Cosmic Conflict

You know, Paul in Corinthians said, concerning the devil, we are not ignorant of his devices. Says, for we are not ignorant of Satan's devices.

The trouble is, I know far too many Christians that are ignorant of his devices. Because of that, they live in constant defeat over and over and over again. There's certain things we need to be aware of in this cosmic conflict. When it comes to spiritual warfare, you can rest secure in the knowledge that the war is already won, thanks to Jesus.

But that doesn't mean you won't face real battles. Today we continue our countdown of Skip's top 40 messages on the Connect with Skip Heitzig YouTube channel. In the number 33 spot is Skip's message cosmic conflict, where Skip encourages you to rest in the safety and security you have in Christ in the midst of the invisible spiritual war going on around you.

Right now, we want to share about a great resource that will show you how you can enjoy an even more abundant and satisfying life in Jesus. When Neil Armstrong took man's first step on the moon, the whole world watched and his first words are well known. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. What is not common knowledge is that the first meal on the moon was the Last Supper. Here's Levi Lesko to discuss his new book, The Last Supper on the Moon. This book, Last Supper on the Moon, it begins with Buzz Aldrin 1969, July, summer on the lunar surface before Neil Armstrong gets out of the Eagle to take that famous first step on the moon, the giant leap. But just before that, Buzz Aldrin opened a pouch and took out wine and bread representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

And he had a personal communion service. And that moment, when I found out about it about a year previously, hit me like a thunderbolt, you know, just to realize that the first thing ever eaten on the moon was the Last Supper. The Last Supper on the Moon is an epic new hardcover book by Levi Lesko, and it's our resource offer this month. Receive your copy when you give a gift of $35 or more to support this program. Just go to connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888.

That's connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888. Now we're in Revelation Chapter 12 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. Two years ago, you may or may not know this, there was an asteroid the size of an airliner that almost hit the earth. It came dangerously close, the experts said.

It went by the wonderful fond name of 2014XX110, something like that, some crazy little number. But experts said that it would have caused significant damage had it hit the surface of the earth. Most people were unaware of that.

Most of us would not have known it unless we read it or was told to us by those who were able to pick it up with specialized equipment. Then if you go back a few years to 1985, there was a vessel in the Pacific Ocean that had a little one-man submarine that it led overboard. And a scientist was in this called Deep Rover down to a depth of 1,500 feet where the sea is inky black. And suddenly the scientist said from out of nowhere came a creature he never even knew existed. It was 120 feet long, semi-transparent with thousands of tentacles and dozens of stomachs. The weirdest thing ever. Not only did he see one, but eventually his entire submarine was surrounded by these odd creatures. And then they gobbled them up.

No, I'm just kidding. That's Hollywood. My point in those two stories is that there are things happening around us that are unknown to us and unseen by us, but they're real. They're there. They're invisible. We wouldn't know they exist unless we had specialized equipment and direct revelation that they had occurred.

Consider Revelation chapter 12, special equipment, specialized information. They get us in touch with a very real world, one we don't see, one that many of us pay no attention to as we live our daily lives. It's a very real, but invisible world. The world where God and demons and angels all live and move. A very real world. Since the fall of Satan, there has been a constant war going on in the universe. Think of it as the real Star Wars.

Even much more profound than all of those wonderful movies that you've seen over the years. And this battle made its way to the theater of operations known as the earth. Satan tried to pervert the paradise of heaven. He was kicked out of heaven.

He and a third of the angels fell. He then was consigned to the earth and he tried to pervert the paradise of the earth. He effectively drug Adam and Eve and all of humanity into the cross hairs, into the cross fire of this great cosmic battle.

So that mutiny in heaven became the misery of the earth. Chapter 12 of Revelation is a panorama of that warfare. Seen in symbolic fashion, because after all, Revelation is a book of signs.

We believe it literally, but there are symbols that point to a reality. In Revelation 12, we go all the way back to the fall of Satan from heaven and all the way forward to the end of the great tribulation period on the earth. But I've always believed that Revelation 12 is one of those crucial passages that unless you understand this chapter or the principles that are written in it, you will have no real clue as to past history as well as future prophecy.

We ask the question, we ask the question, what's next? None of it will make sense to us until we understand the principles of Revelation 12. I was reminded this week of an interesting period of our own history in World War II. We had a very famous general named George C. Patton and his nemesis in Germany was Erwin Rommel, a German general that faced Patton in a series of battles in North Africa. What Rommel did not know is that George Patton had studied Rommel's book on war strategy that he had written. He read it, he studied it, so he was aware of what the general was going to do next and that knowledge helped him outmaneuver Rommel in North Africa.

And it is reported that at one point in the battle they got so close to each other that George Patton yelled out of his tank as he saw Rommel eye to eye and he said, I read your book, Rommel. I read your book. So as we read God's book, who shows us the strategies of the devil, I pray that we will both be aware and encouraged. You know, Paul in Corinthians said, concerning the devil, we are not ignorant of his devices, says for we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. The trouble is, I know far too many Christians that are ignorant of his devices and because of that they live in constant defeat over and over and over again. There is no there is certain things we need to be aware of in this cosmic conflict. So we're going to look just today at six verses in Revelation chapter 12 and there are four notable characteristics about this invisible war, this cosmic conflict.

First, it involves a people, that is it involves a nation, a group of people. Now we begin by looking at verse one, now he says a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of 12 stars. Then being with child she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. Note that he sees a great sign and the word great here is the word mega, it's a mega sign and it's a word that is used repeatedly in this chapter. Not only does he use the word in verse one, a great sign, but down in verse three he sees a great fiery red dragon, a mega dragon. Verse 12, that dragon brings great wrath. Verse 14, a great eagle transports this woman to be protected in the wilderness.

So everything John sees in chapter 12 is massive. Mega woman, mega dragon, mega wrath. Question is who is this woman?

Who is she? Well there have been a lot of guesses as to what this symbol points to in reality and I'm not going to go through them all because we don't have enough time. But let me ask you a question, where else in the bible do you ever read about the sun, the moon and the 12 stars?

There's only one other place that has the same motif, the same imagery and that is back in the book of Genesis. Young Joseph has a dream and he tells his dad the dream. He said, you know, last night I was dreaming and the sun and the moon and the 12 stars were bowing down to me. Immediately Jacob, Joseph's dad reacted and listen to what he said, shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?

Now why is that important? Because Jacob interprets the sun and the moon as the symbolic meaning of the dream. It's the key to unlocking what we're reading here in Revelation 12. In that dream that Joseph had, the sun was Jacob, the moon was Rachel, the 12 stars were the 12 sons of Jacob who would become the 12 tribes of Israel. So all of that was a symbol of the Jewish nation. The idea of a woman is very very common in the Old Testament to refer to Israel as a woman, as a mother, as a pregnant woman in travail giving birth. All of that symbolism is of the nation of Israel repeatedly in the Old Testament. So a woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the 12 stars we can safely say based upon the only other time it's mentioned in the scripture as this is a symbol of the nation of Israel.

And that doesn't surprise us. Any of us who have read apocalyptic literature, whether it's Daniel or Revelation or Matthew 24, what Jesus said on that Olivet discourse, we know that Israel as a nation plays a significant role in end time events. The tribulation period is called by Jeremiah as a time of Jacob's trouble, Israel's trouble. The angel Gabriel said to the prophet Daniel, 70 periods of seven are determined for your people, that's the Jewish people, for your holy city, that's the city of Jerusalem. Jesus in Matthew 24 spoke about the end times with the local flavor of the Jews. He spoke about the abomination of desolation that takes place in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He said, pray that your family will live.

He said, pray that your flight not be on the Sabbath. If you live in Judea and you're running to the mountains, get out quick. All of that has a flavor of local Israel and Judaism.

Now here's what's interesting. Have you ever wondered, I hope you have, why is it that of all the nations that have ever existed on the earth, there is one nation that has been more hassled, blessed, opposed, attacked than any other nation and yet has survived. That's Israel.

I mean it's uncanny. If you go all the way back to 586 BC when the Babylonians came in and effectively destroyed them, brought them to their place in captivity, even though Israel returned 70 years later and was gaining independence, the Romans later on came in. There are several battles that between them that wiped them out, but I won't even go into that. When the Romans came in in 70 AD, not only destroying the city of Jerusalem, but massacring 1.6 million Jews.

And then that happened again in 135 AD under Hadrian, the Roman emperor. And then hundreds and thousands of years of diaspora, dispersion, oppression, persecution, Spanish inquisition, extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II over and over and over and over again. And yet we just got back from Israel. That nation still exists today in the Middle East and it was birthed almost instantly as the prophet Isaiah predicted in Isaiah 66, shall a nation be born in a single day? And it was May 14th of 1948. So it's interesting that this one group of people have been hassled and opposed and oppressed, and yet they still exist today.

Why? Because there's something going on in this cosmic conflict that involves this nation. This cosmic conflict is geocentric. It's a geocentric conflict because God has made unique promises to the Jewish nation. It's reported that in the late 19th century when Queen Victoria of England sat upon her throne, and she had a very interesting prime minister named Benjamin Disraeli. They were having a conversation one day and the queen said to her prime minister, what evidence, Mr. Prime Minister, can you give to me of the existence of God? The prime minister was thoughtful and after a few moments he said to the queen, the Jew, your majesty, the Jew.

The Jews still exist and is a part and central to God's purpose and God's plan. So we have this mega sign, a woman appearing clothed with the sun, the moon, and the 12 stars. But notice in verse 2, then being with child, that is she is a pregnant woman, she cried out in labor and pain to give birth. Now it's not too hard to figure out who this child is. I think most of us right off the bat can determine this is no doubt Jesus Christ. What is it that the Jewish nation has longed for for generations? What is it every Jewish mother longed for? The Messiah, the deliverer that would come. In the language of Genesis chapter 3, the seed of the woman will come and crush the head of Satan.

But let's look at further proof. Verse 5, she bore a male child. Now notice what this child does. Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. That can only refer to one person. And her child was caught up to God and his throne. So after the incarnation was the ascension of Jesus into heaven before his coronation and his second coming. So this conflict involves the people and the people are the people of Israel, the Jewish nation.

The second notable characteristic, this conflict includes a perpetrator. There's somebody else in the story we haven't yet met, we're about to meet. Also given to us in symbolic language, verse 3, and another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, the kraken, the dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Now here we don't have to guess as to who the dragon is. We don't have to find some old testament passage to unlock the meaning. All we have to do is look at verse nine here. Verse nine of revelation 12 says, and so the great dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and satan who deceives the whole world and he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. 13 times the book of revelation refers to satan as the dragon. Now here's what's important to understand.

This is a symbol of a reality. It is not a physical description of the devil, it's a moral description. It speaks of his vile character. I'll tell you why this is important because the whole idea of the devil wearing a tight red suit with little red horns and a pitchfork come from this passage and people in assuming that this is the physical description of the devil, they have pooh-poohed the whole idea of a literal devil. Oh come on, you expect them to believe in that? Little devil running around with pitchfork and horns, that's comic book stuff. Gallup organization did a poll and they said you know most Americans believe in God but most Americans do not believe in a literal devil. And it's because of images like this that people have taken and assume that it is a physical description. All of this is a symbol to point to how vile a creature he is, how cruel and fierce.

C.S. Lewis said, humanity falls into two equal and opposite errors concerning the devil. One, some people take him too seriously.

Number two, others don't take him seriously enough. So on one hand you have denial, on the other hand you have obsession. Many people deny that there's a devil, as I just mentioned.

But you know what? You can't have a more powerful enemy than the one you don't believe exists. If you have an enemy that you don't know about, he's got you. You are under his control.

He's outflanked and outmaneuvered you simply because you don't know he's there. But the other extreme is obsession and I have met far too many Christians who seem to be obsessed with the devil, they want to cast him out of their scrambled eggs and every person they ever meet. There's a devil behind it all.

We fail to realize greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. I love what John White, he wrote the one of the greatest books I've ever read on Christian living called The Fight and he gives good balance to this issue saying, have no delusions about demons reality or their hostility. They will oppose you as you obey Christ. If you play it cool and you decide not to be a fanatic about Christianity, you will have no trouble from them.

But if you are serious about Christ being your Lord and your God, you can expect opposition. Now look at this dragon's description. He has seven heads and ten horns. He's a seven-headed monster. That's one ugly dragon.

That's one fierce dragon. What does all this mean? Well by now you should know that the number seven is a significant number in the book of Revelation and throughout the Bible. And seven is a number that speaks of what? Don't say perfection. It speaks of totality completion.

Just as seven days make a total or complete week, seven notes make a total or complete scale. The idea of seven heads speaks of a comprehensive intelligence. I'd put it this way, Satan has an IQ that is off the charts. Satan has an IQ that is off the charts. He was an intelligent being that crafted a mutiny in heaven. It got him kicked out of heaven but it also he managed to take a third of the angels with him.

You got to be pretty intelligent to pull that off. He has studied human nature and human character for thousands of years. He knows all of your weak points and he can craft temptations specifically suited for you. Seven-headed dragon. But also he has 10 horns. An animal's horn was the animal's strength. It's what he used to fight with.

It was its weapon. Satan has dominated the world. He has authority over all realms of the world. He is called the god of this world. And you'll notice that the authority was given to him. There are crowns on his head.

He's been coronated. The citizens of this world have yielded that authority and power over to him. And in the end times, don't have time to get into it today, we will see that the counterpart to the devil called the antichrist manages to put together a coalition of 10 world empires or kingdoms together to forge his own powerful kingdom on the earth in the end times. So we have a mega woman and we have a mega dragon.

Woman symbolizes Israel. The dragon is none other than the devil himself. That's Skip Heitzig's number 33 message on our Top 40 Messages Countdown.

It's from the series What's Next. Find the full message and more of Skip's teachings and watch him teach live twice a week at youtube.com slash calvaryabq. Now here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's word. The Bible tells us that every day draws us closer to the return of Jesus. One day the Lord will return and that means our time to reach others with a gospel is urgent.

People need to hear the good news that changed your life and mine. So today I'm asking for your help to reach more people around the world with these teachings from God's word. Here's how you can partner with this ministry to make that happen. You can give online at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares another Top 40 Message and discusses the Antichrist's widely debated identity and shows you why it's important for you to prepare for his arrival. Now just in case you may be thinking the idea of a coming world leader called the Antichrist is far-fetched, you have a lot of Bible to fight against. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.