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 TEMPTER TURNED ACCUSER. The Puritan Thomas Brooks wrote with great insight on the spiritual life and spiritual battles each Christian faces. Don’t let the 17th century language keep us from mining the riches in his statement. From the pen of Brooks, “Beloved in our dearest Lord, Christ, the Scripture, your own hearts, and Satan’s devices, are the four prime things that should be first and most studied and searched. If any cast off the study of these, they cannot be safe here, nor happy hereafter. It is my work as a Christian to do my best to discover the fullness of Christ, the emptiness of the creature, and the snares of the great deceiver.” Pay attention to where he directs our pursuits in the Christian life – Christ, the scripture, our own hearts, and the devil’s tactics. So before we move into the theme of today’s nugget, here is a question to ask, “How are we doing in the areas of study Brooks directs us?” The whole of the Christian life is the pursuit of Christ, through the scripture, seeing our total depravity and dependency on God, and to be armed with the knowledge of the tactics of the devil so we may successfully resist and defeat him (Ephesians 6:10-18; James 4:7).
The roles and tactics of the devil are many, but today, consider two which are the primary ones he uses against us. First, the role of the devil as tempter. He assumed this with Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-10). He continues this role through Old Testament history and moving into the New Testament, he came to Jesus in such a role (Matthew 4:1-11). The Apostle Paul would also recognize him as tempter in his words to the believers in Thessalonica – 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). But on the heels of the tempter is another role and tactic of the devil – accuser. Here is how it works. Listen to the temptation of the devil, start playing with it, whatever it is, allow it to be attractive, give in and sin is the result. Now the devil rushes into our guilty conscience in what we read from today’s scripture – the flaming and powerful work of the accuser. Night and day, until we repent, often painfully, and God restores us, the accusations of the devil rake us across the coals of our consciences. We cry. We regret. We feel deep remorse and all because we failed to see the tempter at work and thus the accuser takes over. And here is the application . . .
Learn to know our areas of weaknesses, or those places temptations are the strongest. Guard against allowing them entrance through our eyes into our minds and hearts. It may be what we watch, websites, places we go, the company we keep . . . study under the guidance of God’s Spirit and Word where we empower the devil to go from tempter to accuser. And in the process, cling to today’s scripture so when we lose battles, and we will, we know where to go to get up and fight again – the blood of the Lord Jesus applied to our wounded hearts.
PRAYER: “Father, teach me to apply the glorious atoning blood of Your Son to my daily battles with the evil one.”
QUOTE: “Be on guard against the devil as tempter because if he gets us to take his bait, he becomes our accuser.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim