How They Conquered The Dragon

HOW THEY CONQUERED THE DRAGON

Rev. 12:7-11

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A husband said to his wife, “I’m not sure ‘you can’t take it with you.’ I’m going to put a few thousand dollars in the attic and when we go up, we can pick it up on our way to heaven.”

2. Sometime later the husband died. After the funeral when everyone had left the wife alone at the house, she went up to the attic to see how her husband’s plan had worked.

3. The money was still there. As she went back downstairs, she thought, “Maybe he should have put the money in the basement!”

B. TEXT

7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they 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. Rev. 12:7-11 NIV1984

C. THESIS

1. Verse 7 begins to tell us of a great conflict – not only in the heavens, but on earth. How long this struggle has persisted it does not say. (It was going on in Daniel’s time, 10:13).

2. I think it still continues in Heaven, because it still does on earth. But we hear a cry in verse 10 that heralds the time when the devil is ejected forever from Heaven (probably middle of the Great Tribulation).

3. All the saints in Heaven shout and a song is sung telling how the saints overcame (11). Notice the 3 things about those who overcame pointed out in the passage:

I. ALL OF HEAVEN’S SAINTS ARE WARRIORS

A. UNREALISTIC VIEW OF “SAINTS”

1. We put the people in the Bible on a pedestal, as if they were different from us, or were endowed with graces we don’t have.

2. We’re kind of like the medieval artists who painted halos around their heads. But in truth they had no halos, and they had trouble, grief, and sadness just like we do.

B. ALL SAINTS ATTACKED BY SATAN

1. How could there be victory without a battle? Sometimes your temptations or circumstances threaten to pull you under. Your sorrows engulf you like an ocean. Your fears may push you to the brink of mental stability. Your thoughts seem oppressive and impure.

2. Paul calls these, ‘fiery darts of the evil one.’ You are not alone! 1 Cor. 10:13.

3. If you could examine the heavenly victors you would find them all covered with scars. None of them had an easy road, or took their thrones unchallenged.; neither will you conquer without conflict.

C. ALL HAD TO RESIST THE EVIL ONE

1. No matter how great our temptation, our resistance must be greater. Everyone is tempted, even the worst of criminals. But to RESIST temptation is the mark of the child of God.

2. A Poet once wrote:

“Once they were mourning here below,

And wet their couch with tears,

They wrestled hard as we do now,

With sins, and doubts, and fears.”

3. Be assured, dear friends, that sin will never be conquered without resistance. “Wherever sin abounds, grace does much more abound” Rom. 5:20. With God’s help, we can and must put sin down.

D. ALL THOSE IN HEAVEN OVERCAME

1. Heaven is not for fighters, but overcomers! It’s not enough simply to resist sin, you must overcome it. If sin is habitually our master, we’re not in Christ, for “Sin shall not have dominion over you” Rom. 6:14.

2. The common cry of the saints is, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7:24. But this is followed with the note of victory, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” vs. 25.

3. If today I have been able to overcome some besetting sin, before an hour is over, there will probably be another to conquer. Seven times in Rev. 2 & 3 Jesus made promises to the overcomers. HE EXPECTS US TO OVERCOME!

E. ALL REJOICED – victory was sweet!

F. ARE YOU RESISTING? CONQUERING?

1. Does the life of God in you get the upper hand? Victory over sin is not the luxury of preachers and prayer warriors. Holiness is not just for the few – it’s a necessity for all saints!