and well, it's great to be here once again
and to see you all.
Thanks for having me out here.
And tonight I'm gonna be preaching on the subject
of the devil's angels, the devil's angels.
In this passage, it talks about the devil
and his angels fighting against Michael
and his angels and so forth.
And where I got the idea for the sermon,
I was reading my Bible yesterday
and I was reading in Matthew 25 where it says,
then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,
depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels.
Now obviously when we hear that
and we're thinking about the devil and his angels,
we're thinking about the demons, right?
The fallen angels, unclean spirits, devils, demons, right?
Those are the literal devil's angels.
But beyond that, the word angel in the Bible
also simply means messenger
and a lot of times it's interchangeably used
with the word messenger.
And the devil actually has other messengers as well
besides just demons, false prophets
are also messengers of the devil.
And so we're gonna get into some of those
other messengers as well.
But first let's start out here in Revelation chapter 12
and let's start out with point number one,
which is the literal demons, right?
Those are the devil's angels.
Look at Revelation 12 verse three.
It says, there appeared another wonder in heaven
and behold a great red dragon
having seven heads and 10 horns
and seven crowns upon his heads
and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven
and it cast them to the earth.
Now the first thing I wanna point out
is that in the book of Revelation,
stars will often represent or be an allegory for angels.
So the third part of the stars of heaven
that he drags down with him
is basically one third of the angels of heaven
are rebelling with Satan.
And here's the thing about that
is that the Bible talks about there being literally
hundreds of millions of angels in heaven
round about God's throne,
10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands.
So if you stop and think about that,
if there are hundreds of millions of angels up in heaven
and then one third of the angels are fallen angels
and the devil takes one third of the stars of heaven
and cast them down to the earth,
that goes to show you that there are literally
tens of millions of demons in this world.
So devils or demons as they go about this earth
doing Satan's bidding, you know what?
They're not just some super rare phenomenon
like finding something that's just
really out of the ordinary.
No, and that's why when you're reading the four gospels,
there are a lot of stories
about people that are demon possessed
where Jesus and or the apostles
are casting out those devils.
I mean, especially the book of Mark is just wall to wall
with stories about those that are demon possessed.
So here's the thing,
if you actually believe that the Bible is God's word,
then you must believe that those devils didn't go anywhere
since 2000 years ago.
It's not like they were around back then
and all of a sudden they're gone.
Now no, they are alive and well today
and the devil today is walking about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour
and he does not work alone.
He has all of these underlings,
these minions, his messengers
to go forth with his message
and to go forth and do his will.
And if you think about God having his angels, right?
God's angels are going out and doing God's will.
They're doing his bidding.
They're helping the mission.
They're sent forth as spirits to minister unto us
that are the heirs of salvation, right?
The angel of the Lord
and campeth round about them that fear him.
So we have our guardian angels
and God sends his angels to do his will and his work
in the Bible.
Angels will come and speak God's message to people, right?
Well, the devil's angels are basically his minions
that are doing his bidding and there are a lot of them.
And of course the devil is hard at work today in 2026
and it's no different than it was 2000 years ago.
Now let's keep reading here.
It says in the latter part of verse four there,
the dragon stood before the woman
which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child
as soon as it was born.
So the devil wants to destroy baby Jesus
and of course this is alluding to the story
with King Herod and killing all the children
from two years old and under
in order to try to devour Jesus.
It says she brought forth a man child,
that's Jesus of course,
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron
and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne.
Jump down to verse seven.
It says there was war in heaven,
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon,
the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed not,
neither was their place found anymore in heaven
and the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent called the devil and Satan
which deceive at the whole world,
he was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him.
Now if you would go to Luke chapter 22.
Luke chapter 22 because obviously if we look at Satan
in the Bible, we're not ignorant of his devices
and if we look at what his agenda is
and if we look at what his modus operandi is
then we can understand what his underlings are doing
because they're just doing his bidding,
they're working for him,
they're his messengers, they're his angels
and so what is their goal?
You know Satan wanted to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ,
he wanted to devour that child as soon as he was born.
Of course he failed to do that
and so he turns his wrath at the end of chapter 12
on the seed of the woman
that keeps the commandments of God
and has the testimony of Jesus Christ.
So therefore his goal is to go after
and destroy Christians, right?
The initial goal is destroy Jesus.
That didn't work out.
Jesus won, he conquered his death, his burial,
his resurrection, the son of God was manifested
to destroy the works of the devil.
He already won that battle
and so now Satan goes after the remnant
of the seed of the woman, that's us human beings
that keep the commandments of God
and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
We are the target for Satan.
Now what did the devil try to do to Jesus?
Well, look if you would at Luke chapter 22 verse three
it says then entered Satan into Judas,
surname to scarriot, being of the number of the 12.
So Judas is scarriot is literally demon possessed
with the arch demon himself Satan.
And it says in verse number four there
he went his way and communed with the chief priests
and captains how he might betray him under them
and they were glad and covenanted to give him money
and he promised and sought opportunity
to betray him under them
in the absence of the multitude.
You know, it looks to me like the devil
will possess the unsaved because Judas was unsaved.
The Bible says that Jesus knew from the beginning
which of the 12 did not believe in him.
And he said, have not I chosen you 12?
One of you is a devil.
One of them never believed in him.
Judas is scarriot, totally unsaved.
Well, demons will possess the unsaved
and use them to do evil.
And what he'll specifically use them to do
is to betray and falsely accuse God's people
because if you think about it,
Satan is the big accuser
and here Satan possesses Judas to betray Jesus,
to get close to him, to be his friend,
to be in his inner circle, to be in the church,
really there not for any good reason
but just there to steal money
and ultimately there to just betray Jesus
and falsely accuse Jesus
and get Jesus arrested and so forth.
Well, look, the devil's gonna do that
not to just the son of God himself
but to all Christians.
He's gonna try to harm us in that way.
And so remember, a saved person cannot be demon possessed.
Right?
The Bible says greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world.
It's before you were saved
when you were dead in trespasses and sins
that you lived your life
according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience.
So that spirit of the devil,
unclean spirits or Satan himself works in the unsaved.
The children of wrath before they're saved,
he has access to them.
Once we're saved though and we've been born again,
we can never be demon possessed.
Anybody who's demon possessed is an unsaved person, right?
So thank God us saved Christians are immune from this
but here's the thing,
unsaved people around us though
could be used by the devil to attack us,
torment us, harass us,
accuse us, betray us and whatever.
We also see in the book of Acts
where there's this woman in the book of Acts
that's a demoniac
and when they're out soul winning
and preaching the gospel,
she's following them around mocking them,
yelling things at them, harassing them
and basically just being a distraction
and making it difficult for them to do the soul winning.
And you've probably seen this before
when you're out soul winning
and you get some weirdo following you around
and they won't stop and they won't leave you alone.
And I'm not just talking about the Karen,
apartment manager or whatever.
Sometimes it'll just be some neighbor
or somebody that just goes crazy on you and freaks out.
I mean, we were just soul winning a few weeks ago
on Indian reservation in Nevada
and we got attacked by Indians.
You know, I thought those days were over
but it was like we literally got physically attacked
by Indians, if you can believe that.
And so we're out there
and I mean this Indian guy just went crazy on me.
He started shoving me and spitting in my face
and everything and I was totally nice to the guy
and he's just going crazy on me, blowing up on me.
And you know what?
It wouldn't surprise me if people like that
are demon possessed because there was no reason.
We were totally cool with the guy.
We're totally nice with the guy
and he just blew up no interest in the peace pipe
when I offered it to him.
He's just blew up on me and just attacked me.
Okay, but here's the thing.
Peace pipe's just tobacco friends, all right?
It's true.
Look it up, it's not drugs.
No, I'm just kidding.
I don't smoke either, okay.
But the point is that the devil,
yeah, he has already lost the battle with Jesus Christ.
Jesus already conquered.
He already lived that perfect life
that none of us could live.
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He arose victorious over the grave, right?
But now he's wroth with us,
the Bible says in Revelation 12.
We're the new target and so if he'll betray Jesus,
he'll betray us.
If he'll accuse Jesus, he'll accuse us.
If he'll steal money from Jesus,
he'll steal money from the church today.
He will do the same things to us
and he will use wicked people around us to do his bidding.
And you know, the Bible talks about
these evil people that will just be among us,
you know, crept in unawares.
Certain wicked man, Jude says,
crept in unawares who were before
of old ordained to this condemnation.
Ungodly man turning the grace of God into lasciviousness,
denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's like, why would you go to church
if you deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, I'll tell you why they're there.
Feasting with you and feeding themselves without fear.
They are there to beguile unstable souls.
They're there to deceive.
They're there to accuse.
They're there to betray.
They're there to harass.
They are there to harm God's people, you know.
And this is what the devil's angels do.
They do just like their master.
But not only that, go to Mark chapter nine.
We'll just briefly look at this.
Not only do the devil's angels, the demons,
not only do they, you know, lead unsaved people
to just do crazy things like just joining a church
and just, you know, infiltrating
and just being a spy or something
and spying on God's people.
And look, this is like, who would do that?
Like, don't you have something better to do with your life?
You know, than to be some transvestite.
I mean, this transvestite goes undercover
at Sher Foundation Baptist Church.
And this is how he, this is his disguise.
He disguised himself as a normal man.
Like it's a wild disguise.
Cause he's normally a tranny, but then he just,
he puts on this wild disguise
of just like being his normal gender.
If you can imagine that.
And then he's showing up and just week after week
and he's just filming and just infiltrating.
Folks, it's demonic.
And it is interesting that this same guy
who did that on his YouTube channel,
What's the Logo is a literal Satan symbol
upside down star, like on a lamb's head,
just a Baphomet Satan thing, right?
Because that's what the devil does.
Just like he infiltrated the first church
by being one of the 12 disciples.
And, you know, getting in there possessing Judas
to betray Jesus, you know, he does the same thing now.
But not only do the demons lead people to, you know,
harm, harass, betray other Christians,
but what they'll get them to do
is also to destroy themselves.
You know, and so you'll see demon possessed people
be very self-destructive people.
Okay.
Look if you would at Mark chapter nine, verse 17.
Here's a great example of this.
One of the multitude answered and said,
Master, I brought unto thee my son,
which hath a dumb spirit.
And wheresoever he taketh him, watch this,
he teareth him and he fometh
and gnasheth with his teeth and pineeth away.
And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out and they could not.
Look at verse 21.
And he asked his father, how long is it ago
since this came unto him and he said of a child
and off times it hath cast him into the fire
and into the waters to destroy him.
But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us
and help us.
Notice what this spirit is doing.
It's making this kid foam at the mouth
and tear himself and also to throw himself into the fire
and also to throw himself in the water.
Notice the self-destructive behavior.
And by the way, in the Old Testament,
you have Elijah facing off with the prophets of Baal
and Mount Carmel.
And if you remember, they are cutting themselves
until blood gushed out and it says, as was their manner.
So this was just a normal thing for them.
This was another day at the office for them,
self-harming and cutting themselves open
because they are demonic.
They're worshiping the devil when they worship Baal,
the prophets of Baal, Baal's a bub.
And so what we see here is the self-destructive behavior
of those who are demoniac.
So not only do they seek to harm Christians,
they seek to harm themselves.
Because here's what you have to understand.
You know, the devil doesn't love his followers.
You know, it's not like the devil has his crowd.
Yeah, my boys and I love them.
And you know, I just hate Christians.
You know, the devil really hates all of mankind.
If you study the book of Revelation,
you know, in chapter 12 there,
the devil actually just hates all of mankind.
I mean, he's especially got his guns trained
on Christians and he would love to infiltrate
churches and tempt Christians,
accuse Christians, deceive Christians,
through unsaved people that he can actually possess
and use them to do his bidding.
But not only does he want to harm Christians indirectly
through unsaved people that he uses to do his bidding,
but he'll also harm the unsaved people themselves
directly by literally possessing them
and leading them to self-harm.
And you'll see people just doing
these crazy irrational things
where they harm themselves and they're, you know,
beating their own heads in and just cutting themselves
and all these wild things,
like throwing themselves in the fire
and in the water and all these things.
You know, it just shows the devil
is just leading people toward destruction of others
and ultimately destruction of themselves.
And you know, when you stop and think about it,
you know, the devil is just a self-destructive entity
because his whole path is leading him
toward damnation in the end.
That's where he's gonna end up.
So he's really just trying to take as many people with him
on that road of damnation.
You know, that's what he's doing.
You know, it's like he attacked Jesus,
he fought against Jesus, he tried to stop Jesus
and he ends up just destroying himself in the process.
Well, guess what?
If we resist the devil, he'll flee from us.
And if people come at us and these demonic forces
come at us and attack us, you know what?
If we can stand strong in the Lord
and the power of his might,
if we can have the shield of faith equipped
where with we shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked,
guess what?
Those people will not be able to destroy us
but ultimately what will they do?
They will destroy themselves
and we will see them destroy themselves.
We will see them self-destruct.
So the good news is we as Christians
will never be demon possessed
but we will be stalked, persecuted and harassed
by those who are demon possessed.
I mean, we see that in the Bible.
So that's how that affects us, okay?
Now let's move on to point number two.
So point number one, the devil's angels.
We're talking about the literal demons of hell.
Those are the devil's angels, right?
But number two, false prophets are also the devil's angels
because they are messengers of the devil
bringing the devil's message.
Now, just to demonstrate to you,
this is just kind of interesting
to demonstrate to you, you know,
that the word angel literally just means messenger.
That's what it means.
And we can kind of get a feel for this too.
If we think about our word evangelist
or evangelical or something like that
because the word evangelical, okay?
The EV prefix there means good,
like, you know, euphemism or euphony
or something euphonic.
And then we have the evangel, right?
Evangel, you see the angel in there?
So it's like good message.
And remember, what does gospel mean?
Gospel means good news.
So the gospel is good news.
So evangelicals are out there preaching the good news.
We're into like getting the gospel out to the world.
And so the word angel just simply means messenger.
It's kind of funny, the William Tyndale Bible, you know,
which is really the first English translation
in modern English from the original Greek
into English in the New Testament, you know, 1526.
And if you look at it,
it's funny because in Revelation two and three,
you have this passage where it says
unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, right?
On the angel of the church of Smyrna, right?
Pergamos.
And when it says unto the angel of the church, right?
It's talking about the preacher.
It's talking about the messenger of the church,
the one who brings the message to the church.
That's why some of the rebukes in Revelation two and three
are using the and thou directed to the leader.
And then other things like ye, you, your
is talking to the church as a whole.
So sometimes he's just talking to the pastor.
Sometimes he's talking to the church itself,
but that's what that means when it says the angel church.
So just as, just as the good churches
have the angel of the church of Anaheim, you know,
the angel of the church of Ephesus,
then, you know, the devil's got his angels too.
Right?
At the first, we just passed the church.
It was the first Presbyterian church.
It had a pervert flag flying out front.
So I can already tell you the devil
is in charge down there.
No question about that.
But in the William Tyndale translation
of Revelation two and three, it's funny
because he keeps using a different word each time.
So like in Revelation chapter two verse one,
he says, under the messenger
of the congregation of Ephesus, right.
Then in verse eight, he says,
under the angel of the congregation of Smyrna, right.
That's the way the King James does it.
It translates it as angel.
And then in chapter three verse seven,
he says, and right unto the tidings bringer
of the congregation of Philadelphia.
So it's kind of funny because it's the same Greek word
every time, which is just angel.
But then it's just kind of funny how Tyndale,
he does it one time as messenger.
He does it another time as angel.
He does it another time as tidings bringer
because he's just trying to show like different synonyms
of the same word.
The King James just keeps it consistent
and just always translates angel for angel.
But it's just kind of going to show you
how the tidings bringer, messenger, angel.
These are all kind of synonymous words.
That's why Tyndale did that.
And so if you would flip over
to second Corinthians chapter number 11,
second Corinthians chapter number 11,
this is probably the best verse
when it comes to this idea of the devil's angels
or the devil's messengers being false prophets.
It says in second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13,
for such are false apostles,
deceitful workers transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ and no marvel.
For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers,
and another word for ministers would be like helpers
or servants or something like that, right?
And so it's no marvel if his ministers also
be transformed as the ministers of righteousness
whose end shall be according to their works.
And so look, just as the devil
is transformed into an angel of light,
his minions, his ministers, his angels
are transformed into the ministers of light, right?
And obviously we use the word minister a lot
to talk about the preacher at a church, right?
The pastor is known as a minister, right?
Pastor Bruce Meheo, what does he do for a living?
He's a minister, right?
That's what we would say.
He's in the ministry, okay?
And so you have some wicked people
that are in an evil ministry
because they are ministers of the devil.
They're messengers of Satan and they are doing his bidding.
But here's the thing,
they're transformed into the ministers of righteousness.
So on the outside, they could look like they're good,
but inwardly the Bible says what?
They're ravening wolves, right?
Beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they're ravening wolves.
Now think about what it means to be in sheep's clothing.
What are the attributes of a sheep?
I mean, a sheep isn't really an animal that scares you, right?
Like if you show up at the petting zoo
or you show up around sheep,
it's like, oh, get the sheep away from me.
The sheep's out of control.
Sheeps aren't scary, okay?
Now a wolf is kind of a scary, ferocious beast
that you'd be worried about.
A lot of times in Arizona,
I would say virtually every single time
I go on a bicycle ride in the evening
or just after the sun goes down.
And that's usually when we like to do stuff
because the sun is trying to kill us.
Like it's like that level in Super Mario Brother
where the sun's trying to kill you.
That's life in Arizona every day.
But basically, I'll be out there after dusk
and after the sun goes down
and I see a coyote every single time.
Like virtually every time I go on a bike ride
over by the desert, I'll see a coyote.
And coyotes are really small.
Like they're a lot less scary than a wolf or something.
But it still kind of gives you a little pause.
When you see these kind of wild beasts,
whether it's a coyote or a wolf or,
one time I was hiking with my kids
pretty close to my house
and saw like some kind of a bobcat or something.
And it just kind of, it's kind of like, whoa.
But if you saw a sheep,
you're not freaking out about a sheep.
You're not worried about it
because a sheep is like a harmless animal.
You'd think of it as gentle, mild, harmless, super nice.
And so the Bible is saying
that these false prophets, these messengers of Satan,
they are going to appear on the outside as sheep.
They're going to be wolves in sheep's clothing.
And isn't it interesting how these super evil, wicked,
hateful, just horrific servants of Satan
are just, they're the ones that are just so loving.
And it's just like, love is love.
And they're just flying a flag
of just violent perversion and just gross molestation.
And they're just like, oh, we just, we just welcome
everybody, we just love everybody.
We're so kind.
And then meanwhile, the fundamental Baptist down the street
is painted as being like super mean, super hateful,
super harmful, just scary, right?
And then what's funny is people will call us
a wolf in sheep's clothing.
It's like, bro, how are we portraying ourselves
as super gentle and mild
when in reality we're ferocious beasts?
If anything, we probably seem a little more ferocious
than we even are.
And to sit there and say, oh, you're a wolf.
No, I'll tell you, the wolf in sheep's clothing is,
is these evil demoniac pastors, these super wicked.
And, but then they're just so nice to you
as they just kind of just gently send the knife
into your back and just kind of just slowly,
just, hey, you're going to feel a little prick.
Oh, okay.
You know, let me just go ahead and just
send the knife in beneath the fifth rib
and just go ahead and just stab you.
Let me just go ahead and just gently
put this dart into your liver.
It's only going to hurt for a minute
and then the lights are going to go out.
Let me tell you something.
It's amazing how these people who hate you
and attack you and revile you and persecute you
and despitefully use you,
isn't it amazing how nice they are as they do it?
Cause they're just so loving and they're so kind
and they're so affirming as they just harm
and hurt and devour with their wickedness.
Why?
Because they are a wolf in sheep's clothing.
And so yeah, the teeth are there.
The claws are there.
You just don't see them.
Because even the devil himself,
he doesn't come at you with horns and a pitchfork
and a red pointy tail.
He comes at you as an angel of light, right?
If you saw the devil, you'd think he's beautiful.
He's one of God's most beautiful creations,
but he's evil, okay?
And so the looks can be deceiving.
So he says, beware of false prophets
which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they're ravening wolves.
You should know them by their fruits.
And you know the spiritual fruit is what you look at.
And if you see a lack of spiritual fruit
or you see bad spiritual fruit,
that's the sign of the false prophet
because a good tree brings forth good fruit.
The corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
And so what are we looking at?
We're looking at the actual results
of actually getting people saved,
getting the gospel out there,
salvation's changed lives, right?
As opposed to just somebody who just says nice things.
You know, meanwhile breaking the 10 commandments
all day long and twice on Sunday,
but they're super nice about it
as they do all these things.
And so if you would flip over to second Peter chapter two,
second Peter chapter two,
see the sheep as an animal,
the attribute is that it appears
to be super gentle and harmless.
Nobody's worried about a sheep,
whereas a wolf is scary to us.
We'd be on our guard against a sheep.
So the devil wants to get us off our guard.
And so his minions are wolves in sheep's clothing.
They pretend to be super kind, nice and gentle.
But in reality, the person who actually loves you
is the person who's telling you the truth.
This is love that we walk after his commandments.
So the pastor who's actually following the Bible,
preaching the Bible, teaching truth,
he's the one who actually loves people.
Even if he maybe gets up and yells
and smites with the hand, stomps with the foot.
I mean, Jesus Christ yelled when he preached to
speaking the truth in love, okay?
And ripping face is what the prophets of the Bible did,
but they all were filled with love for God
and love for their neighbor,
even if they show some tough love by preaching heart.
Meanwhile, you know,
some guy and some rainbow robe down the street
is gonna be super kind and loving outwardly,
but inwardly he's a ravening wolf.
He doesn't love you.
He hates you.
He's going to hell.
He can't stop it.
He's reprobate.
And so he just, he's just like the devil
who wants to take people with him.
And so look down at your Bible there
at 2 Peter chapter two, verse one,
it says, but there were false prophets
also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you
who privilege, privilege means secretly,
shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord the bottom
and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Watch this, and many shall follow their pernicious ways
by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
Now is this just a small thing,
a phenomenon that appears every once in a while
seldom and maybe out of 10 churches,
one of them is a false prophet.
No, because the Bible says
many will follow their pernicious ways.
And as we established earlier,
there are at least tens of millions,
dozens of millions of these demons in this world
and there are just innumerable false prophets
and many will follow their pernicious ways
by reason of which,
by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
What does that mean?
It's gonna give Christianity a bad name.
And especially when independent fundamental Baptist
turn out to be devils,
that's just gonna give us all a bad name.
Right?
And what am I talking about?
Well, there's an example recently
of this guy called Kenny Baldwin, right?
And this guy, Kenny Baldwin turned out to be a sodomite.
He turned out to be a homo.
You know, he's up here masquerading as a man of God,
masquerading as a preacher of God's word.
You know, he's a popular conference speaker,
independent Baptist guy
and he's preaching at youth conferences and camps
and he's secretly being a homo.
You know, and then people see that
and then it just gives church a bad name,
it gives Baptist a bad name.
You know, and that's why
if the independent fundamental Baptist were,
you know, right about these things,
they would be just quick to distance themselves
from this guy and just throw him under the bus
and just be like, this guy's gross,
this guy's trash, we didn't know this about this guy.
But they're like, oh, we gotta pray that, you know,
that we don't end up like him.
It's like, what the heck?
I've never prayed that.
I'm never gonna pray that prayer.
We don't have to pray not to do that.
That's weird.
But it's like, oh, you know,
we gotta just, you know,
but for the grace of God, there go I.
What the heck?
That's not normal, that's abnormal.
He's a false prophet, he's unsaved, he's a reprobate.
That's what Romans one teaches.
It's not a normal desire,
but you know, you think that they would want
to distance themselves and be like,
putting themselves as far away from that as possible.
But no, that's not what they do.
You know, they wanna just act like, oh, you know,
let's pray for him, he fell into sin or whatever.
And then I've heard this saying,
it's such a dumb saying, they're like, yeah, you know,
Christianity's the only army that shoots its own wounded.
Have you heard this crap before?
You know, Christianity's the only army
that shoots its own wounded.
Bro, that's called shooting a traitor.
And guess what?
Every army in the world does that.
Did you know it's in the United States Constitution, right?
And I know a lot of people have probably
never even read the Constitution cover to cover,
even though it takes like 20 minutes.
So like, you know, we would say that,
hey, if you wanna read your Bible in a year,
it's gonna take you like 20 minutes per day for a year.
But if you wanna read the US Constitution,
it's gonna take you 20 minutes one time.
You know, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands,
but some of y'all need to go home and do your homework, okay?
You know, and I understand that the Bible's
more entertaining, because, you know,
the Constitution's kinda boring.
But there's a part in the Constitution
and it only takes you 20 minutes to find it,
where it talks about the fact that those
who commit treason against the United States
get the death penalty.
They die.
They are killed.
So guess what?
In the United States, you know what?
That's a military that shoots its own,
who did it?
No, shoots its traitors.
If somebody infiltrates, if somebody creeps in unawares,
some pervert, some sodomite, some creepo,
some weirdo, right?
Yeah, he's a traitor.
Every military in the world will shoot him.
No, we're the only army that shoots its own wounded.
I mean, that's not true, because guess what?
In Bible believing, Christian churches,
when somebody is down, when somebody is struggling,
when somebody falls into sin, but they're repentant,
we're always wanting to help them out, right?
Those who are overtaken in a fault,
we, which are spiritual, are supposed to restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness.
And that's what we do.
We always wanna help people, and people come to us,
and they're struggling with alcohol,
they're struggling with drugs,
they're struggling with their marriage,
and we're trying to help them and get them better
and fix them up, and we're not out blabbing
about their business and stuff,
because they're actually just repentant
and they're trying to get right and whatever.
It's like, and people get back to them,
have a hard time, quit the church,
come back six months later,
we're just glad to see them.
Hey, welcome back, great to see you.
But some dude who's praying on teenagers,
can he Baldwin, let him be accursed.
You know, Leviticus 2013, that's what I'm talking about.
Oh, it's the only army that shoots its own wind.
I've heard that my whole life.
Time to retire that saying.
But it says here, many verse two,
shall fall their pernicious ways,
by reason of whom the way of truth
shall be evil spoken of.
So then people will say, oh, that's Christianity for ya,
that's being a Baptist for ya,
and it'll give Christianity a bad name
when they're found out to be committing
just horrific, grievous sins and even crimes,
you know, as a preacher.
And then it says in verse three,
through covetousness shall they with feinted words
make merchandise of you.
Now feint means faked, right?
So they're saying things that they don't believe,
they're faking everything,
they're pretending to be one of us.
And covetousness is the motivator
and they'll make merchandise of you.
They'll get you to buy the books
and buy the films and donate
and give to these things
that are not actually about getting the gospel out.
They're not actually about serving God.
It's about serving their own bellies.
And so it says through covetousness
shall they with feinted words
make merchandise of you
whose damnation now of a long time lingered not
and their damnation slumbered not.
And then it's interesting if he goes from one breath
to talking about false prophets
to talking about literal fallen angels
going back to point one.
Cause look at the next verse.
It says for a God spared not the angels that sinned
but cast them down to hell
and delivered them into chains of darkness
to be reserved unto judgment and on and on it goes.
The point is that in the same breath
we go from talking about false prophets
the devil's angels, the devil's messengers
to literal demons.
Also the devil's messengers, the devil's angels.
So these are who the devil uses.
Jump down if you would to verse 14.
What do we see about these false prophets
these ministers of the devil
these wolves and sheep's clothing?
It says in verse 14 having eyes full of adultery
and that cannot cease from sin
be guiling unstable souls.
So we as Christians we wanna think about
how does this affect our lives
because we need to be on our guard.
We need to be sober.
We need to be vigilant
because our adversary the devil
walk at the bow as a roaring lion
seeking a moment of our, he's not working alone, right?
He's got all of these millions of followers
millions of angelic followers
and millions of human followers
that he is using to do his bidding.
How does it affect us?
Well, number point number one
the literal demons.
How does that affect us?
Well, the good news is
it can't really affect us directly
because we can never be possessed
because we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
So that's the good news about that.
But here's how it affects us
is that people around us will creep in unawares.
They will be demonic.
They will infiltrate.
They will harass, stalk, betray us, deceive us,
lie to us, you know, hurt us,
harass us, mock us, whatever.
So that's how that affects us.
But number two, the false prophets.
You know, how do the false prophets affect us?
Is that the false prophets
are out to deceive us, right?
They're out to trick us.
They're out to lie to us.
Now here's the thing.
Those of us that are saved,
thankfully we've got the Holy Spirit
and dwelling us.
So we can only be fooled so much, you know,
because the good news is
we've got the kind of sniff test
of being indwelled by the Holy Spirit
where, you know, the Bible says
the Holy Spirit's main ministry
is to guide us into all truth.
So the comforter, he's inside of us.
He's gonna guide us into all truth.
And the Bible says also
that Christ's sheep hear his voice
and a stranger will they not follow,
a stranger will they flee from
for they know not the voice of strangers.
So because we're saved
and because we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit,
we have the ability to, you know,
kind of discern truth from error.
And we hear preaching and sometimes we can tell like,
hey, something's off about this
or yeah, this jives with scripture.
This sounds good.
No, this isn't right.
And obviously, you know,
the Holy Spirit's guiding us into all truth.
But here's the thing about that though,
just because you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit,
if you're not reading your Bible,
if you're quenching the spirit,
if you're grieving the spirit,
if you're not walking in the spirit,
if you're just in the flesh,
not reading the Bible,
not listening to preaching,
you're not singing hymns,
you're not praying,
you're not winning souls,
you know what, you can still be deceived.
You're not gonna be like super deceived,
but you could still get deceived on a lot of stuff,
you know, because obviously the more we read the Bible
and the more we walk with God
and the more we're praying in the spirit,
then we're gonna be less deceived
than the guy who's just out there in the world
and just barely touching the things of God.
I mean, that should be obvious.
So here's the thing,
if, you know, when the Antichrist shows up
in the end times,
no saved person's gonna fall for it
because that's like,
that's too big of a deception.
It's not gonna work.
Saved Christians aren't gonna go join the Mormon church.
They're not gonna go join Islam.
They're not gonna become a Hindu.
They're not gonna just go out
and just completely apostatize
and join the Jehovah's Witnesses or something.
But, if they're unstable,
if they're unlearned,
then they can be tricked into lesser heresies.
Because what does the Bible say
in Galatians 5,
it talks about walking in the spirit
and walking in the flesh,
and it says if you walk in the flesh,
you'll fulfill the works of the flesh.
And one of the works of the flesh,
because we're thinking, yeah,
works of the flesh,
adultery, lasciviousness, theft, blasphemy.
One of them is heresy.
So if you're in the flesh,
you can get sucked into some dumb false doctrines.
And so here's the thing,
these false prophets come along.
Yeah, they're not gonna get you all the way
into pagan idolatry or something.
But what they can do though
is get you to believe in stupid doctrines
that will cripple you as an effective Christian.
I mean, have you seen Christians in your life,
those of you who've been around for a while,
where they're actually an effective zealous Christian,
and then they get into some stupid doctrine
that can literally just take them totally off the chessboard
as far as actually doing something good for God?
Right, they get sucked into some weird heresy.
They could get sucked into something like dispensationalism.
And then they go down this dispensational rabbit hole
and they get all goofed up
and then they're no longer effective for God.
Or they get sucked into Calvinism.
I do believe that a saved person
can get sucked in to Calvinism.
And the next thing you know,
soul winning is not so urgent anymore
because if it's gonna happen for people,
it's gonna happen for people.
And then you get these Christians,
they're good, solid, fundamental Baptist,
they're into soul winning,
and then they start getting into church history.
Like as soon as you hear that somebody got,
is getting into church history,
it's just like, just mark it down,
this person's about to get royally screwed up
on their doctrine, period, right?
Why don't we just call it as Catholic history?
You know, and it's just like,
the only question is,
how far down that road are they gonna go?
Now, if they're unsaved,
they're probably just gonna end up
being a Roman Catholic at the end of the road
or a Greek Orthodox,
if they go all the way down the road.
But if they're saved,
you know, it's just a question of
how far down the road are they gonna go?
How screwed up are they gonna get?
How Calvinist are they gonna get?
How messed up and watered down
is their gospel gonna get?
And how confused are they gonna get?
By listening to a bunch of crusty dead dudes
in dresses that are a bunch of Catholics
and proto-Catholics and quasi-Catholics
and what, you know, it's just,
you know, nuts to it, man.
Nuts to stupid church history.
Hang it, because I'm not in the Catholic Church.
I don't need their history book.
Okay?
And it's like, oh, well, you know,
show me a guy from the eighth century AD
that believes exactly like you.
Well, let's get a time machine and let's go
and I'll show you, bro, I'll find him for you.
Because I guarantee you,
it probably won't even take long to find him.
But we're gonna need a time machine.
You provide the time machine,
I'll go with you and we'll go find him.
But you know what?
Nobody has a time machine to tell me,
oh, bro, just trust me, bro,
everyone was Catholic until 1500s.
Really? I doubt it.
Because you know what?
There's always been the Bible.
There's always been the Holy Spirit.
There's always been people
who just believe what the Bible said
and didn't put on a bunch of wizard suits
and just larping all day as, you know,
some kind of a wizard sorcerer, priest, father,
pope, cardinal, blue jay, whatever.
Oh, I'm getting into church history.
Getting really into theology.
And look, you know what theology is?
Theology is basically worldly philosophy
being foisted onto the Bible.
It's basically Greek philosophy
that goes back to Aristotle and the like
being superimposed over the Bible.
What could possibly go wrong?
Some pagan, unsaved guy who's burning in hell,
Aristotle, putting his views on the Bible, you know?
I don't need it, my friend.
But you know, the Roman Catholics
of the Middle Ages were just all,
for like a thousand years,
just cuckoo for cocoa puffs about Aristotle.
Sometimes they just call him the philosopher
because he's just like,
he's just the only one that matters to them.
Turns out he was wrong about everything.
And you know, here's the thing.
If you study science
and you read about the history of science,
you're always gonna start by talking about Aristotle
when you talk about the history of science.
And you know, you gotta give Aristotle some credit
that, you know, he was like, you know,
the first guy to do a lot of stuff
that we have a record of
of like biology and science and everything.
You know, so hey,
somebody's gotta start the ball rolling.
I'm not saying he was a dummy,
but guess what?
He turned out to be wrong about virtually everything.
Because he was kind of just shooting from the hip
and he wasn't doing the scientific method.
He's just kind of like, well, this makes sense to me.
And it was just kind of bro science
that he was doing before it was cool.
You know, BC was bro science,
you know, is what the B stands for.
And so he was doing all this stuff.
And then when the scientific revolution happened
is when people started questioning Aristotle
and saying like, wait a minute,
Aristotle is claiming that this is why things fall
and that heavier things are falling faster and everything.
But then people are actually just going in high buildings
and dropping things and seeing that heavy things
and light things are pretty much falling at the same speed.
And that's not what Aristotle said was gonna happen.
And they start rolling balls down ramps
and they started actually testing Aristotle's theories
and finding out that, you know, hey,
good job for kind of starting the process,
but turns out you're kind of wrong about everything.
Okay, well, guess what?
It's not that Aristotle was just wrong
about everything scientifically.
Turns out he was wrong about everything spiritually too.
You know, so just as Isaac Newton
and Galileo and Johannes Kepler and everything,
you know, had to throw out the ideas of Aristotle
and get rid of all that baggage of those preconceived ideas
in order to actually do real science
and bring us into our modern high-tech world.
You know, we as Christians also had to,
in the 1500s, 1600s, throw out a bunch of stupid philosophy
from Aristotle and theology from the Roman Catholic Church
and go back to basics and start rolling the Bible,
not rolling the Bible down the ramp,
rolling a ball down a ramp by actually going to the Bible,
going to the source
and actually figuring out what the Bible says
and not just relying on a bunch of, you know,
thick-robed scholars to tell us what it means.
You know, the Bible flat-out says we need not
that any man teaches us.
The same, as the same anointing teaches us of all things
and his truth and his no lie,
even as it had taught us, you shall abide in him.
And so here's the thing is that, yeah,
false prophets are not gonna deceive us
into just full-blown joining a false religion,
but you know what, false prophets can deceive us
into believing stupid doctrines like divine simplicity,
Calvinism, dispensationalism, or whatever,
and make us ineffective for Christ.
Cause we get down some weird rabbit trail.
Next thing you know, we're geeking out
with a bunch of, you know, Calvinists
and we're not zealous, hellfire and damnation,
Baptists anymore when it's sold to Christ.
We're a bunch of crusty theologians
and you know, we're just navel gazing
and just kind of preaching to the choir all day.
You know, that's what the devil wants, man.
The devil wants to get us one way or the other
and so he would love to just deceive us
into believing something stupid.
And by the way, one of the biggest false doctrines
that Baptists get sucked into
and even saved Christians
could get a little bit sucked into this
is this whole repent of your sins for salvation doctrine.
You know, instead of just teaching
that salvation is by faith alone, right?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that shall be saved.
It becomes, well, you have to repent of your sins
and so, you know, I don't know, man,
I don't know if you're really sorry
for the sins you've been doing
cause you're still doing them.
You're still thinking about doing them, you know?
And then it becomes like a thinly veiled work salvation.
Now again, people that are all the way into this,
I do think are typically unsaved
when they're telling you that to be saved
you have to turn over a new leaf,
turn from your sins, turn from your wicked way.
But I've seen a lot of saved people
get a little bit screwed up in this,
partially screwed up in this, okay?
And then sometimes later they'll come back and get it right.
But I've seen a good man of God go through a phase
where he was wrong on this for years
and then come back and get it right again.
I don't think he was unsafe.
It's just that there was a guy
who crept into the church
and he was pushing this doctrine
and the guys of the devil.
Push in this false doctrine
and getting people in the church
onto this repent of your sins kick
and then everybody's getting resaved
and everybody's confused
and nobody knows what is clear of the gospel anymore.
Unfortunately, I do think that it is possible
for saved people to get mixed up on these things.
And how effective are you gonna be at soul winning
if you're confused on the gospel?
Step one to being an effective soul winner
is getting solid on what you believe about salvation.
And by the way, the more time
you spend out there on the front lines
actually doing the soul winning,
the more solid you'll stay on salvation.
So you get solid on salvation,
then you go out and start preaching that message
with authority, with confidence,
with boldness in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And then it just, you know, you're gonna be super solid
because you're a doer of the work.
You're not gonna forget what you've learned.
So that's what the devil wants to do
through false prophets is to deceive us
into believing false doctrine.
He says in verse number 15 here,
it says, actually it's finished verse 14,
it says beguiling unstable souls.
That was what I was just ranting about
for the last five or 10 minutes.
The beguiling unstable souls,
people aren't solid on doctrine.
He can get them mixed up on things like dispensationalism,
Calvinism, you know, whatever,
and get them into church history and church fathers,
and theology and philosophy.
And he gets them goofed up on these things
and gets them ineffective.
Beguiles the unstable souls.
It says in heart, they've exercised
with covetous practices, cursed children,
which have forsaken the right way
and are gone astray following the way of Balaam,
the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
So a lot of these people humanly speaking
are in it for the money.
Teaching things which they ought not
for filthy lucre's sake.
We know Judas Iscariot,
who was later possessed by Satan himself,
was literally stealing money from the offering plate.
And so there you go.
Verse 18, for when they speak great swelling words of vanity,
they allure through the lust of the flesh,
through much wantoness,
those that were clean escape from them who live in error.
And boy, does this not describe so much preaching today
where they say so much without saying anything?
I mean, have you ever listened to these 30 minute sermons
and you're like, what was said?
Like how can you talk that much
and get no point across?
Great swelling words.
What does that mean?
It means that it's been stretched.
It reminds me of when we were newly married
and we bought Parmesan cheese and to our horror,
we started putting it on the food.
We're like, man, this cheese is bland.
Why is it so bland?
And then we started to read the fine print
and we found that there was flour in it.
But they called it something else.
What did they call it?
Do you remember?
Cellulose or something.
They give it some fancy name.
What they're doing is
they're mixing the Parmesan with flour.
So you're putting the cheese on
but you're also just putting tasteless white powder
on your food so that way they can just use half the cheese
that they wanna give you
and you're shaking the Parmesan onto your plate
and it's not Parmesan because it's been stretched.
You know, it probably had sawdust in it too.
That's probably the cellulose, if you think about it.
I mean, cellulose could be any plant material, I guess,
right?
I mean, who knows what they're putting in there
but whatever it is, it's not cheese.
And so the thing is, a lot of these sermons
are filled with flour and sawdust
and you're not getting the Parmesan that you want.
You know, and then we started being really careful,
looking for the 100% Parmesan.
No fillers.
How wicked is that?
And you hear about them taking like, it's wicked!
Taking like a chicken breast
and they literally get syringes full of salt water
and they're just injecting salt water into the chicken breast
to just inflate it, just to swell it up
and then these sermons will have like one Bible verse
and then it's just like salt water
just being injected into it.
Cellulose, just all filler, all fluff,
just being totally stretched and inflated.
You know, it's like that bag of chips and you open it
and it's just like a few chips in the bottom
and then there's a little fine print.
Hey, this product's packaged by weight, not by volume.
Then why'd you put it in a box like 10 times the size
of what's in it, right?
They put it in a big, giant box.
Little bag of food in the bottom, you know?
It's like the pinnows and cheese at Taco Bell
and you look at the bottom, it's up on stilts.
They don't want you, you don't get that little bit
of beans that they owe you.
We could go on all day, but here's the thing.
I wanna go to a church where I'm actually
getting the nutrition.
If I'm gonna listen to a 60 minute sermon,
I want 60 minutes of actual teaching, doctrine,
Bible verses, applications, examples.
I wanna walk away with a full stomach
and I don't want to be full of cellulose.
Stuff that's just gonna go out the draft, man.
I want the nutrients.
I want the protein, the carbs, the fat, the vitamins.
Give me something real.
But they just great swelling words of vanity.
I mean, that is basically describing probably 99%
of preaching that's out there.
Great swelling words of vanity.
And they allure through the lust of flesh
because it sounds good, they tell stories
and they make it sound good,
but they're not actually telling you what they believe.
They're not hammering down any doctrine about salvation
or about how the church is supposed to work,
how we're supposed to live our lives, right and wrong.
You just wonder, man, how can you talk for so long
and say so little?
Let's move on to the third and final point.
Go if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
The devil's angels tonight, right?
Number one, the devil's angels are literal demons, right?
You already knew that.
I mean, that's easy, right?
But number two, the devil's messengers,
because that's what angels means.
The devil's tidings bringers,
the devil's messengers are also false prophets
because they're bringing the devil's message.
They're his messengers.
False prophets are also the devil's angels.
And then point number three is this.
There are thorns in the flesh that we have as Christians
that the Bible literally calls, quote, the messenger of Satan.
Look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12
verse seven, unless I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan, right?
So another way of saying that would be the angel of Satan
because that's what angel and messenger
mean the exact same thing.
The messenger of Satan to buffet me,
lest I should be exalted above measure,
for this thing I besought the Lord thrice
that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for the,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness,
most gladly therefore will I rather glory
in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me,
therefore I take pleasure in infirmities,
in reproaches, in necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake,
for when I'm weak, then am I strong?
What we have to understand is that all things
work together for good to them that love God
and to them who are the cold according to his purpose.
So even the devil coming after us, attacking us,
it actually ultimately is going to work together
for good to those who love God.
It's hard to believe, but it's true.
So that's why when it says here,
oh, I had this thorn in my flesh
and he doesn't say what it was.
And I think the reason why he doesn't want to say
is because he wants us to relate it
to whatever our thorn in the flesh is
because it's different for everybody.
If his is really specific, we'd be like,
oh, I'm going through something totally different, bro.
You wouldn't get it.
But in reality, the Bible is just saying
the thorn in the flesh, it could be anything.
It could be a physical infirmity.
It could be a relationship thing.
It could be today a financial thing.
It could be a health thing.
I mean, it could be all different things, right?
The thorn in the flesh.
And it says, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.
You know, just it's like the devil
is trying to use this to discourage him, right?
Because we said point one,
what are the demons trying to do?
You know, they're trying to attack us
through unsafe people that are going to betray
and harass and mock and whatever.
And then number two, the false prophets
are trying to deceive us.
Well, these messengers of Satan here,
the thorns in the flesh, they are to discourage us.
The goal is to discourage us, right?
To just wear us down
and where we'll quit and where we'll give up.
But if we're smart, we'll be like the apostle Paul
and say, you know what,
I'm going to look on the bright side of this
because Paul's looking at the messenger of Satan.
I mean, does that sound good, messenger of Satan?
Does that sound like something you want in your life?
No, but Paul is trying to put a positive spin on this
and he's saying, you know,
I have this thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me.
And he says this,
lest I should be exalted above measure.
So he's looking at this as you know what,
I see a positive here, this is keeping me humble.
Because you know what,
if I didn't have this messenger of Satan to buffet me,
if I didn't have this thorn in my side,
if I didn't have this affliction
that I'm being afflicted with,
then you know what, I could get to puffed up.
Because notice what he says in verse seven,
lest I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations.
I mean, look, if you're writing 14 books of the New Testament
and there's only 27 books and you wrote 14 of them,
you might get a little bit puffed up
or exalted above measure
or maybe think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.
So God, through Satan though,
he's actually allowing Satan to do the actual afflicting
because it's not the messenger of God,
it's the messenger of Satan.
God allowed Satan to buffet the apostle Paul
so that he wouldn't get too prideful
so that it could just kind of keep his feet on the ground
and keep, and you know what, here's the thing,
you know, that's why sometimes bad things
happen to good people
is because of the fact that especially
if somebody's gonna be greatly used by God,
you know what, God might have to really hurt that person
or allow Satan to really hurt that person
or just allow them to have some kind of maybe
a physical defect or something
so that basically they wouldn't get too prideful.
And that's why you'll notice
that some of the people that get greatly used by God
will sometimes be defective in some way.
You know, they could be physically defective in some way,
they could be mentally defective some way,
they could be socially defective in some way.
And it's just like, God doesn't typically use perfect people
to do his work
because then they could get all the glory.
Like, oh, well of course this guy's being greatly used
by God, look how awesome he is.
Look at what a physical specimen he is.
Look at what a mental specimen he is.
Look at how he's just the most charismatic, coolest dude.
Look how he's just the most eloquent speaker
of course he's being used.
Then God doesn't really get the glory, does he?
Then it sends the wrong message to people,
hey, you wanna be greatly used by God,
you just have to be super talented.
You just have to be like a Hollywood type.
Wrong, my friend, because God uses the foolish things
of this world to confound the wise.
He used the base things of this world,
the things that are not to set it not to things that are
that no flesh will glory in his presence.
He gets all the glory.
And so the apostle Paul's saying,
look man, I got Boku revelations from God,
therefore God had to take me down a notch.
You know, and it's like I prayed for God
to take away this thorn in my side.
I prayed again, I prayed again.
And he said, you know what?
Just my grace is sufficient for you.
This is something that you just need to just deal with
because it's to keep you humble.
And you know, we could go to the book of Job
and see the same type of thing.
And let's just, we're not gonna go into a huge thing
on the book of Job, but in closing here,
let's just look at, you know, one scripture from Job.
Let's go to Job 23.
Because obviously Job's a long book
and has a lot about this.
But you know, hopefully you know the basic story
of the book of Job is that Job
is the most righteous man upon the planet.
And if you think about it, the apostle Paul
was probably one of the most righteous men on the planet
in his day.
You know, he might have been in the top five,
I would think.
Maybe he's even number one.
You know, some people think he's the greatest
Christian who ever lived.
So he could be, I think easily said to be top five.
So, you know, the apostle Paul is super righteous.
It's not that he's a bad guy,
but the messenger of Satan is sent to buffet him
in order to keep him humble.
Well, the same thing with Job.
Job, the Bible flat out tells us
he is the most righteous man on the face
of the earth at that time.
Because when God introduces him to Satan,
he says there is none like him on all the earth.
A man that fears God and eschews evil.
He's a perfect and upright man.
There's nobody else like Job.
He's, and then Satan begins to falsely accuse Job
and say, hey, the only reason he's serving you
is because everything's going good for him.
He's not serving you for nothing.
Look, you said a hedge about him.
You prospered at everything he does.
Take away his stuff and he'll curse you to your face.
Of course, that's a railing accusation
because, you know, Job was in it for the right reasons
and he never cursed God.
Then of course, Satan loses that bet.
And then basically he comes back to God
and God, you know, says, hey,
you moved me against Job without cause.
And he still has retained his integrity,
even though I allowed you to just hurt him for no reason.
And Satan's like, well, yeah, okay,
but you didn't let me touch his body.
I mean, people will give all their money
for their health.
Let me touch his body and he'll curse you to your face.
And God says, okay, I'll let you do that,
but you can't kill him,
but you can really mess up his body.
Just don't kill him.
And so God just allows Satan to just go crazy on him
and he smites him with boils from the top of his head,
all the way to the sole of his foot.
He's just covered in like itching, oozing,
burning, gross sores, right?
You know what a boil is, obviously.
It's like a pus filled, whatever.
And so basically, you know,
he's just scratching himself and scraping himself
with a pot shirt with like a broken piece of pottery.
He just can't get relief.
He's just in pain and just with the skin disorder
and everything like that.
And of course, you know, Job still retains his integrity,
but look if you would at Job 23 verse eight.
Obviously the book of Job is a lot more complicated
than that.
I'm just giving you a really quick rundown.
But look at 23 eight.
It says, behold, I go forward,
but he's not there and backward,
but I cannot perceive him.
He's saying, man, I don't even,
it's like, where's God?
My God, my God, why is that forsaking me?
It's like, I'm reaching forward, backward.
It's like, God, where are you?
Why have you abandoned me?
On the left hand, where he does work.
So by faith, he knows that God's working,
but he's just like, but I don't see it.
I cannot behold him.
I don't see it.
He highted himself on the right hand
that I cannot see him.
Watch this, but he knoweth the way that I take
when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
And so, Job is trying to see the bright side here
and he's saying, look, man, I can't even see
where God is in all of this.
I feel abandoned by God,
but I just by faith believe that he's there
and that when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold.
So here's the thing.
If you look at the conversation
between God and Satan,
God explicitly says,
you moved me against Job without cause.
Okay, and in fact, I'm gonna read it
just to make sure that I get it right.
He says, although thou movest me against him
to destroy him without cause.
So isn't God saying there's no reason to do this to Job?
He's saying like, you moved me
to do this to him without cause.
He's just doing it to him.
And obviously the reason ultimately is for our instruction
for us to see this example, for us to learn from him.
But I'm saying it's not,
but Job didn't do anything to trigger this
is what he's saying.
When he says, you caused me to do this to him
without cause, he's saying,
Job did not do anything to trigger this.
Job's just living his life,
an upright man, fearing God,
a shoe in evil, doing good.
And Job doesn't understand why it's happening
because there is no answer
because it's not happening
due to anything that Job did.
But he says this.
He says, you know, when I'm tried
I shall come forth as gold.
Job is looking at it and saying, you know what though?
Here's what God's doing.
God is refining me.
God is purging me.
God is trying me
and I'm gonna come out the other side of this thing
a better person.
That's what Job is saying.
Like, when I'm tried,
I'm gonna come forth as gold.
I'm gonna come forth more pure,
stronger, more righteous and better.
He's kind of like Paul in the New Testament
also looking for the bright side,
saying, you know what?
Yeah, the messenger of Satan above me, keep me humble.
Job is saying, hey, at least this is purifying me
and when I'm tried, I'll come forth as gold.
And so this is good for me, ultimately.
And so what we have to see here is
that, yeah, the devil is gonna come at us
with all this stuff,
but it doesn't have to hurt us or destroy us.
Ultimately, all things can work together
for good to those who love God.
So bottom line is this, the devil's angels, okay?
What are they?
First of all, demons,
that's when the demons will use people to persecute us.
Right?
And some of the attacks on us,
some of the persecutions that we go through
are demonic in nature.
You know, otherwise it's kind of even hard
to make sense of it.
Why someone would spend years infiltrating a church?
Why someone would just spend all their time
gnashing on churches with their teeth
and just spend their entire lives
obsessing over the new IFB?
And they probably don't even know why they're doing it.
Like, here's the thing, it makes sense.
It makes sense for us to think about
and talk about the new IFB
because we're in the new IFB.
So it's like, this is our group, these are our friends.
So yeah, I'm gonna spend a lot of time
thinking about my own ministry
and my friends' ministries
and our church and our friends' churches
and the works that we're doing
because it's us.
Because we're the new IFB.
It'd be like an NBA player caring about the NBA
because he's in the NBA, right?
And then he's probably gonna be thinking
a lot about his own team
and he's also gonna be thinking about the opposing teams.
Okay?
That makes sense.
Cause he's a basketball player.
Okay?
Or a basketball fan.
It would make sense for a basketball fan
to be thinking about the team he likes,
the team he doesn't like, whatever.
That makes sense, right?
So it makes sense for the NIFB
to be into all things new IFB
and to even be thinking about enemies of the NIFB,
friends of the NIFB.
But you know what it doesn't make sense?
Is people who are not new IFB,
who've quit the new IFB,
want nothing to do with the new IFB,
but they're still just plugged in to the new IFB.
It'd be like if I just said,
man, I just have no interest in basketball.
I'm sick of basketball.
I hate basketball.
Basketball is my least favorite sport,
but I watch every game.
But I know all the stats.
You like basketball?
No, I hate basketball.
Oh, I hate, you know,
I don't even know who the players are.
You know, the only players I know
is like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird.
Like that's like Shaquille O'Neal.
That's like a long time ago.
And then the only player I know right now is this woman.
Like this, this one.
I know this one.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Okay, what the heck?
You guys need to learn your memes.
Anyway, I know that woman.
But anyway, I don't know the players
cause I'm not into basketball.
Sorry guys, I'm just not a basketball fan.
You know, I don't hate it.
I don't obsess over it.
I don't just, I didn't create a Facebook group
about how much I hate basketball
or something I don't want to play.
I don't stalk basketball players.
You see what I'm saying?
It's like, what sense would that make?
If you love football, then be into football.
Don't be like, well, I love football.
That's why I have to fight basketball all day
and hate basketball and think about basketball.
And look, there are a lot of religions
that I don't approve of.
You know, I think Hinduism's trash, Buddhism's trash.
I think Catholicism's trash.
The Greek Orthodox Church is trash.
You know, I think the Lesbaterians are trash.
I think the United Methodists are trash.
You know, it's like, there's a lot of stuff I don't approve.
But you know what I don't do?
I don't sit around listening
to United Methodist sermons.
I'm not just listening to hours
of Greek Orthodox sermons.
Yeah, you know, I just got to learn Greek
just so that I could like learn more about Greek Orthodox
so I can obsess over it all day, every day.
That'd be super weird.
But you know, why are there these people out there
who listen to all this?
They're listening right now.
Right now, they're literally, they're watching live.
It's soap is our rethink your life choices.
But here's the thing is like,
it's like, why are they obsessing over it?
They don't even know why.
I know why.
Because they're being manipulated by the devil.
Because they're unsaved.
They're walking according to the prince
of the power of the air.
Satan is using them.
Some of them are literally demon possessed.
And others, even if they're not demon possessed though,
they're being influenced maybe more subtly by the devil.
But it's the only way to explain
why someone would go to a church
that they hate for years
where they hate the pastor for years.
I mean, why would somebody just come over to my house
for dinner like every week for months and months and months
and then secretly telling people how they hate me
and I'm crazy and just acting like he's our best friend.
Just hating us, stalking us and spying on us
and trying to like coach our children
to make accusations against it.
Like, that's not normal.
But I understand why it's the devil.
Like, it makes sense.
So you know what?
Here's a little encouragement.
Even if you can't see God working in your life,
at least it's comforting when you can see the devil working.
Because then you at least know something's happening.
And you know, I talked to people before that said,
because like Job, he couldn't see God working
but he saw the devil working.
So he's like, God's real.
And you know what?
I remember one time I talked to this guy
and he said, well, I got saved
because I started realizing the devil is real.
And then I was like, if the devil's real, God must be real.
And then he's like, Jesus must be the son of God.
And then he just got saved.
I mean, it kind of makes sense.
It's a logical thing.
Because there's so many things in the world
that would make no sense unless the devil's real.
And there's so many things in our lives
that wouldn't make sense except the devil's real.
And if the devil's real, God's real, okay?
And so here's the thing.
Sometimes God, we reach at the left hand, right hand,
but we can't find him, but we know by faith
that he's there, that he's working.
And then we see the devil working
and we're like, that's a fulfillment of scripture.
You know, it's comforting.
And so the point is that, yeah,
the demons are gonna be prompting people to persecute us.
You know, I don't know, throwing improvised
explosive devices through the window or whatever they do.
I don't think they would ever do that,
but you know, lesbians stealing your personal van
or whatever, you know, I mean, I just made that up.
No, I'm just kidding.
But then also false prophets are gonna be used
to try to trick us, deceive us,
get us believing stupid stuff.
And then thirdly, you know,
sometimes God will allow the devil
to really just come at us hard
and give us that thorn in the flesh,
whether it's physical, emotional, financial,
spiritual, relationship, whatever.
And what's the goal of that is to discourage us.
So he wants to persecute us, he wants to deceive us,
he wants to discourage us.
And you know what?
He just wants us to be like, you know what?
I can't anymore.
I'm sick of it.
I'm done.
There's thorn in my side.
I can't take it.
And he wants us to throw in the towel.
But what we've got to do though,
is we've got to be strong
in the Lord and the power of his might.
We've got to have that shield of faith equipped
so that we can quench all those fiery darts
of the wicked.
And we can get through it.
And if we resist the devil,
ultimately he will flee from us.
You know, me personally,
I went through a heavy season of persecution
from like 2009 to like 2014.
And it was like,
before that there wasn't really a ton of persecution, right?
And then it was like this season of persecution
from like 2009 to 2014.
And it was like, I got through it.
And then it was just like,
the devil was just gone, it seemed like.
You know what I mean?
And then it was like 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19.
It's like, it just felt like,
man, we're just able to do so much work for God
without him being persecuted.
But then guess what?
You know, when Jesus was tempted by Satan
in the wilderness,
it says that after he resisted that temptation,
the devil departed it from him for a season.
You know, and so it's like,
you're going to go through seasons in your life
where you're under serious persecution and attack.
And then you're going to go through seasons of peace.
Where things are just peaceful and you're just cruising.
And so, you know, it's not just going to be
all devil attacking all the time.
Cause that would be probably too much
for anybody to handle.
But God will give us seasons of refreshment
and seasons of peace.
And I feel like I had a season of peace like that,
you know, from like around 2015 to like,
you know, 2023.
I would call that like a pretty peaceful.
Now like we could point to things
where the devil tried to creep in
with the oneness crap in 2017
or, you know, different things that happened during that.
I'm not saying it was all a bed of roses,
but I'm saying relatively speaking, it was a bed of roses.
You know what I mean?
Like compared to what came before
and compared to what came after.
And so, you know, that's just life, man.
It's ups is downs.
You got to be steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord.
And I see the pizza back there
and it better be 100% cheese and no fillers.
Let's bards and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
And we thank you so much for the fact
that even in a sermon about the devil and his angels,
we can still take comfort in the fact
that ultimately you have the devil on a leash
and at the end of the day, you are the one in charge
and greater is he that is in us
than he that is in the world.
Help us always keep that in perspective, Lord.
Help us to stay strong and stay in the fight
and keep moving forward in Jesus' name we pray, amen.