Fighting On 3 Fronts

Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of

Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.

I hope the following message challenges and courages and

ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.

Let's get into the word this morning.

Last, not last week, but the week before, we started a series

that we're going to continue on when we do communion.

We're not going to receive Communion this morning.

We're doing that once a month and we're going to receive,

we're going to continue on a series on the blood of Christ

and how the the different facets of the blood and how we can

appreciate that. We talked about how why the

father appreciates the blood, how we can utilize it in our own

life and then use it against the enemy.

And we're going to look more at that and in the coming weeks.

But I want to reach back and reach into another series we

started. I love doing series.

The problem is, and I stumble into something else, I want to

preach on and so I want to reach back into our spiritual warfare

one. And what I want to talk about

this morning is I want to give a little bit of explanation, a

spiritual explanation for the predicament we find ourself in

as a nation. Anybody wonder if humanity is

losing its mind? Where my phone is talking to me,

it said it's still on it. I don't know how that happened

but anyway I've you know, we when we even when we were in

London, we went through Kensington Palace and there was

a gala, something I was not interested in.

It was a fashion gala. So we went through there and

there's all these pictures of men in dresses and and their

bravery for being their their sincere self and it was just

heartbreaking. There's this.

There's been a legitimization of troubled thinking.

And so we need to understand how we got here now, probably 6-8

months ago, sometime the last 10 years.

We talked, we did a series called The Strange New World,

and it was. I shamelessly lifted the title

from a book by Carl Truman talking about the sociological

and psychological underpinnings of the crisis we're in, the

moral crisis we're in. How did we get here this

morning? I don't want to deal so much

with the sociological and psychological underpinnings or

the tracks that we let. Let us here.

I want to look at the spiritual tracks because we're dealing

with a level of darkness and a level of confusion that we have

not known as a nation. It's unprecedented in the

history of our nation. It's not unprecedented in human

history because there have been many nations that have reached

this point. And the sad fact is it was the

twilight of their existence. And I I'm still holding on.

I'm still praying. I'm asking God to deliver this

nation, and I'm believing God for that.

But in order for us to contend for the survival of this nation,

we've got to understand that the situation that we're in, we've

got to really have a grasp of what we're dealing with.

And so I want to talk about the spiritual backdrop.

And so in order to do so, I'm going to reach back into

something we talked about. Matter of fact, I looked it up

on my phone during worship. I know I peaked wasn't on

Facebook. I looked at our podcast in April

16th. We talked about this.

We talked about the three entrances of evil into human

history. And so I'm going to just do a

little bit of review. If you really want to get into

this, you can go back to that podcast, the one we didn't deal

with so much as the one we're going to deal with this morning.

But we talked about the three entrances of evil into human

history. The fact is that Second Temple

Judaism, which was around the time of the Inner Testamental

period and on 2nd Temple Judaism, had a theology of three

entrances of evil into human history.

The reason that's relevant to you and I is not because we're

we're, you know, we buy off on everything that was taught in

Second Temple Judaism. We need to, it needs to shore up

with the word of God. But the reason it's relevant is

it was the world view of the biblical authors of it today.

It was the backdrop. It was the the, the, the

theological backdrop that they were writing from.

And there's things in Scripture we simply will not understand

unless we understand where they were coming from, because they

were speaking into a world that viewed 3 entrances of evil.

What I mean by that is this they, you know, common to

evangelicalism. Of course they recognized the

fall of man in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And so that was the first entrance of evil, the fall of

man. Man fell into sin, and that

introduced the human nature to sin.

That opened man's heart to sin. That was internal evil.

That was that obscured man's understanding.

Man became fallen. That was the first entrance.

But they also viewed Genesis Chapter 6 as another entrance of

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

evil, and some Jewish authors even considered that a greater

travesty than the first one. We're not going to debate that

this morning, but we need to understand that they also viewed

Genesis Chapter 6, where it says that the sons of God entered the

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

daughters of men, that the watchers entered the the the

daughters of men. They found them beautiful and

they they brought forth children who were the giants of old, the

Nephilim. And we're not going to get into

all of that except to say this, that the early, the early church

recognized that as where the demonic realm came from, these

hybrid beings. Now I was taught in Bible school

that those sons of God were simply the sons of Seth and they

went into the daughters of of, of Abel and and so of of yeah of

Cain rather. And that they produce these

children. And that is not what the text is

saying. We we, we want to kind of

wrestle with that because it seems so weird to us that we

want to kind of just massage it so it'll reduce the supernatural

element to that story so that we can be comfortable with it.

But the fact is it was talking about the Watchers, these

angelic creatures going into the daughters of men.

Virtually all of ancient culture had some form of this story.

Let me just pause there and point out something Don

Richardson, anybody ever read anything but Don Richardson?

He wrote the book Peace Child, Eternity in Their Hearts.

Don Richardson was a missionary, phenomenally brilliant man, but

he was also also an anthropology.

She wrote a book called Eternity in Their Hearts, and one of the

things he talked about is that the farther you get back into

human history, the more you will see the threads of scripture

embedded into those cultures. And the whole book was based on

this. This was the idea.

The first half of the book was a world prepared for the gospel,

and the second-half of the book was a gospel prepared for the

world. What he was talking about it.

And when he said a world prepared for the gospel, he was

talking about how there was already, there was already truth

embedded there. There were remnants of the

biblical story. All these, all these cultures of

the Fertile Crescent, you know where civilization started and

you know where where we read about these, these nations in

the Old Testament, All of them had a theology of a flood.

They all had a theology of the Watchers entering into the

daughters of men. And more and more of that

material has been discovered even in the last century.

And so there as you study, as you get back to the earlier

remnants of human culture, you begin to see the threads of

Genesis one through 12, because they were, there was oral

history that was still tying them to those situations.

So I say all that to simply say this.

The first entrance of evil was where man fell.

His nature fell, he became corrupt and he needed salvation.

Okay the second entrance of evil produced an external evil in the

form of these evil entities that entice men.

And so, and literally there there was, they defied nature.

Jude talks about this where they left their assigned role and

went into the daughters of men. Some of the early church writers

talked about how literally it it corrupted all of nature because

they crossed those lines. And so that is where the early

church fathers, and you can see this in many of the writings,

men like origin and so forth. They wrote about how the the

demonic realm came from these hybrid beings.

And so they were the disembodied spirits of these nephalum that

were released into the atmosphere through the flood.

And so they were looking. Matter of fact, the some of the

early church writings, they talk about things like this, that

hungering they could not eat, thirsting they could not drink.

So they looked for a human body to possess to satiate their

desires and so they would experience it through occupying

a human human body. And so demonic possession is a

very real thing and we are living in a spiritual war.

Rather, you are comfortable with that or not does not matter.

The fact is you are in a spiritual war and you're better

off realizing it than just avoiding it because it's an

uncomfortable reality. So we have the internal reality

or the internal fall of man in Genesis 3, the external entrance

of evil. So now we're dealing with these

entities that are enticing us in Genesis 6.

And then they also looked at a third entrance of evil.

Now Deuteronomy 32, the final song of Moses, where Moses is,

he's giving his final address. It's called the Song of Moses,

and he's giving his final address to the children of

Israel. He's going to retire.

He's going to heaven. He's turning it over to his, his

spiritual son, Joshua. So he gives this final address

and he mentions this obscure little verse that is interesting

but has often been overlooked. And he said that God divided the

nations according to the number of the sons of God, but Israel

he kept for himself. Some translations will translate

that according to the sons of Israel.

The problem is virtually all scholars agree that this was

Speaking of the Tower of Babel, that God was divorcing himself

from the nations at the Tower of Babel and it says, but Israeli

kept for himself. What did he do?

The very next chapter after Genesis 11 at Babel where man

rebelled and God told him to go and have it the earth.

They didn't. So what does God do?

He raises up the very next chapter, Genesis 12, Abram, and

he says I'm going to bless you so that you can be a blessing to

all the nations of the earth. I will be your God, and through

that you'll be an example to the rest of humanity.

We'll win back the nations. There's been a lot of writing on

this in theological circles and there's been discovery of

ancient texts and stuff, and but I have, I've been living for

Jesus for 40 years. This year I was two when I got

saved. No, just kidding.

I've been. I'm 58 now.

I got saved. I I came back to the Lord when I

was 18 years old. I was a homeless alcoholic, got

radically saved, had a radical encounter with Jesus.

And I've been pursuing the Lord, and I've been a man of the book

for 40 years, and I've been asking the Lord a lot of

questions about some of these things, because there's a very

practical reason I want to know. I believe much of spiritual

hunger is simply curiosity. There's this, there's this

desire to understand that God has placed within us, and if

we'll come to him and cry out, God will give us understanding.

But there are levels of knowledge.

There's there's ask, seek, knock, you ask.

There's James, Chapter one, level wisdom.

Ask and you shall receive. If any man lacks wisdom, let him

ask and the Lord will give liberty and the upbraid.

If not, that's that's the that low level you just all you got

to do is ask. It's yours for the take and it's

in reserve. If you ask, God will give it to

you. But then there is Seek and you

shall find. That's Proverbs Chapter 2, Level

Proverbs 2 · chapter mention

Wisdom. There is wisdom that is hidden.

It says seek for wisdom. Search for it as hidden

treasure, and if you seek for it then you will find it.

You will find the knowledge of God.

So there is some wisdom that is not just for the asking.

There's a seeking. It's a process rather than an

event, and it's hidden precisely because of its value.

You following me? So there are certain things that

God will withhold from you until you're ready for it.

And it's actually the seeking. The process of seeking is what

qualifies you, or matures you or grows you up so that you can

qualify the steward that wisdom. Once you have it, God is a good

Father. He will never give you wisdom

you cannot handle, so he'll withhold it from you.

Just like if you're a good parent, there are certain things

you don't talk about with your 4 year old that you'll talk with

your 14 year old, and certain things you won't talk to your 14

year old that you'll discuss with your 24 year old.

Because we have to mature in order to handle some of that

understanding. One of the travesties of this

generation is having to go through is there being exposed

to explicit material that they are not able to process And it

it bends them, it corrupts them. I remember as a six year old

little boy finding pornography out in the woods and I still

remember that feeling. I felt this.

I just felt shame come over me. There was there was a

fascination. I knew it was forbidden, and I

felt the shame. And I remember walking in the

door to my house and seeing my mom and not wanting to catch

your eye because I felt like there's something defiled about

me. I was exposed to things I wasn't

ready to process yet. So God's a good father.

He will always withhold from us wisdom and understanding until

we're qualified to steward that we've reached a level of

maturity. The enemy is exactly the

opposite. He loves to give you forbidden

knowledge. That's what literally the cult

is. It's forbidden knowledge.

Matter of fact, the early church fathers wrote about that.

These watchers that went into the daughters of men, the other

thing they did is they brought forbidden knowledge to man about

war, sensuality, and and and so forth.

And so it was to corrupt mankind.

And so we're not only dealing with our own fallen nature as

human beings, we're dealing with this external enticement.

So God places these. So let me deal with that.

The last one, the last type of wisdom.

So keep on this little track. The last type of wisdom is knock

and the door shall be opened to you.

Ephesians chapter two and three talks about this, the hidden

wisdom of God, and it talks about how it's hidden.

I love this phrase within God himself.

The vault in which this treasured wisdom is hidden is

the heart of God. The occult cannot touch that

matter of fact. It says it's unsearchable wisdom

hidden within God Himself. The word unsearchable literally

means no tracks. You can look at it and you don't

see it. You can't trace it until God

gives you Revelation. And so one of the ways in which

God stewards his Kingdom is revealing and concealing,

revealing and concealing mysteries and revelation is just

another way of saying it. Revelation is a present day

reality. I'm not talking about seeing

things that are not in the word. God can show you things.

Revelation is starting with a conclusion and then backfilling

it with the word. God can speak to you things you

don't know but he will back it with his word.

Or he can show you in his word and leads you to a conclusion.

Study is you. You reason until you come to a

conclusion. Scripture revelation is you get

an insight and then you backfill it with scripture but you better

wed it to scripture. So when when non charismatics

criticize the charismatic movement, we use language like

revelation that Paul himself used matter of fact, he's

referred to the Spirit of God as the spirit of wisdom and

revelation. We're to pray for those things.

We're not talking about extra biblical revelation.

We're talking about God showing us things in His Word we would

have never seen without His help.

And I would propose to you, there are things that Paul wrote

he didn't understand. He got a flash of revelation,

saw one facet, wrote it down. He's like, wow, that was

amazing. But there are other facets to

that thing Paul himself didn't understand.

And so the spirit of wisdom and revelation will lead us along,

to grow us up in God. Knowledge has a purpose.

Knowledge, wisdom, and revelation isn't just so that we

can feel smart, sit around and talk theology, talk theory.

Knowledge is actually the way that God grows you up first.

Peter says Grace and peace be unto you through your knowledge

of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the conduit or the avenue

through which grace comes to you.

And grace is the substance of the Christian life.

You're saved by grace. You walk, but you never outgrow

your need for grace. The substance of the apostle

Paul's calling, he said. Surely you have heard of the

grace of God upon me that made me an apostle.

The substance what God slapped on him to make him an apostle

was grace. But the avenue through which

grace makes it to us and impacts our heart is knowledge.

So you can't grow without knowledge.

If you're not growing in your understanding, you ain't

growing. That's bad grammar, but good

preaching. Okay, If you are not growing in

your knowledge, you aren't growing.

Period. Now that's a safeguard.

You can grow in your knowledge and not grow spiritually.

There are a lot of very well informed infants in the church

today. They talk theory, but they're

not walking it out. But you cannot grow spiritually

without growing in your knowledge.

And So what the Lord will do is He will birth questions in your

heart to entice you and to keep bringing you along.

And your hunger will actually lead you into breakthrough and

revelation in the things of God. But it's always going to tie

back into the book, and so God wants to give us understanding.

I say all that to say. I've been asking the Lord about

some of this for 40 years now, and I am convinced that some of

what we're talking about this morning is essential for the

Church of Jesus Christ to understand in this hour.

Why? Because there were three

separate episodes that created three separate problems and that

have three separate solutions. In one sense, of course, the

cross of Christ dealt with all of it.

But the way in which we apply the cross is different for the

internal fallenness of the human nature.

I don't cast that out. I've got to discipline myself.

I have the new birth. My nature is now born again.

But that old nature wants to rear head.

So what do I do? I've got to renew my mind.

I've got to get healed in my emotions.

Some of you struggle with the old man, not because your heart

is longing for those things, but because of your own woundedness.

You have a vulnerability for the enemy to push on those things.

That creates A longing for the old anesthesia of that

dysfunctional, sinful behavior. And so until you get healed, you

live on the precipice of temptation.

I felt that. Let's let's just camp out there

for a minute first. Peter, Chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

Peter says as he says Christ suffered in his body, arm

yourself also with the same attitude because he who suffered

in his body is done with sin. Everybody say this.

That is a huge statement. He's saying that if you suffer

in your body, you are done with sin.

That's that is an astounding proposition.

So let's unpack that. He says Christ suffered in his

body. Arm yourself also with the same

attitude Jesus had an attitude, a mindset, an approach to sin.

That is, if we adopt it, it will be an armor of defense against

temptation. It will actually defend you, he

said. Arm yourself with the same

attitude. It will become an armor, a

shield against the temptation of the enemy.

Jesus had a mindset against evil.

Then he goes on to say that astounding thing.

He who suffers and his body is done with sin.

What he's saying is this. All sin is flight from pain in

one form or another. You either have something you

don't want, you're willing to step outside of the will of God

to get it, or you do have something you don't want and

you're willing to step out of the side of the will of God to

get rid of it. But if we adopt the mindset of

Christ and we embrace pain, it is actually the pathway to

deliverance. And so often we're saying, God,

if you would just deliver me, I wouldn't.

I wouldn't feel this pain and I wouldn't be so tempted.

No, it's doesn't work like that. You embrace the pain and say if

I've got to live this way the rest of my life, I'm going to

maintain my fidelity to Jesus. And I'm telling you, that is the

first step in your deliverance because you will learn to

overcome those things. And so a lot of people, it's not

just present pain, it's pain from their past.

The enemy will push on to entice them into evil.

And so we've got to be so careful.

So that's how we deal with that first fall, okay.

We deal with the pain from our past.

We renew our mind. We discipline ourself.

You don't cast that out. If it was, I'd be signing up for

a Deliverance session this afternoon.

Hallelujah. It's it's not an event.

It's a process to deal with that.

For the demonic. You don't discipline a demon.

I've got. I'm being afflicted.

I'm being oppressed. I'm being driven by a spirit.

I'm going to discipline my No, that's not the answer.

You cast that thing out and let me just let me just camp out

here for a second. The the whole concept of demon

possession in the body of Christ it we have unfortunate

misunderstandings because of our English translations.

The Greek does not say demon possessed.

A better translation would simply be demonized.

In other words, influenced by a demon We want to split hairs and

kind of because we're uncomfortable.

Demon possessed no demon. Oppressed, compressed,

suppressed, impressed. Oh, you know, we we want to have

all these terms. The Bible doesn't use any of

that. It simply means that you are

influenced at some level by a demonic entity and you can close

that door so they don't have any ground to push on.

And one of those things is that woundedness that the enemy,

inner healing and deliverance often go hand in hand.

And those of you that have experienced new levels of

freedom in the last couple months know that to be the case,

that the enemy will push on that old woundedness and he'll green

a foothold. And we've got to be willing to

deal with the pain. And as we get inner healing,

often we find the deliverance soon after that.

But there is another level of evil and it is not internal.

It's not some external entity that we're dealing with.

And there are times where there's there, there's those

thoughts, those that battle and and let me just go back here for

a second, this thing. A lot of times what believers do

is they own the thoughts of the enemy.

The enemy will talk to you in your own voice.

And if you don't discern, if you don't understand from the word

that you are born again, your nature is different.

You will actually step off the place of victory and try to

fight for victory rather than from it.

And that is a whole different deal.

And so you've got to learn to discern and you've got to know

who you are. Your identity being established

in your identity is one of the primary acts of war that will

give you victory. It this, this is a spiritual

weapon when you know who you are and the enemy begins to entice

you. There are times where I I've

been in a situation where all of a sudden I've had some crazy

thought and I've got check my heart and say, okay, what's

going on in the room because that is not who I am.

And often your discernment is discerning what's in the room.

And if you don't understand it, you own it and you're you're

over there repenting and fighting for victory that you

already had. And the enemy has has stripped

you of your authority, and rather than being able to deal

with what's in the room, you're over here trying to deal with

something that's not even in your heart.

And so as we understand who we are in Christ, we know our

identity. Then we can begin to realize,

oh, that's my Spidey sense. Well, okay, we'll call it that.

But that's that's discernment. There's something going on in

the room and we can deal with this.

So we have that. This third one, Genesis 32, Paul

Moses says this Psalm 82. We talked about this a number of

months ago, but it is let's turn there real quick because it

gives us insight into what what's really going on in this

regard, this third entrance of evil that the early church

believed in and we need to believe in.

OK, Psalm 82. Listen to this Psalm 82, verse

one. God has taken his place in the

divine council in the midst of the gods.

He holds judgment. Anybody familiar with John

Piper? Anybody in here?

John Piper, conservative Baptist theologian, phenomenal man of

God's phenomenal scholar. I, I, I want to let you know he

believes this says the same thing.

I don't believe in he, he this is not some, you know,

aberration some kind of weird fringe belief.

This is you can you can Google it.

And John Piper believes it means the same thing.

So he he in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.

How long till now? This.

So it says see this is a Psalm of ASAP.

ASAP was a prophet that functioned under King David.

It says that he was a prophet. He was a song leader.

He was also the flag bearer and a gatekeeper.

Boy that'll preach won't have time to get into that.

But those things go hand in hand.

And he was a prophet that would also prophesy with instruments

of music. And that interesting, we touched

that this morning, by the way, that last song.

And there are things that ASAP breaks into.

He has a revelation of things that he could not have known had

God not downloaded this to him. God showed this to him.

So he says, God has taken his place in the divine counsel.

In the midst of the gods he holds judgment.

This is God speaking to these members of the divine council.

How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the

wicked? He's rebuking them.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless.

Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of

the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor

understanding. They walk about in darkness.

All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

So God is addressing these entities.

Now listen to verse six. I said this is a I believe this

is a ASAP. Now speaking, I said you are

God's. No, that doesn't change the fact

that this is God's word, this is scripture.

This is authoritative revelation.

But I think it matters that this is now from Asap's perspective,

he said. I said you are God's sons of the

most High. All of you nevertheless, like

men, you shall die and fall like any Prince.

Verse 8. Arise, oh God, judge the earth,

for you shall inherit all the nations.

That last verse is a very, very important part of this passage.

What does he say? You shall inherit all the

nations we know. In Deuteronomy 32, God delegated

the nations, all the nations except Israel, to these sons of

God. We see them show up in the book

of Job. There's a number of passages,

the book of Job, it says the sons of God convened before God

and God looks at in in the Hebrew.

It's thus Satan and said, where you been?

What what you been up to? And he said, I've been going

through all the earth and evaluating the the affairs of

many said have you considered Job?

And that kind of launches us out from the book, but it's Speaking

of the same sons of God. Scholars all agree those are

angelic or even divine creatures, not divine in the

sense that they are uncreated. They are created beings living

in the spiritual realm There. It's a hierarchical structure in

the spiritual realm. So we see these sons of God.

God delegates the nations to them.

And Deuteronomy 32, it reveals it to us.

But by Psalm 82, God's rebuking them and saying you have used

your administration, your delegated authority, contrary to

what I intended, you are going to die like the sons of men.

And then what does he say? ASAP says you will inherit the

nation. Speaking to God.

So God said, I'm going back after the nation's.

The Great Commission going into all the nations is tied to this

divine council worldview, and we really cannot understand it

correctly unless we understand that that God is going after the

nations, he told Abraham. I'm going to bless you, make you

into a great nation, and then you will bless the nations of

the earth. We see in Colossians.

God strips these beings, these sons of God, of their of their

authority, of their rulership. This is what the what the Old

Testament calls the divine counsel, the sons of God, these,

these beings the New Testament refers to as principalities.

One of the reasons I'd asked the Lord this for years.

I'd said, God, what's the deal with these principalities?

How did they access that level of authority in the earth?

Where could they step into that type of authority?

And my theology, what I had been loosely taught, nice, surmised

and kind of tried to connect some dots at that.

Well, you know, the earth had been given to man, that's clear.

And that. So then man, when he fell into

sin, delegated his authority to these spirits, and now they rule

in the heavenly realms. But that's not the case.

Colossians listen to Colossians chapter one.

Listen to what it says. See if I I've got this written

down somewhere here. Colossians chapter one, It says

Colossians one verse 16. For by him Speaking of Christ,

all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and

invisible, whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or

authorities. All things were created through

him and for Him. So God created these positions,

these Thrones, these The structure of the spiritual realm

was created by God to glorify Him and serve His purposes.

But through the fall, these positions were corrupted, and

what we now consider spiritual warfare is dealing with these

entities. And we need to understand that

what we're getting into is what's called a biblical

cosmology. How does the cosmos work?

How does God govern his creation?

The very idea of a Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven is not a

place. It's it's not a realm, it's

rule. The Spanish word that we

translate Kingdom is Reno, am I right?

Reno? It's it.

It gives us the idea of the English word to reign, and that

is the Kingdom of God is his authoritative right to rule.

There it is unarguable, unchallengeable.

No one voted in, him voted him in, and no one's going to vote

him out. He is.

He has all authority. Why?

Because he is the author. He created it, and then he

authorizes people with authority to rule in layers of delegated

authority. There is a hierarchy to the

spiritual realm and if we don't understand this, see an

oversimplistic cosmology will cause you to run into problems

in your walk with Jesus. Especially when we begin to talk

about the mission and extending the Kingdom of God.

When we want to go into regions, we want to go into nations.

As I've learned this, When I get into a nation, when I've come

there to minister, I go out on the balcony because there's a

balcony on the hotel. And I'll stand out there and I

will just begin to declare I'm here on assignment from King

Jesus. He's come to take this nation

back, and I come under his authority, under his protection,

and I come here with the charigma, the authoritative

message from the Kingdom of God, because that is our mission to

extend the Kingdom. But if we don't understand that,

we think we're just kind of trying to talk people into

believing in Jesus. What I'm saying is this.

There is an internal fallenness that man struggles with, but

there is an external darkness that man resides in, and we've

got to contend with that and deal with that.

So men's eyes can be open to their hearts are enlightened,

and they can be saved. That's why prayer and evangelism

go hand in hand. Because if we don't win the

battle in the Spirit, we don't win the battle for the souls of

men because they're left groping around in darkness.

The gospel doesn't make sense. The the Bible uses this

terminology. They are darkened in their

understanding. In fact, Ephesians 4 and Romans

One both use this terminology. Romans One deals with with it on

a corporate level and atmospheric level, which is what

we're talking about this morning.

Ephesians 4 deals with it on an individual level.

Turn with me to Ephesians 4. Look at this.

This is this is a troubling passage but it's something we

need to understand and we can rescue men and women from this.

I I read this years ago as I began to understand this

passage, I thought been there, done that.

I remember walking away from Jesus and I walked right down

this pathway. What Paul is going to do if you

begin to look in verse, look at verse 17, Paul is going to, he's

going to start at the end and he's going to reverse engineer.

How did man end up in this terrible dilemma?

And he's going to reverse engineer it and find out the

root cause of this thing called the darkening of the

understanding. I would propose to you that you

could, you could put the title over this whole passage, the

process of the darkening of the understanding or the process of

the hardening of the heart, because they're one and the

same. Listen to what he says here,

verse 17. Now this I say and testify in

the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.

Now hold there for a second. Understand.

Paul would not warn us against this if it was not possible for

us as a believer to do so. He's not going to say, you know,

don't don't go out and create your own universe because you

can't do that. He doesn't warn you.

He doesn't say Dave, be careful. Don't be a movie star.

Ain't going to happen, Okay. He warns me about things that

are a danger for me, not an impossibility.

So yeah, enough said. Verse 17.

Now this I say in testifying the Lord that you must no longer

walk as the Gentiles do. What does it say in the futility

of their minds? Romans 1 uses that same language

as the futility of their thinking.

There are three phrases in Romans 1 where he's talking

about how God gave them over to a depraved mind.

Remember that where they knew God but refused to worship him

as God, and so God gave them over to a depraved mind and they

became inflamed with lust. The next stage is they became

inflamed. Men became inflamed with lust

for one another, and women would lay with women, which was

unnatural, Paul says. So both of these passages talk

about the futility of the thinking, the darkening of the

understanding, and they being given over to sensuality.

That is what we are dealing with as a culture, and it's not just

in the United States. This is a global thing that

we're dealing with, and God always answers fire with fire.

Worldwide revival has already begun.

But we need to fuel it with our intercession and with

understanding so we can engage. So what does Paul say?

He says they are darkened in their understanding and

alienated from the life of God. So that's the end result.

Darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of

God. Listen to that.

Darkened in their understanding, their mind is not enlightened.

Which is the the converse idea that Scripture talks about, That

our minds would be enlightened, that the Spirit would give us

light. The 2nd Corinthians.

That the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face

of Christ Jesus would be shed abroad in their hearts, and all

of a sudden we'd see. We're not darkened.

We're not groping about in the dark, not understanding that we

we can't connect the dots. I don't understand cause and

effect. I'm doing these things and I'm.

I'm, I'm complaining about my sore back while I jump out

windows and break the law of gravity.

And I don't connect the two. Well, don't jump out.

A second story window and your back won't hurt.

But I don't understand that. I can't connect the dots between

cause and effect. It's like that's the darkening

of the understanding. We we can't see.

We're imprisoned by our darkened understanding.

That's the end result. But he says this because of or

the cause of, which is what? The ignorance that is in them.

So there's ignorance. There's things that they don't

know. Okay.

But then he says this. That is due to what?

The hardening of their heart. So he goes back to the root.

The root causes. This man hardens his heart.

The hardening of the heart is a very specific idea in scripture.

Psalm or Proverbs 28, verse 14. It juxtaposes the hardening of

Proverbs 28:14

the heart over against the fear of the Lord.

It shows it that those are two opposite responses.

When you're confronted on something, when you see the

truth and it's an uncomfortable truth, and it's going to demand

something of you, it's going to demand change, you have one of

two choices. You're out of fork in the road.

You got to decide, Will I fear the Lord and enter into the

wisdom and bend my neck and say, God, you're smarter than me.

I, I, I, I my mind says I don't want this, but I know you know

what I really want. And I've learned by experience

when I go after something that you tell me I don't want and I

say, Oh yes, I do, that it isn't very long.

I'm crying out saying, God, I don't want it, will you deliver

me from it. So we walk in the fear of the

Lord, and that's the beginning of wisdom and wisdom.

And Scripture is living for the long term.

It's living according to the consequences, this living

looking down the road aways and saying, oh, if I do this today,

this will happen tomorrow. And this is the thing I want to

happen. So I'm going to do this today,

and this is the thing I don't want to have happen tomorrow.

So I'm not going to do this today.

That's the fear of the Lord. Foolishness is the opposite.

It's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

I don't, I mean not even be alive tomorrow to suffer the bad

consequences or enjoy the good consequences of good behavior.

So I'm just going to indulge in the moment, the fool says in his

heart, there is no God. He doesn't act according to a

God that's overseeing all of history and weighing and

balancing the scales of human behavior.

So we just throw caution to the wind and we bring stuff.

We bring tragedy on our own lives because we're fools.

Fools. Just look at the moment I want

this. Now the flip side is the

hardening of the heart. So if if we're going to be wise

and walk in the fear of Lord, then we we begin to make

decisions based on the longterm consequences.

And I'll tell you that is the life of blessing.

You pay the price now for repeating benefits in the

future. You do the hard things now,

knowing that there's going to be a snowball.

I'm telling you, I've walked with Jesus for many decades now,

and I'm telling you God is good and if you will follow him,

blessing will chase you down. Doesn't mean that life's a

better roses. But I'm telling you what a bad

day in Jesus is better than the best day without him.

And if you will go after, there is a snowball effect of blessing

that will chase you down because it's the blessed life, because

his principles work, his reign is good.

The alternative is you harden your heart.

What does hardening of the heart mean?

The hardening of the heart. See What does Paul say here in

Ephesians 4? He says they harden their heart,

which results in ignorance, which then results in the

darkening of the understanding. There's a progression, or rather

a digression here. The hardening of the heart is I

don't want this truth. This is an uncomfortable truth.

I don't want to hear this. I know what I want.

Don't give me counsel. To the contrary, I want this

thing. And you can.

God will honor your decision, CS Lewis said.

He said eternity will end with two types of people.

Those who said God your will be done, and those to whom God says

your will be done. God will honor our decision and

those who do not fear him will make bad decisions.

So we walk in the fear of the Lord and we won't harden our

heart. But the hardening of the heart

is saying, I don't want that truth.

I don't want that principle. I don't want to hear it.

See, we think we can isolate our disobedience.

I'm just going to. I'm going to isolate it.

I'm just going to say no to this one thing.

I'm going to stay surrendered in all other areas.

It doesn't work that way. You can't contain that

rebellion. It'll begin to leak into every

other place. When you resist him in one

truth. What happens in resisting the

truth? You began to lose truth.

With the lose the truth you once had, Ignorance steps in

hardening of the heart is to ignore the rebuke.

Ignorance is a step beyond now. I no longer have truth.

I'm ignorant. I I I don't understand things.

I can't connect the dots. I remember when I walked away

from God and I I got, I went deep into sin.

I became a very demonized young man, and I remember people

coming up and witnessing to me, and I knew the truth.

In fact, I would tell people about the gospel and they'd

laugh at me. Yeah, you're going to.

You're going to be a preacher someday.

I would talk to them about the Gospels, real, But it was like I

couldn't grasp it. I could tell you the data, the

facts, but it had no impact on my heart.

It was like it would, if I tried to grasp.

It was like smoke. It would just disappear.

I was in bondage. My understanding was darkened.

I was ignorant, so harden your heart.

Ignore ignorance. Ignore Ignorance sets in.

And then the final phases. They're darkened under the

standing and separated from the life of God. the OR alienated is

the way. The ESV says.

The darkening of the understanding is to lose the

moral faculty to receive any more revelation.

It's not that you just lost what you once have.

You've lost the ability to gain it back because your

understanding is darkened and the only hope for that person is

the mercy of God. And somebody praying that they

would come into that, the light of the knowledge of the glory of

God in the face of Christ Jesus would be shed abroad in their

heart and they would the God. It's Paul says this in 2nd

Corinthians 4. It's a beautiful passage.

The God who says let there be light would say over them, let

there be light and the light of the knowledge of the glory of

God in the face of Christ. It's like the fog, the the, the,

the, the smog over the life, the moral clouds.

All of a sudden the sunburst comes through and it burns off

the clouds, and all of a sudden they're standing an open day and

they see and they understand. I remember distinctly a season

in my life where all of a sudden I began to understand the

gospel. I began to come under

conviction. I began to respond to the fear

of the Lord because I was so convinced God is real.

I still don't want to serve him, but I don't want to violate them

at that level because I know he sees everything and I'm going to

get a spanking. That is not the thinking of a

Sinner. That is not the thinking of a

person that's going to continue. It was because there was a group

of ladies at First Church of the Open Bible in Ottumwa, IA that

were contending for my soul. Years later, I ran into a little

lady in a mall and she she pulled me aside and she said,

Dave, I've never told you this. She and she told me the the

approximate date is when I was living on the street.

She said one night at at church. We're having a just a time at

the altar and she said that had such a burden for you, she said.

I just began to cry out to God for you.

I laid at the altar just weeping for your soul.

That's the only reason I'm saved today, because God had somebody

he could get to pray for me and lift that darkness.

So there is this darkness that comes on people that we bring on

ourself. That's the individual darkness

of Ephesians 4. But there is a corporate

darkness that literally settles on a society, on a culture and

on nations. Turn with me to Ephesians

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Chapter 6. Very quickly and we're going to

wrap this up. And this is important for us to

understand for a number of reasons.

But one of the reasons is if we are going to deal with the

darkness, this present darkness that is pervading our nation,

God needs a people that understand what they walk in,

and we begin to penetrate this darkness with intercession.

God wants to send a sunburst that the sun, the light of the

knowledge of the glory of God in the face of his Son would burn

off the clouds, burn off the fog, and people would begin to

see. And there are times all

throughout human history where people talked about it was it

was not an internal thing. Like my testimony is where

people were praying for me as an individual and I began to see

and it was an atmospheric thing that they walked in the the

first Great Awakening in the United States before we were a

nation. The most prominent figure leader

of that that move was Jonathan Edwards, But they talked about

the God zone in the harbor of the Colonial America.

There was one ship. A famous story of ships would

come in from sea. Men out nine months at sea,

they're ready to get paid for nine months of Labor in one

paycheck. And they had just a few things

on their mind, and none of them were good.

They're going to go whine and women and they were going to go

blow their money and they would float into the harbor and there

was a place. They would cross the line into

the harbor and they would come under severe conviction and get

saved. There was one story of a ship

that was parked on what they called the God Zone.

There were men on one side of the ship that weren't over that

line, and they were cussing and fighting and punching it out.

And guys on the other side of the ship were literally on their

knees wailing, crying out to God for salvation.

There is such a thing as God coming down and crippling

darkness in a region, a geographical region, where the

eyes of men are enlightened. And it's not that they they

thought themselves into it. They stepped into it and all of

a sudden the God they didn't believe in, didn't want to

serve, simply happens to them and they're converted.

And that's what we need to pray for.

Listen to Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10.

Ephesians 6:10

Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his

might. Put on the whole armor of God

that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the

devil. We don't have time to get into

it, but I'm telling you the devil has a schematic, a pattern

by which he assaults the souls of men.

Paul said we are not ignorant of the devil's devices.

Sad to say that cannot be said over everyone.

There are people who are ignorant of the schematics of

the enemy. The Great War book called What

is it? The Art of War.

One of the principles is know your enemy and his strategies.

Don't be ignorant of the schematic of the enemy, he he'll

drop over your life and try to work verse 12.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against.

Now listen when he says the rulers against the against the

rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over

this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in

heavenly places. Now there's two views on this

passage. I wouldn't armor, I sell anybody

over it. But my loosely held view is this

is not Speaking of a hierarchical list of spiritual

entities. Now, I believe there is a

hierarchy of spiritual entities in the spiritual realm, and that

first one rulers is RK ARCHE. It's where we get the word

Archangel. It's the one they put in front

of the Angel RK It it means first commander ruler.

It implies that there is a hierarchy.

But some people will read this as okay, There's these

principalities, these rulers, and then there's authorities and

then there's cosmic powers. This is my loosely held opinion.

Okay. I I don't believe that's what

that's talking about. Let me let me read it to you

because we're running out of time.

You guys are taking way too long.

I am not convinced this description is necessarily

describing different entities. My estimation is that it is most

likely elaborating on the very various facets of these are

gays, principalities, #1, their legal standing authorities,

exucia. It means they're they're the

authority by which they function, their function power

over the they have power over this present darkness and their

nature of their evil, as well as defining the realm of their

functioning. And So what I mean by that is

this, that they are the spirits that function with authority.

Why? Because God created an

authoritative structure. He assigned the nations to them

and now in Psalm 82 he said, I'm going to strip you of your

authority. Colossians tells us God, Jesus

did that at the cross. He stripped them of their

authority. They no longer have authority,

but they still occupy those positions.

So what are you and I to do? We are to go in and we are to do

war. And these rogue rulers that are

exerting, squatting rights, we displace them through

intercession, through travail so that we can have victory over

this present darkness. We don't have time to get into

all these terms. Maybe we'll maybe we'll revisit

this next week. But let me just mention one

thing. This idea, this present.

Well, let me let me just Who'll give me 5 minutes?

510-5020 OK Rulers, Arcade, first K These are the meanings

of these words. I'm just going to read them real

quick. Rulers, Arcade, first beginning.

Chief ruler. This term is.

This is the term from which we derive.

Archangel seems to denote a position by design, a position

granted to rule authorities. Exusia, authority.

Freedom of choice, right permission.

The English term authority is an accurate translation from which

we get the English authorization, which is a

related concept to this Greek term.

It denotes the created order which is now been corrupted by

sin. The beings which function within

the parameters of this title leverage the created order for

their defiled ends. Cosmic powers is the next word.

Cosmo crater. That's really what it that's the

word literally means world, ruler, cosmos, orderly

arrangement and by implication creation.

Criteo dominion might to seize or retain the exercise.

Dominion over the cosmos with the implication of arrangement.

According to Kittles. It's a that's a one of many

people think it's the premier Greek handbook.

This compound word weds both ideas together referring to both

the force and comprehensiveness of their design.

Speaking of these rogue entities, now this is the one we

really want to look at this present darkness.

The Greek word is scotos. Shadow obscurity denotes the

absence of light and in turn, the ignorance of God.

It's a moral darkness. It is a pervading darkness

which, if not completely so, contains a strong moral element.

It obscures the ability to understand moral and even

psychological issues, veiling connections and cause of causes

and effects. It is the darkening of the

understanding on a corporate, societal and even atmospheric

level. The inclusion of this idea of

this present darkness denotes the immediacy, the murkiness

which we all contend with in this present age.

One of the common dynamics of revival, however, which has been

pointed out by many throughout history, is the atmospheric

clarity and cleanliness people experienced during seasons of

outpouring. You ever been in revival?

You go in and it's like the air is clear.

It's like, oh man, you feel that you open your Bible and it's

just alive because the darkness has lifted.

The dominion of God come in, has come in and displaced this

present darkness. That's what we're contending

for. So it goes on, or I go on.

Many have pointed out throughout history the atmospheric clarity

and cleanliness people experienced during seasons of

outpouring. It is this very darkness, this

scotos, that is penetrated by the Spirit of God coming as a

spirit of truth, a spirit of wisdom and revelation, which

dispels lies and removes human justifications, melting them

like wax before the presence of the Lord.

All our justifications and our arguments that we hold on to for

what we do melt away, and we're stripped bare before the Lord,

and we know we have to deal with Him.

That's a good thing. If your armor of defense against

God still works, let me know. I'll be praying for you that God

will strip you naked revelation which dispels lies and removes

human justification, melting like wax for the presence the

Lord. This, the removal of this

present darkness is what is behind the concept of an open

heaven when applied geographically and

atmospherically. Then it says spiritual forces

and and heavenly places. I want to get into the Greek.

The term traces the activity, the spiritual entities defining

its source. It the the word evil defines the

moral nature and the motive behind this activity.

It denotes wickedness, twistedness, all with the

malicious intent defining the motive.

And it happens in the spiritual realm.

It defines the context or dimension out of which this evil

emanates and in which it operates.

And that, my friend, is what we're dealing with as a nation.

But we are the people of God, and the gospel contains the

power. To lift this present darkness.

And there is, Paul said, we wrestle not against flesh and

blood, but we do wrestle with these principalities and powers.

We don't do it cavalierly and start rebuking them, but in

prayer, in travail, we begin to press.

Let me read you one more thing, Stan.

So you know I'm going to quit. Let me, let me just read you

this. One more thing.

Come on, pray for my computer. Okay here it is.

Our will in this realm of travail is essential.

We are displacing the enemy through stubborn determination.

We become like a bull that is pushing.

Consistent, stubborn pressure is brought against any opposition

until this will is accomplished. God's will is accomplished in

this situation. That's what that idea of

wrestling means. Those of you have wrestled, you

understand wrestling is one of the most exhausting sports

because the body itself is the weapon and you are using it to

bear pressure upon them until they give in.

And that's the idea that he has with us wrestling against these

principalities and powers. It is this that Paul is talking

about when he says we wrestle against principalities and

powers in high places. There is a wrestling, a

struggle, A showdown of wills. You've got to set your heart

towards this thing. I so appreciated what Pastor

Cara said this morning and I I turned to the young man standing

next to me and I he I asked him what he gave up and I said this

is what I was laying down this morning.

I feel like I have been distracted from by the cares of

this life and I want to give myself to this thing.

I want to give my whole heart. I received a call the other day.

I said would you get on the phone with Lou Engle.

I said sure. I thought it was going to be

like 50 pastors. It was Lou and his prophetic

sidekick in this, a prayer leader from across the state and

he said, can you mobilize people in Iowa for the elections?

So do you think you can call Iowa to a 21 day fast for the

elections? I believe God is calling us to

this, this showdown of wills. There needs to be something

within us that stands up and says not on my watch, not on my

watch. We're seeing this nation go to

hell in a handbasket and there needs to be something in us that

says not on my watch. This type of praying is a

contact sport wherein we come into direct contact with the

opposition. We feel his breath.

But this level of prayer is functioned in only by those who

have already achieved the internal surrender.

They are in no danger. They can say with Jesus He has

nothing in me. You've already laid it down.

To the extent you have something you're still holding on to is

the thing the enemy will come against.

If you're touchy, you will be touched.

The enemy has nothing in them. They are already.

They've already given their lives and surrender the threat

of giving it and the battle doesn't move them.

The enemy must acquiesce to this type of St. and this is the

great need of this hour. Praying Saints who love not

their lives and to the death. Let's pray, Father, we're asking

God that you would light our souls on fire.

Lord, we ask that you would take an A coal off the altar of

heaven and ignite our hearts. Lord, do what we cannot do for

ourselves. I feel like the Lord is asking

each of us this morning, individually and corporately.

Do I have your yes. Our yes doesn't mean we have the

capacity to carry it out on our own.

But we surrender our will and we say, Jesus, make me willing, do

whatever you have to do to get me where you need me to be.

What Pastor Cara shared this morning is a word from the Lord.

He's looking for a deeper surrender and future generations

look back at this generation. God is looking for a company of

people of whom it will be said, they laid their life down to

save a nation. They laid their life down to

shape history and to turn the corner.

Lord, we're asking God. She would touch us, light our

hearts on fire. And Father, we're asking that

you would instruct us, give us understanding for the

assignment, Teach us. We pray in Jesus name.

Before I let you go, I do apologize for going along, but

I'm sticking two weeks into one because Pastor Laura bumped me.

If you're here this morning and you're not right with God, this

is your opportunity. Jesus brought you here, and he's

here, standing before you. He's knocking on the door of

your heart. He wants you.

He's got a plan for your life, But it's going to take your

surrender. If you're here this morning and

you're saying I'm. I'm willing to step on the line.

I need Jesus. I need to surrender my life to

him. Just raise your hand right now.

You're saying I need to get right with God this morning.

So raise your hand high. Make sure I acknowledge it

before before you put it down. You need to get right with God

this morning. You're not walking with him and

you're saying I need that. I want that.

I'm willing to surrender my life.

Nobody can make that decision for you.

Often I know when I would sit in services and I felt that panic

and that my heart would beat and I just wanted to get out of

there. Don't give in to that.

Step over the line. If you need to get right with

God, just raise your hand right now.

We want to pray with you. All right, Father.

Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for what you're

doing in us. God, Lord, take us as your

people take us deeper. Jesus, this church, this

congregation. We as a corporate people are

yours to do with as you please. Spend us, Lord, Spend us, Lord.

Don't let us waste our life on silly temporal things.

Spend us well in Jesus name. Amen.

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