What are the Devils doing Today?

the word prayer will begin well the God thank you for this time we thank you for your word we thank you for preserving it for us we thank you Lord that we you've given us the freedom to meet we don't have to have the fear of persecution and we can meet openly and meet around your word help us to come to a better understanding of it help us to be the ambassadors that you would have us to be we pray these things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ amen amen turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 11 Romans chapter 11 and look with me at verse 6 Romans chapter 11 verse 6 and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work now we're going to come back to this but get with me 1st Timothy chapter 4 first Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits then notice and doctrines of devils one of the mistakes that people make in the New Testament is they read Matthew through Revelation those those twenty-seven different books and they conclude that Matthew to Revelation all apply equally today and that's simply not the case so if we if we look at the chart just for a minute Matthew Mark Luke and John the vast majority of that content is before the cross acts is about information after the cross and includes the diminishing of Israel Romans to Philemon is written by Paul Hebrews the revelation is focused on this period out here after the catching up of the body of Christ in other words those books of the New Testament those 27 books do not all apply at the same moment in time some pertain before the cross some pertain after the cross during the book of Acts some pertain in the future and some pertain to today now the reason I make that point is if you start from the wrong premise that Matthew to Revelation all apply today during the dispensation of grace what you're very likely to do is to read Matthew Mark Luke and John which have a lot to say about devilish possession and then transfer that to the dispensation of grace so for example and we won't turn there just for the sake of time but if you read Matthew Mark Luke and John well get Matthew 15 22 it's just better for you to see it get Matthew 15 22 it's always good to turn to the exact verses so you see them with your eyes and you can look at the context and you can just see what it's saying Matthew 15 22 and behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him saying have mercy on me O Lord thou son of David my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil and so what she's saying there is that the daughter is possessed that she has this devil that is that is tormenting her and causing her problems get with me if you would Luke get with me Luke and let's go to next let's go to let's go to mark for let's do that get mark chapter 4 and I'm sorry I meant mark chapter 5 so again mark chapter 5 mark chapter 5 and this is where the Lord is dealing with the man that's possessed of the Devils so look with me if you would verse 9 mark 5 verse 9 and he asked him what is thy name and he answered saying my name is legion for we are many look at verse 12 and all the devils plural besought him saying send us into the swine that we may enter into them now we looked at a passage in Matthew 15 we looked at one here in mark 5 and we see that folks are possessed with devils to give you an idea of how bad devilís possession was during the Lord's earthly ministry here the Lord deals with a man that's possessed with a devil and what the guy actually says to him is that his name was what legion so the man was possessed with multiple Devils now think about that just for a minute how many Devils do you need to be possessed by for it to disrupt your life are you so spiritually power that if there was only one devil inside you it wouldn't bother you so much and it would take a thousand to come in and possess you to give you problems well that that's silly isn't it right the fact that there are there's a multitude of devils in one person in Israel at that time tells you that the number of Devils participating in the oppression of Israel during that time is incredibly numerous right why would you think of it this way if you're if you're Satan and you're trying to torment Israel and caused them problems would you say I want to take a thousand resources and I want to focus them all on possessing that one individual that just doesn't make any sense unless there are so many Devils that are present in Israel and that that to me is is what it implies I don't know how you could reach I don't know what other conclusion you would reach about that but now think about that with me for a minute do you read a lot in Romans to Philemon about devilish possession and the answer is you don't do you read about devilish possession in Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy Joshua judges Ruth you really don't you read about it right here now I'll tell you my conclusion you can decide for yourself what I believe happens is in the beginning of the Gospels the Son of God the capitalist son of God Jesus Christ takes upon himself human flesh and in so doing when you read Matthew 3 what does Matthew 3 say about John the Baptist John the Baptist is where the preaching of the kingdom began was the preet was was the kingdom of heaven preached before John the Baptist it wasn't it started with him and the reason why the preaching of the kingdom started with John the Baptist is it wasn't until John the Baptist that the king was going to show up right you don't see you don't see that that preaching in the Old Testament in the same way so here's what I would suggest you you can decide for yourself Satan fully understands the Old Testament chronology he understands when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to show up when Mary is with child and that is the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be born the Messiah is going to arrive Jesus Christ is going to have his earthly ministry it is completely natural it is expected it is rational for Satan to commit much of his forces to the earth to oppose the activity of the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry that's why you read about devilish possession in a specific way during the Gospels that you don't read about before that time now by the way just this is give you one instance - one way to think about this your best friend in studying the Scriptures is the concordance now what would be terrific it would be terrific if we all had such fantastic memories that you read a verse and it says grace or it says prayer or it says angel where it says devil and you say well I know every verse where the word devil appears or the word grace appears or the word prayer appears and I've just got them filed away in my memory I've got them all there and I can fit this in to the mosaic of Scripture because I know where they all are you'll just be honest we don't have that ability right none of us know the scriptures that well the beauty of a concordance is if you read a verse about devils and you pick up the concordance it will give you the listing and you can look through every place where the word devil appears in scripture now if you think about that you may recall this what Paul says in acts when he's dealing with the Ephesian elders is that he shunned not to declare to them the whole counsel of God notice he doesn't didn't give him part of it he gave him the whole counsel of God if you are going to understand any scriptural doctrine what you need to do is you need to understand what the whole of scripture says about that so if you were for example thinking about devils and their activity what should you do well obviously what you should do is grab the concordance and look at all the places where devil appears now here's something that is absolutely fascinating to me you can decide the significance of it Matthew Mark Luke and John or how many books for right scripture has 66 books the vast majority of the times that the word devil is used in Scripture is in Matthew Mark Luke and John get out your concordance when you go home and figure out if that's true I'll tell you it is it's used roughly a hundred times and roughly 75 percent of them are in the Gospels why would that be I'd suggest to you the reason that is is what happens in the Gospels the Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven to earth takes upon himself human flesh and Satan response to that appropriately by devoting resources Devils to come down to the earth to oppose what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing okay now what happens in x-1 the Lord Jesus Christ ascends so does it make sense that Satan's warfare after the Lord Jesus Christ a sense from the earth would be identical as when he was on the earth that doesn't make any sense at all really does it it's natural that Satan's warfare would change because what God was doing had changed I don't know if you uh I don't know if you pay much attention to Christian books and Christian fiction and articles in the news and so on but there's a lot of things that are written about devilish possession and people are concerned that Devils have taken possession of them and so on and they need to be exorcisms and deliverances so the devil's quit bothering them now I want you to think for a minute does that make any sense whatsoever during the dispensation of grace well let me ask you this what happens to you the moment that you believe the gospel you're saved and what it's always for it to so get with me Ephesians 1 now we're sort of going around about way to get to Romans 11 but this is a fun detour so we'll stay on it for a bit look with me at Ephesians 1 Ephesians 1 verse 13 in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed notice what it says ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise what happens to a believer today is when they hear the word of truth the gospel their salvation and they believe it something happens to them they're sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise verse 14 which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory get with me Ephesians 4 verse 30 Ephesians 4 verse 30 and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption so are you as a believer sealed by the Holy Spirit forever no you're not with that verse a right so are you sealed forever you're not sealed forever you're sealed unto the day of redemption someone tell me what the day of redemption is in the scriptures right Romans 8:23 talks about the adoption to wit the redemption of the body so when you get saved today the instant you get saved do you have a problem in your spirit do you have a problem in your soul or do you have a problem in your body the problem is in your body or put about glim put it this way we'll sin be a problem in your life after the catching up it won't be right the only problems you're gonna have with sin are between now and they're catching up after that you're all what roman or wonder what Ephesians 4:30 is talking about there when you put Ephesians 1:13 in Ephesians 4 verse 30 together this is the advantage of using accordance and using cross references the Holy Spirit seals you doesn't seal you forever it seals you into the day of redemption because once you get to the day of redemption what happens is you're caught up you get a new body you're gonna be with the Lord forever you don't have to worry about that point at losing your salvation or sinning or you're just not gonna have any problems right between now and then you can have a whole bunch of earthly problems can't you you can't now by the way just so you know Ephesians 4:30 in my mind is a very very powerful eternal security verse see here's what happens people get saved and then they just struggle because you still have flesh don't you I sometimes talk to save people and they tell me they quit sinning or I should say I talked to people and they tell me they quit sinning right because they believed and they decided they quit sinning and what I always tell them is well if that's the case then between now and next week just write down in your diary every thought you have and then next week why don't you stand up and read it to the group right because if we're all honest even if you don't physically rob a bank even if you don't physically commit crimes and so on do you think that the Holy Spirit that God the Father is happy with the thoughts that go through our minds you know just be honest about things you realize that he's not right there's all sorts of wicked things that man Ponder's I know that on the authority of Genesis 8:21 that the thoughts of the imaginations of man's heart are only evil continually from his youth right so I was people want to sometimes want to act as if the you know they've they've conquered life and who are you kidding right you just have it the reason why at least in my mind Ephesians 1 in Ephesians 4 are so fascinating is it should give you clarity that your salvation is secure and cannot be lost because you're sealed by the Holy Spirit under the day of redemption in other words I'm confident of my salvation not because I always do the right thing because I don't always do the right thing but the Holy Spirit sealed me and the Holy Spirit is not going to fail so if the Holy Spirit sealed me what do I have to worry about and the answer of course is nothing now get with me Romans 8 Romans chapter 8 Romans chapter 8 look at verse 8 so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God but ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit notice what it says if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his so what verse 9 says very clearly is this there's two types of people there's people in whom the Spirit dwells and there's people in whom the Spirit does not dwell people in whom the Spirit does not dwell are none of his according to the latter parts of verse 9 right so those that the Holy Spirit doesn't live inside you what does that mean you are you're lost and conversely if you are saved what dwells in you the Holy Spirit right so that's not like taking liberties with the verses that's what verse 9 says right so now think about this just for a minute devilish possession should not be an issue during the dispensation of grace because what is true of every single believer the host it was in them right did the Holy Spirit dwell in everyone before the cross he didn't right he didn't find me a verse that says the Holy Spirit dwelled in every believer before the cross you can't because it doesn't exist so now let's put two and two together what much of Christendom does today is they're concerned about devilish possession there's concern about the devil's you know warring internally with folks they need deliverances and exorcisms and all sorts of just crazy stuff they get that from before the cross Paul does it say anything about people needing to be delivered from devilish possession today and the reason he doesn't do that is think about what would happen if a devil tried to possess you today who's already inside you the hospital so what would happen if a devil said well I'm going to take over Gabe a devil has zero chance of indwelling him because who's already there the whole spirit it is nonsense to talk or to think about Devils indwelling believers during the dispensation of grace because the Holy Spirit would beat him up right I mean that's what happened the holy would spirit would say you're out of here as to Devil's possessing lost people I would have two comments first of all Paul doesn't say anything about it in anything that he writes that would be point one point two even if it did happen okay even if it did what's the really simple solution you tell them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and then if they believe that what happens the Holy Spirit comes inside them and the devil if he was there which he wasn't if he was he's not going to be there anymore right son zoo in the art of war famous book about military strategy has the following quote the essence of all warfare is deception so what's it what's a play-action pass a fake right at any time does one team go up to the line of scrimmage and say look I gotta be honest with you we're giving the ball to the tailback or or do they say look I guys want to be straight I'm gonna fake like I'm handing it off but not really guys I'm not really gonna do that because I'm gonna pull it back and then I'm gonna throw it to the wide receiver that runs up to farthest to the right no one does that right because in warfare if you tell the other side what you're doing your plan will not succeed this is just obvious this is just common sense the reason I say that is this you understand that in Satan's warfare the first thing he would like to do is to convince you he's going to attack in some method different than what he's really doing I mean that obvious so now back to first Timothy four first Timothy four verse one now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils on the authority of first Timothy four what you should be concerned about today with regard to Devils is not devilish possession it's not Devil's doing things that physically harm people you should be concerned about their doctrines I don't know if any of you would have ever done this or not at one point many years ago I read a number of Christian fiction books which the whole concept seems to me ridiculous but you know it's where we were and when you read some of those books on spiritual warfare devils are doing all science all kinds of crazy exciting things in the spiritual realm and they're causing physical manifestations and they cause the church bus not to work and they caused this that in the other and and that is all just tomfoolery that's not what Devils are doing today they're not they're not doing that what they're doing according to first Timothy 4 is doctrinal in nature now if you paid attention to what Chad said during the first hour which was tremendous by the way what does Satan first say to Adam in Genesis 3 what's the very first thing he says yay half God said the very first thing that Satan does when he approaches Adam and Satan was a murderer from the beginning John 8:44 right as Satan begins his warfare against man and he's trying to deceive him the very very first thing he does is he once Adam to question the Word of God he wants to move Adam away from the infallible source of truth give me Genesis 3 I was going to quote it to you but that's not the right thing to do get Genesis 3 Genesis 3 verse 1 now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field when it says he's more subtle than any beast of the field it means he's not a beast of the field this isn't a little physical snake that's running around the serpent is a spiritual description of the character of the devil now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said on the woman yea hath God said so he's raising a question there ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden bald-faced lie right eve would have starved to death if that's what God said God never said that she shouldn't eat of every tree of the garden verse 2 and the woman said unto the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden so she corrects him but what does she leave out in verse 2 anyone know look at Genesis 2:17 Genesis chapter 2 in verse 17 Genesis 2:17 and I want verse 16 and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat so when Eve corrects the devil in verse 2 she does so in a way that is kind of right but it's really not precise it's incomplete and she leaves out the word freely now I can't help myself about this one but so we're going to come back to Genesis 3 but yet Romans 8 chapter 8 Romans chapter 8 verse 32 he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also notice this freely give us all things now in Romans 8:32 the word freely appears and I just encourage you to do this for next week many of the modern versions leave out the word freely in Romans 8:32 isn't that curious in other words in Genesis 3 verse 2 when Eve is being tempted by Satan and she quotes Genesis 2 she omits the word freely which is not good right you're not supposed to add to the word you're not supposed to subtract from the word she leaves out the word freely the modern versions in Romans 8:32 leave out the word freely I find that absolutely fascinating so you should you should check in in your Bibles at home and see if that's true so go back to Genesis 3 verse 3 and just notice so we're on verse 3 of Genesis 3 we're only two verses in and the Word of God has already been questioned and corrupted in the first two verses of Satan's encounter with mankind verse 3 but of the tree of the but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it what just happened in that verse did God say not to touch it he didn't so verse 2 is a subtraction from the Word of God verse 3 is in addition to the Word of God and what's the last part of verse 3 lest he die is that what God said go to Genesis 2 Genesis chapter 2 verse 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it doesn't say a thing about touching it then notice what says from the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die is thou shalt surely die the same thing as lest she die one is a lot weaker the point of Genesis 2:17 God explicitly says to mankind you know know this the day you eat thereof thou shalt surely die so Genesis 3 verse 3 you can see that Eve as to the Word of God and then she changes it in verse 3 verse 4 and the serpent said unto the woman ye shall not surely die that's just a flat-out lie because they would surely die and in fact Eve says lest she died the serpent says you shall not surely die so Satan knew what the verse said and what did he do he perverted it he added a word not into the verse he shall not surely die so the point of this here's what I want you to notice you should understand that today just as there was in Genesis 3 there is a satanic warfare against the Word of God there is the very first thing Satan does and Satan is a murderer from the beginning when he approaches Adam and Eve he's already led her abelian in heaven he comes down to earth and he is going to lead man astray if he can the first thing he does is he decides I have to move man away from the safe authority of the Word of God and that's what Genesis 3 is about and he is successful in doing that so with that as context when you think about the Bible today would you expect that all Bibles today say the exact same thing and that there would be no corruptions my answer to that would be why would you think that isn't it clear that since the beginning of time since Genesis 3 Satan has Ward against the Word of God well what happened gets get second Thessalonians chapter 2 if you would get second Thessalonians chapter 2 does anyone recall what happened when Paul was writing his original epistles look at me at second Thessalonians 2 verse 1 now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that she be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us what's Paul saying what were people doing while Paul was writing the epistles of Scripture they were forging things with false doctrine and guess whose name they were signing Paul's according to that verse we would meet Galatians 6 Galatians chapter 6 verse 11 you see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand why didn't pol care about that look with me at 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 17 the salutation of Paul with mine own hand and then notice what he says here which is the token in every epistle so I write Paul doesn't say that he hand wrote every word of every epistle that he wrote in fact he didn't write there's times where he would use essentially a secretary but according to second Thessalonians 3 what did he do at the end of every epistle signed it in his own hand as an authentication to the people who would be receiving it so here's what I want you to notice to just get this Genesis 3 Satan begins attacking the Word of God immediately what happens when Paul is raised up does Satan know that Paul is God's chosen vessel for the dispensation of grace plainly he does and so what does he do well he has his minions that create forgeries and signed Paul to them what's going on today in terms of devilish warfare against the body of Christ involves doctrinal warfare what Chad covered during the first hour is part of that warfare is warfare against the very word of God itself and that warfare goes on today and you can see evidence of it because you can see things that are printed as Bibles that do not match the Word of God I'll say this some people won't like it is the Holy Spirit publishing things that are called Bibles that aren't the Word of God it cannot be right is the Holy Spirit publishing things that are doctrinally false I mean it can't be well if it's not the Holy Spirit then who is it well it's not the Holy Spirit right now get with me Romans 11 39 minute introduction that's not bad so Satan's warfare today against mankind as he's not possessing people that's not what he's doing it's a distraction it's sleight of hand it's misdirection it's a fake to think that that's what Satan's warfare is and if you're worried about that you're missing what he's really doing with the other hand okay what he's doing is he's warning against the Word of God and secondly and this is the part I want to get to he is warring against the gospel now look at me at Romans 11:6 and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work according to Romans 11:6 grace and works are opposites right if you take grace and you add one word to it it ceases to be grace and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace if you take grace and you add one word to it it ceases to be Grace on the authority of Romans 11:6 now combine that with Ephesians 2:8 9 and by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast so if you're Satan and you know both of those verses which he does all he has to do to contaminate the gospel in a way that will present prevent people being saved is to add works to it right because if you and one drop of works - grace what does it cease to be ceases to be grace now this is my opinion you can decide for yourself what most of the denominations of Christendom are is a variety of flavors of contamination of the gospel of grace are there denominations that teach you have to be water baptized to be saved yes there are is that true in the dispensation of grace it's plainly not true there are multitude of groups that teach Calvinism and they teach Calvinism in the way of here's what happens God chooses to save you but not you and you but not you and what a damnable abomination that is right because you don't get saved because God individually chose to save you what does that say about God's character how arbitrary and uncaring a god would you have to be to say well I'm going to save person a but I don't really care about person B they're gonna go to hell and there's nothing they can do about it Joyce what a blasphemy that is against God get with me 1st Timothy 2 and revelation 22 first Timothy two in revelation 22 I am NOT a Calvinist I am NOT an Arminian both of those our unscriptural heresies 1st Timothy 2 verse 3 for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior and then notice what it says who will have all men to be saved that's the direct opposite of what Calvinism says look with me at revelation 22 revelation 22 verse 17 and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is athirst come now read the next verse sentence and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely see what the Calvinist says is man's will is so corrupt that he cannot even choose to exercise faith God has to give him faith God has to save him man doesn't even have the ability to choose to believe if that's true how mocking is it to say to someone who soever will let him take the water of life freely when you know they can't do you see what I'm saying the Calvinist says that man doesn't have free will to choose and yet God in the scriptures repeatedly says believe think of acts 16 verse 30 when Paul's in the in the Philippian jail the Philippian jailer comes in and says sirs what must I do to be saved that is clearly an honest question he wants to know the answer and what Paul says to him is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved if the Philippian jailer doesn't have the ability to choose to believe do you realize how cruel and mock that is that's like seeing to a handicapped person to someone that is paralyzed get up and walk you lazy bum it's mockery you see the point Calvinism it's a heresy it's an abominable heresy because it's a slander on the character of God because God repeatedly says believe indicating that man has the choice of whether or not to believe so a huge segment of Christendom is Calvinist which is a denial of the gospel and then what happens is this and this is the madness of man here's what man does man sets up theological system says well are you a Calvinist are you an Armenian which is sort of like saying when did you stop beating your wife right because I'm definitely not a Calvinist because the Calvinist says God chooses to save this person not that person the Armenian says this the Armenian says you can lose your salvation because if after you believe if you don't live a holy life you lose your salvation that's a denial of everything we looked at in Ephesians 1 in Ephesians 4 now I got one more thing I want to say on this one of the things that seems to be growing in prevalence during our time is lordship salvation lordship salvation is this the way you get saved is you don't get saved by cheap grace you don't get saved by simply believing you have to believe and then make Christ the Lord of your life so in other words the act of saving faith for someone who is a lordship salvation is it's not simply believing the gospel it's making Christ the Lord of your life so my comment on that as this Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and you could do nothing about that either way I mean he wasn't up there waiting and saying if only Jim would make me Lord of something then I'd be fulfilled he's the Lord of everything and you can do nothing about that Satan can do nothing about that so the notion of making Christ the Lord of your life as if it's going to that's just silliness but then let's play that through so if you get saved by making Christ the Lord of your life have you really made Christ the Lord of your life in everything have you done that in your inner attitudes have you done that in all your words are all your words seasoned with salt are they full of grace or all your thoughts that way you know better than that listen if making Christ the Lord of your life is required for salvation then guess how many people on earth today are saved see all that is is works salvation because if you want to claim that you're making Christ the Lord of your life it would be a fairly simple exercise in cross examination to demonstrate that's not so wouldn't it so let me summarize it as this what Devils are doing today is they're not possessing people their warfare is doctrinal one of the important aspects of their warfare is their warring against the Word of God because if you destroy the foundations how do people know anything let me point this way if you look at all the the problems with the modern versions that Chad pointed out and if Mark 4:4 is true and Luke 4:4 is true and Deuteronomy eight is true that man shall live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is your spiritual life going to function as well when your trusting reading relying upon a book that doesn't have every word wouldn't that spiritually impoverish you let me give you a specific example what happens when you read the modern version and it says el Hainan killed Goliath you realize every first grader knows that's not true if they've had any biblical teaching whatsoever right so what happens is you read the modern version and you read that verse and you know that first just isn't right and so you train yourself not to believe the words on the page what does first Thessalonians 2 say about that look at me at first hostile onehans to first Thessalonians 2 in verse 13 for this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God which he heard of us you received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God now notice what this says which effectually worketh also in you that believe the Word of God works in you when you believe it not when you disbelieve it and so my objection to the modern versions is you can't really believe them literally because they say things that you know are false so let's get back to the gospel then I don't know if you ever asked yourself this question hopefully I imagine you do but do you ever stop and just say why am I here what's the point why am I still on earth right so here's what happens you get saved you're not destined to stay on this sin cursed earth forever are you you're gonna leave your home is in heaven your conversation is in heaven and so gee this life is full of frustrations right because it is full of work frustrations and financial frustrations and health frustrations and and the frustrations of dealing with sinners all around you and everything you do right and the frustration of the person that you shave in the mirror right so just endless headaches and what I would suggest is is this the point of life is not to accumulate toys and the point of life is not to accumulate things on your resume here's where simply what it is after the first 10,000 years of eternity and frankly sooner than that the only thing you're gonna care about is the people that are there so the question for all of us really is between this moment and the time when the redemption in the body of occurs what are we doing to advance God's purposes in the earth that's it I mean there's really nothing else that counts and what I would suggest to you is this if you don't rightly divide the word of truth which the vast majority of Christendom does not what you end up doing is you grab things here you grab things there you grab things over here and you just mash it together in this big mess and you end up with the gospel that is a bunch of confusion what I would say to you is one of the important things that people that know right division can do is stand for the clarity of the gospel because it's not Calvinism it's not our minion ism it's not lordship salvation it's not any work that's required for salvation whether it's water baptism or diet or any other thing you pick you realize this is the sad tragic reality and if you think I'm exaggerating then you know I apologize but I was going to say this the vast majority of Christendom is corrupting the gospel because when Romans 11:6 says that it's not of and if by grace then is it normal of works otherwise grace is no more grace what happens is what Christendom is is this one group as this corrupting work and this other group adds this corrupting work and the other group adds this corrupting work you know what it's like you've probably seen this when you go to the supermarket and there's like thirty different styles of shaving cream right and you can get out Lola Farah and there's like the green can and the orange can this can and so on how many different manufacturers are there really very very few but there's a whole bunch of different styles if you will but they're all from the same hand that's true just look that up well here's what happens in Christendom there's these fanciful flavors you can choose but you guys the vast majority Mac wrapped that's the case I'm not mad at people but I'm fearful I'm fearful because the gospel is being corrupted and it needs to be preached clearly and that's something we as people that know right division we needed to lead in that right because right division gives you clarity about what the gospel is so I'll close with this here's what satan's warfare is against the body of Christ it's not possessing people what he's doing is its doctrinal in nature that means Satan isn't running bars he's publishing Bibles Satan isn't dealing drugs he has Bible teaching programs that's true right I mean in other words the corrupt the doctrinal corruptions that exist do not exist by accident they exist on the authority of first Timothy 4 because there are doctrines of devils that's what they're doing so we need to be attentive to that we need to be reading our Bibles we need to make sure we're sound in the faith and we need to be ambassadors for the truth that's the privilege that's been given to us today all right sage thank you for your patience let me close this in a word of Prayer well the God thank you for your word thank you for preserving it for us we thank you that you have preserved it for us uncorrupted we could have it in its pure form we can believe it word for word because you have preserved it that way and we thank you that you have made the gospel of grace so so pure and so easy for us it wasn't easy for your son because he gave his life for our sins but it's easy for us because all that we need to do is we need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved help us Lord to perform the work that you have given to us we just rejoice in all that you have done it's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we pray amen

Channel: Columbus Bible Church

Views: 2,215

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Id: UmylVTojEi8

Length: 54min 17sec (3257 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020