Revelation 12:7-17 (Conquering Accusatory Spirits, Jeff Kliewer)

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Conquering Accusatory Spirits Revelation 12:7-17 May 17, 2020

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Good morning.
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Thank you for letting me join you this morning. Let's sing together. Voice in the dark.
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A song that lights up the stars. One breath that gives life.
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One sovereign power. Who speaks with thunder and fire.
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One Lord. One King. There is no other that can compare to you.
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You are the one alone in greatness.
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The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one who rose in power.
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The one who reigns forever. Jesus, the one true
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God. One light of the world.
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One name. One word. One way to be saved.
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One lamb that was slain. One love above all.
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There is no other that can compare to you. You are the one alone in greatness.
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The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one who rose in power.
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The one who reigns forever. Jesus, the one true
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God. You're the one true God.
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And we have seen the glory of the one and only
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Son of God. Yes, we have seen the glory of the one and only
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Son of God. You are the one alone in greatness.
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The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one who rose in power.
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The one who reigns forever. Jesus, the one true
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God. You're the one true God. You're the one true
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God. Good morning and welcome to Cornerstone Church to our worship service.
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We're excited to have you with us. We know that you're in your family room watching. We're here, but we do know that through the grace of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, we are worshiping together. We are praising the Lord together.
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We are at the throne of God together. So again, welcome.
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We're excited to have you with us. This morning I want to look at Psalm 23. Probably one of the most recognized passages of Scripture in all of the
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Bible. Psalm 23, a beloved psalm, frequently memorized, sung.
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It's a psalm that encourages us, that tells us of the wonderful blessings that we get through our
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Lord. At the end of the psalm, in verse 6, it says,
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And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now there are two aspects to this.
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And clearly the most important aspect is that we know that our future is secure.
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We will dwell with our Lord in his house. We will dwell in the house of the
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Lord forever. We as believers, as children of God, are promised a future in his very presence.
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But here's the other side. We can actually experience the presence of God.
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The Beatitudes had said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. That includes now, as our heart turns towards God, we get to experience in him.
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And we can choose to be dwelling in the presence of the Lord. We have a future hope.
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It is with our God. We have an opportunity today. Now I want to try an analogy, if I can.
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Over the past eight plus weeks, we've been told, we've been encouraged to stay safe.
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We've been told, stay at home. Dwell in your house. Maintain social distance when you go out.
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Be aware of the virus. Check yourself for symptoms. But here's the thing.
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Can you take this picture and put it into a spiritual realm? John 17,
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Jesus prayed these words in verses 15 to 17. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
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They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in thy truth.
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Thy word is truth. We are in a world today that is infected. We're in a world today that's infected by a virus.
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But we're in a world today that's infected by sin. We're in a world today that is being attacked by Satan.
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We are in a world today that is dangerous in this way. So our exhortation to you today is this.
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Seek to dwell in the house of the Lord today. Live your life with hope, with anticipation that we have a future with our
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Lord and Savior in heaven. But live your life today protected from the virus.
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Live your life today abiding in the house of the Lord today. I have a few announcements.
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First one, we're going to go back to this concept of baptism. We've been talking about it and we're really anticipating some time of blessing.
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So I want to give you a couple of actions that you could take. If baptism is something that you have not yet done, is something that you are feeling that the
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Lord is talking to you, because in obedience, as a believer, it's an amazing way to proclaim your faith, to be in obedience and to do it.
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So I'm going to ask you to do one of a few things. You can either contact myself, Pastor Jeff, or one of the elders directly.
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Or you can actually go on and try to get this one. And it's info at Cornerstone.
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And you go in there, you'll be able to write in your desired information.
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You can say that I'm requesting information about baptism and that will be forwarded to one of the pastors.
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Either way, contact us directly, go online. We would love to talk to you about baptism and to go through what baptism means and to get you ready for that blessed event.
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The second is very similar. Many of you have taken the starting point class and have not yet had the opportunity to take that to the level of membership.
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Again, I want to encourage you in one of a couple of ways. You can contact myself, Pastor Jeff, one of the elders directly, and we can get that process started for you.
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There will be an application to fill out. There will be an opportunity to talk. Or you can go on to CornerstoneSJ .ChurchCenter
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.com and there will be an application there and you can start the process.
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If you go online, you will be contacted immediately by one of the pastors and we will talk to you about membership.
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The final announcement would be an invitation. We do know that this is going to come to an end.
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Many of you are having to do virtual worship services. We do know that these seats will be filled up.
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We would love to invite you to come and worship with you. If you've been encouraged by our messages, if you have joined into our worship services and you like the reality that God's Word holds so much truth and so much power in our lives, that you want to come and join with us, we invite you as we get set to open up.
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When that happens, Word will be passed out. We look forward to seeing you. We will be excited to see you.
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And now I'd like to pray. Dear Lord, You know our life situation.
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You are sovereign. None of what is happening now is outside of Your knowledge or outside of Your control.
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You, Lord, have chosen these moments for us. And so as Your Word is able to go out in great ways over the airways, we thank
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You for that. We thank You that Your Word is going out powerfully. We pray for hearts that are being touched.
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We pray, Lord, that even today as Pastor Jeff brings a scripture and we learn about an advocate that we have in the courtroom where Satan accuses us, those words of encouragement will touch hearts, dear
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Lord. So we pray for the power of Your Word. I pray, Lord, this morning for our missionaries around the world.
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Situations are so much different than they would have been a year ago at this time. Our missionaries are under strong stress because of the virus, because of quarantine, because of all the attacks that are out there.
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Protect them, I pray, dear Lord. Empower their word even in these days.
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Be with our missionaries. Lord, for those who are sick, for those impacted by the economy, we pray for Your relief.
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We pray for Your presence in their lives. And we pray for protection, Lord, for those who are working and maintaining their lives.
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Protect us from that virus. And now, Lord, I ask for wisdom for our country's leaders.
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The decisions that need to be made can be made with Your input, with Your Holy Spirit, with Your guidance.
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And for our churches throughout the country, as we seek to minister Your Word into a lost world and into the hearts of those who are part of the kingdom, give us wisdom also.
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Pray now that you be with Pastor Jeff as he opens up once again Revelation 12 and takes us into that courtroom where Satan is attempting to accuse, but we have an advocate.
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We have one greater standing by our side. We pray for this word of truth, this word of encouragement, that it would touch our hearts.
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We pray for these things in Jesus' name. Amen. O tell of His might,
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O sing of His grace, Whose robes the light and canopy space,
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His chariots of wrath the deep under clouds form, And dark is the path on the wings of the storm.
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You alone are the matchless King, You alone be all majesty,
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Your glory's that one tongue can recite, You breathe the air,
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You shine the light. O measureless might, ineffable love,
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While angels delight to worship above, Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end,
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Our maker, defender, redeemer and friend.
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You alone are the matchless King, You alone be all majesty,
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Your glory's that one tongue can recite, You breathe the air,
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You shine the light. You shine the light.
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You shine the light. In the darkness we are waiting,
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Without hope, without light, So from heaven You came running,
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There was mercy in Your eyes, To fulfill the law and prophets,
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To a virgin came the word, From the throne of endless glory,
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To a cradle in the dirt. Praise the
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Father, praise the Son, Praise the
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Spirit, three in one, God of glory, majesty,
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Praise forever to the King of kings.
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To reveal the kingdom coming, And to reconcile the lost,
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To redeem the whole creation, You did not despise the cross,
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For even in Your suffering, You sought to the other side,
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Knowing this was our salvation, Jesus for our sake
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You died. Praise the
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Father, praise the Son, Praise the
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Spirit, three in one, God of glory, majesty,
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Praise forever to the King of kings.
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In the morning that You rose, All of heaven held its breath,
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Till the soul was moved for good, And the Lamb had conquered death,
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And the death rose from their tombs, And the angel stood in awe,
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For the souls of all who come To the Father are restored.
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And the church of Christ was born, Then the Spirit lit the flame,
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Now the gospel truth of all Shall not kneel and shall not faint,
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By His blood and in His name, I am free, I am free,
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For the love of Jesus Christ, Who had resurrected me.
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Praise the Father, praise the
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Son, Praise the Spirit, three in one,
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God of glory, majesty,
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Praise forever to the King of kings.
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Praise forever to the King of kings.
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I'm forgiven because You were forsaken, I'm accepted,
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You were condemned, I'm alive and well,
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Your Spirit is within me, Because You died and rose again.
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Amazing love, how can it be
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That You, my King, would die for me?
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Amazing love, I know it's true,
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And it's my joy to honor You In all
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I do, I honor You. I'm forgiven because You were forsaken,
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I'm accepted, You were condemned,
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I'm alive and well, Your Spirit is within me,
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Because You died and rose again. Amazing love, how can it be
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That You, my King, would die for me?
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Amazing love, I know it's true,
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And it's my joy to honor You In all
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I do, I honor You.
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Jesus, You are my King. Jesus, You are my
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King. Good morning, let's pray.
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Father, we come to You this morning because we want to see Jesus. We ask that You would reveal
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Your Son to us. We pray that through the Scripture, we would behold the glory of the
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Son of God, that our eyes would be open to see who He is and all that He has done for us and continues to do for us.
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Lord, I pray that You would set Your people free this morning from accusing spirits, spirits that deride them, that make
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You small in their eyes and hold out sin and charges against them that are in fact covered by the blood of the
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Lamb. We pray that way, Lord, that Christians would be delivered this morning from anxious thoughts, from accusing thoughts, from fear of man.
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We pray also, Lord, that those who do not yet understand and know the
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Christ and understand what He has done, that this would be the day that they would see their need for the
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Defender, for the Advocate. God, we want to see Jesus and we ask that You would reveal Him in Your Word this morning.
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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Imagine the voices that Mary Magdalene heard in her head.
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Imagine when she was tormented by seven demons, how accused she was.
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But there came a day when Jesus came to her and set her free, kicked those demons to the curb, released
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Mary and brought her into the joy of her Master. Imagine the freedom of Mary Magdalene.
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This scene is dramatized in a new TV series called The Chosen. I recommend it.
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I ask that you go watch it. There will be many seasons, so you always have to watch anything that's done and produced with a
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Berean eye. Act 1711 always applies, so continue to be a Berean as you watch the series.
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But I've enjoyed the first eight episodes. In that movie, the first episode, now, spoiler alert, so you might need to skip this part if you haven't watched it yet.
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Or if you've already seen it, you can listen. But I won't say too much either way.
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You already know that Mary is delivered from demons. Jesus comes to her in an incredibly touching scene and using
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Isaiah 43, verse 1, says to her, I have called you by name. You are mine.
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And that claim over her life is the moment that she is set free. It is a beautiful and powerful moment from Isaiah 43, 1, setting her free from the accusing voices.
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Recommend it. The guy who made this movie is named Dallas Jenkins.
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He's an interesting character. His voice actually sounds a lot like Michael Stockland's voice. So if you're ever watching him, just listen to his voice and close your eyes, and you'll think you're listening to Michael.
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So Dallas Jenkins, he's a great guy. He's actually the son of Jerry B. Jenkins, who wrote the
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Left Behind series with Tim LaHaye. So Dallas Jenkins, in making these eight episodes, and there's going to be future seasons as well,
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Dallas Jenkins preaches the gospel. He steps out in faith to bring to people the message of the good news of Christ.
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And as he steps out in faith, accusing voices on the Internet and through hate mail and I'm sure phone calls and in person, accusing voices come at him every day or every week.
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How could that be? Well, they accuse him of, you know, using unsaved actors in the movie or of distributing in channels that involve unsafe people or,
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I don't know, maybe even adding to the scripture is one of the accusations. I think he's innocent of all those charges, but the accusations come.
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Whenever a person steps up and steps out in faith to make
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Christ known, you can be sure that accusations will come. This was actually true from the beginning of Christianity in the
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Roman Empire. Christians were accused of being cannibals because the rumor spread that they eat the body and blood of Jesus and not understanding what that means, they accused
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Christians of being cannibals. The Christians had love feasts and the claim was made that it was sexual immorality at the love feasts, when in fact it was fellowship over a meal.
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When Rome was burned down, which was done by, well, what was his name?
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Nero, who burned down the city of Rome. He turned and accused
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Christians of burning down his city. Of course, he burned it down because he wanted to rebuild and make a glorious palace and new design.
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So Christians are often accused and it seemed that in Rome, when the gospel was spreading the most, that's when the accusations came.
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In Philippians 1, verse 12, the gospel is advancing, but as Paul is bringing that gospel forth, there's accusers that come in and want to stir up trouble for him in order that he would be condemned to death.
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Accusations. Accusations are among the most painful cuts. People accusing the brothers.
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I've even heard it said that a Christian's ability to lead is a direct function of his ability to endure pain because the more you step out in leadership, the more you will be accused as Satan is resisting the forward progress of the gospel.
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Acts 1, 12 and following. I'm sorry, Philippians 1, 12 and following. But here's the good news of our passages.
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We come now to Revelation 12, verse 7 and following. There's coming a day when the accuser of the brethren is going to be thrown down.
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There's coming a day when accusations will cease and until that day, we can still and already trounce on the enemy, crushing his head under our feet.
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We do that by the blood of the lamb and by the word of the testimony. Let's see that beginning in Revelation 12, 7 and following.
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Now, I do like to give a little sub -introduction before we read to set the stage of where we are in the text.
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So just reviewing from last week, John has been shown a mega simeon, a great sign in heaven.
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And it's mega because it's important, it's large, but it's also, it's wide -angled.
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It's a panorama. So John is shown a panorama view of all of history, going back to the start of the war between Satan and God, carrying through to the midpoint of history where B .C.
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and A .D. meet at the birth of Jesus Christ, where Satan desires to devour the child that's born of the woman.
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Of course, the woman is Israel, who's the chosen people that are chosen by God to mediate blessing to the world.
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That blessing to the world is the promised seed, singular seed, the one, the male child,
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Christ, born of the woman, coming through Israel, the line of Israel, and born into the world.
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When the devil fails to kill him, remember he tried in the time of Herod to kill all the two -year -old boys and under.
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Well, Jesus escaped to Egypt and then grew up and then died the death of sinners, rose from the grave, ascended to the right hand of the
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Father and sat down at his glorious right hand. In this, verse 5, Jesus is caught up to God and to his throne.
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The devil fails to kill Jesus. And then the woman, Israel, flees the devil and this brings us to where we are in the text.
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She is at a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1 ,260 days.
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So, what are those 1 ,260 days? I say those are the last three and a half years of the tribulation.
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So, the first part of the tribulation, we see this in Revelation 11, involves the two witnesses proclaiming the good news.
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There's a rebuilt temple where Jewish people are offering ritual sacrifice of animals in the rebuilt temple.
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Now, this is anti -Christ because Christ is our temple and his final sacrifice is complete.
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There should be no more animal sacrifices and the two witnesses are outside the temple crying out against that and preaching
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Christ crucified and risen. So, the two witnesses then are cut down, they rise from the dead and ascend to heaven.
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The anti -Christ is involved in the killing of the two witnesses and then desecrates the temple.
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The abomination of desolations. He sets himself up as God in the temple.
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And at that point, the Jewish people recognize that the two witnesses were right.
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It doesn't say in Revelation 11 that they refused to repent. It says they gave glory to God.
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They saw an earthquake that killed 7 ,000 people. They saw the two witnesses rise and ascend to heaven and now the
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Jewish people, seeing the anti -Christ in the temple, they turn and they mourn for the one that they pierced.
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According to the prophecy of Zechariah, they believe in the Christ. So, the Jewish people are coming to faith and now they're kept safe for three and a half years.
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This is the 1260 days. God will keep a believing remnant of his people, the ethnic
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Israel that he created, he will preserve them until the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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So, let's read. All that to bring us out of the sub -introduction into the text.
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Because you've got to know what this word now means. Verse 7, Now war arose in heaven. When? Halfway through the tribulation.
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Now, MacArthur disagrees with me on that. He thinks that the now is the start of the very tribulation when the church is raptured.
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And the war is demons trying to stop the rapture from happening.
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Very interesting theory that they're fighting the rapture and these Christians that are being caught up to heaven, demons are trying to stop it and they're fighting the angels for the souls and bodies of men.
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I don't hold that view. I think Walvoord is right here, but I think it's the text that dictates to us that the now corresponds with Revelation 11, continuing chronologically through that story.
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So, Revelation 12. Ready? Verse 7, 8 and 9. Big idea here.
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Satan is going to lose his place. As the God of this age, the ruler of the prince, he's the prince of the power of the air, he's going to be cast down from where he currently is.
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Now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
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And the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
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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.
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So, Michael, he arises. This was actually prophesied in Daniel 12, verse 1, that in the end times,
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Michael will arise and war will ensue. And Michael and Satan have kind of been at each other for a long time.
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I think God has restrained Michael from what he's allowed to do with the warring angels on God's side.
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They allow Satan a certain amount of latitude in the heavenlies. But we know that Michael and Satan actually disputed over the body of Moses.
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Go ahead and read Jude 9 later on. Very interesting. They disputed over the body of Moses when
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Moses died. Evidently, Satan thought he had a claim to that body and Satan and Michael fought and evidently that happened.
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But Michael never even pleaded his own authority and his own power against Satan but rather said, the
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Lord rebuke you. So this war has been going on for a long time. Here's where Michael wins it.
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He kicks Satan out of heaven, throws him to the earth. He was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
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Notice that it's Michael that initiates the fight because it says that the devil and his angels fought back.
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So when God said go, Michael took the war to Lucifer, to Satan, kicked him out of heaven and won the victory.
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Verse 9, this great dragon, that's the sign of what he looks like. I don't think he physically has seven heads.
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I don't know. Maybe he does. He's definitely an ugly creature. He's thrown down. He's called that ancient serpent.
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So that brings us back to the Garden of Eden in the ancient times when in the
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Garden of Eden, the devil appeared to Adam and Eve as a serpent and he deceived
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Adam and Eve. There was a reversal of rule where Adam and Eve should have crushed the head of the serpent.
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Instead, they submitted to him and the rule was reversed. So that's how Satan became the god of this world.
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Still with God, the true God overall, but now the world system has been thrown under the control of the evil one.
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So he is the ancient serpent. He's called the devil. Diabolos means accuser, slanderer.
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This is really the message today as we get into the accuser of the brethren. This is who
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Satan is. He's an accuser. He has a spirit of accusation, charges against God's elect.
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And Satan, which means adversary, opposer, resister. He's the deceiver of the whole world.
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Again, this is where I get Ephesians 2 -2, the prince of the power of the air. 2 Corinthians 4 -4, the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
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Satan is the god of this age. He is the prince of the power of the air.
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He has this position where he can go at some place in heaven and present himself before God, just like he did in Job 1.
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He still has that access point until now in the text, he loses it. He's thrown down.
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So we go to verse 10. One of my favorite verses, 10 and 11, of Revelation 12.
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I've gone back to these verses so many times. I love these verses. Verse 10 is pure gospel because we see an accuser.
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So the scene is set for a courtroom. The accuser is like this prosecuting attorney who has a list of charges.
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Every time you slip up, brother in Christ, he is there to press on that point.
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And as he accuses in heaven, there's a demon on earth taking orders from his supreme leader and whispering in your ear about how you do not live up to the
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Christian life. You're not worthy. Harassing you. Accusing you.
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But the gospel truth here is that we have an advocate. Verse 10.
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And I heard a loud voice. Megalin phonin. Loud voice.
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What does that sound like? Megaphone. Picture a megaphone. But the angel doesn't even need a megaphone.
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He's just got a loud voice in heaven. And he says, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our
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God and the authority of his Christ have come. So Christ is exalted as the one who saves, the one who has power, the one who's bringing a kingdom.
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And the earthly kingdom is pretty much on the way at this point. We saw this anticipatory moment in Revelation 11 when the seventh trumpet blows.
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Now it's come. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his
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Christ. Again here, with the blowing of the trumpet, it foresees the consummation of everything when
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Christ sets his foot on the Mount of Olives and splits it in two. Zechariah 14.
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And he rules from Jerusalem in an earthly kingdom. The kingdom has come. It's all foreseen in this verse.
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It's as good as done. The seventh trumpet is blown. Within the seventh trumpet will be seven bowls of wrath and the kind of wrapping up of all things.
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Babylon has to be judged and the false religious system and all of these things have to be judged.
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But it's as good as done. Christ has conquered. In fact, he conquered on the cross.
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This is just giving the sentencing and the execution of Satan that was already won at Calvary.
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Christ crushed him on the cross. Genesis 3 .15 happened when Jesus died, pierced through the heel but crushing the head of the serpent.
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Now he's sentenced, thrown down. The execution has begun.
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So what does this Satan do? He's the accuser of our brothers who accuses them day and night before our
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God. Many Christians struggle with accusatory voices. Maybe at some point in your life you made mistakes.
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You lost a marriage because of choices that you made. You ruined a relationship with somebody that you love and you condemn yourself because of the sinful things that you're guilty of.
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Maybe you have a past that involves sexual immorality or different kinds of sin that still plague you in your thought life today and the devil loves to come as the accuser of the brethren and speak those accusations against you.
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But the Bible tells us that we have an intercessor. The Bible says, when you get a chance to read it, it's
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Hebrews 7 .25. We have an intercessor whoever lives.
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Christ is our advocate. So even though the devil accuses, we have a defender.
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We have one who stands in between us and those accusations and he bears the guilt that we carry into himself.
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He's carried that away to the cross and he stands and pleads not our righteousness but his own righteousness.
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You see, the accusation is made as if we earned it. But we earned nothing from God.
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I don't stand here as a preacher because I'm a holy man in my own righteousness.
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I'm better than no one. I'm a chief of sinners. I stand here clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
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He has given me his righteousness that he earned on my behalf. My advocate makes war for me in the courtroom of God defending me against the accusations of the enemy.
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He even washes my mind, my conscience from my own sinful choices that still plague me.
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We're all plagued by sin until we're glorified. Glorification is that final step where we are removed from our sin nature itself.
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But until that day, until we die or until Christ comes, we're still going to struggle with sin. And if we allowed the accusing voices every time we sin to control us, we would be neutered.
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We would be powerless in our efforts to serve the living God. But the blood of Jesus cleanses our consciences from dead works in order to serve the living
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God. So when the accuser comes and says, Oh, you can't go tell her about Christ. You'd be a hypocrite.
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The blood of Jesus cleanses your conscience from whatever dead works that you could go serve the living
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God and tell her that Jesus died and rose again. You go out in power, not in your own strength, but in the strength that he supplies.
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And you stand in the righteousness given. It's an alien righteousness, a foreign righteousness.
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This is not your own merit that you stand in. It's that your defense attorney has earned for you by his active obedience to everything
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God ever commanded. Jesus obeyed God perfectly, sinless, flawless on the earth.
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Laying down his life on the cross, he passively obeyed God, giving his life in the place of sinners like us.
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Ascended to the right hand of the Father, rising from the dead. Ascended to the right hand of the Father. And so he pleads his own righteousness on our behalf.
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He credits us with that righteousness. And so, Romans 8 -1, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
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Sorry, that's 2 Corinthians 5. But Romans 8 -1, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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You're not condemned. Although the accuser says you are, the Bible says you are not, when you stand in the righteousness of Christ.
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Having been born again, you demonstrate that new birth by being baptized in water, being buried with him in the likeness of his death, and rising in the likeness of his resurrection.
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You therefore identify with Christ in the water. And so, we recognize that you are in him.
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And he is your defense attorney. Beautiful verse, isn't it? Well, here's another great truth in verse 11.
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Even until this day, when the proclamation is made and every accusation falls silent, that's verse 10, the accusations have to cease.
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He's kicked out of the courtroom. He can't even appear there anymore. Satan is thrown to the earth. In verse 11, even until then, these accused ones keep conquering him.
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You see, not only does God conquer Satan, he delights to crush him underneath our feet.
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Romans 16, 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet.
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So Christ is the conqueror, but working through us by his power, he delights to have victory over the enemy.
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The way Adam should have crushed Satan in the garden, now we as Christians do trample on serpents.
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Verse 11, I'll tell you how we do it. They have conquered him by the blood of the
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Lamb and by the word of their testimony. We don't conquer him by our own strength, by the force of our power or our might, but by the
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Spirit of God. We claim the blood of the Lamb. We preach the blood of the
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Lamb, the word of their testimony. And so we trample on the accusations of the enemy.
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See, the issue here today in this passage is that he's the accuser. He's in the courtroom.
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Satan is accusing us there. But we here on earth, we hear those accusations.
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They come in the form of, the hardest thing is when they come from your own mind, your own self. You're accusing yourself because you're remembering past things that are under the blood.
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You need to take those to the cross where you first were saved and say that that cleansing fountain that washed me there,
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I claim that now. The blood of the Lamb has cleansed me. Not because you say so, but because in Isaiah 43, 1, as God said to Israel, he says to you,
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I have called you by name. You are mine. Believe that promise that's spoken over you.
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As you've believed in Christ, he has called you by name. You did not choose him.
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He has chosen you. He's called you by name. You didn't just say, I am his. He said, you are mine.
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So claiming that victory by the blood of the Lamb, you trample over the accusations of the enemy.
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You go forth preaching. The preaching of the word conquers
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Satan. He hates it. He can't stand against it. When you go forth, when you share this gospel sermon with your friends on Facebook, when you email this link to your friends, you are trampling the enemy.
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When you yourself go outside on this beautiful day, well, actually I'm preaching on a Wednesday.
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I hope it's beautiful on a Sunday. When you go out and preach the gospel and all your neighbors are out and you stop somebody across the street and say, hey,
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I want to tell you about my savior. You will sound foolish at first, but I bet they'll listen.
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I find that they listen. You trample on the enemy and the more you go, the more you advance the gospel, the more accusations come.
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I've seen this throughout my entire life. When I was in college and the Lord lit the fire in me to begin to minister, accusations began to come.
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We were running a fellowship of Christian athletes. Basketball teammates were coming to faith.
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We had another Bible study in the dorms. A number of things were going on. So I get called into the dean's office and someone who was evidently the head of the pride club at my college accused me of burning down his boat.
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He said that I'm a likely suspect because I'm an evangelical leader on campus.
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And so the dean calls me into the office and I'm accused and questioned for a burning of a boat in the harbor at the college because this college
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I went to was on the water, which is pretty sweet. They had a waterfront program. But this guy evidently had a boat.
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Well, later they discovered that some party animals had been just climbing out on his boat and made a fire there, some fire pit, and it got out of control.
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They figured it all out. But that accusation came against me, not because of basketball, not because of school, not because of any other thing, but because people knew that I was preaching
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Christ. And so it is. As we go out preaching, accusations start coming.
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I mean, just this week, I think I've been accused of a number of things. One, and, you know, listen, they roll off me like water off a duck's back.
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In fact, they'll tell another story. This is funny. My friend and I, about a couple years after college, we were both seminary students at Dallas Seminary, and we went into this coffee shop, and he recognized a man in another booth as the guy who owns all of the,
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I don't even want to say the word for the little ears, but these establishments in town that are adult entertainment.
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It's nothing adult about it, nothing grown up about it. But I don't know how my friend recognized this person.
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Evidently, he was a famous guy. And so he said, that's him. And I said, oh, okay.
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So we went over and shared the gospel with him. And he came back with some atheist argument about if God is good, how is there suffering in the world, you know, the theodicy problem.
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And then answering that as best I could, I went on to the prophecies of Jesus Christ to show the reality of who
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Christ is. And this man said, you know, water slips off, I'm sorry, no.
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He said, logic slips off you like water off of a duck's back. I never forgot him saying that, but I've always taken it not as logic because I think
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I can be logical, but accusations slip off me like water off of a duck's back.
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People accuse all the time. Accusations. This week, there was a preacher who says that any preacher who didn't continue to meet through this pandemic, but is instead doing online church, that that preacher is a feckless coward.
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And he said, you people who have a preacher like that should band together and oust that pastor from his pulpit.
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And then he said other derogatory things of that nature, that you should never tithe to that church, you shouldn't give to that church because your pastor is a feckless coward.
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That's the charge. Now, interestingly, when I emailed him back on his public forums, he runs the, what he says is the third largest
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Christian media outlet in the world, at least as it's devoted to apologetics, evidently. When I emailed him or texted back to the site where he's posting these kind of things, he blocks me.
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He runs and hides. I'll get to that in a minute because I have a point that comes with this, a very important point.
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Then another guy emails that you know, this church here, our church, we are compromised and the preacher is a compromised preacher because I refuse to say that if you send your children to public school that you're a great sinner.
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He does, this person does not understand Romans 14. He doesn't understand that each person needs to be led forth by the
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Spirit making decisions in the areas of homeschooling or private school or public school, but he makes this accusation.
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This particular person came to our church, got email addresses because he was going to go out leading people in evangelism.
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When not enough of them went with him, he began to accuse this church and use those email addresses to attack the pastor.
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Par for the course. Seriously, water off a duck's back. Then what was the other one?
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Oh, a lady wrote in yesterday because of the Geno Jennings thing where Geno Jennings goes out attacking the
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Trinity, attacking the idea of believer's baptism as we preach it, attacking
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Christians who say that, well, his teaching is that you have to speak in tongues in order to be saved and we disagree with that teaching.
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I confronted that teaching with Scripture after Scripture, Philippians 2, John 17, 5,
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John 1, 1, Hebrews 1, 2, and Genesis 1, 26, and just all of this scriptural argumentation presented there.
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But what I get back is accusations. No one can engage the Scripture.
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All of these people who respond to Geno Jennings' debate on YouTube attack me because they cannot handle the
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Scripture. The one that I thought was funny today, I think it came in yesterday, said this,
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Jennings would have smashed your skull with the Bible.
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That's pleasant. You sound like a fool trying to rise up against God's prophet. You see, accusations like this come all the time.
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But what Christians need to understand, and some of the people who, I don't know, the friend that I've mentioned who is taking down email addresses and sending things out, some of these are brothers in Christ, but they have developed, here's the point, an accusatory spirit.
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And this is very dangerous to the body of Christ. In Revelation 12, verse 10, there is one who accuses them day and night before our
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God. An accusatory spirit is completely opposite the spirit of grace.
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We are saved by grace through faith. Our eyes should be fixed on Christ and advancing
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His kingdom, triumphing, moving forward by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
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But instead, what happens is Christians or non -Christians who are only feigning
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Christianity begin to attack the very body of Christ, the bride of Christ.
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This is a dangerous thing. Here's how you can recognize it. This is important. There are marks of truthfulness.
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There is a teaching in the Bible that we need to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
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Told that in Ephesians. In Romans 16, we're told to mark those who cause divisions, false teachers, and avoid them.
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So we have to mark and warn people about them. That's true. We're told in Titus 1 .9, an elder has a special responsibility to rebuke those who contradict.
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So there is a place for calling out false prophets, for emailing and writing and doing blogs and articles, discernment ministry, all of that.
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There is a place for that. But here is how you know the spirit of truth versus the spirit of slander, which is an accusatory spirit.
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The spirit of truth delights in the truth. It desires reconciliation, and it's not afraid of things coming into the light.
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So I mentioned the person who I began to engage online. The first thing he did was block me.
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But truth believes Proverbs 18 .17. One man seems right until another comes and examines him.
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Or James 1 .19. Each one should be slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to listen.
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A truthful spirit is willing to listen. And so I always check my heart before ever confronting a false teaching, and I ask myself the question, would
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I stand and defend the thing that I'm saying face to face with this person in public?
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If it's a public teacher, you should offer a public rebuke because this is a teaching that's not just a private matter.
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This is influencing the church at large, so we do need to engage publicly with people.
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But unless you're willing to stand up and debate a point that you're making, you have no business making it.
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Stand in the truth. Proverbs 18 .17, James 1 .19. And so the last part of our text, we're moving quickly through it here.
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What happens when the devil is kicked down? First, it's bad for the world because he's not a good leader to follow.
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Verse 12. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short.
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The devil now kicked out of heaven will be a terrible, terrifying force on earth.
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But now what about Israel, these believers? Back to Revelation 12 .6, we see the end of the matter here.
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13 to 16. 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.
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So that's Israel. This is the remnant of ethnic Israel. Believing Israel now. 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.
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Again, a time is a year. Times is two more years and half a time. So three and a half years corresponds exactly with the 1260 days she will be cared for in the wilderness.
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Even as God cared for the Israelites in the wilderness, feeding them manna, protecting them, the serpent, verse 15, pours water like a river out of his mouth.
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Again, this is the simeon. This is a sign. This is imagery that it doesn't literally mean that there's a flood coming at Israel.
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It means there's a flood of attack, of accusation, even a violent attempt, murderous rage to destroy as nations today are trying to destroy
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Israel from all sides. Iran just recently moved rocket launchers into Syria.
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Israel struck and then Iran had to pull them out. There's constantly efforts to destroy
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Israel. Here, the devil himself is trying to do it, but even so, God protects them.
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Why? The earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.
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As you saw, the great earthquakes and the things that leveled the seas and reduced the heights of mountains and changed the topography of the earth in the signs of the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments, the earth itself becomes a refuge for Israel.
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Many scholars think that what happens is as the Antichrist is murderously seeking to kill the
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Jews, they flee into the wilderness and go to the area of Edom. Some people think they even hide in Petra, which is that fortress where it has a small opening but then opens to a vast expanse and they're protected there.
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Whether it's there or in some other rocks and nooks and crannies, Israel is protected by God.
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The Antichrist, who's empowered by the dragon himself, is unable to kill them and they remain in hiding.
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Zechariah 13 has a parallel passage to this. At the end time, God protects his people.
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Two -thirds have been killed, but one -third remains. Zechariah 13, 8.
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And finally, then the dragon became furious with the woman, couldn't kill her, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus, and he stood on the sand of the sea.
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So the devil, now in his murderous rage, seeks to kill the offspring of the woman, the rest of her offspring.
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Of course, the first offspring here, the firstborn, Jesus the Christ. Romans 8, verse 29.
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There we see that Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers. We, in this sense, are the offspring.
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Believers, Gentile believers, who have now come into Christ, grafted in, and belong as offspring.
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Satan's trying to kill believers. And it looks to me, if you take the parallel here with verse 11, that Gentile believers are put to death.
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But they conquer him because they do not love their lives even unto death.
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And so, being willing to die, rather than to renounce their testimony, these believers are martyred.
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And they escape tribulation in the sense, being killed, they're now rescued to heaven, where they will dwell with their
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Savior forever. So in application, let your entire defense be the righteousness of Christ.
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Accusations will come against you, from the outside, people accusing you. More painfully, accusations will come from your own mind and from demonic voices that attack you for your past, that seek to drown you in the guilt of your own sin.
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You overcome them by the blood of the Lamb. Let Christ and His righteousness be your defense.
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You do have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He does make intercession for you.
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And though the accuser speaks, the voice of Jesus is louder and conquers him.
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And there's coming a day when Satan will be silenced. These voices will not go on forever. You are redeemed because he called you by name and said, you are mine.
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And I say that to all of you who have believed in Christ. Next, stay focused on the blood of the
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Lamb and the word of the testimony and find relief from these accusatory spirits.
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Lastly, you avoid developing an accusatory spirit yourself.
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You must be very careful not to develop a spirit of slander. Truthfulness means that you could stand up and defend everything you say or everything that you post.
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It's not enough that you're sincere in posting something. Before you post anything, even if it's against your worst enemy, a political figure, somebody that you're convinced is demonic.
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Even then, anything that you say or communicate online, you must be willing to and able to defend by cross -examination.
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If you were examined Proverbs 18, 17 style on the thing that you said, you must be willing and able to stand before you post that.
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Truthfulness, not sincerity. You could be sincere all day long, but untruthful.
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Truthfulness is the issue. Can you defend the truth? James 1, 19 is a good guiding verse to end with.
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Be quick to hear, slow to speak. Slow to anger. So maybe you're like Mary Magdalene, and you've been hearing these voices of condemnation.
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Jesus' blood will never fail you. Maybe you're like Paul and his victory in Philippians 1 where you're triumphing.
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Jesus' blood will help you continue to triumph even when people start sniping. And you'll get a lot of it.
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Maybe you're like Paul when he was failing. The great apostle Paul, even he had a
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Roman 7 moment where what he wanted to do he didn't do, and what he didn't want to do he did.
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He fell into some kind of sin. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
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Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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Put to death the accusatory voices by the blood of the Lamb. And I thought one last thing.
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Maybe your marriage is hurting. What I have found is that marriages struggle because of accusatory voices.
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Instead of looking to accuse the other person in the marriage, look to your own self.
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Ask for the grace of God for the areas in your own life that you're falling short and seek to change those things rather than accusing the other person and trying to change them from the outside.
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We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of the testimony. Keep your eyes on Christ and the goodness of who
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He is. Don't look at the shortcomings of your spouse. And yes, there's a time to discuss things in truth, but don't develop that accusatory spirit.
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It ruins marriages. Accusations will come to an end. Until that day, we must endure and continue conquering by the blood of the
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Lamb and by the word of the testimony. Let's pray. And so God, we thank you for this revelation that Satan will be cast down.
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The accusations will end. And even until that day, we have authority in Christ to trample on serpents by the blood of the
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Lamb, by the word of the testimony. I pray for our church, Lord, that you would keep us safe from accusing spirits, that those voices would just slip off us just like water off of a duck's back.
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I pray, Lord God, that we would continue to focus on Christ and Him crucified and know nothing else, that we would preach the blood of the
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Lamb, that we would conquer in His name. Make us strong and focused. And I pray that you would weed out from us accusatory spirits, that we would have unity in the body and joy.
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Thank you, Lord, that you have granted that. Thank you, Lord God, for the joy that is in the body, as you have made us one.
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We ask for more of your grace. And I pray especially for those who have been struggling with accusatory voices.
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Lord, I pray that today they would stand secure under the blood of the Lamb and speak the word of the testimony.
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In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Christ alone
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What is our only confidence That our souls to Him belong
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Who holds our days Within His hand What comes apart
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From His command And what will keep Us to the end
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The love of Christ In which we stand
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess
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Christ our hope in life and death The troubled soul
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God is good God is good Where is
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His grace And goodness known In our grave
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Redeemer's blood Who holds our faith When fears arise
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Who stands above The stormy trial Who sends the waves
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That bring us nigh Unto the shore The rock of Christ Oh, sing
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Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Christ our hope in life and death
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Unto the grave What will we sing Christ He lives
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Christ He lives And what reward Will heaven bring
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Everlasting life within There we will rise
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To meet the Lord Then sin and death Will be destroyed
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And we will feast In endless joy When Christ is ours
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Forevermore Forevermore Springs eternal
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Oh, sing Hallelujah We confess
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Christ our hope in life and death Oh, sing
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Springs eternal
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Oh, sing Christ our hope in life and death