Satan: He Feeds Our Fallenness

[0:00] The title of the message this morning is Satan, He Feeds Our Fallenness. I would like you to please turn to the book of Psalms, to Psalm number 74.

[0:17] And in Psalm 74, we'll be looking at the latter half of the psalm, and this will be verses 18 through 23.

[0:36] Remember this, O Lord, that the enemy has reviled, and a foolish people has spurned your name.

[0:51] Do not deliver the soul of your turtle dove to the wild beast. Do not forget the life of your afflicted forever.

[1:01] Consider the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. Let not the oppressed return dishonored.

[1:16] Let the afflicted and needy praise your name. Arise, O God, and plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man reproaches you all day long.

[1:32] Do not forget the voice of your adversaries, the uproar of those who rise against you, which ascends continually.

[1:44] From the time the psalmist penned those words, probably a thousand years before Jesus Christ was born, we still have the same element of people that he was talking about, even with us today.

[2:07] They are those who revile the name of God, who spurn the name of God. And we call these the secularists, those who would deny the reality of an ultimate being.

[2:20] And the plea of the psalmist is that God would deliver the godly from that kind of oppression. It existed then, and it has existed from the time even to the present.

[2:33] And when he uses that phrase, do not deliver the soul of thy turtle dove to the wild beast, we wonder, what is that all about? Well, that's purely a cultural thing.

[2:45] And a turtle dove, the expression of a turtle dove was the kind of term of affection that a man might use in addressing his wife or a lover, his sweetheart.

[2:59] We probably wouldn't call our intended today a turtle dove. She might not consider that flattery at all. She might not know how to take it anyway.

[3:13] But it was a term then, it was a term of endearment. And the psalmist is speaking from the standpoint of the people of Israel being the bride or the wife of Jehovah, the God of Israel.

[3:29] And all of this is taken into consideration. And when he says, remember the covenant, he is calling upon God to remember the specific covenant that he made with his people, the nation of Israel, how that he would protect them and look out for them, how that he would be a husband to them and they would be like a wife to him.

[3:50] And he is simply, the psalmist is simply holding God to his promise and saying, remember, you referred to us like a turtle dove. You were our husband and we are your wife.

[4:03] So all of this comes into play, of course, in accordance with the cultural aspects that we simply cannot identify with. We have frequently made reference to what is called the cosmic conflict of the ages.

[4:22] It is the ongoing battle between good and evil. Only the Bible reveals the origin, the dynamics, the goal, and the end of this battle.

[4:33] We have already seen how it is conducted and what the final outcome will be in our previous studies of prophecy. Today's session is a kind of condensed version of the entire conflict.

[4:48] Admittedly, much is missing and not covered in today's material. Primarily, I want to reveal the presence and agenda of Satan, who takes every advantage of a humanity that is already compromised by sin, corporately and personally.

[5:12] It is Satan's power, coupled with man's blindness and ignorant cooperation, that makes the world as it is.

[5:22] And again, I want to emphasize, the scriptures constitute the only place on the planet where you will find authoritative information explaining how the world got to be the way it is and why it is so and where it is going.

[5:40] You will not find that information anywhere else. We all know the final outcome because the Bible makes that clear as well. Satan will be defeated and he who is known as the destroyer himself will be destroyed.

[5:57] The good and the right will prevail simply because God will see to it. Be reminded, in ever so many ways, Satan's objective is to deceive and to destroy.

[6:14] He simply loves a high body count, however the dead bodies can be achieved. Death is his main objective, as surely as life is God's main objective.

[6:31] Our undertaking today is so very involved that we despair of anything relating to thoroughness, but must consign ourselves to great brevity with apologies for what is left unsaid.

[6:49] So with that, here we go in a rapid treatment for our 4th of July. And as has already been read from Psalm 74, verses 18 through 23, let me repeat just a portion of that from the King James Version.

[7:07] The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. Cruelty makes itself at home in the dark places of the earth.

[7:25] The dark places are not places where the sun doesn't shine. The dark places are those not penetrated by the truth and the light of God's word.

[7:38] All that is available in the dark places is fallen man's logic and warped reasoning coupled with assistance from the unseen adversary, Satan himself.

[7:54] Throughout Scripture, Old and New Testament, Satan is described in various ways, and he wears an assortment of hats, all of which are opposed to God.

[8:06] In Isaiah 14, he is Lucifer, the son of the morning. In 1 Peter 5.8, he is the adversary. Be sober, be vigilant.

[8:19] For your adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. In Revelation 12, he is referred to as Satan. In Revelation 9 and 11, he is called Apollyon, the destroyer.

[8:35] That's his main thing, is destruction. Death and destruction. Deception, death and destruction.

[8:47] That's his main business. That's what he's all about. And the reason he is all about it is because that's the only way he can get to the creator, to the almighty, is by destroying those whom God has brought into being.

[9:00] In Revelation 12 and in chapter 20, he is called the great dragon. In Genesis 3 and Revelation 12, he is referred to as the serpent.

[9:12] And in Ezekiel 28, he is called the anointed cherub that covers. Satan is the bondage maker. One of his principal tools for binding people is religion.

[9:27] The very word religion means to bind or to tie or to connect. That, of course, has a good sense in that we may be bound to and in Christ and tied to him and connected with him.

[9:46] And then, of course, there is an evil sense in which people may be bound and tied to something completely other than God. Christ is the bondage breaker.

[9:58] This is part of what was meant when he said, If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. And he sets us free from sin and its penalty. When Satan appeared to Eve in the garden in Genesis 3, Eve and Satan were not in sync.

[10:18] They were not on the same wavelength. Eve was in a state of innocence while Satan had already forfeited his innocence. His goal was to bring Adam and Eve down to his level so they would be manageable and more susceptible to his influence.

[10:39] In morally contaminating Adam and Eve, he contaminated all their progeny or offspring, including you and me.

[10:52] Only one person escaped this contamination of sin, and he did so via the virgin conception. How does Satan get to us?

[11:05] He knows our weaknesses. He knows we like wealth. So he appeals to our tendency to larceny. And I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but it came home to me anew one time when I was fussing with something with a computer.

[11:21] And it was just so doggone irritating. It was password this, password this. And I got to think, what's all this stupid business about passwords anyway? Why do you have to have a password into this and a password into that?

[11:34] You know why you need all these passwords? It's because people are so honest. Now think of that. If everybody was just honest, just minded their own business, weren't interested in being nosy or stealing something from somebody else, you wouldn't even need a password for anything.

[11:57] You wouldn't need a password. You wouldn't even need keys for your car. Nobody's going to steal. Where did I put those keys? Nobody's going to steal your car.

[12:07] You don't even have to lock your door. Nobody's going to steal anything. Nobody's going to break in. You've seen these bank vaults that are about this thick and stand about six feet high and they weigh how many tons and it takes two people to close one?

[12:23] Think of all the money, the depositors' money they spend on those. You wouldn't need it. What do you need a bank vault for? Nobody's going to steal anything. But we all know that's not the real world.

[12:35] That's not the real world. He knows that we like recognition. So Satan appeals to our vanity and pride.

[12:48] He knows we really like sex. So he proliferates the planet with pornography. He knows we like feelings of euphoria.

[13:02] So he makes drugs and opiates super available along with alcohol and all these other things. Because listen, Satan has our number.

[13:17] He knows what makes us tick. He knows our vulnerabilities. He knows how to appeal to them. He is the consummate pro at this.

[13:30] Unmatched by anyone else. He knows we like competition and contests. So he saturates the scene with entertainment of any and every kind and all kinds of athleticism that sweeps us up in the moment and in the excitement of it.

[13:50] I'll never forget what Omar Swartzenberger, dear brother, who's now with the Lord, said many, many years ago about the whole entertainment industry, athletic sports, the whole nine yards.

[14:01] He said, Brother Marv, sometimes I think the devil just uses those things to keep people distracted and prevent them from thinking about what really matters.

[14:16] And you stop and think. There is so much in this world that distracts, that grabs our attention.

[14:27] I mean, it's everywhere. Keep them preoccupied. Those who are being duped daily by satanic or demonic influence have no idea, no idea whatever, that they are being used by the adversary like pawns in a game of chess.

[14:48] Satan and his demonic henchmen have their fingers in every pie if it begets confusion, death, and destruction.

[15:00] He is the arch deceiver and destroyer, and he is very careful, very careful to keep himself from openly being known.

[15:12] Can you imagine what would happen if the devil were truly revealed and authoritatively exposed? Well, everybody would be on their toes. Everybody would be alerted.

[15:24] Everybody would see a demon behind every bush. But he is so good at what he does, he has many, many people believing he does not even exist.

[15:36] Yet, let us be aware that Satan and his demons are not wholly responsible for the evil and mayhem in the world.

[15:49] But they do instigate, coerce, and inflame men to do evil. Who was it, the black comedian years ago that had this routine?

[16:02] It was, the devil made me do it. Remember that? Everything was the blame. Who was it? Yeah, Flip Wilson. Flip Wilson. Everything was, the devil made me do it. The devil made me do it.

[16:14] Well, I don't have any doubt that the devil coerces and instigates and causes a lot of people to do a lot of things. But truth be told, most of us really don't need that much help from his infernal majesty.

[16:27] Because of our fallenness, we're more than capable of really messing things up all by ourselves, even without his help. But he's always there to lend a hand, you may be sure.

[16:39] And he does it with relative ease, since man is already compromised by being essentially self-centered.

[16:50] And I want to spend just a moment here, because for some folks, this might be a major revelation. Maybe you've never really thought of it this way. But I am totally, totally convinced that this is a fact.

[17:05] The principal consequence, the crowning consequence of the fall of our first parents, and what was passed on to every succeeding generation with which every one of us is infected, is a self-centeredness of our being.

[17:26] We are all basically selfish, self-centered. Now, to an extent, I suspect that there is even a good element in that, because that's one thing that provides us with a sense of self-preservation.

[17:41] We do love ourselves, and there's nothing wrong with that, but you need to love yourself in the right way, not in a narcissistic way. And this self-centeredness is that which really plagues humanity.

[17:56] And Satan knows how to play that fiddle so well, because he is self-centered too. He knows how to work in concert with ours.

[18:08] And this self-centeredness is the thing that brings all of the havoc upon the world today. Our self-centered ego is at the root of nearly all of our problems.

[18:21] Our fall. Our fall. And I say our fall, because it wasn't just their fall. We fell in them. Our fall involved the impairment of the human spirit, induced by disobedience, resulting from that temptation of Satan in Genesis 3.

[18:38] And the result, not only of our self-centeredness, but the result is an impaired logic and faulty reasoning. We, in our fallenness, are unable to think straight.

[18:56] We are unable to assess and evaluate in a way that is completely accurate. Our assessments and evaluations are flawed and are partly true and partly wrong.

[19:09] If our thinking process is warped or skewed, so then are the decisions we make as a result of that faulty reasoning.

[19:21] Illogical, nonsensical, bizarre, unnatural, perverted. All are descriptions of our fallen humanity. And there is but one corrective, and it is graciously provided by God.

[19:36] And that's the revelation that the word brings from Genesis to Revelation. Proverbs 14.12 says, There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.

[19:56] And Proverbs 16.25 repeats that. Very expression. There is a way that seems right, sounds so good, looks so good, appears so logical, but it's wrong.

[20:16] Where do you get the true scoop? Only in the source that is all truth. So what this boils down to is be careful to what extent and what degree you trust yourself.

[20:33] It is a healthy thing to have a good dose of mistrust in yourself. Some would deny that because they think that you've got to be able to completely trust yourself, and after all, you've got to have confidence in you and all the rest of it.

[20:50] And I'm not denying that there is a certain place for that. But we have got to be people of that Berean mentality. Because in reality, we need to understand and know how easily we can be deceived.

[21:09] How wrong information causes us to reach wrong conclusions. And if we trust ourselves completely, because we think that's what it means to be a confident person, then you become your own standard for norms and values and everything else.

[21:29] And we've got to have that Berean mentality, which takes our feelings, our assessment, our estimation, our understanding, and check it with the authority of Scripture.

[21:42] Just like the Bereans did in Acts chapter 17, when Paul preached to them the things regarding Jesus Christ, and he preached them out of the Old Testament. The new wasn't even available. And he preached them out of the Old Testament, and he identified Christ in the Psalms, and he identified Christ in Isaiah.

[21:58] And the people are sitting there saying, I don't know about this. I've never heard this before. This is really strange stuff. Should we believe this guy or not? Let's check him out. Let's go to those references in the Bible and see what it says.

[22:11] So the Bereans were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they went to the Scriptures daily to see whether those things spoken by Paul were true.

[22:22] You need to do this about your own life, about decisions that you are prepared to make, about paths that you are about to engage upon, and you need to ask, is there anything in Scripture that supports or militates against this?

[22:38] Is there some principle that I'm violating? Because, truth be told, and this is a scary thought. I know it's true. I know it's true of me, because it's worked on me to my hurt, and that is this.

[22:52] We are able to rationalize and justify just about anything we want to do.

[23:07] And that's scary. We can somehow convince ourselves that this is okay. Well, maybe not ordinarily, but under this circumstance, because my situation is different.

[23:23] It's not like, you know, and we can cut ourselves some slack, we can justify and rationalize away just about anything we want to do. God will understand.

[23:36] Yeah, I know, I know I made those vows, love and honor and cherish and all the rest of it, but the love isn't there now.

[23:48] And God will understand. And besides, all my best friends, all of whom also happen to be divorced, tell me, why do you put up with it?

[24:03] Why do you, why do you, why do you continue living with someone like that? Why don't you just get out? And, well, that's another subject.

[24:16] Satan and his minions work in concert with humanity in our fallenness. Satan deceives and orchestrates and manipulates, and he appeals to the baser part of our being, even as he tried to appeal to Christ in the wilderness.

[24:33] And in that encounter with the Son of God, Satan was bested because Jesus did not possess a baser part to which Satan could appeal. People in positions of power and influence usually have opportunities not available to the ordinary person.

[24:51] The incidents of corruption are legion. Kings, presidents, and prime ministers have been toppled because they succumbed to one sort of temptation or another.

[25:04] And who do you think aided and abetted in that temptation? And I am here to go on record, and this is probably not going to come as any surprise because there's nothing new with me doing this or saying this because many have before me, but there are millions, there are billions, there are billions of human beings in bondage, in religious bondage.

[25:31] Islam, Hinduism, animism, Shinto, Buddhism, and Catholicism, and Protestantism have not escaped have not escaped that corruption.

[25:47] All of these are tarnished by this corruption. In the Old Testament, the only thing that was different, it was Dagon, who was the god of the Philistines, and Molech, who was the god of the Moabites, and Chemosh, who was another of the deities, and then there was Baal, the fertility god, and all of these things were nothing more than demonic-inspired, satanically controlled, duping the people, conning the people, fooling the people, deceiving the people, and multitudes perish because of it.

[26:21] Ignorance, superstition, tradition, question, what humans are exempt from satanic and demonic influence?

[26:33] None. Every one of us is fair game for the adversary. Every one of us. And we might make a distinction, and I think it's probably valid, that a true believer in Jesus Christ, who has the spirit of God dwelling within, is not going to be, is not going to be indwelt or controlled by demonic influence.

[27:02] But don't you think for a moment that there is an influence that cannot be registered. Even though we cannot be controlled because Christ is in us, that does not mean that we cannot be influenced.

[27:14] any time a human follows a path of untruth, he is in the domain of the evil one and increasingly susceptible to more influence.

[27:25] When we recognize that we are in error, and we traffic in that, and we persist in that, we continually to make ourselves more and more vulnerable to what he has to offer.

[27:37] He appeals to our weaker selves, and is thoroughly aware of what makes us tick. Satan knows how to deceive us and cause us to hurt ourselves and each other.

[27:51] And there is but one remedy, one antidote, and it is the same one that Jesus used, which was simply, it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.

[28:04] Well, so much for the satanic element. Let's look now at the human element. As we speak, there is a massive, well-funded movement that seeks to remove America from its traditional roots grounded in the Judeo-Christian system of belief and values.

[28:29] From the sanctity of life and the meaning of human personhood, the very distinction, definition of maleness and femaleness, and the definition of marriage have all been thrown into a cocked hat.

[28:47] All one need do is examine the world view of each of those promoting and funding the secular and socialist agenda, and then examine the pockets of these people.

[28:59] They are deep pockets, and they do put their money where their mouth is. Not only do they have deep pockets willing to fund their ideology, but all of their pockets were generously lined by the very American system of capitalism they claim to abhor and want to overthrow.

[29:23] Isn't that interesting? And the best way they can achieve this is by what they are doing right now. Tearing down the traditional America so as to remake it in their own image to fragment the nation.

[29:43] Fragmentation of our society is achieved by fomenting as much divisiveness as possible and creating as many different causes and complaints and grievances as possible scarcely a month goes by without another group demanding attention for a new perceived grievance which the mass media is only too willing to publicize.

[30:10] In conflict presently is the immigration issue that is being hotly contested. Now if I may I'd like to just beg your indulgence while we delve into some necessary history.

[30:25] I'll make this as brief as I can because I do want to try and have some Q&A. The United States of America has greatly benefited from the European Protestant Reformation began by Luther in the 1500s and even preceded by Wycliffe in the 1300s with translations and Bible efforts that followed even by William Tyndale and his translation work.

[30:56] The King James Version in 1611 provided enormous impetus for revival. Puritans in the 1500s and 1600s were involved.

[31:09] Our American pilgrims that landed in Plymouth Rock were Puritan in theology and practice in 1620. They were separatists in conflict over freedom of worship as imposed by the Church of England.

[31:23] These people were looked upon and were called dissenters because they dissented. They disagreed with the standard party line that the Church of England had imposed upon virtually all of England because you see when King Henry VIII was ex-communicated by the Roman Catholic Church although he insists that he quit before they ex-communicated him and they said no we ex-communicated you before you quit and that argument still went on.

[31:55] But at any rate he was no longer in the Roman Catholic Church but what he did when he left and began the Episcopal Church also known as the Church of England or the Anglican Church he brought a lot of baggage with him from the Church of Rome which is only understandable because this is what he had known.

[32:12] So these people were separatists and dissenters and that came about as a result of Henry VIII and what he did and the result of course was a watered down kind of Romanism that was brought into the Church of England and they continued to maintain their view regarding the Eucharist somewhat modified that continued to maintain the practice of infant baptism which the scriptures do not support in any way shape or form but it was tradition that was bound in the hides of these people and tradition is something that when once it is entrenched it is very very difficult to overcome.

[32:56] The early 1700s this is quite interesting early 1700s I'm talking about 1720 1730s at Oxford University in England was a small band of spiritually serious young men who formed an association a small association and their detractors and mockers called them the Holy Club because these were they who actually took their Bible and Bible reading seriously and they took prayer seriously and they took the preaching of the word seriously because you see this was at a time in England when ordination into the clergy of the Church of England had nothing whatever to do with one's spiritual convictions it was nothing more than a calling I mean you could go into the profession of law you could go into the profession of government or you could go into the profession of the ministry had nothing to do with being regenerate the questions were not even asked whether someone pursuing clergy status was a true believer that had nothing to do with it it was just purely a professional thing but these men

[34:14] George Whitefield John Wesley his brother Charles who's written hundreds of hymns that are in our hymnals today all of these were part and parcel of that holy club and God used those serious young men just a handful of them to touch off a spiritual awakening in England never before known schools and societies were found missions and sending missionaries everywhere including the newly found colonies often referred to as the new world otherwise known as the United States of America next in order was the new England awakening because the English revival had been exported to the United States George Whitefield George Whitefield made seven trips from

[35:17] England to the colonies and each time he was able to minister to thousands and thousands of people he was a personal friend of Governor William Oglethorpe who was the crown's representative and governor of Georgia at the time and they installed instituted a number of orphanages throughout Georgia because this was at a time when there were huge numbers of orphans because the death rate was so high because of disease and things like that and orphanages were much more in demand George Whitefield was a personal friend of Benjamin Franklin Whitefield lamented the fact that he was never able to lead Franklin to faith in Christ although he was a deist he just believed that there was a God out there somewhere but it was Franklin who was so fascinated by George Whitefield and the crowds that he drew and this man just had I can't imagine having heard him because he had no amplification no microphone no electronics none of that he would stand on a wagon stand in a wagon bed in an open field and preach to 20,000 people who were standing to hear him and everyone heard every word

[36:40] I cannot imagine that Franklin was so fascinated by Whitefield and the crowds that he drew and you know how Franklin was given to inventiveness and numbers and calculation and all of that he encircled the crowd that was there the huge crowd and divided the math up by how much square feet of space each person needed in order to calculate how many people were there and there were times when he calculated conservatively between 20 and 25,000 people and why did he preach in these open fields because none of the churches would open to him the churches at that time were virtually all Church of England they were state owned state sponsored state supported and they did not appreciate the message that Whitefield was preaching because it was the message of personal redemption and that was not being preached in the Church of England any more than it wasn't being preached in the

[37:42] Roman Catholic Church before from which it came and as a result multitudes of people came to faith in Christ and the New England awakening was born and it had a profound effect upon all of New England at that time and you have got to keep in mind that New England was about all that existed of the USA at that time it wasn't until much later that things spread out and moved westward they were profoundly affecting our founding fathers because this was in the 1720s 1730s 1740s you're only 20 or 25 years away from the revolution and these American founders of our democracy were men who were impacted greatly by the likes of Whitfield and Wesley and John Wesley traveled on horseback all over this country as it existed at that time and it was said that when Wesley passed away all that he left behind was a well-worn saddle a pewter mess kit a bent spoon and the

[38:53] Methodist church wow men like Washington Adams John Quincy Adams Madison were all devout believers Madison in particular was the chief architect of our constitution and those who were not true believers were sympathetic to those who were rather than hostile the nation benefited greatly from our founding in 1776 forward but a crisis was faced between 1861 and 65 with the civil war but respect for spiritual things continued or increased and following two world wars during which millions and millions do you realize that in world war ii 50 million people died and most of them were civilians 50 million people and how many millions 37 million in world war i and that is that's on both sides we're talking humanity here not just

[40:04] Germans or Americans or Japanese or Americans we're talking human beings and that's all Satan's interested in he doesn't care about Americans and Japanese and Germans no just they're just people kill them all that's his idea that's the goal carnage deceit destruction and death who do you think instigates all of these wars well of course one nation does something hostile against another and the nation retaliates yeah but who instigates who spurs that on who suggests who gives the idea who encourages how does this come about Satan knows how people think he knows the ambitions of men and what they are willing to do to get what they want and he knows how to spur it on how to activate it and then if perchance it should be discovered he knows how to lie he knows how to cover up he knows how to help people cover their tracks all of a sudden one of the world's newest nations after

[41:13] World War II actually it was after World War I we we survived World War I as one of the newest nations and we rose to prominence and worldwide recognition among all the nations of the world most of whom existed hundreds of years before the United States and they were now forced to take a backseat to the USA that was now driving the entire world do you realize how extraordinary that is that's really unusual when you stop and think of these nations that had been at this business of governance and military and all the rest of it for hundreds and hundreds of years and now they are all virtually subservient in one way or another to USA new kid on the block we just got here I mean 1776 before that we practically didn't even exist and now today in 2018 you know it's kind of hard to think in terms of there was a time when

[42:18] Spain was the world power Spain are you kidding me Spain yeah Spain and what about tiny Portugal now it's little more than a vacation spot but these were shakers and movers on the globe years ago and as quickly as we changed from war footing in the 1940s just as quickly we reverted to peacetime domestic production after the war then beginning in 1946 the baby boomers started arriving from 46 to 60 about 15 years allowed America to catch its collective breath and enjoy the fruits of peacetime until communism reared its ugly head in North Korea and even now as we speak we are revisiting

[43:20] North Korea the domino theory was in full swing remember that remember what the domino theory was after the war after the war the Soviets moved in to occupy East Germany and they held it for decades and it wasn't until Ronald Reagan was there and said Mr.

[43:47] Gorbachev tear down this wall that what was known as the Soviet Union was reduced to just Russia and before the Soviet Union was Russia and all of the satellites that it had gobbled up after the war and including Poland and had taken charge of all of them and they were all under domination and they all began peeling off as they each declared their independence and now it's not the Soviet Union anymore now it's just Russia but it's still a problem and the domino theory was why we got involved in Korea what business do we have going let the Koreans fight it out themselves why do we care about what happens in North Korea for crying out loud because when North Korea invaded the South it was the communist drive again and money was coming from red China and remember red

[44:48] China and the Soviet Union were allies they were in bed together and they were supporting that and the theory in our state department which was probably a pretty valid one is if we don't stop them there look look they've gobbled up they've gobbled up most of Europe and what came to be known as the Iron Curtain was stretched across that part of the country and all of those nations had been gobbled up by communism and the Soviet Union and it was the Red Scare and that's when our kids in school were taught to hide under their desks yeah that's going to make a big difference there's a possibility that the United States might be attacked with an atomic bomb and that was a very very viable possibility and that was 1950s 1960s 90 miles away from

[45:52] Florida some of you are old enough to remember JFK and Nikita Khrushchev and the showdown over the Cuban missile crisis because Russia the Soviet Union had moved into Cuba and had established launch sites for missiles pointed at the United States 90 miles from Cuba or 90 miles from Florida and there they were we had that big dramatic showdown and everything was very tense for about two or three days and finally Khrushchev blinked and they dismantled all of the weapons and they moved them out of Cuba a crisis was averted but everyone was afraid scared to death there was going to be a nuclear exchange with what had happened there 1954 truce was arrived between North and South Korea not peace nope they're still not at peace the war isn't over it was just a truce now they're trying to finalize it we don't know whether we'll be able to do that or not a mere six years or so later

[47:02] America just six years or so later America brought home nearly 60,000 of our finest in flag draped coffins with many left behind in unknown graves throughout Vietnam plus many alive in the Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp and the treasure that we expended in billions of dollars paled in comparison to the American blood that was shed and Vietnamese blood too because you know keep in mind the adversary who is the real adversary here was North Vietnam North Vietnam was just captive of the enemy the real adversary is

[48:02] Satan and he don't care he doesn't care if they are dead Vietnamese dead Americans dead in just so they are human beings and dead that's all he wants that's all he's about the USA suffered from more turmoil and dissension in the public sector than it had since the civil war with the Vietnam thing any moral and sociological factors began eating away at the vitals of our nation the civil rights movement came into being and this was something that had been brewing in the United States since the 1800s and the Civil War even though it was over and the slaves had been freed everybody knows they were freed only on paper many of these people were still held in bondage and still regarded as second class citizens not being worth or valuable like white people were who represented the real

[49:05] America and those excesses had to be addressed and they are still being addressed and there is still prejudice and there is still racism although it has been largely defused JEFF people on to Esto schools were not permitted to promote the Bible or prayers. And the Constitution was seen as actually providing for a woman to destroy her child while yet in the womb for any and all reasons she so deems. Surely abortion is the premier example of 2 Timothy 3.3. And with this, I want to close because this is really what it all boils down to. What we're talking about more than anything else is life. Life. And the eagerness and the precision with which the adversary is able to take it and make men hurt themselves and hurt each other is just unimaginable. And be sure, as I tried to make clear, I'm not blaming all of this on the devil, but I am blaming it on our being vulnerable and susceptible to his suggestions and those of his minions. Abortion is the premier example of 2 Timothy 3.3. And it talks about people without natural affection. And the word that is used there in the Greek is the storge. And it is a different word for love in the Greek, different from phileo and different from agape. And a storge love is love of family. It's the love that brothers and sisters have for each other and that parents and children have for each other and for kinfolk. It's a storge love. It's a family love. And it is called a natural affection. They are going to be people without natural affection. And that means without normal or usual or ordinary or common affection. Naturally fitting as opposed to unnatural. Because nature, nature has its parameters and operates within them. Animals procreate and they birth their young. Animals feed and care and train their young, whether beasts of the field or fowls of the air. What they do not do is they do not abort their young. Because animals are programmed.

[52:13] Animals. Animals are pre-programmed by their programmer, God himself, to give birth and nurture and instinctively provide for their young. And they do that because they are programmed to do that. God builds that into them. We call that animal instinct. So they are naturally governed to do what they do. But humans, humans are not programmed by involuntary instinct. We are endowed with a volition, a moral capability to choose that lower life forms do not possess. You'll never see a cow or a pig or a horse saying, I think I'll take these anti-birth pills or anti-conception pills. Or when they're along, two or three months pregnant, saying, I think I'll call the vet and have the vet come in and abort my calf because I don't want to have it. You don't see that. You see that in humans because we are not automatically programmed. We are given the apparatus called a volition that allows us to make our own moral decisions that animals cannot make. We do not do what we do by instinct. We do it by deliberation, by intentionality, by our volition. And this, this is Satan's ultimate triumph.

[54:03] It's bad enough if he can instigate and get people to kill people from other races and from other countries. But do you know, the absolute ultimate is if we can somehow engineer the reality of getting them to kill their own.

[54:29] That's the biggest feather in the devil's hat. And we have fallen for it. So far, 54 million.

[54:43] In this country alone. And I'm going to close with this. And no, we won't have time for Q&A. There'd probably be too many anyway. But do you know what is really, really, really at this abortion thing?

[54:58] What's at the bottom of it? The base of it? The bottom of it? Of course, they like to talk about it being women's health issues. What a crock. Women's health issues. I'll tell you what, sir.

[55:11] Listen, I'm going to say this as plainly as I can, because I want you to get this if you haven't thought of it already. What abortion is all about, more than anything else, is the demand for people to be able to engage in irresponsible sexual activity without having to pay the price in inconvenience, expense, or anything else.

[55:33] That's what abortion is all about. I don't want to have this baby. That'll mess up my whole life. I'd have to quit my job. I'd have to do this. I'd have to do that.

[55:44] So we wantonly take the life of the unborn because we insist on being able to have irresponsible sex as long as we can make somebody else pay the price of it.

[56:00] And it won't interfere with me. This goes back to what I said about the ultimate self-centeredness. That's what it's all about.

[56:13] A mother with natural affection, she will likely even weigh heavily the possibility of losing her own life if she gives life to this baby.

[56:29] She won't make a snap decision about it. And even if she agrees to have the baby aborted because it does pose a genuine life or death situation for the mother, even if she agrees to that, if she has natural affection, she's going to do so only after a lot of deliberation and prayer and no doubt a bunch of tears shed.

[56:58] But not these. They wantonly abort and they demand that it's a woman's right to choose. So, the unborn has no rights.

[57:10] Despite the fact, despite the fact that humanity and personhood has been established at the point of conception so that no matter how you slice it or what you call it or how you try to dress it down, you are taking the life of a human being over and out.

[57:28] Would you stand, please? Thank you. Father, we've talked about so many things, all of which are mostly known to us.

[57:41] Some we need to be reminded of. Some of the younger probably heard these things for the first time, but we just trust that you will take what has been shared and anything that has been uttered that is not of the truth, God forbid, it should lodge in any heart.

[58:00] Please make it to pass away and come to naught. But what has been offered, that is, in keeping with the revelation that you've given, we trust that you will seal it to our hearts and bore it into our person so much so that it becomes a part of us and that we use it to act upon whenever the occasion arises in the future.

[58:23] Thank you for this body of believers and for others like it throughout the world. We bless you for being the God of heaven and we recognize that the time is coming when the adversary will be completely eliminated and you will indeed wipe away every tear.

[58:41] No more violence. No more heartache. All the former things will have passed away. Until then, we want to be faithful with who we are and what we have and thank you for being who you are in Christ's name.

[58:54] Amen.