In the sermon 'Fed in the Wilderness,' Scott Brown explores Revelation 12, emphasizing its depiction of the historical conflict between God and Satan. The chapter illustrates a cyclical pattern of God's actions and Satan's counterattacks, highlighting God's ultimate victory. Brown discusses the role of Michael the Archangel, who defends God's people in a spiritual war against the devil. The sermon emphasizes three ways to defeat the devil: through the blood of the Lamb, the word of testimony, and loving God more than life itself. Brown draws parallels between the church's wilderness experience and the Israelites' journey in the desert, underscoring the sustaining power of God's Word. He warns against attributing too much power to the devil, reminding believers of God's sovereignty and the need to fear unbelief more than any earthly threat. The sermon concludes with an encouragement to trust in God's ultimate control and to remain steadfast in faith, even amidst trials and government overreach.

And please open your Bibles to Revelation 12, the inerrant, all-sufficient word of truth. But before I read, I want to make a few comments about how this chapter reads. It's very important that we see the flow. It really is a flow of the back and forth of history. And this chapter is designed to give the church a sense of history in the midst of the pressure, in the midst of the tyranny, the attacks of the red fiery dragon.

And the chapter is arranged, it's very neatly to display what's going on. And it flows back and forth. A statement is made of what God is doing and then how Satan reacts and then what God is doing and then how Satan reacts and what you find here in this chapter is God keeps putting the devil back on his heels that serpent of old he continues to strike back and you see this five times in this passage and so I'm going to coach you through it as I read it so we'll begin in verse 1 our focus this morning will be on verses 7 to the end but I want to begin at the beginning so you can see the structure of this passage. It starts with God sending his son. Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

Then being with child she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth and then there's a counter attack of the devil. This fiery dragon has poised himself to devour the child. Verse 3, and another sign appeared in heaven, behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his head. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born and then back the victory of God. The woman successfully gives birth to the ruler of all the nations who will rule with a rod of iron.

Verse 5, she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there 1, 260 days. And then the counterattack of the devil in verse 7, this war between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought and then God's victory over the dragon in verse 12 but they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer so the great dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.

He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to the death therefore rejoice oh heavens and you who dwell in them Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." and then the counterattack of the devil. Now when the, verse 13, now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child and then God's victory in verse 14. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent.

And then the encounter attack, the serpent spews water to destroy the church, to wash her away. Verse 15. So The serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. And then the victory of God under control of nature. Verse 16, but the earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth and then the counter-attack of the devil and by the way this continues on into the next chapter We won't cover it today verse 17 and the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the ruler of all nations, the one who has dominion from sea to sea. Lord, We praise you for your great plans. We thank you for your waging war against this evil one. We thank you for your victory.

We pray also, Lord, that you would teach us how to be faithful as times change. Amen. Please be seated. So this chapter obviously takes us back to the earliest chapters in Genesis to the fall of man and the releasing of David, the war against the seed of the woman, which we read about in Genesis, God's victory in that war. And chapter 12 actually describes God's preservation of his people while the red and fiery dragon with the seven heads and the ten horns attempts to wash the sheep away by this tsunami of his evil lies.

You remember his ten horns represent his brutal authority, his seven heads represent his vile lies that he tells mankind. And so this this chapter tells the church how to survive the onslaughts of the fury of the devil and it also gives us perspective and of course as you've seen already this follows the familiar pattern in Revelation that speaks the truth in symbols, in metaphors, and you see a number of these metaphors here. And of course this also is the beginning of the second half of the book of Revelation. And chapter 12 begins another interlude. We've encountered these before where you have the seal judgments and there's an interlude and then the trumpet judgments and then there's an interlude.

And now this is an interlude that stands in between the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments that come later on. This section runs all the way to chapter 15, verse four. And again, I don't believe this is chronological. I believe these are cyclical pictures of history that all end in the second coming. And we find that same cycle here in this situation here.

And again just to repeat the hermeneutical principles first this is a revelation of Jesus Christ. Look for Christ. Look for his glory, his victory, his sacrifice. It's all over this passage. And then second, the passages should be interpreted by looking back at the Old Testament imagery.

There are over 500 allusions in the 22 chapters of revelation to the Old Testament. And if you want to interpret revelation, you ought to look back, not necessarily forward. And again, this is theology in pictures. It's beautiful, it helps even the youngest of us to understand sound doctrine. And you have various doctrines here you have demonology you have ecclesiology you have Christology you have angel ology all packed into this one chapter so in the first six verses that we covered last week was sort of the framing of this war and the players in this war and what they do.

And they really are characterized by brutal authority and lies represented by the ten horns and the seven heads of this dragon. So now we pick up in verse seven. So follow with me here. You have, we begin in verse seven after a declaration of the victory of Christ, we pick up a counterattack of the devil. Again, we're in this back and forth cycle in this chapter.

And there's a war in heaven. So look at verse seven, and war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought. So there's a constant war going on in heaven and who is fighting? Well it's God's angels and the devil's angels, Michael for God and the dragon for his own interest of evil.

It's very interesting whenever you encounter Michael the archangel in the Bible he's he's always defending God's people. If you saw him, he would take your breath away, and that's what he wants to do. He wants to defend God's people. And you see pictures of this, particularly in Daniel chapter 10, we encounter Michael who came to Daniel. Daniel was distressed.

He was so disturbed about what was going on around him there in Babylon and I'll read Babylon I'll read Daniel 10 12 and he said to me Michael do not fear Daniel for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God Your words were heard and I have come because of your words." Daniel was praying, he was crying out to God because of the trouble that he was experiencing. Verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days and behold Michael, one of the chief angels, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia." So this is a picture of that war being waged in the seventh century BC. In Jude 9 we learn that Michael contended for the body of Moses, but this this is a war that is always taking place and is taking place right now and it affects us here in the same way that Daniel was affected. There are times when you face trouble, stress, worry, and it's related to this war that's going on in heaven. The Apostle Paul explained it to us so clearly though in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 where he said, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age.

And listen to this, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So you're living in wartime in this world, and that's why the apostle says in verse 13 to that church in Ephesus, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. In other words, you can stand if you take up the whole armor of God. We're not victims of this war that's going on in heaven. And then in verse eight, the scene shifts to God's victory over the devil and this war that's taking place.

And the Lord defeats the dragon. Now this runs from verses eight through 11, but I'd like to walk through this section where the Lord is exercising his authority. And in verse eight, and they did not prevail, the forces of darkness, Nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer So the great dragon was cast out that serpent of old Called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. So the question arises, when did this happen? Did it happen in eternity past, which is reflected in Isaiah chapter 14 and in Ezekiel?

Was it at the cross? Was it at the second coming? And I wanna suggest to you that I rather think he is speaking about the victory over the devil at the cross and at the at the second coming and it in John 12 31 refers to this defeat at the cross now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out and Jesus Christ is talking about his death and his resurrection. In Hebrews 2 14 We learned that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So I think what we can say is yes the devil was cast out of heaven as reflected in Isaiah 14 but Satan was defeated at the cross and yet it has not been completely and fully carried out.

This is the idea that he has been defeated already in particular ways and constrained in many, many ways, but not yet finally. He will be finally taken care of at the end of the at the end of the age at the second coming of Jesus Christ so yes Satan is cast down he has been cast down in various ways throughout redemptive history. What you need to know about Satan is this. God is always pushing him around. And he was disarmed at the cross and he'll finally be destroyed at the second coming and he's described as the serpent of old the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world that is his work he's he's doing these two things He's deceiving the whole world on the one hand, that's why the world is full of lies, but he's also roving about in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8, he roams about the earth seeking whom he may devour.

He is seeking to devour and he is deceiving people. Those are his two great activities. And of course, Ephesians 6 tells us that this is a spiritual war but Colossians 2.8 tells us it's an ideological war where the Apostle tells that church beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. In 2 Corinthians 10.3, it tells us that it's a moral war against the flesh. And 1st, 2nd Corinthians 10.5, we learn that it's a theological war against God's law.

So he is a serpent, verse nine. He is the serpent of old. You know, there are not that many people who like snakes and there's probably a reason for that. But this serpent first appears in Genesis 3 verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? So this is the red fiery dragon, and his agents are involved, his angels are involved in this spiritual war. It says here that he is a great dragon we should recognize that. I think we should think in a balanced way about that he is very powerful but he's not all powerful. The Bible tells us greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

And it's an error that people often fall into when they interpret every hardship, every difficult thing that happens to them, to the devil, and they want to say the devil did it as if the devil does everything that is bad. They actually give the devil too much credit and they tend to believe in the sovereignty of the devil. And there's a danger in attributing too much power to the devil. You know, even Luther said the devil is God's devil. You know, Erwin Lutzer wrote a book under that title as well.

I understand it's a very good book. But the devil is, and I don't know how to explain this, serving God's purposes. This is one of the great conundrums of all men and women to try to understand the sovereignty of God and the work of the devil and how it all relates to one another. But let's be very clear, the devil is not omniscient, the devil is not omnipresent, and the devil is not omnipotent because God is moving him, God is pushing him around in the world. And so in some ways we ought to be able to sort of get above the clouds and not worry about things too much when you know that God is pushing the devil around the world.

He is roving around, but only with God's permission. He is called the devil, diabolos. He is the diabolical one. He separates, he seduces. He's an adversary, particularly an adversary of your soul.

He is called Satan. The word actually means to obstruct and to accuse. I think there's an illustration of this where the Lord told Peter that the devil was gonna sift him like wheat, but he would be prayed for. He's called the deceiver. He deceives the whole world.

He's the liar from the beginning. And 2 Corinthians 4, we learn that he blinds the eyes of the unbeliever. When you're talking to an unbeliever, you just have to realize if they can't see, if they can't hear the gospel, their eyes have been blinded and but the gospel is powerful and we should continue to speak it. He's in verse 10 here in this passage, he's the accuser of the brethren. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down." Now this is one of the most encouraging verses in the Bible.

Have you ever felt beaten down? Have you ever felt hopeless under the accusations of the devil? Even you come to the Lord's Supper and you say, I'm not worthy for this. And like the song says, his accusations fly. And they'll fly into your head, into your heart and every part of your body.

It's very interesting, this dragon, you notice what he does. He accuses the sheep and he flatters the goats. That's what he does. But what this tells us is that God has no ear for his accusations against the believer. God does not hear the accusations of the devil.

Now we hear them in our heads, we hear them on earth, And the problem with his accusations for us is that we know that his accusations are not baseless. We are sinners. We fall short of the glory of God. But the devil goes a step further. His accusations are slanderous, they're divisive, they're twisted and they're laced with lies.

Even though some of the things that are contained in his accusations are true, the God is rejecting them because the Lord Jesus Christ, the defender of sinners has risen up and Jesus Christ's death on the cross and the heart that says Lord I believe in you I follow you. This spells the end of the accusation and the accuser has been struck a death knell. And what a wonderful thing. And the devil will no longer be able to accuse you before God. He'll accuse you before man, he'll accuse you before your own conscience, but he will not be able to accuse you before God.

God's ears are shut to his accusations. You know, in a few minutes we're going to celebrate the Lord's Table. The Lord's Table spells the end of accusations. It should be the happiest moment of the day, really, just to recognize that all of the guilt and shame has been lifted off of your shoulders and has been put on Jesus Christ forever, and he's not hearing the accusations that ring in your head. What a blessing that is.

You know I recall a story of Martin Luther. One night he had a dream. He says he didn't know if it was a real interaction with Satan or whether it was a dream but he he pictures Satan in the dead of night unrolling a scroll and the devil is reading the list of his sins. You know every impatient word, every lie, every lust and Luther interrupts him and he says think harder you forgot some And Luther spoke some of his secret sins that no one knows about, having feelings and thoughts that he never really acted upon. And so Satan adds these to the list.

And Luther then declared, now write these words across your list. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses me from all my sin. And Luther says that Satan slipped away, defeated by the blood of the Lamb. So, along the same lines Luther wrote, so when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death in hell, tell him this, I admit that I deserve death in hell. What of it?

For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where he is, there I shall be also." So maybe you want to write that across the accusations that fly here on the Lord's Day, the day of delight to celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of the cross, to rescue from your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. What a joy it is to believe in the gospel and you just see such such a defense of the soul of man in God. He's defending you. He is your advocate and that's why he said who will bring a charge against God's elect.

It is God who justifies. Who is it who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ I love this phrase Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Come on, come on, who who's going to do that? Well the devil the devil does that and so in verse 11 you find that the devil is defeated by the blood of the lamb, and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Now, this is a very interesting verse because it states really clearly a truth about the defeat of the devil and how you relate to that defeat of the devil personally. And there are three things that he says that the devil has been defeated by and the first is the blood of the lamb the first mark of the defeat of the devil is the blood of the lamb And this is our safety from wrath because of our justification. So, have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? Have your sins been forgiven? Did you used to be far off but now you're brought near?

Do you love his laws? Do you want to follow him with your whole heart. Do you have fellowship with God? Do you walk with the Lord? You have no defense against the devil without the blood of the lamb.

This victory over Satan is by the blood, just very, very clearly. And this blood of the lamb shuts the mouth of the accusing dragon. And so, it's so important that we know where we have placed our hope for the future. You know, can science save man from the wrath of God? Can man's intellect save man from the wrath of God?

Can your morality save you from the wrath of God? Well, the answer is no. You know, some people think that a vaccine will save them from the wrath of God but there's no medicine, there's nothing in this world that can save you from the wrath of God except the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's why Jesus said, do not fear man who kills the body. Fear him who can cast your body and your soul into hell unless you repent and believe in the gospel, the protections of the blood of the lamb cannot and never will be yours.

And so this is such a wonderful encouragement to turn to Jesus Christ. And if you have just a glory in his grace toward you. What a wonderful thing. So the second way to defeat the devil is by the word of their testimony And this is the testimony of the saints to the Word of God. The testimony about Jesus Christ.

This is the preaching of the gospel. The devil is defeated by the preaching of the gospel. And when we proclaim that Jesus Christ came to save sinners and that his sacrifice atones for the sins of sinners then we are involved in this matter of defeating the words, the works of the devil, and we proclaim there's only one Savior, and we proclaim that there's only one authority, and we proclaim that one savior on the authority of that one authority, the word of God. This, I believe, is a declaration of the power of the Word of God to sustain you in the midst of times of trial and the the lies of this dragon and his abuse of authority you cleave to the Word of God the best thing you can do in any time when the devil is on the move in your nation or in your town or in your life is to turn to the Word of God, turn to the Word of the testimony. The devil is defeated by the Word of God.

Luther said the devil fears the Word of God, he can't bite it, it breaks his teeth. And to find ourselves saturated with the testimony is the best thing that we can do in times when the mountains are moving and the sand is shifting in your nation or in your company or in anything as we're seeing even today. But our testimony from the Word of God is that your defeated soul can be made new. It's that your chains can be removed. That's our testimony.

But it's based on the Word of God. And so here we just find the end of guilt, we find the end of despair over our sins and really the beginning of hope. The third way to defeat the devil is also declared here. They did not love their lives to the death. Now he's referring to the heart that loves God and they loved God more than their earthly lives and you know some of you have been in law enforcement, but when you're facing somebody who doesn't fear death, that's facing somebody that's a little bit different.

And The church has been called by God not to fear death, not to fear man, not to fear nations, not to fear anyone. And fearlessness sets you free to speak the truth and wage the war by declaring the testimony of God and his word and you defeat the devil. He's talking here about those who could not be bribed with money to save their skin, they could not be lured by social acceptability to save their skin, and they would rather die than dishonor the Lord, than disobey him in any way. And so you have this principle that we've encountered before in the Word of God in this church and that is that a fearless people are always a free people. A fearless people are always a free people.

You know David said, I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. So what should we fear the most? What we should fear the most is unbelief. What we should fear the most is lukewarmness. What we should fear is not loving God with our whole heart.

What we should fear is loving the world. What we should fear is having a divided heart. What we should fear is not loving God with our whole heart. What we should fear is loving the world. What we should fear is having a divided heart.

What we should fear is not caring about the things of God, not caring about the people of God, not caring about the Church of God, being dispassionate about the Word of God and the worship of God. You should fear that more than anything else in the world. Don't fear man. Fear a lukewarm heart more than anything else. And the Word of God makes it clear that treating lightly the Word of God can cause an unendurable heaviness in your soul for all eternity and this is true of religious people who go to church the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to men like that he said many of you many of you will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in your name?

Cast out demons in your name? Performed many wonders in your name? They're saying look we were good people. We were religious people and Jesus says depart from me I never knew you. You know you don't want to hear those words but these they did not love their lives to the death and then in verse 12 there's this rejoicing for this condition of souls of those who were washed in the blood of the Lamb who were bearing witness to the word of God and the testimony and they did not love their lives to death.

Well, rejoicing in verse 12, therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short time so the devil knows he has a short time, the devil knows the scriptures the devil might know the scriptures better than most of us He knows that his time is short and so the devil actually has historical perspective. Think about that. For 6, 000 years the devil has known that his days are numbered. That's probably why the devil is so vile, is he knows that he is, he's a loser. Consider his psyche.

He has the worst self-image because of his state. In fact, he, in the Gospels, the demons say to Jesus, have you come to torment us before the time? They said that in anguish. So then after this picture of victory in verses 8 through 12, then we come to another shift in the scene. The dragon continues to persecute the church and the male child.

So you have this counter attack. Now When the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. So the dragon is persecuting the church. The devil always wants to cancel the church, make Christians look foolish, and to belittle them and to sequester them. But just like they have in Turkey, Christians can only live in four cities in the country of Turkey.

He wants them contained and the devil will continue to work to contain the church in one way or another. And then the scene shifts again in verse 14 to the victory of God. The church is actually lifted on eagles wings and brought to a safe place, But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. So the church is flown into the wilderness on eagles wings to be protected and to be fed there for time, times, and half a time. I believe that has to do with the church age.

And they're correlated with other numbers that are consistent with that. But, you know, this reminds us of the wilderness wanderings where the children of Israel were actually carried into the wilderness to be protected from the abuses of Pharaoh. And there, God fed him in the wilderness. And God actually, in the book of Exodus, tells why the difficulty in Egypt and Why did he have them in the desert? So that you would know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And again, we come to this sustaining power, this sustaining grace While you're in difficult times. It's the word of God It's the word of God that sustains you run to the word of God You know if you're discouraged about what's going on run to the word of God don't run to the news run to God and recognize that man does not live by bread alone. Isaiah chapter 40 tells us that we're carried on eagles wings, the youth are carried on eagles wings. And then the scene shifts again in verse 15, the counter attack of the devil and the serpent, he spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by a flood. What an amazing image.

What a theological picture of what the devil is doing by blowing his evil eyes and smoke and defiling propositions around the world to try to sweep the church away. It's such an amazing image. And then the scene shifts again in chapter 16. So this tsunami of filth is washing over the world to try to destroy the church and what happens? But the earth helped the woman, the earth helped the church.

Well, the earth, this is my father's world, you remember that. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth." Now in Revelation what comes out of the mouth indicates power, you know, and that's what this indicates here. In Revelation 1 John sees a sharp sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus indicating his power in in the previous chapter in chapter 11 God's servants have power coming out of their mouths like fire I don't think is literal fire It's it's really the power of the word of God later on in Revelation 16 The deceiving spirits come out of the mouth of the dragon like and they're and they're signified with frogs Coming out of the mouth of the dragon. Oh my But the earth the earth here is used by God to protect the saints. The earth, the world that God has made.

The earth is on our side And you see this in many places in the Bible. Think of how God used plagues, natural disasters. In Egypt, he parts the Red Sea. He brings disasters. This was probably prefigured in the water that swallowed up the Egyptian army that was pursuing Israel.

Psalm 106 has this remarkable picture of how the earth, how nature saved the children of God as they were escaping Egypt. The earth swallowed up Korah and Dathan and Abiram in the rebellion against God's authority. God used the earth with those who opposed Moses and he swallowed them up. Swallowed them up. You know, think of how God used nature to drive out the Canaanites with hornets and lightning and thunder and think about how God spread a plague one night and 185, 000 Assyrian soldiers died on the battlefield at night.

And think of how the Lord protected the disciples. He rules the winds and the waves. He heals diseases and he uses an earthquake to spring his apostles out of jail. God uses the earth in different ways. Isaiah 43, two says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned nor shall the flame scorch you for I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your Savior." So Satan pours his flood of poison out into the world, his seven talking heads, his brutal authority, but they don't go as far as he wants because God controls the wind and the waves. And then the counterattack, this final counterattack in verse 17, the dragon is enraged against the saints and the dragon was enraged with the woman And he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So here in this chapter you recognize that the world is not a playground. It's a battleground and there's a war that's raging on.

Now the chapters ahead continue to unfold the details of what is introduced in verse 17. So Revelation 12 is a vivid reminder and I hope it's a reminder that it's going deep into your soul, if you're afraid of anything that these governments are doing, that God is dominating the world scene, even though it doesn't look like it on the surface. There's a back and forth cycle, and God is in control. And you might be threatened by your employer, you might be accused by an employee, you might be interrogated by a governor, you might be confronted by a friend, but you're not lost on what you should do. You know exactly what you should do, to sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts and God will give you an answer.

That's 1 Peter chapter three. Daniel 4.34 tells us that God has never been the underdog. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? The Lord Jesus Christ's words to his disciples are so consistent with this chapter. All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the earth." So God is through this chapter showing us the marvelous support that we have from heaven in the midst of a wicked and a perverse generation. And we see the devil and his devices all around us and we might feel alone but we're not and he feeds us in the wilderness in the place which he has prepared and we abide and trust in the blood of the lamb and the word of God is on our hearts and we don't fear man We love God and that is the greatest defense we'll ever know in a time of government overreaches, attacks by friends, attacks from the world and the flesh and the devil.

This is the Word of God. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Would you pray with me? Father, thank you for giving us a way to understand the world and to understand what's happening to us in our world even today. We recognize the challenges that are upon us as a nation.

Lord, I pray that you would bring all of these things to pass in the defeat of the dragon, as we've just read. Amen.