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. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
For our thoughts, I want to consider with you the task that is ours as the people of God, as to defeating the devil as
we live here on earth.
The Bible teaches that we as the people of God have an adversary to contend with.
1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour:
The devil is out to devour whomever he can, and especially he is out to devour the people of God.....The only
problem he has though, is that he really can not devour the faithful in Christ Jesus. Those who flatly resist him as the
Bible directs, cannot be touched by the devil. Actually what happens is that those who battle with the Devil as
children of God, are more than conquerors and they defeat him at every vantage point. They overcome him
because they arm themselves with the equipment necessary to bring victory as they face him in battle and when the
battle is over the accuser is cast down.
How encouraging it is know that as the people of God, we can defeat the devil, and for our study we want to take
notice of the three things mentioned in the above text, that forthrightly explains how that these brethren in Revelation
12, overcame the devil.
1st of all it says that "They overcame the accuser by the blood of the Lamb."
These brethren defeated Satan, because they gained access to the blood of the Lamb, and they continued to rely
upon the blood to receive the forgiveness of their sins. It is true to say that sin is the very thing that separates man
from God, and Satan knows that. If he can use his influence to encourage and entice people to sin, then he can
bring them into captivity. But, if they resist his advances by obeying Jesus and relying upon the blood of Jesus for
cleansing, Satan has no power to stop them and is simply overcome by the forces of righteousness and godliness,
1Pe 1:18-19 - Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot:
Eph 1:6- 7 - To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
The brethren in Revelation 12, overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb, because they had obeyed the gospel,
and they had relied upon the blood to cleanse them from their sins and to continue to cleanse them of their sins by
the terms given by Jesus.
Friends we can be assured today that the only way we can conquer the devil is by obeying Jesus and putting to death
the old man of sin by the power of his blood....
Expound: The fact is sin cannot be tolerated in our lives period, and us then expect to conquer the
forces of Satan........Sin must be alleviated by the power of the blood and if we have sin and we are
continuing in it, the Devil will take advantage of that and will defeat us.....
Dear Friends, what about our lives?....Are we letting the forces of sin take us, so the devil can defeat
us? What about our life in the church? How about our family life ? Is Sin a precedent in the lives that we
live as individuals? If it is..... the Devil is going to defeat us!!! Why? Because we have not availed the
power of the blood of Jesus in our lives as we should.
These brethren overcame the devil, because the blood of the Lamb was covering them in their lives, and the same
must be true today of us! If the blood is not covering us as a people and as a brotherhood of the same, we are
bound to ultimate defeat from the devil and his forces.
2) These brethren overcame the Devil by the word of their testimony
.....the word translated testimony here as I understand it, refers to the idea of a presentation of evidence......These
brethren overcame the devil, by the presentation of the evidence in their life of the work and teaching of Jesus Christ
their Lord and Master.
They defeated the devil, because their life was evidence of the fact that they indeed were the true children of God in
Christ Jesus!
Listen to the words of Paul to Timothy,
1Ti 6:11-14 – But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast
professed a good profession before many witnesses. 13 I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all
things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; 14 That thou keep this
commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
One might ask, “Why did Paul give such a list of commands for Timothy to keep? Was it because he knew that in
order for Timothy to defeat the effects of the devil, that Timothy had to show himself before those to whom he was
working that we was in a battle against the devil??.....
Notice carefully here that Paul is NOT commanding Timothy to get out his list of uncontroversial sermons, and make
him up a few smooth talks or drum up a few devotional lectures on how to be a good Christian to present to Ephesus!
Paul is NOT trying to make Timothy into a motivational speaker or a Rhodes scholar as some might believe
themselves to be today when they take up the mantel of preaching the gospel of Jesus.
Very simply, Paul is saying to Timothy, as an evangelist you just stand up and simply be what you are supposed to be
as a preacher. Stand up show yourself as a strict example of what preaching the truth is all about and live the life of
one who is a genuine example of righteousness, faith and godliness.....Thats what its all about Timothy!....Fight the
good fight, lay hold on eternal life with all that is in you!!! Be quickened at all times to the profession in which you are
called and be without spot, and unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ!!
Expound: Brethren, a point we can draw from this is that we today can NEVER defeat the devil, with
the advancing of soft preaching all the time and liberal minded living! The devil will defeat us in every
corner of our lives, in every corner of the world, if really all we are about is trying to be like the world and
the religious denominations around us....the devil wins the battle before the battle even begins!
The brethren in Rev 12, defeated the devil because the word of their testimony came straight from Jesus, and they
battled and contended to keep that evidence strong and in tact in their lives, much as what Jude wrote in Jude 3,
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you,
and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Listen folks, nothing less will do when it comes to the defeating of the devil today! We too have to defend, contend
and advance the word of our testimony, and as we keep it strong , and firm within our hearts, we then can have the
confidence of being unrebukable at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3) Well, lastly, they overcame the Devil because they loved not their lives unto the death.
These brethren, literally were willing to give up their own lives, even unto death, for the cause of Jesus Christ....What
a tremendous sacrifice that they were willing to render. And no doubt they were willing to live out this sacrifice without
blame, and without complaint!
Illustration: I’m a substitute teacher and I was teaching a 2nd grade class not long ago, and the
teacher hung a poster at the front of the class and it said = “Thou shalt not whine!” I thought to myself,
we need to hang one of those posters up in the heart of every Christian in our brotherhood!!
Brethren, the reality is, if we are complainers and whiners, it does very little for the cause and most of time does
detriment to our influence as the children of God. If we are not committed to the Lord 100%, we need to know that the
devil is going to defeat us!
These brethren of Rev 12, were committed so strongly, they loved not their own lives even unto death...Literally they
were living sacrifices unto God through Jesus!
Rom 12:1-2 – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God.
Very simply, as a living sacrifice we will not be defeated by the devil, because we will be working within the framework
of the good, and acceptable and perfect will of God. Very clearly, what would be our complaint, if we are
accomplishing this in our life. Plainly this teaches us that those who defeat the devil are those who love the Lord with
all their heart, and very straightforwardly prove it by their actions, words, and deeds!
In summary, we will never defeat the devil if we really don’t love the Lord with all of our heart and make sacrifices for
Him in this life. We will never defeat him, by living worldly and not preaching the word as we should or by NOT living
our life as a testimony to the truth.....We will never defeat the devil without access to the blood of Christ...We have to
have the blood of Christ to deal with the effects of sin,
The truth is, we have to have all these things in tact to defeat the devil! That’s what these brethren in Rev 12 did.......
In closing, one thing we know is that the devil is not going to give up on making havoc for the people of God, because
that is his regiment of business, yet brethren, if WE RESIST HIM, the Bible teaches that he will flee from us and leave
us alone!
In Eph 5: 14, the Bible tells us how that we can resist him,
Eph 5:14 - 17 – Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light. 15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days
are evil. 17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
When we understand the will of the Lord and do his will, the devil has no power over us. Its high time that we put the
devil on the run, and keep him out of our congregations, out of our homes, out of our hearts, so that someday we can
receive the crown of everlasting life and the accuser of the brethren will be cast down!