Exposing the Enemy

Father…We pray you will give us ears to hear, & hearts to rejoice that ultimately You are the One in charge…even as we read of the horrendous things that are coming to this earth. Give us grace & patience. Strengthen our walks as we live to serve you. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. 

[SILLY STORY]

Now I share that silly story to illustrate…there are many MISCONCEPTIONS when it comes to the devil. 

Misconception #1…The devil is NOT REAL…

he’s fictional…good for silly little stories & jokes like what I just told…or we simply make him merely a symbol of evil. 

Misconception #2…The devil is real…hanging out IN HELL waiting to torment people who go there. 

F.Y.I…Nothing could be further from the truth!

It may surprise you to know that… Satan is NOT in hell…in fact…he has never been to hell.

Satan won't go to hell until the end of the tribulation period. 

F.Y.I…when he gets there…he will not be in charge…

See Revelation 20:10 “…and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

We know from reading our Bible…that the devil currently has a certain amount of freedom & access, not only to earth…but also to heaven. 

Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when the sons of God (angels) came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?' Satan answered the Lord and said: 'from going to and fro on the earth and walking up and down on it." 

So Satan has been on earth…and even standing before God in heaven to give some kind of an account for his actions. 

So he has had some kind of access…not only to earth but also to heaven.

With that in mind, turn to Revelation 12:7…we find 2 MAIN EVENTS happening in this paragraph. 

First…there is a CONFLICT in HEAVEN…

Second…there is CONFLICT on EARTH… 

One is the consequence of the other…

Because of the conflict in heaven…something happens that causes the CONFLICT on earth.

Here in Revelation 12:7-17 we are given info about the devil, Satan, our arch enemy.

FYI…This is my least favourite subject to talk about. Yet the Bible says we are not ignorant of his devices. 

So I want to add to your knowledge so…you are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11)

A. There is CONFLICT In Heaven…Revelation 12:7-8

v.7 “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back.

v.8 But he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.”

v.7 Shocks us!!

War in heaven? When we think of heaven…we don’t think of heaven as a war zone? 

We think of heaven as a WORSHIP zone (angels, songs, music, joy and glory!)

But John, in symbolic form…sees “…war in heaven.”

Something else that is shocking…this is NOT war from the past.

This is a FUTURE war in heaven. 

You see, the PAST war in heaven was back in v.4...where Satan had fallen from heaven.

He tried to eliminate the Child…he failed!

Jesus grew up, died, resurrected, ascended into heaven. v.5

And now we're well into the great tribulation beginning in v.6. 

So this is a FUTURE war in heaven that John sees…sometime during the Great Tribulation period.

This makes an obvious point…Satan finds it really hard to give up.

1. The Devil is PERSISTENT…

I mean he's lost the battle in the past…why on earth would he even think to try again in the future? 

What brings this on?

Satan…finds it really hard to give up…knows he's going down…fighting a losing battle..he knows it…wants to cause chaos & take as many people down with him as he can.

Imagine a pool…Like when a group of guys want to throw you in the pool…you can't get away…so what do you do? 

If I'm going down, I'm going to take them with me!”

Satan finds it really hard to give up. He is persistent…we know he’s persistent don’t we? Jesus knew

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness…he failed…then he left him. Did Satan give up? 

Was that the end of it?  It's not the end of it.

Luke 4:13 "And when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from Him until an opportune time.”

Peter said: Satan is like a roaring lion roaming around seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Like a lion…he stocks his prey…studies it…trying to find the right time to attack.

Satan is persistent…he studies our character, plans his attack based on the info he knows about us.

So John sees war in heaven. It's in the future…it is not referring to the past one.

At some point in the future then, Satan is going to attempt one final takeover of heaven.

b. The Specifics of the BATTLE…Revelation 12:7

a. It's against Michael and his angels…(Note: it is not a battle between God and the devil.)

Take comfort in the fact that the battle is between angels. It's not between God and the devil. 

One of the biggest lies Satan tries to perpetrate is that he, the devil, being the evil opposite of God is having this cosmic battle with God.

As if it is like a UFC title match…God is in one corner the devil in another.

No. First of all, God doesn't fight…He just wins. He has already beaten the foe.  At the cross! 

There's really no battle. I mean that…it’s as ludicrous as putting Justin Bieber up against the Rock. 

I think you know who's going to win the battle…no contest. 

So this is a battle between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. 

This is not the first time they have fought.

We need to ask…who is this Michael? In Scripture he is called…an archangel.

Whenever Michael appears in the Scriptures…he is protecting/defending the nation of Israel. 

Daniel 12 "At that time Michael shall stand up. That great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel.”

See: Jude 9 “…the arch angel Michael contending with the devil over the body of Moses.

So what is this WAR all about? 

We don’t know the cause of this future war…

Some think maybe Satan is mad because of the rapture.

There's only one other reference in all of Scripture to an archangel and that's in the rapture passage-- 1 Thessalonians 4. ”The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with a trumpet of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air." 

Satan is PERSISTENT…but…he is also…DEPRAVED.

2. Satan is DEPRAVED…Revelation 12:9-10

v.9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” v.10 “And I hard 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 brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Notice the names & descriptions given to the devil in these two verses

a. He is called… “…the great (mega) dragon….” 

Revelation is the only book that calls Satan a dragon…13x Why? (See also v.3)

Because that will be his character revealed in the end times. He is a formidable, fierce, evil, tyrant… 

b. He is called… “…the ancient serpent…”

Takes us back to Genesis 3…cunning…crafty…subtle & treacherous, perverting/twisting God’s Word.

c. He is called…”…the devil…” diabolos=devil=slanderer, gossiper, one who defames another

The most common name we know him by.

d. He is called… “…satan…” = Hebrew word that means enemy or adversary. 

So just put those names together and here's what you have…he’s a fierce evil tyrant who is very subtle, very crafty, he slanders and defames you and make no mistake… he is your enemy.

C.H. Spurgeon: “There is something very comforting in the thought that the devil is an adversary. I would sooner have him for an adversary than for a friend.”

e. He is called… “the deceiver…” he deceives the whole world. Revelation 12:9

Now let that sink in… he leads astray, misleads to deceive…present particle…continuous, habitual

He sends them any possible type of deception it takes just to get people not to think about spiritual things…not to think about salvation or about Jesus…he will distract or deception possible.

Jesus even called him “…a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

f. He is called… “the accuser of the brethren…” Revelation 12:10 

Interesting. Satan, who has access both to earth and to heaven to appear before God, can accuse people before the throne of God. And it says, he does so day and night…spewing out his accusations.

Zechariah 3 Zechariah sees a vision of Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing on his right side to accuse him. He is the accuser. 

I guarantee YOU have even heard some of his accusations in your own mind.  Thoughts like: 

“You call yourself a Christian?

“You’re a miserable failure. Who do you think you are?

“You're not a child of God. How can you say you're a Christian?

You don't belong here.”

“How can you pray to God? You think God will answer you? After what you said to your wife…”

You've heard all of those accusations.

“There you go…you just blew it again! Loser!” 

You know, Satan is a jerk! He tempts us…before we sin, “Go ahead, you can get away with it.” 

And as soon as we fail and sin, he comes along and says, “You'll never get away with that. You creep. You are a horrible person.

That's what makes him…the accuser of the brethren. 

He is PERSISTENT & DEPRAVED. If we keep on reading, we find out something else about Satan.

3. He is PERNICIOUS…Revelation 12:12-13 

[pernicious means he is harmful/destructive.]

Revelation 12:12 ESV

12 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!”

Look what he does, "Therefore rejoice, oh heavens, and you who dwell in them!” 

That’s great news! Why? Because Satan is being cast out. GOOD NEWS FOR HEAVEN!!!

There will come a time where he will have no more access to the heavenly realms like he has had and still enjoys to this present day. “Therefore, rejoice, Oh heavens, and you who dwell in them.”

But notice, “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! And when the dragon saw he had been thrown down to the earth he pusued (persecuted) the woman…” 

Remember the woman last week? Israel…the nation of Israel…gave birth to the male child=Christ. 

Revelation 12:14–17 ESV

14 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. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

B. There is CONFLICT on EARTH…

v.12 is a powerful woe given to the inhabitants of the earth. Rejoice heaven…woe earth. 

Good news for heaven…bad news for earth…

Because now this being, this malevolent being who has had access, even to the heavens itself, is cast down.

Now FELLOWSHIP…I believe this is something we really MUST UNDERSTAND: 

If you want to know why the Great Tribulation is such a great tribulation, here's why. 

There's two reasons. It's a DOUBLE WHAMMY…

God’s Wrath & Satan's Wrath. 

GOD’S WRATH…Revelation 6-11 God pour out His judgments (seals/trumpets) on earth in unprecedented way

a.k.a. “the wrath of the Lamb”, mentioned in Revelation…

It is a double whammy…because here we see the arrival of Satan and his minions on earth en masse. And we are told here that “the devil has come down to you in great wrath. So it’s a double wrath. 

So the battle in heaven becomes the battle on earth.

So now…we're dealing with the second half of the 7-year tribulation known as the Great Tribulation…the last 3 1/2 years, called here a short time. 3 1/2 years is not a long time.

It's a short time. But notice something.

Look back in v.6 so you get the time frame. “…and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.” That's 3.5 years in a day time frame. 

Then v.14 "time and times in a half a time.” That's Daniel the prophet's way of saying 3 1/2 years. 

And then just so you make no mistake about it, go down to Revelation 13:5, speaking about the future ruler, the anti-Christ. "He was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And he was given authority to continue for 42 months.” 

All of those are the same exact time. It's 3 1/2 years. "During that time, Satan will be filled with wrath."

Notice the word WRATH = It means a violent outburst of rage.

What makes him so wrathful? He just got expelled from heaven. No more access to heaven & the air.

he’s confined to the earth. John Phillips, in his commentary writes,

"Satan is now like a caged lion, enraged beyond words by the limitations now placed upon his freedom. He picks himself up from the dust of the earth, shakes his fist at the sky and glares around, choking with fury for ways to vent his hatred and spite upon humankind.” John Phillips

Do you see this? With no more access to heaven, he vents all of his anger on the people of earth. 

And he's going to use a ruler to do it…the anti-Christ…a leader who will have made a pact, a protection pact with the Jews for 7 years, according to Daniel 9.

Then he will break that pact in the middle of it, at the 3 1/2 year mark.

Daniel calls it “the abomination of desolation.”

That's when Israel will flee to the wilderness to be protected by God, according to what we just read.

Now listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 24. They'll suddenly make sense.

In Matthew 24, Jesus said, “…So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel…you who are in Judea flee to the mountains and pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day.” 

In Jerusalem the transportation is shut down on the Sabbath making it difficult to get around. 

So now it all starts to come together as we see.

The dragon, Satan, confined to the earth will pour out his fury on the earth, but especially targeting the woman, Israel.

There will be a wave of anti-semitism like the world has never seen. 

According to Zechariah 13…2/3 of the Jews alive will be slaughtered and only 1/3 will escape.

And those are the ones we're talking about. 

And Paul said in Romans 9, and all Israel will be saved. They will be protected during this time. 

How and where this will happen…we cannot say with certainty.

This is a book of symbols, speaking about a reality that will happen but in symbolic language. 

So in the OT…in symbolic language, God said to His people:

Remember how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

A beautiful way of saying, “I, God…have protected you.”

God will protect them. He'll protect them during this time. 

It says also here, that the earth helped the woman.

It opened up and it swallowed up this great flood. 

Not really sure what this flood could be…It could be simply speaking of the flood of attackers sent from the anti-Christ to destroy the remaining remnant of the Jewish people.

And the earth will help them. How? Well, possibly by an earthquake. Can't be certain.

It could be that the earth opens up and swallows the attackers.

Don't know exactly…but we do know that Israel's darkest hour will be followed by Israel's brightest dawn.

She will be protected by God.

Now go back at Revelation 12:11. Close on this note. It's the best note to close on.

Because even though the devil is Persistent…Depraved & Pernicious…Satan is CONQUERABLE. 

4. The Devil is CONQUERABLE!

Revelation 12:11 ESV

11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

“nikeo” = conquer = overcame

They, the believers in the tribulation period…conquered him…overcame him, (Satan), by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives.

I know this refers to tribulation believers…

…but don't you think we could apply this to our experience now?

What do you do when you're tempted?

What do you do when you're accused, hassled, depressed, and feel the pressure of satanic evil forces on you?

What do you do? Get in a fetal position and simply give up? No. You can overcome him. 

HOW DID THEY CONQUER HIM (OVERCOME)? 

1. They CONQUERED him by the Blood of the Lamb…

Notice what it says, “…by the blood of the lamb.”

Remember Exodus the children of Israel put the blood of a lamb on the lintels and door post of their homes in Egypt and God’s judgment passed over them

The blood of the lamb was applied and death passed over them.

Apply the blood of Jesus Christ to your life, to all of those accusations that come from Satan.

You're not worthy. You're not good enough. You're this, you're that. Apply the blood of the lamb.

God will bless you…not on your ability to be perfect or devoted or read your Bible 24 hours a day, but he will bless you by your understanding that you are unworthy but he blesses you and loves you because of the finished work of His Son for you, on your behalf. That's the blood of the lamb.

That's the blood of the lamb. You have a prosecuting attorney. That's Satan.

He accuses you before God. But you also have a defence attorney, an advocate.

1 John 2:1 “…we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

So the prosecuting attorney can come into the courtroom and walk up to the bar judgment of God, at the judgment bar and say, “God, David Virr is a sinner…he doesn't deserve your favour, your blessing. He's done this. He's thought that. He has said this and that.” 

The fact is he's right. He's right. I have no defence. Everything he said was accurate. 

But I have an Advocate…a defence attorney who can walk right up to the judgment bar, lean in and say, “Hey, Dad, Do you remember the time I shed my blood for that guy David Virr, which makes him your child? So it is My blood that covers his blunders. And he can overcome all of those accusations.” 

Spurgeon was right. “…nothing provokes the devil like the cross.”  So remind him of the cross. 

2. They CONQUERED him by the Word of their Testimony…

The word of their testimony. You have a testimony. You have a story, how you came to Christ.

What God has done in your life, how he has changed your life. 

I suggest you prepare a 2-5 min version of what God has done in your life, your testimony, how you came to Christ, how you are saved, and have that ready to remind yourself and to tell others of. 

So that when you hear those accusations…

Think TRUTH… “God has been a work in my life. I have a testimony. And it might lead others to Christ as well.” 

3. They Did Not Love their Lives to to the Death…

The blood of the Lamb, word of the testimony, and loyalty was more important than physical life itself.

Years ago, a missionary named James Calvert went to the Fiji Islands, then a very hostile region.

The captain of the ship taking these missionaries toward the Fiji Islands tried to stop Calvert, and said to him, "Don't go to those islands. They will kill you. You will be dead if you go.”

Calvert turned to the captain and said, "We died before we came.” 

I suggest to you, people who live that way are unstoppable people. Nothing can threaten them. 

They love their lives, or they love not their lives unto death.

Jesus said, “…whoever loves his life, will lose it. Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it.

WRAP UP… So as we close, remember these 3 points of application: 

1. God will keep His Promises & His Word…

Israel may be blind & disobedient as a people…but God has not forgotten them. He never will.  

His reputation as a promise keeper is at stake. He will remember His people…& protect them when persecution arises

The same God who stands by His promise to Israel…stands by His promise to reach of us: I will never leave you nor forsake you.

2. Although Satan is Persistent, Powerful and…he will NOT WIN…he is ALREADY DEFEATED! 

Satan may accuse us night & day…but Jesus (advocate) ceaselessly intercedes for us. Heb. 7:25

One day…God will resurrect the saints and He will transform the living…giving to each one a new immortal body…on that day Satan’s mouth will be shut…no more to accuse us.

He will be cast out of heaven and the countdown to his final doom will begin.

Read (memorize): Romans 8:1-3, 33-37, 1 John 1:21

Why aren’t we condemned for our sin?  The answer drips with grace

All our sins past present & future have been paid in full by the blood of Jesus…the blood applied.

No accusation from Satan can stick to us or ruin our reputation…because God’s grace & mercy have washed us clean from all our transgressions.

3. We may be targets of his wrath…but we need not fear. 

Sure Satan still operates on this earth…but remember he is under the restraining hand of God.

Sure…he will craft his attacks (temptations) based on your flaws and your character, your nature. 

Know that God loves you…He has promised:

James 4:7 “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Satan cannot do anything to you without God’s permission

You may ask: “Well, why does God allow Satan to attack me at all?

To strengthen you…to make you better… turn up the heat a little bit, to make you tempered.

That's why. So think about it.

Everything Satan will ever do is anticipated by God and predicted in Scripture.

So he operates under very strict divine parameters, which means when you're going through the trial, the temptation, the accusation, the desperation, remember this,

God will always keep his eye on his children and his hand on the thermostat.

He knows what you're going through.

He hasn't lost track of you, and he won't let you become a crispy critter. 

The ultimate truth is that one day Satan will be drop-kicked into hell and incarcerated there forever and ever.

That…is the end of the story.

Let that put a smile on your face.