I cut myself, my arm in a farm
accident, left quite a scar on my shoulder
and for whatever stupid reason, I don't know,
I told my son, I suppose I wanted
him to think maybe I would ramble or
something and told him I cut myself in
a knife fight when I was in the
military service.
I was jumped on down in the Panama
Canal.
Now it was half-truth, I really was
jumped upon, but I really kind of stretched
it a little bit and I suppose I
wanted my son to think more of me.
I really felt sick about that, I was
years and years ago and one day I
sat down when my son was about 12
or so and I said, Carl, you know,
I told you this thing, it really wasn't
true and I just felt I couldn't live
with that discrepancy between myself and my son.
The reason is that I realized how important
it is for every Christian to own that
truth and to speak that truth and to
live the truth.
The only thing a Christian ever has to
admit to is the truth.
It's not something we should be afraid of.
It's the most liberating agent in our life
and if we can get the whole church
to walk in the light and to speak
the truth and love, we will eliminate most
of the problems.
We'll take the strategy of Satan right out
of his hand.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of cover-up and
hypocrisy and lies that go on in the
name of Christianity.
And brothers and sisters in Christ, this ought
not to be.
We are the pillar and the support of
the truth and we ought to proclaim it,
live it, believe it, and incorporate it into
our lives.
If there are secret meetings going on in
your church, if you've got leadership covering up
things that have taken place, you're in the
league with the kingdom of darkness.
He's the father of lies.
And the only way that we're going to
overcome that father of lies is to choose
the truth and choose it in our mind,
speak it, and live it.
The next thing we do is we put
on the breastplate of righteousness.
That's not our righteousness.
That's Christ's righteousness.
My righteousness is like a dirty rag.
That's what stands up against the accuser of
the brethren.
Then we shod our feet with the preparation
of the gospel of peace.
I encourage you to be a peacemaker.
Beatitude says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called sons of God.
Anybody can divide a fellowship.
It takes the grace of God to bring
that sense of unity and to bring children
of God together to become one and complete
in Christ.
While some may argue, I like to play
the devil's advocate.
My question is, why?
He doesn't need our help.
He's doing a great job all by himself.
Let's be peacemakers.
Let's unite the church together.
If we could just memorize and put into
practice just one verse in Scripture, Ephesians 4
.29, let no unwholesome word proceed out of
your mouth, except for that which gets edification
according to the need of the moment, that
you may give grace to the hearer.
Imagine, we have the capacity to give grace
to the hearer.
But boy, if we let that unwholesome word
come out, and we're part of the wrecking
crew instead of part of the building crew,
the next verse says we will grieve the
Holy Spirit of God.
It grieves God to see his children put
down one another, when the whole thrust of
the New Testament is to build up one
another.
Let's be peacemakers.
Let's put on the gospel of peace and
take up the shield of faith.
Get this out of the mystical.
That's just what you believe.
Everybody has tempting thoughts.
Everybody has accusing thoughts.
Even the best of people can be deceived.
And the only way to stand up against
that is to put up that shield of
faith, to know what is true, to know
what you truly believe.
And what you believe has to be the
truth according to the Word of God.
And then put on that helmet of salvation.
You don't keep putting that on.
You just wear all the rights and privileges
that you have as a child of God.
You work out your salvation in fear trembling.
It's already there.
Choose to live it and believe it.
Then finally it says, with all prayer and
petition, pray all at all times in the
Spirit.
Now, there's a lot to be said here,
but truth of the matter is, people, Romans
8.26 says we don't know how or
what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit
does, and He intercedes with us.
Withdrawal is too deep for us to understand.
He helps us in our infirmities.
That word helps is a beautiful scriptural word.
It's soon anti-lumbinal.
It's two prepositions strung before the word take.
It means this, that He bears us up.
He takes us over to the other side.
The prayer that God the Father answers is
the prayer that God the Holy Spirit prompts
us to pray.
And the answers will always be there.
Learning to pray by the Spirit is an
important part of our Christian package.
Then before that it says, take the word
of God, which is the sword of the
Spirit.
Now let me point out something here.
The word of God, in the Greek language,
there are two words that we translate as
word in our English language.
One is logos.
That's the most common one.
When the word became flesh and dwelt amongst
us, He's talking about the logos there.
The word that's used here is rhema.
Now understand, there's only one word of God.
God doesn't have a separate word because it's
spoken.
But the emphasis here is more on the
proclamation of that same word.
That's why in Romans chapter 10, he talks
about the fact that how will they hear
unless a preacher is sent?
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the rhema,
the word of God.
And the idea there is that we proclaim
that word of God.
And they use the word rhema here, I
think, for a very special reason.
The reason is that Satan is under no
obligation to obey our thoughts.
Because he primarily, he doesn't totally or perfectly
know our thoughts.
Well, if he can put thoughts into my
mind, why can't he read them out?
Well, I've been sharing thoughts with you now
for some time, but I can't really read
your mind.
You'd have to share with me what's going
on inside.
But he sure seems to know our thoughts.
Well, two explanations.
One is I could observe you for a
period of time and pretty well ascertain what
you're thinking.
Because by and large, over time, we will
out our thought life.
Now he has that advantage.
And so if he's crafty and he's clever
like scripture assures us that he is, he's
a far better psychologist than I would ever
hope to be.
And so he pretty well understands human behavior.
And so he can pretty well guess what's
going on in your mind.
And accurately to the point where we think
it's supernatural.
And secondly, and more subtly, it's not hard
to tell you what you're thinking if I
gave you the thought.
So certainly he has that advantage.
What we have to do is to learn
to speak out against that kind of opposition.
The idea is if you believe in your
heart and confess with your mouth Jesus is
Lord.
Now the Lord doesn't know that, need to
know that.
He knows the thoughts and intentions of my
heart.
So he knows when I trust in him,
believe in him, communicate with him.
But the devil doesn't necessarily know that.
The interesting part about this is, is that
every occultic activity that I know of will
somehow claim that they have knowledge about the
future and about your mind.
One or the other or both.
But neither does the devil know perfectly.
But you are tapping into some supernatural power
here that has an ability beyond human understanding.
And so therefore it will appear is that
he can perfectly orchestrate and know the future
or know the thoughts in your mind.
But he doesn't really know that perfectly.
So we have been encouraged by God to
put on that armor of God.
The reason is, is because to a certain
extent we are vulnerable.
To illustrate that we are vulnerable, I got
a call from a pastor who is a
former student of mine.
And he said that we just desperately need
your help.
This missionary that we've been dealing with has
been seeing her psychiatrist or psychologist and myself
once a week just to hold her life
together.
And so I came out one Friday afternoon.
We spent about three or so hours together.
Two and a half months later I received
this letter.
Dear Neil, I've been wanting to write to
you for a while now.
But I've waited this long to confirm to
myself that this is truly for reals as
my four and a half year old daughter
says.
I'd like to share an entry from my
journal.
I wrote this two days after our meeting.
Since Friday afternoon I have felt like a
different person.
The fits of rage and anger are gone.
My spirit is so calm and full of
joy.
I wake up singing praise to God in
my heart.
That edge of tension and irritation is gone.
I feel so free.
The Bible has been really exciting and stimulating
and more understandable than ever before.
There was nothing dramatic that happened during the
session on Friday.
Yet I know in the deepest part of
my being that something has changed.
I am no longer bound by accusations, doubts,
and thoughts of suicide or murder or other
harm that came straight from hell into my
head.
There is a serenity in my mind and
spirit, a clarity of consciousness that is profound.
I've been set free.
I'm excited and expectant about my future now.
I know that I'll be growing spiritually again
and will be developing in other ways as
well.
I look forward happily to the discovery of
the person God has created and redeemed as
well as the transformation of my marriage.
It is so wonderful to have joy after
so long darkness.
Well it's been two and a half months
since I wrote that and I'm firmly convinced
of significant benefits of your ministry of freedom
in Christ.
I've been in therapy for several months and
while I believe I was making progress there
is no comparison with the steps I'm able
to make now.
My ability to process things has increased manyfold.
Not only is my spirit more serene, my
head is actually clearer.
It's easier to make connections and integrate things
now.
It seems like everything is easier to understand
now.
My relationship with God has changed significantly.
For a number of years, eight, I'd felt
that he was distant from me.
Shortly before I met you I was desperately
crying out to him to set me free,
to release me from the bondage I was
in.
I wanted so badly to meet with him
again, to know his presence was with me
again.
I needed to know him as friend, as
companion, not as the distant authority figure he
had become in my mind and experience.
Since that day, two and a half months
ago, I've seen my trust of him grow.
I've seen my ability to be honest with
him increase greatly.
I really have been experiencing that spiritual growth
I'd anticipated in my journal.
It's great.
As long as we are on planet Earth,
we're going to constantly struggle with temptation, accusation,
and deception.
Can we be influenced by that, whether it's
just a direct battle in my own personal
mind or whether I'm watching the TV set
or in a raunchy conversation with somebody?
And the answer, of course, is that it's
a possibility.
If we buy the lie, if we give
in to the temptation, can it control our
life?
Not against our will, but can it if
we do that?
And the answer is, of course it can.
Can you lose ownership?
No, no.
We've been bought and purchased by the blood
of the Lamb.
But we are always going to be subjected
to that kind of a battle and it's
primarily going to take place in our minds.
But we can stand against that.
We do have all the victory we need.
God is on our side.
Saints are defeated.
We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies.
But I want to give a little bit
of a picture as to what that's like
for us.
Imagine, if you would, you have just stepped
out of the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of God's beloved Son.
And we are told that the way to
destruction is very broad, but the way to
God is very narrow.
It's like stepping through a door.
And as you step through that door, ahead
of you, you can see Christ.
We are to fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith.
But as the hallway gets broader and broader
as we go towards the Lord, on either
side, there are two-story buildings and people
are popping their head out and they're saying,
we're stupid, we're dumb, we're ugly.
And on the first floor, they're trying to
lure you in to be involved with this
form of immorality or that form of immorality.
Now, all of this is really a battle
that's going to take place in all of
our minds.
There are three types of responses to that.
The most defeated response is the person who
does give in to the temptation, who believes
the lie.
And they just sit down.
They could actually get up and walk on.
They could make a choice right now to
choose to fix your eyes on Jesus and
get up and go that direction.
But they buy the lie, they give in
to the temptation, and they're defeated.
They're children of God.
They're in the kingdom of light.
All the rights and responsibilities are there for
one person as they are for another person.
The next defeated person really thinks he's fighting
the good fight.
He's the kind of person that would respond,
no, that's not true.
Uh-uh.
I'm not going in there.
You're not going to make me do it.
And you say, listen, boy, am I standing
up against that or what?
And I said, no, the problem is they're
letting the devil set the agenda.
They're not really moving on.
It isn't the Lord who's controlling them.
And they think somehow or another they're fighting
this good fight.
We'll always have the person who will go
out and take on the Satanists, etc.
I don't really encourage anybody to do that.
I think what we're called to do is
to proclaim the truth.
And as we receive opposition, stand against it,
but then get back on.
It's kind of like Sanballat and Tobiah who
were trying to somehow get Nehemiah to forget
about building the walls and go out to
the plains and negotiate.
And he said, no way, Jose.
I'm not going to do that.
I've been called to build the walls, and
I'm not going to take my mind off
of that.
The illustration I used to like to use,
but it's kind of fading now because it
required an eastern and a west Berlin.
But I'm sure you can remember.
Suppose you lived right by the border, and
there was hardcore communists on the other side.
And you had to go out and mow
your lawn.
And so as you went out to mow
your lawn, propagandists were sitting on the other
side, and they were calling you all kinds
of names and telling you how we have
been deceived, and they've got the true answer
over there.
And if you were really deceived, and you
bought the lie, you may be tempted to
change sides, and you wouldn't get your lawn
mowed.
The second most defeated one would holler back,
no, that's not true.
We're right over here.
You're wrong over there, and I'm fighting the
good fight.
I said, no, you're not.
You're really losing it.
Well, what should I do?
Mow the lawn.
That's what you went out there for, wasn't
it?
You know, don't give the devil the agenda
like that.
Just do what God called you to do.
Be the person God has called you to
be.
Choose the truth.
Keep choosing the truth.
If a lie comes in, should I rebuke
all those?
That's all you would do the rest of
your life.
You'd be like the guy stuck out in
the middle of the ocean with 12 corks,
and your entire life purpose was to tread
water, keep the cork submerged.
You'd just be bopping down corks the rest
of your life.
What should you do?
Ignore the stupid corks and swim to shore.
That's what we should do.
Don't let the devil set the agenda.
It isn't going to accomplish anything.
It's the Lord.
I like what Jesus said.
I try to understand what God the Father
is doing, and I do that.
That's what we should be doing, too.
Well, the best picture I can think of
that is an old movie that came out
several years ago with Steve McQueen called Sand
Pebbles.
It was filmed around the turn of the
century in the Boxer Revolution in China, and
they were assigned there to rescue the embassy
people and some missionaries if it was needed.
The story centered primarily around the missionaries because
they didn't want to go.
It got to a point where they had
to get the embassy out of there, so
they went in to escort them back to
the ship.
And as they were going back to the
ship, they were just pelted on every side
by verbal abuse and garbage was thrown at
them.
And they were to stay under authority and
to fix their eyes on the ship and
just keep walking ahead.
Don't break rank, because if you break rank,
what will happen is that that crowd will
just consume you.
And so they wanted so bad to shoot
back or to react back, but they didn't.
And they stayed in rank, and they got
to their position of sanctuary at the safety
of the ship, and then they stripped off
their clothes because they were just filthy with
garbage, and they put on some new clean
clothing.
I said, what a beautiful picture we have.
We're stuck down here on planet Earth.
There will be accusation, there will be temptation,
and there will be deception, but if we
just fix our eyes on Jesus and keep
walking and realize He is the one who
exchanges our filthy garments and we put on
His righteousness, and we will find that safety
in Christ.
And so that vulnerability is there, but we
have all the answers we need in Christ
to really stand firm and to continue on
in that path.
Now, that degree of vulnerability is shown to
us, I believe, in Luke chapter 11, when
the Lord was Himself charged of doing what
He was doing by the power of Beelzebul.
Beelzebul is really a territorial spirit, means Lord
of the flies.
I mean, how descriptive can you get?
That's a beautiful picture, and the Lord countered
with the argument, it can't be me doing
this thing.
How can a king be divided against himself?
So if I'm casting out the devil by
the power of Beelzebul, that's not going to
work.
And He uses that occasion to teach something.
In verse 23 and following, it says this,
He who is not with me is against
me.
He who does not gather with me scatters.
When the unclean spirit goes out of a
man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest,
and not finding any, it says, I will
return to my house from which I came.
And when it comes, it finds a sweat
and put in order.
Then it goes and takes along seven other
spirits more evil than itself.
And they go in and live there, and
the last state of that man becomes worse
than the first.
Well, what do we gather out of this
passage?
I think it's important to note a verse
that can be easily overlooked.
He who is not with me is against
me.
He who does not gather with me scatters.
Now, we're in a new age.
What I'm going to say now didn't need
to be said as strongly as it does
now, as it did say 30, 40 years
ago in our culture.
But with the rise of new age, the
influx of eastern mysticism, it's had a profound
effect on the way our western world thinks.
What he's simply saying is this.
There is an absolute truth.
Our western world was developed on Aristotelian logic.
That's just a big word for simply meaning
that there are rules of logic that are
always applicable and they always apply.
We were raised in our western world to
believe that if A equals B and B
equals C, then A equals C.
Well, of course you say everybody believes that.
Not necessarily.
Of course that's true.
But something is happening to our power to
reason.
If that's true, then that's not true.
We've come to realize in helping our people
get out of bondage, if they come to
Christ and embrace the truth, then they also
have to recognize that what they believed before
now is no longer true.
For some reason, the Protestant churches have left
off one of the oldest public statements of
the church.
I renounce you, Satan, and all your works
and all of your ways.
If you were a Catholic, you went through
Confirmation, somewhere publicly you would state that.
That was said by the earliest of church
professions of faith.
Why we dropped that off as Protestants, I
don't fully understand.
But we found it necessary for a person
to get out of the bondage of their
past.
If they somehow have used their body as
an instrument of unrighteousness, they need to renounce
that use of their body.
If they have been involved in some kind
of a religious worship service, followed some occultic
practice, they need to renounce that.
If you're dealing with hard-core Satanism, it
becomes even more paramount because you're dealing with
the Antichrist.
Everything they do in Satanic worship and ritual
is just the antithesis, the opposite of what
we do in Christian religion and worship.
For instance, our name is written in the
last book of life.
They will literally have them write their names
in a goat's book of life.
We're the bride of Christ.
But they have had a ceremony where they
were wed to Satan.
In John 6, by faith we understand that
if we eat the flesh and drink the
blood of Christ in worship, which is our
response in communion, they will literally eat flesh
and drink blood.
We found it necessary for them to renounce
those experiences and to proclaim the truth in
Christ of who they really are.
They probably have had a ceremony where somebody
was assigned to them to be a surrogate
parent or a guardian.
And now the Holy Spirit is the guardian
of our soul, etc.
When John the Baptist came on the scene,
when he said, repent, for the kingdom of
God is at hand, what did he mean
by that?
Well, if you break down the Greek word
repent, it means to change of mind.
But it has all the connotations that are
associated with that.
When he said to the Pharisees of that
day, who were supposedly the religious zealots and
the holders of faith, he said, you brood
of vipers, who warned you to flee from
the wrath that is to come?
You come back and bring forth fruit in
keeping with your repentance.
In other words, there needs to be some
change of life here.
And so, as John the Baptist would understand
it, he said, I used to believe this,
I lived this way, worked this way, committed
myself this way, now I renounce that, I
say no to that, and now I commit
myself to the living God.
And so, that's what I think the Lord
has in mind here.
But from this passage itself, you can glean
some very important things about the nature of
our spiritual world that we live in, and
specifically about demons.
Isn't it interesting that the world readily accepts
the notions of a devil or Satan?
I mean, Hollywood movies are made of him.
But when you talk about demons, everybody goes,
I don't know if I'm into that.
Well, how does a created being carry on
a worldwide work?
Any honest theologian would tell you, it is
through principalities, powers, dominions, and rulers.
It's a demonic hierarchy.
That's the only way that he can.
What can we know about them?
Well, first of all, realize that the historical
church has always had a part of their
profession of faith that we believe in a
personal devil.
That doesn't mean that you have your own
personal one.
What it means is that he's a person
as opposed to a force.
We're just not up against an evil principal,
we're up against the evil one.
Now, several things need to be pointed out.
First of all, demons can't exist outside or
inside humans, or animals, or plants, or whatever
else.
They are not controlled by space like we
are.
You're up against a spiritual being.
Now, think about this for a moment, that
God has to operate through the church.
He said he's going to make his wisdom
known through the church.
What he needs is willing people like you
and I that will be filled with the
spirit, directed and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
In that sense, we're the arms, we're the
legs of Christ on planet earth.
Well, the devil and his angels, they're spirits
too.
And the only way he can carry on
in the physical realm, his kingdom, is to
use willing subjects who will pay attention to
his deception, believe his lies, and they'll carry
out that kingdom too.
And so that's how the devil operates.
He operates through mediums, through chandlers we call
them now in our present age, and that's
how he carries out his kingdom activity.
He doesn't have any arms or legs, he's
a spirit.
Secondly, they're able to travel at will.
Somehow or another, they're all over everywhere in
that sense.
I don't fully understand that, I don't think
any of us can, except that they are
not subject to the same natural barriers that
the physical world is in.
You're dealing with spiritual reality.
Walls won't keep them out, probably your skin
won't either.
That's why you have to put on the
armor of God.
Well, they're able to communicate.
In this context here, it talks about the
fact that they spoke to one another, each
had a separate identity.
Notice the use of personal pronouns.
I will return to my house.
It wasn't it will return.
They're able to remember, make plans.
They found the place swept empty and clean
so they could somehow evaluate the person.
They made decisions based on that.
They combined forces.
In this case, one became eight, and they
vary in degrees of wickedness.
That's why it says that this kind comes
out only by prayer and fasting.
I think the Lord was referring to the
fact that there are some strongholds, some levels
of the demonic structure that have a greater
degree of power and influence than some of
the lower levels.
But the degree to which a Christian is
vulnerable is probably best expressed by a quote
from the early church by the church father
Arrhenius.
Listen.
The devil can only go to this length,
as he did at the beginning, to deceive
and lead astray the mind of man into
disobeying the commandments of God and gradually to
darken the hearts.
I believe that is the primary battle right
there.
It is a battle for our mind.
And what makes the occult so alluring today
is to have that supernatural knowledge and power.
This is always a trick upon the population
of our day-to-day because somehow or
another we want that power.
And you're dealing with young kids involved in
Satanism.
Why are they so attracted to that?
Because they're looking for power.
That kind of power is something that every
child of God possesses because of their position
in Christ.
But somehow or another Satan has had that
power usurped in him.
Colossians 2 says that he's been disarmed and
he's been stripped of that power.
So he's going to try to gain that
back.
And he does it through his lies and
people buy into that.
This is not a minor problem.
The Los Angeles Times said about three years
ago that more ladies in the Los Angeles
area contacted spiritists or mediums for personal direction
and guidance in their life, look for answers
from the occult more than they did from
professional counselors.
I had a young man come into my
office one time and told me a story
that happened four years prior to that.
He was an engineer doing very well.
His wife left him, however, and he had
found a girlfriend.
And the girlfriend and he walked into a
psychic.
Now this isn't the little white house with
the moon out in front or a palm.
This was a professional thing with word processors,
etc.
And they sat in front of this psychic
and she was able to tell him all
kinds of details about his life some of
his best friends didn't even know about.
Well, he reasoned, if you have that kind
of knowledge of me, then what can you
do for me?
Well, she assured, as so many of our
late night talk shows and psychic channels in
the evenings that people pay hundreds of dollars
to listen to, she assured him that she
could give him wisdom and counsel and knowledge
that would make him successful and happy and
fulfilled and whatever.
Well, he bought into it.
And the first advice he got was to
marry the young gal that came along and
he did.
Four years later, he's sitting in my office
and he's lost his job now and he's
lost his second wife and everything had really
turned to disaster.
I asked him, I said, how much did
you eventually pay that psychic?
There was a pause before he told me.
It was $15,000.
I was shocked.
He said, well, that's nothing.
My ex gave her $65,000.
Would you care to guess how much I
got in helping him find his freedom in
Christ?
Well, there are other rewards.
We've never personally charged for counseling in our
ministry.
But people are buying into that.
For instance, they go from California up to
Oregon to hear Jay-Z Knight channel Ramtha,
the 35,000-year-old warrior.
Now think about that for a minute.
Let's suppose that's true.
It's not.
But let's suppose it is.
That somehow or another, there's a 35,000
-year-old warrior and now you would pay
maybe $400 a weekend to find out what
a caveman has to tell you and how
to live your life at the end of
the 20th century.
Is that stupid or what?
What has happened to our ability to think
today?
And yet those people going up there are
typically not uneducated.
Most of them are white-collar workers.
When they examine the Rajnees and the Red
Guard in Oregon, they realize that most of
the people who traveled up there were professional
people.
I remember about five, six years ago, a
couple of graduate students that I was teaching
in my class asked if they could get
extra credit to go to a New Age
seminar that was in our community.
And I said, that would be okay.
So they went to the seminar.
And they found out it was $65.
Well, that was too much money for them,
so they started to walk away.
But as they walked away, two people came
out and said, we were just told to
give these to you.
And they gave them two tickets.
And the first speaker was Terriko Whitaker.
And most of the people listening right now
probably haven't heard of her, but she used
to be a Science of Mind practitioner, and
she found more money in the New Age,
so she went in that direction.
But the next speaker led everybody.
This is just a public setting now.
Led everybody in a meditative practice.
They were all to imagine a spirit guide
coming alongside.
Then they were to invite it in.
That was two blocks from Biola University.
The devil is giving altar calls.
If people ask for that, will they get
to that?
Boy, Ananias and Ephraim would be happy to
tell you, whatever you yield yourself to, to
whatever you believe, whatever source of information you
get your information from, to that you shall
be filled.
Not a new problem.
Listen carefully to the words out of Deuteronomy,
as the Lord cautioned them as they go
into the Promised Land what they were to
do.
When you enter the land which the Lord
your God gives you, you shall not learn
to imitate the detestable things of those nations.
There shall not be found among you anyone
who makes his son or his daughter pass
through the fire, one who uses divination, one
who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens,
or a sorcerer, or one who casts a
spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or
one who calls up the dead.
For whoever does these things is detestable to
the Lord, and because of these detestable things
the Lord your God will drive them out
before you.
You shall not be blameless before the Lord
your God."
That's a sober warning to us today because
our land is filled with that kind of
deception.
In Leviticus chapter 19 verse 31 it says,
Do not turn to mediums or spiritists.
Do not seek them out to be defiled
by them.
I am the Lord your God.
In chapter 20 verse 6 it says, As
for the person who turns to mediums and
to spiritists to play the harlot after them,
I will also set my face against that
person and will cut him off from among
his people.
And then later on in the same chapter,
verse 27, Now a man or a woman
who is a medium or a spiritist shall
surely be put to death.
They shall be stoned with stones, their blood
guiltiness is upon them.
While we don't do that anymore, what we
do today is we make them celebrities and
we put them on talk shows.
Isn't it fascinating that in the latter days
of this 20th century, that instead of standing
against that kind of blatant deception in our
culture, we make celebrities out of them.
You just change the title.
Don't call them a medium or a spiritist.
Call them a chandler.
Don't call them a demon.
Call them a spirit guide.
And suddenly a gullible public is susceptible to
that kind of deception.
It's the same thing.
In Isaiah chapter 8 it says, Would you
consult a medium or a spiritist who mutters
and chirps?
Would you consult the dead on behalf of
the living?
Is it because there is no God to
the law and to the testimony?
If they don't speak according to that, it's
because they have no dawn.
Get back to the word of God, people.
That's the only basis for guidance in your
life, that and the Holy Spirit, which is
resident in every child of God.
God took very seriously in the Old Testament
the issue of false guidance.
False prophets were to be stoned to death.
Mediums and spiritists were to be purged from
the land.
And yet people had a propensity.
Why somebody would want a spirit guide when
they could have their Holy Spirit as their
guide goes beyond my understanding, but people are
making that choice all over the world even
today.
In 2 Kings chapter 1 you hear a
remarkable story of a new king who came
on the scenes.
He falls through the lattice, he injures himself,
and he sends a messenger out to inquire
Beelzebul as to whether or not he's going
to live.
And God intercepts that messenger with Elijah.
And Elijah says, Is it because there is
no God that you would inquire Beelzebul?
Go back and tell your master.
So he goes back to the king and
tells him.
The king says, Well, what's he look like?
Well, he's kind of a hairy guy with
a leather garment.
And then he responded, Oh, he's the man
of God.
I said, How would you like to be
known in your community even by those who
don't believe in you as the man of
God?
So he sends 50 out to inquire the
man of God as to whether or not
he was going to live.
And they find him sitting on a hill
and they holler up, Oh, man of God.
But before they could go on, Elijah says,
If I'm a man of God, let fire
come down from heaven and consume you.
Poof, there went 50.
And they sent out another 50 and they
had the same disastrous result.
And then finally a third 50 goes out
and they holler up a little wiser now
and said, Oh, man of God, have mercy
upon us.
And God did.
And Elijah says, You go back and tell
your king he's going to die.
And the king died.
Well, the point I'm trying to make is
the fact that that we are really caught
up today in tremendous deception in our society.
That new age is the present religion in
our schools and in our government.
Christianity is not.
The church is just being patronized.
You stay out of public life.
You can have your private religion if you
want to, but we don't want any part
of it.
In that spiritual vacuum, there is a whole
host of deception that is taking place.
And that problem is so prevalent around the
world, it could probably be the religion of
Babylon all over again, because that is probably
the only religion that every king of the
world will someday eventually embrace.
Obviously, it is not embracing Christianity at this
time, but that makes our work cut off
for us.
So here we are vulnerable on planet Earth.
Let's look at these three channels.
Temptation.
All of us are tempted.
If you ask anybody how many experienced temptations
today or this week, they would all respond,
Well, surely I have.
And so if you say you haven't, then
probably you're just a liar because we're all
experiencing temptation.
And the answer to this is not to
fall back into some kind of legalism.
Paul writes, he said, All things are lawful
for me, but not all things are profitable.
And so we are given good things on
planet Earth, like food and shelter and clothing,
but unfortunately what happens is the things that
God has provided for us can step over
a moral line.
And then you see good things suddenly become
unprofitable for us.
Listen to how that can be in your
own personal life.
Physical rest becomes laziness.
Quietness becomes non-communication.
Ability to profit becomes avarice and greed.
Enjoyment of life becomes intemperance.
Physical pleasure becomes sensuality.
Interest in the possessions of others becomes covetousness.
Enjoyment of food becomes gluttony.
Self-care becomes selfishness.
Self-respect becomes conceit.
Communication becomes gossip.
Cautiousness becomes unbelief.
Positiveness becomes insensitivity.
Anger becomes rage and bad temper.
Loving kindness becomes overprotection.
Judgment becomes criticism.
Same-sex friendship becomes homosexuality.
Sexual freedom becomes immorality.
Conscientiousness becomes perfectionism.
Generosity becomes wastefulness.
Self-protection becomes dishonesty.
Carefulness becomes fear.
How do we keep from stepping over that
line?
Well, we are told in 1 John 2,
verses 15-17 that all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, I believe that is inclusive.
I believe those are the three channels by
which Satan comes to us.
They are no different now than they were
in the Garden of Eden.
Notice how each of those is responded to
by Eve.
It said the woman saw that the tree
was good for food.
What's that?
That's the lust of the flesh.
And that it was a delight to the
eyes.
What's that?
Well, that's the lust of the eyes.
And that the tree was desirable to make
one wise.
What's that?
That's the pride of life.
And so the three channels by which Satan
deceived Eve are still present in this world
today.
But what is the issue behind each of
those?
Let's examine them if we can.
To continue on through Neal's message, please fast
-forward.