“AND THEY OVERCAME HIM”

Sermon by Dr. J. Frank Norris, stenographically reported

This Sermon Unseen and Unrevised by Dr. Norris

DR. NORRIS: May I invite your attention to Revelation 12th chapter, beginning at the 7th verse, “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time”.

I call attention to this verse – “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death”.

Three things – just this brief message –

Now I am not much on this Roman one, Roman two, and Roman three business, but there are three points in this sermon I want you to get.

That is our business, to overcome the devil.

First, by the blood of the Lamb.

Second, by the word of our testimony.

Third, by sacrificial living.

The next verse says two things:

First, the people of God rejoiced.

Second, the devil is mad.

And he is mad because he knows he has but a short time. Therefore if he comes close you need not be surprised. Satan himself becomes an angel of light. He becomes incarnate in flesh and blood. The world’s final ruler will be under his influence and all dominions will be absolutely under his control. He is the enemy of the race. Satan himself is the accuser of the saints of God.

First, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb”. You may say a lot of beautiful things about Jesus and the devil will agree. You may speak of his matchless works and there will be no disagreement. You may speak of his exemplary life and there will be perfect agreement. You may speak of Him as a great prophet and there will be no disagreement. You may speak of Him as our ideal and there will be no disagreement. You may speak of his death as a martyr suffering for us as an example and there will be no disagreement.

But when you come to proclaim to the world that there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood, then the war is on. If there is anything the devil and these modernistic preachers hate it is blood redemption. And if there is any one thing above everything else this old lost world needs it is redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.

What did they preach in New Testament times? And before New Testament times what did they prophesy? Before they saw him? – “He was bruised for our iniquities” – “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter” – “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” – “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all”. As sin for us He pours out His soul an offering unto death – “He was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many”.

Therefore we see him dying, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”.

That is why the apostle Paul writing to the churches of Galatia said “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”.

That is why, writing to the church at Corinth, he said, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”

Now then here is the conclusion of it all. Here we are getting close to the gospel of blood redemption. Here is how to overcome the devil in the world:

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God”.

Why?

“For he hath made him to be sin for us,” – “For us” – “For us” – “For us” – Thank God for those two little words! “For us” – God taking a sinner’s place – Christ bearing the crown of thorns – “For us”.

Darkness wrapped itself around Calvary “for us.” He was led as a captive guilty “for us”!

Buried – “for us”!

Raised – for us”!

Ascended – “for us”!

And thank God He is coming “for us”!

That is what it means. Therefore, “For he hath made him to be sin for us”.

Why?

That we might be made the righteousness of God in him”.

Therefore we will overcome the devil not by our puny hands, not by our wisdom, not by our strength, not by our methods, not by our little whims, not by our efficiency and human methods. But we will overcome him by the sinless shed blood of the Son of God.

Therefore “they overcame him”.

Not by the philosophy of science, not by the government of men, but by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

That is why the Devil hates it.

That is why he hates the churches and preachers that are preaching it. God help us to preach it as never before!

A lot of people in the ministry and missionary societies shed crocodile tears over the Hotentots in Central Africa and never walk across the street to win a soul in heathen Detroit – some of you may laugh at that, but how many churches do you find empty and closed on Sunday night? We had it checked up one night and on one of the main thoroughfares there were twenty-two closed and twenty-seven on another. Talk about heathenism! It is so thick the devil doesn’t even get disturbed by the churches, but you let someone build a tabernacle and start preaching blood redemption and he gets busy.

Brother Lee Coons told me about a mother – God bless the little mothers, we don’t know the circumstances. She told him she couldn’t come to Sunday School. She had three or four children on the bread line – that mother works behind the bar in a saloon. She said “I don’t want my children to do this,” so she brought them to Sunday School while she is working in that iniquitous place. And she wants us to pray that she may get another job. Oh, my friends, think about the tens and tens of thousands of boys and girls like that everywhere.

I want to tell you another story – people criticize me, Brother Coons – isn’t that funny? – because I tell stories with a little human interest. Down here in Columbiana where I came from – I just found out Mr. and Mrs. Parker came from the same place, and knew a lot of my kinfolks. Unfortunately my father drank when I was a little boy, I am sorry to say. But I am glad to say by the grace of God he was saved from drink. He was a good man. He broke my mother’s heart. – I was just a little boy eight years old. There was a banker there who had two boys. We were out on the school ground. Those two boys were always well dressed. One of those boys came around and looked at me and said before the whole crowd of boys and girls. “You daddy’s a drunkard”. When I went home crying Mother said, “Tell mother about it”. But I couldn’t. The next morning I said, “Mama I don’t want to go to school”.

She asked “Why?”

But I couldn’t tell her; I couldn’t break her heart. I just cried my soul out. And finally I told her. She said, “That is all right son. Some day God will use you. Some day you will wear good clothes.”

Forty years rolled by and one day I was standing on the streets of that little town. My cousin was introducing me to people, and after a while two fellows standing on the corner, both badly dressed, looked bad in every way. Just before I left Fort Worth a friend of mine had given me one of the finest tailored suits of clothes. I had on a fine overcoat. And this well-dressed cousin of mine said,

“Frank, do you remember ——- (and called his name). I said, Yes, I remember the two boys”.

After a while one of them came up. His clothes were ragged and he had gone down, my friends, in wreck and ruin.And that poor fellow one day had pointed his finger in my face and said, “Your daddy’s a drunkard.” Oh, God help us never to criticize any boy or any man because we don’t know what there may be back home. We don’t know the inside soul, the inside of that life. We had better help. We had better go to that widow and say We want your children in our Sunday School”. And I am praying for them, praying for you, little widow. I know the struggles that go on. Therefore as we build this great place of worship, multitudes will come in and hear the gospel of blood redemption. I don’t want my name on the corner stone – don’t want anybody else’s name on the corner stone. When I have done my little bit here I won’t need anybody’s praise and thank God I will be beyond all the forked tongues of criticism and slander too – I will be over there, folks! – “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.”

This second word and I must close – “And by the word of their testimony”. What does it mean? Go out and find somebody who needs Jesus Christ. Find somebody who wants to know the Lord and tell him of redemption by the blood of the Lamb.

Now then, third, by sacrificial living. Listen beloved, I say this to you – I didn’t sleep much last night – I was so burdened for the condition of things. I got up about two and called my wife in Fort Worth. I didn’t want anything, I just wanted to hear the voice of the woman who has walked by my side now these thirty-four years. One of these days we won’t be separated.

A few months ago I was up here in Northern Michigan with my daughter and her family. And Mr. J. M. Weaver was there. His wife went home to God a few weeks before. His wife’s father was Dr. Charles A. Blanchard. Mr. Weaver said, “Dr. Norris, I love to think of Mary Bell, (his wife), and her father, Dr. Blanchard, together today in heaven. Then he said, “Sometimes I get anxious to go. I wish I were up there with them.”

When I came away I thought, “What a wonderful testimony!” What else but the gospel of Jesus Christ can take a man seventy years of age and make him know that his life long companion has just slipped away to be with God and say “I wish I were up there with them”? Folks, isn’t it great to be a Christian when the shadows deepen around us and the gray hairs come! Isn’t it great to be a Christian?

This word and I close. I appeal to you this morning. This is a great task. It is a great job. We recognize the great difficulty. The old devil is mad, but we have got a great God. We will put our faith in Him.

This simple story:

How many men when you were boys out in the country ever cut and hauled wood? We didn’t have as many woods in our country as you have here. We had one spot, a place that covered about a hundred acres, so twenty families cut wood out of that spot of timber. We didn’t have concrete bridges then. The bank went almost straight down and straight up at the creek we had to cross. We would load up one wagon and as we went down we would put the brake on, but when we started up on the other side we would take the brake off and every boy on that wagon would jump off and push. One day we looked up and a big fat boy was still sitting on top of that load. Every boy in that crowd was off pushing, all but this one boy, and what we did to him – well, the Lord forgave us.

Everybody here today who will say “I will help carry the load. I will push. I will pull. I will pray. I will give. I will live. I will put tears in it for the glory of God and for souls, boys and girls, men and women, strangers and visitors”. – All who will say “I will” leap to your feet!