[Ken Martin] Well, good afternoon, everyone. Shalom and here we go. It's God's Sabbath and the wonderful opportunity we have been so blessed to have as men and
women called of God at this time, and that is to have access to the precious Word of God
to begin to know exactly what it is that God wants us to do as human beings made in His
image. Last week we had the opportunity to explore
what I gave in that sermon entitled "And After the God Kind: A Work in Progress." And we discussed the ramifications of that
and what it means for all of us as individuals that God's not finished with us and life's
circumstances and that are designed to bring all of us to various elements of conclusion
in the final product that God is working toward. And last week we covered that where we talked
about the spirit in man which helps explain why man left to his own devices, left to his
own devices without spiritual understanding is not capable of solving his or her own problems. And that is certainly true. We've all had to experience that. The Bible says, "no flesh will glory in His
presence," and the reason why is flesh cannot answer the spiritual questions that need to
be answered. Only God can provide that. And a very important principle what we learned
was this, that physical solutions, again physical solutions cannot solve spiritual problems. That's important to keep in mind. Physical problems, or excuse me, physical
solutions cannot solve spiritual problems. It requires spiritual answers to the problems
that we suffer. All human relationships are based upon spiritual
principles and the Bible is filled with them and that's why God has preserved them for
us. We need them. That's what feeds the spirit in man. But most of mankind in the world we live in
and people we know and interface with every day, most of the world is not aware of this. They just live and come and go and eat and
drink and sleep and work and they just go about their normal routine, but they have
not a comprehensive understanding, how do we solve these problems and difficulties we
see erupting everywhere? And they're just terrible to see the things
that are happening on the news and brought to you each and every day. It's important to know, it does not matter
what political group or government, economic system, religious affiliation that a person
belongs to. None of them can solve world problems. And they're just getting worse. And the more this one, that one tries to solve
this difficulty, it just creates a greater difficulty for all parties involved. For 6,000 years of human history, God has
written this experience in human suffering to teach us a lesson, to teach us a very important
lesson. It drives home a point that there is something
wrong in the way we are living, and the way we are living has brought nothing but heartache
and suffering to all of us, and so God wants us to really stop and consider that. And this really creates a problem for people
because you see, there are a lot of people who believe in God and they assume, they said,
"Well, if God has all power, then why does He allow all this terrible stuff to go on? Why doesn't He just reached down and just
stop it? If He has all power He could do it." And yes, He could. But He has chosen not to. Why has He done that? That's the big why in most people's minds. “If God is love and God is all that the
Bible says He is, why doesn't He do something?” People today are frustrated over man's inadequacy. They promise you they're going to do this,
this, this and that, and they never get it done. And so today people are humanly frustrated
with government and leaders and they don't know what to believe and all the fake news
and everything else that's out there today. Who do you believe? What do you believe? Well, the answer is very clear from a biblical
perspective, and that's what is lacking in most people's understanding of life. They have renounced the Scriptures, they have
taken the Bible and taken it out of the conscious understanding of events and how to solve problems. What God wants us to understand is that something
has happened that has affected the whole world and you and I live in this world. And those who will be watching this video,
this is for you too. You live in this world and it's affecting
you whether you like it or not. This world is in a terrible decline. It's headed for a great disaster. The Bible talks about these things. If you'll join me in Galatians 1:4 we'll notice
something very important. This is Galatians 1:4. Now referring to Jesus Christ, it says He
“gave Himself…" this is Jesus now, He “gave Himself for our sins,” now, most
people don't even know what sin is today. It's not dancing and card playing and whiskey
and wild, wild women and all that stuff. That could be, yes indeed, if people want
to live a licentious life. But what God is teaching us is that sin is
the violation of His sacred law which governs the universe. It governs the spirit world, it governs the
physical mandate of man's world. And 1 John 3:4 makes that very clear and defines
that sin is the transgression of God's law. Now that plays a very important part in what
we're here for today to remind ourselves. It goes on to say that Christ “who gave
Himself for our sins, that He might…” notice and mark it in your Bible if you've
never done this before… “that He might deliver us” you and I as human beings need
to be delivered from something. That's what the Bible is telling us. And what is that? It says, “from this present evil world,”
you and I find ourselves living in a present evil world. It is not the Kingdom of God. That is yet to come. But we are told from the Word of God that
part of the problems that we experience as human beings is that we live in a present
evil world and the delivering, notice, that “delivering us from this present evil world,
according to the will of God,” so, it is the will of God to deliver us, to deliver
us, not to enslave us but to deliver us. And what from? It says, "to deliver us according to the will
of our Father,” our Heavenly Father. That is tremendously encouraging, a scripture
well noted and you should keep it very close to you. We asked the question "Why is there evil in
this world and where does it come from?" because it is a factor that we all deal with. We hear it in the news, we see it on television,
we read it in the newspapers. Evil is everywhere, and there is a reason
for it. I have entitled this sermon today with the
following title, "The Dark Force That Drives Evil in This World." "The Dark Force That Drives Evil in This World." We read Jesus in Matthew 5:37. He made reference about the evil one that
we are to be delivered daily from the evil one and we're supposed to pray for that, on
the Sermon on the Mount, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." There is an evil one in this present evil
world that makes it that way. There is always cause and effect. The effect is evil, the cause is the evil
one. And this we need to keep in mind. John 17:15, the famous prayer, the real Lord's
Prayer when Jesus was praying to the Father just before His crucifixion. And what did He say to the Father? He says, "I pray that you don't take them
out of this world." So, it's not God's purpose to remove us at
this time from this present evil world, but it is His will to deliver us from it. But what does it say? "I pray that You will keep them from the evil
one." Because we know as Peter writes in his epistle,
he's always, we're told to “Be sober, be vigilant; because this evil one like a roaring
lion is always moving about, and he's seeking whom he may devour.” He's got his eyes on each and every one. He scans us as human beings and he just looks
to see, have we left the door open where he can make an inroad and then begin to influence
with his wicked ways? That's what we're told to be on guard for. We can't just live life like everyone else
lives life because they haven't got a clue as what is happening in this evil world. They think they know but they don't know and
I'll tell you why they don't because there's a very important scripture in Revelation 12:9
that gives us the clue. It tells us about the serpent, that old serpent,
the devil, and it uses, take note, of a special term in that scripture, it says, "who deceives
the whole world;” wow! The whole world? He deceives everybody in it? Well, sure, because he has created this world. This is his world. It is a present evil world that reflects his
evil personality and his manner of behavior. Now, this is something we need to always keep
in mind that the devil is essentially evil and he is personification of evil. Indeed, evil doesn't happen just by accident. There are people who believe evil is just
a manifestation of sometimes people's minds they believe in it, but it doesn't exist. It exists and the Scriptures confirm it exists. Now, last week when we discussed the spirit
in man, we discussed how that spirit in man that God has placed within us, not an immortal
soul, but a unique spirit that is given to every man and woman and when it is combined
with brain matter, suddenly a human being is able to think, reason, talk, communicate
with other fellow human beings. We have a self-awareness, we recognize ourselves. We recognize others. And through the five senses, we're able to
evaluate life around us and learn from these experiences. That's what the spirit in man does. Then we also understand that God gave us something
in addition to that. He gave us His Holy Spirit, and with the Holy
Spirit as it says in 1 Corinthians 2, "It opens the door to spiritual things." Ah, well now with that door open you can find
spiritual answers to spiritual problems. But as I mentioned earlier, you cannot find
physical solutions to spiritual problems because these laws govern God's entire creation. The Law of God is powerful, it is supreme
and it can intervene at any point at any time in God's creation. Now, here's a good example of it. Remember, Romans 15:4 says, "All things were
written for our learning, that we might have comfort and hope from the Scriptures." And they do comfort us, they do give us hope
because they feed the spirit in man that has to be fed and renewed just like your physical
body has to have nourishment so that you feel, again, like you can go on, that your physical
strength is there. When you don't eat, you get weak. When you don't feed the spirit in man, you
get spiritually weak. God wants us to be spiritually strong, not
weak because if we're weak, that's when the devil will strike. He is not one that tangles with anybody who
is spiritually alert or strong, but he will tangle with those who are weak because he
believes he can overpower them. So, you have to "fight the good fight of faith”
as the Scripture said. If you don't fight, then you surrender to
him. You got to fight it, you've got to “submit
yourself to God” for help and guidance and then “resist the devil and he will flee
from you.” But he will not flee if you don't submit to
God and ask for His help because he's got the whole world in a corrupted version of
his hands. It’s not the God of heaven and earth, it's
this god, the god of this world who has everybody in his hands and they don't even know it. But God's influences supreme. And then here's what we need to recognize
from the Scriptures that are revealing to us these important points. When God wants to get a point across, He can
take a carnal minded individual and put something in that mind and they have discovered here
recently that there is a place in the brain, and they're mapping the brain right now trying
to find out all the different places that the brain functions, what causes you to lift
your hand here, and do this, and turn. Well, in this particular case, there's a place
in your brain where words activate, words activate and cause a response on behalf of
the party who hears these words. Well, think if you will, please. We're hearing an awful lot now about all this
hot rhetoric that's going on out there in the political elements of the world and how
people are reacting. Why are they reacting? Why are they getting upset? Something is stirring them. Something is stirring them. And that something that is stirring them is
headed for that area in the brain to cause them to react a certain way. Now, when God wants certain things done from
His perspective, He gives us examples of how He does this with His Spirit. When the enemy does what he does, God shows
how he operates and gives you the awareness of what to be looking for. Now, in the Old Testament in 2 Chronicles
36:22-23, that's 2 Chronicles 36:22-23, we are told that it is God who reigns supreme,
remember, because nothing happens without God's express approval. It is God's great plan being worked out here
below. It's what is affecting all of us as human
beings past, present, and in the future. Remember God says He is the Alpha and the
Omega. He is the one who started it, He's the one
who's going to finish it. And He's going to do what? He's going to deliver us from this present
evil world, that it's important we recognize we are not in this world. Our citizenship is reserved in heaven and
we are sojourners through the Spirit with Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, "We have to be protected from
the evil one." And Jesus plans to be at our side, so is God
the Father and through the power of the Holy Spirit, they're there to help us fight in
this battle which is an extremely important battle of life and death. He stirred up back there and 2 Chronicles
36 because God had some at that particular time He wanted done. He wanted certain elements of the captives
at that time to be released and sent back to Jerusalem to build a temple. The temple walls had to be built. So, it says, "He stirred up the spirit of
Cyrus" what spirit? He did not have the Holy Spirit. He merely had the spirit in man and God's
power influenced that spirit in his mind where he, "You know what? We need to send those people back to Jerusalem. We need to send them." Now, he didn't stop to think about that. God put that in him stirring up his spirit. Now, we have another example of that with
Caiaphas, the high priest, when Jesus was about to be kangaroo-courted into His final
hours. And you remember what Caiaphas said as he
all of a sudden blurted out? He says, "Isn't it expedient that one man
should die that the whole nation should be saved?" And then it says in parentheses in the Word
of God, it says, "And this he spoke of by the Holy Spirit, which God had placed." In other words, God influenced his mind to
blurt out the very purpose for which Jesus Christ was standing there, that He was going
to die for the nation and for the sins of mankind. And that is what God does. He can override human thought and He intervenes
and has intervened in the course of history. We can go back and study key areas of history
where certain things thought they wanted to go one way, and bingo, God made it go a different
way. In fact, you and I may have witnessed such
a one with the recent election that has caused such a stir in the United States and around
the world in many ways. They thought the powers that be that were
leading up for a certain presidential election, they thought they had it in the bag. All the various reports said it's going to
be this individual. Everybody said, "There's no way this other
individual could possibly win." They even used a poker term using, he said,
"If he was to win, he would have to come through with an inside straight to beat this thing
because everything is so locked down." They thought they had it in the bag. And then you and I saw something we had never
seen and it has altered election history because God can intervene. And what He does, He says, "All right. Do you think you got it in the bag? Well, I've got certain prophecies that I want
to fulfill and I pick and choose who I want to accomplish these things. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take
this individual and I'm going to put him in there and I'm going to literally blow the
socks off of you and you're not going to be able to figure this one out." And they're still struggling, trying to figure
out “How did they lose that election? We had it in the bag." The answer is plainly given to us in the book
of Daniel when Daniel stands and then talks to the king of Babylon and he says, "There
is a God in heaven who rules in the kingdoms of men, and He's the one who gives it to whoever
He wants.” To accomplish the prophetic picture and fulfillment
of His word, there will be nothing left undone and the great sovereign plan of God. And we know that God sometimes can intervene
in ways that are kind of humorous where you have the so-called Balaam, Balaam, the false
prophet there in the Old Testament and he was having problems with his donkey. Well, we're having problems with a lot of
donkeys today, political symbol. And right now what is happening is that he
was upset because the donkey saw the angel standing there with the fiery sword. And the donkey was smart. He didn't want to move. I don't think anyone should move when you
see an angel with a sword standing there guarding and you don't want… you know, don’t push
your luck. In this case, the mule did not want to move
and so he balked and he hurt his leg. That's what happened to the false prophet. And so he got angry and he started whipping
it and all of a sudden God gave the animal a voice and he says, "Why are you whipping
me?" He says, "Because of what you did. You're not going. Blah, blah, blah." And then God gave him eyes to see the angel
standing there. The thing that God does is really amazing. He can do anything. He can even give a jackass a voice, and that's
exactly what we have seen. And that's a mule. That's what has happened and that's what has
transpired. And what it is that God does? He influences in the course of history and
affairs of mankind to govern the proper outcome. That's the key. Now, in 2 Chronicles 18 as we move along in
the Scriptures and 2 Chronicles 18:18-22, we find that there was a problem with Saul
and it's a heavenly court scene that is given. And in that heavenly court scene, a situation
is mentioned where God wanted to give a wrong direction. Saul wanted to go one way, God wanted to go
another way. And it is mentioned where a lying spirit was
permitted by God. God used a demonic spirit to influence the
prophets of Saul. And so we see that God gave permission and
the demon did that and the prophet Saul said, "Oh, everything's going to be great," but
Saul went out and he ended up dying in the process because of his transgression. And it's all recorded for us in Scripture. The whole point that we see from the Bible
is that thoughts had to be implanted in their mind. Thoughts had to be implanted in their mind. And thoughts can be implanted in your mind,
in my mind, and cause us to react certain ways and hopefully they're always thoughts
that reflect God's will so that we are reacting the way God would have us react. Daniel 10 we see that there was in Daniel's
day he was praying to God wanting to know the answer to a prophecy of the Word of God. And so God sent Gabriel as a messenger from
heaven to answer, but there was interference, the Bible tells us, that there was a prince
of Persia from the demonic realm. Just as God has a kingdom and he has laws
and order in His kingdom, the devil has copycatted God to have certain things for his demonic
servants, promises them certain things. And there are various areas of rank and service
even in the demonic world because remember, he was Lucifer at one time. He saw how God had structured everything and
all he can do is a copycat. He cannot create anything that is new and
different. The only thing he has created is the one thing
that God has come to destroy and that is death. Death. Because when mankind walked away from the
tree of life, we took the tree of knowledge of good and evil and death has dominated mankind
ever since. The book of Daniel tells us that Michael had
to come and assist Gabriel. So this was a very powerful spirit being from
the fallen spirit world. And what do we learn from this? We learned that God has guided the overall
direction of empires as Daniel went on to explain about the world ruling empires of
Babylon, of Persia, of Greece, of Rome. And Rome is still with us even to this day
and its final end time prophecies. Now, this explains why Adam and Eve were rejected
from the tree of life. They made a decision based on a different
voice. They didn't listen to the voice of God and
so by listening to the other voice that was given, which was the serpent represented by
Satan, the devil, and he is the driving force, the dark force that drives the evil in this
world. And it's important that we never forget that. Why? Because we live in a present evil world that
we must be delivered from and that you don't hear from pulpits today. People don't realize they have to be delivered. And the way they think they're going to be
delivered is, "I'll fly away by being raptured and let everybody else go through the problems,"
and that's not going to solve it according to the Bible. Remember, you can't solve spiritual problems
with… or a better point, you can't solve physical solutions with the spiritual elements
missing. You've got to have the spiritual answers to
the spiritual problems. Physical solutions will never work. Only a handful of people down through the
age have been granted by the gift of God to have access to the tree of life. The tree of life is representative of Jesus
Christ and you have it right here. You have access to the tree of life. And you're told to fill yourself with this
knowledge, fill yourself with a knowledge of life as God has decreed it. Only a handful… mankind as a whole has been
cut off just like Adam and Eve. They think they know but they don't know. It's just like a person who has been given
counterfeit money. You think you got the legitimate thing but
you don't know what to look for. You haven't been trained. And so until you're trained to know what to
look for, you can't spot it. You think you've got the genuine article. Mankind thinks he's got the genuine article. He goes to church, he worships God and yet
the Bible says, "Hey, a foreman's ceremony of godliness is not what you want because
they deny the power of God." The power of God has to be recognized and
the power of God is manifest in all creation. Everything you see reflects the power of God. Your very life reflects the power of God. The way we've been put together fearfully
and wonderfully, only God can do that. A man will not give God the credit for that. What we find in this particular situation
is that the ultimate consequence of this world is that we are suffering and God is allowing
us to suffer because, as He says in the early part of the book of John 1, that “men love
darkness because their deeds are evil.” We've had to acknowledge and repent of that
because we're part of the world. We grew up in this world. The evil world has had its effect upon us,
and it's still pulling and tugging at us every day of our lives. And we have to “bring every thought into
subjection to Jesus Christ” because if we don't then those other thoughts from the world,
excuse me, are trying to do dominate, trying to take advantage of us, and when they do,
what it does, it allows wrong decisions to be brought forth. There is a spirit in this world. It is a spirit that comes from the fallen
Lucifer himself and the demonic hordes that follow him. We see in the first six chapters… by the
time, Genesis 6:5-8, it says, "the wickedness of man was great…” the wickedness of human
beings today is great. We're repeating history. People today are trying to figure out what's
going on, what motivates these people? The answer, spirit influence from the dark
force that is behind the scenes generating and driving all this evil. People don't wake up in the morning and say,
"I think I'll be evil today." They don't do that. Ministers get up in their congregations and
they don't get up and say, "Well, I'm a minister of the devil. Can I deceive you today?" They all think they're the legitimate article. Everybody thinks they're the legitimate article. Nobody sees the evil that is all around, but
the apostle Paul says, "We must not be ignorant of his devices." There are many false ministers out there. How do you know? Compare them with the Word of God. How do you know what's right or wrong? Compare it with the Word of God. And there's probably a good answer to that,
"What would Jesus do in these situations?" Follow His example. You can never go wrong following the Son of
God. In John 14, the Spirit of God reveals truth
to us and it helps us to apply the spiritual principles of the Bible to His law. There is the letter of the law and there is
the spirit of the law. And it's very important for us to understand
that because, again, John, a very important scripture, John 6:63, where it says that,
“the flesh profits nothing; but the Spirit gives life." And that's where we have to go to the Word
of God. Now, that brings us to a very important thing
that I want us to go and make sure we don't forget today, and that is this, you and I
don't live in the Kingdom of God. We are in an embryonic state being prepared
for that Kingdom. What we live in is in the kingdom of death. And I don't know if you've ever stopped to
think of it that way. Because the god of this world, Satan, the
devil, he generates death, and because the “wages of sin is death” and “all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God,” what do we have? A word that is suffering and people are dying
and dying and dying all over the world. No wonder the Bible calls death an enemy,
an enemy that has to be destroyed, an enemy that can only be vanquished by God Himself
who is the giver of life and can destroy death, take away the sting of death and bring us
to the glory that He intended for us from the beginning. Spirit of this world leads to death. It's on the news every day. It's what you see as the result of warfare,
terrible warfare. If any of you had the opportunity to see the
movie, Hacksaw Ridge, a part of history. Mel Gibson did that and it is absolute…
don't go to bed on that movie. It is terrible what human beings will do to
one another. But human beings aren't the problem. It's this dark force behind the scenes that
turns human beings into wild animals that they will destroy one another and do terrible,
terrible things. There was even a movie years ago made by,
I think, Charles Bronson was the man in charge of that movie or he was the leading actor,
it was called The Evil That Men Do. I never saw the movie, but that title struck
me when I first saw it, The Evil That Men Do, and they do. They do an awful lot of evil in this world. The spirit of this world is the spirit of
death, that's why Jesus says, "Come out of her, My people." Don't get into that. If you pick up that type of spirit you're
headed in the wrong direction. God's Spirit works positive things in the
lives of men and women call of Him. But in Ephesians 2:1-3, that's Ephesians 2:1-3,
it tells us that this spirit, this disobedient spirit “works in the children of disobedience,”
so, when you see all this activity on the news where you see people doing terrible things
to one another, hurting one another, it's acts of violence and disobedience, and it
is generated by that spirit behind the scene that most people really don't want to acknowledge. They may hear about the devil, may think he's
in a red suit, got a tail and got a pitchfork and all that stuff, but that's a bunch of
foolishness. Dante Alighieri going down into the underworld,
that's not the reality of it. What we need to understand is that the Bible
makes it clear that human beings are just like we've been told years ago. The mind is like a tape recorder. We have modern technologies today that have
improved on tape recorders, but originally you had a tape recorder and you had a tape. The tape cannot do anything of and by itself,
until you put it into the tape recorder, punch the button play, and there she goes. If you punch record, it'll record everything
and put everything you want on that. Pull that tape out, the recorders stops, the
tape is no good. Put the two together. You've got music, you've got conversation,
you've got it all. That's the way our minds were designed by
God, to listen to Him so that His spirit could feed the spirit in man and woman and give
us the ability to understand the things of God. But once that was severed, we were cut off
from spiritual answers to the questions of life. And so today man runs around trying to figure
out where did the life come from? It came from God, but they don't believe in
God. So, maybe aliens brought it to us. Maybe a meteorite hit the earth and seeded
some slimy pond and generated something so that you and I could suddenly become alive
in the Goldilocks zone. Listening to their answers is a joke. And we must not be intimidated by their so-called
“science” because they are wrong. They cannot put God who is a Spirit and His
spiritual laws and His principles, they can't put it in a test tube, so therefore, they're
cut off from God. They don't have the answers. Only those who have had contact with God,
and that's where we come in, we've acknowledged our sins, we've repented, we've been baptized,
we've received the Spirit of God and now God says, "My sons and daughters, here's the answer
to the problem you're facing." And boy, isn't it a relief and be comforted
by the Scriptures to know that? Ephesians 6:12 tells us our enemies are not
other people but “the rulers of darkness” darkness, that's where it comes from the because
evil thrives in the dark. They don't want anybody to see. Life exposes everything, so therefore light
drives away the darkness and you and I are commanded to walk in the light of God's Word. Of course, I mentioned to you about Revelation
12:9 how “the whole world is deceived.” How do they miss that? I know that was thunder in my mind. That was lightning going off. When I first discovered that I said, "The
whole world?" Then our next question, "Well, how does he
do that? How is he so cunning that he can deceive everybody
in this world because people don't believe they're deceived?" You may be deceived but not me. I'm smart. I'm not deceived. And so in that area, they have become the
most deceived because of the wrong approach that they… Look, the Bible gives us some very important
areas. God's Spirit transmits with its capacity and
transmits the things of God to those who are God's servants and people. Satan has a counterfeit form of transmission. He is the spirit of the air. He uses the air to accomplish what he wants. The fruits of his efforts are written in Galatians
5:19-21 called "The works of the flesh." This is what the news reports. This is what you hear every day. The influence upon this world in society basically
formulates death. You don't see. You don't see hope and encouragement in the
world. There was a program years ago in the 1950s
called Father Knows Best. That's a good name to remember with regard
to our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father knows best and we need
to follow His command because we know it's His will to deliver us and He sent Jesus Christ
to do that for you and for me. Where would we be if He didn't have that love
for us to send them? We will have no hope for the future. When we see loved ones depart from us that
we love so very, very much, what's the answer? Well, man tries to come up with answers. “Well, we're going to go to heaven, or we're
going to do this, or we're going to do that.” But there's so many different answers. They're confused. But the Bible tells us we have the hope of
the resurrection in Christ Jesus and nothing can take that away from us. Heaven and earth, “nothing can separate
us from the love of God” once we embrace that calling. So, God has given us examples to help us understand. He gives contrasts such as light versus darkness. He talks about the tree of life versus the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He talks about having eyes that see as opposed
to people who are blind and can't see. And there are people in the Pharisees, they
thought they saw and He says, "Well, where are your sins retained?" and they're still
there. You say, "But nothing has changed." You see, you've got to be led by the Spirit
of God. Again, you can't just have the Spirit of God
and say, "I'm A-okay." You’ve got to use it. God wants to see you produce fruit, the good
character of Jesus Christ. And we all know we're delinquent in that area. We all know we don't even come close to what
we should be, but God is there to help us as we sing the song “God Will See Us Through.” He's promised to do that and He will do that. Now, the human race finds itself influenced
by this present evil world and it is a kingdom of death because Satan can't offer you light. He may promise you, "You can have this. You can have that," but there's always a death
penalty at the end of the road. Today, we're going to see. Now, I'm going to go through just to show
you a quick smattering of what's going on and how this is influencing the world. For example, he influences attitudes, moods,
and thoughts. You've got to watch your attitude all the
time. You got to watch your moods because, again,
you hear people say, "Well, he’s in a bad mood," or, "She's not in a good mood today." You got to watch those moods and you got to
watch your thoughts because things come flying into your mind and it's not you thinking some
of these things. Sometimes you get some pretty bad things coming
through your mind and you wonder, "Well, where did that come from?" It came from the adversary. He thought maybe he saw just a little bit
of a door open and he shoots that in there to get that thought into the mind. That's why it's very important that we be
careful. There are some people that Satan literally
possesses, and most people are not demon possessed, but most people are oppressed of the devil. We are oppressed because we live in the devil's
world and we have to deal with all these elements that he generates. Hitler was a good example of one who was possessed. One of his attaches that took care of him
and like I guess basically all his basic needs, when interviewed after the war, he made a
statement that was quite profound. He says, "You have never seen Der Fuehrer
in one of his rages." He just lost it. And that's when he became… you've heard
the term "screaming demon?" Well, he lost it. And Hitler was very powerful in influence
and he influenced the whole nation of Germany to go to war. So, thoughts are very powerful, folks. And now they're trying to map the mind, it
makes you wonder, "What's going on?" Modern technology can be used for good, it
can be used for bad. The influence, if you remember in the Garden
of Eden, Adam was called to name all the animals. They were peaceful. Nobody was afraid of animals back then. But guess what? Now, we've got ravenous animals out there. Now we've got poisonous snakes. Something has happened that is affected even
the animals realm, the influence upon animals, wild beasts, poisonous snakes. It's all going to change in Isaiah 11 when
the Kingdom of God comes, God's going to turn it around. He's going to bring it back the other way,
the way it was intended. He can influence nations, this evil dark force. And he can do things to the leaders of those
nations and the leaders of organizations and the leaders of churches as well. He can influence all the hierarchy of structures
in government and all institutions. For example, no nation can escape his influence. How do I know? Because it says “he has to see the whole
world.” They think they're an exception. Nobody's an exception. We have to come out of it. No nation can escape his influence. For example, there are governments of communism,
socialism, dictatorships, republican, democrat, it doesn't matter. Satan has had his fingerprints over all of
these things and we have to recognize and them. And when we see those certain vibes that Jesus
said, "You'll know them by their fruits," you will know that they're doing his dirty
work. He has divided nations against each other,
their political approaches. He's turned human beings against each other. He's turned the races against each other. He has done everything he can to undermine
the plan of God, which is to do what? Bring salvation to mankind and deliver us
from this present evil world. He doesn't want us. One of the key areas is that he influences
religions, and that answers a question that people ask. They're just logical. They say, "Why are there so many denominations? The Bible seems to indicate there's only one,
one faith, one truth. How come everybody is all caught up in different
pieces?" Because the god of this world, a dark force
behind the scene, does not want people to get along. You see, we are to preach the gospel and to
do what? Feed the flock. Feed the brethren. He doesn't want you to be fed and he doesn't
want the gospel to be preached because the gospel does what Jesus did when He came into
Galilee, he said, "The time is at hand. The Kingdom of God is being preached." And guess what? He said, "Believe the gospel of this good
news." Yes, the adversary knows his time is limited
and he does not want his kingdom to end, so what does he do? He comes out with the following, and see,
and you make the final decision. Listen to what I give you and think about
what you have heard and lived through. You cannot pray in public now in certain places. You cannot discuss the Bible in schools in
certain areas. Tolerance of all religions, all faiths, and
all religions are considered equal except Christianity. And many have forgotten that this country
was founded on the Judeo-Christian principles. They haven't been taught that in school. They've been taught other things, the liberal
doctrine and whoever coined the expression is that government schools are indoctrination
centers is really true because that's what they are. They don't teach the bottom line so that the
new generation grows up understanding these things, so they think their diversity of everything. The devil uses religious confusion to divide
and conquer people. That's what he does and he's good at it. He knows how to do it. We are called to worship the one and only
true God. What about the economy? Everybody has to have, as they say, "You got
to have money in the bank, Frank, or otherwise, you can't pay your bills." So, what happens here? Well, the economy can be influenced by Satan. Look at the greed and the scandals that we
hear, dealing with Wall Street and money managers and the hedge fund operators. What about the recent situations where money
and taxes are being used to further things that are actually anti-American? If you've been listening to the news and hear
what's been going on in Central Park, so-called Shakespeare presentation of Julius Caesar
when he got stabbed. Well, Julius Caesar looked like somebody we
know that they don't like. And so they picture doing him in. That's terrible. Capitalism is not the answer. None of these are. Many people think we today have all these
riches because we stole it from everyone. No, we got it because God has blessed America
in a way that He promised anciently to Abraham, the blessing and the birthright. Once again, we're going to see wonderful things
take place in the Kingdom of God and it's going to put prosperity beyond your wildest
dreams. You find that in Amos 9:13, where “every
man is going to sit under his own fig tree." In other words, you're going to be self-sustained,
you're going to take care of things. You're not going to be owning your soul to
the company store. What about education? Well, what do we get today? We get evolution. We get liberalism. No longer teaches right values. They use the term “our values.” What values are you talking about? Satan's ultimate purpose, the Evil One, was
to do what? To destroy mankind. He doesn't want mankind to fulfill the wonderful
blessings that “God has prepared for those that love Him.” Remember Haman, the story of Haman, how he
tried to kill all the Jews? And then what happened? He ended up getting hung on his own gallows. Well, God has ways of turning things around. He tried to kill Jesus Christ, Satan did. He tempted Jesus to sin. Jesus would not give in. He's caused church splits and divisions. Nobody is immune. He is at war against the Church of God. You can see that in many ways as you look
back in the course of our past history. Matthew 24:21-22 tell us that unless at a
particular time that God sees coming on the horizon of life, unless God intervenes at
the end time, it says, "no flesh would be saved alive." Now, that's telling us very plainly that our
lives are in danger and if God doesn't exist, then we're going to, as they say, bite the
bullet or take it, we're going to end up… they're showing us all these destruction movies,
advertising them all the time, we're going to get hit by asteroids, we're going to be
hit by this and that, tsunamis, the planet's going to melt, the planet's going to burn
up, the planet is going to freeze, on and on and it goes. People don't know what to believe. And God says, "Be still and know that I am
God." And if we just do that, it's amazing how it
clears away the fog and suddenly you begin to see, "Hey, that's not what I have to worry
about. All I have to do is obey God's voice. He takes care of us. It's His game. His salvation being provided." That is so wonderfully encouraging. The spirit of this world needs to be removed
forever. Dear brethren, the coming Kingdom of God is
right around the corner. We can all sense it. I'm not setting times or dates, I'm just telling
you everybody knows something's going to happen. They can feel it in their bones, as they like
to use the term. But the Word of God says, "When you see these
things begin to happen, look up for your redemption draws nigh." Redemption from what? To be saved from this present evil world. It is the dark force that drives evil in this
world that has to be put away and it will be for 1,000 years in which the whole world
will experience the wonderful beauty of the love of God shed abroad upon the sons and
daughters of God. It will be an absolute awesome time and why
us now is because we've been given the tapping on the shoulder, "Will you join Me in bringing
salvation to mankind? Will you help Jesus Christ reign and rule?" And you read in Revelation 2:26, "If you stay
the course," He says, "I will give you power over the nations — and if they try to resist
you, you'll smash them like a powder to deliver you." Nobody is going to resist the power of God. Everyone is going to either acknowledge, humble
themselves and praise God for all that He is because God is coming back as a warrior. He's not going to be crucified this time. He's coming back as the conquering King of
kings and Lord of lords. We're told to look up and rejoice at that
time and make sure that we're close to God so that we can be in a state of rejoicing
when He returns. God help us all and help us to endure to the
end as the Bible admonishes. God be with you all.
