Satan’s Strategies – Accusing

Powerpoint Pictures: Courtroom; Same courtroom picture with arrow pointing to where accused stands

Can you tell me what this is a picture of? *[Courtroom]*

Can you tell me who stands/sits in the place where the arrow is pointing? *[The accused]*

The accused is the person who is charged with doing something wrong.

Now why have I shown you a picture of a courtroom and where the person who is accused of doing wrong stands.

It’s because this helps us to understand another way the church’s big enemy, Satan or the devil, tries to harm her, so that like Paul wrote *“Satan might not outwit us”* because *“we are not unaware of his schemes.” (2 Corinthians 2:11)*

We’ve already looked at how Satan attacks God’s people by LYING (saying that God’s Word is not true), PRETENDING to be something he is not (by using false teachers who look and sound like true teachers of the Bible, but who are not), and SNATCHING (stopping people from hearing the Word of God).

Another strategy or tactic Satan uses is ACCUSING.

Look at how he’s described in the book of Revelation.

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.  For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10)

He is an accuser who accuses God’s people, those who love and trust and follow Jesus.

The devil tells God all the wrong things we do.  “He told a lie.  She hardly prays.  He hasn’t read his Bible in days.  She doesn’t really love you.  Look at all the ways they fail you.”

And these accusations that show how bad we are, can make us wonder if God still loves us.  They can make us anxious and worried.

But here’s the good news.

After listening to the charges made against us by the devil, God says, “Who are you talking about?  What’s their name?”  And when our name is read out, if we are trusting in Jesus, this is what God says, “I know that person, and because of Jesus’ death in their place, I have accepted them.”

We don’t need to worry about Satan accusing us, because Jesus has taken the punishment those sins that the devil accuses us of deserve.  Don’t panic because you are safe in His strong arms.