SERMON - THE BOOK OF REVELATION IN WORDS OF UNDERSTANDING (part 15)

The Book of Revelation

In

Words of Understanding

Part 15

 

 

We have witnessed John seeing all there was in heaven, God on His throne and the history of humanity as Christianity was born through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We have seen the RCC subvert the meanings of God’s Word and the opening of the seven seals as Christ, through John, reveals all that has past and will come to pass. We have heard the ‘trumpets’ as they gave meaning to what John saw and wrote of in a symbolic manner.

 

We are now at what I earlier defined, (Sermon 109) as Series 4. This will portray the parental phase of Christianity (the church) as well as the powers wielded by the RCC in their effort to place man above Christ with doctrines not established by God Himself.

 

Revelation 12: 1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

 

A woman is used to symbolize the Christian children that are the church with Jesus Christ at the head of the body. The “sun” is The New Testament, the “moon” upon which she stands the “Old Testament, and the “crown of 12 stars” the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

 

Just as God appointed the Old Testaments 12 patriarchs, so are the 12 Apostles as set forth in the New Testament.

 

The RCC would have us believe that Mary was the woman of this verse but that simply is not so. Mary never fled to the wilderness as you will learn.

 

2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

 

Here we learn of God becoming man incarnate as Satan seeks to deny the birth of Jesus Christ as a man.

 

3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.

 

Satan, working through what was to become Papal Rome, the RCC, is the “Red dragon,” that was the insignia of Pagan Rome.

 

The “seven horns” represent the 7 forms of government Pagan Rome ruled under. The 10 horns representative of the number of kingdoms derived at after the fall of the Pagan Roman Empire. That, in entirety, was re-gathered and established as the Holy Roman Empire under the RCC.

 

4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.

 

The tail that swept “a third” of the stars represents Satan gaining the following of 1/3 of God’s angels.  The action of standing before the “woman who was about to give birth,” signifies Satan attempting to use Herod to kill Jesus Christ as infant boys under the age of 2 were slaughtered en-masse.  

 

5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

 

This symbolizes not only the birth of Jesus Christ, but producing us, the ‘born again’ children of God.

 

6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

 

The Jews that would not recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah persecuted Christians and the RCC continued that practice for 3 ½ days of years, a time equal to that of the Jewish persecution.  AD 530 to AD 1730. As we will learn in Revelation Chapter 17, the RCC entered into the wilderness as the Protestant period took hold.

 7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

A mighty battle was waged in heaven as Satan did his best to usurp God and replace himself on God’s throne.

  8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.

Satan and his minions of evil angels 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.12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."

Satan and his followers were cast to earth to exercise his power. God, in His infinite mercy, had Jesus Christ born of a woman and through His, Jesus Christ’s, crucifixion gave them eternal life through repentance. We are told that Satan’s time is drawing near its end and is angry with that knowledge.

13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

The Christians went underground (wilderness) in their effort to escape persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire . Later true Christians were persecuted by the RCC. The false doctrines of the RCC, idolatry of Mary, prayer to saints, graven idols (statues), relics to be revered, purgatory, limbo and other false teachings not in the Bible were forced on unwitting people. True Christianity was denied.

There remained those who obeyed true Christianity that were subjected countless attacks by Satan, but remained firm in their worship of the One true God. Although many Pastors think that they are preaching true Christianity they are teaching things and doctrines that are contrary to the teachings of Almighty God as set forth in His Word, our Bible.

(Closing prayer)

Heavenly Father we thank You for Your allowing us to come to You as we sing praises to You and place our very lives under Your protection. 

Father, we worship You and we are so very happy to do Your bidding and live under Your Command. Though we often fall it is with tears in our eyes that we look to You for forgiveness.

 Lord, we thank You for Your forgiveness and do our best to keep our eyes upon repenting to You and from sin.

Father, we live in a world fraught with sin, evil, greed and runaway lust for power. We thank You for protecting us from falling to these weaknesses to this world and for allowing us to be Your children. We look to You for our very being as we say, Holy, Holy, Holy are You Lord, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

We pray these things with hearts filled with love for You, for Jesus Christ, for the Holy Spirit; One God, forever and ever,

Amen, amen and amen.

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Pastor Lee S Gliddon Jr
God's Word Christian Ministry
Conservative Patriot http://conpats.blogspot.com