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[0:00] We have some unfinished business with Revelation chapter 12, and the first portion of it was devoted to Mother's Day yesterday, and we talked about the ultimate mother. Today is the ultimate mother, part two.

[0:16] This is a very, very strategic chapter. Actually, chapter 12 of Revelation is a kind of composite view of the whole life and ministry of Christ dating back even to the time preceding his incarnation, and it is all packaged here in chapter 12 in ways that I'm afraid many people do not recognize.

[0:43] But chapter 12 contains several significant features. One, it is inserted as an explanation for the rule and reign of Christ and an abbreviated version of the scope that is involved.

[0:59] You'll recall in chapter 11, which we studied earlier, the Hallelujah Chorus was taken from a verse there, and it describes the rule and the reign of Christ as having already begun.

[1:12] And we pointed out to you that this is in light of the fact that we serve a God who calls things that are not as though they are, and with him everything is all wrapped up.

[1:23] There is no past, present, or future. And in that regard, Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world before there was ever an incarnation in Bethlehem.

[1:34] So we have a kind of looking ahead in chapter 11, but chapter 12 provides us with the basis of how that rule and reign of Christ is all going to come about, and the source of his principal opposition, which will be none other than Satan himself.

[1:53] And if you will look at your bulletin then, the paragraph that is devoted there. In our last session, Mother's Day, we explored the extensive background of the nation of Israel.

[2:08] Several biblical mothers demonstrated heroism deserving of ongoing recognition. Briefly, we considered Eve, Mrs. Noah, Sarah, and Rebecca from the Old Testament.

[2:21] Each was a strategic contributor in the plan and program of God. And, of course, we would have to add to that Mary, the mother of our Lord, but that is found in the New Testament.

[2:33] Each of these was a strategic contributor in the plan and program of God. Israel remains the focus of Revelation chapter 12, which we expect to conclude today.

[2:46] We will see how the ultimate mother is confronted by the ultimate adversary. It is all an utterly astounding thing that will take place early into the second half of the seven-year period of tribulation.

[3:03] This is as miracle-laden and extraordinary as one can imagine. So, we will engage chapter 12 with the intent of concluding it this morning.

[3:15] We're going to ask Gary to come and read for us. And let us stand, if we may, as we read the Word of God from Revelation chapter 12. Let's stand. Good morning.

[3:33] Good morning.

[4:03] Good morning.

[4:33] Good morning.

[5:02] Good morning.

[5:27] Good morning. And there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

[5:50] He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come.

[6:10] For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony.

[6:29] And they did not love their life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.

[6:42] Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.

[6:56] And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could 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 servant.

[7:27] And the serpent poured water like a river out of the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

[7:41] But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river, which the dragon poured out of his mouth.

[7:54] So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

[8:13] Thank you. Be seated, please. This entire portion has to do with the second half of the tribulation period. And before we get underway with some comments in chapter 12, I want to make an observation.

[8:29] It's important that you understand, if you look at verse 6, look at verse 6, we have 1,260 days.

[8:41] And then, if you look at verse 14, we have at the end of the verse, a time, and times, and half a time.

[8:53] And then, if you will come down to chapter 13, and verse 5, at the end of that verse, we have 42 months.

[9:04] All three of these time references refer to the same calendar period, the same time. It is 1,260 days.

[9:15] It is also 42 months. And it is also a time, times, and a half a time, or three and a half. This is a very strategic number.

[9:26] It occupies the second half of the 70th week of Daniel, which consists of a total of seven years. And there is a great deal that is going to happen at the interim, or at the halfway point of this three and a half years.

[9:43] This is the time that Jesus is speaking at, when we will address it later in Matthew 24, when he says to the disciples, When you, Israel, see the abomination of desolation, stand in the holy place, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, then flee to the mountains.

[10:03] If you're on the housetop, don't go down into the house to take out any precious belongings. Just leave. Get out. Quickly. Now. If you're out in the field, don't go home to pick up anything.

[10:17] Just run for your life. This is a crisis that is going to develop midway of this tribulation period, when the Antichrist reveals himself for who he really is, and a wanted poster is going to go out for the entire Jewish nation.

[10:36] It will be an open season on the Jewish people. They are referred to as a remnant. Out of 100% of the Jewish people in the world who will enter this time of seven years tribulation, only one-third of them will survive.

[11:00] Two-thirds will be destroyed. Adolf Hitler succeeded in destroying one-third of the number of the Jewish people in the world during World War II.

[11:16] The Antichrist is going to succeed in destroying two-thirds of the Jews who will be alive during this tribulation period.

[11:26] It will be a time of horrendous holocaust that will make the holocaust of World War II pale by comparison. This is all coming, and it is stipulated right here in as plain a language as possible, and we want to just briefly look at it.

[11:44] We've identified a number of women whom we have suggested in connection with Mother's Day, but it wouldn't have to be Mother's Day because these are stellar ladies anyway who deserve honorable mention and recognition, and they began with Mother Eve, and we pointed out to you that it was through woman that the fall came because of Eve's deception.

[12:08] But she redeemed herself because she bore the first child that would start the line that would result in a Messiah that would provide redemption for the entire race that she was responsible in bringing down.

[12:26] So it is through woman that the need for redemption is realized, and it is through woman that provision for redemption is realized, all within the sovereignty and the wisdom of God.

[12:39] We look just briefly, in addition to Eve, Mrs. Noah and Mrs. Shem, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, the wife of Jacob, and Rachel was also, of course, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.

[12:51] And if you look at Revelation 12, which was just read to you, you will note the description that is given here about this woman whom we describe as Israel.

[13:03] She is, the woman here is symbolic of the nation of Israel, and she has the sun for a garment and the moon under her feet, and that suggests subjection, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

[13:16] We pointed out to you in the past that biblical symbolism is very important, and the symbols mean one thing, and they are consistent all the way through. It isn't something that is up for grabs each time the symbol surfaces.

[13:31] And we pointed out to you that a star always signifies a principal player, a major individual who is involved in whatever it is that is being described.

[13:44] And we carry that over even into theater and drama because everybody knows that the star of the show is the principal player, the one that has their name first in the billing, starring, and then they put the name or her name or his name, whatever.

[14:05] And that's because that term has been assigned to principal players and whatever. And by the way, isn't it curious that we have now fifty stars in our flag?

[14:18] You know what that's saying? These fifty stars are the principal players in this nation, and each one of them is a state.

[14:30] And when we go to decorate our army officers, it is not, I think, coincidental that we have a gold bar for a second lieutenant, and a silver bar for a first lieutenant, and a pair of silver bars for a captain, and a gold leaf cluster for a major, and an oak leaf silver cluster for a lieutenant colonel, and we have an eagle for a full, what we call a bird colonel.

[15:06] But who gets the stars? The generals. Why do we call them generals? Because generally, they are the fighting force.

[15:18] They are the head. They are the principal players. Whether it's Eisenhower or Patton or whomever, we put stars on their shoulders. And the ones that we consider to be the most important and the most in charge, we even put five stars on them.

[15:35] George C. Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower were five-star generals, as well as Omar Bradley. And it is not coincidental that we put stars on them because they are indicated as the principal players.

[15:49] This concept goes all the way back. And angels are referred to a number of times as stars because angels are principal players in the plan and program of God.

[16:00] And they are going to become even more so with the remainder of the revelation that we have before us. So, the woman of Revelation 12 is the principal player on the entire planet of Earth.

[16:17] And that is Israel. And it is, I think, absolutely ironic that Israel itself does not fully realize that at all.

[16:31] And they are now set aside as a nation in judicial blindness because of their unbelief. They will once again be brought back into the center of attraction and they will be on the stage front and center as the principal player.

[16:47] And they will also be the principal target of the Antichrist. Because, you see, the Antichrist or Satan is not able to get at God himself.

[17:01] Simply cannot. So, he goes for those who belong to him. And they principally will be the Jewish people. Those whom he has chosen and given special significance to in ways that they themselves don't even understand today.

[17:19] But it will become much more apparent as we go on. I want you to look at something for just a moment because it is, I think, very significant. And if you will, just keep your place in Revelation 12 because we'll be back here.

[17:31] And come back with me, if you would please, to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31. And this is all in relation to Israel as a nation and God's plan and program for them.

[17:44] And they are, as I mentioned, the principal players on the planet when it comes to the plan and program of God. Jeremiah 31 and verse 15.

[17:57] And the reason Rachel is so strategic is because, you remember, Rachel is Jacob's wife. And she was the one that he really loved.

[18:08] He was married to Leah also, but Leah did not have the place in his heart that Rachel did. And Rachel is very, very significant because she is the mother.

[18:20] Even though she did not mother all 12 of the sons of Israel, she mothered actually only two, and that was Joseph and Benjamin. Nonetheless, she was the leading character in so far as Israel was concerned or Jacob was concerned.

[18:38] And you've got to remember that Jacob, out of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it's Jacob whose name was changed by God. And he changed his name to Israel, Prince of God.

[18:54] And out of all of the women, including Bildad and Zilpah and Leah and Rachel and the 12 sons plus daughters that were born of those four women, Jacob was the father of all of them.

[19:16] The only woman he really loved and cared about was Rachel. And that put her in a special position of prominence. So Rachel is going to be lionized as the mother of Israel in a special way.

[19:35] And look, if you will, at Jeremiah 31 and verse 15. Thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping.

[19:50] Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more.

[20:02] And why is it that they are no more? It's because this passage that Jeremiah wrote approximately 600 years before Jesus was ever born describes the time when the Babylonians are going to come into Israel and sack the city and burn it and carry off all of the treasures of the temple, rape the women, kill the men, and lead those that are left into captivity in Babylon, making them walk hundreds of miles to get there.

[20:36] It's going to be a tremendous amount of carnage, lots of people killed, lots of babies killed, Jewish babies. Rachel is here weeping for her children.

[20:49] Now, where is Rachel when these things were happening, when these children were being murdered by the enemy? Where was Rachel? She was long gone.

[21:00] She was dead and buried hundreds of years earlier. She's off the scene. Why is it that Jeremiah refers to this scene as Rachel is weeping for her children?

[21:11] Because he recognized that Rachel, out of all of the women, Rachel, being the wife of Jacob, and the twelve tribes that he fathered, has a very special place in the economy and heart of God for the Jewish people.

[21:27] Now, on your way back to Revelation, stop off, if you will, Matthew chapter two. I have related to you before, and so say I now again, that the Bible is its own best interpreter.

[21:41] In fact, the Bible is the only thing that is really competent to interpret itself, and it does so in a marvelous way. In Matthew chapter two, in verse thirteen, now when they departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.

[22:11] This, of course, is the baby Jesus. And he arose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. It was there until the death of Herod that was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Out of Egypt did I call my son.

[22:27] Then, when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs from two years old and under.

[22:43] According to the time which he had ascertained from the Magi. Now, we pointed out in the nine o'clock hour this morning in connection with the video that we showed, that these Mideastern people have a way of expressing brutality in horrendous ways.

[23:05] And this is no exception. This is an example. people. These people were absolutely brutal, ruthless, life was cheap under the rule and reign of these Romans.

[23:18] And Herod, Herod was not a Roman, but he was put on the throne by a Roman, by the Caesar in Rome. He was allowed to rule and reign. He was an Idumean.

[23:29] He was not a legitimate Jew at all. And as a result, when he heard that this so-called king of the Jews was born, well, he was the king, and he wasn't about to entertain any opposition, so he put out the word because of his paranoia, because of his ruthlessness, and just because he was one of the most evil individuals who ever lived, he ordered his men, his troops, to go out and locate all of the babies in that environment that were two years of age and under, to make sure that he gets the one who's supposed to be the king of the Jews.

[24:10] He apparently had no interest in trying to find the exact one or locate the one and eliminate him. That just shows you how ruthless and brutal this man was.

[24:21] Kill them all! Kill all of them! That way, I'll be sure to get him. But of course, we know that he didn't get him. They were advised to go into Egypt and flee, and there they did, and the Christ child was saved.

[24:38] And by the way, even in this, it ought not to be difficult at all to see satanic influence and involvement, because if anybody was in bed with the devil, it was Herod the Great.

[24:55] And look as the reference goes on. Verse 17, Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel, weeping for her children.

[25:15] There she is again. Now Rachel has been dead and buried an additional 600 years in addition to her being dead and buried back in Jeremiah.

[25:26] So she is long gone off the scene, and yet she is still referred to as the principal mother of weeping for the children of Israel.

[25:36] She refused to be comforted because they were no more. And if you've got a New American Standard Bible like I do, you may very well see that this is in bold print, verse 17 or verse 18 is in bold print, which indicates that it is a quote from the Old Testament, and then of course it gives you where the quote is taken from, and this thing is repeated again.

[25:57] This is the second time that Rachel, the composite mother, if you will, of the whole nation of Israel, this is Jewish womanhood in general, personified in the history of Rachel, who are weeping for their children.

[26:17] This is loud lamentation because all these baby boys, two years of age and under, were brutally executed, by soldiers of Herod as they broke into their homes, found the babies, put daggers to those little hearts, killed them right in front of the parents, and there is this loud lamentation of weeping that goes up, the crying, the bawling that only a mother bereft of her child can produce.

[26:47] And that's what he is talking about here. And this is in keeping with our passage back in Revelation 12, and if you will return to it, we will continue on. This dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, is going to surface again in chapter 13 and verse 1, and we will see he is identified conclusively as Satan.

[27:12] Ten heads, ten horns on his heads were seven diadems, and his tail, this is in the image, in the symbol, in the vision that John is seeing, this great dragon.

[27:26] It isn't described any further than that, but you've all seen artists' conceptions of dragons, and we can all agree on one thing, I think. They usually look green and very ugly, and maybe breathe fire and have a grotesque kind of appearance.

[27:41] And that's exactly what John is seeing in this image, in this symbol. And he says, his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven. Who are the stars of heaven? The stars of heaven are the principal players.

[27:55] These are angels. And this third is one third of the angels that God created. Satan successfully recruited to follow him.

[28:08] How many there were, we're not told. How many there were that didn't follow, what the two thirds consisted of, we're not told. But it was a considerable number.

[28:20] And the dragon stood before the woman, and this is personified as Israel, who was about to give birth, and that of course will be the Lord Jesus, so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child.

[28:34] Well, we know, of course, that didn't happen. But when John is recording this, this is what was in the plan that was unfolding. This was the thing to be feared.

[28:46] And she gave birth to a son, of course, that was the Lord Jesus, the male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. I don't know how anti-Semitic people would be able to take the medicine of the realization that the time is coming when a Jew will rule the entire world.

[29:18] And that Jew will be none other than the seed of David, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will rule with a rod of iron.

[29:29] What that means is he will rule with absolute supremacy. He is not going to rule from a position of weakness, but from a position of strength.

[29:44] That's the meaning of the rod of iron. It's going to be something. And her child was caught up to God and to his throne. This is a picture of the ascension.

[29:56] And it's all bound up in these few verses. And the woman, that is Israel, fled, that's in the vision that he is seeing, the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that there she might be nourished for 1,260 days, which is equal to three and one half years.

[30:26] Here again is where the supernatural really comes in. How is this woman going to be nurtured? How is it that she is going to be providentially protected?

[30:38] Because the Antichrist is going to be bringing ruination upon the entire world as he seeks to subject everyone and will succeed in subjecting everyone except this one stubborn, unyielding pocket threat of Jews.

[31:02] And nothing is going to infuriate him more. Apparently, providentially, they are going to be untouchable by him.

[31:17] Now, I do not know if there is going to be a realization of the EMT threat, the EMP threat, the electromagnetic pulse that is going to render all electronics and everything electrical unusable.

[31:31] That means no tanks will work, no cars will work, no jeeps will work, no planes will fly, no nothing. I don't know if that's going to be a reality or not, but I do know it is a possibility.

[31:44] And that might be the kind of thing that would keep the Antichrist from being able to completely obliterate this place because this is going to be Petra.

[31:56] This is southern Jordan. This is where these people are going to be holed up. It's going to be the rose-red city of Petra. That is in southern Jordan. And Jordan, which is ancient Moab, is going to be the only spot in the Mideast that is not going to be dominated by the Antichrist during this time.

[32:17] He will not be able to subject this. It's going to be a remarkable thing. And the way these people are going to be nourished, and I told you one of the outstanding things about the book of Revelation is the return of the supernatural.

[32:33] This is going to be the order of the day during this time because the church is gone. The rapture has already occurred. The people who walk by faith and not by sight are out of here.

[32:44] They're gone. This returns the focus to Israel, and the Jews seek after a sign, and God has always given them signs, and he's going to give them signs now. You know what the sign is going to be?

[32:56] I am convinced that God is going to supernaturally nourish them. Well, how would he do that? Well, how did he do that when two million of them were on the march through the wilderness?

[33:09] Manna. Food fell from heaven and sustained him. What do you think, they grew crops out there in the desert when they were on the move like that?

[33:22] Of course not. God sustained them. He gave them fresh manna for every day, and it was the basis for their survival, and he provided water supernaturally out of a rock.

[33:33] All I'm saying is, that's going to return. That's going to be the norm. That's what Israel is going to experience, and it is going to build their confidence in the provision of God more and more and more.

[33:45] And let me just inject something here that I think is really important, and we'll see to it further when we get to it. Israel, this is the remnant. This is a remnant of people.

[33:56] I do not know how many there are going to be, but suffice it to say, probably several hundred thousand. I don't think there will be millions. This is the remnant, and they are going to be the survivors.

[34:07] They are going to come in faith, Jesus as their Messiah, but before they do, they're going to return to a biblical Judaism.

[34:21] That will include temple worship, and there will be a temple, by the way, because the Antichrist will stand in the temple, and that's what he will defile in Revelation 9.

[34:32] That's what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24. That is the abomination of desolation. He will defile the Jewish temple. Well, there is no Jewish temple now. That requires it to be rebuilt, and it will be rebuilt.

[34:46] And the Antichrist will defile that temple. And the Jews will be engaged in Old Testament Jewish worship, like they are not now.

[34:58] Do you realize how long it's been since the Jewish people have sacrificed an animal? That was an integral part of their religion. The whole faith of Judaism was built upon the principle of sacrifice, the innocent dying for the guilty.

[35:12] That has never happened in the last 2,000 years, because in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed. That was the only legitimate place where a Jew could offer an animal sacrifice, was in the temple.

[35:29] The temple was leveled by Titus, the Roman general, in 70 A.D. and has never been rebuilt. The Jew has not been able to sacrifice an animal for over 2,000 years.

[35:41] When we were there, we had a question and answer time when we went to the third temple, Mount Faithful, because there are Jews who are dedicated to preserving, to building, creating all of the items of furniture that Moses described in the temple.

[35:55] They've got them built. They've got the breastplate for the high priest built. They've got the garments and everything for them to wear. They just need the words, you know, the people to fill them. They believe that the Messiah is going to come, but they believe he will be coming for the first time.

[36:11] We believe that he'll be coming again, that he's already been here the first time. And they have this idea that the Messiah is going to return and they are going to be ready for him.

[36:24] And when I asked one of the rabbis there, I said, well, it seems to me that Judaism has been put in a position that makes it almost defunct because the very core of Judaism was wrapped up in animal sacrifice for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.

[36:45] And he nodded and he says, yes, yes, that's true. And I said, well, what do you do when the very core of your worship has been removed and you can't have the animal sacrifices anymore?

[36:58] And he said, well, we pray. We pray. I said, oh, OK. Let me tell you something. Prayer is a far cry from offering the animal sacrifice that was prescribed through Moses.

[37:17] It doesn't cut it. The truth of the matter is, as much as I respect and love the Jewish people, Judaism is defunct.

[37:29] It has no legitimate basis of operation at all. The Jew is in limbo, spiritually speaking.

[37:41] He is now engaged in that time that the prophets said Israel will endure many days without a prince. They have no king.

[37:52] They have no monarchy. Without an ephod. That is what the high priest wore. And without a sacrifice. And that's where they are today.

[38:02] Well, let us move on. In connection with the recruiting, and the provision for the woman in verse 6, there is war in heaven.

[38:18] Cannot imagine that. When we think of war, we think of bombs and bullets and explosions and things like that. We have no idea of what kind of warfare angelic beings fight.

[38:30] Because they aren't even physical beings. They're spirit beings. How do spirit beings engage in combat? Well, we don't know.

[38:42] We just have no idea. So, all we can say is they obviously prosecute some kind of conflict that in the spiritual realm is comparable to what we do in the physical realm.

[39:00] Although, beyond that, I cannot offer any description. I have no idea what it must be like. However, it is a contest. It is a struggle. It is a conflict. And they are engaging each other with whatever those weapons consist of.

[39:16] And I can't imagine what they are. But nonetheless, it is a real contest. And we are told that they are waging war with the dragon, or Satan, and Satan and his angels waged war.

[39:27] And they were not strong enough for there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon, that is Satan, was thrown down, the serpent of old, and of old, I think, refers back to Genesis 3.

[39:43] That's the serpent of old. Same guy, ageless, because spirit beings do not age, do not have birthdays like we do.

[39:56] Who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. deception is one's ability to cause people to think that things are other than they are.

[40:10] That's deception. Satan has the book on that. He is the master of that. How do we know? Well, how many Muslims are there in this world?

[40:27] Mark, are you saying that all of the Muslims are deceived? Absolutely. How many Buddhists are there in this world? Are we saying that all who are Buddhists are deceived?

[40:40] Yes. How many Hindus are there in this world? Have you ever examined any of these religions to see what their tenets are or what these people believe?

[40:52] It is shocking. It is stunning. And part of our fallenness is our ability to be deceived. And these people are deceived. It is tragic, but it is true.

[41:06] Now, I realize this is not politically correct because in this day and age, we are supposed to see the legitimacy and the value being equal in all religions and all faiths.

[41:18] But according to the text here, it certainly isn't. If you have the whole world deceived, that pretty much ought to tell us right there what things are that are going on.

[41:30] He is thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. I do not know who these fallen angels are if they are not demons. I cannot imagine some other order of being.

[41:42] They appear to be the demonic beings, some of whom are now confined in the abyss and they will be released later. That is coming later in Revelation. I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down who accuses them before our God day and night.

[42:08] Satan is the accuser. Christ is the advocate. This is 1 John chapter 2. And we know that if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

[42:21] He is our lawyer. Christ is the one who pleads our case. Satan is the one who is the accuser. I do not understand this part. A few other parts I don't understand either.

[42:33] But this one I do not understand. Why in the world would God be willing to entertain the presence of the devil in heaven?

[42:43] God. I mean, I, not being God, would have given the boot a long time ago.

[42:55] But he has access to heaven. He had access to heaven in the case of Job. And he has access to heaven here until he is cast out.

[43:06] This means he had the ability to come and go. After all, he is the principality of the power of the air. That's the atmosphere.

[43:17] Being spirit beings, you don't see them. We assume they aren't there because we don't see them. But being spirit beings, they are not detectable with human eyes.

[43:30] They're thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice saying, salvation, the kingdom of our God and authority of his Christ have come.

[43:40] The accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. Who accuses them? That's us. We are the ones that he accused. And I don't know how that works either.

[43:52] But he would have something to bring against us every time we disappoint our Lord, every time we walk in the flesh, every time.

[44:04] And Christ is there as our defense. God's God's love. And verse 11 tells us what saves the day. And they, that is the brethren, of verse 10, and they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb.

[44:20] That means because of the sacrificial death of Christ. And because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. These are willing martyrs who placed the value of truth and righteousness above the value of their own life.

[44:39] That has ever been the story of true martyrdom. You need to make sure that you have something that is worth dying for, not just something that is worth living for.

[44:57] for this reason, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them because you've gotten rid of him. Woe to the earth!

[45:08] The poison has been transferred to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.

[45:19] He's got less than three years. And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman. That's Israel. who gave birth to the male child. And the two wings of the great eagle.

[45:32] I do not know what this means other than it appears that some kind of emergency escape is going to be provided for these people.

[45:45] I don't know if it's going to be through some supernatural thing that God is going to provide, if it's going to be something that will be airlifted, but at any rate, she is going to fly into the wilderness to her place where she will be nourished.

[46:04] This will be her refuse, and I am convinced that it will be none other than southern Jordan. And if you have ever seen pictures of Petra and the rose-red city of Petra, the configuration of it, how it is established, how it is geographically laid out, topographically laid out, it is a deeply recessed place with huge cliffs on either side, and the only entrance into the thing on the ground is no wider than what two men could occupy on horseback.

[46:36] That's how narrow it is to get in there. Now, if they are contending with some kind of modern weapons, it would seem that that would present no problem because they could just lob rockets, they could drop bombs, they could do anything, but maybe those things will not be available for whatever reason at that time.

[46:57] Maybe they will not be workable. Maybe this refuge, this refuge will be a safer thing because ordinarily it would not be able to be taken the way we think of it.

[47:11] And the serpent, the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman. I've got to just give you a brief explanation of this because it is really quite dramatic and it's nothing like most of us have ever experienced.

[47:30] In Israel, there are dry river streams all over the area and these are called wadis.

[47:41] W-A-D-I. It's called a wadi. And in the dry season, it's just bone dry. But in the winter, in the rainy season, water comes down on those mountains and collects in these wadis and comes down geographically and topographically, comes down rushing through some of these ravines at an incredible speed and in a depth that you cannot imagine.

[48:15] and it would sweep away anything. We've all seen pictures on television of some floods in nearby states where whole houses may be floating down the river.

[48:31] And this may not be of that magnitude, but it is going to be a torrent of such magnitude that Jesus said in Matthew 24, and you know, when this time comes, make sure, you better hope that it will not come in the wintertime when you are fleeing Jerusalem and trying to get to this place of safety because it's going to be very, very hazardous.

[48:56] And he even made mention of the fact that you should hope that it doesn't come on the Sabbath. Why? Because if they return to Judaism and there is a strict regard for Sabbatarianism like there is in Israel, there won't be any public transportation moving.

[49:11] And yet, this is going to be a crisis thing. And the crisis is going to be over in about 12 hours. And these Jews who are fleeing for their lives are either going to make it or they're not going to make it in just the span of a few hours.

[49:25] And the Antichrist is going to have the word for execution out on all of them, all over. It's going to be incredible. So he's going to pour water like a river out of his mouth.

[49:37] I don't know if this is a reference to the wadi-like things that we have been describing. So that he might cause her to be swept away with a flood. But verse 16 says, The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river.

[49:54] This is not a little stream. This is a mighty torrent. Drank up the river. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, that is, those who are not in that place of refuge, who keep the commandment of God and who hold to the testimony of Jesus.

[50:21] So there's going to be a mix of Jews. Some will be Messianic Jews who have come to faith in Jesus as their Messiah. Some are just going to be Jewish Jews who are practicing the law of Moses and so on, and they eventually are going to come to faith as well.

[50:36] And that is going to be the result of this miraculous provision because Israel will be persuaded by signs. And you know something? These people have a penchant for stubbornness.

[50:53] And Jesus read them out on more occasions than one when he was here. And he said, Woe unto you, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, because if the mighty miracles that I did in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented.

[51:15] But not you. They're not even Jews, but not you. Why? Because you are a stubborn and a stiff-necked people. And one of the reasons that God is going to bring this time of tribulation upon Israel is that he might break the will of the Jewish people.

[51:38] And that will do it. In repentance, they will cry out. Zechariah tells us they will look upon him whom they pierced and they will mourn.

[51:55] The mourning is a sign of repentance and sorrow. and they will come to face during that time. So all of this is in store and the Jewish people, individuals, and nations are going to be right smack in the middle of it.

[52:14] The rest of the world is going to be contending with the Antichrist and the armies that he has massed. And eventually what we are seeing here for this refuge place in Petra is going to be magnified as the armies mass in Armageddon and the plains of Esdraelen and as Christ returns to Petra.

[52:37] He is coming to Petra first and we will see, I think unequivocally, how his garments are stained with blood as he rides north to meet the advancing army coming down from the south and the conflict will take place right in front of the city of Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat which is today known as the Kidron Valley.

[53:04] That's where this great onslaught is going to come down and thousands, tens of thousands of Christ's saints are coming with him. These are people who were raptured and will be returning with him.

[53:17] I don't know that you are planning to be among them but you will be. You will be. We're going to return with him but here is a really dramatic thing.

[53:31] We will not be engaging in any conflict. The only one who will confront the enemy will be Christ himself.

[53:47] Apparently we're just going to be spectators. We are not going to be involved. Jesus Christ is going to be one man army.

[54:03] That's it. Amazing. Well, this is just a bird's eye view of what awaits us and it is going to be something.

[54:15] If you will stand with me, I will dismiss this in prayer. Father, we believe that you have provided this information that we might have an adequate response to it.

[54:29] You have never given information without expecting a response on the part of those who heard it. And so it is with us. And we trust that you will use this time to spur us on to further study, investigation, investigation, so that we can learn more, so that we can be obedient to what we have learned.

[54:51] We thank you for graciously providing this information and for sharing with us those things about which we would not have a clue. you have graciously revealed them, and we believe that we are now, each of us, more accountable and responsible because we have more truth now than what we had before.

[55:11] We want to look for ways to be obedient to what you have revealed, to be involved, to be willing, to be available to you for any and everything that you might bring our way.

[55:23]  As a congregation and as individuals, we trust that each of us will make this our prayer. We thank you for it in Christ's name. Amen.