The Strategy For Satan’s Finest Hour-3

The STRATEGY For SATAN’s FINEST HOUR--A-III—Revelation 13:1-18

Attention:

We’ve all heard of criminals who do really ‘dumb’ things:

An Illinois man pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist & forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines. The kidnapper then proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

OR--

A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas ‘Kwik Stop’, & asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk & worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up & grabbed him.

The criminal’s strategies were seriously lacking wisdom!

The strategy you may concoct on your own to fix your situation may not be very effective, so that it ‘comes back to bite you’ as it were...destined to fail.

If your strategy is well thought out it MAY indeed be effective...

*However, it is NOT well thought-out unless it is by God’s design in Christ. Then & only then will it be truthfully successful!

Satan’s strategy is well thought out & is effective at keeping people from living by truth, yet pride being the driver of that strategy, it is ‘ultimately’ doomed to failure. Praise God that Satan’s end-time strategy is limited in time.

By examining ‘Satan’s Finest Hour’, then we are better able to plan around his trickery/wiles/schemes/cunning. We will then be able to see our own spiritual shortcomings & needs, & see that our needs commend themselves to God’s ability rather than Satan’s, our own, or someone else’s.

In avoiding Satan’s deceptions, we will lead fulfilled spiritual lives & lead others to experience that same fulfillment.

Eph. 6:11-13—“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh & blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, & having done all, to stand.”

God furnished, to the apostle John, a picture of Satan’s finest hour.

Those who trust Scripture are furnished a clear picture of Satan’s end time strategy.

What strategies will mark Satan’s last days?

2 major strategies for Satan’s finest hour are...

A--Satan’s Counterfeit CHRIST(:1-10)

&

B--Satan’s Counterfeit PROPHET(:11-18)

Today we are going to continue looking at Part-A

A--SATAN’s COUNTERFEIT CHRIST(:1-10)

We will examine some Satanic strategies that are wielded thru the counterfeit Christ.

Previously we discovered that

Satan’s strategy for his finest hour Turns...

1. POLITICS/Rule His Way(:1-2a)

2. EMPOWERMENT His Way(:2b)

3—Satan’s strategy for his finest hour Turns...

ATTENTION His Way(:3a)

Explanation:(:3a) Commendation/Fascination

:3—“And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, & his deadly wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed & followed after the beast;”

“One of his heads”—

“The Antichrist will be a man” “who is indwelt by a powerful demon of the abyss.” “While all unbelievers are children of Satan, no one in human history will be more completely the devil’s child that the Antichrist.”—MNTC

“The final world empire will” embody the source & outflow of “a satanically empowered individual”(the Antichrist)—Thomas-II, p.154

The prophet Daniel’s fourth “beast”(dominion/empire), will be ruled thru “10 horns”(rulers)(Dan. 7:7-8;Rev. 17:12-13). That dominion/empire is described as dreadful & terrible & exceedingly strong(Dan. 7:7).

Dan. 7:7-8—“After this I saw in the night visions, & behold, a fourth beast, dreadful & terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, & trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, & it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, & there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, & a mouth speaking pompous words.”

Rev. 17:12-13—“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, & they will give their power & authority to the beast.”

*“It appears that one head designates the entire existence of the beast at some given time, because the wounded head equates with the whole beast in 13:12, 14.”—R.L. Thomas-II

The beast from the sea is identified with “one of his/its heads”—being the world-encompassing dominion he holds.

17:9-10—“Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, & the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.”