We are turning this evening to the twelfth chapter of the book of the Revelation to consider the subject, the woman with the man-child and the great red dragon. I suppose there is no chapter of this controversial book, and it is sad to have to admit that the book of the Revelation has been the subject of so much controversy. I think an awful lot of it totally needless if men would obey the rules of interpretation of the book led down by the Holy Ghost instead of trying to follow out their own torturous notions. Well, I would say that out of all the many controverted parts of the book of Revelation, this is perhaps the chief battleground. And there are more ideas as to who the woman is, and who the man-child is, and what the battle of which we read in verse 7 is, than I suppose anything else in the book. There are some people, and they recognize that the key to the whole chapter, I think everybody must recognize the key to the whole chapter is, who is the man-child, if you get that. I have no doubt that the rest will fall into its place fairly quickly and fairly obviously. But some people recognizing that, they come up with some notions and they say the man-child is the church. I say that's a very widespread notion and it's one that could be strongly defended, I think, erroneously. But there are others and they think that it's the Going back in church history, it is the Waldensian Church, or the Church of the Albigenses, or some other group of God's people. And some people that you would never imagine would measure up to this passage. And yet, they are stuffed in here as the answer to who the man-child is. Now, I believe that the Revelation is basically set out to be simple. Now, there are things in it hard to understand. Some of the simplest things in life are the hardest to understand. But I think many a time that people go all around the world trying to find out a difficult interpretation, when all the time the simplest one is staring them straight in the face. Now, if I were to ask you, with your background knowledge of the Bible, who is the man, child, born into the world, whose birth the devil obviously hated and opposed, and who is destined by God to rule with a rod of iron the nations of the earth. If I were to ask you, who is that child, what would be your answer? And I think if you haven't bothered to read all the notions of men, you would first of all say, well, surely there has only been one child born into the world whose birth was the object of such hatred from the devil, and there is certainly only one child of whom it can be rightly said that he shall rule the nations with a rod of iron. And that man's child was the one whom the apostles in the early church referred to in prayer when they spoke to the Father of thy holy child Jesus. And I believe that that is the key to this chapter. I am convinced that the man-child is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe if you miss that, you have got to Stretch the portion in all directions to try and make things fit. If you grasp that, then everything else will fall into its place. And what's more, if you grasp that, you'll get something that the scholars have found difficult to understand. And that is that there are parts of Revelation chapter 12 which are historical. They are setting the historical scene for the great climax of the age which is yet to come. But while the background is historical, the burden of the portion is certainly prophetic. Now we are going to look then at this interesting and important and, I believe, instructive chapter. And you will see that I have given you three basic points to outline the chapter. In the first five verses we have wonders in heaven. Look at verse 1. There appeared a great wonder in heaven. Verse 3, there appeared another wonder in heaven. Wonders in heaven. And then from verse 7 to 11, we have got war in heaven. And again, you'll find it in the very wording of the text. Verse 7, there was war in heaven. And then finally, from verse 12 to 17, But associating verse 6 with this portion, because I think you'll see when you read it, they're both referring to the same period and to the same thing, you've got woe upon the earth. Verse 12, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath. Now let's look first at the wonders in heaven. Now the first wonder is a woman. Now, I should say that the word wonder here means a sign. You see, under the picture of a woman, God is setting forth a great truth. You see, this woman is a sign. She is not a literal woman. Now, I have pointed out in these studies in the book of the Revelation that where the Lord does not intend us to understand something literally, He always puts it into the text. He always makes it clear that this is not literal, this is symbolical. So this is a symbolical woman. She is a sign or a symbol of something else. It is a system, I believe, that the Lord is here outlining before us under the symbol of a woman. The woman in chapter 12 stands out in stark and marked contrast to the woman in chapter 17, of whom we will be reading and speaking in a few weeks, the great harlot of Revelation chapter 17. In chapter 17, the woman there is the Church of Antichrist. It is the moral religious system of Babylon. It will be the culmination of the ecumenical church under the heel of Puperet. So the woman in chapter 17 is the Church of Antichrist. And in contrast to her, we have this woman in chapter 12 who is clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and has a crown or a diadem of 12 stars. And obviously, if the Highland is the church of Antichrist, the woman clothed with the light of the sun is the church of Jesus Christ. She is the true church. Because she is referred to as the mother of the man-child, the producer after the flesh of the man-child, we can see that this is specifically the Jewish Church. Now, in Christ, we can say in this period there is neither Jew nor Gentile. But the Church of Christ did not commence on Pentecost. The Church of Christ takes in all the redeemed of God, all the elect of God, from the first saved man of the Old Testament to the last saved man who will ever be saved. There is only one Church. There is only one elect. There is only one finally redeemed people. And they are all equally sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, this is a reference particularly to the Jewish branch of the church, because it was from Israel that Christ sprang. There is a way in which the church gave birth to Christ in the sense that it was from Israel, from the church of God among the Jewish people, that the Lord Jesus Christ came. Romans chapter 9 and verse 5 tells us that categorically. that after the flesh, Christ sprang from Israel. And therefore, here she is called the mother, or referred to as the mother, of the man-child. You will get a similar picture of the mother in Isaiah chapter 66, verses 7 and 8. And again, I would believe that there is reference to Christ in the man-child of whom she was delivered in chapter 66 and verse 7. And there is then through the man-child the reference to the glorious coming event when the Lord Jesus Christ will come and a nation will be born in a day. Because the man-child has been born, there is coming a day when a whole nation that will be the remnant of Israel will be sealed in the twinkling of an eye when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. So here we have the first wonder in heaven. Let me just show you how God describes His church. I should say that this description is what's called in Bible study a prospective description. In other words, it's describing the church of Christ as God sees it in its final glory. The world doesn't see it like this. Here you've got a woman in the wilderness. The world doesn't see any beauty in her. But the Lord says she's clothed with the sun. What a description. Here is the beauty of God's church. It's not only true of Jewish believers. It's true of all believers who are in Christ. The sun always speaks to me of Christ. Because He is the Son of Righteousness. We were thinking this morning of His words in John 9 and verse 5, I am the light. And the sun shining in its strength speaks of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Now here is a woman and she is clothed with the sun. She has put on Christ. My friend, when you put on Christ, you have beauty indeed. God is not interested in the beauty of your church, or the beauty of your religion, or the beauty of your good works, or the beauty of your morality. God is looking for a people who have put on Christ. That's the mark of people who are really sealed. We can say in the words of the hemrider, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness My glory hour, my beauteous dress. Thank God for the beauty of God's people. They are clothed with the sun. You'll notice the victory of the woman here, for the moon is under her feet. When you've got something under your feet, you're in the position of ascendancy. You're in the position of victory. Now, what does the moon speak of? Well, I think there's not much difficulty here. You don't normally see the moon shining at noonday. I haven't seen it ever shining at noonday. And I know I haven't lived very long in the earth, but I think I've lived long enough to gather the general rule. The moon shines at night. Genesis chapter 1 gives us the creation of the sun and the moon and the lesser light. The moon is to rule the night. The moon shines at night. And it is only a reflected light. The moon has no real light in itself. It is only reflecting light. And you know, it has only got a feeble light. You couldn't compare the light of the moon with the wondrous white rays of light from the noonday sun. Couldn't compare. So here you've got a picture of the moon shining with a feeble reflected light in the night time. That speaks to me. of the philosophies and the notions of man. Fallen men grouping their way in the darkness with only a feeble light to lead them. My friend, the day is coming when we are told the woman, the church of God, will have the moon beneath her feet, when every philosophy of man when every religious and moral and ethical system of man will be put in subjection to the truth of God, and when the world will be made to see that truth and true light are found alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you will lose her dignity. She is crowned. She is a diadem of twelve stars. I suppose this could refer to the twelve patriarchs of Israel. It may refer to other things, but certainly there is the thought in the number twelve of government. And here is the glory of God's government in His church. Here is God governing through His people. The day of Christ's reign upon the earth, when we'll be associated with Him in the glory and the government of His Kingdom. Now, that's the woman. And here we have her. She's a sign. Now, there's another sign. Verse 3. And that sign is the devil. Now, how do I know it's the devil? He's called a great red dragon. in verse 3, but in verse 9 we are told specifically the dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan. So here you've got the dragon and he's named in verse 9 as the devil. Now I want you to notice the picture of the devil here. The picture given is of a great red dragon. Now the dragon is an animal that's known more in legend and in what's called heraldry rather than in serious literature. Some people wonder why the reference to the dragon in the Word of God. Well, the Word of God refers to dragons. And it could well be that the animal that's in mind is the animal that's described back in the book of Job as Leviathan or It could be some of the great prehistoric animals which have now passed from this scene of time. We do not know. But over in the book of Job there is certainly a very interesting description in chapter 41 of Leviathan. And let me just read you a little bit of it. Chapter 41 of Job and verse 19. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron his breath kindlet coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him." So you can go on. There is a description here of a tremendously powerful animal. And this animal is given to us as a picture of the devil here. He's called grit. Speaking of the power that we'll see in a moment, the devil exercises over the world in the last dance. You know, the devil's never as dangerous as when man don't believe he exists. We're living in a day when Men mock the thought of there being a personal devil. Living in a day when men say this is a notion out of the dark ages. We don't accept it. Modern scientifically trained minds cannot possibly take this in. My friend, the devil is never as dangerous as when you try to fool yourself he doesn't exist. And this is what's happening in these days. We have got the devil in power. He's called the prince of the power of the air. There is a way, taught in the Word of God, a way in which the aerial regions are specifically the domain of the devil. He is also called the God of this world, in II Corinthians 4 and verse 4, the God of this world. And there you see the devil as the true object of men's worship. Man, that's a sobering thought. Do you see all the trappings of the great religious systems of men? Do you hear their incantations and their invocations of the name of God? And yet the Bible says, in reality, they are worshipping the devil. Any man who does not worship God in his son, and according to God's book, is worshiping the God of this world. My, the devil is certainly the great dragon. And there's the thought here of his cruelty. There's the thought of blood. There's the thought of conflict. He's the red dragon. My friend, this speaks of that coming time when the world will indeed see effusions of blood as there is a tremendous persecution. It is mentioned at the end of this chapter against all those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The world never did have any time for Christ. It still does not, and neither it will until He comes and subjugates it at His glorious appearing. Notice then the power of the devil a little more particularly. We read in verses 3 and 4 that he has seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. I don't want to go into the Scriptures that we will be looking at next week and in the weeks to come. But if you just glance at chapter 13, verse 1, you will see that there is a very close similarity. Here you've got a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns. The difference is that in chapter 12, there are only seven crowns upon the heads. But in chapter 13 and verse 1, the crowns are upon the ten horns. Now, I don't want to go into the significance of that in great detail at the moment, but there is a significance, and it speaks really of the same thing, the same system, at different times of its development. That's all. Giving you a different view of the same thing. And this beast speaks of what we call the revived Roman Empire. Speaks of the political system presided over by Antichrist. Now that will be the devil's instrument in the last days. That's why I opposed, even though I knew it would come about, I opposed on biblical and moral grounds the common market. Not that it is the kingdom of Antichrist as such now, but that it is preparing for it, that it is the groundwork being led. My friend, you watch it. I preached on this subject some time ago. I told you nations to watch which would be joining with the EEC. I specifically mentioned nations like Spain. I mentioned nations like Greece. I mentioned the coming affiliation with places like Egypt and with Israel and places further east going towards ancient Babylonia. And these very nations are even at this time in consultation with the common market in order to bring about an enlarged community. When they have got their community, not only in Western Europe, but there will be an Asiatic part to it as well. When they have got it, It will take the form that is described in the Word of God. And it will give rise to the political Antichrist. It will give preeminence to the religious Antichrist. And it will be the devil's tool against the Church of God and against the truth that is in Christ Jesus. My friend, there is no doubt that this is how the devil will certainly work. You will notice that in verse 4 there is a reference to not only the devil's fall, but the fact that he drew with him a third part of the stars of heaven. Now, what are these stars? Well, surely, when you see that they are associated with the dragon in verse 4, you cannot feel to make them out to be the devil's angels, because in verse 7 you have got the dragon and his angels. So the stars that fall here are the angels. which kept not their first estate." We read of them in 2 Peter and chapter 2. And here you have got angels that sinned. And then in Jude, the book before the book of the Revelation, verse 6, you have got the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. This is the company of angels that joined in Lucifer's rebellion. If you go back to Isaiah chapter 14, you've got Lucifer aspiring to take over the throne of the Most High God. You've got Lucifer seeking to dethrone his Creator. And one-third of the angels of heaven According to this portion in Revelation 12, joined in the rebellion and fell with the devil. What power, then, we find in the devil in these third and fourth verses. Now, notice his purpose. This is always the devil's purpose. You'll find it in verse 4. He stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. Do you remember Matthew's Gospel, chapter 2? Can you not recollect well the story which you have learned since the days of your childhood? When at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the devil sought to slay Him, and in Ramah there was heard a voice of great weeping, as Herod, who is By the way, a forerunner of Antichrist, an instrument of the devil, as Herod slew the children of two years and under in an attempt to devour the Christ of God. And he failed. He failed. In the wilderness, in the temptation, the devil sought to devour Christ. And he failed. You remember, he said to him, here you are now, and you're on the pinnacle of the temple. Cast yourself down. Let the angels of God bear you up. He wanted to kill Christ. He failed. Then you remember, when the Lord came to Nazareth, that they sought to take him out and to throw him headlong. So that again, the devil was attempting to devour Christ. And he failed. You remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, many people have misunderstood the prayer of Christ in Gethsemane. And they have said, this is the humanity of Christ, and it is rebelling against going to the cross. There is a revulsion in Christ that does not want to go to the cross. My friend, that is not what Christ was praying about in Gethsemane when He said, Let this cup pass from me." It was the cup that was being presented to him in the garden, and it did pass from him. For we read in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 7 that God heard him, God answered him in the garden of Gethsemane. Let me say this, in Gethsemane we read that Christ's sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood. Medically you cannot sweat blood and live. It was an attempt to slay Christ, His birth, the temptation at Nazareth, in the garden, an attempt to devour Him before He could go to the cross and purchase our redemption. And the devil feared. My, you've got, first of all, in the sufferings of Christ, you've got man's brutality. You've got man's enmity, man's hatred. You can see the blood in his face where they plucked the hairs from his cheeks. You can see the great rivers of blood in his back where they scourged him until they mangled his holy flesh. You can see the gaping holes in His hands, His feet, and in His side. And you can see the foreign marks in His brow as men sought to do ill against Christ. My friend, when men had done their worst and stepped aside, the devil opposed the Christ of God. And on the cross, you have got the culmination of that great battle that we read of. in Genesis 3.15, where the devil was bruising the heel of Christ. But he failed. And I want to tell you, it wasn't men who killed Jesus on the cross. They certainly inflicted His wounds and they were guilty of His murder. But they couldn't take His life from Him. And the devil couldn't take His life from Him. He says, I lay down my life. And I have power to lay it down. And I have power to take it up again. Thank God that is what He did. The devil, you can see here, has the purpose of devouring Christ. But as we were saying this morning, Christ is as the light, indestructible and unconquerable. He is the mighty conqueror. And He is the overcomer. of the devil. So we have seen in these verses the wonders in heaven. Notice the war in heaven from verse 7 to verse 11. We're leaving verse 6 until we come to the final portion. Verse 7 to verse 11. Now, just let me point out the armies contending here. You've got Michael. Some people believe that Michael really is Christ. Well, he's not. He's not. He's called the Archangel. His name means who is like unto God. And Christ is not only like unto God, Christ is God. We read that Michael durst not bring any reeling accusation against Satan when contending over the body of Moses, but he said, The Lord rebuketh thee. Well, Christ is the Lord. And he has the power to rebuke the devil. So Michael is not Christ, but he is called the archangel in Jude verse 9. The book of Daniel gives us the most information about Michael. You might be interested to know that there are only two angels named in the Bible. One is Michael, and the other is Gabriel. Well, here we have Michael. And in Daniel chapter 10, In verse 13 we find that when the prince of the kingdom of Persia, which is a title either of the devil or one of his angels, opposing and withstanding Christ, says, Lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. And then in verse 21 we read, At the end of the verse, there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince. So Michael, the archangel, is the prince of the people of Israel. Remember that. Now Daniel 12 verse 1 speaks of the end time, the very end time. And at that time shall Michael stand up The great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people." It goes on to describe the time of tribulation, the very end time. Michael stands up. Now he is leading the armies of heaven. It is interesting that there are three distinct phases in the devil's condemnation in the end time. There is here the war which he loses, he is cast down. That's done by angels. And then there's the casting of the devil into the abyss. That again is effected by angels. Then there is the final casting of the devil into the lake of fire. That is done by the hand of God Himself. So here you've got one side, Michael and his angels. Then on the other side you've got the dragon and his angels. Now, these are the armies contending. Notice the result. The accuser is cast out. Verse 8 and 9, they prevail not. Neither was their... Now notice the spelling of their. It is not T-H-E-R-E. T-H-E-I-R. Neither was their place found any more in heaven. We go on to read about the accuser of the brethren cast down. Let me explain this. When the devil fell, when Satan fell, when he sinned, he was divested of all his glory, of all his position, of everything that he enjoyed up to that time. But in the government of God, Satan was permitted to enter God's presence to accuse God's people. When you turn back to Job chapter 1, you read that there was a day when the sons of God presented themselves before the Lord. And we read categorically that Satan came also among them, Job 1 verse 6. And we read that Satan accused Job. He was the accuser of the brethren. You remember the other Sunday morning, we were studying Zechariah chapter 3, when Joshua the high priest stood before the Lord, and Satan was at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said, this is the the great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan. You see, the devil is the accuser of the brethren. And one of the functions of our great high priest at the right hand of God is to present the merits of his blood and to assure the victory of His people. That is why we read a little later here in Revelation chapter 12, verse 11, concerning the whole people of God. They overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb. My, that is a precious verse. It is good to know that we have a Savior from all sin. We have one who has ascended into the very presence of God. And what though the accuser roar, of ills that we have done. We know them all and millions more. Thank God Jehovah findeth none, because there is power in the blood of the Lamb. The devil accuses the brethren. The devil accuses God's people. You know, he doesn't accuse the ungodly. He lets them go on. How many people are sometimes the mouthpiece of the devil? And they would let any old rascal do any sort of thing without very much protest, but neither quick to pick holes in the people of God and to accuse the brethren. My friend, be careful of doing the devil's work. Here we have them cast out. Thank God the time is coming. Let this be an encouragement to the people of God. When things get to be at their very worst on this earth, we can rejoice. Because it is a sign that the devil is operating more on earth because he has been cast out of the heavenlies. And his voice cannot be heard in any way accusing the people of God. My, it is good to know we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. You will notice the great acclamation cry in verses 10 and 11. When the devil is cast out, there is a great voice in heaven, and there is a great shout, and it is, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ. Once the devil is cast out, thank God, Christ is coming in power. You see, the time of tribulation, the time of the devil's wrath, against God's people will be intense, but it will be very brief. And the Lord will shorten those days for His elect's sake, and Christ Himself will come in all His salvation, strength, and kingdom. Let me quickly finish by saying a word upon the woe that is to be upon the earth. We find here that there's a woe to the inhabitants of the earth, it is the devil's wrath. You see, the nearer we get to the end of time, the more obvious you have the manifestations of the devil's workings in the midst. We are seeing Satanism today. The people of this country do not begin to understand the sort of things that are being carried on under our very noses. More and more across Britain, there is the open worship of the devil. You have got groups of young people, and some of them not so young, and they are committed to worship Satan. You have got people who are high priests and priestesses, of the cult of Satan worship. Every springtime, it was on the news I think just yesterday, you've got some festival of the Druids, and of course the news media make it out just to be an ancient writer custom. It's not, it's devil worship. That's what Druid worship is, it's devil worship. You've got an increased interest in Spiritism and Spiritistic mediums, and you've got an increased interest in astrology, and things like this. My friend, there is a worship of the devil, and there is an intervention of the devil in the affairs of men, which is going to increase continually until this time comes when the devil is come down having great wrath. And yet, here's the When this time comes, will man be seeking to escape from the devil's wrath? No, sir. In chapter 13 we read that, verse 4, they worship him. And when the devil is coming down to damn them, they worship him. That's a serious thing. And it reminds me of that tragic word. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, And if you're not saved, I want you to listen very, very carefully. Verse 11, For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness, and a world that rejects Christ. and rejects truth, will be given up by God to believe the lie. Friend, if you keep rejecting God's light, he'll leave you in the devil's darkness, and when the devil is really damning you, you'll be deluded into thinking he's giving you a good time. That's what happens here. They worship him, they enjoy him, and all the time he's damning them. You see the woman in the wilderness You see her persecuted. Here is her tribulation in verse 13. It is attended in verse 15 by great terror. Here are the manifestations of the devil's wrath as the flood pours out of his mouth. I think that this may well correspond to the great swelling words of Antichrist. As with his mouth, he lets out a tyranny against God's people and stirs up wrath against them. We'll see the time of it in verse 6 and verse 14. It's for the 3 1⁄2 years. This is the last half of the reign of Antichrist, the final 3 1⁄2 years before Jesus comes. But I want you to notice her protection. Because the Lord, we read in verse 6 and again in verse 14, prepared a place for her. And the Lord provided for her, we read in verse 14. And in verse 16 we read that the Lord protected her. My, it's good to have the Lord in your sight. Let the devil roar. Let hell be against you. Let all the powers of darkness seek your downfall. If God be for us, who can be against you? The Lord protects His people. You'll notice the devil's laugh when he fails to exterminate the elect of God among the Jewish people in Israel, he will then range throughout the world to oppose all who name the name of Jesus. It's never going to be popular to be a Christian. But my friend, I want to tell you, to be a Christian is to be in the place where the Lord knows you, the Lord loves you, the Lord keeps you, the Lord protects you. Don't you see a great difference here? Here's a people on the one hand who are given up by God. to believe the devil's lie. Here is a people, on the other hand, who are protected by the Lord, a people who are overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their personal testimony. I trust, my friend, that every one of you here will be saved by grace and be found among the people protected and provided for by the Lord, and saved through the blood of His Son.