Satan once stood among “the sons of God in heaven,” accusing believers before the Lord, but through Christ’s victory he has been cast down to earth. The passage in Revelation 12 reveals that Believers now need to overcome the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, refusing to love their lives even unto death. Followers of Christ are called to resist participating in the devil’s work of accusation, offering themselves instead as living sacrifices whose unity and grace enable God’s power to bring revival and victory over evil.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:01] This morning, I do want us to dive into what might be a very deep pool. In fact, it’s one that many Christian people stay out of because they’re not sure whether they can swim down deep enough to get to the meaning of the book of Revelation. And the Bible central verses for today are ones that talk about something that is obviously either already happened or is going to happen, depending on how you do work out how to interpret the book of Revelation. I thought we’d start with just a little bit of recognition that there have come about some changes from the beginning of the Bible records to the last book, the book of Revelation, in terms of what has happened between God and Satan, between where Satan spends his time. And for a start, we’ll look in Job in chapter 1 and 1 to 6

[00:01:10] because I don’t know whether it’s ever struck you that there’s a seeming, I don’t know whether I’d call it a contradiction, but it might be a progression that’s happened as to where God is and where Satan is. The book of Job is understood to bring a record of some of the most ancient happenings in the human earth, maybe not earlier than Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but certainly it’s a very ancient book. We’re not sure when the book of Job was actually written, but here, reading in chapter 1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. That made me think that he must be homeschooling because where Shona and Jess have turned up in Dallas, Texas,

[00:02:11] they met some other fellow students who promptly took them along to their church on Sunday morning. And in the church Sunday morning, the pastor had nine kids and they were homeschoolers, which is what made me think about Job here. He’s got seven sons and three daughters. And he possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. And this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. He is well famous for, he’s like a farmer who has a very big ranch. And his sons used to go and hold a feast in each of the houses of each one on his day. And these ones would send and invite their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, in the morning, they’d offer burnt offerings or Job would consecrate them

[00:03:11] and then he’d rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. for Job said it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts thus did Job continually now that’s a description of a very godly family but then goes to introduce the scene in heaven and here’s what is quite a stark contrast to what we’ll see in a moment’s time in the book of Revelation there was a day when the sons of God notice the term sons of God on the previous Sunday morning I’ve explained the definition that the ones that were one step down from God’s authority were called the sons of God that was largely angels back then but then all the figures who were one step down from God’s authority they’re referred to as the sons of God and they came to present themselves before the Lord

[00:04:08] and Satan also came among them because he was someone who basically was still persona grata to go up to heaven to have a poliwag with the Lord. Satan also came among them. He’s included amongst those described as sons of God. They’re one step down in authority than the Lord himself. The Lord said to Satan, From whence have you come? And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it immediately you see the sense of restlessness of evil. And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? Have you ever realised that God does a bit of boasting? And he looks down and he says, Have you seen, it mentions your name? I’ve got a Christian there in Salisbury who loves me and is trying hard to walk with me. Well, the Lord’s boasting to Satan,

[00:05:12] Have you considered my servant Job? That there’s none like him on the earth, blameless and an upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? Have you, you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land? Basically, what Satan is saying, well, he does it for what he can get out of it. That’s how human nature is. Satan knew by now the truth of that. Very often we do for what we can get out of it. We do it amongst ourselves sometimes. What can we get out of that friendship? And so Satan is suggesting to God an ulterior motive for the obedience of Job. Well, the thing I wanted you to notice

[00:06:13] is that Satan was included amongst those who were called sons of God. Secondly, that Satan was up there talking to God and coming along with all the others who were coming to speak to the Lord. Satan’s amongst them. But also notice that he’s taking opportunity to criticise and taking opportunity to say things to somehow drive a chink between the trust of the Lord and his servant Job. That’s how things were. Now, let’s turn now to the book of Revelation in chapter 12. And the verses I want particularly for us to look at is verses 10, you know, 9, 10, 11 and 12. But we’ll start in chapter 12, verse 1. And chapter 12, verse 1, a great sign. Now, the King James Version words it a great wonder. Something to be seen and to be amazed at. That’s what a sign is also. A sign from God when he does something

[00:07:17] that makes you all sit up and stare. A great wonder or sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head the crown of 12 stars. And she was pregnant, this woman. There’s some figurative descriptor going on here. It’s hard for us to know in the book of Revelation how to take these descriptors, whether they’re to be taken to represent something more concrete or represent something different from just the descriptor itself. But she was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs in agony of giving birth. So there’s a woman who’s bringing a child into the world. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon. Now, this one we do know because we’re told elsewhere that it’s the devil himself. A great red dragon in heaven with seven heads and ten horns

[00:08:17] and on his head seven diadems, his little crowns. He’s got big hopes for himself. Well, reading on, it says the next bit, the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child, he, the devil, was there waiting to gobble it up that he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child who is to be the ruler of all nations with a rod of iron. Who do you suppose is that child of the woman who’s going to rule the nations with a rod of iron? It’s none other than our saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. She gave birth to a male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne. what was the climax of the life of Jesus following his being crucified and buried and dead and down in the place of the dead he was raised to life again

[00:09:23] and what happened after 40 days of getting around and giving advice to his disciples but that Jesus ascended to heaven and this descriptor could be none other than Jesus’ ascension to the throne of God and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. I’m not going to go into working out the meaning of the days mentioned here. If you had been at one of the Wednesday nights home group you might have learned a bit about how there’s a set of days that you can work out what it’s hinting at or pointing to in the life of the people of God. The people that belong to this one who’s going to rule the nations. And that’s another story we’ll leave to another day. But just for the point is that the woman is someone who’s a wonder

[00:10:22] and although the word wonder wasn’t used in this translation, the ESV, in the authorised version it is a wonder, a second wonder. The first wonder was what was described as the scene in heaven. And the next wonder is going to be a war in heaven. And war, verse 7, arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but he, that’s Satan, or the dragon, was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. So originally where the book of Job pictures Satan as having his ability to not catch an aeroplane that needs to be grounded, but to go straight to heaven and to talk with God. Now he’s been thrown down. There’s no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, verse 9,

[00:11:24] that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, no doubt about the identity here, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, to the earth. And his angels were thrown down with him. They’ve become the demons, the devil and his demons. And then we come to the verse that I mostly want to talk about this morning in its application to us. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. Come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. This one who accuses them day and night before God, he’s been thrown down. And the next verse, I don’t know whether you can pull that up quickly. He nodded his head down there. The next verse says about the fact of Satan being thrown down

[00:12:22] and what that means for the scene here on earth. And in verses 11 and 12 of chapter 12. And it’s a continuation of what is the effect of Satan being cast down when he has had this job in heaven of accusing Adam and Eve and accusing of Job. And accusing of anybody who might be called the brethren of Christ. Now when the Bible talks about the brethren, it’s not necessarily meaning people who go to the gospel chapel. They certainly usually are brethren of Christ. But that’s because they’ve got a, I won’t call it denominational name, but they’ve got a name of their gatherings as being that of the brethren. And if you have somewhere that you need to go to church because you can’t stand me anymore, go to the brethren because they will preach to you the gospel too. and that’s a good thing.

[00:13:18] Now, let me read to you verses 11 and 12. And they have conquered him, the power of the kingdom of God and the authority of his Christ has come and the accuser of our brothers, all those who are siding with Christ, our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and for they loved not their lives even unto death how they gave their testimony, particularly the 11 apostles. I guess I could say 12 if I included Paul in the end as a 12th. That makes 13, won’t it? Anyway, in the apostles, how did they seal the truthfulness of our gospel that Jesus came and Jesus lived and Jesus died on the cross that Jesus went down to the place of the dead and that Jesus rose again and has returned to heaven?

[00:14:19] Who are those who give testimony that they saw him before his death? They saw him after his resurrection. They saw him after his return to speak to them and for so many days to be teaching them before he ascended to heaven. They saw him on that very moment of Jesus’ ascension outside Jerusalem. and they saw him go up and disappear behind the clouds. And angels were suddenly there saying, this same one that you have seen go into heaven shall so come in like manner as you’ve seen him go. All the changes that have happened to Jesus who’s now in heaven but the one who had accused him somewhere between Genesis and Revelation chapter 12, this one the devil has been thrown out of heaven with his demons and thrown down to earth. And what does it mean for us in earth?

[00:15:12] They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb. It takes us to take on board the death of Jesus and his sacrifice, his shed blood, for us to have a power over the influence of that evil one who’s been thrown down to the earth. And by the word of their testimony, that idea of testimony is testimony because their lives they gave them for Christ and we who are the Christians surrender ourselves to be living sacrifices as Romans 12 and verses 1 later will say as a living sacrifice as we see ourselves as not to be reserved but give ourselves to be a sacrifice for the Saviour. We conquer the devil. That’s what the text says. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them but woe to you on earth and sea for the devil has come down to you in great wrath.

[00:16:12] It goes on to say because he knows his time is short. Because he knows his time is short. We have got an enemy and one of the things he did when he was in heaven was that he was an accuser of the brethren and one of the things he now does not in heaven but he does it on earth He does it on earth. And he is the accuser of the brethren. And how does we work on earth? By the sacrifice of ourselves to be given into the hands of God. And how does the devil work on earth? By finding unsacrified Christians and turning them into being the accusers of the brethren. Are you one of those? whose work of the devil is to accuse the brethren. One of the reasons why churches get on well and do famously and become strong is when we Christians learn how not to be the accusers of the brethren.

[00:17:25] How we don’t store up our knowledge of their wrongs. How we don’t use them as leverage for achieving our positions who do not continue the devil’s work on earth by accusing people who are his brethren. One of the most beautiful ways that you see that put into practice well but also sometimes see it failed is on the mission field. Where one of the deepest problems mission societies have is when the Christians that they’ve sent don’t get on. Of course, they’ll not always easily get on. Some come from America. Some come from Britain. Some come from Australia and they have their reputations too. And then they have to learn how not to be the accusers of the brethren. The same thing happens in churches where the devil looks to continue, I was going to call it his ministry, but that’s an unfair word

[00:18:42] to use the word ministry. And he continues, that which was his in the beginning to be the accuser of the brethren and for which God threw him out of heaven along with all of the angels who followed him. Looking to see when you’re teaching from a passage such as in the book of Revelation, part of what one like me is exhorted to do by the books that I read is that you have to find the application of it. It’s not any satisfying experience for your people that if you tell them this word means that and this text’s reference means that and you give them a lot of facts necessarily as a preliminary thing, but wherein lies the lesson of the passage. And the lesson of the passage this week that God laid on my heart is that what he will need to do in this church to bring about a revival as we would want him so to do

[00:19:49] is he’s got to have us stop, all of us being in the hands of the devil to act out the accusation of the one that was thrown out of heaven. If God threw out one of the sons of God so-called back then, the devil, down to earth, how much more will he act in his church if we either collectively or personally continue the devil’s work? And I think the biggest application that I’ve taken to myself is to not let me be the accuser of the brethren. You might say, oh, you’re doing it now, Jim. No, I’m telling you what Revelation 12, 10 to 12, is teaching for us all. And don’t let the evil one cause us not to be able to be a group that God could bring revivalistic flames through because we give away our opportunities by making sure the devil’s work’s continuing here on earth. Would you pray over my message this morning

[00:21:16] and ask God to speak to you as to whether you need to take note that Satan was cast out of heaven for being an accuser of the brethren and he’s come down to earth really angry because he knows his time is short and he’d be happy to take your help to continue what he loves most to do. This, this morning, is the word of God. Amen. Heavenly Father, I pray in Jesus’ name that you would speak to us through your living word. And that you would drive into our hearts your long for us to be true sons of God. And there’s been an advancement on that definition too that Jesus brought about because not only is he in his humanity someone that is doing your will, not my will, but yours be done, he said. But he gave deeper definition to what is the greatest son of God the one that always was eternal son and took on humanity. He was

[00:22:41] not created as the son of God he always was so but he becomes in human form at his incarnation the most representative person, personage to be so called the son of God that there can be. And he’s changed the direction of the application that sons of God are not just those who are steps down from deity but he has changed the definition of son of God so thus we can be who are stepped up from the mere humanity that is ours to become true sons of the living God as we receive Christ and as we know Christ and as we walk with Christ and according to Romans 12 as we sacrifice for Christ that he might be heard and seen we become opportunistically true sons of God with him. Thank you for the greatest of all privileges and may we enjoy that privilege of resisting the devil resist the devil and he shall flee from you the Bible says because the greater son of God the total eternal son has come and we can walk with him we thank you in Jesus name Amen