Ep. 039 The Enemy, My Enemy

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your

host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing

to you and bring you closer to God. Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House

Salmon Arm podcast. My name is David Bickford. I'm the pastor here at the Potter's House

Salmon Arm and today's message that I've put together is called The Enemy, My Enemy. We're

going to talk about powers, principalities and pride. It's pretty interesting because

I had recently just written that it's not on the podcast yet, a similar sermon to this,

but this one I originally preached back in January. Let's get into it. The text that

we're going to use as our jumping off point today is going to be Matthew 16 verses 1 through

Matthew 16:1–12

12. If you have your Bible and you're following along, you can turn there. This is an interesting

subject that we want to look at today because I think it touches on the month that we're

living in, the time that we're living in, the year, everything, and just the reality

of the society that we have allowed to be created in the Western world, whether that

be all of Europe or United States or Canada, you name it. There are some very interesting

things to look at here. When I was putting this message together, I remember on my Instagram

feed and online, Paul Harvey's If I Were the Devil post or story was going back through

on all my feeds. That was what started the idea of this message. With that though, because

today is Father's Day as well, I just want to first say that we love all the good fathers

out there that are listening and the ones that really take the responsibilities of men

and as fathers seriously. We can't do it without great fathers and mothers that are in our

lives and whether that be fathers and mothers that are biologically related or through adoption

because ultimately our Father in heaven, we can call him our Father in heaven because

we are adopted, we are grafted in into the kingdom of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That is ultimately where we want to give all of our praise and glory and honor to is our

Father in heaven. If you didn't have a great father on earth, you still have a devoted

loving Father in heaven. With that, let's go ahead and jump in with this message from

Paul Harvey, If I Were the Devil. This was written in 1965. It was actually broadcasted

back then. This is a very old interview or story that Paul Harvey put together. I think

you'll agree as I read this how important it is because it is very prophetic to the

time that we're living in today. So it goes, many years ago, a courageous and devoted American

broadcast message, broadcast message to his listeners that served as the harbinger for

where the nation was heading, societally and culturally. In his broadcast, he revealed

what he would do if he were the devil to destroy our culture and undermine our collective societal

standards and social norms. That man was Paul Harvey known to the world and his message

not only has proven to be prophetic, but serves as a warning to Americans and Canadians today

of to where our society continues to trend. So he says, if I were the devil, a warning

to America from Paul Harvey, if I were the devil, if I were the prince of darkness, I'd

want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I'd have a third of its real estate and

four fifths of its population, but I wouldn't be happy until I'd seize the ripest apple

on the tree. These. So I'd set about however necessary to take over the United States.

I'd subvert the churches first. I'd begin with a campaign of whispers with the wisdom

of a serpent. I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve, do as you please to the

young. I would whisper the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God

instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good and what good, what's

good is square. And the old, I would teach to pray after me, our father, which are in

Washington and then I'd get organized. I'd educate authors and how to make lured literature

exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I threatened TV with

dirtier movies and vice versa. I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol

to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were

the devil, I'd soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves

and nations at war with themselves until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises

of higher ratings, I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I

would encourage the schools to refine young young intellects, but neglect to discipline

emotions. Just let those run wild until before you knew it. You'd have you'd have to have

a drug sniffing dog and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade, I'd

have prisons overflowing. I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict

God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the House of Congress. And in

his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and defy science. And deify science,

sorry. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.

If I were the devil, I'd make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas

a bottle. If I were the devil, I'd take from those who have and give to those who want

until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what to do, I bet, I could get the whole

states to promote. And what do you bet, sorry again, what do you bet I could get the whole

states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes and

hard work and patriotism and moral conduct. I would convince the young and young that

marriage is old fashioned and that swinging is more fun. And what you see on TV is the

way to be. And thus I could undress you in public and I could lure you into bed with

diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil, I'd just keep

right on doing what he's doing. And then he always does a sign off Paul Harvey, good day.

Now let's go back through this real quick before we jump into our text. There's a couple

things jumped out to me as I read this today. You know, first off, you know, we talk about,

you know, the way that the world is trending today, right? We talk about subverting the

churches first with a campaign of whispers. How often are you seeing churches now cast

out the word of God in favor of the word of today? How often are they taking wholesale

chapters of the Bible and saying, you're not reading that in context, even though it was

continuously read in context for centuries, but now the context has changed because it

doesn't fit the message of today. How dangerous of an idea is this? Because then they also

want to talk about how we can change the definitions that are in the Bible, but at the same time,

the Bible itself is made up. So there really is nothing to change because it's all a myth.

These are interesting thoughts at war with each other, but this is really the wet, you

know, the wet, the devil would want us to do. The idea of more lured literature, more

exciting images through TV and movies so that everything is boring. The Bible is boring.

Church is boring. Nobody can sit through a sermon anymore because it's just too boring.

We have to make rock concerts out of every church meeting because otherwise nobody's

going to come and hear the word of God be preached. Well, I tell you that if you're

not preaching a sharp word of God, then of course people aren't going to sit and listen

to it. Of course people aren't going to listen to it because that would mean that it's going

to have be convicting to their soul or it's not convicting to their soul. So if it's boring,

if it's bland, well then it's clearly lacking the Holy Spirit. But what else do we get from

this message? We talk about, we talk about, you know, the judges promoting pornography

and evicting God from the courthouse, the schoolhouse and the house of Congress. These

things have already happened. Now, when you talk about trying to remove pornography from

schools, they tell you that you're just as bad as the Nazi book burners when the reality

is you're just trying to get back to protecting children from what was considered a very short

time ago, blatant pornography. These ideas that Paul Harvey used because he saw the creeping

nature of the devil and at work in society back then. Again, this was written in 1965.

But today, all the most of this has already come to fruition. It's a very scary idea to

see someone who had what appears to be the mind of God for a nation and to see how accurate

this message was. But let's look at our text. Our text is again Matthew 16 verses 1 through

Matthew 16:1–12

12. It's about the Pharisees and the Sadducees and how they were demanding signs of Jesus.

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came and to test him and they asked him to show them a

sign from heaven. He answered them, when is it evening you say? It will be fair weather

for the sky is red and in the morning it will be stormy today for the sky is red and threatening.

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs

of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given

to it except the sign of Jonah. So he left them and departed. The leaven of the Pharisees

and Sadducees, when the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring

any bread. And Jesus said to them, watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and

Sadducees. And they began discussing it among themselves saying, we brought no bread. But

Jesus aware of this said, oh, you of little faith, why are you discussing this among yourselves?

The fact that you have no bread. Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five

loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the

4,000 and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did

not speak about bread, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they

understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching

of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So in today's society, it's constant where there's, there's

this constant push of trying to place us at odds with each other or tie us together in

unnatural forms of unity. They built this not upon the rock of Christ, but upon a different

rock, a broken and fallen foundation that is only designed to destroy those who seek

refuge within his pillars. It's interesting to me to look at this world and see that there

are still the same camps as there was during the times of Jesus. You have the word that

was represented during the time of Jesus by the Rome and Greek Hellenistic culture that

ruled much of the known world. Then you had a different camp within Judaism, the Sadducees

and Pharisees, these two players made up the two rival camps that could agree on nothing

more than the disunity they had between themselves. We can see echoes of this within the two groups

of our political systems today, as well as with much of the infighting that is ever present

within the church body today. You can see echoes of these same spirits in many facets

of society and other religions throughout the world. What can we take away from this

and how can we apply our scripture to this and the world today? The most important thing

we can do is to focus in on our goal. Is our goal to beat our enemy? Is it to achieve dominance

over those who disagree with us? Or is it to get people saved, to remain saved ourself

and to see as much of the world converted as we can while we're still here on earth?

I believe that it is the latter and that we need to keep our joy and praise God for the

time that we have, to cling to Him and joy and remember what He did for us on the cross

at Calvary. It brings me to my first point, which is powers and principalities. We don't

fight against men, but rather the spirit of the world, the fallen elements of the world

corrupted by sin and death. In Ephesians 6-12 it says, for we do not wrestle against flesh

and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers

over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places. In

our text from Matthew we see Pharisees and Sadducees with one definite article in the

Greek text. Such a construction implies that they acted together and that is remarkable

since they were political and theological enemies.

In Acts 23 6-10 it says, Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other

Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of a Pharisee. It is

with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial. And when he

had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly

was divided. For the Sadducees said that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit,

but the Pharisees acknowledged them all. Then a great clamor arose, and some of the

scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, We find nothing wrong

in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him? And when the dissension became

violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers

to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.

However, common opponents sometimes transformed enemies and allies, as we see in Luke 23 12

when it shows us when Herod and Pilate bonded over the mocking of Jesus, or in Psalms 2

13. The kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together against the

Lord and against his anointed. Representatives of both parties constituted the Sanhedrin,

the highest Jewish governing body in Israel. This delegation evidently from Jerusalem represented

the most official group of religious leaders that Matthew reported coming to Jesus thus

far. What was the common theme that bound these enemies together? It was the presence

of Jesus that had put all of their power at risk. They were bound to their positions and

there was no room for a gospel that was at odds with the status quo. We see in verses

1-4 of our text that they demand signs and wonders. We also see this in the account from

the Gospel of Mark in Mark 8 11-12. It says, The Pharisees came and began to argue with

him, seeking from a Messiah from the heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in the Spirit

and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be

given to this generation. Jesus replied to his critics that they did not need a special

sign since many things pointed to him being the Messiah. They could read the sky well

enough to predict what the weather would be. However, they could not read what was happening

in their midst well enough to know that their Messiah had appeared. The proof that they

could not discern the signs of the times was that they asked for a sign. And this brings

me my second point, which is pride, ego, and hubris. Our society is bound to the belief

of our oneness. This is a huge new age movement in progress right now that that is, and that's

that is everything plus Jesus or Jesus plus everything else. This idea, this lie is a

fallacy that people allow themselves to believe. Christ himself says this, and we can read

in the gospel of John that there is no room for other gospels, other powers, other saviors.

These new age religions are not rooted anything more than self worship. At the core of all

of it is that you can find salvation from within yourself. The wicked simplicity of

this false faith is that you can claim the science of today as your foundation, or you

can disregard it altogether. There is space for every conspiracy theory or none at all.

The relative truth is at the discretion of each individual because in the end it is the

self that is God in these circles of thought. We should not battle against the pride, ego,

and the hubris of those who claim secret knowledge or mystical understanding. We should treat

them just as Jesus treated the Pharisees and Sadducees.

In verse four of our text, Jesus refused to give his critics the signs they wanted. The

only sign they would get will be the sign of Jonah and when Jesus rose from the dead.

The only sign to Nineveh was Jonah's solemn warning of near judgment and his call to repentance,

and the only sign now, or rather unto this generation, was no sign. Miracles will give

confirmation where there is faith, but not where there is willful unbelief. Though the

Pharisees and Sadducees differed on several points of theology, they held certain beliefs

in common. Specifically, the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus warned

his disciples about was the skepticism towards divine revelation, and they failed to accept

the Messiah because of this. These critics tried to fit in, or to fit the King and his

kingdom into their preconceptions and their preference, rather than accepting him as the

Old Testament presented him. They wanted a military general. They wanted somebody who

was in power immediately. They wanted a political leader. So when we see people clamoring and

fawning over political leaders, this is the same thing that these people wanted. They

wanted a political revolution that would keep them in power and elevate their stature in

the world. So we as Protestant Christians hold to the five solas, or statements. By

grace alone, sola gratia, through faith alone, sola fide, and Christ alone, solus Christus,

according to the scripture alone, sola scriptura, and for God's glory alone, solo dio gloria.

This is the foundation of our theology and should always be a way to measure the outside

world. When the powers and principalities wage war against the Church, they often try

to pull us into their chosen battlefields. We see this in our text that Jesus would leave

the Pharisees and Sadducees behind to argue amongst themselves. Then he would go out and

he would minister elsewhere. We cannot give in to this pride, ego, and hubris. We have

to leave those who want to argue behind and persevere for the sake of the gospel.

This brings me to my close, which is the choice to run. Our choice has to be to run the race

of faith. In 2 Timothy 4, 6-7 it says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering,

and at the time of my departure has come, I have fought the good fight, I have finished

the race, I have kept the faith. So as we bring this message to a close, I want to share

this lighthearted story that I came across. This is the tale of a dog that liked to run.

So the title of this message is Every Dog Has Her Day, Hound Takes Seventh Place in

Alabama Half Marathon. So this article is pretty old. It's about seven years old. So

the dog is Lou Devine, a young hound dog finished a race that featured 165 humans even after

she took a break to investigate the dead rabbits. This is a funny old story. It goes like this.

A runner in a half marathon must have thought they had gone barking mad when an Alabama

dog got further than expected and finished in the top 10, which is a possum performance.

Lou Devine, a two and a half year old hound dog, snuck out of her owner's yard in Elkmont,

Alabama on 16th of January and wandered to the starting area of the town's inaugural

half marathon, the Trackless Train Track. Along with 165 runners, Lou Devine then ran

the half marathon, finishing in one hour, 32 minutes and 56 seconds at seventh place,

unofficially speaking. Despite wandering off during the portion of the race to mingle

with cheerleaders on the trail and to examine a rabbit's carcass, her owner, April Hamlin,

did not realize Lou Devine had even left the yard until friends who were volunteering at

the race texted her photos of her dog. Hamlin, a guidance counselor at Elkmont High School

told Runner's World that Lou Devine enjoys exploring Elkmont to the point where people

in town recognize her, but she was surprised when Lou Devine finished the race.

She's laid back and friendly, so I can't believe she ran the whole half marathon, because she's

actually really lazy, Hamlin said.

Lou Devine received a medal for her athletic feat. Our ace director, Gret Armstrong, said

people were not aware that Lou Devine had run the entire race until the end. Everyone

was actually quite surprised, she told The Guardian. We saw her at the start, but the

way the course is laid out, we didn't see runners until the finish line. Tim Horvath,

who came in sixth place, ran most of the race with Lou Devine and told volunteers at the

end of the race that the dog had run for more than an hour and needed water. Horvath, 49,

and a resident of Huntsville, Alabama, told the Runner's World that Lou Devine came up

to him in a parking lot before the race. She came bouncing up and I petted her on her head,

but I saw her collar, so I just figured she was somebody's dog, he said.

Elkmont was a small town where everyone knows everybody, so it didn't strike me as unusual.

Lou Devine's little stunt prompted the race organizers to change the name for the 2017

half marathon to Elkmont's Hound Dog half marathon. They wanted to play on a theme during

the race, perhaps by playing songs by Elvis Presley during the race and having a separate

shorter run for leashed dogs. We're a small town made of 400 people, and now that this

has worldwide recognition, it makes sense to tie it back to Lou Devine, Armstrong said.

So the reason why I bring up this silly story, because I like this story because it reminds

me of the simplicity of life. A dog goes out for her morning constitution, the dog quickly

gets distracted, as dogs will do, but then finds herself within a group of happy and

excited runners. The dog isn't going to overanalyze the situation, but rather just decides to

run the race. Now I know we're not dogs and that life isn't always as easy as this story,

but I do believe that we need to learn to simply serve God and allow God to bring us

joy in our lives. The world does seem out of control, but it isn't. God is in control

and Christ has already won the battle. We are here as the rescue party looking for survivors,

those who will heed the call of salvation. So as we close, I do not want us to get wrapped

up in all the debates of our time, but rather to simply hone in and focus on the gospel

of Jesus Christ. If someone wants to argue, don't let it upset or confuse you. Take a

note from Jesus and move on. Spread the word far and wide, but do not allow this fallen

world to trouble you. Put your faith in God and serve him with joy. So with that, if I

could have every head bowed, every eye closed, as I'm done with this message, but I want

to give the invitation. So obviously for driving, be safe. We've been doing this long enough.

I could probably stop saying that now. If this message impacted you, if you've been

thrown to the wind with all the craziness that's in the world, it's time to come to

Christ. If this message convicted you in any way and you know you're not right with Jesus,

I want you to signify that with an uplifted hand. Maybe you've never given your life to

him. Maybe you have and you've walked away. Now's your chance. I can't see your hand,

but Jesus Christ could see your hand. If you did, if you rose your hand and you meant it,

I want you to repeat this after me. Dear Lord God, I know I'm a sinner. I will repent and

turn from my sin and I accept you. I accept you Jesus as my Lord and savior. I thank you

for salvation through grace in Jesus name. Amen. It's a simple prayer. It's a simple

message that we need to focus in on Christ. If you prayed that and you meant it, then

your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life and you are set free. And now you're

on a different path. You're on a path towards sanctification, which just means growing closer

to Christ. You need to start praying, reading your, get a Bible, read it and read it. Start

in the gospel of John. You can get an app for free. And then you need to find a church.

If you live in salmon arm, please come out. We're just, we're trying to build a work for

God here that will be able to reach the multitudes. If you're not here in salmon arm, we have

3,500 churches globally. We have a huge network of churches doing the same thing, preaching

the gospel of Jesus Christ with the purpose to see people save. We're a living and vibrant

group of believers. We put our money where our mouth is. We put our time where our mouth

is, to serve Jesus Christ. So I just want to thank you for listening to this message.

If you've gotten this far, I'd appreciate if you'd like and share this podcast so they

can get out and subscribe so that it can get out as far and wide as possible. And I just

want to thank you again. And I'm just going to quickly pray, dear Lord God, I pray that

you bless those that have listened to this. I pray that you'd help them to commit themselves

to you even more. And I pray for traveling mercies as they go in the rest of their week.

And I just pray blessing upon them in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thanks again. Can't wait

for you to come back next time.