HOW THEY CONQUERED THE DRAGON
Rev. 12:7-11
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A husband said to his wife, “I’m not sure ‘you can’t take it with you.’ I’m going to put a few thousand dollars in the attic and when we go up, we can pick it up on our way to heaven.”
2. Sometime later the husband died. After the funeral when everyone had left the wife alone at the house, she went up to the attic to see how her husband’s plan had worked.
3. The money was still there. As she went back downstairs, she thought, “Maybe he should have put the money in the basement!”
B. TEXT
7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Rev. 12:7-11 NIV1984
C. THESIS
1. Verse 7 begins to tell us of a great conflict – not only in the heavens, but on earth. How long this struggle has persisted it does not say. (It was going on in Daniel’s time, 10:13).
2. I think it still continues in Heaven, because it still does on earth. But we hear a cry in verse 10 that heralds the time when the devil is ejected forever from Heaven (probably middle of the Great Tribulation).
3. All the saints in Heaven shout and a song is sung telling how the saints overcame (11). Notice the 3 things about those who overcame pointed out in the passage:
I. ALL OF HEAVEN’S SAINTS ARE WARRIORS
A. UNREALISTIC VIEW OF “SAINTS”
1. We put the people in the Bible on a pedestal, as if they were different from us, or were endowed with graces we don’t have.
2. We’re kind of like the medieval artists who painted halos around their heads. But in truth they had no halos, and they had trouble, grief, and sadness just like we do.
B. ALL SAINTS ATTACKED BY SATAN
1. How could there be victory without a battle? Sometimes your temptations or circumstances threaten to pull you under. Your sorrows engulf you like an ocean. Your fears may push you to the brink of mental stability. Your thoughts seem oppressive and impure.
2. Paul calls these, ‘fiery darts of the evil one.’ You are not alone! 1 Cor. 10:13.
3. If you could examine the heavenly victors you would find them all covered with scars. None of them had an easy road, or took their thrones unchallenged.; neither will you conquer without conflict.
C. ALL HAD TO RESIST THE EVIL ONE
1. No matter how great our temptation, our resistance must be greater. Everyone is tempted, even the worst of criminals. But to RESIST temptation is the mark of the child of God.
2. A Poet once wrote:
“Once they were mourning here below,
And wet their couch with tears,
They wrestled hard as we do now,
With sins, and doubts, and fears.”
3. Be assured, dear friends, that sin will never be conquered without resistance. “Wherever sin abounds, grace does much more abound” Rom. 5:20. With God’s help, we can and must put sin down.
D. ALL THOSE IN HEAVEN OVERCAME
1. Heaven is not for fighters, but overcomers! It’s not enough simply to resist sin, you must overcome it. If sin is habitually our master, we’re not in Christ, for “Sin shall not have dominion over you” Rom. 6:14.
2. The common cry of the saints is, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7:24. But this is followed with the note of victory, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” vs. 25.
3. If today I have been able to overcome some besetting sin, before an hour is over, there will probably be another to conquer. Seven times in Rev. 2 & 3 Jesus made promises to the overcomers. HE EXPECTS US TO OVERCOME!
E. ALL REJOICED – victory was sweet!
F. ARE YOU RESISTING? CONQUERING?
1. Does the life of God in you get the upper hand? Victory over sin is not the luxury of preachers and prayer warriors. Holiness is not just for the few – it’s a necessity for all saints!
The slaves of sin are not the children of God.
2. When the Ark of God entered Dagon’s Temple, Dagon (sin) must fall on its face and be broken. “That which is born of God overcomes the world” 1 John 5:4. See 1 Jn. 3:9, 2 Cor. 5:17. 1 John 4:4 says, “Greater is HE that is in me than he that is in the world.” If you let the world get the mastery, you cannot be born of God!
II. ALL FOUGHT WITH THE SAME WEAPONS
A. THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB
It will not help us until we make it our own.
a. The overcomers went to Jesus by faith.
b. Their sins were washed away.
c. Peace came between them & God. It saves you!
d. They were brought near by the blood of Christ.
e. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb.
HOW DID THEY OVERCOME BY THE BLOOD?
1. IT DESTROYS SATAN’S GROUNDS OF ACCUSATION AGAINST US
a. Rom. 5:9 tells us we are “justified by His blood.” It is “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned at all.
b. Because Jesus died in our place for our sins, Satan no longer has any grounds to accuse us before God – Col. 2:14.
c. 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:31-34. Faith in Christ’s death on the Cross.
2. IT ARMS US WITH POWER by joining us with God in relationship by covenant.
a. Because of the blood we are made part of God’s family. The blood gives us access to the Most Holy Place (Heb. 10:19)
b. The Blood of Jesus joins us in covenant to God, similar to a treaty or an alliance (Hb. 9:15; Mt. 26:28). God is obligated to take up for us, to fight for us. This arms us with a Mighty Ally!
3. IT ATTACKS & CONSUMES SIN & EVIL
a. “They overcame HIM.” This is not a defensive action, but an aggressive action; attacking and overthrowing! HOW?
b. Lev. 17:11. “The life of the creature is in the blood.” The Blood represents the indestructible life of Jesus Christ!
c. It dissolves sin & evil. Jesus touched the leper & He didn’t get leprosy, the leprosy was driven out (Mt. 8:3). The sinful woman touched Jesus – He was not contaminated, she was cleansed of sins.
d. 1 John 3:8 – “The reason the Son of God appeared was to DESTROY the works of the devil.” The blood of Jesus is to the devil what water was to the wicked witch of the west in the Wizard of Oz! And only by the Blood of the Passover did they come out of Egypt!
B. THE WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONY
1. THE WORD OF GOD IS POWERFUL. Heb. 4:12 It’s Alive! Powerful – it has power to heal, save, and deliver.
2. AS WE ‘TELL FORTH’ THE WORD, IT SETS PEOPLE FREE
a. Peter at Pentecost – they were “cut to the heart”
b. The Cripple at Lystra – was healed.
c. Philip at Samaria – there was deliverance, great joy.
d. People have even been saved when there was poor preaching – “Paul & his wife Silas” or the “Parable of the 12 Virgins.” Thank God “this Gospel is the power of God unto salvation!”
3. EXPERIENTIAL – YOUR TESTIMONY IS IMPORTANT, it can bring light into the darkness.
4. In summary, I. THEY WERE ALL WARRIORS, & II. THEY HAD THE SAME WEAPONS, AND III....
III. ALL FOUGHT WITH THE SAME SPIRIT
It says, “They loved not their lives unto the death” meaning...
A. DAUNTLESS COURAGE
B. UNSWERVING FAITHFULNESS &
C. SELF-SACRIFICE
CONCLUSION
Heb. 9:22 says, “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Dr. Paul Brand shared an experience from his early days as a missionary physician. He was serving as an orthopedic surgeon at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India.
2. The doctors there were vexed because most Indians refused to donate blood. To them, blood = life, and who could tolerate giving up lifeblood, even to save someone else.
3. One day a 12 year old girl arrived at the hospital with a very bad lung. The surgery would require at least 3 pints of blood. The hospital had two units so one unit was needed from the family.
4. The family responded by offering to buy someone’s blood for her. They were told there was none to be bought and unless the family donated they might as well take the girl back home to die. The family huddled and then pushed forward a frail old lady to give the needed donation.
5. The other doctor, Brett Reeves, fixed his eyes on the sleek, well-fed men who had made the decision, and he got mad. He blasted the 12 or so cowering family members, jabbing his finger at the healthy men and then at the frail woman.
6. Finally, in disgust, he rolled up his own sleeve and said, “Come on Paul, bring the needle and bottle and take my blood!” The family fell silent like birds before an eclipse.
7. Paul jabbed the needle into Reeve’s arm and when the bright-red liquid squirted into the bottle, a great “Ahhh!” rustled through the family, and they said, “Look! The sahib doctor is giving his own life!” [Nelson’s Complete, pp. 80-81]
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you haven’t really been in the spiritual battle, but you’re ready to join the fight?
2. Maybe some of you haven’t been on the Lord’s side, but today you want to make your allegiance to Jesus Christ and be counted as one of the Lord’s people. If that’s you, raise your hand.
3. How many of you want to put on your spiritual armor in Jesus Christ, putting on faith, righteousness, salvation, preparation of the Gospel, truth, and take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God – and go into battle? Let’s pray for a new infilling with the Spirit! PRAYER
[This is a rewrite of Charles Spurgeon’s sermon of the same name.]
