Truth Matters Weekend: 11 20 21

Welcome to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, heard daily on this station at 820 AM and 520 PM. Truth Matters is a ministry of the Truth Project whose mission is to empower men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth and sharing the message of Jesus. Learn more about the ministry of the Truth Project at www.projecttruthmatters.com.

And let's join Dr. Cheryl Davis for this week's extended edition of Truth Matters. We start with a quick review and then we get into Revelation Chapter 12. And we see the Ark of the Covenant in heaven.

Let's get into Chapter 12 as we read verses 1-9. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was called up to God and His throne.

Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon as his angels' fault, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, and the serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

So we get into symbolism and as I said, you know, some of these chapters are some of the most difficult chapters to interpret as we are talking about symbols and really what do they mean. I would say this is a great wonder, you know, this woman is a great wonder. Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with a moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. So, you know, I'm sure you're probably asking who is this woman as I was asking the first time I really read Revelation in depth is who is this woman? There's a lot of debate about her identity actually and I'm so glad you asked that question.

We're going to get into who she is. If you read the media or you scan the internet, Christian Science Religion founder Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy says that it is her. The Catholic Church teaches that the woman represents the Virgin Mary who is in heaven in bodily form following her assumption. An assumption is when you're taken into heaven when the course of her life was finished.

We know that it's not the Christian Science Religion founder so I'm not necessarily going to defend that. But there are quite a few issues with this being Mary though. Mary had already birthed Jesus before she was ascended into heaven. Some Protestants teach that this woman is the modern day church but the church did not birth Christ, the church is his bride. The correct identity of this woman and really when you read verses 1 and 2 and if you use context clues as far as the history of the Israel nation. The correct identity of this woman is Israel. Israel is often described by the prophets as a woman in travail. And in Romans chapter 9 verse 5 Paul points out that Christ came from a Jewish nation and we know that Jesus was a Jew. Christ is pictured here being born of a woman and that woman is the nation of Israel. So how do we know?

How do we know that? We know that based on the history of Israel. So let's go back to Genesis chapter 37 verse 9 and this is the interesting story of Joseph who we know as Joseph the dreamer. And chapter 37 records his dreams of greatness and verse 9 says, Joseph was the dreamer and in this case Jacob was the sun, Jacob's wife Rachel was the moon and his brothers were the stars.

Verse 1 let me call that out again. Verse 1 the woman is clothed with the sun which we know is Jacob whose name was later turned to Israel. We know that Rachel is the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of 12 stars which are the 12 tribes of Israel. And in Joseph's dream there were 11, those were his brothers, Joseph is the 12th star.

The first sign in chapter 12, the nation of Israel symbolized by a woman trying to give birth to a child who is the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the woman was the first great wonder, the second great wonder is the dragon. Who is the dragon?

And I'm glad you asked that question. Thank you, we believe it is Satan. This dragon is described as a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns. Seven heads are the completeness of his power as a prince or ruler of this world. We will discuss the ten horns in Revelation chapter 17, I won't get much into that now.

But just understand that the dragon is a crowned monarch who sits in a position of authority and power. And we know that the dragon does have power in the tribulation, we know that Satan has power today. In verse 4 he drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. This is referring, and if you remember this one third and you remember the history of Satan, this is referring to when Satan was thrown out of heaven because of his rebellion. And we find that in Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28.

When you have your own time, please go and read these chapters as this really shows the history of Satan, it shows how pride entered Satan's heart and that's what led to his fall. But when he fell, a third of the angelic host of heaven fell with him. Some of those angels are confined to the bottomless pit today and we know that based on our study of Revelation. But many are active as servants of Satan in our world today. One third of the stars of heaven refers to angels first because Satan himself is referred to as the morning star. And in that chapter of Isaiah that I mentioned before, Isaiah chapter 14 verse 12, how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations. The angels who rejoice at creation are referenced to as the morning stars in Job chapter 38 verse 7.

And let's read that. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. But what is the most important characteristic of this dragon? You know, we know that it's Satan, we know how he's described, but really when you look at him, what is the most important characteristic of this dragon? And examining the dragon and its reference to the woman, what is key about this dragon is that he stands ready to devour the child as soon as it is born. Satan's purpose is to destroy Christ to keep him from fulfilling the promise God made to Eve in Genesis 3.15.

So let's go to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 and see the promise that God made to Eve. And we know this is after the fall, we know that at this point he is cursing the world, he's cursing Eve, but also he makes a promise regarding the serpent and he says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. He's going to crush the head of the serpent.

And so he's making that promise that he's going to crush the head of the serpent. But since then, Satan's existence is dedicated to destroying the purpose of Christ. Anyone connected with Christ's seed have been attacked by human agencies. And we know that Satan's strategies are ancient and they do not change. And if we can get hip to the jive of Satan and understand him, we can anticipate how he's going to come against us.

And so Satan basically has three strategies and I just want to take a second to go over this before we talk about the history of Satan's persecution of God's chosen people. But let's go to Genesis chapter 3 verse 6. This is how he deceived Eve.

And we can see how Satan deceived Eve and he deceives us the same way. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her who ate. But first, after she saw that it was good for food is known as the lust of the flesh. That it was pleasant to the eyes is the lust of the eyes. And it is desirable to make one wise is the pride of life. So Satan will come and attack in these three ways.

And it will always be these three ways. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Since then, he has been attacking the very seed of anyone who is connected with Christ. And we see that throughout the Bible. When Cain slew Abel. Second, the pre-flood generation was almost completely destroyed because of their sin.

Only Noah was faithful. Third, we see that Esau wanted to kill Jacob. Second, Pharaoh tried to kill every Hebrew male baby in Egypt. Five, he sowed discord and sin among the sons of King David, so that only one little baby, Joash, remained at the line of David whom the Messiah might come. Haman tried to destroy the Jews while they were in exile. He tried to destroy all the male babies in Bethlehem. And Satan tempted Jesus himself in the wilderness to go against the plan of God and take matters into his own hands. Satan has been preoccupied with trying to destroy Christ's seed throughout history because he knew that in the fulfillment of Christ's sacrifice on the cross that that would crush his head. And we see even in Matthew chapter 4 verses 1 through 11 how he even tempted Christ.

You know, if he could not stop him from being born, and even after he was born, Joseph and Mary had to go to Egypt because Herod tried to kill all the male babies in Bethlehem. But even after he said, okay, I can't kill him, I can't stop him from being born, maybe I can even corrupt Jesus. And so in Matthew chapter 4, this is where we see where he tempts Jesus. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit unto the wilderness who was tempted by the devil.

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights after he was hungry, so he was vulnerable. Now when the tempter came to him, he said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread, lust of the flesh. But he answered and said, It is given, Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into the holy mountains, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for his angel shall give charge over you, and that his hand shall not bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. For it is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. And again, the devil took up on exceeding high mountain, showed him kingdoms and all the glory, and he said, I will give this to you, which we know this is the lust of the pride of life. And Jesus said, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and worship him only. Still, Satan tried to tempt Jesus with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and he was not successful. So again, this shows the history of the Bible and the history of Satan's attempt to block the birth of Christ, but when he was unsuccessful to block the birth of Christ, he was able to try to tempt Christ, but even after the tempting of Christ, the people of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus off the cliff during his ministry, but finally Satan thought he had Jesus killed on a cross outside of Jerusalem.

And I like this version of the Last Supper. If you go to the Last Supper, this is a very specific verse in John 13, verse 27, when it says, Now after the piece of bread Satan entered him, then Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly. So even then, Jesus had to give permission for Satan to even perform what Judas was chosen to do. Judas allowed Satan to enter him.

Judas traded Jesus for only a few pieces of silver. Satan thought that he was going to be successful at killing Jesus at this point, but Satan had not really counted on the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. But when Christ arose, there was nothing he could do at that point. He was defeated. And we know that Jesus, while he was in the grave, went down, took the keys to death, hell in the grave, but also preached to Satan to say that he was defeated. It's not that he preached and gave those that died and Satan a chance.

No, that's not what happened. He went to proclaim his victory over death, hell in the grave. And I firmly believe that if we know the strategy of our enemy, we know how to protect ourselves.

We know how to anticipate things that are coming. But at this point, Satan shifted in his strategy. Satan changed his strategy at this critical juncture. After the resurrection and ascension of Christ and on the day of Pentecost when the church was born, he turned his attention away from Jesus to the church.

And we see that because of the number of waves of persecution on the early church. The war began in Genesis chapter 3, and we know that 50 million Christians died in the first three centuries of the early church age. Let's talk about a great war in heaven. In verse 7, it says a war broke out in heaven. This is a war between Michael, God's angel, and Satan. We see this war in the future, but the war is going on right now as we speak in heaven.

But the best place to learn about this is Daniel chapter 10. Thank you for listening to Truth Matters. I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis. You've been listening to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, a North Carolina-based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to these messages on demand, go to ProjectTruthMatters.com and click on the podcast link. Dr. Davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function. She can be reached by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Or if you'd like to send a letter, the address is Project Truth Matters, Post Office Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina, 28384. You can hear Truth Matters devotionals on weekdays at 8.20 a.m. and 5.20 p.m. Until next time, let's all work together to teach a biblical truth to assist, equip, edify, and encourage one another and bring the gospel to the world because truth matters.