Fake News

Revelation 12:10b–11 (ESV)

…for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.  And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

These two words have been almost overused lately – “Fake News.”  It seems like any time someone doesn’t like something a politician says or something in news, this becomes the accusation.  “That’s fake news!”   Well today I want to use that phrase.  However, I am not going to warn you about something fake a politician has said, or something fake I heard on the news.  I want to warn you about the worst purveyor of “fake news” – Satan!

Even his names tell you that He is someone not to be believed.  The word “Satan” means “adversary.”  That’s what He is – our enemy!  He is not on our side.  He doesn’t want anything good for us.  He wants only evil for us.  The other common name is “The Devil.”  This name means “accuser.”  That’s what he does.  We see him doing this in the first chapters of Job… accusing Job of having faith only because God protects him.  “Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”   Satan is constantly whispering accusations in your ear and mine.  “How can you call yourself a Christian?  There’s no way God could love someone like you.”

There is something you and I need to know about those accusations – they are the original “Fake News!”

Listen to what John writes about the devil in Revelation 12.  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…  He is the deceiver of the whole world.  Or listen to Jesus in John 8. “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  The “heart language” of Satan is to lie.  That’s what comes most naturally to him. 

His temptations are all lies.  They very often are the most effective kind of lies – half truths.  He promised Adam and Eve, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Well its true that they would be taking to themselves the knowledge or discernment of good and evil.  But they wouldn’t become God. Though they and all of us, try to take His place in our lives, we can’t handle the job.  We make a mess.  That was a lie.  Temptation is always like that – telling you how great it will be for you if you do some sinful thing.  And there is often a kind of pleasure for a moment.  But it’s superficial.  It’s a lie.  It soon leads to a great emptiness… to guilt… One of the biggest pieces of fake news out there is this – the thought that runs through your mind or mine that there is no way God could love you or me because we do not deserve such love.  While it’s true that we don’t deserve God’s love, the idea that there is no way God could love us is a lie.  That’s fake news.

What do we do in the face of such a brazen enemy?  How do you counter such fake news?  With the truth.  I love the words from Revelation 12:10-11.  There is so much powerful good news in these verses.  “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.  And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”    What a great explanation of the meaning of our Lord’s life, death, resurrection and ascension!  Salvation and the Kingdom of God have come.  The enemy has been defeated, thrown down.  His days are numbered.  I know that times – as you look at the world and all the evil – it seems as if the Gospel is “fake news.”  It’s not.  The Gospel is good news you can count on.  After all, Jesus who died, is alive.  He has risen.  His tomb is empty.  The Gospel is true.

That Gospel truth is the great weapon that defeats Satan’s “fake news” every time.  Listen to John describe how armed with the Gospel, we are able to overcome the lies of the enemy.  And they (that’s us)  have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony… Yes its true that you and I are sinners but our sin has all been paid for by the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross.  We are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb of God.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Because of Jesus, we can tell the devil to shut His mouth.  If we don’t Jesus will! 

Please notice that the devil is also conquered “by the word of their testimony…”  The only way Satan wins is if he can convince us that our witness… that our testimony to Jesus will do no good… only if he can convince us to be afraid to share the good news of the Gospel.  But every time you and I have the courage to share Jesus… to tell others about His love… to give our testimony to God’s love, Satan is conquered by that good news.

The gospel is the one and only answer needed to the fake news of the enemy!  After all the Gospel is the Good News that is the very power of God unto salvation…  Amen!