The enemy is above all else – our “accuser”.  His targeted attacks will manifest in our fear of exposure and in our pretending that everything is fine.  But there is good news for the sinner who walks in the light – Jesus saves! 

Preliminaries: Who are we dealing with? 

• Satan is a title meaning – adversary
• Lucifer is a title meaning – light bearer
• Devil is a title meaning – accuser

Observations:

1. Satan lies by convincing you of self-justification
   Manifest as Accusation – self-deprecation
   Manifest as Adulation – self-exoneration
2. This lie has 3 results:
   1. Deny our sins = inept to grow
   2. Deny our Savior = inhibited to glorify
   3. Deny our service = ineffectual to do good

Conclusions: 

1. ONLY what God says matters – and God loves you
2. God’s love for you is ONLY applied in Christ
3. ONLY God justifies sinners
4. God’s love for you is “Everest-bounding”

Counterattack: for accusations

1. Stop trying to justify yourself
2. Start giving the credit of justification to Jesus

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Psalm 36:2

“In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin.”

Romans 10:1-3

“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

Philippians 3:2-9

“Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

Zechariah 3:1-2

“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!”

Psalm 44:20-22

“If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love.”

Genesis 3:7-13

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”