The medieval Christians who were burned at the stake, like Jan Hus for example, those saints, and they're men and women burned at the stake. treated harshly in history for loving Christ, And it's the Holy Spirit that gets them through. And what makes it so different is they could have recanted what they said. And they did not. and they did not love their lives to the death.
meaning that they were killed for Christ. They gained the victory because they are willing to pay the price of victory. Uh This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the last book of the Bible, Revelation.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through the 12th chapter of the book of Revelation. As you go through these verse-by-verse teachings, If you're not familiar with the text beforehand, you have a higher chance of being bored and not keeping up. And so you're encouraged to be Students of the Scripture. That's what a disciple is.
A disciple is a student. uh of Jesus Christ, where you can You have to know the word. to develop As a student of Christ, there's more to it. There's, of course, the relationship, the walk, the filling of the Spirit. There are many things that go with it, but not without the Scripture.
If you go without the Scripture, you're going to go into heresy.
So, because how would you know? Then you start making things up about God, and that's heresy.
So, he has been cast down. And incidentally, there was nothing to accuse man of before Adam and Eve fell into sin. Uh That that's when he began. this tattletale thing of his. Anyway, that would help date.
what time he became the devil, the slanderer.
So should the devil accuse you, of whatever it is he's accusing you. It's okay to remind him that he caused it. And that um It's pathetic. that he blew what he had and you're not going to lo lose yours by the help of Help of God. Verse 11.
I think A.W. Tozia has a book, I Talk Back to the Devil.
Well, that's what Michael the archangel did over the body of Jude. The Lord Jesus, rebuke you. There's a way the Scripture tells us ways to deal with Him. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. What a powerful statement about Scripture.
And Jesus dealing with Satan, quoting Scripture. And he's quoting Deuteronomy, for example, at that verse, and the three times that Satan challenged him. Uh he refuted He talked back using scripture.
So, coming to verse 11, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. and the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to the death. Though these are the brave tribulation converts. Who Satan turns his attention to once he is Defile the Jewish temple. He's been persecuting believers all along.
But not until the second half of the seven year tribulation period to see go against the Jews directly. And the interesting thing is when the church was born, Rome pretty much left the Christians alone until they realized the Christians are not the Jews. Even the Jewish Christians are not the Jews. They're a separate entity. Then they began to persecute the Christians directly.
But before then, mostly the persecution on the church came from. Jewish. of people who did not believe in the Messiah.
Well, these words, in verse eleven, they apply with equal force to every believer at any time in history. If you go over if you're going to overcome the slanderer, The dragon, it will be by the blood of the Lamb, and the Word of God will be involved, and how you carry out the Word of God, which is the testimony, how you demonstrate your faith, those are the things that will overcome Satan. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 16 verse 13. Watch, stand fast in the faith. Be brave, be strong.
What a word of encouragement. To the Corinthians. And if they pay attention to each clause, watch. Stand fast in the faith. 'Cause you can stand fast in your own strength That won't get you anywhere good in the faith.
Be brave. as these brave tribulation converts are. dying to serve the Lord. and be strong well. Strength usually, this kind of strength doesn't come naturally.
You have to build it up. Physically these saints will be killed. And we'll get to that as we move through the Revelation. Though physically defeated, Believers are Are always the victors. They always win when they hold to their faith.
Daniel chapter seven Speaking of the coming Antichrist, it applies to Antiochus, but it goes beyond him. Antichrist satisfies all the iniquity. uh wrapped up in Daniel's prophecies about Antiochus Epiphanes.
So he says about Antichrist, he shall speak pompous words against the Most High. He's going to be a blasphemer. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and a half. That's three and a half years. And the saints as Daniel understood it, were the Jewish people.
But the New Testament expands that. to anyone who believes in the Messiah. who is the Christ, of course.
So Christians are not promised. Safety. But victory Now there are times where promised safety, But victory is the main thing. We're not always promised safety. Paul was promised safety sometimes, but ultimately.
We believe he was He was moderate. We're not promised immunity from sin as Christians. We're not promised immunity from error. from getting it wrong. Peter and Barnabas got it wrong in Antioch, and Paul had to straighten the two of them out.
But The abiding presence of God Himself. That's what we're promised. That's the main thing. and that will contribute to the other things. But if we are persecuted If we make mistakes, Um it those things we're not always shielded from.
The need for prayer. Maybe you get to preach Christ to somebody and you say the wrong thing. I don't mean in a malicious way, but your facts are wrong. you have to go back and clean that up. If you get a chance.
Um So welcome to my world. If I get something wrong, it's going to be with me all the way home into mowing the lawn the next day until I start my study on the next session. Anyway, and by the word of their testimony, Well, they refused to recant. Their confession on Under threats of of torture and death. There will be wide use of scripture during the Great Tribulation period.
When the rapture comes, that it won't be it for the Bible. The seeds have been planted, and they're going to spring forth.
So the testimony he mentions here is that personal demonstration of faith. It's what goes on record concerning the faith. As Jesus said. he who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Well, Hebrews 11, 1 and 2. Faith is the substance of things told for, the evidence of the proof of things not seen.
And then he goes on to say, By it the elders achieved an excellent testimony. They won on record. in spite of their faults. and their faults have been written down. It's the life of Jacob.
You wonder you wonder how Samson gets into Hebrews eleven. as one of the faithful.
Well, because God highlighted his failures, does not mean that he was without victories. that he was not righteous. And if God treated us that way, we would be pretty sad if all He does is remember my failures.
So let's not treat Samson that way, although he still is an enigma. And he he paid the price for his carelessness in a in a very um tough way. Anyway, they refused to take back what they witnessed about Christ. Once you know Christ, there's no unknowing Him. You can reject Him if you want, you can become an apostate if you choose.
But You cannot unsee what you've seen. During this great tribulation period, do you think there'll be prosperity teachers still? Telling you, you got to name it and claim it while Christians are being persecuted to death for. rebuking such nonsense. Will psychology help the Christians when they're being persecuted?
No, just the Holy Spirit. That's going to be who God will be the one. Making them strong, as with the medieval Christians who were burned at the stake, like Jan Hus, for example. Those saints and they're men and women burned at the stake. treated harshly in history for loving Christ, And it's the Holy Spirit that gets them through.
And what makes it so different is they could have recanted what they said. And they did not. and they did not love their lives to the death. meaning that they were killed for Christ. They gained the victory because they were willing to pay the price of victory.
Christ is worth more than this life. There are some things that are worth more than this life. I would like the thing if I think if I was confronted with starving to death and cannibalism. I would pick starving to death.
Well, I could do that with a lot of other dishes too. Yeah. I'll die before I eat that. I'm not eating that. I don't care what you fried it in.
Anyway, verse 12. You're like, could you imagine a banana okra souffle? Yeah. Egg ice cream. And I'm trying to gross you out a little bit.
So that'll wake you up. Verse 12. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, And you You who dwell in them, woe to you inhabitants of the earth. and the sea For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows. That is, time is short.
Well, the citizens of heaven are rejoicing that he's booted out. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth. Yeah, because he's got nowhere else to go. He doesn't rule creation. He cannot opt out of going to Earth and say, you know what, instead I'd rather go to Pluto.
Isn't God given the option? He's cast down to the earth. He's going to be, of course, angry. Enraged.
So it's not by coincidence when we get to the next chapter, we find that the two beasts. That emerge, one from the earth and one from the sea. And that's a direct. connection to Satan being cast to earth. John 5, verse 40.
But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. And that's what we would like to say to those who receive the woes. of the judgment Come to Christ and you'll receive life, but if you don't come to Him, woe is you. Because he knows, it says here in verse 12. That is, time is short.
Well, he knows the Scripture he knows what's coming. But he is so invested in his hatred He he is He cannot behave differently. He has Mm-hmm. written the script for his own fate. and he will not stop.
The ultimate display of insane stubbornness. And God knows it. And so the scripture given to us tells us all about how it's going to play out for this demonic, this evil creature. without God having to help him be the way he is. It is all he did it all himself.
Verse thirteen Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast out to the earth, He persecuted the woman, who gave birth to the male child.
Well, there be no.
Well, let's not get him upset. He's already upset. Remember, they were saying that about Islam?
Well, let's not get them upset. They are already upset, they're always that way.
So the righteous have to do what they've got to do. Especially if they're going to get souls saved. This will be the final pogrom. The final time that there will be an organized attempt to massacre the Jew. And though they will kill many, They will not kill them all.
He persecuted, it says here in verse 13, that he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. And the woman, again, is. Israel and the male child is the Christ. And so she is going to be persecuted. In time of Jacob's trouble?
Jeremiah thirty verse seven. The day will come when the enraged haters of the Jews will globally gang up on them. They are trying and they may have already put This um Hamas champion over What is called the United Nitwits, I mean nations. These people are so evil. They have n you cannot shame them because they don't have no consciousness of what's right and wrong.
They're just concerned with what they want, and there's no appeal to them. And this is what we're seeing in the revelation of Jesus Christ, that the world. is in lock step. Against God. And they will not be reasoned with.
You are seeing this in these protests, these mindless peoples. We are watching just a sample of what's coming. And no Christian should look at these things and say, Boy, that seems far fetched. It's spot on, it's exact. And again, will be a tool for making converts when this.
period takes place, this time in human history.
Well, um Israel, of course, will will not be defeated. She is God has granted the Jews a form of genius. That the rest of the world does not have, and it has contributed to their survival in many ways. But we come down to verse 14 now. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle.
That she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished. for a time and times and a half time. from the presence of the serpent.
Well the wings speak of her ability to To flee. She's got the resources to make it out. And it's a free will thing, and she takes advantage of that. But when it says that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished, well, not all will make it out. Zechariah 13:8 lets us know that.
Only a third will survive this last half of the tribulation. For a time, And times and half a time. How many times do I gotta read that? From the presence of the serpent.
Well, that's the three and a half years. A time equals one year. Times equals a second year, and a half a time is six months. And the formula for that comes from Daniel 7, 9, and 12. Shows up in Revelation 11 and again in Revelation 13.
So we don't have to guess about what that means. We have it laid out for us in other places. Verse 15.
So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood. after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
Now remember, the woman is the Jews, the Jewish people. She has fled into what is today the kingdom of Jordan. And there may be a pocket or two here in the wilderness of Judah. But anyway, This is kind of interesting.
So He's already flooded the earth with deception. That makes the world a world. But this paints a picture of a flood of violence, persecution, and an outright attempt to wipe them out.
So here's a scenario. The Jews Likely hiding in caves and underground caves in the kingdom of Jordan. They're going to need a water supply.
Well, there are plenty of water underground or subterranean tables of water. And with all the earthquakes that are going to be flying back and forth during this period of time, there'll be new. Uh tables of water that will emerge.
Well, Antichrist might know where they are. He might even call for bunker-busting bombs to try to reach them below the surface. It's interesting that today the Jews and the Jordanian kingdom of Jordan. have been discussing conduits And channels of water from the Red Sea through this very region of ancient Moab, Amnon, and Edon. Uh uh in Edom.
So, and I think just recently they suspended one like a year ago. And they're continuing to develop these things.
So it's not far-fetched, again, the scenarios. If those water lines are in place, well, Antichrist is going to say, well, we know they're hiding in that region, let's bust these water lines, bomb them, and just flood them out. Drown em.
Well, sinkholes would then emerge if that scenario is followed and just swallow up the water because we're told in verse 16, but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
So I'm going to take that literally. He's trying to flood out the refugees. Maybe he doesn't know exactly where they are. It can't get to them for whatever reasons. And they come up with this brilliant idea.
Well, we'll just drown them. And Again, they can look for bombing underground springs or these conduits, these channels that are for irrigation. There's a lot of talk of running a canal from the Red Sea through Jordan, through Israel, into the Mediterranean Sea. which would go through Gaza, modern-day Gaza, which is also ancient day Gaza.
So there's a lot of stuff happening. Engineering wise, in that part of the world That's finds an easy fit. to what John was writing two thousand years ago. At the time he wrote these things, he probably couldn't think of a scenario. He accepted it as wor God's word.
Now we have plenty of evidence on these things. You can Google those things, or Grok, I think it's Grok. Is Joey here? to correct me. Joey's not here this morning.
Maybe he's online. I can see you, Joey. Anyway. There's a, you know, if you want to search, not using Google lies, they suppress truth in unrighteousness.
So if you look up, you know how many people have Committed some kind of a certain kind of crime, they're not going to tell you. They don't want you to see a pattern evolving. They'll filter that kind of stuff out. Against conservative thinking, for example.
So, but AI might do better. uh under the musk guy. That's just stuff I'm finding out.
So, anyway, and now to help you fact-check me so you can come back and say, you're my hero, you're always right.
Well, sir, what does your wife say? But I need a deeper voice. All right, verse 16. But the earth. Help the woman.
Oh, I I read that part.
So here we have a failed tactic again. God takes countermeasures to him flooding them out. Psalm 129, we're almost done. Many a time. They have afflicted me from my youth.
This is Israel personified speaking. Let Israel now say, Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth. yet they have not prevailed against me. And nor shall they ever. Israel is here to stay.
I love saying that, but I hate that they suffer so much as a people. Even though there are many antichrists amongst the Jewish people, we still root for them. And much of that is based off of Genesis chapter 1, verses not 1, Genesis 13. 12, Genesis verses 1 through 3. I will make you a great nation.
I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. And so the Christian reads that. We line up with God. God said that.
I'm lining up with God. And this is one reason why you find the true Christians so in love with the nation of Israel, even though many of the people in Israel aren't so loving.
Well, that's with any people. Verse 17, and the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Well, that's the Christian converts out of the Great Tribulation. Those are the offspring of the woman. Because that's why we have an Old Testament Jewish-based, New Testament Gentile-based, even though only one of the writers. was a Gentile which would be Luke, but it's the New Testament church which absorbs Gentiles into it as Judaism does not, not in the same way. Anyway, how rude of Israel to survive.
And he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, Gentile converts, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. There's a subtle distinction in this that says there are those that call themselves Christians. They keep the commandments of God. They are the Christians. Then there's the apostate church that does not get raptured, that stays here, that continues to function as a false church.
until Antichrist just destroys them too. And there's your distinction. Why would he have to say that? Wouldn't he just say, you know, the children, the offspring of the Judah? But he adds, he stresses commandments being obeyed.
Because the Gentile converts in the tribulation will obey, but the false church has no interest in obeying. They're just playing religion. And they'll fly their defective rainbow flag, and they will stand by their antichrist opinions and still insist that they are a church. and some of them have very nice old church buildings. And they shouldn't have them.
but God has not consulted me on this one. Because Satan, he's real. We're getting that again. to attempt Neutral to be neutral with him, neutrality with Satan. Is to seal your fate.
You can't be neutral about Satan. You cannot be neutral about his work. Nor can you be neutral about Christ or his work. Luke 11.23. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad.
This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube.
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Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Hello. I didn't run up to the bottom of the city.
