The Revelation - Part 5: The Defeated Dragon

REVIEW
 
Let’s continue our series today based on the Book of Revelation which is entitled “The Revelation.” Again, I have titled it this because this Book is not a Book of Revelations, but rather a Book revealing to us one Person—the Lord Jesus Christ in His resurrected and glorified state! In other words, it is a message containing good news, not just the bad news that most have made it out to be. Therefore, when we read this Book through this lens it will produce hope instead of dread, fear, and anxiety. And that’s exactly what I’ve noticed this series doing for most of you—I’ve seen that it has produced joy and happiness, which should not be strange to us because we saw in Revelation 1:3 that we are supposed to be blessed when we read and hear the message of Revelation.
 
So, we have covered that Jesus is the very spirit behind prophecy, and that includes end-time prophecy. In other words, He is the message behind the message! So, we are focusing on the fact that He is both the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end—of the Book of Revelation, and not just focusing on what happens in the middle of it all.
 
Then we looked at the seven golden lampstands—those seven churches of Asia Minor that Jesus had the apostle John write letters to. In this message, we studied what I called seven pillars contained in these seven letters to the churches, which were seven things that we see repeated and emphasized in these seven letters that not only related to the church then, but to the church of today as well.
 
Now some of these seven things were encouraging words and others were corrections. But we saw that even though five of these churches were corrected for many things, John did not see a couple of golden lampstands and then the other five were silver, bronze, etc. No, he saw seven golden churches—showing us that even though some churches and their members are “tarnished” with sin, flaws, and failures, they were still gold—the most precious commodity in the kingdom of God. Amen! 
 
Then, a couple of weeks ago, we moved on to Revelation chapter 4 & 5 and looked at the transition of this Book. We saw that “after these things” the apostle John looked and saw a door standing open in heaven where he was invited to come up through and to see things from God’s perspective. I made the point that I believe this statement is extremely important in leading into the things John saw and wrote down for us. Why? It is because everything the Lord showed him that was to take place was from “up there.” In other words, it was from heaven’s perspective, not an earthly, carnal perspective.
 
Church, we need to “come up hither” too and become more spiritually-minded concerning these things because when we do, a new perspective of the Revelation will occur: We will have that hope replace the fear! We will have that excitement substituted for dread! And we will have His joy overcome our anxiety!       
 
Then in the second verse of Revelation chapter 4, John began explaining what he saw: So, we learned that what John saw first is what we need to see first in our lives—the throne and the One who is seated on it! In other words, we need to see what the highest authority is and who is He who is seated in that seat of ultimate authority—and we can see that it is El Elyon Himself! And we learned that no matter what happens on this earth, no matter how bad things get, the Lord God Almighty will always remain on the throne! He doesn’t fall off! He doesn’t change. He doesn’t deviate from His consistent rule and victory over all! That’s only us who does that—and the way we can keep ourselves from doing so is by opening our spiritual eyes to see the truth that God indeed is the King of kings and Lord of lords and He reigns forevermore! 
 
So, I believe it is important for us to know the first thing the apostle John saw when he came up hither. It wasn’t the dragon. It wasn’t the beast. It wasn’t the plagues, the bowls of wrath, or the judgments. No, it wasn’t all of the bad things that are to come upon the earth; it was the throne of God that he saw first. So, we learned that living down here on the earth, it is easy to keep our mind stayed on things of the earth. In other words, it is easy to focus on the curse, the death, and all of the things the god of this world is doing. But I believe we are called to elevate our way of thinking and see things, not from an earthly perspective, but from a heavenly perspective.
 
But then we read that what John saw happening around the throne of God was lost in the sound of heaven—that is, the Father was being praised and glorified by the various hosts of heaven! So, we learned that this is not just what ought to be done in heaven; we learned that what is done in heaven ought to be done on the earth too. And here is the good news that we learned regarding that: when we lift the Lord Jesus up like they do in heaven and we see the earth as filled with the glory of God, all of heaven is drawn to it. He is the King of God’s kingdom and whenever and wherever the King is praised, heaven will be there to participate. Glory to God!
 
Then last time, we moved on to Revelation chapter 6-11 where the Great Tribulation began to be described. So, what we learned last week was how we can be ready for not only the “Great Tribulation” that is going to come upon the earth, but also how we can be prepared for the other little tribulations that you and I face in our everyday lives.
 
But when it comes to the Great Tribulation that will occur at the end, we learned that there are certainly “Woes,” but to us, there is a completely different perspective to be had. We do not have to focus on the “Woes” because we got the “Wows”!?! And the biggest “Wow” that we took away from last week is found in First Thessalonians 5:8— “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
Now some take this to mean that we will be raptured before the Great Tribulation comes upon the earth, and that might be exactly how He does it. But we learned that it could also mean that even when the fire is going on around us, we come out of it without even the smell of smoke. Amen! So, whether we are here through the Great Tribulation to come or we at some point at the beginning of these birth pangs are taken off the earth, the bottom line is that our lot is salvation, deliverance, and protection! Period. Amen!
 
Sure, we are going to have some birth pangs to endure. Yes, there might be some discomfort as these things come to pass. But we learned that no matter the pain or the discomfort, we know that we know that the baby is on the way! All of this pointed to the fact that you and I ought to be “expecting” (i.e. hope) because, oh “baby,” do we have something to look forward to! Amen?
 
So, the point I left you with last time is the encouragement that it is not for us to eat from these bowls of wrath—for we are not appointed to God’s wrath! Our lot is salvation and all that goes with it. So, whether we are here, or we are gone, we need not fear these birth pangs that are coming upon the earth. Why? Because we live in that spiritual Land of Goshen to where when the plagues were poured out on Egypt (i.e. the world), they were kept by the Blood of the Lamb. Amen!
 
THE WOMAN, HER CHILD, AND THE DRAGON
 
Now we turn our attention to Revelation chapter 12 where John saw a great sign in heaven. It was of a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
This woman certainly seems to represent Mary, the mother of Jesus—as she was the woman chosen by God to give birth to our Messiah, which the child obviously points to. However, I believe this woman represents God’s people in general in that Israel was considered to be married to the Lord and were the ones whom the Lord Jesus came through. So, as we look at this woman and her child, look at it like the people of God—both past and present—and their Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ.
 
Then notice the sun, moon and stars that were a part of what John saw when he saw this woman: These were those two great lights and the rest of the stars that God created in the beginning. You see, we as the people of God today are clothed with the sun in that we have put on Christ, who is the Sun of Righteousness. The moon under our feet represents the light that we, as His church, now possess to place all things under our feet. And the twelve stars on her head represent how God has crowned His creation with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5).
 
So, praise God, this is the way the Lord sees His covenant people! We are clothed with the “Son” Himself! We stand on the Moon in that we reflect the Light of the world! And we are crowned with God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies! 
 
Then we see in the second verse that the woman began to cry out in labor and pain as she was about to give birth to the Lord—which we saw last week how all of these birth pangs are symbolic of the difficult things which will take place on the earth before the end comes. So, I see this as the hardship and “tribulation” that Israel incurred as they were the one’s called to birth the Messiah.
 
This is reflected in the following verse as John saw another sign appear in heaven: He said, “Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.” (Revelation 12:3-4).
 
So, this great fiery red dragon is obviously the devil (See verse 9). His seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads are subject to interpretation, but the bottom line is they represent characteristics of him and his reign here as the god of this world. Now his tail drawing a third of the stars of heaven and throwing them to the earth seems to represent the third of the angels that he deceived into following him and how they were cast from the presence of God onto the earth.
 
Then the next thing we see the dragon doing was standing before the woman to devour her Child she was giving birth to. And, oh, isn’t this something we see the devil doing in history? For example, when Moses was being born, he stirred up Pharaoh to have all the male babies put to death because he knew the deliverer was coming. Then, at the time of Jesus’ birth, he stirred up Herod to have all the male children put to death because he knew the Savior was being born.
 
So, we see the devil using evil men to kill babies because he has always wanted to stop the Savior, Deliverer, and Messiah from coming forth. And we can see the same thing happening even today with the millions of babies who are being murdered—perhaps the devil is trying to kill off a generation of deliverers whom God is birthing??? But, of course, we know the devil was not able to stop the birth of Moses and Jesus—showing us that the devil’s best attempts to kill God’s purposes will never succeed. Amen!
 
Verse 5 goes on to tell us--"She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.” This verse describes everything from the birth of Christ to His ascension to the right hand of God! Glory to God! And I can just imagine that this beat-down the devil got seemed just about as quick! Before the devil knew it, he was disarmed, dethroned and defeated! Hallelujah!
 
Then in verse 6, we see the next dispensation of God, as the woman (i.e. the Israel of God) flees into the wilderness where God prepared a place for her to be taken care of for 1,262 days. Many people see this as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ after His ascension because this specific time-period is a consistent symbol of the persecution and tribulation of the early, first century church.
 
THE WAR IN THE HEAVENLIES
 
Then we move on in verses 7-9 to what seems to be what transpired in the heavenly realm through Jesus’ birth, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension: Which is what? “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
 
Of course, this “war” was no contest and the dragon and his angels did not prevail. And the result was that the great dragon was “cast out” and there was no place found for him in heaven any longer. This is extremely important to understand because when we look at another passage of Scripture that parallels these verses in Revelation, we will see that Jesus referred to this exact event with His disciples…
 
In Luke 10:17-20, we have the account of Jesus’ seventy disciples returning with joy saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” after they were sent out to heal the sick, cast out demons, etc. Now notice the language here, “even the demons are subject to us…” This statement makes it clear that His disciples had a certain sense of awe over the power and authority of Satan and his kingdom because when they said even the demons are subject to them, they are basically putting the casting out of demons in an elite category.
 
But notice how Jesus responded to their rejoicing: I guarantee you that He did not respond like they expected Him to respond. He said, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” Now the question they might have had when He made this statement (and we should be asking as well) is why did Jesus say this? Well, if you look down at verse 20, He explains--“Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven!”
 
So what Jesus was saying was that our cause for rejoicing should not be because the demons obey us when we tell them to leave; our cause for joy should be because our names are written in heaven! Why? It is because demons obeying our voice is evidently a much lesser deal than our names being written in heaven. And let me explain why…
 
Notice again that Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven” and here in verse 20, He said that we are to rejoice in the fact that our names are written in heaven. So, Satan fell out of heaven and our names are now written up in heaven. I submit to you that Jesus was saying that we are not to rejoice in the fruit of our authority, but rather, we are to rejoice in the root of our authority! In other words, because our names are now written in heaven, we have assumed the position that Satan and his angels lost in heaven (and an even better position than that because we are in Christ).
 
You see, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are immediately made citizens of heaven—thus, our names being written in heaven. And through this establishment of our citizenship in heaven, we are delegated authority from heaven. So, it should be of no surprise to us that the demons must bow their knee when we give them orders in the name of Jesus. Why? It is because we now occupy that position that he (i.e. Lucifer) once held! And as I just said, our position is even greater than the one he held while he was in heaven because we are in Christ and seated with Him in heavenly places. So, this makes it even more clear why Jesus downplayed their rejoicing over the demons being subject to them. It was because having authority over the devil is really not a big deal when you look at it from this perspective—namely, from the perspective of being seated at the right hand of God in Christ. Hallelujah!
 
But the very fact that Satan, that old dragon, fell like lightening from heaven should convince us without a shadow of a doubt that he is under our feet and must heed the voice of God’s Word spoken through us, the Lord’s legal representatives! I mean, it is no contest! We have been given the name above all names, the name of Jesus! We have been washed in the blood of the Lamb! We have been born from above and made citizens of His omnipotent kingdom! So why do we let Him push us around—using our minds for His own personal playground and afflicting our bodies with all of these damnable sicknesses and weaknesses? He has no legal jurisdiction in our lives, saints! So, give him no place in your life!     
 
NOW SALVATION IS
 
Now put your shouting clothes on because look at what Revelation 12:10 goes on to say which echoes Luke chapter 10— “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before God day and night, has been cast down.’”
 
Notice that this loud voice in heaven said, “Now salvation …” It didn’t say yesterday salvation or tomorrow salvation; it said, “NOW salvation!” As we see in Hebrews 11:1— “Now faith is…” It doesn’t say, “Now faith was” or “Tomorrow faith is.” Faith is now, and the faith that now is, is for a salvation that is now! Amen!
 
This is why the Bible teaches us what it does in Second Corinthians 6:1-2— “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
 
Notice that the grace of God can be received in vain. How? By believing it is all up to God. So how would we then receive it to where it’s not in vain? This is our receiving His grace in faith—the faith that understands that the day of our salvation is now and that it is the acceptable time for us to receive that salvation. Amen?
 
Church, because the accuser of the brethren has been cast down and fell like lightening from heaven, our salvation has already come! Because our names are now written in heaven—salvation, strength, the kingdom of God, and the power of Christ have come us ward! We are not waiting on these things now that the roles have been reversed! They are our present inheritance in that we are now citizens of the kingdom of God in heaven and Satan has been cast down from heaven! We are seated in the position of authority—at the right hand of God in Christ. Therefore, salvation, strength, the kingdom of God, and the power of Christ have come in us because we are positionally seated in the heavenly places in Christ.
 
There is significance in all of these terms—salvation, strength, the kingdom of God, and the power of Christ—but because of time restraints, I want us to look specifically at the first word “salvation,” because this particular term encapsulates the point the Holy Spirit wants to make with us today.
 
Friends, salvation has come, and salvation means more than what most see it as. Most of the church today sees “salvation” as a “get out of hell free card.” In other words, they only see their salvation as the free gift of God which keeps us from going to hell and enables us to go to heaven. But it means so much more than that, saints!
 
The Greek word for “salvation” is the word soterion and describes deliverance, but not just deliverance from the penalty of sin; it describes deliverance from all the dominion of the kingdom of darkness! Hallelujah! It means deliverance, freedom, and liberation! It means healing, prosperity, and peace! Salvation means to be delivered from all the kingdom of darkness—both spiritually and naturally! So, our deliverance from the rule of Satan and sin spans much wider than many have seen! We are delivered from all of the works of darkness—all except that last enemy which is to be defeated, which is death.
 
Friends, our salvation has already come! And with this salvation package we have already received comes many other benefits and in this case, they are strength, power, and the kingdom! This is a far cry from the way the majority of the church lives: Most of the church today is weak, powerless, and does not rule over the kingdom of darkness. But this is not what we are called unto! We are called to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! We are called to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in our inner man! We are called to rule and reign in life as kings because His kingdom is within us! We are overcomers because we are positioned far above all principalities and powers!
 
Let’s look some verses that establish these things to us …
 
DISARMED, DETHRONED, AND DEFEATED
 
First John 3:8 tells us one of Jesus’ purposes for coming to this world. John says, “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” The word “destroy” literally means to “loose” or “untie” This means that Jesus came to set us free from sin’s control and sin’s effects. Sin no longer has dominion over us (Romans 6:14)! We have a new master and are no longer slaves to our former master.
 
In Hebrews 2:14 we are told that Jesus came and lived as a man and then died in man’s sins “…that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The word “destroy” means “to make of non-effect, to paralyze, or to render inoperative.” One translation said that Jesus made Him a “zero”. This verse is saying that Jesus “paralyzed” the devil through His triumph at the cross. He took away Satan’s power over our lives.
 
Jesus didn’t just get back the authority we lost from the devil in a quiet, nice way. He literally rubbed the devil’s nose in it: Colossians 2:15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
 
This verse describes what Jesus did when He was resurrected on the third day. When He was made alive after spending three days and three nights in the pit of hell, Jesus plundered the enemy’s camp, totally defeating him.
 
Notice the first two words in this awesome verse— “Having disarmed.” This isn’t something Jesus is going to do; it is something He has already done! The word “disarmed” describes “stripping the garments and/or armor off.” This word was used to depict the stripping of the enemy’s weaponry and artillery and leaving him without any weapons with which to respond. One scholar even noted that this word describes “stripping to the point of complete nakedness.” The King James Version translates this word as “spoiled” which would describe Jesus as taking the possessions of the principalities and powers.  This means that when Jesus was resurrected, He totally whipped and stripped the enemy and left them with nothing. He took all of their armor away from them! This gives new meaning to the Old Testament verse that says, “No weapon formed against you will prosper.” Under the New Covenant, Satan has been stripped of his weapons that he used to keep us in bondage before Jesus came. Now the only effective weapon that he can form against us is the illusion that he even has an effective weapon! In other words, his only effective weapon now is deception!
 
So, we can gather from these first two words “having disarmed” that Jesus has already (past tense) taken away the enemy’s weapons. How could he ever defeat us if he doesn’t even have any weapons left? The only way he can is if he can convince us that he’s got an effective weapon against us. The only way he can win is if he can get us to give up, thinking he’s won. His only effective weapon left is deception. It is like someone who robs a bank with his pointed finger in his pocket. If that robber convinces the bank employees that what he is pointing at them is a real gun then he can cause them to give him all the money but if they know that he does not really have a weapon then they will not give him squat! 
 
So, what all of these verses tell us is that Jesus has already totally defeated Satan and his cohorts. It is a finished work! The devil is not going to get any more defeated than he already is! Therefore, we must always approach the end-time events we read in the Book of Revelation with this mindset—that the enemy has already been defeated and we already have the victory!
 
In Second Corinthians 2:14 the Apostle Paul said, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ…”  The word “triumph” here is the same word used for “triumphing” in Colossians 2:15 which describes a victory parade for a conquering army and its leader. So by saying that He is leading us in this victory parade, Paul is saying that we are the soldiers that accompany Jesus after He spoiled the principalities and powers and led them in this humiliating parade. In other words, we partake in His victory without ever having to fight the battle. That’s why Paul said what he did in Romans 8:37— “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” We are not just “conquerors” but we are “more than conquerors”! This means that we are conquerors that didn’t even have to fight the battle and we still get to partake in the victory parade.
 
First Corinthians 15:57 says, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We already have the victory in every trial and tribulation that comes our way through the works of our Lord Jesus Christ! Look at what verse 58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable…” Paul was saying, “Therefore (in light of this victory Jesus gave us) be sturdy and immovable”. The devil will always turn up the pressure on us but all we are to do is stand and resist his pressure to give up. The only way the devil can defeat us is if he can make us stop standing our ground and quit. That’s why in the early church “patience” was most the most desired virtue. The word translated “patience” meant “staying under power.” In other words, it was the power to stay under Satan’s pressure without moving. The early church had an extreme amount of pressure on them to deny Jesus but they knew if they had “the queen of all virtues” (what they called “patience”) they would win one way or the other.
 
Through this verse and Second Corinthians 2:14 what do we see that our reaction should be in response to this victory and triumph that we have? They both start with “thanks be to God!” Our response to trials and tribulations that come our way should be— “Thanks be to God who always leads me in triumph and who always gives me victory!” Our job is to thank God for the win that He has already provided. Amen.
 
But let’s now look at how John saw the church overcoming in Revelation chapter 12 …
 
THEY WHO OVERCOME HIM
 
Revelation 12:11 goes on to say— “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
 
Who is the “they” here? It’s obviously talking about the people of God, God’s children, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They (we) overcame him. Now as we learned already from First John 5:4-5, this victory that overcomes is our faith—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice what both our faith is in and how it is evidenced—in three things:

1. By the blood of the Lamb
2. By the word of our testimony
3. Not loving our lives to the death

 
Well, the first and most obvious key to overcoming the dragon is the blood of the Lamb: You see, if it weren’t for Jesus’ sacrifice and His shed blood on the Cross, there is no way we could overcome the enemy of our soul. But because of the blood—the blood that has washed us from our sins and is now presently applied to our lives—there is no way we should lose.
 
But this is why we must go back to the basics on some things. Few people preach on the blood anymore lest they offend people. Well, let them be offended—for it is the blood that has cleansed, forgiven, blessed, delivered, protected, healed, and prospered me! Amen? Church, we need more pleading of the blood in our lives because I can assure you, it is speaking on our behalf better things than Abel’s blood was speaking. Amen!
 
But the next key to overcoming the devil is the word of our testimony: Bless God, the word of our testimony is also a key component in this victorious life because how many of you know, there are a lot of people out there who have experienced the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, yet they do not live victorious lives? Why? It is because experiencing all that God has for us is not just based on what He has done for us by His grace. We must cooperate! And one of the ways we cooperate is by our words.
 
I like to look at this way—Did you notice that the devil is called in the preceding verse “the accuser of the brethren” and that he would accuse them before God day and night? Well, imagine you are on trial in a courtroom, and your father—God the Father—is the judge, your defense attorney (i.e. Advocate) is your older brother, the Lord Jesus Christ (who just happened to never have lost a case), and the prosecuting attorney (i.e. adversary) is the devil.  
 
You see, the accuser of the brethren will constantly make accusations against us in an attempt to get us to agree with him and accept the guilt of our mistakes. The biggest mistake we can make as saints of God is to plead guilty when those accusations are brought against us. If we do that, then I don’t care who your lawyer is—you will be condemned! But the reality is that Jesus Christ is our advocate and if He be for us who can be against us (Romans 8:31)! So, with that scenario, how could we lose a case? The answer is what we have already learned—to admit to the guilt.    
 
That is where the word of our testimony comes in: We must cling to the Word (i.e. logos)—that is, what is written, and hold fast to our confession of faith. This is the testimony that we are to speak when we are put on the stand—not what we feel or what we think. We only speak the truth—the truth of what we read in the Scriptures and what we’ve experienced in our lives that agrees with the truth. Amen? If we only speak this, we won’t lose the case and the devil will never be able to overcome us! Amen!
 
But then there is one final element to overcoming—not loving our lives unto death. A lot of people like to leave this one off, but it is important because how many of you know, if you love your life too much then if the threat of you losing your life for what you believe comes up, you might lose your confession? That is why the willingness to die for what you say you believe is a big part of overcoming. That’s because if one does not quit—does not quit believing, standing, confessing, etc.—they will always win. Therefore, endurance and patience are key to overcoming the devil.
 
THE END OF THE STORY
 
Then, in the remainder of chapter 12, we see the wrath of the dragon and how he now persecutes the “woman” and her “offspring.” But what I want you to see is how, even though the devil persists in trying to destroy the people of God, the Lord provides ways of escape from him.  
 
For example, notice in Revelation 12:15 that the dragon spewed from his mouth something like a flood that he might carry the people of God away. But we see in the following verses that the earth actually fought for the woman by opening up and swallowing the flood. This reminds me of that Scripture found in Isaiah 59:19 which says, “…When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”
 
So, this is where our faith must always be—that no matter when that old dragon spews that flood against us—doing the things he does to try and destroy us—the Holy Spirit will lift up a standard against him! Therefore, no matter what the devil throws at us in these end-times, we can rest assured in the fact that both heaven & earth will raise up a standard to protect and keep us! Amen!
 
So, my point today is this—The devil was defeated in the past when he and a third of the angels tried to take over heaven. He was defeated after that through the Cross of Christ when Jesus plundered the gates of hell through His resurrection. But guess what? One of the big parts of the Book of Revelation is the victory we have to look forward to in the future. Yes, we have the end of the story, and it forecasts the ultimate defeat of Satan and the kingdom of darkness. 
 
You see, in Revelation chapters 18-20 we see the fall of the empire Satan will build in the last days known as Babylon. It will be destroyed, the beast (i.e. the antichrist) and his false prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire, and Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years! Then after those thousand years have expired, the devil will be released but soon will also be cast into the lake of fire with the others to be tormented day and night forever and ever! Glory!
 
So, here is the lesson to be learned—no matter how much it looks like Satan is winning (especially in these last days), don’t lose heart because we know the end of the story! And when you know what’s going to happen at the end of the story, all the suspense should be eliminated! Why? Because we know the outcome of the game—and that is that we will ultimately win! Church, let us rejoice now like we know the final score!