"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." - I Peter 5:8
"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 the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him." - Revelation 12:9
Satan is real. Satan is powerful. Satan hates God. Satan hates you. These are truths that we must embrace. There is a lion prowling and a dragon crouching with malicious intent toward us. To pretend as if this isn't true or to simply hope he will go away and leave you alone is a losing strategy. Those who employ it will be dominated.
Not wanting to live in a time of war is understandable, we all desire peace. But there are times when an enemy grows strong and zealous toward you. What do you do then? Your options are few - either conquer or be conquered. You see, the longer the Allies pretended that Hitler was not a threat and the longer they tried to appease him rather than end him, the stronger he became, the more territory he conquered, and the more people died. He was not going to stop. He had to be stopped.
Our foe is similar. From the beginning, he has set his sights on the throne. He is convinced that he is the rightful master of the universe, so he prowls around looking for territory to acquire for his kingdom. His appetite for destruction will never be satisfied. He will destroy and continue to destroy until someone more powerful destroys him. And here is a sobering reality...he is more powerful than us. We cannot defeat him. Our best hope is that someone will recognize our fate, sympathize with us, and come and defeat our enemy for us ;)
While we await this full salvation, this deliverance from our foe, we must:
- Acknowledge that we live in a time of war, not of peace (Genesis 4:7)
- Make the necessary preparations (Jude 1:20)
- Fight as if our lives and our children's lives depend on it (Ephesians 6:10-18)
- Hold the line until our rescue arrives (Psalm 121:1-2)
Finally, brothers, be of good cheer knowing this...the true lion, Lion of the tribe of Judah, has overcome our ancient foe!
"1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." - Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10
Pastor Jeremy
