Doctrines Of Demons

I actually have a sermon someone suggested this morning. I thought, well, I gave a sermon on that. Then I started thinking about it, and I think I gave it in 2019. Every once in a while, you've got to cover certain material again. It was on the whole origins of the Israeli-Arab conflict. How Islam plays into that. How Abraham's family plays into that. I may give that as a Bible study or a sermon here sometime this year. Just go back to that information and review it, because it's in the news. It's always going to be there. Understanding the biblical origins of that helps understand why it won't get fixed. It won't get fixed until Christ comes back.

I've had these conversations, and what led to this sermon is people asking about demonic activity. Talking about how they look at the world around them, and just our society. The sheer amount of insanity that goes on. The anxiety that people have. The level of violence that keeps going up. The anger. The lack of civility. And sometimes there's activity that just seems insane. I think I mentioned my son-in-law told me, he said, I don't know if there's increased demonic activity. And then a couple weeks later he looked at it. He brought me something on his phone. He said, look at this. And it was a group, it was a couple Catholics that had signs protesting abortion. And they surrounded with maybe 20 young people. They were attacking them like a pack of dogs. Barking and growling and running up and acting like they were going to bite them. And he said, that's insane. I said, yeah, that's influence. There is an influence in this world. But there's always been a demonic influence on this world. I mean, the lay the groundwork for what we're going to cover. We have to understand, we all remember Adam and Eve. Satan was allowed to come into the garden. He was Lucifer. He became the enemy of God. He became the adversary. That's what he's called. His name is Satan. The adversary of God. And he's the adversary of humanity. And we know in the book of Revelation, a third of the angels followed him. A third of the angels followed him because they were convinced by Satan that God has a bad explanation of the difference between good and evil. That's really what it comes down to. A bad explanation of what the difference is between good and evil. And so, he tried to overthrow God. A third of the angels went with him. They were cast to earth. God allowed Satan to come in and influence Adam and Eve. They chose to rebel against God. And God then kicked him out of the garden of Eden and said, You now live under his rule for a period of time, and then I'll stop it. But you're going to learn the difference between good and evil because you're going to live it. And so he did. And that's what we've been doing for all these years.

We've been living in this world of good and evil. And Satan is a great influencer on what this world is. And demons, as the angels that follow him, are actually influencers on the world we live in. Now, usually when we talk about demons, we talk about demon possession. When I talk about demon possession, there are people who are already mentally ill, who allow demonic influence so much that this demon, it's a real being, a thinking being, comes into their mind and they lose control of their own mind. But that's not what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about something that's more subtle than that. Because demons do influence the world. And at times, if we're not careful, they can influence us.

At the basis of demonic influence is a rejection of the inipidence of God, a rejection of God's right to rule over His creation, and that God knows what is good. And God deserves to rule over His creation.

That's at the core of the rebellious heart of Satan and the demons. And so they are driven by that. And as they get farther and farther away from God, they become more filled with anxiety, distress, anger, violence, hatred. Because in the end, the goal of Satan is either to make all of us, all of humanity like Him, or to destroy us.

That's what he wants. You can see that in the Scripture. It's either to make all of us like Him, so He can show God He won, or to destroy us. So He shows God He won. Of course, neither of those things are going to happen. God tells us they're not going to happen. He's still driven to do so because it's His nature. So understand, demons by nature are driven by what we call mental illness.

It doesn't mean they're not intelligent, but they're driven by mental illness. They have denied God. They've been in the presence of God. They know God exists. They don't doubt that. But they doubt His omnipotence. They doubt His genius. They doubt His goodness. And you and I have been influenced by Satan and demons. The way Satan influences us through simple thoughts and emotions. That's it. You could be around another human being. You ever be around another human being who is incredibly sad?

And if you're around them a while, pretty soon you're feeling incredibly sad. Now, they're not controlling your mind, right? Or they're angry, and they're talking about something that makes them angry. Pretty soon you're angry. We absorb thoughts and we absorb emotions from other people. We absorb them from Satan and demons if we're not careful.

It's there much of the time we reject it, much of the time we see what it is, much of the time we don't pay any attention to it. But it is there, and that's important. But I'm still not going to talk about that in great detail.

Because as I was putting this together, I decided to zero in on one concept that's in 1 Timothy 4. So let's go to 1 Timothy 4 in verse 1. Paul tells Timothy, "'Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter time some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.'" Now, he's writing to the church here.

He's not writing to the world. Romans 1, he's writing about the Roman world. They're reprobates, he says. They've gone so far from God they can't even understand God. And he lists all these ways that the Roman society was against God, which is a perfect explanation of the society you and I live in. There's not much difference. But here he says to the church that we have to be aware of doctrines of demons. What in the world are doctrines of demons? What is a biblical teaching? It seems to come from the Bible, but it's not of God. Now, every one of us in this room doesn't have a total understanding of this book.

I know I sure don't. I'm amazed when I study this book what I don't know. All of us have some false concepts that we sometimes have to work through. You realize, wow, that understanding I've had of that particular teaching in the Bible is not quite on. And you change. That's a lifelong experience. Those who have nothing to do with doctrines of demons, they're the limited understanding we have as human beings. All of us are limited. I'm always a little nervous as somebody who believes they know everything, because they don't. They can't. But I do believe, unto whom much is given, much is required, and we've been given a lot.

And the only reason why we've been given a lot, according to the Bible, is because we're the weak of the world. So, God gave me a lot because I'm the weak of the world. Just always end that sentence that way, and you're on. Okay? So, what are doctrines of demons? They can't be just something that's wrong or always or not true, because all of us struggle with those things. Well, to simplify this, and to try to make it as simple in a focal point in just 55 minutes, demonic doctrines come from the mind of Satan and the demons.

And human beings are open to that. Religious human beings are open to that. And if we're not careful, they infiltrate slowly into our thinking. They infiltrate slowly into our thinking. And here's what the basis of demonic doctrines are. They distort through lies. One, the essential reality of who is God. They actually bring new definitions to God.

Two, they distort the reality of who humanity is and humanity's relationship with God. Now, as I go through this, if you study at all the woke Christianity that's happening in the world in the United States today, of which now, according to all surveys, a majority of Christians believe, that makes Protestantism of 40 years ago ultra-Biblically conservative. It's that far moved away.

This is the core of what's happening in woke Christianity. It distorts what is the definition of good and evil. It distorts who Jesus Christ is and the work that God is doing through him. And it distorts God's purpose for humanity. Now, we can break that down, but just when you look at these five things, that's what demonic doctrines do. They distort the essential reality of God. They distort the reality of who human beings are.

What is our purpose and our relationship with God? It distorts the difference in knowledge and definition of good and evil. It distorts who Jesus Christ is and it distorts God's ultimate purpose for humanity. So with that in mind, let's look at a few doctrines that by that definition are demonic doctrines. Doctrines of demons. I'm going to go through such basic scriptures that they almost don't need explanation. We're not going to have to delve into the depths of Paul or anything like that today. We're just going to go through statements made either by Jesus or by his followers that deal with some of these new doctrines, which are not biblical doctrines.

The first one is, all religions are basically good and lead to the same spiritual connection with God. Oprah Winfrey started that 30 years ago and has now become mainstream society. Joe Olsteen teaches that. It's amazing how many televangelists teach that.

There are all these different ways to God, and all different religions end up in the same place. I want to read a letter we received this week from someone who was watching some of the Are Beyond Today programs. Steve Myers did a series called Satan in Your Church, and he watched the first couple minutes and immediately saw what he thought was wrong. This is what he wrote. He started watching the series about supposedly the devil being in churches. A few minutes was enough. I mean, really? We're now picking on churches just because people go to church on Sunday?

In a world now full of people being depressed, full of anxiety and stress, we're focusing on picking on going to church on Sunday? He could not believe that there's a correlation between those two things. One is not understanding some aspect of the teaching of God and the state of the world. He can't see that. We'll go through that too, because that's one of the doctrines of demons. We're also picking on Buddhism. Those peaceful, beautiful, gentle souls whose traditions go back before Christianity even started. So instead of just loving them, we pick on traditions that are thousands of years old and accuse them of being evil worshippers when it's clear even to a dumb person how peaceful and genuinely loving they are.

This church is still today in that space of using the threats of hell and punishment to scare people instead of just radiating love and realizing people are doing the best they can in a stressful world.

I'll skip through part of it here. He says, at the end of the day, religion is still trying to use the fear of eternal punishment and hell to control minds. That's not love. That is what Christianity is. That is taught in many, many Christian churches. That all churches, or all religions are headed, all good people and all religions are headed to the same place. How would Jesus answer that? Because this is based on God loves all people and God accepts all people. Well, how would you answer that?

God loves all people, God accepts all people. Well, John 14. I'll let Jesus answer this, okay? Of course, at the core of Christianity is a whole different explanation of the teachings of Jesus. I mean, of course, the God of the Old Testament is not really God. It's a misunderstanding of God. As one article I read, the woman said, God is an abortionist, and I'm against abortion, because he killed pregnant women in Sodom. That makes him abortionist, so I don't believe in the God of the Old Testament.

I think men just made that up. That's the wolf thought process. That's a demonic process. I'm not saying that woman's demon is not, because she's not. That's the influence. You redefine who God is, who Jesus Christ is. You redefine who humanity is. You redefine who Satan is.

You redefine everything. And you come up with, love is all there is. Well, does God love the world? Does God say that Jesus is the only way? So we've got two things here. Does God love the world? And does God say Jesus is the only way? Or do all religions lead to the same place? And we should accept... Does God love Buddhists? That's a good question. Does God accept Buddhists? That's a good question. They're not the same question, by the way.

They're not the same question. But they combine them together and create a logic problem. So the first thing is, does God accept all religions as the same paths to Him? We'll let Jesus answer that. Verse 1 of chapter 14 of John, Let not your heart be troubled, though Jesus is talking to them. He's about to die. He's about to be sacrificed for the sins of humanity, which is the ultimate act of love.

And He's talking to His disciples and He says this to them, You believe in God, believe also in Me. And My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know. And of course, Thomas says to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going, and how can we know the way? How can we know the path to go and follow you where you're going?

And here's an exact statement by Jesus Christ. And Jesus said to him, I am the way. He just didn't say I'm teaching you the way. He says, I'm it. There is no way to God. In fact, in the book of Acts, Peter said that in the book of Acts, all through the New Testament. There's only one way to go to the true God. That's through Jesus Christ. He is the way. You can't get there through Muhammad. You can't...

Oh, wow! See, this is so non-exclusive. Yes, the teachings of Jesus taken literally in what he says, it's non-exclusive. He is exclusive. Woke Christianity hates that because it's not love by their definition of love. Jesus is exclusive. I am the way. He didn't say I'm here to teach you the way. He's it. He is the way. The truth. He's the way and he's the truth. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now, here's the thing that a lot of people are going to have to face because there's a lot of Christians out there, by the way, struggling with these things because their friends are telling them Jesus isn't the way, the only way.

And they're reading this and saying, well, he said he's the way and they're struggling with it.

Here's the simplicity of this. Either Jesus Christ is saying the truth or he's a madman. Either he's saying the truth or he's insane. So either those who deny this are slipping into the insanity of the doctrines of demons or Jesus himself is insane. There's no middle ground here. Either he is the way or he isn't the way. Either he is the only way to the Father or he's not the only way to the Father. Or there's more than one God up there and you can go to all of them through different ways in which you're not a Christian at all.

These are very simple ideas. I'm reading a book on logic. It's a very interesting book because it's a homeschool book for teenagers. And it's one of the best books on logic I've ever read. How to work through fallacies of arguments. No, and this is one of them. Either one is true or the other is true. They both can't be true. It's not possible.

You're either in this room or you're not in this room. You're not two places at the same time. There are certain things that are just true. And this is a statement by Jesus. It's either true or it's not true.

So how did Paul then, who was personally taught by Jesus, how did he then describe how those who follow Christ as the only way to God and have a relationship with God the Father, how do they approach other religions? Because there's the point here, isn't it? Can all religions lead to God? Does Hinduism lead to God? Does Islam?

Does Voodoo down in Haiti lead to God? Because the Haitian religion is a pure mixture of Voodooism and Christianity, well, a little sprinkle of Christianity, that creates a very violent religion in which demons are directly involved.

So how do we sort them through? 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. Verse 14. He starts this sort of... he's going through this whole... he's jumping around a little bit like Paul does sometimes, and then fits things together as he goes on. And so he says here, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

So he's ending one, therefore he's completing a thought, he's sort of now going into another thought. He's telling them, you must leave the paganism that you've come out of. Most of the Corinthians didn't come out of a Jewish world, they came out of a pagan world. He said, you must literally run away from it. You must flee idolatry. And then he's going to tell them why in a remarkably profound series of statements.

He says, I speak to you... I speak as to you wise men. Judge for yourselves what I say. He says, you should be able to figure this out. You who came out of paganism should be able to figure this out. I mean, they came out of pure worship of idols, sacrificing the idols, belief in different gods and goddesses, just absolute superstition. That's what they came out of. He says, the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, and the bread which we break it is not the communion of the body of Christ.

So he goes to the Passover service and he says, when we take that wine and that bread, are we not in communion with Christ? In other words, communion is in Greek, has an interesting broad sense to it. It basically means fellowship. You are in personal relationship with Christ. You are in personal fellowship with Christ when we do the Passover.

If we just do it because it's a ritual, it's meaningless. But you know when you keep the Passover, there's something profound happening. It's because we are in this personal communion with Christ. He says, and then he expands this on into a whole other idea that we couldn't even touch on today. He says, for we, though many, are one bread in one body, for we all partake of that one bread. In other words, if we are in fellowship with Christ when we take the bread and the wine, we are as a people in fellowship and communion with one another.

That's one of the things it produces. This is talking about a very intensive, personal relationship, and there's power in that relationship. He says, verse 18, observe Israel after the flesh, or not those who eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar.

In other words, the priest also partook of the ceremonies because they were the representatives of God. What am I saying, then? Okay, so Paul does this every once in a while. Okay, what's the point I'm making? I know you're sort of thinking, what's the point he's making? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? No, an idol is a stone. When they kill an animal to an idol, it's meaningless. There is no, it's just nothingness.

But, and it's a real important point, rather, that the things with the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. For I do not want you to have fellowship, communion with demons. He literally is telling them, when you go into a demonic temple to participate in the sacrifice, to participate in the ceremonies, you're in fellowship with the power behind paganism. There is a power behind paganism, a spiritual power, and it is not God, it's demons. It is a total distortion of who God is, of what God is doing, of who Jesus Christ is.

It's a distortion of all of it, and it is the same as the thinking of demons. Understand that. Paganism is the same as the thinking of demons. Now, I've known pagans in my life. I had a landlord that was a pagan. He's a Hindu. We get along fine. But we had limited fellowship, because there's a different power in his life. Either we believe this or we don't. Now, this really comes down to you. We have to choose one way or the other. Woke Christianity is forcing people to have to think through this choice, and too many people are just sort of sliding into it in the world, in our society around us.

And we're beginning to see the power of demonic thinking in our society more and more. He says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. You know, okay, I understand it. It's nothing. But he says to go participate in the ceremonies of worship, you are actually participating in the power that's there. And there is a power in Hinduism.

There is a power in Islam. There is a power in Buddhism. It's there. And to say that's the same power that comes from God through Christ and through His Spirit is a demonic lie. It's a distortion of reality. It's insanity. Welcome to the world. It's insane. And this is now the major beliefs of most Christians in the United States and even most in Europe.

And the Catholic Church is actually swinging that way as a church, although there's a group of them that aren't. I wouldn't be surprised to see a split in the Catholic Church here soon, just like there was one recently in the Methodist Church, who swung totally into this thought process. So what we're looking at is that power that's here. And all the things that we look on, that we know, that comes from a pagan origin, that we have to be careful of because the power behind it is not God and there is a power behind it.

Paul saw it, but he lived in that society. It was so obvious to him. We are designed to have a need for God and to have a relationship with God. We're designed that way. If we don't have it with God, we have to stuff it with something else. It has to be filled with something else. One of the greatest deceptions of Satan and demons is to take and lead people to where that need for God is fulfilled, and it really isn't, but there is this attempt to fulfill it and a feeling of fulfillment through the worship of Satan and demons.

It's amazing how Satan can't get most people in the United States to worship him. He can't get most people in Europe to worship him, but he can pervert the reality where it really is the worship of him, and that's what he's doing. Because we all need God, we're driven to fill that one way or another. It doesn't even have to be religion. You can fill it with drugs. You can fill it with alcohol. You can fill it with things, just trying to be rich.

You can fill it with all kinds of stuff. No, it doesn't work. But that's always this drive that we have to fulfill our need for God. The doctrine of demons, that all religions are basically good and lead to the same spiritual connection with God, is the basis of the rejection of the fact that God is exclusive, that the God of the Bible and the work of God through Jesus Christ is exclusive. It is the only way. It is. But what Christianity destroys that.

It also taps into demonic influence because of feelings of false spirituality. It feels spiritual. Well, it is, but it's not godly. And in the end, it's very destructive.

This is true even when we see why you and I have given up Sunday worship, Christmas, and Easter.

Because if you go back, there are pagans right now saying, we want our holidays back. I've read articles where they wrote, we want our holidays back from the Christians. They stole them from us. Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, and he was resurrected on Easter Sunday. And we can prove it. Even your own book proves it. We want our holidays back.

They got a point.

And it also promotes that we determine how God will be worshipped, not God.

That's satanic. Satan knows God should be worshipped. When he appears before God, he doesn't come as an equal, by the way. You can see that in the book of Job.

But it's like the old man really doesn't know what he's doing. So I'll worship you the way I want to, as soon as I come back down to my domain, and get all these people messed up.

Now, this brings us to another doctrine of demons. I had a whole big list. I'm only going to get through a few of them, you know.

Because these are so common that sometimes we don't even put them in the words. The second doctrine of demons is that people are basically good, so everyone is loved and accepted by God. No, I mentioned that in the first one because that's part of it, but now we're breaking this down into people are basically good. And you know, the reason why is we say this. I mean, I've met homosexuals that were nice people and did good things for others.

Right? So how do we judge them? Well, they do good things. God must accept that as righteousness, so therefore they will now receive salvation.

How do we determine the difference between love of God and salvation? In other words, the love of God and the acceptance of God. Are those equal?

Are those equal? To break it down into theology, is the love of God and justification the same? Oh, man, just read the book of Romans. And they are not. The love of God and justification are two different things. We are justified by accepting that we are sinners and going to God and asking for forgiveness and for Him to take over our lives.

Then we are allowed to come into His presence. We are now accepted. We are accepted by Him. We are not accepted because we are nice people. We are not accepted just to be... You know what this is? What's funny is this is what we are accused of sometimes. You ever been accused of, oh, you believe in salvation by works because you keep the Sabbath.

This is just salvation by works because I'm a nice guy. No, that's not how this works. Let's look at what Jesus said. John 3. Well, actually this is John writing about Jesus. This used to be the most quoted verse in Christianity. It was everywhere. Some of you are old enough to remember if you turned on a basketball or football or baseball game, there were people out in the stands holding this up. It was quoted everywhere. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Does God love the sinners? Yes. Does God love the Buddhists? Yes. Oh, see, He accepts them. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's step back a minute. He loves them. It didn't say He accepts them. He didn't say they're justified. Verse 17, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. See? God doesn't want you to condemn anybody. So therefore God loves everybody, therefore everybody is saved. That's not what that said. We can tear that apart easily.

Just read those two verses, and that's not what it says. Whoever believes in Him will be saved. It didn't say whoever rejects Him will be saved, or doesn't believe in Him will be saved.

He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already. In other words, they're not justified. Now, we understand that there's different times of people having an opportunity to be called and justified. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the state of a human being right now. They are under condemnation. Now they will have an opportunity to be forgiven. But they still must accept something and do something to be forgiven. But he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

You don't believe this. You don't have salvation. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men – I'm going to get this – love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. See how we're talking about demonic doctors always change the definition of good and evil. Here John says, people deny Jesus Christ and use him as a license to do whatever they want and end up condemned because they are evil and their deeds are evil.

What they do is evil, and they don't want to give up what they do. So we have a problem with God loves a transgender person. Therefore, a transgender person is saved. No, God loves a transgender person. Their salvation depends on turning to him through Jesus Christ, repenting, receiving God's Spirit. Peter explains that in Acts 2.

One verse he explains it all. So can a transgender receive salvation? You bet! Can a murderer? You bet! Yes! Why? Because God loves them and he wants to make them his children. But they must accept this, that they are worthy of death and only God's grace, only God's forgiveness. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is our substitute. That is the only way to come into a relationship with him. And then the work starts. Because once you're in a relationship with God, he changes your nature. Oh, that's hard, Christianity. No, no, no, no. That's not what we want.

We just love each other. What does that mean? Just love each other. There's no meaning to that. Unless you have definitions of love. Oh, well, see, no, you just feel good about each other, and that's all that is. No, it's not. He goes on, For everyone practicing evil, this is John talking about Jesus Christ.

For everyone who practices evil hates the light. Actually, I was right the first time I got talking here. This is Jesus talking. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, but his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they are done in God. In other words, as we come into this light and into this relationship with God and into this relationship with Jesus Christ, what we do, how we live, changes because we're in the light.

If we don't change, he says, that's because you still love the darkness. You still love what he called evil, the definition of good and evil.

God describes good and evil in the scripture. He tells people, I will forgive you of evil and you must come out of evil. You must give up the darkness. You must come into the light. You must. And it doesn't matter how much he loves us. If we don't do that, we won't be justified and we won't receive salvation.

It's that simple. I can't argue with Jesus. I can and end up condemned. Right? Either what he's saying is true or he's a madman. It's that simple. And then maybe Buddha is correct.

Being nice and doing good doesn't earn salvation. That is just another salvation by works. Now there has to be works, but they're done in God. Remember that? They're done in Christ. God does the works in us. We submit to that. Yes, we have to submit. Yes, we have to grow. We have to change. Or we're back in rebellion. So I'm not saying that this is not doing. It's doing because God is doing.

It's God doing it in us and we're submitting to it. And we're working at it. It's hard. And he does his work. He completes his work.

This idea of condemnation is so against world Christianity, nobody can be condemned except those who have the audacity to say somebody is condemned. Then they should be condemned. Aren't you condemning somebody? Somebody gets condemned here no matter what, right? Somebody gets condemned. And since I don't know how to condemn anybody, I just look at what God says. He condemns people. That's what he does.

I just try to follow along and help as many as I can. The fundamental teaching of the Bibles that a person must recognize that they're spiritually, that they have sinned, and worse than that, their nature is corrupted. They have some demonic parts of their nature influenced by Satan. They're guilty of breaking God's law and they have to seek God's forgiveness and God's help to be able to become what he wants them to become.

That is what humanity is. Demonic doctrines always twist what humanity is. They twist what God is. They twist everything. Good and evil gets changed and then they twist who we are. We're all just sort of our own gods, making it on our own. And no we're not.

Without God we're just dirt.

Smart dirt because he gave us the spirit of man, but we have no eternity in us.

God has to create that in us.

The beliefs that most people are basically good and loved and accepted by God is partly true. They are loved by God. But to believe that they are loved and therefore accepted by God without anything else, they can do what they want, think what they want, believe what they want, worship who they want, removes the need of guilt, removes the concept of sin, removes the disobedience to God, and basically denies that we have a corrupted human nature. It denies the influence of Satan and the demons.

I read just an article this week. I get articles sent to me from different religious groups to look what churches are teaching. And this one minister was saying that in order to move forward, we have to give up the one great myth that most Christians still believe, and that is Satan and the demons influence us. Because they don't. That's a myth.

Well, there you go.

If I'm a demon, I want people to believe that I don't exist, right?

Not that I'm a demon. That's a bad way to put that.

But, I mean, if you want to deceive people, you just convince them you don't exist. And here's a minister saying they may exist, but they don't influence us.

It believes that salvation basically is through good works and not the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And instead of love being defined as the virtues of the character of God, love is defined by only emotion.

There is emotion involved in love.

But you can't always trust your emotions. There has to be virtues. 1 Corinthians 13 is what? The virtues of the love of God.

So love has to be based on virtue.

I'm trying to decide which ones to not do here.

Let me do this one quickly.

There is a doctrine of demons that teaches and promotes that the key to human happiness is found outside the Bible.

In other words, the Bible may contain some good things, some good religious teachings, but the day-to-day happiness in your life is found outside that. Now, I'm not putting down books that help you organize your life, or learn how to think right, or help you be more successful.

But those secular books have limited value.

I have lots of books on management and counseling, but they're all from a biblical viewpoint.

I have books that aren't written by Christians, or if they are, I don't know if they are or not, on how to organize your time or whatever.

But I realize they have limited value, because my time must be organized primarily by my first priority, which is God, and then work off of that. So that's not going to say that in that book.

But if we're not careful, we buy into this idea that somehow society offers us all the solutions to our problems. And there are some solutions out there.

But the core solution to who we are, the solutions to the most deep issues we have, is with God.

Look at James 3.

James here is talking about wisdom, which is our decision-making process.

Our decision-making process. And he takes this in a direction that still surprises me. I mean, I know he's going to say it, but it's still like, wow, he really took this real deep, real quick.

Verse 13, Who is wise in understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Okay, wisdom has to do with decision-making. He says, so if you want to show people, you want to say, oh, that's a wise person, you want to be known as a wise person, then show that you are wise, that you have understanding, that you know how to make solid, good decisions.

Now, I could lend you a book by, you know, that I have at home on how to make good decisions.

It has nothing to do with the Bible. But this isn't what he's talking about. That may be part of it. He's talking about how to make good decisions in relationship to being a child of God. That's what he's talking about.

He says, but, okay, here's going to be a problem, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. Wow! Where's he going?

It's important that you be wise and have understanding, and knows how to make wise decisions that produce good deeds, to produce good works. In other words, your decisions produce good outcomes.

But you have a real problem if you have envy and selfishness because you're in danger of lying against the truth.

You know, you read through that. If you just look at that statement, you think, where in the world is James going?

He just ran off and moved the subject someplace else.

Okay? This kind of wisdom he says next. Now, the kind of wisdom he's talking about, it's driven by envy and selfishness, and can boast and lie against the truth. It can be filled with boasting, pride, and with lying.

This wisdom does not descend from above, but it's earthly and sensual. In other words, it's the way human beings think. But the next word is, it's demonic.

In other words, there is a demonic influence to not work through life's problems in a Biblical way.

To understand what God wants us to do every day and work through our situations and make our decisions in a Biblical way.

Because if we're driven by envy and we're driven by selfishness, then that's just being a regular human being under demonic influence. He uses the word demonic here.

Well, why would he say that? Well, envy and selfishness is a core aspect of demonic character. It's who they are. So we're actually acting like them.

Let's say we're not possessed, but we live in a world where everything is influenced.

So all you have to do is see an influencer someplace in social media that says, you have to do this to be happy.

Just do this. My wife was telling me something the other day. I can't remember what it was. Someone came on and said, women had to pick all their eyebrows out or something. I forget what it was. She was telling me. And all these people did it. Now they're all unhappy they did it. It was something she saw on... because all these young people said, oh, that's what I've got to do. Why?

I don't know. That person said it would make me happy, make me attractive.

So we have this sensual earthly thing we do as human beings, which is most of us make bad decisions all the time. We try to influence others to make bad decisions. But he says there's a demonic influence here, too.

We're influenced all the time. Everybody is. So everybody's trying to get us to do something. Everybody's trying to influence us, right?

We have to look at that influence. Is it driven by envy and selfishness?

Because that is one of the ways that demons are driven. And then the next sentence says, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

He says, absolute confusion comes from making decisions based on envy and selfishness. And demons do that all the time.

Here's a doctrine of demons. How many of you ever thought of it? A decision-making doctrine, where we're driven by our emotions so that envy and selfishness drives how we make our decisions.

Now, what he says next, I'm hoping all of you do is a personal Bible study, because I'm not going to cover it today. He says, but the wisdom that is from above, okay, it's not from human beings and demons.

This is the wisdom that comes from God. This is how we make our decisions. It's pure.

That's a big study in itself right there. What does he mean by pure?

It is pure, then peaceable and gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Boy, that's two sermons right there. This is how we make our decisions, from spiritual purity, being peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, good fruits, but no partiality and no hypocrisy.

Now, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Every time I go through there, I think, I would have never thought of putting demonic in that sentence.

But James was inspired by God to put demonic in that sentence.

There's a doctrine of demons on how we make decisions.

That's because of our envy, on our own selfishness. And it ends up leading us away from where God wants us to go.

Well, I get more, but I'll stop there.

I didn't even get back to 1 Timothy, where he talks about doctrine to demons.

He talks about a doctrine to demons right there, which has to do with being asceticism.

I earn God's favor by being a vegetarian.

I earn God's favor by being a celibate and never getting married and sleeping on a bed of nails.

He said, that doesn't work. That's actually a doctrine of demons. That's not what God wants.

So, be aware that in the world you and I live in, as Christians, we are warned that to look at religion and say, there are doctrines of demons.

Paganism is the obvious one, right? It's just the obvious one, where lives are governed by all different kinds of things, instead of God.

But some are more subtle than that.

So remember, demonic doctrines are based in these core ideas.

One is changing the essential reality of who is God, changing that essential reality of who He is, as the Creator, all-righteous, inipotent, all-loving.

And those words can be changed to mean something different than what they actually are.

But, as righteous, He will not live with evil. He will not.

So He might be all-loving, but He's also all-righteous.

And that's why there has to be a sacrifice, a substitute, for us to be able to come into a relationship where they may be justified.

Because He is all-righteous and all-loving, and those things combine into a reality that is almost unbelief, what Paul called the mystery of Christ.

My son will come and die for you. I want you that much.

But if you don't accept that, you stay evil. And I will not abide with evil.

Not forever. That's God. But that essential nature of God has changed.

It changes the reality of who we are as human beings, made in the image of God to be His children, and that we now are just all pretty good, get along the best we can.

I don't know. It just reminds me of 1968 when I was a kid.

Let's all sing rock and roll and hold hands and wear bell-bottoms and have love.

It didn't produce much. A lot of broken lives didn't produce much.

But it felt, you know, everybody felt like it or were doing it.

And those of us that were watching it said, oh, wow, wouldn't that be cool to be part of that? I'm glad I wasn't.

It changes essentially the definition of good and evil.

So when God says evil becomes good, and when God says as good as it becomes evil, you can't believe the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.

God says that's good. Well, Christianity says it's evil.

God says LGBTQ is evil. Well, Christianity says it's good.

It gets essentially changed.

Also, who is Jesus Christ gets essentially changed. He's just a nice guy who taught us a lot of good.

But there really is no concept of sacrifice. There is no concept that without Him there is no salvation.

All roads lead to the same God, and they do not.

And then it destroys God's purpose for humanity.

We are to be converted into His children, and that takes His spirit in us.

It takes our devotion and giving of our lives to that process.

A hundred percent! Holding nothing back.

So that He literally makes us His children. We live as His children now, and we are changed when Christ comes back.

Those essential truths are being absolutely perverted until mainstream Christianity only had bits and pieces of that to begin with.

They're losing it. They're losing it.

And there are some of the old-time mainstream Christians who are saying, We're losing it. They know it. They see it.

They're usually scholars. We're seeing it. What in the world are the churches teaching?

And no one listens to them.

You have been called by God and given the doctrines of God.

We take them for granted, which is a great danger.

Because there are doctrines of demons. I didn't make that up.

Paul says it. And there's different places in the Bible that talk about it, but we didn't cover all of them.

There are doctrines of demons, and we're entering in a society where those doctrines are becoming the paramount—not any driving to what's driving religion, it's what's driving society.

And we will have to stand. We either have to give in to those or stand against them, because these two ways do not coexist.

One is right, and one is wrong.

And Jesus Christ was either right, or he was a madman.