We're looking at Revelation chapter 12 today. Okay. I feel like I don't think, I think I haven't taught in like over a month, right? It's been more than a month, maybe about five weeks. Yeah, I was really out of it. So last two, three days I was just cramming and going back and reviewing everything.

And then even today I wanted to make sure because again, Revelations is one of those things that you, of course you can get things out of it if you jump in the middle, but you know, you're going to get a lot more out of it if you understand the flow and like the context of where we're at.

So what I actually want to do is I know Pastor Mark did review, but I want to just go over like the textual review, what we went through and just real quickly, I'm not going to go anywhere near what we did the last time we met, but just so that we can jump in, when we jump in chapter 12, like we can understand the flow of what's happening.

Okay. So this is not in your notes. The notes aren't, isn't going to start until a little bit later. Okay. So remember chapter one, just to kind of give you a review. So if you have your Bibles, I recommend that you open up your Bibles and turn to chapter one, just kind of look at it while we're going through it.

And then some of these pictures will trigger your memory. So chapter one, you have, John is given a vision of the throne of God and who Christ is right. And that's the beginning of all the revelation where Jesus himself is speaking to him. And so that's the beginning of chapter one, right?

And then he's the, Christ walks among the seven lambs, and the seven lambs represents the church that he has intimate knowledge of the church, right? So chapter two and three are the seven churches that we talked about. Okay. So remember, after that chapter four, again, John is given the throne, a vision of the throne in one other place where God, before he calls him into ministry, where God reveals himself or shows a vision of himself before he's actually enters into ministry.

Kind of like Ezekiel, you guys remember, right? Isaiah, before he's called into prophesy. So it's kind of like a pattern, like before God sends him out, he shows them the vision of who he is. And basically that's what he does with his disciples. He says, come follow me. And then he reveals himself to his disciples and then what they have seen and heard, they go and proclaim.

So the chapter four is the beginning of John being shown the throne of God. And that's where the revelation is going to one by one be revealed. And then as he, after he sees the throne of God, he turns around and he sees the line of Judah in the form of the lamb of God, right?

And then that opens up the seal judgments. Okay. In chapter six, right? Do you remember what the seal judgments were? I'm not going to go through all of them, but what was the beginning of the seal judgments? Right. The four horsemen, right? Four horsemen. And then you have the martyrs and then you have the, right?

And then you have the kings and the nations who are hiding because the judgment is coming. And then the seventh seal gets opened up, right? That's chapter six. And then chapter seven, you have the, what is that a picture of? Huh? You're worshiping the lamb. True? What's the significant number here?

Okay. 144,000 tribe of Judah. And then behind them, all the other nations who are worshiping the lamb, right? So chapter four is the worship of the father. Chapter seven is the worship of the lamb. And then the trumpet judgments open up, right? What is the key in the trumpet judgments?

What is a significant number in the trumpet judgments? Third. So just remember, even if you don't remember the order, the third of the earth, the third of the sea, the third of the mountains, right? The third. So it's that third of the judgment. So the beginning of it is judgment.

If you look at all the judgment is on creation, right? Not specifically on men, not yet. And then chapter nine is the judgment where it's intense judgment. So you have the locust who comes in and they represent demonic power, if you remember, and it's very thorough. So there's an increase in the intensity of judgment, right?

It's all coming back to you, right? Remember chapter 10, right? This gigantic angel who has his one foot in the ocean, one foot on the mountains and representing the power of this angel and what is in his hands, right? What's going to happen? He eats that and how does it taste in his mouth?

It's sweet, but it's bitter in his stomach. And what does that represent? Sweetness of the coming of Christ, but bitterness of the judgment that he will bring, right? And then this is where we left off. Chapter 11, the vision begins with the measuring of the temple, right? And what did the measuring of the temple signify?

Why do you measure anything? Huh? Say it. My hearing is so bad, I can't. To renovate, right? And you're measuring something because you're trying to renovate something. So he sends them out, they're measuring and basically God is going to restore, right? Restore worship, restore possibly the nation of Israel.

And then you have the two witnesses that come, right? These two powerful witnesses and they're able to conquer everything except the beast, right? And this beast overpowers them and then after that they get resurrected and they go up. And then so at the end of chapter 11, it ends with the seventh trumpet.

And the seventh trumpet opens up what we're getting into in verse 12, okay? Or chapter 12. That's where we are. So the general outline in chapter one to three, right? Chapter one is the vision of Christ. Chapter two and three is the seven churches. Chapter four is he gives a vision of the throne of God, right?

Chapter five is a lamb of God that opens up the seals. Chapter six are the seals, right? And then chapter seven is the opening of the trumpets. Trumpet judgments. Yes? Right? Then what was chapter eight? What did I forget? Oh, so sorry. That's what I forgot. Chapter seven is the 144,000 and then the nations.

Chapter eight is the trumpet judgments. And then chapter nine again is the beginning of the woes, remember? Remember? The first three, first four of the trumpet judgments is toward the earth and then he says the three woes are coming. The fifth, sixth, and seventh are the three woes. And the three woes are the meaning that the intensity of the judgment is coming and the judgment is directly directed toward people.

Remember that? And the chapter nine says that the judgment is going to be so severe that they're going to want to die but they can't die. That's how torturous that period is going to be. And so we left off right there where we dealt with the two woes, right?

The third woe hasn't been opened up yet. So as we jump into chapter 12, that's kind of where we are. Chapter 12 through chapter 19 opens up a new section. Even though the judgment is going to continue, there's a big gap until the bowl judgment. So I made a mistake on your paper.

I said seal judgment but it's not the bowl judgment. So as we're going through, if you see seal, that's a mistake. Just cross that out. I was referring to bowl judgment. So chapter 12 through chapter 16, there's kind of a gap where it's almost a preparation for what is about to come.

The severest judgment is saved for the last part of the tribulation. So you can imagine the intensity of the judgment up to this point but it says nothing is going to be compared to what is actually going to come. So chapter 12 and on is going to prepare for that, right?

What do we call this? Genesis 3.15. We call it, in English, we call it the first gospel, right? Or we call it proto evangelium, meaning that, again, the interpretation of the first gospel. So if you look at it, right after the fall, God makes a promise to the world that I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

What does this passage remind you of? If you read today's text, I'm sure you would have seen the correlation with this because this is what's being fulfilled today in chapter 12. Yes? Okay, those of you nodding your head, you read it. The other guys are like, "Oh, okay, that's interesting.

I better go read it." Okay. So that's pretty clear, right? So redemptive plan of mankind begins with this prophecy and we're now here in Revelation chapter 12 at the end of human history, at least almost at the end of human history, God is fulfilling this promise. So now you have this battle between the woman and her seed and then Satan and his followers, right?

And this cosmic battle is going to take place. And within this cosmic battle, Satan is obviously going to lose and as a result of that, he comes and he gets thrown down to earth and while he's on this earth, he's basically creating havoc for her seed, right? But at the end of it, her seed is going to crush the head of the serpent as he is introduced here and then we know how that's going to be fulfilled.

So you can kind of summarize that all of redemptive history is summarized with the fulfillment of this prophecy, right? So we're at the end of this in Revelation chapter 12. We're at the end fulfillment of this promise of redemption, okay? So chapter 12 begins a new section in Revelation.

Chapter 11 ended with the seventh trumpet and we kind of reviewed that already being blown but the seven seal judgments don't begin until chapter 16. So chapter 12, 13, 14, and 15, you're going to have events that are actually going to set up for the bowl judgments, okay? So all these events that are taking place is going to give the rationale behind why these judgments are happening in chapter 16.

So this section should not be read chronologically because it's not simply referring to just that short period. So this is kind of like just like I said, Genesis chapter 3, 15 was promised and so chapter 12 is basically revealing to us what's happening up in heaven for this being fulfilled.

You understand what I'm saying? He's not simply talking about at the very end tip of his redemptive history where this is taking place. So the vision that he sees in chapter 12, it encompasses all of the redemptive history. Understand? Let me say that one more time because some of you guys are not even making eye contact.

What he says in chapter 12 is not to be understood as just that tip part, the end three and a half years that he talks about. So it's not like he's at the very end so all the vision that he sees is what's happening in those three and a half years.

It's meant to be understood as, chapter 12 is meant to be understood as how this prophecy of the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent is being fulfilled, right? In redemptive history as a whole. You don't get to ask somebody, okay? You understand what I'm saying, right?

Because if you try to apply this to the three and a half years, it's not going to fit. You guys are like no response whatsoever. Yes? You understand what I'm saying? Okay. I'm going to move on. So chapters 12 to 15 sets up to explain the severest of the sevenfold judgments that will unfold in the seven seal judgments, but it's bold judgments.

This is the reason behind the intense judgment at the end is because of what was happening up in heaven. So there's a spiritual battle that is manifesting in the physical world. Okay? I'm going to say that one more time. There's a spiritual battle that's happening in the heavenly realm that is going to be manifested in the earthly realm.

So the vision that he's seeing is the vision of heaven, right? And so we see glimpse of it where that is going to be manifested on earth, but the vision that he's seeing is what's happening up in heaven. So the conflict, which chapters 12 through 15 record, it comes as a result of unleashing of satanic fury.

Satan knows the days are numbered and he makes a last ditch attempt to inflict damage before his demise. So the difference between the judgment that we've seen up to chapter one through 11, or specifically chapter four through 11, is God is bringing inflicting judgment upon mankind. Right? The first three and a half years are in a tribulation or what's happening, but God is directly involved in this judgment.

And then remember we talked about that, that even in the context of his judgment, what is God doing? Is God just bringing judgment and then he's done? What is his end goal up to this point? You guys remember? Yes. Thank you. Whoever said that, thank you. Okay. So even in the context of him bringing all these severe judgment, remember prior to us getting to this text, he said one of the divisions that came in says that God is no longer going to delay.

Remember that? And what did he mean by that? That up to this point that he's been patient, that even in the midst of judgment, he's waiting for them to repent. Even as he is inflicting all like a third of the earth being wiped out, his end goal is that some of them will still repent and come to Christ.

Right? So he's not even directly involved with that. Now the second half of this, the end part of it that we're going to be talking about, he says he's bringing judgment, but the judgment is he's releasing it to Satan. So Satan's hand is going to be directly involved in the last part of the judgment that's coming.

Right? And so that's why the second half of the tribulation is going to be much more intense. Right? Where it's kind of like you may feel the pain, but the pain is coming from a physician whose ultimate intent is to bring about repentance. Right? The second half of it is where in the context of this battle, Satan, at least what is revealed to us, is Satan sees that his days are numbered.

So during the last period, everything that he saved up, right? If you're kind of like in a basketball game and you have only five minutes left, and this is the last championship game, and after this game it's over, you're going to spend every single second of the time that you have and exert.

So you don't have to save any energy. Right? So basically what we're seeing is Satan's very last part of before he gets bound and judged where he unleashes his fury upon mankind. And his intent is not to bring us to repentance. His intent is strictly to harm. And he's going to target, who is he targeting?

The seed of the woman, right? He's targeting Christians. So that's the distinction that we see in the first half and the second half. The first half, half the judgment is coming upon mankind, and those who are sealed by the lamb, right? He protects. The second half, Satan is unleashed, and he comes and he specifically targets Christians, right?

The seed of the woman. So the second half is going to be much more intense for Christians. We're going to go through the judgment. We're going to see all the natural disasters and experience all of that. But second half is targeted toward Christians. At least that's what is revealed here.

Okay? So you understand the distinction? Up to chapter 11 and some from chapter 12. Chapter 12 is specifically about the suffering and persecution of Christians. Chapter 7 contains two of the seven signs that are mentioned beginning chapter 7 and ending in chapter 19. So I'm not going to go through all of it, but typically when the Bible talks about signs, what does it represent?

Sign of what? Why do they even use the term sign? Sign points to something. Yes? Jesus performed all of his miracles as a sign of who he is, right? The miracles that Jesus performed were sign gifts, right? To signify that these were apostles. So when the Bible talks about sign, it is for the purpose of proving and to point to something.

So in the last part, starting from chapter 12 to chapter 19, the term, the great sign, right, is used seven different times. Two of them is mentioned here in chapter 12. And then the other five are scattered starting from chapter 13 to 19. Meaning that all that was prophesied, everything that God has been saying and preparing is going to start to be fulfilled as a sign.

You understand what? The great sign. So these aren't just random events. Not that anything prior to this were random, but these are very significant things that God has been preparing and he's allowing it to happen. That's why, again, over and over again, it reminds us that this is the great sign, the great sign, right?

Another great sign is happening. This is another great sign. That when Jesus said, "The end is not going to come until the man of lawlessness is revealed," and then, you know, before the end, because of the increase of wickedness, the love of God, the love of Christ is going to grow cold.

So all of these signs, all of these things that Jesus and the prophets had said are going to be fulfilled at the end time, he's saying those signs are being revealed here. You understand what I'm saying? So we're at the very end, basically. The first sign that opens up in chapter 12 is the sign of the woman and her male child.

How many of you read that and thought, like, "Oh, that must be Mary," right? It sounds like Mary, but if you look closely at the context and if you read carefully, there are certain things that are stated here that's most likely not Mary. In fact, most commentaries believe that this is not referring to Mary, but the nation of Israel, okay?

The reason behind that, a few of the reasons, the Old Testament often referred to Israel as a woman, and those are all passages. I think I have some verses to back it up. In Micah 4.10, "Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country.

You shall be to Babylon. There you shall be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemy." So again, there's many verses where Israel is referred to as a pregnant woman. Isaiah 26.17, "Like a pregnant woman who rise and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord." So again, I'll just give you a few verses, okay?

So one of the reasons why the commentators believe that this is probably in reference to the nation of Israel is because it is commonly, Israel is commonly referred to as a woman in the Old Testament, okay? In Genesis 37.9-11, in Joseph's dreams, he sees the sun and the moon, and it's a description of his brothers bound down to him, right?

So if you look at chapter 12, the woman is described as having the sun and the moon, the glory of the sun and the moon on her. So let me go to that passage. So it's Genesis 37.9-11. It says, "Joseph dreamed another dream and told it to his brother and said, 'Behold, I have dreamed another dream.

Behold, the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars were bound down to me.'" So clearly in this text, when Joseph dreams this dream, who are the sun and the moon? They're his brothers. And who are his brothers? Tribes of Israel, right? So the description of sun and the moon, again, here is talking about the origins of Israel.

So the woman is described as having the sun and the moon, the glory of the sun and the moon. And then thirdly, the 12 stars are clear reference to the 12 tribes of Israel, right? So if you look at the context, a larger context, it's probably in reference to, not to Mary, but to the nation of Israel.

And so giving birth, meaning that Christ was coming through the line that God had prepared through the nation of Israel, that he is the fulfilled prophecy, again, of the seed of the woman. So Genesis 3.15, when it says, "The seed of the woman is going to come," and that seed was coming through the line of Israel, through Judah.

And so the woman is Israel, okay? Clearly, there's no debate of who the child is, the male child. He is clearly Jesus Christ. There are three specific things that are mentioned. He rules all the nations with a rod of iron. He is caught up to God and to his own throne.

So only Jesus would fit that role. Then finally, he's clearly called Christ, the lamb who conquers by his blood, right? And this is the reason why Satan was actively trying to destroy the woman and her seed, because she knows that the fulfilled prophet, when he comes, that he's going to crush the head of the serpent, and that's exactly what he does, by conquering, right?

Through his blood. The second sign that is mentioned is of the great red dragon and his angels. The dragon is clearly identified as the devil or Satan in verse 9. And there's going to be this cosmic conflict between Satan and his angels and the archangel Michael and his angels.

And we'll get to that in a minute, right? But just want to take a few minutes to... I can go here and list dozens and dozens of different ways that Satan is described in the scripture, that this is our primary adversary, where the Bible says that we have an enemy who is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

His whole intent is to block us from coming to Christ, right? And he uses all kinds of scheming. And so his primary work that he does is scheming to deceive, right? Sending false prophets, lulling us to sleep, causing us to be lukewarm. And so his work is not, again, at least in our lives, necessarily a power encounter, but of scheming, right?

Satan, the term, is used 52 times in scripture, and it literally simply means adversary. His primary work is to oppose the work of God. So if you're not walking right with God, he's not your adversary, right? Because his primary work is to prevent us from coming to God. So his primary adversary is to God and to his people, right?

And to keep the world to himself. So he's not opposed to the world. The world is already his. He's opposed to the church. He's opposed to Christ. He's opposed to his people. The second term that is used most often is the term devil. It only appears in the New Testament, not in the Old Testament, but the word simply means to slander, to accuse, right?

So he constantly stands to condemn, right? So his primary advocacy against us is to accuse and to condemn and to slander. Before the fall, he's called the day star. In Isaiah 14, 12, he's called the bearer of light, which translated in Latin is where we get the word Lucifer, right?

So Lucifer, the literal meaning of the term Lucifer is not dark, right? That was a name that was given to him before he fell, that he's the morning star or bearer of light, right? And the scripture also talks about how when the end time comes, the deception is going to come as what?

As an angel of light, right? So Satan is very, like he knows how to deceive, basically. That's his primary objective, right? Because he himself was an angel of light. So he knows how to dress up as an angel of light and to deceive. But Elzebub, it's another word that is again used to describe him, lord of flies or lord of dung, right?

Even though he is lord, but he's lord of nothing. He's lord of a world that's going to be condemned. So all those who follow him are following a god of dung, right? John 8, 44, he's called the father of lies, right? He's called the ruler and god of this age.

Angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11, 14. He's called the old serpent, dragon is how he's described today. You know what's interesting was one of the commentators pointed out that Satan before the fall looked like a dragon. And then remember what happens to him when he's kicked out of heaven?

God judges, what was the judgment against Satan? That he's going to be a snake, he's going to crawl on the ground. So one of the commentators mentioned that it's interesting that the dragon without his wings and feet is basically a snake, right? Anyway, whether you accept that or not, I thought that was interesting.

He's saying like a dragon that was judged is a snake, right? And his primary work is to deceive the world. And then he works again in verse 10, the accuser of God's people, right? So all of these things are, I think it's important for us to know who the identity of our adversary is because if you don't know what he's doing, right?

I think the mistake that we can make is when we think about Satan, like I know some of you guys like watching scary movies and I'm going to say something that some of you guys may not like. I don't think you guys should be watching scary movies, right? And let me tell you why.

Because your worldview of the satanic world is being created by something outside of the Bible. And so this is, even though Satan, we don't worship Satan and Satan is not our God, Satan is our primary adversary. So if you have a wrong view of Satan, it could be just as detrimental to your walk with God because you don't know who you're fighting.

And it can have an adverse effect in both ways. Either you trivialize the occult, right? Because you become so desensitized to the occult that you think it's nothing. It's like a joke. The scripture says he's like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So our enemy is actively working to accuse and to destroy us and Hollywood trivializes that.

Or the other extreme is where it becomes so freaked out, right? About the occult where even though in your mind you know that God is almighty and powerful, but because of what you're watching and seeing on the screen, satanic power is all powerful and mighty, right? Right away your worldview is being created, informed by what you're watching and media is very powerful, right?

You don't have certain things that are controlled by God and then certain things controlled by Satan and then you got a whole bunch of things in the middle that nobody controls. Is that how the Bible describes the world? So there are some things that God controls, some things that Satan controls, and there's a bunch of stuff in the middle that it's kind of neutral.

Is that how the Bible describes the world? No. The Bible describes it as either God is sovereign or Satan is sovereign. It's one or the other. So we have to ask ourselves, is the media controlled by God or Satan? All right, I'm going to go off a little bit, okay, on this because I'm kind of, you know, I kind of see the culture of just watching these scary movies and you may not agree with me but it is creating your view of the occult.

And I think, at least for us, you know, I came from a charismatic background where there was too much attention to that and I couldn't wake up in the middle of the night because I was so afraid of demonic forces because they put too much emphasis on it, right?

You and I belong to a culture where we talk about it but it's not real, right? The scripture constantly reminds us it's real. Satanic power is real, right? Unless you're studying this as some literary study and if you're actually studying it like we are studying it as real events, as real people, right, real forces that are actively working to accuse us, to thwart us away from God, then what you allow into your mind, right, it does affect you.

And I could, you know, and I say this and I'm very cautious to overstep my bound because I don't want to start creating rules in the church that are not stated in the scripture but I will go as far as to say that if it doesn't bother you, it may be because you have become desensitized to it, not because your spirit inside is telling you it's okay, right?

So I want to strongly encourage you to be discerning of what you watch and I'm not just talking about the occult, I'm talking about everything else too but especially because we're on this topic of watching the occult. So some of you guys, you know, like to be scared, go ride a roller coaster, you know what I mean, or have somebody jump out in the middle of the night and scare you.

But if you're in a habit of watching scary movies, like it is affecting you, right? And so Satan is real, right? Satan is real. This is what we're reading, he may not actually look like a dragon, we may not know exactly what he looks like but there is an evil force that is actively working against us, detrimental to us spiritually, we become desensitized to the spiritual battle that you and I are in, okay?

If you disagree, come and talk to me, okay? You probably won't but I invite you anyway, okay? So Satan is described to have seven heads and seven diadems that represent power and authority. The ten horns, they're also repeated in Daniel 7, 7 and verse 24 of Daniel, 7, 24, which I think is really interesting if you read the text and I'll come back to that.

So Daniel 7, 7 is a description of the beast but it says, "After I saw in the night vision and behold the fourth beast terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong, it had great iron teeth, it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns." So ten horns is introduced to us as the beast and then the passage I want you to look at is in verse 24 and 25.

"As for the ten horns out of the kingdom, ten kings shall arise." So many believe that the ten horns is representative of ten kingdoms, ten nations that's going to rise and become one. And out of that, later on, it's not mentioned here, out of that, the three are going to gather together and overthrow and Satan is going to come or the Antichrist is going to come and begin to rule.

Now is that going to actually happen or not? I don't know. I've heard it so many times. You know, when I was younger, there's a ten nation federation. So I remember when the European Union got together and they brought the currency, there was a lot of talk about it.

There it is. That's a ten nation federation, right? And somehow they counted ten, right? I don't know if that's the thing. I don't think that's what it is. And I'm not exactly sure what these ten horns represent but again, many people think that it's in reference to a world union of some kind, right?

Again, from this point on, it's just complete conjecture. I think, and I could be wrong, okay, I think at the end times what's going to happen is there is going to be world unity and it's going to be led by the Antichrist. The unity is not going to be led by a Christian figure.

It's somebody who's going to come representing a religious figure. And if you look at the world events right now, because of the terrorist activity, like anything that's extreme is kind of lumped in with the terrorist, even with Christians, right? Oh, you're one of those fundamentalists. So if you disagree with them, you're a homophobe, you're a racist, you're whatever it is, we're kind of put into this extreme.

So there's this growing movement of everybody coming together. So if you've been watching the news, there's more and more of these liberal Christians, liberal Buddhists, liberal Muslims, nominal of every religion is coming together and they're holding hands, they're having joint services. Have you noticed that? There's more and more of the nominal on every religion is coming together in the middle.

And the group that is leading that right now are the liberal Catholics. And again, I don't know if it's going to be the Pope or a Christian figure, but my guess is because he's going to come as an angel of light, it's going to be a liberal Christian figure who comes representing Christ, but has rejected inerrancy, rejected the gospel, and they're going to hold hands with all these other religions.

And at the end of it, the Antichrist is going to rise from that. And when he takes control over that, it's not just going to have religious power, it's also going to have political power. Okay. This job is just me. Okay. I'm just taking bits and pieces of what I've read in Daniel, what I've been taught, that if it doesn't happen, don't stone me.

I'm just telling you, but it just seems like looking at the world events, that if Antichrist is going to come and he's going to be a world figure and he's going to come as an angel of light, he needs to be a religious figure. But what religious figure is going to unite the world?

It has to be liberal. It has to hold hands with all the other religions. And right now, religion and politics are being mixed. Even though they're saying they're trying to kick out of it, they're trying to kick out the extreme religions on every religion. But again, if you look at this, "He asked for the 10 horns out of the kingdom, 10 kings shall arise and another shall arise after them.

He shall be different from the former ones and shall put down three kings." Again, that's the out of the 10, three kings, he's going to conquer the three and then out of the power of the three, he's going to take over the 10. "He shall speak words from the Most High against the Most High." In other words, he's going to be directly going against God himself.

"And shall wear out the saints of the Most High, his children." He's going to persecute God's children. "And shall think to change the times and the law." So God's law upon his people, he's going to forcefully change. You could see that happening already, right? "And they shall be given into his hand for a time, times and a half a time." So three and a half years.

So during those three and a half years, Satan is going to directly blaspheme against God and go after his people, and he's going to change the law that God had given. So he's going to be in power for a short period of time until God comes and he says it's the end, right?

God's going to allow him. So Satan right now is being restrained by the power of God because the church is still here, the gospel is being spread. But at the very end, he's going to unleash Satan and he's going to allow Satan to have its full effect. So he's going to reign publicly.

Right now he's scheming behind the scene, but the last part of human history, he's going to be released to do whatever he wants. He's going to go against God and go specifically against his people. And again, this is where the debate is the church going to be here during this period?

Are we going to be saved from that? That's the view of pre-trib or post-trib. If you believe in a pre-trib, that these Christians who are going to be persecuted are the ones who weren't raptured in pre-trib. So these are Christians who got converted because they saw the judgment of God in the first three and a half years, and so they repented and came to Christ.

And then as a result of that, the second half of the seven years, there's going to be intense judgment and persecution for them. If you believe in the pre-trib. I told you I lean more toward post-trib, right? I'm not like gung-ho about it, but I lean more toward the post-trib that these Christians are talking about us.

That God is going to preserve us, that we're not going to lose our salvation, but we're going to go through the suffering. And that this is not a second group of people who converse during the tribulation, but the church itself at that period. And again, I'm not going to go into my argument behind that.

Why? Because there's Christians around the world who are already going through this right now, being beheaded for their faith. So to me, it doesn't make sense that this preservation is only for rich people in nice countries where all the other people are already going through this. The last scene, Michael, the archangel and his angels wage war against Satan and his angels win.

And as a result, Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven. In verse four, it states that when the dragon was cast out of heaven, his tail swept the third of the stars from heaven. Many believe that this is in reference to the third of the angels that followed Satan's rebellion.

And this is where we get Satan and his angels. And again, clearly there's a battle between Archangel Michael and the angels and dragon and his angels. So who are these angels? I believe that that's in reference to verse four, the third of the angels. So that's how powerful Satan was.

He was able to lead a rebellion against God, a third. Two third of the angels are still with God. But if you notice, the conflict is not between Satan and God. It's between Satan and Archangel Michael. So even in the midst of all of this, God is still sovereign.

The dragon, knowing his time is short, begins his attack on the woman, the child and her children, who keep the commandments. So again, it's not everybody who goes to church, but the attack are for those who are genuine followers of Christ. The woman flees into the wilderness, which was prepared by God, and she is nourished for 1,260 days, which calculated is three and a half years, the second half of the seven year tribulation.

Ultimately, Satan's power is conquered by Christ through the blood of the Lamb, in verse 10 through 12. Again, that's why we said we can't apply this specifically just to that period, because this division in chapter 12 reveals to us from the very beginning until the very end. But it's set up for the judgments that's coming in chapter 16.

And then verse 17, and let me just read this, "Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring," talking about Christians, "on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus, and he stood on the sand of the sea." So chapter 12 ends with the dragon or Satan angry, and he's furiously going after the woman's children, which sets us up for verse 13, chapter 13 and 14 and 15, where we're leaving this week with Satan angry.

So you can imagine, so now the work of Satan has just begun, and he's going to begin to unleash his servants, the beasts, right? The beasts who are his servants, and you could see, what I want you to see is Satan is trying to usurp God's glory, or he wants some of God's glory.

And what you'll notice in Satan's work, that Satan, I don't think that's in one of my questions, but I want you to see Satanic work and see if you can see traces of the work of God. What I mean by that is Satan is trying to mimic God. He mimics the Trinity.

He mimics the way he does his work by sending his angel. God sends his angels, Satan sends his angels, right? So a lot of the things that Satan does is the opposite of what God's doing, but for evil. So I want you to pay attention to that as we're studying, starting from chapter 13.

So we end here with verse 17, and I want to just quickly go over the discussion questions for you so that you can take some time in discussion. And as I mentioned to you before, be cautious in the way that you approach the occult. And I know this is very, you're not going to like this either, but, and I'm not saying that you can't or you shouldn't, but even innocent things like children's books, like Harry Potter, right?

Don't get nervous, right? I'm not saying, "You can't read Harry Potter," right? But I'm just saying that even innocent things like Harry Potter, like we need to be mindful of what it is saying and what is developing in our mind, like how we see the occult. When we talk about God detests, right?

He detests anything that has to do with magic and fortune telling, because all of these things are symbols of rebellion against God. True or not? It is. The scripture detests it, and anybody practice sorcery in the Old Testament was stoned immediately because it was directly connected to the occult, and the occult was demonic.

There's only two kinds of spirit, either from God or either from Satan, right? So I'm not saying, so therefore, these books and movies and all of these things that you can't watch and you need to discern for yourself, but you need to be discerning. Yes? Everything that you do, not Scary Farm, be discerning.

Don't just do it because everybody else does it. Be discerning. If you're going to do it, think through it. Think through it. Don't just say, "Where do you draw the line?" So I'm not going to draw the line at all. You're going to get into all kinds of trouble if that's your bottom line, right?

And I don't want anybody to sit in here, judge people saying, "Oh, he's doing this," or, "He's watching that." I don't want to create that kind of environment either. All I'm asking is, if the Satanic world is real, which we know that it is, then all the manifestation of Satan's work needs to be taken seriously, even if it is in the form of entertainment, right?

So that it doesn't create a false view of the spiritual battle that you and I are engaged in because once you become desensitized to that, you are unaware that you are being attacked, right? Certain phrases that you use, certain things that you said, the using of the Ouija board, right?

And you say, "Well, Harry Potter does it and whatever else does it." Like, okay. I mean, I'm not saying that... I'm just targeting Harry Potter, so don't... It's not just Harry Potter. It's all over the media. But you can see how it gets desensitized, right? Where you're using the media and everybody is using it and it's like, "Oh, yeah, we're going to play around the Ouija board." But the whole point of the Ouija board is to call out the dead to speak.

And then Christians kind of engage in it because we become so desensitized, it just doesn't seem real. So all I'm asking you to do is to be mindful. Be mindful even of things that you are being entertained by that you don't just do it, that you have a clear reason why you're doing it, okay?

Nobody's nodding. Okay. I said my piece. All right. The three things that I want you guys to discuss, Paul reminds us. Ephesians 6, 12, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." How real is a spiritual battle in your life?

Do you think you are aware of satanic activity, not only in the general world, but in your personal life? How is he attacking you? If so, what are they and how do you think he has been attacking? Are you aware there's satanic activity in your life? I guarantee you there is, right?

When's the last time you thought about satanic activity specifically, not the world, not Kim Jong-un, you know, and these crazy movies, but you, right? Because you're a child of God. He's not attacking the world generally. He's not dropping nuclear bombs, right? He's scheming specifically. So how is that happening in your life?

When's the last time you really thought about that? Number two, how can you discern if something happening in your life is demonic activity versus just everyday struggles that all Christians go through? Do you think God has given us the ability to discern? If so, how? Let me answer that question, okay?

God has given us the discernment to be able to. He says test the spirits, right? So God wants us to test the spirits and discern whether that is from God or not. But the scripture also says all things, the word of God is something that you need to grow, right?

He said, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind so that you may be able to test and approve that which is good and perfect will of God." So even God's will in the spiritual world is discerned spiritually. So if you're insensitive spiritually, you're not going to be able to discern satanic or things from God, right?

So if you're walking in the flesh, it's not something that you can just, there's a test of four things that you can test because it's spiritually discerned. So if you're spiritually insensitive, you're not going to know. If you're spiritually sensitive, God has given us the Holy Spirit, right? And God actually tells us to discern the spirit, right?

So take some time to discuss that. How do you discern? How do you know? Is it just emotions or are there some indicators? Number three, it is easier to imagine large-scale persecution that may come at us as a result of satanic activity, but how do you think you are handling the scheming and deceiving of the devil to draw us away from the passionate worship of God?

In what way have you noticed yourself being deceived in the past? So again, this is kind of related to number one, but not to think of this spiritual battle as in just a larger scale, right? Of Michael and Satan going at it and, you know, archangels and so we're just kind of, you know, dust.

So this doesn't matter, right? We do matter because each one of us matters. If God is counting the hair on our head and he cares about us to that extent, I guarantee you Satan is countering that, right? Just as much he cares for us, for the details of our life, I guarantee you Satan is concerned to thwart that on the other side as an adversary.

So all these little things that we think don't matter do matter. There's a spiritual battle going on. That's why Paul warns us in Ephesians 6 to stay sober, that you're in a spiritual battle. Even though it's manifested physically, there's something spiritually happening behind the scenes. So again, the question is, are you aware of this, right?

What kind of satanic activity do you think is happening? And I guarantee you there's something happening always, whether you're aware of it or not. So take some time to discuss that, like what may or may not be, okay? Let me pray first and then I'll release you to your group.

Heavenly Father, as you've commanded us to walk by faith and not by sight, I pray, Father God, that our faith would be tangible, it would be real, that it would change our perspective. And we are bombarded, Lord, with media that constantly governs our thoughts, that causes us to be blinded, Lord God, of spiritual truths.

We are daily wrestling with the insensitivity, Lord God, of the things that are actually happening behind the scenes. We know when we are sober that all of these things, Lord God, are from you as a warning. I pray, Father God, that your word would have its effect on us, that wherever we are in your walk with God, in our walk with you, I pray that this evening that you would help us in our discussion.

At least be aware, Father God, of what's happening, that we would not allow the devil to scheme or give him a foothold in our life, but we would engage in the spiritual battle, Father God. And so we pray that as a church that you would cause us to be awake, sober, sensitive, and as a result of that, that we would see how helpless we are, Lord, without you.

So we pray for your grace over that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.