Participants: David Shin and Steve Wolhberg
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000044
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00:15 Like to welcome you to Battles of Faith.
00:16 My name is David Shin and I'm here with 00:18 Steve Wohlberg and we've been going through 00:20 a series building a Biblical foundation 00:22 delving into the supernatural, into magic, 00:25 into Wicca. And we are going into the defense 00:28 against the Dark Arts and it's been quite 00:29 a journey hasn't it, Steve. 00:31 Yes, David it's been a quite a journey and 00:32 I'm very grateful to be on this program and it 00:35 is just so appropriate that this program is 00:37 called Battles of Faith because that's really 00:39 what we've been dealing with a conflict, 00:42 a cosmic conflict. A struggle of war between 00:45 the forces of good and evil. And this is a big 00:48 program because we're gonna talk about 00:50 defense. But, let me, let me just start out by 00:52 going to the Book of Revelation, okay, 00:54 chapter 12 and just lay the context of the 00:57 struggle of the conflict of the war. Revelation 01:00 12 verse 7, the Bible says that there was war 01:04 in heaven. The very first war was not on earth 01:07 it was in heaven and the war was between 01:09 God and the devil. And as you continue to 01:11 read on, verse 9 talks about how Satan and his 01:15 angels lost. His sympathizers, they were 01:17 kicked out. It says in verse 9, the great dragon 01:19 was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil 01:21 and Satan, who deceives the whole world; 01:24 he was cast out into the earth, down here 01:27 where we are and his angels were cast out with 01:30 him. And as you continue to read 01:32 Revelation and study the history, you see the 01:34 battle continuing on down throughout history 01:37 in verse 12, Revelation 12:12 it says rejoice 01:41 you heavens and you who dwell in them! 01:43 But woe to the inhabitants of the earth 01:45 and the sea! For the devil has come down to 01:49 you, having great wrath, because he knows 01:52 that he has but a short time. We've talked 01:55 about how those that are involved in 01:56 witchcraft and spiritual as a mediums they 01:58 don't believe in the devil, we do, we believe 02:01 there's a real devil. The Bible reveals him and 02:05 exposes him and warns us against him and 02:08 tells us that he is here, he is full of anger and 02:11 wrath and fury, because he knows his time is 02:14 running out. And he is trying to take everybody 02:16 down with him as many as possible and 02:19 David, once you really get into the supernatural 02:22 arena and you realize they are evil angels 02:24 out there. Satan and his angels, it just creates a 02:27 need for protection, for defense, how do we 02:32 defend ourselves against these forces. 02:34 That's our focus today. So, we are in a battle 02:38 and this battle is between Christ and Satan 02:40 and the battle started in heaven, it's been 02:41 transferred to earth and I'm assuming that 02:44 we're in the midst of this battle. 02:45 Yes we are. And the controversy is 02:48 going to be as to how we get a defense in the 02:51 midst of this battle against the forces of 02:53 darkness. Yes and we need that defense. 02:55 Okay. And the Bible is very clear on how to 02:58 have that defense and that's what we're gonna 02:59 really zero in on. Let's go to the Book of 03:01 Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians 6 03:06 is a very powerful chapter where Paul talks 03:10 about putting on the armor of God. We cannot 03:13 defend ourselves in our own strength. 03:15 We need supernatural power, our enemies are 03:18 supernatural and we need supernatural help. 03:21 Ephesians 6 verse 10, Paul wrote, finally my 03:24 brethren, be strong in the Lord, God's power 03:28 and in the power of His might. Put on the 03:32 whole armor of God that you may be able to 03:35 stand against the wiles of the devil. Okay. 03:39 Paul is clear there is a devil and there is a 03:41 God, we're in the middle we needs God's 03:43 armor upon us in order to stand against his 03:47 wiles, against his deceptions, against his 03:49 delusions, which are sweeping planet earth in 03:52 these last days. And I wanna put up on the 03:54 screen a picture from the Harry Potter movie, 03:59 I just wanna make some comments about this, 04:00 there is just a quick, quick picture there, 04:03 we did a whole program on this that Harry 04:06 Potter, it's a series of books and a series of 04:08 movies that are being read and watched all 04:10 around this world. I think it's very significant 04:13 that in the Potter series, Harry is a young 04:17 wizard boy and he goes to a school called 04:19 Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry 04:21 and he takes a class, he takes many classes. 04:23 On divination, and potions, and spells, 04:25 but his favorite class is called defense against 04:28 the dark arts, that's his favorite class, where he 04:31 learns through learning certain spells how to 04:36 protect himself against the evil wizard Lord 04:39 Voldemort. Now, a lot of people and we've 04:41 talked about this controversy, a lot of 04:43 people think the Harry Potter series is just a 04:45 total, just entertainment, there is 04:47 no real witchcraft in those books. That is not 04:51 true. I have a book here in my hand and we've 04:54 referred to this a couple of times it's called 04:56 Teen Witch, Wicca for a new generation, 04:58 this is a book by a best selling author. She is a 05:01 Wiccan, she is a witch, she's into witchcraft 05:03 and she is teaching witchcraft to teenagers 05:05 and there is a lot of books out here in the 05:08 world like this and I don't recommend them, 05:10 but I wanna a point here that in this best 05:13 selling book teaching witchcraft to teenagers, 05:16 chapter 9 is called protection, you see that 05:19 protection. Umm! Protection. Okay. 05:20 And the whole chapter is about how to learn 05:23 spells to protect yourself against evil. 05:26 It's called the protection magic and 05:28 the author wrote that we have to deal with 05:30 protecting ourselves, our homes, our friends, 05:32 and our families. And then this author says 05:34 you have three very important assets to 05:36 protect yourself from evil. Now number one is 05:38 common sense she says, number two is our 05:40 American sense of justice and number three is 05:43 witchcraft. Protect yourself from witchcraft. 05:45 Now my point in sharing this is that the Harry 05:49 Potter books and movies, where Harry takes a 05:53 class at Hogwarts to learn how to protect 05:56 himself from evil through witchcraft and 05:59 spells, parents that is the exact philosophy of 06:05 real witchcraft, whether you believe it or not it 06:08 is, even though there is a lot of fantasy and 06:10 goofiness in the Potter books, the philosophy 06:13 underneath it, many, many times is, is the 06:16 real philosophy of the craft. And when kids 06:20 are reading these books and thinking that 06:21 Harry you know was going there, learning 06:23 how to protect himself through witchcraft and 06:26 spells, seeds are being planted in their minds 06:29 and that is exactly what real witchcraft is 06:31 teaching and that's what this book is teaching 06:34 and it is, the truth is that it is, it is ridiculous, 06:38 it is ludicrous, it is, it is foolish to think that 06:44 you can protect yourself from evil through 06:47 witchcraft, witchcraft is an open door for evil 06:51 not a way to protect yourself from evil. 06:54 So, you're saying that even within the 06:56 witchcraft craft there is witchcraft to protect 07:01 against the evil witchcraft. There is a 07:02 good witchcraft and there is an evil 07:03 witchcraft. That's right and they try to protect 07:05 themselves by casting good spells. Okay. 07:07 But, you cannot, you cannot protect yourself 07:11 from the devil by casting a spell. Satan is 07:13 much more powerful than that and he is 07:15 behind spells anyway. And so let's look at 07:17 what the Bible says, okay, about how to 07:19 protect ourselves from evil and it's not by 07:22 casting spell. Let's take a look at First John 07:25 chapter 1 verse 9. We're gonna look at five 07:28 different points right now, okay, very 07:30 practical, very biblical, very important for all 07:33 of us to know how to protect ourselves from 07:36 the forces of evil. And what is gonna start at 07:38 the foundation. First John chapter 1 verse 9, 07:41 very simple passage, very important these are, 07:44 this is our source of protection, our key, 07:47 the key is to protection. How to defend 07:49 ourselves. We don't need to take a class 07:51 learning how to cast spells, we need to read 07:52 our Bibles, put on the armor of God and 07:55 follow the scriptures, which tell us what to do. 07:59 First John chapter 1 verse 9, David, I'll let 08:01 you. Sure. I'll let you read that text, 08:03 First John 1:9, first defense, line of defense 08:08 1 verse 9; if we confess our sins, He is faithful 08:11 and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse 08:13 us from all unrighteousness. 08:15 That's right there you see the picture on the 08:17 screen that the girl kneeling down, a woman 08:19 kneeling and confessing her sins. Okay. 08:21 With an open Bible at her feet. What brought 08:25 Satan into humanity in the beginning of time, 08:29 in the Garden of Eden, was Adam and Eve's 08:32 choice to sin, to go against God's will and 08:36 that choice to sin was an open door that 08:40 allowed Satan to enter into their hearts and 08:44 into humanity and if we want to be protected 08:47 against Satan and his evil forces the first 08:50 thing we have to do is make a choice to turn 08:53 away from sin, to close that door that we don't 08:57 want sin in our lives. And that's what this 08:59 verse is saying, First John 1:9, it says, if we 09:02 confess our sins, He is faithful and just to 09:06 forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all 09:09 unrighteousness. Confession of sin closes 09:12 a door. In a sense it kicks Satan out of your 09:17 life when sin comes in, Satan comes in, 09:20 when sin goes out we confess it then the devil 09:23 has to leave because he cannot, he cannot 09:25 abide where there is no sin or when we 09:29 confess sin and God's power is then coming 09:32 into our lives. Now let's take a look at another 09:34 passage, Acts chapter 20 verse 20, I call this 09:38 20:20 vision. Okay. Easy to remember 09:41 this verse. Acts chapter 20 verse 20. 09:44 So, line of defense number 1 is to believe 09:47 the word of God and to confess your sins, 09:49 confess them to God and let him forgive you. 09:52 That's the first step; we're getting away from 09:57 the darkness. So, Acts 20 verse 20. 09:59 Acts chapter 20 verse 20 right and I'll read 10:01 this passage. Okay. 20:20 vision, easy to 10:05 remember it, Paul wrote, actually it's 10:11 verse 20 and then 21, I kept back nothing 10:14 profitable to you, but I've shown you and I 10:16 have taught you publicly and from house 10:18 to house, and then verse 21. Paul said I'm 10:21 testifying both to the Jews and also to the 10:23 Greeks, repentance toward God and then 10:27 what's the next step? And faith toward our 10:29 Lord Jesus Christ. Right and faith toward 10:30 our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance toward 10:34 God, I guess we can call this 20:21 vision. 10:38 Umm! Umm! Repentance toward God and 10:40 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. We need 10:42 to not only make a choice to confess our 10:44 sins and it goes right with it, it's the flip side 10:46 of the same coin. But it's to repent of those 10:51 sins, which means we don't want them in our 10:53 lives anymore and we are responding to the 10:55 grace of God and the picture that we just saw 10:58 shows a person and people repenting because 11:01 of the cross, because they see the love of the 11:03 cross and they realize that sin has caused pain 11:07 to the heart of God. Okay. That's very 11:09 important David, repentance needs to be 11:11 from the heart not just a form. It reminds me 11:14 of a little event that happened in my life, 11:17 a number of months ago. I was in Oklahoma 11:19 with my wife and my son Seth, he was just 11:22 under 2 at that time and we were taking, 11:24 Seth and I were taking a walk out in the field 11:27 and we happened to find ourselves right in 11:30 front of a pile of rocks and you know what 11:32 little kids like to do, what little boys like to 11:34 do when they see rocks. They throw. 11:36 Right, he, Seth knelt down and grabbed a rock 11:40 and we were just there by ourselves in this 11:41 field and he just innocently and gleefully 11:44 just threw it up and threw it back behind him 11:47 and guess where I was standing. 11:49 Right there. Right behind him and 11:50 that rock went flying through the air and it 11:52 hit me right in the mouth. Right there, 11:53 and it was a pretty good size rock and he 11:54 threw it pretty hard. And the first thing I did 11:57 was I grabbed my mouth and I felt my 11:59 teeth. Make sure you have it. 12:00 Make sure my teeth were all their. 12:03 I didn't need any, you know, major dental 12:05 work done and I felt okay all my teeth are 12:07 there, that's good news thank you Lord and 12:09 then, I can feel the blood, I was starting to 12:12 bleed, my lip starting to flatten up, but I was 12:14 okay and so my next thought was Seth. 12:18 I wasn't mad at him because he didn't, 12:19 you know, he did it innocently, but I was 12:21 thinking how can I turn this into a daddy-son 12:23 moment and teach him a lesson. So, I knelt 12:26 down, turned him around and I said Seth, 12:28 I felt my lip, I said Seth look you hurt 12:30 daddy, you hurt daddy. Oh! Wow! 12:32 And he looked at me and then I said Seth say 12:34 I'm sorry daddy, I'm sorry daddy. And so Seth 12:36 looked at me like a little robot, he just said 12:39 I'm sorry daddy, I'm sorry daddy. And I can 12:42 tell immediately he didn't mean it, 12:43 he just said it 'cause I told him. Well, here is 12:46 the amazing thing about a minute later, 12:49 you know, I kind of knelt back down, 12:50 I was nursing my little wound here and Seth 12:55 started walking around the rock pile and he 12:57 walked a little bit away from me and then he 13:00 turned around on his own initiative, I didn't 13:01 say anything, he turned around, he looked 13:04 right at me and with very earnest eyes he said, 13:09 he said daddy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And that 13:13 time he meant it and I was, I was amazed that 13:17 a little boy not quite two was feeling from his 13:21 heart that he was sorry that he had hurt daddy 13:25 and he said it on his own initiative and it 13:28 really touched me and then my mind thought 13:30 about God, I thought you know that is what 13:32 real repentance is all about. He is realizing 13:34 that we hurt someone by our sins. We don't 13:37 wanna just confess them and then keep doing 13:39 them, we wanna repented them and we wanna 13:41 repent from our hearts and we wanna say 13:44 Lord, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I was 13:47 hurting you. And that's what real repentance is, 13:51 its sorrow for sin, that our sins have hurt 13:54 Jesus, we've hurt God and then it's a choice to 13:57 turn away from them. So, that's what 13:59 repentance is and that's what we need to do in 14:02 order to defend ourselves against the dark arts 14:04 is repent from our hearts. That we don't 14:08 wanna sin anymore. So, sin separates us from 14:11 God because God is our protection and when 14:14 we confess our sins that means 14:15 acknowledgment of our sin. 14:17 That's right. Repentance that you 14:18 illustrated is a genuine sorrow for sin and a 14:20 turning away from it. That's right. 14:22 And these are some defense against the dark 14:25 arts as you mentioned before. 14:26 That exactly right and it's not only in verse 14:28 21, Acts 20:21 vision, it says not only 14:31 repentance toward God, but faith toward our 14:34 Lord Jesus Christ. We need to trust in a 14:37 simple child like faith that Jesus Christ paid 14:40 the praise for our sins on the cross. All the 14:43 sins we ever committed were in Jesus 14:46 mysteriously and he died for them. He paid 14:49 the price for them. The wages of sin is death 14:51 and he died that death. And so we not only 14:55 repent, but we trust that he is our sacrifice, 14:59 he is our savior. His death is sufficient 15:01 for me in order for me to receive his 15:05 forgiveness and his salvation. And those are 15:07 simple steps, steps to Christ that these are the 15:11 steps that will drive the devil out of our lives 15:14 and keep him away from us. 15:16 I've, I've read in another passage that, 15:19 what about a person that doesn't feel sorry 15:21 like, like he is illustrating the earlier, 15:23 the first time your son said, I'm sorry, 15:25 it wasn't from the heart, but is, I read in, 15:27 I think it's Romans it says that repentance is 15:29 actually a gift. In another words, if you ask 15:31 the Lord for the gift of repentance, Lord, 15:33 I'm not sorry, but help me to feel sorry. 15:36 He will give you that as well and so 15:38 everything that is needed for our salvation 15:40 or even for our defense is in Christ and you 15:43 can ask him for whatever you like, and? 15:44 That's exactly right. We can pray for them 15:46 and we can ask God to give them to us and 15:48 heal. He wants to give them to us anyway. 15:51 And he is trying to give them to us right now. 15:53 So, let's look at the next verse. Let's go to 15:55 Revelation, chapter 12 verse 11. 15:59 Revelation 12:11, line of defense number 16:04 three is the blood of Jesus Christ. This is 16:08 very powerful. The same chapter that talks 16:10 about the war that started in heaven was, 16:12 was transferred to the earth and has been 16:14 going on throughout history and will 16:16 intensify and has intensified in this time, 16:19 in the close of time. We are in the very 16:21 closing days of time. Revelation 12 verse 11 16:26 says that they, referring to God's people. 16:28 They over came him, referring to the devil, 16:31 by, by what? The blood of the lamb. 16:34 That's right, by the blood of the lamb. 16:39 And by the word of their testimony and 16:40 they loved not their lives even to the death. 16:43 They overcame by the blood of the lamb. 16:45 I can't really understand it, 16:47 I can't fully explain it, but I know that there 16:48 is power in the blood of Jesus Christ. 16:52 Amen. I heard that story once about 16:53 Martin Luther, the great Protestant 16:55 Reformer. And one night in the 1500s, 16:57 he in the, in the height of the reformation, 17:00 he went to bed one night and he had a dream. 17:02 And in his dream he saw the devil and the 17:05 devil came over to him, holding a scroll and 17:08 on that scroll was a lot of words. And the 17:11 devil looked at Luther and he said Martin 17:13 Luther. Are you Martin Luther? And Luther 17:15 said, yes I am. This was his dream. And then 17:17 he, he said are these your sins written on this 17:21 scroll? And Luther looked and he said, 17:23 yes those are mine. And then the devil said, 17:26 and Martin Luther do you know, what the 17:28 wages of sin are? And Luther said, yes I know 17:31 what they are? And the devil said, what is 17:32 it? What's the wages of sin? And Luther said, 17:36 it's, it's death, the wages of sin is death. 17:38 And the devil laughed insidious laugh, ha, ha, 17:40 ha. And he said, that means you're gonna die 17:43 Martin Luther because you've sinned. 17:46 And Luther looked at the devil and he noticed 17:48 that the devil's hand at the top of the scroll 17:50 was, was covering some other words. 17:54 And Luther said, move your hand devil, 17:55 move your hand. What, what's under there? 17:56 And the devil said I won't. And Luther said, 17:58 move your hand. And the devil said I won't. 18:01 And finally Luther waxed bold as he was 18:03 known to doing. And he looked at the devil 18:06 and he said in the name of Jesus Christ move 18:10 your hand. And the devil couldn't stand 18:13 under that, those words and he moved his 18:15 hand. And underneath his hand was a Bible 18:17 text from First John 1:7. And the text says, 18:21 the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses 18:24 us from all sin. Hallelujah. 18:28 And then Luther saw that text. He knew the 18:30 blood of Jesus was his defense. And he said 18:32 Satan I'm under the blood of Jesus, 18:33 get out of here and boom the devil was gone 18:36 and that was the end of his dream. And it just 18:38 illustrates powerfully that just what the Bible 18:43 says he overcame him by the blood of the 18:45 lamb and by the word of their testimony. 18:48 I think we've a slide that illustrates the 18:50 blood of Jesus Christ and again I can't explain 18:54 it. I can't understand it. There is no, 18:56 there is no human wisdom that can really 18:59 fully comprehend it, but when we trust the 19:02 blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the 19:03 cross for our sins, Satan cannot stand up under 19:07 that blood. That blood represents Christ life. 19:10 And his life is enough, his death is enough. 19:13 It is sufficient to cover our sins. So, number 19:17 one, confess your sins, repent, trust in Jesus as 19:20 your savior and rely on the blood of Jesus 19:24 Christ. These are, these are the defense. 19:26 These are the steps of defending ourselves 19:29 against the Dark Arts. Now, let's look at 19:30 another passage, David we got a little bit more 19:32 to do. Okay. Let's go to Psalm 101. 19:37 Psalm 101, the S.O.S. Psalm. Psalm 101, 19:41 I sometimes refers to this as the TV Psalm 19:44 because it talks about the importance of 19:46 making sure that what we watch is good and 19:49 not bad. And it just perfectly applies to 19:52 television, watching 3ABN is a good thing. 19:55 That's right. There is a lot of other 19:56 things out there that we shouldn't be 19:57 watching. Psalm 101, take a look at this. 20:01 Okay. Verse one says, I will sing of mercy 20:05 and judgment, O LORD, will I sing. 20:09 Verse two says, this is David's prayer to God 20:12 and his song to God. I will behave myself 20:14 wisely in a perfect way. O when will you 20:17 come to me? I will walk within my house. 20:20 David said with a perfect heart. Verse 3, 20:23 I will set no wicked thing before my eyes: 20:28 I hate the work of them that turned aside; 20:30 it shall not cleave to me. Verse 6 says, 20:32 my eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land 20:36 that he may dwell with me. Now, read this 20:38 passage carefully David says, says things that 20:40 are in front of me that are wicked. He said, 20:42 I'm not gonna be watching them. I'm not 20:44 gonna put anything wicked in front of my 20:45 eyes. I want my eyes to be upon the faithful. 20:48 I want my eyes to be upon the good things, 20:50 upon the things of God. And that David this 20:52 was a very important defense, when we think 20:54 about our homes, we think about the things 20:56 that we read, the things that we watch, 20:59 the things that we listen to. A defense against 21:02 the dark arts is to get rid of anything that's 21:06 evil in our home whether it's on the computer, 21:10 whether it's on TV, change the channel or get 21:13 Christian satellite or if they can't control it, 21:15 don't have the TV. And if there's magazines 21:18 and books and things that are gonna be 21:20 tempting you and leading you into the 21:21 world then astray. We need to get rid of these 21:23 things. We need to close our eyes against evil 21:27 because Satan can come in through what we 21:29 watch, through what we listen to; these are 21:32 avenues into our hearts. And this is part of our 21:35 defense against the dark arts is to get rid 21:38 of these things, if they are evil. So, we've a 21:40 choice the, the thing is I will set no wicked 21:43 thing before my eyes. That's right. 21:44 So, it's not just like Oh! I can't help it, 21:46 God has given us the power of choice to 21:48 choose the type of medium that we'll have. 21:50 That's exactly right. Okay, one more line 21:53 of defense, First John. This is a very practical 21:56 program. First John chapter 2, verse 13. 22:03 And we have a lot of information on this, 22:05 on our website whitehorsemedia.com. 22:07 We've resources that are designed to help you 22:11 to protect yourself from evil in these last days 22:14 and this is one of the big ones. This is 22:17 probably the biggest. First John chapter 2, 22:20 verse 13. I'm sorry it's verse 14, I made a 22:26 mistake. Verse 14, John wrote, I written to 22:28 you fathers because you have known Him 22:31 who is from the beginning. I have written 22:33 to you, young man, because you are strong, 22:35 and the word of God abides in you and you 22:40 have overcome the wicked one. So, there it's 22:43 talking about how to overcome the wicked 22:44 one. And the, the key to victory is the word of 22:48 God not in the pages of a book only, but it's 22:51 inside of us. Memorizing scripture, learning 22:55 the Bible, learning the power of the word, 22:57 as we learned the power of God's word and 23:00 put it in our minds and it abides in us that's 23:02 how we will overcome the wicked one. 23:04 When Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by 23:06 Satan, he resisted Satan three times by 23:09 quoting scripture. There is power in God's 23:13 word, his almighty word. And if you wanna 23:15 overcome, overcome the devil memorize 23:17 scripture. When Satan comes to your door, 23:20 quote scripture and he'll flee. And so 23:22 that's, that's our defense David confessing 23:25 our sins, trusting Jesus Christ, trusting his 23:27 blood, getting rid of evil out of our homes 23:30 and memorizing scripture and planting it in 23:33 our minds, that's the key, that's the source 23:36 of victory. So, these are some practical things 23:39 we can do against, against the darks of the 23:42 enemy. Now, what do you think is the, is the 23:44 result of a person that has you know, 23:47 confessed her sin, repentant, got these 23:49 things, is there a sense of piece in the life that 23:52 comes to an individual that has followed 23:54 Christ or is it unsettledness or is it. 23:57 No. Is there a reassurance a settled 24:00 sense of peace when the individual follows 24:01 through. Sure, it's, it's tremendous peace and 24:03 rest, another passage I'll just quote it, 24:05 I can see our time is running out, is Matthew 24:07 chapter 11 verse 20 and 29. Jesus said, 24:10 come to me, all you who are weary and 24:12 burdened and I will give you rest. There is 24:15 rest, there is peace in Jesus Christ. And then 24:18 he said take my yoke up on you and learn 24:20 from me. He wants us to learn from him. 24:22 Satan wants us to learn witchcraft and magic 24:25 and sorcery and spiritualism, but God 24:28 wants us to learn about Jesus. He wants us to 24:30 focus on the good shepherd, on his love 24:32 for us, on his mercy and to enter the school 24:35 Christ. Witchcraft is a school, but it is the 24:39 school of the enemy. And the Bible wants us 24:42 to enter the school of Jesus Christ and to learn 24:45 from him, to learn his meekness, his humility, 24:49 his goodness and yes we will find rest, 24:52 we will find peace, we will find love, we will 24:54 find power that you can never find in the 24:57 world. There is just no way around that. 24:58 I've been there, I've done that, I've been out 25:00 there and now I'm in here and I'm not going 25:03 anywhere except into my Bible and into my 25:05 Bible and into my Savior's love and into 25:08 power of his Holy Spirit. It works, it really 25:13 works. And Jesus is offering all of us that 25:17 love and that power. David, I wanna share one 25:19 more text. Okay. Galatians chapter 3, 25:24 I can't leave this program without reading 25:27 this passage. Galatians chapter 3 verse 1. 25:33 It's talking about the centrality of the cross, 25:36 the importance of the cross and Paul was 25:38 concerned about the early church in Galatia 25:41 that they had been, they had been bewitched. 25:43 The word bewitched is right there. We've 25:45 been talking about witchcraft, spirituals 25:46 and the occult, that's what this whole series is 25:47 about. And Paul talks about being bewitched, 25:51 but in this passage he says, that we, we don't 25:54 necessarily have to be practicing witchcraft or 25:58 diving into spiritualism in order to be, 26:00 bewitched, we can be bewitched if we allow 26:04 our minds to be turned away from the cross of 26:09 Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in Galatians 3 verse 1. 26:12 O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched 26:15 you, that you should not obey the truth before 26:18 whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently 26:22 set forth, crucified among you. The center of 26:26 God's message in this book is the cross. 26:31 And Satan is trying to bewitch us. So, that we 26:33 don't see, we don't see that message, we don't 26:36 see that power, that love. And God wants our 26:40 eyes as we've talked about previously to be 26:43 opened and he opens them through scripture 26:46 and he reveals to us supernaturally, through 26:50 the Holy Spirit, he helps us to see by faith that 26:55 2,000 years ago the son of the infinite God, 27:00 the maker of heaven and earth stretched out 27:02 his arms, took our sins and suffered a horrible 27:07 death. Separating, separated from his father 27:12 because he loves us. And he wants to get a 27:14 hold of us and save us for eternity and that's 27:18 the power of the cross and that's the message 27:20 of this series on battle, Battles of Faith. 27:22 And my final comment to you is don't let the 27:24 devil cast a spell on you and bewitch you 27:27 away from seeing Jesus and his love for you. 27:32 Amen, amen. Thank you very much Steve. 27:35 This has been an enlightening journey 27:37 through scripture. And today we've discussed 27:39 defense against the dark arts and how Jesus 27:43 Christ and his power is our only defense. 27:46 And we can do some practical things in to 27:49 aline ourselves with Jesus, confessions, 27:51 repentance, get things out of our home that are 27:53 keeping us from the cross and the blood of 27:55 Jesus is the only entity in this world that can 27:59 give us that true defense against the dark, 28:01 dark arts. My name is David Shin and I'm 28:04 here with Steve Wohlberg, may the 28:05 Lord bless you and keep you in his care. |
Revised 2014-12-17