The Audacity of False Teachers: Standing Firm in the Word

• Judgment on Sexual Immorality 00:03:31 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor identifies 'those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion' as facing severe judgment, expanding the definition to include adulterers, pedophiles, and fornicators.
• Judgment on Enablers of Sin 00:06:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that those who approve of, vote for, or support sinful behaviors are equally in danger of severe judgment, citing Paul's teaching.
• Cultural and Political Judgment 00:07:30 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor lists specific modern figures (professors, D.C. Council members, Supreme Court justices, doctors, teachers, etc.) who face judgment for promoting or enabling sin.
• Judgment on Religious Leaders 00:11:34 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that religious leaders who reinterpret the Bible to adapt to sinful living face the strictest judgment, citing James 3:1.
• Characteristics of False Teachers 00:15:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor outlines three characteristics of false teachers: arrogantly audacious, willful/self-centered, and overconfident irreverence toward angelic beings.
• Overconfident Irreverence 00:18:48 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor identifies 'overconfident irreverence' as the third characteristic of false teachers, noting they are bold and willful, unlike angels who do not blaspheme.
• Blasphemy of the Glorious Ones 00:19:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that false teachers speak abusively of angelic majesties (holy and unholy angels), a behavior that even fallen angels like the devil did not exhibit when disputing with Michael.
• The Dispute Over Moses' Body 00:22:23 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the biblical account of Michael the archangel disputing with the devil over Moses' body to illustrate proper reverence, contrasting it with the audacity of false teachers.
• The Nature of Angels and Demons 00:29:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor corrects cultural misconceptions, describing angels as powerful warriors and majesties, and demons as formidable spiritual beings, not the cartoonish figures often depicted.
• Kenneth Copeland and Heresy 00:33:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor cites Kenneth Copeland as an example of a false teacher who twists biblical truth into heresy by claiming humans are 'little gods,' demonstrating the audacity of false teachers.
• Four Responses to the Devil 00:34:42 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor outlines four practical steps for believers: recognize the devil is real, recognize he is on a leash held by God, recognize resistance comes from drawing near to God, and recognize true safety comes from ordering life by the Word of God.
• The nature of spiritual safety 00:37:25 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that safety is found in walking with God and ordering life by His Word, rather than in railing against Satan or attempting to bind the devil.
• The ideological nature of the spiritual battle 00:37:41 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines the true battle as theological and ideological, requiring believers to take cultural inputs to the truth of Scripture.
• The weapon of Scripture 00:38:24 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor advises that the only effective response to the devil is quoting Scripture correctly and completely, citing Jesus' example in the wilderness.
• Rejection of selective theology 00:39:15 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts true Christianity with 'Chipotle' religion, urging believers to accept the whole Word of God rather than picking and choosing comforting passages.

• Sermon Illustration 00:14:34 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references a cartoon where a missionary tells a college student that when he can no longer tolerate the evil in the mission field, he simply gets on a plane and goes back to the mission field.
• Sermon Illustration 00:18:26 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references Warren Wiersbe's commentary describing false teachers as outwardly serving the Lord but inwardly feeding their egos and feathering their nests.
• Sermon Illustration 00:22:23 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the biblical event where Archangel Michael disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, noting that Michael did not blaspheme but simply said, 'The Lord rebuke you,' handing the matter to God's authority.
• Sermon Illustration 00:24:00 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that God buried Moses in an unknown location to prevent idolatry, suggesting the dispute between Michael and the devil may have been over this secret.
• Sermon Illustration 00:29:25 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of Jesus summoning 12 legions (72,000) of angels to destroy the Roman Empire to illustrate the immense power of the angelic host, contrasting it with the false teachers' lack of fear.
• Sermon Illustration 00:30:50 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses a modern analogy of the Carolina Panthers stadium to illustrate the vast number of angels John saw in Revelation, stating it would take 1,500 such stadiums to hold them.
• Sermon Illustration 00:31:46 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts medieval paintings of demons as gross orcs with the biblical reality of fallen angels as 'majesties' whose identity is revealed by their message, not their appearance.
• Sermon Illustration 00:33:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor cites Kenneth Copeland's interview where he claims humans are 'a class of little gods' and 'looking at God' when looking at him, illustrating the audacious self-promotion of false teachers.
• Sermon Illustration 00:35:32 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references the story of Job to illustrate that Satan is on a leash held by God, who allows suffering only within delegated power, and that Job recognized God's ultimate control.
• Sermon Illustration 00:38:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references Satan's temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, where Satan quoted Scripture incorrectly, and Jesus responded by quoting Scripture correctly and completely, illustrating the power of the Word in spiritual battle.
• Sermon Illustration 00:39:46 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a personal story of taking his grandchildren to Chipotle, where they ordered a meal that became soggy and inedible due to cilantro, which he dislikes. He uses this to illustrate how 'Chipotle religion' (selective, buffet-style theology) results in a mess that cannot be consumed, contrasting it with the solid, complete Word of God.

• Pastoral Charge 00:14:16 ▶️ 📄
  > Raise children to be ambassadors of Christ.
• Pastoral Charge 00:35:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The congregation is commanded to actively avoid and run from immoral behavior.
• Pastoral Charge 00:38:24 ▶️ 📄
  > The congregation is instructed to rely solely on quoting Scripture when confronting spiritual opposition, implying a need to study and memorize the Bible.
• Pastoral Charge 00:38:50 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor commands the congregation to actively read, live, and memorize Scripture, and to accept its authority without selective interpretation.
• Pastoral Charge 00:41:26 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor urges the congregation to persist in their faith and maintain intimacy with God.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] You might think this would be a bad time to have a child or adopt a child or have a grandchild in world history. I don't need to preach to the choir, but you know our culture
[00:00:15] is wandering in degenerate confusion. Science has replaced the Creator. Mother Nature is being given the credit for this wonderful universe and animal kingdom, all that we see in nature.
[00:00:36] Now we're watching sexual identity replacing simple biology. And of course, immorality continues to defy divine authority. The truth is immoralities and deceptions and superstitions are new. They just take new forms. Satan isn't just a liar. He's an old liar. And he's been
[00:01:04] practicing on the human race for thousands of years. And his favorite representatives, ambassadors, delegates of this kingdom of darkness are not just knocking on every culture as they have in every generation in every country it isn't new but they also knock on the door of every church
[00:01:28] the apostle Peter is disturbed about that you could say he isn't going to take it sitting down and the spirit of God through him is going to deliver a warning not not just to the world out
[00:01:41] there but to the church and the church in here he's going to describe in detail false teachers and false teaching. Now, here on my first Sunday back, we're going to get into some pretty deep stuff. This isn't for the faint of heart, but we're going to take the Bible at its
[00:02:03] word and be warned and warn our world as well of the truth. So, go back to 2 Peter chapter 2.
[00:02:13] We're going to pick up where we left off at verse 10. We're going to cover verse 10 today.
[00:02:20] we're actually going to get into verse 11 we're going to speed up now here now verse 10 concludes Peter's comments on the world of humanity at large so let me just set the stage here it's a world of
[00:02:37] iniquity and immorality it's going to face the judgment of God and now Peter writes this rather chilling statement here in verse 10 that God is not only going to bring the entire world of unbelievers defiant, defiant unbelievers into judgment. Notice what he says now in verse 10,
[00:02:58] and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion, especially those. That little comment, by the way, reinforces the doctrine of degrees of punishment in hell. All unrepentant unbelievers will be judged, but Peter writes here, especially these people. Who are these people?
[00:03:31] Well, Peter gives us two categories of these defiant unbelievers. First is this category of sexually immoral people. He writes, those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion. Now in the immediate context, having just described God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, this would
[00:03:53] involve judgment on homosexuals. Earlier in this paragraph, Peter described them as violating the very laws of nature created by God, a violation of God's created design. But now, in this verse, this is a broader phrase. Your translation might read, especially those who indulge in the lust
[00:04:20] of the flesh, sharkas. That's just a broader term. In other words, it includes those who defy any of God's created guidelines or guardrails for sexual relationships. It's going to include adulterers and pedophiles and fornicators, the incestuous. Anybody who refuses to repent of those sins are,
[00:04:47] Peter writes, especially in danger, especially facing severe judgment from God.
[00:04:59] Now, Peter uses Sodom and Gomorrah as his illustration of God's judgment, but now it's as if he didn't want anybody to think that, well, since they may not be guilty of homosexuality, they're in the clear.
[00:05:15] Oh, no.
[00:05:16] Somebody who's sleeping with their girlfriend or their boyfriend are in special danger.
[00:05:26] Anybody involved sexually with somebody they're not married to or somebody married to somebody else, That fits within this category of those who are indulging in the flesh, especially facing the severity of God's judgment.
[00:05:45] This categorical expression, especially those who indulge in the flesh, is expanded, by the way, by the apostle Paul, who declares that the judgment of God is not only going to come upon the unrepentant, but upon those who approve of the unrepentant,
[00:06:08] those who applaud, he writes, those who approve of those who engage in such thing.
[00:06:18] So that broadens it even further.
[00:06:22] In other words, people who aren't directly involved in any one of those specific sins that I mentioned fit into this category, even. But they're guilty of enabling it, approving of it, voting for it, applauding it, supporting
[00:06:45] it. Paul and Peter combined would say they are equally in danger of severe judgment from God.
[00:06:55] And where is the church today warning the world? The church is attempting to adapt to the world, hoping it'll remain friends when we must tell the world they are at enmity with God and facing
[00:07:11] severe judgment in the future unless they repent of it. So what does this mean in real terms for our culture? Those who support it, those who teach it, those who endorse it.
[00:07:30] Well, this severe judgment is going to include every professor who told their students, you know, it's high time to shrug off Victorian standards and find sexual freedom any way you want, they're going to face severe judgment. This would include the members of the D.C. Council
[00:07:53] several years ago for passing a law to recognize same-sex marriages, which energized the legal process that eventually made its way toward the Supreme Court.
[00:08:02] those council members are facing severe judgment.
[00:08:11] This would include the mayor of D.C.
[00:08:14] for signing that into law and transmitting it to Congress for review.
[00:08:19] This would then include every senator who instead of disapproving it, approved it.
[00:08:28] This severe judgment from God would include the five members of the Supreme Court of our nation who voted to redefine God's institution of marriage between a man and a woman, understanding what the Apostle Peter
[00:08:47] and the Apostle Paul have written under inspiration.
[00:08:50] This means that the judgment from God will be most severe on those who enable sin.
[00:08:58] Every clinician, every doctor who performs abortions are facing severe judgment.
[00:09:06] It will include every teacher who teaches their middle school students the lie of safe sex and then tells them where to find contraceptives.
[00:09:21] This judgment of God will include every school principal who invited a drag queen story hour to their campus where men came dressed like women into the classroom and influenced a generation of children.
[00:09:37] This judgment will include every musician, every music producer, every marketing agent for singing and marketing and selling songs that endorsed or promoted or gloried in sinful sexual behavior.
[00:10:00] That means this special judgment of God would include every script writer, every movie producer, every television executive who included, who approved of including a scene of adultery or fornication and put it in a positive light to desensitize an audience to sin.
[00:10:25] This judgment would include every actor, every actress who acted on stage in a way that endorsed immorality.
[00:10:36] His judgment will include every author, the publishing houses, their leadership, who produce books that presented fornication or adultery or homosexuality in a positive light.
[00:10:52] Let me tell you, beloved, we are not living in a culture where a few bad people are going to face the judgment of God.
[00:10:58] We're living in a culture saturated by the pursuit of the flesh that must be warned.
[00:11:04] They are facing the severe judgment of God.
[00:11:14] And most of all, in addition to that little short list I listed, could be longer, but most of all, and this is what disturbed the Apostle Peter so much that nearly half of this letter goes after them, exposes them.
[00:11:34] Those who will especially face the judgment of God are every religious leader, every pastor, every denominational administrator, every clergy member who supposedly represented God but didn't lead the flock of God toward obedience to his commands and reverence toward his word,
[00:12:02] but instead reinterpreted the Bible to adapt to their sinful living.
[00:12:09] That is now happening in the evangelical church.
[00:12:15] This includes the leadership of the Anglican church now.
[00:12:20] It includes the Roman Catholic church.
[00:12:24] It includes the Protestant church who have declared holy and are blessing as holy that which is unholy.
[00:12:35] They're calling that which is evil good and that which is good evil, of whom the prophets warned centuries ago. They will head the list of those who Peter describes as especially heading toward the judgment of God. Now, why them? Are we just picking on them? No. That's why James said,
[00:13:05] don't be many teachers among you. Don't race to the lector because you will receive a stricter judgment because those who represent, those who teach, those who administrate are influencers.
[00:13:21] Those who are famous actors, athletes, authors, those who are leading the public in their image, They are unwittingly, but in reality, ambassadors, they are delegates for this kingdom of darkness.
[00:13:40] And if you think this is a wrong time to raise a child, just remember, this isn't a new problem.
[00:13:47] We're studying a letter written 2,000 years ago.
[00:13:50] It's just repackaged.
[00:13:53] I'm glad I'm living in this country now and not in Rome in the first century.
[00:13:58] but I believe any culture is heading toward Rome at any given time.
[00:14:11] Peter doesn't want us to run away.
[00:14:14] He doesn't want us to hide.
[00:14:16] There's never been a more important time to raise a generation of ambassadors of light for the kingdom of Christ.
[00:14:24] But we have to understand our world and how the Bible would confront it.
[00:14:31] I came across an interesting cartoon that kind of said it all.
[00:14:34] it's not so much humorous as it is profound it showed a U.S. college student talking to a missionary missionary just talked about the country you know far away where he dealt with all kinds of
[00:14:44] stuff all kinds of evil the cartoon shows this missionary wearing that proverbial pith helmet and shorts and hiking boots and the college student asks him well what do you do you know in your ministry I mean what do you do when you can't take the superstition and the violence and the
[00:15:06] morality any longer. You just can't take it any longer. And the missionary said, well, I get on a plane and go back to the mission field. Second category Peter writes about here in verse 10
[00:15:19] are those who despise authority. This is a reference to the authority of the apostles, the authority of the gospel, the authority of God, the authority of genuine church leaders, the authority of the word. Now with that, Peter begins the longest description in the New Testament
[00:15:39] of false teachers. It's the longest you'll find anywhere. It's going to take us all the way to the end of chapter two. It begins, and what I want to do is break it down here
[00:15:51] in these few phrases we'll cover today, three characteristics of false teachers.
[00:15:58] First of all, they are arrogantly audacious. You might notice in your text, the Bible says in the middle of verse 10 that they are bold.
[00:16:11] You could translate that, they're brazen.
[00:16:16] They're, one translator said, they're arrogant in their audacity, which is where I got the idea from.
[00:16:24] Arrogant in their audacity.
[00:16:27] Daring in their self-promotion.
[00:16:33] One author wrote on this, there is a boldness that is biblical, but there is a boldness that is satanic.
[00:16:45] They are satanically emboldened to defy God.
[00:16:52] They openly and brashly and arrogantly deliver their opinion, their teaching.
[00:17:00] If you look behind the mask, you'll find somebody that really doesn't want to be mastered by Jesus Christ.
[00:17:06] And you'll find an individual that doesn't want to be governed by the word of God.
[00:17:12] As Sam Gordon writes, in this wonderful little commentary, they do not want to be boxed in by the Bible. And that's why you've had people tell you, as I've had people tell me, you take the Bible way too seriously.
[00:17:26] You know, you got to get over that. It's an old book. The second word Peter gives us is the word willful. They are bold and willful. You could call this second characteristic self-centered, self-willed. In other words, they're living to please themselves. It's all about them.
[00:17:52] And you might notice how they do so much better than those who follow them. It's all about their following though. It's all about their image. It's all about their subscribers. It's all about their influence. So you get the picture here right away of cocky, defiant, self-promoting,
[00:18:15] self-indulging leaders who are really feeding their own appetite for fame and greed.
[00:18:26] Warren Wiersbe put it this way on his commentary on this text. He writes, outwardly, they appear to be serving the Lord and the church, but in reality, they are feeding their own egos and feathering their own nests. Here's the third characteristic. I'll call it overconfident
[00:18:48] irreverence, overconfident irreverence. Now, what Peter does here is still mystifying expositors, New Testament scholars to this day. It's very difficult. He writes in verse 10, false teachers are bold and willful. Now notice, they do not tremble as they blaspheme
[00:19:17] the glorious ones. Whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. Your translation might read, they speak abusively of angelic majesties. Or you have a translation that might read, they heap abuse on celestial
[00:19:41] beings. All those excellent translations are simply attempting to translate one word in the Greek New Testament, the word doxi. It's plural. It's simply translated majesties or glories. Now, the context lets us know that Peter is referring specifically to the angelic
[00:20:03] world. And in this case, he's thinking of the angelic world that includes both holy angels and unholy angels. Now, the Bible, if you're older in the faith, you know that good angels, those that did not rebel against God, are confirmed in their holiness, and they're
[00:20:22] simply called angels. Unholy angels or fallen angels or evil angels are more often called demons. Now, Peter's referring here to something that happened in the past that shows that angels even fallen angels are not as brazen they're not as audacious as false teachers now we wouldn't
[00:20:54] know what the event was that Peter's referring to somewhat vaguely unless the little book of Job hadn't given us some some information so if you take your Bible you turn back five pages to the
[00:21:07] little letter just head toward Revelation the book of Revelation if you get to the book of maps. You've gone too far, so back up. Jude, only one chapter. He is basically preaching off the same manuscript as Peter. They sound very familiar if you study them together. He's just delivered,
[00:21:26] by the way, the same warning about judgment of God illustrated by Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:21:33] Jude, like Peter, says that they've gone against nature as God created it. But now he begins to write about false teachers. He writes this in verse 8, yet in like manner, these people also relying on their dreams. In other words, false teachers are just making their stuff up. They
[00:21:59] defile the flesh, reject authority, notice, and blaspheme the glorious ones. Same expression Peter uses. Now, what does it mean to blaspheme the glorious ones, the angels? Even here in context, the fallen angels. Well, fortunately, Jude goes on to tell us something of what happened
[00:22:23] here, of what Peter vaguely alludes to. Notice verse 9. When the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these people, that is false teachers,
[00:22:49] blaspheme all that they do not understand. So even though Peter refers to this event, Jude lets us know what happened in the heavenlies somewhere in space that we can't see you've got this argument between Michael and the devil
[00:23:14] again this is mystifying you know you don't picture Michael standing around arguing with the devil do you or the devil even bothering well they were arguing and Jude tells us they're disputing about the body of Moses. Well, what's there to argue about? Well, the book of
[00:23:37] Deuteronomy, I think, gives us a big clue. When Moses reached the age of 120, he died. Here's what Deuteronomy chapter 34 records. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he, that is God, buried him in the land of Moab.
[00:24:00] But no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Now, obviously, God in his wisdom didn't want Moses' grave to be discovered because what would have happened? Well, they'd have built a cathedral over it. People would have paid to go see it and
[00:24:18] probably bowed down and worshipped it. So he made sure nobody, no man, literally, no human knows where Moses was buried. That might mean some angels know. It seems like Satan doesn't know.
[00:24:39] Was Satan arguing with Michael to try to find out where? We're not told. Is he trying to find out what Michael knew? I mean, Michael's an archangel. He serves in the very presence of God. Come on.
[00:24:52] Let me know. We don't even know why the devil will want to know. You can use your imagination.
[00:24:59] I had people coming up to me with all kinds of ideas afterward. I didn't spot any heresy, which is fine. Maybe Michael knows and the devil doesn't. Well, we're not told, but we are told that this argument didn't last for very long. Jude says here, Michael did not
[00:25:19] blaspheme the devil in that context. Now, you need to understand that the word blaspheme can mean to mock, to speak derisively, to speak down on, to revile. So what that means is, you know, Michael didn't stand around and say, oh, I know where Moses was buried. You don't,
[00:25:45] I don't know. He didn't, you know, rub it in his face. He didn't poke the devil in the eye.
[00:25:49] he didn't speak down to him and you'd think well he could he didn't Michael simply handed Satan to the authority of God and effectively said you're above my pay grade I'm not going to deal with you I'm going to let God rebuke you I'm just going to let him deal with you so here's the
[00:26:15] point Peter's making you've waited too long for this okay here's the point and there's no mystery in this point. Peter is saying, if this is the way an archangel talks to the devil, how much more careful should we be? But not false teachers. In their arrogance,
[00:26:46] they don't even tremble when they think they're talking to the devil. They're not even afraid of him. When the Lord taught us to pray, to be delivered from him, to be warned of him. Oh,
[00:27:03] they think they're really something. They look down on that angelic world, both good and evil.
[00:27:12] Who are they compared to me? Oh, the Bible paints a different picture of the angelic world, doesn't it? I mean, if God could open our eyes like the prophet's servant, where he saw in the sky, it was
[00:27:32] it was filled with chariots of fire, angels, demon. False teachers take it lightly.
[00:27:46] They think they're in charge and able to boss the devil around. Well, let me tell you, beloved, if an angel walked in here this morning, you and I would probably be tempted to do what John
[00:28:02] did when he was given a tour of heaven and he was encountering an angel. And that angel was so impressive. John fell down and was going to worship him, and the angel had to basically say,
[00:28:15] get back up. I'm just an angel. Revelation 19. Have you ever noticed, however, when somebody in the Bible encounters an angel, the first thing the angel usually says is, stop being afraid.
[00:28:31] Angels are not naked, chubby little babies flying around with bows and arrows, you know, shooting people like as was painted by Raphael. They're not slender, feminine figures who wouldn't hurt a fly as painted in the Middle Ages. One Old Testament account has just one angel
[00:29:00] killing 200,000 enemy soldiers single-handedly.
[00:29:08] They are warriors.
[00:29:11] They are majesties.
[00:29:17] Jesus told his disciples that in the Garden of Gethsemane, look, if I wanted to, I could summon 12 legions of angels to effectively wipe out these enemies.
[00:29:25] In fact, I could call them, wipe out the Roman Empire.
[00:29:29] Think about it.
[00:29:31] 12 legions.
[00:29:32] One legion with 6,000 soldiers.
[00:29:34] So Jesus is saying that he could have summoned 12 legions, that's 72,000 angels, warriors.
[00:29:45] And by the way, if each angel of those 72,000, if each of them could individually kill 200,000 enemy soldiers, what Jesus just said is that I could summon enough angels who could destroy 14 billion people. False teachers don't even shiver over that. Ah, who are they? Look at me.
[00:30:25] One more illustration from the word when John went to heaven for his tour, he saw so many angels, he said there were 10,000 times 10,000. That's a Greek euphemism, no doubt, that simply says or be on number. But if he was close, he just referred to seeing 100 million angels. To put
[00:30:50] that into perspective, if you went to the Carolina Panthers stadium in Charlotte, hoping this year they would win more games than they lose, that's an unspoken request. You can join me in that one.
[00:31:05] You go into the stadium and you look around at 75,000 seats, it'll take 1,500 stadiums that size to handle the angels John saw. We have no idea. If each one of them so glorious that you
[00:31:25] would think you were supposed to bow at their feet if you saw them. Well, what about the fallen angels? What about the demons and the devil? Well, we typically, again, go back to those medieval paintings. We have demons in our minds. Well, they look like orcs. You've seen the Lord
[00:31:46] of the Rings, you know, these gross creatures and eyes in the middle of their head and ears, you know, they're missing stuff. They're slobbering. They have pointed teeth. Orcs, perhaps not. Peter calls them majesties. Think about the fact that 2,000 years ago,
[00:32:17] he is described, even though he fell thousands of years prior to that, as an angel. How do you tell the fallen angels apart from holy angels? Not so much by the way they look, but by what
[00:32:37] they say? What's their message? And these false teachers, they don't tremble. They get a boss around the demonic world in their brazen audacity. They have this bravado that ultimately makes them equal with God. Let me give you one illustration in our current generation. Kenneth Copeland,
[00:33:10] a false teacher, was interviewed. His charismatic leaders influenced millions of people in the wrong direction, said in this interview, we are created in God's image. We become children of God and we share his divine nature. All of those are true biblical expressions. But then he twists it
[00:33:36] into heresy. He says, then so we are a class of little gods. You don't have a God in you, you are one. You're not looking at Kenneth Copeland. You are looking at God. It's all
[00:34:01] audacious, self-promoting bravado, and I personally believe the devil loves it.
[00:34:14] His very first temptation, wouldn't you like to be like God? Same old lie. Brazen false teachers speak as if they're equal with God. They basically can manipulate God to give you whatever you want to have. They order him around and they order the demonic world around as well. What is our approach
[00:34:42] to the devil? How do you talk to the devil, so to speak? How do you think of him? Well, let me give you four things very quickly. First of all, recognize the devil is real.
[00:34:58] And like Michael, you don't want to stand around and fight him.
[00:35:03] And sin.
[00:35:04] The Bible never tells you to even fight that.
[00:35:06] It tells you to run from it.
[00:35:08] Flee immorality.
[00:35:12] I personally think more people in our country today believe in the existence of aliens than they do Satan.
[00:35:23] Satan couldn't be happier about that either.
[00:35:28] Secondly, recognize the devil is on a leash.
[00:35:32] by the way we're not holding on to the other end of it God is Satan cannot do one thing though given delegated power that would probably surprise us I mean think of the power he held
[00:35:53] and his involvement in Job and yet Job in his wisdom understood what I just said Satan's on a leash God's holding it because Job saw through it and even though after suffering, everything he suffered, he said, no, no, no, no, no. It was the Lord who gave. It was the Lord
[00:36:12] who took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We need that perspective. Third, recognize that resistance to the devil comes by drawing near to God. Have you ever noticed how many false teachers are binding the devil? It's one of our favorite things to do. This is how they boss the demon
[00:36:37] world around. It looks great. It looks powerful. There's something. They're binding the door.
[00:36:42] Well, think about it. Is he bound for like an hour? A week? Is he bound in their lives but not in mine? Is he bound worldwide? And what unbinds him? I mean, who in the world let him loose?
[00:36:57] Just keep him bound. The Bible makes it very clear that he is not bound. He's actually roaming around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But it sounds impressive. Safety doesn't come by railing against Satan, but walking with God. Fourth, recognize that true safety comes from
[00:37:25] ordering your life by the Word of God. The real battle, beloved, is not something you can swing a fist at or yell louder at. That's not really the battle. The battle is ideological. The battle
[00:37:41] is theological. The battle is with the truth. Take everything you hear in culture, take it to the truth, the unvarnished, uncompromised, untwisted truth. Think about when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. If you're old enough in the faith, you've no doubt studied that
[00:38:06] or read that three times, Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus.
[00:38:09] He just quoted it incorrectly or incompletely.
[00:38:13] And what did Jesus do?
[00:38:15] He responded three times by quoting Scripture correctly and completely.
[00:38:22] So let me say it this way.
[00:38:24] If you're going to talk to the devil, I recommend that the only thing you do is quote Scripture.
[00:38:31] Just stay there, which means you're going to have to know Scripture.
[00:38:40] to combat the kingdom of darkness. It might sound simplistic, but the devil hates that.
[00:38:50] This is our weapon, our sword. Read the Bible by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:38:58] Live the Bible. Memorize the Bible. Don't erase passages that convict you. Don't interpret, reinterpret passages that don't comfort you. Accept the Word of God as the will of God. Find your doctrine in the Bible. Find your moral guidelines, regardless of what you
[00:39:15] might think, left alone, or feel. Find them in his word. Don't pick and choose. Let me tell you, true teachers and true Christianity will not resemble Chipotle. You might want to write down that profound truth. I learned that this summer. Two of my grandchildren were with me, Micah and
[00:39:46] Skye, and I said, hey guys, where do you want to go eat lunch? And they said, oh, Chipotle.
[00:39:51] I've never been. We'll never go back. We were in line a long time, and then we finally, you know, we could tell them what we wanted. They put it in a cardboard bowl. It got soggy quickly, but I got
[00:40:06] my money's worth. A lot of food. Couldn't eat it. Didn't want to eat it because they had cilantro in everything. Every bite. I think it was even in my diet coke. I tasted cilantro. I don't like
[00:40:15] cilantro. I like sugar. But you know, we're in line at this buffet. One author I was reading provoked my thinking because he said, you know, this is like, religion is like a buffet now.
[00:40:31] I want that. I want that. I don't want that. No, not that. I want this. Might it be good for me, it i want it double it i don't want that i want this false teachers say here here's a verse for
[00:40:47] you you can have this i'll be like this one this is a good one let me tell you in all my years of ministry i've never heard a false teacher ever handle second peter chapter two so accept the
[00:41:10] word of god as the will of god to help you walk with god to prepare you to meet your god and then be ushered eventually into the world of God that we can't even imagine and in the meantime press on
[00:41:26] beloved press on press on by pressing close