Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Why are we doing this series.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
The reason it's important to do this series is to
remind us that in our time, demonic activity has gone
to warp speed in the West. I'm simply trying to
answer three questions, and the first is why is this
happening from?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Where does it all come? And what are we supposed
to do?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We have to come to terms with what's going on
in our world right now. We have to go back
to Ephesian six, and we have to realize this is
not anything new. It's been going on for a long time,
but something happened in culture recently to take this to
warp speed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Today Today, Today, Today with Jeff Finds, pasta apologist and
Bible teaching.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You're listening to Today with Jeff Finds. My name is Aaron,
and welcome to today's program. This week, Pastor Jeff begins
a new series about being under the influence, under the
influence of culture and the influence of evil. In this message,
he sets up the aim of the series, starting by
reading from Ephesians chapter six and explaining some of the
(01:08):
deeper meaning found in the original language and the time
it was written. Let's begin this first message in this
series now with Pastor Jeff.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
This weekend we began a new series called Under the Influence,
and this series is especially powerful because of where we
find ourselves in culture at the moment. So, whether you're
listening live, wherever you are, I really want to ask
you to commit to listen to the next four or
five messages because they're interconnected. If somehow you think, well,
(01:53):
that's not completed, we've not finished what there are more questions.
It's because we can't do it all in one message.
And we'll make our way through this series, and I
think at the end of it, my prayer is that
we will be we will have our spiritual eyes open
to what's going on around us, why it's happening, and
how we are to respond. So I want to start
the series in a passage with which most of us
(02:14):
are familiar. We've been reading for years, but I'm not
sure we've taken it very seriously. And it's in Ifesius,
chapter six, verse twelve. It's where the apostle Paul clearly
tells us that the Christian life is a battle. It's
an everyday battle. You wake up your battle right away.
And so let me take you through this. What I've
done is. I've written this verse, chapter six, verse twelve
(02:37):
on the board, and I want to do a little
bit of extra Jesus for I want you to learn
some words, because these words are powerful. Unless we truly
understand them, we're not going to get the We're not
going to allow this passage to pack the punch that
really can. Okay, so here's what Paul says. He says,
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers' powers and world forces of this darkness, against
(02:59):
the spear ritual forces of weakness in the heavily places.
Now again, we've read this for most of our lives.
In my late twenties and early thirties, I began to
be captivated by this passage and wondered why Paul used
certain words. Okay, so let's start with struggle. Struggle is palais,
which is the word for boxing or wrestling or any
(03:20):
kind of combat. You and I think of it in
a kind of benign form. But the word paul uses,
which is different from other words for battle or the
idea of striving or struggling. This particular word refers to
an aggressive kind of boxing or wrestling. In fact, boxing
today again is it's not benign, it's pretty brutal. But
(03:43):
back in Roman days boxing, the boxing gloves actually had
blades on the end of them. So when you were
in a boxing match, you just weren't fighting to win
about you were fighting for your life. And usually in
a boxing match and a wrestling match, somebody was not
only going to lose, they were gonna die. So it
was your fighting ultimately to the death. So the struggle,
(04:04):
the struggle is intense, we're fighting for our lives. Is
not against flesh and blood. So he uses hi may
and he uses sarka. These are two words when used together,
it's meant to separate what is in the celestial, what
is up there that can't be seen from the terrestrial,
is in what is material, what can be seen. So
he says, this struggle, this battle for life and death,
(04:26):
is not fought in flesh and blood. It's not hand
to hand combat physically speaking, but against and then he
mentions three things. Now again earlier on, I just passed
over them. Then I began to see what he was
actually doing by choosing these specific words rulers, powers, and
world forces. The word for rulers is arcas from which
(04:47):
we get our word architect. So what Paul's doing here,
he is establishing a well organized strata. He's saying that
the demonic forces against which we struggle are organized, just
like we have Congress who draws up the legislation, and
then the generals who develop strategy.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And then the men and women who are in.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Our own forces go out deployed and march in to
accomplish the strategy and the legislation. He's telling us that
the evil empire that we cannot see is also very
well organized. So he says, rulers, the architects, they draw
out the plans. The same word as principalities. It's the
(05:32):
highest order of demons. It's the authorities who determine legislation.
And then it's also against the powers. This is euxusius,
which is the word from which we get our word execute.
So these are the generals who lead the demonic forces,
who are supposed to execute the principality orders or the
highest order of demons, and the architect of whatever the
(05:55):
law or the bill, for lack of a better word is,
and it's against world force is. This is the cosmokrators
that we've talked about. Before this is specific reference to
the terrestrial. So what Paul is saying is when you
look at how men and women around the world, dictators, leaders, powers,
(06:15):
governments are operating, make sure you understand that they're the
final piece of the puzzle, but not the original piece
of the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
The architect of.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What's happening comes from the demonic leaders, the principalities, passed
down to the general demons, who then execute it as
they dupe human forces into their way of thinking and
use them as the vehicle to get this dastardly deed done.
And so what Paul is giving us is a higherarchy.
(06:45):
He's given us a strata of demonic forces. He says
that our battles not in the hero and now against flesh.
It's in the here and now, but not against flesh,
but it's against a highly strategized orchestrated, organized demonic force
that intends to work through people who are not protected
ultimately by the spirit of Christ. He says, these world
(07:08):
forces are of this darkness against Again, he riphasizes the spiritual,
so's he's making a comparison against what is called the numatica.
What is spiritual, what cannot be seen over and against
the physical what can be seen the darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness. So now do we have a
(07:29):
fourth strata. And by the way, this word wickedness, forces
of wickedness almost always has to do not always, almost
always has to do with sexual perversion. So it's Paul's
way of saying that you know you're fighting this battle
into a culture that has a cosmokrator that originates from
the art cost from the principalities of the spirits of
(07:51):
the air. You know you're fighting those forces. One of
the ways you know that is culture becomes incredibly evil,
especially in the area of sexual perversion. And he says,
this battle, these forces of weakness are in the heavenly places. Now,
this doesn't mean heaven in the sense of where we
go when we die to be with Jesus. This is
the Greek word of iranos, which is a word that
(08:11):
simply refers to atmosphere. So in the Lord's prayer, when
Jesus says, when you pray, pray our father, who are
in heaven, he's not talking about the final heaven you
and I will go to. He's talking about our father,
who's closer than the air that we breathe who's all
around you can't see him, but he's there.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So taking all that.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Together, we're supposed to learn there's a different strata and
rankings of the demons in a supernatural empire that is
very real, that's highly organized. There are dupes in men
and women of Satan and his demons who they need
to use and occupy to accomplish their dastardly deeds. And
then it's highly structured and organized for the most destructive
(08:51):
warfare possible. So just in this one verse, Paul is
trying to tell us the battle is real, it's every day.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
There are four this is around you that are unseen.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
They are highly structured, that are highly organized, and they need,
so to speak, a host through whom to work to
accomplish what they're trying to accomplish, which is ultimately the
defeat of everything that is good in righteousness and righteous
and ultimately to take people away from God. So we
learn four quick things. Number one, the unseen impacts the scene.
(09:25):
The reason I pro wrote the name Louis Pastor there
is because if you've studied the sciences, you know that
he was the first one to come up with what
is called spontaneous generation or germ theory. So in the
eighteen hundreds, people thought that viruses just appear out of
nowhere and there's no explanation and they're not connected to
anything else. Louis Pastor came along and said, no, that's
not true. There are millions of germs everywhere that land
(09:46):
on your food, that land on your body, that land
here and there that you can't see, that impacts and
determines the physical world. And at first that was something
they said, we got to keep this away from people.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
That'll freak them out.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
They when they they realize the enemies all around and
they could be tainted somehow by these viruses that will
cause mass chaos. And of course Louis Pastor said no,
because a lot of these are ultimately harmless. But we
need to be aware there is an unseen world that
impacts the seen world, the celestial or the atmosphere impacting
(10:19):
the terrestrial. Second, by the way, it's important to know
that what is true in the biological world is true
in the spiritual world. That's what Jesus teaches. In the
same way that spontaneous generation occurs, there's also a generation
of demonic forces that impact the physical world. Second, the
demonic forces are well organized. You have architects who determine legislation,
(10:41):
generals who execute the strategy, and forces who march and enact.
These forces are human, but they're greatly impacted by.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The spirit world.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Third, the demonic forces are led by Satan. Now, Satan
is the ultimate. He's like the president Okay of this world.
But he is not omniscient. He's not all knowing, he's
not omnipotent. He is not all powerful, and he's not omnipresent.
He can't be everywhere. He's not Jesus, and he doesn't
have the power of God. But he does have demonic
(11:12):
forces that are present everywhere, legions that are present everywhere
that carry out these dastardly deeds. And Fourth, the demonic
forces are anti God and anti Christ. They seek to
corrupt all that is good, to deceive all people and
all nations, to destroy allegiance away from God.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And that's the entire.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Dammit of ideology, coming from the forces of evil, dethrone God,
ruin the lives of people. Jesus said, I came to
give life, but the thief there is one who comes
to rob and distill and ultimately to destroy Now bottom
line here, why are we doing this series.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The reason it's important to do this series is to.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Remind us that in our time, demonic activity has gone
to warp speed in the West. I was just back
in my home in Tennessee and I got to see
my brothers. I had a good conversation with my younger brother.
They said, you know, Jeff, something has changed.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Have you noticed?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And I had noticed because Tennessee, you know, East Tennessee's
has been the middle of the Bible Belt.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And quite frankly, I.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Was shocked at see to see It's been years since
I've been back, but shocked to see some of the
things I was witnessing.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
We had.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I mean, can you imagine East Tennessee road rage? I
mean people were cutting each other off. I mean we're
not talking about the traffic that we have here in
LA and yet there was so much rage all around me,
of people pulling in, people hogging their horns. There seemed
to be just a culture or an overarching sense of
anger that I did not notice and had not noticed before.
(12:44):
There's also vulgarity. I was not used to having people
behind the counter at restaurants in public places, cursing so
much and profanity, and it's just like language has gone
to a different level in East Tennessee, something you wouldn't
have seen ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. I'm not trying
to glorify the past, folks. I'm simply saying things are
moving rapidly, they are changing. I noticed an intense degree
(13:07):
of anger and frustration and bitterness and rage and hopelessness, fear,
especially among the next generation, a sense of hopelessness arising. Immorality,
pornographies off the charts in East Tennessee now, adultery, debauchery everywhere.
In fact, i went downtown Johnson City used to be
a very nice place, a pleasant place to go for coffee,
(13:29):
for a restaurant, for walking in the parks and the fountains.
It's totally changed. Now We're not talking about San Francisco
or Portland. We're talking about a city in the Midwest,
in the middle of the Bible Belt, has become drug infested,
filled with prostitution. It just seems like you can feel
this incredible, corrupt, evil cloud hanging over the city. It
(13:52):
was scary, it was frightening, but at the same time,
it was so disappointing this series that we're doing right now.
I'm simply trying to answer three questions, and the first
is why is this happening?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
From? Where does it all come? And what are we
supposed to do?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
We have to come to terms with what's going on
in our world right now. We have to go back
to Ephesian six, and we have to realize this is
not anything new. It's been going on for a long time,
but something happened in culture recently to take this to
warp speed. So let's answer the first question quickly. We
don't have time to go through the whole thing this weekend.
We're going to set the stage. Why is this happening?
(14:29):
The answer is simple in some respects, because the Judeo
Christian values that had caused the West to prosper have
slowly been eradicated, thus removing the blessings that are associated
with them. For the last two thousand years, the Jesus
movement had infiltrated much of the Western world and has
(14:52):
brought with it an economic flourishing and a pushing back
of demonic forces. These demonic forces are real, but they
have no chance. They cannot stand against the authority and
the power of Judeo Christian values and against Jesus and
his christ followers themselves. But what happens when those things
(15:13):
are eradicated from culture and society now? So, no, the
past generation was not perfect, But because of the Jesus
movement beginning about two thousand years ago and infiltrating much
of the West, we know in scripture that Jesus, when
he began his ministry, one of the first things he
did is began to cast out demons, because his power
was greater than demonic forces.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And part of his ministry was to come and to.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Undo them, to relegate them to the fringes, to set
them up for one day ultimate judgment.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Again, let me read it to you in Matthew chapter twelve.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God,
surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you. Or
how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder
his goods unless he first binds the strong man, and
then he will plunder his house. So Jesus saw his
ministry as binding the strong man. Luke ten again the
seventy Return of Joy Lord, even the demons are subject
to us in your name, In your name and he
(16:07):
said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning. So
with the Jesus movement two thousand years ago, if you
go back and look at all of history before Christ,
you're gonna see a dramatic change in the West. As
the Gospel started to penetrate every culture, as it made
its way through Asia, Asia Minor, as Paul and his
missionary journeys, culture began to change. There's no doubt about
(16:29):
that is an historical reality. So if these same places
attempt to eradicate Jesus, it does so at its own peril.
That means the demonic forces that have been relegated to
the fringes can now come back in and take center stage.
That means that the rulers and the powers and the
principalities can return, that the walls will have been broken down,
(16:51):
and the armies now are free to march back in.
I want to read to you something that Jesus taught
in Matthew twelve. Here's what he said in verse forty three.
When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it
goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
Then it says, I will return to the house I
left when it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept
(17:14):
clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes
with it seven other spirits, more wicked than itself, and
they go in and live there. And the final condition
of that person is worse than the first. That is
how it will be with this wicked generation. So if
you see what Jesus is saying, and this is Jesus talking,
(17:35):
it is not enough to cast out the spirits, the house,
the vessel, the nation, the generation must be occupied by
something else. And two thousand years ago Jesus leaves his
home in heaven. He overpowers the demonic forces, defeats sin
and death once and for all. The Roman Empire and
Western civilization comprised of the House of spirits. My goodness,
(17:59):
if you know anything about Greek mythology, going all the
way back down even to the when the Israelites came
into the Promised Land, you've got all these false gods,
these demonic forces that are tolerated. But when Jesus comes,
he impacts the Roman Empire of the Western world, and
suddenly into that house where demonic forces are now swept clean,
(18:23):
the spirit of God, the Gospel comes into the lives
and begins to transform one person after the next, and
the gospel spread like wildfire, and everything in the West
changed again. This is historically verifiable. Because of the Jesus Movement,
people stop sacrificing their children on molten altars. Not in say, everyone,
but there was a great movement in the Jesus Movement
(18:43):
to protect the lives of the innocent. Something that you
will not see before the Jesus Movement. People began treating
women equally because Jesus said, there's neither male nor female, Jew,
nor Greek bond or slave.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
We're all won in Christ.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Men and women stopped throwing deformed children into the river,
consider them to be waste because it was decided because
of the Jesus Movement that we are creating image of
God in all life needs to be respected because it's
a gift from God. Families began respecting one another and
living not merely for themselves, but for the family unit,
(19:17):
because the Jesus Movement taught us that the family union
and the strength of the family is the key to
culture and to success.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
The sick were no longer discarded because they were ill.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The disease were no longer put out of the city, hospitals,
places almost out of the earth began to rise up
and to ratherm to discard people who were ill, who
had disease, even if it was terminal, even it was contagious. Suddenly,
because of the Jesus Movement, you had groups of people
Christ followers taking care of the sick, even at the
(19:48):
cost of their own lives. The Ten Commandments actually began
to govern most societies in the West, either indirectly by
influence or directly because of belief. Now did society always
get it right? No, where They're still sinful, perverted, the
butcherous people in the West, of course, absolutely, But the
(20:08):
Jesus movement pushed back the immorality and began transforming culture
from the inside out. The before and after Jesus is amazing.
And I want to suggest two books to you. Number one,
doctor James Kennedy wrote a book called What If Jesus
Had Never Been Born? Incredible history. Here grab it, read it.
And John Olberg wrote a more it's historical, but it's
(20:29):
also more applicational than that is a book called who
Is This Man? To talk about the influence of the
Jesus Movement over the Western world. So Jesus came, he
drove out spirits. It became possible for Jesus to live
within the hearts of men and women.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That is the message of the gospel. But listen carefully.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
In Matthew eight, on one particular occasion, we're told that
when Jesus arrived at the other side in the region
of Guardianas, two demon possessed men coming from the tombs
met him. They were so violent and no one could
pass that way. What do you want with us, son
of God? They shouted, have you come here to torture
us before the appointed time? Some distance from them, a
(21:14):
large herd of pigs was feeding the demons. Beg Jesus,
if you drive us out, send us into the herd
of pigs. Now most of us know this story, But
notice in the first parable in Matthew twelve, if the
spirit finds no rest, they seek to return to a
house to possess it or repossess it. When Jesus cast
out demons in the second story, the spirits pleaded with
(21:35):
him to cast them into the pigs. Now what does
that tell you? It tells you that the spirits are parasitic.
They need a host to possess. So the spirits that
were cast out of Western culture because of the Jesus movement,
because of Jesus coming on the inside to transform us
from the inside out. And of course the Bible says
he causes it to reign on the righteous and the unrighteousness.
(21:57):
Because of the righteous movement, even the unrighteous were affected.
Culture began to thrive, and all of you know, that's
our rock ascides again. When you have the Jesus movement
teaching you to be honest and to having integrity and character,
and to treat your brother, to love your neighbor as yourself.
Of course society is going to be better. Of course
it's going to be stronger. So the Jesus movement sweeps
(22:20):
across the Western world. But when Jesus is eradicated according
to what Jesus teaches, the spirits are eradicated to the fringes.
Relegated is a better word, to the fringes. They're still
in the universe, but they don't have the power in
the sway over a nation or a culture or a
(22:42):
movement where Jesus dominates the hearts of men and women. Now,
the question is what happens when Jesus is expelled out
of those hearts of men and women. And the answer,
of course, according to Jesus, would be the demonic forces
see that there's an opportunity return. The house has been
swept clean, and now they think it's their right to
occupy it, so that the possession is deeper and more
(23:04):
intense now than it was in the beginning. Let's be
very clear about what I'm saying here. Jesus crushed the
head of the serpent. The demonic forces are subject to him,
no doubt. His followers took the gospel to the west
and relegated the forces of evil to the fringes or
the secret places. Today o Christianity swept the house clean
(23:24):
and invited Jesus, who occupy the hearts and souls.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Of men everywhere.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
However, since the turn of the last century, the Jesus
movement has been attacked on every side.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
You've been listening to today with Jeff Fines. Thanks for
joining us. Next time we'll bring you the rest of
this message from Pastor Jeff.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Let's be very clear about what I'm saying here. Jesus
crushed the head of the serpent. The demonic forces are
subject to him no doubt, his followers took the gospel
to the west and relegated the forces of evil to
the fringes or the secret at places. Today, Oh Christianity,
swept the house clean and invited Jesus, who occupy the
hearts and souls of men.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Everywhere.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
You can listen to more messages like this. Just search
for Today with Jeff Findes. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Make me a bond with every single friend.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Bring you
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines
Why are we doing this series.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
The reason it's important to do this series is to
remind us that in our time, demonic activity has gone
to warp speed in the West. I'm simply trying to
answer three questions, and the first is why is this
happening from?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Where does it all come? And what are we supposed
to do?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We have to come to terms with what's going on
in our world right now. We have to go back
to Ephesian six, and we have to realize this is
not anything new. It's been going on for a long time,
but something happened in culture recently to take this to
warp speed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Today Today, Today, Today with Jeff Finds, pasta apologist and
Bible teaching.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You're listening to Today with Jeff Finds. My name is Aaron,
and welcome to today's program. This week, Pastor Jeff begins
a new series about being under the influence, under the
influence of culture and the influence of evil. In this message,
he sets up the aim of the series, starting by
reading from Ephesians chapter six and explaining some of the
(01:08):
deeper meaning found in the original language and the time
it was written. Let's begin this first message in this
series now with Pastor Jeff.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
This weekend we began a new series called Under the Influence,
and this series is especially powerful because of where we
find ourselves in culture at the moment. So, whether you're
listening live, wherever you are, I really want to ask
you to commit to listen to the next four or
five messages because they're interconnected. If somehow you think, well,
(01:53):
that's not completed, we've not finished what there are more questions.
It's because we can't do it all in one message.
And we'll make our way through this series, and I
think at the end of it, my prayer is that
we will be we will have our spiritual eyes open
to what's going on around us, why it's happening, and
how we are to respond. So I want to start
the series in a passage with which most of us
(02:14):
are familiar. We've been reading for years, but I'm not
sure we've taken it very seriously. And it's in Ifesius,
chapter six, verse twelve. It's where the apostle Paul clearly
tells us that the Christian life is a battle. It's
an everyday battle. You wake up your battle right away.
And so let me take you through this. What I've
done is. I've written this verse, chapter six, verse twelve
(02:37):
on the board, and I want to do a little
bit of extra Jesus for I want you to learn
some words, because these words are powerful. Unless we truly
understand them, we're not going to get the We're not
going to allow this passage to pack the punch that
really can. Okay, so here's what Paul says. He says,
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers' powers and world forces of this darkness, against
(02:59):
the spear ritual forces of weakness in the heavily places.
Now again, we've read this for most of our lives.
In my late twenties and early thirties, I began to
be captivated by this passage and wondered why Paul used
certain words. Okay, so let's start with struggle. Struggle is palais,
which is the word for boxing or wrestling or any
(03:20):
kind of combat. You and I think of it in
a kind of benign form. But the word paul uses,
which is different from other words for battle or the
idea of striving or struggling. This particular word refers to
an aggressive kind of boxing or wrestling. In fact, boxing
today again is it's not benign, it's pretty brutal. But
(03:43):
back in Roman days boxing, the boxing gloves actually had
blades on the end of them. So when you were
in a boxing match, you just weren't fighting to win
about you were fighting for your life. And usually in
a boxing match and a wrestling match, somebody was not
only going to lose, they were gonna die. So it
was your fighting ultimately to the death. So the struggle,
(04:04):
the struggle is intense, we're fighting for our lives. Is
not against flesh and blood. So he uses hi may
and he uses sarka. These are two words when used together,
it's meant to separate what is in the celestial, what
is up there that can't be seen from the terrestrial,
is in what is material, what can be seen. So
he says, this struggle, this battle for life and death,
(04:26):
is not fought in flesh and blood. It's not hand
to hand combat physically speaking, but against and then he
mentions three things. Now again earlier on, I just passed
over them. Then I began to see what he was
actually doing by choosing these specific words rulers, powers, and
world forces. The word for rulers is arcas from which
(04:47):
we get our word architect. So what Paul's doing here,
he is establishing a well organized strata. He's saying that
the demonic forces against which we struggle are organized, just
like we have Congress who draws up the legislation, and
then the generals who develop strategy.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And then the men and women who are in.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Our own forces go out deployed and march in to
accomplish the strategy and the legislation. He's telling us that
the evil empire that we cannot see is also very
well organized. So he says, rulers, the architects, they draw
out the plans. The same word as principalities. It's the
(05:32):
highest order of demons. It's the authorities who determine legislation.
And then it's also against the powers. This is euxusius,
which is the word from which we get our word execute.
So these are the generals who lead the demonic forces,
who are supposed to execute the principality orders or the
highest order of demons, and the architect of whatever the
(05:55):
law or the bill, for lack of a better word is,
and it's against world force is. This is the cosmokrators
that we've talked about. Before this is specific reference to
the terrestrial. So what Paul is saying is when you
look at how men and women around the world, dictators, leaders, powers,
(06:15):
governments are operating, make sure you understand that they're the
final piece of the puzzle, but not the original piece
of the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
The architect of.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What's happening comes from the demonic leaders, the principalities, passed
down to the general demons, who then execute it as
they dupe human forces into their way of thinking and
use them as the vehicle to get this dastardly deed done.
And so what Paul is giving us is a higherarchy.
(06:45):
He's given us a strata of demonic forces. He says
that our battles not in the hero and now against flesh.
It's in the here and now, but not against flesh,
but it's against a highly strategized orchestrated, organized demonic force
that intends to work through people who are not protected
ultimately by the spirit of Christ. He says, these world
(07:08):
forces are of this darkness against Again, he riphasizes the spiritual,
so's he's making a comparison against what is called the numatica.
What is spiritual, what cannot be seen over and against
the physical what can be seen the darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness. So now do we have a
(07:29):
fourth strata. And by the way, this word wickedness, forces
of wickedness almost always has to do not always, almost
always has to do with sexual perversion. So it's Paul's
way of saying that you know you're fighting this battle
into a culture that has a cosmokrator that originates from
the art cost from the principalities of the spirits of
(07:51):
the air. You know you're fighting those forces. One of
the ways you know that is culture becomes incredibly evil,
especially in the area of sexual perversion. And he says,
this battle, these forces of weakness are in the heavenly places. Now,
this doesn't mean heaven in the sense of where we
go when we die to be with Jesus. This is
the Greek word of iranos, which is a word that
(08:11):
simply refers to atmosphere. So in the Lord's prayer, when
Jesus says, when you pray, pray our father, who are
in heaven, he's not talking about the final heaven you
and I will go to. He's talking about our father,
who's closer than the air that we breathe who's all
around you can't see him, but he's there.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So taking all that.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Together, we're supposed to learn there's a different strata and
rankings of the demons in a supernatural empire that is
very real, that's highly organized. There are dupes in men
and women of Satan and his demons who they need
to use and occupy to accomplish their dastardly deeds. And
then it's highly structured and organized for the most destructive
(08:51):
warfare possible. So just in this one verse, Paul is
trying to tell us the battle is real, it's every day.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
There are four this is around you that are unseen.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
They are highly structured, that are highly organized, and they need,
so to speak, a host through whom to work to
accomplish what they're trying to accomplish, which is ultimately the
defeat of everything that is good in righteousness and righteous
and ultimately to take people away from God. So we
learn four quick things. Number one, the unseen impacts the scene.
(09:25):
The reason I pro wrote the name Louis Pastor there
is because if you've studied the sciences, you know that
he was the first one to come up with what
is called spontaneous generation or germ theory. So in the
eighteen hundreds, people thought that viruses just appear out of
nowhere and there's no explanation and they're not connected to
anything else. Louis Pastor came along and said, no, that's
not true. There are millions of germs everywhere that land
(09:46):
on your food, that land on your body, that land
here and there that you can't see, that impacts and
determines the physical world. And at first that was something
they said, we got to keep this away from people.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
That'll freak them out.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
They when they they realize the enemies all around and
they could be tainted somehow by these viruses that will
cause mass chaos. And of course Louis Pastor said no,
because a lot of these are ultimately harmless. But we
need to be aware there is an unseen world that
impacts the seen world, the celestial or the atmosphere impacting
(10:19):
the terrestrial. Second, by the way, it's important to know
that what is true in the biological world is true
in the spiritual world. That's what Jesus teaches. In the
same way that spontaneous generation occurs, there's also a generation
of demonic forces that impact the physical world. Second, the
demonic forces are well organized. You have architects who determine legislation,
(10:41):
generals who execute the strategy, and forces who march and enact.
These forces are human, but they're greatly impacted by.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The spirit world.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Third, the demonic forces are led by Satan. Now, Satan
is the ultimate. He's like the president Okay of this world.
But he is not omniscient. He's not all knowing, he's
not omnipotent. He is not all powerful, and he's not omnipresent.
He can't be everywhere. He's not Jesus, and he doesn't
have the power of God. But he does have demonic
(11:12):
forces that are present everywhere, legions that are present everywhere
that carry out these dastardly deeds. And Fourth, the demonic
forces are anti God and anti Christ. They seek to
corrupt all that is good, to deceive all people and
all nations, to destroy allegiance away from God.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And that's the entire.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Dammit of ideology, coming from the forces of evil, dethrone God,
ruin the lives of people. Jesus said, I came to
give life, but the thief there is one who comes
to rob and distill and ultimately to destroy Now bottom
line here, why are we doing this series.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The reason it's important to do this series is to.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Remind us that in our time, demonic activity has gone
to warp speed in the West. I was just back
in my home in Tennessee and I got to see
my brothers. I had a good conversation with my younger brother.
They said, you know, Jeff, something has changed.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Have you noticed?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And I had noticed because Tennessee, you know, East Tennessee's
has been the middle of the Bible Belt.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And quite frankly, I.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Was shocked at see to see It's been years since
I've been back, but shocked to see some of the
things I was witnessing.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
We had.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I mean, can you imagine East Tennessee road rage? I
mean people were cutting each other off. I mean we're
not talking about the traffic that we have here in
LA and yet there was so much rage all around me,
of people pulling in, people hogging their horns. There seemed
to be just a culture or an overarching sense of
anger that I did not notice and had not noticed before.
(12:44):
There's also vulgarity. I was not used to having people
behind the counter at restaurants in public places, cursing so
much and profanity, and it's just like language has gone
to a different level in East Tennessee, something you wouldn't
have seen ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. I'm not trying
to glorify the past, folks. I'm simply saying things are
moving rapidly, they are changing. I noticed an intense degree
(13:07):
of anger and frustration and bitterness and rage and hopelessness, fear,
especially among the next generation, a sense of hopelessness arising. Immorality,
pornographies off the charts in East Tennessee now, adultery, debauchery everywhere.
In fact, i went downtown Johnson City used to be
a very nice place, a pleasant place to go for coffee,
(13:29):
for a restaurant, for walking in the parks and the fountains.
It's totally changed. Now We're not talking about San Francisco
or Portland. We're talking about a city in the Midwest,
in the middle of the Bible Belt, has become drug infested,
filled with prostitution. It just seems like you can feel
this incredible, corrupt, evil cloud hanging over the city. It
(13:52):
was scary, it was frightening, but at the same time,
it was so disappointing this series that we're doing right now.
I'm simply trying to answer three questions, and the first
is why is this happening?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
From? Where does it all come? And what are we
supposed to do?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
We have to come to terms with what's going on
in our world right now. We have to go back
to Ephesian six, and we have to realize this is
not anything new. It's been going on for a long time,
but something happened in culture recently to take this to
warp speed. So let's answer the first question quickly. We
don't have time to go through the whole thing this weekend.
We're going to set the stage. Why is this happening?
(14:29):
The answer is simple in some respects, because the Judeo
Christian values that had caused the West to prosper have
slowly been eradicated, thus removing the blessings that are associated
with them. For the last two thousand years, the Jesus
movement had infiltrated much of the Western world and has
(14:52):
brought with it an economic flourishing and a pushing back
of demonic forces. These demonic forces are real, but they
have no chance. They cannot stand against the authority and
the power of Judeo Christian values and against Jesus and
his christ followers themselves. But what happens when those things
(15:13):
are eradicated from culture and society now? So, no, the
past generation was not perfect, But because of the Jesus
movement beginning about two thousand years ago and infiltrating much
of the West, we know in scripture that Jesus, when
he began his ministry, one of the first things he
did is began to cast out demons, because his power
was greater than demonic forces.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And part of his ministry was to come and to.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Undo them, to relegate them to the fringes, to set
them up for one day ultimate judgment.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Again, let me read it to you in Matthew chapter twelve.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God,
surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you. Or
how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder
his goods unless he first binds the strong man, and
then he will plunder his house. So Jesus saw his
ministry as binding the strong man. Luke ten again the
seventy Return of Joy Lord, even the demons are subject
to us in your name, In your name and he
(16:07):
said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning. So
with the Jesus movement two thousand years ago, if you
go back and look at all of history before Christ,
you're gonna see a dramatic change in the West. As
the Gospel started to penetrate every culture, as it made
its way through Asia, Asia Minor, as Paul and his
missionary journeys, culture began to change. There's no doubt about
(16:29):
that is an historical reality. So if these same places
attempt to eradicate Jesus, it does so at its own peril.
That means the demonic forces that have been relegated to
the fringes can now come back in and take center stage.
That means that the rulers and the powers and the
principalities can return, that the walls will have been broken down,
(16:51):
and the armies now are free to march back in.
I want to read to you something that Jesus taught
in Matthew twelve. Here's what he said in verse forty three.
When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it
goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
Then it says, I will return to the house I
left when it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept
(17:14):
clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes
with it seven other spirits, more wicked than itself, and
they go in and live there. And the final condition
of that person is worse than the first. That is
how it will be with this wicked generation. So if
you see what Jesus is saying, and this is Jesus talking,
(17:35):
it is not enough to cast out the spirits, the house,
the vessel, the nation, the generation must be occupied by
something else. And two thousand years ago Jesus leaves his
home in heaven. He overpowers the demonic forces, defeats sin
and death once and for all. The Roman Empire and
Western civilization comprised of the House of spirits. My goodness,
(17:59):
if you know anything about Greek mythology, going all the
way back down even to the when the Israelites came
into the Promised Land, you've got all these false gods,
these demonic forces that are tolerated. But when Jesus comes,
he impacts the Roman Empire of the Western world, and
suddenly into that house where demonic forces are now swept clean,
(18:23):
the spirit of God, the Gospel comes into the lives
and begins to transform one person after the next, and
the gospel spread like wildfire, and everything in the West
changed again. This is historically verifiable. Because of the Jesus Movement,
people stop sacrificing their children on molten altars. Not in say, everyone,
but there was a great movement in the Jesus Movement
(18:43):
to protect the lives of the innocent. Something that you
will not see before the Jesus Movement. People began treating
women equally because Jesus said, there's neither male nor female, Jew,
nor Greek bond or slave.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
We're all won in Christ.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Men and women stopped throwing deformed children into the river,
consider them to be waste because it was decided because
of the Jesus Movement that we are creating image of
God in all life needs to be respected because it's
a gift from God. Families began respecting one another and
living not merely for themselves, but for the family unit,
(19:17):
because the Jesus Movement taught us that the family union
and the strength of the family is the key to
culture and to success.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
The sick were no longer discarded because they were ill.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The disease were no longer put out of the city, hospitals,
places almost out of the earth began to rise up
and to ratherm to discard people who were ill, who
had disease, even if it was terminal, even it was contagious. Suddenly,
because of the Jesus Movement, you had groups of people
Christ followers taking care of the sick, even at the
(19:48):
cost of their own lives. The Ten Commandments actually began
to govern most societies in the West, either indirectly by
influence or directly because of belief. Now did society always
get it right? No, where They're still sinful, perverted, the
butcherous people in the West, of course, absolutely, But the
(20:08):
Jesus movement pushed back the immorality and began transforming culture
from the inside out. The before and after Jesus is amazing.
And I want to suggest two books to you. Number one,
doctor James Kennedy wrote a book called What If Jesus
Had Never Been Born? Incredible history. Here grab it, read it.
And John Olberg wrote a more it's historical, but it's
(20:29):
also more applicational than that is a book called who
Is This Man? To talk about the influence of the
Jesus Movement over the Western world. So Jesus came, he
drove out spirits. It became possible for Jesus to live
within the hearts of men and women.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That is the message of the gospel. But listen carefully.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
In Matthew eight, on one particular occasion, we're told that
when Jesus arrived at the other side in the region
of Guardianas, two demon possessed men coming from the tombs
met him. They were so violent and no one could
pass that way. What do you want with us, son
of God? They shouted, have you come here to torture
us before the appointed time? Some distance from them, a
(21:14):
large herd of pigs was feeding the demons. Beg Jesus,
if you drive us out, send us into the herd
of pigs. Now most of us know this story, But
notice in the first parable in Matthew twelve, if the
spirit finds no rest, they seek to return to a
house to possess it or repossess it. When Jesus cast
out demons in the second story, the spirits pleaded with
(21:35):
him to cast them into the pigs. Now what does
that tell you? It tells you that the spirits are parasitic.
They need a host to possess. So the spirits that
were cast out of Western culture because of the Jesus movement,
because of Jesus coming on the inside to transform us
from the inside out. And of course the Bible says
he causes it to reign on the righteous and the unrighteousness.
(21:57):
Because of the righteous movement, even the unrighteous were affected.
Culture began to thrive, and all of you know, that's
our rock ascides again. When you have the Jesus movement
teaching you to be honest and to having integrity and character,
and to treat your brother, to love your neighbor as yourself.
Of course society is going to be better. Of course
it's going to be stronger. So the Jesus movement sweeps
(22:20):
across the Western world. But when Jesus is eradicated according
to what Jesus teaches, the spirits are eradicated to the fringes.
Relegated is a better word, to the fringes. They're still
in the universe, but they don't have the power in
the sway over a nation or a culture or a
(22:42):
movement where Jesus dominates the hearts of men and women. Now,
the question is what happens when Jesus is expelled out
of those hearts of men and women. And the answer,
of course, according to Jesus, would be the demonic forces
see that there's an opportunity return. The house has been
swept clean, and now they think it's their right to
occupy it, so that the possession is deeper and more
(23:04):
intense now than it was in the beginning. Let's be
very clear about what I'm saying here. Jesus crushed the
head of the serpent. The demonic forces are subject to him,
no doubt. His followers took the gospel to the west
and relegated the forces of evil to the fringes or
the secret places. Today o Christianity swept the house clean
(23:24):
and invited Jesus, who occupy the hearts and souls.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Of men everywhere.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
However, since the turn of the last century, the Jesus
movement has been attacked on every side.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
You've been listening to today with Jeff Fines. Thanks for
joining us. Next time we'll bring you the rest of
this message from Pastor Jeff.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Let's be very clear about what I'm saying here. Jesus
crushed the head of the serpent. The demonic forces are
subject to him no doubt, his followers took the gospel
to the west and relegated the forces of evil to
the fringes or the secret at places. Today, Oh Christianity,
swept the house clean and invited Jesus, who occupy the
hearts and souls of men.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Everywhere.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
You can listen to more messages like this. Just search
for Today with Jeff Findes. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Make me a bond with every single friend.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Bring you
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines
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