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The Man Behind the Curtain
Job 1:1-2:13; Revelation 12:1-17
Skip Heitzig

Job 1 (NKJV™)
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
2 And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.
3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
4 And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did regularly.
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.
7 And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"
9 So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing?
10 "Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11 "But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"
12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house;
14 and a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,
15 "when the Sabeans raided them and took them away--indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,
19 "and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.
21 And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."
22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
Job 2 (NKJV™)
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
2 And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."
3 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause."
4 So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
5 "But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"
6 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life."
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
8 And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!"
10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place--Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him.
12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven.
13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
Revelation 12 (NKJV™)
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,
8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
11 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
12 "Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time."
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Job Meets Jesus

Behind our visible world is an invisible world just as real—the realm of the supernatural. Though we can’t see into this world, we can see the effects of its activities all around us, both good and bad. It’s like the difference between a visible picture on your television set and the invisible picture waves that are transmitted through the air. The invisible waves produce visible pictures. Behind the curtain of the supernatural a conversation between God and Satan was going on. Let’s listen in to what Job couldn’t listen to and learn how to triumph in this invisible battle.

Job suffered multiple losses—his riches, his health, his family, and his reputation. When his friends accused him of sin, Job asked, "How can a man be righteous before God?" (Job 9:2) and lamented that there was no mediator between God and man. When Jesus came to earth, that Mediator—the solution for man's unrighteousness—was revealed. In this series, Skip Heitzig encourages us to trust God's purpose in the midst of suffering and presents the hope voiced by Job: "I know that my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25).

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Detailed Notes

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I. Job’s ProblemAn Accuser (Job 1 & 2)
A. The character of a godly man (Job 1: 5-8)
B. The critic of a godly man (Job 1:9-12, 2:3-5)

II. Jesus’ SolutionAn Overcomer (Revelation 12:10-11)
A. His blood
B. Our testimony
C. Your surrender

Questions for Home Groups:

  1. What kind of spiritual warfare do you experience most? How do you deal with it? Should your strategy change?

  2. Do Satan’s personal attacks have any correspondence to a person’s character?

  3. Write down the key points of your testimony. Share them with someone this week.

Transcript

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Let's open our Bibles to Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1.
Let's pray together. Lord we almost invariably will pray when we break bread together, have a meal together, and ask you to bless it. And even much more now as we sit for a spiritual meal in the word of God as you break the word of life to us. Lord, this is part of our worship to you tonight to give you our time and to give you our attention, to sit here for the remaining part of the service and tell you that what you have to say to us, this message from heaven to us is important for us to listen with rapt attention and then trusting your spirit will make application to our lives as we do. In Jesus' name. Amen.
I've got to say that the devil reminds me of a scene in probably the very first movie that I remember watching. The movie was "The Wizard of Oz." And in "The Wizard of Oz" Dorothy an her three friends finally make it to the Kingdom of Oz, they are greeted (I shouldn't really use that term) but they are met by the wizard himself but the wizard acts in a terrifying manner. He appears as a ghoulish head and a ball of fire and even makes very accusatory remarks when they say, "Look we've done what you wanted us to do, now give us what we've come for. And the wizard says, "Come back tomorrow." And they question him and the wizard says, "You ungrateful creatures" (low voice) in that voice. And as he's saying ‘You ungrateful creatures,' the little dog Toto pulls the curtain back and there is a frail man holding a microphone. And the guy in the microphone sees what's happening and says, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." And as it turns out the Wizard of Oz isn't a wizard at all, he's just a man from Omaha, who happened to come to Oz as the story goes, and there was no ruler and he became the supreme ruler. But he was all a fake. Now I say that Satan reminds me of that man behind the curtain because he too makes very denunciatory and accusatory remarks, acts very intimidating, but in reality he's just a created being, a fallen angel. In fact the Bible seems to indicate in Isaiah 14 what we will say when one day we look upon him and declare "Everyone there will stare at you and ask, ‘Can this be the one who shook the earth and the kingdoms of the world?' As if to say, when we finally see him and we will, we're going to be shocked, we're going to be shocked. Shocked to see this one who was called the God of the world simply to be the man behind the curtain like in the Wizard of Oz. Satan has been allowed to exercise a certain amount of power but as we will see tonight, it's kept under strict parameters and tonight we're going to peek behind the curtain. We're going to look at the invisible world, the world of the supernatural. We find that Job is the subject of a conversation. We discover that both God and Satan are very interested in this man Job. The conversation goes on, Job doesn't know what's happening and we have a problem and we find a solution. The problem is the devil makes some pretty stout accusations against Job and in effect against God in chapters 1 and 2, and that is the solution that we will read in Revelation chapter 12. So we turn to Job 1 and 2 but also put a marker in Revelation chapter 12. Both of those chapters, all three of those chapters I should say are very similar in that both of them take us to the war of the ages, what Donald Gray Barnhouse called "The Invisible War."
So let's begin by looking at the problem, we read our text last week, we're going to go look at it a little more in depth tonight and we'll see Job's problem and that is the accuser. Now the problem that Job has is compounded by the fact that Job himself is a very godly man. And though he is a godly man, Satan still manages to make accusations against him. You'll notice in verse 1, he is called blameless. We saw that last week, blameless, it means morally innocent, he lacks nothing in purity. Also he is called upright, somebody who walks straight ahead, doesn't veer off the path. Here's a guy of complete integrity. And then in verse 5, "So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify them, rise up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all for Job said, ‘It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus Job did regularly. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered and said, "From going to and fro on the earth and from walking back and forth on it." Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job?' Now watch how God describes him, ‘But there is none like him on the earth.' There's those words again, ‘A blameless and upright one who fears God and shuns evil.'" So, so far, if we read all of these verses together we have a picture of Job. He has a big family, he has a lot of money, he has a successful business and he loves God. Now you might be thinking, "Well who wouldn't love God, who wouldn't serve God, if he had all of that stuff?" Now that is the very heart of the accusation that Satan will bring against him.
Before we get to that, there's something that needs to be said, looking at the life of job should end the notion once and for all that godly people don't suffer. That is a teaching. Unfortunately it has resurfaced in the church, it is still found in pockets of evangelical churches that if you have enough faith, "you never have to live a Satan-defeated life, you never have to have any physical disease, you can always name it and claim it, and always be healed. You can have perfect health and perfect abundance." Then we get to the book of Job and that throws a wrench in that thinking like nothing else. We discover that no one deserves suffering less than Job and no one or at least few people have ever suffered like Job.
I've always been interested in the life of Charles Hadden Spurgeo, you know that by now, I quote him all the time, he's so quotable. He was a godly man but he was a man who suffered greatly. He died at a relatively young age of 58 years old, he had chronic gout in his feet, some respiratory issues, and he suffered emotional depression on a regular basis. He even admitted once to his congregation, "I have suffered the depths of which I hope none of you ever reach." Now here's Spurgeon, godly, a servant of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London loved God's people and loved the Lord and yet he suffered immensely. One would ask like we would ask with Job, "Why?" Perhaps some insight can be given to us by Spurgeon himself. He writes, "I believe the hardest-hearted, most unlovely Christians in all the world are those who never have had much trouble. And those who are the most sympathizing, loving, Christ-like are those that have the most affliction." The worst thing that can happen to any of us is to have our path too smooth. Now Job's path was hardly smooth and neither was Charles Hadden Spurgeon's.
Now let's look at the critic of this godly man. After God boasts of him in verse 8, look at verse 9, "And Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him and around his household, around all that he has on every side? You've blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But now (But now) stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he wil surely curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold all that he has is in your power, only do not lay a hand on his person.' So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Look at chapter 2, ‘Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?' So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth and from walking back and forth on it.' Now here it is again, "The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil. And he still holds fast to his integrity, although you have incited me against him to destroy him without cause.' So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘Skin for skin, yes all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will surely curse you to your face.'"
We've read now a few times the name Satan. The word Satan means enemy, adversary, because he is your enemy. Now by the way that's the relationship that you want with him. You'd rather have him as your enemy and not your friend. There's a lot of people that are friends with the devil, they don't know it but because they have rejected Christ they're on his team. So if you're going to have any relationship with the devil, with Satan at all, it's to be his enemy. And that's what Satan means, adversary or enemy. Sometimes in scripture he's called devil. And the term devil means accuser or slanderer or defamer. Satan appears in Genesis 3 and we find him go throughout the scripture until finally his career will end in Revelation chapter 20.
Now I realize in reading what I just read that not everyone can read this without flinching. And what I mean by that is, they don't believe in a literal devil. They read Satan, they read about the devil but they don't actually believe there is a person in existence today that is really Satan. According to the Gallup Poll Organization, seventy percent of Americans believe in the devil. But only half of that seventy percent say that he is a personal being, the other half say he's just a symbol or an impersonal being. Now listen to this, George Barna who researches mostly church stuff made a statement and asked people, "Agree or disagree? Somewhat or completely?" Here's the statement: The devil is not a living being but rather just a symbol of evil." Of those who claim to be born-again, thirty-two percent strongly agreed with that statement. That's a shock. Eleven percent agreed somewhat. Five percent said they don't know and forty-eight percent either agreed that Satan is symbolic or they don't know, that's the total composite.
It's like the six-year-old boy that struggled with this whole devil thing and he was having a conversation with his buddy and he said, "I don't' believe there's a real devil." And his friend said, "You don't? Well there is. The Bible talks about him all the way through." And he said, "Yeah but he's not really real. It's like Santa Claus, he turns out to be your Dad." (Dads don't like that.)
But when Jesus spoke of the devil or Satan or the wicked one, all of those terms were employed by our Lord, he spoke of him as being a real person with real personality, with an agenda. In Luke chapter 10, Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. I was there when it happened," Jesus said. Jesus spoke of Satan's work against the gospel. IN Mark chapter 4 he said, "the word is sown," that is the scripture, "the truth is sown and as soon as people hear it Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts." I love the simplicity of Dwight Lymon Moody, a pastor in Chicago years ago of course. He said, "I believe in the devil for two reasons. Number one the Bible says he's real. Number two, I've done business with him." I've done business with him. There's obviously evil in the world if there is no devil, praytell who's doing his work? Something is going on.
Now look back at verse 8 and notice a word, it appears twice in our text, "Have you considered my servant Job?" And then chapter 2, verse 3, "Have you considered my servant Job?" Now hat got my attention in that verse is what it says in the margin of my Bible. In the margin of my Bible it says "It's literally written, ‘Have you set your heart on my servant Job?' In other words, it's a rhetorical question, "You've been eying my servant Job, Satan haven't you?" In fact, I discovered the word that is used here is sometimes used as a military word for a general who studies the defenses of a city to lay siege to it. You see, Satan has been studying Job with a keen eye, looking for weak points so he could attack him. That is his M.O. That is his M.O. Jesus once said to Peter in Luke chapter 22, "Simon, Satan has been asking for you that he might sift you like wheat." Boy, if I was Simon Peter I'd stop dead in my tracks and I'd immediately say, "Well what'd you tell him?" "Satan has been asking for you Peter. He has an agenda against you. He wants to sift you like wheat." Listen to it in another translation: "Satan has asked excessively that you be taken out of the care and protection of God that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you." That's the best news yet, "But I have prayed for you." So, so far there are five truths we can understand now about Satan and this problem that Job is having. Number one, Satan actively studies people, either Satan or his minions, he's got a network of lots of them. They seem to actively study us, which is an unnerving thought. Ever been in a restaurant and you discover that person in the booth across has been staring at you the whole time. And it's like, "What's up with that?" They are staring, they are studying. Truth number two, Satan is still accountable to God. Notice he appears here with the other sons of God, a term for angelic beings, and he appears to give an account. Truth number three, Satan operates but he operates within strict parameters. Everything that he does he is permitted to do, he has to get God's permission in order to do it. He checks in, there's an accountability. And then there are strict parameters by which he operates. Remember in Matthew chapter 8 the demons that were in the demon-possessed man? And they see Jesus and the demons cried out when they saw Jesus and said, "Permit us (permit us) to go into the herd of swine." And it says Jesus permitted them.
So let me just, without getting bogged down on this, say this, if God for whatever reason is in God's sovereign mind and care, if God permits you to be hassled or tried in the fire of affliction, even by the enemy, know this: He has his eye on you and his finger on the thermostat. He has not walked away from the oven and forgotten about you. "I've been in here too long," He knows, he knows. Fourth truth that we can discover so far, Satan has access to both earth and heaven. Did you see that? He's been walking to and fro throughout the earth, he appears before God with the other sons of God. Now that shocks a lot of people. Here's the shocker: Satan is not in hell. He has never been in hell. He will one day and when he gets there by the way he's not going to be like the chief celebrity, he's going to be the chief tormented one. And in fact the Bible tells us that he will be tormented, Revelation 20, tormented day and night forever. So he's not going to be in charge of anything like the stupid characters or cartoons play him out to be. He'll be the chief victim. And truth number five, he spends a lot of time accusing us, God's people before the throne of God. In fact, in Revelation 12 he is called the accuser of our brethren, the accuser of our brethren.
In Zechariah, it's a great book in the Old Testament where Zechariah receives eight visions about the future of Jerusalem and the security of that city. In chapter 3 he gets a vision where there's Joshua the high priest who is at that time. And it says, "Joshua the high priest was standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan was standing at his right side to accuse him." Now I know what the answer's going to be, but have you ever heard those accusations? Have you ever heard those thoughts that come into your mind? "You call a Christian. How can you go to church tonight? Look at you." You've heard those thoughts. "You think God's going to hear your prayer now?" You know he's really a creep. He's really insidious because he comes and before we sin he tempts us and he says, "Go ahead, you'll get away with it." And then if we succumb to that temptation and we sin, then he comes and he accuses us and he says, "You'll never get away with this." He's that insidious.
Now let's look at the criticism again. Verse 9, "Doe Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him and around his household and all that he has on every side. You've blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land." "Hey God, Job never had it so good, you pamper him, you treat him with favoritism." The accusation that Satan brings against Job is that Job's service of God and goodness toward God is all mercenary. Job is a mercenary. The only reason Job serves God is because of what he gets out of God. And so the real issue that Satan brings up in Job is, is it possible to love God apart from God's blessings. And Satan would say, "Nope, take those blessings away, take away his wealth, take away his children, take away his health and he will not only doubt you, he will curse you because people only follow you for what they can get out of you." That's the accusation.
Now let's turn to Revelation chapter 12. Let's move from Job to Jesus. Do it quickly, in Revelation chapter 12 is in the middle of the tribulation period yet future. And there is a breed of people called the overcomers in this book. Let's see how Jesus answers Job. Satan has always been a liar, always been a hassler, always been an accuser, he did it all the way through history, to Adam, to Job to Joshua the high priest, to our Lord Jesus Christ, etcetera. His activity was once focused in heaven in a great rebellion we find out in Revelation 12, this is without reading the whole chapter. A third of the angels fell with Satan, so he's got help. And that usually is where people focus. "There's a lot of demons out there." But think about it, one third fell, that means two thirds are left. They're outnumbered. But Satan fell from heaven. Now his activity is confined to the earthly realms. And let's see how these tribulation saints overcome him. Chapter 12, verse 7, "And war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought but they did not prevail nor was there a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old, called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accuse them before God day and night has been cast down." And here's the key verse, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and that they did not love their lives to the death." Satan can be overcome in his accusatory, denunciatory posture toward believers. Number one is the blood of the Lamb. Remember in Egypt the blood was applied to the doorposts in the form of a cross, the lentils in the doorpost, and the blood of the lamb that covered that house protected the household. And in the same manner God will bless your home, your marriage, your family, your life. Not because you're a good person, not because you pray two hours a day but because of the blood of the Lamb, that's how you overcome him. In I John chapter 2 it says, "If anyone sins (anyone raise your hand on that one? Does anybody here ever sin?) If anyone sins (you didn't raise your hand, we're going to get you, we have another sermon for you) If anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Advocate means lawyer. So here's Jesus and here's Satan. Satan is the, Jesus is our defense attorney, Satan is the prosecuting attorney and Satan is condemning you and me constantly before the throne of God. But here is Jesus Christ the defense attorney. And what would our defense attorney have us do? Fight the devil, yell at the devil, rebuke the devil for being so rude in his accusations? No, you know why? Because they're all true, that's why. All of the accusations Satan would make about you before God are true. You really don't deserve God's love. Nor do I. We are really messed up. So Jesus said something interesting in Matthew 5. He said, "Agree with your adversary." It's a brilliant strategy. So when Satan condemns you, don't retort back and say, "Well I didn't mean to do it. I'm really not a bad person at heart." No I think you say something like, "He's right. In fact, there's a lot more stuff on me he doesn't know about because he doesn't read my thoughts and my mind but the depth of sin that is in me, as described in the Bible that "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?" I'm even worse than he probably is accusing me of before the throne of God. He's absolutely right. But the blood of my defense attorney has cleansed me from it. So it's not anything I've done, it's not any righteousness I have, it's all about the blood. That's why it says in Romans chapter 8, "God did not spare his son but freely gave him up for us," and then it says in the next verse, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies." Because of the blood. Because of the blood. Charles Spurgeon was right, "Nothing provokes the devil like the cross." That's why it mystifies me when churches today want to despiritualize their worship and take away the songs that talk about the blood of Jesus because it's going to turn people off. You have no gospel, you have no defense, you no offense, you have no standing without the blood of Jesus Christ. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. There's a beautiful old hymn, "I hear the accuser roar of ills that I have done. I know them well and thousands more, Jehovah findeth none." You know all those accusations, they're actually right. I wouldn't like argue on that, I'd just agree with it. Say, "But the blood of my attorney, my advocate Jesus Christ is enough." You overcome him first by the blood applied to your life.
Second, by the testimony. The word it says in that verse, "The word of their testimony." Now testimony is often a formal legal statement. Your testimony is what God has done for you. Now you should be able to answer the question when anybody asks you, "What has God done for you?" You should be able immediately to launch into some verbal statement about you were once this way but then you received Christ. And then these changes happened. That's your testimony. Now listen, the next time you feel guilty and accused or the next time you're tempted, try this: pull out your testimony. Think over in your own mind what God has done for you. If you're with a group of people who are worldly people who are uncoverted people and they're trying to drag you into their sin, easiest way out, start giving them your testimony. Tell them how Jesus Christ, let the devil's kids know that you belong to Jesus. And I'll tell you what, they're not going to keep it up. There's going to be a change in that conversation. It is powerful and it is threatening to the devil who doesn't want to let go of people. You just stake your claim. Say, "Let me tell you what Jesus did for me." Try it, pull it out. Third and finally, your surrender. "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and here's the last part, "They did not love their lives to the death." Now I don't' know how much we're really going to be able to understand this, being Western Christians that haven't had the kind of persecution that brothers and sisters have had around the world, but the context is we're dealing with tribulation believers who in the future will be struggling because their way of economy will be taken away, their life will be threatened, they will be continually persecuted. But they overcame the accusatory remarks and stance of Satan because of the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and their surrender: they didn't love their lives to the death. In other words, they considered spiritual loyalty to be far more important than physical security. And if you get a person that believes that, they're unstoppable. They're unstoppable. Spiritual loyalty is far more important than my physical security or pampering, you don't stop people like that. Jesus said this, "He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." Satan can't touch that kind of person, they're unstoppable. They've already surrendered.
So, when we make Jesus Christ our first love and we put love of self second or third or fourth, we become more and more untouchable. They overcame him. There's a big problem, Job was even unaware of, he didn't hear the accusation just like you don't hear them, but be rest assured, they're uttered. They're uttered. The blood of the Lamb, the word of your testimony, and your surrender to God, that your spiritual loyalty would be more important than physical security. You become more and more out of reach to the devil.
There was a man at a Wednesday night prayer meeting in a church, they'd have them every Wednesday night. He'd love to come as did a bunch of them. And he prayed his prayer. And at the end of every Wednesday night when it was his turn to pray, he would say, "And Lord, clear the cobwebs out of my life." What he meant by that is, "I've been doing some things that shouldn't be done, that are marring my testimony, these are sinful acts. So Lord, just clear the cobwebs out of my life. And every Wednesday night, he ends his prayer, "Clear the cobwebs out of my life." Well there was one other guy in that church who got tired of this. And when the guy said, "Clear the cobwebs out of my life," he stood up and said, "Lord don't do it. Kill the spider." And that's a better approach. That's a better approach than just clearing out cobwebs, to be an overcomer.
So, here's the truth Baby Ruth: Satan is the man behind the curtain. He accuses, he intimidates, he has studied us and he knows the dirt on us and it's all true. And if you think you're going t o overcome the devil's tactics by saying, "Well I'm a good person and I go to church and I read my Bible and…" You've lost the battle. You have lost the battle because all of the dirt and all of the accusations like, ‘You're not good enough, you're not worthy enough, you don't do this enough, you don't do that enough," they're all true. But the blood of the Lamb has been shed and you belong to God and no one can bring a charge against God's elect. (applause) So let that be your testimony, that's what God has done for you.
And I can only ask the Spirit of God to take that third one and then pose it onto our heart more and more, that the more our spiritual loyalty becomes important rather than our personal physical security and wellbeing and comfort, the more out of reach we become to the devil's ploys.
So Father we pray for that. We pray in the name of your holy Son Jesus that the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us would be the thing we look to, point to, rely on. Not anything we do but something that has already been done on our behalf, that that would be the word of our testimony, what Jesus has done, what God has done, not what we can do or will do as we make promises. And then as we discover your grace and your love, that we would not love our own lives, we would freely relinquish our present comfort for your eternal glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Additional Messages in this Series

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8/9/2009
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The Guy No One Wants to Be
Job 1:1-5
Skip Heitzig
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This book of Scripture is largely avoided by people, except for the first two chapters (and maybe the last one). Job is the one person that no one would ever want to be! He has become the quintessential example of the sufferer in despair. He stands against everything you've ever been told about the Victorious Christian Life! This guy had issues that perplexed him, issues of the deepest kind, issues that people have struggled with since the beginning of time, and issues that the book of Job doesn't provide answers for.
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8/23/2009
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From Riches to Rags - Part 1
Job 1-2
Skip Heitzig
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For the next two weeks we will examine Job’s pain. Clearly his is an extreme example, but eventually everyone will pass through such waters of affliction. So, why does evil seem to dominate our world? How can anyone believe in a good and loving God while bad and unloving things happen all around us? Not only is this a major “deal breaker” for many people believing in God; this is also a quandary for believers who want to “make sense” out of everything in life. Today we’ll see how Job suffered and how Jesus meets the deepest cry of the suffering heart.
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8/30/2009
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From Riches to Rags - Part 2
Job 1-2
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William Sangster, a London cleric, was dying from muscular disease. When he discovered his fate, he made four resolutions that he kept: "1) I will never complain; 2) I will keep the home bright; 3) I will count my blessings; 4) I will try to turn it to gain." Although Job wanted to keep his life and home bright, there were some around him that just wouldn’t let that happen. How should people treat sufferers? And how should sufferers live through their suffering times?
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9/6/2009
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Are You and God OK?
Job 9:2
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"How can a man be righteous before God" Job asks! This is the age-old dilemma of all mankind. How can any person, fraught with personal failure and innate sin, make peace with God who is perfect? Does God just wink at all our sins and mistakes? Can He just arbitrarily overlook and override them? Or is there some necessary condition that must be met first? Let’s find out today how this can happen and how you can have deep and lasting peace because of it.
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9/13/2009
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You Need a Middleman!
Job 9:32-35
Skip Heitzig
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Most people think of a middleman as an unwanted and unnecessary part of a transaction. They promote, "We cut out the middleman", meaning you can save money by getting your product by buying direct and not paying a broker fee. But there are some situations that require a middleman. Salvation is one of them. What Job lacked—a mediator (one to represent him to God)—only Jesus could supply.
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9/27/2009
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Is Death the Final Word?
Job 14:14
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"A grave, wherever found, reaches a short and pithy sermon to the soul." These words, penned by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are right! Cemeteries remind us of our future on this earth - the only real estate we’ll hold onto for awhile! Job was keenly aware of his own mortality but unsure about his immortality. How can mortal man penetrate beyond the grave and find assurance and peace for his own heart? He can’t without Christ!
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10/4/2009
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Epiphany!
Job 19:23-27
Skip Heitzig
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If you were reading through the book of Job and came to this chapter, you might remark, "What happened to Job? He got religion!" It’s as if Job received a sudden and most amazing insight. When you consider how little God had revealed in Job’s day about the future and about life after death, these words are a remarkable testimony of faith. It’s nothing short of an epiphany of hope.
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10/11/2009
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When God Can't be Found
Job 23:1-12
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Sometimes in our Christian experience God seems afar off—silent and imperceptible. We diligently seek Him and call on Him but the heavens seem like impenetrable brass. Even more disturbing is when it seems like we’re suffering in the furnace of affliction—the very time we need God the most and yet it feels like He can’t be found. Where is He then? Why don’t we hear from Him? What should our attitude be?
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10/18/2009
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The Ultimate Discovery
Job 42:1-6
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Finally, after Job and his friendly neighborhood philosophers debated back and forth, God comes to shed His penetrating light of truth on Job’s situation. This allowed Job to make some amazing findings about God and himself. As we close our series today we see how revelation leads to repentance and how this is not a one-time-for-all-time decision, but rather a way of life. Let’s peer over Job’s shoulder as he encounters the God he’s been crying out for throughout the book.
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There are 9 additional messages in this series.
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