Revelation 12:9-12
Satan Is the Problem
What is wrong with our world today?
In politics, the very core of our democracy is under attack. Extreme
leftists socialists are openly running for offices—and winning. The
principals of democracy and capitalism are not only being undermined,
but they are being attacked. I shudder to think what is going to
happen in the next few years, but one thing is for certain. The
America that once was is no more.
In the area of national security, some of the highest officials in
our country believe we should allow masses of uncounted,
undocumented, unscreened immigrants not only into our land, but that
taxpayers should pay their healthcare, housing, food, clothing, and
education. They also believe they should be counted in our census and
vote in our elections.
In our economy, the national deficit (the difference between what the
government takes in and what it spends) hit $779 billion last year.
It is expected to reach $1 trillion in 2019. The national debt is $21
trillion and rising every minute.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/16/government-
spending-how-rising-federal-debt-deficit-impact-americans/1589889002/
In the home, the divorce rate is actually down in the last 15 years,
thanks in part to the millennials who—they say—are not playing the
divorce game like their parents and grandparents did. However, it is
also partly due to the fact that many couples just don’t get married.
Contrary to what some think, that does not produce a more stable
relationship. It only reduces some of the red tape when the
relationship ends.
In the world of everyday living, males think they are females and
females think they are males. Surgeries are being performed on
elementary school students—and younger—to mutilate their God-given
bodies. Most all American children are being programmed with this
warped thinking through public schools, television, movies, fashion,
and hero worship. We now have what some would like to call sexless
haircuts, clothing, pronouns, campuses, companies, and even military
branches.
I could say more, but let me first tell you what the problem is.
Satan is the problem! Then let me share three thoughts to help you to
both understand and withstand what is happening in our world.
I. The Devil Is Angry
A. The Bible is describing a time when the devil will be cast
out of heaven (again).
B. Notice two thoughts from \\#12\\.
Rev 19:12 …for the devil is come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that
he hath but a short time.
1. The devil is mad.
2. The devil’s time is short.
C. This verse is prophetic and has not occurred yet, but Satan
has already been cast out of heaven once before.
1. That was a different kind of casting.
2. Jesus spoke of the devil’s first eviction from heaven.
Luke 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from heaven.
a. That eviction happened when Satan went bad, sometime
before Adam and Eve sinned.
b. It is also described \\#Is 14:12, Eze 28:16\\.
c. At that time, Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, became
Satan, our adversary; but even with that, Satan’s
access to heaven was not completely ended.
d. The latter part of \\#10\\ tells us Satan’s new job.
Rev 12:10 …for the accuser of our brethren is
cast down, which accused them before our God day
and night.
(1) Satan’s new job has been to accuse the brethren
"before God" which means Satan still has access
to God and to heaven, but this verse is
describing a future eviction which will end that
access as well.
(2) We do not have an exact day when that will happen
but from the event’s placement in the Book of
Revelation, my guess is that it will happen
sometime shortly BEFORE the middle of the
tribulation.
D. \\#12\\ tells us that when its occurs, the devil will have
"great wrath."
1. Why? Because it will mean another defeat for him and
another prophecy fulfilled.
2. Satan knows the Bible better than we do and he knows his
only hope is to stop the prophecies from coming to pass.
3. Each one that happens proves his weakness and moves him
one day closer to his end and destruction.
E. Satan is already mad.
1. The devil knows that his time is short. Humans may not
care if they are cast into hell for eternity, but Satan
has seen it and he certainly does. He is fighting for
his very existence, and he does not care who he hurts.
2. He has tried to stop God’s plan by turning Israel against
God (repeatedly), by killing the entire Jewish nation, by
killing Jesus, by stopping the resurrection, by a
destroying the church, by using affluence and wealth to
corrupt God’s people, and much more.
3. Still, Satan sees that the Bible is being fulfilled and
his best efforts are only temporary.
a. Israel is a nation again.
b. Everything he and his demons do to influence the earth
only brings about more prophetic fulfillments in how
the world will be when Jesus returns.
4. The devil is down to his last plan.
a. Satan has already gone through A to Z. Now, he has to
use the biggest most dangerous plan of all for he
knows it is also prophesied in the Bible.
b. He is going to destroy justice, peace, reason, and
wealth.
c. In doing so, he plans to create a world desperate for
leadership; at which time, he will inhabit a human
being and attempt to literally deceive the world into
worshipping him.
d. If he can pull it off, he will be god. If not, he
will have fulfilled the last part of God’s prophetic
plan.
II. The Heathen Are Raging
Psalm 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people
imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together, against the LORD,
and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast
away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh:
the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath,
and vex them in his sore displeasure.
A. A rhetorical question was asked in verse 1.
1. That means God was not expecting an answer.
2. This is not exactly a prophetic Psalm.
3. The lost world has always raged against God; however,
their rage has picked up steam in the last few
generations—in large part because of what has happened
to America.
a. America, the closest thing to a Christian nation that
the world had, has become anti-God and carnal.
America is not the only anti-God country, but its
new and open hatred for God has certainly changed the
balance for the remainder of the world.
b. Christians and God’s church have become weak and
carnal.
c. False religions are loved and on the rise.
(1) Atheism - Atheism is the worship of man as god.
(2) Islam
(3) Isn’t it amazing that America fell in love with
Islam AFTER 9/11??!!
4. For years, many good people have sat on the sidelines
when it came to loving and serving God, but they are not
on the sidelines any longer. They are on the opposing
team!
B. But let’s attempt answer this rhetorical question.
1. Why are the heathen raging against God? It is because
they are filled with the devil and his wrath.
a. It is no coincidence that what the devil is feeling is
also what a majority of people are feeling.
b. The devil is in the people!
c. His goal is to tear down what is in place, promote
himself as leader, and then trick the world into
loving and worshipping him—and the heathen are doing
it for him!
2. Notice their strategy:
a. \\#1\\ They are imaging vain things.
(1) The devil has gotten into their heads.
(2) They are thinking things that are not true are
and things that are true are not.
(a) They are thinking man is God and God doesn’t
exist.
(b) They are thinking there is no sin and so no
need for salvation.
(c) They are thinking they are the judge.
(3) They are in for a rude awakening.
b. \\#2\\ The leaders of the world are aligning against
God.
(1) It is amazing how much the leadership of America
has changed just in the last few years.
(2) If you are on social media, you have probably
seen the clips where many of the Congressional
leaders were for the things they are not
fighting against just a few years ago—on both
sides of the aisle.
(3) The one thing that leaders throughout the world
seem in agreement about is that the God of the
Bible is a bad God.
c. \\#3\\ They are throwing away the cords that have
bound them.
(1) What has God used to keep people bound? His Word
(2) What has God been keeping the people bound from?
Sin and its deceitful death
(3) But the world seems tired of that and so they are
casting off the Bible and all of its truths
about right and wrong.
(4) Understand something that has happened in the
last few generations.
(a) People are not just up in arms about
national law. They are but not just nation
laws.
(b) They are up in arms about God’s laws.
i. That God alone has the right to give
and to take life.
ii. That marriage is between a man and a
woman.
iii. Mankind has learned enough to actually
attempt to change decisions that God
alone has the right to make.
III. The Sheep Are Following
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way; and the
LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
A. The devil is angry; the heathen are raging, and the sheep are
following.
B. All people are sheep.
1. I know we get angry with some of those who are visibly
fighting against God in all the different areas of
conflict.
2. False religions leaders, crazy politicians, ungodly
celebrities are on the top of that list.
3. But the truth is they are all just sheep.
4. The only ones who really understand what is going on is
the devil himself and the Spirit-filled people of God.
5. Remember sheep are not very bright, but they will follow
the things that give them pleasure.
6. Don’t hate the sheep. Pity the sheep.
C. The herd of sheep is going to grow, but the people of God
won’t go.
1. There is only one group of people that will not eventually
become part of the deceived herd.
Matt 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall shew great signs
and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect.
2. Notice, this passage is not talking about the anti-Christ
just false Christs and false prophets.
3. We are all living in that time.
4. Many who sat on church pews as recently as last year are
sitting in sheep pens this year.
5. If you truly belong to God, you won’t go.
D. Do you belong to God?
1. A Christian belongs to God. A Christian is a person who
has believed and repented.
2. A backslidden Christians may still belong to God, but he
can fall asleep.
1Thess 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do
others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and
they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love;
and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
a. I have been thinking on this. While I have not
finished thinking on it, I believe I can say that a
sleeping Christian is not a deceived Christian.
b. To be asleep means to be unaware and unconcerned.
c. To be deceived means to believe a lie and perhaps to
even be pulling for the wrong team.
d. I don’t think a believer can do that.
(1) Christians may be ignorant and unconcerned, but
they should not be aligning with the devil and
his crowd.
(2) So if you are against the Bible and what the
Bible teaches, don’t consider yourself a
backslidden Christian. Consider yourself lost.
e. However, sitting on the sidelines during these days is
nothing to brag about.
(1) You are going to have to take a stand and you
might as well take one now.
(2) The longer you refuse, to be honest, the more you
demonstrate that you are not asleep at all but
dead in trespasses and sins.
The world is on a course and has been for a long time. Nothing can
stop the events that God has prophesied but righteous can delay it.
Turn to Christ today!
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