The World Is Not What It Seems to Be

When you travel to Europe, you must see the nation of Germany in order to really understand Europe. Many other countries in Europe, but I feel, in my personal opinion, you should see Germany if you want to really understand Europe. If you ever go to Germany, you must go to the capital of Germany, Berlin. If you really want to understand Germany, Germany is more than just beer and fast cars and beautiful forests.

Berlin is the capital of Germany. It is the city that was divided after the end of World War II, and for many years east and west was the city, and came to symbolize so much about the whole problem in that area. But you must go to Berlin if you want to understand Germany. When you're in Berlin, you must go to one location, in my opinion, a museum called the Pergamon Museum.

In the Pergamon Museum, there is a great altar that was moved there from Asia, from modern Turkey, from the city of Pergamos, the ancient city of Pergamos. Years ago, you may recall that I showed you some slides of that particular altar. It is a huge monumental altar that sets in a room probably three times the size of this room here, and it dominates that room.

It is a huge altar, and steps, and reconstruction, but the original parts of it that are there are interesting. And you must go and see that great altar of Zeus in the Pergamon Museum if you want to understand something. Here on that monumental altar is a relief and images carved into the rock, into the stone, of giant figures of gods, goddesses, and men. Giant figures, Apollo, and Athena, and Zeus, and other individuals, gods, demigods, and mortals, all through that. And you just walk by and you look at them all engaged in combat. They're sticking spheres into one another. They're tangled in and amongst one another.

They're riding a chariot, and there's suns, and there is death, and there are people prostrate, there are people plunging spears into others, there are swords. It is a scene of incredible conflict and chaos. And intertwined through all of these figures of people and gods are serpents and lions' heads in various forms and shapes.

Lions also being speared, serpents entwined around people's legs with their mouths open. And it's some of the most grotesque depictions that you could ever imagine. And it's this huge, huge display, and it was an altar to Zeus in this ancient city of Pergamos. And it's called the Altar of Zeus, and it occupies this huge room. It, to me, is one of the most astounding things I have ever seen in any museum because of what it tells us and what it represents. Chaos and confusion.

I say one must see that altar in the Pergamos Museum in Berlin, in Germany, in Europe. One must see that altar if you're going to understand the world in the way that it is. Turn over to Revelation 2. This is why this altar is so significant. I would have brought in some of the slides to show you today, but we didn't really have the time to set it all up and do that, so I'll just have to paint the picture for you. But in chapter 2 of Revelation, verse 12, where it's the message to the church of Pergamos, where this altar anciently stood, and where the members to whom this letter was written would have walked by, coming and going in their daily life, and was a landmark within their city, Christ says, these things says, he who has the sharp two-edged sword, I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.

You hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith. I think, as many others who read this and put the two together, that what Christ was saying through John was that in Pergamos, where Satan's throne is, you have a perfect representation of what that throne is when you look upon this particular altar, as it is called, of Zeus in this museum today.

And you see all of these depictions of battle, of chaos, of struggle between gods and men, and for control. Really, it is a depiction of a struggle for the control of the world. And that is where you begin to understand this world as it is, where Satan's seat is, and from that particular point of view. Now, when Jesus inspired this in Revelation to John at the end of the first century, he should, he knew what he was speaking about. Because Christ had said at one point in Luke chapter 10 verse 18, he said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. He knew and was there.

He had seen this great struggle. I think that that freeze on this altar depicts a struggle that did actually occur. It's not just mythology out of the Greek and Roman and ancient world. I think that what you see when you view that altar and this struggle between gods and men, with reptiles and lions all as a part of it, I think you are seeing a depiction of a great titanic struggle that occurred. And Jesus knew what he was talking about. And that's why that is so, so important. Because he understood. He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. In Isaiah chapter 14, we get a little bit of this prehistory in various locations in the Bible to help us understand the world as it is.

Here we have in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 12, the prophet, in a sense, going off into a subject that maybe he himself didn't fully understand. But under God's inspiration, as it was penned, we have an insight into the struggle and the fall. Verse 12, it says, How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?

How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations, for you have set in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also set on the mount of the congregation, on the farther sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High, yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, or to Hell, to the lowest depths of the pit. And so here in a few verses is described again a time of struggle.

An attempt by Lucifer, before being called Satan, as powerful archangel, attempting to, in a sense, to replace God, to ascend to the heaven. Meaning, really, to take the place of God, and being cast back down. Ezekiel 28 mentions this in another light, and we'll save that for a little bit later in the sermon here. But here we are in the day of atonement. This day when we fast and we focus our mind upon a very, very significant reality of this world, and that is the way the world is.

The way that the world really does operate. This day, as we observe it, every year reminds us who the true God of this world is at this present time. And why and how the world functions with the evil, the suffering, the chaos, the war, the greed, the problems, the unsolvable cultural and social situations that we see. And it answers the question of why. And we have to understand that. To do that, we have to keep the day of atonement.

You don't have to go to Berlin to see that, but if you do, this is what you would see. In a visual depiction, a scene that helps us to understand why this world is the way that it is. Revelation 12. We're given just, again, a bit of an insight into this.

In Revelation 12, this whole chapter is a very large overview of the church, the birth of Christ. And in verse 7, we have a description of a period of time that is yet ahead of us, and yet it is written in such a way that it helps us to understand what happened in the past.

That's one of the beauties of this particular chapter of Revelation, is that it helps us to understand the past as well as the future, because it does say that war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels, righteous archangel of God, fought with the dragon, which is the subject of this whole chapter, and the dragon and his angels fought. Again, when you see such a depiction in such a stark manner, as you do on the altar of Zeus, you begin to see how this was, in a sense, translated into the mythology.

And they go through various changes, because the stories behind the altar, the images on the altar of Zeus, are the Greek gods and goddesses. And their struggle with men, in some giant type of men, in some pre-world conflict that took place. And that's part of the whole myth, as they have been brought into our understanding in this age. But I think that it's really a human effort inspired by Satan to depict what took place. And these snatches of vignettes that we have throughout the Scripture, of a spiritual war that took place at a level in prehistory that ended the way that it did.

And we find that the dragon warring with Michael and his angels, and they did not prevail, verse 8, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. They were removed from the presence of God. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Satan turns it all around in all the various mythologies of the world.

And yet the Scriptures give us complete understanding of questions that we cannot otherwise understand. Satan deceives the world. And here we find a struggle that is depicted to us, that is a struggle that took place at a point in time in the past.

John here tells a story of a very powerful spiritual influence that causes chaos, evil, accusation, and death. In verse 11, when it speaks to the church, it says, they overcame him, the devil, by the blood of the land, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Satan's great efforts in attack, as this chapter brings out, is upon the church of God, the people of God, from the time of the birth of Christ, and actually before, but the story in verse 1 begins with the birth of Christ, all the way through to the very time of the end in verse 17. It's a compact chapter with a lot of information, but it helps us to understand what took place and to understand our world today. And it's so important about why we keep the day of atonement, because atonement celebrates the solution to this problem. Atonement gives us the answers.

I've always said that when we look at the world today, the problems that we deal with, the war, the suffering, the sickness, the death, the evil, it's a perfect proof that the holy days of God are intact, still meaningful, still viable, still to be observed, because the kingdom of God is not here. We do not yet have peace. There's a certain spiritual victory that has been achieved through Christ's death, but that has not been applied to the entire world. It has only been applied to individuals who have been called to the church, to the elect, down through the ages, since the time of the first century. And the church and individuals who have been called by God and have chosen to accept that call and have endured and been faithful in that call, they have this, their eyes open. They have, in a sense, this victory. But the whole world doesn't.

The kingdom of God has, in a sense, come to those that have received God's Spirit, in the sense that we are, we have a relationship with God. We understand that kingdom, and we have the protection of God, and we have the assurance of salvation, but it has not yet come in its fullness. We're not spirit beings, and it certainly has not come on the world. And we have to stop and be reminded of that on the day of atonement. Our fasting shows how powerless we are to ever make this happen.

When we are reminded of our humanity, when we fast on the day of atonement, and at any other time in our through the year, this reminds us. We get a little bit more sober. Things a little quieter when you walk into services on the day of atonement. We're not, the buzz of fellowship is just not there.

Coffee pot's not going, and the donuts are not giving us a little burst of energy.

And we're all just a little bit quieter physically, and hopefully we're a little quieter spiritually, and that we can tune in and listen to hear and hear what God really is telling us. And maybe as we kind of wind ourselves down and we are chasing the bit through the fasting process, it helps us to see the reality of this world and this life, which I think is what God wants us to do. The world goes about their life today, and people who've come and gone among us once a part of the church that have forgotten what this day means.

You know, we were talking with some former members last night at the visitation, and had to, you know, it's normal for us to talk about the day of atonement, and it just kind of floats over people's minds anymore. The world goes on that way, and so easy to forget what you once knew. But this day tells us that there is an essential step that is yet to occur in the plan of God before the millennium, and the kingdom comes in its fullness before Christ's return.

And we show our powerlessness to make this happen when we fast today. You know, I did a program for Beyond Today on the millennium recently, and in it we talked about the folly of human efforts to try to bring about utopia through government, through religion, through social movements, through history. The folly of people who've tried to bring about utopias, whether they created a little town, and everybody was trying to live by a certain social code and conduct that eventually failed to create utopia, or, you know, something as large as what, you know, some megalomaniac dictator has tried in history to impose their particular form of political will upon a great, upon a whole people. They all fail. The kingdom of God and the conditions of peace will not come without Christ coming. And yet the world goes on trying in some way through socialism, through Nazism, through communism, through democracy, through whatever it might be, and they have their limits and their limitations. And I was thinking about it this week, and I thought, you know, if we're not very careful, we sometimes think that we're to do that within the church. And we make our efforts, and we do our efforts work to, as we rightly should, to prepare a people. But throughout the 60-plus years of our Church of God experience, we've had colleges, high schools, elementary schools, camps, Sabbath schools, church services, congregations, programs of all sorts, shapes, and all good, all having had their benefit. And they've come and gone. They've come and gone, and people have come and gone through them to varying degrees. And I don't want to get too far off in all of that, but we were on a visit the other night, and we were talking about training our children, passing on the truth to our children. And in the course of the conversation, a little bit of the frustration of, you know, how difficult that is to fight against the culture, the poles of this world. And you look back at what we have endeavored to do, and it's not that it wasn't right, or wasn't good, or that it doesn't work, because it does work. Many of us are living proof that it does. But in the end, we're not going to do it all ourselves. We're not going to create a utopia, whether in California, Texas, or England, or Fort Wayne, or Northern Minnesota, or wherever we set our hand. We're going to do our best at that moment in time with what God has given us, and the people, and the places, and we'll do our best. But there is always going to be human events, human nature, a great spiritual war. And the answer is that we're engaged in a spiritual battle. Why did a college close? Why does a church break up?

Why do people leave the faith? Why do people of faith break off into other faiths?

Because we're in a spiritual battle. And that's why I say you have to go to Europe, into a nation, into a city, into a museum, and stand and look at an altar. If you want to understand why this world is the way that it is. And then again, you don't have to, because we're keeping the day of atonement. And if we really do get the message of the day of atonement, then we'll understand it without ever having flown a mile. And that is we are in a major spiritual battle every single day until Jesus Christ sets foot on this earth, and until this day takes place.

And Satan is bound, and people's eyes are lifted. And the veil is lifted from their eyes.

We have the scriptures that show us that Satan is the God of this world. Second Corinthians chapter 4.

Verse 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. The God of this age has blinded the minds of believers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. That sums it up. But we forget it just at times and think only that it applies to the world. Rather, don't ever make that mistake.

This applies to the world, to this age, but we still live in this world and in this age.

And we can become blinded. We could let avail because we become indifferent, or through sin, we could become blinded to a degree and not see the full glory of the gospel and its impact in our life. Satan in Ephesians 2 is called a prince of the power of the air.

He has a dominion. This world in chaos is his world. This world that is out of control and full of evil is his world. That's easy for us to blame everything that happens on Satan.

I do think Satan does have his fair share, but he's set up quite a mechanism.

And when we don't, you know, when we get negligent, we get indifferent, or just human beings, not just us being the church, but human beings, look, there's enough that we have responsibility for within this overall world to create some of the problems that we have. But that's another subject. Paul said in Ephesians 6 that we'd wrestle not against flesh and blood.

A reminder that our real enemy that we struggle against is it's a spiritual struggle.

And we have to get up every morning understanding that, not out of fear, but out of courage, not out of reticence, but with understanding that we have the help of God's Spirit, that those who are understanding, understand the source of evil in this world, and know the source of power to help. That's the world we live in. That is the relationship that we have. That's where we are when we come to this period, to this time of the day of atonement.

In the Passover, in the spring of the year, we focus upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And the Passover begins the whole story of the plan of God that begins to unfold with the holy days.

The Passover becomes very, very personal. And it is the way that it is set up as we are to examine ourselves. As we take up our cross, if you will, as it says, and we take the bread and the wine, we humbly wash each other's feet, it's all very, very personal, which is as it should be, as we focus upon Christ's sacrifice for us to wash our sins away and to establish us.

And we come to the day of atonement, and the symbols of the day of atonement with the the goats and the lambs back in Leviticus 16 are parts of the symbols of the offerings that also apply to Jesus Christ.

And it's all too easy for some to draw a wrong conclusion that you don't need to observe the day of atonement because you keep the Passover. And that wraps it all up. Well, you do on atonement focus upon the blood of Christ, the atonement sacrifice of Christ and his position as High Priest, but you also focus upon this element of the fact that there was another goat in that story, and the fact that there is an unseen spiritual power in this world. So you focus on that as well, and you can't forget about it. Because if you do, then you fall back into the trap of deception.

So what you come to is that today of atonement and all of its meaning really lifts that sacrifice of Christ to the reality that it is for the entire world, not just one individual. It is for everyone at all time. And it represents the power, the triumphant victory of Jesus Christ over the powers of darkness, the kingdom of darkness over the God of this world, and the fact that on that day, on that event, the day of atonement, his influence will be finally removed from off the face of the earth. Let's go ahead and turn to Revelation chapter 20. Back into this book because the beauty of the book of Revelation is it shows us.

Verse 1, I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who was the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were finished.

But after these things he will be released for a little while. In the story flow of the book, this comes after chapter 19 with the return of Jesus Christ. And then we come to this event here of the first three verses in chapter 20 where Satan is bound. And all the imagery that Revelation 12 talks about, what Jesus referred to back in Luke, where he said, I saw Satan fall from heaven.

And this power is once again bound up, and he's removed. I was staying at the home of Johnny and Hazel Lambert up in Elmira, New York last week, and Elder up there, and the pastor.

And they have a number of paintings on their walls, and one of them depicts this Day of Atonement scene that we just read. There's a member of the church in Poughkeepsie, New York, who has drawn paintings of each of the holy days and his visualization of those days.

And just outside of our bedroom in his basement was this one on the Day of Atonement. And what it is is this whole group of people who are kind of looking up. And just off to the bottom left-hand corner of the painting is this big pit. And you see this hand kind of grasping out, and you see chains. And everyone's eyes are kind of wide open. And so what it is is a depiction of the Day of Atonement where the deception is removed and people are looking up to God. The veil of deception has been removed, their eyes are open, and the pit is right there. He's done all the other, I think he's done all the other holy days. I've seen several of them, one or two of them, hang down in the home office and some of the offices down there. But Johnny had a print of one of these. And it was a very interesting depiction. It showed it exactly as to what this what this is and what will take place. And it is what this Day of Atonement is all about for the world, when the deception will be removed. And people will begin to understand the fullness of the plan of God. They will be able then to accept the sacrifice of Christ in their personal lives and then prepare as a people to live and to reign with Christ during this period of time and the remaining years of the millennium for them and for ever an eternity in the Kingdom of God.

And that's what this Day begins to open up to us and the truths that become so wonderful.

In Hebrews 9, Hebrews 9 is really a description of what took place on the Day of Atonement under the Old Covenant in the time of the tabernacle. Let's just look at it here briefly.

It tells us that there was an earthly sanctuary in verse 1 in a tabernacle with all the table and showbread and various veils and inside behind that was the area called the holiest of all, where there was a censer in the Ark of the Covenant, a golden pot with manna, and above it was a caribbean of glory. This was a symbol of God's actual seat within the temple in that very holy of holies. And this was the depiction on earth in this altar, as opposed to the altar of Zeus. This was a different type of depiction. You have the law of God. You had the manna, which symbolizes the very bread of life. You had the powerful caribbean who were not bent on evil and twisted destruction, but were bent on the glory of God as part of this scene. It's a completely different scene. And he goes on to tell us that the priests did their part throughout the first part of the tabernacle performing services, but in verse 7 into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins, committed in ignorance. This is the description of what was done on the day of atonement. The Holy Spirit indicating that this was this way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices were offered. Verse 11, the Christ came as high priest of the good things to come. Verse 12, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Christ's sacrifice accomplished and fulfilled what the priest was to have done in that time. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God and cleans your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? So here is a description of Christ's role as our high priest.

Verse 23 says, it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for us. Not that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another on the day of atonement, he then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once, at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And that's the role that Christ has for us today.

To that end, the day of atonement has been fulfilled. And it pictures, in a sense, where we stand today. We have Jesus Christ as our high priest operating with power for us, and we are to be cleansed from dead works to serve the living God.

This is where we stand today. Atonement pictures the final barrier between man and God being removed. We fast to understand humility and our desire to draw close to God, to have that barrier continue to be removed even further and to be kept from us. And we also understand that it will one day be applied to the whole world, that it hasn't yet happened.

So it's a wonderful day, full of so much symbolism. There are several things that I would like to leave you with on this day of atonement. I didn't want to speak in both congregations on the day of atonement. It's become, for me, almost, believe it or not, my favorite holy day. I know. I don't like to fast. But I understand the value of fasting. But over the years, this has become kind of my favorite. So I wanted to speak to both congregations on this day here, my last holy day with you. I'd like to leave you with a few thoughts regarding this day as we come to the conclusion of this sermon, keeping in mind that it's important we understand how this world works and the spiritual warfare that is ongoing. In my mind's eye, when I see the images of that altar that I saw one day, it really brings it all together. It's a reminder visually of what this of what is behind this world and really what makes it work. Because our world is not really what it seems. We see the physical. We see people and presidents and kings and things and stuff and beauty and leaves and the sun and the air and people and our lives and our marriages and our children and you and I. And that's not all there is to this world. There is another dimension, a spiritual dimension, and this day should bring us to that point. And we should keep that very, very clear in our minds. You remember those two goats back in Leviticus 16? You all know the two goats that were brought on the Day of Atonement? Nod your heads or shake your heads if you can. Everybody knows there were two goats. Okay, we're not going to turn back there today.

But you know in the story that lots had to be cast over those two goats to determine which one would be the Lord's and which one would be the Azazel and led away by the fit man into the wilderness to typify the scene we just read in Revelation 20 of an angel coming down and grabbing Satan by his neck and throwing him into the bottomless pit. That goat that was led away by the fit man into the wilderness and not killed symbolizes Satan. The one that was killed symbolizes Christ. But they were two identical goats in the story. How did you tell the difference between the two? The only way the priest knew was because he cast lots and God made the determination.

The only way deception, the deception of Satan is removed is when God shows us.

When God shows us. The only way we will see evil, the only way we will see the evil of this world and in this life and in whatever shape and form it comes into our life is when God removes the veil.

Spiritually, on the large scale of the truth of God, even individually, the Church of God should never forget, you and I, that only God can determine what is righteous, what is unrighteous by His law, by His standards. Only God could show which goat was to stand for Christ and which goat was to stand for the deceiver. You know, it's a matter of the Spirit. God shows. But when He shows, we have a choice to make. Today, the deception is so refined. We think, well, we're in the Church.

We're all brothers and sisters, or we all have God's Spirit, or we're called and we're protected in one sense, in all of which one sense is true at one level, but there's still discernment that must be made. Remember, in Matthew 24, Jesus said of a time of deception to come before the end of the age, He said that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. We cannot ever let lies, untruths, cloud our hearts and minds and deceive us. Don't ever let that happen. Don't give party to a lie, whether it's spiritual lies about doctrine, the Bible, God. Don't let lies come into your life. Don't give place to the devil, it says. Don't give place to the devil's lies.

And any lie uttered in or out of God's church, around this world, in any place, any lie, wherever it exists, is of Satan. But sometimes only God can help us discern that, and the standard of God's word is what is important to that. Never be ignorant of Satan's devices. Never be ignorant of his devices. Paul warns us that in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 10. And there are many devices. Unforgiving spirits, attitudes and hearts, accusations, sin, lust, greed.

Over the recent years, we've seen Satan's onslaught upon the people of God.

We've seen the sheep scattered, shepherds tested. Many have held to the faith. We all look, I think, to the future aware that we are in a major spiritual battle in the church of God. The people of God will fight that all the way up until the time of the end. And even those who are the remnant of the seed, Revelation 12, 17 tells us, will be pursued by Satan, those who keep the commandments of God in the testimony of Jesus. And so the struggle goes on.

And we live in a world that's rapidly changing before our eyes, an economic crisis that threatens to change, really, the whole world. I think that today's economic crisis will be solved. I think the world is going to go on and see another rise of wealth and global affluence. I think prophecy shows that. The conditions that we'll bring that about will be those conditions that we also see prophesied that will lead to a time of even greater deception upon the world. And the people of God will have to be ever more vigilant and careful, because in one sense the greatest period of global wealth, I think, is yet ahead for this world. But the conditions that will preserve it and protect it from a complete collapse will lead to the events we see in Revelation 17. We have to be very, very vigilant.

We have to be alert. In 1 John 5, my last point, verse 18, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. He who keeps himself, verse 18, from the wicked one does not touch him. In one sense, the solution is not a college, a high school, an elementary school, a Bible study program, or whatever other program you come up with. The solution lies with each of us and the decisions we make and how we use all of those other tools that will be given to us at any given time in our life. Some of us who sat here went through Ambassador College, Ambassador University.

Had that opportunity, it's gone. Some now go to Ambassador Bible Center, a little smaller scale.

We've had all the other programs. I just mentioned to say that they've come and gone. What have we done with them? What have you done with them? What will you do with what will we do with the moment that is in front of us now? The instruction, however it comes, in a sermon, in a magazine, in a booklet, in a taped sermon, seminar, what will we do when it comes? Will we keep ourselves with God's help, but will we make the right choice is my point? That's what it all comes down to.

You cannot rely on a program. You cannot rely on another person. You can only rely on God and on Jesus Christ. And each one of us, you and I, have the freedom given by God to choose.

And what John says here is that he who is born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him. At the end of the day, we all have the same choices and it's up to us to live righteously, to obey God, to resist the culture, to resist this world.

In the end, it's all up to us to understand how this world really does operate.

It does not operate the way we think. There's a scene near the end of the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Lion on the Skerik Row, come into the throne room of the great and wonderful Oz, and total the dog tugs at the curtain over on the side.

And they find out that there's a man back there pulling all the levers.

And the great and powerful Oz says, pay no attention to that man.

Well, I guess I could say, don't pay any, pay no attention to this world the way you think that it is. Understand that it operates at a spiritual level far different than anything we can imagine.

And we need to keep that in mind, because Jesus Christ has overcome all of those powers.

That's the beauty. That's the point. If I can turn to one final scripture in Colossians.

Colossians chapter 2.

At the end of chapter 14, and speaking of Christ, he has taken it out of the way, and having nailed it to the cross, marked sins in our trespasses, verse 15, having disarmed the principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Christ triumphed over the powers and the principalities of this world, these spiritual powers of darkness. He's triumphed over that.

Then one day the world will see that and come to understand it in all of its fullness.

That is our hope as we do our battle today and as we go on with our life. Let's not forget the key meaning of this day. The world is not what it seems to be. And when we understand it, we understand that we have the victory in Jesus Christ.