WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:01.480 and well, it's great to be here once again 00:01.480 --> 00:02.780 and to see you all. 00:02.840 --> 00:04.120 Thanks for having me out here. 00:04.920 --> 00:07.000 And tonight I'm gonna be preaching on the subject 00:07.000 --> 00:10.780 of the devil's angels, the devil's angels. 00:11.000 --> 00:13.420 In this passage, it talks about the devil 00:13.920 --> 00:16.080 and his angels fighting against Michael 00:16.080 --> 00:17.540 and his angels and so forth. 00:17.880 --> 00:19.460 And where I got the idea for the sermon, 00:19.560 --> 00:20.760 I was reading my Bible yesterday 00:20.760 --> 00:23.880 and I was reading in Matthew 25 where it says, 00:24.180 --> 00:26.880 then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, 00:26.880 --> 00:31.300 depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, 00:32.300 --> 00:34.500 prepared for the devil and his angels. 00:34.900 --> 00:36.140 Now obviously when we hear that 00:36.140 --> 00:38.520 and we're thinking about the devil and his angels, 00:38.680 --> 00:40.220 we're thinking about the demons, right? 00:40.320 --> 00:44.380 The fallen angels, unclean spirits, devils, demons, right? 00:44.760 --> 00:47.280 Those are the literal devil's angels. 00:47.440 --> 00:50.580 But beyond that, the word angel in the Bible 00:50.580 --> 00:53.020 also simply means messenger 00:53.020 --> 00:55.100 and a lot of times it's interchangeably used 00:55.100 --> 00:55.820 with the word messenger. 00:55.820 --> 00:59.280 And the devil actually has other messengers as well 00:59.840 --> 01:02.660 besides just demons, false prophets 01:02.660 --> 01:05.000 are also messengers of the devil. 01:05.340 --> 01:06.620 And so we're gonna get into some of those 01:06.620 --> 01:08.160 other messengers as well. 01:08.460 --> 01:11.300 But first let's start out here in Revelation chapter 12 01:11.300 --> 01:12.860 and let's start out with point number one, 01:12.980 --> 01:14.920 which is the literal demons, right? 01:15.060 --> 01:16.180 Those are the devil's angels. 01:16.560 --> 01:18.100 Look at Revelation 12 verse three. 01:18.200 --> 01:20.060 It says, there appeared another wonder in heaven 01:20.060 --> 01:21.580 and behold a great red dragon 01:21.580 --> 01:23.700 having seven heads and 10 horns 01:23.700 --> 01:25.720 and seven crowns upon his heads 01:25.720 --> 01:28.920 and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven 01:28.920 --> 01:30.600 and it cast them to the earth. 01:31.280 --> 01:32.440 Now the first thing I wanna point out 01:32.440 --> 01:34.280 is that in the book of Revelation, 01:34.740 --> 01:39.760 stars will often represent or be an allegory for angels. 01:41.640 --> 01:44.020 So the third part of the stars of heaven 01:44.020 --> 01:45.840 that he drags down with him 01:45.840 --> 01:48.780 is basically one third of the angels of heaven 01:48.780 --> 01:50.580 are rebelling with Satan. 01:51.100 --> 01:52.180 And here's the thing about that 01:52.180 --> 01:54.160 is that the Bible talks about there being literally 01:54.740 --> 01:58.000 hundreds of millions of angels in heaven 01:58.000 --> 01:59.600 round about God's throne, 02:00.000 --> 02:03.160 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. 02:03.500 --> 02:04.760 So if you stop and think about that, 02:04.960 --> 02:08.760 if there are hundreds of millions of angels up in heaven 02:09.180 --> 02:12.620 and then one third of the angels are fallen angels 02:12.620 --> 02:15.340 and the devil takes one third of the stars of heaven 02:15.340 --> 02:16.720 and cast them down to the earth, 02:16.920 --> 02:18.660 that goes to show you that there are literally 02:18.660 --> 02:22.820 tens of millions of demons in this world. 02:23.480 --> 02:26.960 So devils or demons as they go about this earth 02:26.960 --> 02:29.320 doing Satan's bidding, you know what? 02:29.360 --> 02:31.680 They're not just some super rare phenomenon 02:31.680 --> 02:33.660 like finding something that's just 02:33.660 --> 02:35.100 really out of the ordinary. 02:35.500 --> 02:37.880 No, and that's why when you're reading the four gospels, 02:38.060 --> 02:39.520 there are a lot of stories 02:39.520 --> 02:41.080 about people that are demon possessed 02:41.580 --> 02:43.640 where Jesus and or the apostles 02:43.640 --> 02:45.320 are casting out those devils. 02:45.320 --> 02:48.620 I mean, especially the book of Mark is just wall to wall 02:48.620 --> 02:51.140 with stories about those that are demon possessed. 02:51.540 --> 02:52.000 So here's the thing, 02:52.000 --> 02:54.280 if you actually believe that the Bible is God's word, 02:54.540 --> 02:57.820 then you must believe that those devils didn't go anywhere 02:57.820 --> 02:59.400 since 2000 years ago. 02:59.440 --> 03:00.840 It's not like they were around back then 03:00.840 --> 03:01.960 and all of a sudden they're gone. 03:02.100 --> 03:04.020 Now no, they are alive and well today 03:04.420 --> 03:08.500 and the devil today is walking about as a roaring lion 03:08.500 --> 03:10.160 seeking whom he may devour 03:10.160 --> 03:12.140 and he does not work alone. 03:12.600 --> 03:14.760 He has all of these underlings, 03:14.760 --> 03:17.240 these minions, his messengers 03:17.240 --> 03:19.420 to go forth with his message 03:19.420 --> 03:21.120 and to go forth and do his will. 03:21.480 --> 03:23.720 And if you think about God having his angels, right? 03:24.120 --> 03:27.240 God's angels are going out and doing God's will. 03:27.400 --> 03:28.380 They're doing his bidding. 03:28.680 --> 03:29.920 They're helping the mission. 03:30.140 --> 03:33.960 They're sent forth as spirits to minister unto us 03:33.960 --> 03:35.920 that are the heirs of salvation, right? 03:36.260 --> 03:37.560 The angel of the Lord 03:37.560 --> 03:40.080 and campeth round about them that fear him. 03:40.320 --> 03:42.100 So we have our guardian angels 03:42.100 --> 03:46.100 and God sends his angels to do his will and his work 03:46.100 --> 03:47.040 in the Bible. 03:47.520 --> 03:50.100 Angels will come and speak God's message to people, right? 03:50.440 --> 03:53.460 Well, the devil's angels are basically his minions 03:53.460 --> 03:56.620 that are doing his bidding and there are a lot of them. 03:57.100 --> 04:00.400 And of course the devil is hard at work today in 2026 04:00.960 --> 04:03.720 and it's no different than it was 2000 years ago. 04:04.680 --> 04:06.200 Now let's keep reading here. 04:06.460 --> 04:09.100 It says in the latter part of verse four there, 04:09.180 --> 04:10.760 the dragon stood before the woman 04:10.760 --> 04:14.520 which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child 04:14.520 --> 04:15.600 as soon as it was born. 04:15.980 --> 04:18.300 So the devil wants to destroy baby Jesus 04:18.300 --> 04:20.920 and of course this is alluding to the story 04:20.920 --> 04:23.520 with King Herod and killing all the children 04:23.520 --> 04:24.840 from two years old and under 04:24.840 --> 04:26.700 in order to try to devour Jesus. 04:27.060 --> 04:28.780 It says she brought forth a man child, 04:28.980 --> 04:29.860 that's Jesus of course, 04:30.280 --> 04:32.880 who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron 04:32.880 --> 04:35.580 and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. 04:35.840 --> 04:36.840 Jump down to verse seven. 04:36.940 --> 04:38.640 It says there was war in heaven, 04:38.640 --> 04:41.520 Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, 04:41.820 --> 04:44.320 the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed not, 04:44.680 --> 04:46.380 neither was their place found anymore in heaven 04:46.380 --> 04:48.800 and the great dragon was cast out, 04:49.180 --> 04:51.980 that old serpent called the devil and Satan 04:51.980 --> 04:54.080 which deceive at the whole world, 04:54.440 --> 04:56.000 he was cast out into the earth 04:56.000 --> 04:58.780 and his angels were cast out with him. 04:58.860 --> 05:01.200 Now if you would go to Luke chapter 22. 05:01.540 --> 05:05.380 Luke chapter 22 because obviously if we look at Satan 05:06.000 --> 05:08.780 in the Bible, we're not ignorant of his devices 05:08.780 --> 05:11.360 and if we look at what his agenda is 05:11.360 --> 05:14.800 and if we look at what his modus operandi is 05:14.800 --> 05:17.440 then we can understand what his underlings are doing 05:17.440 --> 05:18.800 because they're just doing his bidding, 05:18.920 --> 05:19.720 they're working for him, 05:20.120 --> 05:21.940 they're his messengers, they're his angels 05:22.440 --> 05:23.760 and so what is their goal? 05:24.160 --> 05:27.300 You know Satan wanted to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ, 05:27.420 --> 05:29.840 he wanted to devour that child as soon as he was born. 05:30.140 --> 05:31.760 Of course he failed to do that 05:31.760 --> 05:35.160 and so he turns his wrath at the end of chapter 12 05:35.160 --> 05:37.800 on the seed of the woman 05:38.240 --> 05:40.000 that keeps the commandments of God 05:40.000 --> 05:42.140 and has the testimony of Jesus Christ. 05:42.480 --> 05:44.660 So therefore his goal is to go after 05:44.660 --> 05:46.420 and destroy Christians, right? 05:46.700 --> 05:49.060 The initial goal is destroy Jesus. 05:49.340 --> 05:50.300 That didn't work out. 05:50.600 --> 05:54.380 Jesus won, he conquered his death, his burial, 05:54.560 --> 05:57.380 his resurrection, the son of God was manifested 05:57.380 --> 05:59.600 to destroy the works of the devil. 05:59.880 --> 06:01.340 He already won that battle 06:01.340 --> 06:04.340 and so now Satan goes after the remnant 06:04.340 --> 06:07.520 of the seed of the woman, that's us human beings 06:07.520 --> 06:09.220 that keep the commandments of God 06:09.220 --> 06:10.840 and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. 06:11.140 --> 06:13.480 We are the target for Satan. 06:14.700 --> 06:16.780 Now what did the devil try to do to Jesus? 06:17.360 --> 06:20.680 Well, look if you would at Luke chapter 22 verse three 06:21.240 --> 06:24.580 it says then entered Satan into Judas, 06:24.760 --> 06:27.220 surname to scarriot, being of the number of the 12. 06:27.220 --> 06:31.120 So Judas is scarriot is literally demon possessed 06:31.700 --> 06:34.440 with the arch demon himself Satan. 06:34.700 --> 06:38.020 And it says in verse number four there 06:38.020 --> 06:40.760 he went his way and communed with the chief priests 06:40.760 --> 06:43.500 and captains how he might betray him under them 06:43.980 --> 06:47.400 and they were glad and covenanted to give him money 06:47.400 --> 06:49.780 and he promised and sought opportunity 06:49.780 --> 06:52.000 to betray him under them 06:52.400 --> 06:54.020 in the absence of the multitude. 06:54.020 --> 06:56.880 You know, it looks to me like the devil 06:57.280 --> 07:00.760 will possess the unsaved because Judas was unsaved. 07:00.880 --> 07:03.540 The Bible says that Jesus knew from the beginning 07:03.540 --> 07:05.920 which of the 12 did not believe in him. 07:06.320 --> 07:08.540 And he said, have not I chosen you 12? 07:08.660 --> 07:09.320 One of you is a devil. 07:09.640 --> 07:11.460 One of them never believed in him. 07:11.740 --> 07:13.300 Judas is scarriot, totally unsaved. 07:13.780 --> 07:15.940 Well, demons will possess the unsaved 07:15.940 --> 07:17.580 and use them to do evil. 07:18.020 --> 07:20.060 And what he'll specifically use them to do 07:20.060 --> 07:23.500 is to betray and falsely accuse God's people 07:23.500 --> 07:24.720 because if you think about it, 07:24.880 --> 07:26.500 Satan is the big accuser 07:26.500 --> 07:30.360 and here Satan possesses Judas to betray Jesus, 07:31.080 --> 07:34.200 to get close to him, to be his friend, 07:34.700 --> 07:37.340 to be in his inner circle, to be in the church, 07:37.640 --> 07:40.560 really there not for any good reason 07:40.560 --> 07:42.440 but just there to steal money 07:42.910 --> 07:45.300 and ultimately there to just betray Jesus 07:45.300 --> 07:46.800 and falsely accuse Jesus 07:46.800 --> 07:48.900 and get Jesus arrested and so forth. 07:49.260 --> 07:50.760 Well, look, the devil's gonna do that 07:50.760 --> 07:52.460 not to just the son of God himself 07:52.460 --> 07:53.780 but to all Christians. 07:54.040 --> 07:56.680 He's gonna try to harm us in that way. 07:57.020 --> 08:00.080 And so remember, a saved person cannot be demon possessed. 08:00.500 --> 08:00.960 Right? 08:01.120 --> 08:03.240 The Bible says greater is he that is in you 08:03.240 --> 08:04.420 than he that is in the world. 08:04.700 --> 08:06.340 It's before you were saved 08:06.340 --> 08:09.000 when you were dead in trespasses and sins 08:09.000 --> 08:10.600 that you lived your life 08:10.600 --> 08:12.480 according to the course of this world, 08:12.720 --> 08:15.240 according to the prince of the power of the air, 08:15.480 --> 08:17.220 the spirit that now worketh 08:17.220 --> 08:18.560 in the children of disobedience. 08:18.760 --> 08:20.880 So that spirit of the devil, 08:20.880 --> 08:25.220 unclean spirits or Satan himself works in the unsaved. 08:25.880 --> 08:28.540 The children of wrath before they're saved, 08:29.060 --> 08:30.160 he has access to them. 08:30.200 --> 08:33.440 Once we're saved though and we've been born again, 08:34.020 --> 08:35.580 we can never be demon possessed. 08:35.880 --> 08:37.940 Anybody who's demon possessed is an unsaved person, right? 08:38.480 --> 08:41.060 So thank God us saved Christians are immune from this 08:41.060 --> 08:42.160 but here's the thing, 08:42.560 --> 08:45.120 unsaved people around us though 08:45.120 --> 08:48.880 could be used by the devil to attack us, 08:48.880 --> 08:51.140 torment us, harass us, 08:51.640 --> 08:54.120 accuse us, betray us and whatever. 08:55.140 --> 08:56.980 We also see in the book of Acts 08:56.980 --> 08:59.400 where there's this woman in the book of Acts 08:59.400 --> 09:00.380 that's a demoniac 09:00.380 --> 09:02.020 and when they're out soul winning 09:02.020 --> 09:02.880 and preaching the gospel, 09:03.080 --> 09:05.940 she's following them around mocking them, 09:06.320 --> 09:08.580 yelling things at them, harassing them 09:08.580 --> 09:10.240 and basically just being a distraction 09:10.730 --> 09:13.040 and making it difficult for them to do the soul winning. 09:13.400 --> 09:14.500 And you've probably seen this before 09:14.500 --> 09:15.340 when you're out soul winning 09:15.340 --> 09:18.200 and you get some weirdo following you around 09:18.200 --> 09:20.420 and they won't stop and they won't leave you alone. 09:20.760 --> 09:22.240 And I'm not just talking about the Karen, 09:22.360 --> 09:23.640 apartment manager or whatever. 09:23.980 --> 09:25.680 Sometimes it'll just be some neighbor 09:25.680 --> 09:29.060 or somebody that just goes crazy on you and freaks out. 09:29.340 --> 09:31.380 I mean, we were just soul winning a few weeks ago 09:31.380 --> 09:34.280 on Indian reservation in Nevada 09:34.800 --> 09:36.880 and we got attacked by Indians. 09:37.240 --> 09:39.640 You know, I thought those days were over 09:40.070 --> 09:42.840 but it was like we literally got physically attacked 09:42.840 --> 09:44.940 by Indians, if you can believe that. 09:45.460 --> 09:46.800 And so we're out there 09:46.800 --> 09:49.780 and I mean this Indian guy just went crazy on me. 09:50.080 --> 09:53.000 He started shoving me and spitting in my face 09:53.000 --> 09:55.360 and everything and I was totally nice to the guy 09:55.360 --> 09:58.440 and he's just going crazy on me, blowing up on me. 09:58.640 --> 09:59.060 And you know what? 09:59.080 --> 10:00.920 It wouldn't surprise me if people like that 10:00.920 --> 10:03.480 are demon possessed because there was no reason. 10:03.840 --> 10:05.460 We were totally cool with the guy. 10:05.580 --> 10:06.800 We're totally nice with the guy 10:06.800 --> 10:10.320 and he just blew up no interest in the peace pipe 10:10.320 --> 10:11.360 when I offered it to him. 10:11.440 --> 10:14.100 He's just blew up on me and just attacked me. 10:14.300 --> 10:15.740 Okay, but here's the thing. 10:15.740 --> 10:17.920 Peace pipe's just tobacco friends, all right? 10:18.760 --> 10:19.440 It's true. 10:19.740 --> 10:20.880 Look it up, it's not drugs. 10:21.160 --> 10:21.700 No, I'm just kidding. 10:21.800 --> 10:23.160 I don't smoke either, okay. 10:23.460 --> 10:26.200 But the point is that the devil, 10:26.680 --> 10:30.200 yeah, he has already lost the battle with Jesus Christ. 10:30.420 --> 10:31.360 Jesus already conquered. 10:31.920 --> 10:33.400 He already lived that perfect life 10:33.400 --> 10:34.380 that none of us could live. 10:34.660 --> 10:37.440 He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 10:37.880 --> 10:40.080 He arose victorious over the grave, right? 10:40.420 --> 10:42.180 But now he's wroth with us, 10:42.360 --> 10:43.800 the Bible says in Revelation 12. 10:43.800 --> 10:47.580 We're the new target and so if he'll betray Jesus, 10:47.840 --> 10:48.900 he'll betray us. 10:49.440 --> 10:51.740 If he'll accuse Jesus, he'll accuse us. 10:52.040 --> 10:53.680 If he'll steal money from Jesus, 10:54.040 --> 10:55.880 he'll steal money from the church today. 10:56.280 --> 10:58.660 He will do the same things to us 10:59.100 --> 11:02.960 and he will use wicked people around us to do his bidding. 11:03.480 --> 11:04.780 And you know, the Bible talks about 11:04.780 --> 11:08.360 these evil people that will just be among us, 11:08.520 --> 11:09.780 you know, crept in unawares. 11:09.780 --> 11:12.080 Certain wicked man, Jude says, 11:12.460 --> 11:14.540 crept in unawares who were before 11:14.540 --> 11:16.760 of old ordained to this condemnation. 11:17.460 --> 11:20.580 Ungodly man turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, 11:20.780 --> 11:23.080 denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. 11:23.140 --> 11:24.300 It's like, why would you go to church 11:24.300 --> 11:27.120 if you deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ? 11:27.380 --> 11:28.400 Well, I'll tell you why they're there. 11:28.760 --> 11:31.400 Feasting with you and feeding themselves without fear. 11:31.640 --> 11:34.260 They are there to beguile unstable souls. 11:34.560 --> 11:35.540 They're there to deceive. 11:35.960 --> 11:36.820 They're there to accuse. 11:37.280 --> 11:38.120 They're there to betray. 11:38.720 --> 11:39.680 They're there to harass. 11:40.120 --> 11:44.040 They are there to harm God's people, you know. 11:44.120 --> 11:45.920 And this is what the devil's angels do. 11:46.400 --> 11:47.740 They do just like their master. 11:48.740 --> 11:50.800 But not only that, go to Mark chapter nine. 11:50.940 --> 11:52.100 We'll just briefly look at this. 11:52.700 --> 11:55.360 Not only do the devil's angels, the demons, 11:55.660 --> 11:59.820 not only do they, you know, lead unsaved people 12:00.220 --> 12:04.020 to just do crazy things like just joining a church 12:04.020 --> 12:06.440 and just, you know, infiltrating 12:06.960 --> 12:09.900 and just being a spy or something 12:09.900 --> 12:11.100 and spying on God's people. 12:11.180 --> 12:13.860 And look, this is like, who would do that? 12:14.220 --> 12:16.620 Like, don't you have something better to do with your life? 12:17.020 --> 12:20.100 You know, than to be some transvestite. 12:20.280 --> 12:22.580 I mean, this transvestite goes undercover 12:23.960 --> 12:25.880 at Sher Foundation Baptist Church. 12:26.180 --> 12:27.900 And this is how he, this is his disguise. 12:28.300 --> 12:29.860 He disguised himself as a normal man. 12:30.740 --> 12:32.380 Like it's a wild disguise. 12:32.980 --> 12:35.180 Cause he's normally a tranny, but then he just, 12:35.320 --> 12:36.800 he puts on this wild disguise 12:36.800 --> 12:38.680 of just like being his normal gender. 12:39.740 --> 12:40.980 If you can imagine that. 12:41.340 --> 12:43.680 And then he's showing up and just week after week 12:43.680 --> 12:45.520 and he's just filming and just infiltrating. 12:45.860 --> 12:46.680 Folks, it's demonic. 12:47.320 --> 12:49.760 And it is interesting that this same guy 12:49.760 --> 12:52.300 who did that on his YouTube channel, 12:52.760 --> 12:55.100 What's the Logo is a literal Satan symbol 12:55.100 --> 12:58.500 upside down star, like on a lamb's head, 12:58.720 --> 13:01.420 just a Baphomet Satan thing, right? 13:01.420 --> 13:02.680 Because that's what the devil does. 13:03.080 --> 13:05.540 Just like he infiltrated the first church 13:05.900 --> 13:07.520 by being one of the 12 disciples. 13:07.900 --> 13:09.820 And, you know, getting in there possessing Judas 13:09.820 --> 13:13.280 to betray Jesus, you know, he does the same thing now. 13:13.560 --> 13:17.080 But not only do the demons lead people to, you know, 13:17.140 --> 13:19.080 harm, harass, betray other Christians, 13:20.080 --> 13:21.600 but what they'll get them to do 13:21.600 --> 13:23.620 is also to destroy themselves. 13:24.680 --> 13:26.600 You know, and so you'll see demon possessed people 13:26.600 --> 13:28.720 be very self-destructive people. 13:29.080 --> 13:29.300 Okay. 13:29.300 --> 13:31.600 Look if you would at Mark chapter nine, verse 17. 13:31.740 --> 13:32.740 Here's a great example of this. 13:33.160 --> 13:34.840 One of the multitude answered and said, 13:34.980 --> 13:37.080 Master, I brought unto thee my son, 13:37.160 --> 13:38.260 which hath a dumb spirit. 13:39.300 --> 13:41.540 And wheresoever he taketh him, watch this, 13:41.980 --> 13:44.880 he teareth him and he fometh 13:45.300 --> 13:47.900 and gnasheth with his teeth and pineeth away. 13:48.420 --> 13:50.180 And I spake to thy disciples 13:50.600 --> 13:52.960 that they should cast him out and they could not. 13:53.240 --> 13:54.100 Look at verse 21. 13:54.560 --> 13:56.940 And he asked his father, how long is it ago 13:56.940 --> 13:58.960 since this came unto him and he said of a child 13:59.600 --> 14:02.240 and off times it hath cast him into the fire 14:02.660 --> 14:04.380 and into the waters to destroy him. 14:04.680 --> 14:07.360 But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us 14:07.360 --> 14:08.540 and help us. 14:08.600 --> 14:10.260 Notice what this spirit is doing. 14:10.400 --> 14:12.900 It's making this kid foam at the mouth 14:13.460 --> 14:17.140 and tear himself and also to throw himself into the fire 14:17.140 --> 14:19.260 and also to throw himself in the water. 14:19.460 --> 14:21.600 Notice the self-destructive behavior. 14:22.140 --> 14:23.700 And by the way, in the Old Testament, 14:24.200 --> 14:26.840 you have Elijah facing off with the prophets of Baal 14:26.840 --> 14:27.700 and Mount Carmel. 14:28.280 --> 14:30.740 And if you remember, they are cutting themselves 14:31.260 --> 14:34.880 until blood gushed out and it says, as was their manner. 14:35.300 --> 14:37.360 So this was just a normal thing for them. 14:37.420 --> 14:39.560 This was another day at the office for them, 14:39.800 --> 14:42.740 self-harming and cutting themselves open 14:42.740 --> 14:44.420 because they are demonic. 14:44.860 --> 14:47.660 They're worshiping the devil when they worship Baal, 14:47.820 --> 14:49.780 the prophets of Baal, Baal's a bub. 14:50.480 --> 14:53.160 And so what we see here is the self-destructive behavior 14:53.700 --> 14:55.400 of those who are demoniac. 14:55.400 --> 14:57.680 So not only do they seek to harm Christians, 14:57.860 --> 14:58.500 they seek to harm themselves. 14:58.740 --> 14:59.720 Because here's what you have to understand. 15:00.200 --> 15:03.380 You know, the devil doesn't love his followers. 15:04.800 --> 15:07.540 You know, it's not like the devil has his crowd. 15:07.700 --> 15:09.240 Yeah, my boys and I love them. 15:09.500 --> 15:11.280 And you know, I just hate Christians. 15:11.800 --> 15:13.640 You know, the devil really hates all of mankind. 15:14.100 --> 15:15.180 If you study the book of Revelation, 15:15.440 --> 15:16.520 you know, in chapter 12 there, 15:16.980 --> 15:18.520 the devil actually just hates all of mankind. 15:18.880 --> 15:21.180 I mean, he's especially got his guns trained 15:21.180 --> 15:23.460 on Christians and he would love to infiltrate 15:23.460 --> 15:25.640 churches and tempt Christians, 15:26.000 --> 15:28.060 accuse Christians, deceive Christians, 15:28.240 --> 15:30.640 through unsaved people that he can actually possess 15:31.240 --> 15:32.780 and use them to do his bidding. 15:33.240 --> 15:36.200 But not only does he want to harm Christians indirectly 15:37.100 --> 15:39.780 through unsaved people that he uses to do his bidding, 15:40.120 --> 15:43.480 but he'll also harm the unsaved people themselves 15:44.040 --> 15:46.780 directly by literally possessing them 15:46.780 --> 15:48.740 and leading them to self-harm. 15:49.080 --> 15:50.580 And you'll see people just doing 15:50.580 --> 15:52.740 these crazy irrational things 15:52.740 --> 15:55.440 where they harm themselves and they're, you know, 15:55.520 --> 15:58.040 beating their own heads in and just cutting themselves 15:58.360 --> 15:59.660 and all these wild things, 15:59.840 --> 16:01.560 like throwing themselves in the fire 16:01.560 --> 16:02.900 and in the water and all these things. 16:03.280 --> 16:04.340 You know, it just shows the devil 16:04.780 --> 16:07.700 is just leading people toward destruction of others 16:07.700 --> 16:09.440 and ultimately destruction of themselves. 16:10.720 --> 16:12.440 And you know, when you stop and think about it, 16:12.960 --> 16:15.820 you know, the devil is just a self-destructive entity 16:15.820 --> 16:18.260 because his whole path is leading him 16:18.260 --> 16:19.700 toward damnation in the end. 16:19.840 --> 16:20.740 That's where he's gonna end up. 16:21.260 --> 16:23.700 So he's really just trying to take as many people with him 16:24.280 --> 16:25.500 on that road of damnation. 16:26.220 --> 16:27.280 You know, that's what he's doing. 16:27.620 --> 16:29.060 You know, it's like he attacked Jesus, 16:29.300 --> 16:31.480 he fought against Jesus, he tried to stop Jesus 16:31.480 --> 16:34.040 and he ends up just destroying himself in the process. 16:34.340 --> 16:34.940 Well, guess what? 16:35.180 --> 16:37.260 If we resist the devil, he'll flee from us. 16:37.400 --> 16:41.420 And if people come at us and these demonic forces 16:41.420 --> 16:43.400 come at us and attack us, you know what? 16:43.520 --> 16:45.480 If we can stand strong in the Lord 16:45.480 --> 16:46.480 and the power of his might, 16:46.700 --> 16:48.740 if we can have the shield of faith equipped 16:48.740 --> 16:50.540 where with we shall be able to quench 16:50.540 --> 16:51.980 all the fiery darts of the wicked, 16:52.380 --> 16:52.820 guess what? 16:52.920 --> 16:54.980 Those people will not be able to destroy us 16:54.980 --> 16:56.760 but ultimately what will they do? 16:57.080 --> 16:58.060 They will destroy themselves 16:58.060 --> 16:59.820 and we will see them destroy themselves. 17:00.000 --> 17:01.760 We will see them self-destruct. 17:02.940 --> 17:04.920 So the good news is we as Christians 17:04.920 --> 17:06.040 will never be demon possessed 17:06.720 --> 17:09.720 but we will be stalked, persecuted and harassed 17:09.720 --> 17:10.700 by those who are demon possessed. 17:10.900 --> 17:12.060 I mean, we see that in the Bible. 17:12.460 --> 17:14.920 So that's how that affects us, okay? 17:15.440 --> 17:16.680 Now let's move on to point number two. 17:16.680 --> 17:18.840 So point number one, the devil's angels. 17:19.020 --> 17:21.240 We're talking about the literal demons of hell. 17:21.400 --> 17:22.640 Those are the devil's angels, right? 17:23.080 --> 17:27.220 But number two, false prophets are also the devil's angels 17:27.220 --> 17:29.060 because they are messengers of the devil 17:29.060 --> 17:30.620 bringing the devil's message. 17:32.540 --> 17:34.260 Now, just to demonstrate to you, 17:34.280 --> 17:35.280 this is just kind of interesting 17:36.100 --> 17:38.220 to demonstrate to you, you know, 17:38.260 --> 17:41.940 that the word angel literally just means messenger. 17:42.360 --> 17:42.940 That's what it means. 17:43.200 --> 17:45.220 And we can kind of get a feel for this too. 17:45.220 --> 17:47.980 If we think about our word evangelist 17:47.980 --> 17:50.460 or evangelical or something like that 17:50.460 --> 17:54.100 because the word evangelical, okay? 17:54.360 --> 17:57.280 The EV prefix there means good, 17:57.960 --> 18:00.880 like, you know, euphemism or euphony 18:00.880 --> 18:02.040 or something euphonic. 18:02.220 --> 18:06.880 And then we have the evangel, right? 18:07.420 --> 18:09.260 Evangel, you see the angel in there? 18:09.400 --> 18:11.720 So it's like good message. 18:12.020 --> 18:13.400 And remember, what does gospel mean? 18:13.660 --> 18:14.720 Gospel means good news. 18:14.720 --> 18:16.020 So the gospel is good news. 18:16.540 --> 18:19.940 So evangelicals are out there preaching the good news. 18:20.120 --> 18:22.680 We're into like getting the gospel out to the world. 18:23.000 --> 18:25.240 And so the word angel just simply means messenger. 18:25.560 --> 18:28.900 It's kind of funny, the William Tyndale Bible, you know, 18:28.960 --> 18:32.660 which is really the first English translation 18:32.660 --> 18:35.040 in modern English from the original Greek 18:35.040 --> 18:38.820 into English in the New Testament, you know, 1526. 18:39.600 --> 18:41.160 And if you look at it, 18:41.240 --> 18:43.700 it's funny because in Revelation two and three, 18:44.160 --> 18:45.540 you have this passage where it says 18:45.540 --> 18:48.120 unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, right? 18:48.500 --> 18:50.580 On the angel of the church of Smyrna, right? 18:50.880 --> 18:51.160 Pergamos. 18:51.580 --> 18:54.240 And when it says unto the angel of the church, right? 18:54.380 --> 18:55.620 It's talking about the preacher. 18:56.300 --> 18:58.180 It's talking about the messenger of the church, 18:58.280 --> 19:00.900 the one who brings the message to the church. 19:01.180 --> 19:04.420 That's why some of the rebukes in Revelation two and three 19:04.420 --> 19:07.880 are using the and thou directed to the leader. 19:08.520 --> 19:10.600 And then other things like ye, you, your 19:11.040 --> 19:12.780 is talking to the church as a whole. 19:12.780 --> 19:15.000 So sometimes he's just talking to the pastor. 19:15.280 --> 19:17.340 Sometimes he's talking to the church itself, 19:17.340 --> 19:20.240 but that's what that means when it says the angel church. 19:20.400 --> 19:22.620 So just as, just as the good churches 19:22.620 --> 19:25.960 have the angel of the church of Anaheim, you know, 19:25.960 --> 19:27.720 the angel of the church of Ephesus, 19:27.960 --> 19:30.520 then, you know, the devil's got his angels too. 19:31.240 --> 19:31.720 Right? 19:31.940 --> 19:33.060 At the first, we just passed the church. 19:33.180 --> 19:34.800 It was the first Presbyterian church. 19:35.640 --> 19:38.100 It had a pervert flag flying out front. 19:38.240 --> 19:39.680 So I can already tell you the devil 19:39.680 --> 19:40.800 is in charge down there. 19:41.280 --> 19:42.360 No question about that. 19:43.320 --> 19:46.020 But in the William Tyndale translation 19:46.660 --> 19:48.200 of Revelation two and three, it's funny 19:48.200 --> 19:51.100 because he keeps using a different word each time. 19:51.600 --> 19:53.820 So like in Revelation chapter two verse one, 19:53.860 --> 19:55.220 he says, under the messenger 19:55.780 --> 19:57.700 of the congregation of Ephesus, right. 19:58.260 --> 19:59.480 Then in verse eight, he says, 19:59.920 --> 20:02.400 under the angel of the congregation of Smyrna, right. 20:02.500 --> 20:03.700 That's the way the King James does it. 20:03.780 --> 20:04.860 It translates it as angel. 20:05.260 --> 20:08.280 And then in chapter three verse seven, 20:08.280 --> 20:11.780 he says, and right unto the tidings bringer 20:11.780 --> 20:14.160 of the congregation of Philadelphia. 20:14.580 --> 20:17.060 So it's kind of funny because it's the same Greek word 20:17.060 --> 20:18.700 every time, which is just angel. 20:19.240 --> 20:20.980 But then it's just kind of funny how Tyndale, 20:21.160 --> 20:22.680 he does it one time as messenger. 20:23.080 --> 20:24.720 He does it another time as angel. 20:25.300 --> 20:27.520 He does it another time as tidings bringer 20:27.520 --> 20:31.220 because he's just trying to show like different synonyms 20:31.220 --> 20:32.120 of the same word. 20:32.520 --> 20:34.140 The King James just keeps it consistent 20:34.140 --> 20:37.160 and just always translates angel for angel. 20:37.600 --> 20:39.920 But it's just kind of going to show you 20:39.920 --> 20:42.740 how the tidings bringer, messenger, angel. 20:42.860 --> 20:44.580 These are all kind of synonymous words. 20:45.120 --> 20:46.640 That's why Tyndale did that. 20:47.360 --> 20:48.840 And so if you would flip over 20:48.840 --> 20:51.240 to second Corinthians chapter number 11, 20:51.700 --> 20:53.280 second Corinthians chapter number 11, 20:53.300 --> 20:54.700 this is probably the best verse 20:55.160 --> 20:58.600 when it comes to this idea of the devil's angels 20:58.600 --> 21:02.820 or the devil's messengers being false prophets. 21:03.240 --> 21:05.700 It says in second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13, 21:05.700 --> 21:08.560 for such are false apostles, 21:09.720 --> 21:13.100 deceitful workers transforming themselves 21:13.100 --> 21:16.080 into the apostles of Christ and no marvel. 21:16.800 --> 21:22.080 For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 21:22.540 --> 21:26.520 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers, 21:26.820 --> 21:29.760 and another word for ministers would be like helpers 21:29.760 --> 21:31.480 or servants or something like that, right? 21:31.920 --> 21:35.220 And so it's no marvel if his ministers also 21:35.660 --> 21:39.400 be transformed as the ministers of righteousness 21:39.400 --> 21:42.300 whose end shall be according to their works. 21:42.720 --> 21:44.540 And so look, just as the devil 21:44.540 --> 21:46.420 is transformed into an angel of light, 21:46.780 --> 21:50.240 his minions, his ministers, his angels 21:50.240 --> 21:53.080 are transformed into the ministers of light, right? 21:53.480 --> 21:56.400 And obviously we use the word minister a lot 21:56.400 --> 21:59.100 to talk about the preacher at a church, right? 21:59.100 --> 22:01.000 The pastor is known as a minister, right? 22:01.660 --> 22:03.380 Pastor Bruce Meheo, what does he do for a living? 22:03.520 --> 22:04.580 He's a minister, right? 22:04.680 --> 22:05.560 That's what we would say. 22:05.960 --> 22:07.820 He's in the ministry, okay? 22:08.100 --> 22:09.740 And so you have some wicked people 22:10.180 --> 22:11.820 that are in an evil ministry 22:11.820 --> 22:14.280 because they are ministers of the devil. 22:14.500 --> 22:18.000 They're messengers of Satan and they are doing his bidding. 22:18.380 --> 22:18.920 But here's the thing, 22:18.980 --> 22:20.580 they're transformed into the ministers of righteousness. 22:21.080 --> 22:24.500 So on the outside, they could look like they're good, 22:24.780 --> 22:27.100 but inwardly the Bible says what? 22:27.200 --> 22:28.700 They're ravening wolves, right? 22:28.700 --> 22:30.240 Beware of false prophets, 22:30.620 --> 22:32.080 which come to you in sheep's clothing, 22:32.760 --> 22:34.380 but inwardly they're ravening wolves. 22:34.560 --> 22:37.020 Now think about what it means to be in sheep's clothing. 22:37.360 --> 22:39.600 What are the attributes of a sheep? 22:40.160 --> 22:44.080 I mean, a sheep isn't really an animal that scares you, right? 22:44.220 --> 22:46.320 Like if you show up at the petting zoo 22:46.740 --> 22:47.680 or you show up around sheep, 22:47.900 --> 22:50.440 it's like, oh, get the sheep away from me. 22:50.560 --> 22:51.540 The sheep's out of control. 22:52.940 --> 22:55.560 Sheeps aren't scary, okay? 22:55.560 --> 22:59.600 Now a wolf is kind of a scary, ferocious beast 22:59.600 --> 23:00.680 that you'd be worried about. 23:01.360 --> 23:02.640 A lot of times in Arizona, 23:03.860 --> 23:06.460 I would say virtually every single time 23:06.460 --> 23:08.860 I go on a bicycle ride in the evening 23:08.860 --> 23:11.060 or just after the sun goes down. 23:11.720 --> 23:13.820 And that's usually when we like to do stuff 23:13.820 --> 23:15.880 because the sun is trying to kill us. 23:15.980 --> 23:17.720 Like it's like that level in Super Mario Brother 23:17.720 --> 23:19.360 where the sun's trying to kill you. 23:19.680 --> 23:21.400 That's life in Arizona every day. 23:21.800 --> 23:25.200 But basically, I'll be out there after dusk 23:25.200 --> 23:26.160 and after the sun goes down 23:26.160 --> 23:28.080 and I see a coyote every single time. 23:28.780 --> 23:30.860 Like virtually every time I go on a bike ride 23:30.860 --> 23:33.380 over by the desert, I'll see a coyote. 23:33.880 --> 23:36.060 And coyotes are really small. 23:36.360 --> 23:38.540 Like they're a lot less scary than a wolf or something. 23:38.800 --> 23:40.760 But it still kind of gives you a little pause. 23:40.920 --> 23:42.940 When you see these kind of wild beasts, 23:43.440 --> 23:45.860 whether it's a coyote or a wolf or, 23:46.520 --> 23:48.520 one time I was hiking with my kids 23:49.100 --> 23:50.260 pretty close to my house 23:50.260 --> 23:52.540 and saw like some kind of a bobcat or something. 23:52.540 --> 23:54.720 And it just kind of, it's kind of like, whoa. 23:55.140 --> 23:56.400 But if you saw a sheep, 23:56.780 --> 23:58.780 you're not freaking out about a sheep. 23:58.880 --> 23:59.840 You're not worried about it 23:59.840 --> 24:03.600 because a sheep is like a harmless animal. 24:04.260 --> 24:10.040 You'd think of it as gentle, mild, harmless, super nice. 24:10.500 --> 24:12.640 And so the Bible is saying 24:12.640 --> 24:15.240 that these false prophets, these messengers of Satan, 24:16.100 --> 24:19.660 they are going to appear on the outside as sheep. 24:19.660 --> 24:22.240 They're going to be wolves in sheep's clothing. 24:22.680 --> 24:26.300 And isn't it interesting how these super evil, wicked, 24:26.300 --> 24:29.720 hateful, just horrific servants of Satan 24:30.160 --> 24:32.560 are just, they're the ones that are just so loving. 24:33.180 --> 24:35.700 And it's just like, love is love. 24:36.360 --> 24:38.360 And they're just flying a flag 24:38.360 --> 24:43.560 of just violent perversion and just gross molestation. 24:43.800 --> 24:46.340 And they're just like, oh, we just, we just welcome 24:46.340 --> 24:47.660 everybody, we just love everybody. 24:47.760 --> 24:48.140 We're so kind. 24:48.420 --> 24:51.920 And then meanwhile, the fundamental Baptist down the street 24:51.920 --> 24:55.920 is painted as being like super mean, super hateful, 24:56.360 --> 24:59.480 super harmful, just scary, right? 25:00.820 --> 25:02.680 And then what's funny is people will call us 25:02.680 --> 25:03.580 a wolf in sheep's clothing. 25:03.760 --> 25:08.460 It's like, bro, how are we portraying ourselves 25:08.460 --> 25:10.340 as super gentle and mild 25:11.000 --> 25:12.960 when in reality we're ferocious beasts? 25:13.740 --> 25:16.040 If anything, we probably seem a little more ferocious 25:16.040 --> 25:16.940 than we even are. 25:18.780 --> 25:20.480 And to sit there and say, oh, you're a wolf. 25:20.680 --> 25:23.000 No, I'll tell you, the wolf in sheep's clothing is, 25:23.060 --> 25:27.820 is these evil demoniac pastors, these super wicked. 25:28.140 --> 25:30.220 And, but then they're just so nice to you 25:30.220 --> 25:33.240 as they just kind of just gently send the knife 25:33.240 --> 25:35.680 into your back and just kind of just slowly, 25:35.760 --> 25:37.040 just, hey, you're going to feel a little prick. 25:37.340 --> 25:37.840 Oh, okay. 25:38.020 --> 25:39.060 You know, let me just go ahead and just 25:39.520 --> 25:42.020 send the knife in beneath the fifth rib 25:42.520 --> 25:44.440 and just go ahead and just stab you. 25:44.560 --> 25:45.780 Let me just go ahead and just gently 25:46.200 --> 25:47.780 put this dart into your liver. 25:48.180 --> 25:50.140 It's only going to hurt for a minute 25:50.140 --> 25:51.600 and then the lights are going to go out. 25:51.960 --> 25:52.400 Let me tell you something. 25:52.520 --> 25:55.500 It's amazing how these people who hate you 25:55.500 --> 25:59.540 and attack you and revile you and persecute you 25:59.540 --> 26:01.160 and despitefully use you, 26:01.300 --> 26:03.200 isn't it amazing how nice they are as they do it? 26:04.180 --> 26:06.980 Cause they're just so loving and they're so kind 26:06.980 --> 26:10.760 and they're so affirming as they just harm 26:10.760 --> 26:13.180 and hurt and devour with their wickedness. 26:13.400 --> 26:13.660 Why? 26:13.660 --> 26:16.220 Because they are a wolf in sheep's clothing. 26:17.000 --> 26:18.860 And so yeah, the teeth are there. 26:19.100 --> 26:19.920 The claws are there. 26:20.020 --> 26:20.800 You just don't see them. 26:21.340 --> 26:23.060 Because even the devil himself, 26:23.220 --> 26:26.040 he doesn't come at you with horns and a pitchfork 26:26.040 --> 26:27.360 and a red pointy tail. 26:27.720 --> 26:31.660 He comes at you as an angel of light, right? 26:31.760 --> 26:33.800 If you saw the devil, you'd think he's beautiful. 26:34.420 --> 26:36.580 He's one of God's most beautiful creations, 26:37.340 --> 26:39.620 but he's evil, okay? 26:39.760 --> 26:41.260 And so the looks can be deceiving. 26:41.600 --> 26:43.240 So he says, beware of false prophets 26:43.240 --> 26:44.500 which come to you in sheep's clothing, 26:44.640 --> 26:45.840 but inwardly they're ravening wolves. 26:46.120 --> 26:47.140 You should know them by their fruits. 26:47.800 --> 26:50.860 And you know the spiritual fruit is what you look at. 26:51.120 --> 26:54.020 And if you see a lack of spiritual fruit 26:54.020 --> 26:55.720 or you see bad spiritual fruit, 26:55.860 --> 26:57.400 that's the sign of the false prophet 26:57.400 --> 26:59.880 because a good tree brings forth good fruit. 27:00.460 --> 27:02.020 The corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. 27:02.200 --> 27:03.440 And so what are we looking at? 27:03.540 --> 27:05.160 We're looking at the actual results 27:05.900 --> 27:08.080 of actually getting people saved, 27:08.500 --> 27:09.900 getting the gospel out there, 27:10.520 --> 27:12.480 salvation's changed lives, right? 27:12.840 --> 27:15.260 As opposed to just somebody who just says nice things. 27:15.640 --> 27:19.760 You know, meanwhile breaking the 10 commandments 27:19.760 --> 27:21.800 all day long and twice on Sunday, 27:22.360 --> 27:23.980 but they're super nice about it 27:23.980 --> 27:25.420 as they do all these things. 27:26.340 --> 27:29.620 And so if you would flip over to second Peter chapter two, 27:29.780 --> 27:30.880 second Peter chapter two, 27:31.160 --> 27:33.400 see the sheep as an animal, 27:34.200 --> 27:36.100 the attribute is that it appears 27:36.100 --> 27:37.920 to be super gentle and harmless. 27:37.920 --> 27:39.360 Nobody's worried about a sheep, 27:39.900 --> 27:42.240 whereas a wolf is scary to us. 27:42.360 --> 27:44.280 We'd be on our guard against a sheep. 27:44.620 --> 27:46.540 So the devil wants to get us off our guard. 27:47.040 --> 27:49.360 And so his minions are wolves in sheep's clothing. 27:49.640 --> 27:52.460 They pretend to be super kind, nice and gentle. 27:52.960 --> 27:55.940 But in reality, the person who actually loves you 27:55.940 --> 27:57.700 is the person who's telling you the truth. 27:58.140 --> 28:00.540 This is love that we walk after his commandments. 28:01.540 --> 28:04.160 So the pastor who's actually following the Bible, 28:04.440 --> 28:06.680 preaching the Bible, teaching truth, 28:07.220 --> 28:08.700 he's the one who actually loves people. 28:09.600 --> 28:11.760 Even if he maybe gets up and yells 28:11.760 --> 28:15.160 and smites with the hand, stomps with the foot. 28:15.580 --> 28:18.380 I mean, Jesus Christ yelled when he preached to 28:18.380 --> 28:21.060 speaking the truth in love, okay? 28:21.340 --> 28:25.040 And ripping face is what the prophets of the Bible did, 28:25.140 --> 28:27.480 but they all were filled with love for God 28:27.480 --> 28:28.420 and love for their neighbor, 28:29.360 --> 28:32.600 even if they show some tough love by preaching heart. 28:32.820 --> 28:33.920 Meanwhile, you know, 28:33.920 --> 28:36.740 some guy and some rainbow robe down the street 28:36.740 --> 28:39.580 is gonna be super kind and loving outwardly, 28:39.600 --> 28:41.360 but inwardly he's a ravening wolf. 28:41.620 --> 28:42.460 He doesn't love you. 28:42.480 --> 28:43.080 He hates you. 28:43.220 --> 28:44.360 He's going to hell. 28:44.620 --> 28:45.780 He can't stop it. 28:45.860 --> 28:46.640 He's reprobate. 28:47.000 --> 28:48.580 And so he just, he's just like the devil 28:48.580 --> 28:49.740 who wants to take people with him. 28:51.640 --> 28:53.680 And so look down at your Bible there 28:54.800 --> 28:56.860 at 2 Peter chapter two, verse one, 28:56.940 --> 28:59.060 it says, but there were false prophets 28:59.060 --> 29:00.280 also among the people, 29:00.940 --> 29:03.480 even as there shall be false teachers among you 29:03.940 --> 29:05.780 who privilege, privilege means secretly, 29:06.560 --> 29:08.560 shall bring in damnable heresies, 29:08.680 --> 29:10.300 even denying the Lord the bottom 29:10.740 --> 29:12.780 and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 29:12.940 --> 29:16.380 Watch this, and many shall follow their pernicious ways 29:16.780 --> 29:19.360 by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 29:19.480 --> 29:22.320 Now is this just a small thing, 29:22.980 --> 29:27.360 a phenomenon that appears every once in a while 29:27.360 --> 29:30.260 seldom and maybe out of 10 churches, 29:30.760 --> 29:32.800 one of them is a false prophet. 29:32.960 --> 29:34.200 No, because the Bible says 29:34.200 --> 29:36.480 many will follow their pernicious ways. 29:36.700 --> 29:38.020 And as we established earlier, 29:38.420 --> 29:40.540 there are at least tens of millions, 29:41.320 --> 29:44.740 dozens of millions of these demons in this world 29:44.740 --> 29:47.940 and there are just innumerable false prophets 29:47.940 --> 29:50.640 and many will follow their pernicious ways 29:51.380 --> 29:52.660 by reason of which, 29:53.300 --> 29:55.860 by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 29:56.310 --> 29:56.920 What does that mean? 29:57.040 --> 29:58.660 It's gonna give Christianity a bad name. 29:59.720 --> 30:02.780 And especially when independent fundamental Baptist 30:02.780 --> 30:03.900 turn out to be devils, 30:04.180 --> 30:05.780 that's just gonna give us all a bad name. 30:06.560 --> 30:06.940 Right? 30:07.360 --> 30:08.320 And what am I talking about? 30:08.480 --> 30:09.860 Well, there's an example recently 30:09.860 --> 30:12.040 of this guy called Kenny Baldwin, right? 30:12.160 --> 30:15.520 And this guy, Kenny Baldwin turned out to be a sodomite. 30:15.680 --> 30:16.780 He turned out to be a homo. 30:17.540 --> 30:20.960 You know, he's up here masquerading as a man of God, 30:22.000 --> 30:23.920 masquerading as a preacher of God's word. 30:23.920 --> 30:26.500 You know, he's a popular conference speaker, 30:26.580 --> 30:27.940 independent Baptist guy 30:27.940 --> 30:30.040 and he's preaching at youth conferences and camps 30:30.040 --> 30:33.020 and he's secretly being a homo. 30:33.500 --> 30:35.220 You know, and then people see that 30:35.220 --> 30:37.140 and then it just gives church a bad name, 30:37.260 --> 30:38.540 it gives Baptist a bad name. 30:38.720 --> 30:39.560 You know, and that's why 30:39.560 --> 30:42.020 if the independent fundamental Baptist were, 30:42.080 --> 30:44.760 you know, right about these things, 30:44.960 --> 30:47.180 they would be just quick to distance themselves 30:47.180 --> 30:50.180 from this guy and just throw him under the bus 30:50.180 --> 30:52.520 and just be like, this guy's gross, 30:52.520 --> 30:55.240 this guy's trash, we didn't know this about this guy. 30:55.440 --> 30:57.680 But they're like, oh, we gotta pray that, you know, 30:58.320 --> 30:59.460 that we don't end up like him. 31:00.560 --> 31:01.740 It's like, what the heck? 31:01.820 --> 31:02.720 I've never prayed that. 31:02.820 --> 31:03.980 I'm never gonna pray that prayer. 31:05.620 --> 31:07.600 We don't have to pray not to do that. 31:08.080 --> 31:08.860 That's weird. 31:09.240 --> 31:10.640 But it's like, oh, you know, 31:11.100 --> 31:12.600 we gotta just, you know, 31:12.980 --> 31:14.840 but for the grace of God, there go I. 31:15.360 --> 31:16.180 What the heck? 31:17.060 --> 31:18.740 That's not normal, that's abnormal. 31:19.600 --> 31:22.180 He's a false prophet, he's unsaved, he's a reprobate. 31:22.420 --> 31:23.880 That's what Romans one teaches. 31:24.360 --> 31:25.740 It's not a normal desire, 31:26.600 --> 31:28.260 but you know, you think that they would want 31:28.260 --> 31:31.380 to distance themselves and be like, 31:31.420 --> 31:34.680 putting themselves as far away from that as possible. 31:35.520 --> 31:37.200 But no, that's not what they do. 31:37.920 --> 31:40.160 You know, they wanna just act like, oh, you know, 31:40.400 --> 31:42.620 let's pray for him, he fell into sin or whatever. 31:42.880 --> 31:43.960 And then I've heard this saying, 31:44.080 --> 31:45.980 it's such a dumb saying, they're like, yeah, you know, 31:46.980 --> 31:50.340 Christianity's the only army that shoots its own wounded. 31:51.300 --> 31:52.720 Have you heard this crap before? 31:53.400 --> 31:55.340 You know, Christianity's the only army 31:55.340 --> 31:56.700 that shoots its own wounded. 31:57.020 --> 31:58.460 Bro, that's called shooting a traitor. 31:59.300 --> 32:00.100 And guess what? 32:00.240 --> 32:01.680 Every army in the world does that. 32:02.120 --> 32:05.160 Did you know it's in the United States Constitution, right? 32:05.480 --> 32:07.580 And I know a lot of people have probably 32:07.580 --> 32:09.480 never even read the Constitution cover to cover, 32:09.760 --> 32:11.400 even though it takes like 20 minutes. 32:11.780 --> 32:13.680 So like, you know, we would say that, 32:13.740 --> 32:15.660 hey, if you wanna read your Bible in a year, 32:15.660 --> 32:18.780 it's gonna take you like 20 minutes per day for a year. 32:19.300 --> 32:20.860 But if you wanna read the US Constitution, 32:21.120 --> 32:22.800 it's gonna take you 20 minutes one time. 32:25.380 --> 32:27.020 You know, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, 32:27.220 --> 32:30.420 but some of y'all need to go home and do your homework, okay? 32:30.880 --> 32:32.900 You know, and I understand that the Bible's 32:32.900 --> 32:34.640 more entertaining, because, you know, 32:34.720 --> 32:35.800 the Constitution's kinda boring. 32:36.160 --> 32:37.860 But there's a part in the Constitution 32:38.240 --> 32:39.940 and it only takes you 20 minutes to find it, 32:40.200 --> 32:43.440 where it talks about the fact that those 32:43.440 --> 32:45.880 who commit treason against the United States 32:45.880 --> 32:47.260 get the death penalty. 32:47.420 --> 32:47.860 They die. 32:48.060 --> 32:48.660 They are killed. 32:49.360 --> 32:50.480 So guess what? 32:50.980 --> 32:52.700 In the United States, you know what? 32:52.900 --> 32:54.980 That's a military that shoots its own, 32:55.640 --> 32:56.180 who did it? 32:56.260 --> 32:57.580 No, shoots its traitors. 32:57.980 --> 33:01.880 If somebody infiltrates, if somebody creeps in unawares, 33:02.240 --> 33:06.040 some pervert, some sodomite, some creepo, 33:06.400 --> 33:07.740 some weirdo, right? 33:08.020 --> 33:09.220 Yeah, he's a traitor. 33:09.720 --> 33:12.060 Every military in the world will shoot him. 33:14.640 --> 33:17.980 No, we're the only army that shoots its own wounded. 33:18.360 --> 33:20.380 I mean, that's not true, because guess what? 33:20.740 --> 33:22.800 In Bible believing, Christian churches, 33:23.320 --> 33:26.520 when somebody is down, when somebody is struggling, 33:27.000 --> 33:29.560 when somebody falls into sin, but they're repentant, 33:29.680 --> 33:32.340 we're always wanting to help them out, right? 33:32.880 --> 33:35.200 Those who are overtaken in a fault, 33:35.520 --> 33:38.140 we, which are spiritual, are supposed to restore 33:38.140 --> 33:40.080 such a one in the spirit of meekness. 33:40.400 --> 33:41.420 And that's what we do. 33:41.900 --> 33:44.740 We always wanna help people, and people come to us, 33:44.860 --> 33:46.220 and they're struggling with alcohol, 33:46.440 --> 33:47.500 they're struggling with drugs, 33:47.700 --> 33:48.680 they're struggling with their marriage, 33:48.960 --> 33:51.700 and we're trying to help them and get them better 33:51.700 --> 33:55.840 and fix them up, and we're not out blabbing 33:55.840 --> 33:57.300 about their business and stuff, 33:57.460 --> 34:00.420 because they're actually just repentant 34:00.420 --> 34:01.880 and they're trying to get right and whatever. 34:02.920 --> 34:05.380 It's like, and people get back to them, 34:05.480 --> 34:07.120 have a hard time, quit the church, 34:07.380 --> 34:08.420 come back six months later, 34:08.460 --> 34:09.480 we're just glad to see them. 34:09.480 --> 34:11.880 Hey, welcome back, great to see you. 34:13.660 --> 34:17.840 But some dude who's praying on teenagers, 34:18.700 --> 34:21.200 can he Baldwin, let him be accursed. 34:22.300 --> 34:25.220 You know, Leviticus 2013, that's what I'm talking about. 34:26.540 --> 34:29.420 Oh, it's the only army that shoots its own wind. 34:29.500 --> 34:30.400 I've heard that my whole life. 34:31.000 --> 34:32.560 Time to retire that saying. 34:34.620 --> 34:36.860 But it says here, many verse two, 34:37.020 --> 34:38.100 shall fall their pernicious ways, 34:38.100 --> 34:39.620 by reason of whom the way of truth 34:39.620 --> 34:40.640 shall be evil spoken of. 34:40.780 --> 34:43.240 So then people will say, oh, that's Christianity for ya, 34:43.520 --> 34:44.920 that's being a Baptist for ya, 34:45.020 --> 34:46.660 and it'll give Christianity a bad name 34:46.660 --> 34:49.460 when they're found out to be committing 34:49.460 --> 34:52.760 just horrific, grievous sins and even crimes, 34:53.340 --> 34:54.880 you know, as a preacher. 34:55.480 --> 34:56.480 And then it says in verse three, 34:56.660 --> 35:00.340 through covetousness shall they with feinted words 35:00.340 --> 35:01.720 make merchandise of you. 35:01.780 --> 35:03.740 Now feint means faked, right? 35:04.120 --> 35:06.060 So they're saying things that they don't believe, 35:06.200 --> 35:07.000 they're faking everything, 35:07.000 --> 35:08.460 they're pretending to be one of us. 35:10.100 --> 35:12.660 And covetousness is the motivator 35:12.660 --> 35:14.360 and they'll make merchandise of you. 35:14.680 --> 35:16.260 They'll get you to buy the books 35:16.260 --> 35:18.880 and buy the films and donate 35:19.440 --> 35:20.920 and give to these things 35:20.920 --> 35:24.520 that are not actually about getting the gospel out. 35:24.620 --> 35:26.220 They're not actually about serving God. 35:26.500 --> 35:27.980 It's about serving their own bellies. 35:28.240 --> 35:29.760 And so it says through covetousness 35:29.760 --> 35:31.100 shall they with feinted words 35:31.100 --> 35:32.340 make merchandise of you 35:32.340 --> 35:35.120 whose damnation now of a long time lingered not 35:35.120 --> 35:37.120 and their damnation slumbered not. 35:37.240 --> 35:39.880 And then it's interesting if he goes from one breath 35:40.240 --> 35:41.700 to talking about false prophets 35:42.380 --> 35:44.260 to talking about literal fallen angels 35:44.260 --> 35:45.420 going back to point one. 35:45.520 --> 35:46.380 Cause look at the next verse. 35:46.840 --> 35:50.480 It says for a God spared not the angels that sinned 35:50.480 --> 35:52.520 but cast them down to hell 35:52.960 --> 35:54.720 and delivered them into chains of darkness 35:54.720 --> 35:56.480 to be reserved unto judgment and on and on it goes. 35:56.760 --> 35:58.620 The point is that in the same breath 35:58.620 --> 36:00.260 we go from talking about false prophets 36:00.260 --> 36:02.440 the devil's angels, the devil's messengers 36:02.440 --> 36:04.020 to literal demons. 36:04.020 --> 36:07.040 Also the devil's messengers, the devil's angels. 36:07.920 --> 36:09.600 So these are who the devil uses. 36:09.840 --> 36:11.360 Jump down if you would to verse 14. 36:12.120 --> 36:14.100 What do we see about these false prophets 36:14.100 --> 36:15.420 these ministers of the devil 36:15.420 --> 36:16.520 these wolves and sheep's clothing? 36:16.940 --> 36:19.780 It says in verse 14 having eyes full of adultery 36:20.520 --> 36:22.600 and that cannot cease from sin 36:23.020 --> 36:25.140 be guiling unstable souls. 36:26.520 --> 36:29.260 So we as Christians we wanna think about 36:29.260 --> 36:31.020 how does this affect our lives 36:31.020 --> 36:33.400 because we need to be on our guard. 36:33.400 --> 36:34.640 We need to be sober. 36:35.120 --> 36:36.200 We need to be vigilant 36:36.200 --> 36:38.180 because our adversary the devil 36:38.700 --> 36:40.580 walk at the bow as a roaring lion 36:40.580 --> 36:43.140 seeking a moment of our, he's not working alone, right? 36:43.220 --> 36:45.460 He's got all of these millions of followers 36:45.880 --> 36:47.540 millions of angelic followers 36:47.540 --> 36:49.340 and millions of human followers 36:49.340 --> 36:51.420 that he is using to do his bidding. 36:53.080 --> 36:54.200 How does it affect us? 36:54.280 --> 36:55.160 Well, number point number one 36:55.160 --> 36:55.940 the literal demons. 36:56.140 --> 36:56.780 How does that affect us? 36:56.840 --> 36:57.540 Well, the good news is 36:57.540 --> 36:59.240 it can't really affect us directly 36:59.720 --> 37:00.960 because we can never be possessed 37:00.960 --> 37:02.540 because we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit. 37:02.970 --> 37:04.520 So that's the good news about that. 37:05.000 --> 37:06.280 But here's how it affects us 37:06.280 --> 37:10.040 is that people around us will creep in unawares. 37:10.520 --> 37:11.620 They will be demonic. 37:12.080 --> 37:13.220 They will infiltrate. 37:13.400 --> 37:18.020 They will harass, stalk, betray us, deceive us, 37:18.460 --> 37:20.720 lie to us, you know, hurt us, 37:21.080 --> 37:23.460 harass us, mock us, whatever. 37:24.220 --> 37:25.480 So that's how that affects us. 37:25.520 --> 37:27.280 But number two, the false prophets. 37:27.520 --> 37:29.800 You know, how do the false prophets affect us? 37:30.360 --> 37:31.800 Is that the false prophets 37:31.800 --> 37:34.160 are out to deceive us, right? 37:34.300 --> 37:36.320 They're out to trick us. 37:36.460 --> 37:37.320 They're out to lie to us. 37:37.380 --> 37:37.860 Now here's the thing. 37:38.220 --> 37:39.340 Those of us that are saved, 37:39.860 --> 37:41.440 thankfully we've got the Holy Spirit 37:41.440 --> 37:42.780 and dwelling us. 37:43.060 --> 37:45.080 So we can only be fooled so much, you know, 37:45.120 --> 37:45.940 because the good news is 37:45.940 --> 37:48.840 we've got the kind of sniff test 37:49.560 --> 37:51.600 of being indwelled by the Holy Spirit 37:52.120 --> 37:54.040 where, you know, the Bible says 37:54.040 --> 37:55.300 the Holy Spirit's main ministry 37:55.300 --> 37:56.760 is to guide us into all truth. 37:57.600 --> 37:59.900 So the comforter, he's inside of us. 37:59.900 --> 38:01.660 He's gonna guide us into all truth. 38:01.820 --> 38:03.200 And the Bible says also 38:03.200 --> 38:05.760 that Christ's sheep hear his voice 38:06.300 --> 38:07.860 and a stranger will they not follow, 38:08.120 --> 38:09.340 a stranger will they flee from 38:09.340 --> 38:10.940 for they know not the voice of strangers. 38:11.240 --> 38:12.500 So because we're saved 38:12.500 --> 38:14.160 and because we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit, 38:14.480 --> 38:17.880 we have the ability to, you know, 38:18.200 --> 38:20.100 kind of discern truth from error. 38:20.220 --> 38:23.560 And we hear preaching and sometimes we can tell like, 38:23.660 --> 38:25.040 hey, something's off about this 38:25.040 --> 38:26.820 or yeah, this jives with scripture. 38:27.020 --> 38:27.780 This sounds good. 38:28.060 --> 38:29.080 No, this isn't right. 38:29.940 --> 38:31.120 And obviously, you know, 38:31.200 --> 38:32.420 the Holy Spirit's guiding us into all truth. 38:32.700 --> 38:33.820 But here's the thing about that though, 38:34.560 --> 38:36.780 just because you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit, 38:37.340 --> 38:38.940 if you're not reading your Bible, 38:39.880 --> 38:41.580 if you're quenching the spirit, 38:42.100 --> 38:43.360 if you're grieving the spirit, 38:43.480 --> 38:44.560 if you're not walking in the spirit, 38:44.620 --> 38:45.900 if you're just in the flesh, 38:46.300 --> 38:47.300 not reading the Bible, 38:47.780 --> 38:49.080 not listening to preaching, 38:49.440 --> 38:50.640 you're not singing hymns, 38:50.660 --> 38:51.420 you're not praying, 38:51.860 --> 38:52.840 you're not winning souls, 38:53.340 --> 38:55.140 you know what, you can still be deceived. 38:55.360 --> 38:57.100 You're not gonna be like super deceived, 38:57.100 --> 38:59.340 but you could still get deceived on a lot of stuff, 39:00.240 --> 39:04.140 you know, because obviously the more we read the Bible 39:04.600 --> 39:06.280 and the more we walk with God 39:06.280 --> 39:08.100 and the more we're praying in the spirit, 39:08.100 --> 39:10.200 then we're gonna be less deceived 39:10.200 --> 39:12.600 than the guy who's just out there in the world 39:12.600 --> 39:14.840 and just barely touching the things of God. 39:15.200 --> 39:16.220 I mean, that should be obvious. 39:16.940 --> 39:17.840 So here's the thing, 39:18.200 --> 39:20.180 if, you know, when the Antichrist shows up 39:20.180 --> 39:20.920 in the end times, 39:21.240 --> 39:23.000 no saved person's gonna fall for it 39:23.000 --> 39:23.780 because that's like, 39:24.080 --> 39:25.600 that's too big of a deception. 39:26.180 --> 39:26.820 It's not gonna work. 39:27.020 --> 39:29.560 Saved Christians aren't gonna go join the Mormon church. 39:29.920 --> 39:31.480 They're not gonna go join Islam. 39:32.160 --> 39:33.520 They're not gonna become a Hindu. 39:34.160 --> 39:35.720 They're not gonna just go out 39:35.720 --> 39:37.760 and just completely apostatize 39:37.760 --> 39:39.580 and join the Jehovah's Witnesses or something. 39:41.200 --> 39:43.200 But, if they're unstable, 39:43.940 --> 39:45.240 if they're unlearned, 39:45.780 --> 39:49.120 then they can be tricked into lesser heresies. 39:49.340 --> 39:50.720 Because what does the Bible say 39:51.360 --> 39:52.340 in Galatians 5, 39:52.440 --> 39:53.740 it talks about walking in the spirit 39:53.740 --> 39:54.600 and walking in the flesh, 39:54.600 --> 39:56.220 and it says if you walk in the flesh, 39:56.360 --> 39:57.660 you'll fulfill the works of the flesh. 39:57.820 --> 39:59.200 And one of the works of the flesh, 39:59.340 --> 40:00.100 because we're thinking, yeah, 40:00.200 --> 40:00.800 works of the flesh, 40:00.980 --> 40:03.880 adultery, lasciviousness, theft, blasphemy. 40:04.120 --> 40:04.980 One of them is heresy. 40:05.740 --> 40:07.260 So if you're in the flesh, 40:07.840 --> 40:10.800 you can get sucked into some dumb false doctrines. 40:11.440 --> 40:12.380 And so here's the thing, 40:12.440 --> 40:13.660 these false prophets come along. 40:14.000 --> 40:15.980 Yeah, they're not gonna get you all the way 40:15.980 --> 40:18.100 into pagan idolatry or something. 40:18.360 --> 40:19.680 But what they can do though 40:19.680 --> 40:22.380 is get you to believe in stupid doctrines 40:22.380 --> 40:25.180 that will cripple you as an effective Christian. 40:26.060 --> 40:28.480 I mean, have you seen Christians in your life, 40:28.580 --> 40:29.680 those of you who've been around for a while, 40:29.940 --> 40:31.920 where they're actually an effective zealous Christian, 40:32.140 --> 40:34.000 and then they get into some stupid doctrine 40:34.000 --> 40:36.860 that can literally just take them totally off the chessboard 40:36.860 --> 40:39.180 as far as actually doing something good for God? 40:40.200 --> 40:43.980 Right, they get sucked into some weird heresy. 40:44.500 --> 40:47.600 They could get sucked into something like dispensationalism. 40:47.820 --> 40:50.860 And then they go down this dispensational rabbit hole 40:50.860 --> 40:52.520 and they get all goofed up 40:52.520 --> 40:54.740 and then they're no longer effective for God. 40:54.960 --> 40:56.820 Or they get sucked into Calvinism. 40:56.980 --> 40:58.760 I do believe that a saved person 40:59.320 --> 41:02.000 can get sucked in to Calvinism. 41:02.160 --> 41:03.360 And the next thing you know, 41:04.040 --> 41:05.360 soul winning is not so urgent anymore 41:05.960 --> 41:07.960 because if it's gonna happen for people, 41:08.040 --> 41:08.840 it's gonna happen for people. 41:09.540 --> 41:11.020 And then you get these Christians, 41:11.500 --> 41:13.240 they're good, solid, fundamental Baptist, 41:13.400 --> 41:13.900 they're into soul winning, 41:14.060 --> 41:17.080 and then they start getting into church history. 41:18.260 --> 41:19.800 Like as soon as you hear that somebody got, 41:19.800 --> 41:21.020 is getting into church history, 41:21.200 --> 41:22.620 it's just like, just mark it down, 41:23.000 --> 41:25.200 this person's about to get royally screwed up 41:25.200 --> 41:28.120 on their doctrine, period, right? 41:28.460 --> 41:30.420 Why don't we just call it as Catholic history? 41:31.480 --> 41:32.340 You know, and it's just like, 41:32.600 --> 41:33.780 the only question is, 41:34.040 --> 41:35.740 how far down that road are they gonna go? 41:36.420 --> 41:37.740 Now, if they're unsaved, 41:37.880 --> 41:38.820 they're probably just gonna end up 41:38.820 --> 41:40.460 being a Roman Catholic at the end of the road 41:40.460 --> 41:41.240 or a Greek Orthodox, 41:41.780 --> 41:43.360 if they go all the way down the road. 41:43.640 --> 41:45.420 But if they're saved, 41:45.760 --> 41:46.720 you know, it's just a question of 41:46.720 --> 41:48.400 how far down the road are they gonna go? 41:48.400 --> 41:50.280 How screwed up are they gonna get? 41:50.440 --> 41:52.340 How Calvinist are they gonna get? 41:52.660 --> 41:54.860 How messed up and watered down 41:54.860 --> 41:56.020 is their gospel gonna get? 41:56.840 --> 41:58.540 And how confused are they gonna get? 41:58.800 --> 42:01.280 By listening to a bunch of crusty dead dudes 42:01.280 --> 42:03.760 in dresses that are a bunch of Catholics 42:03.760 --> 42:06.540 and proto-Catholics and quasi-Catholics 42:06.540 --> 42:07.400 and what, you know, it's just, 42:07.620 --> 42:08.720 you know, nuts to it, man. 42:09.160 --> 42:10.920 Nuts to stupid church history. 42:11.080 --> 42:13.720 Hang it, because I'm not in the Catholic Church. 42:13.860 --> 42:15.120 I don't need their history book. 42:15.740 --> 42:16.180 Okay? 42:16.180 --> 42:18.000 And it's like, oh, well, you know, 42:18.020 --> 42:22.300 show me a guy from the eighth century AD 42:22.300 --> 42:23.560 that believes exactly like you. 42:23.580 --> 42:24.980 Well, let's get a time machine and let's go 42:24.980 --> 42:26.780 and I'll show you, bro, I'll find him for you. 42:27.140 --> 42:28.120 Because I guarantee you, 42:28.120 --> 42:29.500 it probably won't even take long to find him. 42:30.020 --> 42:31.280 But we're gonna need a time machine. 42:31.420 --> 42:32.400 You provide the time machine, 42:32.720 --> 42:35.520 I'll go with you and we'll go find him. 42:36.780 --> 42:37.540 But you know what? 42:37.720 --> 42:39.980 Nobody has a time machine to tell me, 42:40.180 --> 42:42.040 oh, bro, just trust me, bro, 42:42.220 --> 42:44.780 everyone was Catholic until 1500s. 42:45.340 --> 42:46.480 Really? I doubt it. 42:46.760 --> 42:47.320 Because you know what? 42:47.360 --> 42:48.320 There's always been the Bible. 42:48.700 --> 42:49.820 There's always been the Holy Spirit. 42:49.920 --> 42:50.660 There's always been people 42:50.660 --> 42:52.160 who just believe what the Bible said 42:52.660 --> 42:54.760 and didn't put on a bunch of wizard suits 42:54.760 --> 42:58.440 and just larping all day as, you know, 42:58.560 --> 43:02.280 some kind of a wizard sorcerer, priest, father, 43:02.640 --> 43:05.060 pope, cardinal, blue jay, whatever. 43:08.500 --> 43:10.300 Oh, I'm getting into church history. 43:10.460 --> 43:11.560 Getting really into theology. 43:12.540 --> 43:14.200 And look, you know what theology is? 43:14.200 --> 43:17.120 Theology is basically worldly philosophy 43:17.120 --> 43:19.040 being foisted onto the Bible. 43:19.680 --> 43:22.100 It's basically Greek philosophy 43:22.100 --> 43:24.500 that goes back to Aristotle and the like 43:24.500 --> 43:27.280 being superimposed over the Bible. 43:28.480 --> 43:30.040 What could possibly go wrong? 43:31.400 --> 43:33.920 Some pagan, unsaved guy who's burning in hell, 43:34.100 --> 43:36.840 Aristotle, putting his views on the Bible, you know? 43:37.240 --> 43:38.200 I don't need it, my friend. 43:38.440 --> 43:39.680 But you know, the Roman Catholics 43:40.260 --> 43:42.020 of the Middle Ages were just all, 43:42.020 --> 43:43.440 for like a thousand years, 43:43.580 --> 43:45.940 just cuckoo for cocoa puffs about Aristotle. 43:46.780 --> 43:48.600 Sometimes they just call him the philosopher 43:48.600 --> 43:49.600 because he's just like, 43:49.620 --> 43:51.240 he's just the only one that matters to them. 43:52.080 --> 43:53.760 Turns out he was wrong about everything. 43:55.040 --> 43:55.720 And you know, here's the thing. 43:55.740 --> 43:56.700 If you study science 43:56.700 --> 43:58.100 and you read about the history of science, 43:58.280 --> 43:59.960 you're always gonna start by talking about Aristotle 43:59.960 --> 44:01.260 when you talk about the history of science. 44:01.880 --> 44:04.100 And you know, you gotta give Aristotle some credit 44:04.500 --> 44:06.720 that, you know, he was like, you know, 44:06.760 --> 44:09.200 the first guy to do a lot of stuff 44:09.200 --> 44:10.260 that we have a record of 44:10.260 --> 44:12.140 of like biology and science and everything. 44:12.740 --> 44:13.340 You know, so hey, 44:13.420 --> 44:14.740 somebody's gotta start the ball rolling. 44:14.840 --> 44:16.180 I'm not saying he was a dummy, 44:16.940 --> 44:17.660 but guess what? 44:17.740 --> 44:20.300 He turned out to be wrong about virtually everything. 44:21.480 --> 44:24.380 Because he was kind of just shooting from the hip 44:24.920 --> 44:26.600 and he wasn't doing the scientific method. 44:27.320 --> 44:29.200 He's just kind of like, well, this makes sense to me. 44:29.360 --> 44:30.900 And it was just kind of bro science 44:30.900 --> 44:33.540 that he was doing before it was cool. 44:33.780 --> 44:36.860 You know, BC was bro science, 44:37.100 --> 44:38.420 you know, is what the B stands for. 44:38.420 --> 44:40.240 And so he was doing all this stuff. 44:40.360 --> 44:42.360 And then when the scientific revolution happened 44:42.860 --> 44:45.640 is when people started questioning Aristotle 44:45.640 --> 44:46.980 and saying like, wait a minute, 44:47.520 --> 44:51.300 Aristotle is claiming that this is why things fall 44:51.300 --> 44:54.200 and that heavier things are falling faster and everything. 44:54.420 --> 44:56.760 But then people are actually just going in high buildings 44:56.760 --> 44:59.620 and dropping things and seeing that heavy things 44:59.620 --> 45:01.920 and light things are pretty much falling at the same speed. 45:02.320 --> 45:04.360 And that's not what Aristotle said was gonna happen. 45:04.440 --> 45:06.600 And they start rolling balls down ramps 45:06.600 --> 45:09.120 and they started actually testing Aristotle's theories 45:09.120 --> 45:11.600 and finding out that, you know, hey, 45:12.240 --> 45:14.720 good job for kind of starting the process, 45:14.720 --> 45:17.520 but turns out you're kind of wrong about everything. 45:18.660 --> 45:19.520 Okay, well, guess what? 45:19.640 --> 45:21.120 It's not that Aristotle was just wrong 45:21.120 --> 45:22.180 about everything scientifically. 45:22.720 --> 45:24.860 Turns out he was wrong about everything spiritually too. 45:25.120 --> 45:27.640 You know, so just as Isaac Newton 45:27.640 --> 45:30.940 and Galileo and Johannes Kepler and everything, 45:31.020 --> 45:33.600 you know, had to throw out the ideas of Aristotle 45:34.180 --> 45:37.120 and get rid of all that baggage of those preconceived ideas 45:37.120 --> 45:39.480 in order to actually do real science 45:39.480 --> 45:41.880 and bring us into our modern high-tech world. 45:42.320 --> 45:45.300 You know, we as Christians also had to, 45:45.340 --> 45:49.600 in the 1500s, 1600s, throw out a bunch of stupid philosophy 45:49.600 --> 45:53.000 from Aristotle and theology from the Roman Catholic Church 45:53.000 --> 45:55.660 and go back to basics and start rolling the Bible, 45:55.940 --> 45:57.560 not rolling the Bible down the ramp, 45:57.780 --> 46:00.680 rolling a ball down a ramp by actually going to the Bible, 46:00.880 --> 46:01.600 going to the source 46:02.100 --> 46:04.220 and actually figuring out what the Bible says 46:04.880 --> 46:07.740 and not just relying on a bunch of, you know, 46:07.880 --> 46:11.720 thick-robed scholars to tell us what it means. 46:12.900 --> 46:14.840 You know, the Bible flat-out says we need not 46:14.840 --> 46:16.100 that any man teaches us. 46:16.420 --> 46:19.440 The same, as the same anointing teaches us of all things 46:19.440 --> 46:20.720 and his truth and his no lie, 46:20.920 --> 46:23.280 even as it had taught us, you shall abide in him. 46:23.580 --> 46:25.300 And so here's the thing is that, yeah, 46:25.660 --> 46:27.380 false prophets are not gonna deceive us 46:27.380 --> 46:29.900 into just full-blown joining a false religion, 46:29.900 --> 46:32.920 but you know what, false prophets can deceive us 46:32.920 --> 46:36.260 into believing stupid doctrines like divine simplicity, 46:38.700 --> 46:41.000 Calvinism, dispensationalism, or whatever, 46:41.880 --> 46:43.820 and make us ineffective for Christ. 46:44.300 --> 46:46.700 Cause we get down some weird rabbit trail. 46:47.160 --> 46:49.420 Next thing you know, we're geeking out 46:49.420 --> 46:52.060 with a bunch of, you know, Calvinists 46:52.060 --> 46:54.540 and we're not zealous, hellfire and damnation, 46:54.680 --> 46:56.340 Baptists anymore when it's sold to Christ. 46:56.600 --> 46:58.520 We're a bunch of crusty theologians 46:58.960 --> 47:00.820 and you know, we're just navel gazing 47:01.440 --> 47:03.520 and just kind of preaching to the choir all day. 47:04.380 --> 47:05.980 You know, that's what the devil wants, man. 47:06.120 --> 47:08.140 The devil wants to get us one way or the other 47:08.640 --> 47:10.520 and so he would love to just deceive us 47:10.520 --> 47:11.760 into believing something stupid. 47:12.060 --> 47:14.720 And by the way, one of the biggest false doctrines 47:14.720 --> 47:16.300 that Baptists get sucked into 47:16.300 --> 47:18.040 and even saved Christians 47:18.040 --> 47:19.660 could get a little bit sucked into this 47:19.660 --> 47:22.540 is this whole repent of your sins for salvation doctrine. 47:23.540 --> 47:25.140 You know, instead of just teaching 47:25.140 --> 47:28.260 that salvation is by faith alone, right? 47:28.560 --> 47:30.440 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that shall be saved. 47:30.560 --> 47:32.480 It becomes, well, you have to repent of your sins 47:32.960 --> 47:35.160 and so, you know, I don't know, man, 47:35.300 --> 47:36.400 I don't know if you're really sorry 47:36.400 --> 47:37.600 for the sins you've been doing 47:37.600 --> 47:38.980 cause you're still doing them. 47:39.540 --> 47:42.120 You're still thinking about doing them, you know? 47:42.200 --> 47:44.820 And then it becomes like a thinly veiled work salvation. 47:45.220 --> 47:47.660 Now again, people that are all the way into this, 47:47.760 --> 47:50.160 I do think are typically unsaved 47:50.160 --> 47:52.520 when they're telling you that to be saved 47:52.520 --> 47:54.580 you have to turn over a new leaf, 47:54.580 --> 47:56.520 turn from your sins, turn from your wicked way. 47:56.800 --> 47:58.300 But I've seen a lot of saved people 47:58.300 --> 48:00.240 get a little bit screwed up in this, 48:01.080 --> 48:03.040 partially screwed up in this, okay? 48:03.220 --> 48:05.200 And then sometimes later they'll come back and get it right. 48:05.680 --> 48:08.340 But I've seen a good man of God go through a phase 48:08.820 --> 48:10.200 where he was wrong on this for years 48:10.200 --> 48:11.860 and then come back and get it right again. 48:12.140 --> 48:13.380 I don't think he was unsafe. 48:13.740 --> 48:14.980 It's just that there was a guy 48:14.980 --> 48:16.440 who crept into the church 48:16.440 --> 48:18.040 and he was pushing this doctrine 48:18.040 --> 48:19.520 and the guys of the devil. 48:20.380 --> 48:22.100 Push in this false doctrine 48:22.100 --> 48:24.000 and getting people in the church 48:24.000 --> 48:26.000 onto this repent of your sins kick 48:26.000 --> 48:28.300 and then everybody's getting resaved 48:28.300 --> 48:29.560 and everybody's confused 48:30.100 --> 48:33.160 and nobody knows what is clear of the gospel anymore. 48:33.820 --> 48:35.720 Unfortunately, I do think that it is possible 48:35.720 --> 48:38.060 for saved people to get mixed up on these things. 48:38.400 --> 48:40.460 And how effective are you gonna be at soul winning 48:41.040 --> 48:42.700 if you're confused on the gospel? 48:43.040 --> 48:45.040 Step one to being an effective soul winner 48:45.040 --> 48:47.520 is getting solid on what you believe about salvation. 48:49.380 --> 48:51.060 And by the way, the more time 48:51.060 --> 48:52.800 you spend out there on the front lines 48:52.800 --> 48:53.860 actually doing the soul winning, 48:53.980 --> 48:55.880 the more solid you'll stay on salvation. 48:56.220 --> 48:58.000 So you get solid on salvation, 48:58.200 --> 48:59.880 then you go out and start preaching that message 48:59.880 --> 49:01.240 with authority, with confidence, 49:01.440 --> 49:03.040 with boldness in the power of the Holy Spirit. 49:03.380 --> 49:06.300 And then it just, you know, you're gonna be super solid 49:06.760 --> 49:08.040 because you're a doer of the work. 49:08.280 --> 49:10.520 You're not gonna forget what you've learned. 49:11.560 --> 49:13.280 So that's what the devil wants to do 49:13.280 --> 49:15.460 through false prophets is to deceive us 49:15.460 --> 49:17.520 into believing false doctrine. 49:19.140 --> 49:21.920 He says in verse number 15 here, 49:23.280 --> 49:24.960 it says, actually it's finished verse 14, 49:25.040 --> 49:26.500 it says beguiling unstable souls. 49:26.620 --> 49:28.220 That was what I was just ranting about 49:28.220 --> 49:29.160 for the last five or 10 minutes. 49:29.600 --> 49:31.060 The beguiling unstable souls, 49:31.160 --> 49:32.440 people aren't solid on doctrine. 49:32.980 --> 49:35.940 He can get them mixed up on things like dispensationalism, 49:36.080 --> 49:38.200 Calvinism, you know, whatever, 49:38.520 --> 49:41.360 and get them into church history and church fathers, 49:42.180 --> 49:44.720 and theology and philosophy. 49:45.280 --> 49:46.800 And he gets them goofed up on these things 49:46.800 --> 49:48.280 and gets them ineffective. 49:50.800 --> 49:51.900 Beguiles the unstable souls. 49:52.060 --> 49:53.340 It says in heart, they've exercised 49:53.340 --> 49:55.320 with covetous practices, cursed children, 49:55.640 --> 49:57.140 which have forsaken the right way 49:57.140 --> 49:59.840 and are gone astray following the way of Balaam, 49:59.900 --> 50:02.280 the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. 50:02.540 --> 50:04.400 So a lot of these people humanly speaking 50:04.400 --> 50:05.260 are in it for the money. 50:05.660 --> 50:07.000 Teaching things which they ought not 50:07.000 --> 50:08.140 for filthy lucre's sake. 50:09.200 --> 50:10.740 We know Judas Iscariot, 50:11.080 --> 50:13.280 who was later possessed by Satan himself, 50:13.660 --> 50:16.320 was literally stealing money from the offering plate. 50:16.800 --> 50:18.500 And so there you go. 50:18.620 --> 50:22.400 Verse 18, for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, 50:23.500 --> 50:25.420 they allure through the lust of the flesh, 50:25.700 --> 50:26.860 through much wantoness, 50:27.100 --> 50:29.360 those that were clean escape from them who live in error. 50:29.720 --> 50:32.660 And boy, does this not describe so much preaching today 50:33.200 --> 50:35.120 where they say so much without saying anything? 50:35.520 --> 50:37.380 I mean, have you ever listened to these 30 minute sermons 50:37.380 --> 50:38.780 and you're like, what was said? 50:40.780 --> 50:42.280 Like how can you talk that much 50:42.280 --> 50:43.560 and get no point across? 50:44.620 --> 50:46.060 Great swelling words. 50:46.060 --> 50:46.700 What does that mean? 50:46.840 --> 50:48.760 It means that it's been stretched. 50:49.220 --> 50:50.880 It reminds me of when we were newly married 50:50.880 --> 50:54.220 and we bought Parmesan cheese and to our horror, 50:54.380 --> 50:55.320 we started putting it on the food. 50:55.480 --> 50:56.720 We're like, man, this cheese is bland. 50:57.500 --> 50:58.460 Why is it so bland? 50:58.760 --> 51:00.580 And then we started to read the fine print 51:00.580 --> 51:03.520 and we found that there was flour in it. 51:04.400 --> 51:06.140 But they called it something else. 51:06.600 --> 51:07.200 What did they call it? 51:07.260 --> 51:07.500 Do you remember? 51:08.620 --> 51:09.340 Cellulose or something. 51:09.780 --> 51:11.480 They give it some fancy name. 51:11.880 --> 51:12.680 What they're doing is 51:12.680 --> 51:14.460 they're mixing the Parmesan with flour. 51:14.460 --> 51:16.000 So you're putting the cheese on 51:16.000 --> 51:18.100 but you're also just putting tasteless white powder 51:18.100 --> 51:21.560 on your food so that way they can just use half the cheese 51:22.080 --> 51:23.040 that they wanna give you 51:23.040 --> 51:25.500 and you're shaking the Parmesan onto your plate 51:25.500 --> 51:28.540 and it's not Parmesan because it's been stretched. 51:29.380 --> 51:31.480 You know, it probably had sawdust in it too. 51:32.100 --> 51:34.260 That's probably the cellulose, if you think about it. 51:34.360 --> 51:37.080 I mean, cellulose could be any plant material, I guess, 51:37.260 --> 51:37.360 right? 51:37.500 --> 51:39.260 I mean, who knows what they're putting in there 51:39.840 --> 51:41.360 but whatever it is, it's not cheese. 51:41.980 --> 51:45.320 And so the thing is, a lot of these sermons 51:45.320 --> 51:47.580 are filled with flour and sawdust 51:47.580 --> 51:50.020 and you're not getting the Parmesan that you want. 51:51.680 --> 51:54.440 You know, and then we started being really careful, 51:55.160 --> 51:56.980 looking for the 100% Parmesan. 51:58.580 --> 51:59.640 No fillers. 51:59.880 --> 52:01.060 How wicked is that? 52:01.360 --> 52:04.140 And you hear about them taking like, it's wicked! 52:04.920 --> 52:07.820 Taking like a chicken breast 52:08.180 --> 52:11.080 and they literally get syringes full of salt water 52:11.420 --> 52:15.040 and they're just injecting salt water into the chicken breast 52:15.040 --> 52:18.300 to just inflate it, just to swell it up 52:18.300 --> 52:21.520 and then these sermons will have like one Bible verse 52:21.960 --> 52:23.920 and then it's just like salt water 52:24.340 --> 52:26.240 just being injected into it. 52:27.120 --> 52:29.920 Cellulose, just all filler, all fluff, 52:30.100 --> 52:32.420 just being totally stretched and inflated. 52:33.040 --> 52:35.520 You know, it's like that bag of chips and you open it 52:35.520 --> 52:38.680 and it's just like a few chips in the bottom 52:39.180 --> 52:40.520 and then there's a little fine print. 52:40.760 --> 52:43.380 Hey, this product's packaged by weight, not by volume. 52:43.880 --> 52:46.580 Then why'd you put it in a box like 10 times the size 52:47.060 --> 52:49.180 of what's in it, right? 52:49.300 --> 52:50.760 They put it in a big, giant box. 52:51.540 --> 52:53.780 Little bag of food in the bottom, you know? 52:54.200 --> 52:56.020 It's like the pinnows and cheese at Taco Bell 52:56.020 --> 52:58.700 and you look at the bottom, it's up on stilts. 53:00.400 --> 53:02.980 They don't want you, you don't get that little bit 53:02.980 --> 53:04.680 of beans that they owe you. 53:06.340 --> 53:08.660 We could go on all day, but here's the thing. 53:09.020 --> 53:12.280 I wanna go to a church where I'm actually 53:12.280 --> 53:13.400 getting the nutrition. 53:14.080 --> 53:15.940 If I'm gonna listen to a 60 minute sermon, 53:16.460 --> 53:20.500 I want 60 minutes of actual teaching, doctrine, 53:20.760 --> 53:23.280 Bible verses, applications, examples. 53:23.700 --> 53:26.360 I wanna walk away with a full stomach 53:26.360 --> 53:28.280 and I don't want to be full of cellulose. 53:28.620 --> 53:30.620 Stuff that's just gonna go out the draft, man. 53:30.940 --> 53:32.400 I want the nutrients. 53:32.400 --> 53:36.320 I want the protein, the carbs, the fat, the vitamins. 53:37.000 --> 53:38.400 Give me something real. 53:41.240 --> 53:43.800 But they just great swelling words of vanity. 53:44.160 --> 53:48.000 I mean, that is basically describing probably 99% 53:48.000 --> 53:49.140 of preaching that's out there. 53:49.760 --> 53:51.660 Great swelling words of vanity. 53:51.900 --> 53:53.400 And they allure through the lust of flesh 53:53.400 --> 53:55.440 because it sounds good, they tell stories 53:55.440 --> 53:56.460 and they make it sound good, 53:56.460 --> 53:59.520 but they're not actually telling you what they believe. 53:59.520 --> 54:02.500 They're not hammering down any doctrine about salvation 54:03.020 --> 54:05.600 or about how the church is supposed to work, 54:05.760 --> 54:08.080 how we're supposed to live our lives, right and wrong. 54:08.720 --> 54:10.520 You just wonder, man, how can you talk for so long 54:10.520 --> 54:11.240 and say so little? 54:13.980 --> 54:15.720 Let's move on to the third and final point. 54:15.840 --> 54:17.520 Go if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 54:17.960 --> 54:19.760 The devil's angels tonight, right? 54:20.280 --> 54:23.800 Number one, the devil's angels are literal demons, right? 54:24.020 --> 54:24.680 You already knew that. 54:24.840 --> 54:25.640 I mean, that's easy, right? 54:26.160 --> 54:28.320 But number two, the devil's messengers, 54:28.320 --> 54:29.640 because that's what angels means. 54:30.280 --> 54:31.660 The devil's tidings bringers, 54:31.720 --> 54:34.700 the devil's messengers are also false prophets 54:35.000 --> 54:36.600 because they're bringing the devil's message. 54:36.760 --> 54:37.580 They're his messengers. 54:38.120 --> 54:41.240 False prophets are also the devil's angels. 54:42.280 --> 54:44.020 And then point number three is this. 54:44.720 --> 54:48.240 There are thorns in the flesh that we have as Christians 54:48.240 --> 54:51.760 that the Bible literally calls, quote, the messenger of Satan. 54:52.340 --> 54:54.780 Look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 54:54.780 --> 54:57.600 verse seven, unless I should be exalted above measure 54:58.100 --> 54:59.720 through the abundance of the revelations, 55:00.100 --> 55:01.920 there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, 55:02.580 --> 55:04.200 the messenger of Satan, right? 55:04.260 --> 55:06.340 So another way of saying that would be the angel of Satan 55:06.340 --> 55:07.780 because that's what angel and messenger 55:07.780 --> 55:08.940 mean the exact same thing. 55:10.540 --> 55:12.440 The messenger of Satan to buffet me, 55:13.140 --> 55:14.860 lest I should be exalted above measure, 55:15.460 --> 55:17.680 for this thing I besought the Lord thrice 55:17.680 --> 55:18.840 that it might depart from me. 55:19.200 --> 55:21.420 And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for the, 55:21.820 --> 55:23.680 for my strength is made perfect in weakness, 55:24.000 --> 55:26.240 most gladly therefore will I rather glory 55:26.240 --> 55:29.480 in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me, 55:29.800 --> 55:31.780 therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, 55:32.040 --> 55:34.900 in reproaches, in necessities and persecutions 55:34.900 --> 55:36.420 and distresses for Christ's sake, 55:36.740 --> 55:38.180 for when I'm weak, then am I strong? 55:38.660 --> 55:40.960 What we have to understand is that all things 55:40.960 --> 55:43.020 work together for good to them that love God 55:43.020 --> 55:45.200 and to them who are the cold according to his purpose. 55:45.620 --> 55:49.560 So even the devil coming after us, attacking us, 55:49.820 --> 55:51.480 it actually ultimately is going to work together 55:51.480 --> 55:52.560 for good to those who love God. 55:53.340 --> 55:55.160 It's hard to believe, but it's true. 55:55.780 --> 55:57.940 So that's why when it says here, 55:58.100 --> 55:59.740 oh, I had this thorn in my flesh 55:59.740 --> 56:01.160 and he doesn't say what it was. 56:01.320 --> 56:03.160 And I think the reason why he doesn't want to say 56:03.160 --> 56:05.260 is because he wants us to relate it 56:05.260 --> 56:06.880 to whatever our thorn in the flesh is 56:06.880 --> 56:08.020 because it's different for everybody. 56:08.520 --> 56:10.320 If his is really specific, we'd be like, 56:10.360 --> 56:12.120 oh, I'm going through something totally different, bro. 56:12.240 --> 56:13.500 You wouldn't get it. 56:14.100 --> 56:16.820 But in reality, the Bible is just saying 56:16.820 --> 56:19.300 the thorn in the flesh, it could be anything. 56:19.560 --> 56:21.160 It could be a physical infirmity. 56:21.700 --> 56:23.660 It could be a relationship thing. 56:24.200 --> 56:26.920 It could be today a financial thing. 56:27.440 --> 56:29.500 It could be a health thing. 56:29.780 --> 56:31.560 I mean, it could be all different things, right? 56:32.840 --> 56:34.160 The thorn in the flesh. 56:34.920 --> 56:37.220 And it says, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. 56:37.860 --> 56:40.100 You know, just it's like the devil 56:40.500 --> 56:43.960 is trying to use this to discourage him, right? 56:44.060 --> 56:45.120 Because we said point one, 56:45.420 --> 56:46.440 what are the demons trying to do? 56:46.540 --> 56:48.020 You know, they're trying to attack us 56:48.020 --> 56:51.120 through unsafe people that are going to betray 56:51.120 --> 56:53.200 and harass and mock and whatever. 56:53.780 --> 56:55.200 And then number two, the false prophets 56:55.200 --> 56:56.160 are trying to deceive us. 56:56.460 --> 56:58.180 Well, these messengers of Satan here, 56:58.300 --> 57:00.980 the thorns in the flesh, they are to discourage us. 57:01.700 --> 57:03.980 The goal is to discourage us, right? 57:04.140 --> 57:05.260 To just wear us down 57:05.260 --> 57:06.880 and where we'll quit and where we'll give up. 57:07.240 --> 57:09.280 But if we're smart, we'll be like the apostle Paul 57:09.820 --> 57:10.980 and say, you know what, 57:11.040 --> 57:12.380 I'm going to look on the bright side of this 57:12.380 --> 57:15.560 because Paul's looking at the messenger of Satan. 57:15.680 --> 57:17.480 I mean, does that sound good, messenger of Satan? 57:18.420 --> 57:20.040 Does that sound like something you want in your life? 57:20.480 --> 57:23.740 No, but Paul is trying to put a positive spin on this 57:23.740 --> 57:24.380 and he's saying, you know, 57:24.420 --> 57:25.340 I have this thorn in the flesh, 57:25.880 --> 57:28.100 the messenger of Satan to buffet me. 57:28.980 --> 57:30.000 And he says this, 57:31.540 --> 57:33.680 lest I should be exalted above measure. 57:34.100 --> 57:35.800 So he's looking at this as you know what, 57:35.920 --> 57:38.120 I see a positive here, this is keeping me humble. 57:38.920 --> 57:39.860 Because you know what, 57:39.980 --> 57:42.340 if I didn't have this messenger of Satan to buffet me, 57:42.600 --> 57:44.460 if I didn't have this thorn in my side, 57:44.640 --> 57:46.380 if I didn't have this affliction 57:46.820 --> 57:48.360 that I'm being afflicted with, 57:48.840 --> 57:52.880 then you know what, I could get to puffed up. 57:53.320 --> 57:54.960 Because notice what he says in verse seven, 57:55.560 --> 57:57.260 lest I should be exalted above measure 57:57.260 --> 57:59.180 through the abundance of the revelations. 57:59.320 --> 58:01.920 I mean, look, if you're writing 14 books of the New Testament 58:02.420 --> 58:04.860 and there's only 27 books and you wrote 14 of them, 58:05.500 --> 58:08.560 you might get a little bit puffed up 58:08.560 --> 58:09.860 or exalted above measure 58:09.860 --> 58:12.240 or maybe think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. 58:12.600 --> 58:15.360 So God, through Satan though, 58:15.360 --> 58:18.480 he's actually allowing Satan to do the actual afflicting 58:18.480 --> 58:20.260 because it's not the messenger of God, 58:20.360 --> 58:21.120 it's the messenger of Satan. 58:22.680 --> 58:27.800 God allowed Satan to buffet the apostle Paul 58:28.260 --> 58:30.140 so that he wouldn't get too prideful 58:30.140 --> 58:32.540 so that it could just kind of keep his feet on the ground 58:32.980 --> 58:34.800 and keep, and you know what, here's the thing, 58:35.200 --> 58:36.840 you know, that's why sometimes bad things 58:36.840 --> 58:37.780 happen to good people 58:38.440 --> 58:40.240 is because of the fact that especially 58:40.240 --> 58:42.160 if somebody's gonna be greatly used by God, 58:42.160 --> 58:45.000 you know what, God might have to really hurt that person 58:45.480 --> 58:47.560 or allow Satan to really hurt that person 58:47.560 --> 58:50.100 or just allow them to have some kind of maybe 58:50.100 --> 58:53.200 a physical defect or something 58:53.620 --> 58:55.840 so that basically they wouldn't get too prideful. 58:55.980 --> 58:57.020 And that's why you'll notice 58:57.020 --> 58:59.540 that some of the people that get greatly used by God 58:59.540 --> 59:02.000 will sometimes be defective in some way. 59:02.260 --> 59:04.700 You know, they could be physically defective in some way, 59:04.720 --> 59:06.360 they could be mentally defective some way, 59:06.400 --> 59:08.440 they could be socially defective in some way. 59:08.440 --> 59:11.680 And it's just like, God doesn't typically use perfect people 59:12.180 --> 59:13.240 to do his work 59:13.800 --> 59:15.480 because then they could get all the glory. 59:16.060 --> 59:17.820 Like, oh, well of course this guy's being greatly used 59:17.820 --> 59:19.780 by God, look how awesome he is. 59:20.020 --> 59:21.980 Look at what a physical specimen he is. 59:22.200 --> 59:24.080 Look at what a mental specimen he is. 59:24.380 --> 59:28.020 Look at how he's just the most charismatic, coolest dude. 59:28.380 --> 59:30.280 Look how he's just the most eloquent speaker 59:30.280 --> 59:31.520 of course he's being used. 59:32.000 --> 59:33.700 Then God doesn't really get the glory, does he? 59:34.100 --> 59:35.740 Then it sends the wrong message to people, 59:36.000 --> 59:37.360 hey, you wanna be greatly used by God, 59:37.360 --> 59:38.720 you just have to be super talented. 59:39.040 --> 59:40.660 You just have to be like a Hollywood type. 59:41.140 --> 59:44.820 Wrong, my friend, because God uses the foolish things 59:44.820 --> 59:46.240 of this world to confound the wise. 59:46.540 --> 59:48.360 He used the base things of this world, 59:48.620 --> 59:51.460 the things that are not to set it not to things that are 59:51.460 --> 59:53.840 that no flesh will glory in his presence. 59:54.220 --> 59:55.520 He gets all the glory. 59:56.100 --> 59:57.160 And so the apostle Paul's saying, 59:57.240 --> 01:00:00.460 look man, I got Boku revelations from God, 01:00:01.520 --> 01:00:03.700 therefore God had to take me down a notch. 01:00:03.900 --> 01:00:06.140 You know, and it's like I prayed for God 01:00:06.140 --> 01:00:08.480 to take away this thorn in my side. 01:00:08.860 --> 01:00:10.540 I prayed again, I prayed again. 01:00:10.680 --> 01:00:11.520 And he said, you know what? 01:00:12.200 --> 01:00:14.040 Just my grace is sufficient for you. 01:00:14.480 --> 01:00:16.820 This is something that you just need to just deal with 01:00:16.820 --> 01:00:19.120 because it's to keep you humble. 01:00:20.660 --> 01:00:22.440 And you know, we could go to the book of Job 01:00:22.880 --> 01:00:24.860 and see the same type of thing. 01:00:25.060 --> 01:00:27.360 And let's just, we're not gonna go into a huge thing 01:00:27.360 --> 01:00:29.700 on the book of Job, but in closing here, 01:00:29.740 --> 01:00:32.560 let's just look at, you know, one scripture from Job. 01:00:32.660 --> 01:00:33.780 Let's go to Job 23. 01:00:33.780 --> 01:00:35.540 Because obviously Job's a long book 01:00:35.540 --> 01:00:36.760 and has a lot about this. 01:00:37.280 --> 01:00:38.940 But you know, hopefully you know the basic story 01:00:38.940 --> 01:00:41.160 of the book of Job is that Job 01:00:41.160 --> 01:00:43.500 is the most righteous man upon the planet. 01:00:43.900 --> 01:00:45.640 And if you think about it, the apostle Paul 01:00:46.460 --> 01:00:49.020 was probably one of the most righteous men on the planet 01:00:49.020 --> 01:00:50.000 in his day. 01:00:50.220 --> 01:00:51.640 You know, he might have been in the top five, 01:00:51.880 --> 01:00:52.400 I would think. 01:00:52.860 --> 01:00:54.100 Maybe he's even number one. 01:00:54.340 --> 01:00:55.320 You know, some people think he's the greatest 01:00:55.320 --> 01:00:56.280 Christian who ever lived. 01:00:56.720 --> 01:00:59.800 So he could be, I think easily said to be top five. 01:01:00.380 --> 01:01:03.920 So, you know, the apostle Paul is super righteous. 01:01:04.460 --> 01:01:05.700 It's not that he's a bad guy, 01:01:06.140 --> 01:01:08.880 but the messenger of Satan is sent to buffet him 01:01:09.420 --> 01:01:10.640 in order to keep him humble. 01:01:11.780 --> 01:01:13.220 Well, the same thing with Job. 01:01:13.640 --> 01:01:15.600 Job, the Bible flat out tells us 01:01:15.600 --> 01:01:17.720 he is the most righteous man on the face 01:01:17.720 --> 01:01:18.480 of the earth at that time. 01:01:18.600 --> 01:01:20.720 Because when God introduces him to Satan, 01:01:20.820 --> 01:01:23.260 he says there is none like him on all the earth. 01:01:23.740 --> 01:01:26.860 A man that fears God and eschews evil. 01:01:26.940 --> 01:01:28.060 He's a perfect and upright man. 01:01:28.060 --> 01:01:29.820 There's nobody else like Job. 01:01:30.400 --> 01:01:33.660 He's, and then Satan begins to falsely accuse Job 01:01:33.660 --> 01:01:36.220 and say, hey, the only reason he's serving you 01:01:36.220 --> 01:01:38.400 is because everything's going good for him. 01:01:38.520 --> 01:01:39.860 He's not serving you for nothing. 01:01:40.120 --> 01:01:41.420 Look, you said a hedge about him. 01:01:41.700 --> 01:01:43.300 You prospered at everything he does. 01:01:44.020 --> 01:01:46.520 Take away his stuff and he'll curse you to your face. 01:01:46.600 --> 01:01:48.440 Of course, that's a railing accusation 01:01:48.440 --> 01:01:51.480 because, you know, Job was in it for the right reasons 01:01:51.480 --> 01:01:52.600 and he never cursed God. 01:01:54.140 --> 01:01:56.780 Then of course, Satan loses that bet. 01:01:57.260 --> 01:01:59.080 And then basically he comes back to God 01:01:59.080 --> 01:02:00.900 and God, you know, says, hey, 01:02:01.140 --> 01:02:05.040 you moved me against Job without cause. 01:02:05.680 --> 01:02:07.800 And he still has retained his integrity, 01:02:08.360 --> 01:02:10.860 even though I allowed you to just hurt him for no reason. 01:02:11.560 --> 01:02:13.200 And Satan's like, well, yeah, okay, 01:02:13.240 --> 01:02:15.280 but you didn't let me touch his body. 01:02:16.280 --> 01:02:17.820 I mean, people will give all their money 01:02:17.820 --> 01:02:18.580 for their health. 01:02:19.300 --> 01:02:21.920 Let me touch his body and he'll curse you to your face. 01:02:22.760 --> 01:02:24.660 And God says, okay, I'll let you do that, 01:02:24.660 --> 01:02:26.580 but you can't kill him, 01:02:27.100 --> 01:02:29.240 but you can really mess up his body. 01:02:29.400 --> 01:02:30.040 Just don't kill him. 01:02:30.280 --> 01:02:34.240 And so God just allows Satan to just go crazy on him 01:02:34.240 --> 01:02:38.580 and he smites him with boils from the top of his head, 01:02:38.640 --> 01:02:39.800 all the way to the sole of his foot. 01:02:39.940 --> 01:02:42.740 He's just covered in like itching, oozing, 01:02:42.940 --> 01:02:44.700 burning, gross sores, right? 01:02:45.220 --> 01:02:46.980 You know what a boil is, obviously. 01:02:47.200 --> 01:02:48.940 It's like a pus filled, whatever. 01:02:49.840 --> 01:02:51.360 And so basically, you know, 01:02:52.500 --> 01:02:55.260 he's just scratching himself and scraping himself 01:02:55.260 --> 01:02:57.760 with a pot shirt with like a broken piece of pottery. 01:02:58.100 --> 01:02:59.500 He just can't get relief. 01:02:59.700 --> 01:03:02.680 He's just in pain and just with the skin disorder 01:03:03.280 --> 01:03:04.300 and everything like that. 01:03:04.440 --> 01:03:07.240 And of course, you know, Job still retains his integrity, 01:03:07.600 --> 01:03:09.940 but look if you would at Job 23 verse eight. 01:03:10.060 --> 01:03:11.740 Obviously the book of Job is a lot more complicated 01:03:11.740 --> 01:03:12.080 than that. 01:03:12.120 --> 01:03:14.340 I'm just giving you a really quick rundown. 01:03:14.600 --> 01:03:15.780 But look at 23 eight. 01:03:15.960 --> 01:03:17.320 It says, behold, I go forward, 01:03:17.420 --> 01:03:20.280 but he's not there and backward, 01:03:20.700 --> 01:03:22.060 but I cannot perceive him. 01:03:22.200 --> 01:03:23.140 He's saying, man, I don't even, 01:03:23.480 --> 01:03:24.560 it's like, where's God? 01:03:24.800 --> 01:03:26.880 My God, my God, why is that forsaking me? 01:03:27.620 --> 01:03:29.860 It's like, I'm reaching forward, backward. 01:03:30.160 --> 01:03:31.400 It's like, God, where are you? 01:03:31.600 --> 01:03:32.640 Why have you abandoned me? 01:03:34.700 --> 01:03:36.640 On the left hand, where he does work. 01:03:37.340 --> 01:03:39.420 So by faith, he knows that God's working, 01:03:39.440 --> 01:03:41.160 but he's just like, but I don't see it. 01:03:42.680 --> 01:03:43.980 I cannot behold him. 01:03:44.040 --> 01:03:44.780 I don't see it. 01:03:45.900 --> 01:03:47.960 He highted himself on the right hand 01:03:47.960 --> 01:03:49.240 that I cannot see him. 01:03:49.240 --> 01:03:52.120 Watch this, but he knoweth the way that I take 01:03:52.120 --> 01:03:54.820 when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 01:03:55.280 --> 01:03:58.820 And so, Job is trying to see the bright side here 01:03:59.280 --> 01:04:01.500 and he's saying, look, man, I can't even see 01:04:02.060 --> 01:04:03.780 where God is in all of this. 01:04:03.940 --> 01:04:05.260 I feel abandoned by God, 01:04:06.100 --> 01:04:08.220 but I just by faith believe that he's there 01:04:08.700 --> 01:04:11.300 and that when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold. 01:04:11.640 --> 01:04:12.300 So here's the thing. 01:04:12.640 --> 01:04:14.360 If you look at the conversation 01:04:14.360 --> 01:04:15.420 between God and Satan, 01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:17.800 God explicitly says, 01:04:18.960 --> 01:04:21.860 you moved me against Job without cause. 01:04:22.280 --> 01:04:23.740 Okay, and in fact, I'm gonna read it 01:04:23.740 --> 01:04:25.340 just to make sure that I get it right. 01:04:26.200 --> 01:04:28.920 He says, although thou movest me against him 01:04:28.920 --> 01:04:30.360 to destroy him without cause. 01:04:32.020 --> 01:04:35.960 So isn't God saying there's no reason to do this to Job? 01:04:37.520 --> 01:04:39.000 He's saying like, you moved me 01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:40.700 to do this to him without cause. 01:04:41.460 --> 01:04:43.400 He's just doing it to him. 01:04:44.640 --> 01:04:48.340 And obviously the reason ultimately is for our instruction 01:04:48.340 --> 01:04:50.640 for us to see this example, for us to learn from him. 01:04:50.800 --> 01:04:51.680 But I'm saying it's not, 01:04:51.880 --> 01:04:54.340 but Job didn't do anything to trigger this 01:04:54.340 --> 01:04:54.960 is what he's saying. 01:04:55.060 --> 01:04:57.180 When he says, you caused me to do this to him 01:04:57.180 --> 01:04:58.200 without cause, he's saying, 01:04:58.380 --> 01:05:00.260 Job did not do anything to trigger this. 01:05:01.120 --> 01:05:02.480 Job's just living his life, 01:05:02.940 --> 01:05:04.660 an upright man, fearing God, 01:05:04.880 --> 01:05:06.080 a shoe in evil, doing good. 01:05:07.880 --> 01:05:10.260 And Job doesn't understand why it's happening 01:05:10.260 --> 01:05:11.280 because there is no answer 01:05:11.280 --> 01:05:12.600 because it's not happening 01:05:13.120 --> 01:05:14.280 due to anything that Job did. 01:05:14.800 --> 01:05:15.580 But he says this. 01:05:16.020 --> 01:05:17.600 He says, you know, when I'm tried 01:05:17.600 --> 01:05:18.840 I shall come forth as gold. 01:05:19.080 --> 01:05:21.100 Job is looking at it and saying, you know what though? 01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:23.140 Here's what God's doing. 01:05:23.820 --> 01:05:25.460 God is refining me. 01:05:26.060 --> 01:05:27.600 God is purging me. 01:05:27.960 --> 01:05:29.340 God is trying me 01:05:29.340 --> 01:05:31.360 and I'm gonna come out the other side of this thing 01:05:31.360 --> 01:05:32.080 a better person. 01:05:32.280 --> 01:05:33.180 That's what Job is saying. 01:05:33.300 --> 01:05:34.380 Like, when I'm tried, 01:05:34.920 --> 01:05:36.220 I'm gonna come forth as gold. 01:05:36.420 --> 01:05:38.400 I'm gonna come forth more pure, 01:05:39.000 --> 01:05:41.120 stronger, more righteous and better. 01:05:41.120 --> 01:05:43.760 He's kind of like Paul in the New Testament 01:05:43.760 --> 01:05:45.880 also looking for the bright side, 01:05:46.100 --> 01:05:46.740 saying, you know what? 01:05:47.000 --> 01:05:49.060 Yeah, the messenger of Satan above me, keep me humble. 01:05:49.720 --> 01:05:52.440 Job is saying, hey, at least this is purifying me 01:05:52.440 --> 01:05:54.460 and when I'm tried, I'll come forth as gold. 01:05:55.380 --> 01:05:57.040 And so this is good for me, ultimately. 01:05:57.980 --> 01:05:59.820 And so what we have to see here is 01:05:59.820 --> 01:06:03.040 that, yeah, the devil is gonna come at us 01:06:03.040 --> 01:06:03.780 with all this stuff, 01:06:03.920 --> 01:06:06.040 but it doesn't have to hurt us or destroy us. 01:06:06.140 --> 01:06:07.740 Ultimately, all things can work together 01:06:07.740 --> 01:06:08.960 for good to those who love God. 01:06:10.200 --> 01:06:14.020 So bottom line is this, the devil's angels, okay? 01:06:14.420 --> 01:06:14.920 What are they? 01:06:15.220 --> 01:06:16.000 First of all, demons, 01:06:18.360 --> 01:06:21.840 that's when the demons will use people to persecute us. 01:06:22.480 --> 01:06:23.000 Right? 01:06:23.260 --> 01:06:24.720 And some of the attacks on us, 01:06:24.760 --> 01:06:26.060 some of the persecutions that we go through 01:06:26.060 --> 01:06:28.060 are demonic in nature. 01:06:28.640 --> 01:06:30.720 You know, otherwise it's kind of even hard 01:06:30.720 --> 01:06:31.780 to make sense of it. 01:06:32.080 --> 01:06:35.160 Why someone would spend years infiltrating a church? 01:06:35.160 --> 01:06:39.240 Why someone would just spend all their time 01:06:39.900 --> 01:06:41.560 gnashing on churches with their teeth 01:06:41.560 --> 01:06:43.740 and just spend their entire lives 01:06:44.860 --> 01:06:46.480 obsessing over the new IFB? 01:06:47.020 --> 01:06:49.260 And they probably don't even know why they're doing it. 01:06:49.840 --> 01:06:52.380 Like, here's the thing, it makes sense. 01:06:52.500 --> 01:06:54.720 It makes sense for us to think about 01:06:54.720 --> 01:06:56.380 and talk about the new IFB 01:06:57.020 --> 01:06:58.660 because we're in the new IFB. 01:06:58.800 --> 01:07:02.260 So it's like, this is our group, these are our friends. 01:07:02.640 --> 01:07:04.660 So yeah, I'm gonna spend a lot of time 01:07:04.660 --> 01:07:07.400 thinking about my own ministry 01:07:07.400 --> 01:07:09.040 and my friends' ministries 01:07:09.040 --> 01:07:11.680 and our church and our friends' churches 01:07:11.680 --> 01:07:12.820 and the works that we're doing 01:07:12.820 --> 01:07:14.780 because it's us. 01:07:15.260 --> 01:07:17.020 Because we're the new IFB. 01:07:17.420 --> 01:07:21.380 It'd be like an NBA player caring about the NBA 01:07:22.120 --> 01:07:24.760 because he's in the NBA, right? 01:07:25.260 --> 01:07:27.200 And then he's probably gonna be thinking 01:07:27.200 --> 01:07:28.240 a lot about his own team 01:07:28.580 --> 01:07:30.700 and he's also gonna be thinking about the opposing teams. 01:07:31.520 --> 01:07:31.840 Okay? 01:07:32.300 --> 01:07:33.120 That makes sense. 01:07:33.460 --> 01:07:35.000 Cause he's a basketball player. 01:07:35.800 --> 01:07:36.200 Okay? 01:07:37.380 --> 01:07:38.800 Or a basketball fan. 01:07:38.880 --> 01:07:40.380 It would make sense for a basketball fan 01:07:40.380 --> 01:07:42.120 to be thinking about the team he likes, 01:07:42.260 --> 01:07:43.300 the team he doesn't like, whatever. 01:07:43.660 --> 01:07:44.420 That makes sense, right? 01:07:44.860 --> 01:07:46.340 So it makes sense for the NIFB 01:07:46.700 --> 01:07:48.820 to be into all things new IFB 01:07:48.820 --> 01:07:51.700 and to even be thinking about enemies of the NIFB, 01:07:51.900 --> 01:07:52.660 friends of the NIFB. 01:07:52.880 --> 01:07:53.860 But you know what it doesn't make sense? 01:07:54.140 --> 01:07:56.480 Is people who are not new IFB, 01:07:56.620 --> 01:07:57.960 who've quit the new IFB, 01:07:58.060 --> 01:07:59.320 want nothing to do with the new IFB, 01:07:59.320 --> 01:08:02.680 but they're still just plugged in to the new IFB. 01:08:02.720 --> 01:08:03.500 It'd be like if I just said, 01:08:03.840 --> 01:08:05.680 man, I just have no interest in basketball. 01:08:05.980 --> 01:08:06.700 I'm sick of basketball. 01:08:06.840 --> 01:08:07.580 I hate basketball. 01:08:08.280 --> 01:08:09.900 Basketball is my least favorite sport, 01:08:09.920 --> 01:08:10.940 but I watch every game. 01:08:12.280 --> 01:08:13.500 But I know all the stats. 01:08:15.080 --> 01:08:15.940 You like basketball? 01:08:16.140 --> 01:08:17.400 No, I hate basketball. 01:08:19.240 --> 01:08:20.900 Oh, I hate, you know, 01:08:21.020 --> 01:08:22.500 I don't even know who the players are. 01:08:23.180 --> 01:08:24.480 You know, the only players I know 01:08:24.480 --> 01:08:26.300 is like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird. 01:08:26.820 --> 01:08:28.200 Like that's like Shaquille O'Neal. 01:08:28.280 --> 01:08:28.960 That's like a long time ago. 01:08:28.960 --> 01:08:30.940 And then the only player I know right now is this woman. 01:08:31.220 --> 01:08:31.900 Like this, this one. 01:08:31.980 --> 01:08:32.580 I know this one. 01:08:35.180 --> 01:08:36.640 Who knows what I'm talking about? 01:08:38.620 --> 01:08:39.780 Okay, what the heck? 01:08:39.900 --> 01:08:41.000 You guys need to learn your memes. 01:08:42.020 --> 01:08:43.740 Anyway, I know that woman. 01:08:44.120 --> 01:08:45.520 But anyway, I don't know the players 01:08:45.520 --> 01:08:46.560 cause I'm not into basketball. 01:08:47.860 --> 01:08:50.100 Sorry guys, I'm just not a basketball fan. 01:08:50.580 --> 01:08:52.180 You know, I don't hate it. 01:08:52.680 --> 01:08:54.020 I don't obsess over it. 01:08:54.460 --> 01:08:57.220 I don't just, I didn't create a Facebook group 01:08:57.220 --> 01:08:58.660 about how much I hate basketball 01:08:58.660 --> 01:09:00.160 or something I don't want to play. 01:09:01.920 --> 01:09:04.460 I don't stalk basketball players. 01:09:06.800 --> 01:09:07.780 You see what I'm saying? 01:09:08.460 --> 01:09:10.120 It's like, what sense would that make? 01:09:11.880 --> 01:09:14.040 If you love football, then be into football. 01:09:14.220 --> 01:09:15.180 Don't be like, well, I love football. 01:09:15.300 --> 01:09:17.140 That's why I have to fight basketball all day 01:09:17.140 --> 01:09:18.660 and hate basketball and think about basketball. 01:09:19.020 --> 01:09:21.140 And look, there are a lot of religions 01:09:21.140 --> 01:09:22.180 that I don't approve of. 01:09:22.940 --> 01:09:26.080 You know, I think Hinduism's trash, Buddhism's trash. 01:09:26.760 --> 01:09:28.540 I think Catholicism's trash. 01:09:29.060 --> 01:09:31.060 The Greek Orthodox Church is trash. 01:09:32.120 --> 01:09:34.200 You know, I think the Lesbaterians are trash. 01:09:34.780 --> 01:09:36.860 I think the United Methodists are trash. 01:09:37.440 --> 01:09:39.160 You know, it's like, there's a lot of stuff I don't approve. 01:09:39.280 --> 01:09:40.100 But you know what I don't do? 01:09:40.240 --> 01:09:41.180 I don't sit around listening 01:09:41.180 --> 01:09:42.720 to United Methodist sermons. 01:09:44.580 --> 01:09:46.100 I'm not just listening to hours 01:09:46.100 --> 01:09:47.600 of Greek Orthodox sermons. 01:09:51.000 --> 01:09:53.080 Yeah, you know, I just got to learn Greek 01:09:53.080 --> 01:09:56.980 just so that I could like learn more about Greek Orthodox 01:09:56.980 --> 01:09:59.040 so I can obsess over it all day, every day. 01:09:59.200 --> 01:10:00.360 That'd be super weird. 01:10:01.280 --> 01:10:03.880 But you know, why are there these people out there 01:10:03.880 --> 01:10:05.360 who listen to all this? 01:10:05.420 --> 01:10:06.320 They're listening right now. 01:10:06.960 --> 01:10:09.280 Right now, they're literally, they're watching live. 01:10:10.820 --> 01:10:13.440 It's soap is our rethink your life choices. 01:10:14.340 --> 01:10:15.700 But here's the thing is like, 01:10:15.960 --> 01:10:17.400 it's like, why are they obsessing over it? 01:10:17.500 --> 01:10:18.520 They don't even know why. 01:10:18.760 --> 01:10:19.520 I know why. 01:10:20.380 --> 01:10:22.660 Because they're being manipulated by the devil. 01:10:23.360 --> 01:10:24.860 Because they're unsaved. 01:10:25.520 --> 01:10:27.460 They're walking according to the prince 01:10:27.460 --> 01:10:28.580 of the power of the air. 01:10:29.300 --> 01:10:30.620 Satan is using them. 01:10:30.960 --> 01:10:32.680 Some of them are literally demon possessed. 01:10:33.640 --> 01:10:35.480 And others, even if they're not demon possessed though, 01:10:35.580 --> 01:10:39.320 they're being influenced maybe more subtly by the devil. 01:10:39.400 --> 01:10:40.920 But it's the only way to explain 01:10:40.920 --> 01:10:42.820 why someone would go to a church 01:10:42.820 --> 01:10:44.300 that they hate for years 01:10:44.760 --> 01:10:46.680 where they hate the pastor for years. 01:10:46.680 --> 01:10:49.720 I mean, why would somebody just come over to my house 01:10:49.720 --> 01:10:53.980 for dinner like every week for months and months and months 01:10:53.980 --> 01:10:56.560 and then secretly telling people how they hate me 01:10:56.560 --> 01:11:00.020 and I'm crazy and just acting like he's our best friend. 01:11:00.340 --> 01:11:05.220 Just hating us, stalking us and spying on us 01:11:05.220 --> 01:11:07.700 and trying to like coach our children 01:11:07.700 --> 01:11:09.160 to make accusations against it. 01:11:09.220 --> 01:11:10.400 Like, that's not normal. 01:11:10.860 --> 01:11:13.360 But I understand why it's the devil. 01:11:14.660 --> 01:11:15.740 Like, it makes sense. 01:11:15.740 --> 01:11:16.700 So you know what? 01:11:16.780 --> 01:11:17.660 Here's a little encouragement. 01:11:17.780 --> 01:11:19.600 Even if you can't see God working in your life, 01:11:19.960 --> 01:11:22.080 at least it's comforting when you can see the devil working. 01:11:22.360 --> 01:11:25.720 Because then you at least know something's happening. 01:11:28.740 --> 01:11:32.220 And you know, I talked to people before that said, 01:11:32.560 --> 01:11:34.420 because like Job, he couldn't see God working 01:11:34.420 --> 01:11:35.560 but he saw the devil working. 01:11:36.140 --> 01:11:39.720 So he's like, God's real. 01:11:40.060 --> 01:11:40.460 And you know what? 01:11:40.520 --> 01:11:42.700 I remember one time I talked to this guy 01:11:42.700 --> 01:11:43.760 and he said, well, I got saved 01:11:43.760 --> 01:11:45.560 because I started realizing the devil is real. 01:11:46.300 --> 01:11:49.140 And then I was like, if the devil's real, God must be real. 01:11:49.940 --> 01:11:52.220 And then he's like, Jesus must be the son of God. 01:11:52.420 --> 01:11:53.560 And then he just got saved. 01:11:54.860 --> 01:11:55.920 I mean, it kind of makes sense. 01:11:56.060 --> 01:11:57.020 It's a logical thing. 01:11:57.460 --> 01:11:58.900 Because there's so many things in the world 01:11:58.900 --> 01:12:00.800 that would make no sense unless the devil's real. 01:12:02.040 --> 01:12:03.420 And there's so many things in our lives 01:12:03.420 --> 01:12:05.260 that wouldn't make sense except the devil's real. 01:12:05.320 --> 01:12:07.340 And if the devil's real, God's real, okay? 01:12:07.860 --> 01:12:08.700 And so here's the thing. 01:12:08.840 --> 01:12:11.920 Sometimes God, we reach at the left hand, right hand, 01:12:11.920 --> 01:12:14.820 but we can't find him, but we know by faith 01:12:15.360 --> 01:12:17.040 that he's there, that he's working. 01:12:17.860 --> 01:12:19.640 And then we see the devil working 01:12:19.640 --> 01:12:21.340 and we're like, that's a fulfillment of scripture. 01:12:22.140 --> 01:12:23.840 You know, it's comforting. 01:12:26.040 --> 01:12:28.940 And so the point is that, yeah, 01:12:29.340 --> 01:12:33.000 the demons are gonna be prompting people to persecute us. 01:12:33.720 --> 01:12:36.180 You know, I don't know, throwing improvised 01:12:36.180 --> 01:12:38.700 explosive devices through the window or whatever they do. 01:12:38.920 --> 01:12:40.320 I don't think they would ever do that, 01:12:40.320 --> 01:12:44.840 but you know, lesbians stealing your personal van 01:12:44.840 --> 01:12:48.420 or whatever, you know, I mean, I just made that up. 01:12:48.700 --> 01:12:49.180 No, I'm just kidding. 01:12:50.420 --> 01:12:52.640 But then also false prophets are gonna be used 01:12:52.640 --> 01:12:54.280 to try to trick us, deceive us, 01:12:54.400 --> 01:12:55.760 get us believing stupid stuff. 01:12:56.420 --> 01:12:58.700 And then thirdly, you know, 01:12:59.120 --> 01:13:00.800 sometimes God will allow the devil 01:13:01.420 --> 01:13:03.200 to really just come at us hard 01:13:03.200 --> 01:13:04.740 and give us that thorn in the flesh, 01:13:04.760 --> 01:13:07.500 whether it's physical, emotional, financial, 01:13:07.500 --> 01:13:09.560 spiritual, relationship, whatever. 01:13:10.640 --> 01:13:12.640 And what's the goal of that is to discourage us. 01:13:12.920 --> 01:13:15.320 So he wants to persecute us, he wants to deceive us, 01:13:15.400 --> 01:13:16.500 he wants to discourage us. 01:13:17.140 --> 01:13:17.840 And you know what? 01:13:17.900 --> 01:13:19.200 He just wants us to be like, you know what? 01:13:19.320 --> 01:13:19.980 I can't anymore. 01:13:20.360 --> 01:13:21.100 I'm sick of it. 01:13:21.340 --> 01:13:21.840 I'm done. 01:13:22.100 --> 01:13:23.020 There's thorn in my side. 01:13:23.180 --> 01:13:23.840 I can't take it. 01:13:24.640 --> 01:13:26.140 And he wants us to throw in the towel. 01:13:26.460 --> 01:13:27.740 But what we've got to do though, 01:13:27.760 --> 01:13:28.960 is we've got to be strong 01:13:28.960 --> 01:13:30.280 in the Lord and the power of his might. 01:13:30.420 --> 01:13:32.000 We've got to have that shield of faith equipped 01:13:32.460 --> 01:13:34.200 so that we can quench all those fiery darts 01:13:34.200 --> 01:13:34.600 of the wicked. 01:13:34.600 --> 01:13:37.020 And we can get through it. 01:13:37.040 --> 01:13:37.940 And if we resist the devil, 01:13:38.120 --> 01:13:39.500 ultimately he will flee from us. 01:13:40.080 --> 01:13:41.460 You know, me personally, 01:13:42.040 --> 01:13:45.080 I went through a heavy season of persecution 01:13:45.700 --> 01:13:49.580 from like 2009 to like 2014. 01:13:50.320 --> 01:13:50.900 And it was like, 01:13:51.200 --> 01:13:54.340 before that there wasn't really a ton of persecution, right? 01:13:54.680 --> 01:13:56.820 And then it was like this season of persecution 01:13:57.300 --> 01:13:59.360 from like 2009 to 2014. 01:13:59.900 --> 01:14:01.440 And it was like, I got through it. 01:14:01.540 --> 01:14:02.340 And then it was just like, 01:14:02.620 --> 01:14:04.340 the devil was just gone, it seemed like. 01:14:04.340 --> 01:14:04.840 You know what I mean? 01:14:05.280 --> 01:14:09.680 And then it was like 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19. 01:14:09.820 --> 01:14:11.300 It's like, it just felt like, 01:14:11.640 --> 01:14:14.320 man, we're just able to do so much work for God 01:14:14.320 --> 01:14:15.300 without him being persecuted. 01:14:15.460 --> 01:14:16.080 But then guess what? 01:14:16.460 --> 01:14:18.380 You know, when Jesus was tempted by Satan 01:14:18.740 --> 01:14:19.420 in the wilderness, 01:14:19.880 --> 01:14:21.800 it says that after he resisted that temptation, 01:14:21.960 --> 01:14:24.580 the devil departed it from him for a season. 01:14:25.580 --> 01:14:26.600 You know, and so it's like, 01:14:26.840 --> 01:14:28.720 you're going to go through seasons in your life 01:14:28.720 --> 01:14:31.700 where you're under serious persecution and attack. 01:14:31.840 --> 01:14:33.300 And then you're going to go through seasons of peace. 01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:36.480 Where things are just peaceful and you're just cruising. 01:14:37.000 --> 01:14:39.580 And so, you know, it's not just going to be 01:14:39.580 --> 01:14:41.460 all devil attacking all the time. 01:14:41.540 --> 01:14:42.800 Cause that would be probably too much 01:14:42.800 --> 01:14:43.700 for anybody to handle. 01:14:44.540 --> 01:14:48.260 But God will give us seasons of refreshment 01:14:48.260 --> 01:14:49.380 and seasons of peace. 01:14:49.620 --> 01:14:52.040 And I feel like I had a season of peace like that, 01:14:52.300 --> 01:14:55.940 you know, from like around 2015 to like, 01:14:56.220 --> 01:14:57.520 you know, 2023. 01:14:58.280 --> 01:15:00.100 I would call that like a pretty peaceful. 01:15:00.240 --> 01:15:01.760 Now like we could point to things 01:15:01.760 --> 01:15:03.760 where the devil tried to creep in 01:15:03.760 --> 01:15:06.020 with the oneness crap in 2017 01:15:06.020 --> 01:15:08.960 or, you know, different things that happened during that. 01:15:09.160 --> 01:15:10.740 I'm not saying it was all a bed of roses, 01:15:11.200 --> 01:15:13.940 but I'm saying relatively speaking, it was a bed of roses. 01:15:14.740 --> 01:15:15.840 You know what I mean? 01:15:16.140 --> 01:15:17.960 Like compared to what came before 01:15:18.520 --> 01:15:19.660 and compared to what came after. 01:15:19.980 --> 01:15:22.060 And so, you know, that's just life, man. 01:15:22.400 --> 01:15:23.440 It's ups is downs. 01:15:23.840 --> 01:15:26.640 You got to be steadfast, unmovable, 01:15:26.700 --> 01:15:28.240 always abounding in the work of the Lord 01:15:28.240 --> 01:15:29.680 for as much as you know that your labor 01:15:29.680 --> 01:15:30.800 is not in vain in the Lord. 01:15:31.330 --> 01:15:32.760 And I see the pizza back there 01:15:32.760 --> 01:15:36.480 and it better be 100% cheese and no fillers. 01:15:36.700 --> 01:15:37.820 Let's bards and have a word of prayer. 01:15:38.060 --> 01:15:40.600 Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. 01:15:41.360 --> 01:15:43.640 And we thank you so much for the fact 01:15:43.640 --> 01:15:47.600 that even in a sermon about the devil and his angels, 01:15:47.940 --> 01:15:50.060 we can still take comfort in the fact 01:15:50.450 --> 01:15:53.000 that ultimately you have the devil on a leash 01:15:53.560 --> 01:15:56.320 and at the end of the day, you are the one in charge 01:15:56.930 --> 01:15:58.720 and greater is he that is in us 01:15:58.720 --> 01:15:59.820 than he that is in the world. 01:15:59.820 --> 01:16:01.680 Help us always keep that in perspective, Lord. 01:16:02.380 --> 01:16:05.180 Help us to stay strong and stay in the fight 01:16:05.720 --> 01:16:08.140 and keep moving forward in Jesus' name we pray, amen.