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Fred R. Coulter—December 10, 2005
Living in the world that we're living in today:
- How do we keep our sanity?
- How do we understand what's going on?
- How did we get this way?
- How do we keep our sanity in it in spite of everything that's going on?
Let's see where it talks about how our society is and we will see how it describes it. Then we will look and see how it is accomplished.
Revelation 11:8—talking about the two witnesses: "And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified."
The spirit of Sodom and Egypt is quite a thing! You have Egypt with religion and Sodom and Gomorrah with sexual immorality of the grossest kind. This tells you the two major things that take an individual and societies and great civilizations down.
False religion vs the way of the Truth of God—there is a difference—and promiscuous and immoral sex. Those two things destroy people! We're seeing something else that is taking place on a progressive basis.
Revelation 12:9: "And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, who is deceiving the whole world…"—that's present tense ongoing.
Today we're going to see how he's deceiving the world, some of the way in which he is doing it, and then what happens when a society reaches a point of saturation of his lies. We're coming close to it today.
Satan is called 'the god of this world' (2-Cor. 4:4). As such then he's the false messiah, the false Jesus, and he's got a lot of his prophets out there—secular and religious—who are preaching his way, making it sound attractive to everyone.
Let's look at another aspect of Satan, and let's see how the Apostle Paul termed it. Today let's add to what he wrote here and put it together with all the modern devices that we have today.
Ephesians 2:1: "Now, you were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you walked in times past according to the course of this world…" (vs 1-2).
- doing as the world does
- doing the way the world is
- the systems of the world
- the religions of the world
- the governments of the world
"…according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working within the children of disobedience" (v 2). That's quite a statement!
What happens when a society becomes very satanic? That's what Egypt is all about, and that's why God destroyed all the gods of Egypt! That's why God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.
There becomes a spiritual attitude that people have that is almost impenetrable by the Truth. What happens when a society gets this way? You always have to ask the question of the most evil person you can think of—remembering that one time that man or woman was a little baby—what happened from that time to the height of evil? How did they get that way? Satan is involved in it! Everyone is subject to it in varying degrees.
Verse 3: "Among whom also we all once had our conduct in the lusts of our flesh, doing the things willed by the flesh and by the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest of the world."
Perfect example: today there is war against Christmas by the seculars who don't want any Christmas, rather than using that as a springboard for Truth.
Even when they've had different ones interviewed on television about this war on Christmas, there's one commentator on Fox News who even wrote a book about it. I love the comments of some of these newscasters who say they want the truth, the whole truth and nothings but the truth. But when they're confronted with the Truth they want their version of truth. They want their own version of lies.
I think Delores makes a very interesting comment: they love their idols! What do they show as Christmas? A lot of people think that they're doing God's service with it! To them that's God because they don't know anything about God, which means that they are deceived! What happens is that it's all over idolatry! You've got to have your little Christmas scene, the manger, the baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph, the three wise men and all of that.
Then you have to have the Christmas tree, which symbolically goes back to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So, in reality, people who keep Christmas, though they say it's of Christ, they are celebrating the fall of man and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In some cases they even have plays showing live nativity scenes and all of that sort of thing.
Let's carry this a little bit further and see what the Bible says that this leads to. Here's a little warning on how we are to avoid it. We'll put 1-John 2 in here and intersperse the things that God wants us to do in between what's happening in the world. This becomes a major thing for us. This becomes a major point on how not to get entrapped or sucked into this world. Everything is glittering! I mean, everything! You look at all the displays, and just from a carnal point of view, people are attracted to the lights, to the color, the pageantry, all the hymns and songs are nice and lovely.
Remember that Ezek. 28 talks about Satan the cherubim that fell. He had the music and wherever you go they have Christmas music, all lovely and nice. People think they're doing good.
Remember the prayer of Jesus, 'I pray for them. Not that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one! They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Your Truth, Your Word is the Truth.' That's the prayer of Jesus for everyone whom He calls. So, the Truth of God is the greatest protection that we have against being deceived.
1-John 2:15: "Do not love the world…" That's why we are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and being first! And the love Jesus Christ! {Note sermon: How Do You Stand Before God?} Jesus Christ loves you; God the Father loves you! They have called you; They have a great and fantastic plan for you! That's why He says, "Do not love the world…" so that we don't get caught up in it.
"…nor the things that are in the world…."—and we are gadgetized today. Satan is 'the prince of the power of the air' and has many, many helpers to keep people locked into the grips of His deception of Sodom and Egypt!
All the entertainment, movies, advertisements and now all the Internet, iPods, cell phones, walkman's that you plug into your ears. You can walk around and not pay attention to the world and be lost in your own make believe world of whatever music or message that is. Most of the messages are in rebellion against God, promoting wrong sex, promoting things that like the reality shows that take people down, down, down into the depths of degradation and evil. It's just reinforced all the time, and people's minds are now occupied with evil, because it comes to them from everywhere!
Kids today have been trained that because mom is no longer around and father has to work so hard to be able to provide, and that's not enough so mom has to get out and work. The kids are prepared mentally by all the cartoons that have been developed. If you take time sometime and watch some cartoons, you will see how this goes into the mind of kids. That's why they now recommend not to let children under the age of three watch very much television or cartoons. The cartoons flip the scenes back and forth and it causes dyslexia and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).
What little children and when they see something they stare at it. The reason they stare is because it's impressing upon their mind and that's how they learn. Ninety percent of what you learn is retained when you see it, hear it and participate in it.
Now little kids as young as four and five don't want dolls, trucks or little toys, they want hightech stuff! They want demon things. All the games in there are based upon satanic things, whether they're mild or in depth into satanic things. We mention this in the book: Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? how they're destroying the children that way.
They're being prepared so that their minds are callous and by the time they're in Middle School that they are now talking about sex. Pres. Clinton was fully responsible for the whole plague of oral sex among 8-14-year-old children in school, and they're coming down with venereal diseases and things like this because of it. When Clinton said that he 'never had sex with that woman,' they all picked up on it and said that oral sex is not sex. It's just devastating!
You can see a lot of things going on, just pay attention and you will see how the world is going! It is expressed very clearly around Christmas time, more than any other time.
"…If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (v 15). That's why you have to love God first! That is your first safeguard:
- loving God
- keeping His commandments
- adhering to the Truth
Do not let anyone come along and compromise the Truth!
Verse 16: "Because everything that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pretentious pride of physical life…" I translated it that way because to me that was more than just pride! Some people can be proud of an accomplishment and you can say, in a right way, that their satisfied that they have done something good. The "…pretentious pride of physical life…" can be seen in everything!
- the way people walk
- the way people talk
- the way they conduct their lives
You can see it in athletics, sports, in all kinds of things in the world: fashion, movie world, all the movie stars and everything.
I could not help but think as I was going through a checkout stand, all the things they put out at the checkout stands. I made a comment to a woman standing in line, 'I wonder who these are aimed for?' Here were all the pictures of women. Women, in their lust, have a distinct desire to be like the model that is set before them. That's what's before them, and the model is to become a whore. That's what it is. You may say that's a little blunt, but that's what it is.
I commented that to this lady at the checkout stand and she said, 'Yeah, that's true.' I said, 'I don't see very many magazines at the checkout stand with musclemen for the men.' Who is it geared to? Women!
Who did Satan start with, Adam? or Eve? It started with Eve and Satan's still doing it! If you can capture the minds of people and keep them repetitively doing these things and their mind on these things, there's no room for God!
Maybe that will help answer some of the questions: Why does God have to bring such terrible punishments on people? Because there's no room for God! 'They do not like to retain God in their knowledge' so God 'gives them over to a reprobate mind'! What you're seeing is the punishment coming on people because there refuse to follow God. You trace this all back and it all comes back to all of the 'religionists.' Every single problem in the world has it root in satanism, religion and then government! That's why God says that it's Sodom and Egypt!
"…is not from the Father, but is from the world" (v 16). Who is the 'prince of the power of the air' and deceiving the world?
Now let's see what happens when you start getting a saturation of these things. Something happens, and that is you become a captive. You have no room for God, and you become a captive. And when you become a captive, then here's what happens, because Satan is the 'prince of the power of the air,' and he is working with the spirit of men to pervert them and lock them into his system.
Romans 8:15: "Now, you have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear…"
What happens is that people become in the spirit of bondage of sin! This bring fear! Let's look at it another way where Paul again talks about it. This is why John says, 'Love not the world.' When you love the world, the things that are in the world, the pride of life, then something else comes from Satan the devil, and that goes back to where we started, Egypt and Sodom!
1-Corinthians 2:12: "Now, we have not received the spirit of the world…" Where does the "…spirit of the world…" come from? Satan the devil who is the spirit that is now inner-working in the children of disobedience'! There it is, "…the spirit of the world…"
"…but the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God" (v 12). That's why God has to intervene and call!
Verse 14: "But the natural man… [who has the spirit of the world, the spirit of bondage, the spirit of fear] …does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
This means that they can only be spiritually discerned by the Spirit of God! The first sign to find a way out of that is to realize that you want the Truth and you begin to see all of the hypocrisy and sin that is flooding in upon you in your life in the world. That's the first time that God is beginning to call you!
Let's see what else this does, and this follows right along with religion. Religion has to come along and assure people that there's a way to get out of their sins, and that is through an immortal soul. The Bible says, 'The soul that sins shall die.' When you die your thoughts perish. There are no more thoughts. You don't go from one form of existence to a continuous form of existence as an immortal soul.
Hebrews 2:15: "And that He might deliver those who were subject to bondage… [of fear, of this world, of Satan the devil] …all through their lives by their fear of death." That's what people fear the most!
You can take that even further. There are those who come along and they no longer fear death because they have been so programmed by Satan the devil. What does this get down to? Religious teaching and indoctrination, to where people are not afraid to die, because their immortal soul goes to heaven! Whether you're a kamikaze pilot in WWII and they had the Germans that had their own suicide pilots as well, or whether now in our day with the Jihadists who are trained from childhood to hate, hate, hate, kill, kill, kill!
It's interesting that the Israelis got a 16-year-old boy who was loaded up for a suicide bomb, and the look on his face was that he really didn't want to do it, but he was programmed to do it. Pathetic indeed! Then later I saw a Palestinian and Lebanese man, both, when they come to America began to ask: Why do we hate Americans? and Why do we hate Jews? 'That's all we've been taught all our lives, and now here we are.'
So, the Palestinian said when he was asked how he got out of that and now they are going around speaking against the indoctrination of the radical Islamists that kill, and against the mullahs who speak to kill. This Palestinian said, 'You don't know what's going on in the mosques around America. We were practicing for a future jihad.' But he got out of it by studying the Bible and asking, 'Why do I hate?' He was confronted with the Truth. Whether he's called to salvation or not is another story, but the only way out of that is with Truth. Let's see how this happens, and see how it is in the world that we living in today.
Matthew 24:12[transcriber's correction]: "And because lawlessness shall be multiplied…" How is it multiplied? Look where we are at today, it's multiplied with all the hightech apparatuses that we have, and it's instantaneous.
"…the love of many shall grow cold" (v 12). Here shows the process:
2-Timothy 3:13: "But wicked men and imposters shall become worse and worse… [multiply, grow just like a fungus or mold—leaven] …deceiving others and being deceived themselves."
What happens when it gets carried away even further? Let's see how God brings it out.
Isaiah 19:1: "The burden against Egypt…" What one religion in ancient civilization is perhaps brought out on television more than any other? Egypt!
"…Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud and comes into Egypt. And the idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence…" (v 1)—one of the very first things!
Follow this is sequence. You get your mind off the true God and you're taken away from the true God! What is it that Satan likes to bring in? Idolatry! When ou have that, then you're taking the name of God in vain, and when you have that, you reject the Sabbath.
"…and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst. 'And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians; and they shall fight each man against his brother…'" (vs 1-2).
So, the ultimate result of all the evil that takes place is everybody killing each other. Just think what's going to happen when the jihad happens in the United States. They're already here! The army is here. Think about Deut 28 that says that 'the stranger will rise up high above you, and you shall be brought low.' We're probably at the halfway point now; maybe!
"…and each against his neighbor; city against city, kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall be demoralized in the midst of it…" (vs 2-3).
In other words, that spirit of deception, of Satan the devil, has to be broken! Only God can do it!
Verse 14: "The LORD has mixed a perverse spirit in its midst; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all its work, like a drunkard staggers in his vomit."
How are all nations made drunk? Out of the golden vial of the great harlot of Rev. 17—Babylon the Great! That comes straight out of Egypt and Babylon. So, when you say Egypt and Babylon, it's the same thing, because the religion of Babylon was transferred to Egypt.
Let's see how a society becomes as bad as it is. What happens? We will see exactly the condition that we are in today. This is why God has to let the evil multiply in order to get people's attention—if they will—or to correct them if they won't. It works both ways, a 'sharp two-edged sword.'
Isaiah 59:1: "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened that it cannot save…" God is not in the business of preventing! God is in the business of people making choices, that they have to prevent.
"…nor is His ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have come between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear" (vs 1-2). That's quite a thing! I want you to keep on track:
- track one is the world
- track two is the Church
The same process can happen to people in the Church. We are living in a Laodicean Era with everything that is here. So, you keep tracks one and two in mind as we're going through this.
Verse 3: "For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness."
- sounds like the nightly news
- sounds like our politicians
- sounds like the pronouncements coming out of the UN
Verse 4: "None calls for justice, nor does anyone plead for Truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity."
Just do some channel surfing. Now you can have remote satellite TV and 400 channels and still there's nothing on them. On ours, I have worn out one remote control. Think what it would be if I had to get up and change the channels, but you sit there and you run through. What do you have?
- commercials all at the same time
- becoming more and more pornographic, evil, down and lustful
- then you have all of these silly programs about everything
- MTV is the destruction of minds and the heart of the youth of anyone in the world who watches it. It's one of the biggest channels in the whole world
Verse 5: "They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper." You can liken that to sickness and disease!
What is the leading cause of premature death today? Drug deaths! Believe a lie, hooked in bondage and fear!
Verse 6: "Their webs shall not become clothing, nor shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the acts of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. They have not known the way of peace, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes therein shall not know peace" (vs 6-8).
Hos. 4 is speaking of our people today. It also talks about another spirit that takes place, another spirit that grabs hold of society.
Hosea 4:1 "Hear the Word of the LORD, children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, 'There is no truth… [if you speak the Truth you're in trouble] …nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.'"
That's why the movement to get rid of the Ten Commandments, get rid of God, and even those pseudo-Christians who believe in Christmas and everything, because they're trying to get rid of Christmas.
Verse 2: "By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and the committing of adultery they break out; and blood touches blood. Therefore, shall the land mourn, and everyone who dwells in it shall languish, with the beasts of the field and with the birds of the heavens. Yes, the fish of the sea shall also be taken away" (vs 2-3).
Verse 6: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.…" You have to have the right knowledge:
- knowledge of God
- knowledge of Truth
- knowledge of love
- knowledge of hope and grace
"…Because you have rejected knowledge…" (v 6). They are destroyed for lack of knowledge because they rejected it! It wasn't that it wasn't available. It wasn't that it wasn't there. It was there, but they didn't want it!
Here's a penalty that comes, "…I will also reject you from being as a priest to Me. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I will also forget your children" (v 6)—and that's talking about this generation today! It's happened in the past and it's happening now, but with greater intensity and greater sin and results!
Verse 7: "As they were increased, so they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of My people, and they set their heart on their iniquity" (vs 7-8).
They can hardly wait for Friday night to come and to go out and 'do the scene,' which is nothing but being programmed and controlled by Satan the devil through movies, nightclubbing, drinking, drugs, parties, and immoral sex of all kinds.
Verse 9: "And it has become, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their doings, for they shall eat and not have enough. They shall commit whoredom and not increase because they have stopped taking heed to the LORD. Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart" (vs 9-11).
There's a way to destroy the heart, the conscious, the mind, the ability to think, to grasp, to want Truth.
Verse 12: "My people seek advice from their wooden idols, and their rod declares to them, for the spirit of whoredoms… [that is what has gripped this world today; Sodom and Egypt] …has caused them to go astray, and they have gone awhoring away from under their God."
What is Satan's way vs God's way? Let's look at the classic three-part way to destroy truth?
- thesis is truth
- anti-thesis is against truth
- Satan comes along and says that God is a liar and He didn't tell you the truth. 'If you eat of this tree you're going to become like gods.' That's the anti-thesis.
The thesis of God is:
- God is true
- God is right
- God is good
- His laws are good
- everything about God is good
- His way is true
- He will bless you
Satan's anti-theses is that God is lying!
So, what do men do? They come to the synthesis, they combine! They add evil to their lives, and here's what happens:
Isaiah 59:9: "Therefore, justice is far from us; nor does righteousness overtake us. We wait for light, but behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. We grope along the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night; among those who are strong, we are like dead men. We all roar like bears, and mourn grievously like doves…" (vs 9-11).
The madness, the evil, and we sit over in a corner, the ones who should be doing something about it. They're just like silly doves over in a corner mourning and cooing.
"…we look for justice, but there is none, we look for salvation, yet, it is far from us; for our transgressions are multiplied before You…" (vs 11-12).
That's what happens. As Jesus said, 'Lawless shall multiply.'
"…and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; in rebellion and denial of the LORD, and turning away from our God…" (vs 12-13).
I want you to apply that to America in particularly, because as we look back on the primer book that was given to kids beginning in the 1600s in America, and it talked about the commandments and laws of God, and the little leaven that leavened the whole lump in that book was the fourth commandment, to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy, 'but we keep Sunday' and it went right on.
That was the leaven that set the stage for the downfall, believe it or not!
"…talking perversity and revolt, conceiving and speaking from the heart words of falsehood. And justice is driven backward… [i.e. Supreme Court of America, and even the courts of other countries are worse] …and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the street… [like a bunch of rejected junk and litter] …and uprightness cannot enter. Yea, truth fails; and he who departs from evil… [they want to get out of it] …makes himself a prey…." (vs 13-15). Targeted by people who don't want him to get out of it!
Now let's look at some Proverbs that give us some bearing on what to do and how to stay away from evil. This is based upon the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and desire to be like other people around you.
When you don't know right from wrong, it's easy to fall into a trap. That's why children should be taught right and wrong from the beginning. But as we go through some of these things, I want you to think about this and what has happened to many people in the Church.
Hanukkah in 2005 is on Dec. 26. what are parents going to do when they find out that a Church of God has said that it's okay to keep Hanukkah and they ask for a Hanukkah party. What about a Hanukkah tree? What's next? Let's have some gifts and games! It's all based on a lie, because in the Book of Macabees it says that there was 'never a shortage of oil.' That was a lie and an added feast of Judaism and not of God. Good ole 'paradigm shift'!
Proverbs 24:1: "Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their heart studies destruction, and their lips talk of mischief" (vs 1-2).
That's why Jesus said, 'Broad is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the gate that leads to life.' This is why Proverbs is an excellent place to start if you have been compromising with evil and you have entered into too many of the gray areas of your life and you have not had the resolve. What the book of Proverbs does is that it lays down the absolutes of:
- truth and error
- right and wrong
- good and evil
Prov. 4—here's what to do. This ties right in with what Paul wrote in 1-Cor. 6 where he said, 'Flee fornication.' You have to run away from it, because you get all involved in your emotions and everything. Then you're a 'dead duck'!
Proverbs 4:14: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men."
We have to understand that that's what we have to do today! You cannot compromise with evil!
Verse 15: "Avoid it; do not go in it; turn from it, and pass on! For they do not sleep except when they have done mischief…" (vs 15-16).
We're going to see in the book The Marketing of Evil that's exactly what the purveyors of evil have done to help bring down this nation. But it all began with Sabbath/Sunday. That was the foundation.
"…and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence" (vs 16-17).
If that doesn't tell you about television. I remember that when I was a kid we were told that some church people thought that all movies were of the devil and you shouldn't watch any movies. That was way before television or anything.
You would look at some of the movies and think that couldn't be. They had good movies with good themes. But today is it not true that they're all of the devil, the majority of them. Even watch the History Channel on Bible history and what do you have? All the lies of Satan the devil concerning Christianity! Here's the contrast:
Verse 18: "But the path of the just is as the shining light…" Christ is the Light of the world, and we are to be lights to the world by our conduct and not blend in and become like them.
"…that shines more and more to the perfect day" (v 18). In other words:
- you're growing in grace and knowledge
- you're overcoming
- you're developing the character of Christ
All of that fits in this verse, which is the only solution for the problems in this world, and to keep you away from evil.
Verse 19: "The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble."
What we're going to see is Satan deceiving the world. He uses people to twist and to turn and you misinterpret. The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian is an excellent book, very well written. He talks about the first amendment. In our age that was the major crashing of the door, the separation of church and state. They twisted the meaning, because the meaning is that 'Congress shall make no law as to the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'
Yet, you have school boards, business, everything superceding the Congress of the United States, saying that kids can't… One college student couldn't even have a Bible study with other college students in his own dorm room.
What needs to be said to that? It needs to be said to the college that 'you are not the Congress, you cannot make any law that is against the laws of the land! It says in the first amendment: nor shall you prohibit the free exercise thereof! You either change your tune or go to court!'
It's the other way around today. If you try and teach the truth, you either change your tune or you go to court. The world is all upside down!
From The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian; pgs.58-59:
So let me ask: In allowing the first amendment to be changed from it's original meaning to what has become today—namely, the prohibition of acknowledgement of God or His laws inside the schools where most American children spend their youth, do you realize what we are doing? Similarly, in making any reference to God or biblical principles off limits for those entrusted with running this nation's government in charting its future course, do you realize what we are doing?
The paragraph above says the only way we can change is this:
Whatever we do to rectify this terrible wrong, we must start with brutal honest—an unflinching realization of what we have allowed to transpire in our nation. Only by facing those hard truths can we make any real progress.
We are deluding ourselves into thinking that there is some neutral ground between good and evil…
The famous call on Fox News Channel is fair and balance, right and left, good and evil, and you decide! What happens? People shift to a more neutral ground! Some neutral ground between good and evil. What is a Laodicean? A compromiser! That's how they get into it. Like the new Bible neuter gender, neither he or she, God is father/mother—schizophrenic!
…and that is where government is supposed to be. But such a neutral ground, if such can even be said to exist, is in itself evil. When Jews are being gassed and cremated down the street, "neutrality" is not neutral—it's collaboration.
When we realize that the Creator has stationed us on this earth in a battleground between a good kingdom and an evil one, and that our real choice in life is between obedience to Divine love or disobedience, between honesty and dishonesty, nobility and shallowness, selflessness and selfishness, courage and cowardice, we see there really is no neutral ground.
Thus, if government is not populated by Godly, principled people, we are doomed to live as glorified serfs….
That's exactly what this generation is coming up to be!
Why? Because true religion and its fruits—love of truth and one another—constitute a powerful force working against the natural tendency of power to corrupt. To put it another way, without having a real relationship with the Living God, men automatically become their own miserable "gods.' That pathetic, false god in turn owes his allegiance to dark forces he doesn't recognize or comprehend—and if he's in a position of power, he is compelled to become a demagogue or a tyrant.
Or I will add: a hypocrite!
What we're witnessing is the official, ever so gradual squeezing out of everything that's really precious to America….
In other words, God!
…It's as though we're throwing away something so valuable that it goes almost beyond the ability of words to convey it. We're taking the finest life has to offer, like the most precious memories of our children, of their birth, of their accomplishments—and we're taking the sacrifices of our soldiers, or our patriots, our nations' martyrs—and we're junking them.
Very profound! Very interesting! Here's what's happening; this is where we are mentally. This is where the power of Satan come to a point that the world is possessed! Kupelian describes it very well here; pgs. 76-78:
Piercing the Veil—"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities , against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).
What Kupelian is basing everything he is doing is on is the Scriptures!
Earlier in this exploration of youth culture we "pierced" the corporate veil, discovering the shameful marketing reality behind today's youth culture….
Everything is done to alienate children and put them into Satan's camp of evil. Children's cartoons, clothing, gadgets, education; everything is to strip them away from mother and father, and strip them away from God and make them slaves fit for destruction. The ultimate end of that is anarchy! Now let's go the rest of the way and pierce the spiritual veil:
History is full of times and places when something—call it a spirit if you wish—sweeps over a particular society. This something is drawn, as into a vacuum, into societies that have lost their way and have harkened to the voice of deceitful leaders and philosophies. During the mid-twentieth century a malevolent spirit swept over Germany…
We can add Japan and the Soviet Union!
…leading to unspeakable crimes being perpetrated against millions of Jews and other "undesirables" in the name of progress. In the late 70s the demonic spirit of Marxist "cleansing" swept through Cambodia like a raging wildfire, resulting in the brutal deaths of perhaps two million….
They took their heads and stacked them up in rows, reminiscent of the Aztecs.
And today we see the worldwide spread of a maniacal jihad suicide cult that is attracting literally millions of Muslims.
But this phenomenon is evident not only in genocidal frenzies. The counterculture revolution of the 1960s was, to man, a spiritual phenomenon with profound reverberations to the present. Likewise, the New Age movement, the preoccupation with "channeling" and UFOs, and other similar movements have an uncanny spiritual, religious dimension that can't be ignored.
True, mass conformity even to bizarre beliefs and practices can be explained somewhat by the sheer power of peer pressure, but there is more to it, It's more akin to mass hypnosis, where large numbers of people simultaneously adopt the same bizarre mind-set, beliefs, and practices….
Easily accomplished with all the hightech things we have today!
…Such instances of spiritual "possession"…
What occupies your mind? There are so many things to occupy your mind that you have no chance to think or contemplate your. Your mind is occupied with music, television and other things.
Let me just state very clearly, if you have to have music going on all the time, you are not a master of your own mind. If you have to have music and things going all the time then you are not learning to think for yourself. You're letting someone else, with the music and lyrics, think for you, and that's what your heart becomes.
What's happening to all the teenagers? They have rock music, rap music, rotten music; 'gangsta' rap, which is total anarchy and rebellion! Everyone thinks is wonderful. They go in the cars with their folks and have flip-down television to keep them quiet. Kids no longer talk with their parents, and parents no longer talk with their kids. They're all occupied doing their own evil thing, and they're all headed to destruction. They are possessed by the gadgets and the spirit of this world led by Satan the devil, and through this everybody is living in a make-believe world!
- you can't face reality
- you can't face truth
- you can't make decisions
…of a society, of a people made ripe for such a downward transformation by their sins and rebellion against God, are evident throughout history.
In that you have the Internet. Millions of people are hooked on pornography.
- What occupies their minds?
- What occupies your mind?
- What are in your thoughts?
You're so busy having your mind occupied with other things, you don't have time to study and pray. Tell it to God!
Well now, is it just my imagination, or is there something about today's celebratory piercing and tattooing of the body and the free sex that permeates this culture that literally evokes the spirit of Sodom and Gomorrah? It's as though the rebellious spirit of reprobate, pagan civilizations of the past was being tapped into by today's pop culture.
And it is!
"Oh, come on," you might say, dismissively. "They're just adorning the human body to make it more beautiful and unique. Let them have their fun. Who are they hurting?" Such mellifluous excuses spring upon in our minds quite easily, as most certainly they did also in the time of Sodom, Gomorrah, and other perverse societies.
Don't forget that in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them were necessarily involved in evil, but they went along with it and put up with it. Were they destroyed? Yes, they were! It says that God destroyed them all!
The fact is, what has risen "out of the pit" in today's world bears a striking resemblance to the ageless spirit of defiant paganism, a spirit now inhabiting million of people "freed" by trauma (drugs, illicit sex, bodily mutilation, and so on) from the pain of their own conscience—which is to say, freed from God and the Divine law written deep down in every person's heart. Why? Same reasoning as always: so they can be their own gods and make up their own rules.
Of course, in a very real sense they are also victims—they've been setup for all of this. For not only has today's popular culture—from its astonishing gender confusion to its perverse and powerful musical expression—become toxic virtually without precedent in modern history, but also most parents have not protected their own kids from it.
Witness Harry Potter! But the truth is, you now have a generation of parents that grew up on rock music, that grew up on pop culture, pot, cocaine, methamphetamines, and illicit sex! So, they're not going to turn around and teach their children the truth, they rather encourage them in these things and further abandon them.
- What occupies your mind?
- Are you in control of your mind?
or
- Do you let it run rampant with lust and inner thoughts?
- of hate
- of murder
- of sex
- What do you watch?
- What do you do?
- What do you allow to enter into your mind?
Proverbs 4:20: "My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart" (vs 20-21).
We're going to start talking about how you protect yourself from all of this.
Verse 22: "For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh." We're talking about:
- mental health
- physical health
- well being
- spiritual health
Verse 23: "Above all guard the door of your mind with diligence…"
Who is responsible for what goes in your mind? in our eyes? in your life? Each person individually! That's why you have to regulate:
- what you see
- what you hear
- what you allow to stay in your mind
These things can be clipped into your mind very easily, just by a jingle of an advertisement, or a stupid little song you can't get out of your head!
One of the first songs that kicked off the sexual revolution among those who watched MTV was If You Can't be with the One That You Love, Love the One That You are With—which promotes:
- adultery
- fornication
- dishonesty
- disloyalty
- lack of love
That little song and all the catchy little phrases… Even some of the songs that Frank Sinatra sang: Do it My Way; Strangers in the Night.
What are some of the things you see on television that promotes a lot of promiscuity and evil? Las Vegas! What's done here stays here! We give you permission to sin and no one will know! But:
- God knows!
- Your body knows!
- Your mind knows!
We have people addicted to sex, to gambling, drugs, pornography, to every evil under the sun, because they don't guard the door of their mind! You have to be diligent in it.
I was thinking that I would like to invent a mute on the television remote control that when commercials come on, it would not only cutoff the sound, but blank out the image. More and more you come along with a program that fairly decent that you're watching and here comes a nearly pornographic advertisement!
What happens? You look at some of the ads and how they do it. They only need a blink of a second and it goes into the mind! There's subliminal advertising. They first did this in movies: buy popcorn, your thirsty! And they boosted the sales of popcorn and soda many-fold. It was put up so that it flashed on the screen so quickly that you couldn't see it. Notice this, the reason you have to "…guard the door of your mind…" is:
"…for out of it are the issues of life" (v 23). Your very existence: mentally, physically and spiritually! Your health!
Verse 22: "For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh."
Why are people really sick in addition to eating wrong foods? Because of what's going into their mind!
Verse 24: "Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and devious lips put far from you. Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established…. [in God's way] …Do not turn to the right hand nor to the left; remove your foot from evil" (vs 24-27).
Prov. 5 talks about sex sins. The Bible talks an awful lot about wicked, sinful, immoral women, more than men, and some women feel picked upon. However, when women are made to become promiscuous and whores—which they're doing at a younger and younger age—society has no stabilizing influence because men go along just like idiots! God knows that!
That's why when you talk about a king that was righteous, it always mentions his mother: and his mother was so and so! Why? Because the mother was righteous! That's a key. That's not to say that women are more inherently evil than men. It is that if you seduce the women through women's rights, abortion, divorce and re-marriage, single with children, you destroy the society because you've taken away the stabilizing nurturing, growing influence and teaching of mothers. That's what happens to a society!
When it talks about women and whoredom, don't feel picked on. God is bringing out a very, very important point that we need to realize and understand.
Proverbs 7:1: "My son, keep my words and store up my commandments within you."
That's why the commandments are a light; it's a path that we are to walk in. Protestantism paved the way in the 20th century for the lawlessness that we have and laid themselves open to evolution in the schools and kicking God out, because they had a lawless grace:
If you believe in Jesus you have your sins forgiven, and grace covers everything. You just go do what you have to do and you don't have to keep the commandments of God, especially the Sabbath!
Verse 2: "Keep my commandments and live; and keep my law as the apple of your eye."
That's what you need to occupy your mind. They're to be written in our heart and mind (Heb. 2). Are we allowing the Spirit of God to occupy our mind?
- to lead us
- to guide us
- to help us
Or are we coming to church once a week and now we're all set and just go out and forget about God and just live our lives the way that we live and come back to church and we're all righteous the next week? Always remember that God knows!
Verse 3: "Bind them upon your fingers; write them upon the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, 'You are my sister"; and call understanding your kinsman, so that they may keep you from the wanton woman, from the stranger who flatters with her words" (vs 3-5).
You can apply that spiritually to a church, physically to a woman or man, or woman/woman, man/man in a homosexual age. What we need to do is:
- we need to have the commandments written in our heart and mind
- we need to be led by the Spirit of God
Romans 8: "But if Christ be within you, the body is indeed dead because of sin; however, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Now, if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead is dwelling within you, He Who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken your mortal bodies because of His Spirit that dwells within you. So then, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh" (vs 10-12).
- if you have been called of God, which you have
- if you have the Spirit of God, which you have
- if you know the Truth of God, which you do
Who are you debtor to? God! Christ is the One Who died for you! Yea, lives for you!
Verse 13: "Because if you are living according to the flesh, you shall die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body…"
- by guarding the door of your mind
- by not allowing these things to come into your mind
- by letting your mind be occupied with the Spirit of God and the Word of God, and not with the things of the world through
- music
- television
- other things out there in the world
then what will happen with the Spirit of God, you're
"…putting to death the deeds of the body" (v 13)—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, they pride of life
"…you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" (vs 13-14).
- let the Spirit of God lead you
- let the Spirit of God keep pricking your conscience
When you come to a point—and this is very important to understand. We are confronted with sin that so easily besets us, but what do we do? Do we go to God and repent? Here is what's very important to remember and understand:
1-John 3:18: "My little children, we should not love in word, nor with our tongues; rather, we should love in deed and in Truth."
- no hypocrisy
- no pretense
- no covering up
- no living a dual life
- no being righteous before people and sinful privately
Because God knows!
Verse 19: "And in this way we know that we are of the Truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him, that if our hearts condemn us…" (vs 19-20). If you sin and your conscience pricks you, your heart condemns you!
"…God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things" (v 20).
If you conscience is pricked and you know that you have sinned, God also knows. What do you? You go to God and repent! God knows all things; He's greater than our heart!
Verse 21: "Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence toward God." That's walking in faith, believing in hope and living in love! That's all the confidence that we have.
Verse 22: "And whatever we may ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and practice those things that are pleasing in His sight."
- What is occupying our mind?
- Is it the Spirit of God?
- Is it the love of God?
IF it is, then we're walking in the right way! We're on the right track! Then God's Spirit will prick us when we sin so that we can repent. What is exposing the evil within? The Spirit of God so that you can repent of it and get rid of it, and have God's Spirit refresh your mind and heart!
Verse 23: "And this is His commandment: that we believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and thatwe love one another, exactly as He gave commandment to us. And the one who keeps His commandments is dwelling in Him, and He in him; and by this we know that He is dwelling in us: by the Spirit, which He has given to us" (vs 23-24).
Let's see what happens when we go to God, confess our sins and get rid of the condemnation. This is very important for us to understand.
Romans 8:1: "Consequently, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
When you repent, God forgives. He forgets! He'll blot it out! Whatever residual is still in your mind to remind you of it, that's so you won't continue to sin. But there is no condemnation. If you come to a point that your heart condemns you, then you repent and there is no condemnation before God, because you're in Christ!
Verse 2: "Because the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has delivered me from the law of sin and death."
That all gets into the Feast of Unleavened Bread and getting rid of sin and putting in righteousness and so forth. That all comes as the next step beyond that.
1-Thessalonians 4:7: "For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification…. [not to live and be as the world] …Accordingly, the one who rejects these commands is not rejecting man, but God, Who also gave His Holy Spirit to us. Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for me to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another" (vs 7-9). That's the way that you overcome!
Verse 10: "And you also practice this toward all the brethren who are in all of Macedonia; but we exhort you, brethren, to abound even more in love; and to aspire to live a quiet life, and to tend to your own business, and to work with your own hands, exactly as we have instructed you" (vs 10-11). That's what we need to do! Let's not have our mind occupied with other things!
1-Thessalonians 5:5: "For you are all children of the Light and children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of the darkness. So then, we should not sleep, as others do; but we should watch, and we should be sober. For those who are sleeping sleep in the night, and those who are drunken get drunk in the night. But we who are of the day should be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation, because God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 5-9).
Let's see the ultimate solution for this whole situation and how we live in the world. We have to live in it. We can't change the world; only God can change the world! It's kind of like David wrote in one of the Psalms, 'Oh that I were like a bird and I could fly off someplace and get away.'
Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you…" The way that you guard the door of your mind and make sure that it's no occupied with 'the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,' and the evil of the world.
"…which was also in Christ Jesus… [notice what He did for each one of us]: …Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant…" (vs 5-7).
He gave up everything to save us; not to let us live in compromise and sin, but to bring us out of sin.
Verse 8: "And being found in the manner of man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him a name, which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… [it's going to happen] … took the form of a servant, of beings in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (vs 8-11).
Then Paul gives this very encouraging things here, and this always gives you stability in your spiritual life and being able to cope with the world.
Verse 12: "So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God Who works in you…" (vs 12-13). Let God work in you; let the Spirit of God lead you!
"…both to will… [to have the desire to do so] …and to do according to His good pleasure" (v 13). So that you not only have the desire and will, but you do and accomplish it!
Verse 14: "Do all things without complaints and disputes; so that you may be blameless and without offense, innocent children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world" (vs 14-15).
That's how we can cope while the spirit of Sodom and Gomorrah reigns in the world!
Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version
Scriptural References:
- Revelation 11:8
- Revelation 12:9
- Ephesians 2:1-2
- 1 John 2:15-16
- Romans 8:15
- 1 Corinthians 2:12, 14
- Hebrews 2:15
- Matthew 24:12
- 2 Timothy 3:13
- Isaiah 19:1-3, 14
- Isaiah 59:1-8
- Hosea 4:1-3, 6-12
- Isaiah 59:9-15
- Proverbs 24:1-2
- Proverbs 4:14-23, 22, 24-27
- Proverbs 7:1-5
- Romans 8:10-14
- 1 John 3:18-24
- Romans 8:1-2
- 1 Thessalonians 4:7-11
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5-9
- Philippians 2:5-15
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- 2 Corinthians 4:4
- Ezekiel 28
- Deuteronomy 28
- Revelation 17
- 1 Corinthians 6
- Proverbs 5
- Hebrews 10
Also referenced:
Sermons:
- How Do You Stand Before God?
- Guard the Door of Your Mind
Books:
- Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? by Fred R. Coulter
- The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 5/19/19
