The Overcoming Blood

THE OVERCOMING BLOOD

Rev. 12:11

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. In England there’s a little town. It has a grocery store, gas station, a pub, a flower shop and a monastery. The pub is where everyone gathers to talk. A big storm came through and damaged the monastery. The Monks decided to sell flowers to raise the money to repair it. They went to talk to the flower shop owner to see if he’d mind. He said, “My flower shop puts the food on my table, but if you’ll agree to stop selling flowers once the money’s raised, that will be fine.”

2. A year later the monastery was repaired but the Monks decided to keep selling flowers. The flower shop owner protested but was ignored. He owner went to the pub & told his problem to a giant of a man named Hugh. Hugh said, “I’ll go talk to the Monks.” But they still refused to stop. Hugh got madder and madder, and went back and whooped up on the Monks and they decided to close their flower operation.

3. What’s the moral of the story? “Hugh and only Hugh can prevent Florist Friars.”

B. ILLUS.

1. For more than 130 years the Eiffel Tower has stood majestically over the city of Paris, a symbol of architectural brilliance. The city proudly promotes the tower as a key element of its beauty.

2. As it was being built however, many people thought it looked ugly. French writer Guy De Maupassant said it had “a ridiculous thin shape like a factory chimney.”

3. Many people look at Jesus and don’t see anything lovely. As a matter of fact, the prophet Isaiah observed, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him; there was nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him” (53:2)

4. But Peter best describes our feelings, “to you who believe, He is precious” 1 Pet. 2:7. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. We see the beauty of His character and what He’s done for us.

C. THESIS

1. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony...” Rev. 12:11.

2. Today we’re looking at the power of the Overcoming Blood of Jesus.

I. THE BLOOD IS OUR PROTECTION

A. VALUE OF THE BLOOD

1. We must have confidence in the value of the blood of Jesus. When Israel was about to leave Egypt, God said to them, “Kill the passover lamb and put it’s blood on the doorposts and lentils. When the death angel comes, he will see the blood and pass over your dwelling.”

2. The death angel didn’t spare them based on merit. He didn’t look into the houses to see if someone was smoking a cigarette, or committing some sin; it was the blood that saved them. It’s the blood that saves us!

3. We don’t have to tiptoe around the devil! We have an unshakable ground of forgiveness the devil can’t penetrate.

B. THE BLOOD IS A HEDGE TO SATAN

1. The Blood surrounds our spiritual experience. If you’re in water, the water surrounds you. If you’re in Christ, every part of Christ surrounds your spiritual being.

2. In order for Satan to touch you he must first come through Jesus Christ. He’s our hedge as certainly as Job had a hedge around him.

C. WE ARE POSITIONED ABOVE THE POWERS OF DARKNESS

1. Eph. 2:4-6, “God...made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

2. This tells us that as believers, we’re positioned spiritually above Satan and we’re on the highest ground. We are in Christ, and Paul says that Christ has been exalted far above ALL the rulers of darkness. His enemies are under His feet and I am in Him.

3. That means that you and I, true believers in Christ, have been placed in a position above Satan. When we fight the devil, we don’t fight as inferiors; we fight from a superior position in Christ. We need not bargain, beg, or plead, but only to claim the victory of Jesus from our heavenly position in Jesus and operate in His power!

4. It's not our battle, but His. However, we must enforce it in His Name. Standing on the ground secured by the blood, we are more than conquerors! Never has the church needed to know our position and weapons more than now when the church is under such attack.

5. Jesus said, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” Luke 10:19. When Jesus told this to His disciples, they were given, at that instant, power over the enemy.