Hello and welcome
to this message from Pastor Skip Heitzig
of Calvary Albuquerque. We pray God uses these
messages to reach people around the world. And we're thankful to
hear stories of lives being changed by his love. If this message impacts
you, we'd like to know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at CalvaryABQ.org/giving. In our series, "What's Next," we
explore the Book of Revelation to see what the future holds. As we approach the
second coming of Jesus, Satan continues to war
against Christ's church. In the message, "Satan's
Global Conflict," we get more insight into
the motivations and actions of the arch enemy
of God's people. Now we invite you to mark
your bibles in Revelation chapter 12 as Skip begins. Revelation chapter 12--
we've been doing a series in the Book of Revelation. And we're calling
it, "What's Next." And we're looking
at what's ahead. And honestly, to be
quite frank, it's shocking as we discover what
is actually written there as to what is next. So you're going to need to
get your minds in the game now and your hearts in the game
as we look at Revelation 12, this week beginning
with verse seven. Before we even read or
consider anything, let's pray. Father, we now want to
give you our attention. That's not easy to do in an age
where attention spans have been cut short by so many options
that we have-- instantaneous gratification by little screens
that we project in front of us and any number of things. We just pray that you
will give us ears to hear, and hearts to rejoice
that ultimately you are in charge, even with
the horrendous things that we read about are
coming to this earth. Give us grace, give us patience. Strengthen our walks as
we live to serve you. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. So this crusty old guy
from Massachusetts dies. And he doesn't go to heaven. He goes to the other place. And there in hell,
the devil wants to make things really
miserable for him, so he gives them a horrible
job of breaking rocks with a sledgehammer. And he turns the heat
up and the humidity, and checks on him a
couple weeks later just to see if the punishment
is adequate enough. And he goes and he finds this
man from Massachusetts singing, seems happy with a
smile on his face. And the devil goes,
"hey, I've given you the worst possible job in
the worst possible place. How can you be so happy?" And he says, "well actually,
this hot, humid weather reminds me of being
home in Massachusetts. It's like an August day
back in Massachusetts. So I sort of feel
like I'm back home." So the devil didn't
like that and he decided to change
his course of action, and he brought rain and
wind to that hellish place, and checked up on this man
a couple of weeks later, slogging his way through the
mud with the rocks wheel barrel. And yet the man is
happy, smiling, singing. The devil goes, "how on
earth can you be so happy?" And the man said,
"well, actually this is very much like an April
day in Massachusetts. This is like the spring
time out on the farm, and it just is so reminiscent
of me being back home." So the devil goes away,
decides one last ditch effort to make this man miserable. And he brings the
temperatures so low, subzero. He goes back to
check on this man. This time he's not only
singing, he's dancing, he's swinging the
sledgehammer around. He's just happier
than ever before. The devil says,
"now wait a minute. It's 40 degrees below zero. There's snow and ice
everywhere in hell. How can you be so happy?" And the man said
with a big smile-- the man from Massachusetts,
"hell has frozen over." That can only mean one thing. The Patriots have
won the Super Bowl. [LAUGHTER] Now I share that crazy little
story to make an illustration. People have many misconceptions
when it comes to the devil. Number one, that he
is not real at all. He is not a being at all. He is a fictional
character to be used in silly little stories
and jokes like the one I just mentioned. Or he is a symbol of evil. When we deal with those
shadier parts of our character, we sometimes say, I am
battling with my demons. That's all the devil really is. He's not a real entity. That's misconception number one. Misconception number two is
that if the devil is real, he's hanging out in hell waiting
to torment people who go there. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Would it shock you to know
that Satan is not in hell? Would it further shock you
to know that Satan has never been to hell? And that he won't go
to hell until the end of the tribulation period. And when he gets there,
and he will get there, he will not be the
chief tormentor, he'll be the chief target. He'll be the one who's
the greatest victim. In Revelation 20 verse 10, we
read, "the devil who deceived them was cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and
the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day
and night forever and ever." When I was growing up I didn't
give the devil much thought. I believed I guess,
that he existed, but I didn't really think
of the devil or demons. I mean, I had parents
to contend with. I had teachers to contend with. At that age, that was
bad enough for me. It wasn't easy for me. But as I grew older and I got
into high school-- some of you know my testimony. I got involved with
some very dark practices and it was though I met
the devil face to face. And as Bible-believing
Christians, we come to understand
by reading our bibles that this devil has a certain
amount of freedom and access, not only to the earth
but to heaven itself. For when we read the Book of
Job, and it says, "one day the angels came to present
themselves before the Lord and Satan was with them. And the Lord said to Satan,
'where have you come from?' And Satan said, 'from going to and
fro on the earth and walking back and forth on it." So Satan has been
on earth but now he is standing
before God in heaven to give some kind of an
account for his actions. So he has enjoyed
some kind of access, not only to earth but to heaven. With that in mind, we're going
to jump into Revelation 12, beginning in verse seven, where
there are two major themes that confront us in this paragraph. The themes are war in heaven,
wrath on earth-- war in heaven, wrath on earth. And one is the
consequence of the other. Because there is war
in heaven, something happens that causes there
to be wrath on earth. It's sort of like when
you were in school and you learned
Newton's third law that every action has an
equal and opposite reaction. It's sort of like that here. Now as we go through
our text today, in chapter 12 of
Revelation, we're going to learn some character
traits about the devil, Satan, our arch enemy. And believe me, this is my least
favorite subject to talk about. And yet the Bible says we are
not ignorant of his devices. So I want to add
to your knowledge so that you are not
ignorant of his devices. And here's the first notable
character trait about Satan. Satan is persistent. Watch this, verse seven. It says, "and war
broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not
prevail, nor was a place found for them
in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast
out-- that serpent of old called the devil and Satan
who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his
angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice in
heaven saying, now salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God and the power of
his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren
who accused them before God day and night has been cast down. And they overcame him by
the blood of the lamb, and by the word of
their testimony, and they did not love
their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice oh heavens. And you who dwell in them, woe
to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the
devil has come down to you having great
wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." Verse seven is a shocker. War in heaven? Now when you think of heaven,
do you think of heaven being a war zone? Nobody does. You think of heaven
as a worship zone. You have angels and
music and joy and glory. But John, in
symbolic form looking at what's next in the
future, sees war in heaven. Something else that's
a shocker-- this is not referring to a past war. This is referring to a
future war in heaven. You see, the past war in heaven
has already been discussed back in verse four. We saw that last week. Back in verse four, Satan has
already fallen from heaven. He's already tried to eliminate
the male child which is Christ. That's verse four. He failed to do so. Jesus grew up,
died, resurrected, ascended into heaven. That's verse five. And now we're well into
the great tribulation beginning in verse six. So the future war
in heaven is what John sees, sometime during
the Great Tribulation period. Which leads me to make
an obvious point-- Satan finds it really
hard to give up. I mean he's lost the battle in
the past, why on earth would he think that he would stage
another coup in the future? What brings this on? And before we get to that,
just dwell on that thought. Satan is persistent. He finds it really
hard to give up. He knows he's going down. He's fighting a losing battle. He knows that, but he wants
to create as much chaos and bring as many people
down with him as he can. It's sort of like--
picture a summer day. And I'm standing by the swimming
pool, not that I have one. But let's say I'm at your house,
standing by your swimming pool. And I have a burger
in my hand and I'm right on the edge of the pool. It's just like, I'm not going
to go in but it's just there. And then I turn around and
I notice a group of guys with that look in their
face coming at me. I know what's in their minds. They want to throw
me into the pool. I know I can't escape it. They're too close. They're closing in. So you know what
I'm going to do? If I'm going down, I'm going
to drag as many of them with me into the pool as I can. You say, you would do that? So would you. Satan finds it really
hard to give up. He is persistent. There was a woman who was having
a conversation with a friend, and this gal always
paid people compliments. She never said a bad word about
anybody-- almost to a fault. And her friend said,
"you know, I'm convinced. If the devil were here
you'd pay him a compliment." And she smiled and
said, "well, you gotta admit he is persistent." And we all know, that don't we? Know he's persistent. Jesus knew he was persistent. We read in the New Testament
that Satan came personally to Jesus to tempt him
in the wilderness. But then he left him. And let me ask you this,
when Satan left him, did Satan give up? Was that the end of it? It's not the end of it. Luke chapter four,
verse 13. "Now when the devil had ended
every temptation he departed from him
until an opportune time." Did you get that? He's looking for an
opportune time to strike. Peter said, Satan is
like a roaring lion roaming around seeking
whom he may devour. What kind of a picture is that? Like a lion stocking its
prey and studying it, trying to find the
right time to attack. So he is persistent. I think back to
that passage in Job. I just mentioned it. When the devil appears before
God to give an account, God says to Satan,
"have you considered my servant Job who is upright? There is none like
him in all the earth." And actually in Hebrew it's
more of a rhetorical question. It's, you have been considering
or studying my servant Job, haven't you? You've been keeping
an eye on him. You've been looking at him
carefully, haven't you? Or how about the time
when Jesus told Peter, "Peter, Satan has
been asking for you. He wants to sift
you like wheat." Boy, that would be unnerving,
would it not to hear that? You know, I don't
know if you've ever had the experience of
being in a public place only to discover that that
person across the room has been staring at you
for several minutes now. When you find that
out, it's spooky. It's like, I'm
getting out of here. Satan is persistent and
he studies our character and fashions his attacks based
upon the information that he knows about each of us. So here is John. He sees war in heaven. It's yet future, it's not
referring to the one past. At some point in
the future then, Satan is going to attempt
one final takeover of heaven. And I want you to notice
this battle in specific. It's against Michael
and his angels. Do you read that? Michael and his angels against
the dragon and his angels. I hope you take a little
bit of comfort in the fact that the battle
is between angels. It's not God and the devil. One of the biggest lies
Satan tries to perpetrate is that he, the devil,
is the opposite of God. He is the evil opposite
of righteous God. And so we have this concept
floating in our heads that there is this cosmic
battle of the universe going on. And in this quarter, ladies
and gentlemen, is God. And in this corner is the devil. And they're at it. And who's going
to win this round? No. First of all, God doesn't fight. He just wins. 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-- not really a contest here. So this is a battle against
Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. By the way, it's not the first
time they have squared off. They have fought in times past. If you know your Bible, in
Jude, verse 9 we are told, "Michael the Archangel
contended with the devil over the body of Moses." Question-- why Michael? Who is Michael? Well he's called an archangel. And whenever Michael appears in
the scriptures-- interesting, we see him as a
protector or the defender of the nation of Israel. In Daniel chapter 12, we
are told, "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." Now here's the key
question, or least one of them-- what's
this war all about? This future battle,
what's going to happen? What causes the war? Well I'm not certain but
here's a possibility, it could be triggered
by the rapture of the church, something
we've already talked about. It could be that
rapture believers, as they pass through these
demons realm, the air, that these demons try
to hinder their passage. Remember, Satan is called the
prince of the power of the air. That rapture could
trigger this war that involves Satan
and his angels and Michael and his angels. Let me throw something
else in there. In Jude verse 9,
which I just read, Michael is called an archangel. There's only one
other reference in all of the scripture to an
archangel and that's in the rapture passage-- First
Thessalonians chapter four. "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." It could be that this shout
is the archangel Michael, and the shout is the
confrontation that takes place with Satan and his angels. I'm not certain, just
piecing the things together. That's a possibility--
war in heaven. Satan is persistent. Now let's look further. Look at verse 9 and 10. We discover something else
about Satan-- he is perverse. So the great dragon, he's
described as, was cast out. "That serpent of old
called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his
angels were cast out with them. And then I heard a
loud voice saying in heaven, now
salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God
and power of his Christ have come for the
accuser of our brethren and who accused them before
our God day and night has been cast down." Now there are several
names and descriptions given to the devil
in these two verses that are sort of stacked up. Notice them-- he's
called a dragon. Do you know that the
Book of Revelation is the only book that
calls Satan a dragon? He's called a number
of other things. But 13 times in the
Book of Revelation he's referred to as a dragon. Why? Because that will
be his character revealed in the end times. A fierce tyrant-- a dragon. He's also referred to here
as the serpent of old, now reaching back to Genesis
three speaking of how cunning he was and crafty and
subtle and treacherous. He's also given the most common
name we know him by, the devil. The devil is a word
that means slanderer. You might say gossiper,
one who defames another, Diabolus is the word. He is also called in
this passage, Satan, which means enemy or adversary. So just put those names together
and here's what you have, the composite
description of the devil. He's a fierce tyrant who is
very subtle, very crafty, who slanders and defames
you and is your enemy. That should make you happy. And I'm serious about that. That should make you happy. Because if you want any
kind of relationship at all with the devil,
you want to make sure he's your enemy not your
friend-- your enemy. Charles Haddon
Spurgeon wrote, "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." Notice also in that little
passage that we just read, that he deceives
the whole world. Now just let that sink in. Satan is the world's pastor. He shepherds the
flock of the world and 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 Christ-- any distraction
or deception possible. He deceives the world. Then finally in
verse 10 he is called the accuser of our brethren. 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. He spews out his accusations. Just so you have another
reference text, Zechariah chapter three-- you know
that book in the Bible in the Old Testament where
he sees all those visions? Well he sees one vision of
Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of
the Lord and Satan standing on his right
side to accuse him. He's the accuser. And I bet-- I just
bet that you have even heard the spillover of
some of those accusations in your own mind. Thoughts have come to
you in your own mind, in your own spirit-- thoughts
like, 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 he's
going to answer you? You've heard all of
those accusations. You know, Satan
really is a creep. I mean, think about it. He tempts us and before we
sin, he just tempts us to do it and says, go ahead, you
can get away with it. And then as soon as we do
that, and we seize and we sin, then Satan comes
on and goes, you'll never get away with that. You creep. You horrible person. That's what he's a master of,
the accuser of the brethren. He is persistent
and he is perverse. As we keep on
reading, and we will, find out something
else about Satan. He is pernicious. Look what he does, verse 12. "Therefore rejoice, oh heavens,
and you who dwell in them." Why? Because Satan is being cast out. There's going to come a
time where he has no more access to the heavenly realms
like he has had and still enjoys to this present day. "Rejoice, oh heavens, and
you who dwell in them." But notice this, "woe
to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for
the devil has come down to you, having great wrath because he
knows that he has a short time. And when the dragon saw that
he had been cast to the earth he persecuted the woman." Remember the woman
from last week? Who is that? Israel-- the nation
of Israel, who gave birth to the male child. We discover that is Christ. "But the woman was given
two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into
the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a
time and times and half a time from the presence
of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water
out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might
cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman
and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood
which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was
enraged with the woman and he went to make war with
the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of
God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Verse 12 is a powerful woe
given to the inhabitants of the earth. Rejoice heaven, woe earth. Singing in heaven,
shuttering on earth. Rejoicing in heaven,
recoiling on earth. Because now this being,
this malevolent being who has had access, even to the
heavens itself, is cast down. Now I believe this is something
you really have to 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 and Satan's wrath. God will pour out his
judgments upon the earth in an unprecedented manner. It is called Chapter four,
the wrath of the lamb, mentioned twice in the
Book of Revelation-- the wrath of the lamb. But I mention there's
the double whammy. Here we see the arrival of
Satan and his minions on earth en masse. And we are told here that the
devil is having great wrath. So it's double wrath. So the battle in heaven
becomes the battle on earth. And we're now dealing with the
second half of that seven year tribulation known as the Great
Tribulation, the last three and 1/2 years, called
here a short time. Three and 1/2 years
is not a long time. It's a short time. But notice something. Look back in verse six so
you get the time frame. "The woman fled
into the wilderness where she has a place prepared
by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days." That's three and 1/2
years in a day time frame. Then verse 14, "time and
times in a half a time." That's Daniel the prophet's way
of saying three and 1/2 years. And then just so you
make no mistake about it, go down to chapter 13,
look at verse five, 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 frame, whether you want to say days
or months or time and times and half a time. It's three and 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. Now there is no more access
to heaven and to the air. It's just confined to the earth. One scholar, 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." Do you see this? Having no more access to heaven,
he now vents all of his anger on the people of this earth. And he's going to
use a ruler to do it, an anti-Christ, a leader
who will have made a pact, a protection pact
with the Jews for seven years, according to Daniel
chapter nine. He will break that pact
in the middle of it, at the three and 1/2 year mark. Daniel called it the
abomination of desolation. And that's when Israel is
to flee into the wilderness where she will be protected by
God, according to what we just read. Now listen to the
words of Jesus. They'll suddenly make sense. In Matthew 24, Jesus
said, "and when you see the abomination
of desolation as 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." Because in Jerusalem
the transportation is shut down on the Sabbath. It makes it very
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
chapter 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. Now where they flee
to is uncertain. Some people like to
get very specific and say it's going to happen
in a place called Petra. There is an old Nabatian
capital southeast of the Dead Sea known as Petra. It was easily defensible
in ancient times. It has a very narrow
opening to get into it. It widens out. It can take a large
population and some people think that they will be
brought to this place of Petra. We're not exactly told. Some even get so
specific-- notice when it says here,
"wings of an eagle." They say, well maybe that's
our air force protecting them. It could even be the sixth
fleet in the Mediterranean Sea coming to their rescue. Maybe. But you know, I don't
like to get that specific. This is a book of
symbols, speaking about a reality that will
happen but in symbolic language. So in the Old Testament,
in symbolic language, listen to what God said
to his people, the Jews. Remember how I bore
you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. That's just a beautiful,
poetic way of saying, I, God himself
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. That 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. But five times in the
Book of Revelation on five different
occasions is the mention of specific earthquakes
that happen, some greater than others. Jesus even said in the
period called the tribulation that there will be earthquakes
in different places. So 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 look at verse 11. Let's close on this note. It's the best note to close on. Because though he is persistent
and perverse and pernicious, Satan is conquerable. He is preventable. Look at verse 11.
"They overcame him." They, believers in the
tribulation period, overcame him, him being Satan,
by the blood of the lamb and by the word of
their testimony. And they did not
love their lives. Now I know this is referring
to tribulation believers, but don't you think
we could apply this to our own experiences now? What do you do when
you're tempted? What do you do when
you're tempted? What do you do when
you're accused and hassled and harangued and depressed,
and you feel the pressure of satanic force on you? What do you do? I just get in a fetal
position and give up. No. You can overcome him. How? Well notice what it says,
"by the blood of the lamb." You remember back in
the Old Testament? The children of
Israel put the blood of a lamb on the
lintels and the door post of their homes in Egypt
and judgment passed over them-- lentils and doorpost in the
shape and the sign of a cross. 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 defense
attorney, an advocate. First John chapter
two verse two, 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, Skip is a creep. He doesn't deserve your
favor, 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 defense. He's accurate. Everything he said was accurate. But I have an advocate. I have a defense
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 creep, 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. He said, "nothing provokes
the devil like the cross." So you remind him of the cross. Second, 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 that you prepare a
two, three, four, five minute 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
all of that spillover of these accusations,
you say, you know what though, God has
been a work in my life. I have a testimony. And it might lead others
to Christ as well. And finally, "they did not
love their lives to the death." They did not love their
lives to the death. The blood of the lamb,
word of the testimony, and spiritual 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." James 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." Once you know how to die,
you know how to live. We died before we came. That was our resolve. So as we close, remember
these two things. Satan hates you and has a
miserable plan for your life. But God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life. Satan studies you and
will craft attacks in temptations based upon
your flaws and your character, your nature. But God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life and Satan must operate
under divine parameters by permission-- by
divine permission. Satan was not allowed to attack
Job unless he got permission from God-- if you remember
the story, Job chapter one and chapter two. And God allowed
him to attack under certain strict parameters. Well, why would 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. So I don't know, Patriots
winning the Super Bowl or not, who cares. The ultimate truth
is one day Satan will be drop-kicked into hell
and incarcerated there forever and ever. That's the end of the story. [APPLAUSE] Let that put a
smile on your face. Father, thank you
that you have given us insight for those who
care to read and to apply. These things become
all important as we get a little bit
of further insight into the character of the one
who hates us so, and wants to make our walk
depleted and wants to make us
discouraged because he is so persistent and
perverse and pernicious. But Lord, I pray that
we would overcome, like these future
tribulation saints will, by the blood of the lamb, by
the word of our testimony. And rather than
focusing on our lives, our life would be hidden
with Christ in God. We would seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. Loving you even more
than life itself, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. As believers, we do
not have to fear Satan because we know the
story ends with defeat. Does this encourage you to
share about your salvation with others? Let us know. Email mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at CalvaryABQ.org/giving. Thank you for joining us
for this teaching from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque.
