Rev 12:10+11, 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 brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.” And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. 
	This morning, we come to a passage that is of immense magnitude and substance in the living reality of the fulfilled plan and purpose of God in Jesus Christ. We are at the pinnacle of all that is required for the achievement of God’s heart of love in the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son. Please forgive me if we are focused on this passage for a number of weeks because of its tremendous consequence and significance. It contains the glorious truth that is the bedrock of all that we have discussed to this point. As such, it must not be dealt with in anything other than awe and wonder and worship unto God. Of a matter of fact, this is true of every passage of scripture since it is all the Word of God. The splendor of this present text is that it shows two incredible truths about Jesus Christ. We see Him as the Triumphant Victor and we see Him as the Lamb of God. Both of these views encompass the surety of our faith and belief which are evidenced in our testimony of His Salvation and Lordship for all of creation to behold.
	"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 brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.” This is the declaration of the reason that we can face all things that come into our lives with a confident assurance in the power of God to see us through. Christ is the Victor. We stand in His triumph against all odds, against all threats, against all the raging forces that shatter themselves in futility, crushed by the strength of His might. All the conviction and certainty of our salvation rests in the fact that He is the Conqueror, the established Lord of all creation. His very presence in our lives is our guarantee of victory as heralded in this morning’s passage.
	The prophet Isaiah saw this clearly in Isa 53:10-12. But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors. 
This was a vision of the hope to come. The people were encouraged to look forward to the salvation that was to be theirs in the Christ. They put their trust into this Messianic promise, and by it received their salvation. We are saved by virtue of the fact that we can now celebrate, not that which is to come, but that which has already been established. We do not have to wait for a future deliverance. We are already the possessors of all that the mighty Hand of God ordained for Jesus Christ to accomplish. 
	Even though this promise was for the Children of Israel, God had so much more in store, in Christ, for the Gentile nations. His salvation is not just reserved to those who were God’s by birth. It is freely and fully open to all the nations, to any who will call upon the name of Jesus Christ and live. Matt 12:18-21, "Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. "He will not quarrel, nor cry out; Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. "A battered reed He will not break off, And a smoldering wick He will not put out, Until He leads justice to victory. "And in His name the Gentiles will hope." 
The hope that is ours is because His victory is so final and so all-inclusive, and so powerful that it pulled in all the inhabitants of the world that would receive this free gift of God’s love. Christ’s death and resurrection so fully devastated the powers that were arrayed against Him that the door to the heart of God was flung fully open to the gathering of all the nations and tribes and tongues of this earth. Ours is not a weak and mournful hope for something. It is an assured and established bond from the heart of God that cannot be sundered in any measure.
	Jesus gives us the courage to face the every day trials and tribulations of this time in John 16:33. "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." We know that we have peace in Him, no matter what is happening in our lives. 
We have often considered the fact that we will have a most difficult time on this earth. We are representing the very name of Jesus Christ to those powers that tried to keep Him in the grave. He is no longer within their grasp to assault and to torment, so we, as His representatives, are fully under the course of bearing that burden for His life. But, this is the key point, no matter what is thrown at us, no matter what curses, no matter what spears of hatred, no matter what violent anger pounds at our door, we are settled in the peace of Christ and in His overcoming power of resurrection. This earth can kill our mortal bodies, if so permitted by God, but it cannot touch the spirit that is now made completely and perfectly alive in Jesus Christ. We will face physical and emotional trials and persecution, but we are more than conquerors in Him. We are settled in His peace and in His protective hand of operation as He covers our every moment on this earth.
Notice what Christ tells us in Mark 16:15-18. And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. "And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." He tells us that as we obey the Holy Spirit in His guidance and by His direction, we will be covered by the protective hand of God. We have many, many testimonies of God’s overruling power in the lives of missionaries as they are spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was so protected on his missionary journeys. Throughout history, the witnesses of Our Lord have been covered by miraculous events of the Sovereignty of God. 
Now, before we jump into the fire of tribulation and persecution expecting God to rescue us, keep in mind that it is as we are led by the Holy Spirit, in service to His guidance, and in absolute obedience to His prompting that we are so under His operative protection. Many times, He works in our lives before we even are aware of His presence as He guides us to Christ. 
This is not, however, an open call to foolhardiness and foolishness. We are not told that we can place our lives in danger and expect God to save us from harm. We do not go out into the desert searching for rattlesnakes and expect God to defend us when we pick up the deadly snake. But, when we go where we are directed to go, and we are following the path of service unto the Lord, we know that He goes before us and opens those avenues of witness that would otherwise be impossible. We do it because we are serving Him and we accept whatever may come in that service to His name.
I recall the account of the missionaries who went into the jungles of South America and were slaughtered by tribesmen. Later, their families followed up and presented God’s Love and forgiveness in Christ to that tribe that had killed their husbands and fathers. There was a full turning to God by those tribesmen who had committed the atrocity. That was the providential leading after the guidance of the Holy Spirit in which, what seemed to be such a pointless tragedy resulted in a full conversion of an entire tribe of people to Jesus Christ. Those original missionaries were still dead on this earth, but they were alive in the glorious presence of God to see the work that was fulfilled to Christ’s glory by their sacrificial love and obedience. 
	Their hope and our hope is summed up in 1 Cor 15:20-26. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 
	Our Lord proclaims the glory of His victory to His own in Rev 3:21. 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He tells us that it is as we overcome all the adversity that attacks us in this realm that we will be granted the privilege of sitting with Him on the throne that He even this instant occupies. The overcoming is thus rewarded, not because we have done something great and marvelous on our own initiative through our own power or endurance or wisdom. It is because we are so set in Him and relying on Him to be our life, that we overcome through His established victory. We do not let ourselves be drawn off by the cunning deceits of the enemy, but remain firmly and steadfastly rooted in Him. We see the plots and ploys that are arrayed to trap us in the full light of Christ’s glory and we submit ourselves rather to His Honor and His plan and His purpose in frustrating those snares. 
We get through each day by the determined resolve as that of the Apostle Paul recorded in 1 Cor 2:1-5. And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. This is our life and as He is our daily victory, so do we live in His eternal triumph.
John records the vision that should be the every moment view of our hearts and souls in Rev 5:4-9. And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look into it; and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came, and He took it out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
In this passage, we see our hopelessness in viewing things with our human eyes. Our eyes and minds do not comprehend the complete vista of the truth of God. But, when we see through the circumstances to the spiritual reality, we rejoice greatly in the true glory of the Lamb, standing in conquering splendor to rule and to overrule in heaven and on earth. 
		We overcome as we see Jesus in this place of honor and triumph. Until that is established in our hearts and minds and souls, we will struggle with doubts and concerns and the wishy-washiness of disbelief and uncertainty. We will never see this true picture of Christ as long as our eyes are dominated by the miniscule view of ourselves in every detail. We will bounce up and down in an emotional upheaval, one minute believing that God has everything in control and the next moment thinking that we are undone and that we have done something to make God turn His back on us. 
We will constantly doubt our salvation and the place that we have in the heart of God as long as we are the focal point of our every concern. We need to see Christ exalted and join the chorus of the ages in singing of Him, Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
	As we are fully informed in Rev 17:14, "These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful." There will be a climatic battle of all the forces of the enemy that will futilely try to unseat the Lord. This battle is supposed, by many, to be an actual battle upon the earth. But the truth is that this will be a spiritual battle fought in the minds and the hearts and the souls of humanity. There will be a power exerted to discredit and to de-throne the true Lord from the hearts and the minds of mankind. This may very well be waged in the physical as well, but it will be merely a semblance of the spiritual battle of the ages which, as we have read, has its predetermined outcome. Let our eyes and our minds and our hearts see the truth and stand in the name and the victory of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Eph 6:10-13, Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. So be it!
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 brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.” And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is 1 Cor 15:54-57. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.” O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.