Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Joel chapter 3. Joel chapter 3. Now the title of tonight's message
is Final Conflict and Triumph. Final Conflict and Triumph. In these three short chapters
of this prophet, the prophet Joel, the Lord, by the Holy Spirit,
records for us God's dealings with the nation Judah, the southern
kingdom of Judah, to whom Joel prophesied. And in these three
chapters we have, we could say, sort of a short summary in picture
and in type and in symbolism here. as God dealing with the
nation Judah, we have a short summary of the history of the
world in the light of God's revelation of the redemption of His people
through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an amazing thing to put
in three chapters, isn't it? Such a short book. But listen
to it as I go down through it just briefly. The first thing
we could see in Joel chapter 1, it starts with a revelation. of the sinfulness of man and
God's judgment against sin. And we can take that all the
way back to the fall of man. This is the state of man by nature. That's what Joel chapter 1, we
see God's judgment against sin in the plague of locusts that
he sent to this region. He called it his army. And I
know scholars will argue over whether or not it's a literal
plague or a symbolic plague, but I believe it was a literal
swarm of locusts that devastated the land. And that was God's
judgment on the land against their sin. Now, that's not set
in Scripture so that we today can look back upon Judah and
say, well, those dirty rotten Judahites, they deserved it and
we don't. The reason that God puts any
manifestation of His wrath, any visitation of God, what's called
the day of the Lord. Remember we talked about how
Joe is the prophet of the day of the Lord. And when it's a
day of judgment against sin, the reason that there's any manifestation
of the judgment of God against sin is not so that we can look
at ourselves and be puffed up and proud and self-righteous
and say, well, now, we don't deserve that. We're good old
Americans. It's to bring us to repentance and to say in our
hearts, why didn't God visit us in the same way? Because that's
what we deserve. And if it's only God's mercy,
it's only God's mercy and goodness that we don't get what we deserve. The Bible says in Lamentations
chapter 3, it's of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Isn't that right? Think about
it. Oh, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who among us would stand? And that's why these
manifestations of wrath are in there. You can read that in Luke
chapter 13. when Christ relayed that story about the Galileans
who were slaughtered by Pilate's army. He said, you suppose they
were more sinful or they were more deserving of that than you
are? And of course, the natural answer in the heart of man is
yes. But Christ said, oh no. He said, except you repent, you
shall likewise perish. So don't ever think of salvation
or blessedness, that blessedness that Brother Doug read of. Don't
ever think of that as anything that we deserve or have earned.
It is never that with us. It's God's mercy and grace in
Christ. And so he starts out that way.
Here's Judah in the depths of their sin and depravity and idolatry
and unbelief. And that's the history of this
world since the fall. And then in Joel chapter 1 and
chapter 2, we have God calling men to repentance, to turn to
the Lord. And that was immediately after
the fall when the Lord revealed to Adam and Eve the promise of
redemption through the woman's seed and the fact that there
is no salvation apart from the blood of Christ. which was symbolized
and pictured in the slaying of an animal, that salvation cannot
be by the righteousness of men, the works of men. It must come
through the blood and the righteousness of the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now repent. That's where repentance
comes from. Repentance is not just turning
over a new leaf. Repentance is not just cleaning
up the outside. Joel told them, he said, rend
your heart Not your garments. Outward shows of ceremony and
religion mean nothing to God. God looks on the heart. And so
this repentance comes when we see that it's impossible for
any of us to be saved or accepted or righteous or holy by our works. But we must submit to Christ
and His righteousness alone. But He makes it clear also that
man on his own will not repent. Now you read the Bible, and that's
what you're going to see. People today, they think, well,
it's just a decision I make. And basically what they're saying,
without even verbalizing it this way, they're saying, well, it's
a decision I make because I'm better than other people who
won't. And that's not the case. If left to ourselves, we will
not repent. And that's what Joel chapter
one and chapter two shows. And so then on into chapter two,
he shows the only hope for sinners, for salvation. How God sends
his son, who is called the former reign here, which is literally
the teacher of righteousness, talking about Christ. He is our
righteousness. He's the one who teaches us righteousness. And God sends His Son into the
world to redeem His people and to bring us to repentance. With
Him comes faith. With Him comes repentance. It's
a gift of God through Christ. And it's the fruit of the redemptive
work of Christ. And then He shows in chapter
2 at the end of it how God will send His Holy Spirit into the
world to bring all His people, Jew and Gentile, unto faith and
repentance, and that's the establishment of the New Covenant. Peter quoted
that in Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost. The fulfillment of the Old Covenant,
the abolishment of it, and the establishment of the New Covenant.
So you see how God's redemptive history is coming up through
here. Well, chapter 3, now this is where we are, shows the final
conflict between the church under the headship of Christ and the
world under the leadership of Satan, the forces of evil. What he's showing in chapter
3 is what will take place in the second coming of our Savior. And that final battle, that final
conflict between the forces of good again under Christ, who
is our good, and the forces of evil under Satan. And then it
shows the final triumph of Christ and His church and our final
glorification. Never to be plagued by the flesh
or the world or Satan again. And what this chapter actually
describes is what is commonly known as the Battle of Armageddon. You've heard of Armageddon. And
as I studied this chapter and read through this chapter and
went from scripture to scripture, I became more and more fascinated
by the truths that are revealed here that glorify Christ and
that set forth His gospel message of salvation and that edify God's
people. And to be honest with you, I
didn't know where to stop. And I know that once a preacher
says that, you all kind of tighten up a little bit and say, well,
I hope he knows where to stop tonight. Well, what I'm going
to do, I want you to turn to some scripture with me. And what
I'm going to do is just start through here and I'm going to
go until the clock says stop. And I know when that clock says
stop. And then I'm going to pick up next time. Okay? Let's look at this passage, Joel
chapter 3. He starts off in verse 1, he
says, He's talking about a time when he's going to bring all
of his people, the whole of God's elect people, chosen from the
foundation of the world, justified in Christ, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, called by the Spirit, he's going to
bring them all into one, one gathering. And he's not talking
about geography here. He's not really talking about
a place. He's not talking about a valley or a mountain. He's
talking about a spiritual gathering, a congregating of his people
under the headship of Christ. And what he's talking about is
his second coming when he gathers his people unto himself. But
he says in verse 2, I will also gather all nations and will bring
them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. Now you know who
Jehoshaphat is. He was the son of Asa. He was
a king of Judah. He was one of the godly kings. He was one who led the people
in a godly way. He's mentioned in the genealogy
of Christ in Matthew chapter 1 because he was one of the kings
of Judah, is of the line of Judah. Jehoshaphat, his name literally
means God judges or Jehovah judges. So you could say this is the
valley of God's judgment, the place of God's judgment. And
of course this speaks again of the second coming of Christ when
he will gather his people unto himself and he will judge the
nations and he says, and will plead with them, therefore my
people. Now God's pleading with them
doesn't mean he's going to beg his people or beg these enemies. It means he's going to stand
as an advocate for his people. That's what that literally means.
He's going to defend his people. Because frankly, if He doesn't
defend us, we're defeated. In other words, this is not our
fight. We're going to see that. This is God's fight. Christ is
our victory. This is not our battle, this
is His battle. And He says, I'm going to plead with them, therefore
my people, I'm going to stand for my people and for my heritage
Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted
my land. Now, this is the gathering in
the Valley of Judgment. Now, as I said, this is what's
being described. This is a prophecy of the Battle
of Armageddon. Well, you've heard that term.
You know, you hear people use that term all the time. Well,
turn over to Revelation 16. Revelation 16. And let's read
about that just a bit. Let's look, beginning in Revelation
16, look at verse 12. You know, Revelation 16 is that
section of the revelation that Christ gave of himself to John
on the Isle of Patmos concerning what is called the vials or the
bowls, literally, of the wrath of God upon the earth." And the
symbolism is such that is that the angel of God, the messenger
of God standing with seven vials or bowls full of the wrath of
God that is seen against, that God is going to pour out upon
the earth in the last days up until His second coming. And
these bowls of wrath, they manifest themselves in different ways,
in different forms. There's plagues, there's wars,
there's all kinds of things. And there's seven bowls of wrath.
Now, seven is the number of completion, the number of fullness. In other
words, these seven bowls of wrath is going to be the complete wrath
of God poured out upon the earth. And whenever we think about that,
we have to, we who know Christ, and believe in him and rest in
him. We have to think about this in this way. We have to be so
thankful to God that all the bowls of wrath, the complete
wrath of God has already been poured out in our case on the
cross of Calvary in Jesus Christ. He drank damnation dry. And so what Revelation 16 is
talking about is the complete wrath of God upon those who don't
know Christ. As Brother Doug Rick, kiss the
son lest he be angry. That's what these bowls of wrath
are. This is the anger of the Lord against sin. And that's why we who are in
Christ, there's no anger from the Lord for us. That anger has
already been put down. That's why Christ was made sin,
all right? Now, the sixth bowl of judgment
is related here in verse 12. Revelation 16, and let's read
this. It says, And the sixth angel, the messenger, poured
out his vial, or bowl, upon the great river Euphrates. Now, if
you know your history and geography, you've probably heard about the
river Euphrates, but let me give you what the historical biblical
reference is to that. You remember when Israel was
in captivity to Babylon. They were there for 70 years.
And I believe Joel was prophesying after that. They were there for
70 years. Well, Babylon was a great city.
You might, if you study the ancient wonders of the world, the seven
wonders of the ancient world, you'll hear about the hanging
gardens of Babylon. Those Nebuchadnezzar's gardens.
And that city of Babylon was supplied with nourishment and
with life from the river Euphrates. Well, they held the kingdom of
Judah, the people of Judah, in captivity for 70 years until
God sent Cyrus, the king of the Medes and the Persians, to conquer
Babylon and set Judah free so that they could go back to the
promised land and rebuild the temple. And one of the ways that
Cyrus defeated Babylon is he actually physically diverted
and dried up the river of Euphrates going into Babylon. And what
this river represents is the supply and the support and the
nourishment for Babylon. Well, what does Babylon represent?
Well, Babylon represents false religion. And what he's saying
here is, in this bowl of wrath, that at that time, at this time,
everything that supports false religion is going to see false
religion, what the Bible calls the great whore, that's what
Babylon is, is going to see her for what she is and stop supporting
her. Her support's going to be cut
off. The river Euphrates, spiritually, is going to be cut off. And she's
not going to have any support now. She's going to be all on
her own. And that's what this is talking
about. He's going to pour that vial upon the great river Euphrates,
and the water thereof was dried up, just like when Cyrus did
it to Babylon of old. And it says that the way of the
kings of the east might be prepared. Now, the east is always the dwelling
place of God. And it's where Christ comes from,
when He comes a second time. The kings of the east, there's
some differences on this, but most people agree that it's Christ
and his people who have already gone to be with him who are made
kings and priests unto him. And so what this is doing, this
drying up of the support and the supply to the false religious
systems of this world is paving the way for the second coming
of Christ. And so it says in verse 13, now
look here, it says, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs
come out of the mouth of the dragon. These frogs here are
poisonous frogs. And it represents the lies and
the deception of Satan. The dragon there is Satan. He's
always symbolized as a dragon. And out of the mouth of the beast,
the beast is represented by ungodly, unholy governments. that support
Satan, unholy empires, economic, political, and out of the mouth
of the false prophet. Again, there's false religion.
So out of the mouth of Satan, out of the mouth of ungodly governments,
out of the mouth of false religion comes these poisonous frogs.
That's what it... their deception, their lies,
their false doctrine. Look at verse 14. For they are
the spirits of devils, working miracles. Remember in the last
days it's going to be lying wonders, signs and miracles doing great
things, you see, to deceive the whole world. And he says, which
go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world
to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty,
the day of judgment. That's the final day. And he
said, now look here in verse 15. He said, Behold, I come as
a thief. I'm going to take them by surprise.
They're going to be unawares. He said, Blessed is he that watcheth. Now who's he talking to here?
He's talking to you and me. He's talking to his people. Be
on the watch. Take heed. We read that this
morning. Be prepared, he says, and keepeth his garments, lest
he walk naked and they see his shame. Now, what is our garments? That's the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us. That's what that is. That's our
standing before God in Christ. Without Christ, without being
washed in his blood, without being clothed in his righteousness,
we're exposed to shame. But in Christ we have no shame. So what he's saying here to the
people of God who are alive at this time and the people of God
in all times, prepare for this now. Now Joel says that back
over here in Joel chapter 3 when he talks about when he says prepare
for war in verse 9. So there's a preparation here.
Well, how am I to prepare? I'm to look to Christ and rest
in Him. Believe in Him, kiss the Son
lest He be... That means believe in Him, love
Him, worship Him. That's what that means, to kiss
the Son. It means to rest in Him. It means to serve Him, you
see. That's an expression of love
and gratitude and grace. That's what that is. And that's
how we prepare... Somebody said, what if I'm alive
when all this happens? Well, kiss the Son lest He be
angry. Keep your garments spotless. Don't let anything rival Christ
in your life. Don't let anything eclipse His
glory and the mercy and grace of God that can only be found
in Christ. Now there's the key now. That's
Joel's message. That's why he called on him to
repent. But now look at verse 16 of Revelation 16. It says,
"...and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew
tongue Armageddon." Now, that's the only time the term Armageddon
is used. And it's a difficult term to
translate, very difficult. A lot of argument, a lot of debate
here. It's literally Har, H-A-R, Armageddon. Some say it means the mount of
assembly or the mount of the congregation. Some say it means
the valley of assembly. It means a veil or the veil of
the congregation. It doesn't matter. What matters
is this is the place where God's going to gather them in a spiritual
way. Now there is a place in the Old
Testament that is related to this name. It's called the Valley
of Megiddo. You've heard that. And let me
tell you something about this Valley of Megiddo now. Classically
and in history of the recorded Old Testament, it is a place
where God's people went to do battle with the enemy and the
cause of God's people and the power of God's people and their
victory always seemed hopeless. In other words, this is a place
where they went to battle in several areas, several times,
and you just never figured they can't win. One of them, you can
go read this by yourself, read Judges chapter 4 and chapter
5. This is where Deborah, the judge
Deborah, you remember she was a judge, and a man named went
to battle against a man named Sisera, and there was no way
that they could win this battle. In fact, Barak was so afraid,
but he knew Deborah was a judge that was sent of God, and he
told Deborah, he said, I'm not going without you. I'll go, but
I'm not going, because I know we're going to be defeated. And
basically what happened is the Israelites defeated Sisera and
the enemies of the people of God, but they didn't do it by
their own power or their own weapons or their own wisdom. It was always God who defeated
the enemy. Another time is in Judges chapter
7 with a man named Gideon. You remember Gideon. Gideon's
name is very close to the name A harm again, it really is. But you remember Gideon, he had
300 people to go against the Philistines and he couldn't win
the battle, but he did because the battle wasn't his. God fought
for him. Well, I want you to turn to 2
Chronicles chapter 20. Turn back to 2 Chronicles chapter
20. And I want you to see this. Now,
over here in Joel, he called this valley the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Well, this King Jehoshaphat,
he fought a battle there. You can read about this. What
happened was the surrounding areas, the surrounding nations,
all ganged up on Judah to go against Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat
and their army, they could, listen, they were outnumbered, they were
out armored. I mean, it was just, it was a
hopeless battle. And Jehoshaphat took his army
down into this valley, in this area, and he defeated all the
nations that were gathered against them, and they didn't have to
fire a shot. Didn't have to fire a shot. Well,
look at verse 14. of 2 Chronicles 20. Here's the
summation of it. It says, Then upon Jehaziel,
the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeal,
the son of Madaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the
Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. Now, you
remember Jehoshaphat, if you haven't read this before, you
don't remember, but if you have, Jehoshaphat sent the Levites,
the priests, out to sing hymns before the army. They sang hymns
of worship. And it says in verse 15, he said,
hearken ye all Judah and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and thou King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you, be not
afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, listen
to this, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Now let me
tell you something, it's the same with Armageddon. The battle's
not yours, but God's. Verse 16, tomorrow you go ye
down against them, behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz,
and you shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness
of Jeruel. You shall not need to fight in
this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Does that remind you of any other
time when he says stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord? Remember when the children of Israel were on the shore of
the Red Sea and they looked back and Pharaoh and the Egyptian
army was following after them and they began to murmur and
they began to doubt and Moses stood up there and he said, stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. That's what he's telling
Jehoshaphat. You know, that's God's message
of salvation all the way through the Bible. Stand still. and see the salvation. Stop trying
to work your way into God's favor. Stop trying to fight your way
into heaven by your power and your goodness. Stand still, rest
in Christ and see the salvation of the Lord. Isn't that a beautiful
message? It is to a sinner, isn't it?
It is to those who are heavy laden and burdened, isn't it? He says, O Judah and Jerusalem,
fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Now
you can read, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story.
There it is. You can read all that. Go back
to Joel chapter 3. That's what he's talking about. On the end, at the end when Christ
comes again on that great day, the forces of good under the
headship of Christ will be assaulted by the forces of evil under Satan. It's not going to be with tanks
or knives or guns or machine guns or nuclear weapons. It's
a spiritual battle. We read that in 2 Corinthians
chapter 10, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. But it's
a battle that is totally fought and won by Jehovah, our judge,
the valley of decision. And that's what he's talking
about. Now let's look back again. He says he's going to gather,
he's going to bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. Now what's he talking about,
Judah and Jerusalem? There could always be a physical
application to the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. It depends on when you put Joel's
prophecy. Some put it before the captivity
of Babylon and talk about how God brought them back into Palestine,
and that's mentioned later on. I believe Joel prophesied afterwards.
But what he's talking about, I believe, and I'm convinced
from the New Testament commentary on this is that he's talking
about spiritual Israel here. He's talking about the people
who are under Christ, spiritual Judah. He's talking about the
heavenly Jerusalem. We're citizens of the heavenly
Jerusalem. He mentions Zion later on. You
know, Zion was originally the mountain where they wanted to
put the temple. Later on, it became synonymous with Jerusalem. But Zion is a type of the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church of the living God. Who
is Judah and Jerusalem? The Bible tells us in Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 29 that we who rest in Christ and trust
in Him are the seed of Abraham. It tells us that those who are
spiritually children of God, spiritual Jews, are not those
who are circumcised in the flesh, but those who are circumcised
in the heart. The circumcision made without
hands. It's a spiritual circumcision.
It's the new birth. Romans chapter 2 and verses 28
and 29. The Bible tells us even in prophecy
that this is going to take place. When Jeremiah prophesied of it,
he said he's going to make a new covenant, not like the covenant
that he made with their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt
and established them at Mount Sinai, but another covenant,
a new covenant, a spiritual covenant where he will put his spirit
within us and write his law upon the heart. That's what he's talking
about. Ezekiel prophesied of it. In
Ezekiel chapter 36 when he said, I will put my spirit within them.
I will give them a new heart. All of these things show us who
spiritual Israel is. Paul wrote in Galatians chapter
6 and verse 14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And later on he said in verse
16, that's the ones to whom God has shown mercy. That's the ones
who we could call the Israel of God. The recovery and restoration
that is the calling of God's elect here is both Jew and Gentile
under Christ. It's those who come to faith
in Christ. If you believe in Christ and
rest in Him, you're a spiritual Jew. You're a citizen of the
heavenly Jerusalem. And that's what the scripture
teaches. Christ will deliver all his sheep
out of all nations. That's why he said in Matthew
24 and Mark chapter 13 and verse 10, he said, and the gospel must
first be published among all nations. Why is that so? Because
what Christ said in John chapter 10, he said, other sheep I have
which are not of this fold, this Jewish fold, them I also must
bring into the kingdom. I must bring them into the sea."
Why? Because God chose them. Why? Because Christ redeemed
them, and He must have them. The Spirit must call them. The
Bible talks about the gospel being the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first in time, it was
the Jewish nation who received it first, but to the Gentile
also, to the Greek also. The Bible speaks about how the
middle wall partition has been broken down and both Jew and
Gentile have been brought together into one new man, it says in
Ephesians chapter 2, under the headship of Christ, bought and
paid for by the blood of Christ. That's who he's talking about
here. This is the end time. Joel speaks, and listen, the
entire world is involved here. Because Christ's people and Satan's
followers are scattered throughout all nations. It's not concentrated
into one place. And Joel speaks of the final
completion of the salvation of his elect. Look over at verse
16 of Joel chapter 3. Look at this. It says here, the
Lord also shall roar out of Zion. He's going to make a clear sound
out of the church, the preaching of the gospel. utter his voice
from Jerusalem," that's the heavenly Jerusalem, "...and the heavens
and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of
his people." Now that doesn't apply to anyone in the end, Jew
or Gentile, whom the Lord is not the hope of. Is the Lord
your hope? Can you sing with me? My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus.
Whoever he's talking about here that's gathered together under
Christ, he says the Lord's going to roar it out of Zion, he's
going to utter his voice from Jerusalem, he's going to shake
the heavens and the earth, and here's what he's going to say.
The Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of
the children of Israel. This is not our fight. He's my
hope and he's my advocate. This is not my fight. This is
his. I'm under him. I'm clothed in his righteousness,
washed in his blood. Verse 17, he says, so shall you
know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion. Now, where
is the dwelling place of God in the new covenant? It's in
his church. It's in his church. Where two or three are gathered
in my name, there I'll be in the midst of them. Christ is
the foundation of the church. He's the head of the church.
He's the heart of the church. And he said, there shall no strangers
pass through her anymore. No foreigners. In other words,
whoever's in this gathering now of Judah and Jerusalem, they're
all citizens of the kingdom whose hope is in the Lord. You see
that? That's who they are. That's who
he's talking about. And so when he speaks in verse
2 of the gathering of all nations, he said, I'll bring them down
into the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of judgment. God's judgment. He's going to
gather them to judge them. This great battle in the days
of Jehoshaphat that's like that happened in the days of Jehoshaphat
that describes this great battle that's going to happen in the
end. The Lord will fight for his people. The final conquest
of Satan against Christ. Now, Satan and his followers
have always waged war on Christ and his church. We read about
that in Revelation chapter 12 and in other passages where Satan,
you know Satan is essentially defeated already. And I'm going
to show you that next time because I don't have time to go into
all those scriptures. Satan was essentially defeated at the cross. That's why Christ said, now is
the prince of this world judged. Now is he cast down. He was essentially
defeated there. The accuser of the... How do
we... How do we deal? What does the
scripture say in the way? Let me just close with this tonight.
Go over to Revelation 12. And think about this, now Satan,
Satan is defeated, but Satan still, Satan and his armies,
his people, his followers, still wage war against the church. That's why Christ said the gates
of hell will not prevail against him. So how do we deal with Satan? Alright, now you know what Satan
is, he's called the accuser of the bread. The word devil, that
term devil, literally means accuser. accuser of the brethren. Well,
look at verse 9 of Revelation 12. I've read this passage quite
a bit. But this will provide a good foundation for us to go
verse by verse through Joel chapter 3. He says, And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world. And he says, He was cast out
into the earth, and His angels were cast out with Him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His
Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And listen to this, verse 11. Now here's how we deal with it.
It says, And they overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb. plead the blood of Christ. You
see, when Satan accuses me, that's all I have to do is plead the
blood of Christ. Satan, I'm under the blood. My sins are washed
away. I have no guilt before God. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. I'm
righteous in His eyes. I stand clothed in the white
robe of the righteousness of Christ. And so the arrows of
your accusation that you shoot at me will not stick. They will
not hit their mark, you see, because Christ took my place
on Calvary. And it says, and by the word
of their testimony. Well, what is that? That's the
preaching of the gospel. What do we proclaim? What is
our testimony? Our testimony is Christ and Him
crucified, and they loved not their lives unto death. Well, it goes on. It tells you
how Satan still continually plagues the church, wages war. Some commentators put it this
way. They say, well, Satan knows he's defeated. He's just trying
to take as many with him as he can. Maybe that's the case. I
don't know what's in Satan's mind other than what the word
of God tells us, but I know this. I know this. Now listen, you're
in a battle, but it's not your battle. It's not my battle. It's
the Lord's. Stand still. Don't worry, don't
fret, don't doubt, stand still, look to Christ, rest in Him,
be strong in the power of His might, and stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord.