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Newington Three Angels Church

Eric Walsh

Beware the Angel of Light

So, our scripture reading is read so wonderful again today.

Second Corinthians 11, 14 says, "'And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed "'into an angel of light.'" No marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

No marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, Beware the Angel of Light.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Lord, if we ever needed you before, we sure do need you now.

I am asking today in a very special way, Lord, that you pour out upon this place your Holy Spirit in double and triple portion.

I ask, Lord, that he, the Holy Spirit, lead us in this study as he leads us into all truth.

Lord, by the power of the blood of the Lamb, I request now that you bind the devil, bind the demons, drive them from this place, meaning Lord, that you drive their influence from off of every heart and mind.

Lord, today we see and hear clearly your word and understand fully what is at stake.

Hang a portrait of your son Jesus Christ there.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

We're gonna start in the book of Revelation, the 12th chapter.

He's going to be on sabbatical for a few weeks, so not next week, but the week after.

I'll preach 3 weeks in a row, and we're going to do a series on the sanctuary and its modern day applications.

Revelation 12 and verse 1 says, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars.

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns upon his heads.

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and it cast them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne.

And the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand 203 score days.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.

The dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not.

Neither was there place found anymore in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has 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 night.

Verse 11, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death.

Verse 12 says, Therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them.

Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knows He has but a short time.

The sobering words, the first 12 verses of the 12th chapter of the book of Revelations.

Here is described for us the backstory of the great controversy, that which we cannot see up front.

Here is described for us what is going on in the spiritual realm.

We are deceived daily because we go through life not realizing that we are in the middle of a brutal and bloody battlefield.

Many of us think that life just happens and we go on about our way but we don't realize that there are demons fighting non-stop and daily to secure your soul for the enemy of Christ.

And at the same time, Christ has his angels who are watching you and guiding you and protecting you, the Holy Spirit that is leaning on you and whispering in your ear.

Every day the world is a battlefield and here's the secret, each 1 of us is a battleground.

The world would want you to think that all that matters is what you can touch and feel.

The spirit of prophecy tells us that if the veil were removed and we could see into the spiritual realm and we would see the battles that go on daily over each 1 of our souls.

The spirit of prophecy tells us that some of us, maybe all of us, would not come out of our houses.

Some of us wouldn't come out from under the bed.

You are in the middle of a battle and what the devil wants you to do is to think there's no fight going on.

He wants you to think that you are safe in material acumen or in academic success.

He wants you to think that because you have the family you want or because you've achieved what you wanted to in life that somehow all is safe.

But let me tell you, the secret to winning war is deceiving the enemy.

When Satan was cast out of heaven, he lost paradise.

Can you imagine what it would have been like for him?

As we're going to talk in depth about our enemy today a bit.

The Bible says that God is a flaming fire.

That they walk among the stones of fire in heaven.

He was revered and looked up to by all the other angels and 1 day he is cast out.

I'm gonna go back to Revelation 12 and give you some more detail into these verses.

Because I think a lot of us could use the reminder.

The first 2 verses says, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars.

Verse 2 says that she was with child, travailing in birth and paying to be delivered.

Let's get to the meaning so that we can build on this.

Number 1 is the word wonder which is the Greek word semion which means a sign portending future or forthcoming events.

When John sees this vision it is telling him that something's gonna happen.

In fact, the book of Revelation could be split in parts.

The last part of it is from chapter 12 on.

This is now beginning to foretell, to give you what's going on.

A woman in the Bible represents a body of believers.

In this case, this woman represents true believers, not just in the New Testament, but also in the Old Testament.

If you read Acts 7 and verse 38, the congregation of Israel in the Old Testament is there referred to by the writer Luke as a church.

So it's showing you Old and New Testament at the same time.

Because when the woman steps on the scene, she is about to give birth, which gives you the time in which this story happens.

It is the time of the birth of the Messiah, amen?

Which means it is the time when the Roman Empire, the pagan Roman Empire, ruled the world.

Here, the church, in frailty, Barely standing by the time Jesus is born.

You remember that the church had been weakened in 400 years there had not been 1 prophet in Israel This is why the Bible says in the fullness of time God sent his son born of a woman The world itself was pregnant.

Wickedness and evil had so overtaken the planet that the spirit of prophecy tells us it was almost the point where light was going to be shut out on the planet completely.

If you go back to the book of Malachi, he says, but unto you that fear my name shall the son of what?

Righteousness arise with healing in his wings.

The scripture says that the woman wears the sun.

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Beware the Angel of Light

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