REVELATION 12:10–11 – And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”
THEME OF THE DAY: SILENCING THE ACCUSER. The craftiness of the devil cannot be understated. The Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian church of this truth – I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:1-3).
There are various ways Satan displays his craftiness. It began in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) and continues to this very day. He does his work of deception toward unbelievers and believers. Toward unbelievers, it is the work of blindness; blinding them to their sin and need of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus – And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). The god of this world is the devil.
Satan also does his work of deception against believers too. Even though he can no longer blind them to the Gospel, he can bring them into a miserable condition spiritually. And here is that process. The Apostle Paul reveals another title of the devil; tempter – For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain (1 Thessalonians 3:5). He comes to the believer with enticements to sin. He puts the beauty of sin’s bait before the believer while hiding the poison which inevitably comes when we yield to temptation. And then, the tempter becomes the title in today’s scripture – accuser.
When we fall to the devil in his role as tempter and he immediately shifts to the accuser, we have no defense. For once, the father of lies tells the truth in our sinning. The only way to silence him is in today’s scripture – pleading the Advocacy of the Lord Jesus and His shed blood. And His blood will never fail to cleanse us from our sins and turn the accuser away from our hearts and minds – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for the cleansing power of Your Son’s blood in cleansing me of sin.”
QUOTE: “When we fall to the tempter, and Satan becomes the accuser, run to Jesus for cleansing.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim