In this sermon, the preacher addresses the concern of how to maintain righteousness and be a shining light in a world that is becoming increasingly dark. The preacher emphasizes the importance of two powerful weapons given by God to overcome in the last days: the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony. The sermon highlights the need for prayer and the danger of being overbooked and too busy to seek God. The preacher also emphasizes that true contentment and victory can only be found in Jesus and His shed blood, not in external things like fashion or hairstyles.

I want to speak to you this morning on overcoming Satan by the blood of Jesus. Overcoming Satan by the blood of Jesus. Turn to Zechariah, the third chapter, please. Zechariah, the third chapter. If you're a new convert and don't know where it's here, go to Matthew, turn left, two books. Okay? If you don't know where Matthew is, it's a verse to the New Testament. I want to start reading verse one, Zechariah. We read eight verses. I'm reading from King James, and he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Are you there yet? Zechariah three, continuing verse two, the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he said and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And then to him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with chains of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments. The angel of the Lord stood by. The angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thou saith the Lord of hosts, thou will walk in my ways, and if thou will keep my charge, thou shalt also judge my house to keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among those that stand by. Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, they are men wondered at. And behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch. Now who do you think the branch is? You should know, Jesus. This is all about Jesus and his shed blood. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your precious word, and I thank you for your faithfulness in honoring that word from this pulpit. And in our hearts, you've given us ears to hear. Now give me a voice to speak, quicken my body, Lord. Give me the strength that I need to deliver this from my heart. I pray the cleansing, the purifying of the word and of my heart and this vessel. Lord Jesus, make it simple, make it clear, make it understandable that we can understand the security that we have in the blood that we're not tossed by the winds and waves of doctrine. We will not be tossed by anything the devil can throw at us. We will be on good solid ground. We'll understand the blood and its power, its saving power, but not only its saving power, but its keeping power, how the blood maintains us in righteousness before God. Lord, touch us, let us hear what the Spirit has to say in Jesus' name. Amen. Now in the historical setting of Zechariah, the third chapter I've just read to you, Joshua represents the work of God on earth. He represents the priesthood of God. Every true believer, we are a kingdom of priests unto God, the scripture says. Now, of course, Joshua, the Old Testament, is already dead and gone, long dead and gone. Joshua represents God's interest in the last days on earth, represents the holy priesthood unto God the Father. He's a representative of a people called in a dark age, in a dark time, to be the shining light of Jesus Christ. But Joshua is standing here in this episode before the angel, before the Lord, in filthy garments. He is standing in not spotted garments, but filthy garments. Now imagine this, please. The devil is standing at the right hand of Joshua. Joshua representing the priesthood of God, the righteous people of the Lord, who are now standing in filthy garments, and the devil is standing at the right hand of Joshua to accuse him. The right hand represents power and ascendancy. How in the world did the devil reach this position of power and ascendancy over the priesthood of God? The scripture is very clear, the priest had filthy garments on. Now, historically, in the time that this was written, the historical context, in Zechariah's time, the priesthood backslidden, totally backslidden. The church was backslidden. There was nothing but lust and confusion and unrighteousness, ungodliness in the priesthood. Filthy, unrighteous priesthood. But this goes beyond Zechariah's time. He's a prophet. He's speaking down through history to our time. And he sees a priesthood in the last days. He sees a people that are called to be righteous. He sees filthy garments on them. And I'll tell you what, whenever there's a filthy pastor in the pulpit with filth in his mind and in his spirit, and he's not walking in the righteousness of the Lord, he's not where he should be with the Lord, often you'll find the filth go through the whole congregation and through the whole nation. And part of the reason we have a corrupt nation today that's in a moral landslide is because, for the most part, we have an unrighteous ministry today in many, many pulpits. And this, every time you find that, you find the devil taking the power of the ascendancy. You find, here's Joshua without any spiritual authority. The devil is not cast down. He's at the right hand of power. And how did he get there? It was because of the unrighteousness of the ministry, and the unrighteousness of the people. And I'll tell you, whenever there's unrighteousness in a life, whenever sin creeps into the life of a Christian believer into the pulpit, the devil always takes the ascendancy. He's always there before the father accusing. There's no spiritual authority. There's no spiritual discernment. The first thing that goes when a person backslides is their spiritual discernment. And the devil knows that, and he takes the ascendancy. He takes the power, and he takes the authority. It's at this time there's no voice lifted against Satan. There's no power to withstand his inundation of the work of God and flooding the church and the body with filth at this particular time. And see, here's a filthy priesthood standing before God in filthy garments. But suddenly a word comes from the throne, a word commanding the devil, rebuking the devil, says, get your hands off my servant. Get your hands off my bran plucked from the fire. I have plucked this bran from the fire, and it's become filthy, but you lay your hands off of it. And suddenly there's a command that comes from the throne, take off his filthy garments, put a new garment on him, and put a mitre on his head. Now, the mitre is the official turban of a priest, and so he's being restored to the priesthood, and the filth is taken away. Now, I want you to know that Josh was standing there. There's nothing he is doing. He's doing absolutely nothing but standing there. He's standing there probably with a broken heart, probably a repentant heart. But a command comes, all of grace, all of new covenant, no good works, no striving by this priesthood, but a divine command of grace, take off his filthy robes, restore him to his priesthood, put the mitre on his head, all of grace, all of covenant. Marvelous thing that happens here. I have caused that iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with the chains of raiment, not by works lest any man should boast. It's the gift of grace. It's the grace of Almighty God. And if you think you can still strive to get your filthy garments off, if you think you can be restored to the priesthood by your own strength and power, by striving, you have it wrong. Nothing could be clearer now than this prophetic word, God taking the initiative, I have caused that iniquity to pass from thee. The answer is found. How can God just wipe this up? Because the scripture says without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. How can God just remit the sins without the blood being mentioned? How can filth be requited in the presence of the Lord without the sacrifice? Well, you find that in verses eight and nine. I just read to you here now, O Joshua, the high priest, he's already cleansed. He has the mitre on his head. Thy fellows that sit before thee for their men that wonder that for behold, I will bring forth my servant, the branch for behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof, saith the Lord, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. That's the cross. In one hour, in one day, I will remove the sins of the past. I will have provided the sacrifice. He's pointing to the blood, the power of the blood to remit the sins. This was how looking forward to the blood of Jesus Christ prophetically. This is how God is going to cleanse his last day. Royal priesthood. We're all royal. We're all part of the world. Priesthood. You're a believer. Kings and priests unto the Lord. This scripture makes very, very clear. Now, here's this representative man standing up clean before God, cleansed by Christ's shed blood, clothed in garments of righteousness, not by works of the flesh. And he represents this last day kingdom of priests, which include us today. The Joshua company, though, faces a mad devil. The scripture says the devil is going to come down the earth having great wrath. He's going to pour out a flood of lust and temptation. How is this Joshua company going to maintain this righteousness that has been given by grace? Remember what Paul said? You've started the spirit. Are you going to maintain it now in the flesh? Are you going to move now from this grace of God? And are you going to strive now to maintain what God gave you by grace? That was the warning that came to Paul. And I'm going to ask you now you picture Joshua. Now he's clean. He's he'd been restored to his priesthood. And now the Lord says this is through the power of the blood. But how does he maintain he he is now cleansed by the blood. How does he maintain that righteousness? How does he keep his robes clean? How does he keep his priesthood in the last days? The Lord is going to raise up a holy priesthood who's going to overcome Satan. The same way God saved him, the same way God cleansed him by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Once you go now to Revelation, please, the 12th chapter of Revelation. If you'll stay with me, you're going to rejoice in the power of the blood like you've never rejoiced in your Christian experience. 12th chapter of Revelation. Folks, look at me, please. You know, even that even the most wicked, foul people today recognize that everything is spinning out of control. Even the godliest, vile people. If you listen to radio, some of these, even these shock talk guys on radio, they said, it's insane. We've gone insane. The immorality, even though they're immoral, they said, it's gone crazy. The nation's got everything going straight. And folks, that's just the beginning. It's going to get worse and worse. How are we going to maintain our righteousness? How are we going to walk as shining lights in the midst of a darkening, gross darkness that's covering the earth? How are we going to walk? How are we going to make it? Verse 10 and 11, And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength. The kingdom of our God, the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brother is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him. How? By the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. They loved up their lives under the death. I'm going to talk about these two great weapons, these two cannons God has given us to overcome in the last day. The scripture says they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. Yes, prayer is necessary. Bible study is necessary, but you can pray 24 hours a day and you can read your Bible through 10 times a year. But if you don't have this established in your mind, you don't have the weapons. You don't understand the power of the blood and the testimony that goes with it. You will not be able to withstand what is coming. We talk about the blood, but we understand so little of it. The Bible said they were came in by the blood of the lamb. Let's talk about the blood. If this is so important, if this is our secret of victory, we better know more about it. Let's talk about the blood. The scripture says that Jesus was a lamb without spot or blemish. Since he was holy and righteous, he did not inherit an adamant nature like we did. That adamant nature, we inherited that. We were born with this. He was born of the Holy Spirit. He was not born of flesh and blood. He was born of the Holy Spirit. He did not inherit the Adam nature. That means there was no sin in him. He's absolutely perfect, absolutely sinless. There was no evil or corruption in his life, and the life is in the blood, the scripture says. Absolutely perfect, absolutely sinless. No evil in him. The prince of peace came and found nothing in him. Jesus said the prince of darkness comes and found nothing in me. Oh, the devil came looking, but he found nothing in him to accuse him. Nothing at all that could stand before the heavenly father as an accusation. There was no sin. There was nothing the devil could touch in him. Absolutely perfect. A spotless lamb without blemish. The blood alone accomplished the victory in this chapter here when Joshua's robes are cleansed and when the miters put upon his head, that was absolutely to the perfection of the blood. All satanic power and activity was abolished in one day and one hour at the cross at that very time. Now, listen to me very closely, please. You will never find anything in yourself of righteousness that can withstand the accusations of the devil. There is nothing. Search your heart and all you'll find is what the scripture says. The heart is abundantly wicked, deceitfully wicked above all things, desperately wicked, and who could know it? We try to search our hearts. We go down deep inside, trying to search our hearts, and all you're going to find is wickedness. The heart is abundantly, desperately wicked. Who could know it? Only God knows. You try to probe the depth of your heart and your sinfulness, and you can't reach the bottom. Absolutely impossible. In one glorious moment, the shed blood of Jesus abolished Satan's right to accuse God's priesthood. The blood of the lamb was applied. Now, let me tell you something. We talk about pleading the blood. I don't find that anywhere in the scripture. I can't find it if somebody knows that term, pleading the blood. I don't have to beg God to release the power and authority of the blood that's already accomplished its work. I don't have to beg and plead, and that's the problem today. The blood is not to be pleaded. It's to be applied. You see, they were to take the lamb in Israel before they left, and they were to slay the lamb and take the blood in a basin and take a hyssop and sprinkle it on the doorpost. Now, suppose they put the blood in the basin and laid it outside the door, and they went inside and said, well, there's power in that blood. I'll just leave it there in the basin. Yes, potentially it has the power, but it's not been applied. He said, you apply it. No angel is going to come. The angel of death is going to pass, but this is your obligation. You apply the blood. There's power, there's authority, but you apply the blood. What do you mean, apply the blood, Brother Dave? What do you mean, apply the blood of Jesus Christ to my heart? That's to, listen closely, it means the absolute sinlessness of Christ becomes my only ground of faith and victory. My only ground. I have no other ground. I have nothing in myself, nothing of striving, nothing of good works. I can't apply anything in me that's good, that's going to merit my salvation or my favor before God. I apply the blood when I take God's position about where I stand through the blood. I see it through God's eyes. My God says that when the blood, when I have faith in the blood of Jesus, I'm applying it to the doorpost of my heart. When I confess and believe that through the blood I am forgiven, God says, you're forgiven. When the devil comes to accuse me, I have to tell him, look, that was God who came and died in the flesh. That was sinless God. That was God Almighty in flesh, perfect, sinless, and I am in Christ. God was in Christ, I am in Christ, and if you're going to accuse me, you're accusing a sinless God. You can no more accuse me of sin that's under the blood than you can accuse God of sin. Until you come to that ground, you have to stand on that ground. That's the only way you apply the blood. The blood is not applied until you take that position. I am in Christ. I am not perfect, I am not sinless, but He is perfect, He is sinless, and when by faith I believe in His finished work on the cross, then His righteousness becomes mine, His sinlessness, His perfection is mine. I'll never be perfect, but in the eyes of God, when I'm under the blood, I am perfect, I am righteous before God, no demon, devil, and hell can take that from my heart. Glory be to God. Folks, you've got to point to His sinlessness, not yours. His righteousness, not yours. I know Christians have been serving God for many, many years, but they've never been free of the tyranny of fear and guilt and condemnation. They're always convicted by Holy Ghost preaching, and they're always striving to be holy. They're trying to hold on to some standard that they've heard or created. They want to please God, but they're always in bondage. Satan accuses them constantly, and they're not walking in the freedom. They have not applied the blood of Jesus Christ. They're not on the ground, that ground, that unshakeable ground. They're not on the rock. What's wrong? They're still looking inside themselves for something good to present to God. They're still looking. They're still searching. Here's the unshakeable ground. God, who is holy, sinless, perfect, was in Christ. Christ is sinless, perfect. And I am in Christ, and by faith in my position, I never let the devil take that from me. When I am in Christ, there's no condemnation, there's no guilt, there's no fear, because the blood, I have applied the blood to my heart. He said it. Here's the basin. Apply it. Well, if you can only see that. Let God, pray God, open your eyes to that. Secondly, the blood of the Lamb represents utter separation to God voluntarily, utter separation unto God. The blood represents total abandonment to God, an undivided heart that's set on Christ alone. Now, in Zechariah, I don't turn it, but in Zechariah 2, 8, we read these words. Listen closely. This is Moab and Ammon speaking about Israel. And here's God's answer. I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they've reproached my people. They've magnified themselves against their border. But what happened, the spies of Moab and Ammon were on the hillsides, mountains, spying always on Israel, and they heard the mocking and the revilings of Moab and Ammon. And what was happening, Moab and Ammon were on the mountains, and their people were gossiping, laughing, and mocking at Israel. You know what they were saying? You people are strange, Israel. For 40 years, you've been talking about walking into a promised land. For 40 years, you've boasted on the power of your God. All these years, we've seen you do nothing but wonder aimlessly. All this talk about conquest. And Moab and Ammon are standing on the mountain, laughing and mocking at the people of God, the priesthood of God, because in spite of all of their spoken ambitions, in spite of their glorifying the power of their God, they're always talking about arriving into a land of milk and honey and peace and rest. So all we see are people who murmur against their God, who live in turmoil and guilt and fear. Folks, the world sees that the world, that represents the world. Ammon and Moab, the worldly system, looks at the church of Jesus Christ today and so many people boasting about being born again, boasting about the power of God, boasting about the joy of the Lord and the peace of God. Run around without peace, without joy, without happiness, without rest. Always many murmuring and complaining, just like Israel, who God said, I've heard that murmuring. I've heard the revilings of Moab and Ammon against my people. And there's a young woman wrote to me this past week. She's just 22 years old and she just got married shortly before and she was grieving yet over the loss of her 22-year-old husband who died of cancer suddenly. And that death drove her to seek God with a passion. She became very intimate with the Lord, she said. She became so intimate with Christ, her values changed, everything changed in her life. She was living a high life, a Christian, but highly motivated for success and so forth. And she said, all my values were changed. And she said, when God changed my values, I became intimate with Christ. I began to see the church through the eyes of Jesus. And she wrote, I was reading it this past week, and she said, for example, Pastor Dave, one young lady told me she wants my kind of testimony, she'd like to have my kind of victory over sin, but without any pain. Because this girl's got a lot of pain, she's suffering, she lost a mother and a father, and then she lost her own husband, who's 22 years of age. She said, other young women in the church are overbooked and too busy to pray. I like that word overbooked because it describes what I see of many young wives today who are running around all the time, they take their kids to everything there is, to judo. The reason I mentioned that, the coming out of a story that I saw coming out of a recreation center, there's dozens of kids dressed up in white and little kids taking karate and judo. And all those mothers and fathers running around, little league, all the things, overbooked. No time to pray, no time to see God. She said, other young women are telling me that marriage or decorating houses, fashions, and hairstyle will solve their discontent. Boy, that's a lie. I don't care how you tease your hair, you're not going to solve your discontent. Decorating houses, I know that doesn't work. She said, I see Christians driven by ministries just to feed a need in them for success. She said, I can hardly believe when I hear my friends now talk about upward mobility, and they say now that stress is a necessary part of success in the work of God. Stress is a necessary part in achieving something in the kingdom of God. Now, if that's what just one God-touched girl sees, what does the world see of the church today? Half-heartedness, like the Moabites saw in Israel. The same lack of spiritual growth that people say they're headed for glory, yet they never get out of that wilderness of despair and guilt and fear. See, the Moabites had spies. When Israel came across the Red Sea, they had spies there, and when they went to Gilgal, and they had this great circumcision event, and Joshua and the were circumcising all that came out. All the fathers had died, and the young men had not been circumcised. The spies were there. How else would they have known the movements? How else would Rahab the hearted be able to tell the spies, we know all about you, and all the nations tremble over you. The spies had to be there and tell them. Can you imagine the spies at Gilgal watching this circumcision, this mass circumcision of the river of blood that was flowing? And the scripture says that when they circumcised the men, the Lord said now the reproach of Egypt. It was the cutting away of the flesh, the scripture said. They were healed of four skins, great shedding of blood. All they knew that if they could sneak up to the borders, and the scripture talks about them being at the borders, and they were able to ask somebody, what does that mean? And they would say it means separation from the world. It means forgetting where we came from, Egypt, and having no part of this world. Total separation to our God. It's a mark of separation. Now, the Bible tells us there's a spiritual circumcision made without hands. Now, he did that at the cross. That's where the shedding of the blood was made for us. That's where the circumcision took place. Cutting off of the body of the flesh. Cutting off all hope that our flesh can please God. Cutting off any thought that there's any good thing in us. Bringing us to the place where we have to be totally dependent, wholly dependent on the grace of God, and the mercy of God. We repent, and we believe, and we trust Him, and in that trusting of God, in heart repentance, we are circumcised. We are cut off from the world by an act of God at the cross of Jesus Christ. He shed His blood, and so we have to throw all our confidence on the heel of the four skins. We have to believe that we have been circumcised by the blood of Jesus Christ. Cut off from the world and all that it represents. A spiritual circumcision, so that we end up with no confidence in the flesh. Separation unto God means much more than cutting off the world in its lust and its pleasures. People have come to that conclusion that the separation means, well, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't go here, I don't go there. I've been separated from the world. That's just a very small part of what I'm talking about today. This is separation unto God and being separated from Egypt and everything it represents. Egypt represents confidence in the flesh, the doings of the flesh, the immorality of the flesh, yes, but it's abandoned. Separation to God means to abandon and die to wretched flesh, acknowledging that grace alone can cleanse you, the blood alone can cleanse you. You cannot circumcise yourself. You can't do it. This separation that I'm talking about, this separation unto God, this spiritual circumcision, it comes by simply believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. There is a work, if you will believe it, of circumcision. There's a work that you have to trust that work, only by faith in what he has done. Otherwise, you end up with a divided mind, a divided heart. Now, let me talk to you what I mean by divided. There's a misconception when we talk about a divided heart. It's more than a heart divided by devotion to God and some mixture of the world inside. We see a lot of people that are half-hearted, we say he's got a divided heart. Well, folks, I don't know if I can make this understandable. I see it. I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit now to help you see what I'm trying to say. Holy Spirit, give me the words to make it simple right now. My heart is divided if I have not made a final stand on this issue. My heart is divided if I think that I slip back. We have this tendency to slip back. We're saved by grace. Yes, I was saved by faith, saved by grace. But then remember the Jews that were circumcised in Jerusalem. They said, finally, yes, but you have to be circumcised by Moses' circumcision. You can't be saved. Yes, by faith you come to Jesus, but then you have to be circumcised to be truly saved and maintained. It was a mixture. It was a divided heart. It had to do with the work of the blood, the finished work of the blood. Now, if there's a slightest doubt in your heart about the absolute victory of the blood, if you doubt about being accounted as righteous by faith alone, if you doubt His new covenant promises to remove the filth from your life, to keep you as a holy priest, to put His fear in your heart, to cause you to walk in His ways, to remove all iniquity, to confess in the faith, if you can't believe that He's going to keep you from falling, if you refuse to trust God wholly to give all the power you need to keep His word and promises or His commandments, if you're not on solid ground, if you don't believe that with all of your heart and you commit yourself to that, you apply the power of that blood, then you're going to keep slipping back into the law, into legalism, always trying and thinking, well, for example, before coming to the service this morning, I had a busy day yesterday, didn't have the time to pray that I wanted, and I slipped back for just about five, ten seconds into the law. Lord, this was flesh talking. I don't know if I'm going to have the anointing that I should have because I didn't pray enough. There was a little mixture. I was not fully believing in the finished work of Jesus. I'm not believing in the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. You cannot allow at any point in your life to slip back into those doubts and fears. Well, I'm not as clean as I should be. We've got people going around now, see, you divide your heart when you focus on the failures of your flesh. Quit going around saying, I'm no good. Quit going around saying, I'll never make it. Quit going around judging other people more righteous than yourself. You don't know what they're going through. You don't know what's going on in their mind. You may be far more practically holy than they are. Don't judge yourself by that anymore. You will look to the blood of Jesus Christ. All I care is about how I stand before Almighty God. You'll never bring down Satan from his place of power and ascendancy. You'll never enjoy your garment of righteousness. You'll never have the effectiveness of your miter on your head till you're on this solid ground of absolute undivided heart on this issue. Otherwise, you're going to walk in confusion and fear. What is the issue? The blood of Jesus Christ, sinless, perfect blood has made every provision to cover my past sins, my present sins. And there is now no condemnation because I believe in the power of that blood. I don't have to plead for him to do it. It's already finished. I thank him for it. I apply it every day to my heart. Every battle I go through, all my weaknesses, all of my failures. I don't focus on that. I run to the blood. I run to the blood. I apply it to my heart. You understand that? And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives unto death. Now, here are the two weapons against the devil and his accusations. The blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. Testimony here is evidence, and it means visible evidence. The testimony is more than words. It's living proof, and it should be interpreted this way. They overcame by the blood and by giving evidence to the whole world that the blood has never lost its power. Now, listen closely, please. You show me a believer who's dead to striving in his flesh to be holy, simply trusting in Jesus, in his sinless perfection, accept the righteousness of God by faith in spite of our failures. You rest in your acceptance before God. I'm accepted before God. I may feel unclean. I may feel depressed. I may feel whatever this great spectrum of spectrum of feelings affect us. You can feel any way you want, but I know where I stand before God. I have the blood of Jesus applied to my heart, and I have entered into his sinless perfection. He has imputed his righteousness unto me, and you show me somebody who walks in that, and it will produce in you a joy and a peace, and it becomes the testimony to the world of the power of the blood. It's not someone getting up some saint, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost prayer, I'll make it through to the end. It's not going around throwing scriptures at people. It's a practical, visible person who walks around in the security of his position in Christ. He's unshakable in his new covenant promises, and he will not go back to the flesh for anything, and there's something about, there's an assurance, there's a peace, and everybody can see it. That's the word of the testimony. There's a word of testimony that we give to the whole world about the blood. It's about the blood, the blood, the blood, and its power to keep us. These are those who have entered into the rest that remains the children of God. Now, finally, the blood of the Lamb is a mighty weapon, and it's got to be used. It's a weapon. In Revelation, the 12th chapter, you're there, I hope, Revelation 12, there's a war going on. The Bible says a war is declared. The devil's declared war. There's an angry devil coming down, the scripture says, in this chapter. He has great wrath, and he's going to send out a flood. It's a flood of iniquity out of the very pits of hell. Now, what, where is this flood coming, this war, who's it against? I don't have time to go read it all through with you here. When the dragon Saul was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. The man-child is the church of Jesus Christ. The Bible makes it very clear that the devil in the last day, the war that he declares is on the church, and he's coming down, and he's going to attack those most closely related to Jesus Christ, those most closely related to the power of his blood, those who have the testimony, who are living the testimony. They're not just talking about the blood, they've applied it, and they live in the security of that blood. And the Bible makes it clear that the devil has aimed his last great warfare against that priesthood. And I'm going to tell you something, the closer you get to Jesus, the more intimate you become, the more you represent him on earth, the more you are in this by faith. He's put the robe of righteousness on you. You were the miter of the priesthood. That's the touch of God. That's the calling of God upon our lives. And when you are walking in the power of that, you better understand that he's not going after the ungodly. He's not going after all of those, he's not going after that group that I'm praying for in Long Island, who had a high school, what do they call it, prom for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. What a sad group of young people. What a sad, sad group, and I'm not putting them down, my heart bleeds for them. But you see, he's not going to flood, that's not where the flood's aimed at. It's not aimed at the wicked out in the streets, not the apostates, not the ungodly, not the atheists. They're going to persecute the one with a man child. They're going to persecute the church of Jesus Christ, those closest related to the blood, living and overcoming life, that they may be carried away. The scripture says he's going to send this flood of filth, lust, temptation. He's going to come against the physical body, he's going to come against the mind, he's going to come against everything, to carry them away. The Bible says they may be carried away with the flood. We see many being carried away today. He has literally taken over television with filth. He's literally taken over the internet now with pornography. Do you understand that there are 40,000 pornographic sites, websites, 40,000? Do you understand what he's doing? He's aiming that, trying to come from every direction, in any way, to get at this. He's going to persecute. And if you are beginning to wonder why you suffer in your body more than you've ever suffered, or if you're going through mental trials like you've never been tried before, you're going through things that you've never experienced before, mark it down, mark it down. A mad devil's come down to there having great wrath, and his wrath, the Bible makes it clear. You go over and read it, read it again, that he is aimed at persecuting those who represent the priesthood of Christ on earth in these last days. He's coming after you, he's coming after me, he's coming after all, with everything that comes out of hell. But look at the promise. I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven now has come salvation, strength, the kingdom of God, the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God night and day, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony loved not their lives unto death. These are the two cannons, these are the two weapons, when the devil comes in like a flood. This is the standard, the Lord will rise up. Go to the perfection of the blood, go to the perfection of Jesus, get your eyes off of your own works and your own imperfections. Point to devil if you must to the sinlessness of Jesus. Say, devil, accuse me of what you want, but he, my Lord, Savior, is sinless, spotless, you can't accuse me because I am hidden in Christ. Take the weapon and use it. All the flock Paul referred to, which he purchased with his blood, the whole flock, none of this flock will be carried away, and folks, if you've been carried away, all you have to do is run to the blood, come back quickly, run to the blood of Jesus Christ, and his covenant promises, I'll put my law in your heart, I'll write them on your mind, your sins and iniquities, I'll remember no more, I'll wipe them out because of the blood. If you've been carried away, you can come back, but be careful lest some whirlpool catch you up and sweep you away. Come to his precious blood. Will you stand? I invite you to come out of your seat in the annex and here in the main auditorium. I invite you to come out of your seat, come and stand here, take a step of faith. Now, listen closely, I'll make this short, right to the point. If you're here this morning and you're really not sure, you go between doubts and faith, you're just wavering. The Bible said, ask in faith because if any man wavers, don't let him think he'll receive anything from God, won't receive anything from the Lord. I want you to come by faith. Now, if you're not saved, you're not serving the Lord, you've run from the Lord, your heart's grown cold, I want you to step out of your seat. If you feel the tug and pull of the Holy Spirit, come here to the blood, come back to the blood of Jesus, come to the blood, come for the cleansing, the power of his blood. Upstairs, you go to the steps on either end, come down any aisle. I'm going to ask even those in the annex, go to the lobby and they'll show you the way down. I want you to come down here, I'd like to pray for you personally. And here in the main auditorium, if you say, Brother Wilson, I'm going, I am really going through the trial of my life, the trial of my life. Well, folks, I'm not just talking about a bad day or a bad week. I'm talking about something you know deep in your heart. I have never been anything like this before in my life. This is extreme. Really going to it, it may be mental. You say, Brother, I'm going through the battle of my life. I want you to step out and we'll pray, believe, and trust the Lord for victory through his blood. As we sing it again, I want everybody to sing in all the blood of Jesus. Wherever you're at, upstairs, downstairs, moving close, please make room for those that are coming. Lord, we thank you for your blood. Thank you for the power, for the solid ground upon which we stand, unshakable. Lord, if we could just come by faith and stand on that ground, the devil's defeated and cast down immediately. He can no longer accuse. We've come onto a solid ground on Christ, the solid rock, the finished work, the blood, the precious blood of Jesus. I want everybody to pray this prayer with me, please. Jesus, thank you for your blood that was shed for me. Thank you for the power of your blood, the forgiving power, but the keeping power also. Keep me, Jesus, by faith in your blood. Oh, Lord Jesus, you are perfect. You are righteous. There's no sin in you. And now by faith, I come to you, Jesus. I want to be in Christ by faith. I believe you, Jesus. Cleanse me, forgive me, and blot out my iniquities. Accept my position. I am in Christ. I am made righteous. The devil cannot accuse me. Now, just begin to thank him right now. Lord, I give you thanks. I give you praise. Faith is taking a position. I'll tell you something. You can be on solid ground right now. Lord, I come against fear and unbelief. God, release faith right now that if we just, where we stand, you didn't ask for a river of tears. You didn't ask us to do anything to repent of our sins and believe. Lord Jesus, we've heard about your blood, and we believe now that it's by grace. Your blood has provided the grace and the forgiveness, and we thank you for it, Lord, and we're going to stand on that. We're not going to try to do it in our own strength. Lord, when we fail, we're going to get up and run to you, Jesus, and cling to you. We're going to cling to you into the blood, and we're going to apply that blood to our hearts. Now, bring down the devil. Bring down the power of Satan. Bring down all of his accusations, Lord, because we are standing on solid ground, on Christ's solid rock.