David Asscherick ReTHINK Prophecy Part One- SecondComing.org

[Applause] all right thank you Paul good evening everyone yes I I presently live in Australia and we moved there in March my wife and I am originally from Wyoming my wife's from California and when we got the call to go to Australia we said let us think about it yes have you been to Australia well let me just tell you right now it's very different there than it is here I live less than the distance of this auditorium right here from my house to the beach how's that hey somebody's got to reach these people I said here here oh my lord send me I'm willing to make the sacrifice and so actually the truth of the matter is is that the reason prior to taking the the church there in kingscliff where might as Paul mentioned I have a wife and two boys one wife two boys we traveled around a lot we'd been to Africa and we've been to Europe and Asia that's really what we did we just traveled and spoke and we run a little school called a rise and our boys loved it for a while but when the boys were 2 and 3 you could just sort of tell him hey we're going to China and they didn't complain much if they were in China at Chattanooga it was all the same to them but as they started to get a little older oh when they got to be about 11 and 12 we'd say hey boys this is gonna be so exciting we're going to Sweden and they'd say I don't want to go to Sweden I would hang out with my friends and we realized that it was probably going to be important for us to sort of settle down through those teen years and violated myself we we prayed and we said God we want to settle down for the next sort of five to seven years live in one location somebody told me recently there's two ways to travel you can either get on a plane or a train or I suppose a horse or an automobile whatever and you can drive you know you can fly you can whatever ride to a different place or you can just stay in one place and travel with the earth so we've been doing the plane train thing and now we're just more or less staying in one place but there are a few weeks that I'm allowed to get away and when Pastor John and some of the other local pastors here asked me if I'd be willing to come to Spokane I said of course Spokane in in November is beautiful it's seasonally warm what is going on am i where am i I feel like I got off like in the North Pole mo don't mind Fairbanks Alaska what is that I'm gonna go visit my parents in Wyoming after I leave here and my dad said make sure you bring a coat and I'm glad I did but not just for Wyoming for here anyway it's a privilege to be here I'm on loan from my wife and she sends her regards and her greetings she and my two boys Landon and jabil are praying that the Lord will be with us in our meetings here and I think I'll be speaking five times and I'm very enthusiastic I'm in a perpetual state of very enthusiastic our dear sister down here that has to translate me with the with the hearing-impaired she said can you slow down for me and I said I have two speeds awake and asleep all right so though this is a wake speed and it's real a real privilege to be here a real honor to be here but I am absolutely brimming over with enthusiasm about the material that I'm gonna be sharing with you from Scripture and it's all gonna come from the Bible and I hope you brought your Bibles if you didn't you can sort of still follow along but if you did I think you'll be I think it will enhance your experience if you have your own Bible in your hand if you didn't bring it tonight no problem bring it tomorrow night but if you have your Bible I think you're gonna be really blessed you'll be able to follow along see the text see the line of reasoning and I think it'll just make the experience better for you so tonight we're gonna start by talking about the curse and it's reverse let's see if we can put our slides up there the curse and it's reverse and it's very interesting we're going to sort of be laying the groundwork tonight setting the stage setting the table for the meetings that will follow and I'll be very upfront with you here some of the material that I'm going to be sharing with you not just tonight but over the course of our time together Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday is material that I myself am freshly discovering and in some cases rediscovering and I just have new insights and new new things that are just thrilling my soul and so it may not come off as polished as if I presented these things hundreds of times when I tell you this what it lacks in polish it will make up for in content and I think you'll be really really blessed and hopefully not just blessed but challenged and encouraged by the material that you're going to get over the course of these meetings that we'll be together so I'm just gonna start with the word of Prayer and we're gonna dive right in to this amazing thing called the Bible it sounded like a good idea good we're gonna do it even if it doesn't father in heaven we love you and we know that that's not really the story the story is that you love us and yet father tonight we turn our attention to you father you've invited us to think didn't Jesus say that the great commandment was to love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind and soul but father the truth is is that many of us have been thinking incorrectly or perhaps not precisely as we could and should and father my heart's prayer and you know this is my heart's prayer you know this is my heart's cry for a believer and non-believer alike as they come to these meetings for those that are maybe seeking those that are perhaps even skeptical or those that are sincerely committed to you father wherever they are in their journey whoever's here father I pray that through these presentations we would be challenged not only to think but as is applicable in our own circumstance to rethink in some cases that message that we already think we know so well father be with us tonight as we think as we rethink may you open our heart arts may you open our minds and may you direct us to yourself this is my prayer in the name of Jesus amen all right first of all I want to start with sort of laying the groundwork probably gonna spend about the first 10-15 minutes sort of talking about what the Bible is I became a bible-believing Christian about 17 years ago I was studying pre-medicine at the University of Wyoming I was born in Cheyenne Wyoming and I was born again in Laramie Wyoming and I was there in Laramie studying pre-med at the University of Wyoming and in a series of events that I'm not gonna go into you right now I'll probably tell a little bit more about this toward the end of the week I came to begin to read the Bible and I was not raised in a particularly religious home religion my parents were my father was a Catholic my mother was a Baptist and so when they got married they did the logical thing and they became Episcopalians okay so that's that's that's the home that I came in and it was a great home very loving parents two brothers and two sisters I have the complete set I have every possible permutation of sibling I have older brother older sister younger brother younger sister so I got all my bases covered and while we were raised in a great home a wonderful home and certainly a very supportive home it wasn't what I would call a strong Christian home right I knew that there was a thing called the Bible and I'd heard of a guy named Jesus and sort of had this vague idea about God and in the cross and you know the Episcopal Church wasn't exactly lucid it didn't clearly communicate to somebody who didn't have much of a background or an understanding so I just kind of went through my early childhood thinking of religion as largely ritualistic largely ceremonial and frankly largely irrelevant and so at the age of about 23 years old went through a series of sort of unfortunate and circuitous events somebody handed me a Bible I began to read this book now here's a remarkable thing I probably read the Bible for the first three or four years before I really knew what I was reading isn't that remarkable I'm reading this book and I'm learning things and don't get me wrong I was learning wonderful things I was learning powerful things but before I really began to get my my mind right what is this book and what is the story of this book what is this book about it took years and as I travel around all over the world not just here in America but all over the world I am astonished again and again and again at the number of sincere believers that I mean who have been reading the Bible in some cases for 10 years 15 years and don't really have a grasp of what the story of the Bible is they could find the book of Nehemiah and they know who Jesus was and they know that there were four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John but when you say okay what's the story of the Bible there's a bit of a struggle there's a bit of it well it's it's it's about Jesus and he came and he he died to forgive us and and and there's this sort of vague sense that it has to do with Jesus and it has to do with God and it has to do with sin but but it's it's the rare member the rare believer the rare church member that I meet they can say oh the story of the Bible is do to do and give a really clear really persuasive and really biblically sound version or narrative of what this story is and so what I want to do is spend the first few bits talking about what the basic story of the Bible is and here's the good news you can summarize all of these pages all of these verses all of these chapters and all of these narratives in three basic words now I know that's an ambitious thing to say how many words did I say everyone I mean that's really quite an ambitious thing to say in a reductionistic sense this whole book in its basic narrative and its basic storyline can be reduced to three words and the three words are right there on the screen scripture is set against the backdrop of say these three words myth with me the backdrop of number one creation number two conflict and number three covenant that right there is the story of the Bible in three words creation conflict covenant why don't you say those three words with me creation conflict covenant right there that is more or less the story that's being told here now there are there are ups and downs and highs and lows and narratives and and there's kings and kingdoms and the rise and Falls of a fall of Nations there's the arrival of Jesus and the life of Jesus and the crucifixion of Jesus the Ascension of Jesus there's all of this this sort of expanded narrative of what's going on in Scripture covering several thousand years of human history but at the end of the day you can reduce these 66 books contained in two Testaments down to what three words every one creation and contact and covenant creation conflict and covenant now let's sort of further unpack that what you see there on the screen is actually the the little seven chapter narrative this would be like a slightly more expanded version that we use at the little school that I run that's located in Oregon called arise we've been running that school now for about 12 years 13 years and when we get these students that come to our school we're gonna teach them the basic flow or the basic story as you can see there it says the story of Scripture and we tell them that you can summarize it in seven basic chapters now I just gave it to you in three words creation conflict and covenant but this is a slightly more expanded version of the story of Scripture okay now you'll notice there it's a little difficult to read so I'll walk you through what those those seven circles say interlocking circles and they start with pre creation that's the first that's the first chapter who is God and what's he like before he creates and why does he create and under what circumstances does he create was he compelled to create or did he did he voluntarily create so we take a look at God who is he what's he like how does scripture what does Scripture reveal about this God so we move from pre creation to creation that's one of the words we just mentioned a moment ago then to the fall right that's conflict and we're gonna talk about that tonight that's what we're gonna spend most of our time then from the fall to covenant and you'll notice that there's seven circles in the center circle is the green circle and it's covenants that word covenant it is astonishing going back just to something I was mentioning a moment ago about how I asked many well-meaning long-term Christians church members believers what's the basic story of Scripture and they kind of you know some of them do their best and some of them actually give a fairly credible answer but let me just say this to you right up front here when you go to tell somebody else the story of Scripture whether it's a brother-in-law or your aber or even your daughter or your son if you go to tell somebody the story of scripture and you managed in your summary of Scripture to not use the word covenant you have not told the story of Scripture did you get that now you might be saying well I don't even know what the word covenant means why would I use that word well we're gonna talk about that over the course of our time together but you'll notice that covenant is right at the center right it's it's like a teeter totter or a seesaw what do you call him here teeter totters or seesaws teeter totter that's what I call him growing up and it's it's a you can just imagine in the center of that of that teeter totter is what's called a fulcrum right it's the point upon which the whole thing sort of hinges and the the fulcrum of this book the fulcrum of Scripture is covenants this idea that God has made a covenant he has made an agreement with his own creation okay now we transition from covenant to Messiah from Messiah to church and from church to re-creation and so there's the story sort of the narrative of Scripture from pre creation to recreation and so you can see that it it comes full circle right from where it begins is very similar to where it ends now right on that point if you have your Bible I'm gonna ask you just to hold it up just take that thing out hold it up I can't believe my wife let me leave the country with this Bible let me tell you the story this Bible I received it about 15 years ago from a friend of mine Ben Perez and this Bible has half of my theological brain in it right my marks are in here my my sermons are in here I've done I've spent so much time with this Bible it's like a companion of mine but this companion is growing old and it's falling apart in fact it's kind of like a sandwich my Bible I've got the bread and the meat all right so so when this happened I thought oh man I got to retire this thing and so I got another Bible beautiful Bible and I've had it for about a year and the plan has been to take the marks from that Bible from this Bible and put them into my new Bible but it hasn't had and yet because I just I just feel torn I have this like emotional you know connection I have a relationship with this particular book and my wife says you're gonna lose that and I've almost lost it three times and I tell you if I lost this you could take my boys okay you're gonna lose if you have to say Landon jabil or your Bible I'd be like oh let me pray about it anyway hold up your Bible there and hopefully yours isn't like mine where the thing is gonna fall out but you hold the Bible up like this this is fairly easily Illustrated if we go to the Bible through the front door right we're gonna walk through the front door what's the what's the first book that we're gonna encounter most people know that the book of Genesis now let's say we're gonna go through the back door revelation very good so let's say together Genesis revelation okay so if we walk through the but if we walk into the Bible through the front door the first book that we come to is Genesis in the first chapter that we come to unsurprisingly is chapter 1 right chapter 1 and chapter 2 now in Chapter 1 in chapter 2 we encounter creation in fact the very first opening words of Scripture are say them with me if you know them in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth right that's how the Bible opens in the beginning God created and we're gonna talk more about that a little later in the week so I'm not going to spend much time on that but scripture opens with this declaration of God as a creator and in Genesis chapter 1 God is creating light and he's creating you know land he's creating creatures and the climax the the Grand sort of capstone of creation is that God makes mankind in his own image and we're gonna come back to that so Genesis chapter 1 and 4 Genesis chapter 1 and 2 is creation and we have God in communion in uninterrupted on obfuscated communion with his creation in a beautiful place called the Garden of Eden now question what does the word Eden mean pleasure the word means pleasure God put them in the garden of pleasure okay we're gonna come back to that later in the week so what we have in Genesis wanted to creation God in communion with his creation perfect open uninterrupted unab Stickle communion with his creation now check this out we're gonna go through the back door right we're going to come over here to Revelation the book of Revelation and we're gonna go through the back door and when we go to the back door we come to Revelation chapters 22 and 21 now we're walking the back way and we find the exact same thing we find God back in a garden with his creation uninterrupted nothing between as the old hymn says nothing between my soul and the Savior right so Genesis one and two are almost like an exact mirror of Revelation 21 and 22 right so opens with creation closes with recreation opens with God in face-to-face communion with his creation same thing closes with that same story now here's the remarkable thing everything in between boils down to those two other ideas that we discussed and that is conflict and covenant conflict and covenant now here's the remarkable thing you don't have to go very far before you get to the conflict part and you don't have to go very far before you get to the covenant part you only have to go to chapter 3 of the first book so we just walked in the door right we opened the screen door do you do screen doors in Spokane okay say open the screen door then you open the second door and then that you just you come right into the entryway you're taking your shoes off you're getting ready to get comfortable and already Genesis chapter 3 there's conflict we're going to spend most of our time tonight in Genesis chapter 3 okay so the basic story of Scripture is that there's conflict now I'm gonna put forth a wild thesis tonight and the thesis is right there on the screen and that is this my thesis is that the world looks like a war zone because it is a war zone did you get that the world looks like a place of war the world looks like a battlefield because it is a battlefield now somebody's gonna say well we know that we know that there are wars in Afghanistan and there's wars right now in Syria and Rock and we know that the world is it I'm not just talking about wars between nations tonight I'm going to put forth the biblical thesis that there is a war behind the wars that there's a battle behind the battle that that there's some larger sense in which this world is a war zone and wit and in which this this planet on which we live is a battlefield the world looks like a war zone because it is a war zone a number of years ago there was a an author who wrote a book called The Satanic Verses remember that Salman Rushdie got in great big trouble in the the guy there from Iran he put out a fatwa and the guy and said kill this guy The Satanic Verses interesting novel that the Iranian religious leader took to be insulting to Islam well in fact the Bible contains what what we might call this is what I'm calling them a number of little windows into this character that the Bible reveals as the enemy his name is Satan now his name is not actually Satan in the way that my name is David the word Saint in which we sort of used as a name actually is a transliteration of the hebrew word satan what's the name everyone sit on right and so the name actually means or the word actually means enemy adversary or accuser okay okay what was the third one that I said their enemy adversary or accuser okay so now that word Satan came to be transliterated and eventually came to be known as like a proper name like David or Randy or Sarah or Matthew or or Kenny we say Satan we were like we're referring to his name but the word actually means the enemy the adversary the accuser now that idea right there is going to be hugely significant for us tonight as we talked in our opening session about rethinking prophecy not just rethinking prophecy by the way we're going to be rethinking the whole of scripture the whole of scripture now I'm just going to sort of start this is we're continuing our our basic breakdown of Scripture just sort of understanding what is this book we're gonna open these pages up but before we just start opening up these pages and in some cases some preachers god bless them just start carelessly recklessly reading through scripture assuming that everybody in the room knows what they're talking about that everybody in the room knows what the basic story of Scripture is and if you listen to some modern-day preaching and I do occasionally I'll turn on the television or I'll listen to the radio and I think to myself that verse that you're reading and the way that you're quoting that verse and applying that verse is not only wrong it's out of harmony with the story and the tenor of Scripture so before we open up and get into too many of the details we're gonna try to figure out what's the what's the point what's the basic story just before we got started tonight I spent some time with with our dear sister here who's who's doing the signing and I said look at times what I'll talk about tonight might seem a little complicated but it's very simple the whole sermon can be summarized in this idea now I'm not going to say what that idea is because then you won't pay attention for the rest of the thing right but very simple so before we get into too many of the details let's continue to sort of talk about what what's in this book what's this book about well there are a number of passages in the Old Testament and the New Testament I don't know if you have your Bible but I'm just gonna open mine here for a moment and I'm gonna find the book of Matthew just briefly if you know where that's at you've got your Bible in the book of Matthew's the first book of what we call the New Testament did you know that who knows what the last book of the Old Testament is Malachi very good now you might be braver than me right and if you're braver than me you can just tear this page out this is the most useless page in your Bible right here you see that page right there what does it say it says the New Testament the that's not inspired by the way that's not the word of it that's the publisher put that in to create a division to create a division or a distinction between the ol the Old Testament that sounds so old doesn't it alright what do we do with old cars yeah unless you're like into restoration or hot-rodding we get rid of old cars because new cars are better and what do we do with old shoes we get old shoes cuz new shoes are better and there are a great many well-meaning Christians today then all that Old Testament sounds so dusty sound so sound so old right well I'm gonna suggest to you that this is an artificial division that doesn't really exist okay now if you're not quite as brave like me just fold that piece in half right just just so you never have to see it again right and if you're just feeling a little brave you can tear it out or if you want to be neat maybe you suffer from some form of OCD you can go home and cut it out right now the point that I'm introducing here is that this page suggests a division when in fact there is a continuity in Scripture so what did I say there's a continuity in other words the story in the old and the story in the new is the same story it's the same story it's a remark now at times it appears different but but but even I look different at times if you came and saw me in the morning you'd say that doesn't look like him right in that true for some of us and I it's even different it's even more pronounced with some of the ladies isn't that true you go to bed and you wake whoa what what happened there my wife god bless her she's the most beautiful woman in the world married for 15 years she's prettier today than the day I married her I tell her that all the time April 4th 1999 I say man babe you are hotter today than the day that I said yes to you and you said yes to me but she still feels some compulsion to spend 20 to 30 minutes getting ready I don't know what that means I wake up I brush my teeth I'm ready yeah I put some clothes on I put clothes on I brush my teeth I'm ready I mean how many guys in this room can from waking up to walking out the door you can do that in under two minutes if you're a self-respecting man and you can if you're a self-respecting man you can do that if not you need to come talk to me give you man lessons okay now how many of you ladies from the moment you wake up to the moment you're walking out the door two minutes ready to go face the day how many can do it there's a couple why can't you do it because you're getting ready I don't know what that means getting ready looking over the point is is that there are times where it kind of looks a little different here and it looks but I'm telling you it's the same story it's the same sort we got Jesus in the Old Testament we got Jesus in the New Testament we have covenant in the Old Testament we have covenant in the New Testament we have this amazing story and in this thing that I'm introducing to you right here there's basic connectivity between Genesis or excuse me between creation here and creation here we walk through the front door we encounter creation perfect God and perfect communion with the perfect people in a perfect environment we walk through the back door revelation 22 and 21 perfect God perfect communion perfect environment perfect connection you with me yes or no there's continuity basic continuity and in this in the scripture we encounter several verses several major passages that reveal to us the nature of this conflict the nature of this war the nature of this battle we live in a crazy wild terrible world now it's not all terrible there are beautiful things you with me on that there are beautiful things in the world a newborn child is a beautiful thing yes a sunset is a beautiful thing and some are superlatively beautiful yes the sound of a cello is a beautiful thing yeah any cello lovers out there the taste of a mango do you know about mangoes in Spokane let me tell you I'm gonna get on a plane in about two weeks and I'm gonna fly to this little island you might have heard of before called Australia largest island in the world and we are gonna be just a few weeks out from mango season now the mango it's like paradise so the mangos grow on trees and they fall to the ground and you picked him up and you enter paradise for two months two uninterrupted months of mango drunkenness right and then you come back to America god Bless America but you go to the store and you try to buy a mango and you're like what is this counterfeit fruit that I'm holding this green hard stringy counterfeit fruit but you go over there and I tell you eat a mango it's a whole different experience are you with me just absolutely astonishing right this idea but there are beautiful things in the world wonderful beautiful things family is beautiful and vacation is beautiful in the coast is beautiful and and the Great Barrier Reef is beautiful in Zion National Park is beautiful and Yosemite National Park is especially beautiful my favorite place in America so all of these things that are beautiful but there are a lot of things in the world that are really terrible right kidnapping is terrible and the slave trade is terrible and genocide is terrible and rape is terrible and little children starving to death for lack of food that's terrible you see we live between beauty and blights don't we our our little child might come into the room and all of her vim and vigor and freshness that only a toddler can and was oh that's beautiful and we'll turn on CNN and we'll say wow there's this disconnect between what we see there and we have a sense and intuitive sense and I think the whole world has it even so-called skeptics unbelievers even some atheists all of us have an intuitive sense that to a great degree this world is not the way it's supposed to be we have a we have a national growing erupting sense of justice why is it like that that seems unfair that doesn't seem right that seems unjust we long for the world to be a better place so we are surrounded by beauty but also by conflict also by by blights by disease by death and by terrible things well scripture says the story of scripture in explaining the condition of the world revolves around the sky Satan Satan now these Satanic Verses there are a number of them really these are the mainland's these are the manger passages in Scripture that revolt reveal who this guy is this enemy this suit on and the first one is Genesis chapter 3 we're going to spend some time there in just a few minutes now notice the two words that I've put there just after Genesis 3 can you read those two what do they say well come on a little more enthusiasm than that yeah don't let me use up all the enthusiasm in the room you can have some to the accusation is initiated something happens in Genesis chapter 3 there's an accusation and we're going to find that the accusation is against God now right here is a key point many of us open up this book now don't get me wrong we think it's all about us oh look at that's about me that and that applies to me and that's me and let me tell you something there is a sense in which this book is about creation and you as a created being by extension it's about you but the center of this this is a story of how God and his interactions with creation and so the accusation scripture opens we're just right in the front door we're just taking our shoes off or about ready to get comfortable and boom we come headlong up against this idea of conflict in the conflict centers around an accusation not primarily an accusation against Adam or Eve the two that were made in the image of God this is an accusation by the Satan by the enemy by the accuser against God himself now we go to several other passages in job chapter 1 there's this accusation against God maybe you know the story of Job maybe you know that story where where God has convened some sort of heavenly Council and and the seat on shows up and God asks the question in job chapter 1 what are you doing here and and Satan says well you know just from going to and fro just walking to and fro down on earth he's making a territorial claim what kind of a claim everyone territorial claim in the same way that a dog pees on a fire hydrant right in there right this is making a territorial claim or an animal will rub up against a or a dog will guard its yard it's me it's laying a territorial claim so when God and this heavenly counsel says hey what are you doing here I didn't invite you you didn't get an invitation he says all just walking to and fro on earth my planet the planet that operates by my principles and and here's this conflict and here's a remarkable thing in this context God says - seitan he says hey what about joke what about my guy job you claim that is your planet your principles your operations but what about my guy job my guy job doesn't operate on your principles and then this fascinating thing Satan says to God in the presence of the assembled the assembled group there he says are you kidding job does job fear God for nothing ha you've got to be kidding this whole job thing I'll tell you I job seems so favorable to you to your government to your character to your conduct it's because you surrounded him you've prospered him you've surrounded him with a hedge of protection and prosperity and I'm telling you right now and those of you that are here in attendance Satan said if that hedge of prosperity and protection were removed job would curse you to your face now listen what's the accusation the accusation goes something like this you're not worthy in and of yourself to be obeyed and appreciated and honored you are buying off your friends with your power with your manipulation with your prosperity and with your protection but if you remove those things there's nothing valuable in you that would cause somebody to continue to worship you it's only about the goodies that you give and the rest of the book of Job is God saying ok I'll take that bet let's see what happens to Joe it's conflict in its accusation Isaiah chapter 14 there's this implicit accusation we might spend some time there later Ezekiel 28 these are the major passages in the Old Testament Genesis 3 job 1 Isaiah 14 Ezekiel 28 sakurai a3 wow man we could spend time on every one of these we could go into them in great detail then we get to the so-called New Testament we come to the story of Jesus Matthew chapter 4 he goes into the wilderness and as he goes into the wilderness he hears these words from the suit on from Satan if you are the son of God do this and this and this perform a magic trick if you are now this is a fascinating thing because in the context Matthieu the last thing that Jesus just heard in Matthew chapter 3 when he was baptized he came out of the waters and he heard these words I wonder if anybody here knows what words he heard what was it this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased that's how Matthew chapter 3 winds up in Matthew chapter 4 begins this way if you're the son Matthew 3 God says this is my son but here comes the accuser here comes the enemy right here comes the opposer hey if you're really the son pull a rabbit out of the Hat cause these stones to be made bread satiate your hunger at the expense of the will of God it is written man shall not live by bread alone now our point here is not to go into these texts in great detail but to show that there's conflict right there's this there's this pull and war this tug whether it's over a job or whether it's over Jesus in the wilderness or in Zechariah chapter 3 it's over the high priest there's this this tug of war where God is in conflict God is in conflict with his own creation this is the story of this book I wonder who remembers what were the three words that I said the whole book could be reduced down to what was the first one creation great and then conflict and then covenant we're not going to spend any time on covenant tonight then Revelation chapter 12 the accusation is silenced now right here is a key point hugely important point the Bible opens with accusation Genesis and it closes with the silencing of that accusation revelation now not only does the Bible open and close with accusation the Bible open and closes with curse in Genesis chapter 3 the curse there's some sense in which a curse is levied upon the earth Genesis chapter 3 verse 17 God says cursed is the ground for your sake Adam there's some sense in which the word curse which means like a doom a death doom has come to the earth death has come to the earth a curse has been come to the earth but when the writer of Revelation gets to we're going through the back door now the story's winding up right this is the grand this is a symphonic climax of Scripture it's beautiful the New Jerusalem is ascending sin is no more pain is no more death is no more i watch with a watch what the author of Revelation says I'm just gonna read verse 3 he revelation chapter 22 verse 3 and there will be no more curse oh so the Bible opens with creation followed by conflict and the levying of a curse and the Bible closes with God back in touch and in tune with his creation the conflict has ended and the curse is lifted you with me and it centers the whole thing in some significant sense orbits around an accusation that's why he's called the accuser he's called the suit on he's the accuser there's an accusation at the heart of this thing there's something going on in the Bible opens with this accusation and it closes with the silencing of that accusation now Revelation chapter 12 this is rethink prophecy that's our time sort of developing the groundwork now we're gonna spend time in Revelation 12 Genesis 3 we're gonna go home revelation 12 says these words then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now at this time salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for say this with me for the accuser of our brethren has been cast down hold on to that the accuser has been what cast down we're coming down to the end of the story the end of the book the end of the narrative and the accuser who's been apparently winning and succeeding you read much of the Old Testament man it's a it's a miserable story of human failure over and over again were there some peaks yes there were some peaks that were some were some successes there were some high points but for every high point there's two valleys right and that's not just the story of the Old Testament that also becomes the story in part of the New Testament where where Jesus comes but even the church early the church is failing to fully grasp the significance of what Christ has done there's this there's this amazing sense in which the accuser is being cast down that leverage that he has had over creation he's losing his grip well how is he losing his grip that's what I want to know how is the accuser cast down by what means is the accusation silenced and most of us in this room we think and even maybe not all of us in this room but too many of us because we've not thought deeply about this and too many outside of this room god bless them have not thought deeply about this and they'll ask what they think are really sophisticated questions they'll say things like well if God is real and if God created then why didn't he destroy Satan and that sounds really sophisticated it actually sounds like a good question I thought it was a reasonably good question for the first few years and now I realize what a silly question how do you silence an accusation well do you silence an accusation by killing the person let me ask you this if a person makes an accusation and that person is then killed does the accusation die no the accusations out in the air the accusation is an idea it's out in the air it exists in fact follow this line of reasoning if a major accusation was made against a high government official perhaps an Obama or someone else if a if an accusation a damning accusation was made against him as an administration perhaps as an immoral person or as a scandalous person or or something about his personal life and that person suddenly turned up missing under dubious circumstances let me ask you a question here does that does that accusation does does that persons being being suddenly disappear does that weaken or strengthen the accusation it strengthens the accusations whole what happened to him somebody's got something to cover up right and so scripture opens with this accusation it closes with the silencing of that accusation but I want to know how do you silence an accusation against the very character the very conduct and there are a government of God how do you do that take a look at Revelation chapter 12 verse 9 we just read verse 10 to look at verse 9 it says so the Great Dragon was cast out and it's interesting what John calls him he calls that serpent of all that's going bats Genesis 3 language that serpent in a tree language we're gonna get there in just a little bit and I'm gonna send you home that serpent of old called the devil and there he is Satan and notice this notice what I've put in italics here why don't you read that with me who deceives the whole world what does he do to the whole world he deceives deceives is an idea right deceives is something that takes place in the realm of thought it's something that takes place in the realm of intellect he deceives the whole world he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him right it's not as though Satan tried to pick a fistfight with God that's a no-win proposition right how do you wage a physical war against a being who possesses omnipotence who's all-powerful you don't the conflict is not primarily a physical conflict I'm not denying that there's a physical element certainly there is some sense in which there's a physical element but when the Bible begins to describe this conflict this is a conflict of ideas a conflict of ideas that involves deception well how do you get rid of ideas let me tell you something you kill a person you don't get rid of their ideas am I wrong am i right so look at what dr. cig phaeton state Onstad says I'm reading his book right now absolutely love it's called saving God's reputation this disclosure the fact that he deceives the whole world this disclosure explains why the antagonist that Satan in the conflict cannot be brought to heel by force the deceiver must be and what's the word they're unmasked because if you just if God just put the thumb screws or Zep Satan out of existence or did whatever God is fully capable of doing in terms of basic power and might and strength this does not in any sense diminish or decrease the basic accusation of Satan look at what the nature of that accusation is yet but we're just saying there is an accusation right but if God just shows evidence all you little Mesquite oh that would do nothing to dispel the basic accusation in fact if the God dealt with the situation in that way and my sort of you know illustrative way there that would actually confirm the basic accusation whoa you're paying attention now look at this killing a person is a lot easier than killing an idea in that true how do you kill an idea you disprove it you unmask it you reveal it there's an actual term there's a latin term for this it's called reduction ad absurdum reductio ad absurdum it means you reduce it to the point of absurdity all right we would say we would say the idea that the earth is flat is reduction at absurdum it's absurd now we have too much counter countervailing evidence that says now the earth isn't flat it's a sphere it's a sphere that's spinning in a system made of other spheres and and we have too much evidence we would say that idea has been ruled out but not because we killed all the people who thought the earth was flat but because the idea has been disproved you see scripture tells this amazing story that God and CS Lewis the great Christian writer he said this is the greatest mystery of all the mysteries in Scripture now watch this that God and all of his grandeur right God is God possessing as he does omnipotence and omniscience and and God and his vastness and his eternality and and all of the things that God brings to the table which is infinite and all of that he condescends Lewis says not only to make something in His image but he he invests that thing that he has made in his own image with a will so much so that will that he invests his creation with is so authentic and genuine that the creation could resist the creator and Lewis says surely this is the greatest of all mysteries that the creature would resist the creator and that the Creator would allow it why why allow it well I'm suggesting here that there are a number of reasons but one of those reasons is Godhead - he said God is constrained by circumstance of course he is the moment that God made other beings that possessed intentionality and volition and choice and will he is now constrained by their choices as well their choices will not ultimately rule over his choices but as it were he has to enter in to this conflict and into this venue on the terms of engagements and if you invest something with freewill if if you genuinely and freely invest something with freewill and it chooses to go contrary to your will and then you smash it out of existence then it never really had free well it had free will in as much as it continued to operate in harmony with what you said they had to do well that's not freewill right that's coercion it's manipulation and it's fear-based so how will this accusation finally be silenced how will it happen well here's the point the book of Revelation was written by this guy named John John also wrote the gospel Matthew Mark Luke John Wright John and this certain figure factors hugely in John's Gospel arguably more prominently in the Gospel of John than any of the other Gospels okay Jesus had a fascinating thing about this certain figure in John chapter 8 verse 44 and I want to direct your attention to it here he says he was a what he was a murderer when from the beginning he was a murderer from the beginning he doesn't stand in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it what a fascinating thing for Jesus to say he was a murderer from the beginning and yet as you go back and read those satanic verses the ones that we looked at briefly we mentioned job chapter 1 and his II keel chapter 28 in Isaiah 14 in Zechariah chapter 3 in Matthew chapter 4 and even revelation when the tale of the accuser is told he's not a murderer at the beginning did you hear that but Jesus says he is well well what's going on it's not as though the story doesn't begin with with Lucifer killing somebody that was Satan's name before he became the enemy the accuser Lucifer the Light Bearer you know the Bible doesn't open and say and there was a murder whodunit it's not like him it's not like an Agatha Christie novel it's not like the board game Clue who did it I think that Colonel Mustard did it in the library with the lampstand that's not how it opens okay scripture doesn't open like that scripture opens not with a murder it opens with an accusation so what did Jesus mean when he said he was a murderer from the beginning he meant this right here look at the screen not all sin is murder but all sin is murderous in its intent now let me tell you why because at the heart of this thing that called sin at the heart of this thing called evil and we'll just give it an even easier word a word that we can all remember sin is kind of a theological word kind of a religious word people don't even quite know what it is somebody might have stumbled in here off the street say what is sin I'm not quite sure even whose version of evil are we talking about okay let's just make it real simple selfishness there you go all right selfishness you see not all selfishness is murder and murder is the height of selfishness because you and I have come into conflict over whatever may be a pair of sunglasses right people do stupider things than that you and I have come in over conflict about who owns these sunglasses who owns this car who owns this and I pull out a gun and you pull out a gun okay see what's happening here the guns are just the guns are a convenience right the guns are a convenience to do what we want to accomplish in that moment and that is to eliminate anything that stands between me and what I want you see you might not be a murderer and probably you aren't but if you have inside of you a basic desire for self and selfishness you possess the germ of murder you possess the embryo of murder Jesus would say it this way many years later right not many years later but he said in John eight he was a murderer from the beginning Jesus would say it this way you have heard I'm in Matthew chapter five six and seven he was speaking to a bunch of people in his day and he said you guys have heard that if you commit murder right you'll be in danger of the judgment but I Got News for you whoever is angry with his brother without a cause isn't is a murderer in his heart well how can being angry without a cause be murder because it's the same thing it's just not quite as far along the spectrum in principle it's the same idea because it puts me at the center and you if you cross me enough and I cared deeply enough about this thing if I have to choose between you and me it's gonna be me right that idea that basic idea of selfishness was brought into the universe by the Citan self-preservation me first right and when that came into the universe God could see from his vantage point you know just imagine he's there in Yosemite Valley and he's standing up on top of El Capitan God can look and he can see the whole valley Lucifer is just over here beginning to make his various and sundry choices and God's us whoo-hoo-hoo I see where that's going I see where that's headed if you do that it'll lead to this that inevitably invariably necessarily leads to this unchecked right most of us in this room wouldn't think of ourselves as murderers we're not but every one of us in this room possesses the capacity for murder and not just the capacity but most there are a great many modern sociological studies and I don't have time to get into this right now but if you're interested in it you can read a book called the Lucifer effect by Philip Zimbardo how good people turn bad and here's the short version and we've seen instances of this and the Princeton the the the the Stanford Prison Experiment that most recently in the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prison and here's the short version the vast majority of people that means the people in this room the person sitting right next to you if they're in a situation where circumstantially immoral activities are expected of them most people will perform immoral activities even to the point of abusing torturing or killing another human being if that's the basic social cultural expectation you are perfectly capable under the right circumstances of hurting another human being to preserve your own life are you with me on that this has been brought into existence so when Jesus says he was a murderer from the beginning he's not saying that Colonel Mustard did it in the library with lampstand what he's saying is he introduced a principle that if followed to its logical conclusion would eventuate in the elimination of all except the great I the me see this is the idea that was brought into existence and if God just stamps the originator of that idea I've said where where is he and he stamps a mouse uh-huh finally got rid of that but here's the point that would actually be a basic confirmation of the idea that selfishness and force and coercion is the way the universe operates well wait a minute if that's the accusation how do you undo that accusation by acquiescing to those terms now that would only strengthen the basic point how do you undo an accusation as we've already mentioned it's a lot easier to kill a person that it is to kill an idea now let's just spend a little bit of time in Genesis 3 to get the accusation this the the guts of the accusation we'll pick this up tomorrow yeah I've got a few more minutes can you can you hang on for sort of 5 all right we could call it good right now let's take a vote let's be democratic who says five more minutes and by the way if I say five it's 10 just multiply by two so who says five more minutes all right who says sit down come on there's a few of you be honest all right we're gonna go just a few more minutes Oh if you have your Bibles go let's go to the let's go to the front door okay we've opened the screen door Genesis 1 we've opened the door Genesis 2 we're gonna come back to those in a little bit but Genesis chapter 3 sounds like this I'm just gonna read it verse one now the serpent was more cunning now I'm just gonna pause there when we're introduced to this Satan figure the serpent figure the old serpent called the devil and Satan we are not told he is strong we're not told he's powerful what are we told he's cunning he's smart he's crafty he's intelligent see his strength is not in his biceps his strength is not in his physicality as I've already mentioned who physically could resist God no no no what's going on here is not a battle of biceps it's not a battle of bodies it's not a battle of physicality this is a battle of ideas who is God what's he like what's he doing running the show the principles upon which he runs the show are absurd he's gonna say now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden there's a subtlety here in fact if you go back to the verse the the chapter just before that in Genesis chapter 2 I read this verse in verse 16 and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat of every tree you may freely eat verse 17 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden don't eat out of that one now I don't know how your imagination works but mine is very active okay and my active imagination I see the Garden of Eden remember the garden of pleasure right you got it in your mind and there's all kinds of fruits there there's mangoes and there's peaches and there's fruits that we've never even heard of right a few years ago I had the best fruit I've ever had in my life it's called a mangosteen you ever heard of a mangosteen there's nothing like a mango it's a purple fruit it's this pertinent thing it's like a purple fruit like an orange on the inside but it's white white like snow and it tastes like heaven I can't even describe the taste so there they are the gardener's mangosteens and and there's there's all of these fruits and I can just imagine the man says can I eat ooh that one yes and that one yes and that one yes yes yes yes yes yes yes of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but not that one now I don't know in your imagination how many yeses are there how many trees are in that garden okay say a thousand we'll just go with a thousand so we'll say there's a thousand and one trees how many are yeses a thousand how many are knows okay so this is how godparents you see we're in Genesis chapter 3 we're just like in the we're standing in the foyer and we already know that God parents buy freedom not by restriction and not by coercion right God gave freedom there was a thousand yeses in a single now how many of us felt to some degree like our parents job was to say no how many of us was parents then turned around and did that very same thing to our kids come on now start preaching right I'm telling you he's like hey Dad can I no I was just gonna ask if I could if you could show me where the broom is so I could sweep the kitchen well yes right it's like our knee jerk is like is it nope no no no we just we just automatically want to say no not all of us but many of us - many of us let me tell you something you know what's in God's heart yes what's in God's heart is yes God says yes I'm trying to parent my own two boys this way you know what I've told my boys I said boys the answer is always yes unless it has to be now right it's always yes unless it has to be no if you're gonna hurt yourself or hurt somebody else it's a no but but barring those two you know possibilities yes man it's really fun to parent that way I'm telling you what actually works it's crazy because when you parent by yes rather than parenting by no watch what you do you shift the responsibility for evaluating whether or not this is a hurtful or harmful thing on to them you see what you just did see too many of us were raised this way and raised our kids this way we weren't taught to think our parents did our thinking for us and suddenly when we were 18 19 20 we went away to college we found ourselves doing stuff we never thought we'd do because you weren't taught to think when you were 13 14 15 you were just told no no no no no and then when the person that says no no no no's not there anymore now you have a bunch of yeses but you've not learned how to say yes to the best things and no to the worst things you see so godparents by yes he says yes a thousand yeses in a single no but when Lucifer shows up he says hey has God really said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden he frames the question as if to suggest there's a lot of noes and only a little yes now the woman census that's not quite right and so she comes to God's defense but God doesn't need defending he needs obeying did you get that I know I've been going for 57 minutes already but that's a good point God doesn't need defending he needs obeying the woman rallies to God's defense oh no no no no no no we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has said you shall not he didn't either show you touch it lest you die now she is perfectly set up for this you will not surely die see now look at what's happening on the screen here the first accusation let me see if I've got one up here I don't if you have a camera or a video all right there you can see this little video camera right here how many legs does that that that support structure have that the camera is on three what do we call that tripod because three is the minimum number of points that makes up what's called a plane right if you have a single point you don't have a plane it's unstable you'd never make a table with one leg you can make a table with two legs you have like like a bicycle the only reason a bicycle is reasonably stable is that you have forward momentum and and the force right keeps you the centrifugal force keeps you upright the faster you go the more stable it becomes which is always a recipe for disaster as we've all learned but but when you have three elements you have one two and a three now you have stability right you have basic stability we're gonna see there's a tripod of deception here and the this it it starts fairly seemingly innocuous it gets worse and then it gets terrible three points basic stability the first thing he says is God is unclear unreasonable and restrictive has God really said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden why is God so restrictive well in fact if there's a thousand yeses in a single no that's not exactly what you would call a ratio for restriction now what if there were ten thousand yeses you see what's happening so the second thing he says is you will not surely die did the old man tell you you were gonna die he seems to be saying oh god is dishonest and untrustworthy not only is he restrictive and unreasonable he's lied to you he told you you would die I'm telling you you won't die but here's the capstone to the deception here's the third leg of this tripod it says for God knows that in the day that you eat of this tree your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil you'll be better off you'll be better off because God is trying to keep you down God is selfish and he's looking out for himself you see now what you have is not just a not not just a tripod but you have a cycle God is unclear and unreasonable and restrictive why because he's dishonest and untrustworthy y-z dishonest and untrustworthy because he's looking out for himself and that's why he's purposely speaking in these vagaries he's trying to keep you down because he's dishonest because he's looking out for himself and so he doesn't want you you see what's going on here he sees and the woman it's like well it's just like you know you remember the thing where you put your hand on the bat you ever done that put your head in the bed you walk a straight line I can't even think of a straight line right now right the woman is so disoriented that she takes the fruit it just seems so right it makes sense I mean who would want to follow and obey a god like that anyway and her sense of almost indignation is rising within her the accusation has not only been levied here's where things get really sticky you know how you get stuffing a stick it won't come off the accusations not only been levied the accusations been believed and once we have the the embryo the germ of accusation of conflict that's come into the world we don't just jump we don't just skip to revelation uh no no no no no we've got hundreds and thousands of years of believing that basic accusation until the accusation is finally and fully and permanently silenced but how that's what we'll talk about tomorrow night is that Alright was just a good warm-up I tell you I'm gonna invite my good friend Matt up Matt's gonna come and sing us a beautiful song and I'm gonna invite you two to really pay attention to the words of the song Matt you need this microphone here somebody gonna bring that up should I lift it up mind charge up here Paulie you in charge you be in charge it's a beautiful song and I want you to listen carefully to the words of this song they're gonna be on the screen I'm gonna ask my video guy in the back there Jay fast forward past all those slides and get to the beginning of the song there you'll find it the song is what's the song called Matt tell us about it what's the name of it love of a different kind love of a different kind and it tells a story and I want you as Matt sings beautiful voice dear friend as he sings this song you pay attention to the lyrics and you'll begin to have a hint a hint for what we're gonna set up tomorrow and for this whole week the cot the table is set the accusation has been made the accusation has been believed and here's the tricky part if if it had only been one or two people that had believed the accusation maybe the Bible would be much shorter the problem is is that you and I have believed the accusation ooh and some of us are still believing it and some of us don't think we're believing it but we really are so over the course of our time here as we look at these prophecies and as we rethink what the Bible is saying the real story of this book we're gonna rethink it and we're gonna ask ourself if we know everything that we're just sure that we know or maybe we don't know it as well as we thought or maybe we do but we need a refresher it sound like a good idea I'm gonna be here I'd love for you to show up [Music] you

Channel: SecondComing.org

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Keywords: david asscherick (person), david asscherick, upper columbia conference, light bearers, david asscherick revelation, david asscherick sermons youtube, david asscherick sermons kingscliff, pastor david asscherick sermons, pastor david asscherick, ty gibson sermons, SecondComing.org, everlasting gospel 1888, everlasting gospel, 1888 message righteousness by faith, righteousness by faith, discover prophecy david asscherick 666, discover prophecy, david asscherick prophecy

Id: QLHUOveD_1Y

Length: 67min 21sec (4041 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 05 2019