The Two Wonders

0:00Little country church on the edge of town. Do do do do do do. People come on every day from miles around. For meetings and for Sunday school. And it's very plain to see. It's not the way it used to be. Welcome to the word for today featuring the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement. This radio program is a chapter by chapter verse by verse study through the entire Bible. And on today's edition of the word for today, Pastor Chuck continues his message, the two wonders, as we pick up in Revelation chapter 12 verse 4. And now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck. The two wonders. The woman Israel ready to bring forth the Messiah, the Christ.

1:03Satan ready to destroy it as soon as it was born. You remember Herod when the wise man came to him and inquired where the king was to be born. Herod inquired of the prophets or of the Bible teachers. They said Bethlehem. And so Herod directed them to Bethlehem. But he said, when you have found the child, come back and tell me about it so I can come and worship him also. Herod was paranoid. He was fearful that someone was going to take his throne. He killed his wife. He killed his sons. In fact, they used to say it's safer to be Herod's pig than it is to be his son. He was always paranoid. He felt people were plotting, trying to take his throne. And so when he heard that the king had been born, he was threatened. And so he asked the wise man to come back and tell me, but he was intending to go and kill

2:04the child. And when the wise man didn't come back, he then ordered that all of the baby boys in Bethlehem area be killed two years and under. The dragon there ready to devour the child as soon as it was born. Now here an interesting thing was Satan. The stars of heaven, the stars are often, angels are often referred to as stars. And this would indicate that when Satan rebelled, a third of the angels rebelled with him. That is why I believe that there were probably three angels created in the highest order of angelic being called the archangels. They were of the cherubim, class of angels, but three specials. And that was Gabriel, Lucifer, and Michael. And that they each probably had under their authority a third of the angelic host. And those that were under Lucifer's authority, when he rebelled against God, joined in his

3:05rebellion with his tail. He drew a third part of the stars of heaven. Now when this happened, we don't know. Where in prehistory this took place, we don't know. Before the world existed, no doubt this rebellion took place of these angels. Prior to his rebellion, Satan was a perfect model. Ezekiel said he was perfect and wisdom perfect and beauty perfect in all of his ways until the day the deniquity was found in him. Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 14 tells us that pride filled his heart. He said, I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven. I will sit in the congregation in the sides of the North. I will ascend above the clouds. I will be like the most high. I'll be like God. And yet, art thou cast down. There will be a time when you will actually see Satan one day and you'll be amazed.

4:07You'll say, is that the critter that caused his so much trouble? Ezekiel 14 tells us that. So there appeared this other wonder in heaven, this red dragon, the seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns upon his head. We are reminded of the descriptions of the Antichrist who is the embodiment of Satan. His tail drawing a third part of the stars. She brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rot of iron when Jesus comes to establish his reign in kingdom. He'll rule the world with a rot of iron and her child was caught up on to God and to his throne. And that's where he is right now. Jesus has been caught up into heaven. He ascended into heaven, Luke records it in his gospel as do other gospels.

5:07And he is there now sitting on his throne waiting for the Father to put all things in subjection under him. So the woman brought forth the child. He was caught up to God and to his throne. Now we move into the future, the woman fled into the wilderness where she had the place prepared of God that they should feed her for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days. They asked Jesus what will be the sign of your coming, the end of the world. And Jesus began to give them the signs of his coming and of the end of the world. Then he said, now when you see the abomination that was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, the abomination of desolation, then flee to the wilderness. If you're on your house top, don't even bother to get your coat going through. Get out of there as great as you can. If you're on the field, don't even go home. Split.

6:07Get down to the wilderness. The abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, what is it? When the temple is rebuilt and that worship reestablished, after three and a half years, or three and a half years into the seven-year cycle, in the midst of the seven-year cycle, not three and a half years after the temple has been built and worship reestablished. That will happen. It may be just a very short time after worship has established. It could be able to take them three years to build it. The Antichrist will come to Jerusalem and he will go into the holy of holies of this rebuilt temple and there he will proclaim that he is God and he will demand that they worship him as God. This is the abomination of desolation that Daniel speaks about. Now, Jesus said, when you see this abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,

7:09standing in the holy place that him who reads understands. That's what it's all about. The Antichrist coming to the temple, stopping the worship, standing in the holy of holies, proclaiming himself to be God. At that point, Jesus said, flee. Don't stop for anything. Get out of there. So the woman flees to the wilderness that she should be taken care of, the place prepared of God that they should feed her for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days or through the last three and a half years of the seven-year cycle. Now, this wilderness place is probably the rock city of Petra, south and east of the Dead Sea. For an Isaiah the 16th chapter, God says to Moab, which is present-day Jordan, open up your borders and receive my people. Shelter them in Petra until the tribulation is complete.

8:15So until the indignation be overpassed, indignation is the Old Testament word for the Great Tribulation. So they'll flee to the rock city of Petra where God will take care of them for three and a half years. Now, well, how could God take care of them there? Well, He took care of them for forty years in the wilderness before. Fed a manna, He could feed a manna again. I mean, God is not feeding people. He lied to you with ravens. Ravens brought his food. So God will take care of them for three and a half years. No, there was then more in heaven. And Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels. So you see, the dragon also has angels, the third part. So he has a great force of angels. And he prevailed not. That is, or they prevailed not, the dragon and his angels.

9:16Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. Now, at the present time, Satan does have access to heaven. And he goes up there just to harass us before God. Look at that. Followed down there. It's supposed to be your servant. Did you see what he did last me? No good, you know. He was saying, you before God, what a rascal. We have a picture of it in the book of Job. The sons of God were presenting themselves to God and Satan also came with him and God said to Satan, hey, where you been? I've been going up and down throughout the earth to him, fro through it. Oh, hey, have you seen my servant Job? Consider my servant Job. He's a good man. Loves me, hates evil. Perfect, isn't he? I've seen that character. And I've also seen how you blessed him. Man, you've given that guy everything anybody could want. Hey, who wouldn't serve you?

10:19You know, when you're blessed like that, you'll be a fool not to serve you. Let me take away those things that you've given him. He'll curse you to your face. Cusing Job of being a mercenary, serving God for the prophet. God said, all right, go ahead. Don't touch him. It's strip him if you want. So Satan began to strip Job until he wiped him out completely, financially, totally wiped out. And Job fell on his face and worshiped God and said, hey, I came into the world naked. Look, as I come going out naked, you know, the Lord has given the Lord has taken away blessed to be the lame of the Lord. And all these things, Job did not curse God and the car charged God foolishly. So the sons of God again, representing themselves to God, Satan came with him and God said, hey, wherever you've been is all been going around your up and down to him for all through it. Hey, consider my servant, Job. Good man. In spite of all that you did, he maintained his integrity.

11:19Oh, yeah, but you wouldn't let me touch him. Let me touch him. Skin for skin, all a man has will he get for his life, you know. God said, all right, you can afflict him, but don't kill him. Elimitations, God placed upon him. God was afflicted with boils covered, had the lion the ashes. His wife saw his miserable condition and said, honey, why don't you just curse God and die? I mean, horrible. His friends came. They couldn't understand his plight. They began to accuse him, falsely of all kinds of secret sins. But Satan, you see, was accusing the brethren. That's what he's doing up there. He does have access in heaven. Here, shortly, he's going to get kicked up. Michael and his angels are going to fight against him. Going to prevail against him. And he's going to be cast out that old serpent called the devil in Satan, which deceived the whole world.

12:23And what a deceiver he is. Now, because man does not want the truth, God allows men to be deceived. God allows deception. You don't want to believe the truth and don't. God allows you to believe some crazy hair brain tail. You don't really want to believe God created the earth. You don't want to believe God created you. You don't want to believe that God designed your eyes in such a glorious way, the optic nerves, and the whole system of sight. You don't want to believe that that's a creation. All right, then believe a wild yarn that a worm coming out of the ooze got burned on the forehead with a sun. It wasn't really a forehead then, just the upper part of the anatomy. Formed a freckle, mutations, and over the process of millions of years this freckle firmed

13:28into an eye with all of the intricate aspects of an eye, the nerves, transmitting the message, the vibrations into the brain, able to interpret it in the movements or marvelous, yarn, story that deluded men called scientists believe. Let me tell that to your kids, they won't believe it. So a person doesn't want to believe the truth, God, let's believe a lie as preposterous as a lie may be. Because they worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who has blessed forever more, God gave them over to reprobate minds. They believe the lie rather than the true. You don't want to retain God in your mind. God will give you over to a reprobate mind. You don't want to believe the truth, God will let you believe a lie. We read that the Antichrist is going to bring a strong delusion on the people, that those

14:35who did not want to believe the truth will believe the great lie of the Antichrist. Jesus said, I came in my father's name, you didn't receive me. Another one is going to come in his own name, him you will receive. You don't want to receive the truth, then you'll receive the lie. The deceiver who has deceived the world, make sure you haven't been deceived by Satan. Boy, check out and make sure that Satan hasn't deceived you in turning you away from God and the truth and the love of God that he has for you in Christ. He was cast out into the earth, his angels were cast out with him and heaven now being rid of this creature. I heard a lot of voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and

15:41night, continually accusing us. But they overcame him. The brethren being accused by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they love not their lives unto the dead. So we have victory over Satan through the blood of Jesus Christ, the fact that we've been redeemed, purchased. I am a deader, Paul said, not to live any longer after the flesh, not to the flesh to live after it, but to the Spirit. Know you're not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you. You've been bought with a price therefore glorified God in your body and your spirit which are his. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price. The old nature, the old life was worthless. It's dead. We count it dead. We reckon it to be dead that we might live this new life after Christ in the Spirit. Our testimony is that of redemption through the blood of Jesus, the new life, the new nature

16:43that we have in him. So redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, the testimony of that redemption we overcome. Satan. Therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them. Satan's been cast out. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea. For the devil has come down unto you having great wrath because he knows he has but a short time. In just about three and a half years he's going to get chained and placed in the abusso. So he's angry, he's upset, he's been defeated and he's going to take it out upon those that live upon the earth at that time. Now when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman or Israel. So Israel again is going to be facing a time of persecution. These people who have gone through historically such tremendous persecution, the inquisition

17:49in Spain, the slaughter by Hitler, the persecution in Russia. These people have had such a tremendous share of persecution. There are people who hate them that don't even know why they hate them. Antisemitism is an evil wicked thing but it is so prevalent. The tragedy is that they have yet more persecution to go through. Satan is going to seek to persecute the woman which brought forth the man child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she is nourished for time, times and a half of a time. Time is a year, times two years, half time would be of course a half a year, so three and a half years, 1,260 days from the face of the serpent.

18:50Now the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, that is an army after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood and the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. So the army that pursues after Israel will be destroyed as the earth opens up. During the time of Moses when Korah came and said, Hey, you've taken too much on yourself, making your brother, you know, the one who offers sacrifices. We're Levites. We have just as much right as does Aaron. And Moses took the rods and set them before the Lord and then the next day after Aaron's rotted, but it said, OK, Korah, you and your buddies stand out there. God's in this thing. Let the earth open up and swallow you guys whole right down into the pit. And the earth opened up and Korah and his buddies went on down. So here again, the earth will open up actually this great rift of which they call the Jordan valley

19:52of which the Dead Sea is a part and of course the city of Petra is there on the other side. This great rift they believe was caused by a tremendous earthquake seismic movement and all. And of course, it's the greatest rift in the world. The Dead Sea is 1,300 feet below sea level. And it's called the Great African Rift. It goes from Syria down into Africa. And so it is a place of historic cataclysmic earthquakes and fire and brimstone that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And so again, even his Mount St. Helens laid dormant for 137 years and then suddenly popped this area. Can I just open up? Close up again in the army that is pursuing Israel would be swallowed. The dragon was angry with the woman and he went to make war with a remnant of her seed which kept the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

20:54And so chapter 13 or chapter 12 deals with these interesting little vignettes into aspects of the past and future. As we get into chapter 13 next, we get into the anti-Christ and we'll get some historic background on him as we take a look at this man who I believe to be alive on the world today. And I believe that he's about ready to take over and the only thing that's keeping him from taking over is the presence of the church. But I believe that the earth is ready for him, ready to receive him and that he is ready to establish his kingdom, his reign over the earth and that he probably is already involved in world politics. I don't know who he is. I'm not going to even guess who he is. But I do believe that we are at that time where he does exist and probably actively involved

21:57in world politics and we'll be taking over as soon as the church is gone. As a reason the book of Romans has been called, the gospel according to grace. Written by the Apostle Paul, Romans unveils one of the most life-changing truths in Scripture. God's grace is a free gift given to save the lost. Paul writes in Romans chapter 3 verses 23 and 24 for all of sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And that's the heartbeat of this powerful resource that gospel according to grace. Within his pages you'll discover how God's grace is revealed through the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Clear, compelling and deeply rooted in Scripture, the gospel according to grace brings the truths of Romans to life, showing you the abounding love God has for mankind and the transforming power of being truly born again. Order your copy today at twft.com or call 1-800-272-9673. That's 1-800-272-word.

23:00The gospel according to grace, discover the power that changed Paul and can change you. Now, here's Pastor Chuck. May the Lord be with you and give you a beautiful week. May you enjoy His presence and His fellowship as you walk with Him. In the spirit of God, give you strength and power in your inner man. May he help you to begin to comprehend how much God does love you, how much God cares for each one of you. May you come into a new rich love relationship with Jesus Christ where your heart burns, with passion for Him and for the things of the Spirit. May you be enriched in His fullness. May the Lord watch over and keep you in Jesus' name.

24:04We'll return with more of our verse by verse Bible study in the book of Revelation on our next broadcast as Pastor Chuck continues to teach through the Bible and we do hope you'll make plans to join us. This message has been provided to you by the generous supporters of the word for today. For additional information about how you can support this ministry, please visit us online at thewordfortoday.org. There you'll find free message downloads from Pastor Chuck as well as links to our podcast and other resources to help you grow in your Christian walk. You can also call us at 1-800-272-9673 or you can order a physical copy of today's message by mentioning today's date. Again, that phone number is 1-800-272-9673. Our office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time. If you prefer to write, our mailing address is PO Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California 92628. Join us again next time as Pastor Chuck continues his verse by verse study through the Bible.

25:08That's right here on the next edition of the word for today. This program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, California.