How Does Satan Accuse the Brethren?

Am I listening to the voice of Satan? He is referred to as the great accuser of the brethren. So am I listening to the voice of the enemy as he accuses me, the scribes and the Pharisees in that account of the woman caught in adultery, their conduct is diabolical.

They are acting like Satan. I mean, it is straight up Zechariah 3, right, where Joshua the high priest is standing before the Lord and Satan's there. What's Satan doing? He's accusing Joshua. He is pointing out his dirtiness and his unworthiness.

Well, the angel of the Lord, i .e. the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, is standing there and basically says, Joshua, it's okay because I'm going to take your dirty clothes from you and I'm going to give you my robes to wear.

Right? So, and that's, we'll get to the voice of the Savior in a minute, but are we listening to the accusations of Satan that continue to tell us and continue to bring to mind all of the ways that we're unworthy of God, all of the ways that we have failed God, all of the ways that we have sinned yet again?

You have, you've done it again. Like, yeah, God, maybe he's been merciful to you in the past, but not now. You have done this too many times. Your repentance isn't genuine. Yeah, there's mercy with God, but not for you.

Right? These are the accusations that Satan continues to hurl at us. Or Jesus says, John 8, he was a liar from the beginning and he's the father of lies. Are we listening to his lies about God even? What did he do in the garden?

You can't really trust him. Like, he's holding out on you. Like, he's not who you think he is. He's not who he's told you he is. So Satan does that over and over again. Or the lies that he tells me about how God feels about he's frustrated with you.

His patience, he doesn't have any more for you. He is so indignant toward you and so angry. He's just going to pour his wrath out on you. That's what Satan tells us. It lies about God. Or he says, hey, yeah, you got God's favor.

You're good with God right now, but if you want to remain good with him, you want to remain in his good graces, you better get to work. You better do your part. Because if you don't keep doing this, or if you stumble back into that, don't you think for one second, don't you presume on God's kindness?

You know, don't you think that he's going to continue to show you his favor if you don't get it together? These are the lies of Satan. God tempts no one, but Satan does. He tempted Jesus. He tempted Adam and Eve.

Do we think he doesn't tempt us? He does. Is he in your head, you know, in terms of the voice, the narratives,.

The words you're listening to? When we start questioning the goodness of God and his love and affection towards us, we should go, whoa, the source of that is evil. Like that is not how God wants me to think about him or my relationship with him.

But the problem is, is because we don't know where the source is from and we don't identify it, at times it lingers and it stays and it actually influences our hearts. And honestly, Justin, really the only way of knowing a lie is to know the truth, right?

Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Make something of yourself. Are you listening to your flesh in that regard? Because that is not how it works in God's economy. He gives us life. He gives us salvation.

We receive it as a gift from his hand. We don't earn it. But am I listening to that voice from within that's like, man, I gotta do my part. I gotta contribute. Just some of the ways that the flesh speaks.

Are we listening to that? But the voice of Jesus says a number of things to us. I don't condemn you. Like you're not condemned. You're forgiven. You're guilt. You're absolved of it. It's all been taken.

I took it on myself. I died for it. You don't bear it anymore. Let me have it. You know, it's been handled. That's what he says to us.