When a man gets a sword, you cannot be quite certain how he will use it. Suppose a gentleman purchases a very expensive sword with a golden hilt and an elaborate scabbard. He hangs it up in his hall and shows it to his friends. Occasionally he draws it out from the sheath and says, “Feel how sharp the edge is!” The precious blood of Jesus is not meant for us merely to admire and exhibit. We must not be content to talk about it and do nothing with it. We are to use it in the great crusade against unholiness and unrighteousness, until it can be said of us, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” This precious blood is to be used for overcoming and consequently for holy warfare. We dishonor the blood if we do not use it for that purpose.
Some, I fear, use the precious blood of Christ only to soothe their consciences. They say to themselves, “He atoned for sin, so now I can relax.” This is doing a severe wrong to the great sacrifice. I freely admit that the blood of Jesus does speak better things than the blood of Abel and that it cries, “Peace!” within a troubled conscience, but that is not all it does. A person who wants the blood of Jesus for nothing but the ordinary, selfish reason that after having been forgiven, he can say, “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. Listen to sermons, look forward to eternal happiness, and do nothing”—such a person blasphemes the precious blood and makes it an unholy thing. We are to use the glorious mystery of atoning blood as a weapon to conquer sin and satan. Its power is for holiness. The scripture puts it, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” These saints used the teaching of atonement not as a pillow to rest on, but as a weapon to subdue their sin. Brothers and sisters, to some of us atonement by blood is our battle-axe and weapon of war, and by it we conquer in our struggle for purity and godliness—a struggle we have continued these many years. By the atoning blood we withstand corruption within and temptation without. We have a weapon that nothing can resist.
Let me show you your battle-field. Our first place of conflict is in the heavenly realm, and the second is down below on earth.
First, you who believe in the blood of Jesus have to do battle with satan in the heavenly realms. There you must overcome him “by the blood of the Lamb.” How, you ask? Begin by regarding satan this day as already literally and truly overcome through the death of the Lord Jesus. Satan is already a beaten enemy. By faith grasp your Lord’s victory as your own, since He triumphed on your behalf after taking on your nature. The Lord Jesus Christ went up to Calvary and there fought with the prince of darkness. He utterly defeated him and destroyed his power. He led captivity captive. He bruised the serpent’s head. The victory belongs to all who are in Christ. He is the seed of the woman, and you belong to that seed. You are in Christ in reality and in your experience. When Jesus died, you then and there overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb. Can you get a hold of this truth? Do you not know that you were circumcised in His circumcision, crucified on His cross, buried with Him in baptism, and raised with Him in His resurrection? He is your head, and you being members of His body did in Him what He did.
Come, my soul, you have conquered satan by the Lord’s victory. Won’t you be brave enough to fight a beaten opponent? Can’t you trample down the enemy your Lord has already defeated? You have nothing to fear. Instead, say, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We have overcome sin, death and hell in the person and work of our great Lord. We should be greatly encouraged by what He has already done in our name. Already “we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.” If Jesus had not overcome the enemy, certainly we never could have done it. But His personal triumph has secured ours. By faith we rise into the place of a conqueror this day. In the heavenlies we triumph, just like in every other place. We rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of men. By Him we see satan cast out, and all the powers of evil hurled from their places of power and prominence.
This day I urge you to overcome satan in the heavenlies in another sense: you must overcome him as the accuser. At times you hear in your heart a voice that brings up old memories and stings your conscience; a voice which seems in the unseen realm to be a remembrance of your guilt. Listen! It is a deep, insidious voice, promising evil. Satan is repeating before the throne of justice all your former sins. Can you hear him? He begins with your childhood faults and your youthful follies. Truly a dark memory. He does not let one of your wickednesses escape notice. Things which you had forgotten he cunningly revives. He knows your secret sins, for he had a hand in most of them. He knows the resistance which you offered to the gospel, and the way in which you stifled conscience. He knows the sins of darkness, the sins of the bedroom, the crimes you committed in the inner chambers of your imagination. Since you have been a Christian he has taken note of your wickedness, and asked, in fierce sarcastic tones, “Is this a child of God? Is this an heir of heaven?” He hopes we can be found guilty of hypocrisy or apostasy.
The foul fiend points out the wanderings of our hearts, the deadness of our desires in prayer, the filthy thoughts that dropped into our minds when we were trying to worship. We have to confess that we have even tolerated doubts as to eternal truths and suspicions about the love and faithfulness of God. When the accuser is going about his evil business, he does not have to look far to find grounds for accusation and for facts to support it. Do these accusations stagger you? Do you cry, “My God, how can I face You? Because all this is true, and the sins brought to my remembrance just now are ones that I cannot deny. I have violated Your law in a thousand ways, and I cannot justify myself.”
Now is your opportunity for overcoming through the blood of the Lamb. When the accuser has said his say and charged you with all your sins, do not be ashamed to step forward and say, “But I have an Advocate as well as an accuser. O Jesus, my Savior, speak for me!”
When He speaks, what does He plead but His own blood? “For all these sins I have made atonement,” He says. “All these iniquities were laid on me in the day of the Lord’s anger, and I have taken them away.” Brothers and sisters, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanses us from all sin. Jesus has borne the penalty we deserved: He has paid for us upon the cross all our debts to the justice of God, and we are free forever, because our Surety suffered in our place. Where is the accuser now? That dragon voice is silenced by the blood of the Lamb. Nothing else can ever silence the accuser’s cruel voice but the voice of the blood that tells of the infinite God accepting the sacrifice which He himself supplied on our behalf.
Justice decrees that the sinner is forgiven, because the accepted substitute has taken the sin in His own body on the tree. Come, brother or sister, the next time you have to deal with satan as an accuser in heavenly places, be careful to defend yourself with no weapon but the atonement. All comfort drawn from inward feelings or outward works will fall short. But the bleeding wounds of Jesus will plead with a full and overwhelming argument and answer all the charges. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Who, then, shall accuse the child of God? Every accuser will be overcome by the invincible argument of the blood of the Lamb.
What’s more, the believer needs to overcome the enemy in the heavenly places when it comes to access to God. It may happen that when we are most focused on spending special time with God, the adversary hinders us. Our heart and our flesh cry out for God, the living God. But for one reason or another we are unable to draw near to the throne. Our heart is heavy, our sin is discouraging, our troubles are harassing us, and satanic insinuation is busy. You seem shut out from God, and the enemy triumphs over you. The world, the flesh, and the devil are nipping at your heels, but you mourn your miserable distance from God. You are like a child who cannot reach his father because a black dog barks at him from the door. What is the way to Father? If the ugly beast will not move out of the way, can we force our way in? By what weapon can we drive away the adversary so as to come to God? Isn’t it written that we are “brought near by the blood”? Isn’t there a “new and living way” established for us? Don’t we have “confidence to enter into the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus”? We are sure of God’s love when we see that Christ died for us. We are sure of God’s favor when we see how that atonement has removed our transgressions far from us. We grasp our freedom to come to the Father, and therefore we can each say,
“I will approach You—I will force
My way through obstacles to You;
I will turn to You for strength,
Flee for consolation to You!”
Pleading the satisfaction made by the blood of the Lamb, we dare draw near to God. Watch the evil spirit make way for us! The sacred name of Jesus is one before which he flees. This name will drive away his blasphemous suggestions and foul insinuations better than anything that you can invent. The dog of hell knows the dreaded Name that makes him lie down. We must confront him with the authority and especially with the atonement of the Lamb of God. He will rage and rave all the more if we send Moses the lawgiver to silence him, for he derives his power from our violations of the law. We cannot silence him unless we bring to him the great Lord who has kept the law and made it honorable.
We next must overcome the enemy in prayer. We cannot always pray as we want. Do you never feel when you are in prayer as if something choked your words—and, what is worse, deadened your heart? Instead of having wings like an eagle to mount to heaven, an invisible hand clips your wings, and you cannot rise. You say within yourself, “I have no faith, and I cannot expect to succeed with God without faith. I seem to have no love. Or, if I have any, my heart lies asleep, and I cannot stir myself to plead with God. Oh, that I could come out of my prayer closet, saying, ’I have overcome, I have overcome!’ But instead I groan in vain and come away unrelieved. I have been half dead, cold, and emotionless, and I cannot hope that I have prevailed with God in prayer.” Whenever you are in this condition, fly to the blood of the Lamb as your most important remedy. When you make this powerful argument you will shake yourself awake, and you will prevail with God. You will feel rest in pleading it, and a sweet assurance of success at the mercy-seat. Don’t hesitate for a moment. This is the way in which you should use this plea. Say, “My God, I am utterly unworthy, and I own it. But I am asking You to hear me for the honor of Your dear Son. By His agony and bloody sweat, by His cross and passion, by His precious death and burial, I implore You to hear me! O Lord, let the blood of Your Only-begotten prevail with You! Can you ignore His groans, His tears, His death, when they speak on my behalf?” If you can in this way come to terms with God, pleading on this ground, you must and will prevail. Jesus must be heard in heaven. The voice of His blood is eloquent with God. If you plead the atoning sacrifice, you must overcome through the blood of the Lamb.