This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I am glad you're back for day two of our look together through Revelation
chapter 12. Yesterday we talked about the fact that Satan is real and evil is
real. Today we get to look at verses one and two and begin to look at the fact
that God will not be defeated.

God is going to be the victor. We looked at Satan yesterday, he's all through
Revelation chapter 12, but he's not the only character in this drama of good and
evil. There are two other main characters that are brought out for us in verses
one and two.

Revelation 12, one and two. "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 in her head. She was pregnant and she cried out in pain and she was about
to give birth.

" So you have in this a picture of a woman who's about to give birth. A picture
of the fact that God will not be defeated. Now in this picture, we just need to
walk through it carefully and see what God is telling us here.

It begins by telling us that this is a great sign that is shown to us. That's
the first time that phrase is used in Revelation. And that shows us that this is
a picture, it's not a literal woman, it's a great sign.

It signifies something. So what does it signify? This is the one who's going to
defeat Satan.

What does it signify? Well, first of all, all of us think it must be Mary. But
as we walk through this chapter, because Mary is the one who gave birth to
Jesus, and here it talks about a woman who's pregnant, she's going to give
birth, and there's going to come a male child, that because of that child,
everything is going to change.

So as you and I read this, we think it must be Mary. But as we continue to walk
through, we're going to find out there's some things that happened with this
woman that actually happened after Mary would have died. They're outside of what
Mary was allowed to do.

So what is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of this picture of 12 stars
and a sun and a moon? The moon beneath the feet shows dominion, the stars above
the head show royalty.

What's going on here in these verses? When you read this, you think first that
it's Mary. But then you begin to think, no, there's a broader picture here of
how God's been at work all through history.

There are some people who think that instead of Mary, this is a picture of
Israel. You have the 12 stars, and you have the 12 sons of Israel. You have the
12 tribes of Israel.

This is the picture of the Old Testament saints. There are others who think that
this is a picture of the church. It's just the New Testament saints.

I happen to believe it's both. I think it's both Old and New Testament. I happen
to believe it is the people of God that are being talked about here, all the way
from the Old to the New Testament.

All of those who believed in Jesus before he died and trusted in what God was
saying he was going to do by being obedient to him in the sacrifices and all
that he asked them to do, and those who have trusted in Jesus Christ since he's
been born by looking back on the cross and saying yes to him. He died. And
through faith in him, you and I have this incredible relationship with him.

He is resurrected. And through our faith in him, we have this awesome life
that's only in him. This woman with the moon beneath her feet and the stars
around her head shows both dominion and royalty and the incredible unfolding of
God's plan.

God chose for himself a people in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, the
Jewish people. We today are the people of God, Jew and Gentile together as we
trust in Jesus Christ. God has still and is still choosing for himself a people.

The people that God chose for himself beginning in the Old Testament, is that
enough to defeat evil? The fact that God chose a people for himself, that he
showed him his word, that he showed him the way, that he gave them the law, that
he built them a tabernacle where they could go and worship, is that enough to
defeat evil in the world? No, it is not.

Is just us gathering as Christians in a fellowship of Christians, let's just say
we gather just as a good fellowship apart from real genuine faith in Jesus
Christ, trusting in what he could do. We trusted instead in our goodness and our
good works and in our good love for each other. Is that enough to defeat evil in
the world?

No, it is not. Because evil makes its way into God's people. The Old Testament.

The Old Testament saints had evil in their midst always. God would lead them out
of Egypt towards the promised land and they'd make a golden calf on the way
there and worship evil. He would lead them right to the edge of the promised
land and they'd become afraid of the giants and they'd do evil and not go into
the promised land.

During the time of the judges, the Bible says they did nothing but evil. And
when God gave them their own place, the nation of Israel, they had their own
king and they became one of the most powerful nations on earth. But they turned
away from God and they turned to false gods and they worshiped evil.

It's not just the Old Testament saints though. As you and I look at believers
today, apart from Jesus Christ, apart from following him, we do evil. We follow
our own whims, we follow our own ways and we've all seen what it means to be in
a church where we know that we struggle but we're looking together to his
forgiveness and we're trusting him and we're growing in faith.

But we've all also seen what it means to be a part of a church where we're
trusting in our goodness, the good works that we can do and what a horrible, sad
shadow that can become. You see, our good works, our good intentions, they are
not enough to defeat evil. Our good intentions plus talking about God, that's
not enough to defeat evil.

It's not enough just to be the people of God. We need more. And there is a third
character in this story, the most important character in this story, this
incredible story of good over evil.

By the way, it's not good versus evil. That might be our story if we were doing
it all on our own, but that is not our story as believers in Jesus Christ. If
you think that's the story, you've missed the point.

That's an Eastern mysticism way of thinking. Good versus evil. They're both
equally powerful and there's a battle going on and we're not sure what's going
to happen.

That is not the story of the Bible. The story of the Bible is good over evil. We
know that good is going to win out in the end and how do we know that?

Because in this story, there is not only this woman, this people of God, there
is a male child who is being born and the Bible says that he will rule with an
iron scepter. Now even if you don't know, Psalm 2 verse 9 is talking about Jesus
when it says he will rule over them with an iron rod. Even if you didn't know
that, you would recognize Jesus here.

Jesus went to a cross and he stretched out his hands and he let them pierce his
hands. He let them pierce his hands with nails and his feet with nails and his
blood flowed down. He gave his life for us.

Is that enough to defeat evil? Yes, it is. You better believe it is.

It is more than enough. The sacrifice that Jesus gave for you on the cross is
the only thing that is enough and it is more than enough to defeat the evil in
this world and it has already happened. This child has been born and Jesus has
given his life right there on the cross.

It is done. It is finished. Evil has already been defeated.

God will not be defeated. Evil is real but God will be victorious over evil in
the end. He has looked forward to that from the very beginning in creating a
people of God and calling a people of God and he's shown us that in the death of
Jesus Christ for us on the cross.

Let's take a minute and thank him. Thank you Jesus for your victory, for the
victory that it is finished, victory that was won on the cross. You finished
evil there.

Death, sorrow, pain, sin were all put aside because of what you did for us on
the cross and in eternity we will enjoy no more death, no more crying, no more
pain, no more sorrow nor any such thing because of what you did. Thank you.
Thank you for the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ.

Help me, help us not to try to make that victory ourselves. Help us to enjoy you
and what you've done for us in bringing the gift of that victory and we thank
you in Jesus' name, amen.