I want to speak to you this morning
on overcoming Satan by the blood of Jesus.
Overcoming Satan by the blood of Jesus.
Turn to Zechariah, the third chapter, please.
Zechariah, the third chapter.
If you're a new convert and don't know
where it's here, go to Matthew, turn left,
two books.
Okay?
If you don't know where Matthew is, it's
a verse to the New Testament.
I want to start reading verse one, Zechariah.
We read eight verses.
I'm reading from King James, and he showed
me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the
angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at
his right hand to resist him.
Are you there yet?
Zechariah three, continuing verse two, the Lord said
unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan,
even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke
thee.
Is not this a brand plucked out of
the fire?
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and
stood before the angel.
And he said and spake unto those that
stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him.
And then to him he said, Behold, I
have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee,
and I will clothe thee with chains of
raiment.
And I said, Let them set a fair
mitre upon his head.
So they set a fair mitre upon his
head and clothed him with garments.
The angel of the Lord stood by.
The angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua,
saying, Thou saith the Lord of hosts, thou
will walk in my ways, and if thou
will keep my charge, thou shalt also judge
my house to keep my courts, and I
will give thee places to walk among those
that stand by.
Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou
and thy fellows that sit before thee, they
are men wondered at.
And behold, I will bring forth my servant
the branch.
Now who do you think the branch is?
You should know, Jesus.
This is all about Jesus and his shed
blood.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your precious
word, and I thank you for your faithfulness
in honoring that word from this pulpit.
And in our hearts, you've given us ears
to hear.
Now give me a voice to speak, quicken
my body, Lord.
Give me the strength that I need to
deliver this from my heart.
I pray the cleansing, the purifying of the
word and of my heart and this vessel.
Lord Jesus, make it simple, make it clear,
make it understandable that we can understand the
security that we have in the blood that
we're not tossed by the winds and waves
of doctrine.
We will not be tossed by anything the
devil can throw at us.
We will be on good solid ground.
We'll understand the blood and its power, its
saving power, but not only its saving power,
but its keeping power, how the blood maintains
us in righteousness before God.
Lord, touch us, let us hear what the
Spirit has to say in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now in the historical setting of Zechariah, the
third chapter I've just read to you, Joshua
represents the work of God on earth.
He represents the priesthood of God.
Every true believer, we are a kingdom of
priests unto God, the scripture says.
Now, of course, Joshua, the Old Testament, is
already dead and gone, long dead and gone.
Joshua represents God's interest in the last days
on earth, represents the holy priesthood unto God
the Father.
He's a representative of a people called in
a dark age, in a dark time, to
be the shining light of Jesus Christ.
But Joshua is standing here in this episode
before the angel, before the Lord, in filthy
garments.
He is standing in not spotted garments, but
filthy garments.
Now imagine this, please.
The devil is standing at the right hand
of Joshua.
Joshua representing the priesthood of God, the righteous
people of the Lord, who are now standing
in filthy garments, and the devil is standing
at the right hand of Joshua to accuse
him.
The right hand represents power and ascendancy.
How in the world did the devil reach
this position of power and ascendancy over the
priesthood of God?
The scripture is very clear, the priest had
filthy garments on.
Now, historically, in the time that this was
written, the historical context, in Zechariah's time, the
priesthood backslidden, totally backslidden.
The church was backslidden.
There was nothing but lust and confusion and
unrighteousness, ungodliness in the priesthood.
Filthy, unrighteous priesthood.
But this goes beyond Zechariah's time.
He's a prophet.
He's speaking down through history to our time.
And he sees a priesthood in the last
days.
He sees a people that are called to
be righteous.
He sees filthy garments on them.
And I'll tell you what, whenever there's a
filthy pastor in the pulpit with filth in
his mind and in his spirit, and he's
not walking in the righteousness of the Lord,
he's not where he should be with the
Lord, often you'll find the filth go through
the whole congregation and through the whole nation.
And part of the reason we have a
corrupt nation today that's in a moral landslide
is because, for the most part, we have
an unrighteous ministry today in many, many pulpits.
And this, every time you find that, you
find the devil taking the power of the
ascendancy.
You find, here's Joshua without any spiritual authority.
The devil is not cast down.
He's at the right hand of power.
And how did he get there?
It was because of the unrighteousness of the
ministry, and the unrighteousness of the people.
And I'll tell you, whenever there's unrighteousness in
a life, whenever sin creeps into the life
of a Christian believer into the pulpit, the
devil always takes the ascendancy.
He's always there before the father accusing.
There's no spiritual authority.
There's no spiritual discernment.
The first thing that goes when a person
backslides is their spiritual discernment.
And the devil knows that, and he takes
the ascendancy.
He takes the power, and he takes the
authority.
It's at this time there's no voice lifted
against Satan.
There's no power to withstand his inundation of
the work of God and flooding the church
and the body with filth at this particular
time.
And see, here's a filthy priesthood standing before
God in filthy garments.
But suddenly a word comes from the throne,
a word commanding the devil, rebuking the devil,
says, get your hands off my servant.
Get your hands off my bran plucked from
the fire.
I have plucked this bran from the fire,
and it's become filthy, but you lay your
hands off of it.
And suddenly there's a command that comes from
the throne, take off his filthy garments, put
a new garment on him, and put a
mitre on his head.
Now, the mitre is the official turban of
a priest, and so he's being restored to
the priesthood, and the filth is taken away.
Now, I want you to know that Josh
was standing there.
There's nothing he is doing.
He's doing absolutely nothing but standing there.
He's standing there probably with a broken heart,
probably a repentant heart.
But a command comes, all of grace, all
of new covenant, no good works, no striving
by this priesthood, but a divine command of
grace, take off his filthy robes, restore him
to his priesthood, put the mitre on his
head, all of grace, all of covenant.
Marvelous thing that happens here.
I have caused that iniquity to pass from
thee, and I will clothe thee with the
chains of raiment, not by works lest any
man should boast.
It's the gift of grace.
It's the grace of Almighty God.
And if you think you can still strive
to get your filthy garments off, if you
think you can be restored to the priesthood
by your own strength and power, by striving,
you have it wrong.
Nothing could be clearer now than this prophetic
word, God taking the initiative, I have caused
that iniquity to pass from thee.
The answer is found.
How can God just wipe this up?
Because the scripture says without the shedding of
blood, there's no remission of sin.
How can God just remit the sins without
the blood being mentioned?
How can filth be requited in the presence
of the Lord without the sacrifice?
Well, you find that in verses eight and
nine.
I just read to you here now, O
Joshua, the high priest, he's already cleansed.
He has the mitre on his head.
Thy fellows that sit before thee for their
men that wonder that for behold, I will
bring forth my servant, the branch for behold,
the stone that I have laid before Joshua
upon one stone shall be seven eyes.
Behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof, saith
the Lord, and I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day.
That's the cross.
In one hour, in one day, I will
remove the sins of the past.
I will have provided the sacrifice.
He's pointing to the blood, the power of
the blood to remit the sins.
This was how looking forward to the blood
of Jesus Christ prophetically.
This is how God is going to cleanse
his last day.
Royal priesthood.
We're all royal.
We're all part of the world.
Priesthood.
You're a believer.
Kings and priests unto the Lord.
This scripture makes very, very clear.
Now, here's this representative man standing up clean
before God, cleansed by Christ's shed blood, clothed
in garments of righteousness, not by works of
the flesh.
And he represents this last day kingdom of
priests, which include us today.
The Joshua company, though, faces a mad devil.
The scripture says the devil is going to
come down the earth having great wrath.
He's going to pour out a flood of
lust and temptation.
How is this Joshua company going to maintain
this righteousness that has been given by grace?
Remember what Paul said?
You've started the spirit.
Are you going to maintain it now in
the flesh?
Are you going to move now from this
grace of God?
And are you going to strive now to
maintain what God gave you by grace?
That was the warning that came to Paul.
And I'm going to ask you now you
picture Joshua.
Now he's clean.
He's he'd been restored to his priesthood.
And now the Lord says this is through
the power of the blood.
But how does he maintain he he is
now cleansed by the blood.
How does he maintain that righteousness?
How does he keep his robes clean?
How does he keep his priesthood in the
last days?
The Lord is going to raise up a
holy priesthood who's going to overcome Satan.
The same way God saved him, the same
way God cleansed him by the power of
the blood of Jesus Christ.
Once you go now to Revelation, please, the
12th chapter of Revelation.
If you'll stay with me, you're going to
rejoice in the power of the blood like
you've never rejoiced in your Christian experience.
12th chapter of Revelation.
Folks, look at me, please.
You know, even that even the most wicked,
foul people today recognize that everything is spinning
out of control.
Even the godliest, vile people.
If you listen to radio, some of these,
even these shock talk guys on radio, they
said, it's insane.
We've gone insane.
The immorality, even though they're immoral, they said,
it's gone crazy.
The nation's got everything going straight.
And folks, that's just the beginning.
It's going to get worse and worse.
How are we going to maintain our righteousness?
How are we going to walk as shining
lights in the midst of a darkening, gross
darkness that's covering the earth?
How are we going to walk?
How are we going to make it?
Verse 10 and 11, And I heard a
loud voice saying in heaven, now has come
salvation and strength.
The kingdom of our God, the power of
his Christ for the accuser of our brother
is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night.
And they overcame him.
How?
By the blood of the lamb and by
the word of their testimony.
They loved up their lives under the death.
I'm going to talk about these two great
weapons, these two cannons God has given us
to overcome in the last day.
The scripture says they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb and by the word
of their testimony.
Yes, prayer is necessary.
Bible study is necessary, but you can pray
24 hours a day and you can read
your Bible through 10 times a year.
But if you don't have this established in
your mind, you don't have the weapons.
You don't understand the power of the blood
and the testimony that goes with it.
You will not be able to withstand what
is coming.
We talk about the blood, but we understand
so little of it.
The Bible said they were came in by
the blood of the lamb.
Let's talk about the blood.
If this is so important, if this is
our secret of victory, we better know more
about it.
Let's talk about the blood.
The scripture says that Jesus was a lamb
without spot or blemish.
Since he was holy and righteous, he did
not inherit an adamant nature like we did.
That adamant nature, we inherited that.
We were born with this.
He was born of the Holy Spirit.
He was not born of flesh and blood.
He was born of the Holy Spirit.
He did not inherit the Adam nature.
That means there was no sin in him.
He's absolutely perfect, absolutely sinless.
There was no evil or corruption in his
life, and the life is in the blood,
the scripture says.
Absolutely perfect, absolutely sinless.
No evil in him.
The prince of peace came and found nothing
in him.
Jesus said the prince of darkness comes and
found nothing in me.
Oh, the devil came looking, but he found
nothing in him to accuse him.
Nothing at all that could stand before the
heavenly father as an accusation.
There was no sin.
There was nothing the devil could touch in
him.
Absolutely perfect.
A spotless lamb without blemish.
The blood alone accomplished the victory in this
chapter here when Joshua's robes are cleansed and
when the miters put upon his head, that
was absolutely to the perfection of the blood.
All satanic power and activity was abolished in
one day and one hour at the cross
at that very time.
Now, listen to me very closely, please.
You will never find anything in yourself of
righteousness that can withstand the accusations of the
devil.
There is nothing.
Search your heart and all you'll find is
what the scripture says.
The heart is abundantly wicked, deceitfully wicked above
all things, desperately wicked, and who could know
it?
We try to search our hearts.
We go down deep inside, trying to search
our hearts, and all you're going to find
is wickedness.
The heart is abundantly, desperately wicked.
Who could know it?
Only God knows.
You try to probe the depth of your
heart and your sinfulness, and you can't reach
the bottom.
Absolutely impossible.
In one glorious moment, the shed blood of
Jesus abolished Satan's right to accuse God's priesthood.
The blood of the lamb was applied.
Now, let me tell you something.
We talk about pleading the blood.
I don't find that anywhere in the scripture.
I can't find it if somebody knows that
term, pleading the blood.
I don't have to beg God to release
the power and authority of the blood that's
already accomplished its work.
I don't have to beg and plead, and
that's the problem today.
The blood is not to be pleaded.
It's to be applied.
You see, they were to take the lamb
in Israel before they left, and they were
to slay the lamb and take the blood
in a basin and take a hyssop and
sprinkle it on the doorpost.
Now, suppose they put the blood in the
basin and laid it outside the door, and
they went inside and said, well, there's power
in that blood.
I'll just leave it there in the basin.
Yes, potentially it has the power, but it's
not been applied.
He said, you apply it.
No angel is going to come.
The angel of death is going to pass,
but this is your obligation.
You apply the blood.
There's power, there's authority, but you apply the
blood.
What do you mean, apply the blood, Brother
Dave?
What do you mean, apply the blood of
Jesus Christ to my heart?
That's to, listen closely, it means the absolute
sinlessness of Christ becomes my only ground of
faith and victory.
My only ground.
I have no other ground.
I have nothing in myself, nothing of striving,
nothing of good works.
I can't apply anything in me that's good,
that's going to merit my salvation or my
favor before God.
I apply the blood when I take God's
position about where I stand through the blood.
I see it through God's eyes.
My God says that when the blood, when
I have faith in the blood of Jesus,
I'm applying it to the doorpost of my
heart.
When I confess and believe that through the
blood I am forgiven, God says, you're forgiven.
When the devil comes to accuse me, I
have to tell him, look, that was God
who came and died in the flesh.
That was sinless God.
That was God Almighty in flesh, perfect, sinless,
and I am in Christ.
God was in Christ, I am in Christ,
and if you're going to accuse me, you're
accusing a sinless God.
You can no more accuse me of sin
that's under the blood than you can accuse
God of sin.
Until you come to that ground, you have
to stand on that ground.
That's the only way you apply the blood.
The blood is not applied until you take
that position.
I am in Christ.
I am not perfect, I am not sinless,
but He is perfect, He is sinless, and
when by faith I believe in His finished
work on the cross, then His righteousness becomes
mine, His sinlessness, His perfection is mine.
I'll never be perfect, but in the eyes
of God, when I'm under the blood, I
am perfect, I am righteous before God, no
demon, devil, and hell can take that from
my heart.
Glory be to God.
Folks, you've got to point to His sinlessness,
not yours.
His righteousness, not yours.
I know Christians have been serving God for
many, many years, but they've never been free
of the tyranny of fear and guilt and
condemnation.
They're always convicted by Holy Ghost preaching, and
they're always striving to be holy.
They're trying to hold on to some standard
that they've heard or created.
They want to please God, but they're always
in bondage.
Satan accuses them constantly, and they're not walking
in the freedom.
They have not applied the blood of Jesus
Christ.
They're not on the ground, that ground, that
unshakeable ground.
They're not on the rock.
What's wrong?
They're still looking inside themselves for something good
to present to God.
They're still looking.
They're still searching.
Here's the unshakeable ground.
God, who is holy, sinless, perfect, was in
Christ.
Christ is sinless, perfect.
And I am in Christ, and by faith
in my position, I never let the devil
take that from me.
When I am in Christ, there's no condemnation,
there's no guilt, there's no fear, because the
blood, I have applied the blood to my
heart.
He said it.
Here's the basin.
Apply it.
Well, if you can only see that.
Let God, pray God, open your eyes to
that.
Secondly, the blood of the Lamb represents utter
separation to God voluntarily, utter separation unto God.
The blood represents total abandonment to God, an
undivided heart that's set on Christ alone.
Now, in Zechariah, I don't turn it, but
in Zechariah 2, 8, we read these words.
Listen closely.
This is Moab and Ammon speaking about Israel.
And here's God's answer.
I have heard the reproach of Moab and
the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby
they've reproached my people.
They've magnified themselves against their border.
But what happened, the spies of Moab and
Ammon were on the hillsides, mountains, spying always
on Israel, and they heard the mocking and
the revilings of Moab and Ammon.
And what was happening, Moab and Ammon were
on the mountains, and their people were gossiping,
laughing, and mocking at Israel.
You know what they were saying?
You people are strange, Israel.
For 40 years, you've been talking about walking
into a promised land.
For 40 years, you've boasted on the power
of your God.
All these years, we've seen you do nothing
but wonder aimlessly.
All this talk about conquest.
And Moab and Ammon are standing on the
mountain, laughing and mocking at the people of
God, the priesthood of God, because in spite
of all of their spoken ambitions, in spite
of their glorifying the power of their God,
they're always talking about arriving into a land
of milk and honey and peace and rest.
So all we see are people who murmur
against their God, who live in turmoil and
guilt and fear.
Folks, the world sees that the world, that
represents the world.
Ammon and Moab, the worldly system, looks at
the church of Jesus Christ today and so
many people boasting about being born again, boasting
about the power of God, boasting about the
joy of the Lord and the peace of
God.
Run around without peace, without joy, without happiness,
without rest.
Always many murmuring and complaining, just like Israel,
who God said, I've heard that murmuring.
I've heard the revilings of Moab and Ammon
against my people.
And there's a young woman wrote to me
this past week.
She's just 22 years old and she just
got married shortly before and she was grieving
yet over the loss of her 22-year
-old husband who died of cancer suddenly.
And that death drove her to seek God
with a passion.
She became very intimate with the Lord, she
said.
She became so intimate with Christ, her values
changed, everything changed in her life.
She was living a high life, a Christian,
but highly motivated for success and so forth.
And she said, all my values were changed.
And she said, when God changed my values,
I became intimate with Christ.
I began to see the church through the
eyes of Jesus.
And she wrote, I was reading it this
past week, and she said, for example, Pastor
Dave, one young lady told me she wants
my kind of testimony, she'd like to have
my kind of victory over sin, but without
any pain.
Because this girl's got a lot of pain,
she's suffering, she lost a mother and a
father, and then she lost her own husband,
who's 22 years of age.
She said, other young women in the church
are overbooked and too busy to pray.
I like that word overbooked because it describes
what I see of many young wives today
who are running around all the time, they
take their kids to everything there is, to
judo.
The reason I mentioned that, the coming out
of a story that I saw coming out
of a recreation center, there's dozens of kids
dressed up in white and little kids taking
karate and judo.
And all those mothers and fathers running around,
little league, all the things, overbooked.
No time to pray, no time to see
God.
She said, other young women are telling me
that marriage or decorating houses, fashions, and hairstyle
will solve their discontent.
Boy, that's a lie.
I don't care how you tease your hair,
you're not going to solve your discontent.
Decorating houses, I know that doesn't work.
She said, I see Christians driven by ministries
just to feed a need in them for
success.
She said, I can hardly believe when I
hear my friends now talk about upward mobility,
and they say now that stress is a
necessary part of success in the work of
God.
Stress is a necessary part in achieving something
in the kingdom of God.
Now, if that's what just one God-touched
girl sees, what does the world see of
the church today?
Half-heartedness, like the Moabites saw in Israel.
The same lack of spiritual growth that people
say they're headed for glory, yet they never
get out of that wilderness of despair and
guilt and fear.
See, the Moabites had spies.
When Israel came across the Red Sea, they
had spies there, and when they went to
Gilgal, and they had this great circumcision event,
and Joshua and the were circumcising all that
came out.
All the fathers had died, and the young
men had not been circumcised.
The spies were there.
How else would they have known the movements?
How else would Rahab the hearted be able
to tell the spies, we know all about
you, and all the nations tremble over you.
The spies had to be there and tell
them.
Can you imagine the spies at Gilgal watching
this circumcision, this mass circumcision of the river
of blood that was flowing?
And the scripture says that when they circumcised
the men, the Lord said now the reproach
of Egypt.
It was the cutting away of the flesh,
the scripture said.
They were healed of four skins, great shedding
of blood.
All they knew that if they could sneak
up to the borders, and the scripture talks
about them being at the borders, and they
were able to ask somebody, what does that
mean?
And they would say it means separation from
the world.
It means forgetting where we came from, Egypt,
and having no part of this world.
Total separation to our God.
It's a mark of separation.
Now, the Bible tells us there's a spiritual
circumcision made without hands.
Now, he did that at the cross.
That's where the shedding of the blood was
made for us.
That's where the circumcision took place.
Cutting off of the body of the flesh.
Cutting off all hope that our flesh can
please God.
Cutting off any thought that there's any good
thing in us.
Bringing us to the place where we have
to be totally dependent, wholly dependent on the
grace of God, and the mercy of God.
We repent, and we believe, and we trust
Him, and in that trusting of God, in
heart repentance, we are circumcised.
We are cut off from the world by
an act of God at the cross of
Jesus Christ.
He shed His blood, and so we have
to throw all our confidence on the heel
of the four skins.
We have to believe that we have been
circumcised by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Cut off from the world and all that
it represents.
A spiritual circumcision, so that we end up
with no confidence in the flesh.
Separation unto God means much more than cutting
off the world in its lust and its
pleasures.
People have come to that conclusion that the
separation means, well, I don't smoke, I don't
drink, I don't go here, I don't go
there.
I've been separated from the world.
That's just a very small part of what
I'm talking about today.
This is separation unto God and being separated
from Egypt and everything it represents.
Egypt represents confidence in the flesh, the doings
of the flesh, the immorality of the flesh,
yes, but it's abandoned.
Separation to God means to abandon and die
to wretched flesh, acknowledging that grace alone can
cleanse you, the blood alone can cleanse you.
You cannot circumcise yourself.
You can't do it.
This separation that I'm talking about, this separation
unto God, this spiritual circumcision, it comes by
simply believing in the finished work of Jesus
Christ on the cross.
There is a work, if you will believe
it, of circumcision.
There's a work that you have to trust
that work, only by faith in what he
has done.
Otherwise, you end up with a divided mind,
a divided heart.
Now, let me talk to you what I
mean by divided.
There's a misconception when we talk about a
divided heart.
It's more than a heart divided by devotion
to God and some mixture of the world
inside.
We see a lot of people that are
half-hearted, we say he's got a divided
heart.
Well, folks, I don't know if I can
make this understandable.
I see it.
I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit now
to help you see what I'm trying to
say.
Holy Spirit, give me the words to make
it simple right now.
My heart is divided if I have not
made a final stand on this issue.
My heart is divided if I think that
I slip back.
We have this tendency to slip back.
We're saved by grace.
Yes, I was saved by faith, saved by
grace.
But then remember the Jews that were circumcised
in Jerusalem.
They said, finally, yes, but you have to
be circumcised by Moses' circumcision.
You can't be saved.
Yes, by faith you come to Jesus, but
then you have to be circumcised to be
truly saved and maintained.
It was a mixture.
It was a divided heart.
It had to do with the work of
the blood, the finished work of the blood.
Now, if there's a slightest doubt in your
heart about the absolute victory of the blood,
if you doubt about being accounted as righteous
by faith alone, if you doubt His new
covenant promises to remove the filth from your
life, to keep you as a holy priest,
to put His fear in your heart, to
cause you to walk in His ways, to
remove all iniquity, to confess in the faith,
if you can't believe that He's going to
keep you from falling, if you refuse to
trust God wholly to give all the power
you need to keep His word and promises
or His commandments, if you're not on solid
ground, if you don't believe that with all
of your heart and you commit yourself to
that, you apply the power of that blood,
then you're going to keep slipping back into
the law, into legalism, always trying and thinking,
well, for example, before coming to the service
this morning, I had a busy day yesterday,
didn't have the time to pray that I
wanted, and I slipped back for just about
five, ten seconds into the law.
Lord, this was flesh talking.
I don't know if I'm going to have
the anointing that I should have because I
didn't pray enough.
There was a little mixture.
I was not fully believing in the finished
work of Jesus.
I'm not believing in the work of the
Holy Spirit in my life.
You cannot allow at any point in your
life to slip back into those doubts and
fears.
Well, I'm not as clean as I should
be.
We've got people going around now, see, you
divide your heart when you focus on the
failures of your flesh.
Quit going around saying, I'm no good.
Quit going around saying, I'll never make it.
Quit going around judging other people more righteous
than yourself.
You don't know what they're going through.
You don't know what's going on in their
mind.
You may be far more practically holy than
they are.
Don't judge yourself by that anymore.
You will look to the blood of Jesus
Christ.
All I care is about how I stand
before Almighty God.
You'll never bring down Satan from his place
of power and ascendancy.
You'll never enjoy your garment of righteousness.
You'll never have the effectiveness of your miter
on your head till you're on this solid
ground of absolute undivided heart on this issue.
Otherwise, you're going to walk in confusion and
fear.
What is the issue?
The blood of Jesus Christ, sinless, perfect blood
has made every provision to cover my past
sins, my present sins.
And there is now no condemnation because I
believe in the power of that blood.
I don't have to plead for him to
do it.
It's already finished.
I thank him for it.
I apply it every day to my heart.
Every battle I go through, all my weaknesses,
all of my failures.
I don't focus on that.
I run to the blood.
I apply it to my heart.
You understand that?
And they overcame him by the blood of
the lamb and by the word of their
testimony.
For they loved not their lives unto death.
Now, here are the two weapons against the
devil and his accusations.
The blood of the lamb and the word
of their testimony.
Testimony here is evidence, and it means visible
evidence.
The testimony is more than words.
It's living proof, and it should be interpreted
this way.
They overcame by the blood and by giving
evidence to the whole world that the blood
has never lost its power.
Now, listen closely, please.
You show me a believer who's dead to
striving in his flesh to be holy, simply
trusting in Jesus, in his sinless perfection, accept
the righteousness of God by faith in spite
of our failures.
You rest in your acceptance before God.
I'm accepted before God.
I may feel unclean.
I may feel depressed.
I may feel whatever this great spectrum of
spectrum of feelings affect us.
You can feel any way you want, but
I know where I stand before God.
I have the blood of Jesus applied to
my heart, and I have entered into his
sinless perfection.
He has imputed his righteousness unto me, and
you show me somebody who walks in that,
and it will produce in you a joy
and a peace, and it becomes the testimony
to the world of the power of the
blood.
It's not someone getting up some saint, sanctified,
and filled with the Holy Ghost prayer, I'll
make it through to the end.
It's not going around throwing scriptures at people.
It's a practical, visible person who walks around
in the security of his position in Christ.
He's unshakable in his new covenant promises, and
he will not go back to the flesh
for anything, and there's something about, there's an
assurance, there's a peace, and everybody can see
it.
That's the word of the testimony.
There's a word of testimony that we give
to the whole world about the blood.
It's about the blood, the blood, the blood,
and its power to keep us.
These are those who have entered into the
rest that remains the children of God.
Now, finally, the blood of the Lamb is
a mighty weapon, and it's got to be
used.
It's a weapon.
In Revelation, the 12th chapter, you're there, I
hope, Revelation 12, there's a war going on.
The Bible says a war is declared.
The devil's declared war.
There's an angry devil coming down, the scripture
says, in this chapter.
He has great wrath, and he's going to
send out a flood.
It's a flood of iniquity out of the
very pits of hell.
Now, what, where is this flood coming, this
war, who's it against?
I don't have time to go read it
all through with you here.
When the dragon Saul was cast to the
earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth
the man-child.
The man-child is the church of Jesus
Christ.
The Bible makes it very clear that the
devil in the last day, the war that
he declares is on the church, and he's
coming down, and he's going to attack those
most closely related to Jesus Christ, those most
closely related to the power of his blood,
those who have the testimony, who are living
the testimony.
They're not just talking about the blood, they've
applied it, and they live in the security
of that blood.
And the Bible makes it clear that the
devil has aimed his last great warfare against
that priesthood.
And I'm going to tell you something, the
closer you get to Jesus, the more intimate
you become, the more you represent him on
earth, the more you are in this by
faith.
He's put the robe of righteousness on you.
You were the miter of the priesthood.
That's the touch of God.
That's the calling of God upon our lives.
And when you are walking in the power
of that, you better understand that he's not
going after the ungodly.
He's not going after all of those, he's
not going after that group that I'm praying
for in Long Island, who had a high
school, what do they call it, prom for
gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders.
What a sad group of young people.
What a sad, sad group, and I'm not
putting them down, my heart bleeds for them.
But you see, he's not going to flood,
that's not where the flood's aimed at.
It's not aimed at the wicked out in
the streets, not the apostates, not the ungodly,
not the atheists.
They're going to persecute the one with a
man child.
They're going to persecute the church of Jesus
Christ, those closest related to the blood, living
and overcoming life, that they may be carried
away.
The scripture says he's going to send this
flood of filth, lust, temptation.
He's going to come against the physical body,
he's going to come against the mind, he's
going to come against everything, to carry them
away.
The Bible says they may be carried away
with the flood.
We see many being carried away today.
He has literally taken over television with filth.
He's literally taken over the internet now with
pornography.
Do you understand that there are 40,000
pornographic sites, websites, 40,000?
Do you understand what he's doing?
He's aiming that, trying to come from every
direction, in any way, to get at this.
He's going to persecute.
And if you are beginning to wonder why
you suffer in your body more than you've
ever suffered, or if you're going through mental
trials like you've never been tried before, you're
going through things that you've never experienced before,
mark it down, mark it down.
A mad devil's come down to there having
great wrath, and his wrath, the Bible makes
it clear.
You go over and read it, read it
again, that he is aimed at persecuting those
who represent the priesthood of Christ on earth
in these last days.
He's coming after you, he's coming after me,
he's coming after all, with everything that comes
out of hell.
But look at the promise.
I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven
now has come salvation, strength, the kingdom of
God, the power of his Christ, for the
accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
accused them before our God night and day,
and they overcame him by the blood of
the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony loved not their lives unto death.
These are the two cannons, these are the
two weapons, when the devil comes in like
a flood.
This is the standard, the Lord will rise
up.
Go to the perfection of the blood, go
to the perfection of Jesus, get your eyes
off of your own works and your own
imperfections.
Point to devil if you must to the
sinlessness of Jesus.
Say, devil, accuse me of what you want,
but he, my Lord, Savior, is sinless, spotless,
you can't accuse me because I am hidden
in Christ.
Take the weapon and use it.
All the flock Paul referred to, which he
purchased with his blood, the whole flock, none
of this flock will be carried away, and
folks, if you've been carried away, all you
have to do is run to the blood,
come back quickly, run to the blood of
Jesus Christ, and his covenant promises, I'll put
my law in your heart, I'll write them
on your mind, your sins and iniquities, I'll
remember no more, I'll wipe them out because
of the blood.
If you've been carried away, you can come
back, but be careful lest some whirlpool catch
you up and sweep you away.
Come to his precious blood.
Will you stand?
I invite you to come out of your
seat in the annex and here in the
main auditorium.
I invite you to come out of your
seat, come and stand here, take a step
of faith.
Now, listen closely, I'll make this short, right
to the point.
If you're here this morning and you're really
not sure, you go between doubts and faith,
you're just wavering.
The Bible said, ask in faith because if
any man wavers, don't let him think he'll
receive anything from God, won't receive anything from
the Lord.
I want you to come by faith.
Now, if you're not saved, you're not serving
the Lord, you've run from the Lord, your
heart's grown cold, I want you to step
out of your seat.
If you feel the tug and pull of
the Holy Spirit, come here to the blood,
come back to the blood of Jesus, come
to the blood, come for the cleansing, the
power of his blood.
Upstairs, you go to the steps on either
end, come down any aisle.
I'm going to ask even those in the
annex, go to the lobby and they'll show
you the way down.
I want you to come down here, I'd
like to pray for you personally.
And here in the main auditorium, if you
say, Brother Wilson, I'm going, I am really
going through the trial of my life, the
trial of my life.
Well, folks, I'm not just talking about a
bad day or a bad week.
I'm talking about something you know deep in
your heart.
I have never been anything like this before
in my life.
This is extreme.
Really going to it, it may be mental.
You say, Brother, I'm going through the battle
of my life.
I want you to step out and we'll
pray, believe, and trust the Lord for victory
through his blood.
As we sing it again, I want everybody
to sing in all the blood of Jesus.
Wherever you're at, upstairs, downstairs, moving close, please
make room for those that are coming.
Lord, we thank you for your blood.
Thank you for the power, for the solid
ground upon which we stand, unshakable.
Lord, if we could just come by faith
and stand on that ground, the devil's defeated
and cast down immediately.
He can no longer accuse.
We've come onto a solid ground on Christ,
the solid rock, the finished work, the blood,
the precious blood of Jesus.
I want everybody to pray this prayer with
me, please.
Jesus, thank you for your blood that was
shed for me.
Thank you for the power of your blood,
the forgiving power, but the keeping power also.
Keep me, Jesus, by faith in your blood.
Oh, Lord Jesus, you are perfect.
You are righteous.
There's no sin in you.
And now by faith, I come to you,
Jesus.
I want to be in Christ by faith.
I believe you, Jesus.
Cleanse me, forgive me, and blot out my
iniquities.
Accept my position.
I am in Christ.
I am made righteous.
The devil cannot accuse me.
Now, just begin to thank him right now.
Lord, I give you thanks.
I give you praise.
Faith is taking a position.
I'll tell you something.
You can be on solid ground right now.
Lord, I come against fear and unbelief.
God, release faith right now that if we
just, where we stand, you didn't ask for
a river of tears.
You didn't ask us to do anything to
repent of our sins and believe.
Lord Jesus, we've heard about your blood, and
we believe now that it's by grace.
Your blood has provided the grace and the
forgiveness, and we thank you for it, Lord,
and we're going to stand on that.
We're not going to try to do it
in our own strength.
Lord, when we fail, we're going to get
up and run to you, Jesus, and cling
to you.
We're going to cling to you into the
blood, and we're going to apply that blood
to our hearts.
Now, bring down the devil.
Bring down the power of Satan.
Bring down all of his accusations, Lord, because
we are standing on solid ground, on Christ's
solid rock.