Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 But I have not met you yet. My name is Michael fueling and the lead pastor here at the village church about is about two years ago or so. I don't know if you remember, but a good friend of mine and has become a friend of village church, his name's Peter, and he is a Uganda and he oversees an orphanage and a home that sees children rescued from human trafficking. So Peter was here and we had them up on a Sunday morning. And so we had sang, we had done some introductory remarks. And I don't know if you remember Peter got up here and then as soon as he was up here, the fire alarm went off. Okay. So this fire alarm was put in, I believe in the eighties, never, ever, ever, ever once had an issue with this dumb fire alarm. So I'm up here preaching.
Speaker 1 00:00:56 And I know protocol when there's a fire alarm, everyone's supposed to leave, but like in my brain I'm thinking, ah, this is just way too convenient. And I'm watching all the children be brought out into the front doors, into the side doors and they're all going outside. And finally I'm like, all right, everybody let's go outside. And the fire department comes like, we have no idea what's going on. And so they had done something to kind of put it, like, turn it off. And we were debating, should we cancel second service? Like, we're not going to give the devil a victory. Right? So we decided let's come back in for a second. Service, started a little bit late. We seem to gather and we'd do some introductory remarks. Peter gets up. And he's about like, I dunno, a few minutes into his message and what happens.
Speaker 1 00:01:35 The don't fire alarm goes off again. What's interesting is that he was getting up to talk about the children who were sacrificed to which doctors and Uganda, but God had saved and redeemed from that. We had one of them with us, his name was Robert and it was like, it was honestly such a beautiful story. So we had something that night we planned. And so a bunch of you came back and were able to actually hear what God was doing there. And I just want to give you actually a little update. We just got this text and show this picture. If you would, these are all kids that the Ugandan police just brought to Peter's orphanage. And all of them were being either trafficked or radicalized by extreme extremist Muslims. So praise God, like he is up to something. Right? And so here's what I'm kind of expecting.
Speaker 1 00:02:20 We talked to our, we talked to our worship team and we just said, listen, we learned from Peter's ministry. We've learned that when we dabble into the spiritual realm and try to articulate truth and reality and empower the people of God, he doesn't like it. And so I just, we told our worship team, like anything that could go wrong might go wrong and just shake it off. Because if a fire alarm is the worst he's got, I think we're pretty. Okay. So right now, if that's all he can throw at us and if that's the protection that the Lord puts around this. And so I pray that this whole sermon goes very smooth and it's helpful. And I can tell you, my iPad has never acted up once and it's just driving me nuts. I brought my phone with me. I have my notes in that.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 And so again, anything that could go wrong, I just expect will go wrong. And I want to read to you from the book of Ephesians chapter six, verse 11 and 12, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers. And you're wondering like, okay, what kind of rulers against the authorities or what kind of authorities? And then Paul brings clarity here against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against in case you're wondering the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. First Peter chapter five, verse eight, Peter says this, be sober-minded think clearly, be watchful, keep your eyes open your adversary. The devil prowls around like a roaring, even lions seeking someone to devour. So you and I, we were born into a battlefield.
Speaker 1 00:04:09 We didn't choose the battle and like any war civilians, don't get to choose it. But sometimes when the war comes to you, civilians need to fight. And in this war, the moment you'd personally trusted in Jesus Christ, you went right to the front lines and you are called to fight. And it saddens me greatly to say this, but the war is against not just you, but it's against your children. It is against your grandchildren. It is against your best friends. It is against humanity. And the objective is to steal and to kill and destroy. And if you need proof of this, just take a moment and read the news and watch globally. What is happening. Spiritual warfare has actually really striking similarities to cyber warfare. You can't really see it. It relies on trickery and schemes and quite honestly, people that you're never going to see.
Speaker 1 00:05:06 And for the smaller players, some of you have been a victim of this. They try to steal your personal information and exploit you and try to extract money. But for the big players like nations, the aim is the destruction of systems. Because if you can destroy a system or an infrastructure, the fallout is the crippling of an economy and then a nation. And so there's like high strategy in cyber warfare. And in case you're wondering like this is actually happening all around us. And I want to just take a moment to give you categories that there is a war happening right now that probably the vast majority of us have maybe 0.01% knowledge of let me read to you. What has come out just in the month of August of 2021 as to cyber warfare discovered, or that is happening right now. This is just August, 2021, a cyber attack.
Speaker 1 00:06:03 And the government of Belarus is compromised. Dozens of police and interior ministry databases. The hat claims to be a part of an attempt to overthrow president Alexander Lucas Franco's regime, another one, a hijacking hacking group targeted a high profile, Iranian prison, uncovering documents, videos, and images that displayed the violent treatment of its prisoners. Another one discovered a cyber espionage group linked to one of Russia's intelligence forces targeted the Slavic government from February to July of 2021 through spear phishing attempts just discovered clarified August 21, Russia targeted and blocked content on quote smart voting app created by the Kremlin critic. Alexi Nevani can not say his last name and his allies, and tended to organize voting against the Kremlin. And the next month parliamentary elections, August, 2021, T-Mobile suffered a data breach that led to the hacker to access the personal details of over 50 million people. August of 2021 hacks initially attributed to Iran in 2019 and 20 were found to be conducted by Chinese operatives.
Speaker 1 00:07:03 The cyber attack broke into computers across Israel's government and tech companies, August, 2021, and one of the largest cryptocurrency heist, the hacker stole around $600 million from blockchain site poly network. The hacker then returned 340 million directly and transferred 268 million to a digital wallet, jointly controlled by them and Polly network. The funds are inaccessible August, 2021, a cyber attack and the COVID-19 vaccine scheduling website for the Italian region of Lazio forced the website to temporarily shut down. New vaccination appointments were unable to be scheduled for several days after the attack, August, 2021, various Chinese cyber espionage groups are responsible for the hacks of at least five major Southeast Asian telecommunication providers. Beginning in 2017, the attacks were carried out by three different hacking groups and are seemingly unlinked just by all groups, having a connection to Chinese espionage efforts. Go on. That's just August, by the way, have any of you thought about the cyber attacks happening right underneath you globally and even in America over this last month?
Speaker 1 00:08:10 Probably not, but it's real. And the cost is huge. You may not see it. You may not feel it right now, but you're in the middle of a cyber war. And in the future, nations will rise and fall based on their ability to attack and defend on this front. And at the same way, you may not also realize it or feel it or see it, but you are in a spiritual war. And in the future, your ability to thrive spiritually will be dependent on your ability to both attack and to defend against the cosmic powers of this world. So for the writers of scripture, there was no doubt whatsoever that we are in the middle of it, a cosmic, spiritual conflict, and for them, and for us, there are angels and there are demons and all the demon is, is an angel that rebelled against God.
Speaker 1 00:09:01 That's it. And what we learn in the book of revelation is of all the angels, about one third of them rebelled. So if you ever want some good news for every demon, there's two non demons who are fighting for you. We also know, and we see this in scripture that this spiritual war has poured over into the physical realm. The author authors of scripture are convinced as are we that what happens in the spiritual realm affects what happens in the physical realm. And also there are actually physical activities that we do that produce spiritual realities. One of which would be prayer more to come on this and upcoming weeks that as you pray, this very physical, tangible act creates spiritual realities that we can't see. But if you had eyes to see probably all of us would be devoted to prayer in ways that we'd never even possibly imagined.
Speaker 1 00:09:56 So welcome to our series on spiritual war. And so here's some stuff coming up that we're going to be talking about. What are the spiritual rules of engagement next week? We're going to be in one of my favorite texts of scripture, and we're going to get a look behind the curtain to demonic forces controlling and navigating nations globally. It's powerful. It's an awesome text. We're going to be looking at what weapons are forbidden in this war. The devil has a tact method of using things that God forbids and encouraging us to do that as well. What would the weapons are permitted and how do I use them? And when, and how will this war end today? We're going to be addressing is how did we get here? How did we find ourselves in a spiritual war? I don't, I don't want to on the start of this, just assume that, you know, in fact, pastor Craig who preaches at village church east to pastor Alex at Alliance Bible church, we're preaching this together.
Speaker 1 00:10:53 And the three of us learned so much this week, guess what? Pastors don't know everything. And every time I teach, I'm always like, whoa, I didn't know that the Lord is constantly revealing more and more about his word. So today what I want you to walk away with two things, number one, a clear understanding of why, why you're in a spiritual war. I mean, what did you and I ever do to Satan? Right? I was born and he hated me what what's going on here. But number two, I want you to walk away with complete confidence in Christ to the point where if hypothetically Satan manifested himself, physically writing your presence. Yeah. You might have some like, I dunno, fear responses, but you would be unbelievably confident knowing the authority that you have in Jesus Christ. Sound good. All right. Open up your Bibles ex Zeke.
Speaker 1 00:11:46 You'll not accident Zico chapter 28. Now I want, what I want you to do is if you have a Bible or have just a digital Bible, if you could look at Ezequiel 28 with me for a moment, and I want you to notice there's a section and it's verses one through 10, and then chapter two in verse two chapter verses one through 10 are addressed to specifically the prince of Tyre, T Y R E. This is a very real man, a real ruler over a real small nation, just north of Israel and tire was a trade partner with Israel and, and their relationship together, which Israel was not supposed to partner with them, led to rampant idolatry amongst the Israelites, amongst the Jews. So God has words, unkind words for the king of tire. Let me give you an illustration. I want you to imagine that you were able to sit down with and write a letter to the person who introduced your child or grandchild or best friend to their lifelong addiction.
Speaker 1 00:12:54 Would you, would you have words for them? And God has some pretty intense words in verses one through 10 for the prince of Tyre, this ruler over this nation. But then in verses 11 to 19, something shifts, it's no longer written to the prince of tire. It is written to the king of Tyre. And as you go through this text, you're going to quickly realize this is not referring to a man. In fact, this is this whole era of prophetic literature is beginning to show the people of God that behind the physical Kings, there are spiritual Kings. And that what you see in the physical realm is often being manipulated or worked out in the spiritual realm. And so we get to pull back the curtain of this evil place tire. And we actually get a look at the spiritual force behind manipulating and controlling the king of tire.
Speaker 1 00:13:57 Uh, now you're also going to notice in the book of Ezekiel, as well as, by the way, the entire Bible that this evil angel, this king of tire is never identified by name ever not. Once. Now, you might have heard of him called Satan or Lucifer, but what's interesting is we actually have no idea what his true original given name was. In fact, every time he is referred to in scripture, he's referred to by his character, not by his name. So when you, when you actually maybe get to heaven and ask God, what was the devil's name? That's not something that any human knows. Let me give you an example of the character here. Satan. It's actually never just Satan. It's always, the Satan literally means adversary. He's the adversary. He's the capital adversary. He's the first and the biggest adversary. And he was opposing God.
Speaker 1 00:14:59 And he was opposing God's plan. And God's will. The devil is a word that literally means the slanderer because he loves to use lies and deceit and trickery to take someone and bring them low. Jesus called him the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Some of you are like, okay, what about the name, Lucifer? The name Lucifer is a Latin word that got put into the king James version. It was a translation of very simply a bright one or a shining one. It's actually comes from the name of Venus. That's where it really comes from him because he is a bright shining star. And there's a whole bunch of mythology around Venus, which is why that concept was taken. The Lucifer isn't actually his name. In fact, the bright, shiny one refers to before Satan fell the glory that he inherently had, but we still don't actually have a name for him.
Speaker 1 00:15:52 It's almost like to name him would be to dignify him that we just leave him unnamed so that there can be no dignity. Now in verses 11 to 19, God pulls back the curtain of history and he gives I'll be honest, remarkable insight into the origins of our spiritual war. In fact, he takes us all the way back to the garden of Eden. And there are questions that Ezequiel 28 answers implicitly or explicitly that have probably for some of us rattled in our brain, our whole life. For example, why was Satan in the garden in the first place? And it's interesting that we actually get a little bit of a clue about what was happening in the garden. This is the untold story of Genesis three, as told by his EQL chapter 28. So let's, let's look at this chapter 28 verse 11. Let's just learn what started this infernal war.
Speaker 1 00:16:54 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man. Ray's a lamination over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord. So right now we are encountering a personal lamb by Yahweh himself, okay. For the demise and destruction of his most beloved angel, Elaine imitation is a poem written to express extreme grief and sadness. You'll notice in verses one through 10, over the prince of Tyre, there is no limitation. There is just rebuke for the man who causes people to go astray. But then we get to verse 11 of chapter 28. And now we see that the Lord himself grieves over the loss of this angel and Ezekiel 28 has got to tell us one of God's most saddest stories, the fallen demise of his most beloved cherub. So in verse 12, we immediately begin to learn a few things about this chair up.
Speaker 1 00:18:07 He says this, you were past tense, the signet of perfection, specifically full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, full of wisdom and perfect, perfect and beauty. Let's talk about wisdom or beauty. First. There was nothing. The thing, more beautiful in all of creation than this cherub. This was as creations go. The pinnacle of gods creative power, gorgeous stunning unbelief. Well, we're going to watch a little bit of this unfold, but the second thing we learn is that the soon to be devil cherub lacked no wisdom that somehow God infused this angel in with knowledge, with insight, with intuition, with reasoning, with charisma and more, that is good. God stepped back. What he imbued into this angel made him very powerful, not so much because of his inherent power, but even more because of his charisma skills and his knowledge and his wits in his wisdom.
Speaker 1 00:19:26 It's very unlike anything we could probably imagine. So we sat back and we learned just two things off the bat. You have the most stunning, beautiful object and all of creation who had has more intelligence and wisdom next to God, himself in all of creation. In verse 13, we learn a little bit more of his history. Verse 13 says you were in Eden the garden of God. Now, now it's interesting. If you didn't know who the king of tire was, now we're getting a clue. Are we that this is actually the, the, the, the sphere or the angel behind the actual living human king. And he says this, you were in Eden, the garden of God, listen to the description. Every precious, the stone was your covenant covering sardius Topaz and diamond barrel honors, and Jasper Sapphire, Emerald, and carbuncle and crafted in gold where your settings and your engravings.
Speaker 1 00:20:22 I have no idea what this means actually like, is this a metaphor? Is it literal? Or these are the most beautiful and majestic things that the earthly world can imagine. And so this, are you going to look at him and be like, there's Onyx. It's, it's like spiritual Onyx put inside of your body. Whatever it is, it is striking. It is beautiful. But there's the third thing we learn here. And this is maybe where some of your narrative of Satan might need to be adjusted just a little bit in the garden of Eden. This soon to be devil had not fallen yet. Why was he there?
Speaker 1 00:21:02 We know that God created all things. Doesn't it kind of feel weird to you that the Lord says I'm going to go for a walk. Satan, have a talk with Adam and Eve. Doesn't that kind of feel a little bit strange. Here's what he says. In verse 13, he goes on on the day that you were created, they we're prepared all of this beauty, all of these beautiful stones, the engravings, and he's placing him in the garden. Beautiful, created stunning wise, but we learned another thing. Number four of the devil was created, which limits him and knowledge, power space, and time. We're going to unfold more of his story, but I need you to see some things about the angel himself. Knowledge. Satan only knows what he has been given in creation or learned. So some people have this idea that he can read your mind, and he has all this information and knowledge.
Speaker 1 00:22:01 Is he very smart. We're going to go with yam and you have thousands of years of accrued history and learning. You're probably going to be pretty smart, but is he omniscient? Definitely not. Does he know things that he cannot observe? No. Can he read your mind? There is zero evidence that the evil one can read mind power. He is limited to the powers of an Archangel, which in future sermons, we're going to look at some of the ways that he's able to use his power, but it's greatly limited. And because I need you to hear this because you are a follower of Jesus. You have the spirit of Christ. And first John can say greater is he who is in you than he, who is in the world. He's limited in space, meaning he can only be in one place at one time in the book of job, Satan comes up to God.
Speaker 1 00:22:58 They have a conversation and God says, where were you? And he says, roaming to and fro throughout the earth. It's not like he can see everything all at once. In fact, we know that he is tied to any given specific location at any given time. Finally, number three is our forest time. Satan exists in linear space and time with all the limitations of all other created beings. Only God exists outside of space and time. So you have to put him in a box, just like you're in a box. You're in a box of limited knowledge, limited power. You live in space and you live in time. And so is he for some, for some reason, I think we may have it in our brains that he's sort of like comparable to Jesus. Like, remember that Carmen song way back in the day when like Jesus and terrible illustration, like, like there's really actually no match.
Speaker 1 00:23:45 Jesus is eternal. God eternally preexistent. Satan is a created being. Jesus is the one who actually created him by the words of his mouth. So verse 14, we go back here and Ezekiel 28 goes on. He says, you were still talking about the context here is in the garden. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God. This is referring probably to the throne room. You had access in the midst of the stones of fire, probably referencing the angels, but we're getting this really interesting imagery here. The point is he had full access. He had great responsibility and he says, he walked in the midst of the stones of fire, but then verse 15, it takes a really ugly turn. He says you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found
Speaker 2 00:24:46 In you.
Speaker 1 00:24:48 So the picture that they're drawing for us is that Satan is in the garden, stunning, beautiful why's responsible, full access to God, to the angels. And also to humanity later, we learned that all angels were created for a number one reason, which is to worship God. And number two is to serve the people of God. So we know that he has access to people. We know he has access to God. We know he's beautiful in Genesis chapter three, verse one, here's what it says. The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field. The Lord God had made. This literally means wise smart cunning, which would you not expect of this angel? Um, Eve had no reason to doubt him. In fact, there's I think a great approach to Genesis three. That's actually not by the way knew is that Genesis three. Isn't just the story of the fall of Adam and Eve.
Speaker 1 00:25:51 It's the story of the fall of Satan. So in our brain, we have it that he had already rebelled before that moment. And in fact it's pretty like consistent historically that this probably also is the story of his fall. Well, if that's the case, you've wondered, like why would Eve have felt so easily? Well, Satan was a chair of made to worship God and serve humanity. She would have no reason to doubt him now. Here's, what's also interesting. He's called a serpent in your brain. What do you think of when you think of the word serpent, a snake, of course you do. We all do because every picture that we've ever ever read says that. And I'm not saying he wasn't, but do you know that serpent is a broad term? Number one, it means any kind of reptile. Let me show you another place in the book of Isaiah, where the word serpent is used, and it's going to refer to actually a very different creature than a snake.
Speaker 1 00:26:45 It says this in that day, the Lord with his hand, this is Isaiah 27 1 with his hand, with his heart and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan. The fleeing serpent Leviathan, the twisting serpent. And he will slay the dragon that is in the seat. Just use the word dragon, put that in your mind for a moment, hold it Leviathan, which is a huge serpent of the sea. Great and terrible comes up all throughout scripture. Everybody is petrified of it. It's tongue. Apparently according to job is massive. And we already know this. There are massive sea creatures, et cetera, but this one apparently had the ability to scare men, but also live in the sea. And this is called a serpent. He's also called similarly a dragon. You fast forward, you go to the book of revelation and just listen to how they speak of Satan.
Speaker 1 00:27:36 The great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent. It's interesting because he calls it a dragon, which not literally dragon as we think of dragons. It's a metaphor of that time. But when you think of something in size and scope in our brain, we just think of a little snake. Maybe it's a gardener. Say maybe it's a Python. We don't know, but the word serpent all throughout the old Testament often refers to actually bigger reptiles that are actually petrifying to people after the fall that great dragon was thrown down. That ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. What does this even mean? It is a very Orthodox reading of this to say he probably wasn't a snake. As we think of snakes, he was probably stunning and beautiful.
Speaker 1 00:28:26 There was something about him that Eve was not concerned about. Like if he had already fallen, I mean, there's this sense that she would have some kind of awareness. He had full access to her without the presence of God. Have you ever considered that? Maybe it was a large serpent. In fact, the word serpent in Israel, understanding of Jewish understanding when they pictured angelic realms, it was actually angels. They were almost always a serpent of some sorts. Did you know that, that that's a very common understanding for the Jews as they describe serpents, that angels are described as serpents. Now, snake get that out of your brain. So this is an interesting like paradigm here that Hmm. Maybe, maybe, yeah. In the garden. This is the story of the fall of not just Adam and Eve, but also the fall of Satan. So this goes on.
Speaker 1 00:29:18 I wait to remember, let's go back to Exodus chapter 28. And when you look at verse 16, he says, this is all happening in the garden, by the way, according to the Zico. So I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, meaning you were kicked out of the very presence of God, which in the garden of Eden was the garden of Eden. And I destroyed you. Oh, guardian cherub from the midst of the stones of fire from all of the angels, I destroyed you. And I cast you out verse 17. He says this, I cast you to the ground, which is definitely describing what happens in the curse. In Genesis three. I exposed you before Kings to face their eyes on you. So I brought fire out from your midst. It consumed you. And I turned you into ashes on the earth, in the sight of all who saw you.
Speaker 1 00:30:10 If you guys ever heard the word Sarah, from this, it means the burning ones it's actually comes from a word that means serpent. And so he talks about this burning one, if you will. And he says, the fire came out of you. I brought fire out from your midst. It consumes you that the very fire, the very Sarah from the very burning one inside of you, the very thing that lit you up was used to now consume you all who know you among the peoples are appalled at you. You have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever. And what we learn is that in the garden where this is taking place consistent with Genesis three, that he was cursed. He was cursed to the ground and he was made a mockery in his beauty and his splendor and his glory were taken to nothing.
Speaker 1 00:30:57 And he became physically the living depiction of his inner character, which is reprehensible to all who saw him. So how does this even happen? So my bigger question for the garden is not, was he fallen before the garden or did he fall in the garden? That's actually not my big question. You can actually disagree on that. It's very interesting. How is equal 28 frames? This, my question is different. How do you, in the presence of God, rebel, how do you in the presence of the most beautiful, majestic, entertaining, engaging, mesmerizing thing, God, in all of the universe, how do you look at that and say, I'm going to go off on my own and do my own thing. Verse 17 tells us your heart was proud because of your beauty. God hates pride, okay? Because pride corrupts everything. It touches. If you ever tried to argue with a prideful person, thank you. That was the greatest response. Have you heard that over there? Oh,
Speaker 3 00:32:13 They're delusional. There is no logic. There is no rationale. There is nothing coherent.
Speaker 1 00:32:21 It's like their brain has been given over to stupidity and then they make decisions by they. I mean, me and you and everyone else who's ever had a spirit of pride. We make decisions that clearheaded us would never make pride. You. And what's interesting here is he goes on to verse 17 and he says, you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. And by the multitude of your iniquities in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. The very place you were to serve the garden of Eden. The presence of God on earth. The garden of Eden Eden was the physical and the spiritual world converged in one. It's the new worth, the new worth having comes to earth and there's one physical place. And the resurrection later on in the future, this was it before sin where God and his throne dwelled on earth with people.
Speaker 1 00:33:20 This was that he says you were in the garden of Eden. You were in the very presence of God before the spiritual and the physical had some kind of separation because of sin. You profaned the sanctuary that you were called to lead in, you were called to worship me. You were created to minister to these people and you, you took this sanctuary and you made a mockery of it. You did the app's absolute opposite of what you were created, designed and commissioned to do pride made the devil delusional and delusional people or angels do dumb things. What's interesting. It seems that the Lord just gave him over to his sin completely as image bearers as people, whether you are a Christian or not, it takes a lot for God to give people completely over to their sin. But it seems that for the evil one that God gave him over and he made his physical appearance as ugly as his inner appearance and gave him over to all of his darkness.
Speaker 1 00:34:27 Okay. So how did we get here? Number one, God created remarkable spiritual beings to worship him and to serve the people of God, a spiritual being whom we don't know his name. You know him as the devil that serpent of old, the Serafin that cherub the slander, he rebelled something about his pride, made him think he could go off on his own. Maybe his pride made him so dumb to think that in a fight between him and Jesus, he could actually win a third of the angelic realm, followed him and a violent cosmic battle ensued. And we're going to, we're going to talk a little bit later about what his actual spiritual conflict look like, like do angels and demons have spiritual swords and their spiritual blood, right? We'll talk about that. But a violent cosmic conflict began and because the spiritual always overflows into the physical, we're experiencing the by-product of this war.
Speaker 1 00:35:34 Now you might have a thousand questions if I were so it, I, and we're going to dig deeper into this. The more and more we go on throughout these weeks, but let's share some. So what's number one, the devil's end is certain. And it's hell. I want you to notice that there was never a second chance for the angels who rebelled Adam and Eve knew the consequences. If they rebelled and it would stand to reason. And I think it's consistent to say that the devil and his angels knew the consequences. If they rebelled, how many of you have known the consequences? And you were still rebelled anyways, everybody good? But there was no second chance for this. There was no opportunity for redemption. In fact, Matthew 25 tells us this 25 41 about the creation of hell. It says this. Then he, our way will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Speaker 1 00:36:34 That hell itself was created as a disciplinary action against the devil and his angels. And they knew this I'm confident. They knew this. So as we stand on this side of the cross, we have just incredible revelation given to us about the nature of the war what's going on. But here's what I want you to take away from this victory has already been accomplished for everyone. Who's placed their faith in Christ. So we already know how this whole thing ends. That 2000 years ago, victory was accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so we already know he is defeated. We already know his end is certain, and we are waiting for Jesus to come back and to finish this once and for all. And here's what we know every single day that God waits because I'm often like Lord, what's taking you so long.
Speaker 1 00:37:31 Every single day he wait, wait, it's more and more people are coming to faith in Jesus. And so we wait as God's patient plan unfolds in his timeframe throughout history. And yet when it, when it culminates, when history comes to his conclusion, we know exactly where the devil and his angels are going to be forever because of their rebellion. And it will be in hell no. So what number two, Christian, I want to encourage, you never fear. The devil James four seven says this submit yourselves, therefore to God resist the devil. And he will flee from you. Hypothetically, the evil one has the ability to manifest themselves in front of you and you are face to face. And of course your heart is going to be a little faster, right? That's going to happen probably that's instinctual. When you see some kind of angelic being, but here's, here's, God's advice to you. Stand firm don't move. He can do nothing to you. In fact, according to the spiritual laws of the universe, if you resist him, he is required to flee. Think about the word flee. Have you ever fled anything? If you're a broken into something and fled, heard the cops coming and fled, right? That's fleeing.
Speaker 1 00:38:55 Oh, just me. Different story to filtration on time ago or two weeks. I'm kidding. But I love this. There is a law. If you stand firm that greater is he who is in you than he, who is in the world. So we get this backwards. And if you've been around for a little while, you're listening to any of our digital media, you've probably heard me say this, Christians get this all inverted. We try to resist sexual immorality and flee the devil. And that is actually not the prototype. The command is this flee sexual immorality and resist the devil it's backwards. And so I've got great news for you. You do not need to be afraid, even, even if he orchestrates people against you, you do not need to be afraid because greater is he using you than he was in the world. And if for some reason, God gives those people permission to take your life. The moment you stand firm for Christ and you see him, face-to-face I promise you this. You will have no regrets greater is he who's in you that he used in the world. And finally, my last, so what is, you can switch sides if you're not on God's team yet.
Speaker 1 00:40:18 So if you're hearing, you've never trusted in Christ. I want to read a passage of scripture to you. That explains a little bit about the spiritual realm that you are the spiritual team that you're a part of. And the book of Colossians chapter one, verse 12. He says this give thanks to the father's. Talking to Christians who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. We're born into the war. We are born into sin from the beginning. We have been separated by God, out of the domain of darkness, a slave to sin. And yet God offers you the opportunity to switch sides, to be transferred out of the domain of darkness, into the domain of his beloved son of the domain of light.
Speaker 1 00:41:08 And that does not happen by the accrual of good works. It does not happen because you're really good looking. It doesn't happen because you're popular. It doesn't happen because you're here. It doesn't happen because your parents were Christians and happens because you personally have made a decision to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. So that is a decision you want to make today. I want to encourage you to do it because the end is already finished. We know his end, and we already know the end for all of those who refuse to trust in Christ. It's the same place hell created for the devil and his angels. But you are given the opportunity to switch teams through faith in Jesus Christ. And I wanna encourage you right now. If you have never, ever made the decision to personally trust in Christ. Do you know when the best day to do it is today, today, if you hear his voice, if you sense that you need to personally trust in Christ, I want to invite you and you will be given the holy spirit and for the rest of all of eternity, you can say, say greater is he who is in me than he, who is in the world.
Speaker 1 00:42:11 And you can truly be fearless. This could be your story through faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:42:19 And so in communion, we remember that on the cross, Jesus crushed death, sin, and Satan. We remember we're going to partake in just a moment here, but I want you to invite you as you partake. Would you just be filled with gratitude that you have been set free from all of his weapons, Sen the arrows. He throws at you how death everywhere. One of them have been overcome by Jesus and you are victors in him because of the blood of Jesus Christ. So if you're here, you have never been with us before. Maybe you're visiting. If you have personally trusted in Jesus, join us with in communion. If you have never trusted in Christ before we want to ask that you not participate. Because when you partake of communion, you're making a declaration that you are on Jesus's team. You're in the kingdom of light that you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead that is coming back.
Speaker 1 00:43:23 You believe that salvation is not by the accrual of good works, but their faith in Christ alone. And if that's a decision you want to make today, though, I want to invite you. As we partake of communion, you are free to partake with us. If you have decided today to trust in Jesus. And as you partake of communion, this is your first declaration that you believe. And as you partake of this, I want you to remember you have victory only through Jesus Christ. So how we do this as over to my left, there's a beam. There's communion elements there. If you didn't get them, when you walked in over to my right as another beam, and then in the back between the double doors, there are more elements. We're gonna have a ton of silence. This is an opportunity just for you to pray and talk to God and relish in the victory that has been given to you through Jesus. And then we're going to sing. And during the song I want to invite you, you can go back at any time or in the moment of silence to go get elements. And then after the song, I'm going to read some scripture and we'll partake together. Let's have a time of silence with the Lord.
