The Battle of Obedience: Following God When You Cannot See the Way

Who likes to follow orders? Nobody! If you had the choice of getting to do what you say or having to do whatever someone else says, which would you choose? You would choose what you want to do every time. You don’t know what they are going to tell you to do. They may make you look foolish and do something silly. You desire control. You want to know what the future holds and not leave it up to someone else.

But what about when it comes to God? Do you seek control in the same sort of way? You know, often we do. If you are here listening to me right now, there’s a good chance that you desire to follow God. We all want to follow God yet struggle at some point in living out the details of his plan. Sometimes his plans are difficult. Sometimes they seem silly. Sometimes they don’t add up on paper. Sometimes we don’t know the plans at all but are still called to follow.

That’s how it was with Joshua in the Old Testament. There’s a lot we can learn from him. He followed Moses for a long time. He trusted God early on, even when others didn’t. He was faithful and patient as God’s people wandered the wilderness for 40 years. Then there came a day when he was called to lead…but he was called to lead by following God. He was to lead God’s people in the Promised Land. But as they entered the land flowing with milk and honey, a land that signifies abundance of life, they were entering a warzone. There are battles in the Promised Land.

And we’re going to see one of the first battles that Joshua had to face before the great battles later. It’s a battle each one of us have to face daily. It’s the battle of obedience.

Joshua 1:2-9

We are called to obedience no matter what. Right at the beginning of this passage in Joshua 1, we see a command from God. Verse 2 says, “Arise, go.” Talking to Joshua, God is saying, your past is behind you. Moses is dead. There’s a future ahead of you. “Arise, go.” We know God calls us to walk in obedience to him. But often we get distracted by other things and miss the mark. We think that in order to be obedient, we must know God’s will and every detail of it first. Well, what is His will? What is His plan? Why doesn’t He just tell us what to do in an audible voice like he did with Joshua and Moses? Well, you know, he has specifically told us his will. We can read them every day.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.” Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” 1 Peter 2:15 states, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” According to these verses, you know what God’s will is? It’s sanctification and purity and justice and gratitude.

We often think, surely God’s will for my life includes more than this! What about where I’m supposed to go to school? What about who I’m supposed to marry? What job am I supposed to pursue? Which direction do I go for this big decision? What is your will, God?! It’s sanctification and purity and justice and gratitude. God’s will for your life is that you live for him right now. And here’s the outcome of that. The outcome of our obedience is our good and God’s glory.

God tells Joshua to “Arise, go.” But he also tells him something else. He tells him that he is giving the land to him and all these people he is leading. The land that was long ago promised to Abraham when he packed up his family and followed God in obedience even though he didn’t know where he was going. It was the land promised to Moses and God’s people as they were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. God tells Joshua to follow him in obedience, but he a

The False Prophet – 25

Revelation 13:11-18

Have you ever been tricked? Have you heard of the term catfished? That’s when someone pretends to be someone, making someone believe they are that person, when in reality they are not. People will have whole online relationships that they think are real, but it’s with a completely different person than they thought they were talking to the whole time.

That’s kind of what we see in tonight’s text. We see another beast come on the scene, a false prophet. I want you to think of those two words false and prophet. This person has every semblance of being a prophet. And what is a prophet? A prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God. But we put a qualifier before “prophet” when we mention him. Why? Because he is not a real prophet. He is false. He has many people believing him and believing the one he is speaking for, the antichrist. A prophet seeks to draw people to worship the one true God. This false prophet leads people astray from worshiping the one true God. We need to be able to tell the difference between the works of God and the works of Satan.

Revelation 13:11-12

The false prophet will deceive. (vs 11) It had horns like a lamb but spoke like a dragon. “The word “lamb” appears 29 times in Revelation. Twenty-eight of those times it refers to Jesus.”[1] Looks can be deceiving! The way he is described as a lamb with horns is similar to John’s description of Jesus in 5:6, “I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns.”

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 – 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness…”

How could this false prophet look like Christ? Some people think this means that he will come from within the church or from within the Jewish people.[2] Hear what Jesus says in Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Though this false prophet looks Christlike, the content of his words reveals his true nature. Remember the words of Jesus in Luke 6:45: “…out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

The false prophet will speak for Satan. (vs 11) Instead of speaking for the one true God, as prophets are supposed to do, this false prophet speaks on behalf of Satan. “It spoke like a dragon.” Remember, the dragon is Satan. What does it mean to speak like Satan? Well, from the beginning, Satan twists God’s words and makes people doubt God’s character. The false prophet will belittle the true gospel.

Many people think that he will bring about a one-world religion. Can you imagine how this would sound? It would sound so good. It’s all about peace and love! Can’t everyone just get along?! This sounds good, but there is a major problem. All religions teach different things and even contrary things. They can’t all be true. The problem is, when don’t tell the truth about the truth, it is the most unloving thing we can do. For example, talk of sin in our culture is considered unloving and judgmental. Shouldn’t people be able to just live how they want to and in whatever way makes them happy? But when the real reality is that there is a completely holy God that will judge all people, it doesn’t matter how you want to live. It matters how he says to live. Just as it would be unloving for a doctor to tell a cancer patient that he doesn’t have cancer, it would be unloving for you to let a person who hasn’t been redeemed by Jesus to think they are ok in their sin.

I agree with what Jim Hamilton says about this verse:

“This passage is giving us fair warning: just because someone claims to be a Christian does not mean he or she is. Just because someone uses the language of Christianity does not mean or she is promoting Christianity. Just because someone looks like Jesus does not mean he or she genuinely represents him. We must know what Christianity really is

The Counterfeit Christ – 24

Revelation 13:1-10

What is a counterfeit? It’s something that is fake that tries to pass for something that is real. It is a cheap imitation. (Mission trip to NYC…going to China town…people opening up a back wall of their store full of counterfeit purses.) (Can you tell the difference in these air Jordans? Counterfeits look real, and it can be hard to figure out what is the real thing or not. But counterfeits never hold up like the real thing.)

Tonight, we are going to see a counterfeit that is going to rise at the end of days, a counterfeit Christ…the antichrist. “The word antichrist does not appear a single time in Revelation. In the Apocalypse he is called “the beast.” Elsewhere in Scripture he is called the little horn (Dan 7:8), the prince (ruler) who is to come (Dan 9:26), the lawless one or man of sin (2 Thess 2:3-8), and the antichrist (1 John 2:18, 22; 2 John 7). The word antichrist means “one who is against Christ” or “one who is in the place of Christ.” Both are true. The beast is an antimessiah. He is in a war against Christ even as he attempts to replace the true Christ.”[1]

As we work our way through this passage tonight, we’re going to see different ways that Satan, through the antichrist, seeks to be a counterfeit messiah and bring about a counterfeit kingdom. Like always, we’re going to major on the majors and minor on the minors. We could speculate all day long on who we think the antichrist will be. I don’t think that’s what God wants us to do. I agree with Danny Akin on this who says this text isn’t written so we will speculate as to who the antichrist is, but he says “I think God’s design is to instruct us now and in every generation concerning what antichrists do and how they work as they are empowered and deployed by that dragon (13:2), Satan himself.”[2] “Satan is a powerful deceiver, and we need to be able to tell the difference between the real Jesus and the fake Jesus that Satan will use to deceive the world.”[3]

Part of this counterfeit we see tonight is even seen in the major end times players we see come out in this chapter. Satan is there on the beach, the antichrist beast is the focus of verse 1-10, and the false prophet beast is the focus of verses 11-18. Akin says, “Joined at the hip with the dragon, they constitute nothing less than a counterfeit trinity! Satan counterfeits God the father. Antichrist counterfeits God the Son. The false prophet counterfeits God the Holy Spirit.”[4]

So, I want to ask you right off the bat, “Are you certain that your idea of who Jesus is matches who he is in reality? How do you know that Satan has not deceived you into following some imitation of Jesus?”[5]

Revelation 13:1-2

We see the beast immediately rise out of the sea. The sea was often associated with evil in the ancient world. It has been referred to as “the reservoir of chaos.”[6] We see right off the bat just how evil he is, not only rising out of the sea, but with blasphemous names on its heads, visibly mocking the one true God.

Satan seeks to advance his kingdom. Later in Revelation, in chapter 17, the beast’s seven heads and ten horns will be interpreted as seven kings and ten kings (vs 10, 12). How the antichrist is described here comes from the way he is described in the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 7. In Daniel 7:17, it says, “These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.” And in Daniel 7:24, it says, “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise…” Just as Jesus seeks to bring about his kingdom, Satan seeks to bring about his. And he does it through people. People are led astray by people. People we view as important and popular and powerful. You do that with people you know. I’m sure you’ve done something stupid because someone told you. They had power over you and so you followed them.

Satan seeks to advance his kingdom through people. We see that at play just this week. If you haven’

The Coming War – 23

What is your favorite holiday? This is our third week in this chapter, and so far we’ve seen two important holidays that we celebrate—Christmas and Easter. At Christmas, when Jesus came, God in the flesh, it was the declaration of war, and at Easter, with Jesus on the cross and the resurrection, it was the final blow to make certain the end of the war. Satan is still fighting though. But there’s no question how the battle is going to end. That’s a little glimpse of what these last few verses of chapter 12 will show us.

Revelation 12:1-17

Revelation 12:13 – And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

Satan seeks to destroy God’s people. We saw in verse 6 that the woman is the righteous remnant of Israel or the church. Either way, it is God’s people. The church is ingrafted into God’s covenant promises, and those who are his people by heritage can also not be children of the promise if they aren’t so in their heart (Rom 2:29; Rom 11). Either way, to be one of God’s people, you must have faith in Jesus. But here’s a thing you need to remind yourself. If you are one of God’s people, you are not exempt from hardship. You actually might even have more hardship than people of the world. But, you can have peace amidst any hardship, because you belong to God and God is with you.

“The word used to describe [Satan’s] pursuit of the woman is used elsewhere in the New Testament (Acts 7:52; 9:4; 22:4) to describe the persecution of the church, and that is probably what this pursuit symbolizes.”[1] It is interesting to note that Christianity is the number one most persecuted religion in the world.[2] That could be because there are far more Christians in the world than any other religion.[3] There are far less Jews in the world than there are Christians,[4] yet think about Israel’s history and Israel currently. There has always been someone trying to wipe out Israel. Always. And they were seemingly wiped out from 138AD until just 1948.[5] With how much Israel is mentioned not just in the Bible, but alluded to in Revelation, realizing this history of Israel and how it wasn’t until recently that they became a nation again, should perk you up! Even to this day Israel is constantly attacked. Other nations hate them and would love to see them wiped out. It’s been that way through Israel’s history. And it’s that way with the church right now as well. Satan seeks to destroy God’s people, and it will only get worse as the end approaches.

Revelation 12:14 – 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.

God provides for and protects his people. Even though God’s people are persecuted, and many will die and have died at the hands of Satan and those who follow him, he can never and will never wipe out God’s people. There is a lot of Old Testament imagery here in this verse that adds tons of meaning for us.

“Wings often appear in the Bible as a sign of God’s protection.”[6] Just like the woman is flown in our verse into the wilderness, there is a parallel between the Israelites coming out of Egypt by the hand of God. Listen to Exodus 19:4, inwhich God says at Mt. Sinai, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Also, later on, Isaiah prophesied about the return from exile that would happen after the new Exodus in Isaiah 40:31, saying, “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Just like God provided for his people in the past, we see him doing it in the future. Even though they are hurting and face death, Satan cannot wipe them out.

I want you to think about what that means for

The Present Salvation – 22

Revelation 12:1-17

This chapter is divided into three parts. It paints a picture of redemptive history of the past, the present, and the future. Last week we looked at verses 1-6 and how the coming of Christ defanged the ancient serpent, the devil. This week we will dig into verses 7-12 and see the present battle, but more importantly, the present victory that we now have in Jesus. Next week we will finish the chapter and get a glimpse of the future redemption that awaits all who are in Christ.

Revelation 12:7-9 – 7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 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 the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

The battle has already been won.

Look at the beginning of verse 8. I love it! There is so much hope in it! “But he was defeated.” No matter what Satan does, he is fighting from defeat, not victory. He is a defeated foe.

It’s like if your ball team is down by 20 with a few minutes to go. You know the game is over. The other team has already won. But the buzzer hasn’t buzzed yet. The timer hasn’t clicked all the way down. So the losing team still plays. And maybe they’re upset about it, like it’s their biggest rivalry. So, they play dirty. They throw elbows and knock other players down. They’ve lost, but they’re going to go down swinging.

Though Satan is defeated, he is still fighting. Look at the beginning of verse 9. After it says he was defeated, it says, “he was thrown down to earth.” And what does he do down on earth. When God asks him at the beginning of Job what he has been doing on earth, he says, “going to and fro on the earth” (Job 1:7). Here’s how the Apostle Peter describes what Satan is doing as he is going to and fro on the earth. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). How does a lion prowl around ready to attack? They try to do it without you seeing them, then they pounce when you least expect it. Then it’s too late. Satan works the same way. Satan is defeated, but he is still fighting.

We live in the already/not-yet. Jesus has won the battle, but the victory hasn’t been fully realized yet.

Hear how D.A. Carson describes some of how this is played out.

“We already have the forgiveness of our sins, but we do not yet have the consummation which Christ’s death and resurrection have secured. We already grow in sanctification, but we have not yet been glorified. We are squeezed between the already and the not yet; already it is the last hour of this age which is decaying and will pass away. But it has not yet passed away, and the new heavens and the new earth have not yet dawned.”[1]

We live in the already/not-yet. Jesus has already defeated sin and Satan, yet it is not-yet fully realized. Jesus has crushed the head of that ancient serpent, yet he has not cast that beast into the lake of fire that burns forever and ever (Rev 20:10). This can be illustrated in the difference in Dday and Vday. The battle at Normandy essentially ended World War II. Yet the battles were not over after that invasion. People still died after Normandy. It wasn’t until Vday, or victory day, that the battle was officially over. We are living in between Dday and Vday. The battle has been fought. The victory has been decided. But there are still casualties until that victory is finally realized.

Satan knows he is a defeated foe. This makes him all the more dangerous. He will lead many astray in the last days. He promises abundant life just like Jesus does, only his way leads to death. Many follow him, though. If Satan can deceive a third of the angels to leave heaven, he can deceive you into hell. He is enticing and