Good vs. Evil: the Greatest Fight
(Sunday message for House Church and individual use: preached 11/22 – 11/28/2020)
Good morning my brothers and sisters and family and friends. We welcome you all: those who have come with a proud heart needing humbling and those who come already humbled and seeking Christ alone.
Today, we wish to speak to you about the Greatest Fight of this Century or any other Century. The Great Fight! The fight of Good against Evil! Who will win? If you were a betting man or woman, who would you bet on?
But wait? Do you even know who is fighting? Do you? or… Have you and we and all the world been confused into a fog of forgetfulness; into foolish apathy, disregard, and disdain and disrespect for something that will one day soon be brought to you, face-to-face… forever and ever and ever and ever?
This is the year 2020. Today is Thanksgiving Sunday, the Sunday before the week that our nation has set aside, and the two days especially, to give thanks. But… thanks to who? Thanks to what? Does anyone even know? Do you know? Really? Really??
Confusion reigns in our time. Why? What happened? What happened?
Would it help to list a few major points for us to review? Let us see, and let us try to sum up where things went wrong by reviewing what occurred… like this.
- Jesus came, paid for, conquered, and gave us victory over sin!
- Satan used the Judiaizers to try and bring us back under the law!
- Satan used Palagian and other heretics to slow down the Gospel’s spread.
- Satan used Constantine to halt the meteoric rise of true Christianity.
- Satan bullied, tortured, burned and martyred every Christian who tried to rise and lead God’s people back to where Christ had them at before.
- God intervened in the Protestant movement to rediscover truth.
- God intervened in the Great Awakening to spread the truth further out.
- God intervened in the Second Great Awakening to further the truth more.
- Satan, all along, through misdirection (a.k.a. “attention management”) tried to halt the truth and/or muddy it through, for example…
- Constantine, circa 350 A.D.
- Islam (Muhammed), circa 600 A.D.
- Medieval Catholicism & the Dark Ages, circa 1000 A.D.
- Deism (John Locke), circa 1700 A.D.
- Then, with the end approaching, he amped up the attack with…
- Decisionism (Charles G. Finney), circa 1820 A.D.
- Mormonism (Joseph Smith), circa 1830 A.D.
- Baháʼí Faith ( the Báb), circa 1850 A.D.
- Evolution (Charles Darwin), circa 1860 A.D.
- Jehovah’s Witness (Charles Taze Russell), circa 1870 A.D.
- Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy), circa 1880 A.D.
- Theosophy (Helena Blavatsky), circa 1880 A.D.
- Scientology (L. Ron Hubbard), circa 1950 A.D.
- Satanism (Anton LaVey), circa 1960 A.D.
- Muslim infiltration into the U.S., aggressively and systematically since the day that 2,977 Americans were killed on September 11, 2001 (a.k.a. “9/11”)
So… as we slip from one card deck to the other – right before your eyes – let us rephrase the question that we asked earlier, and let us ask it again. What is true, and what is a lie? What is really right, and what is really wrong? And since we’re asking questions, let us ask one more. How do you win a fight when you’re outnumbered and outgunned?
The Deceiver says he knows. Yes, the Devil (who, after all, only managed to get just one-third of the angels to follow him), yes, the Devil, Satan, Lucifer along with (what the Bible calls) the “principalities and “powers” sent by him) have been winning against you in every single battle that you have fought without Christ and without “the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.”
Yes, the trickster, the magician, he knows how he has been winning against you and the rest of mankind for all of these years; all of these hundreds and thousands of years. What does he do? He lies. He steals. He cheats. He makes the greatest use of things that are not really there. He makes a fool of you, and leads you down a path of misdirection and fear.
Misdirection. Misdirection would not be missed if you knew what it was. And yet, it still is not missed because you don’t even know that it is there. An article from MasterClass.com says this.
“How Is Misdirection Used in Magic? Magicians use misdirection, or attention management, as a means of concealing the mechanics of their tricks. They can do this because the human brain naturally processes information in ways that allow it to be influenced to see certain things but not others.
“Magicians learned misdirection through basic trial and error. This happened slowly, over centuries. . . .
“It boils down to this: when a person is not focused specifically on something, they will not notice it. Even as their eyes receive visual input, their brain focuses only on what it considers to be important, the “spotlight of attention,” filtering out the rest. This phenomena, known as inattentional blindness, prevents the enormous amount of information that is constantly bombarding the brain from overwhelming it. In everyday life, this process helps people concentrate and do things like drive safely – without every single thing they see muddying up their thought process.
“In the context of illusions, magicians take advantage of inattentional blindness. They do this to make certain that [you see] only what they want [you to see] at all times. By focusing [your] attention on an object, person, or action, [you] will not process other . . . input [brought to you by your senses], including [and especially] the [deceiving] magician’s method.
“[Here then briefly summarized are seven] types of misdirection techniques that magicians use, both in isolation and in combination, to [control your] attention:
- “Social cues.” – This is the method of distracting an audience’s attention away from the truth.
- “Multitasking/splitting focus.” – Dividing a person’s attention, so that they do not notice the deception.
- “Patter.” – Overwhelming you with false information to reduce your ability to focus on what is real.
- “Emotional manipulation.” – Emotional responses (laughter, anger, horror, etc.) causes you to “lose focus momentarily, giving the magician a beat to perform a hidden act.”
- “Time misdirection.” – Time is purposely allowed to pass in order to make you forget the most important details of what is occurring right in front of you.
- “Convincers.” – The actions that a deceiver makes to get you to rule out the deceptive way that you are being tricked.
- “Repetition.” – Tricking you about the same thing but in a different way to seal you into the lie. (“What Is Misdirection in Magic? Learn About Types of Misdirection Used in Magic and 5 Tips for Using Misdirection.” MasterClass, 2020 Master Class, 8 Nov. 2020, https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-misdirection-in-magic-learn-about-types-of-misdirection-used-in-magic-and-5-tips-for-using-misdirection#how-is-misdirection-used-in-magic. Accessed 20 Nov. 2020.)
Yes! Yes, in our world today, you have been deceived. The world around you is curled up in great confusion… but… it is a stated fact that that confusion was not sent by God. The Bible says,
“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33)
Ah, yes!
- “God is not the author of confusion.”
- “God is . . . the author of . . . peace.”
But again… what happened? What is true? What is truth, if it ever existed at all? And if it ever did then – what happened?
Pilate, the mighty rich and powerful Roman-appointed governor of Jerusalem once looked into the eyes of the beaten bloodied tortured and nearly-whipped-to-death Savior of the World, and asked this question. “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
- Question: Why didn’t Jesus answer him?
- Answer: Because he, Pilate, had the answer in front of him. Because he was staring truth in the eye. Because Jesus is the truth! As he himself declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
So what about the fight? Right? When you came here, you saw the title of today’s message: “Good vs. Evil: the Greatest Fight”, right? So where, you should be asking, is this big fight! Let’s get it on! Let’s see the fight and let’s see who wins!
You got it. Here it is.
Ezekiel 28:12b-19:
“This is what the Lord God says:
‘You had the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The ruby, the topaz and the diamond;
The beryl, the onyx and the jasper;
The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald;
And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets,
Was in you.
On the day that you were created
They were prepared.
You were the anointed cherub who covers,
And I placed you there.
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
You were blameless in your ways
From the day you were created
Until unrighteousness was found in you.
By the abundance of your trade
You were internally filled with violence,
And you sinned;
Therefore I have cast you as profane
From the mountain of God.
And I have destroyed you, you covering cherub,
From the midst of the stones of fire.
Your heart was haughty because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.
I threw you to the ground;
I put you before kings,
That they may see you.
By the multitude of your wrongdoings,
In the unrighteousness of your trade
You profaned your sanctuaries.
Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you;
It has consumed you,
And I have turned you to ashes on the earth
In the eyes of all who see you.
All who know you among the peoples
Are appalled at you;
You have become terrified
And you will cease to be forever.”
He lost! Look at that! The Devil is a liar who lost. He will lose in the end.
But… actually, he lost already on Calvary!
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
OUTLINE:
Good vs. Evil: the Greatest Fight
(A Message to the Multitudes)
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
Jesus (John 14:6) vs. Satan (Ezekiel 28:12b-19) = Jesus wins… always!
WORSHIP:
Opening:
- 11:55 a.m.: Jesus Is Love
- 12:00 p.m.: Cleanse Me
Worship:
Message:
Jesus is the Answer w/lyrics – Michael W Smith
+ + + + + + +
Thanksgiving Song – Mary Chapin Carpenter
Cinematic Presentation: