Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family"podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you today? 

Steve: I am well. Our big adventure for the last two weeks, has been refinishing our  first floor. Some faded hardwood flooring that needed to be sanded down and then  recoated. What an adventure. That is the most positive word I can think of. Scott: You weren't doing that yourself, were you? 

Steve: No. I could have. I've done it in the past. 

Scott: Sounds like a lot of work. 

Steve: You can't be there when they're re-coating it. I was here during much of the  sanding sleeping on a corner of my bed. The main objective, my wife is happy. Scott: That's always the main objective, isn't it?  

Steve: It is. I was talking to a neighbor down the street, and she said, "You men drag  your heels on these projects. I don't know why you don't give in in the first place." Steve: I thought, "She's probably right.” I dragged my heels for a couple of years,  finally giving in. 

Scott: That is sage advice right there. 

Steve: Today, we're going to continue our series on the rock, the stone. In preparation  for this, I read the transcripts for the past four or five episodes, and I'm encouraged  again. 

I'm inspired, informed, because this topic, as you and I have observed, is throughout  scripture, and yet somehow we've missed it. I have to give kudos to God first for  revealing it to my friend Don. 

He pointed it out to me. Then once I started seeing it, then I saw it everywhere. Up to  this point, we've been making the case, and I think it's clearly made in scripture, that  the rock is Christ. No question about it. The Rock, the source of living water. This rock is more than a piece of mineral. The rock has ears. It can hear. There's a lot  to this concept of the rock. Today, we're going to shift gears. Before we do, let's pray. Father, thank You for what You've revealed to us. Thank You that You have opened up  and illuminated scriptures that we've read many, many times, and yet now we see  them differently. Thank You, Spirit of God. We know that this is Your work. You're the one that takes things that are written in the word of God and reveal Christ.  You bear witness of Jesus. You reveal Jesus to us, and thank You that we have been  the recipients up to this point. I pray that You will also reveal more to us today about  the nature of Christ, the nature of the Rock. In Jesus' name, amen. Scott: Amen. 

Steve: It was a couple years ago when I was returning from a walk in my  neighborhood where I was seeking God. I was almost home, and the Holy Spirit said  to me, "You need to be binding the strong man.” I thought, “OK" and I began binding  Him right then. I've been continuing it ever since. 

That was a little bit of a light bulb moment to me because I had already been giving  thanks. I'd been praising His name. I had been singing and worshiping, all of which  were characteristics of being a priest in God's kingdom. 

That binding was the one that made me know I am a priest. I'm working with God. I'm  doing the work of God with God. I looked up some passages and noticed the  connection with our topic and this word binding. 

Beginning in Matthew 16:15-19, "'Who do you say that I am?’" Simon Peter replied,  'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you,  Simon Bar‑Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who  is in heaven. 

"'I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of hell  shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and  whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on  Earth shall be loosed in heaven.'" 

This rock that he's going to build His church on is the declaration, that Jesus is the  Christ, the son of the living God. This truth is the rock, the foundation for our faith. This was the test in 1 John for whether somebody was from the spirit of Christ or  antichrist. Do you believe that Jesus is God in the flesh? Peter, and perhaps some of  the other disciples, had already come to this conclusion that Jesus was the Christ, the  Son of the living God. 

What blesses me is that Jesus answered him, "You didn't figure this out yourself. My  Father, Who is in heaven, revealed this to you.” My spiritual mentor, my pastor for  many years, said this to me one time when I received a spiritual insight. He said, "It wasn't me that revealed this to you, it was God.” That meant the world to  me that God in heaven was revealing truth to me. Peter experienced the same thing.  "This is not something that you have figured out yourself, but My Father has revealed  this to you." 

"This truth of Jesus being the Christ, God in the flesh, is where He is going to build  everything. He goes on to say, in this context and to the church, "I will give you the  keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in  heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven." There are far reaching implications to this passage. There is warfare in heaven. We  here on earth can do something about that warfare because when we bind things on  earth, they will also be bound in heaven, and we can also loose things. I've talked about this in the past, I'm not going to go into it right now, but let's hold  that thought. Remember that Jesus, when He was talking to His disciples, was asked  by them, "How do we pray?" 

He said in Matthew 6:9-13, "Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be  Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us  this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” or some translations put it,  "Deliver us from the evil one.” For we have an enemy. He is the evil one as Jesus says in John 17:15, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep  them from the evil one." 

Two passages from Paul's epistles, Ephesians 6:10-17, "Finally, be strong in the Lord  and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able  to stand against the schemes of the devil. 

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the  authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the  spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 

"Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the  evil day and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the  belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for  your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. "In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the  flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the  Spirit, which is the Word of God." 

When we received Jesus as our Lord and savior, when we were born from above, when  we moved from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, from following the  God of this world to following the God of heaven, everything changed. Not only were  we different inside, but we entered into a cosmic conflict. 

Paul echoes this in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "Though we walk in the flesh, we are not  carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For  the weapons of our warfare are not physical, but they are mighty before God for the  overthrow and destruction of strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty  opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey  Christ.” 

The church is the church militant. I don't want to say it, but I don't know how people  can read the whole Bible and not get this because there has been conflict, there have  been battles, there have been wars, all through scripture. 

It's clear in the New Testament, and Paul summarizes it beautifully. How does this tie  in with the stone, the rock, the rock which is Christ? I hope that people here are  familiar with the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in the book of Daniel. I'm going to  start in Daniel 2:27. 

Without going into all the background there, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. The wise  men couldn't interpret it. Nebuchadnezzar was going to kill all these men for being  charlatans because he didn't feel like they were doing their job. 

In the 27th verse, Daniel was brought before the king, and he said, "No wise men,  enchanters, magicians, or astrologists can show to the king the mystery that the king  has asked. But there is a God in heaven Who reveals mysteries, and He has made  known to Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. 

"Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these. To you, O king,  as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and He Who reveals  mysteries made known to you what is to be. 

"As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me not because of any wisdom that I  have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be known to  you, the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind." "You saw, O king, and behold a great image, this image mighty and of exceeding  brightness stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this  image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze,  its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 

"As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its  feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the  silver, and the gold altogether were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the  summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them  

could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and  filled the Earth.” 

Then from verse 36 into the 40s, he talks about who these kingdoms are.  Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold. Then there was a kingdom of bronze, and  then there was a fourth king. 

Jumping down to the 44th verse. These are the 10 kings, 10 toes mixed of clay and  iron. "In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall  never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in  pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, that it  broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, a great God  has made known to the king what shall be after this. 

Simply put, I believe that this stone is the kingdom of God, and the God of heaven set  up this stone, and that stone is going to fill the Earth. We know that God is going to  establish His kingdom. That's what He taught us to pray. 

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.” Deliver us from  evil, the evil one. Deliver us from these false kings and kingdoms. You look at that  word, this stone not only is going to fill the Earth, but this stone is going to break,  crush, and consume all these other kingdoms. 

I looked at the Hebrew word for that to expand a little bit. This stone is going to  crush these false kingdoms, and it's going to establish and be established as the  kingdom that will fill the whole earth. 

Let me keep reading. Matthew 21:42-44. "The stone that the builders rejected has  become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.” …  "The one having fallen on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it shall fall, it  will grind him to powder." 

This stone is a picture of the kingdom of God. It's going to not only be established,  it's going to be crushing. It's going to be grinding. It's going to be consuming. David  said in Psalm 144:1-2, ”Blessed be Jehovah, my Rock, Who trains my hands for war  and my fingers for battle. He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and  my deliverer, my shield is He in Whom I take refuge Who subdues people under me." 

Here’s another thought. God can do all this by Himself, but He wants us to do it with  Him. It says in Jeremiah 51, (speaking to Israel) "You are My war club, my weapon of  war. With you, I shatter nations, and with you, I destroy kingdoms." God could speak and all these kingdoms are eliminated, but He wants us to sit with  Him on His throne, worship Him, and fight with Him. He wants us to establish His  kingdom on Earth. His kingdom is militant. 

That's why He says to us, "You bind the strong man. You loose God's will to be done  on Earth as it is in heaven. You exercise the weapons of our warfare, which are not of  the flesh. You be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. You take up the  whole armor of God and stand.” This is a big concept. 

It's a tremendous privilege that we have and I hope we don't sit here twiddling our  thumbs and waiting for God to return. I get a little sad when people say, "Oh, come  Lord Jesus,” as if there's nothing we can do. There's a lot we can do. We can be  binding the strong man. 

We can be a part of this militant stone kingdom that is going to fill the whole Earth  and is going to crush and consume all these false kingdoms. In the past few weeks  we've had a tremendous season of listening and following the life of Charlie Kirk. There was an unbelievable presentation of the gospel for seven hours on all the major  networks. This is phenomenal. Then I'm watching, as I'm probably sure others have,  the kickback. Although right now, it's not a positive thing to be kicking back, but you  know there's kickback. 

The thing is, is those are not my enemies. These people that are kicking back and  these people that are attacking the church, that's not the battle. We have to keep our  eyes on the battle. We have an enemy, and he is called the evil one. It's our job to keep the pressure on and to keep binding him, and to keep fighting  against him. It's election season around our house, and there are signs going up all  around. I'm one of the only signs for the side that I think is right. 

When I see these signs, I don't get upset at people but I say, "No. My weapons are  from heaven. My enemies are not flesh and blood.” I spend more time resisting the  devil, fighting the good fight of the faith. 

I ran across a quote the other day. It says, "There are a thousand hacking at the  branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” Isn't that a good quote? Scott: Yeah. 

Steve: Thank God for the people that are hacking at the branches of evil, but you  can't hack at the branches and have any impact on the tree until you strike at the  root. Who do you think said that? If you get this one, you're going to go to the head of  the class. 

Scott: Some old missionary? 

Steve: Henry David Thoreau. 

Scott: Wow. 

Steve: Exactly. I would never have ever connected the thought with the person, but  this is what it is. We've talked about spiritual warfare. We've done a whole series on  spiritual warfare. This is a good reminder to me to keep striking at the root. Thank God for what has happened in our culture in the last two weeks. It's  phenomenal, but we need to keep striking at the root. We need to be an active part of  that stone kingdom. We talked about that in the previous podcast. We're living stones  who are being built into the living stone. 

We do it simply by hearing the word of God and doing it. This is how we build our  house on the rock. OK, Scott. There's a mouthful for you today. How do you respond  to that? 

Scott: Well, you got my thoughts going now towards the whole Charlie Kirk thing, too.  That was such a powerful moment when Erika forgave the man who killed her  husband. 

Steve: Yes. Totally supernatural. 

Scott: It highlighted the spiritual war that we're in, especially if you kept watching and  saw Donald Trump say, "This is where I differ from Erika. I hate my enemies.” I was  like, "Wow. He's got a lot of enemies." 

That's a lot of hate to carry around and also really ineffective if you're trying to fight  them based on what you said. There's a war going on that most people are unaware  of. I actually started listening to the audiobook of "Paradise Lost” yesterday. I don't  know if you've ever read that. I know it's fictional, but it's... 

Steve: A long time ago, I believe I did. 

Scott: It's a fascinating idea of what might have happened when Satan fell and how  those demons all decided to wage war against all of us, but it's real, and it's going on. Steve: It is real, and we have tremendous weapons. 

Scott: Yeah. 

Steve: I'm wondering if we should even do another podcast on this because our  weapons, are number one, the blood of Jesus. It says in Revelation, "They overcame  him by the blood of the lamb.” 

The blood of the lamb, is a one‑time event that happened on the cross, when we were  forgiven. It was the sacrifice. He doesn't have to keep offering it again and again, it  says in Hebrews. It also says in Revelation, a couple places, there are people that  wash their robes in the blood. 

Now it says there are people that overcome the devil by the blood. The blood of Jesus  is an incredible ‑‑ I don't even know what adjective to choose here. It's the most  efficacious weapon that we have. 

When all else fails, simply say the blood of Jesus when fighting against the devil, the  blood of Jesus against these enemies, these spiritual enemies, the blood of Jesus. I  believe hell quakes when we mention the blood of Jesus. The spirit of God is a  weapon. The truth is a weapon. 

These truths are not, you might say, stuck in books of theology and written on  placards on the walls of our study. These are living weapons that we need to be  tapping into and using. I do this several times a day. 

God's opened this up to me. I used to quote scripture believing the truth of it to fight  my own doubts and my own fears. Now I'm using these scriptures about the blood of  Jesus, about the word of God, about the Spirit of God, as present powerful weapons in  this fight against the evil one and the evil root. 

Scott: Yeah. We can pray the blood of Christ against the enemy's work in our lives. Steve: Amen. It's not magic. He says, "The weapons of our warfare are mighty,” and  that's part of our weaponry. 

Scott: The other verse I was going to bring up that I brought up before when we were  talking spiritual warfare, 1 Peter 5:8, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the  devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him  standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout  the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 

It's common. This is part of our life as Christians. We don't need to be afraid. It’s to  take up the weapons and fight. 

Steve: Amen. Father, we pray right now. Thank you for what you have poured out on  our country. Thank you for the presentation of the gospel. Thank you for the divine  work you have done in Erika's heart. 

Thank you for so many of our leaders, people in authority, positions of power that  stand by Jesus, that are on our team. We, as our part, we continue to fight the fight of  the faith. We bind the strong man in Jesus' name. We overcome him by the blood of  Jesus. We fight against him in the name of Jesus. We fight against him by the spirit of  Jesus. 

We continue to fight and to stand firm. I pray that you'll put a spirit of fight in our  hearts and help us to see beyond our fleshly enemies and help us to see our spiritual  foe and continue to stand firm in our fight against him. In Jesus' name, amen. Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.