FBC Morning Light – December 13, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Tuesday morning to you, and again today we're reading in the book of Revelation, and that's a fascinating book, and there's all kinds of fantastic visions and so forth involved in the writing of this revelation of Jesus Christ.

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And again, let me encourage you as you read the book of Revelation to be asking yourself the question, what does this reveal to me about Jesus?

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Because that's what the purpose of the book is, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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And in chapter 12 we read this very fascinating vision of the woman, the child, and the dragon, and of course this is a picture of Satan's attempts to overthrow

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Jesus and destroy Jesus and his failures to do so. But what I want to really zero in on is in verses 11 and 12, and that which enables

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God's faithful people to overcome the accuser, and of course the accuser is the slanderer, it's

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Satan, it's the wicked one. What is it that enables you to overcome him, to keep him from destroying your soul for all eternity?

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Well, you see three different things that are mentioned in verse 11. It says, and they overcame him, this is the brethren who have been accused by the accuser, they overcame him, the accuser, by the blood of the

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Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

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So you see the three different elements in the lives of those who overcome the accuser of the brethren.

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The first of those elements is that they overcame him by the blood of the

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Lamb. So here's the thing, if Jesus had not died, if there was no bloodshed on the cross of Calvary, there would be absolutely no way to overcome the wicked one.

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We would be utterly destroyed by him. It is the blood of the Lamb that enables the overcoming of the accuser.

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Those who have, by God's grace, been saved from eternal damnation, they've been saved because God graciously works in their lives to see who

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Jesus is, to understand what Jesus did, and then to put all of their faith and trust in him, and on the basis of that faith in Christ alone, and what

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Christ has done in his work on that cross, on the basis of that, they are eternally secure.

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And because they are eternally secure, there's no one that can pluck them out of the

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Father's hand. There's no one that can pluck them out of Jesus' hand. This is the promise of Jesus himself.

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And so it is by the blood of the Lamb that the accuser is overcome, because he can accuse all day long.

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He can accuse until he has run out of things to say, and then he repeats them again, and it won't make any difference.

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He cannot destroy those who are Christ, those who are bought by his blood.

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It is by the blood of the Lamb that they overcome the accuser. But there's a second thing. It says, by the blood of the

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Lamb, and then by the word of their testimony. That is, the blood of the

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Lamb has personally been applied to them. And those of you who know Jesus as your Savior, you have a testimony to that effect.

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You can proclaim with great assurance, once I was lost, but now

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I am found. The amazing grace of God has saved a wretch like me.

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This is your testimony, that you were once dead in trespasses and sins, but God in his grace has made you alive through the personal work of Jesus.

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And this is your testimony. In other words, that blood of the Lamb, your testimony is that the blood of the

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Lamb has been applied to me, to me personally. And so again, the accuser may accuse all that the accuser wants to accuse you, but that doesn't change your testimony.

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The reality of the fact that you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus, and his blood has atoned for all of your sins.

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Therefore, the accuser has nothing to say against you. There's yet a third element here, and that is, at the end of the verse, it says, they did not love their lives even unto death.

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There is a superior love in the heart of those who are the

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Lambs, those who've been bought by the blood of the Lamb, and those whose testimony is to that effect.

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And their superior love is a love for Christ. And their own life, well, if their life has to be sacrificed for the sake of Christ, for the testimony of Christ, then so be it.

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We just had the month of November sort of designated as the month of prayer for the international church, the persecuted church.

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And you can go to a couple of different places, like Open Doors is one of the places, and Voice of the

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Martyrs is another, that has plenty of stories that tell about people in countries where it's maybe illegal to be a

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Christian, or illegal to convert from, say, Islam to Christianity.

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And if you do so, you can be arrested, you can be severely punished, and maybe even executed.

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And there are accounts of people whose lives have been snuffed out simply because of their testimony, the word of their testimony, that they have personally applied the blood of Christ, it's been applied to them, that they have been purged from their sins, their sins have been atoned for by the blood of Christ, and that's their testimony.

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And because of their testimony, they end up being executed for it. Church history is replete with examples of men and women who loved

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Christ more than even their own lives, and they were willing to give up their lives for the sake of Christ.

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And by this, they overcome the accuser. The accuser would love for them to deny

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Christ under the threat of persecution, and yet the truly faithful persist.

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They love Christ more than even their own lives. Is not this a challenge to us, asking ourselves, how is my love for my

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Savior, who gave his blood on that cross for me to atone for my sins, is this the word of your testimony?

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Well, I trust it is. Our Father and our God, we thank you for this encouragement from Revelation 12 to be sure that the blood of Christ has atoned for our sins, that this is the word of our testimony, and that we love him more than even we love our own lives.

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May this be our testimony, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your