Demonology

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews.
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We're back in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 2, which we have looked at.
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This is our fourth week because we have been doing a study on the subject of angelology, the subject of angels.
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And we have already looked at angels as spirit beings created by God, beings which were created to be worshippers of Him, and also they are messengers and ones who are charged with the protection of God's holy things, God's holiness, God's holy people, all of these things we see throughout the Scripture.
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And last week we took another step in our study of angels and we actually looked at the subject of Satan himself, who is, or rather was, an angel and fell into sin because of his pride, because of his desire to be in God's position, to sit upon God's throne and to have God's authority.
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Satan fell.
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And a lot of people have issues.
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They say, how could Satan, as such an intelligent creature, obviously, created by God, how could he fall like he did? How could he ever think he could be God? And then I remind people, that's the same thing that Adam and Eve did.
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They fell because they wanted to be like God.
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They wanted to have that authority, that power, that autonomy that comes with being their own God.
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And so I have no real issue with the idea that Satan would fall because of pride, because man fell because of pride.
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I think that's a relatively easy thing to come to, a conclusion to come to.
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However, the big difference, I mentioned already today during our time of communion, the big difference between Satan and man is that in Satan's fall there has been extended no grace.
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You know, we talk about God being a God of grace.
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We talk about God being a God of mercy and a God of benevolence.
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God who is all loving.
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And in fact, we have gotten to a place in the church today where that attribute of God, His benevolence, His love, has stopped people from looking at any other aspect of Him.
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They can only see His love and they've stopped looking at His judgment.
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They've stopped looking at His wrath.
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They only see God as a God of love.
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And one of the clearest pictures of God's judgment in Scripture is His attitude in treatment of Satan because He has not extended to Satan any form of redemption.
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He has only extended to Satan judgment.
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Likewise, today we are going to look at Satan's angels.
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That's what we are going to address them as first because that is actually a term that the Bible uses for them.
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It talks about the devil's angels.
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And we commonly refer to them today as demons.
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So the subject today will be moving from Satan to his angels.
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And we'll begin by standing and reading our opening text, Hebrews 13, verse 2.
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Remember, this has been the foundational text for this entire study.
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Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
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Father, I thank You for this opportunity again to preach the Gospel and to exegete Your Word and to give explanation for one of the more difficult subjects in the Word, to understand the subject of demonology.
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And Father, as we engage this subject, I pray that first and foremost, You would keep me from error, help me to focus only on the truth, and for the people's hearts, O Lord, to be open to that truth, fertile ground for the seed of Your Word.
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I pray, Lord, that we would not only learn facts in this sermon, that we would also learn application, that we are in a spiritual battle and that we need to take up the full armor of God to fight this battle.
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We thank You, we praise You, we give You all glory and honor.
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In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
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According to Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28, two foundational passages from the Old Testament, Satan fell because of a desire to be like God.
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And even though we didn't get an opportunity to exegete those passages last week, I do think that it's important to know about those passages and what they say about Satan, because what those passages tell us about Satan is quite important in regard to how demons are to be understood.
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Because Satan, in his fall, is responsible for having brought with him an entire host of heavenly beings which would become his followers.
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He was, in essence, the first cult leader, if you think about it.
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Satan was the first one to develop his own cult and develop a cult following which would go out and be opposed to the righteous call of God to be his follower.
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In fact, if you think about Satan, J.
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Oswald Sanders offers this interesting description of the counterfeit nature of Satan's behavior.
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He not only wants to be like God, but he counterfeits what God has.
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Satan has his own false trinity.
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According to Revelation 16, it's the devil, the beast, and the false prophet.
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That is his own false trinity, sort of mirroring God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
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He has his own church.
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According to Revelation chapter 2 and verse 9, it is called the synagogue of Satan.
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He has his own ministers.
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According to 2 Corinthians 11, verses 4 and 5, they are called ministers of Satan.
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He has formulated his own system of theology.
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1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1 says that there are the doctrines of demons that are being taught.
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He has established his own sacrificial system.
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The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 20 that the Gentiles sacrificed to demons.
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He has his own communion service.
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1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 21 says the cup of demons and the table of demons.
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His ministers proclaim his gospel.
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Galatians chapter 1 and verses 7 and 8 says it is a gospel which is contrary to that which was first preached by the apostles.
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And he has his own throne.
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Revelation chapter 13 verse 2, which is surrounded by his worshippers.
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Revelation 13 and verse 4.
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So if you ever wonder what a demon is in the grand scheme of things, if you wanted to bring it down to a very base, very simple level, a demon is a cult follower of Satan.
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It's an angelic cult member.
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It is an angel who saw the greatest of the angels fall and chose instead of rejecting him to fall with him.
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In fact, if everyone would turn to Matthew 25, I just want to show you what the Bible says, how the Bible describes demons in a very clear way.
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I've already mentioned it, but I want to show it to you in the text because I think it's vastly important.
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Satan is called the prince of demons, but demons are actually called angels.
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I want you to see this.
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Matthew chapter 25, go to verse 41.
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Jesus is talking about the day of judgment.
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He's talking about what's going to happen on the day of judgment.
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And then he says in verse 41, Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed.
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This is talking about those who are going into punishment, those who are going to hell.
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He will say to those on his left, remember the ones on his right go into eternal life.
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The ones on his left are going to punishment.
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He says, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil.
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First of all, it tells us something about hell.
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Hell tells us that hell was actually prepared for the devil and his what? His angels.
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This is one of the few times in Scripture that demons are actually referred to by their appropriate spiritual title.
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Appropriately spiritually, they are of the rank of angels.
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But because of the fall, because of the rejection of the authority of God and the assumption of the authority of Satan, They are now no longer God's angels.
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They are called Satan's angels.
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They are called the devil's angels.
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And not his by virtue of his creation of them.
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As if we could say we're all God's because God created us.
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Not in that regard.
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But they are his by allegiance.
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They follow Satan by allegiance.
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They have rejected the God of Scripture.
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They have rejected the God of their creation.
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And instead they have followed after an idol called Satan.
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And that is the beings in which we are speaking about this morning.
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Demons are described throughout all the Bible.
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Demons are described in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
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And the Bible tells us some very important things which we need to know about demons.
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The Bible tells us about what kind of beings they are which we've already talked about.
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They are angels.
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It tells us about what kind of angels they are.
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They are morally wicked according to Matthew 10 verse 1.
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They are unclean spirits according to Luke 7 and 21.
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They are evil according to Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12.
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They are filled with wickedness and darkness.
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This is the type of being that they are.
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Not the type of being that they were created by God to be.
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But the type of being they fell into because of their rejection of God and their allegiance to Satan.
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Now, we know about what kind of beings they are.
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But, what does that have to do with us? How do we apply such an important truth to our lives today? How do we come to any type of application to us today? The reality is we live in a world that has rejected, for the most part, the influence of the supernatural.
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I've mentioned this over the last couple of weeks.
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We live in a world that scoffs at the reality of the supernatural.
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In fact, even many people who call themselves Christians, many people who call themselves followers and believers in Christ, have almost in toto rejected the supernatural influences in the world.
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And they try to find a natural influence for everything.
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Every time something happens, every time some evil act occurs, they try to find some natural responsibility.
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We all know what happened this week.
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We all know there was a young man who chose to run amok and to forfeit the lives of many innocent people.
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Innocent in the sense that they did nothing to deserve that action.
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And what do we immediately do when we hear such a story? Oh, well, he must have had a bad home life.
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Or maybe he was taught to be religiously intolerant.
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Or maybe he was just, I don't know, maybe he was a member of the Tea Party or a member of the Democratic Party.
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Or maybe he was a member of this or maybe he was a member of that.
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Maybe he was hugged too much or not enough.
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Because we have rejected, as a society, two real important truths.
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One is the existence of evil.
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We've rejected.
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We don't call people evil anymore.
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We call people everything but that.
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And we have rejected the idea that there is a supernatural influence in the world.
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Both good and bad.
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Beloved, there is demonic influence in this world.
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There is satanic influence in this world.
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And to deny such a thing, first of all, if you're a Christian, you're denying the very book which is the foundation of your faith.
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If you deny that there is satanic, demonic influence in the world, you have denied huge portions of Scripture.
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Because the Bible is not only clear that demons exist, the Bible is clear that demons are actively involved in the lives of people.
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So you've denied the Scripture, but you've also denied the reality of what your eyes tell you.
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We look in the world and we see evil.
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We see the face of evil.
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And yet today, when you ask people about some of the most evil atrocities in history, what do they do? Well, that person thought he was right.
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I heard somebody say that about Hitler the other day.
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Somebody brought up the subject of Hitler.
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Well, you know, Hitler thought he was right.
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Well, Satan thought he was right too.
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It doesn't make it less evil.
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It doesn't make it not evil.
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It doesn't devoid the reality of evil to simply say somebody thought they were right.
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You know, the reality, the sad reality is Satan knows what is going to happen to him.
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You remember when Jesus and Satan had that conversation? When Satan came to Jesus and he said, if you are the Son of God, take this stone and turn it into bread.
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And Jesus said, man shall not live by bread, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.
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Remember that little conversation they had during the wilderness temptation of Christ? Do you remember that Satan actually quoted Scripture back to Jesus? He takes him up on the pinnacle of the temple and he says, throw yourself down because it is written, he will not allow your foot to dash against the stone.
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And Jesus said, as it is written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.
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But you remember, Satan actually quoted Scripture, which tells us Satan knows something.
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Satan knows his destruction is imminent.
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And so do the demons.
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So why do they do what they do? They do what they do in hatred of God and in hatred of us.
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Not just believers, of human beings in general.
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They hate human beings in general and I conjecture the reason why they hate human beings in general is because human beings have been afforded the gospel of Christ, which they have not been afforded.
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We have been afforded the redemption which comes in knowing Christ and they have not been given such.
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Their condemnation has already been leveled.
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And there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
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There is an intense hatred for the one who receives grace by the one who receives judgment.
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Always.
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And we see in Scripture the angels know their judgment is coming.
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Turn to Matthew 8.
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Most of you are familiar with this story, but turn there with me because I want to show you something.
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Matthew chapter 8 and verse 28.
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Most of you are familiar with this story.
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It is one of those stories in the Scripture that it actually is told in different ways by the different Scripture writers.
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It is mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels.
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By the way, the Synoptic Gospels, the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are all called the Synoptic Gospels, which means that they all tell the same stories in a similar way.
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They are synonymous with one another, the Synoptic Gospels.
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John is called the Autopic Gospel.
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It tells many of the stories that we do not get from the other Gospels.
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And that is very important to realize because this is one of the stories that is told differently from different books.
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In one of the books you only see one demoniac, one person who is demon possessed.
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But in the book of Matthew there are actually two men who are referenced as having a demon possessed spirit.
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But what it says about these two men, it says, in fact let's begin, we will just read.
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It says in verse 28, And when he, speaking of Jesus, came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon possessed men met him.
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By the way, is demon possession real? Well, it is in the Bible.
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And I know a lot of people say, well, I do not believe in demon possession anymore.
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Well, I do not have any reason not to believe in demon possession anymore.
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There are a lot of things in this world that seem to indicate that there are people who are full on, fully possessed by something that is abnormal and unhuman.
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In fact, there are many very, very reputable Christians, Christian teachers, who have made reference to them being in the presence of people that they truly believed were under the complete influence of a demon.
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I believe John MacArthur has been in such a situation.
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Just to give you some indication of someone who would have a lot of credibility with us, because we know his fidelity to the Scriptures, and certainly would not say something like that without being very confident that he was correct.
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So here, yes, I do believe people are still possessed by demons.
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There is no reason for us to not believe it.
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We see it.
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I mean, and people, I mean, look at the world.
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Look at the news.
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We have people now who are living, they want to be zombies.
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And their behavior, you know, I have been telling, we joke about the zombie apocalypse.
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People joke about, you know what, there is a power to make things happen.
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And this desire for this atrocity, it is a dangerous thing.
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Because there are people who, for whatever reason, whether it is attention, or whether it is pure out mental illness, or demon possession, whatever it is, there are people out there that are doing things today that you never thought you would see.
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And it is a frightening thing, it is a scary thing, but you cannot convince me for a second that demons are not in play.
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Because absolutely, it makes total sense.
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And again, the text here says, Two demon-possessed men met Him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.
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They had such a fierceness about them, so powerful.
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In fact, another text says that they would bind them with chains, and that they would break the chains.
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There was an almost supernatural power that was indwelt in these people.
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And verse 29 says, And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us, O son of God? That right there tells us that there is an intellect that demons have, and a perceptive quality that demons have, that even many people did not have.
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They knew who Jesus was.
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They knew right away.
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What have you to do with us, O son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Why is that short verse important? That short verse tells us they know their judgment is imminent.
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They know they've got a time coming.
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They know they've got judgment coming.
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They know that's going to happen.
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Their only question to Jesus was, Why are you here early? We know the punishment's coming.
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We know our judgment has already been condemned.
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We have already been condemned.
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We have already been judged.
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Why are you here now? Why are you here early? You see, they understand what is in store for them.
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They understand what is coming.
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And there is an intense hatred.
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This is what always bothers me when people talk about being devil worshipers.
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People say, I worship the devil because the devil just loves to have fun.
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Or, I worship the devil because he allows me to express myself fully and do whatever I want to do.
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I'm wicked.
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Oh, that's the new acceptable term, by the way.
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I saw that on the Disney Channel.
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People talking about being Wiccan.
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Because that's okay.
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Wiccan is okay because that's the acceptable form of Satanism now.
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Oh wait, Wiccan's not Satanism.
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Wiccan is a form of witchcraft or demonology.
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It's the worship of demons, folks.
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Don't think it's the worship of a pine tree.
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Don't think it's the worship of that kind of junk.
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It's rewrapped, refocused demonology.
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I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings.
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I'm not trying to be ugly.
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It is what it is.
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Any religion that focuses a worship on something other than the God of Scripture and His Son, Jesus Christ.
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I don't care if you're telling a person to worship a pine tree or a wooden idol or a golden statue or a picture of some person.
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Any religion that does that is an expression of demonology.
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It's an expression of the worship of false gods.
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And there is no demon in the world that does not want himself to be God.
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That's why he's a demon.
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Because he followed after Satan whose desire it was to be God.
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And the reality is demons promote idolatry.
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Demons want us to worship something other than God.
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They want us to worship them.
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In fact, if you go throughout the Old Testament, you'll see where it says that the demons were responsible in many ways for the idol worship.
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It's amazing.
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It's amazing to me that people will worship demons knowing that the demons hate us.
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Satan hates us.
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But yet people will go on worshiping him.
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Why? Because he gives freedom.
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He gives no freedom.
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Living a life of sin is not freedom, folks.
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Living a life filled with sin, the Bible says that is slavery.
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It says we are slaves to sin when we live in a life of sin.
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People say, oh, I'm so free.
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I just want to be free to be me.
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I want to be free to live the life that I want to live.
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I want to be able to drink and smoke and do drugs and have sex and do all these things that I want to do and be free.
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And then I ask you, look at the people whose lives have been marked by such behavior.
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People whose lives had so much potential.
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When I was a kid, I used to like an actor.
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His name was Chris Farley.
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He was a funny guy.
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I always liked him.
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You know, I was overweight.
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He was overweight.
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I always figured that sort of gave us a connection.
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And then he was, I think, 34 years old.
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He drank and smoked and drugged himself to death.
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People who think that Satan's way, that the way of demons is the way to have a positive, good, fulfilling life, need to look at people like Chris Farley.
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They need to look at people like John Belushi.
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They need to look at people like Heath Ledger.
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And they need to realize that the life that is slavery to sin is not freedom.
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The only true freedom comes in knowing Christ.
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The only true freedom comes in fidelity to Christ.
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Because we are given freedom not to be sinless, but we are given the freedom to battle sin with the power of the Holy Spirit.
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And to stand against the wiles of the devil.
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And to stand against the onslaught of demons.
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Turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Ephesians.
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Turn to me, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10.
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I told you I wanted to make application of today's sermon.
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Here's the foundation.
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Demons are real.
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Demons are influential in the world.
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Demons hate you.
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Demons want to destroy your faith.
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They want to destroy your commitment to Christ.
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They want you to be exactly where they are.
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What are you going to do about it? That's the application.
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That's the question.
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What are you going to do? What can we do? They're powerful.
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Satan's angels are powerful and they're all around us.
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And they have the influence of the media.
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They have the influence of culture.
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They have the influence of print.
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They have the influence of television and movies.
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They have all of this influence.
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What in the world could we do? They have the power to cause all kinds of troubles.
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What could we do? Ephesians 6 tells us what to do.
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Beginning at verse 10.
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Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
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Put on the whole armor of God.
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That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
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But against rulers.
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Against authorities.
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Against cosmic powers over this present darkness.
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Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
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Again, that's reference to demons right there.
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This is who we wrestle against.
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How do we fight? What is our tools for battle? What do we use in this battle? Because, beloved, I can tell you we have for a long time, I think, tried to use the wrong tools of battle.
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I look around and I see people trying to fight the injustice in the world with something other than the Gospel.
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And then they're surprised when it doesn't work.
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You are not going to overcome Satan's wiles using Satan's methods.
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Only with the power of God.
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People, in the reality, we talk about our nation.
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It's going through a lot of bad things right now.
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And it looks like it's getting worse.
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And people are always, well we need this social change.
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Or we need this social change.
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Or we need this.
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Or we need that.
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And I agree, we need to be part of the process.
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As Christians, we need to be voting.
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And we need to have, since we were given that awesome opportunity, to be a part of that.
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But never you think for a second that a new president, or a new congressman, or a new senator, is going to bring revival to your land.
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It will not.
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Only the preaching of the Gospel from the pulpits of America will bring revival to our land.
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Verse 13, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
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Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
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In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
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Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
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There it is.
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That is your tools for battle.
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Very quickly, just to give you a short understanding of those.
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It says, first, the belt of truth.
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Why is truth represented by a belt? It's very simple.
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The belt on the armor holds everything else together.
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The belt on the armor keeps everything tied together.
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And beloved, if we do not hold fast to the truth, everything else will fall apart.
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If we are not in the truth, everything else matters not.
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It will all come tumbling down.
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The belt is truth.
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And it says, not only after the belt, it says that you put on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
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Why breastplate of righteousness? What does a breastplate protect? Your heart.
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What is the easiest way for a believer to lose heart in spiritual battles? Live an unrighteous life.
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To live a life that's pleasing to Satan and unpleasing to God is the first thing.
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You expose your heart to Satan, he'll stab it every time.
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The shoes of our feet are the gospel of peace.
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Why? Because everywhere we go, we are to be taking with us the gospel of Christ.
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Thus, our shoes are represented by the gospel.
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We are to be peace takers.
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Not peace like some type of hippie peace.
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No, peace with God.
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That is to be our message and it's to go wherever we go.
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And then it says, take up the shield of faith.
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And it says that that shield of faith is designed to extinguish the darts of the evil one.
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Beloved, I can tell you this, in times where my faith has been the weakest, are times when the attacks seem to come the strongest.
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They come in and they're so harsh because my faith is weakened for whatever reason.
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Maybe I've allowed some doubt to crop up in my mind.
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Maybe I've allowed some sin that I've allowed my mind to go into to crop up in my mind.
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And I allow that shield of faith to fall.
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And when it does, Satan's wiles begin to have their way.
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And I must pick up my shield of faith and stand behind it.
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Because without it, I would be truly lost.
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The one that I remind people of a lot is the helmet of salvation.
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Why is the salvation a helmet? Because beloved, one of the things that Satan wants to convince you of most of all if you are a believer in Christ is that you are not.
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As I've said many times, Satan wants to make unbelievers feel saved and believers feel lost.
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Because both of those types of people, a believer who feels lost is unproductive, and an unbeliever who believes he's a believer is also unproductive.
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And I've talked to a lot of people who were lost as a goose and they believed they were followers of Jesus Christ because of some commitment they made when they were six years old.
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It wasn't a commitment at all.
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It was a whim of a child.
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And I have also met people that were truly saved, but were frozen in their tracks with fear because they were having difficulty being convinced of their own salvation.
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Beloved, we need to know that we're saved.
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1 John was written, So these things have been written that thou may knowest that you have eternal life.
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And finally, what's the one offensive tool? Right? And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
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There's only one tool in the arsenal of the believer that is used to go the other direction.
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Everything else is for protection.
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The breastplate, the belt, the shoes, the helmet, the shield.
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All are for protection.
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We battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spirits, and we battle with the Word.
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For we will never win the battle with man's wisdom.
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I've heard people say it.
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I mentioned it Wednesday night.
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People say, yes, I'll debate about the existence of God, but I won't use the Bible.
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Well, then you're a fool.
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We've not been given the tools of men to win spiritual warfare.
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We've been given the sword of the Spirit.
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This is the tool.
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The Word of God.
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We fight a spiritual war.
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We have a spiritual army that opposes us, and we will battle not with the wisdom of men, but with the Word of God, if we expect to have victory.
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Amen? Let's pray.
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Father, thank You for this opportunity to again be in Your house and to study Your Word together.
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I pray that the reality of demons has been a reminder to us of our responsibility to be soldiers in the battle for truth.
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We thank You for the Gospel, the great and wonderful beloved thing that You have given to us, that salvation that You have given to us which we did not deserve.
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We thank You that it gives us this opportunity to come and worship together today.
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I pray, O Lord, that if there's anyone among us who does not know Christ, who does not know salvation through Him, that You would convict their hearts and use this message to remind them that there is a hell prepared for Satan and his angels, but You have prepared eternal life for everyone who believes on Your Son.
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Thank You for Your glorious Gospel.
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We praise You for it.
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In Jesus' name, amen.