The Devil's Angels - Revelation 12 - Pastor Steven Anderson - 8/13/2026

and well, it's great to be here once again

and to see you all.

Thanks for having me out here.

And tonight I'm gonna be preaching on the subject

of the devil's angels, the devil's angels.

In this passage, it talks about the devil

and his angels fighting against Michael

and his angels and so forth.

And where I got the idea for the sermon,

I was reading my Bible yesterday

and I was reading in Matthew 25 where it says,

then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,

depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire,

prepared for the devil and his angels.

Now obviously when we hear that

and we're thinking about the devil and his angels,

we're thinking about the demons, right?

The fallen angels, unclean spirits, devils, demons, right?

Those are the literal devil's angels.

But beyond that, the word angel in the Bible

also simply means messenger

and a lot of times it's interchangeably used

with the word messenger.

And the devil actually has other messengers as well

besides just demons, false prophets

are also messengers of the devil.

And so we're gonna get into some of those

other messengers as well.

But first let's start out here in Revelation chapter 12

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

and let's start out with point number one,

which is the literal demons, right?

Those are the devil's angels.

Look at Revelation 12 verse three.

It says, there appeared another wonder in heaven

and behold a great red dragon

having seven heads and 10 horns

and seven crowns upon his heads

and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven

and it cast them to the earth.

Now the first thing I wanna point out

is that in the book of Revelation,

stars will often represent or be an allegory for angels.

So the third part of the stars of heaven

that he drags down with him

is basically one third of the angels of heaven

are rebelling with Satan.

And here's the thing about that

is that the Bible talks about there being literally

hundreds of millions of angels in heaven

round about God's throne,

10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands.

So if you stop and think about that,

if there are hundreds of millions of angels up in heaven

and then one third of the angels are fallen angels

and the devil takes one third of the stars of heaven

and cast them down to the earth,

that goes to show you that there are literally

tens of millions of demons in this world.

So devils or demons as they go about this earth

doing Satan's bidding, you know what?

They're not just some super rare phenomenon

like finding something that's just

really out of the ordinary.

No, and that's why when you're reading the four gospels,

there are a lot of stories

about people that are demon possessed

where Jesus and or the apostles

are casting out those devils.

I mean, especially the book of Mark is just wall to wall

with stories about those that are demon possessed.

So here's the thing,

if you actually believe that the Bible is God's word,

then you must believe that those devils didn't go anywhere

since 2000 years ago.

It's not like they were around back then

and all of a sudden they're gone.

Now no, they are alive and well today

and the devil today is walking about as a roaring lion

seeking whom he may devour

and he does not work alone.

He has all of these underlings,

these minions, his messengers

to go forth with his message

and to go forth and do his will.

And if you think about God having his angels, right?

God's angels are going out and doing God's will.

They're doing his bidding.

They're helping the mission.

They're sent forth as spirits to minister unto us

that are the heirs of salvation, right?

The angel of the Lord

and campeth round about them that fear him.

So we have our guardian angels

and God sends his angels to do his will and his work

in the Bible.

Angels will come and speak God's message to people, right?

Well, the devil's angels are basically his minions

that are doing his bidding and there are a lot of them.

And of course the devil is hard at work today in 2026

and it's no different than it was 2000 years ago.

Now let's keep reading here.

It says in the latter part of verse four there,

the dragon stood before the woman

which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child

as soon as it was born.

So the devil wants to destroy baby Jesus

and of course this is alluding to the story

with King Herod and killing all the children

from two years old and under

in order to try to devour Jesus.

It says she brought forth a man child,

that's Jesus of course,

who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron

and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne.

Jump down to verse seven.

It says there was war in heaven,

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon,

the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed not,

neither was their place found anymore in heaven

and the great dragon was cast out,

that old serpent called the devil and Satan

which deceive at the whole world,

he was cast out into the earth

and his angels were cast out with him.

Now if you would go to Luke chapter 22.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 22 because obviously if we look at Satan

Luke 22 · chapter mention

in the Bible, we're not ignorant of his devices

and if we look at what his agenda is

and if we look at what his modus operandi is

then we can understand what his underlings are doing

because they're just doing his bidding,

they're working for him,

they're his messengers, they're his angels

and so what is their goal?

You know Satan wanted to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ,

he wanted to devour that child as soon as he was born.

Of course he failed to do that

and so he turns his wrath at the end of chapter 12

on the seed of the woman

that keeps the commandments of God

and has the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So therefore his goal is to go after

and destroy Christians, right?

The initial goal is destroy Jesus.

That didn't work out.

Jesus won, he conquered his death, his burial,

his resurrection, the son of God was manifested

to destroy the works of the devil.

He already won that battle

and so now Satan goes after the remnant

of the seed of the woman, that's us human beings

that keep the commandments of God

and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

We are the target for Satan.

Now what did the devil try to do to Jesus?

Well, look if you would at Luke chapter 22 verse three

Luke 22 · chapter mention

it says then entered Satan into Judas,

surname to scarriot, being of the number of the 12.

So Judas is scarriot is literally demon possessed

with the arch demon himself Satan.

And it says in verse number four there

he went his way and communed with the chief priests

and captains how he might betray him under them

and they were glad and covenanted to give him money

and he promised and sought opportunity

to betray him under them

in the absence of the multitude.

You know, it looks to me like the devil

will possess the unsaved because Judas was unsaved.

The Bible says that Jesus knew from the beginning

which of the 12 did not believe in him.

And he said, have not I chosen you 12?

One of you is a devil.

One of them never believed in him.

Judas is scarriot, totally unsaved.

Well, demons will possess the unsaved

and use them to do evil.

And what he'll specifically use them to do

is to betray and falsely accuse God's people

because if you think about it,

Satan is the big accuser

and here Satan possesses Judas to betray Jesus,

to get close to him, to be his friend,

to be in his inner circle, to be in the church,

really there not for any good reason

but just there to steal money

and ultimately there to just betray Jesus

and falsely accuse Jesus

and get Jesus arrested and so forth.

Well, look, the devil's gonna do that

not to just the son of God himself

but to all Christians.

He's gonna try to harm us in that way.

And so remember, a saved person cannot be demon possessed.

Right?

The Bible says greater is he that is in you

than he that is in the world.

It's before you were saved

when you were dead in trespasses and sins

that you lived your life

according to the course of this world,

according to the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that now worketh

in the children of disobedience.

So that spirit of the devil,

unclean spirits or Satan himself works in the unsaved.

The children of wrath before they're saved,

he has access to them.

Once we're saved though and we've been born again,

we can never be demon possessed.

Anybody who's demon possessed is an unsaved person, right?

So thank God us saved Christians are immune from this

but here's the thing,

unsaved people around us though

could be used by the devil to attack us,

torment us, harass us,

accuse us, betray us and whatever.

We also see in the book of Acts

where there's this woman in the book of Acts

that's a demoniac

and when they're out soul winning

and preaching the gospel,

she's following them around mocking them,

yelling things at them, harassing them

and basically just being a distraction

and making it difficult for them to do the soul winning.

And you've probably seen this before

when you're out soul winning

and you get some weirdo following you around

and they won't stop and they won't leave you alone.

And I'm not just talking about the Karen,

apartment manager or whatever.

Sometimes it'll just be some neighbor

or somebody that just goes crazy on you and freaks out.

I mean, we were just soul winning a few weeks ago

on Indian reservation in Nevada

and we got attacked by Indians.

You know, I thought those days were over

but it was like we literally got physically attacked

by Indians, if you can believe that.

And so we're out there

and I mean this Indian guy just went crazy on me.

He started shoving me and spitting in my face

and everything and I was totally nice to the guy

and he's just going crazy on me, blowing up on me.

And you know what?

It wouldn't surprise me if people like that

are demon possessed because there was no reason.

We were totally cool with the guy.

We're totally nice with the guy

and he just blew up no interest in the peace pipe

when I offered it to him.

He's just blew up on me and just attacked me.

Okay, but here's the thing.

Peace pipe's just tobacco friends, all right?

It's true.

Look it up, it's not drugs.

No, I'm just kidding.

I don't smoke either, okay.

But the point is that the devil,

yeah, he has already lost the battle with Jesus Christ.

Jesus already conquered.

He already lived that perfect life

that none of us could live.

He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

He arose victorious over the grave, right?

But now he's wroth with us,

the Bible says in Revelation 12.

We're the new target and so if he'll betray Jesus,

he'll betray us.

If he'll accuse Jesus, he'll accuse us.

If he'll steal money from Jesus,

he'll steal money from the church today.

He will do the same things to us

and he will use wicked people around us to do his bidding.

And you know, the Bible talks about

these evil people that will just be among us,

you know, crept in unawares.

Certain wicked man, Jude says,

crept in unawares who were before

of old ordained to this condemnation.

Ungodly man turning the grace of God into lasciviousness,

denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's like, why would you go to church

if you deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, I'll tell you why they're there.

Feasting with you and feeding themselves without fear.

They are there to beguile unstable souls.

They're there to deceive.

They're there to accuse.

They're there to betray.

They're there to harass.

They are there to harm God's people, you know.

And this is what the devil's angels do.

They do just like their master.

But not only that, go to Mark chapter nine.

We'll just briefly look at this.

Not only do the devil's angels, the demons,

not only do they, you know, lead unsaved people

to just do crazy things like just joining a church

and just, you know, infiltrating

and just being a spy or something

and spying on God's people.

And look, this is like, who would do that?

Like, don't you have something better to do with your life?

You know, than to be some transvestite.

I mean, this transvestite goes undercover

at Sher Foundation Baptist Church.

And this is how he, this is his disguise.

He disguised himself as a normal man.

Like it's a wild disguise.

Cause he's normally a tranny, but then he just,

he puts on this wild disguise

of just like being his normal gender.

If you can imagine that.

And then he's showing up and just week after week

and he's just filming and just infiltrating.

Folks, it's demonic.

And it is interesting that this same guy

who did that on his YouTube channel,

What's the Logo is a literal Satan symbol

upside down star, like on a lamb's head,

just a Baphomet Satan thing, right?

Because that's what the devil does.

Just like he infiltrated the first church

by being one of the 12 disciples.

And, you know, getting in there possessing Judas

to betray Jesus, you know, he does the same thing now.

But not only do the demons lead people to, you know,

harm, harass, betray other Christians,

but what they'll get them to do

is also to destroy themselves.

You know, and so you'll see demon possessed people

be very self-destructive people.

Okay.

Look if you would at Mark chapter nine, verse 17.

Here's a great example of this.

One of the multitude answered and said,

Master, I brought unto thee my son,

which hath a dumb spirit.

And wheresoever he taketh him, watch this,

he teareth him and he fometh

and gnasheth with his teeth and pineeth away.

And I spake to thy disciples

that they should cast him out and they could not.

Look at verse 21.

And he asked his father, how long is it ago

since this came unto him and he said of a child

and off times it hath cast him into the fire

and into the waters to destroy him.

But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us

and help us.

Notice what this spirit is doing.

It's making this kid foam at the mouth

and tear himself and also to throw himself into the fire

and also to throw himself in the water.

Notice the self-destructive behavior.

And by the way, in the Old Testament,

you have Elijah facing off with the prophets of Baal

and Mount Carmel.

And if you remember, they are cutting themselves

until blood gushed out and it says, as was their manner.

So this was just a normal thing for them.

This was another day at the office for them,

self-harming and cutting themselves open

because they are demonic.

They're worshiping the devil when they worship Baal,

the prophets of Baal, Baal's a bub.

And so what we see here is the self-destructive behavior

of those who are demoniac.

So not only do they seek to harm Christians,

they seek to harm themselves.

Because here's what you have to understand.

You know, the devil doesn't love his followers.

You know, it's not like the devil has his crowd.

Yeah, my boys and I love them.

And you know, I just hate Christians.

You know, the devil really hates all of mankind.

If you study the book of Revelation,

you know, in chapter 12 there,

the devil actually just hates all of mankind.

I mean, he's especially got his guns trained

on Christians and he would love to infiltrate

churches and tempt Christians,

accuse Christians, deceive Christians,

through unsaved people that he can actually possess

and use them to do his bidding.

But not only does he want to harm Christians indirectly

through unsaved people that he uses to do his bidding,

but he'll also harm the unsaved people themselves

directly by literally possessing them

and leading them to self-harm.

And you'll see people just doing

these crazy irrational things

where they harm themselves and they're, you know,

beating their own heads in and just cutting themselves

and all these wild things,

like throwing themselves in the fire

and in the water and all these things.

You know, it just shows the devil

is just leading people toward destruction of others

and ultimately destruction of themselves.

And you know, when you stop and think about it,

you know, the devil is just a self-destructive entity

because his whole path is leading him

toward damnation in the end.

That's where he's gonna end up.

So he's really just trying to take as many people with him

on that road of damnation.

You know, that's what he's doing.

You know, it's like he attacked Jesus,

he fought against Jesus, he tried to stop Jesus

and he ends up just destroying himself in the process.

Well, guess what?

If we resist the devil, he'll flee from us.

And if people come at us and these demonic forces

come at us and attack us, you know what?

If we can stand strong in the Lord

and the power of his might,

if we can have the shield of faith equipped

where with we shall be able to quench

all the fiery darts of the wicked,

guess what?

Those people will not be able to destroy us

but ultimately what will they do?

They will destroy themselves

and we will see them destroy themselves.

We will see them self-destruct.

So the good news is we as Christians

will never be demon possessed

but we will be stalked, persecuted and harassed

by those who are demon possessed.

I mean, we see that in the Bible.

So that's how that affects us, okay?

Now let's move on to point number two.

So point number one, the devil's angels.

We're talking about the literal demons of hell.

Those are the devil's angels, right?

But number two, false prophets are also the devil's angels

because they are messengers of the devil

bringing the devil's message.

Now, just to demonstrate to you,

this is just kind of interesting

to demonstrate to you, you know,

that the word angel literally just means messenger.

That's what it means.

And we can kind of get a feel for this too.

If we think about our word evangelist

or evangelical or something like that

because the word evangelical, okay?

The EV prefix there means good,

like, you know, euphemism or euphony

or something euphonic.

And then we have the evangel, right?

Evangel, you see the angel in there?

So it's like good message.

And remember, what does gospel mean?

Gospel means good news.

So the gospel is good news.

So evangelicals are out there preaching the good news.

We're into like getting the gospel out to the world.

And so the word angel just simply means messenger.

It's kind of funny, the William Tyndale Bible, you know,

which is really the first English translation

in modern English from the original Greek

into English in the New Testament, you know, 1526.

And if you look at it,

it's funny because in Revelation two and three,

you have this passage where it says

unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, right?

On the angel of the church of Smyrna, right?

Pergamos.

And when it says unto the angel of the church, right?

It's talking about the preacher.

It's talking about the messenger of the church,

the one who brings the message to the church.

That's why some of the rebukes in Revelation two and three

are using the and thou directed to the leader.

And then other things like ye, you, your

is talking to the church as a whole.

So sometimes he's just talking to the pastor.

Sometimes he's talking to the church itself,

but that's what that means when it says the angel church.

So just as, just as the good churches

have the angel of the church of Anaheim, you know,

the angel of the church of Ephesus,

then, you know, the devil's got his angels too.

Right?

At the first, we just passed the church.

It was the first Presbyterian church.

It had a pervert flag flying out front.

So I can already tell you the devil

is in charge down there.

No question about that.

But in the William Tyndale translation

of Revelation two and three, it's funny

because he keeps using a different word each time.

So like in Revelation chapter two verse one,

he says, under the messenger

of the congregation of Ephesus, right.

Then in verse eight, he says,

under the angel of the congregation of Smyrna, right.

That's the way the King James does it.

It translates it as angel.

And then in chapter three verse seven,

he says, and right unto the tidings bringer

of the congregation of Philadelphia.

So it's kind of funny because it's the same Greek word

every time, which is just angel.

But then it's just kind of funny how Tyndale,

he does it one time as messenger.

He does it another time as angel.

He does it another time as tidings bringer

because he's just trying to show like different synonyms

of the same word.

The King James just keeps it consistent

and just always translates angel for angel.

But it's just kind of going to show you

how the tidings bringer, messenger, angel.

These are all kind of synonymous words.

That's why Tyndale did that.

And so if you would flip over

to second Corinthians chapter number 11,

second Corinthians chapter number 11,

this is probably the best verse

when it comes to this idea of the devil's angels

or the devil's messengers being false prophets.

It says in second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13,

2 Corinthians 11:13

for such are false apostles,

deceitful workers transforming themselves

into the apostles of Christ and no marvel.

For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers,

and another word for ministers would be like helpers

or servants or something like that, right?

And so it's no marvel if his ministers also

be transformed as the ministers of righteousness

whose end shall be according to their works.

And so look, just as the devil

is transformed into an angel of light,

his minions, his ministers, his angels

are transformed into the ministers of light, right?

And obviously we use the word minister a lot

to talk about the preacher at a church, right?

The pastor is known as a minister, right?

Pastor Bruce Meheo, what does he do for a living?

He's a minister, right?

That's what we would say.

He's in the ministry, okay?

And so you have some wicked people

that are in an evil ministry

because they are ministers of the devil.

They're messengers of Satan and they are doing his bidding.

But here's the thing,

they're transformed into the ministers of righteousness.

So on the outside, they could look like they're good,

but inwardly the Bible says what?

They're ravening wolves, right?

Beware of false prophets,

which come to you in sheep's clothing,

but inwardly they're ravening wolves.

Now think about what it means to be in sheep's clothing.

What are the attributes of a sheep?

I mean, a sheep isn't really an animal that scares you, right?

Like if you show up at the petting zoo

or you show up around sheep,

it's like, oh, get the sheep away from me.

The sheep's out of control.

Sheeps aren't scary, okay?

Now a wolf is kind of a scary, ferocious beast

that you'd be worried about.

A lot of times in Arizona,

I would say virtually every single time

I go on a bicycle ride in the evening

or just after the sun goes down.

And that's usually when we like to do stuff

because the sun is trying to kill us.

Like it's like that level in Super Mario Brother

where the sun's trying to kill you.

That's life in Arizona every day.

But basically, I'll be out there after dusk

and after the sun goes down

and I see a coyote every single time.

Like virtually every time I go on a bike ride

over by the desert, I'll see a coyote.

And coyotes are really small.

Like they're a lot less scary than a wolf or something.

But it still kind of gives you a little pause.

When you see these kind of wild beasts,

whether it's a coyote or a wolf or,

one time I was hiking with my kids

pretty close to my house

and saw like some kind of a bobcat or something.

And it just kind of, it's kind of like, whoa.

But if you saw a sheep,

you're not freaking out about a sheep.

You're not worried about it

because a sheep is like a harmless animal.

You'd think of it as gentle, mild, harmless, super nice.

And so the Bible is saying

that these false prophets, these messengers of Satan,

they are going to appear on the outside as sheep.

They're going to be wolves in sheep's clothing.

And isn't it interesting how these super evil, wicked,

hateful, just horrific servants of Satan

are just, they're the ones that are just so loving.

And it's just like, love is love.

And they're just flying a flag

of just violent perversion and just gross molestation.

And they're just like, oh, we just, we just welcome

everybody, we just love everybody.

We're so kind.

And then meanwhile, the fundamental Baptist down the street

is painted as being like super mean, super hateful,

super harmful, just scary, right?

And then what's funny is people will call us

a wolf in sheep's clothing.

It's like, bro, how are we portraying ourselves

as super gentle and mild

when in reality we're ferocious beasts?

If anything, we probably seem a little more ferocious

than we even are.

And to sit there and say, oh, you're a wolf.

No, I'll tell you, the wolf in sheep's clothing is,

is these evil demoniac pastors, these super wicked.

And, but then they're just so nice to you

as they just kind of just gently send the knife

into your back and just kind of just slowly,

just, hey, you're going to feel a little prick.

Oh, okay.

You know, let me just go ahead and just

send the knife in beneath the fifth rib

and just go ahead and just stab you.

Let me just go ahead and just gently

put this dart into your liver.

It's only going to hurt for a minute

and then the lights are going to go out.

Let me tell you something.

It's amazing how these people who hate you

and attack you and revile you and persecute you

and despitefully use you,

isn't it amazing how nice they are as they do it?

Cause they're just so loving and they're so kind

and they're so affirming as they just harm

and hurt and devour with their wickedness.

Why?

Because they are a wolf in sheep's clothing.

And so yeah, the teeth are there.

The claws are there.

You just don't see them.

Because even the devil himself,

he doesn't come at you with horns and a pitchfork

and a red pointy tail.

He comes at you as an angel of light, right?

If you saw the devil, you'd think he's beautiful.

He's one of God's most beautiful creations,

but he's evil, okay?

And so the looks can be deceiving.

So he says, beware of false prophets

which come to you in sheep's clothing,

but inwardly they're ravening wolves.

You should know them by their fruits.

And you know the spiritual fruit is what you look at.

And if you see a lack of spiritual fruit

or you see bad spiritual fruit,

that's the sign of the false prophet

because a good tree brings forth good fruit.

The corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.

And so what are we looking at?

We're looking at the actual results

of actually getting people saved,

getting the gospel out there,

salvation's changed lives, right?

As opposed to just somebody who just says nice things.

You know, meanwhile breaking the 10 commandments

all day long and twice on Sunday,

but they're super nice about it

as they do all these things.

And so if you would flip over to second Peter chapter two,

second Peter chapter two,

see the sheep as an animal,

the attribute is that it appears

to be super gentle and harmless.

Nobody's worried about a sheep,

whereas a wolf is scary to us.

We'd be on our guard against a sheep.

So the devil wants to get us off our guard.

And so his minions are wolves in sheep's clothing.

They pretend to be super kind, nice and gentle.

But in reality, the person who actually loves you

is the person who's telling you the truth.

This is love that we walk after his commandments.

So the pastor who's actually following the Bible,

preaching the Bible, teaching truth,

he's the one who actually loves people.

Even if he maybe gets up and yells

and smites with the hand, stomps with the foot.

I mean, Jesus Christ yelled when he preached to

speaking the truth in love, okay?

And ripping face is what the prophets of the Bible did,

but they all were filled with love for God

and love for their neighbor,

even if they show some tough love by preaching heart.

Meanwhile, you know,

some guy and some rainbow robe down the street

is gonna be super kind and loving outwardly,

but inwardly he's a ravening wolf.

He doesn't love you.

He hates you.

He's going to hell.

He can't stop it.

He's reprobate.

And so he just, he's just like the devil

who wants to take people with him.

And so look down at your Bible there

at 2 Peter chapter two, verse one,

it says, but there were false prophets

also among the people,

even as there shall be false teachers among you

who privilege, privilege means secretly,

shall bring in damnable heresies,

even denying the Lord the bottom

and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Watch this, and many shall follow their pernicious ways

by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

Now is this just a small thing,

a phenomenon that appears every once in a while

seldom and maybe out of 10 churches,

one of them is a false prophet.

No, because the Bible says

many will follow their pernicious ways.

And as we established earlier,

there are at least tens of millions,

dozens of millions of these demons in this world

and there are just innumerable false prophets

and many will follow their pernicious ways

by reason of which,

by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

What does that mean?

It's gonna give Christianity a bad name.

And especially when independent fundamental Baptist

turn out to be devils,

that's just gonna give us all a bad name.

Right?

And what am I talking about?

Well, there's an example recently

of this guy called Kenny Baldwin, right?

And this guy, Kenny Baldwin turned out to be a sodomite.

He turned out to be a homo.

You know, he's up here masquerading as a man of God,

masquerading as a preacher of God's word.

You know, he's a popular conference speaker,

independent Baptist guy

and he's preaching at youth conferences and camps

and he's secretly being a homo.

You know, and then people see that

and then it just gives church a bad name,

it gives Baptist a bad name.

You know, and that's why

if the independent fundamental Baptist were,

you know, right about these things,

they would be just quick to distance themselves

from this guy and just throw him under the bus

and just be like, this guy's gross,

this guy's trash, we didn't know this about this guy.

But they're like, oh, we gotta pray that, you know,

that we don't end up like him.

It's like, what the heck?

I've never prayed that.

I'm never gonna pray that prayer.

We don't have to pray not to do that.

That's weird.

But it's like, oh, you know,

we gotta just, you know,

but for the grace of God, there go I.

What the heck?

That's not normal, that's abnormal.

He's a false prophet, he's unsaved, he's a reprobate.

That's what Romans one teaches.

It's not a normal desire,

but you know, you think that they would want

to distance themselves and be like,

putting themselves as far away from that as possible.

But no, that's not what they do.

You know, they wanna just act like, oh, you know,

let's pray for him, he fell into sin or whatever.

And then I've heard this saying,

it's such a dumb saying, they're like, yeah, you know,

Christianity's the only army that shoots its own wounded.

Have you heard this crap before?

You know, Christianity's the only army

that shoots its own wounded.

Bro, that's called shooting a traitor.

And guess what?

Every army in the world does that.

Did you know it's in the United States Constitution, right?

And I know a lot of people have probably

never even read the Constitution cover to cover,

even though it takes like 20 minutes.

So like, you know, we would say that,

hey, if you wanna read your Bible in a year,

it's gonna take you like 20 minutes per day for a year.

But if you wanna read the US Constitution,

it's gonna take you 20 minutes one time.

You know, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands,

but some of y'all need to go home and do your homework, okay?

You know, and I understand that the Bible's

more entertaining, because, you know,

the Constitution's kinda boring.

But there's a part in the Constitution

and it only takes you 20 minutes to find it,

where it talks about the fact that those

who commit treason against the United States

get the death penalty.

They die.

They are killed.

So guess what?

In the United States, you know what?

That's a military that shoots its own,

who did it?

No, shoots its traitors.

If somebody infiltrates, if somebody creeps in unawares,

some pervert, some sodomite, some creepo,

some weirdo, right?

Yeah, he's a traitor.

Every military in the world will shoot him.

No, we're the only army that shoots its own wounded.

I mean, that's not true, because guess what?

In Bible believing, Christian churches,

when somebody is down, when somebody is struggling,

when somebody falls into sin, but they're repentant,

we're always wanting to help them out, right?

Those who are overtaken in a fault,

we, which are spiritual, are supposed to restore

such a one in the spirit of meekness.

And that's what we do.

We always wanna help people, and people come to us,

and they're struggling with alcohol,

they're struggling with drugs,

they're struggling with their marriage,

and we're trying to help them and get them better

and fix them up, and we're not out blabbing

about their business and stuff,

because they're actually just repentant

and they're trying to get right and whatever.

It's like, and people get back to them,

have a hard time, quit the church,

come back six months later,

we're just glad to see them.

Hey, welcome back, great to see you.

But some dude who's praying on teenagers,

can he Baldwin, let him be accursed.

You know, Leviticus 2013, that's what I'm talking about.

Oh, it's the only army that shoots its own wind.

I've heard that my whole life.

Time to retire that saying.

But it says here, many verse two,

shall fall their pernicious ways,

by reason of whom the way of truth

shall be evil spoken of.

So then people will say, oh, that's Christianity for ya,

that's being a Baptist for ya,

and it'll give Christianity a bad name

when they're found out to be committing

just horrific, grievous sins and even crimes,

you know, as a preacher.

And then it says in verse three,

through covetousness shall they with feinted words

make merchandise of you.

Now feint means faked, right?

So they're saying things that they don't believe,

they're faking everything,

they're pretending to be one of us.

And covetousness is the motivator

and they'll make merchandise of you.

They'll get you to buy the books

and buy the films and donate

and give to these things

that are not actually about getting the gospel out.

They're not actually about serving God.

It's about serving their own bellies.

And so it says through covetousness

shall they with feinted words

make merchandise of you

whose damnation now of a long time lingered not

and their damnation slumbered not.

And then it's interesting if he goes from one breath

to talking about false prophets

to talking about literal fallen angels

going back to point one.

Cause look at the next verse.

It says for a God spared not the angels that sinned

but cast them down to hell

and delivered them into chains of darkness

to be reserved unto judgment and on and on it goes.

The point is that in the same breath

we go from talking about false prophets

the devil's angels, the devil's messengers

to literal demons.

Also the devil's messengers, the devil's angels.

So these are who the devil uses.

Jump down if you would to verse 14.

What do we see about these false prophets

these ministers of the devil

these wolves and sheep's clothing?

It says in verse 14 having eyes full of adultery

and that cannot cease from sin

be guiling unstable souls.

So we as Christians we wanna think about

how does this affect our lives

because we need to be on our guard.

We need to be sober.

We need to be vigilant

because our adversary the devil

walk at the bow as a roaring lion

seeking a moment of our, he's not working alone, right?

He's got all of these millions of followers

millions of angelic followers

and millions of human followers

that he is using to do his bidding.

How does it affect us?

Well, number point number one

the literal demons.

How does that affect us?

Well, the good news is

it can't really affect us directly

because we can never be possessed

because we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

So that's the good news about that.

But here's how it affects us

is that people around us will creep in unawares.

They will be demonic.

They will infiltrate.

They will harass, stalk, betray us, deceive us,

lie to us, you know, hurt us,

harass us, mock us, whatever.

So that's how that affects us.

But number two, the false prophets.

You know, how do the false prophets affect us?

Is that the false prophets

are out to deceive us, right?

They're out to trick us.

They're out to lie to us.

Now here's the thing.

Those of us that are saved,

thankfully we've got the Holy Spirit

and dwelling us.

So we can only be fooled so much, you know,

because the good news is

we've got the kind of sniff test

of being indwelled by the Holy Spirit

where, you know, the Bible says

the Holy Spirit's main ministry

is to guide us into all truth.

So the comforter, he's inside of us.

He's gonna guide us into all truth.

And the Bible says also

that Christ's sheep hear his voice

and a stranger will they not follow,

a stranger will they flee from

for they know not the voice of strangers.

So because we're saved

and because we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit,

we have the ability to, you know,

kind of discern truth from error.

And we hear preaching and sometimes we can tell like,

hey, something's off about this

or yeah, this jives with scripture.

This sounds good.

No, this isn't right.

And obviously, you know,

the Holy Spirit's guiding us into all truth.

But here's the thing about that though,

just because you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit,

if you're not reading your Bible,

if you're quenching the spirit,

if you're grieving the spirit,

if you're not walking in the spirit,

if you're just in the flesh,

not reading the Bible,

not listening to preaching,

you're not singing hymns,

you're not praying,

you're not winning souls,

you know what, you can still be deceived.

You're not gonna be like super deceived,

but you could still get deceived on a lot of stuff,

you know, because obviously the more we read the Bible

and the more we walk with God

and the more we're praying in the spirit,

then we're gonna be less deceived

than the guy who's just out there in the world

and just barely touching the things of God.

I mean, that should be obvious.

So here's the thing,

if, you know, when the Antichrist shows up

in the end times,

no saved person's gonna fall for it

because that's like,

that's too big of a deception.

It's not gonna work.

Saved Christians aren't gonna go join the Mormon church.

They're not gonna go join Islam.

They're not gonna become a Hindu.

They're not gonna just go out

and just completely apostatize

and join the Jehovah's Witnesses or something.

But, if they're unstable,

if they're unlearned,

then they can be tricked into lesser heresies.

Because what does the Bible say

in Galatians 5,

it talks about walking in the spirit

and walking in the flesh,

and it says if you walk in the flesh,

you'll fulfill the works of the flesh.

And one of the works of the flesh,

because we're thinking, yeah,

works of the flesh,

adultery, lasciviousness, theft, blasphemy.

One of them is heresy.

So if you're in the flesh,

you can get sucked into some dumb false doctrines.

And so here's the thing,

these false prophets come along.

Yeah, they're not gonna get you all the way

into pagan idolatry or something.

But what they can do though

is get you to believe in stupid doctrines

that will cripple you as an effective Christian.

I mean, have you seen Christians in your life,

those of you who've been around for a while,

where they're actually an effective zealous Christian,

and then they get into some stupid doctrine

that can literally just take them totally off the chessboard

as far as actually doing something good for God?

Right, they get sucked into some weird heresy.

They could get sucked into something like dispensationalism.

And then they go down this dispensational rabbit hole

and they get all goofed up

and then they're no longer effective for God.

Or they get sucked into Calvinism.

I do believe that a saved person

can get sucked in to Calvinism.

And the next thing you know,

soul winning is not so urgent anymore

because if it's gonna happen for people,

it's gonna happen for people.

And then you get these Christians,

they're good, solid, fundamental Baptist,

they're into soul winning,

and then they start getting into church history.

Like as soon as you hear that somebody got,

is getting into church history,

it's just like, just mark it down,

this person's about to get royally screwed up

on their doctrine, period, right?

Why don't we just call it as Catholic history?

You know, and it's just like,

the only question is,

how far down that road are they gonna go?

Now, if they're unsaved,

they're probably just gonna end up

being a Roman Catholic at the end of the road

or a Greek Orthodox,

if they go all the way down the road.

But if they're saved,

you know, it's just a question of

how far down the road are they gonna go?

How screwed up are they gonna get?

How Calvinist are they gonna get?

How messed up and watered down

is their gospel gonna get?

And how confused are they gonna get?

By listening to a bunch of crusty dead dudes

in dresses that are a bunch of Catholics

and proto-Catholics and quasi-Catholics

and what, you know, it's just,

you know, nuts to it, man.

Nuts to stupid church history.

Hang it, because I'm not in the Catholic Church.

I don't need their history book.

Okay?

And it's like, oh, well, you know,

show me a guy from the eighth century AD

that believes exactly like you.

Well, let's get a time machine and let's go

and I'll show you, bro, I'll find him for you.

Because I guarantee you,

it probably won't even take long to find him.

But we're gonna need a time machine.

You provide the time machine,

I'll go with you and we'll go find him.

But you know what?

Nobody has a time machine to tell me,

oh, bro, just trust me, bro,

everyone was Catholic until 1500s.

Really? I doubt it.

Because you know what?

There's always been the Bible.

There's always been the Holy Spirit.

There's always been people

who just believe what the Bible said

and didn't put on a bunch of wizard suits

and just larping all day as, you know,

some kind of a wizard sorcerer, priest, father,

pope, cardinal, blue jay, whatever.

Oh, I'm getting into church history.

Getting really into theology.

And look, you know what theology is?

Theology is basically worldly philosophy

being foisted onto the Bible.

It's basically Greek philosophy

that goes back to Aristotle and the like

being superimposed over the Bible.

What could possibly go wrong?

Some pagan, unsaved guy who's burning in hell,

Aristotle, putting his views on the Bible, you know?

I don't need it, my friend.

But you know, the Roman Catholics

of the Middle Ages were just all,

for like a thousand years,

just cuckoo for cocoa puffs about Aristotle.

Sometimes they just call him the philosopher

because he's just like,

he's just the only one that matters to them.

Turns out he was wrong about everything.

And you know, here's the thing.

If you study science

and you read about the history of science,

you're always gonna start by talking about Aristotle

when you talk about the history of science.

And you know, you gotta give Aristotle some credit

that, you know, he was like, you know,

the first guy to do a lot of stuff

that we have a record of

of like biology and science and everything.

You know, so hey,

somebody's gotta start the ball rolling.

I'm not saying he was a dummy,

but guess what?

He turned out to be wrong about virtually everything.

Because he was kind of just shooting from the hip

and he wasn't doing the scientific method.

He's just kind of like, well, this makes sense to me.

And it was just kind of bro science

that he was doing before it was cool.

You know, BC was bro science,

you know, is what the B stands for.

And so he was doing all this stuff.

And then when the scientific revolution happened

is when people started questioning Aristotle

and saying like, wait a minute,

Aristotle is claiming that this is why things fall

and that heavier things are falling faster and everything.

But then people are actually just going in high buildings

and dropping things and seeing that heavy things

and light things are pretty much falling at the same speed.

And that's not what Aristotle said was gonna happen.

And they start rolling balls down ramps

and they started actually testing Aristotle's theories

and finding out that, you know, hey,

good job for kind of starting the process,

but turns out you're kind of wrong about everything.

Okay, well, guess what?

It's not that Aristotle was just wrong

about everything scientifically.

Turns out he was wrong about everything spiritually too.

You know, so just as Isaac Newton

and Galileo and Johannes Kepler and everything,

you know, had to throw out the ideas of Aristotle

and get rid of all that baggage of those preconceived ideas

in order to actually do real science

and bring us into our modern high-tech world.

You know, we as Christians also had to,

in the 1500s, 1600s, throw out a bunch of stupid philosophy

from Aristotle and theology from the Roman Catholic Church

and go back to basics and start rolling the Bible,

not rolling the Bible down the ramp,

rolling a ball down a ramp by actually going to the Bible,

going to the source

and actually figuring out what the Bible says

and not just relying on a bunch of, you know,

thick-robed scholars to tell us what it means.

You know, the Bible flat-out says we need not

that any man teaches us.

The same, as the same anointing teaches us of all things

and his truth and his no lie,

even as it had taught us, you shall abide in him.

And so here's the thing is that, yeah,

false prophets are not gonna deceive us

into just full-blown joining a false religion,

but you know what, false prophets can deceive us

into believing stupid doctrines like divine simplicity,

Calvinism, dispensationalism, or whatever,

and make us ineffective for Christ.

Cause we get down some weird rabbit trail.

Next thing you know, we're geeking out

with a bunch of, you know, Calvinists

and we're not zealous, hellfire and damnation,

Baptists anymore when it's sold to Christ.

We're a bunch of crusty theologians

and you know, we're just navel gazing

and just kind of preaching to the choir all day.

You know, that's what the devil wants, man.

The devil wants to get us one way or the other

and so he would love to just deceive us

into believing something stupid.

And by the way, one of the biggest false doctrines

that Baptists get sucked into

and even saved Christians

could get a little bit sucked into this

is this whole repent of your sins for salvation doctrine.

You know, instead of just teaching

that salvation is by faith alone, right?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that shall be saved.

It becomes, well, you have to repent of your sins

and so, you know, I don't know, man,

I don't know if you're really sorry

for the sins you've been doing

cause you're still doing them.

You're still thinking about doing them, you know?

And then it becomes like a thinly veiled work salvation.

Now again, people that are all the way into this,

I do think are typically unsaved

when they're telling you that to be saved

you have to turn over a new leaf,

turn from your sins, turn from your wicked way.

But I've seen a lot of saved people

get a little bit screwed up in this,

partially screwed up in this, okay?

And then sometimes later they'll come back and get it right.

But I've seen a good man of God go through a phase

where he was wrong on this for years

and then come back and get it right again.

I don't think he was unsafe.

It's just that there was a guy

who crept into the church

and he was pushing this doctrine

and the guys of the devil.

Push in this false doctrine

and getting people in the church

onto this repent of your sins kick

and then everybody's getting resaved

and everybody's confused

and nobody knows what is clear of the gospel anymore.

Unfortunately, I do think that it is possible

for saved people to get mixed up on these things.

And how effective are you gonna be at soul winning

if you're confused on the gospel?

Step one to being an effective soul winner

is getting solid on what you believe about salvation.

And by the way, the more time

you spend out there on the front lines

actually doing the soul winning,

the more solid you'll stay on salvation.

So you get solid on salvation,

then you go out and start preaching that message

with authority, with confidence,

with boldness in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And then it just, you know, you're gonna be super solid

because you're a doer of the work.

You're not gonna forget what you've learned.

So that's what the devil wants to do

through false prophets is to deceive us

into believing false doctrine.

He says in verse number 15 here,

it says, actually it's finished verse 14,

it says beguiling unstable souls.

That was what I was just ranting about

for the last five or 10 minutes.

The beguiling unstable souls,

people aren't solid on doctrine.

He can get them mixed up on things like dispensationalism,

Calvinism, you know, whatever,

and get them into church history and church fathers,

and theology and philosophy.

And he gets them goofed up on these things

and gets them ineffective.

Beguiles the unstable souls.

It says in heart, they've exercised

with covetous practices, cursed children,

which have forsaken the right way

and are gone astray following the way of Balaam,

the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

So a lot of these people humanly speaking

are in it for the money.

Teaching things which they ought not

for filthy lucre's sake.

We know Judas Iscariot,

who was later possessed by Satan himself,

was literally stealing money from the offering plate.

And so there you go.

Verse 18, for when they speak great swelling words of vanity,

they allure through the lust of the flesh,

through much wantoness,

those that were clean escape from them who live in error.

And boy, does this not describe so much preaching today

where they say so much without saying anything?

I mean, have you ever listened to these 30 minute sermons

and you're like, what was said?

Like how can you talk that much

and get no point across?

Great swelling words.

What does that mean?

It means that it's been stretched.

It reminds me of when we were newly married

and we bought Parmesan cheese and to our horror,

we started putting it on the food.

We're like, man, this cheese is bland.

Why is it so bland?

And then we started to read the fine print

and we found that there was flour in it.

But they called it something else.

What did they call it?

Do you remember?

Cellulose or something.

They give it some fancy name.

What they're doing is

they're mixing the Parmesan with flour.

So you're putting the cheese on

but you're also just putting tasteless white powder

on your food so that way they can just use half the cheese

that they wanna give you

and you're shaking the Parmesan onto your plate

and it's not Parmesan because it's been stretched.

You know, it probably had sawdust in it too.

That's probably the cellulose, if you think about it.

I mean, cellulose could be any plant material, I guess,

right?

I mean, who knows what they're putting in there

but whatever it is, it's not cheese.

And so the thing is, a lot of these sermons

are filled with flour and sawdust

and you're not getting the Parmesan that you want.

You know, and then we started being really careful,

looking for the 100% Parmesan.

No fillers.

How wicked is that?

And you hear about them taking like, it's wicked!

Taking like a chicken breast

and they literally get syringes full of salt water

and they're just injecting salt water into the chicken breast

to just inflate it, just to swell it up

and then these sermons will have like one Bible verse

and then it's just like salt water

just being injected into it.

Cellulose, just all filler, all fluff,

just being totally stretched and inflated.

You know, it's like that bag of chips and you open it

and it's just like a few chips in the bottom

and then there's a little fine print.

Hey, this product's packaged by weight, not by volume.

Then why'd you put it in a box like 10 times the size

of what's in it, right?

They put it in a big, giant box.

Little bag of food in the bottom, you know?

It's like the pinnows and cheese at Taco Bell

and you look at the bottom, it's up on stilts.

They don't want you, you don't get that little bit

of beans that they owe you.

We could go on all day, but here's the thing.

I wanna go to a church where I'm actually

getting the nutrition.

If I'm gonna listen to a 60 minute sermon,

I want 60 minutes of actual teaching, doctrine,

Bible verses, applications, examples.

I wanna walk away with a full stomach

and I don't want to be full of cellulose.

Stuff that's just gonna go out the draft, man.

I want the nutrients.

I want the protein, the carbs, the fat, the vitamins.

Give me something real.

But they just great swelling words of vanity.

I mean, that is basically describing probably 99%

of preaching that's out there.

Great swelling words of vanity.

And they allure through the lust of flesh

because it sounds good, they tell stories

and they make it sound good,

but they're not actually telling you what they believe.

They're not hammering down any doctrine about salvation

or about how the church is supposed to work,

how we're supposed to live our lives, right and wrong.

You just wonder, man, how can you talk for so long

and say so little?

Let's move on to the third and final point.

Go if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

The devil's angels tonight, right?

Number one, the devil's angels are literal demons, right?

You already knew that.

I mean, that's easy, right?

But number two, the devil's messengers,

because that's what angels means.

The devil's tidings bringers,

the devil's messengers are also false prophets

because they're bringing the devil's message.

They're his messengers.

False prophets are also the devil's angels.

And then point number three is this.

There are thorns in the flesh that we have as Christians

that the Bible literally calls, quote, the messenger of Satan.

Look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

verse seven, unless I should be exalted above measure

through the abundance of the revelations,

there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,

the messenger of Satan, right?

So another way of saying that would be the angel of Satan

because that's what angel and messenger

mean the exact same thing.

The messenger of Satan to buffet me,

lest I should be exalted above measure,

for this thing I besought the Lord thrice

that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for the,

for my strength is made perfect in weakness,

most gladly therefore will I rather glory

in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me,

therefore I take pleasure in infirmities,

in reproaches, in necessities and persecutions

and distresses for Christ's sake,

for when I'm weak, then am I strong?

What we have to understand is that all things

work together for good to them that love God

and to them who are the cold according to his purpose.

So even the devil coming after us, attacking us,

it actually ultimately is going to work together

for good to those who love God.

It's hard to believe, but it's true.

So that's why when it says here,

oh, I had this thorn in my flesh

and he doesn't say what it was.

And I think the reason why he doesn't want to say

is because he wants us to relate it

to whatever our thorn in the flesh is

because it's different for everybody.

If his is really specific, we'd be like,

oh, I'm going through something totally different, bro.

You wouldn't get it.

But in reality, the Bible is just saying

the thorn in the flesh, it could be anything.

It could be a physical infirmity.

It could be a relationship thing.

It could be today a financial thing.

It could be a health thing.

I mean, it could be all different things, right?

The thorn in the flesh.

And it says, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.

You know, just it's like the devil

is trying to use this to discourage him, right?

Because we said point one,

what are the demons trying to do?

You know, they're trying to attack us

through unsafe people that are going to betray

and harass and mock and whatever.

And then number two, the false prophets

are trying to deceive us.

Well, these messengers of Satan here,

the thorns in the flesh, they are to discourage us.

The goal is to discourage us, right?

To just wear us down

and where we'll quit and where we'll give up.

But if we're smart, we'll be like the apostle Paul

and say, you know what,

I'm going to look on the bright side of this

because Paul's looking at the messenger of Satan.

I mean, does that sound good, messenger of Satan?

Does that sound like something you want in your life?

No, but Paul is trying to put a positive spin on this

and he's saying, you know,

I have this thorn in the flesh,

the messenger of Satan to buffet me.

And he says this,

lest I should be exalted above measure.

So he's looking at this as you know what,

I see a positive here, this is keeping me humble.

Because you know what,

if I didn't have this messenger of Satan to buffet me,

if I didn't have this thorn in my side,

if I didn't have this affliction

that I'm being afflicted with,

then you know what, I could get to puffed up.

Because notice what he says in verse seven,

lest I should be exalted above measure

through the abundance of the revelations.

I mean, look, if you're writing 14 books of the New Testament

and there's only 27 books and you wrote 14 of them,

you might get a little bit puffed up

or exalted above measure

or maybe think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.

So God, through Satan though,

he's actually allowing Satan to do the actual afflicting

because it's not the messenger of God,

it's the messenger of Satan.

God allowed Satan to buffet the apostle Paul

so that he wouldn't get too prideful

so that it could just kind of keep his feet on the ground

and keep, and you know what, here's the thing,

you know, that's why sometimes bad things

happen to good people

is because of the fact that especially

if somebody's gonna be greatly used by God,

you know what, God might have to really hurt that person

or allow Satan to really hurt that person

or just allow them to have some kind of maybe

a physical defect or something

so that basically they wouldn't get too prideful.

And that's why you'll notice

that some of the people that get greatly used by God

will sometimes be defective in some way.

You know, they could be physically defective in some way,

they could be mentally defective some way,

they could be socially defective in some way.

And it's just like, God doesn't typically use perfect people

to do his work

because then they could get all the glory.

Like, oh, well of course this guy's being greatly used

by God, look how awesome he is.

Look at what a physical specimen he is.

Look at what a mental specimen he is.

Look at how he's just the most charismatic, coolest dude.

Look how he's just the most eloquent speaker

of course he's being used.

Then God doesn't really get the glory, does he?

Then it sends the wrong message to people,

hey, you wanna be greatly used by God,

you just have to be super talented.

You just have to be like a Hollywood type.

Wrong, my friend, because God uses the foolish things

of this world to confound the wise.

He used the base things of this world,

the things that are not to set it not to things that are

that no flesh will glory in his presence.

He gets all the glory.

And so the apostle Paul's saying,

look man, I got Boku revelations from God,

therefore God had to take me down a notch.

You know, and it's like I prayed for God

to take away this thorn in my side.

I prayed again, I prayed again.

And he said, you know what?

Just my grace is sufficient for you.

This is something that you just need to just deal with

because it's to keep you humble.

And you know, we could go to the book of Job

and see the same type of thing.

And let's just, we're not gonna go into a huge thing

on the book of Job, but in closing here,

let's just look at, you know, one scripture from Job.

Let's go to Job 23.

Because obviously Job's a long book

and has a lot about this.

But you know, hopefully you know the basic story

of the book of Job is that Job

is the most righteous man upon the planet.

And if you think about it, the apostle Paul

was probably one of the most righteous men on the planet

in his day.

You know, he might have been in the top five,

I would think.

Maybe he's even number one.

You know, some people think he's the greatest

Christian who ever lived.

So he could be, I think easily said to be top five.

So, you know, the apostle Paul is super righteous.

It's not that he's a bad guy,

but the messenger of Satan is sent to buffet him

in order to keep him humble.

Well, the same thing with Job.

Job, the Bible flat out tells us

he is the most righteous man on the face

of the earth at that time.

Because when God introduces him to Satan,

he says there is none like him on all the earth.

A man that fears God and eschews evil.

He's a perfect and upright man.

There's nobody else like Job.

He's, and then Satan begins to falsely accuse Job

and say, hey, the only reason he's serving you

is because everything's going good for him.

He's not serving you for nothing.

Look, you said a hedge about him.

You prospered at everything he does.

Take away his stuff and he'll curse you to your face.

Of course, that's a railing accusation

because, you know, Job was in it for the right reasons

and he never cursed God.

Then of course, Satan loses that bet.

And then basically he comes back to God

and God, you know, says, hey,

you moved me against Job without cause.

And he still has retained his integrity,

even though I allowed you to just hurt him for no reason.

And Satan's like, well, yeah, okay,

but you didn't let me touch his body.

I mean, people will give all their money

for their health.

Let me touch his body and he'll curse you to your face.

And God says, okay, I'll let you do that,

but you can't kill him,

but you can really mess up his body.

Just don't kill him.

And so God just allows Satan to just go crazy on him

and he smites him with boils from the top of his head,

all the way to the sole of his foot.

He's just covered in like itching, oozing,

burning, gross sores, right?

You know what a boil is, obviously.

It's like a pus filled, whatever.

And so basically, you know,

he's just scratching himself and scraping himself

with a pot shirt with like a broken piece of pottery.

He just can't get relief.

He's just in pain and just with the skin disorder

and everything like that.

And of course, you know, Job still retains his integrity,

but look if you would at Job 23 verse eight.

Obviously the book of Job is a lot more complicated

than that.

I'm just giving you a really quick rundown.

But look at 23 eight.

It says, behold, I go forward,

but he's not there and backward,

but I cannot perceive him.

He's saying, man, I don't even,

it's like, where's God?

My God, my God, why is that forsaking me?

It's like, I'm reaching forward, backward.

It's like, God, where are you?

Why have you abandoned me?

On the left hand, where he does work.

So by faith, he knows that God's working,

but he's just like, but I don't see it.

I cannot behold him.

I don't see it.

He highted himself on the right hand

that I cannot see him.

Watch this, but he knoweth the way that I take

when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

And so, Job is trying to see the bright side here

and he's saying, look, man, I can't even see

where God is in all of this.

I feel abandoned by God,

but I just by faith believe that he's there

and that when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold.

So here's the thing.

If you look at the conversation

between God and Satan,

God explicitly says,

you moved me against Job without cause.

Okay, and in fact, I'm gonna read it

just to make sure that I get it right.

He says, although thou movest me against him

to destroy him without cause.

So isn't God saying there's no reason to do this to Job?

He's saying like, you moved me

to do this to him without cause.

He's just doing it to him.

And obviously the reason ultimately is for our instruction

for us to see this example, for us to learn from him.

But I'm saying it's not,

but Job didn't do anything to trigger this

is what he's saying.

When he says, you caused me to do this to him

without cause, he's saying,

Job did not do anything to trigger this.

Job's just living his life,

an upright man, fearing God,

a shoe in evil, doing good.

And Job doesn't understand why it's happening

because there is no answer

because it's not happening

due to anything that Job did.

But he says this.

He says, you know, when I'm tried

I shall come forth as gold.

Job is looking at it and saying, you know what though?

Here's what God's doing.

God is refining me.

God is purging me.

God is trying me

and I'm gonna come out the other side of this thing

a better person.

That's what Job is saying.

Like, when I'm tried,

I'm gonna come forth as gold.

I'm gonna come forth more pure,

stronger, more righteous and better.

He's kind of like Paul in the New Testament

also looking for the bright side,

saying, you know what?

Yeah, the messenger of Satan above me, keep me humble.

Job is saying, hey, at least this is purifying me

and when I'm tried, I'll come forth as gold.

And so this is good for me, ultimately.

And so what we have to see here is

that, yeah, the devil is gonna come at us

with all this stuff,

but it doesn't have to hurt us or destroy us.

Ultimately, all things can work together

for good to those who love God.

So bottom line is this, the devil's angels, okay?

What are they?

First of all, demons,

that's when the demons will use people to persecute us.

Right?

And some of the attacks on us,

some of the persecutions that we go through

are demonic in nature.

You know, otherwise it's kind of even hard

to make sense of it.

Why someone would spend years infiltrating a church?

Why someone would just spend all their time

gnashing on churches with their teeth

and just spend their entire lives

obsessing over the new IFB?

And they probably don't even know why they're doing it.

Like, here's the thing, it makes sense.

It makes sense for us to think about

and talk about the new IFB

because we're in the new IFB.

So it's like, this is our group, these are our friends.

So yeah, I'm gonna spend a lot of time

thinking about my own ministry

and my friends' ministries

and our church and our friends' churches

and the works that we're doing

because it's us.

Because we're the new IFB.

It'd be like an NBA player caring about the NBA

because he's in the NBA, right?

And then he's probably gonna be thinking

a lot about his own team

and he's also gonna be thinking about the opposing teams.

Okay?

That makes sense.

Cause he's a basketball player.

Okay?

Or a basketball fan.

It would make sense for a basketball fan

to be thinking about the team he likes,

the team he doesn't like, whatever.

That makes sense, right?

So it makes sense for the NIFB

to be into all things new IFB

and to even be thinking about enemies of the NIFB,

friends of the NIFB.

But you know what it doesn't make sense?

Is people who are not new IFB,

who've quit the new IFB,

want nothing to do with the new IFB,

but they're still just plugged in to the new IFB.

It'd be like if I just said,

man, I just have no interest in basketball.

I'm sick of basketball.

I hate basketball.

Basketball is my least favorite sport,

but I watch every game.

But I know all the stats.

You like basketball?

No, I hate basketball.

Oh, I hate, you know,

I don't even know who the players are.

You know, the only players I know

is like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird.

Like that's like Shaquille O'Neal.

That's like a long time ago.

And then the only player I know right now is this woman.

Like this, this one.

I know this one.

Who knows what I'm talking about?

Okay, what the heck?

You guys need to learn your memes.

Anyway, I know that woman.

But anyway, I don't know the players

cause I'm not into basketball.

Sorry guys, I'm just not a basketball fan.

You know, I don't hate it.

I don't obsess over it.

I don't just, I didn't create a Facebook group

about how much I hate basketball

or something I don't want to play.

I don't stalk basketball players.

You see what I'm saying?

It's like, what sense would that make?

If you love football, then be into football.

Don't be like, well, I love football.

That's why I have to fight basketball all day

and hate basketball and think about basketball.

And look, there are a lot of religions

that I don't approve of.

You know, I think Hinduism's trash, Buddhism's trash.

I think Catholicism's trash.

The Greek Orthodox Church is trash.

You know, I think the Lesbaterians are trash.

I think the United Methodists are trash.

You know, it's like, there's a lot of stuff I don't approve.

But you know what I don't do?

I don't sit around listening

to United Methodist sermons.

I'm not just listening to hours

of Greek Orthodox sermons.

Yeah, you know, I just got to learn Greek

just so that I could like learn more about Greek Orthodox

so I can obsess over it all day, every day.

That'd be super weird.

But you know, why are there these people out there

who listen to all this?

They're listening right now.

Right now, they're literally, they're watching live.

It's soap is our rethink your life choices.

But here's the thing is like,

it's like, why are they obsessing over it?

They don't even know why.

I know why.

Because they're being manipulated by the devil.

Because they're unsaved.

They're walking according to the prince

of the power of the air.

Satan is using them.

Some of them are literally demon possessed.

And others, even if they're not demon possessed though,

they're being influenced maybe more subtly by the devil.

But it's the only way to explain

why someone would go to a church

that they hate for years

where they hate the pastor for years.

I mean, why would somebody just come over to my house

for dinner like every week for months and months and months

and then secretly telling people how they hate me

and I'm crazy and just acting like he's our best friend.

Just hating us, stalking us and spying on us

and trying to like coach our children

to make accusations against it.

Like, that's not normal.

But I understand why it's the devil.

Like, it makes sense.

So you know what?

Here's a little encouragement.

Even if you can't see God working in your life,

at least it's comforting when you can see the devil working.

Because then you at least know something's happening.

And you know, I talked to people before that said,

because like Job, he couldn't see God working

but he saw the devil working.

So he's like, God's real.

And you know what?

I remember one time I talked to this guy

and he said, well, I got saved

because I started realizing the devil is real.

And then I was like, if the devil's real, God must be real.

And then he's like, Jesus must be the son of God.

And then he just got saved.

I mean, it kind of makes sense.

It's a logical thing.

Because there's so many things in the world

that would make no sense unless the devil's real.

And there's so many things in our lives

that wouldn't make sense except the devil's real.

And if the devil's real, God's real, okay?

And so here's the thing.

Sometimes God, we reach at the left hand, right hand,

but we can't find him, but we know by faith

that he's there, that he's working.

And then we see the devil working

and we're like, that's a fulfillment of scripture.

You know, it's comforting.

And so the point is that, yeah,

the demons are gonna be prompting people to persecute us.

You know, I don't know, throwing improvised

explosive devices through the window or whatever they do.

I don't think they would ever do that,

but you know, lesbians stealing your personal van

or whatever, you know, I mean, I just made that up.

No, I'm just kidding.

But then also false prophets are gonna be used

to try to trick us, deceive us,

get us believing stupid stuff.

And then thirdly, you know,

sometimes God will allow the devil

to really just come at us hard

and give us that thorn in the flesh,

whether it's physical, emotional, financial,

spiritual, relationship, whatever.

And what's the goal of that is to discourage us.

So he wants to persecute us, he wants to deceive us,

he wants to discourage us.

And you know what?

He just wants us to be like, you know what?

I can't anymore.

I'm sick of it.

I'm done.

There's thorn in my side.

I can't take it.

And he wants us to throw in the towel.

But what we've got to do though,

is we've got to be strong

in the Lord and the power of his might.

We've got to have that shield of faith equipped

so that we can quench all those fiery darts

of the wicked.

And we can get through it.

And if we resist the devil,

ultimately he will flee from us.

You know, me personally,

I went through a heavy season of persecution

from like 2009 to like 2014.

And it was like,

before that there wasn't really a ton of persecution, right?

And then it was like this season of persecution

from like 2009 to 2014.

And it was like, I got through it.

And then it was just like,

the devil was just gone, it seemed like.

You know what I mean?

And then it was like 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19.

It's like, it just felt like,

man, we're just able to do so much work for God

without him being persecuted.

But then guess what?

You know, when Jesus was tempted by Satan

in the wilderness,

it says that after he resisted that temptation,

the devil departed it from him for a season.

You know, and so it's like,

you're going to go through seasons in your life

where you're under serious persecution and attack.

And then you're going to go through seasons of peace.

Where things are just peaceful and you're just cruising.

And so, you know, it's not just going to be

all devil attacking all the time.

Cause that would be probably too much

for anybody to handle.

But God will give us seasons of refreshment

and seasons of peace.

And I feel like I had a season of peace like that,

you know, from like around 2015 to like,

you know, 2023.

I would call that like a pretty peaceful.

Now like we could point to things

where the devil tried to creep in

with the oneness crap in 2017

or, you know, different things that happened during that.

I'm not saying it was all a bed of roses,

but I'm saying relatively speaking, it was a bed of roses.

You know what I mean?

Like compared to what came before

and compared to what came after.

And so, you know, that's just life, man.

It's ups is downs.

You got to be steadfast, unmovable,

always abounding in the work of the Lord

for as much as you know that your labor

is not in vain in the Lord.

And I see the pizza back there

and it better be 100% cheese and no fillers.

Let's bards and have a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.

And we thank you so much for the fact

that even in a sermon about the devil and his angels,

we can still take comfort in the fact

that ultimately you have the devil on a leash

and at the end of the day, you are the one in charge

and greater is he that is in us

than he that is in the world.

Help us always keep that in perspective, Lord.

Help us to stay strong and stay in the fight

and keep moving forward in Jesus' name we pray, amen.