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The Desire of Ages
presented his temptations, until the light appeared as darkness. Thus
many rejected the truth that would have proved the saving of the soul.
The True Witness says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.”
Revelation 3:20
. Every warning, reproof, and entreaty in the word of
God or through His messengers is a knock at the door of the heart. It
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is the voice of Jesus asking for entrance. With every knock unheeded,
the disposition to open becomes weaker. The impressions of the Holy
Spirit if disregarded today, will not be as strong tomorrow. The heart
becomes less impressible, and lapses into a perilous unconsciousness
of the shortness of life, and of the great eternity beyond. Our con-
demnation in the judgment will not result from the fact that we have
been in error, but from the fact that we have neglected heaven-sent
opportunities for learning what is truth.
Like the apostles, the seventy had received supernatural endow-
ments as a seal of their mission. When their work was completed, they
returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us
through Thy name.” Jesus answered, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven.”
The scenes of the past and the future were presented to the mind
of Jesus. He beheld Lucifer as he was first cast out from the heavenly
places. He looked forward to the scenes of His own agony, when
before all the worlds the character of the deceiver should be unveiled.
He heard the cry, “It is finished” (
John 19:30
), announcing that the
redemption of the lost race was forever made certain, that heaven
was made eternally secure against the accusations, the deceptions, the
pretensions, that Satan would instigate.
Beyond the cross of Calvary, with its agony and shame, Jesus
looked forward to the great final day, when the prince of the power
of the air will meet his destruction in the earth so long marred by his
rebellion. Jesus beheld the work of evil forever ended, and the peace
of God filling heaven and earth.
Henceforward Christ’s followers were to look upon Satan as a
conquered foe. Upon the cross, Jesus was to gain the victory for them;
that victory He desired them to accept as their own. “Behold,” He said,
“I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all
the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
The omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit is the defense of every
contrite soul. Not one that in penitence and faith has claimed His