We have spoken of overcoming in the heavenlies, but you must also contend against the evil one in a lower sphere—ON THIS EARTH. You must first overcome in the heavenly places before the throne. When you have been triumphant with God in prayer, you will have grace to go out to serve and to defeat evil among your fellow men. How often have I personally found that the battle must first be fought above! We must overcome in order to serve. Those who know the burden of the Lord are often bowed down and would not be able to bear up at all were it not for having in secret battled with their enemy and won the day. I have been bowed down before the Lord, and in his presence I have pleaded the precious blood as the reason for obtaining help, and the help has been given. Faith, having once made sure that Jesus is hers, helps herself out of the treasury of God to all that she needs. Satan would deny her, but in the power of the blood she takes possession of covenant blessings.
You say to yourself, “I am weak, but in the Lord, my God, there is power: I take it to myself. I am hard and cold, but here is tenderness and warmth, and I appropriate it. It pleased the Father that in Jesus ‘all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,’ and by virtue of His precious blood, I take out of that fullness what I need, and then with that help I meet the enemy and overcome him.”
Satan would hinder us from getting supplies of grace with which to overcome him. But with the blood-mark on our foot we can go anywhere; with the blood-mark on our hand we dare take anything. Having access to God with confidence, we can receive with freedom whatever we need, and so we are provided against all necessities, and armed against all assaults through the atoning sacrifice. This is the fountain of supply, and the shield of security: this, indeed, is the channel through which we receive strength for victory.
We overcome the great enemy by laying hold upon the all-sufficiency of God, when we really grasp the power of the precious blood of Christ. So when we are victorious in the heavenlies, we come down to our homes, neighborhoods, and places of employment made “strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” Having overcome satan at the throne of grace, we see him fall from heaven like lightning, despite our feeble abilities. We speak, and God speaks with us; we long for souls, and God’s great heart is yearning with us. We invite men to come, and the Lord also pleads with them to come. Spiritual power of a holy kind rests upon us to overcome the spiritual power of an evil kind which is exerted by satan, the world, and the flesh. The Lord scatters the power of the enemy, and breaks the spell which holds men captive. Through the blood of the Lamb, the weakest among us is able to “bear thirtyfold.” Coming forth to serve God in the power of our victory in heaven gained by pleading the blood of the Lamb, we march together to conquer, and no power of the enemy is able to prevail against us.
On earth, among men in these lower places of conflict, saints overcome through the blood of the Lamb by their testimony to that blood. “They overcame by the word of their testimony.” Every believer is to bear witness to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and His power to save. He is to proclaim that truth; he is to emphasize it by earnestly believing in it himself; and he is to support it and prove it by his own experience of its power. You may not all have the gift of teacher, but you can all speak for Jesus as opportunity is given you. Our main business is to bear witness with the blood in the power of the Spirit. To this point we can all testify. You can tell all those around you, “There is life in a look at the Crucified One.” You can bear witness to the power of the blood of Jesus in your own soul. If you do this, you will overcome men in many ways.
First, you will arouse them out of apathy. This age is more indifferent to true religion than almost any other. It is alive enough to error, but to the “faith entrusted to the saints,” it turns a deaf ear. Yet I have noticed people captivated by the message of the cross who would not listen to anything else. If any truth can capture men’s attention, it is the story of divine love, incarnate in the person of Jesus, bleeding and dying for guilty men. It has a fascination about it. The marvelous history of the Son of God, who loved His enemies and died for them—this will arrest our hearts. The history of the Holy One who stood in the sinners’ place and so was put to shame, agony, and death—this will touch them. The sight of the bleeding Savior overcomes stubbornness and carelessness.
The truth of the blood of the Lamb prevents or corrects error. I do not think that by mere logic we often disprove false beliefs to any practical purpose. We may refute error rhetorically and doctrinally, but men still stick to it. But the proclamation of the precious blood, if it ever gets into the heart, drives error out of it, and sets up the throne of truth. You cannot cling to an atoning sacrifice and still delight in modern heresies. Those who deny the inspiration of scripture are sure to get rid of the cross, because it will not allow their errors. Let us go on proclaiming the truth of the great sacrifice, and it will kill the vipers of heresy. Let us lift up the cross—never mind what other people say. Maybe we have paid too much attention to them already. Let the dogs bark; it is their nature. Go on proclaiming Christ crucified. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
We also overcome men in this way, by softening rebellious hearts. Men stand out against the law of God and defy the vengeance of God; but the love of God in Christ Jesus disarms them. The Holy Spirit causes men to yield through the softening influence of the cross. A bleeding Savior can make men throw down their weapons of rebellion. “If He loves me so,” they say, “I cannot do other than love Him in return.” We overcome men’s obstinacy by the blood, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
How wonderfully this same blood of the Lamb overcomes despair. Have you never seen a man shut up in the iron cage of despair? It has been my painful duty to talk with several such prisoners. I have seen the captive shake the iron bars, but he could not break them. He has begged us to set him free somehow, but we have been powerless. Glory to God, the blood is a universal solvent! It has dissolved the iron bars of despair, until the poor captive conscience has been able to escape. How sweet for the desponding to sing: “I believe that Jesus died for me”!
Believing that, all doubts and fears and despairs fly away, and the man is at peace.
There is nothing, indeed, dear friends, which the blood of the Lamb will not overcome. It overcomes vice and every form of sin. The world stinks with evil, like a cave which has long been the lair of filthy creatures. What can cleanse it? What but the matchless stream of the blood? Satan makes sin seem pleasurable, but the cross reveals its bitterness. If Jesus died because of sin, men begin to see that sin must be a murderous thing. Even when sin was only laid on the Savior, it made Him pour out his soul to death. It must, then, be a hideous evil to those who are actually and personally guilty of it. If God’s rod made Christ sweat great drops of blood, what will His axe do when He executes the death penalty on impenitent men? Yes, we overcome the deadly sweetness and destructive pleasantness of sin by the blood of the Lamb.
This blood overcomes the natural slowness of men to obey; it stimulates them to holiness. If anything can make a man holy, it is a firm faith in the atoning sacrifice. When a man knows that Jesus died for him, he feels that he is not his own, but bought with a price. Jesus died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. In the atonement I see a motive equal to the greatest heroism, a motivation that will stimulate to perfect holiness. What kind of persons ought we to be, if that kind of sacrifice was offered for us? Now we are inspired into intensity of zeal and devotion. See, dear brothers, how to use the blood of the Lamb in this lower sphere while contending with evil among men.