Why don’t we turn in our Bibles to Revelation 11:15? We want to read the whole of Revelation 12 as an introduction tonight, but we want to begin in Revelation 11:15.
It’s always interesting to speak in this kind of a place because you have to be sort of stereophonic and look this way and that way. There’s only five or ten people right out here in front, and they’re already asleep. So I have to constantly be on the move. I’ll try to do that.
Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ;
and He will reign forever and ever.”And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, Who are and Who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.“And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bondservants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstone.
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.
The great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; 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, 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; and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
“For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. 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.”
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 serpent.
And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. 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.
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.
This is a wonderful passage of Scripture. And, of course, you can see within that Scripture our verse for this week.
We need a special portion of the Holy Spirit for these days. I realize that we need a refreshing, quickening Spirit to restore us, who have journeyed long and hard in very hot weather, and some people have journeyed with great difficulty. We need that quickening, refreshing Spirit as we’re together in these days.
But we need the Spirit for a second reason, and it’s because the topic is this matter of overcoming: they overcame.
Now, this message, this topic in itself, has led to a lot of misunderstanding in the church today, with some groups claiming to be overcomers. But this verse calls us to overcome, and it’s a call by the Holy Spirit to the whole church.
So we need an inclusive Spirit that would gather in all brothers and sisters to this overcoming by the Lord. It does no good for there just to be a few. That doesn’t satisfy the Lord’s heart.
This book is written and this call is given by the Spirit, and we need a special portion of the Spirit. He might gather all of us who hear this message and encourage us to overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and loving not our life even unto death.
We don’t need any sort of sense of exclusivism here. The Lord wants to gather young ones and old ones, veterans and new believers. It’s available to all, as it says, to the weak and those who fear God.
This is a call to all of us, but we need the Holy Spirit to hear what the Spirit is saying to us and enter into this overcoming at the very end at which we’re at.
The third reason we need the Holy Spirit, even tonight—and why I’m entitling this simply an introductory message, and this is all it will be—is because what I would entitle this introductory message is “Overcoming in the Spirit.”
I believe today, more than at any time, we need to know what the fullness of the Holy Spirit means in our life. And we need to live in that fullness in order to overcome in the Spirit.
If we’re going to see even this great conflict that stands before us, we need a spirit of revelation to grant us to truly see the present situation.
We remember that John was caught up in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. And I’m satisfied that should speak to all of us: we may read these verses and come up with some interpretation of the end times and miss completely what the Spirit would speak to us regarding the present necessity of overcoming.
So we need the Holy Spirit upon us with revelation to bring us into this reality and this truth.
Now, I don’t know what you think of these verses that I just read here in Revelation 11 and Revelation 12. If you just have them as part of an end-times doctrine that we’re to believe in, if you think these are just things that are going to happen in the future, this spiritual conflict is of such importance that we can see it from every angle.
This is history. This is the history of the people of God: this great conflict, whether it’s the Jews as fugitives, in captivity, under the slavery of Egypt, held by Babylon; or whether it’s the Christians, the martyrs, those who were persecuted and ran from place to place, the Hussites, or the Reformers.
This is a history of spiritual conflict we see here. And it is also a prophetic revelation of that which will soon take place. There’s no doubt that these things are referring to some final events in the consummation of all God is trying to do.
But here’s the point: the wonder of the Word of God is that the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and applies it presently to our situation.
We are not to read these words as something off in the future, after three and a half years of tribulation, you know, these kinds of things. But we are to allow the Holy Spirit to make this conflict very real to us, that we might understand what’s going on.
When we read the history of the church, we find that those who were really standing for the Lord’s testimony through history—whether the Reformers or whoever you want to name—had something in common regarding these things. They felt they were right in the middle of this battle.
The Reformers did not think this was just something way off there. They felt like this very battle that we just read about tonight was present among them, and that they were doing spiritual warfare for God’s kingdom and His purpose.
Now, this by the Holy Spirit can be our attitude as well. It’s not that we’re trying to bring anybody into sudden fear. We don’t want to panic anybody or undo anybody.
But if we’re to enter into this reality, as our brother shared and as that introductory burden stated, if this is to be real to us, then we have to see something going on right now. And we have to sense and obey this calling to overcome.
This is our theme, right? They overcame.
Now here’s my question: Is this speaking about us? And if it’s speaking about us, is it a declaration, or is it a question?
We need the Spirit of God to speak to us. We need a special portion of the Spirit in these days, that we may find ourselves right in the middle of this understanding, enabled as we are involved in spiritual conflict to interpret the events and things that are happening right around us right now.
So maybe we have just one further word of prayer, then we’ll deal with some introductory matters.
Our Father, as we come to You, we hear heaven’s proclamation: the kingdom of our God and of His Christ has become the kingdom and has taken over the kingdom of this world. And You have begun to reign.
We want to stand in that truth tonight and believe that because of that, we have a portion of Your Spirit, Who is groaning within us, even as we see events that are the fulfillment of these things spoken of before us.
Oh Lord, don’t leave any one of us on the outside. Don’t leave any one of us feeling like it’s impossible to be an overcomer. We pray rather that You would so encourage our hearts by the coming of the Holy Ghost upon us—as a Comforter, as an Advocate, as a Helper, as a Strengthener—that we all might feel, by the grace of God through faith, that we can overcome in this present day.
Lord, if we can have that portion of Your Spirit upon us to see the things going on around us, and then to respond in faith and obedience to You, then we dare to believe that this conference is including us, as its topic is: they overcame.
Help us, Lord. Oh, help us by Your Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
By way of introduction, I just want to share three things with us to help us get the context a little bit.
I’ll actually be speaking, God willing, on “They overcame by the blood of the Lamb,” but that will be in my second and third sessions. First, the context. I think it’s very important.
We see this passage, Revelation 11:15 through Revelation 12. And the first thing that I really feel is very important to say is this: this passage has a very important context for us to remember.
This passage is part of the victorious outworking that began when the Lamb came out of the midst of the throne and victoriously took the scroll.
So this is part of the outworking of the victory of the Lamb. As fearsome as the dragon may appear, and then the other beast that soon comes on the scene, the fact of the matter is that this is the outworking of the victorious Lamb Who overcame.
The Lamb has now laid hold of the scroll that held the destiny of the universe and has begun to unseal and precipitate things that come out of His victory.
So this revelation here in Revelation 12 has to be taken in the context of the central revelation, which is in Revelation 5, where the Lamb is seen in the midst of the throne.
Do you believe the Lamb has already overcome? The Lamb has gained the victory. The Lamb has gained the right to set forth God’s full purpose in the undoing of that which needs to be undone and the recreating of that which is for eternity.
And it’s all in the Lamb’s hands. This dragon, this whole scene, is all in the Lamb’s hand.
Look just for a moment at the dragon’s frustration. Here is this great, powerful being. He is fearsome. He’s more scary than Avatar’s beasts.
This dragon—look what he’s doing. He’s got to wait. He’s waiting. He can’t touch the woman. He just has to wait: hands off that woman.
Then he’s waiting to devour this child, and the man-child is born up to heaven. He doesn’t get a touch. Then he’s furious and goes running through the wilderness trying to run after the woman, and she keeps eluding him and gaining help just in the nick of time.
The dragon doesn’t have a chance, because the Lamb is in control.
The second thing I’d like to say is that this section in Revelation 12, which is our interest for this week, is part of the precipitation of the seventh trumpet.
Did you notice, when we read in Revelation 11:15, that it talks about the seventh angel sounding? It is talking about the seventh trumpet in this sequence of trumpets. This is the immediate context.
We see that when the seventh trumpet sounded, something tremendous began to take place. Up in heaven, those viewing things from a heavenly perspective shouted with a loud voice.
When they heard the seventh trumpet, what did they say? “Now the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.”
See, something from the heavenly perspective was already done. Then, in Revelation 11:16, the twenty-four elders who sat on their thrones fell down and worshiped and made further prophetic pronouncements:
“We give thanks to Thee, O Lord Almighty, Who are and Who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.”
Now here we are looking at these things and saying, “Oh boy, the devil is being let loose. Oh boy, beasts are coming up. Oh, there’s problems.”
From heaven’s perspective, they’re saying, “Here comes the victory. Our God is beginning to reign. We can see it now.”
Why can we see it now? Didn’t they go on and say, in Revelation 11:18:
“And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bondservants and the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
These twenty-four elders, seeing things from the heavenly perspective, are saying, “Oh, we see that You are beginning to reign. Here is how we see it: the nations are enraged, and Your wrath is falling upon them, and Your judgments are falling upon them.”
For the King to come and establish His kingdom on this earth, there need to be things exposed that have been hidden in darkness. There need to be things worked out, brought to their end, and destroyed—things that have dominated and oppressed the world for lo, these many years.
Those up in heaven see all of this happening, and the dear saints are in for their reward: those prophets, those bondservants, those faithful ones, and those who fear the Lord, the small and the great.
Do you see who is included in those rewards? Those who overcame, small and great. And it is time for the rewards to come. From up in heaven, they’re singing this; they’re making this proclamation. How wonderful that is.
The third thing I would say by way of context is this: where is our actual verse, Revelation 12:11, located? It is located in the midst of a victory song.
We are talking about victory.
I might ask just a question, because perhaps it might elude somebody here. What is the difference between a victor and an overcomer, according to the Bible?
Absolutely no difference. It’s the same word. If you want to say “victor” instead of “overcomer,” fine. That’s exactly the same word, and it is what it is talking about.
Here is the victory song, as we see there in Revelation 12:10:
“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. And they overcame him.”
Do you see? This is part of a victory song. Are we part of that victory?
At the very end of Revelation 11, verse 19, we find something interesting and wonderful:
“And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”
The seventh trumpet has sounded, and now heaven, kept secret for so long, is opening once again to expose the power of holiness.
Out of the holiness of God there are now thunders and lightnings and earthquakes and hailstorms. And you sense that it is right on the brink. We’re right on the brink.
The message to us is this: we are right at the very brink of the manifestation of the victory of the Lamb of God on this earth.
It is true that it has been done in heaven since our Lord was raised from the dead. But we’re right on the brink of seeing its manifestation here on earth.
Now, I know you may say, those of you who are more cynical, “Well, we’ve been saying that for two thousand years.”
But to those who are in the Spirit, you understand: things are right on the brink.
Don’t you want to be faithful during that short little while until things are manifest, rewards are given, and the enemy is vanquished?
Isn’t that a wonderful song we sing? “A Victor, a Victor, Because of Calvary,” and all those verses about the foe being vanquished.
But we’ve gone home after singing those great songs, feeling like perhaps we were together with some overcomers. Then we go back home, look around, and wonder, “What’s really going on?”
Oh, we need to pray this week, by the grace of God: may the Lord include all those brothers and sisters who meet with us. May we all be included.
I know some of you. I’ve seen you over the years. I know you have a real heart for God. You want everything God wants, and you’ve been willing so far to pay what the price has cost.
But there are many who aren’t so sure, who stay out on the borders of things. Oh, may the Lord bring us all in during this short little while before the manifest victory. May He bring us all into all that He has for us.
If things are shortly to manifest, the final victory to come in, what is this great conflict that we see before us?
Here in Revelation 12, we see two great signs in heaven. In verse 1, the great sign is the woman; in verse 3, another great sign in heaven is the dragon.
Now, I don’t want to get into any kind of theological controversy here. This is a very controversial passage. Just for your information, there are four major schools of interpretation of the book of Revelation, and at this very point all four schools scatter to the four corners in complete disagreement about what this means.
So I’m going to try not to represent any school tonight, but rather take a larger look at this great sign, because it is here for one reason only: to encourage us to overcome and be faithful to the Lord in these last days.
These are great signs. You notice it uses that term in Revelation 12:1: “A great sign appeared in heaven.” And in verse 3: “Another sign appeared in heaven.”
There are two things we should say straight away about signs. First, signs are meant to be taken symbolically.
Why do I say that? Let’s look at the signs in the Gospel of John. John wrote a Gospel based on signs. What is the point about signs? It is this: the sign is less than the spiritual reality of which it speaks.
What was the sign in John 6? Five thousand were fed bread. But what was the spiritual reality of that sign? “I am the bread of heaven.” That is the reality.
What is greater: five thousand loaves of bread, or “I am the bread of life”? Well, you see, of course.
Or in John 9, there is a man born blind who is given his sight back. What a tremendous thing—a miracle of miracles, a Messianic miracle. But it is only a sign. What is the reality? “I am the light of the world.” That’s the reality.
The sign is a representation of something, a symbol, something that points us. These miracles of Jesus point us to Jesus and Who He is.
These signs here are signs that point us to something greater than the signs themselves.
The second thing we notice in Revelation 12 is that these signs appeared in heaven. That is to say, they were signs that John saw as he looked up and saw things going on in heaven.
Now, the interesting thing is that even though these are signs in heaven, things in heaven have a very direct correspondence with what goes on upon the earth.
The woman is the first sign seen in heaven, but not many verses later she is running through the wilderness on earth. There is a correspondence. The woman up there is greater than the woman running on earth, but she is definitely connected. There is a correspondence between the heavenly woman and the earthly woman.
Then there is this great war that Michael is having with the dragon. What a war in heaven is going on. But it has some correspondence with a war that is going on upon earth.
Why? Because as the victory song is sung, they say, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” Now they are talking about some people on earth.
What? A war in heaven, but it had some outcome that had something to do with those upon earth who were saints, who knew the blood of the Lamb, who had a testimony, and who were not afraid to die. Of course. What a correspondence.
We even see the dragon who is up there in heaven in all his greatness, and then he is cast down upon earth and runs after the woman. There is a correspondence between what goes on in heaven and what goes on on earth.
Are we aware of that? Are we aware that in the heavenlies there is great spiritual warfare going on?
I sometimes think that our well-being as the church is strangely in correspondence with the welfare of Israel. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that.
Maybe when Israel is in trouble, we’re in trouble more than we think. Maybe we’re more connected than we realize with the destiny of Israel. There is a correspondence.
It isn’t all, “Oh, it’s way up there somewhere.” Something is happening down here that has a direct correspondence up there. There is something right over our heads going on in the heavenlies, whether we see it or not, and it is directly affecting the things going on upon earth right now—in our lives, in our fellowships, in our town.
So the signs in heaven are to have an impact upon us as we dwell upon this earth and learn to be faithful and overcome victoriously as we go through our lives on earth.
Having said that, I’ll just mention the three parts of this sign so that you can all throw tomatoes at me and say, “Well, I have a different interpretation.” Well, fine. Okay, well, here we go.
The first sign in heaven is this great woman. This great woman is in travail, crying out, and about to give birth. Well now, who is this woman?
If you’ve read any books on the book of Revelation, oh my goodness, where people can take that woman. Who is that woman?
But if we realize that this is a symbol, a sign of something that has been transpiring through the history of man, then I would just like to touch on three things that I am sure are part of the meaning here.
When you see a woman travailing in childbirth, it has to take you back to Genesis—to Eve, who now must labor through pain in childbirth.
It takes you back to that prophecy spoken to Satan:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and her seed will bruise your head.”
Can’t you just see that in this picture? The serpent had to look forward to that.
But there must be some correspondence. Let’s make it just as spiritual as possible: since the beginning of the creation of man, there has been a purpose for man that is to be fulfilled through great spiritual travail.
But you cannot just leave it there.
Because we are students of the Word of God, you cannot read this verse and this whole passage, especially, and not realize its connection with Isaiah 66. Let’s turn there for just a second. You will see it immediately. We don’t need to make much comment on it.
Isaiah 66:7-9:
Before she travailed, she brought forth;
before her pain came, she gave birth to a male child.Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing?
Can a land be born in one day?
Can a nation be brought forth all at once?
But as soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.“Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord.
“Or shall I, Who gives delivery, shut the womb?” says your God.
Now, you see, there has to be a connection there. I don’t know what you think about Israel, if you have one of these views in vogue today about Israel, but I will tell you one thing: I cannot read that Scripture and not realize that there has been a great travail over Zion.
There presently is a travail over Zion, and out of that travail will come a birth of sons.
That’s why many, even Christians, interpret this woman as Israel. There is a connection there.
But then, being good students of the Word, we’ve studied our New Testaments. And we have seen in Galatians 4 that this woman has something to do with the church.
Paul says this in passing because all Christians know this:
“But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.”
—Galatians 4:26
And then Hebrews 12:22 says:
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels.”
What I am trying to say is that the church has some correspondence with something in heaven—this Zion, this heavenly Jerusalem. There is a correspondence there.
The church is more than just what is gathered down here on earth. There is something there in heaven, symbolic. This woman is in travail, and the church is in travail, giving birth to something that is in the plan and heart of God.
Now, it really doesn’t make any difference where we come down in the interpretation. If you want to narrow it to one of those, perhaps for the church we could narrow it to that. But I think this symbol is something larger.
In any case, I ask the question, because here is the important question: Do we see ourselves in this travail? Are we in this travail?
Those in the Spirit become aware that this sign is showing us that something of tremendous importance is going on. It is represented in this woman. She is crying out. She is in travail. Something is about to happen. It is so important, and it has brought such conflict that it has brought Satan to stare at close range at this woman.
Do we see ourselves in there somehow? Do we feel this? Has this correspondence touched us here upon the earth?
When we look at the second sign, I don’t think we have to make much of a case for who the dragon is, because it says very clearly in Revelation 12:9:
“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan.”
The serpent of old brings that animosity between the woman and the serpent back to our mind. Satan has been the adversary in the Old Testament of Zion and Israel.
You remember Isaiah 14, where behind Babylon and Babylon’s unstoppable taking over of Judea and bringing her into captivity, there was this one behind Babylon. Who was that?
The one who said:
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
It is Satan himself, driving the power of Babylon to conquer Zion. There is a rage involved there.
He is the serpent. He is the devil. He is our opponent as well. But we notice him specifically in Revelation 12:3 as the dragon.
When you look at this dragon, you see that he has seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. When we look at this great sign in heaven, we see Satan, yes—but more. We see the serpent, yes—but more. We see the devil himself—but more.
We see Satan incarnate in a confederacy of kingdoms. That’s what those heads and diadems mean. This is some kind of confederacy of kingdoms standing against the purpose of God. It is standing there just to devour whatever comes out of God.
This dragon is enraged. These are earthly kingdoms—crowns, heads—but no, no, no. There is something behind it. It is Satan himself. It is the devil himself. He is up to something.
Then we come to the man-child. Here, of course, the majority opinion, when people look at this particular Scripture—if you get fifty-five commentaries on Revelation, you’ve only just started—is that the man-child is Jesus Christ Himself, Who was born of a woman and has taken up the throne of God.
And of course, in one way, it must be Him.
It says of the male child that He will rule with a rod of iron. Notice Revelation 12:5:
“And she gave birth to a son, a male child, Who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.”
If you go to Revelation 19, where it shows the Word of God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, coming back to take His kingdom, you will see that it says He will rule with a rod of iron. So it has very much to do with Jesus.
But wait just a minute now. If we take Revelation 12 in its context—as an outworking of the seventh trumpet, as part of that victory begun when Jesus took the scroll in the center of the throne—then we have to ask the question: how could it be Jesus if He is already on the throne?
Why would Jesus at this point be snatched up to the throne when He is already on the throne, opening the scrolls and unfolding the whole of history? Something doesn’t quite seem to make sense.
Then, of course, as we go back to Revelation 2, we see that the Lord gives a word of encouragement to the church in Thyatira:
“He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.”
—Revelation 2:26-27
Now this man-child seems to be corporate. Those who overcome—specifically here in Thyatira—are promised to rule with the Lord with a rod of iron.
So maybe the man-child is Christ with the overcomer in Christ, if you want to put it that way. But you see, it is a sign of something. It is the sign of an overcomer.
Govett, in his commentary on the Apocalypse, says from the context that it is obvious that the man-child is four things:
Now, there is the man-child. And I ask the question: Do you see yourself there?
What if this whole spiritual conflict has something to do with the sons of God? What if it has something to do with man, by the grace of God, coming into something of fullness—coming into something valuable to God and valuable to the Lamb?
This whole thing is a picture. Don’t parse it and make it too small. It has something to do with Israel coming to terms. It has something to do with the church coming to terms. There is something about to be born, and the enemy hates that which is about to happen.
So there is a great spiritual conflict.
These signs at least have one simple point to them: there is something of great significance going on in the heavens, something that will last for eternity. It has great importance and also a correspondence with the things going on upon this earth.
Which leads to the third thing. I have mentioned the context. I have talked about the signs. Now, finally, the third issue: what is behind this conflict? What is really going on?
I think you all know the answer. The enemy has always had an obsession with the throne.
He has conflicted down through the centuries with anything that would tend to stand for the throne of God upon this earth—whether it be Zion, whether it be King David, whether it be the church. Whatever stands for the throne of God, the enemy hates.
Of course, he wants the throne, but he cannot have it. The Lamb is on the throne. The devil cannot have the throne.
But he can try to frustrate anyone who is destined for the throne.
I believe that God has a desire not only that His Son should reign from the throne, but that He should have those who reign with Him. Is that clear enough in Scripture?
So we see that the great issue with the enemy is that throne to which those who overcome are about to come. And he will do anything to stop us.
If the issue is the throne, the battle is over life. Life—that which the enemy wants to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
If you and I are born again and we’re Christians, then the enemy will prowl and search for some way to lay hold of your soul life, so that he might frustrate your spiritual life.
He’s not interested in your money. He’ll make you a slave by it. He’s not interested in your house or your job. He’s interested in your soul.
That frustrates the purpose of God. He is interested in somehow fouling our spirit. And the only way to stop it is by being faithful to the Lord and overcoming the enemy.
Let me put it this way: if these signs and symbols are less than the spiritual reality, then if you see the rage of Satan as symbolic in Revelation 12, how angry do you really think he is?
I don’t think I need to say much about that.
We Christians know what it’s like to try to gather faithfully with God’s people and see how the enemy comes in and tries to destroy what God has joined together.
We see what the enemy does to a loving and simple, perhaps naïve, couple who get married to love forever, till death do us part; and then how the enemy gets in there to absolutely sever that relationship between a husband and a wife.
We see what the enemy does to children who are growing up and ran out today with these little smiley faces. They’re in the hands of mom and dad, and all is right with the world. Then the enemy will try to have a day with those kids and take them out—to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
This is a reality. This is the battle.
And this is where it becomes subtle. It is possible to live upon this earth with this great battle for our souls and for our very life going on, and not even be aware of it. That’s the subtlety of it.
If the enemy fought us openly—if he just came and showed up and knifed us—it would be easier to handle. But his schemes are so subtle.
He is taking your soul out as we sit here tonight, although we may not be fully aware of it. We have ground that we’ve lost. We’ve had children that we’ve lost. We’ve had situations that have gone foul. We have fellowships at the point of death.
We have things going on, and oh, God forbid that we not see what is at stake.
This is the issue. It is a battle for life. If he cannot have your eternal life, then he will have you frustrated in your soul life, your spiritual life, and even your physical life.
The enemy is no gentleman. And he is mad.
He is chasing after the woman and after those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. There is a hatred for all those who are God’s children because there is that possibility of coming into that destiny of the throne.
The enemy is not just playing cat and mouse. He is in it for keeps. This is all he has left. When he is thrown to the earth and knows his time is short, he is absolutely crazy with anger.
Now, we come to a conference. I have to say for myself, I’m always greatly encouraged. By the time I get through hearing Brother Stephen, and then Lance blowing the trumpet, why, I’m ready to go and do the warfare.
But when we get back home and life takes over, circumstances engulf us, situations pile up, and our jobs make demands, something happens like in the book of Judges, where everybody runs home to their own little house and does what is right in their own eyes.
And the battle soon ceases.
I want to finish by bringing before us three pictures that bring out this possibility: there is tremendous spiritual conflict and warfare going on literally right over our heads, in the heavenly places, and we might not see it.
The first picture I present to you is Israel.
The citizens of Israel—perhaps even the majority of the citizens of Israel—are willing to partition their land away in order to get a piece of paper that says peace.
We know that most of those in Israel—some of them fear God, many of them are completely secular. When we hear that, I sort of say, “What’s the matter with them?”
How could they not see that? What good is a piece of paper that some people sign who lie and plan to steal and kill? Do you want a piece of paper so that you will just sign your land away? Does it make sense? Is it real?
I think to myself, “Israel, look at Michael. Michael is the archangel of Israel. Look at Michael. He’s right over your heads. He’s fighting spiritual warfare against the kings of Persia, but you don’t see it. You think it’s just a political thing.”
No, no, no, no. It is not a political thing. There is something so much more. Do we see that? Of course.
Picture number two: the church.
Again, I’m speaking as a whole. I don’t want to comment on your local assembly. I hope it is thriving with life. But the church as a whole is in Babylonian captivity, hardly living.
Body life is seen in certain places. Praise God. But the church as a whole—there was an old North Carolina preacher from years back, gone on now to be with the Lord—always said that the church today is so subnormal that if for one moment it became normal, everybody would think it was abnormal.
He said, “On Sunday, when the clock strikes twelve, the church gives up its dead.”
This was our brother with a prophetic and sharp tongue. But, dear brothers and sisters, the state of the church is nothing to boast about.
The state of our own situation—Sardis is falling asleep, leaving works undone, and about to fade away in its testimony. It does not even realize it. You see, this is the problem.
Laodicea is almost dead with compromise. It is almost blind. It cannot see, but it thinks it is okay. That’s the problem.
How many people in the seven churches in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 realized the spiritual warfare going on over their heads?
Well now, I think in Smyrna, where there was such strong persecution and people were being martyred, they knew that there was warfare going on there.
But what about Laodicea? What about Pergamum? What about Thyatira? “Oh, we’re doing fine. Well, our pastor’s not so good, but we’re doing okay.”
We do not realize how wretched and poor and blind and naked we really are.
So let’s not look at Israel and say, “You bunch of dummies.” Let’s look at ourselves and say, “Do we see the warfare going on right over our heads for the life of the church, the testimony of the church, and the reality there?”
We’ve lost, we’ve lost, we’ve lost, we’ve lost. We’ve lost our heart. We’ve lost our prayer.
But if we’re not in the Spirit, how can we ever see it? It just seems like, “Well, we’re okay.” Or, God forbid, if we ever go into the comparison business, we can always find some group that is worse off than we are.
The final little picture I give to you is a cute little picture. J. B. Phillips, who wrote the Phillips New Testament, was a wonderful man. He published a few books of sermons, and I believe one of the books was Your God Is Too Small. I read it twenty-five years ago, and it stuck with me.
In one of his sermons, he shares a wonderful little parable. I call it the parable of the combine and the field mice.
This is how Brother Phillips tells the story. The field mice had their little nest there in the wheat fields at the end of the summer. They had their little umbrellas up and everything all neat and sweet, all their little food packaged around, and everything was nice.
Then one day they heard a noise.
The noise grew louder. The ground began to shake. Dust began to fly. Straw began to obscure their vision. It got so intense and so loud and so strong that finally Mr. Field Mouse said, “We’ve got to get out of here.”
They jumped over a couple of rows just in time. The combine came through.
Maybe I should explain what a combine is. A combine is a harvesting machine. It takes the wheat, cuts off the wheat, and throws away the chaff on the ground—all in one motion.
Well, the field mice mopped their brows and tried to set up table again and have a bite to eat. Suddenly, here came the sound again. Wouldn’t you know, they just got out in the nick of time again.
They moved over a couple of rows, and a couple of minutes later they had to jump again. Finally night was falling. They had a night’s rest, and then the next morning, here came the sound.
What the field mice lacked was a larger vision of what was going on.
I wonder if we Christians are not now at that stage of history where we’re never going to have the good old days again—where you’ll be able to pack up, settle in, have two cars in the garage, three and a half kids, and a dog, and everything is going to work out happily ever after.
I don’t know about you, but the combine noise is loud in my ears even tonight.
Will we ever be able to settle down again? Do we lack that larger view of what is going on?
Because once the Lord has said, “Put in the sickle,” and He begins to precipitate those final events, there will be no settling down, but only overcoming.
There will be safety. There will be provision found in the wilderness. But it will be overcoming.
Now, I know this message sounds so bad to young people. They’re not even married yet. They don’t even have that job they want. They don’t even realize the job will lead them to Babylon. They don’t know all these things, and they hear this doom message.
So I just want to conclude by saying this: those who overcame were those who heard what the Spirit says to the churches.
That can include a fifteen-year-old young girl who has just been born again. And it can include an eighty-five-year-old saint who has been faithful all these years.
I don’t believe the overcomer is a matter of age, or even of maturity in terms of the way we think of maturity. Overcomers are those who are faithful to the Lord right now, as the manifestation of His victory takes place.
Are you in the Lord? Do you know the Lord? Do you hear the Lord? Are you faithful to the Lord?
It is a very important issue for young people and for old. I know, even as I address this wonderful assembly tonight, there are probably some young people here who think it is virtually impossible for them to be an overcomer because they have so many temptations, their lusts are so strong, and there are so many avenues for them to experiment.
They think, “You know, I can never overcome.”
I tell you what: if the Spirit of God is speaking to you, you can overcome and be more than a conqueror and a victor in Christ Jesus. Now you need to be faithful.
There is so much going down right now. Oh, may we see it.
And if we see it, may we line up and do business with God, find ourselves full of the Holy Spirit, and lay hold of God’s purpose even in these last days.
The Lord can do marvelous things even in these last days. The Lord can save many people even in these last days. The Lord can restore many things even in these last days.
But He has to find a people who are willing to be victorious, who will not take no, who will not make excuses, who are full of the Holy Spirit.
May the Lord help us.
We’re going to take a few minutes now, and a few moments, and pray about what our brother has brought to us. Again, we want to encourage those to speak up, stay, pray—but let’s pray about this word.
I think that thought of correspondence is very important. The Lord is looking even this week.