Participants: David Asscherick
Series Code: 13HC
Program Code: 13HC000009
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00:50 When David Asscherick came the other night
00:52 he mentioned that he wished he had a little more time. 00:56 And so I knew the speaker at 9:30 this morning 01:02 and it was me. 01:05 And so I said to him: "If you really... " 01:07 I actually had my sermon ready... and I did. 01:10 But I said: "It can wait; I can preach it another time. " 01:13 But I said: "If you will take that time, it's yours. " 01:17 And he said: 'Let me see how things go tomorrow 01:22 and if I need it I accept that. " 01:25 And he did. Yesterday afternoon he said 01:28 "If that offer's still there, I'll take it. " 01:31 And I said: "It's still there. " 01:32 So this morning he'll be speaking in a little bit 01:35 on the very same subject... on the covenants. 01:40 That gives us two sessions with David this morning 01:43 and then the one that he'll do this afternoon 01:47 or this evening. So we are just really happy 01:50 that we can be here. Study the Word of God; 01:52 feast upon it; and praise the Lord's name 01:56 and enjoy some of the good blessings of music 02:00 that come our way during Camp Meeting. 02:04 And there's some wonderful things in store for today... 02:07 some real blessings. 02:09 One of our favorites is Danny's sister Tammy. 02:12 Tammy Chance. And she's going to bring one of my favorite songs 02:17 right now: There Is A Savior. 02:21 I want to thank my niece, Lisa, for playing for me. 02:25 She knows it's risky business when she plays for me 02:27 because I might go off onto some other song that 02:30 she's never heard and she'll just have to keep going with me. 02:33 So... But she's very talented and she can do that 02:37 and I trust her just to follow me no matter where I go. 02:53 There is a Savior, 03:00 What joys express 03:07 His eyes are mercy 03:14 His word is rest 03:20 For each tomorrow 03:27 For yesterday 03:33 There is a Savior 03:40 who will light our way. 03:48 Are there burdens in your heart? 03:52 Is your past just a memory 03:55 that binds you? 04:01 And is there some pain 04:05 that you've carried 04:07 far too long? 04:14 Just open your heart 04:19 with His good news 04:25 There is a Savior 04:31 and He's forgiven you. 04:38 There is a Savior, 04:45 What joys express 04:51 His eyes are mercy 04:58 His word is rest 05:04 For each tomorrow 05:10 For yesterday 05:17 There is a Savior 05:23 who will light 05:26 our way... 05:34 There is 05:38 a Savior 05:42 who will light 05:45 our way. 05:54 Amen. 05:55 Amen. Thank you, Tammy. 05:58 That didn't sound too bad. You stayed on the same song. 06:00 That's good. Isn't that a beautiful song? 06:04 There Is A Savior. 06:05 What an incredible song and what an incredible God that we serve! 06:09 Who would have thought 21 years ago, Julia, 06:11 that you and I would be standing here at 3ABN Camp Meeting? 06:14 Yeah, it's a miracle. 3ABN Russia is a miracle, 06:18 that's for sure. Well, God is good. 06:20 We went there - and for those that don't know - 06:22 in 1992 with Elder John Carter and 3ABN. 06:26 Julia is a professor of English. 06:28 She has a doctorate in linguistics. 06:31 And she had never really heard anyone or met an American 06:34 or Australian because the city was closed off to foreigners. 06:37 Nizhny Novgorod... where they build their nuclear submarines, 06:42 their MiG jets, all of these things. 06:44 And so it was closed off for many many years. 06:47 And then we came, so when she heard about it 06:49 she and many of the students from the English language school 06:53 I think 2 or 3 thousand students 06:55 many of those came because they wanted to hear English. 06:57 And Julia was one of those. 06:59 Gave her heart to the Lord 07:01 right about the end of the series, right? Yes. 07:04 Yes. At the very end. 07:05 The last baptism. Her brother was the governor 07:08 of Nizhny Novgorod. That really helped a lot. 07:11 He's been such a great blessing to us. 07:12 But to see what's happened and the changes in Russia 07:16 from baptizing 2,532 people 07:19 in a church where that whole area - Adventist church - 07:23 it would only hold 200 or 225 people 07:26 and then to baptize 2,532... The conference officials said: 07:31 "We're glad that you came... " They met with me and John 07:34 Carter and they said: "We're glad that you came 07:36 but you've given us a big problem. 07:38 We have a church that will only hold 200 people 07:41 and you've just baptized 2,532 people 07:46 and what are we going to do? " 07:47 So we said: "Well, let's pray about it. " 07:49 And over the next few days before we left we found 07:52 the pastors had found this huge property. 07:55 But it was an abandoned property... never finished. 07:58 So we decided to do it and the Lord has blessed. 08:00 Now we built the greatest I am told, Elder Carter says 08:03 it is the greatest, largest Protestant facility 08:06 in all the ex-Soviet Union. It's probably 250,00 sq. ft. 08:09 Huge. You could put all of our buildings here 08:11 in that one in Russia. 08:13 And God has blessed and it's paid for. 08:15 But Julia Outkina. She started as a translator. 08:18 We hired her. She was making $15 a month 08:21 as a professor at that time. 08:23 That'd give you an idea of what the wages were like 08:25 and Russian lifestyle. 08:26 So I said: "We'll give you $25 a month. " 08:30 And she said: "Oh, no. " 08:32 And this is what I could not believe 'cause that would be 08:35 almost doubling her wages, right? 08:37 She said: "Oh, no. If I work for the world 08:40 for $15 I would never charge $25 to work for the Lord. 08:46 I'd just feel honored" she said. 08:48 So Julia came on; she's been here. 08:51 She started as a translator with John Kantor 08:53 and for the several years it took to build this place. 08:56 Then we asked her to be the director, and she has 08:59 been an incredible, incredible... 09:01 shown incredible leadership. 09:03 And I just said backstage... Jim Gilley said: "I've heard you 09:06 say that. " He said: "Now Julia, Danny says 09:09 this when you're not around. " Of all the people I ever met 09:11 on planet earth I don't have any more respect 09:14 for anyone than I do you, Julia. And I say that 09:16 because I see Jesus in you and have for all these years. 09:19 It's only the Lord... I am nothing. 09:21 I know this better than anyone else. 09:23 Tell us what's happening now. I know we've got 09:25 some video, too, so update us. 09:28 I would like to start with my own perspective 09:32 of what has been happening in Russia 09:34 these past 20+ years. 09:39 I praise the Lord for the wonderful dedication 09:42 that He is putting into the hearts of Danny, 09:46 of Pastor Jim Gilley, of a lot of people here. 09:50 I'm sure that only due to this 09:54 due to all of you who are present and those who are 09:57 watching us now, this miracle of Russia is happening. 10:01 The Lord is a big orchestrator 10:04 so He orchestrated that the US is a very well off country 10:08 and there is freedom including religious freedom. 10:11 And so He led you to the wonderful truths of the Bible 10:15 and then He gave you this missionary spirit. 10:18 You know, even before 3ABN Russia started Pastor Jim Gilley 10:22 went to the former Soviet Union with his family to the Ukraine. 10:26 He baptized in the 1990's they say about 16,000 people 10:31 and 26 churches started. 10:33 And I'm thinking this probably laid the foundation 10:36 with the authorities. They saw how good it is... 10:39 how well needed by the people. 10:43 And then when in 1992 Pastor John Carter responded to 10:49 the Lord's calling and came to Russia. 10:51 You know, and then Danny Shelton had the vision that 3ABN should 10:56 go worldwide. It was dangerous to go to Russia 10:59 at that time, but Danny Shelton, 11:01 3ABN's crew joined them there. 11:06 And then Danny had the vision that 11:09 all these big amount of people need a place where to meet. 11:12 The conference needs headquarters and, of course, 11:15 you wanted 3ABN Russia to start. 11:17 So this huge Protestant facility which we are talking about... 11:20 now probably it is the biggest in Europe, this is what 11:23 I think... so this is how it started. 11:26 And today we have a video. It is a report on year 2013 11:32 but it gives the highlights how the Lord wants us 11:35 to expand even more than we are distributing our programs 11:39 now. There are 270,000,000 Russian-speaking people 11:44 in the world, and this is what 3ABN Russia is doing for them. 12:10 The Bible says: "In those days ten men from all the nations 12:14 will grasp the garment of a Jew... " 12:16 and we make comment here saying 12:18 the garment of a true believer in Christ... 12:20 "and will say 'let us go with you 12:23 for we have heard that God is with you. ' " 12:26 Judging by the response that 3ABN gets from its viewers 12:30 and listeners worldwide we can say that this prophecy 12:34 of the book of Zechariah is being fulfilled in our day. 12:38 Here are some most recent letters and e-mails 12:41 that 3ABN Russia has received. 12:43 Decitia from Ukraine writes: 12:46 "I deeply appreciate your ministry of spreading God's Word 12:50 all across the world. " 12:51 Wyham from a Muslim region of the former Soviet Union says: 12:55 "It is so amazing and instructive what you present. 12:58 You are helping us to understand the Word of the true God. " 13:02 Lina Netanika from Nyet, Siberia, emphasizes: 13:06 "It is so important that through you everyone can hear 13:10 the Word of God. Praise God! " 13:12 Every week we get around 100 letters 13:15 from Russian-speaking people from all over the world. 13:18 Besides Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union 13:22 it is the US, Germany, Israel, Greece, India, Belgium, 13:26 Portugal, Czech Republic, France, Finland, Taiwan, 13:30 the United Kingdom, and other countries. 13:33 Our viewers watch our programs 13:35 through satellite broadcasting 13:36 on TBN Russia, CNL, 13:39 Hope Channel of the Euro-Asia 13:40 Division and a secular satellite 13:43 Channel of Moscow Scholnik. 13:45 They listen to our radio 13:47 programs on Family Radio 13:49 and New Life Satellite Channels. 13:50 Our TV programs are broadcast 13:53 by about 80 regional full-power 13:55 television stations and about 40 13:57 radio stations 13:59 and by 3ABN's 24-hour Internet 14:02 television and radio streaming. 14:04 And all this is being possible only through the generosity of 14:08 your support our dear viewers and listeners. 14:12 Today we'd like to update you on tremendous Lord's blessings 14:16 of 3ABN Russia in 2013. 14:20 This year we are transferring to a new high-definition 14:23 format of taping of our TV programs. 14:26 3ABN started re-equipping us 14:29 as a gift for our 20th anniversary. 14:32 It was a new video mixer that they gave us. 14:35 And in Spring of this year 3ABN made an advanced payment 14:39 for our four new high definition cameras. 14:42 Part of this advanced payment has been reimbursed 14:45 due to your support but the bigger part still awaits 14:49 its reimbursement. With the new equipment in place 14:53 we are planning to prepare a big enough library 14:56 of high definition programs 14:58 by the beginning of 2015... 15:00 by which time Russian TV is supposed to transfer to 15:04 high definition broadcasting. 15:06 On April 26, 2013, 15:09 the Lord gave us another blessing. 15:12 3ABN Russia was registered by the Russian government 15:15 as a mass media channel. 15:17 Before this we were registered as a TV program. 15:21 Being registered as a mass media channel 15:23 has allowed us to apply for a broadcasting license 15:27 which we immediately did. And here is another miracle. 15:30 On July 22 we were given a broadcasting license. 15:34 If only the means allowed, 3ABN Russia could go to 15:38 satellite broadcasting 24/7 now. 15:41 We hope and pray that to let more people hear and grasp 15:45 the Word of God He will bless the possibility 15:48 of opening 3ABN Russia 24-hour satellite broadcasting. 15:55 Year 2013 is the year of the completion of our new studio 16:00 that was made due to reconstruction of office space 16:04 on the upper floor. 16:05 This will be a permanent set for our new flagship program 16:08 Visiting with 3ABN Russia. 16:11 And we have almost finished the set. 16:15 This year keeping up with the concept that health message 16:19 is the right arm opening the way to preaching the gospel 16:23 of salvation in Jesus Christ a supporter of 3ABN Russia 16:27 has sponsored the development of three programs on health 16:31 for different categories of our viewers 16:33 plus some reconstruction of studio space. 16:36 We have started taping The Happy School of Health 16:39 for pre-school kids and two other programs 16:42 are being intensely worked on. 16:44 A nutrition talk show for women Seven With Spoons 16:48 and a doctor's talk - Be Healthy - 16:50 with Christian testimonies on how to cope with illnesses 16:54 physically and spiritually. 16:56 We've also reconstructed carpenter's shop 16:59 to extend the studio set storage area. 17:02 In 2013 two new series for the youth have been born. 17:07 A video blog with short testimonies for the Internet 17:10 users and a Pit-Stop series taking the name from car racing. 17:15 Are you broken? Do you need a repair to your thoughts? 17:18 Come talk to us... we know how to help you 17:22 are the slogans in the opening of each program. 17:26 We have made several of these programs live on the Internet 17:29 which is another of our new accomplishments in 2013. 17:34 High definition format gives a very high precision to 17:38 the picture of what is being taped. 17:40 So we plan on improving the existing set 17:43 and graphics of our viewers' long-time favorite theological 17:47 and testimonial programs The Open Book, 17:50 Contrast of a Human Heart, 17:52 Mystery of Life, Face to Face. 17:54 There are social programs that have enjoyed popularity 17:57 among our viewers that are definitely worth being adapted 18:01 to the new format, too. 18:03 Those include Let's Cook Together, 18:05 Challenging Established Beliefs, 18:07 Man and Woman He Created Them, 18:09 and My Character and Me. 18:11 Among other things we will work on developing new brand features 18:15 including our logo and a channel ID. 18:18 We keep promoting our broadcasts on TV and radio stations 18:22 and on social networks and try to get as many 18:25 church members as we can involved in volunteering 18:28 making special emphasis on the youth. 18:31 All these blessings that we have witnessed this year 18:35 as well as through all the 21 years of 3ABN Russia's 18:39 existence give us an assurance that the Lord leads, 18:42 guides, protects, and teaches us. 18:45 And during these years He has been carefully leading, 18:49 guiding, and protecting you dear supporters of 3ABN. 18:53 How much we all long for that blessed moment 18:57 when He will bring us all together and will say to each 19:01 one of us who have been serving Him during these 19:04 difficult times on this fallen planet: 19:06 "Well done good and faithful servant. 19:10 Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. " 19:14 All right. We are continuing to talk about the covenants. 19:17 I want to thank Pastor Gilley for his gracious extension to me 19:20 to also have his time here. And it's going to free us up 19:24 to continue to move methodically through 19:27 our series on the covenants. And we're going to have a 19:28 quick prayer and we're going to get right... 19:30 We're just going to pick up where we left off. 19:32 Is that all right? 19:33 OK. I've got three presentations today, 19:35 and so I'm going to need you to keep my voice in prayer. 19:38 I went to sleep last night it was a little achy, 19:40 but I'm feeling great today. 19:41 Yeah? Let's pray together. 19:44 Father in heaven, You are worthy 19:47 and Jesus is worthy. 19:49 And it really is an honor for us to be Your sons, 19:53 Your daughters, and Your redeemed ones. 19:56 Father, we are working our way through a picture of scripture, 20:00 through a meta-narrative of scripture, 20:02 and we're building that meta- narrative around the covenants. 20:06 And Father, too many of us know the plan of salvation 20:09 but know precious little about the covenant 20:12 and how the covenant fits into that equation. 20:16 Father, as we unpack this beautiful picture 20:19 of who You are and how You have chosen to bring healing 20:23 and oneness back to the family of man and thus 20:26 the family of God. The prayer of my heart, Father, 20:29 is that You would melt our hearts with Your goodness. 20:32 May we see a new glimpse of the glory of Your grace. 20:36 May we sense anew that the sum total of religion 20:41 is not duty and obligation and responsibility. 20:44 It's the beauty of the Lord. 20:46 So Father, please teach us that. 20:48 May we as David says there in Psalm 27 20:51 may we go in to the sanctuary, may we go in to the temple 20:54 to behold the beauty of the Lord. 20:57 Be with us now as we seek to do that. 20:59 Send Your Spirit into our hearts and minds 21:01 and may You illumine us with freshness 21:05 is our prayer in Jesus' name. Let everyone say "Amen. " 21:09 All right, we ended our presentation yesterday 21:12 talking about... and maybe just a quick review on everything. 21:16 We're talking about the table of truth. 21:19 And the first piece that we put on that table of truth 21:21 that is normative and non- negotiable is that "God is... 21:24 love. " Very good. Now God as a family - 21:27 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - 21:28 made a family in His image and thus the family of God 21:31 was to be an ever-expanding matrix of love 21:34 and other-centeredness. So far so good? 21:37 But that trust, that relationality, was... remember 21:41 the word we've been using? It was broken. 21:44 And it was broken as we saw yesterday in Genesis 3 21:46 because of Satan's or the enemy's basic MO. 21:51 And the MO goes something like this: 21:54 Based on Genesis 3- and we're going to look at a couple other 21:56 vignettes here in a bit - we see that Satan's basic MO, 22:00 the enemy's basic modus operandi - 22:02 is an attack on God's character which builds distrust. 22:07 OK. Let's say that together. 22:09 It's an attack on God's character 22:12 that builds distrust. And we talked about the tripod 22:15 of temptation. Number one: God is restrictive and He's 22:18 withholding. Number two: God is dishonest. 22:20 And number 3: The reason is He's looking out for Himself. 22:23 God is essentially self-centered. 22:25 And Satan capitalized on the natural mystery that is God. 22:29 It's as if he said when he was yet Lucifer: 22:31 "I've seen - inasmuch as it's possible - behind the veil, 22:34 behind the curtain. I'm concerned about what 22:37 I've seen there. Let me tell you what God is really like. 22:39 I have access to information that you do not yet have access 22:41 to. I was the covering cherub 22:43 and God is essentially looking out for Himself. 22:47 God is self-centered. " And when Eve began to believe 22:51 the lie about... By the way, the New Testament 22:53 calls this: "the lie. " 22:55 Not just lies which are sort of the result of the lie 22:59 "the lie" is the lie about who God is. 23:04 And when Eve began to believe "the lie, " the fundamental lie 23:07 that God is not what we have been led to believe: 23:10 that's He's not gracious; that He's not magnanimous; 23:12 not munificent; that He's none of those things 23:14 in fact He's either a distant bureaucrat or a despotic tyrant 23:17 and He is not to be trusted. 23:19 Well if God is not to be trusted well all of a sudden 23:22 it's every man for himself. 23:24 And Eve now, looking out for her own best interest 23:27 because she's been led to believe this is the nature 23:28 of reality... God is looking out for Himself. 23:30 The serpent here is looking out for himself 23:32 and even kindly extending his hand: "Hey, I'm trying to 23:35 help you out as well. If you know what's good, 23:36 you'll start looking out for yourself. " She takes the 23:38 fruit. She gives to her husband and he eats. 23:40 And the point here that we made last night 23:42 is that the eating of the fruit 23:44 was the last part of the situation. 23:47 Does that make sense? 23:48 The problem with the eating of the fruit... 23:50 this is simply communicating a fundamental disbelief 23:54 in what God had said and who God is as a good God 23:57 and a fundamental belief in the picture that Satan had just 24:01 painted of who God is. 24:02 And the sin followed a false picture of God. 24:06 Once distrust had been built up sin followed logically 24:10 and even perhaps necessarily. 24:12 Are we together everyone? 24:13 That brings us more or less up to speed. 24:15 Now I've got a quote here I want to read to you. 24:18 This is from the book The Great Controversy page 569. 24:21 And notice what it says. It says: 24:29 Now let's just pause there for a moment. 24:31 Can you remember that? "It is Satan's constant effort 24:33 to misrepresent the character of God. " 24:34 Could we say that together? 24:36 "It is Satan's constant effort 24:37 to misrepresent the character of God. " 24:41 OK. So I don't know if Satan sleeps like you and I sleep. 24:44 But to use the analogy: if he sleeps, 24:47 when he wakes up in the morning his to-do list has 1 item on it. 24:52 Right? You wake up and you have a to... I've got to do this 24:54 this this this this this this this. When Satan wakes up 24:56 he says: "What do I have to do today? 24:57 Oh! To misrepresent the character of God. " 25:00 Right. That is his constant effort. 25:03 Now let's go back. How does he do so? 25:14 Now watch what he does. 25:23 Now here's the real tricky... this is the switcheroo: 25:32 So Satan's constant effort is to - number one - 25:35 misrepresent the character of God. And once God's character 25:38 has been misrepresented the natural response 25:41 is to regard Him with fear and even with hate 25:45 rather than with the love that He deserves. 25:47 So don't miss the point again. 25:48 Sin and rebellion followed a false picture of God. 25:52 Satan's not just out to get you to sin. 25:55 Sin will follow logically and even necessarily 25:58 from getting you to believe that God is not good and gracious 26:01 and awesome and beautiful. 26:03 Now in the context of Adam and Eve here - 26:06 let's just spend a moment on that - 26:07 in that context, the moment that Adam and Eve sinned... 26:10 Let's just go back to Genesis chapter 3. 26:12 Let's just spend a moment there. 26:16 You will remember the significance of the word so 26:19 in verse 6. "So... " On the basis of the foregone 26:23 foregoing case that the serpent has built against God... 26:28 So on the basis of this 26:31 "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 26:33 that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one 26:35 wise, she took of its fruit and ate 26:37 and gave also to her husband who was with her and he ate. 26:40 Then the eyes of both of them were opened 26:42 and they knew that they were naked. 26:44 And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves 26:46 coverings. " Now let's just pause here. 26:48 This idea that they knew that they were naked 26:50 is actually part of the very narrative that Moses has 26:53 been writing. Because if you go look at the last verse 26:56 of Genesis chapter 2... Now remember, the versification 26:58 chapterization was added much later. 27:00 So the narrative flows from... Look at Genesis 2:25. 27:03 It says: "And they were both naked... 27:05 and they were both naked, the man and his wife, 27:07 and they were not... " What? "ashamed. " 27:09 So there was an innocence there. 27:11 There was an unashamedness there. 27:13 So hear what it says that "they knew they were naked" 27:16 is indicating a change... a change from innocence 27:20 to guilt. A change from being unashamed to being ashamed. 27:24 So far so good? 27:25 And then it says here in verse 8 27:27 "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden 27:30 in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife... " 27:32 What do they do? "They hid themselves 27:35 from the presence of the Lord God among the 27:37 trees of the garden. " Now there are some subtle... 27:39 very significant subtleties that we have to pick up here. 27:41 And I think I've got a slide here 27:43 to sort of communicate this. 27:44 There are five basic things - there they are - 27:47 there are five basic things that Adam and Eve began to experience 27:50 and each follows sort of logically and sequentially 27:52 from the other. The first thing that they experience is shame. 27:55 We'll go through each of these in a bit. 27:57 Let me just go over them quickly here: 28:04 OK, so those are our things. 28:06 Shame. First of all, the shame that they feel, 28:09 and this is crucially important... 28:10 when they hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden 28:13 in the cool of the day, what is their natural instinct now? 28:17 What? What? They feel the shame and they hear the sound 28:21 of God walking in the garden. 28:22 What is their natural instinct to do? 28:26 What do they want to do instinctively? 28:28 They want to run and hide and cover. 28:31 Right? Now moments before... before this false picture of God 28:35 had been placed into their hard drive so to speak 28:37 their natural inclination would have been what 28:39 when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden? 28:42 Yes... to run TO God. 28:43 Right. So they would have run to God 28:45 in innocence and unashamedness. 28:47 But now: "Oh, we've got to go. " 28:49 Now here's the subtle point. 28:51 They assume... Oh! They what? 28:55 What word did I say? And you all know the saying 28:57 about assume, and I'm not going to say it here. 29:00 They assume that... watch this... 29:04 the shame and guilt that they are feeling 29:07 is a reflection of God's attitude toward them. 29:11 Oh... that's why they're afraid. 29:14 Don't miss that. 29:15 They assume that the shame and guilt and the need for covering 29:19 that they are feeling is actually a reflection 29:22 of reality of God toward them. 29:24 And so what do you do? We don't run toward 29:27 embarrassing, difficult, and guilt-ridden situations. 29:29 We flee from those. They think they're fleeing 29:32 from God's anger and wrath against them 29:35 when in reality God has come into the garden for a single 29:39 reason. Do you know why God has come down? 29:43 He has come down to assure them of the good news 29:46 that a way of escape has been made. 29:48 In fact, that's exactly what happens. 29:50 As soon as we get to Genesis 3:15 God is... 29:52 He does have some questions. 29:53 "Who told you that you were naked? " "Have you eaten 29:54 of the tree? " "What is this that you have done? " 29:56 He has some questions, but the reason is He wants to 29:58 bring them to the point of realization so that He can say 30:01 "A way of escape has been made. " 30:03 And then Genesis 3:15... "The enmity will come. 30:07 His heel will be bruised 30:09 but Satan's head will ultimately be crushed. " 30:12 He has come into the garden to announce the good news 30:15 of deliverance from the very situation in which you are in 30:18 but they mistakenly assume... 30:21 They mistakenly what's our word again everyone? 30:23 Assume that the shame and guilt that they are feeling 30:26 is actually a reflection of the attitude of God 30:29 toward them. But they could not have been any... 30:31 In fact, God's heart would have gone out even more to them 30:36 in tender sympathy because now they were in a situation 30:38 of need that they formerly had not been in. 30:41 Now just put yourself in that situation. 30:43 They transition from shame to fear, right? 30:47 The natural... If you believe that God is a tyrant 30:51 or if you believe that God - 30:52 who possesses all of this power - and clearly 30:54 He possesses power... He made you - 30:56 but the moment you begin to believe that God is 30:57 fundamentally selfish and looking out for His own best 31:01 interests He is someone to be afraid of. 31:03 And not "afraid of" in the Biblical sense: 31:05 "Fear God and give glory to Him" 31:07 but in the terrified sense. 31:10 Right? Is there a kind of Hitler? A kind of Stalin 31:13 or Mussolini on the throne of the universe? 31:15 Is that the universe that we've been birthed into here? 31:18 And so you can see how if you believe that about God 31:20 fear is an appropriate response! 31:24 Well not only fear... they run. And the next instinct is 31:27 complete self-reliance... complete self-dependence. 31:30 The instinct is to cover themselves. 31:32 They sensed that there was a nakedness. That an innocence 31:35 had been lost. And so they transition 31:37 not to dependence on God and His goodness 31:40 and His creational freedom. "Of every tree of the garden 31:43 you may freely eat. " And we talked about that yesterday. 31:46 God's default mode in ruling the universe... 31:49 God's default mode as a parent is not toward prohibitionism 31:53 but toward freedom! 31:54 And I mentioned that I am trying to model my own parenting 31:57 after that. I say to my boys: "Boys, 31:59 assume the answer is yes. 32:01 If you want to do something - anything - 32:05 assume that my answer and my response will be yes. 32:08 It will only be no if the thing you want to do 32:10 will be harmful either to you or to others. " 32:12 But my default condition is not going to be toward 32:15 prohibition... it's going to be toward freedom. 32:19 Are we together everyone? 32:20 We see that right in the Garden of Eden. 32:21 "Hey, of every tree you may freely eat. 32:23 Of all of these... perhaps thousands or tens of thousands 32:26 of trees you may freely eat but just the one. " 32:29 So God is big on freedom and He's narrow on restriction. 32:33 He wants your happiness more 32:35 than you want your own happiness. 32:36 Are we together everyone? 32:37 OK. So... but now, rather than relying on God's goodness 32:41 and His creational magnanimity 32:44 they: "Oh, I've got to watch out for myself now 32:46 and I'm going to cover myself. " 32:48 And then of course hiding is the next response. 32:51 Right? Hiding from God. Now when God finally comes 32:54 and you know the rubber meets the road - 32:56 so to speak - the next instinct is right back to 33:01 self-preservation, right? 33:03 "Adam, what are you? What's going on, buddy? " 33:06 Exactly. It's blaming, isn't it? 33:08 It's... "Well, the woman that You... " 33:10 Well you mean the woman - the very woman that just moments 33:13 ago - and this is a critical, important piece in the 33:15 New Testament. Paul says that Adam was not deceived. 33:19 Eve was deceived. 33:20 And that's crucially important because Eve was literally 33:24 lulled into a kind of inebriation because of the 33:26 sophistry of Satan. But Adam knew full well 33:29 what he was doing. Where Eve fell blindly into the sin 33:33 Adam stepped intelligently into it. 33:35 I don't mean to suggest it was an intelligent decision 33:37 but only that he was in full possession 33:39 of his mental faculties. 33:40 Yeah... you with me on that? 33:42 And so fascinatingly here when God questions him about it, 33:46 when God says: "Hey, what was this about? " 33:50 the larger guilt here rests on Adam's shoulders 33:54 because Adam knew full well what he had done. 33:56 Right? "For him that knows to do good and does it not 33:58 to him it is sin. " Eve had... She had done wrong. 34:01 Don't get me wrong. But she had been lulled. 34:02 She had been deceived into wrongdoing where Adam 34:04 stepped willingly into it. 34:06 So far so good? 34:08 And so He does ask some questions. 34:10 "Hey, what about this? What about this? What about this? " 34:12 And Adam's instantaneous response 34:15 is to self-preservation, right? 34:17 The very woman that moments ago "I can't live without you, 34:20 Eve. I will step into the vast abyss of the unknown 34:24 against the will of God. " And then now he's like: 34:26 "Well it was her! " 34:27 "If it hadn't been for this chick I would have never 34:30 done that. " Right? And by the way, this is the way 34:32 that worldly love works. Worldly love works exactly 34:34 like that. "I can't live without you; I can't live without you. " 34:36 And then instantaneously: "I can't live with you... 34:38 who are you? What are you doing here? " 34:40 Right? And we mentioned this the other day. 34:42 When you go into a marriage and you're in an almost 34:46 prenuptial sense seeking to guard your ways 34:49 and your ideas and you're basically thinking 34:52 in terms of self-preservation, 34:54 and you have someone else going into a partnership... 34:57 This is hardly a partnership. 34:59 Right? Where they're primarily thinking of their own best 35:01 interests and they're looking out for themselves... 35:04 this is not a marriage. This is a war. 35:07 It's basically a ground acquisition war 35:11 that you've agreed to go into for the rest of your life. 35:13 Right? "No... and it's mine... " 35:16 But if you go into a marriage and you say: "You know what? 35:20 I'm going to be committed. I will not likely be perfect 35:23 at it, but I'm going to be committed to valuing you 35:26 and us over me. " 35:28 Did you get that? 35:30 "I am committed to valuing you and us over me. " 35:34 And if you have two people going into a "covenant" 35:36 with that same attitude, happi- ness will be the end result. 35:41 It won't always be easy. 35:43 Amen? But happiness will be the inevitable result. 35:46 I'm telling you: I've been married now for 14 years 35:48 and I can tell you with absolutely perfect transparency 35:52 that the love and appreciation and even adoration 35:55 that I have and the deep romance that I have with my wife 35:59 of 14 years is literally - manifestly, manifold - greater 36:04 today in 2013 than it was in 1999 when I married her. 36:09 Right? My appreciation of her and my awareness of the kind 36:12 of person that she is. I've seen her grow as a wife; 36:14 I've seen her grow as a mother; I've seen her grow as a person. 36:17 I would give my life for this woman. 36:21 Right? I would give my life for this woman. 36:23 And I sense that she would give her life for me. 36:25 Now that's the easy thing, right? 36:26 You've probably heard it said that it's - you know - easy 36:28 to get somebody to die for a cause. 36:30 It's a much more difficult thing to get someone to live 36:32 for a cause, right? And so in this thing 36:37 is our marriage absolutely perfect? No, I wouldn't say 36:39 it's absolutely perfect. But is it a beautiful thing 36:42 that we are seeking to honor God? Yes it is! 36:44 And by the way, there's hope for your marriage, too. 36:46 And the short version is if you will stop this self-preservation 36:52 behavior and start living the gospel in your marriage 36:56 which is other-centeredness: "Husbands, love your wives 36:58 as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. " 37:01 Right? There is hope at the end of this tunnel. 37:04 Now, you might have to unlearn some bad behavioral 37:07 patterns and some bad communication dysfunctions. 37:11 I get that. But there is hope. 37:13 Where Christ is, there is hope, even for the most benighted 37:16 marriage. Amen everyone? Amen! 37:19 OK. So self-dependence... blaming every one of these - 37:22 shame, covering, fear, hiding, blaming - 37:26 every one of these is basically a mechanism 37:28 whereby I am going to preserve my own self-interest. 37:33 And what Lucifer/Satan had essentially said to Adam and Eve 37:36 is "that's the way the universe works, girl. It's a jungle 37:38 out there. You've got to look out for yourself! " 37:41 And God comes into the garden and says: 37:43 "I'm looking out for you. " 37:45 "I'm looking... " Can you imagine the quizzical 37:48 mindedness that must have been Adam's and Eve's as God comes in 37:52 not to give them a good whacking but to announce - 37:55 and how much they understood it we don't know 37:57 because we weren't there - but to announce that He 37:58 Himself would receive a good whacking on their behalf. 38:02 Now with that sort of in mind 38:04 I mentioned yesterday this idea of Lucifer trafficking... 38:08 trafficking in a false picture of God. 38:11 And I want to get just a couple quick vignettes in here 38:12 because all of this is fundamental to the brokenness 38:14 that the covenant has experienced. Go with me 38:17 to Job 1. Now this is a story that many of you know well 38:19 and we're going to just spend the quickest of moments here. 38:23 But the short version is that apparently there's some kind 38:26 of celestial assembly. We don't know much of the details. 38:29 What we do know is that "the sons of God" came 38:32 to present themselves before God and that wherever 38:35 the location was it couldn't have been on earth 38:37 because God asks Satan - who comes among the other 38:41 sons of God - "Where do you come from? What are you doing here? " 38:43 And he says: "I've come from earth. " 38:45 Right? So if the meeting had been on earth 38:48 it certainly would have been an unusual question 38:50 to have said: "Where did you come from? " 38:52 "What do you mean where do I come? You came to my place. " 38:54 No. He has traveled from earth to wherever this celestial 38:57 assembly is, and basically he says: "From walking to and fro 39:02 on the earth. " And the implication here is very 39:04 territorial. It's like a dog, right? It's like an animal that 39:08 possesses a territory. And he lays claim - 39:11 intellectual, legal claim - to this territory. 39:14 And God's response is: "That's not your territory. 39:17 Have you not considered my servant... " What's his name? 39:20 "Job? " Now remember... this is in front of an assembly. 39:24 This is not a private conver- sation between God and Satan. 39:26 That conversation would have been a very different 39:28 conversation I think. But this is in front of others. 39:30 And Satan continues his insinuations; he continues 39:33 his posturing. And I want to remind us here 39:35 that even the 2/3 of angels that were loyal 39:39 they were provisionally loyal. 39:41 They were what? In other words, it's not as though God 39:44 sealed them into their loyalty. 39:47 He allowed them to continue to have free will. 39:49 And so while there was loyalty it was a provisional loyalty 39:52 that basically said: "We think God is on the right side 39:54 but we're going to wait and see how this whole 39:55 thing turns out. " And so Satan, in that sort of law-court 39:59 context makes a case - not just a case, an accusation - 40:04 against God. And I want you to notice the nature of the 40:05 accusation. Verse 9: "So Satan answered the Lord 40:08 and said... " In a single question... which by the way 40:10 is exactly how he began with Eve... 40:12 "Has God really said you shall not eat of every tree? " 40:15 It's the subtlety of the questions 40:17 beginning from a platform of doubt, a platform of unbelief. 40:20 And here is the question which wasn't for God. 40:23 Right? It was not primarily for God. 40:25 It was for the on looking sons of God. 40:27 He said: "Do Job fear God for nothing? " 40:31 Oh ho ho ho... there is so much pregnancy 40:34 in this single question. Here's what he's basically saying: 40:37 "You're kidding, right? Job? You bought that guy off. 40:41 You bought him off. You bought him off with all 40:43 the trinkets and stuff. You take care of him. 40:45 Of course he's serving You. 40:47 You... " Ah... what's the underlying sentiment here 40:51 about who God is? God is not worthy in and of Himself 40:55 as a person because of who and what He is to be worshiped. 40:58 God is someone to be feared; God is someone who bribes 41:02 people into obedience and into worship and into cooperation. 41:06 "Of course, Job... " Right? Do you see the insinuation? 41:10 The insinuation is a basic undermining 41:13 of the kind of person that God is. 41:17 Now God knows who He is, 41:19 and Lucifer here is full well under the deception about 41:22 who God, but all of the on looking sons of God 41:25 are listening in and thinking: "Yeah, that's a good point 41:27 you know. Looking down... " They may have been thinking 41:28 I should say to be precise. "Yes, Job is fairly prosperous 41:32 and he is healthy and he does have his family. 41:34 Maybe there's something to this accusation. " 41:37 I want to underscore again the tremendous plausibility 41:41 of Lucifer's basic argumentation. 41:43 It was completely plausible for a couple reasons. 41:46 It was... I shouldn't say completely plausible, but it was 41:49 sufficiently plausible for a couple reasons. 41:51 Number 1: God is behind a veil and thus is naturally 41:54 necessarily mysterious. And number 2: 41:59 what is a God? How do we understand what a God is? 42:02 The difference between a creature and the Creator? 42:03 And Satan galvanized... Lucifer galvanized 42:07 the creatures as basically saying: "We're creatures. 42:10 We know what it's like to be a creature. He can't relate. " 42:13 Now hang onto that. That's going to become HUGE for us 42:15 when it comes to covenant healing. 42:17 "He is the Creator; He can't understand 42:21 what it's like to be a creature. We creatures need to galvanize 42:24 and stand in solidarity because we know what it's like. " 42:29 Now you know where this is going. 42:32 I'll tell you where it's going. 42:33 And I'm going to just cut to the chase here 42:35 in just a second. But what's going to happen is 42:37 God in His grandeur, in His vastness, in His omnipotence 42:41 and eternality and all of that 42:44 He is going to as it were step from behind 42:49 this necessary mysterious veil that separates the seen from 42:52 the unseen, the created from the Creator, 42:54 and He's going to end up in a manger! 43:01 What is God doing in a manger? 43:04 Oh, He's doing a great many things, 43:06 but one of the things that He is doing is He is 43:08 coming to experience reality like you and I experience 43:12 reality. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. 43:16 But He's MORE than Emmanuel. He's not just God with us... 43:18 He becomes God AS us. 43:22 God with a body 43:27 and stuck in the space/time dimension 43:30 with a brain that learns and apprehends and grows. 43:34 And He begins to experience life as we experience life. 43:39 Now that's getting ahead of this point, but 43:41 that's getting ahead of where we're going here. 43:43 But the basic accusation of Satan against God here 43:46 in Job is that He is not a trustworthy person. 43:50 He buys off His friends... He's bribing. 43:53 Now here's another one. Just very quickly to Luke chapter 8. 43:56 And this is one of the most tragic. 43:58 In Luke chapter 8 Jesus has sailed to the southeastern side 44:02 of the lake... the Sea of Galilee... 44:04 and He has come to a place that the Bible simply calls 44:07 "the Gadarenes. " And two demoniacs 44:10 rush out. And let me just ask a quick question of 44:13 Biblical definition here. What is a demon? 44:19 A fallen angel. Thank you. That's it. 44:20 That's exactly correct. A demon is a fallen angel. 44:22 In other words, one of the previously loyal. 44:25 We together? 44:26 So as Jesus comes and steps His foot on the shore there 44:31 at the Gadarenes, the demoniacs come racing out to Jesus 44:35 and they are burning with a request. 44:38 Oh... they're terrified! 44:40 And notice the burning nature of their request. 44:44 Verse 28: "And when he saw Jesus 44:46 he cried out 'Ahhh' and fell down before Him 44:50 with a loud voice and said 'What have I to do with You 44:52 Jesus, Son of the Most High God? 44:54 I beg... ' " I what? "I beg You? " 44:58 "I plead with You... " "I implore You... " 45:01 "I importune You... 45:04 don't... " What? "Don't torture me before the time. " 45:11 Now let me just ask a question: 45:13 What does this fallen angel believe about the character 45:18 of God? He's begging not to be tortured. 45:23 I'll tell you what he believes. 45:25 He believes that God is exactly the kind of being 45:27 that would leverage His omnipotence to force people, 45:31 torture them, manipulate them, 45:33 into line or to be finally and fully dealt with 45:38 by any means necessary. 45:40 He is pleading with Jesus 45:43 not to torture him which is proof positive that 45:46 he has bought full well into "the lie. " 45:49 What is the lie? The lie is that God is basically 45:51 looking out for Himself and you are merely His minions. 45:56 Whoa... ha, ha, ha, ha. 45:59 Now we might chuckle at that, but there is a huge dimension 46:03 of truth. "Please don't torture me. " 46:05 And yet the underlying... the subterranean truth here 46:08 is that Jesus, Messiah, had not come to torture 46:14 but to be tortured. 46:17 Oh, if that's who God is 46:22 He will be from Bethlehem's manger to Calvary's cross 46:25 not only walking a mile in our very human and created 46:29 moccasins. He will be regaining our trust 46:36 and thus bringing healing to the family of God that had 46:41 created the family of man - by the way, Ellen White uses 46:43 the language - the scripture by implication - "the family 46:46 of God means both of these things" - 46:52 that would be ever-increasing but now had been broken. 46:55 Well the only way to restore a broken relationship is through 46:58 trust. Yes or no? 47:01 Relationships are made of two things: time and trust. 47:04 Time and trust... time and trust. 47:06 If you have a broken relationship with anybody, 47:08 with your son, with your father, with your mother, with your 47:10 spouse, with your boss it's time and trust. 47:13 It's always that: time and trust. 47:15 Something is broken. Either they don't trust you 47:17 or you don't trust them. You've not spent time together 47:19 communicating. Time and trust. Time and trust. Time and trust. 47:22 God is going to come and spend time with us 47:26 and this is where we're going. And I'm a little nervous about 47:29 giving away part of the punch line here. 47:32 But He is going to spend in Christ eternity with us 47:37 as us. And I'll just sort of let that hang out there. 47:43 We see here Satan's MO, and I've mentioned the word 47:46 trafficking twice. Let's go to the passage where that's found - 47:49 Ezekiel 28- very quickly. 47:51 Ezekiel 28. Now what we've seen here 47:55 is that in both the case of Eve in the garden 47:58 and Job before the celestial council 48:01 and the demoniac at the Gadarenes and other instances 48:06 could be given, we see that Satan's basic MO 48:08 is exactly what Ellen White just said in Great Controversy 48:10 page 569. See if you can remember it. 48:12 "It is Satan's constant effort to... " Remember? He wakes up 48:16 in the morning. "Whooo... what's my to-do list today? " 48:20 "It is Satan's constant effort 48:21 to misrepresent the character of God. " 48:26 And we see that. 48:28 So you're in Ezekiel 28, and Ezekiel 28 is awesome 48:32 because it - along with Isaiah 14 and other passages - 48:36 pulls back the curtain of what's really going on here. 48:38 And we're not going to spend a lot of time going into this 48:40 but we will just quickly say that this is unambiguously 48:43 a reference - a prophetic reference - to Satan. 48:46 And he's referred to in three ways that confirm this for us. 48:50 It says: "You were the anointed cherub who covers. " 48:52 Translation: you were close. 48:54 "You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. " 48:57 Translation: you were close. 48:58 That's the area immediately around the throne of God. 49:01 And it says that "you were on the holy mountain of God. " 49:04 Translation: you were close. 49:05 This is basically Hebrew recapitulation 49:08 which is poetry. It's three ways of saying 49:11 "you were very, very close to God. " 49:13 "The anointed cherub who covers, " 49:14 "on the holy mountain of God, " 49:15 "back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. " 49:17 OK? Now very interestingly Ezekiel... look at what he does 49:20 here. Verse 16: 49:24 In the midst of this it says: "By the abundance of 49:27 your... " And what does your Bible say there? 49:30 Yeah. What a weird thing to say. 49:32 My Bible says trading. Some translations say trafficking. 49:35 Other translations say merchandising. 49:37 It's as if God is raising His complaints against Lucifer. 49:41 He's raising His complaints against the fall of Lucifer 49:43 and He basically says: "You... you... 49:47 were selling stuff. " 49:50 Doesn't that sound kind of weird? 49:52 Yeah. "By the abundance of your trading you became filled 49:56 with violence within and you sinned. " 49:58 Now I just have to pause here and say something that is 49:59 so cool. It says he became filled with violence 50:03 but Satan's initial objections to the kingdom of God 50:07 were not violent. Jesus says a similar kind of thing 50:10 when He says in John chapter 8 verse 44 50:12 He says: "Satan was a murderer" do you know when? 50:16 "from the beginning. " 50:18 But that's... But hear this out. 50:20 He didn't become a murderer until much later. 50:23 Right? Many... It would have been at least 4,000 years later, 50:27 perhaps more. He became a murderer much later 50:30 when he hung Jesus on that Roman implement of torture. 50:34 So what did Jesus mean when He said: "He's a murderer 50:36 from the beginning? " Ah, I'll tell you what He meant. 50:38 It means this, and follow this. 50:40 All sin is murderous in intent. 50:47 Did you get that? All sin is murderous in its 50:51 basic intent. Why? Because sin is built around 50:53 self-preservation. It's built around me. 50:56 And if you threaten me or my ways or what I want to do 51:00 the end result of you pushing me far enough 51:02 and me becoming serious enough about my own self-preservation 51:05 is to put you out of existence. 51:07 See, not all sin is murder but all sin is murderous in intent 51:12 because it's the logical outgrowth of a radial 51:14 self-preservation. Does that make sense? 51:17 So God knew even what Lucifer himself didn't know. 51:21 He knew that if you go over that hill, down that mountain, 51:24 around that bend, and up that pass 51:25 it will end up at Calvary. 51:28 We together everyone? 51:30 So it says: "You were violent. " 51:32 But in what sense was he violent? 51:35 In the sense that he just started rampaging around heaven? 51:37 No, that's not subtle. 51:40 No... there's a subtlety in the argumentation 51:43 and the subtlety is built around the fact that God 51:46 cannot relate to us. There's a chasm between the 51:48 created and the Creator. There's a subtlety, but God 51:50 could see that the end result of this trafficking 51:53 was violence and even murder. 51:56 Jesus said it this way: "You have heard that it was said 51:58 by them of old 'You shall not commit murder' 52:01 but I say to you who- ever is angry with his brother 52:03 in his heart has committed... " What? "murder already. " 52:05 What Jesus is saying here is that even anger, even that kind 52:08 of thing, not at the beginning but at the end 52:10 is murderous in its intent... and that's Jesus' point. 52:14 "You started trafficking something 52:16 that at its fundamental core 52:18 - even though you didn't discern it - was violence. " 52:22 Look at what it goes on to say here: 52:24 "and you sinned. " Now watch this: 52:26 Just as we had had: "You were the anointed cherub who covers, 52:29 you were on the holy mountain of God, 52:30 you walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones" - 52:32 you were close, you were close, you were close - 52:33 watch this... latter part of verse 16: 52:35 "Therefore I cast you as a profane thing 52:37 out of the mountain of God. I destroyed you, 52:39 O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. " 52:42 Yeah, Ezekiel has just done a marvelous thing here. 52:45 He has basically reversed the very proximity that Lucifer 52:48 had formerly enjoyed and experienced. 52:50 Now, the word comes up again! 52:54 "Your heart... " And by the way, you have to notice the emphasis 52:56 here on you and your. It's absolutely intentional. 53:00 I'll read it with that emphasis so you'll get a feel for it. 53:02 Verse 17: "Your heart was lift- ed up because of your beauty. 53:05 You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. 53:08 I cast you to the ground; I laid you before kings 53:10 that they might gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuary 53:13 by the multitude of your iniquities... " And here 53:15 it is again: "by the iniquity of your trading. " 53:20 Your trafficking; your merchandising. 53:22 Which raises the question: what was he selling? 53:24 Was he selling widgets? 53:27 Was he selling Vitamixes? What was he selling? 53:30 Was he selling cars? 53:32 And there's a very interesting little etymological significance 53:35 here in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word here for 53:37 your trading, your trafficking, your merchandising 53:39 is recula. Recula. 53:42 Right? And it has as its very same root word... 53:47 Recula - as its very same root word - is to gossip. 53:51 It means literally to sell or to merchandise. 53:54 But the very same root word is to gossip or to tell 53:57 a tall tale. So what Satan was trafficking in 54:02 was a story. He was trafficking in what? 54:07 He was telling a story, 54:09 and the story he was telling "is the truth about God" 54:13 so he said. 54:15 "Let me tell you the real story. " Right? 54:19 "Let me go behind the scenes in a conspiratorial exposé 54:24 and tell you what God is really like. " 54:25 And scripture says he was trafficking. He was trafficking. 54:28 In fact if we had time we'd go to Revelation 12:7. 54:30 It says: "War broke out in heaven. " 54:34 "War broke out in heaven. Michael and His angels 54:36 fought against the dragon and the dragon and his 54:37 angels fought. " And here's an interesting thing. 54:39 The word war there in the Greek is polemos. 54:42 Polemos... from which we get the English word 54:45 polemic and the same etymological derivation of 54:48 words like politics 54:51 and even a poll. When we take a survey of 54:55 you know of opinion we say "we took a poll. " 55:02 "Polemos broke out in heaven. " It would not be... 55:05 It would not be abusive to the text to say 55:08 that a controversy in the nature of politics 55:11 broke out in heaven. 55:15 Wasn't a fist fight. 55:19 No, no, no... what's going on is a picture. 55:23 It's a story. It's a portrait of what's going on 55:26 behind the curtain. 55:28 And Satan masks - he veneers the whole thing - 55:33 in a pretended concern about the wellbeing 55:37 of creation. "Ah, I'm concerned. 55:41 I'm just looking out for us. " 55:43 Right? We see it? "Oh, I'm just looking out 55:45 for you. I'm looking out for you, Eve. I'm looking out... 55:47 I'm looking out for you. " 55:49 And all of the while, in a sense and I hope you'll appreciate 55:52 the analogy here - God's hands are almost tied. 55:56 Not in the sense that He lacks omnipotence or omniscience 55:59 but He cannot resort 56:02 to these conspiratorial, undermining and 56:08 lie-based methodologies. 56:11 God's only weapon is the truth. 56:14 But sometimes the truth takes time to bubble to the surface. 56:19 And this truth is going to bubble to the surface 56:21 in the most unexpected of plot twists 56:25 where God will come and disprove the lies, 56:28 will disprove the controversy, 56:30 will show that the widgets that Lucifer has been selling 56:33 are in fact unfounded and untrue 56:35 and actually the antithetical opposite of what is true. 56:38 God will end up in the person of Christ 56:43 in a manger in Bethlehem 56:46 to bring to absolute naught the accusations of Satan. 56:52 But even more importantly - that's a by-product - 56:54 to bring what He really wants 56:57 and that is restoration and healing 57:01 to His family... the family of God. 57:05 Amen? Amen! |
Revised 2014-12-17