Into The Dark Realm

0:00 The Applied Series is looking at God's prophetic topics, not all of them, that would be impossible, but some of the key prophetic events and topics regarding the last days. And so we've studied some of those things, and tonight we're going to start off what will probably be a little bit of an extended portion to this series, and that is what we're calling Into the Dark Realm. We're going to be talking about the things of the demonic world. We're going to be talking about things that are in direct opposition to every single one of us as Christians. You might say, do we have to talk about that? Yes, we do. Because that's exactly what Satan would have us feel like, is to not talk about him. Now, Christians are guilty of a pendulum swing. When it comes to talking about demonic or satanic things, Christians have a tendency to go to one side of that pendulum and almost glorify Satan and his power.

1:05 That's wrong. Very wrong. They're terrified of Satan. Oh, that was Satan. And the truck backfires on the freeway. That was Satan. And no, it's not Satan. And then the pendulum swings way to the other side and there's another group of Christians that don't even believe he exists, which is insane because Jesus made it very, very clear that he does exist. Old and New Testament both. But we are still sticking with that theme verse, and that is John 14, verse 29. John chapter 14, verse 29 says, Jesus is speaking. He says, now I have told you before it comes. That is, I've told you before it happens, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. Bible prophecy should cause you to have a greater faith. So just get that under your belt. Don't be afraid of studying Bible prophecy. 27 to 33% of the entire Bible is Bible prophecy. And I think God wants you to study and to know it all. And that's a comforting thing. So this will be part one. It We'll go as far as we can tonight before I read a section of scripture.

2:12 I want to give you two profound quotes from two great saints of God. Number one is the reformer, of course, Martin Luther. Now, listen to what he said. And if you ever read Martin Luther's writings, really the father of the Reformation, he actually had physical encounters with either a very, very high-ranking demonic entity or Satan himself. There are accounts that he writes about. In fact, now my memory fails me, so don't hold me exactly to this, but in one of the famed castles or places where Martin Luther was staying, there was this account that he records where he says Satan visited him in the room. He picked up the ink well and he threw it at that personage, that manifestation of Satan and that ink splattered all over the wall. And I've not been there, but I remember Dr. Ed Heintzen telling me that that ink is still on the wall from that encounter that Luther claims that he had with the devil.

3:29 I don't think the devil is bothering me or you, any one of us. I think the devil himself, who's not omnipresent, he's not God, he can't be everywhere at the same time. That's why he's got his angelic, or his minions, that's a good word for it, his goobers, both fallen angels and demon spirits to harass us. But I think Satan makes his way from Tehran to Washington to Moscow. to Beijing. I mean, that's what, he doesn't mess around with us. What can we do? But he likes to mess around with nations, be that as it may. And listen to what Martin Luther said. The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to text of scripture, is to jeer and flout him. He cannot bear scorn. Now, that's not a normal approach. I mean, you've probably never heard that before.

4:25 but Luther is saying in a word Satan is proud and he hates when you do not take him seriously have you ever known a proud person if you don't take them seriously they get all bent out of shape think about Satan if you don't take Satan seriously in the description that he wants you to read he's going to get very upset but if you view Satan in the light of how the Bible reveals Satan, that's a victory on your part.

4:59 That's a strength on your side. And he is a defeated foe. He just doesn't want you to know it. Listen to what Thomas More said. Thomas More said, the devil, that proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked. Think about Elijah on Mount Carmel and the, technically, it's not the 450 prophets. If you read it carefully, it's 850 prophets in total. What does one man of God do with 850 false prophets? He mocks them. If you've ever read that portion of 1 Kings, he mocks them.

5:37 In fact, he even says to them, let's do this, let's set up two sacrifices and I'll call upon my God, the God of Israel, and here's the sacrifice, and I'll even pour water all over my sacrifice and you can have yours over here. I'll go first.

5:58 Well, actually he has them go first. They pour water as well and they're jumping up and down and they're yelling and he says, I wish Spielberg would do it. Elijah's standing there and there's no response. And he goes, why don't you yell louder? So they're yelling louder. And that's not doing it. And he says, maybe your God's busy.

6:27 And they keep yelling. And then they start jumping up and down. They're going crazy. And then they start cutting themselves. And they're bleeding. And he actually says, it's not in the English Bible. It should be. He actually says, maybe your God is out somewhere in space going to the bathroom. and they're just jumping up and down, yelling and screaming, and then he says, Stop it!

6:58 And then he walks up to the sacrifice, and he says, Lord, show them who's God. The Bible says that fire came down from heaven, consumed the sacrifice, and fire, the fire was like a tongue that licked up the water all around until it was completely dry. And then Elijah says, okay, I want all of you guys to stand still, but get in the line, because I'm going to kill every single one of you for being false prophets. The amazing, to me, the big miracle is they just stood there. They were convinced, okay, we serve the wrong God. Spiritual powers are real, but we need to understand them in a balanced way, but we, by all means, need to understand them. and this is a very important topic 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 through 6 tells us this and it's no stranger to many of you Paul tells the church at Corinth by the way the church at Corinth Corinth, Greece extremely prone to demonic activity demonic worship the culture so when there's a church born in there in Corinth, Greece it carried a lot of residual into that brand new church It was a very carnal church.

8:14 It took a long time, if ever, for that church to get mature in Christ. But, I mean, I got news for you. If you study the history of the church at Corinth, it's probably a church you would not attend. But God called them saints. They trusted Christ, but boy, were they messed up. But listen to what he tells them, something very deep. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, that is, we walk in these human bodies, we do not war according to the flesh. How come? Why? For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, earthly, fleshy, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. I want you to remember this. Satanic powers establish invisible, supernatural strongholds over believers' lives, and according to the book of Daniel, over the realms of political powers.

9:09 I know that might sound strange to some of you you read the book of Daniel and the book of Daniel tells us that there are angelic and demonic forces that reside over nations and are relegated to their borders so there is an angel and there's a demon or there's an angel and a fallen angel that resides over America over Canada over Japan isn't that weird to think and they war You say, I don't believe that. Well, stay tuned for these studies. remarkable but he goes on verse 5 this is what we're supposed to do casting down heave them like violently cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god bringing every thought into the captivity to the obedience of christ and being ready this is listen to this and being ready to punish all disobedience how does that happen when your obedience is fulfilled. What does that mean? When you are obedient to Christ, your obedience winds up punishing disobedience. Evil. It's a reference to evil. As Christians, we are supposed to be instruments that evil trembles at when we show up. You ever think of that? We don't often live that out, but look at us. You're all so summery, summery cute. You got your sleeveless tops on, and you've got your board shorts on and it's summertime and you look so harmless.

10:47 As a Christian, that's fine for us looking at each other. Satan ought to be looking at you and he trembles because he's not looking at what you're wearing. He's looking at who you work for. I mean, you are God's kid. You are a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ in a world that we are to be salt and light and we are to be exposing and resisting darkness and evil and Satan hates that. And when we take that seriously, it means we are not overpowering him. Or I should say, we are not giving him unnecessary due. In other words, oh, the devil made me do it. No, no, no. God is sovereign. The devil's not sovereign.

11:34 And the devil has no Bible. You've got the Bible. God gave you the Bible. And that's a wonderful thing to remember. Listen, we want to talk about this in, again, new section, new introduction for a little while here anyway. And that is the reality of Satan's existence. In Matthew chapter 16, verse 23, it'd be good for you to write this down. Satan's existence. Jesus, or in the New Testament, I should say, Jesus turns to Peter and he says this to Peter. And it's a shocking moment because it's just the disciples and Jesus. But Peter says something he should not have said. Jesus announces to the disciples, hey guys, I'm gonna tell you something. Don't tell anybody. But from here on out, I'm heading towards Jerusalem. I'm gonna be betrayed. I'm gonna be crucified. But on the third day, I'm gonna be risen from the dead.

12:30 And listen to this. Peter tells him, that's not going to happen. The preceding verses, Peter says to Jesus, that's not going to happen. Jesus has said it. And Peter says, wait, you don't understand. That's not going to happen.

12:52 I bet you Peter just saying it didn't think anything of it. It just seemed weird to him. Why would Jesus do this? Lord, that's not going to happen. And Jesus turned to Peter and he said, get behind me, Satan. Wow. you are an offense to me for you are not mindful watch this of the things of God but the things of men Satan mark it down in your notes Satan is mindful of the things of men Satan is always plotting thinking, scheming manipulating toward seizing the minds of men and women boys and girls that's what he loves if you look at a house think about a house you might drive by a house and I gotta tell you in my mind right now yesterday we were in LA we were driving home the traffic was insane so the computer is routing us all over the place and we drive through this area of Los Angeles and I know LA gets a bad rap and it should for political reasons but we drove through this the GPS took us through this neighborhood and it was just absolutely stunning cutest homes you've ever seen they're not mansions, they were just so cute and one, I told Matt I said, look at that house, it looks like a fairy tale it was so cool it had this manicured landscape and all and it had the little walkway going up and it had a porch and it had these columns and it was perfectly geometrically laid out just so clean and neat it was attractive, it was amazing so we started talking about we started talking about heaven but to get into that house you got to first get to the porch and for satan to get into your life he will always throw as it were mail and newspaper and boxes and amazon fedex junk on the porch the amazon guy never i hope not he never knocks on your door opens the door of your house and throws the box in the house i prefer he would do that

15:01 but they don't do that, right? They don't do that. They throw everything that is being delivered on the porch. No matter how beautiful your home might be, I'm saying it this way. Your life, your body, your mind is the entryway. That's the porch to your soul. And the enemy will shoot and throw garbage, temptations, whatever it takes, and he'll throw it, but it can only get to your front door. It will land on the porch. Christian, listen, it can only land on the porch. Whatever Satan throws at you can only land on the porch.

15:42 When we sin is when we open the door and we pick it up and bring it in. That's where we blow it. And Satan threw out a thought to Peter. Peter probably thought, well, Jesus just said that, but I don't want that to happen. I know Jesus has never led us wrong yet, but that sounds wrong. And Peter speaks. He was probably feeling pretty innocent. And then Jesus says, get thee behind me. And he's like, what'd I do?

16:13 Get thee behind me, Satan. Wow. Satan's great power lies in our weakness to be hit in the mind. he doesn't mind the things of God he minds the things of the flesh and the Bible tells us the things of the flesh are things like lust the lust of the eyes the pride of life the desire for us to have things I was talking to a man today he called me he was concerned about my insomnia and he said hey how can I help you he happens to be a renowned physician. And he said, how can I help you? And I said, no, it's just the way it is. I've embraced it. It's no problem. And it was great because he had made a comment. He said, listen, whatever you need. And he said, I've had my career. I do have my career. He said, all I want to do now is bless the body of Christ and to keep people like you and others like you guys at your church serving the Lord. He said, the money that I've made, he said, how many millions of dollars do I need to make?

17:30 Can you believe, wouldn't you like to be able to say that? But here's why he's able to say it. He said, I've already played all that game, that dumb game of getting stuff. And he said, all the stuff I thought I had to have, he goes, I got rid of it because it's a bunch of junk. All the world talked it up. It turned out to be nothing but a joke. He said, I live simply now. I've never had more money in my life. Now I'm trying to give it all away. And I'm looking for places to build up the kingdom of God. Listen, that's a man that Satan fears.

18:04 Because the trick of Satan is to get you to fall in love with the stuff that he throws on your porch. So that you pick it up and you're like a little monkey tinkering around with the thing until the clock runs out. You ever seen those monkeys that put their hand in the jar? and then they get caught by the guy running around in the jungle because the monkey won't let go of the crackers. He thinks he's got to have the crackers. Satan throws things on your porch. And Jesus would say, get thee behind me.

18:37 That word mindful, by the way, means this. This is kind of creepy. Satan, to have understanding regarding man or mankind, to be observant, that's creepy. Satan is observant of the ways of man, aware of, acquainted with, familiar with the mind of man. Satan doesn't know your thoughts. You and I are just very predictable. He has been studying humans every moment since we were created. He's very good at it. But I really, listen, if you're in some type of Pentecostal group right now, or you're watching right now, and you have been taught that Satan can read your mind. There's nowhere in scripture you can make that claim. I don't believe that. I just think he's really smart. I think the mind is a place where you and God meet up.

19:29 He may launch arrows, but we're the ones that bring them in or open the door. What about this? 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 18 says, Therefore, we wanted to come to you, says Paul. Even I, Paul, time and again, but Satan what? Hindered us. That word hinder means this. To cut into so as to cause confusion. Think about your life right now. Is something going on? It may be so nothing. Now just pause everybody. Think about your own life right now. Has there been something that just doesn't make sense? It's just a little tad off. Something's a little weird about that. Maybe it's today. Maybe it's been the last few days. Maybe it's been the last six months. It's just not coming together. It just doesn't make sense. You ought to ask God to show you why it doesn't make sense. What about a dream?

20:21 Are you having a dream? I hear from people all the time, Pastor, I had a dream. What do you think it means? I always tell people, if you don't know what it means, I don't know what it means. God didn't give me some, you know, translation of dream things. But ask God. Ask God. He gave you the dream. If he wanted me to have it, he would have given it to me. and I don't share my dreams with you because they're so dumb, but I don't think I've ever had a really decent dream of some, you know, I haven't seen, you know, God coming in the clouds, Jesus, that would be incredible, but some people say, well, you know, I have this dream and this and that and the other thing. Look, I don't know about that stuff, but listen, if you don't know, ask God about it. Well, something's keeping me up all night. Okay, you need to ask God about that. Because either God's trying to tell you something, or the enemy's really, really harassing you.

21:19 And we're going to get into this later on in this series on oppression, suppression, and possession. Very important things. You need to know the difference of those three satanic powers. And do they all, or do a few, how do they apply to you? Where are you on this? What will the Bible say to us? So this is amazing because watch how personal this can get. Weariness.

21:50 Fatigue. So he hindered Paul by confusion, by weariness, fatigue. And the word means with the intent to thwart or impede the plan of God. If you're going to take a stand for Jesus, you can expect this to happen. Everybody, can you hear me? Do you want to live a dynamic, meaningful Christian life? Then look at that word right now and know this. Get excited about it. Satan is going to attempt to hinder you. Don't let that remotely cause you to have hesitation or fear. That would let Satan win. Listen, Jesus told us these things in advance. If you know that if you're going to take a stand for God, you're going to be opposed, that's great news. In fact, I have to tell you, it's so beautiful, and I say this humbly, It's so beautiful to constantly be at war with the dark world that if things got calm and peaceful for me, I would start to be a little concerned.

22:54 I'd start to maybe worry a little bit. I mean, God gives us Sabbath seasons and you recuperate and you rest. For what? To get back at the war. And we're all fighting darkness as believers. and you know that because when you see darkness, hear darkness, feel it, grieves your heart, grieves your soul. John chapter 13, verse 26. Jesus answered and said, It is he to whom, this is at the Last Supper, it is to he whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it, and having dipped it, dipped it, and having dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Verse 27. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him, Judas. Then Jesus said to him, notice, Jesus, the word demands this. Jesus didn't speak to Judas. Jesus looked at Judas, and yes, it looks like he's speaking to Judas, but who was Jesus talking to? Satan. Jesus says to Satan, what you do, do quickly, Which I get a lot of comfort out of this.

24:12 Jesus, knowing all things, tells Satan, what you're going to do, do it fast. I like that. He's still in control. Even when he's being betrayed, Jesus is still in control. It's glorious. Look at the word entered. Satan entered into Judas. This is tough. To come through, to enter into, to be granted access, to be allowed. This is key. To be allowed. Somehow, listen, somehow in Judas' life, he left the door open and allowed entrance in. He made it available for Satan to pick him. See, you and I are 2,000 years this way of that event, and you and I, it's so crystal clear to us. It's like, this doesn't even make me think. You got to step back then. Satan was plotting and planning. Now Jesus knew all things from the beginning, the scripture says. But understand this, none of the disciples did. They didn't know. Judas himself didn't know. Judas wasn't like six years old and realized, I'm the one. He didn't know that. All along the way, Judas was making decisions of his own choosing that set him up to be the one. Does that make sense?

25:34 one step after another, one thought, one motive, one idea, he began to think probably a life of self-consumption or absorption or self-centeredness or egocentricness. It's all about me, Judas. He cared about money. We know that. He sold Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. But what's remarkable is that word means he had a doorway that Satan could come through. He entered into. He granted access to be allowed. Implication is this. To go into where you have been granted access or to have been invited into by one's actions or at the suggestion of another. That's creepy. By leaving the door open of your life. And folks, listen, we can all do this by being sloppy in our Christianity. Some people do it blatantly.

26:29 People who toy with sins. I am not kidding. You're gonna think I'm kidding when I tell you. that I have more than one time, and one time was severely, severely satanic to say the least, where this person, this individual said this is how I got started. I didn't mean to, but I was playing games. I was nine years old. I started playing games with these Ouija boards and I just got really good at the Ouija board and then I wound up, I'm not kidding, He said he wound up using the Ouija board with that, you know that big black eight ball thing where you shake and you look at the bottom? He wound up, I got those things working together. They would work. They'd wind up saying the same things. My friends would all freak out. And this guy's life wound up a demonic mess. you don't play with stuff like that.

27:26 You don't go to tarot card readers, soothsayers or mediums. Our world thinks that's cute. Oh, let's have, you know, let's have an old girls night out. We're going to go get our palms read. How about go and get your fingers done instead? Don't listen. No palms read. No. No palms. Oh, it's cute. It'd be funny. It's not funny. You want to know why it's not funny? Because Satan, demonic activity, will make it true enough to get you hooked with curiosity. Oh, my goodness. That's right. My high school sweetheart's name was Bob. How did it know?

28:21 And you're curious now. It's a hook. There's enough of it that's real under the power of demonic activity to hook you in. By the way, when you were way back then or way back when or way back where, so were demons. What are you going to do? You're going to tell me, well, that would have been way back. That demon would have been way old. How old are they? Do they die? When were they born? You don't know nothing about that stuff. We just know that they are a highly organized, dark realm of spiritual power. And woe to us if we write them off as some sort of fairy tale. I believe today, and I think the Bible makes it overwhelmingly clear, That so much of our world's upheavals down to the family upheaval is linked to some sort of demonic influence to say the least.

29:22 Especially in the home where there's pornography or spiritual darkness, spiritual things that are not sanctioned by God. And look, I just want you to know I'm not beating up on pornography because it's a physical thing and it's so popular. and everybody's involved in it. No, they're not. Almost got in an argument. Well, I'm not going to say.

29:51 Recently, one person insisted, every Christian's involved in it. And I said, no, they're not. I said, no, they're not. Well, are you? I said, no, I am not. Well, okay, you're the only one. I said, I'm not the only one. But listen, that's a satanic lie itself. Satan will say, everybody's doing it. And then you notice what he does? Everybody's doing it. So then you do it. And then Satan says, how could you? he tells you to do it and then he condemns you when it's done why? because he's a great devil that's what he does but people be very very wise pornography is more spiritual than it is physical it's listen sexual immorality as we're learning on Sundays with the book of Proverbs sexual immorality the scripture says that when someone commits sexual immorality they're sinning against their own soul Isn't that wild?

30:48 It doesn't say that about stealing. You shouldn't steal. But it doesn't say when you steal, you sin against your own soul. It doesn't say about cursing. It doesn't say that about murder. It doesn't say that about you name it. But isn't that weird? Because it's a spiritual realm. And there's bonds that happen in that realm.

31:09 I think, this is just me, blame it on me. It's just me. My opinion. I think the human trafficking sexual human trafficking thing I think it's diametrically opposed to of course what is good and right which makes it wrong and bad why is it so prevalent today? because I believe that is one of the blatant manifestations of satanic activity trafficking in the souls of men and women Thank you. and it's off the charts. Luke chapter 10, verse 18. Luke 10, 18 says, And he said to them, Jesus, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. The disciples were preaching the gospel. He sent them out, and they're preaching the gospel. They're healing the sick. And they came back to tell Jesus, This is amazing!

32:03 And he says to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Wow. You know what's so cool about that? See the word fall? Jesus said, I saw Satan get beat down. Pipto is the Greek word. I saw Satan get a beat down. He got tripped up. He got shoved down, down to the ground. He failed. Implication? Satan was seen stumbling, falling down and being defeated when the gospel ministry went forth. Isn't that amazing? When the gospel's proclaimed, Satan gets tripped up and stumbles and falls. Jesus says, I saw him fall like lightning. When you guys were out there preaching the gospel, when you were telling people that the Messiah had come and he's gonna go to the cross and die on the cross for their sins and be resurrected from the dead, that the salvation of God has arrived, I saw Satan, when you said it, I saw Satan fall like lightning.

33:10 Oh my goodness. Church, listen, this is you. This is me. This is us. When we tell other people, it drives Satan nuts. That's why, listen, that's why you're hesitant about telling other people the gospel. That's why you kind of, it's like, I can't do that. Yes, you can. Who's telling you to be afraid? It's not God. I think I should tell that person about Jesus. No, I can't. I better to pray about it. No, don't even pray about it. Go do it. Satan will say, why don't you pray about it? You should pray about it. Just look. What if I do it and I look like a fool? Excuse me. Now you care about looking like a fool. After all the things you've done, when you looked like a fool, all of a sudden, you're going to, God's telling you, because I'm guaranteeing you, Satan's not telling you to go share the gospel with that guy. But look, the proof is this. You get a little nervous about it. Oh, my mouth's dry. This is good. This is a good thing. That means God's going to be the power, not you. I don't know what to say. That's part of it also. Of course you don't know what to say. None of us do. When you walk up there and open your mouth, it takes a huge amount of faith to obey like that. And then you say, excuse me. And then all of a sudden it just comes out and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm learning so much. I didn't even remember knowing this.

34:42 And you're quoting scripture and you're like, where'd that come from? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? See, you should try this. Living on the edge, baby. It's the way to go. It's amazing. This Christianity is boring. Nope. Nope. Start listening to that voice. And it's been my experience that when Satan is so slick, I'm convinced that when Satan spoke to Eve, he didn't say, so Eve. You know. I think his voice must have been so incredibly wonderful, even possibly in some way seductive.

35:26 A voice that's like, Eve, you know, you're amazing. And you can become amazing, more amazing, if you just take one more step and you can become like God. God's holding out on you. He doesn't want you to eat that fruit. You should try it. She wasn't stupid. She was perfect. Think of that. She was perfect and she fell for what he said. That should cause all of us to sober up a little bit, huh? That's like pretty serious. It's like, man, who am I? Well, frankly, you and I are nothing but by the Holy Spirit. We're no competition to Satan until we belong to God. and that's for later tonight if I ever get there. We also know this, that there's a great reality and existence that is obviously something that we all can acknowledge no matter if we are believers or not, and that is that there's a difference in the existence of simultaneously good and evil.

36:40 Somebody might say, I don't believe in a demonic world. Do you believe in evil? Well, no, I don't believe in evil. so then you don't believe in good. No, I believe in good. Well, then if you believe in good, you have to believe in evil. I believe everyone is good. Then why is the world like this? according to the Bible the world is evil that's what the Bible says and we kind of have that syndrome of arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic as it's starting to sink and we think thoughts or we say things like it's not sinking but it is sinking Lisa showed me a really cute little Instagram thing last night. It's very old-fashioned looking.

37:36 Of course, it's brand new, but it's all done up. It's all about growing up in the 60s. And the guy's voice sounds like a voice from the 60s and all the scenes. And look, that's me. I grew up in the 60s. And the guy made the comment about during summer, we left the house at 7 a.m. us kids, and we did not come back until, well, you had to come home when the streetlights came on.

38:10 For 12 hours, our parents did not know where we were, and they loved it, and we loved it. And we, you know what we did? We fell out of trees. We got hurt. we'd come home. We had mud on injuries to stop the bleeding. Anybody remember that? And we didn't die. And we made it. And it was just so cute, all this stuff. And the guys talking about all this, all this stuff. And the thing was, I told Lisa, I said, it's amazing that even our own children, when they see this, they think we're nuts. Because one of the things was there were no seatbelts. And if there were seatbelts in the car, you were considered a loser if you used them. What's wrong with you? Can't you get in a car without seatbelt? What are you, a baby or something? Remember that? It was like, nobody was wrapped in bubble wrap.

39:11 People, I mean, seriously, it was crazy. And it was just a different world. In fact, when you would put on the brake, my mom used to reach over with her right arm to stop me from going through the window. Do you remember that? That was normal. Now I say all that to say this.

39:36 That if there's evil in the world and you cannot deny it, then why is there good like a mom reaching out to put her hand across my little chest so I didn't go through the window? Why would someone help someone hurting and in need? There's evil. Are you sitting down and listening? There is evil that we can detect and look at because we know what good is. If without good, you would never know what's evil.

40:09 Atheists always say this. I don't believe in God. Why not? Look at the world. Okay, keep going. Oh, he's maniacal. He's evil. I don't believe in God because look at all the mayhem in the world. Okay, keep going. I really like the direction you're going on this. I don't believe in God because there's wars and babies are born blind and all this stuff. All right, all right. So what are you saying?

40:38 What you're saying is there's a lot of evil in the world. There's a lot of evil in the world. But how can there be evil in the world if there's no God? There can't be evil in the world if there's no God. There has to be a God for evil to be in the world. Why? Because evil comes out of good. Evil cannot create anything. Evil is the perversion of what is good. Think of it. Good must, by logic, be first before evil can ever appear.

41:14 When someone's a pervert, they do evil, but on the inside of them, they're looking for something that was originally good. They go about it in a pervert way. Are you hearing me? Are you tracking this? Let's pretend we're in psych 101. Even someone who's perverse has taken what is good and bent it into wrong. Are you with me? You can't do that when you start with evil because evil cannot be bent into good. there's no logic course in the universe that would back that up it's this good happened first then evil and what does the biblical record say good happened first then came evil we know this in our lives even though we're born sinners we're born sweet cute little babies but within us as good as we are, all we need is the motor skills to do evil. Thank God. Thank God a one-year-old can't handle a gun. We'd all be dead. Because they're furious one moment, and then they would shoot up the world, and then they would all, then they'd be, then they're all, their emotions change radically constantly. Can you imagine? You've seen little babies all upset, and they throw themselves on the ground, and then they hit their head. It's kind of funny when they do that, but you gotta, act like you care.

42:44 It's just like, wow, look at that. Imagine if that person had a gun. Wow. But when they grow up, they're able to do, sadly, evil. It comes natural for us. So the reality of good, I want to put this up, I want to read it to you, the reality of good. Regarding the reality of good, good must be understood using the rules of logic and what would call, what I would call me, Jack, the first evident source, meaning that good by nature had to precede evil by nature. The observable evidence of good proves that the source of good must precede that which is evil. Good must first have existed before evil could have existed. We said that a moment ago. The next one is this, the reality of evil. Same thing in reverse. Regarding the reality of evil, it must be understood using the very same rules of logic and what I would call the second evidence source, meaning that evil by nature had to come out of or originate from that which is good. Evil is the perversion of what is good. Evil is taking good and twisting it, polluting it, manipulating it until it has been corrupted and made to be evil. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 1 verse 4, in fact, when you see the word good, can you guys shout it out when I come to it? And God saw the light that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. That's Genesis 1.4. Genesis 1.10. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters, he called seas, and God saw that it was? Genesis 1.12. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind, and God saw that it was? Okay, watch this. Genesis 118, all chapter 1.

44:52 And to rule over the day, he's talking about the heavenly bodies, to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good. Next verse. Genesis 121, so God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves with which the waters abounded according to their kind and every winged bird according to its kind and God saw that it was good. Next verse. Genesis 1.31, last verse. Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Good, good. God creates good.

45:34 So moving ahead next week together, was evil or how is evil created? How did that come about? What is the Genesis, no pun intended, of evil? And we'll have to study that. Now, we'll get into, if you scan the notes, you'll see that I just now got to point number one, which is time to end.

46:00 But here's what I want to do. I want to do this. I'm going to ask Gia to come back out. I'm going to ask you tonight, we've talked a lot about evil and the devil, and I want tonight, before you leave, I want you to pray. In this gathering together, I'm not saying pray out loud. I'm just saying let's stick together right now as a church, as what would be a holy convocation, a gathering of believers. The Lord's present in this place. before we do this, I want you to just prepare your heart. You shut your Bibles and all. I'm going to ask the guys to tee up an audible for us to play here in a second. I referenced earlier tonight how summertime casual on a Wednesday night we look, and so we should.

47:00 And this is how we see one another. And yet when you read the Bible, the Bible speaks to us as being clothed in righteousness, in the righteousness of Christ. The Bible tells us that we, and we'll get into this next week, we are armored up with the armament of God. the soldier of God.

47:22 When we look at each other with our natural eyes, none of us have helmets on. But with our spiritual eyes, every single one of us who know Jesus have helmets on. What if we were to right now snap our fingers? Yesterday at CBS, the screen, the guy touched a button and this massive, this massive screen. I mean, it was unbelievable. I don't even know if it fit in here. the guy could move from New York City to Panama to just with a little toggle of the computer and this spectacular thing changed what if we just hit a button on the panel or snap the finger and all of a sudden you could be seen in your spiritual armament right now as you're sitting here you've got a helmet on you've got a breastplate of righteousness you've got a shield of faith you've got a sword of the spirit you've got the belt of righteousness around your waist your feet in a shod with the preparation of the gospel. You have the sword of the spirit in your hand. That's what you look like when God is looking at you and he's looking at you right now.

48:26 And I want you to think about that. By the way, I hope when he looks at us, I hope our, I don't want, I hope I speak for all of us. I don't want my armor and I don't want anybody's armor from this church being all shiny and all brand new, like it's not been in any battles. I want your armor to be dented. I want it to be dirty. I want it to have some satanic blood splats all over it. Maybe some fang. There might be a fang over here and some fur from some satanic goober. Because we're warriors. We're warriors. And we live like this, but we war like the other. We look like this, I should say, but we war like the other. You are God's deployed soldier here now because you and I live in enemy-occupied territory.

49:24 Satan has seized this earth. Remember, he didn't make it. He just took control of it. And you now are no longer under his jurisdiction. You're a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ to fight against satanic powers. And it doesn't look like God's doing anything, but he is. And he's using you and I. And Satan, as much as God loves you, Satan hates you. And I'm good with that. Because greater is he who lives in me.