Overcoming Our Adversary
Hope in Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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Genesis 3:14-15; Revelation 12: 10-11
So the Lord God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
So far, Satan has consistently lost.
So far, Satan has consistently lost.
In Genesis 3:14-15, we are introduced to the curse of the serpent who tempted Eve with the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
This curse is not merely the future of men versus serpents.
It is the future of the woman's seed, that is the Christ, crushing the serpent, that is Satan.
Notice the three main characters in this curse: the woman, the seed and the serpent. Rev. 12
At the other end of the Bible we are reintroduced to these same characters in Revelation 12.
In Revelation 12:1-2 we meet the woman pregnant with her seed.
Then in vs. 9, we learn the dragon is actually the great serpent of old, Satan. Notice briefly what takes place in Revelation 12.
In vss. 1-6, Satan fights against the woman and her son. Satan loses.
In vss. 7-9, Satan fights against the forces of heaven. Satan loses.
In vss. 13-17, Satan is fighting against the followers of the seed on earth.
Our Bible is book-ended with this story.
In Genesis we see the curse that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent.
In Revelation we see the explanation of that.
While Revelation was originally written for the persecution the first century Christians faced, this same battle is taking place today. Eph. 6:12; 1 Pet. 5:8
Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
We are in a battle right now, even though we cannot see the battle physically. There is a great spiritual battle taking place even through our lives right now.
1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
In Genesis 3, Satan devoured Eve and Adam.
How do we keep him from devouring us?
We want to be in this Revelation 12 picture. We want to be part of the conquering horde in Revelation 12: 10-11.
But how do we overcome Satan? Revelation 12:11 tells us.
We conquer by the blood of the Lamb.
We conquer by the blood of the Lamb.
By ourselves, we have already lost the battle. Rom. 3:23; 7:15-23
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Like Adam and Eve, Satan has already overcome us.
What's even worse, the more we try to rely on ourselves to merely pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and be righteous all on our own the more we just keep sinning.
At least, that is what happened to Paul according to Romans 7:15-23.
We don't have to fight this battle on our own. Rev. 5:5-6
According to Revelation 12:11 , we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb.
This is the same Lamb who was worthy to open the seals of the scroll of God's plan in Revelation 5:5-6.
But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
This is the Lamb who was slain and by His blood "ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."
He has made us a kingdom of priests who will reign on the earth. By the death of Jesus we become conquering and victorious kings and priests.
The Jews who had been looking for the Messiah struggled with this. Is. 53
They were looking for physical victory and vindication over their Roman oppressors, but the Christians were learning that this is what God planned all along.
Spiritual victory over Satan in Christ means overcoming our accuser.
For the Jews, Satan was the “accuser of our brethren”. Until Jesus came, this accusation could be made. No longer!
This is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53.
According to Isaiah 53:6 each of us have fallen short and sinned. We have gone our own ways like wandering sheep.
However, according to Isaiah 53:5,7, 10-12, the Messiah, God's servant, would be sacrificed and slain that we might live.
If you want to overcome Satan, don't try to do it by yourself. You can only conquer through the blood of the Lamb that was slain to save you.
We conquer by the word of our testimony.
We conquer by the word of our testimony.
Without the blood and strength that comes from Christ, we are nothing and can do nothing to overcome Satan.
However, we must not take that to mean we can do nothing and still overcome.
Jesus did not die so we could sit on our thumbs and just bask in the victory He offers.
Rather, if we are going to overcome, it will also be by the word of our testimony.
We must testify our faith in Jesus as the Christ. Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 8:37
Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
We must confess that we believe Jesus is Christ and Lord in order to be saved.
Acts 8:37 provides a great example of this when Philip asked the eunuch if he believed and he said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
We must acknowledge or confess God before men if we want Him to acknowledge and confess us before God. Matt. 10:32-33
Matthew 10:32-33 ““Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”
That is, Jesus' blood provides us the victory we cannot hope to have by ourselves.
However, we have to testify, acknowledge and confess Jesus before the world. We cannot hide our relationship with Him; we must display it.
This is mainly a verbal work, but our lives must show it. Matt. 5:16
Matt. 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
We need to be a shining light by our good works that point people to God and His glory.
We must not only confess God by our words, but also by our actions.
When we obey God, we confess to the world that we believe God.
When we seek first His kingdom and righteousness we confess to the world that we believe He will provide for us.
When we seek to close the door on the devil by not letting anger have a foothold in our lives, we confess to the world that we believe God's peaceful path is right. On and on this list could go.
“Put up or shut up!”
If you want to overcome Satan, then display the word and action of your testimony.
We conquer by not loving our lives even to death.
We conquer by not loving our lives even to death.
Context of Revelation - Severe Persecution.
When John wrote Revelation, the disciples were enduring intense persecution.
Many were dying for their faith.
Rev. 2:10 “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Smyrna)
Rev. 2:13 ““I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” (Pergamum)
These disciples overcame because they were willing to die rather than turn their back on the Lamb who had died rather than turn His back on them.
Satan is taking a different approach in his attack against us today.
We have a hard time grasping this "faithful unto death" concept because we do not face the kind of persecution that might lead to our deaths (not yet, anyway). How does this transfer to us?
We are crucified with Christ and we live based on what He wants, not what we want. Gal. 2:20; Matt. 16:24-25
As Christians, our lives are surrendered to Him.
Gal. 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
We must take up our cross and follow Jesus.
For us, a DAILY upkeep of our confession!
Arguable that this is a harsher test, as it forces us to labor in obscurity and amid a reputation of failure.
We may not die physically, but we do crucify ourselves spiritually.
We put ourselves on the cross and Jesus on the throne in our lives.
We are fighting an uphill spiritual battle, an adventure of enormous proportion!
We don't argue with Jesus about the limit of what we do for Him to go to heaven; we just find what He says and do it because we know it is best for us.
This will sometimes call for extreme measures in our lives. Matt. 5:29-30
Half measures will avail us nothing in our fight against Satan.
We may not be killed by our government or by false religion this week, but we may have to cut off our right hand or pluck out our right eye.
As Jesus said in Matthew 5:29-30, if something causes us to stumble we need to sacrifice it, surrendering it to God.
Matt. 5:29-30 “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
Let Him have it as we lay it on the altar before Him.
Let me highlight something from this verse that we often overlook.
In this passage, it says if your hand or eye causes you to stumble.
In other words, Jesus is not establishing a law for everyone per se.
Therefore, with some of the things you have to cut out of your life and surrender to God, you won't be able to find a verse that says, "Thou shalt not."
But if you want life and want to overcome, you had better cut it off.
If you can't go into a convenience store without picking up a beer, then you are going to have to quit going into convenience stores.
If you can't watch a certain show without lusting for a certain actor or actress, then you are going to have to quit watching that show.
If you can't control your time in front of the television and it is eating your life away, then you are just going to have to get rid of your tv.
If video games cause you to waste all of your time and they get in the way of your devotion to God, then you are just going to have to get rid of video games.
If you can't hang out with certain people without getting involved in gossip, then you are just going to have to quit hanging out with them.
You won't be able to turn around and make a rule for everybody on these issues. However, if you want life, you will cut these things off even though it is like plucking out your right eye.
If we want to overcome Satan, we must not love our lives even unto death.
Satan will lose the battle against Christ’s Disciples.
Satan will lose the battle against Christ’s Disciples.
In fact, we know he already has.
Revelation 12:10-12 is not just about the defeat of Satan by the heavenly foes.
It is the proclamation of his utter defeat period before God and His children.
As Revelation 12:12 says, we, who are the citizens of heaven (cf. Philippians 3:20) can rejoice because Satan is losing, will lose and, in fact, has already lost. We will overcome, if we are on the Lord's side.