Defeating Demonic Doctrine (Part 1)

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Defeating Demonic Doctrine (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle
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Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'"
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.
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Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio.
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My name's Steve Cooley, and I'm in for the vacationing Pastor Mike Abendroth, who is on a well -deserved vacation.
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And whether you're listening on WVNE or the World Wide Web podcast, I guess local access television,
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I don't know. However you're listening to me today, I have a question for you. What is spiritual warfare?
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And I don't mean, you know, what have you learned about spiritual warfare, but how would the Bible describe it?
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You know, when I first got saved, actually, I don't even know if I was saved yet. Maybe I wasn't, but the first two books
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I think I read, you know, I went to the bookstore, like all good new Christians, and I got myself a
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Bible, and I got myself a few Christian CDs so that I'd have something to listen to after I got rid of all my secular
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CDs. And then I got a couple books. I got Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin, and then
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I read a couple books by Frank Peretti. One of them was called Out of the Darkness, or This Present Darkness, and then
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Out of the Darkness. And they were both about spiritual warfare, and they pictured this world where we couldn't see it.
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It's like a fourth dimension of angels and demons, and the fights that they would be involved in.
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And it had to do with the demons, the dark side, being fueled, as it were, by sin.
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And then angels, the light side of this warfare, being fueled by the prayers of believers, and by their righteousness, and certain territories would exchange hands based on sin or faithfulness of people.
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And that really is a flawed picture in so many ways. I mean, think about it this way.
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If that were true, if control of the world depended on the actions of mankind, whether we were obedient to the
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Lord, whether we were praying to him, whether we were casting out demons, as they do in this book, or whether we were involved in sin, then what would that say about God?
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God would be basically a bystander, watching all this warfare go by and really having no say in it.
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And that's not how the Bible depicts God at all. And that is also not how the
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Bible depicts spiritual warfare. Let me just read a passage so that we get on terra firma.
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I'm gonna be speaking about spiritual warfare and what the Bible has to say about it for a few days.
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And I thought we might start by reading 2 Corinthians 10, verses three to five. Paul writes this, this is the
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ESV. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey
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Christ. Now, when he says that, in nowhere does he say, you know what, it's all up to you and your prayers and your obedience, and that's how we're gonna win this fight.
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He does say that our weapons are not physical, but they're spiritual.
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But listen again, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power.
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Divine power, well, what would have divine power? And it says that it's able to destroy strongholds.
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Well, I think it's important to understand what a stronghold is. What are strongholds?
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Well, I think we could see it if we just keep reading in verse five. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
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I mean, the idea of strongholds or fortresses is not some kind of demonic battlements where we have to bring in the cannon or the catapults or the trebuchets and launch our ballistic missiles at it.
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That's not the picture at all. The picture is actually of false doctrine. In fact, if we were to go through and do a complete survey of all the times
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Paul talks about false doctrine and actually links it to demons, doctrines of demons.
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Well, what are those things? Those are things that directly oppose the true gospel.
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When we look around the world today, we see a lot of demonic activity. And the primary place in which we see it is in places where we would think there would be so -called religion, whether it be in churches where false doctrine is taught or in cults or any place where a way other than the gospel is proclaimed as making one right with God.
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You could simply say this, that if someone teaches a gospel that is no gospel at all, that is a doctrine of demons.
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It is a false gospel. Galatians 1 .8, Paul says that the people who do that, who proclaim a different gospel, should be accursed.
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Why is that? Because they are teaching, as it were, doctrines of demons. How does
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Satan fool people? You know, another question, how does Satan fool people? How did, I mean, we could go back to the very first example.
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How did he fool Eve? Did he say to Eve, you know, I'm going to give you a whole new truth, something completely different than anything you've ever believed and eventually you're gonna believe it?
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That's not what he did. In Genesis 3, it talks about how crafty he was.
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He just shifted the goalposts a little bit. He just changed things just enough to get
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Eve to really kind of shift the goalposts herself. She also altered it. But Satan is very clever.
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He doesn't put out complete fabrications. He gives us just enough of the truth, you know, that people say sometimes that there's a little bit of truth in all religions.
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Why do you suppose that is? Because if there was no truth in it, most people wouldn't go for it. Satan wants us to be deceived.
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He wants us to run away from the word of God. He wants us to run away from the gospel. He wants people deceived and to think that they're okay.
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When Jesus talked in Matthew 7 about the narrow gate and the broad road, broad is the road that leads to destruction.
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The picture really is of people just merrily marching along, being convinced that they are on the way to heaven.
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They're on the broad road. I mean, there's a sign, as it were, above them that says, this way to heaven.
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And it's only when they get to judgment day that they discover that wasn't the way to heaven at all. That's what spiritual warfare is.
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It's deception. It is demonic activity in the sense that they repackage old truths, bring it to the marketplace of ideas, as it were, through men and women who are not called of God, but have actually been, as it were, dispatched by Satan to put forth propaganda to lead people astray.
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And so when Paul says in 2 Corinthians that we are to, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power.
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Well, what has divine power? The word of God has divine power.
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So many people are so concerned about binding demons and casting them out and all this kind of thing.
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And we have the word of God. We have the sword of the Lord. We have what is able to divide bone from marrow, as it were.
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We have the word of God that is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword. Why would we think that we should be involved in casting out demons in, you know,
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I've even heard about people who will go, you know, they're like, I am convinced that I need to have this building for the
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Lord. So I'm going to march around it seven times just as they did around Jericho and then watch the walls fall down.
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There's even a story about a man who was convinced that a woman was to be his wife. And so he walked around her seven times so that the walls of her heart would fall down.
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This is all just, it's bad application. It's bad hermeneutics. And it has nothing to do with spiritual warfare.
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You know, if I want a new house, I don't walk around it seven times and then claim it in the name of the Lord. You will never find anything like that in scripture.
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We are to cling to truth. We are to refute error. In fact, Titus 1 .9 would say that elders are to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.
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That's what teachers of the word do. They don't run around being concerned with demonic activity in the sense that they're going to bind
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Satan, that they're going to cast him out of certain people or certain locations. They're not worried about holding back demonic hordes.
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Spiritual warfare has everything to do with bringing the truth to bear against false teaching and false doctrine.
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And when people who are called of God, that is those who believe, when they hear the truth, they will reject error.
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When they see what the Bible actually says, instead of what people say is true or instead of what people say the
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Bible says, when they hear that truth, they don't walk. They run to the truth.
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They reject that which is false. And that's what Paul is talking about here in 2
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Corinthians 10. He goes on in verse five to say, we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey
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Christ. Listen, even in our own lives, we want every thought to conform to what the
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Lord Jesus Christ says. But when we take these truths of scripture and we compare them to what the world teaches or to what false teachers say, we will immediately reject those things.
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It's so often the case that believers dabble in certain things unaware of, even sometimes what they're doing.
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I mean, here are some examples of spiritual warfare in the sense that in the more common vernacular and the more common way of looking at things.
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And it's pretty shocking. Some of the things that we think are harmless. Let me give you just a few examples.
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When we talk about having your palm read, you know, some of us might think, well, that's no big deal.
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I mean, that's just a harmless entertainment. Did you know that such a thing is actually condemned by scripture?
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Wanting to know the future apart from the word of God is condemned. It's not being satisfied with the
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Bible. It's looking for some outside source. And ultimately, all those kinds of outside sources can, and I underline can, mean contact with the demonic world, with demons.
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And you say, well, I thought you said it was only about false doctrine. Well, it's not only about false doctrine.
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I mean, there are ways of bringing demons, as it were, into our lives, into our realm of activity.
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And when you basically open the door to those kind of things, you are asking for trouble. Somebody wants to interpret a dream that you've had.
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Can I just suggest that just because an Old Testament prophet did it, here's the test for you.
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I was gonna say just because an Old Testament prophet could do it doesn't mean you could do it. I mean, for example, do you walk up to a river and think,
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I'm gonna part this just like Moses did? No, that'd be absurd. Just as I was saying with Joshua, you can't walk around some city and think you're gonna collapse its walls just because you play a trumpet or whatever you do.
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And in the same way, you should not think that as Daniel or Joseph were gifted to interpret a dream that you can interpret a dream.
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I remember once I was working in a jail, for those of you who've never listened to me before on No Compromise Radio or maybe at Bethlehem Bible Church.
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For those of you who don't know, I was a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County for 21 years and spent a good amount of that time in the jails.
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And one day I was working in one of the shops that we had where the inmates would, they were printing various items to save the county money.
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And I went in and I saw a bunch of inmates and they were grouped around and they were in a closet.
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I mean, there were more workers on that particular day than there was work to do. And so they were grouped in the closet and they were sitting there and they were just kind of discussing things.
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And I could see they had Bibles with them. And so I walked up to them and I said, hey, what are you guys talking about?
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Just being interested in it. And they told me that they were just trying to interpret a dream that one of them had had the night before.
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So I looked at him and I said, well, how would you know whether your interpretation is correct or not? How do you know that you have a gift for that?
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I mean, the Bible, the New Testament doesn't talk about that being a spiritual gift. And I said, you know what, guys, here's what
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I would do. I would just kind of open up those Bibles that you have.
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Because you know the Bible says that it is better, it is more reliable than any experience you could ever have.
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In fact, Peter says that in 1 Peter 1 16 -21. He describes being on the
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Mount of Transfiguration. And then he says, you know what? Better than any experience you could ever have, ever, is the word of God.
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It's more sure than the best experience ever. So I said, why don't you guys just study that?
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Maybe you could learn something. But I think so many believers are so consumed by things that they can't control.
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Sometimes they even go outside the word of God. They wanna know what the future holds. And that is never approved.
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In fact, it's condemned over and over again in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament.
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Now here's one, how about this, astrology? You know, I think it's fine to know what sign you are.
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I mean, everybody just kind of knows that it's a little bit of a joke. But when you're reading that astrology, basically, what is that?
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It's someone telling you what your future is supposed to be like. Now, you could take it seriously. You could take it as a joke.
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But I just choose not to participate in that. Why? Because it is an appeal to forces outside of us and outside of God for information about the truth, about the future.
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I mean, supposing you read something in your astrology and then it comes true. You know, it says a big business opportunity is about to open up for you.
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And then the next day, something like that happens. And you say, well, maybe there is something to this astrology. So you start then reading it every day.
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You start taking it seriously. Well, you've just made an appeal to what is, in essence, a demonic force.
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You've opened a door. And I'm not gonna say that you can be possessed by a demon because I don't believe that at all.
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And in fact, I think the Bible teaches something else. But why let that sort of influence into your life?
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That would be just wrong, just wrong. You know, here's another example of spiritual warfare.
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And this is kind of an example that's come to be accepted in academia, in the people who are,
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I would say, too smart for their own good. You know, there's this idea that religion, just like everything else in society, has evolved.
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And so here's an example of how they perceive evolution. That monotheism, that is the belief in one
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God, developed out of polytheism, that is the belief in many gods so that Israel, as a nation, to separate itself, chose to believe only in one
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God, unlike all of its neighbors, which had multiple gods. So it was kind of like, you know, this is the next step in human evolution is monotheism instead of polytheism.
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It's more sophisticated. And eventually, of course, that led to atheism. You know, the whole idea is absurd.
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And why is it absurd? Because the Jewish God, the Christian God, the God of the Bible, always existed.
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That people then defiled that truth by spinning off and worshiping multiple false gods doesn't mean,
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I mean, it turns the whole thing upside down. And so my point is, when we hear something even as simple as that, that monotheism came out of polytheism, well, what do we do?
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We look at the Bible and we apply that, and that's exactly what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 10. He says we destroy, you know, the wisdom of the wise, these strongholds, these brilliant theories, like, you know, monotheism is derived from polytheism.
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We look at the Bible and the Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Not gods, not in the beginning, there were many gods and eventually
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God, singular, won out. Nothing like that. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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And these are just slight examples of kind of the wrong information that slips into what is acceptable, what is taught, what is believed by so many.
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Now, I'm talking about, again, about spiritual warfare on No Compromise Radio, nocompromiseradio .com
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and WVNE. We would see that there are many, there are many places where the
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Bible expressly condemns false teaching and false doctrine and compares it really to demonic teaching.
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Listen to this from 1 Timothy 4. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in later times, and we live in those later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits.
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Listen to that. Deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, though the, or through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.
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In other words, false teachers, those who are so practiced in the art of lying that they no longer know, they can no longer hear their conscience.
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Listen, it is so important that we recognize that the Bible is very plain.
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There is good doctrine, there is sound doctrine. That is, there is that which we ought to believe.
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And then there is false doctrine. That is the doctrine of demons.
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And we need to reject that wholeheartedly. We need to bring the word of God into, and compare that with what false doctrine is.
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And we would understand right away that the Bible is always true and that false doctrine comes from Satan and from his demons.
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They want to persuade as many people as possible not to believe in the gospel.
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They want to blind and further blind the eyes, as it were, of the unbelieving world.
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So, when we're talking about spiritual warfare, it's important that we apply the entire word of God and understand what it is that we're doing.
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And in Ephesians 6, Paul writes, finally, be strong in the Lord. This is verse 10. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
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Put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Schemes of the devil.
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What is a scheme? A scheme is a plan. A scheme is basically a wicked idea, but it's certainly not demons.
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We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
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But you notice what he doesn't say? He doesn't say that somehow it's the angels are gonna win this battle for us or somehow,
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I mean, the whole picture of what passes for spiritual warfare and for what so many people get worked up about is just wrong.
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You know, I'm gonna talk about Neil Anderson tomorrow who wrote a book called The Bondage Breaker. And I just think it's so important that certain things are understood.
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One is, and I know you've heard this if you've listened to No Compromise Radio before, believers cannot, let me say that again, cannot be inhabited by a demon.
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They cannot. You know, we often hear this passage, 2 Corinthians 6, with regard to marriage.
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Now, that's an application of this verse, but it's not the totality of the verse. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, "'Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.'"
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That has to do with any spiritual enterprise. He goes on, "'For what partnership has righteousness "'with lawlessness?'
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And the answer, obviously, is none." You shouldn't really be in business or have any kind of spiritual enterprise with an unbeliever.
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"'Or what fellowship has light with darkness?' Can you mix light and darkness? The answer is no. "'What accord has
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Christ with Belial?' That is, with the prince of demons. "'Or what portion does a believer share "'with an unbeliever?'
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The answer is none. "'What agreement has the temple of God with idols?' None. "'For we are the living
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God,' or the, sorry, "'we are the temple of the living God, "'as God has said, "'I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, "'and
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I will be their God and they shall be my people.'" Let's just put it real simply.
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If we have been, had the Holy Spirit take up residency in us, the
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Holy Spirit does not make room for demons. And there is a group who teach that believers, if they sin, they are most likely afflicted by some kind of demon.
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We're gonna talk about this, as I said, some more tomorrow, and that's what this whole bondage breaker, this whole idea is about.
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And I don't wanna spend too much time on it, but I do wanna bring about this whole idea of what demonic forces are, what spiritual warfare is, and I think we have to at least mention this.
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But there is no room. Once the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in you, there is no room for a demon.
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He doesn't kind of scoot over. The Holy Spirit doesn't scoot over and make room for a demon. It's just like this.
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People say, well, I bind Satan, based on Matthew 18, which is wrong understanding.
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We'll look at that tomorrow, too. I bind Satan. Well, if you bind Satan, how does he get loose? If you cast out demons, how do they come back?
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This whole idea that is propounded as spiritual warfare is 100 % wrong.
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What we need to do is we need to cling to the word of God. We need to understand sound doctrine.
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We need to be people who bring the word of God against falsehood. We need to shine that light so that it stands so brightly in contrast to the darkness.
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Well, until tomorrow, God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE its staff or management.