According to the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the defining
features of the last days will be the increase of wars and
rumors of wars. And we have already seen hints
of this in our study of the Book of Revelation.
And there will be more clashes to come.
But this afternoon we are approaching a passage that
describes a future conflict unlike any other.
It is unique because it is not a battle fought between human
beings, nor does it take place on the earth.
It is actually an altercation that happens in the heavenly
places and among angelic beings. Now, up to this point in
Revelation, John's visions of heaven are generally described
as places of rest, worship, unending bliss.
But for the first time in this book, we encounter a vision of
heaven that is fierce and riotous.
And the reason for this unusual commotion is given to us plainly
in Revelation chapter 12, beginning in verse 7.
And I invite you to go with me there in your Bibles as we read
it together. Here's what the word of God
says. Now war arose in heaven, Michael
and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was
defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in
heaven. And the great dragon was thrown
down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil, and Satan,
the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth,
and his angels were thrown down with him.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the
salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God and the
authority of his Christ have come.
For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who
accuses them day and night before our God, and they have
conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony. For they love not their lives
even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens,
and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea,
For the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he
knows that his time is short. Let's pray, Father, we believe
that this is your word, and we believe that you want us to
understand it, but we also believe that we cannot do it
without your help. And so we now, as your church,
your people, come to you in humility, asking for your
guidance. We pray that you protect this
message from any confusion, from any distraction and more than
this Lord, that you would empower it, that we would fall
more in love with your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ through it,
that we would be inspired to live for him with greater zeal
and intentionality. So Lord, guard our minds, open
our hearts, fuel our bodies, Even so that we can absorb all
these things to the glory of your name.
We ask these things and the living matchless name of Jesus
Christ, Amen. I believe the way that we can
make most, the most out of this tax is by capturing at least
four things, at least four things.
This is about a war. You heard it in the first few
words of the opening verse of this passage.
And so I want us to consider 4 elements of this war.
The first thing is the timing of it.
When does this war take place? Is it something of the past?
Is it something currently happening?
Is it something that will take place in the future?
The timing of this war? Following that, we want to look
at the outcome of this war, What happened as a result of this
clash. Thirdly, I want us to look at
the celebration of this war because there is victory in
heaven. There is this sense of triumph
and what is this celebration really all about?
That's what we'll look at. And lastly and very briefly, the
aftermath of this war. It took place in heaven, but
we're going to feel it on earth. So let's look at the timing of
this war. There are some who believe that
what is described here is an account of Satan's defeat at the
cross, that when Christ died and he rose and he ascended.
What we have here is just that, what we almost get, like an
insight into the spiritual element to what took place on
Calvary. Others say, no, this is more of
a replay of what took place at Satan's original fall from his
initial rebellion when he was removed from his exalted
position in heaven and was cast down.
And those who hold to those views would say, well, what you
have here is almost John rewinding the tape, so to speak,
so that we kind of get the back story on the demonic influence
that has been permeating the earth ever since the beginning
of time up until the end of time.
It's almost like a flashback, but I don't think that's very
convincing when you consider the context.
I think when you actually do a little bit of investigation,
you'll discover that what this war is about has not yet taken
place. It's something concerning the
future. I want to give you at least
three observations from the verses that we just read that
confirm that conclusion. I want you to look.
Notice how the summary of Satan's defeat is that he and
his angels were permanently expelled from heaven.
Do you see that? And there was no longer any
place for them in heaven. Why is that significant?
Because a careful student of the Bible will know that even after
Satan's original expulsion and eviction from heaven, he still
had access to the heavenly dwelling place of God.
I don't think there's any more clear of a passage to support
that then the book of Job in the opening chapter of that book
where we find Satan approaching God ready to accuse his servant
Job. And there's no way to to think
that Satan was not expelled in his original fall after that.
That was after his fall, and he still had the ability to
approach God in such a way. You have additional insights
into this, like Zechariah chapter 3, where Zechariah has a
vision of Satan accusing the nation of Israel before the
Angel of the Lord who is Christ. And So what the Bible shows us,
though it's limited in its evidence, is that Satan
alternates between roaming the earth to deceive and destroy and
coming before God. Coming before God to do what?
In his arrogance, in his, in his pride, trying to convince God to
actually turn on his children. And we'll examine examine this
further in the next point. But for now, we can establish
that this eviction from heaven in Revelation 12 proves that
it's an occurrence yet to be realized, since we know that
elsewhere in Scripture, Satan still has limited access to
heaven, but after this war, he'll no longer have access to
heaven. The second point to consider is
in the last verse we read in this section.
So go back to verse 12 and notice what it says in the
second part. This heavenly voice says, But
woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you
in great wrath because he knows that his time is short.
When you combine the the woe upon the earth and the brevity
of time that is mentioned, it makes the most sense when you
consider it in light of the context of the time frame of the
Book of Revelation. You know this already, but the
primary focus of this book is to tell us about what's to come,
the events leading up to the return of Christ, and how Christ
will, when wickedness and evil reaches A feverish pitch,
cleanse it all and conquer it once and for all.
And so it makes the most sense for this short time mentioned
here in Revelation after Satan's defeat in this war, to
correspond with everything else taking place in Revelation.
In other words, the shortness of time mentioned here deals with
that time, that tribulation period that will lead up to
Christ's coming and ruling and reigning.
So for those who think that this is something of the past, they
would look at this short time as a general description of the
span of history, which is very, very unlikely.
When you again look at the rest of the Book of Revelation, it's
more fitting to see it in this final moment of time.
And as Satan is now thrown down, he realizes my time is running
out. And if these points are not
convincing enough, I think this final observation will settle
any remaining doubts, though this war is over.
And what we just read the scene is not this.
This section doesn't end at verse 12.
It continues down in verse 13 all the way to verse 17.
And when you see what happens immediately following Satan
being cast down to the earth, you get a better understanding
of when this took place or when this will take place.
So let's peek quickly. We're going to look at this next
week. But look down at verse 13 and
verse 14 and Revelation 12. And when the dragon saw that he
had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who
had given birth to the male child.
But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that
she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place
where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a
time. So notice the sequence.
Satan is defeated. He's cast down to the earth.
And verse 13 says when the dragon saw that he'd been thrown
down to the earth, he does something.
He does something. What does he do?
He pursues the woman. Have we seen the woman before?
Yes. Who does she represent?
Israel. Very good.
So the enemy here is going to pursue Israel in a unique way.
Now, as we just heard, we've seen this woman before.
And even the the terminology here in these verses should
remind us of a verse that we read when we were together last
time in the Book of Revelation. But let's just refresh our
memories. Scroll back up to verse 6 of
Revelation 12. What does it say?
And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place
prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days.
So what this is all saying about this woman is that during the
tribulation period, Israel is going to experience a unique
time of persecution, the the most intense oppression she has
ever known. And so fierce it will be that
many of the Jews will actually flee into the wilderness, a
place that has been appointed by God and he will nourish and take
care of them for a specific duration of time.
That's what we see in verse 6. But then it's repeated in the
verses that we read in verse 13 down to verse 14.
So here's what this means. If we understand that after the
dragon is cast out of heaven, he will pursue Israel as she flees
into the wilderness for a specific duration of time, and
that duration of time is unique to the tribulation period.
What does that mean about this war?
It means that this heavenly war must take place during the
tribulation period. This is something that is
obvious. I hope it's clear to us.
I pray. And so this is a future war, and
this evidence shows us that it's not describing something of the
past. But why at this point then?
Why is this battle taking place here and now?
And there are many who theorize different ideas or different
proposals. I don't think we need to
theorize. I think there is a great clue in
the very verses we just read that links us to a possible
answer. Look at verse 10 again,
Revelation 12, verse 10, after Satan is thrown down, it says,
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. Do these words sound familiar to
us? They should they take us back to
the last thing we read before we looked at these visions in
Revelation chapter 12. In fact, that phrase, His Christ
only appears in one other place in all of Revelation.
Do you remember the announcement that was made when the 7th
trumpet blasted? In case you forgot, look at
verse 15 of Revelation 11. Then the 7th Angel blew his
trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The
Kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of
His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.
Remember, the 7th trumpet declares the inauguration of the
full manifestation of Christ's Kingdom.
This trumpet blast announces and prepares the world for the full
and complete expression of Christ's rule.
Why? Well, because the sealed
judgments are complete. And now the trumpet judgments
are complete and we only have one set of judgments left.
The bold judgments are going to pour out God's wrath.
And so in the 7th trumpet, this vision is about Christ is ready
to come. The Kingdom of our God, the
Kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ is ready to invade the
earth. And that celebration is
reiterated in this vision where after Satan is cast down from
heaven, they almost repeat that celebration.
Meaning what? I believe Satan and his demons
became aware of this announcement as it reverberated
in the spiritual realm that when that 7th trumpet was blasted,
even Satan and his demons understood what that meant.
So what does the evil one do? According to Revelation 12 and
his great pride and fury, he tries to stop it from happening.
And so he organizes an all out assault against heaven.
And this war breaks out, thinking that he can actually
put a stop to the purposes of God and of his Christ.
And so he confronts the Lord directly, but as always, he
fails and he is cast down. And the result of this war at
this point of the tribulation period is that the devil will
lose territory as a result. Which brings us to the second
point. We've considered the timing of
this war. It's going to happen in the
tribulation period very near to the actual return of Christ.
Satan is going to try to stop this from happening by engaging
in a face to face combat with God and his heavenly army.
He will fail. And what's the outcome point #2
of this war? Look back at verse 9 of
Revelation 12. And the great dragon was thrown
down, that ancient serpent who's called the devil and Satan,
deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth,
and his angels were thrown down with him.
What phrase stands out to you in this verse?
In this one verse, thrown down appears three times.
Other transitions say cast down. So this is what's being
highlighted. And why is it being emphasized
again? To show the embarrassing defeat
of the devil and to show how his activity from this point on will
be restricted to the earth. He'll be confined now to this
planet, whereas he had access to go to heaven and accuse the
brethren day and night. He will be barred from doing so
from this point on. And here's what many people
don't realize. Though Satan's defeat, his total
defeat, is certain, it is not immediate.
The Bible shows us that the devil's total defeat will take
place in stages. In fact, I want to show you how
there are actually 4 falls of Satan in the Bible. 4 falls of
Satan described to us in the Book of Revelation alone.
Would you like to know it? We don't have to go very far.
Go back to the beginning of Revelation 12, verse 3.
Let's look at this again. This is fall #1 we can call this
Satan's prehistoric fall, Satan's eviction from his
exalted position. You have to remember that
passages like Ezekiel and Isaiah give us a snippet of Satan's
fall, and both of those prophets actually give us an
understanding that Satan was one of the most highly exalted
heavenly creatures and he served a very, very important role.
But because of his pride and envy, wanting to be like God, he
was removed from that position of authority.
And it happened before creation. And I think Revelation 12 verse
3 and 4 mentions it briefly. Look again.
And another sign appeared in heaven.
Behold a great red dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his
heads 7 diadems. His tails swept down a third of
the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.
The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give
birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it.
So this picture of Satan like a dragon and his tails sweeping
1/3 of the stars, We've touched on this.
Those stars symbolize the angels.
He recruits a third of them. He deceives them to join them in
his cause and he's cast down through the earth.
That's fall number one at this point.
Yes, He is removed from His exalted position, but as we see
in Job and places like Zechariah, he can still access
heaven and accuse the brethren day and night.
I believe this fall is what Jesus alluded to in Luke chapter
10 verse 18 after sending out his disciples on a mini mission,
an evangelistic outreach and giving them power to heal the
sick and cast out devils. They come rejoicing saying even
in your name these, these demons submit and Jesus humbles them
and reminds them of his power, his authority by saying this in
Luke 1018. And he said to them, I saw Satan
fall like lightning from heaven. When did that take place?
I believe it took place in Satan's original prehistoric
fall. And don't miss the implications
of what Christ is saying here in Luke 1018.
Read your Bible slowly and chew. For Christ to claim that He was
present at the humiliating defeat of Satan, what does that
say about His nature? That He is pre-existing?
That He was there. That He eternally stood as the
Son of God and witnessed these events.
He was present even before the Incarnation, even before the
world was set into motion. Jesus, in this brief
declaration, is letting us know that He always was.
He always was. But more than that, this is a
statement describing the sheer power of God.
He says, I saw Satan fall like lightning.
You didn't see. I saw him fall like lightning in
the sense that he did become lightning.
That's not what he's saying at all.
He's giving a metaphor here. He's giving a picture that in
the same way lightning strikes the earth powerfully and
suddenly Satan's fall and his initial rebellion was just a
swift It was a flash. It's a blink of a moment.
It happened so quickly to again give us an understanding of just
how powerful our God is, the authority he has, and that
authority is proven over and over again when we look at the
next three falls. The second one is in the text
that we just read in the opening of this message that he was
thrown down in Revelation 12/9 to the earth and his angels were
thrown down with him. This is the second fall where
Satan no longer has access to heaven.
What's the third one? Go to Revelation 20.
This is Satan's fall into the abyss.
Revelation 20, verse one, John writes.
Then I saw an Angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand
the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
Pause for a moment. What's happening here in
Revelation 20? Well, Christ came back in
Revelation 19, So what we're reading now is a description of
some of the first orders that Christ will make upon His bodily
return to the earth when He sets up His Kingdom.
This is one of the first things he will do.
Verse 2 And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the
devil and Satan, and bound him for 1000 years and threw him
into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he
might not deceive the nation's any longer until the thousand
years were ended. After that he must be released
for a little while. So the 3rd fall of Satan is his
fall into the abyss. This will take place at the
beginning of the millennial reign of Christ that after
Christ returns, he's going to see Satan and he's going to
throw them into this pit and conceal it for 1000 years so
that while Christ rules and reigns on the earth, Satan will
not be able to deceive the nation's.
Can you imagine a world like that?
No perverted entertainment, no lies from governments at least
as prevalent. Doesn't mean that the world's
going to be absolutely perfect, but there is going to be a
greater sense of holiness and integrity while Satan is removed
from the scene and Christ dominates the world.
And then at the end of that, he's going to release Satan for
a little while, giving that generation a final chance to
either pledge your allegiance to Christ or to rebel against them.
And there will be some who will still rebel against them either,
even after witnessing Christ, enjoying his government, seeing
what what it looks like when Christ is King, people will
still choose to deny him. But that's just the 3rd fall.
Then we have to consider the 4th and the final one, and that's in
the same chapter. So after Satan is released for a
little while, he'll recruit the nation's to war against Christ.
And he still hasn't learned his lesson.
He's going to lose. And when he does lose, read here
with me Revelation 20, verse 9. And they marched up over the
broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the
Saints in the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven
and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived
them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur with her beast.
The beast and the false prophet were.
And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
Satan's final descent, his final fall, will be into hell, into
hell itself. So here are the four falls of
Satan. Why do I bring this to your
attention? To show how God alone determines
the boundaries of Satan, how God is the one who determines his
influence and the reach of his activity.
That at any time he can evict the evil 1 he can silence him,
he can restrain him, he can punish him, and he has no
ability to resist God. Satan is not on the same level
as God. He's far more inferior and he is
subject to his sovereignty. And this insight into God's
unstoppable force and decree is a cause for our celebration.
We should rejoice. This is the God that we serve,
and it reveals much of the triumph that we get to share in
because of our faith in Jesus Christ.
Which brings us to our Third Point, the celebration of this
war. Look again in Revelation 12,
verse 10, 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.
For the accuser of our brother brothers has been thrown down.
Who accuses them day and night before our God so soon as Satan
is thrown down. Remember now we're back to the
second fall of Satan. This loud voice breaks out and
declares the triumph of this moment.
And what does he what does he say?
What's the statement that highlights the significance of
this victory? That the authority of his Christ
has come, it's here, it has arrived.
Now we know that it's not actually here.
Christ is still going to do a few more things before he
physically returns. But I think the reason why it's
being celebrated here is because we are closer than ever that
after Satan is removed, cleared out of the way so to speak, they
can rejoice in knowing that there is an update to the
arrival and the return of Christ.
You see, it's as though Satan's removed from the heavenly realm
signals a major shift in the preparation for Christ's return.
He's now been confined, both him and his demons to the earth.
He will not be able to interfere in that heavenly realm as Christ
now is ready to make his way to this earth.
But that celebration doesn't end here.
In verse 11, this voice reminds us that Satan's defeat is
something that took place long before this.
We're not just seeing it play out, but there is something that
happened that sealed his defeat and actually shows us why we are
conquerors today over him. What does he say?
And they have conquered him. Verse 11, Who are the day?
The ones that Satan accuses day and night, That's us.
And in verse 11, this voice says they have conquered him with two
main weapons by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony. So why can we say that even now
Satan has been conquered, that how can we even claim that this
ancient serpent, this grey dragon, this deceiver, the whole
world is defeated at this very moment while we're having
church? Well, the first reason because
the blood of the Lamb by the blood of the Lamb.
Here's what we learned so far. Satan's primary attack, I mean
we we saw it earlier, is to actually approach the presence
of God on a continual basis and attempt to persuade him to
change his mind about us to to resurface our sins, to show God
our failures, to show us just how weak we are, how unfaithful
we are with the idea that perhaps God will change his
mind. This is what he occupies himself
with, and he does so as we see here, day and night.
But this verse also teaches us that there is one thing, one
thing that God sees worthy enough to silence Satan, no
matter how many times he comes before God, no matter how
persuasive his argument and his charges are.
And it is the blood of the Lamb, nothing else.
The only hope you and I have in overcoming Satan's charges is
what Christ has done. And understanding and applying
our faith to that reality and realizing that that payment has
now been transmitted to my account.
That is the only thing that silence is the evil. 1 And the
moment you and I put our faith in that truth, that Christ's
death on my behalf wins my righteousness forever and ever.
Satan's voice over your life in the presence of God is muted.
It's muted. He's speaking to nothing.
It's a waste of his time. He smears our name.
He highlights our failures. But according to this verse, in
other places, the blood of Christ speaks a better word over
you always. And this, by the way, teaches us
how to do warfare. When Satan accuses you about
you, he doesn't just accuse God or accuse us before God.
He accuses you about you. He assaults your conscience.
He whispers lies. He reminds you of your past.
What do you do in those moments? Take your hint from this verse.
Don't rehearse your obedience. Don't revisit your
righteousness. Don't tell yourself how
committed you are to the church and to ministry and your charity
and your deeds. Cling to the blood.
Always listen. The greater your understanding
of the power of the blood, the sufficiency of the blood, the
efficacy of the blood, the more you will be able to silence
Satan when he accuses you. As that one hymn says, though,
the restless foe accuses sins, recounting like a flood.
Every charge our God refuses, Christ has answered with His
blood. But that's not the only weapon
mentioned here. We also read that it was through
the word of their testimony. Now, what does that mean?
There are a lot of ideas shared about it, but I think it
connects to the first point. It's built on the first reality,
the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
It's one thing to know intellectually that Jesus Christ
shed his blood 2000 years ago. It's a whole other thing when
you have a testimony about how it's changed you.
What has that blood done for you?
How has it transformed you? What is your history?
What is your story connected to this truth of what Christ has
done on that cross? And it's that public testimony
from a personal realization of what Christ has done that
delivers us and transforms us, that enables us to gain victory
over him. And you know that you have truly
tasted this gospel and what it has to offer when you're willing
to die for it if need be, that it's more precious to you than
your life itself. And that's why later in
Revelation 11, it says, for they love not their lives, even unto
death. If one of the greatest threats
that Satan can present anybody is death, I will kill you.
I will destroy you. Doesn't have any bearing any way
to it, because you love this gospel more than your life.
Then what does he have against you?
Nothing really. If you're willing to die for
this truth, then what can he really throw against you?
What can He intimidate you with if death itself, does that have
that same fear factor that it once did when you were not in
Christ? So the blood of the Lamb and
your personal testimony, connection to that truth enables
us to conquer Satan. And as we heard earlier, there
are 4 falls of Satan that but the Bible speaks of something
unique. You can almost say that there
are 5, but it's different from the four other ones that we saw.
The four ones that we saw speak of His actual descent, His
physical limitations until His total annihilation, so to speak.
But Jesus speaks of another casting out that took place some
time ago. Listen to these words from John
chapter 12, verse 31. In John 12/31, when Jesus is
speaking about His ministry at the cross, he mentions the
following. Now is the judgement of this
world. Now will the ruler of this world
be cast out? And I, when I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all people to myself.
Similar language, right? The ruler of this world will be
cast out. One of the consequences of
Christ victorious death on the cross is that the ruler of this
world will be cast out. It speaks of a decisive moment
of his defeat. But where is it going to be cast
out too? We already saw that he was
removed from his position, that he'll be removed from heaven and
access to heaven, and then he'll be confined to the abyss and
then thrown into hell to be tormented.
So what does Jesus mean here when he says that the rule of
this will be cast out? I don't.
I don't think it speaks about anything physical necessarily.
It speaks about Satan losing a level of power and authority,
especially for those who have put their faith in Christ.
He will be cast out in the sense that his arguments against you
will be relinquished. His access to you will be
limited. All these protective graces are
now inherited by the one who understands what Christ has done
on the cross and applies their repentance and faith to that
truth. Satan, to some degrees cast out
from that believer's life, and that's why we can say, according
to Revelation, that he is conquered.
For the one who understands what that blood did and has a
personal testimony about it, this is the celebration of this
victory. But we consider now the
aftermath of this war. The aftermath of this war is
found in verse 12 of chapter 12 of Revelation.
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, but
woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you
in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short.
So this battle, it's, it's fought in heavenly places, but
it will be felt on the earth during the tribulation period.
Aware of greater limitations placed on him, Satan will be so
enraged that he will vent his anger and he will vehemently
seek to do all that he can to bring destruction to all that
represents God on the earth. He will harass humanity on new
levels. He will ramp up his schemes and
his viciousness with a stronger awareness more than ever that
Christ receiving His Kingdom is just around the corner.
And we're going to see one of the things that he is going to
do next week. But for now, let's just
celebrate the fact that we have conquered and we have these
emblems to help us taste and see that reality.
And so I wonder today if you are confident that you've conquered
this ancient serpent, which is a reference to his activity from
Genesis 3, this great dragon, how he will show up in
Revelation in that tribulation period.
I wonder if you can say with absolute certainty, I have no
reason to fear him. I have no reason to fear his
threats. Even if he wants to kill me
because I have a story, I'm saved, I'm delivered, I belong
to Christ. All my sins have been washed
clean. And I'm so certain of the power
of this blood that I can sleep so sweetly at night, even though
Satan stays up all night trying to convince God otherwise.
And I'm growing in my confidence in the power of this blood, that
when I'm driving or when I'm laying in bed or when I'm out
and about and all of a sudden I just feel this guilt and shame
come over me. I rehearse the power of the
blood. I remind myself that God's not
looking anything from me except that blood being applied.
You can know that today. If you can't, if you can't say
with absolute assurance that you have made a conscious decision
of putting your faith in that truth.
Just reserve yourself from partaking in this.
This is for those who know that they've been saved by grace and
believer. Because of this good news, we
have to walk in light in light of it and in line with it.
So if your heart is astray, if your heart is dull, if if you're
living in conscience, unrepentance and repent of it,
get rid of it and prepare yourself to partake into
fellowship with the Lord in this ordinance.
So let's pray, then we'll sing, and then we'll meet together at
this table. Shall we do that?
Thank you, Lord, for this message.
Thank you for showing us the play by play of your total
victory. And thank you, Lord, that this
victory is absolutely certain because of the blood of the
Lamb. Thank you for redeeming us,
though we deserve to be condemned.
Thank you for cleaning us, though we were so filthy.
And Lord, we've come now as your church to declare that it is by
grace alone to declare that it is what you have done in that
body, on that tree, on our behalf that gives us this
victory. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Why don't we stand? Let's stand and worship.