hope to the world.
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And so this woman
represents God's church,
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both in one sense in its
Jewish form, and then of course
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by now in its Christian form.
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Because this has become,
in a sense, the new Israel.
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The church of God gives
birth to this man Child.
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She's in pain to give birth.
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Now in the book of Revelation,
there are many contrasts.
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And you have to
watch those contrasts
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because they're
very informative.
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There are two women in
the book of Revelation.
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One is here, clothed with
the lights of the universe,
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if you please, and then
there is the woman that shows up
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in Revelation chapter 17.
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And she practices adultery.
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Now we're not going to get
into the adulterous situation,
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but in contrast
they're both supposed to be
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faithful to the Lord.
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But as time goes through, that
time that we're moving through,
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one becomes
faithful and stays faithful,
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and the other
becomes unfaithful.
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So there's two women,
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and we're seeing the
faithful one right now.
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The other one, of course,
is dressed as an adulterous.
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And you can see that.
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This one is clothed with
the pure light of the sun.
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Now that sun I think
represents the glory of God
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and the beauty of Christ's
character and His goodness.
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She's also standing on the moon.
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Now what does a moon do?
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A moon reflects
the light of the sun.
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So the church on earth
that this woman represents,
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it should be reflecting the
wonderful character of Jesus.
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Some years ago there's a
little story about some people
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who became shipwrecked
and they were marooned
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on some unknown island,
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and they were
afraid for their lives.
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And so as they crept
ashore and they were kind of
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carefully trying
to see who was there,
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wondering if they might be
getting eaten by cannibals,
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they looked and suddenly
they saw the spire of a church.
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And then they all
relaxed and they said,
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"We're safe, we're safe."
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Why? Because
Christ changes people.
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He changes our character.
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And so this woman reflects
the marvelous, wonderful
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character of Jesus.
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That's why she's
standing on the moon.
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And she has a
crown of twelve stars,
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which the Bible says
are like the apostles.
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So she's faithful.
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She's faithful to the
teachings of the apostles.
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It's amazing to me nowadays
how people can take the clear
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teachings of Scripture
and just make them try to say
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anything they want them to
say to fit their own agenda.
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I was reading about a
minister the other day.
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I won't get into the subject
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because it's
kind of a hot potato.
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But I was amazed at
how he just moved Scripture
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around and twisted it
to fit some awful behavior.
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Why?
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Because people want
to do their own thing.
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They want to go their own way.
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And that, of course, is what
this controversy is all about.
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Now, she is pregnant with the
Son of God, in symbolic form.
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And now Satan shows
up, the great red dragon.
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Revelation 12:2-3.
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"Another sign
appeared in heaven:
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behold, a
great, fiery red dragon
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having seven
heads and ten horns,
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and seven diadems on his heads.
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Now this, of course,
is the enemy of Christ.
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And he hates this man
Child because he knows who He is
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that's getting ready to be born.
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"His tail drew a third
of the stars of heaven..."
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We're going to see a little bit
later in the book of Revelation
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how Michael and His
angels fought against the dragon
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and his angels.
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Stars are sometimes
symbolic of angels in heaven.
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This controversy in
heaven was so intense
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that a third, it
appears, of angels sided
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with the great
deceiver, Lucifer.
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And it says, "His tail drew
a third of the stars of heaven
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and threw them to the earth.
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And the dragon stood
before the woman who was
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ready to give
birth, to devour her Child
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as soon as He was born."
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And of course, we know
how Jesus was persecuted.
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We know what
happened on Calvary's cross.
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But we thank God that Satan
was not able to keep Jesus here.
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Jesus lived that perfect life.
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The grave cannot
hold an innocent man.
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And He was resurrected,
so He's caught up to heaven,
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as the text goes on.
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Well this great red
dragon is that old serpent
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that was in the Garden of Eden.
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Only he's on steroids
with seven heads and ten horns.
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And I know this is
going to sound a little odd,
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but this great red dragon is
actually threatened by the woman
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and her child.
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He's threatened by them.
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Well, he should be.
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If you'll remember, in
the wilderness of temptation
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when Jesus met the
devil, and He met them with the
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temptations, or the devil
met Him with the temptations,
00:08:08.85\00:08:11.72
the last temptation shows
how desperate the devil was.
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And this was a
mighty victory for Jesus;
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overcoming these
three temptations.
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They're the same temptations,
by the way, that we all face.
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But the devil, in one
last desperate attempt,
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says to Jesus, "Look,
I'll give you all of the world
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and its kingdoms.
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You don't have to go through
the suffering of the cross.
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I'll just give them to you.
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Of course, there's
a little condition.
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If you just fall
down and worship me."
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Of course Jesus repulsed him.
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He says, "Get
away from Me, Satan.
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Go away.
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Get!" as He said.
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"Get out of here."
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Because He said,
quoting from Deuteronomy,
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He said that, "Man shall
worship the Lord God only,
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and shall only serve Him."
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My paraphrase.
00:09:03.57\00:09:05.07
So worship and
service go together.
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What Jesus really
said to Satan, He says,
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"No, I'm not going
to get the kingdoms of
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this world by worshiping you."
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It was a false gift anyway
because the one you worship
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is the one you serve.
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Jesus said, "No,
I'm not going to get the
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kingdoms of this world.
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I'm going to get them.
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Yes, it's going to
cost Me pain and suffering,
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and a great, deep, dark journey,
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but I'm going to get
them, not by worshiping you,
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but by your eviction."
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So this battle has been locked.
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And we're seeing
it played out here.
00:09:39.07\00:09:41.18
So we come now to
Revelation 12:7-9.
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"And war broke out in heaven."
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War in heaven?
00:09:53.39\00:09:54.92
Sounds odd, doesn't it?
00:09:54.96\00:09:56.39
Heaven should be a place
of peace, and tranquility,
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and joy, and happiness.
00:10:00.50\00:10:02.63
But let me tell you this.
00:10:03.30\00:10:04.63
As we get into
this great controversy
00:10:04.67\00:10:06.43
and what it's really all about,
00:10:06.47\00:10:08.10
it's all about
selfishness, covetousness.
00:10:09.20\00:10:13.34
Any time you get
people who are coveting,
00:10:13.54\00:10:15.84
any time you get
people who are selfish,
00:10:15.94\00:10:18.05
you're going to get conflict,
you're going to get war.
00:10:18.25\00:10:21.92
The only way that
peace can be in the universe
00:10:22.12\00:10:25.15
is for all of us to have
a heart of unselfish love.
00:10:25.39\00:10:29.49
I'm looking
forward to that new earth
00:10:29.52\00:10:31.49
when we are going to live
in a society of unselfish love.
00:10:31.53\00:10:35.53
I've got a whole program,
we're going to talk about
00:10:35.56\00:10:37.93
that new earth and heaven,
and what it's going to be like.
00:10:38.03\00:10:41.07
As I used to tell people,
I'd show them a wonderful
00:10:41.30\00:10:44.04
book called, The
Great Controversy,
00:10:44.07\00:10:45.54
as I was going through
school, I used to tell them,
00:10:45.57\00:10:48.58
"You know, if you miss heaven,
you've missed everything."
00:10:48.61\00:10:52.55
Well back to
this great red dragon.
00:10:52.91\00:10:55.68
Jesus, of course,
is caught up to heaven,
00:10:55.98\00:10:57.79
and now he takes out his
rage on this woman, the church.
00:10:57.82\00:11:01.59
But now there's a
flashback in history
00:11:01.79\00:11:04.23
to this war in heaven.
00:11:04.26\00:11:05.73
So let's finish
Revelation 12:7-9.
00:11:06.43\00:11:09.56
"Michael and his
angels fought with the dragon;
00:11:09.60\00:11:12.60
and the dragon and
his angels fought..."
00:11:12.63\00:11:15.07
Now I think Michael
here, I don't have time to
00:11:15.17\00:11:17.07
show it to you from Scripture,
Michael here is a picture
00:11:17.31\00:11:21.18
of Jesus who is
the head of the angels.
00:11:21.21\00:11:23.14
Now I want to hasten to add this
so that nobody misunderstands.
00:11:23.18\00:11:26.48
Jesus is not a created being.
00:11:26.51\00:11:28.62
He always has
been. He is the Almighty.
00:11:28.65\00:11:31.02
He is from
everlasting to everlasting.
00:11:31.12\00:11:33.56
But sometimes He takes on
the roll of the head angel,
00:11:34.19\00:11:38.36
the chief angel, the one
who is in charge of the angels.
00:11:38.39\00:11:42.53
And I think that's
the picture that's here.
00:11:42.63\00:11:44.63
Michael, the face of God.
That's what the name means.
00:11:44.97\00:11:48.27
"Michael and his
angels fought with the dragon;
00:11:48.30\00:11:51.34
and his angels fought..."
00:11:51.37\00:11:52.71
In other words, this
deception became so powerful.
00:11:52.74\00:11:55.74
Satan is cunning.
00:11:55.78\00:11:57.15
Listen, if he can deceive a
third of the angels of heaven,
00:11:57.51\00:12:00.38
you and I need the
help of the Lord Jesus.
00:12:00.42\00:12:03.35
We need His help.
00:12:03.45\00:12:04.79
We need His power.
00:12:04.82\00:12:06.15
"...but they did not
prevail, nor was a place
00:12:07.06\00:12:10.36
found in heaven
for them any longer.
00:12:10.39\00:12:13.60
So the great dragon, the
red dragon, was cast out,
00:12:16.87\00:12:20.87
that serpent of old,
called the Devil and Satan,
00:12:20.90\00:12:24.07
who deceives the world; he
was cast out to the earth..."
00:12:24.11\00:12:27.51
And that's why
we're in the middle of it.
00:12:27.54\00:12:30.35
"...and his angels
were cast out with him."
00:12:31.38\00:12:35.08
What about this war in heaven?
00:12:35.65\00:12:37.19
The Bible gives us
some other glimpse of it.
00:12:37.22\00:12:39.55
And the book of Isaiah gives
us a picture of what's going on
00:12:39.69\00:12:42.96
here under the
symbol of Lucifer.
00:12:42.99\00:12:46.39
And it starts off
with those sad words.
00:12:46.43\00:12:49.03
Lucifer,
meaning, the light-bearer,
00:12:49.06\00:12:51.23
the covering cherub.
00:12:51.63\00:12:53.27
It starts off with those words,
"How are you fallen from heaven,
00:12:53.47\00:12:58.21
O Lucifer, son of the morning."
00:12:58.41\00:13:00.71
It sounds like Jeremiah
in his book of Lamentations
00:13:00.74\00:13:03.55
talking about
the fall of Israel.
00:13:03.58\00:13:06.11
How could you fall?
How could this happen?
00:13:06.15\00:13:09.48
How could war be
introduced into heaven?
00:13:09.52\00:13:13.09
"How are you cut
down to the ground,
00:13:13.79\00:13:16.76
that did weaken the nations!"
00:13:16.79\00:13:18.79
How could all of this happen?
00:13:18.83\00:13:20.50
Let me tell you,
sin is a terrible thing.
00:13:20.53\00:13:22.96
Sin has consequences.
00:13:23.16\00:13:25.13
You know, in our world today,
00:13:25.23\00:13:26.57
we just take sin
kind of lightly, you know.
00:13:26.60\00:13:28.34
"Oh, so what, you know.
00:13:28.37\00:13:29.77
I sinned, okay. Jesus,
thank You, forgive me."
00:13:29.80\00:13:31.64
Sin is a terrible thing.
00:13:31.74\00:13:33.74
Thank God for the
forgiveness of Jesus.
00:13:33.78\00:13:36.14
But it cost Jesus terribly
to be able to forgive our sins.
00:13:36.41\00:13:41.35
No, sin has consequences.
00:13:41.58\00:13:43.55
And Jesus is in the business
of getting it out of our life.
00:13:43.65\00:13:48.06
We'll be back to talk
about the war in heaven.
00:13:48.39\00:13:52.13