SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/5/2015
8:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to the War of the Ages: War in Heaven
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 12:7-12
Message of the
verses: “7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and
his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough,
and there was no longer a
place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old
who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth,
and his angels were thrown
down with him. 10 Then 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, he who
accuses them before our God day and night. 11 “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 when faced with death.
12 "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them.
Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath,
knowing that he has only a short time."”
As we begin this introduction on these six verses we need
to be aware of a few things about Satan.
John MacArthur quotes C. S. Lewis from his book The Screwtape Letters where Lewis writes “There are two equal and
opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an
excessive and unhealthy interest in them.
They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a
materialist or a magician with the same delight.” This of course is also true of the leader of
these demons, and that is Satan.
John MacArthur writes about something else that perhaps
confuses people: “One of the most
pervasive and persistent popular myths about Satan pictures him (complete with
pitchfork, horns, and tail) as being in charge of hell. In reality, Satan is
not in hell; in fact; he has never been there.
He will not be sentenced to the lake of fire until after his final
rebellion is crushed at the end of the Millennium (20:7-10). And when he does enter hell, Satan will not
be in charge; he will be the lowest inmate there, the one undergoing the most
horrible punishment ever inflicted on any created being.” Since we now see that Satan is not in hell
where is he? Well this section of
Scripture tells us that he has access to heaven, but then there is a great war in
heaven so that he and his demons are kicked out and that is what we will be
looking at as we study this section.
Let’s look at some verses that talk about where Satan is
at this time in human history. First we
will look at 1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the
devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Let us now look at some verses from the book
of Job: “6 Now there was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.
7 The LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan
answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it."” We see here that Satan has access both to
heaven and to earth. It was a long time
ago while listening to a Pastor speak that he said that it was because of Satan’s
access to heaven that this was one of the reasons that God would make a new
heaven, and a new earth, and also a New Jerusalem. The reason is because of the sinfulness of
Satan contaminating heaven and earth.
Satan,
having access in heaven is said to be accusing the brethren and this is why
Jesus Christ in our advocate in heaven. Since Jesus Christ has paid for all of
our sins then there is little reason for Satan to do this, but he does continue
to accuse the brethren. I want at this
time to quote something that I read in a book written by Warren Wiersbe
entitled “The Strategy of Satan.” “It is
important that we learn to
distinguish between Satan’s accusations and the Spirit’s conviction. A feeling of guilt and shame is a good thing if it comes from the Spirit of God. If we listen to the devil, it will only lead
to regret and remorse and defeat. When
the Spirit of God convicts you, he uses the Word of God in love and seeks to
bring you back into fellowship with your Father. When Satan accuses you, he uses your own sins
in a hateful way, and he seeks to make you feel helpless and hopeless. Satan wants you to feel guilty. He wants you to experience regret and
remorse, but not repentance.”
John MacArthur writes the following about what
Satan could do if he were able to do, and one of the points he makes he is
completely brand new to me and we will speak of it a bit later on in more
detail. “Satan’s battle plan for the
earthly phase of the war of the ages is brutally simple: to eliminate all those who serve God. If he could, he would kill them all. If not that, he would destroy their faith, if
that were possible. Were he able to rid
the earth of all those who serve God, the devil would achieve his goal of
unifying the entire world under his rule.
It may be noted at this point that such a reality will occur when the
believers on earth are raptured to heaven (John 14:1-6; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1
Thess. 4:13-18). The Rapture will be
followed by the Tribulation, in which Satan does gain the fullest rule of the
planet he will ever have (13:4-10).
Satan longs to be permanently what he is only temporarily, the god of an
unrighteous world (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4), and to be worshiped by everyone (cf. Mat.
4:9). To achieve those goals, Satan
desperately wants to prevent the Lord Jesus Christ from establishing His
kingdom—both now spiritually in the hearts of men and in its future millennial
and eternal forms.”
We know that his plans will not succeed for Jesus
said in John 12:31 “"Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of
this world will be cast out.’” Now I
mentioned in an earlier SD that it is difficult for me to understand what Jesus
said in John 12:31 as I see all of the evil still going on upon the earth. MacArthur answers this problem: “Though Satan was defeated at the Cross, his
sentence has not yet been fully carried out.
And though he understands his destiny as revealed in Scripture, Satan
nevertheless relentlessly continue to fight his losing battle against God. Thus, the war of the ages will continue until
Satan is incarcerated temporarily in the abyss (20:1-3) and then permanently in
hell (20:10).”
What we will see in this passage is the long supernatural
war of Satan against God reach its climax. Now remember we are still looking at
the sounding of the seventh trumpet as seen in 11:5-17 and this will anticipate
Christ’s triumph over Satan even though the final battle does not take place
until we reach the end of the Tribulation Period described in Revelation
19:11-21. When we reach the 15th
chapter we will see the effects of the seventh trumpet are sounding. Chapter 15 only has eight verses in it but is
a very important chapter.
MacArthur concludes his introduction by going back
to what we just learned in verses 1-6 and then looks ahead to what we will
learn in this chapter where he writes. “Verses
7-12, which describe the war in heaven, may be divided into three
sections: the battle, the victory, and
the celebration.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is good to know what will happen in the future as the Bible makes this perfectly clear, but it is hard to be patient and wait for the good things to happen like the Rapture of the Church, something I am looking forward to as all believers should be.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord for His plans for what will go on with my father-in-law next Wednesday that His perfect will, will be accomplished.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Jesus” (Luke 17:19).
Today’s Bible question: “To what country did Joseph flee with Mary and the baby Jesus?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/5/2015 9:52 AM
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