Revelation: Part 36

When anyone anywhere responds to this knowledge by having a desire to know this God, God will move heaven and earth to get the message to them.

If you want to read about it, just make a note of this. Isaiah 14:12-16 and Ezekiel 28. I wrote all about this in my book Satan is alive and well on planet earth. Ezekiel 28:11-18.

So those two describe the fall of Lucifer. But when he fell, he took a lot of the angels, that’s this order of beings, the Bible describes, who are vastly superior in power and knowledge to humans, but anyway, he led a great number of them in rebellion against God and they became fallen angels and/or demons. But it doesn’t say in the Old Testament how many followed him. It tells us here.

How many? One-third. That’s right. And it says his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. You see, Satan really tried to destroy Jesus. And when God allowed Jesus to be put to death, it was his undoing. Because it was God’s plan that he would voluntarily take your place and my place and being a true man and yet also true God, all united in one person.

He, as a man, lived an absolutely sinless life. And therefore he’s the only man that ever qualified to take the penalty of all the rest of us and die in our place. And that’s the way that Satan was undone. And through his determination to destroy him, he destroyed himself.

All right, in verse 5, and she, the woman, the nation of Israel, gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God and to his throne, the resurrection of Jesus. Verse 6, then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. See, now we’re leaping forward.

We’re leaping from history to the future, aren’t we? Are you following me? Okay. I hope so.

Now, she delivered the child. He was caught up. And Israel, now it leaps to the time the book of Revelation covers. And it talks about the things that I believe are very near in the future.

It says the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God. Now, this is Israel, the believing Israelites of the future. These are ones that will be during that seven-year period that immediately precedes the return of Jesus Christ. Verse 7, it says, and there was war in heaven, michael and his angels waging in war with the dragon, Satan.

And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. You see, if you read the book of job, the book of job gives us little insight into what happens in heaven all the time. Remember, Satan would come before God, chapters 1 and 2. And so Satan and fallen angels have had access to God’s presence.

But this is when it ends. And it says, and the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole earth. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. All right, now in verse 10, we have the beginning of an application of these things in times, sequences, and places, about the things that the book of Revelation describes in that seven years.

In verse 10 it says, then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, now the salvation, and power and the Kingdom of God and the authority of his Christ or Messiah have come, for the accuser of our brethren have been thrown down or has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. You remember I told you last week, a secret sin among the christians down here is an open scandal in heaven. And you know something? It’s wonderful to know that we have a high priest sitting next to God the father.

And it tells us that he says -well, let’s read it. 1 John is just a couple of books back from revelation. First epistle of John 2:1. My little children, I’m writing these things to you that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, literally, but if anyone sins, we have an advocate. This means a defense attorney. With the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You know something?

You’re never gonna stand before God because of something you did. God has absolute righteousness. And you would never be able to stand before God in your own good deeds. That’s why Jesus had to come.

The second person of the godhead had stepped out of eternity into time and voluntarily took upon himself a human nature. And then voluntarily he laid aside the use of his divine powers and lived as a man. And through doing that, he qualified to die in the place of every one who had ever lived. And he paid that because he loved us.

It was voluntary. God the father didn’t put his son to death. That would have been murder. But he, as a man, chose to do it.

He is the one that is righteous. And it says — why is that important? Because it says in verse 2, he himself is the propitiation for our sins. This means the one who satisfied the justice of God in our place.

Propitiation means that. He is the satisfaction for our sins and not for ours only. But also for those of the whole world. And there’s a pardon with the name of every person whoever lived in the throne room of God.

But you can’t -the pardon isn’t valid until you come to God and say, Lord, I can never be good enough to please you. So right now I accept the gift of pardon that Jesus died to give me. The moment you do that, you have the pardon. And from that moment on -now God wants us to live a good life, but that doesn’t determine whether you’re going to heaven or not.

It determines whether you get rewards. It says that if we build on the foundation that Jesus gave us, that we can build with gold, silver, and precious stones or wood, hay, and stubble. It says the day, the judgment before Christ will declare it. It says if a man, if a man suffers loss, he himself will be saved, yet, as though by fire.

So some of us are going to smell like smoke.

And, yet, we’ll be there because Jesus Christ, the righteous one, intercedes for us day and night before the throne of God. And when Satan comes in, he says, ah, look at that guy, Hal Lindsey. So he’s one of your kids. Look what he did.

The father turns to Jesus, what about it? He says, father, he’s under my blood. The father says case dismissed. All right, now let’s go back to Revelation 12.

And they overcame him, it’s talking about the people who will live during that horrible period of seven years just before Christ returns. They overcame him by, because of number one, the blood of the Lamb. Number two, because of the word of their testimony. And number three, they did not love their life even when faced with death.

And you know something? I don’t care how timid, how fearful a person might be by nature, but I believe that if God ever calls on you to give testimony of your faith, when your life is at stake, he will give you the courage to do it. I really believe that. And he says for this reason, verse 12, rejoice, o heavens, and you who dwell in them.

And woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. You ever read the part in the gospels, I think it’s especially featured in the Gospel of mark where Jesus was dealing with a group of fallen angels that had indwelt this poor man. And Jesus said, come out of him! And these spirits argued with Jesus.

They said, we know who you are. You’re the Son of God. Have you come to torment us before the time? See, the time has been fixed.

They know it. And you see evidence of this several times in the Scripture. But the devil, it says, he’s just gonna rip and tear the earth and the seas to pieces, and we’ll see how that’s gonna happen. But it says his wrath is going to be great knowing he has a short time.

Verse 13, and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. And literally it’s -he persecuted the woman because she gave birth to the male child. And last week I told you, there is the essence and source of anti-semitism right there. The woman is Israel, and Satan hates all Israelites.

Because they are the specially created nation by God to give us his word in writing and to be the physical race through whom the Son of God would be born. And because the woman, Israel, gave birth to the Son of God, he hates her and he goes after her and tries to destroy… You know, you can look at racial prejudice in all kinds of its forms and so forth. But there is nothing on earth that can even approximate the kind of hatred, the supernatural hatred, that you find towards Jews and Israelites.

It’s always latent, just under the surface of a society. And I find that people will believe almost immediately any kind of a sinister theory you may have about what Jews are doing to this earth. And the religion of islam is built on hatred of the sons of Isaac. Because ishmael never accepted the fact that God didn’t put him as his anointed son.

And God gave them many -gave them blessings. You read back in genesis, God blessed ishmael. He saved his life. He saved his mother’s life.

He promised that he would become a great nation, that he would bless him. But that was never enough. And so ishmael and all of his descendants, the arabs, have hated the sons of Isaac ever since. And when muhammad came along, all he did was systematize and sanctify the hatred that had been there all along and make it part of the religion.

Now it says then in verse 13, and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to earth, he persecuted the woman because she gave birth to the male child. Now 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 a times and a half a time, from the presence of the serpent. Now on the surface, this is fairly easy to understand.

The woman, Israel, and it’s here talking about the believing remnant of Israel. And there’s a great number that’s gonna believe in Jesus as Messiah during this period. That remnant is going to be specially protected by God and there’s a place that’s prepared for them by God already. This is what Jesus was referring to when he said when you see the Abomination of Desolation, or the abomination that causes desolation, standing in the holy place of the temple, then do not go down to get your coat.

If you’re in the field, don’t return home. But flee immediately to the mountains. And these are the mountains -the mountains of Edom and Moab. And there is the place where God is going to protect them.

And so it says -and here’s what baffles me. I was pondering this all week. I pondered it before. And it’s this.

Why didn’t God say and two wings of a great eagle? He doesn’t say that. He says the two wings of the great eagle. So it’s something very specific.

Were given to the woman so that she could fly into the wilderness. Well, obviously, it’s aircraft. But from whom? Well, I’m gonna still be pondering that.

I don’t know. Now I could get real nationalistic here. Since our symbol is an eagle, but I won’t go that far. But we do know this, supernaturally the woman is going to have the ability to be flown quickly to places where she will be nourished and taken care of.

And it’s for a time and a times and a half a time. You know, in Hebrew, they not only have a plural, but they have a form that’s called double. So what this is is a time and then the double form, which means two. A time and two times and a half a time.

Three and half years. That’s what it means. It’s the last three and a half years. It’s from that moment that Jesus says when you see the Abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place, then flee to the mountains.

For then there will be a time of Tribulation such has not been from the beginning of the world until then nor ever shall be again. And unless those days are cut short, there would be no one left alive. That’s what he predicts about this time. Okay, now it says, and the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away by the flood.

Now those are symbols that are colorful. As a matter of fact, the idea of a flood of soldiers is used in Ezekiel 38. So it’s easy to see what he’s saying here. Satan causes a flood to come after the woman.

What is that? An army. And he wants her to be swept away by this army he brings in. Well, it’s easy to find that.

Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 talks about this great power from the extreme north of Israel that will lead a muslim confederacy headed by Persia, which is Iran in a massive attack against Israel. And Satan will try to get this army to especially go after the believing remnant. But it says in verse 16, but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth. What’s that?

Earthquake. The earth opens its mouth and drank up the river. Which the dragon poured out of his mouth. See, all these symbols are fairly easy to understand if you just keep them in context.

Okay. Verse 17, so the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Who are these? Gentiles.

Gentiles who believe during that time. And how many will there be? Remember what we saw in chapter 7? John said he saw standing before the throne of God a group too numerous to be numbered in white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.

He asked who are these? And he says these are they who have come out of the Great Tribulation that have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. They are believers. And many, many will be martyred.

And you can see the source of the martyrdom. The fury of Satan is turned on all who believe in Jesus during that period. Incredible, isn’t it? And to realize that we are living in the days that all of these things that were predicted are about to happen.

I mean, I’ve been studying all of this now for 51 years. And I have watched, I mean, I knew about these things. From the earliest days of being a believer, God began to teach me and expose me to teachers that were really spirit-filled and knowledgeable in prophecy. And I stand on their shoulders.

But I have watched as I saw this precise scenario that it was predicted for these days. I saw that scenario fit together, God helped me put it together by 1957. And I watched all of these things. And in a good year, I’d see maybe one or two things that would apply to that prophetic scenario.

Now every week something happens that fits into that scenario. It’s all here. All of the things that are predicted, even though they look like they were falling away and no longer here, they’re back. And everything is in place.

And I believe we’re very near that time when Jesus Christ is going to take out of this world every living believer before the seven years begin. And I pray that there’s not one here that will fail to be part of that. Let’s close in prayer. Father, in Jesus’ name, I thank you for the attentiveness in the hearts that you look at right now.

And I pray if there’s one here who doubts where he or she stands with you, may that one right now just say, God, I don’t understand all this. But, right now, the best way I know how, I want to take a step of faith, and say, if this is true, and Jesus Christ really did die for me and purchase a pardon for me, then I ask you to give me that pardon and come into my life. I can’t be good enough, but I ask you to make me pleasing to you and give me my pardon. In Jesus’ name.

Amen. Now if you prayed that prayer, welcome to God’s forever family.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary. And he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible are now very curious.

This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been for the Church and for the nation.