parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers
have told us, will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come
the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded
our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to
come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare
them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works
of God, but keep His commandments. It might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast
with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day
of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law, and forgot
His works, and His wonders that He had showed them. Marvelous things did He in the sight
of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zohan. He divided the sea, and
caused them to pass through, and He made the waters to stand as a heap. In the daytime
also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He claved the
rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink, as out of the great depths. He brought streams
also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. And they sinned yet
more against Him, by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in
their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God. They said, Can
God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed
out and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?
Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth. So a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger
also came up against Israel. Because they believed not in God and trusted not in His
salvation. Though He had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven,
and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
Man did eat angels' food. He sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow
in the heaven, and by His power He brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon
them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. He let it fall in the
midst of their camp, and about their habitations. So they did eat, and were well filled, for
He gave them their own desire. They were not estranged from their lust. But while their
meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of
them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed
not for His wondrous works. Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years
in trouble. When He slew them, then they sought Him, and they returned and inquired early
after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the High God their Redeemer.
Nevertheless, they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues.
For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant. But He,
being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned
He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered that they were
but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke Him in
the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert? Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and
limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered
them from the enemy. How He had wrought His signs in Egypt, His wonders in the field of
Zohan, and had turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, that they could not drink.
He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed
them. He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust.
He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He gave up their
cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the
fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among
them. He made a way to his anger. He spared not their soul from death, but gave their
life over to the pestilence, and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their
strength, the chief of their strength, and the tabernacles of Ham, but made his own people
to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them
on safely, so that they feared not, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought
them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain which his right hand had
purchased. And cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them in inheritance by line,
and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked
the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies, but turned back and dealt unfaithfully like
their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow, but they provoked him to
anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When
God heard this, he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel, so that he forsook the tabernacle
of Shiloh, the tent which he had placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity
and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword, and was
wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not
given a marriage. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason
of wine, and he smote his enemies in the Hinderparts, he put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover,
he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe
of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces,
like the earth which he hath established forever. He chose David also his servant, and took
him from the sheepfolds. From following the Jews great with young, he brought him to feed
Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity
of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. Let's pray. Delord God, we thank
you again. For all that you've blessed us with, we just ask that you be with our pastor
now, please strengthen him, fill him with your spirit, and bless the message that he's
prepared for us this morning. And in the name of Christ we pray, amen.
Amen. Okay, we're in Psalm 78 this morning. Look down to your Bibles at verse 49 of Psalm
78. It says, "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation and trouble
by sending evil angels among them." And the thought of my sermon this morning is evil
angels among them. Evil angels among them. Of course, we know that an evil angel refers
to a demonic entity. We would say that it's a devil, a demon of sorts. And this passage
is literally stating that in order for God to demonstrate His fierceness of His wrath,
His anger, His indignation and trouble upon the nation of Israel, He sent evil angels
among them. You know, the way He chastised a nation, the way He punished people for their
wickedness is that He would send a demonic entity to trouble them. And it's interesting
because it refers to them as evil angels. And we know that an angel by definition is
essentially a messenger, right? That's basically what angel means. And in fact, you know, we
think of angels as being these celestial beings. And that's absolutely true. But sometimes
the Bible refers to men as being angels as well. Why? Because they're messengers of the
gospel. It's someone who has a particular message, a particular task to accomplish.
And it says here that there's instances where God sent an evil messenger in order to chastise
someone. Now, we see something similar in the New Testament in second Corinthians with
the apostle Paul. He states in second Corinthians chapter 12, lest that should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of revelation, there was given it to me a thorn in the flesh.
And it says a messenger of Satan to buffet me, it says, lest that should be exalted above
measure. So there we see an example of Satan or the evil angel being described as a messenger
of Satan. Not only that, but when we look at, for example, church discipline in the
New Testament where someone is excommunicated from the church for a particular sin because
they're not repenting of it. The Bible says that they're given over to Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, essentially demonstrating that God uses Satan. He uses demonic entities in
order to discipline someone to chastise someone. And in fact, it says there for the destruction
of the flesh. The implication there is that he kills them. He destroys them. Okay. Very
powerful. It talks about in first Timothy one verse 20, of whom is Hymenes and Alexander,
whom I've delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Various examples
in the Bible where God uses demons in order to destroy someone, to judge someone, to chastise
someone, to discipline someone. The point that I'm making here is that we often have
this perception of God and Satan as being like good versus evil, as though Satan might
have a winning chance or something like that. But at the end of the day, when you actually
look at the narrative of the Bible, the Bible teaches us that Satan is on a short leash.
He accomplishes the bidding of God. And of course we know that God doesn't always sanction
judgment, but sometimes he does allow it. Evil angels are not rogue agents outside of
God's control. Okay. They are instruments that God uses for judgment, chastening, and
even pruning. There's instances where God allows an evil angel in your life. Okay. Not
necessary because he's judging you or he's punishing you, but sometimes it's just as
a matter of pruning you, helping you testing you to become a better believer. Satan has
his own will and that will obviously is in direct opposition to the will of God. We know
that he seeks to kill, to steal, and to destroy, but just understand that Satan cannot act
independently of divine authority. His activity is restrained, yes it is governed, and there's
instances where it's permitted by God to be carried out. There are definite instances
in scripture where God sanctions evil to come upon a person because of sin as an act of
judgment and punishment, but there are also other instances where he doesn't necessarily
sanction something, it's just that he allows someone to fall into evil or judgment for
a particular purpose. Now let me just make something very clear that when God allows
us in the life of a Christian, he does it to sift, to buffet, to test an individual,
or even to humble them. Sometimes Christians can become proud, arrogant, and God, in order
for him to continue to use that individual, he has to humble them. He has to cut them
down to size a little bit in order to keep them usable in the hand of God. So when a
believer experiences satanic attack, it's never outside of God's control, right? Sometimes
it's corrective, sometimes it's purifying, sometimes it's even preventative, believe
it or not. Sometimes God allows some sort of judgment to come upon you in order to
prevent a far worse judgment to come upon you, right? And you may think to yourself
"I can't believe God's allowing this in my life!" Well, hold on a second, he might be
doing this in order to protect you from something in the future. And so we have
to understand the omniscience of God, we have to understand the wisdom of God
through the scriptures to be able to interpret these situations when
they come upon us. You know, to keep a believer from pride or even spiritual
decay, but make no mistake about it, there are clear biblical examples where God
commissions judgment. He calls an evil spirit as an instrument to execute this
destruction, even delusions in some cases. Okay, division and torment upon the
rebellious. And let me just make it clear that God is not the author of sin, but
the Bible does say that he is the one who creates evil. Now in our eyes we
think to ourselves, well how can that be? Isn't evil and sin the same thing? Well
in the Bible there are instances where evil is synonymous with sin, but there's
other contexts in the Bible where it's not. Where simply evil means judgment, okay,
and the Bible says that God is responsible for that. Let me read to you
a couple scriptures here. Go with me if you would to 1 Kings chapter 22, 1 Kings
chapter 22 in your Bibles. Lamentations 3.38 says this, "Out of the mouth of the
Most High proceedeth not evil and good?" And the answer is yes. We know that God
speaks good, but there's instances where he speaks judgment, he speaks evil, he
sanctions, and allows evil to come upon a person. Proverbs 16 verse 6 says, "The
Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil."
Isaiah 45 verse 7 says, "I form the light, I create darkness, I make peace and
create evil. I the Lord do all these things." Now this isn't something you're
gonna hear in churches a lot, because a lot of churches want to portray God as
only being good, and he only does good, and he only does righteousness, and that's
absolutely true, but not at the exclusion of the fact that he judges as well. Not
the exclusion of the fact that he does allow evil to come upon people. And you
know, we need to spend sometimes a little more time in the Old Testament, I think.
You know, just read the Old Testament. We're New Testament Christians, but if
you really want to know how God is, if you really want to know, if you want the
resume of God, I encourage you to spend some time reading the Old Testament.
Those stories are there for a reason, and it shows us how incredibly judgmental
God is. Okay, I mean, we just got finished reading about the fact that God just
drowned the whole world on Thursday, right? We're reading Genesis chapter 7,
and the world was so evil and wicked, God's solution was, "Just destroy the
whole thing!" And you think, "How could a loving God...?" Like that. That's how he...
I don't have an answer for you, he did it! He drowned the entire world, and he
only saved eight people. You got a problem? Ask God about it. And here's the
thing, folks, is that the Bible tells us that he's gonna do it again. The
difference is, you know, he's gonna do it with fire. He's gonna baptize the world in
fire. The point that I'm making here is that we obviously know that God is
righteous, he's kind, he's lovingly kind, he's merciful, he is a wonderful God. But
you know, that message has been spread so much in churches that people
almost think that that's at the exclusion of the other side of God. You
know, I know we got to talk to people about the love of God, but quite frankly,
I think you already know that. We already know about the love of God, right? Let's
talk about the judgment of God, the evil that he allows to come upon people in
this world. This morning, I want to talk about evil angels among them. I'm gonna
give you three separate examples in the Bible of God sending evil angels among
people and for what intent. Now, you're in 1 Kings chapter 22. Let's talk about
the lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets, okay? What is a lying spirit?
It's an evil angel. Now, this particular story is very interesting. It's actually
very funny in a lot of ways, and it's very telling. It kind of gives us a
glimpse into the spiritual realm to see how things operate, you know, behind the
spiritual curtain, so to speak. Look at verse 2. It says, "And it came to pass in
the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of
Israel." Now, Jehoshaphat is a righteous king. He's a godly man. He is a man who
fears God to a certain degree. He's the king of Judah. You know, he has only this
one problem though. He likes to associate with bad people, okay? And this is very
common with Christians, where you have Christians who are godly, righteous
individuals, but they just like hanging out with bad people. And you know what?
God's not pleased with that, right? He wants us to be separate. He wants us to
be holy, a peculiar people. So we see Jehoshaphat, he's the king of Judah, but
he's coming down to the king of Israel. And if you know anything about the
history of Israel, you got the northern and the southern kingdom, right? That
northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern
kingdom has this connotation or has this reputation of just being pretty wicked
and bad. They're like apostate, they're worshiping false gods, they're
amalgamating biblical religion with the religion of the heathens. Most of the
kings of Israel were extremely wicked and bad. So it's like what is what is
Jehoshaphat doing associating with these people, okay? So he's coming down to the
king of Israel and out of all kings, who is he befriending here? Ahab. Now if you've
read your Bibles you know that Ahab is extremely wicked, okay? You're like, "I don't
know who Ahab is." Well you know who Jezebel is though, okay? That's his wife, okay?
Just think about that. It says in verse 3, "And the king of Israel sent into his
servants, know ye that Ramoth and Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not
out of the hand of the king of Syria." So what does Ahab say? He's like, "Hey, you
know, didn't you know that like Ramoth, it's basically ours. We should just like
conquer it. We should take it over. We should campaign together to expand the
kingdom here. It's still, and you know, no one's gonna, no one's like taking it, so
like let join me is basically what he's saying to, you know, overcome these people
and take over this land. Verse 4 says, "And he said unto Jehoshaphat, 'Wilt thou go
with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?' And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, 'I
am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.'" Now here's the
problem here is that, you know, he's telling Jehoshaphat, "Hey, will you come
fight this battle with me, right?" Let me just give you some practical advice here.
Don't join fights and battles that just don't pertain to you, especially whether
in the secular world and in the spiritual world. If it doesn't
pertain to you, don't get involved. He says, "Hey, will you join me in overcoming
Ramoth Gilead?" And, you know, Jehoshaphat's just like, "Hey, I'm like you. We're like
family. I am as thou art, your people my people, my casa tu casa," kind of thing.
"Your horses are my horses." Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, "Inquire, I
pray thee at the word of the Lord today." So Jehoshaphat still has some semblance of
the fear of God because they're like, "Yeah, let's do it." But we should ask God about
this first though, like to see if God wants us to do this, right? And so he obviously
has some semblance of wisdom and understanding. Verse six says, "Then the king of Israel
gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said unto them, Shall I go against
Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up, for the Lord shall
deliver it into the hand of the king." So you have Ahab and he's just like, "Oh, done.
I got 400 guys waiting on me right now." So he gets these 400 pastors, and they bring
them all together and he's just like, he gives them the $7,000 real quick. He cuts them the
check real quick for 7K, and he's like, "Now with this in mind, in light of this donation
that I just made to your ministry, do you think I should go up?" Now obviously everyone
already knows that Ahab wants to conquer Ramoth Gilead. They know that. And they're just like,
"Go up, because the Lord's going to deliver it into your hands." They're just like, "Yeah,
you should do it. You should overcome it." And keep in mind, these are prophets, or so-called
prophets of God. These are people that are masquerading as prophets of God, and this
is the answer that they're giving him. So skip down to verse 15. I'm going to cut some
out of the story real quick, because it's outside of the scope of the sermon. But basically,
you have him asking these 400 prophets. They're a bunch of yes men. They're not really saying
what the word of God says. And then, you know, Jehoshaphat is just like, Hey, is there anybody
else we can ask? Because these guys all kind of say the same thing. They're all kind of
using the same language. You know, it just doesn't sound very sincere. So then Ahab is
just like, well, I know about one guy, but I hate him. That's literally what he says.
He's like, I hate this guy because he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil. And
his name is Micaiah. Okay. And Micaiah is like a fundamental Baptist. You know what I mean?
And he's just not, he's rough around the edges. He doesn't agree with the 400 prophets. He
didn't get a check for 7,000. It's just, that's not his thing, you know? So he comes and he
doesn't really care about what's going on. And so he just like, oh yeah, go, you know,
just go do it. And then he's just like, you need to tell me the truth. And he's like, all right,
you're going to go and you're going to die. And then he's like, see, I knew he wasn't going to
say anything good about me. It's like, I knew it. And so he ends up getting arrested and, you know,
he gets persecuted because he actually prophesied the truth unto him. Cause you know, Micaiah is
basically saying like, Hey, you know, if you go, you're going to be scattered. You're going to be
destroyed. This is what God is sanctioning on you. And he's just like, Oh, I hate what you're saying.
I don't want the truth. He gets mad at the messenger and he imprisons him because of it. Okay.
Look at verse 15. He says, so he came to the king and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go
against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall we forbear? And he answered him, go and prosper for the Lord
shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the king said to him, how many times shall I
adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? And he said,
I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said,
these have no master. Let them return every man to his own house and peace. And the king of Israel
said to Jehoshaphat, did not I tell thee that he should prophesy no good concerning me but evil?
And he said, hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne
and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
And the Lord said, okay, so before I get into this, so he finally tells him the truth. He says,
this is what's going to happen. And, you know, he has not happy about this. So then Micaiah begins
to describe what the spiritual scenario is. He begins to show him a scene in heaven because he's
a prophet. God's given this giving him this divine revelation. And he begins to talk about the fact
that he's sitting, he's seeing the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing
by him on his right hand and on his left. Now, who are the hosts of heaven? This is obviously
referring to angelic beings. Okay. Now you may think to yourself, oh, it's only good angels,
right? No, it's actually also bad angels. And here's what a lot of people get confused. They
think that heaven is only filled with good angels. But according to the Bible, evil angels and
even Satan himself still has permission to go before the throne of God. Not because they're
welcome there or something like that. Not because they haven't been, you know, they have a chance
to get saved or something. It's because they're still given an account unto God. And in fact,
we have an example of this in Job chapter one, where Satan comes also among them. And what does
God say? You know, tell me what you've been doing. And he's like, oh, I've been going to and fro,
you know, in all the earth. And then he's basically having him give an account
of all the things that he's been up to. Okay. So this is why we have this group of entities,
these demonic entities in heaven. So Micaiah is describing this, look at verse 20. And the Lord
said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? Now I want you to
notice that statement. So God is there and he goes to the angels like, so any volunteers,
who's going to go down and basically convince Ahab that he should go to battle so that he can fall?
What does it say? It's saying that God wants Ahab to go to war because God wants Ahab to die.
So in order for him to do so, he has to convince Ahab that he's got a winning chance. Now I know
you never heard this in Sunday school class, but this is a real story here. This is how God operates.
He's like, who shall go? Right? And he volunteers and one said on this manner and another said on
that manner. So you have these, you know, angels and they're just like, I got an idea. And it's
just like, ah, that's lame. Anybody else? And he's just like, well, what about this? And he's just
like, nah, we've already, we already did that. That's played out already, you know? And so
everyone's kind of giving their take or their idea of what they should do. But I want you to
notice verse 21 and there came forth the spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade
him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying
spirit. And here's the kicker in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade
them and prevail also go forth and do so. So when we rewind back to the beginning of the story
and we see these 400 prophets telling Ahab, yeah, go do it. The latter end of the chapter explains
to us that the reason they're saying is because there's a lying spirit in their mouths. There is
a demonic entity motivating these 400 prophets to preach lies, you understand, to say that which is
wrong. Okay. And you say, what's the point of bringing this up? Well, look at verse 23 says,
now therefore, behold, the Lord had put a line spirit in the mouth of all thy prophets and the
Lord had spoken evil concerning thee. The Bible says. So what's the point of bringing this up?
Well, I'm trying to show you that there's instances where God allows a line spirit in the mouth of the
prophets. And yeah, we see this in the Old Testament, but let me just tell you right now,
this is also a thing in the New Testament. There's 400 prophets out there with the line spirit.
There's 400 mega church pastors out there with the line spirit. There's a lot of people out there
preaching lies and heresy. Why? Because they love the wages of unrighteousness. That's why,
because they'd rather please Ahab. They want to have it in good with their other 399 prophets
than actually preach the truth. That's what it is. You say, what are you trying to say? I'm trying
to say a lot of these pastors are demonically possessed. That's what it is. They got a line
spirit. You say, how do you know? Because you can prove all things, hold fast to that, which is good.
You can see what they're saying and look at the Bible and say, no, that's a lie. No, you're
misinterpreting that. What's going on? Oh, he's just deceived. He's just confused. No, it's called
the lying spirit. Prophets today, they have that lying spirit. They have an evil angel among them,
motivating them to preach lies and heresy. There are times when God sends a lying spirit into the
mouth of false prophets because the people refuse to receive the truth. You say, why would God allow
that? Well, I'll tell you why, because there's a supply and demand of lies. That's why. You know,
there's people out there that actually don't want the truth. I know you probably don't think that
because you're here. You want to know the truth. You read the Bible. It's kind of absurd to you
that someone would actually want lies. But there's people out there that love lies. They like when
their politicians lie to them. They like it when their pastors lie to them. They just love to
consume lies. And so you know what happens? God says, okay, you like lies? I'm going to send you
a person that only gives you lies so that you can be destroyed because you hate the truth,
because you don't want to know what the Bible says. You don't want to know doctrine. Therefore,
I'm going to send you lies. I'm going to send you a lying prophet, an evil angel in the mouth of the
prophets to lead you astray because you don't want the truth. You can't handle the truth.
False prophets prosper because there is a demand for lies. God allows deception where truth has
been rejected. And let's just be honest, you know, many claim to love the truth, but inwardly,
they just hate it. A lot of people, oh, I just want the truth. No, you don't. No, you don't.
Here's the proof that you don't want the truth. You get offended when the truth is actually given
to you and then you make excuses for it. When the clear, you know, statements of the Bible are
actually given to you, you're like, well, that just can't be the interpretation of it. I just
quoted it. It's like you quote scripture and it is like you're misinterpreted that I didn't
interpret it. I just quoted it. You know, that demonstrates that you hate the truth. And as
judgment, God gives them teachers who preach lies. Go to second Thessalonians chapter two,
second Thessalonians chapter two, if you would. This is also referred to as a delusion. You know,
people who just absorb and, you know, just eat up delusions. And you say, man, I'm kind of like
fearful to be deceived and I'm fearful to just be disillusioned and have lies preached to me. Well,
that's why you just need to read the Bible, right? For in doing so, thou shalt both save thyself and
them that hear thee. You got to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. But here's
a start. How about you just love the truth when it's given to you and not make excuses for it,
not, you know, try to excuse it away or try to argue against it. When is the truth? And let me
just say this. You know when is the truth. When a clear portion of scripture is given to you
and it just rubs you the wrong way, your automatic response should not be that can't be it. Okay,
then prove me wrong. Prove it wrong. So many claim to love the truth, but I really hate it.
When men reject truth, God allows deception to seal their destruction. Now, let me give you
a New Testament example of this, because you know, here's the argument. Yeah, but that's Old
Testament though, pastor. Yeah, but that's old. We're not under the Old Testament, right? Isn't
that what you're thinking? Isn't that what you're saying in your heart there? Well, let's go to the
New Testament then. Second Thessalonians chapter two and verse nine, it says in verse nine, even
him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness and then that perish because they receive not the love of
the truth that they might be saved. So let me just give you some context. This is addressing
the Antichrist and it's saying that when the Antichrist comes, a lot of people, the majority
of this world are going to believe him. They're going to worship him. Why? Because they don't
want to receive the love of the truth. And that's sad, is it not? You know, a lot of people are going
to go to hell just because they refuse the love of the truth. What's the love of the truth? That
Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins, that he resurrected on the third day to
save you, that salvation is a free gift offered to you, not by works of righteousness, which we
have done. It's not by repenting of your sins. It's not by doing good works. It's not by the
keeping of the commandments. It's by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. His resurrection,
when you place your faith exclusively, you can have eternal life. That can't be. Why do you hate
the truth? Why do you hate the truth? You know why so many churches out there are packed out?
So many churches that preach a false gospel are packed out because people just hate the truth.
Something as lovely as the gospel can't get more lovelier than that. A free gift, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works that any man
should boast. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness. I mean, God just lays it out for you. He's just like, just
come receive the gift. It's free. It's paid for. Well, we, I just can't believe we have to do
something. No. And even, even if you, even if he, even if he sanctioned for you to do something,
it would be impossible for you to do something because there's none righteous, no, not one.
You can't keep enough commandments to be saved. You've already broken them all because whosoever
keep it the whole law, get offended one point, he's guilty of all. Are you saying that I can
believe and just live in sin? You're sitting right now. The thought of foolishness is sin.
You're telling me that you believe you can turn from that sin to be saved, where literally you're
compassed about with sin. You have something called the corruptible flesh. How about this?
The apostle Paul said, "For in me that is in my flesh," listen to this, "dwelleth no good thing."
How about that? What you're talking about is like, "Well, I've never murdered. I've never
committed adultery." Have you ever thought a stupid thing? That's sin according to the Bible,
because the thought of foolishness is sin. So it looks like you've just relinquished salvation
there. In reality, you relinquished that a long time ago, because no one can be saved by their
good works. There's none righteous. Love the truth. Don't be a person who says, "Well, I just can't
accept the fact. I know that it's a gift, but we have to do something for it." Then it's no longer
a gift then, if that's the case. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is
no more grace. You can't say you have to work for your salvation. You say, "Yeah, but faith without
works is dead." Listen to me, being alone. If I have no one next to me, it means I'm alone. It doesn't
mean I don't exist. Never heard that before, huh? If I'm paired up with someone, I'm with someone,
and then they leave, does it mean I don't exist? I don't mean anything to you. It just means I'm
alone. Obviously, God wants us to have works, not to prove that we're safe to Him. Not because,
you know, it has something to do with our salvation because it saves others, that's why.
It benefits others, it profits others. He says in verse 11, "So they receive not the love of the
truth that they might be saved, and for this cause," so listen to me, for this cause, what cause?
Because they don't love the truth. "For this cause, God shall send them strong delusion." Why? That
they should believe a lie. Read that again. He says He's going to send people strong delusions
so that they can believe a lie. I thought God wants people to hear the truth. Of course He does,
but if someone hates the truth, if they reject the truth, if they mock the truth, God says,
"Okay, I'll give you a delusion. Since you love lies so much, I'll just make you believe
that the lie that you have is actually the truth." Oh, I just don't understand how a loving God,
that's how He does it. You know, and I'm sick and tired of hearing this where people just say,
"I just can't believe how a loving God fill in the blank." How about you ask yourself this question,
"I can't believe that a person would reject a loving God, how about that? I just can't seem
to understand how anybody can reject a loving God." That's a better question. Now, it's not done,
though. New Testament, that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned, who believed
not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness. So it sounds to me that God allows delusions in
certain people so that they just continue to believe a lie and go to hell because of it.
Now, that might have just hit you like a ton of bricks because you're used to the sermons of the
400 prophets. You know, you're used to the 400 prophets saying that God loves you, Satan loves
you, hell's cold and all these lies. But this is literally what the Bible is saying here. Now,
don't misunderstand me. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Meaning that God's default setting is that he wants all
men to be saved. However, the Bible tells us that when someone hates the truth and they revel in the
truth, when the truth is presented to them and they scorn it, they hate it, they don't want it,
they put it away from themselves, God says, "You don't think that hurts God? You don't think that
bothers God?" So God says, "Okay, if you're going to mock the truth, then I'll just give you a strong
delusion so that you just continue to believe a lie." What's the point here? The point is this is
the reason why false prophets exist today. And let me just say this is the vast majority of
Christians do believe in false prophets, they just don't understand who they are. They know that the
Bible teaches false prophets, but if I gave you two examples of false prophets, you'd probably
think that they're righteous people. A lot of Christians. You know why? Because they don't
necessarily know how to identify who the false prophet actually is. And let me just make it real
simple for you. You find a pastor that preaches a false gospel, false prophet. If there's a pastor
out there that preaches any salvation outside of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ exclusively
to be saved, false prophet according to the Bible. And in fact, Galatians chapter one says that
they're accursed. How about that? Because they preach another gospel. I know we like to apply
that to Mormons and it's true because they believe that Moroni gave Joseph the message and gave him
another testament. And it absolutely applies to them, but it just applies to all false prophets
all across the board. So anybody who preaches a false gospel, you say, "Well, I know a pastor.
It might be that he's just confused." Okay, let's give that person the benefit of the doubt.
Go present to him the truth. And if he rejects it, false prophet. That's how it works. Don't
be a respecter of people. Don't say, "Well, I've just been listening to this person for so long,
and I just can't see him." Does he preach the right gospel? Well, no, false prophet,
lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets. It exists, folks. You know why it exists? Because
there's people out there that hate the truth. That's why. And so there is a supply and demand
for lies, unfortunately. There's people out there who claim to love the truth. There's people out
there on Instagram, on Facebook, and they claim to just love the truth, but in actuality, they don't.
And let me just make this public service announcement, lest you should forget. This
also applies to priests of Catholics and Orthodox as well. Why? Because they preach a false gospel.
It doesn't matter if they have traditional values. Traditional values don't get you to
heaven. What is that? They're like, "Yeah, but they're really manly." So what? They're not saved.
And they're damning people to hell. It's time to allow our standard of what we deem as being
righteous doctrine to kind of just tighten up a little bit. Stop being so broad with your gospel
and your salvation doctrine because the Bible is very strict in this regard. Well, they're just a
little off. You know, a little off can just send you straight to hell though. That's just it. But
I'm speaking to people who love the truth though. So you shouldn't be offended at this. And if you're
struggling to love the truth, then you needed to develop an appetite for the truth today.
Develop it today and say, you know what? I don't like the way you're saying it. You sound kind of
mean, but what you're saying is true. I'll accept that because the Bible says though I be rude in
speech, yet not in knowledge. The Bible tells us in second Timothy chapter four, turn with me if
you would go to Jeremiah chapter five, Jeremiah chapter five, second Timothy chapter four, verse
three for the time will come will when they will not endorse sound doctrine but
after their own less shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto
fables so the Bible is telling us here that this people who just don't want the
truth they want fables what's a fable it's a lie false doctrine they like that
stuff okay they like the fantasy they like the lies they like the Jewish
fables they like anything that's just not the truth okay point that I'm making
here is that evil angels are sent among them they exist today and you know what
the evil angel is not in your house flicking on the lights on and off and
moving objects okay it's not some poltergeist in your house speaking on a
voice recorder writing you know on the mirror something like that and that's
just your electricity or something you know I mean yeah that's what people want
to believe it they're just like no no no you know the cup moved you know I'm not
saying that stuff doesn't exist but but here's the thing you know you do what's
far more prevalent is the evil angels among the prophets that's far more
prevalent and you know stop worrying about the poltergeist in your house you
know and start worrying about the poltergeist the the 400 demons that live
inside the prophet preaching lies to you okay Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 5 in
verse 31 the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests verse 31 the prophets
prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means that I want you to
notice this and my people love to have it so and what will you do in the end
thereof man that's scary like the prophets are preaching heresy the the
priests are lording over the flog and people are like how can you love that
and you wonder why God has to send strong delusions you don't have to turn
there but let me read you from Isaiah 66 in verse 4 says I will also choose
their delusions and will bring their fears upon them because when I called
none did answer when I spake they did not hear but they did evil before mine
eyes and chose that in which I delighted not so you know how can a loving God
well let's just answer this question first why are they delighting in
abominations why do they delight in lies and heresy and false prophets and
all the nonsense you know instead of asking why would God send a strong
delusion here's your answer because they love lies Ezekiel 14 go with me would to
1st John chapter 4 1st John chapter 4 we're gonna flip back and forth from old
and New Testament this will show you how to navigate through the scriptures and
find them you can obviously use the table of contents in the front of the
Bible as well to help you as you're turning to 1st John chapter 4 I'm gonna
read to you from Ezekiel 14 in verse 9 it says in it and if the prophet be
deceived when he had spoken a thing I the Lord had deceived that prophet and I
will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my
people Israel see here's the side that a lot of people don't like to talk about
when it comes to God he deceives the prophet the prophet in order to destroy
them he's gonna stretch his hand upon them and he wants them to fall so how
can I avoid this look at first John four verse six we are of God he then knoweth
God here with us he that is not of God here with not us here by we know the
spirit of truth and the spirit of error you know the truth when you hear if
you're a safe person you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ you have the Holy
Spirit of God dwelling within you you know when you're listening to the truth
even if it offends you a little bit even if it rubs you the wrong way a little
bit even if it steps on your toes a little bit you know for a fact you walk
the way saying you know what that is true though it's right there in the
Bible that's true and so you know obviously you know the truth when you
hear it as a Christian who saved the point being here though is that you need
to make sure that you accept the truth when it's given to you and not just make
excuses for it and then begin to delight in the prophets that have the evil angel
among them go to Judges chapter 9 Judges chapter 9 if you would what's the title
of the sermon evil angels among them sometimes God sends an evil spirit to a
particular person for an evil intent upon that individual the first example
that we saw is that he sent an evil angel or a lying spirit in first Kings
22 in the mouth of the prophets because people just hate the truth okay and let
me just say this you know as a last point to that first point and that is
that's why it's important for you to be in a right church got to be in a right
church where the truth is being given to you and you know notice you know we got
a light here but no purple lights no smoke and mirrors and you know it's not
that we can't afford screens okay the reason we don't have is because we want
you to turn to the Bible the physical Bible in your hand okay and you know we
may not have all the bells and whistles of all the other churches but you know
what we got the Bible which is the most important thing and all that stuff is a
show it's just like to kind of trick you into the lie that they're trying to
give you they're taking off your nose evil angels among the number two
sometimes there's an evil spirit of division and what am I referring to here
well look at Judges chapter 9 verse 22 it says here in Judges 9 verse 22 when
Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel then God sent an evil spirit
between Abimelech and the men of Shechem and the men of Shechem dealt
treacherously with Abimelech now Abimelech is Gideon's son and he's just
an extremely wicked person okay he's a murderer he's deceitful he's just
extremely evil and wicked and God wants him to be destroyed but let me say this
is that Shechem is equally evil they're both bad okay now the reason God is
doing is he sent in an evil spirit between Abimelech and Shechem it says
here in verse 24 that the cruelty done to the three score and ten sons of Jerubal
might come and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother which slew them
and upon the men of Shechem which aided him in the killing of his brethren so
what do we see here we see that God sent an evil spirit between these two groups
not because he favors the one over the other because he wants them both to be
destroyed so he sends division a spirit of division between these two groups
why so they can basically devour each other yes you heard right there are
times when God sends an evil spirit between wicked people not because he
favors one side but because he intends judgment upon both okay in the case of
Abimelech and Shechem neither party was righteous both were complicit in
bloodshed both were guilty God did not defend Shechem God did not vindicate
Abimelech he turned them against each other why well because he wanted them to
be destroyed look at verse 24 of Judges 9 that the cruelty done to the three
scorned ten sons of Jerobel might come okay now what what's the application here
well sometimes God can weaponize the wicked against themselves by using other
wicked people let's apply this to nations because you know sometimes God
says an evil spirit not just between individuals who are wicked sometimes he
does it to nations you know the dumb disposition of people sometimes is they
have to choose a side all these two nations are fighting got to choose a
side what if like God's not on either side what if they're just both wicked
what if God just wants to destroy both now if you don't like what I'm saying
reference the first point I love the truth man when nations rage against each
other it does not automatically mean one side is righteous and the other is evil
sometimes both are corrupt sometimes both are under judgment sometimes God
simply removes restraint and it just lets evil destroy evil amen
kind of quiet in here man all right second Chronicles 20 23 says for the
children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir
utterly to slay and destroy them and when they had made an end of the
inhabitants of Seir everyone helped to destroy another so both of these nations
are corrupt or wicked they're vile and yet God's allowing them to kind of hate
each other in order to destroy each other how can God do such a thing just
like that it's like oh you're wicked and you're wicked you lust after power you
lust after power you're greedy you're greedy send an evil spirit and then they
just fight each other and they just God ends up judging both nations using both
nations that's how it works Psalm 9 verse 16 says the Lord is known by the judgment
which he executed the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands the Bible
says the wicked will often fall by their own sword so we must be careful not to
necessarily baptize one at one side of the conflict as being godly sin because
they're opposed to a wicked ruler or whatever maybe and obviously this even
applies within churches you know sometimes there's an evil spirit within
a church right and the Bible calls for churches to be unified not all
Christians to be unified it's very important to you that we make that
distinction so I'm just like oh we all just need to come together no bad idea
as Christians out there to just believe wrongly they practice wrongly and God
wants us to be separate but he does want unity within a local New Testament
church to endeavor to keep the spirit of unity in the faith the Bible says in
Ephesians chapter 5 in church he does not want division in a church and this
is why folks listen to me this is why it's important that we all believe the
same foundational doctrines we're not gathered together because we we love a
certain band or something like that okay it's just like we're just banded
together because we just hate a group of people or something like that or
because we love one group of people we're banded together because we love
the truth and when we're specific about it we agree on salvation the doctrines
of Christ the Bible right evangelism and quite frankly in our church we agree on
secondary and tertiary subjects as well such as the Jews such as you know end
times Bible prophecy you understand and so obviously the core beliefs of a
church we need to be unified in that area we all need to agree on salvation if
you don't agree on salvation you need a you know either start a green or you
gotta find another church okay because obviously there's major conflict there
if you believe in a false gospel you know if you don't believe Jesus Christ
is God you got to hit the road right like if you believe like that that
Satan is the brother of Jesus or something like leave now like you could
literally just get up and walk out right now I'll wait I'm just kidding because
we should agree on the doctrines of Christ and not be like well you know
they disagree over here a little bit on that and this group definitely believes
that Jesus Christ is God this one they're kind of on the fence what the
world is that called the vision you say why do churches exist like that because
obviously they hate the truth so therefore God sends that divisive spirit
within the church and now they're divided right now there is no harmony
when it comes to doctrine and look sometimes there's division between the
congregants in their pastor right where like the congregants don't get along
with their pastor they criticize their pastor and vice-versa oh but when
they're in front of each other hey brother praise the Lord Jesus Christ and
then they walk away like he is so arrogant he's just can you believe you
know they're just gossip about leadership leadership gossips about you
this is a real thing right this is a legitimate thing where there's division
within the church you know I'm not saying you have to like like love me a
lot but there should be some semblance of love between us as the pastor I know
I'm hard to love sometimes so I get it what I'm saying is that you know when it
comes to nations though God does not always choose sides sometimes he just
judges both okay and so don't think like oh man I got to choose this side
because this side just seems better or whatever who do we choose between you
know the Jews who do we choose between Israel and anybody they're fighting with
well in that point you know you got that's different I'm just kidding they're
both bad all right go to first Samuel chapter 16 first Samuel chapter 16 first
Samuel chapter 16 now I encourage you to go listen to my sermon from last week if
you don't agree with what I just said because last week's sermon and Sunday
morning I talked about a lot of that talked about the cabal here's probably
one of the most explicit examples of God sending evil angels among them so the
first example we saw is that he sent evil angels among the false prophets in
order for them to prophesy lies the second example we see is they sometimes
he sends them between individuals and we give the example there of Sheikah and
Abimelech in order to cause division so that they're both destroyed this last
example is where God sends an evil angel to a believer because that believer is
rebellious and wicked and God wants to destroy that person okay look at first
Samuel chapter 16 and verse 13 then Samuel took the horn of oil and anoint
him in the midst of his brethren and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from
that day forward so Samuel rose up and went to Rhema so we know here that David
is now sanctioned to be the king of Israel okay we look at the history of
Israel they were under the system of the judges for over 300 years a judge wasn't
a king he's just someone who is kind of operates like a military general he
leads the nation but not in a kingly form it's not a monarchy because during
that time the nation of Israel was still considered a theocracy meaning that God
was their king right he was directly you know he basically ruled over them as God
but then you know you have the nation of Israel they're like we want a king like
every other nation he raises up Saul, Saul becomes the king but then Saul
begins to mess up and then God thereafter raises up David to be the king
look at verse 14 so we see the spirit of the Lord comes upon David verse 14 says
but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him now let's clarify some things okay because before I get into
the actual application here a lot of people will use this verse to teach that
people could lose their salvation I mean Saul is used all the time for this and
you know part part of the reason why is because you know Saul was just a bad
testimony so part of his punishment is that he's just used unfortunately to
teach false doctrine okay because people teach like oh yeah you can lose your
salvation look at Saul you know the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul
and people automatically equate that with what losing your salvation but what
does it mean when the Bible says that the spirit of the Lord departed from him
the reason people think this means that he lost his salvation is because in the
New Testament the Bible says that when we're saved we're sealed with the Holy
Spirit right we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise Ephesians 4 says unto
the day of redemption no Hebrews 13 says I'll never leave you know for safety okay
and various passages in the New Testament indicate that at the moment
of salvation the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us and he's there
forever right he's the earnest of our inheritance so automatically people look
at a verse like this and say oh that means that Saul lost his sense the
spirit of the Lord departed from it but let me explain two things one the reason
the Spirit of God departed from Saul like he did with others even if they
weren't involved in sin it's because of the fact that he the Spirit of God did
not permanently indwell believers in the Old Testament okay because there's
other instances where the Spirit of God came upon people and then he left not
because they're wicked because they're just not filled with the Spirit they're
after the departing of the Spirit means that Saul was no longer filled with the
Spirit I'm referring to the indwelling and furthermore the Bible teaches us
that the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation regenerates the dead spirit
okay so this is what happens the day that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
the Holy Spirit came within you and brought your dead spirit back to life
that's what salvation is not by works of righteousness which we have done but
according to his mercy he saved us by the washing and regeneration of who of
the Holy Ghost so he comes regenerate your dead spirit now you're saved now
you are a new man you understand but now in the or what we see in the Old
Testament is that when the Spirit of God will come upon someone that is the
equivalent to being filled with the spirit to be able to carry out a
particular task to have boldness right to have courage so when Saul was filled
with the spirit that's when he actually obeyed God he was actually carrying out
his kingly responsibilities as the king of Israel he was filled with the spirit
but when he began to rebel against the Lord now the Spirit of the Lord departed
from him and the Bible says here that an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him
look at verse 15 Saul's servant said unto him behold now an evil spirit from God
troubleeth thee let our Lord now command thy servants which are before thee to
seek out a man who is a cunning player on a harp and it shall come to pass when
the evil spirit from God is upon thee that he shall play with his hand and
thou shalt be well so this is kind of interesting it says you know Saul would
get this evil spirit and it seems to indicate that his spirit affected his
attitude right and we can see how that is because spirit in the Bible although
is referring to that part of our being right but we some people would call the
soul the spirit also is referring to your attitude okay be renewed in the
spirit of your mind Ephesians 4 is talking about your attitude so you can
see how like if he has an evil spirit it's referring to the fact that whatever
demonic entity is there troubling him it's affecting his attitude so this is
why his servants are like hey we'll just get someone to play you know little
music for you little harp there calm you down chill you out a little bit and
people have uses and say oh yeah you see if you listen to good music and just
calms you down it can really yeah but then you know David's playing the harp
and you know Saul still trying to throw a javelin at him you know it's not really
working you know because he still has that evil spirit so although the Bible
plainly states that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and that an evil
spirit from the Lord troubled him this doesn't mean he lost his salvation and
in fact think about this think about this the fact that God is punishing Saul
with an evil spirit is actually an indication that he saved so why because
the Bible says whom the Lord loveth he chastened it and scourged it every son
whom he receiveth so because he's in disobedience he's in rebellion God's
gonna spank him gonna send an evil spirit unto him to trouble him because
he saved you understand and obviously one of the most powerful passages to
indicate that Saul was saved is has to do with his death because at the end of
his life he's so far gone that God's like I'm just gonna kill this guy like
God doesn't say something there's multiple times in the Bible where the
Bible says that God killed someone you know so and so he wanted to kill this
person he sought to slay this person sought to kill this person Saul is one
of them and so you know Saul is like going to the witch at Endor trying to
bring up Samuel Samuel's already in heaven and what does Samuel tell Saul he
says tomorrow thou and thy sons shall be with me or Samuel Samuel's in heaven
proving that that's where Saul was gonna go to heaven as well okay and so
very important there what we have here is severe chastisement upon Saul go to
first Samuel chapter 18 first Samuel chapter 18 if you would now why did God
allow this evil spirit to come in trouble Saul well because Saul was not
only disobedient but he was perpetually just rebellious against the Lord and he
just didn't want to get right with God and he began to persecute the righteous
okay which is David and you know there's obviously we know that as
Christians we cannot be possessed by a devil but we can be oppressed by one
though as proven here by Saul okay look at verse 8 verse 10 of chapter 18 it
says and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon
Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house and David played with his hand
as at other times and there was a javelin in Saul's hand let me explain
what this means because it's kind of weird it's like the evil spirit of the
Lord comes upon Saul and then he begins to prophesy like I thought you only
prophesy when you're filled with the spirit like the spirit of God but
prophesying in the Bible especially in the Old Testament is used
interchangeably to preach but also to sing there's instances in the Old
Testament where prophesying simply means to sing which would fit the context
because as David is playing what is Saul doing he's singing he's prophesying
okay it's not because he's filled the spirit he's just singing right look at
verse number 11 and Saul cast the javelin for he said I will smite David
even to the wall with it and David avoided out of his presence twice and
Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from
Saul go to chapter 19 chapter 19 if you would look at verse number 8 of chapter
19 and there was war again and David went out and fought with the Philistines
and slew them with the great slaughter and they fled from him and the evil
spear from the Lord was upon Saul as he sat in his house with his javelin in his
hand and David played with his hand and Saul sought to smite David even to the
wall with the javelin but he slipped away out of Saul's presence and he
smote the javelin into the wall and David fled and escaped that night. Saul
also sent messengers unto David's house to watch him and to slay him in the
morning and Macal, David's wife, told him saying if thou save not thy
life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain. So what do we see here? We see that
the evil spirit produced envy in Saul against David. He has these violent
outbursts against David. He is behaving irrationally. He has paranoia. He
thinks that David is going to usurp his authority. He thinks that David's
going to do him wrong. But why is this? Because the evil spirit of the Lord is
upon him and it's destroying his mind. He has this hatred for the righteous. Let
me just say this, you know, this is a good motivation incentive, should I say,
for you and for me to just stay right with God. Why? Because we don't want some
evil spirit to plague us where, you know, we just have no peace in our lives. We
just, you know, we're paranoid against a brother or sister in Christ. We have
these violent outbursts towards them. There's Christians out there that are
like that. Folks, there's Christians out there right now, listen to me, right now
who are literally watching my sermon right now. Not because they love me,
because actually they hate my guts. And they're just, they're just like making
articles, just absolutely paranoid, angry, hateful. I mean, I have a lot of articles
out there about me. I'm not talking about the ADL, because they obviously have,
they are the demonic entity, you know. I'm talking about like, I'm talking about
just people, disgruntled Christians, who just did not get right with God, and now
it's like they have an evil spirit on them. You know, here's the main, this is
how you know if someone has an evil spirit, they're a Christian, when they
hate the righteous, right? When a saved person hates the righteous and wants
their downfall, that person got an evil spirit. Now we could obviously say, well
maybe that person's just not saved. True, that might be a possibility, but you know
an even greater possibility is this, is that they just have an evil spirit.
Because they're just tormented. Like, while Pastor Mejia is just on his fifth
dream, sleeping away at night, they're just up all night just hating the
ministry here, hating the church, hating the sermons, and I'm telling you right
now, they're literally dissecting everything that I say, and they've
done it for previous sermons too. You know why? Because they got an evil spirit.
That's why. It happens. And so, you know, they become irritable, suspicious,
aggression towards godly leadership. They become joyless. They have spiritual
instability. Now look, you may think to yourself, "Well, I kind of have like a
little irritability too." Yeah, that's because you didn't get enough
sleep last night or something, you know, for other reasons. Not because you
have, it's not because you have an evil spirit upon you. You just got a lazy
spirit. No, I'm just kidding. You know, you may look at this list and say, "Man, this
kind of describes me." Yeah, okay, true. However, one that does not describe you
at all and you know for a fact is that you don't hate the righteous. That's the
major thing right there because Saul exerted all these qualities, but you know
what one quality that sticks out to us the most regarding Saul is that he hated
David. Like how do you know he threw a javelin at him. Bro's like playing the
harp for him you know he's just like and then you what it's all dude just like
wrong note sucker and he's just like just kind of wonder like I saw did you
ever practice with the javelin like how come you just never hit it like bro's
like right there he's not even trying to like move or you know he's playing the
harp and you miss obviously God's protecting David but the point being here
is that the major dead giveaway that someone is plagued by an evil spirit is
that they hate the righteous and learn how to differentiate the two because
someone can look at us and say yo you hate righteous people too because you
call out churches well cuz churches need to be called out pastors need to be
called out that's a fact that's a biblical practice okay Greg Laurie and
Jack Hibbs and all the 400 prophets of bail they all need to be called out they
need to be corrected why because they got the lion spirit and you know they
might have also gotten the $7,000 check or something okay and so they need to be
called out that's not hating the righteous because I don't even think
they're righteous so that's that doesn't apply I'm talking about people who
become disgruntled okay go to Matthew chapter 18 and we're done here and look
again one of the major things is they become paranoid you know why because the
wicked flee when no man pursue it when you're just looking behind your shoulder
you think something bad is gonna happen to you or something you know the Bible
says that God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power love and a sound
mind not a reckless mind not just a careless mind but just you know a mind
that has has confidence in the Lord a mind that has faith in God a mind that
has faith in the fact that God will protect you'll provide that his
presence is with us you know I'm not worried that someone's gonna come into
our church I'm not worried that someone's gonna persecute us why because
we have legions of angels protecting us and you know what you say aren't you
afraid that something's gonna happen to you for all the stuff do you preach no
because it's when it's my time to go it's my time to go so you know and you
know what as I said in the beginning either God sanctions or he permits it
it's not like someone is gonna come in here and kill me and then God's gonna be
like oh man I wasn't I turned the other way I wasn't supposed to happen God
obviously knows everything right he's omniscient he is overall he knows what's
going on and quite frankly if you look at the biblical pattern those who
preach the hardest are those who are protected the hardest people often think
it's the other way around it's just like oh no if you preach like that someone's
gonna happen to you I mean you'll get persecuted for sure but often the life
is spared though because whosoever save it this life shall lose it but whosoever
lose it this life for my sake in the Gospels the same shall save it so here's
a good way to keep yourself alive be willing to just lose your life for the
gospel for the Word of God for the Lord and God says okay then I'll save your
life because you're obviously dying daily you're not putting yourself first
you're putting yourself out there in the front lines and so forth you're in
Matthew chapter 18 we'll finish here it says in verse 31 so when his fellow
servants saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told him to the
Lord all that was done now this is obviously a parable here that Jesus
Christ is expounding regarding a man who owed money to another individual right
and he owed this money to this Lord and then he's like I can't pay it it's just
a lot and then the Lord's like okay I forgive you of the debt which is awesome
it's a picture of salvation by the way because we all had a sin debt that we
could not pay off right we've committed sin in our lives throughout our lives
and we just can't pay it off we can do works for the rest of our life it would
just never amount to anything and so you know what our Lord did he forgave us of
debt through Jesus Christ he just said how about this you're just forgiven of
past present and future sins it's all done all right and this guy is like
super happy which obviously we would be happy too I mean at the moment of
salvation recognize like well I'm forgiven like I'm saved like what a
wonderful thing to think that God has forgiven me of all my sins big small
past present future everything like it's all clean and I didn't have to pay me
like it was paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ oh behold what manner of
love it's just like man it's awesome right so then he's like rejoicing he's
happy about and he's just like going on and then he sees a guy he's just like
oh that fool owes me money it's like ten dollars or something you know and he
goes up to him and he's just like hey you owe me money pay me with that OS
and the guy says the same thing that he said to the Lord he's just like hey give
me time and I'll pay thee all and he's just like nope and he grabs him by the
throat and he begins to like you know persecute him and harm him well the
servants of the first Lord they saw that and they're like oh man that's evil so
they went and told the Lord and they said hey this guy is over here extorting
this guy he's mistreating him despite the fact that you forgave him all that
so then the Lord was mad he was angry okay and so it says in verse 31 again so
when his fellow servants saw what was done they were very sorry and came and
told them to the Lord all that was done then his Lord after that he had called
him said unto him oh thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt
because thou desirest me shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy
fellow servant even as I had pity on thee and his Lord was wroth what does
Rothmane means wrathful he's angry and delivered him to the tormentors till he
should pay all that was due unto him so likewise shall my heavenly father do also
unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their
trespass what do we see here we see that because this guy was not willing to
forgive another person he was given over to the tormentors you know the
tormentors are the evil spirit let me just finish off with this don't be a
bitter person don't be a resentful individual don't be a person who can't
forgive someone else because all you're gonna do at that point is invite some
demonic entity to torment you and just to trouble you to just make you an
irritable person an angry individual just a just an a miserable Christian this
side of eternity forgive be kind once to another tender-hearted forgiving one
another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you and look I'm not gonna
stand up here and downplay whatever offense that you got from your family
from your dad from your mom from your siblings from your co-workers from your
boss you know if we can go all around the building tonight this morning and
probably talk about some pretty evil stuff that's happened to us you can
probably think to yourself like yeah you're saying that but I had some really
wicked stuff happen to me or people just defrauded me now let me just make
myself very clear I'm not talking about pedophiles just let me just throw that
out there okay pedophiles have no forgiveness they're not going to heaven
they're damned eternally and if you don't like that we don't accept pedophile
sympathizers in our church so you know I hope you enjoyed this service because
this will be your last one so I'm not referring to pedophile I don't believe
anybody should forgive any pedophile amen more amens on that pedophiles
according to the Bible should be hung with the millstone cast into the deepest
part of the ocean the firing squad however creative way you want to do it
they're the scum of the world God hates pedophiles okay and they should be
destroyed all of them I'm not talking about that I'm talking about other
evils that have come upon you that people have wronged you they defrauded
you they've done evil towards you and let me let's just be honest we've all
had some evil come upon us from the will of someone else someone just wronged us
and you know what it's easy to do is just kind of like simmer on that and
just think about that be angry and be like man I didn't deserve that like I
didn't deserve what they did to me I don't deserve what my parents did to me
I don't deserve what my brother and sister had done to me I don't I didn't
deserve all that evil and and no one went to bat for me nobody helped me you
know no one was there for me and you know I'm sorry about that but you need
to learn how to just forgive and move on with your life because God still forgave
you over the offenses that you did against him just remember that because
even though people have offended us greatly let me just remind you we've
offended God way more with all of our sins okay and we should forgive because
it's commanded but here's a good incentive if you don't you might be
given over to the tormentors and you know who are the most tormented people
in this world bitter people resentful people are some of the most tormented
people this side of eternity you say how do you know well how about this you
can't talk to them about anything without them bringing up some offense
right how many know what I'm talking about we can talk about any subject you
know you have that one person in your family where it's just like you talked
to them and they just always bring it around back to whatever evil happened
30 years ago you just can't get over why cuz they're tormented by it you know
I'm of the disposition that I don't want to remember past trauma you know what's
with this whole therapist trying to get you to recall those things I want to
relive those things why do I want to be reminded of that it's in the past let's
move on with their lives I don't want to start seizureing and having twitching or
whatever and salivating over some toward some trauma that happened to me 30 years
ago or whatever it may be I want to just move on from that because I'm happy
right now I have the joy of the Lord right now I love my family I love my
church and you know what forgiven and yes even forgotten but you know there's
people out there 50 years can pass and they will relive an offense as though
it happened yesterday it's a fact and you know what some of your parents are
like that let me say it again some of your parents are like that and you know
what you don't like that they're like that but if you don't change your ways
you're gonna be the same way too you're gonna be the same exact way you need to
learn the Christian virtue of forgiveness lest you should be tormented
like your parents and you know what you know it's sad that our parents are
sometimes like that it is but you know we have the Bible now though we have the
Holy Spirit of God you got this sermon you know about the tormentors it's time
to just let go and let God you know you just gotta let go and let God there's
your nice statement for them for the day okay you know sometimes you just gotta
like forgive the person and you say okay I can forgive but I have a hard time
forgetting right sometimes people say they're like I can forgive I just have a
hard time forgetting here's a good way to forget okay number one stop bringing
it up you know you remember things by bringing it up so how do I memorize the
Bible keep bringing it up how do I how do I just stop talking about all this
trauma that happened to me my just stop bringing it up folks the trauma that
happened to me in my life the only read the only time I remember them is when
other people bring it up to me so you remember when this happened to you I'm
like well I didn't know until now thank you you know thanks for reminding me of
that horrible thing that you did to my life you know but I have to like think
about I have to be like oh yeah that did happen oh man I can't believe that
happened you know then you're just in a bad mood look think about lovely things
think about honest things think about things that are of good rapport start
putting in good things into your mind and stop meditating upon the offenses
of the past because at the end of the day folks bitterness only destroys you
it doesn't destroy the person you're bitter against that's just how it works
the tormentors are there tormenting you but you what you need to do is literally
just say Lord you forgave me of all that debt I forgive the debt as well help me
to forget by helping me to remember the goodness of the Lord start making some
good memories start talking about and intentionally thinking about righteous
things what's the sermon today the sermon is simply this you know God does
send an evil spirit evil angels among them unless you should be one of them
stay right with God make sure you practice forgiveness hey forgive your
spouse by the way just want to throw that one in there too I know your
husband is rude sometimes and he might have said something mean to you get over
it forgive him because you're gonna need him to forgive you the other way around
we got a personal testimony over here apparently he's joking guys but it's
true you know you want to have a good marriage learn how to forgive like
immediately though don't sit on it for a week you know well he needs to know how
mad I am or something well here's the thing though he doesn't he's not gonna
get it because guys are just they're not like that okay just forgive and you know
what you want to sow those good seeds of forgiveness now because you're gonna
need to be forgiven because you're gonna mess up too you're gonna say
something rude you're gonna be offensive you're a sinner just like he is we need
to learn how to forgive and children forgive your parents they're not perfect
they're your parents God gave them to you it's a wonderful gift unto you you
know they're not perfect they're gonna make mistakes and you have to forgive
them for their offenses because one day you're gonna be parents you're gonna be
a mom you're gonna be a dad and guess what you're gonna repeat those same
mistakes too and you want your kids to be gracious towards you as well let's
pray father we thank you so much for your word help us Lord as your people to
avoid the evil angels as the form of punishment Lord and obviously there's
instances where we can't avoid it maybe you're pruning us you're testing us
you're trying us Lord helping us to be better help us in that moment to
exercise biblical principles to resist the devil that you flee from us that we
would draw nigh to God knowing full well that you draw nigh to us that we
would quote the scriptures rely upon the strength of the Lord and the Word of God
to see us through and I pray that you'd help us as your people to develop the
virtue of forgiveness it's not easy it's very difficult especially if we've been
bitter and resentful for years but it can be done and I pray that you'd enable
us to do so in that area we love you we thank you pray this things in Jesus name
amen please turn your song books a song number 135 song number 135