normal, I think we'd all agree on that. It's been
a crazy time. Is that a good way to describe it? A time that things are just different, unusual
times. They're times that are remarkable. Things that maybe you hadn't really thought would
occur have been happening, and maybe in a way that we hadn't expected. I mean, we've read prophecy,
we hear about some of these things. And yet, this seems different, because it's happening
to us. This is happening all around us. The events that we've seen on the news that
have been taking place, how do we frame our perspective on those things? As I was thinking
about this, a couple of passages came to mind. Maybe as you think about the times that
we live in, are there passages that you've been maybe pondering, maybe thinking about, or
meditating on? A couple that came to my mind. One… Well, not the one that talks about perilous times
in Timothy. Yeah, that one definitely comes to mind. We live in perilous times, I think that
becomes obvious. But I thought of that section of Scripture that's a familiar one, in Ephesians
2. We're going to take a quick look over there. Ephesians 2 talks about us and our perspective
when it comes to this world, our relationship to the world, and where we once were, and where we're
supposed to be now. And it really frames the issue of, why are things happening in our world the way
that they are? What is going on in this world? Have you heard that question
raised lately, "What is going on?" And I think Ephesians 2 begins to identify
what is going on. Look at what it says here, beginning of the chapter, verse one. "He made
you alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,” yeah, that was us. We weren't always with
the program, not with the spiritual program. It says, verse 2, "in which you
once walked according to the course of this world,” now, we were once in that
whole fray, just like everybody else. We weren't thinking on a godly level. And in fact,
you might read that and say, "Well, the ways of this world," we walked according to the ways of
this world. We often think of it in those terms, but Paul's getting at something even more than
just the ways of this world. And he gets to the heart of the matter by using this word for
"course." "According to the course of this world," do you know what word that is in the
Greek for "course?" The word is "aion." Aion. And when we talk about aions, we're talking
about time that goes on and on and on and on and on. So what he's talking about here, we
used to be… or the way this world is right now, this is the way it's always been.
What happened to Adam and Eve? Well, they were deceived right off the bat, they sinned
immediately. And the aions of humanity since have been walking the ways of this
world, the aions of this world. And who's that influential power that's behind
the madness? Well, that's where Ephesians 2 gets to the heart. It says, "You once walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
who now works in the children of disobedience." So we know that's identifying Satan the devil, the
prince of the power of the air. Some translations say "the ruler of the power of the air."
Satan the devil rules the airwaves. Now, not specifically radio or TV or cell phones
in that way, but like those things. He's an unseen force, like… What is it that makes my cell
phone ring when you call me? I don't know exactly, but I know it's some wave going through
the air that triggers my phone to go off. Or you get in your car, maybe today when you drove
over to services, you might have had the radio on. Well, radio waves are influencing your receiver,
so you can receive those signals. Or broadcast television, same type of thing. Well, it's
no different for Satan when we think of him. Not just being a prince, but he has authority,
you might say, authority over the airwaves. And he continually broadcasts and infects this atmosphere
of our world with negative attitudes, with moods, with feelings. And it says he's particularly
active in the children of disobedience. Those that don't have a relationship
with God seem to have an extra-special connection to his wavelength.
But do you think that leaves us out, "Well, I don't have to worry about
that. I'm not affected by that at all?" No, we have to be careful. We have to be
careful that those waves aren't influencing us. So he warns us, "You used to be this way."
If we're not careful, we could be influenced by those powerful, powerful influences from Satan.
And in fact, it's interesting, as he says, "He works in the children of disobedience." That's
also another interesting word that the apostle Paul used here, "the children of disobedience."
That's talking about those who are obstinate, those who are focused on what they're
doing, and they're in opposition to what God would have them do. They're living
their lives in opposition, in other words. And when you're obstinate… Can
you think of other synonyms? I like the word "pig-headed." Pig-headed.
In other words, you're stubborn, you're inflexible, you're not going to be
reasonable. And children of disobedience are in that frame of mind. Do you ever try to
convince somebody against their will? You're not going to get anywhere. You're going
to talk to somebody that has a particular perspective on what a family is in America today?
And if they're locked in, they are locked in, and they are not going anywhere. And you can tell them
all you want, but it's not going to get anywhere. That's the kind of opposition and obstinance
this "disobedience" is talking about. And when you think about where we're supposed
to be at, think about the flip side of this form of disobedience. What would be the opposite of
disobedience? Okay, we'd probably think, "Well, it's obedience," right? Well, not exactly. I mean,
yeah. Okay, yes, that's true. But when we think about this idea of being pig-headed, or being
stubborn or being inflexible, what's the opposite? Well, being Christians, trying to follow God,
that means we have to have a determination to follow His will. That means we have to have a
persistence to do what God would have us do. So there has to be a tenacity to be locked
into God's frame of mind and to His direction. And so, we're told here that we've got to turn off
to that wavelength that Satan would love to tune us into. And we've got to have the persistence
and the determination to continue to be tuned in to God's wavelength and not to Satan, because it's
something he is continually, continually striving to influence humanity. And I think he's probably
got an extra force striving to influence us because if we look around this world today, he's
got a pretty good hold on things. But if he could influence us, that would mean even more
to the detriment of God and His plan. And so, as I was considering that particular basis
for what's going on in our world, this idea of a spirit that is working in our world today, that
spirit is an evil spirit. And the apostle John wrote about that same individual, but he put it in
a little bit different terms. If you look over at 1 John 4:1, here, we find the apostle John giving
us a perspective in order to deal with this world that we live in. How can we survive, how can we
have the tenacity, how can we have the persistence and the determination to continue to battle
these forces that are all around us? Well, John kind of deals with that, and gives us
a strategy to deal with these things. Notice what John says. 1 John 4, right at the
beginning of the chapter, he starts by saying, “Beloved…" Yes, we are much loved by God. That is
certainly a blessing. And he says, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether
they are of God." Yes, there's a spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.
It's out here, broadcasting among us. "Test the spirits." Well, what is that saying?
Well, it could look good. It could look fine. It could look harmless. But he says, try those
spirits, or, "Test those spirits, whether they are of God." It might not be all that obvious,
initially. And so, he gives us that direction. In fact, a little bit farther down, verse 5, he
says, "There are those that are out there in the world. Therefore they speak as of the world,
the world hears them.” But for us, verse 6, "We are of God. He who knows God hears us,” John
says. "He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the
spirit of error." Well, what was John speaking? Well, he was speaking the Word. He was
speaking God's words. It's the gospel. They're speaking God's Word. Those that
are tuned in to God's wavelength hear that and can begin to determine the difference between
the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error, the spirit that works in the children of
disobedience versus truth, God's truth. And so, what does he do, what does he tell
us that we need to do? He says, "Test it. Try it." Does this movement, does this
attitude, does this emotion, does this thought, does this action reflect the Spirit of truth or
the spirit of error? He says, "Try it, test it." This word is used a number of times
throughout the New Testament. And yes, it can mean to test it or try it. But it can
also mean to prove it, or to scrutinize this, which means more than just a casual observance.
Now, it's getting at something more, something more than if you lived in the
first century and were reading John's letter, it probably would have brought a different thought
to mind, when you read this, "Test the spirits." Do you know what probably came to mind, if you
were first-century reading John's letter and you read, "Test the spirits?" You'd probably think,
"banker," which seems kind of odd, doesn't it? What does a banker have to do with testing
spirits? Well, that word for "test" is "dokimos." Dokimos. And dokimos has to do with banking.
In fact, if you go back to the first century, the Romans had a pretty sophisticated banking
system. And a big part of the banking system were money changers because you have to change from
this to that, as you travel through the empire. What was the problem? Counterfeiting.
Counterfeiting was a huge problem in the Roman empire, especially
with the coins that were minted. The empire would mint coins, and do you
know what people would do with those coins? They'd shave down the edges of those coins. And
so, if you've got a handful of coins and you shave off the edges of a bunch of coins, pretty
soon, I have another coin. And so, people would counterfeit the currency and get… try to get
away with that. And it was a big problem. But a dokimos in the Roman empire would be one that
would examine the currency, examine the coins. Is this a coin that has not been shaved down? Is
this a coin that's full-value? Or is this a fake, is this a phony, is this a counterfeit? Has this…?
Something that's less value than the original? And so, when John wrote this, "Test the spirits,"
this dokimos was an individual that would never give counterfeit money, always gave full value in
exchange. And so, are you getting full value? Or is this world trying to sway you from something…
some thought, some emotion, that isn't full spiritual value? Really, that is a waste.
And even when you think about the genuineness of a coin, the dokimos looked for what was
genuine. Was it the real deal, or was it fake? You know, Satan loves to come off like the
real deal, but he's fake. He's a total phony. And even today, you think about our banking
system today, I've had tellers tell me… That sounds funny. I have tellers at the bank tell
me that they're on the watch for counterfeits. And so, I think, "Well, what do they do?" Did they
study all the counterfeits that are out there, to recognize the fakes? No. do you know what
they study? They study the real deal. They study true currency. They would study the dollar bills
or the $100 bills, and they know what a real bill looks like. And because they know what a real
one looks like, when they see the fake one, they recognize it right away. And that's an important
aspect when we think about what's going on here. We know the real deal so well that the
fake, the phony, is not going to take us in. Because we've tried the spirits, we've tested
it. We're a spiritual dokimos, and we know the real deal. We know God's way, we understand
His purpose, His plan. We understand His Word, and so, we recognize it. And so, if we're
going to recognize a wolf in sheep's clothing, you've got to know the sheep, right? You've got
to know the sheep if you're going to recognize it. And so, lookout. Look out, because the error
that's all around us in this world is out by the spirit that works against us. The spirit
of the prince of the power of the air, of the course of this world, is out there, trying
to deceive us and lead us into a counterfeit. In fact, when you look at this, the Spirit
of truth and the spirit of error, this word "error" in this particular passage, in verse six
of 1 John 4, it doesn't mean just to be mistaken, the spirit of being mistaken. No, it's
not that. Yeah, it includes that idea, but there's more there when you look at the Greek. "Error," in this case, is pointing to something
that has a wandering sense to it. Okay, so what does wandering have to do with the spirit of error
or wandering? Well, it also means to be led astray or to roam around. One of the word dictionaries…
I think it's Thayer's Word Dictionary, which says it means, "to roam hither and thither." Try saying that six times, really fast. It
sounds like we have a lisp. "Hither and thither." Is there a being that roams
around like a roaring lion, trying to see whom he may devour? You see,
the spirit of error ties in with that. It's getting off track, just a little bit off,
a little astray. You're just wandering a bit. And you may find yourself in the totally wrong
area. And that's what John is warning about here. So that would lead us to include things like
coming to the wrong opinion about things. And boy, you can have opinions about everything. But is
this from God's perspective, or is this from the course of this world? You know, and what happens
when you come to a wrong opinion is, that error then comes out in our actions, in what we say
and what we do. And is God's Word about opinion? I mean, whose opinion counts? Not mine, not
yours. God's opinion is what really counts. And so, to be led astray, to wander, is what
this spirit would love for us to do. So let's consider this spirit of error for a moment, and
recognize what is going on in our world today. What's going on in our world today? You see when
we look at the spirit of error and disobedience, is there any doubt it's all around us? I
mean, it's everywhere. It saturates our world, our society, our culture. It's just permeating
from all around us. And Satan would love, in any way possible, to get us to follow him, and
get us wandering and straying and being led away, even if it's just a little step to begin
with. He'd love to have us that way. And when we consider that, we have to be a true
believer. I mean, are we true believers, or are we just believers? Or is there a difference
between a believer and a true believer? Sounds kind of the same, doesn't it? Yeah, it
sounds the same. But there's that little bit of straying, that little bit of wandering. Because
James tells us… James 2:9. You don't have to turn there, you'd probably recognize it. James
says, "You believe there's one God, you do well. The demons also believe and tremble." Yeah,
they're believers, but they've totally strayed. So being a true believer, you can't allow
Satan to lead you into that spirit of error, because it distorts reality, just
putting a little twist on things. So it seems like it's good, it seems like it's
right, but it's deceptive. And it's affected our perception, and it can fool us into wrong
opinions, which can lead, then, to wrong actions. He would love for us to become a slave to
error and a lie. And we know… Scripture says, he was a liar and a murderer from the very
beginning. And that's his specialty, isn't it? Think about his specialty. How does he do
it? It's not obvious. He's sly, he's slick, he's tricky, he's deceitful, he's shrewd.
He would love to pull it over our eyes. And by the way that he uses the course
of this world and the power of the air, he tries in a number of ways to
get us to stray and get off-course. A powerful way that he
attempts to get us off-course is, he really wants us to react emotionally. He
would love for us to rely on our emotions. Could Satan do that? Have you seen any emotional people
lately? Maybe you've been emotional. I mean, it does wear on you after a while, if we've
been quarantined and not been able to relate to people the way we normally do. And Satan uses and
would love to influence, by the power of the air, by this permeating attitude, to influence us. I
was reading, the other day, about a psychotherapy that's called cognitive behavior therapy.
I don't know if you've ever heard of CBT. And what CBT does is, it's kind of a
hands-on approach to dealing with emotions, getting back to our thinking and our emotions.
Because our thoughts lead to emotions, and our emotions then lead to behaviors. And so,
this particular brand of psychotherapy tries to deal with that particular aspect, our emotions.
So does Satan work like that? Does Satan try to get at our emotions? Here's an example.
Example, "I don't think my boss likes me." Okay, that's a thought. That thought came
into my mind, "I don't think he likes me." Well, how does that make you feel? "I don't know
if I'm going to be able to keep my job. I'm not feeling particularly secure. In fact, I'm
not sure I like that guy. Oh, I don't know, that really makes me mad. I'm upset. But I don't
know he wouldn't like me. What's his problem?" So now, I'm reacting emotionally. It's an
emotion. So how does that affect, then, my job? "I'm going to work really hard because I…
Nah, probably not. The guy doesn't like me, that really irritates me, so forget it. Forget
it, I'm going to do… Yeah, who cares? I'll do the least I can and get by because I'm not happy
about any of this." And so, what's the result? You think you're going to get the promotion? "I'm
unhappy with my job, I'm unhappy with my boss. Yeah, I'm stuck in this crummy
situation." Well, was that the reality? You don't even know. You don't even
know if the guy likes you or not. But you allowed that thinking to turn into
emotion, now that it's impacted your actions and your behavior and the rest of your
thinking. And Satan loves to work like that. I mean, think about that. I mean, do we just
have emotions and they come from nowhere? They just drop out of the sky, and now, I'm angry. Nah, I don't think so. It's not
like that. It's not like that. Those emotions come from a thought. A thought
comes into our mind, and what do we do with it. Enter Satan the devil. That's where Satan
would love to get in. The thought came, how do I deal with that? "Well, let me throw some
moods, let me throw some attitudes, let me throw some emotions at that, and see if they bite." You
see, and that's where we can get into trouble. He's the father of lies. He can't speak the…
He's incapable of speaking God's truth. And so, he's going to distort that truth, and he's going
to try to convince us that distortion is reality. Has that happened to us? Yeah. Yeah, it sure
can. You know, "My mate doesn't appreciate me." Okay, that thought might come into your head.
I'm not talking about my wife, particularly, but you may have that… someone may have that
thought. "Yeah, she doesn't appreciate me at all. Well, I'm hurt. That's not right. You know, I'm
a… She's got no reason. I'm offended by that." And so, we can have an emotional reaction to
that initial thought. Instead of thinking, "Well, you know, God loves marriage, marriage is
supposed to represent Christ and the church. I need to reach out to my mate. I
need to make sure everything’s…" Well, Satan loves to get
inside there and say, "No, no. Dissing you. You have a right to be hurt.
You have a right to be offended. You have a right to have that emotion." And so, I might
just fly off the handle over nothing. Or maybe my behavior would be just, "All right, fine.
Not talking to you. Done. I'm done with that. I'm just going to ignore you." And so, we
react in a different way, altogether. And so, that thought is infected by a wrong emotion, then
that caused me to misbehave. And the result is, Satan wins. Satan wins. And we can watch the news
and have this response, "What is going on?" And we can get so caught up in these things, what happens
is, we now demonstrate the works of the flesh. Ephesians 5 talks about the fruits of the
spirit and the works of the flesh. Well, those things become evident when Satan gets
his foot in the door with our emotions. And he would love to trip us up and react
emotionally. But he doesn't stop there. "If that doesn't work, well, I'll try something
else." Satan loves to use wrong reasoning, as well. He likes to get our thinking off,
even when it comes to spiritual things. He loves to get us off-track, wants us to
wander away from the truth, in that way. I mean, we know the proverb. It says, "There is
a way that seems right to a man," but talk about going astray. Where does that end up? “The end of
it is death.” And it’s… Proverbs 14:12 says that. Yeah, that way, my own thinking… the way that I
normally, by my own power, think, is not good. It's not right. It's not right. I have to be
thinking from God's perspective… If I not only depend on my own thinking, the… What's another
way the Bible calls it? The desires of our heart, the course of this world, the way of this
society, it's going to lead to trouble. It's going to lead to trouble, and we've seen
it around us. I mean, is racism wrong? Well, of course, it's wrong. Absolutely. Injustice,
police brutality? Yes, those are horrible things. I stand against those, and you do, too. Of course,
we do. Absolutely, there's no doubt about that. How could you go astray if
you recognize those things? Well, that's where the deceit can come in if
you're not careful. What about organizations that promote anti-biblical behaviors? Are there
groups out there that stand against the Word of God? Maybe they don't realize it, but their
philosophy, their perspective, their values aren't godly. Are there groups out there like that? well,
of course, there are. They're all over the place. Yes, absolutely. Well, one of those organizations
might say, "Yes, we hate racism." Well, I do, too. Does that mean I can automatically support an organization that stands against injustice
or racism, or…? You name it, you name the topic. I'd better be careful because I could be led
astray. Should I support a group that says racism is awful, but they promote abortion,
or they promote something absolutely opposite of God's plan for the family? You know, there's
groups out there that would love to do away with heteronormative thinking. Have you heard that
phrase before? Heteronormative thinking. Yeah, that's us. According to them, that's bad,
because we believe the Bible, we believe God made a man and a woman. He didn't just create
sex, and you choose whatever you want to be. That's where our country's gone. And so, when
we consider, that is totally against God's plan. So heteronormative means they stand against
that, they stand against a man and a woman, one man/one woman marriage. Yeah, they’re…
Well, can I support an organization that has this issue right, but is totally off base over
here? "Yeah, yeah, but they've got this right." Or, "This political party has this right, so I
support them. But boy, don't look over here." Really? You see, that's how we can be pulled
astray. If we get away from the framework that God has established, we're going to get
into trouble. So, if we're not careful. We have to recognize the difference and stand
for the truth. Don't get sucked into the, "Well, that's just a little bit of… It's not really that
bad." And that's where we get into problems, then. And so, we've got to retrain our thinking and
retrain our thinking so that we think from God's revelation, rather than man's rationalization.
Because mankind loves to rationalize everything away. We can't be that way. And especially as
you look at the situation our country is in, with the protests and the demonstrations, and
then, has led to rioting and all kinds of things, do I stand against racism and injustice? Yes, absolutely. But is there something missing
in our perspective today, in America? Well, what is God about? You see, when there
is a wrong, God wants to make it right. So where's the discussion about forgiveness,
and where's the discussion of reconciliation? You see, that's a problem because that stands
in direct opposition to the plan of God. God's plan is reconciliation, isn't it? His
plan is all about bringing us into His family, reconciling us to each other and to God. But
that's not in the discussion in our country today, and so, we really have to be careful. We really
have to be careful where we land on some of these issues because Satan would always love to have
us substitute his thinking for ours, for God's way of thinking. And we can't do that. We can't
do that. There's an interesting example of this. A little different scenario, but it points to the
same type of perspective that we need to have, especially when it comes to our reasoning. So,
over in Matthew 16. Take a look at Matthew 16:13. Matthew 16:13. Here, we have Jesus Christ
Himself, and He's having a discussion here. He's talking to the disciples. And it's
interesting, because He starts the discussion… well, kind of like we start it today,
looking at what's going on out in the world, what's their perspective, and what is God's
perspective on things? What's the perspective that we should have? But here's the way He
frames it in verse 13. He asks His disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of
Man, am?" That's a big question. It seems pretty harmless on the surface.
But when you really get down to it, this is a… really, a question of most paramount
importance, when you really get down to it. You get this one wrong, you're going to
miss out on the Kingdom of God. Really, when you get down to it, yeah, absolutely.
So He says, "Well, what do they say? What does society say, what do the people say, what
does our culture say? Who do they think I am?" Answer? Well, verse 14, "Some say John the
Baptist, some say Elijah, others Jeremiah. One of the prophets." Well, how would
you like to be compared with any of them? I'd say, "Whoa, that's pretty good. I'm like
Jeremiah. Not bad. That's nice." Sounds good, doesn't it? It doesn't sound that bad, to be
compared to Elijah. Wow, he's one of the biggies. But wait a second. Could there be a little
bit of that error, a little bit of that wandering, a little bit of that hither
and thither, right here in this particle perspective that the others have of Christ? Well,
let's see. Christ then says to them, verse 15, "But who do you say I am? Who do you say I am?"
And of course, Peter couldn't wait to answer, so he jumps in there right away, "You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God." Talk about a difference in those two
perspectives… No, He's not like Jeremiah, He's not like Elijah… That is a blatant lie
that undermines who the Messiah really is. Peter recognized it. He saw that.
He didn't fall for that one. He knew Jesus was God in the flesh, he knew
that Jesus came to fulfill the promises of God. He knew Jesus Christ would be King,
He would restore the kingdom to Israel, that He would return in power and
glory and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. He was the Son of the living God and
fulfilled the awesome promises that God had made. Peter knew. He understood that. And
what was Christ's reaction, then? Well, in verse 17, Christ says, "Blessed are
you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father
who is in heaven." So Peter didn't come up with it on his own. It wasn't just his brilliant
thought. What was the source? God's the source. Peter allowed God to direct his thinking
and his reasoning, so he came to the right conclusion. And that source was God, and
Peter submitted himself to that Spirit of God so that his reasoning was correct. And that's how
subtle it can be, at times. Well, what's wrong with a Jeremiah or an Elijah? Sounds like it's
really good. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. Not in this reference at all, because it would
undermine who Christ Himself would really be. And so, maybe perhaps, in this case, Satan
was even trying to get in there with them, at that time. And so, for example we have to be
careful in our thinking, as well, our reasoning. A third way Satan tries to influence us by
the spirit of error is to make excuses. Yeah, justify ourselves, justify our behavior that,
"It's not really that bad. It's not awful, is it?" I mean, there are some powerful example throughout
Scripture, regarding the way Satan influences in this way, trying to get us to justify our
behavior. One that stood out in my mind is in 1 Samuel 15 if you'd like to turn there with me. 1
Samuel 15, this is a story of King Saul, the first king of Israel. The first king of Israel, off to
a fantastic start, but starts to wander, starts to get off a little bit. He starts to stray, starts
to listen to the wrong spirit, you might say. And so, here in chapter 15, very specific instructions were given to
Saul. The prophet Samuel says to says to Saul, speaking for God… He says in verse 1, "The Lord
sent me to anoint you king over His people. Therefore, heed the voice of the words of the
Lord." So this is God speaking, God's words. What are they? Verse 2, "Thus says the Lord, ‘I
will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up
out of Egypt.’" So verse three instructions, "Go, attack Amalek. Utterly destroy all that they
have, and do not spare them." Wipe them out, all of it, everything. In fact, it
gets even more detailed, as it goes on. “Everything. Wipe them out. We cannot have any
of this evil, none. So you totally obliterate what is symbolic of evil.” So Saul goes off,
fights this battle. What happens? Verse 9, "Saul and the people spared Agag" Agag was their leader,
their king. He spares “Agag and” verse 9 says, "the best of the sheep, the oxen, the
fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, they were unwilling to utterly destroy them." Oh,
but everything despised, worthless, they utterly destroyed. "No, this is garbage, so we're going
to get rid of this." Was that the instructions? Was it confusing? Was there some
question about what God's command was? It was pretty straightforward, not hard to
figure out. But Saul didn't obey. So certainly, there is some wrong reasoning going on there.
But notice what happens next. Samuel goes there, recognizes the situation. And verse 13, Saul
goes to Samuel. Notice what Saul says to Samuel, "Blessed are you of the Lord!
I've performed the commandment of the Lord!” This is Saul talking. It's
like, what? You wiped everything…? You did everything…? You did? Nope, I guess not.
Samuel has this classic response in verse 14. He says, "What then is this bleating of the sheep
in my ears, and the lowing of oxen which I hear?" It's like, "I'm hearing sheep and cows over here.
I don't think you did what God told you to do." Saul continues. What does he say? Verse 15. Saul
says, "They brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best
of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God;
and the rest we've utterly destroyed." You see, “I did follow the command. It was them,
it was those bad people. I followed the…” Well, you're the king. Come on, really? And what does
Samuel say? He says, "Shut up." Yeah, in the Hebrew, it comes across that strong. "Be quiet.
I'll tell you what you destroyed. Yeah, you're so off-base, you don't even recognize it." And
here he is, justifying himself, making excuses. Verse 20, even after this,
Saul still makes excuses. "I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, I've gone
on a mission on which the Lord sent…" Well, that's true. He did go to battle. He
did that. He says, "I brought back Agag, king of…" Well, that wasn't what God said to
do. "I've utterly destroyed the Amalekites." Not really. Not really. "But the people
took the plunder, the sheep, the oxen, the best things which have been utterly… should
have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal." Now, Samuel
lays it out for what it really is. Verse 26, speaking for God, it says, "I will not return
with you, you've rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you
from being king over Israel." You see, and that's what it gets down to.
You see, by trying to justify our behavior, instead of going to God in repentance, instead
of turning to God and asking for forgiveness, Satan would love for us… love to influence us to
make excuses and justify ourselves. He doesn't want us to feel guilty. "Don't feel guilty about
that. It's not that big a deal. You did what the Lord wanted you to do. All right, so there's this
king. But he's the only one, no big deal. You basically did what you were supposed…" He'd love
to get us to feel that way, not feel guilty. He doesn't want us to feel guilty, he wants us to
justify sin. And that's what it comes down to. Really, it's what Isaiah prophesied about.
Isaiah prophesied about this time we live in, where we call evil good and good evil.
And that's what Saul was doing here, and that's what our society around us… We cannot
get caught up in that. We cannot get caught up into that way of thinking. And so, don't allow
Satan to cause you to think of excuses, instead of just going to God in repentance. No doubt about
that. All right, well, fourth thing. Last thing to think about for a moment, in the way that Satan
would love to influence us. He wants to have us look at this world differently like it's the real
deal. He wants us to think this world is real. I mean, of course, physically speaking, this
world is real. Yeah, no doubt about that. But is it the ultimate reality?
Is this world what it's all about? Now, think about that in relationship
to the prince of the power of the air. Think about the reality of this world
in relationship to the spirit of error. What would Satan offer us? Well, the
only things that this world has to offer. When you think of it in terms of what
he tried to deceive Christ into doing, if you remember, Satan is on the throne of this
world right now. He is the prince of the power of the air, and he wants to offer this world
to us. And not just the physical things, but the emotional things, the psychological things as
well, because it's the only thing he has to offer. That's all he's got to offer. The
here and now, that's his perspective. And when he tried to get Christ to buy into that
perspective… You remember what Matthew 4 was all about. When he tempted Christ in a number of
different ways, he tried to convince Christ how important this world was, how wonderful this
world… how great it would be to rule over this world right now, get caught up in the cares of
this world. Christ wouldn't buy it. He didn't fall for that at all. And we can't, either.
We can't, either. We can't begin to think that the bigger-paying job is what it's all about, or
the better house, or, "I've got to have this…" The values of this world, the thinking
of this world can't become our thinking, because it's not lasting. It won't last. It's
not the ultimate reality, but that's what he'd like us to think. When we look at what Paul
wrote to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 4:17… 2 Corinthians 4:17 is certainly
a reminder of where we're at, and really, the perspective that we need to have.
If we're going to counter the spirit of error with the Spirit of truth, look at what it says here. 2
Corinthians 4:17, it says, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” yes, the challenges,
the difficulties, even the trials we face today, put it in the perspective of, it's
not going to last. It's for a moment. And he says, "It's working for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we don't look to the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen. The things that are seen are temporary, but the
things which are not seen are eternal." And so, we have an eternal inheritance through Jesus
Christ. And this life is not… and it's valued, that's what it's all about. Paul wrote a little
bit earlier to the Corinthians that if it’s… this life, that's what we hope about, that's what we
count valuable, “we're of most men most pitiable.” He wrote, "most miserable," because this isn't
what it's all about. And so, we've got to strive to overcome that spirit and its influences. So
how do we begin? How do we begin to do that? I think we've seen hints through the various
passages that we've been reading all along. I mean, it's evident. If we're going
to win this battle, if we're going to overcome the spirit of error, we have to
turn to the truth. And we have to keep turning to the truth because
we're on this path, and we want to head toward the kingdom. We don't want to
go off-path, we don't want to get off-track, we don't want to go astray, we don't want to
wander, we don't want to fall into that error. So that means we have to keep checking our path
and keep turning to the truth. So God wants us to think and to react on the basis of truth, which
means we've got to respond toGod's Spirit in us, the Spirit of truth, which helps us to understand
the word of truth, God's Word, Scripture. We recognize that, and we have to stay tuned
to that wavelength. In fact, if you're still in Corinthians, go over to 1 Corinthians
2. 1 Corinthians 2 is certainly a reminder of how we can succeed, and where we need to stay
focused. Instead of getting caught up in all the movements that are out here that may have a little
bit of truth but could tend to lead us astray, Paul gives us the direction here, to keep
turning to the truth. 1 Corinthians 2:9, he quotes the Old Testament. He says,
"Eye hasn't seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for those who love Him." In other things, society,
culture, they don't get it. They don't understand spiritual truth,
they don't understand God's plan, they don't know His purpose. They don't know why
they were born, they don't know what God's doing. "But," verse 10, "God has revealed them to us
through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." And
that's taking us right back to where we began. When you think about testing the spirits,
trying the spirits… is this the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error, some
of it's not obvious on the surface. But you've got to dig down, by the power of God's
Spirit and the convicting power of His Word, and get into the deep things, so you can see
beyond what Satan would love to deceive us with. And so, we can do the… God's given us
the power to do that by His Spirit. And when we recognize that and continue to
turn to God, to continue to turn to His truth, continue to respond to God's Spirit, then we
can have the right perspective. Because it doesn't come naturally. In fact, Paul even says
that a little bit later. Where is it? Verse 14, "The natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God." This isn't a normal thing. This isn't natural.
They're foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. But
we have God's Spirit. He is working within us. We have His Word, so we can have spiritual
discernment when we test and try the spirits. And so, we've got to search for it and continue
to turn to truth and make sure that it's truth, distinguishing between truth and error, and
having that kind of spiritual discernment to judge between what is of God and what is
not of God. And that's a good kind of judging, that's not the condemning kind of judging.
It's discernment, and it's crucial if we're going to make wise decisions. So that ability to
distinguish between right and wrong and good and evil, and what's sound and what's not sound,
and what's truth and what's not error, we turn to God and His Holy Spirit within
us and His Word, to help guide and lead us. And God, over and over and over again throughout
Scripture, encourages us to have that perspective, to test, to try, to have that kind of discernment
so that we recognize it when we see it. We see that counterfeit, we're not falling for that.
I can see that that's just slightly off. Do you remember how Christ dealt with the hypocrites, the
Pharisees? Did they have some things right? Well, sure, they did. Well, they obeyed
the Sabbath, they had God's law, but they were off on some things. Do you
remember how He took them to task? He called them hypocrites in… I think it's in Matthew 16,
where He told them, "Well, you guys can look at the weather, and you can figure out if it's
going to rain tomorrow. You can look at the sky, and you can say, "Yeah, it's going to be nice. But
you can't even discern the times that we live in." Well, they were somewhat accurate. But
because they strayed from the truth, they were unable to discern the difference between that spirit of error and the Spirit of truth. They
should have understood the signs of the times. It applies to us, too. We should understand
the signs of the times and be concerned about discerning God's truth and its application
in our life because that's the challenge. Sometimes, it's not that obvious, and we have to
get into the deep things of God because Satan's the great deceiver. He loves to masquerade.
Does he look like a demon, with red horns and a long tail and a pitchfork?
Well, if it were that obvious, that'd sure be helpful, "I guess I shouldn't
go that way." But that's not the way it is. How does he appear? How does the things
that he offers, how do they appear? Well, we're told he appears as an angel
of light. This looks good, it looks right, it seems right, it feels right, it sounds right.
But it's not. It's not, and that's where we have to anchor our lives in the character of
God, know His standards for unchanging truth. Because the truth is the truth, and we
won't get caught up, then, into these empty, self-deceptive, always-changing philosophies
of the world around us. We can't allow that to happen. And God's Spirit will certainly be
that trigger in our life that can help to keep us on track if we respond to that Spirit, and we
are tuned in to God's wavelength and His Word. And so, we have that responsibility to be
in perspective and to understand that need for discernment in our lives, and
keep seeking it. Keep seeking it. It's not a one-time thing, is it? It's not
a one-time thing. So never stop seeking the will of God. We have to keep turning to the
truth, and we have to keep seeking God's will because you know what? I don't know about
you, but my will gets in the way, sometimes. I've got to kick that out. I can't
be thinking my way, what I want, what I think is right. That way of thinking keeps
coming back, and I've got to get rid of that. I've got to leave my will behind, my thinking
behind, what I want, and turn to God. If I don't, well, how can God
protect me from the spirit of error? I have to do that part, and I have to draw near
to God, and He'll draw near to me. That's what we're told. And so, when that wrong thought
enters my mind, what am I going to do with it? You know, by the power of God's Spirit, I
have to reject it immediately. Toss it out, get rid of it immediately. Because
a thought is not a sin, is it? It's what we do with thought. It's what comes next
that really matters, and that's where Satan would love to get in there. So we put on truth, we
put on love and faith and hope. And we pray and ask God to give us that spirit of discernment so
that we can be a true representative of His way. In fact, if you're still there in Corinthians,
go over to 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10, I think it's just, in a way, a summary passage of
these thoughts that we've been talking about this afternoon. 2 Corinthians 10:3 is where we'll
pick it up, a familiar section of Scripture that talks about the way we live our lives,
the way we live our lives in this world today, and see how it connects to our society, even
as we speak. In 2 Corinthians 10:3… I'm going to read this from The Message translation,
instead of the New King James or the King James. So if you follow along, and you're King James
or New King James, it's going to be a little bit different… Well, it's going to be a lot
different. But the heart of what's said here in this particular version is, I think, pretty
fitting to where we're at today. So verse 3, the message says this, "The world is unprincipled.
It's a dog-eat-dog world out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight
our battles that way— never have, never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or
manipulation." Yeah, that's what this world's all about, isn't it? Yeah, we live in this
world, but we don't war according to the flesh. This isn't a physical battle that we're fighting,
this is a spiritual battle. That's the tools of our trade. We're not into the manipulation
and the ways of this world. Totally different. The spiritual tools we've been given, The Message
goes on, “they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture." I think that's
important. We've been given the Spirit of God and His Word so that we can demolish entirely
this massively corrupt culture around us. Don't buy into it. Don't buy into it. He goes on here. He says the weapons of our
warfare, verse 4, "We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, for tearing down
barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse
into the structure of life shaped by Christ." Isn't that what we want to do? I mean, we've
been given the power to do just that. Sometimes, I think we shortchange the power that God's given
us. We have that power, God's given it to us. We have the power of God's Spirit to overcome
sin, to really think truthfully, and act truthfully, to display the character
of Christ. And so, we can bring every thought into captivity. We can pull
down mighty strongholds, just pull them down. We don't have to think that way. And ultimately,
any obstruction that stands against us, we can bring into the captivity of Christ.
Those are powerful statements, aren't they? And so, we have been given power over the spirit
of error. The prince of the power of the air has nothing on us when we submit to God when we
submit to His Spirit. But don't underestimate the enemy. I believe, as we get closer to the
end, these perilous times that we live in, it's not going to get better. The spirit of
error is going to increase more and more. And so, we can be courageous, and stand
for the truth and confront false teachings. Yes, we can do it with
compassion, and we can do it with care and wisdom. But no doubt, we have to know the truth
and love the truth and live the truth, because the time's ultimately coming,
and the time we look forward to. The time we look forward to, when the
broadcast, those waves that come from the spirit of error and disobedience are going
to be turned off. That tower's coming down. But until that time, let's continually guard our
hearts and our minds against the spirit of error.
