The Battle Begins! — Keith Malcomson

Tonight we're coming to our next Bible study, and we are gonna ask you to turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter three here tonight, Genesis chapter three. And we're on this series, the battle for the mind.

And I wanna really start getting into this tonight. Our message is the battle begins, reading from Genesis chapter three and verse one. As we've already seen the series that we did one year ago on the mind is such a vital series for this hour.

And I believe that God was even preparing us for all that we are facing that has happened in our world over the past year. I believe that God does prepare his church, his bride for things that are gonna happen.

The Word of God Prepares the Church for Spiritual Warfare

How does he prepare his bride? It is through the ministry of the word of God. He speaks to his bride. Even a church like Laodicea, he spoke to her, seeking if any individual was in that church that had an ear to hear.

So please turn in your Bible tonight, Genesis chapter three and verse one. And our message, the battle begins. We're going right back to the battle beginning, to the beginning of this entire warfare for the person of Christ being demonstrated in the midst of his people.

It says in Genesis chapter three and verse one. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, and this is the serpent speaking to the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.

Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for the word of God tonight. I thank you that you give us a clear message, that you speak to us clearly, that there's no darkness in your words, no confusion, no contradiction, nor God that there's nothing lacking in the word of God that you've given us.

And I pray tonight, make that word clear in Jesus mighty name. Will you open our hearts and our minds? Will you prepare us as a church, as a people for this last hour? We already know after the past year that we're embarking in one of the most remarkable hours in all of history and all of church history.

And that we are here in this hour to play our part, help us so God to stand steadfast on the word of God, resisting the evil one in Jesus mighty name. Amen. My message tonight, the battle begins. We are here in this series, the battle for the mind, volume two.

Satan’s First Question: “Hath God Said?”

And we're gonna go through several messages. And I believe these messages are gonna be so specific concerning the hour that we are living in. Never has the mind of any generation been more under attack than this generation.

I believe that we are seeing a mass attack on the mind of man of this generation like we've never seen before. And as we come to Genesis chapter three and verse one, listen this first sentence spoken by Satan, the devil, the serpent, the dragon, to a woman, to mankind, the very first sentence.

Listen carefully. Yea, hath God said. The first word that Satan ever offered or uttered to mankind was hath God said. I want you to hear that so clearly, underline it, inscribe it, mark it down that when the devil comes, he always comes saying hath God said.

If the devil's gonna attack you in your mind, if he's gonna bring a thought, an imagination, a dream, a word, some gossip, some bit of information, some teaching, do you know what is gonna be the central core of it?

Hath God said. He's gonna come challenging the word of God. That is the nature of Satan. And that is the nature of the battle for our mind. Here in this message, I wanna take you right back to the beginning of this battle.

But before I do, I wanna take you right forward to the end of this battle. We're gonna look for a moment here in this first point at our day, our generation, and what is happening and about to happen in our world.

You see, I don't believe you are fitted that you're able to face what's just about to happen unless we go back and look at how Satan began this battle when he first approached man. I believe as we go back to the book of Genesis, we will be equipped to look at the things that are contained in the book of Revelation and concerning Bible prophecy in the last days.

And so our message is the battle begins. I believe we'll look tonight at the battle beginning 6 ,000 years ago, but something more than that. I believe a remarkable battle has just been unveiled and there is a breaking forth of a new battle that is remarkable.

I believe it's not flesh and blood, but it's powers and principalities behind this attack on the very mind of man in this generation. My first point in this message tonight is deception in the last days.

Deception in the Last Days

Deception in the last days. We will go back to Genesis chapter three, but let me for a few moments here, take you to the New Testament, Matthew 24 and verse four. Jesus speaking to his apostles, the church of the first generation, warning those that would be alive in our day.

Take heed that no man deceive you. Jesus gave 10 marks of the beginning of sorrows. How we would know it is the last day, that things are coming to a finality, that things are coming to an end, not the end yet, but approaching the end.

He gave 10 clear signs. The first sign and the most important was this one in Matthew 24, verse four. Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many.

This was the first and greatest and most repeated warning of Christ about this hour that we live in. I believe we're in the beginning of birth pangs. I believe they're becoming faster, that they're becoming stronger.

Do you realize that the World Economic Forum just a few days ago, they noted this and made a point of it, that all the things happening around us are speeding up and they're intensifying. The wording was so remarkable that immediately I thought about the beginning of sorrows in Matthew 24.

This is an hour where everything will become more intensive. You will not be able to think in this hour unless you hide your mind in the scripture. In Matthew 24, Jesus repeats this warning about deception in the church four times in verse four, verse five, verse 11, and verse 24.

He uses this word deceive. Take heed that no man deceive you. What Jesus is talking about is our generation. He's showing how to protect yourself, how to guard yourself, how to be prepared, how to stand, how to walk through this hour that we live in.

What did he say? Take heed that no man deceive you. Many in the church have read this warning. They know it's an hour of deception. They know deception is coming. They're in fear of deception, but you know what?

They do not take heed. The word take heed, and we're dealing in this series with the battle for the mind. This taking heed is a thing of the mind. It's an attribute of the mind. God has given you a mind, a thought realm to protect yourself.

A part of that mind is to take heed. The word take heed that Christ used here, it means to look carefully, have your eyes open, to stare, take time. Since you realize you'll get deceived in this hour, if you don't slow down, if you're not careful, if you do not take heed, it means don't take your eyes off things.

Don't just trust men without testing, without judging, without scrutinizing, without applying the word of God. You see, Christ says, engage your brain, open your eyes, open your ears, begin to consider if you swallow everything you're fed, you are in trouble in this hour because mass deception is abroad.

You see, I believe Christ starts here because if a church gets deceived within itself with false prophets, if it cannot keep itself in order, then politics will deceive it. The social world will deceive it.

The religious world will deceive it. And so he deals with fundamental deception in the church. He says, I want you to have a mind that is alert, knows how to take care, how to judge, how to see, how to perceive things that are going on in the church.

We're not just to love everyone. We are to scrutinize what is going on. Take heed that no man deceives you. No man, no man. And he's saying, when this deception comes, it will not primarily come through a angelic demonic force.

It will actually come through men in the church, deception in the last days. He says that many men are gonna come in the church. Notice here, the devil uses vessels. He uses people. He uses people in the church.

He uses people coming in the name of Jesus. Jesus warned that when they come, they will come in his name. In my name shall they come. They're coming to deceive. Jesus said, you better have your eyes upon them.

You better keep your eyes upon them. When they come, they'll claim his authority. They'll say that Jesus sent them, that they represent the Lord Jesus Christ. And they shall say, I am the Christ. When these deceivers come in the last generation, at the very end, I mean, many of them are gonna come in the church as deceivers.

They will come saying, Jesus Christ is the anointed one. He is the Messiah. He is the one that fulfills Old Testament prophecies. He is the predicted one. And notice this. It says, for many shall come in my name and deceive many.

Now notice here, this word deceive. I want you to stop and underline it and concentrate on it here tonight in this message. We're talking about the battle begins. And here we see deception in the last days.

What is gonna be at the forefront of it is mass deception. The word that Jesus used here is planio. It means to cause you to roam, to lead you astray, to seduce you, to be out of the way. Do you know that's a thing of the mind?

Do you know when deception comes, the first port of call before reaching your heart is your mind. Men are gonna come in the church and they're gonna seek to cause you to roam, to lead you in a certain direction, to seduce you, to draw you after themselves.

You see, they're gonna seek to take you away from the narrow way of the scripture. How do you know the real way of Christ? I mean, the biblical way, the real Christian life, the real message of the gospel.

How do you know it? It is a narrow way. The gate is narrow. The way is narrow. It takes agony to press through that gateway. That's how you know the biblical way of God. It's a way of holiness. It's a way of truth.

It's a way with boundaries. But we are gonna see many come in this last hour who are gonna seek to lead us in a different direction, to move us away. Friends, do you realize mass deception is gonna be in the church and it's an attack on the mind?

We're gonna see that in this message as we go along. It's always been an attack on the mind. Deception with words, arguments, lies, scriptures out of context, with doctrines of men, all of this is gonna be an attack on the mind.

You are going to have to fight deception in your mind. Do you know how to fight it in your mind? Do you have a mind that knows how to discern deception and see through it? It says that in these days, many should be deceived.

That means most are more than half. You know as well, a little bit later in Matthew 24, Jesus said in verse 11, many false prophets shall arise. This is the same deception which is going to come in our generation.

And is it not here? Is it not widespread within the church? Many false prophets, notice that they come claiming to have one of the five fold ministries of the book of Ephesians. What Paul the apostle taught about, those five beautiful ministries, they claim a gifted supernatural ministry.

They can predict the future. The Holy Spirit shows them things. They have dreams. They can tell what's gonna happen. They can reveal things about your life. It is a supernatural ministry. It's a remarkable ministry.

And this is the ministry that's gonna be dominant in this hour. If you know anything of what's going on in the church, you know this, that deception has come into the church through the ministry of prophets and of prediction.

Again, Jesus says in verse 24, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders and as much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. So you see a mass movement coming in these last days.

One of the 10 marks that we have reached the beginning of the sorrows, which is gonna intensify and become stronger and more dominant is deception in the church by false prophets. Many of them, and they're gonna do signs and wonders in order to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect of God.

Do you see that Satan has raised this attack up? He's using false prophets, gifted ministry, and he wants to deceive. He comes in the church before he ever raises up antichrist, before he ever goes in and dwells that man of sin.

He's gonna come to the church with deception, seeking to deceive. Again, it says in 2 Thessalonians 2 -3, let no man deceive you by any means. What command saints? Therefore this hour, for this day, it shocks me that when we see the hour that we have come to, that you've got some of the most political, richest men in our world, the ones who are molding our world in this hour, all the tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, all the organizations like the United Nations, like the World Economic Forum, all the world banks, the central banks, and the World Monetary Fund, all these organizations are talking about this conversion of technology with man.

Now, for the first time, they're coming out publicly and saying, by 2025, we're gonna have our mobile phones, the chips in them, inserted in our hand, that the whole economic, political, social system is going to converge.

All the Bible prophecy is at the door. Do you see the hour that we live in? And yet, after this past year, there are thousands of church leaders, pastors in Ireland, in Northern Ireland, out across Britain, leaders who think this is a health crisis that we're in right now.

They don't see Bible prophecy in it. They don't see anything dangerous in it. They don't see the enemy coming to deceive. And do you know what that shows? There's a terrible blindness in the church of this generation.

You see, we've got a warning, 2 Thessalonians 2 and 3, that no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, the return of Christ, the catching up of the saints to meet him in the air. That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Do you see this warning again of deception in the last days? And notice what the deception is in the last days. It is a deception in that day, in this hour, that there shall come a falling away first.

This word falling away is the Greek word apostasia. It means a defection, a moving away from something. Do you see like Matthew 24, the deception is gonna mean a mass moving away within the church. There's gonna be a great deception to move away from the narrow way, the biblical way, and the way of truth.

The word apostasia is only used one other time in our whole New Testament. And it's in Acts 22, verse 21. It's when Paul the apostle was accused by the Jews for forsaking the law of Moses. That word forsaking the law of Moses or the teaching of Moses or the written scriptures is the word apostasia or apostasy.

In other words, they were accusing Paul of apostasy. Do you know what they're saying? They're saying, Paul, you're moving away from Moses. You're teaching against the written scriptures. You're actually teaching men that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs of Moses.

So we get a picture of what apostasia is. What does it really mean? It is a move away from the written scriptures, its commands, its teachings, its customs, its instruction. The apostasy, I mean, there's coming an apostasy.

I know there's been many. I know it's been going on for hundreds of years, especially the past hundred years. I know it's been encroaching on our lifetime in the church, but here there's a prophecy that suddenly at a certain point, something is gonna happen worldwide.

I believe we're gonna see it. It's gonna be so marked. It will be visible. It'll be real. You could date it. You could discern it. There's gonna be an apostasy, a moving away in the church because deception so comes, there's gonna be an apostasy, a falling away, a moving away from the written scriptures.

I believe this is the great rebellion the Bible talks about that's gonna happen in the last days. It is an apostasy. This word apostasy also comes from the word apostoian, which is to divorce. It's used by Jesus in Matthew 5.

It's the word for divorcing your wife or your husband. It means to separate, to become disengaged. So he uses that for a writing of divorcement, to put away your wife. So we see, this is what I believe with all my heart the Bible shows.

There's about to take place a rebellion because of deception coming in through the ministry of prophets of signs and wonders. And I believe in prophets and I believe in signs and wonders. And I believe that Christ still heals.

And I believe he still confirms his word. But I'm talking about a false movement prophesied by Christ. And this deception is going to lead away from the narrow straight path of scripture, from the authority of scripture.

It's gonna be a rebellion against scripture. There's gonna be a renunciation of submission to the written scriptures. There's gonna be a divorcing and a moving away. I believe this is prophesied and I believe it's right for this hour.

Since the whole stage before there'll be an antichrist there's going to be a great rebellion that's gonna be seen on our day and generation. Now I'm going somewhere. I'm talking about a battle for your mind.

That's what our series up here is. And I'm gonna make these messages very specific for the hour we live in. Very specific concerning the battle for the human mind, the mind of man. And you know what? While the devil is seeking to do that in this generation, his real target is the mind of those in the church.

My first point, deception in the last days, an apostasy from the written word of God. You better make sure your mind is soaked in this word of God. You better love it with your mind and love it with your heart.

You better believe it with your mind. Your mind is about to be so attacked. Some event is about to happen in our world where it's gonna cause a rebellion, a mass widespread immediate rebellion, a separation of what's called Christianity from the written scriptures.

God’s Original Plan for Man and the Mind

I know it's already all around us, but I believe this is all still small. Something greater is coming that's gonna happen prior to the final fulfillment of prophecy. Second of all, God's original plan for man.

Now, let me take you back to Genesis chapter one and chapter two and begin to look at this original plan of God for man, for his mind. God created man with a mind. And with that mind, he was to love God, to love God's word with his mind, with his thoughts, with his memory, with his decisions, with his choices, with how he judges, with all these faculties of the mind, God created man to communicate with him.

The ability to speak was to come forth out of that mind. When we go to Genesis chapter one, we see that Adam, man, was made on the sixth day of creation. Now, let me tell you, I believe in six literal days of creation.

The word day there, and many argue against it. This is part of the apostasy. Men who begin to give ground in Genesis one, they begin to slowly move away from a literal interpretation of the Bible. Before you know it, they're gonna be in rebellion against the written scripture.

They'll begin to say homosexuality isn't that bad. Hillsong's, the leaders of Hillsong's worship, I've said it before, they actually refuse to call homosexuality sin. You know what? That had a root somewhere, but it always carries you into deception.

The word day in Genesis chapter one, I believe means a literal day. The word day there is the word yom. It is used 2 ,300 times, more than that, in the Old Testament. When we come to Genesis through the Deuteronomy, the first five books of Moses, it is used 650 times.

Moses was the main compiler of these books, the main author under the Holy Spirit. When Jesus said Moses wrote that, I assure you he was inspired of the Holy Ghost. Moses used it 650 times. The word day used in Genesis one is the same as it's used elsewhere in the books of Moses and in the Old Testament.

It means a literal day. This is the only place in the entire Old Testament that people wanna argue about the day not meaning a day. But notice with me in Genesis chapter one, the day is distinguished from night and darkness.

Day is defined and it's explained very clearly in clear terms. Again, it speaks repeatedly about evening and morning and trying to show you that these were six literal days of creation. There can be no doubt that these are literal days of 24 hours in time.

There isn't a boundary to that day. You can't make it 1 ,000 years or 100 ,000 years. It is one literal day. And the Bible says that, Adam, isn't it sad, I have to emphasize these things in this day, that men no longer have confidence in their Bible.

Although they see what it says, they have so many doubts, so many arguments. There is a battle raging for the mind of man on what they believe concerning the Bible. Don't tell me it's not gonna intensify.

It will. When we come to Genesis one and Genesis two, my Bible tells me that God made man. Notice that he made man and woman. He made them at different times. He made them in different ways. He molded man out of the dust of the earth.

And yet he took woman as a rib out of the side of man. He made them differently. They weren't the same. They're made different by the hand of God. Oh, what confusion has come in to our world in this hour.

Who would have ever thought the world out there would begin to deny that a man is a man and a woman is a woman? What confusion is coming in? But let me say, the church has to be clear. We're gonna preach a man is a man.

We're gonna preach a woman is a woman. We're gonna preach that homosexuality is sin, just like fornication or lying or any other sin, getting drunk. We're gonna call sin, sin. And you know what? We're gonna have to go back to the Bible again.

We need to go back to Genesis chapter one to three and begin to revisit our roots about the battle that is raging in this hour. If you give ground in Genesis one, then you will in Genesis two, then Genesis three, then the first 10 chapters.

And before you know it, you'll begin to doubt the very one who redeemed you by his own precious blood. Man and woman, right at the beginning, were made with a different purpose. From the very creation, they were distinct.

It wasn't the fall that made them different. It wasn't sin entering that made them different. God made man and woman different, biologically, in their minds, and also in their complete makeup. Both were unique, and they were complementary in their roles.

They have similarity. They have unity. They have compatibility. And yet, what variety. It is beautiful. I'm glad for Candice being different from me. She's so alike to me, so similar to me, and yet so different from me.

I love the local church. This church, no two of you are the same. You're a bunch of dolly mixtures. You're so different. I love that God has made us different, and yet made us so similar in his plan and purpose.

Both have what the other does not have. God has made man and woman different, and yet together, he made them that they were to rule and to subdue. There is equality, but equality does not mean that their roles are interchangeable.

The role of a man and woman is not. Not in the home, not in the church, not in the world. They're made uniquely different. I will open the door for a woman. I will lift the bags for a woman. You guys, you can carry your own bags.

I assure you, there is a difference. There is a difference, and I do treat a woman in a certain way with far greater respect than even a man. I want to show you, this is being destroyed in this hour. The fall of man did not introduce the difference.

It only damaged the order of God. You see, Adam and Eve together were to conquer, to keep under, keep in subjection, to reign and rule. They had delegated authority. They were to keep the garden. They were to look after creation.

Adam named the men. Do you know what that tells me about their mind? Their mind was a remarkable creation of God. That mind, that Adam could name every single animal. He could look at every single animal, study them, look at them, and name them.

That is a remarkable mind that God gave to Adam. I believe their perception, their thinking, their remembrance was utterly perfect, created by God. It says in Genesis 1 .26, and God said, let us make man in our image or in our resemblance after our likeness.

Now, we are concentrating on the battle for man's mind. I'm showing you here at the beginning, God's original plan in creating man. Do you know man was created in God's image? I believe the mind of man was fashioned in the image of God.

I believe the ability to think, to scrutinize, to talk, to decide, all these faculties, man was given an ability that God had. You see, to be made in the image of God means to be fashioned in a very special way.

An image is like a graven image. It means to carve out or to be carved into a certain shape. It's not talking about man's outward appearance. It's talking about that inward realm of man, his self-consciousness, his moral consciousness, God consciousness, aware of other people, able to love, able to commit yourself and make decisions, holiness, wisdom, creative abilities.

All of this, we were molded and made like unto God. It says in Genesis 1 .27, so God created man in his image. In the image of God created him male and female, created he them. To create means to build.

He accomplished something. This was the work of God. He built the body. Then he breathed into him the spirit, the spirit of life, the ruach, the breath of God. And when the spirit met the body, do you know what the Bible says?

Man became a living soul. This is what God had created. He wanted God to serve him in his physical body with his spirit dominating and with a soul. What is the soul? It is your will, your intellect or your mind and your emotions.

Some people add conscience to this. Now listen for a second. We're gonna move on, but I want you to hear this. Again, we've repeated it, but I wanna say it. What is the mind? The mind is the seed of intelligence.

What is the mind? It's a part of that soul made in the image of God. It means to know, to think, to imagine, remember, to reason, to examine, to judge, and to understand. All of this and much more, we have been molded in the image of God.

That mind as a part of the soul was given to man. It's who you are. That mind is such that what it is is who you are. You can't separate yourself from it. It is a vital part of your soul realm. And that soul, listen to me, that soul will either spend eternity in the presence of God, first in heaven, then reigning upon a new heaven on earth.

It'll either, that mind of the soul is eternal. It'll either be with God or be in hell. But that soul, that mind, that intellect, that remembrance, the man in hell that Christ talked about, that rich man, it said he remembered.

That faculty of the mind, he remembered. He asked questions. He remembered his brothers back on earth. He's in hell, but that mind, that mind is there functioning. This is who he is. He is in hell eternally.

God never planned that. God didn't desire that. You see, God gave us a mind that we could communicate with him, love him, walk with him, have knowledge of him, take counsel with him, to imagine things, to remember meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ, all these beautiful things.

You see, God's plan, he put them in the Garden of Eden. After creating Adam, it must've been in the West because it says that he created a garden. He planted a garden. God done this in the East. He planted that garden.

Adam was already created. I believe Adam was watching this. He seen God plant a garden. Now listen carefully before we move to point three and to Satan's first attack upon man. I want you to see that God gave a garden to man.

I want you to see the care of God, the provision of God. He put rivers in there. He looked after man. He planted every manner of tree in there. Trees that produce fruit that were pleasant to the taste, that were beautiful to look at.

I can imagine every type of flower. Do you see God's actual plan for man? He gave him a mind, an intellect, that perceived through eyes, through the ears, through touch, through smell, through taste. And God opened up, allowed that mind to enjoy his creation.

That's why I enjoy my dog Shiloh. God created dogs. God placed them here as man's best friend. They're a wonderful thing. I can be spiritual, dead to this world, and yet enjoy the birds that sing outside.

I can do that. God gave man a mind. And that mind was to enjoy all of God's creation and to walk with them in the cool of the day and to fellowship with God and to love God and to remember God's word.

We were to have a mind that remembered, of all these trees eat, but not that one tree, just one tree not to eat. You're to remember the word of God, the promises of God, the provision of God. Since I'm taking you somewhere, point three, Satan's first attack in the Garden of Eden.

Satan’s First Attack on the Human Mind

Someone recently said that they thought I was speaking too much about the devil. I want to tell you, the Bible gives clear warnings about the devil. As soon as you open up the Bible, you only get to chapter three, and there he is.

There he is. In the New Testament, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 -11, lest Satan should get advantage of us, we are not ignorant of his devices. Paul was teaching to the church, you're not to be ignorant.

Ignorance is a thing of the mind. Don't close your eyes to the devil. What did Jesus say in Matthew 24? You're to beware of men being used by the devil, bringing deception in, telling you lies, moving you away from the Bible, trying to take you away from the narrow way of the gospel.

You're to be, you're not to be ignorant. If you're ignorant of Satan's devices, or his thoughts, or his attacks, then do you know what? It's a thing of your mind. You're wide open to deception. Listen, in Genesis chapter three, we actually read about Satan's first attack.

I believe as we look here for a few moments at Satan's first attack upon the mind of man in the Garden of Eden, as we look at this, we are gonna get much wisdom, much insight concerning the attack that's coming in the last days.

I believe we get much insight here. As you go to Genesis chapter three, notice these things. Satan came to Eve, not to Adam. Do you see that? He came to Eve when she was alone. Make sure you're not alone.

I know we're scattered everywhere. There's some people listen to us, feel like this is their church, and yet, do you know what? They wanna join themselves to this church, to be a part of this church. They wanna identify.

God bless you tonight, if that's what you're doing. It's not good for us to be alone, to be isolated, to be off by yourself. Make sure that as best as you can, you're not alone. You see, Satan came to Eve when she was alone.

He didn't come directly to Adam. Adam had authority. He was given, we know that the Bible teaches so clearly that man is the head of the woman, given authority to lead, given authority to protect and to guard and to love and to lay his life down.