The Great Escape

Noticing in the first phrase of verse 11, and they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb.

Not holy water from the Jordan River, not some heavenly gem hanging from your rear view mirror. The victory of the believer is not binding Satan or some demon with an incantation or rebuking him with some magic prayer. Our victory is through and by means of the life giving, sacrificing of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. During a future time that we know as the Great Tribulation, Satan will unleash his fury against the Jewish people. We're going to look at that today, but we're also going to see the deliverance that God brings. We need to understand that Satan is our enemy as well. He wants to attack us, and if he could, he would destroy us. He brings accusations about you to God, and he brings accusations about God to you.

We need to be able to overcome the tricks and attacks of our enemy, and we're going to learn how to do that today. This is Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. The lesson Stephen has for you today is entitled The Great Escape. John wraps up his description of the red dragon, the enemy, Satan, the devil, as he attempts to hinder the word and work of God. Let's go back and get a running start beginning with verse nine. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who was called the devil, Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and 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 that is dismissed from the heavenly court, he who has accused or accuses them before our God day and night.

So John is now talking about how to escape the dragon's prosecution, and he gives us the final ending part of this story that is yet to come as his prosecution ends. Now, for our study today, notice the amazing revelation provided for us that overcomes the enemy even for us today. Look at verse 11.

And they over came 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. Who are they in this text to overcome him? Well, the antecedent to they is this phrase, the brethren, both those who've been martyred during the first three and a half years of the tribulation, those who will still be yet killed or martyred in the final days of the tribulation. But it can also include every believer because we're being accused.

Even now, every believer who has been accused by Satan before the presence of God, the brethren then actually would include you and me. Verse 10 says, whom he accuses before our God day and night. Now the question is, what overcomes him? What is it that strips him of his legal power and accusation against us? What is it that disarms him finally, but yet even now practically? We're given the answer in three powerful statements that will be true of the believer in the tribulation, but also every believer throughout redemptive history, even those of us who will be raptured one day.

So let's slow it down and let's go through these three statements and I'll give them to you in principle form. First, they rested in their perfected forgiveness. They rested in their perfected forgiveness. Notice again, the first phrase of verse 11, and they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb, not holy water from the Jordan river, not some heavenly gem hanging from your rear view mirror. The victory of the believer is not binding Satan or some demon with an incantation or rebuking him with some magic prayer.

Our victory is through and by means of the life giving, blood shedding, sacrificing of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. So Peter would write, you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold, not even may I add gold dust that fell from heaven. No, you are redeemed with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

First Peter one, 18 and 19. So when Satan and his fallen angels accuse us, even in this dispensation before God and accused God before us, and they conspired, do they not with their own fallen flesh? For the victorious believer then his forgiven status is the root of his victory from which everything else grows and flourishes. Not only do we see them here resting in their perfected cleansing and thus following their example. Secondly, they resonated with a public confession. Notice verse 11 again, and they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony. So you have first of all the principle of perfected forgiveness or cleansing which will ultimately defeat the enemy, that defeats him now even in our lives today, but you have next the principle of public confession which daily defeats the strategies of the enemy not only in your life but in your world. They trusted because of the word, the logos, is the word here, of their testimony.

Now you might read this text and think well you know it sounds like it's all up to me again. It's the blood of the lamb but then it's also my perfect testimony. No, the emphasis here by the way is not on the words, their testimony. The emphasis is on the words because of the logos, because of the word. In fact you could literally translate it then to mean this, in fact follow carefully as I read it, and they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and the word of God to which they have borne testimony.

See the emphasis? We overcome the dragon because of who we are related to and because of what we have revealed to us in the word of God and we testify that it is the truth. It is his logos for us and because of that we can joyfully testify to its truth. So the victorious believer lives in light of his forgiveness. He claims it, he daily rejoices in it, and the victorious believer lives by the truth of the word of God which he then has joyful freedom to deliver, to testify of that it is in fact the power of God unto salvation.

This is it. God has spoken. The answer is here and it is the power of God. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. It is the weapon of the Spirit of God in our hand as we deliver the truth in our world. So you have defeated the serpent as it were through salvation. That's theological truth.

You defeat the serpent as you deliver the gospel to your world testifying to its truth and that's practical truth as well. We decided to print up a little track because we had people asking about it. In fact, we had a track and ran out and for whatever reason didn't reorder and we got an absolutely new one. In fact, on the back we've had printed Colonial Baptist Church with the phone number and the website.

It's a track that is very, very easy to pass out because of what it says on the front. How to get to heaven from North Carolina. It's just perfect.

Nobody can turn you down. It's just so easy. It's small. You can put it with your tip. You can leave it behind. You can give it to somebody.

In fact, it's very easy to hand out. In fact, I'll pick a volunteer. Let me have a volunteer. Thank you. Come up here. I know you, Ed. Good.

All right. I'll just show you how easy it is. Ed, I'd like to give you a free roadmap how to get to heaven from North Carolina. Take it.

See how easy that was? Listen, Ed, there are a lot of maps in the world and there are a lot of maps to take you through North Carolina, but this is the most important one. This will take you to heaven. If I can ever help you, if you want to read that through sometime, I'd be glad to. There's a phone number on the back. Thank you very much. Give me that and go sit down. Thank you very much. Oh, these volunteers.

Okay. You know something, my friends? The average Christian has never, ever passed out of gospel track. The average Christian in the church has never mentioned the name of Jesus Christ to somebody they work with. I'll never forget the tears, the hot tears that course down the cheeks of a man. I was at a funeral and he came up to me afterward and he said, I rode to work.

We carpooled every day for 25 years and I never told that man I belong to Jesus Christ. I think one of the simplest things to do is to pick up these. These are located in the bookstore.

They're free. Take this opportunity to deliver the gospel. It is the overcoming power over the dragon who hates the sound of Christ's gospel. Deliver it. You say, well, I'm not clever enough. Well, you know what? You never know how Ed's going to respond. You never know how Bill or Susie or whatever, they're going to look at you or maybe they won't look at you.

Maybe they'll walk away. But you attempt to deliver the gospel to them and you say, well, what if they ask me a question? I'm going to get stumped.

Let me assure you, you will get stumped. OK, you don't decide to become a testimony for Christ when you have all the answers. Now I am a walking Bible encyclopedia and now I will deliver the truth of the gospel.

No, you'll never do it. Be willing to be stumped and to say, you know, I'm going to go back to the Bible and I'm going to find that answer and I'll come back to you with an answer. I love the testimony of Dr. Charles Feinberg, a well-respected professor of Old Testament.

I have his commentaries in my library, long been with the Lord. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, both parents Jews, very committed to Judaism. In fact, they hired a woman to come in and clean their home on Saturday because they didn't want to work or cook or clean.

They were wealthy enough to do it. She was referred to as a Sabbath Gentile. A Gentile whom they didn't mind putting to work on the Sabbath day. She happened to know Christ.

No education. She just knew the Lord and she would come in on Saturday and she would just cook and clean and with her quiet testimony, unnerved this family. Until finally young Charles once asked her the source of her peace and she told him the gospel of Christ and he would later believe, in fact, enter the ministry. You have the foundation of perfected forgiveness.

You have the practice of public confession. Thirdly, these victorious believers focused on their permanent glory. Look at the last part of verse 11. It says here, they didn't love their own life even when faced with death.

For this reason rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. They loved Christ more than their own lives. They were willing to put it all on that altar, so to speak, for the sake of this one of whom they testified. Let me quickly review these three principles of victory for the believer. In the first point, the blood of the lamb, you have the principle of permanent cleansing. In the second point, the word of their testimony, you have the principle of public confession. And then in the final point, they did not love their own lives.

You have basically the principle of personal concentration. They focused on eternal glory. You know what defeats the enemy in your own life?

When you focus on your future. You focus on eternal glory. He will have us self-enamored. He will have us self-focused.

Everything is about I, me, and mine. But those who claim the blood of Christ, those who will testify of the Lord's saving power, those who will love him more than themselves will live daily victorious lives. In fact, John Phillips puts it this way, what can Satan do with the likes of these? Lock them up in prison and they convert their jailers. Torture them, they become partakers of Christ's sufferings and heirs to even a greater reward. Martyr them and they go straight to be with Christ. And turn them loose and they evangelize their world.

This is the outworking of the dragon's downfall. Like missionary Karen Watson I read about recently who was martyred for her faith just a couple of years ago before going to serve Christ in Iraq. She left a letter with special instructions and it would be read by her pastor at her funeral. The letter began, you are only reading this if I died. The letter included gracious words to family and friends.

And in this closing summary and notice her concentration and focus, she wrote, and I quote her, to obey him was my objective. To suffer was expected. His glory is my reward. These are they who escape the dragon's prosecution.

And so shall we with the same weapons. Now we'll watch them escape the dragon's persecution. Notice his fury in verse 12 again, the middle part, woe to the earth and see because the devil has come down to you, that is now he's disbarred from heaven, he's come down to you having great wrath knowing he only has a short time. He knows his time is short, verses six and 14 tell us it's about three and a half years left, the latter part of this tribulation period. So now having been disbarred from heaven, thrown to earth, he can no longer accuse the brethren before God. He is enraged. He's enraged beyond words because of the limitations now placed upon his freedom. One author said he picks himself up from the dust of the earth. He shakes his fist at the sky and glares around choking with fury for ways to vent his hatred and his spied upon humankind. He has been checkmated and mastered by the one he hates most of all.

And so what does he do? Verse 13 tells us, and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman, that's Israel, who gave birth to the male child, that is he now goes and with even greater fury, persecutes the nation which delivered the Jewish Messiah. Verse 14, 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. That's Daniel's terminology for three and a half years. Now the revelation continues to use figurative language. Here he goes back to referring to Israel as the woman.

He speaks of the dragon, the water that will come from the dragon's mouth. He speaks figuratively of the rescue of the woman on the wings of an eagle. This is language by the way that God has already used to speak of Israel's escape. In fact he uses this language to speak of their escape from Egypt.

In Exodus 19 he says, you yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. John here is referring to the midpoint of the tribulation where Jews will once again face the potential of another Holocaust and they flee. Jesus Christ predicts that this is yet a future. He speaks in the Mount Olivet discourse of this moment in the future when Jews will flee after the Antichrist desecrates the temple in Jerusalem.

We know that happens at the midpoint of the tribulation. He ends his false peace with Israel. He desecrates, he desolates, we call it the abomination of desolation in the temple, probably doing what Antiochus Epiphanes did, pre-shadowing him centuries earlier. He sacrifices a pig perhaps on the altar. He makes the temple then of null and void.

It's useless, it's meaningless to the Jew. At that moment when the Antichrist desolates or desecrates the temple, the Jews then with their peace ended flee. Listen to what Jesus Christ said will happen. In fact he warns them in Matthew 24. He says when you see this happen, when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things that are in the house.

In other words, don't even pack. Whoever is in the field don't even go back to get your cloak. For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world. Matthew 24, 15 to 21.

John informs us here in Matthew or in Revelation chapter 12 that once the Jewish people recognize that that false peace has ended, they see what the Antichrist does in desolating the temple. They who are able escape. They run and they're going to be nourished and protected by the Lord.

Now we're not exactly told where they run. The Israelite remnant flees for safety. Many Bible scholars conjecture that the place they run to is the ancient city of Edom. It's a city literally carved out of rock known as Petra.

That's Latin for rock and of course closely equivalent to the Greek language. Many of the buildings in this ancient city are literally carved out of the sandstone. Now the development of this amazing city began at least a thousand years before the birth of Christ. And don't have in your mind that this is some primitive hole in a rock. These buildings were not just primitive carvings dug into the sides of the mountain.

They are intricately and beautifully crafted. These buildings which have now stood for centuries. Historians record for us that an earthquake in the sixth century A.D. caused the city to be abandoned evidently for fear that the mountains would collapse upon them.

And of course the buildings would collapse with future earthquakes. So Petra was then abandoned. It began to be excavated again in 1812. It's a period of time we say it was rediscovered and intense excavation since then has been carried on in fact even to this day with the university.

I think it's Brown University that's carrying it on. What makes the city all the more fitting and why many scholars believe the Jews are going to run here is that it can be easily protected. Many of these buildings can be accessed only by riding a camel or a donkey or maybe one jeep at a time or marching single file between huge sandstone cliffs as a result of being surrounded by these sheer cliffs in many of the buildings of Petra are easy to guard relatively easy to protect. It's here in Petra perhaps that a believing remnant of Jews will be protected as the dragon unleashes unbelievable fury upon them. Verse 15 of Revelation 12 informs us that the serpent will send a river out of his mouth after the woman so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. In other words he tracks her down and then sends a river after. He may very well try to flood them out by diverting a river of water toward them. The language even though in a figurative context seems to indicate that a literal destruction by water is his intention it's interesting to discover from the sources that I have read about this city built into the rocky sandstone mountains even at this point in time in the 21st century only about 10 to 15 percent of the city has even been discovered yet to be excavated. We know enough about it to know however that a river would be the perfect way to end its resistance wouldn't it be?

Be the perfect way. Perhaps the enemies through some sort of engineering feat will tap into an underground river which are common in this region and he's able to divert that water source to rush like a flood toward Petra by which he hopes to drown out the Jewish people. They wouldn't have any way out.

They'd be caught. His water would fill every crevice and cavern but God provides a miracle of his provision by doing something he's already done several times in the Old Testament. Exodus chapter 15 and Numbers chapter 16 speak of what he may do here.

He causes the earth to open up and literally drain off the water. Look at verse 16 but the earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of its mouth. So the dragon was enraged with a woman and went off to make war with the rest of her children.

In other words he stymied so now he goes after the rest of her children her offspring her seed. Obviously this woman can't be Mary because we're told that the dragon goes off to fight her offspring. The sons and daughters born to Mary and Joseph after Jesus half brothers and sisters of course of our Lord. In fact in Matthew chapter 13 verse 55 we're given the names of his brothers half brothers.

They're certainly not alive here and they're not in view here. Furthermore the woman cannot be the church because the church as we've studied did not give birth to Christ. Christ gave birth to the church. This woman is Israel who delivers the Messiah a Jewish descendant of David and the dragon now envision him here he's disbarred from heaven he said to earth he's stymied at Petra he knows his time is short he turns his final fury then upon the children of Israel the offspring of the woman Satan now through his puppet antichrist unleashes what he hopes to be the final extermination the last holocaust against the Jewish people. Now I would agree with those scholars who believe his target is broad and beyond the Jew simply because you notice that John implies such as he says here in the latter part of verse 17 that he will go after all who obey the commandments of God.

That word entol a command this isn't a reference to the Old Testament 10 commandments is a reference to the commandments of God in relation to Jesus Christ the end toll of God the commandments of God as relates to Christ and notice in your text and all of those who hold to the testimony of Jesus this would include not only believing Jews who didn't make it to the safety of the city but also to the believing Gentile who lives throughout the world having come to believe the testimony of God's word after the rapture has occurred. So Revelation chapter 12 then concludes with an amazing description of this first and foremost face of evil the dragon. Revelation 12 is not your conflict it won't be ours but the enemy hasn't changed now for thousands of years in fact Ephesians 6 tells you how to get dressed out for battle. Read it sometime and remember your enemy is ruthless he is bloodthirsty he is unmerciful he can't have your soul but he will have your testimony he will have your confidence he will take away from your mind the root of your assurance he goes for the throat he throws insults and accusations against you before God and he brings them about God before you. So how do you overcome? This gives us the clue. Remind him of the blood of the lamb blood for sinners slain remind him of the word of God in your testimony that it is true and love Christ more than your own life and while you're at it remember remember this Satan has already read his future don't let him keep you pinned down in defeat in the meantime with his empty threats and accusations you have seen the end he loses and then focus on your everlasting future with Jesus Christ because you are on your way to heaven. I hope that truth brings you comfort and boldness today as you face whatever God has for you this is wisdom for the heart our ministry is rooted in the belief that the Bible is God's Word and that it has the answers we need for godly living in addition to these daily Bible lessons we have other resources for you including our monthly magazine and devotional guide heart to heart call us for information on how you can get a copy of our next issue our number is 866 48 Bible or 866 482 4253 I'm Scott Wiley and for Steven and all of us here thanks for listening join us next time for more wisdom for the heart.