WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:15.519 So tonight we're going to be talking about not just the first world war, but the first cosmic war in the heavenlies and what has been a mystery of ages past about this work of God and Satan. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:31.600 And we're going to get more into Satan next week on the origins of Satan and where he came from, what he was doing, how he rebelled against God, but I want to go back even to the point of the war and the rebellion that happened between God and Satan. 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:36.000 That's an interesting discussion because seminaries don't teach it. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:40.079 I went to seminary, and there is no discussion. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:44.079 There's two things that seminaries don't talk about, most seminaries, most evangelical seminaries. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:45.600 How to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:46.799 Sort of important. 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:54.560 The assumption I came out of was I guess you can actually be a pastor and not be filled with the Holy Spirit because it's never taught. 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:57.200 And I think most pastors aren't filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:00:57.359 --> 00:00:58.960 Most believers aren't filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:01.280 And secondly, you don't talk about Satan and demons. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:03.039 You don't talk about spiritual warfare. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:11.680 My premise tonight, my thesis tonight, is that the enemy is behind that strategy. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:14.400 That the reason we don't know is because he doesn't want us to know. 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:21.120 And the reason he doesn't want us to know is because if you know, you would start walking in greater and greater victory in your Christian life. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:27.359 And so Satan wants to keep you down, Satan wants to keep you depressed, Satan wants you to keep you struggling with the same old sins. 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:32.239 Satan wants you to get married and get divorced and end up committing suicide. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:33.200 That's his goal. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:42.959 The enemy comes to steal, kill, and he hates you because you're created as a son and a daughter of God. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:44.239 Three reasons. 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:47.200 Let me give you three reasons why we study this war. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:50.719 Let me give you three reasons why we study spiritual warfare. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:53.359 Number one, we are in a fight. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:55.280 Folks, we are in a fight. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:57.280 We are in a battle. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:04.000 Number two, we are in a fight that if you don't understand, will destroy your life. 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:08.319 If you don't understand the strategies and the schemes of the enemy, you will be destroyed. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:10.719 Now, I don't mean you're physically going to be destroyed. 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:14.879 I mean, some people do commit suicide, but I'm not speaking of that because most people don't. 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:17.919 But I mean your destiny is destroyed. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:26.560 The capabilities and capacities, the enlargement of your soul of all that God has for you, can be destroyed. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:28.479 You quit dreaming. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.120 You quit having a vision. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:38.240 You think less of yourself, and in the process, you live a subpar Christian life. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:44.719 And then number three, we're in a fight that we absolutely must be equipped for. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:50.639 If you're not equipped for this by actually studying it, it won't happen. 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:52.080 It will not happen. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:58.319 Spiritual warfare is one of those unique aspects of the Christian life that you have to study. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:00.159 You have to become aware of. 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:10.240 You have to, I'm going to equip you in the months to come if you'll listen and if you're here and you get it, and if you miss it, you listen online to it. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:15.280 But as you start to get equipped in it, you're going to have these aha moments. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:19.520 Like the first time I experienced any of this was in Japan. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:21.360 Nobody had taught me. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:23.599 There's no training center for this stuff. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:34.639 I mean, there are here and there, there's a few places and a few more Pentecostal kind of driven charismatic churches where they teach a little bit on it, but it's very, very rare even there. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:52.639 And so people go through situations with sickness, addictions, besetting sins, and in the process blaming God that that somehow is God's fault in their life, forgetting that there's an enemy. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:54.479 And he's the God of this age. 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:56.639 He's the power over the force of deserts. 00:03:56.879 --> 00:03:58.960 2 Corinthians 4, 4, Ephesians 2, 2. 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:00.639 That's what he does. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.199 I don't want that to happen at the road. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:09.039 I want us to be a people equipped and empowered and listen, confident. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:09.919 Confident. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:12.960 I don't want to be the only guy in this church who can cast out some demons. 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:14.560 All right? 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:17.839 I want every one of you to be equipped. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:24.800 I want every one of you in this room, if you so desire, you have a passion for setting the captives free, you can. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:29.439 God is no respecter of persons, but he is a respecter of passion. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:34.160 God is not a respecter of persons, but he is a respecter of passion. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:39.439 And passion is spelled F-A-I-T-H. 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:40.399 Faith. 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:42.160 God's giving you fierce faith. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:48.079 If you don't want to use it, if you don't want to walk in it, then just continue to live a subpar Christian life. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:51.199 But if you want to walk in it, watch out. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.000 Because God's going to mightily use you. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:56.000 You will see the miraculous happen. 00:04:56.079 --> 00:05:04.240 I remember the first time we cast out a demon in this young guy, just, I mean, kind of simple case, just a seventh-degree black belt and karate in Japan. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:08.079 And it took us three hours. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:10.480 We got those demons out. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:13.519 I wore the demons out. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:16.480 I did not know what I was doing. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:20.240 But I think the demons realized he's not going to leave. 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:22.000 He's not going to quit. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:25.360 And I just simply wore them out and they left. 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:35.439 And this young man, Yasu, there in Tokyo, Japan, was set free of epilepsy, set free of three or four other things, issues in his life. 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:38.160 And as far as I know, he walked in freedom after that. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:47.199 And that's just the stupidity of a southern boy who ate grits in Japan and just wouldn't give up. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:54.240 And so if you have that kind of tenacity, we're going to get trained and equipped in how to do this stuff over the next few months. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:56.560 Here's what the goal of every demon is. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:57.839 Here's the goal of every demon. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:09.120 The goal of every demon coming from Satan is to shame, blame, and confuse by accusation and berating you to the point of despair. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:10.639 Let me read it to you again. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:22.560 The goal of every demon is to create shame, blame, and confusion by accusing and berating you to the point of despair. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:27.439 The goal of every malevolent spirit is suicide. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:39.759 And if you're here tonight and you're struggling with a spirit of suicide, please don't leave without us praying over you. 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:51.920 Ephesians chapter 5 says that one of the purposes of the sons and the daughters of light is that we would shine light into darkness. 00:06:52.079 --> 00:07:00.720 We would like to shine the light of the gospel and the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ into your life and break the power of despair. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:07.199 Shame, blame, berating, and despair, that's all the works of the enemy. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:09.519 That is not from God. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:18.560 And as one who has struggled with all of those, I can tell you right now, it is common to all of us. 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:26.800 And so you say, well, man, if you only knew what I've been through, if you only knew, Steve, what I'm dealing with tonight, we probably know. 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:32.319 Because I believe every one of us at some point in our life have probably considered taking our life. 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:36.879 We've probably at different times felt like our despair could never be broken. 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:49.920 The voices that we're hearing and the scripting that we've heard in our life, the images of rape or sexual abuse or molestation or the scripting that came from your parents. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:52.399 A lot of us know that. 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:53.680 That's what he does. 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:56.000 Don't walk in that shame anymore. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:59.120 Please get prayer tonight. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:02.079 Get prayer and keep getting it. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:12.959 I mean, I think that I think it's another misnomer out there that somehow we can get prayer one time and it's just gonna lift, and so it didn't work for me. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:23.120 And you know, when Jesus was casting out a demon in one case, it says he kept, it's actually in the Greek, he kept commanding the Spirit to leave. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:26.480 That tells me, even with Jesus, they sometimes didn't leave. 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:34.879 And so, guys, sometimes you gotta line up and quit being a wimp about this and keep getting prayer. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.600 Just keep coming and wear them out. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:40.480 Seriously, wear them out. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:44.159 And I'm not talking about name it and claim it or something like that. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:49.600 I'm just saying, and it doesn't mean that you walk in, oh, I've gotta get my healing. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:52.320 No, that's not what it's about. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.279 It's I gotta get more of Jesus in the process. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:03.440 And as we get more of Jesus, he creates and builds up your faith, and in so doing, you I think most of the time, you gradually get set free. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:04.960 I mean, that's what Cher's talking about. 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:06.320 That's why I love her testimony. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:07.919 It didn't happen like that. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:16.960 I mean, we had that one prayer time, but she didn't tell you that she was on a picnic table one time outside Pioneer Elementary School, and we're casting out demons for like forever. 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:18.799 I was really hungry by the time. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:20.480 I mean, I was like ready to eat, man. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:21.360 And there's another one? 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:22.559 Oh, and there's another one? 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:24.000 I mean, she didn't tell you that story. 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.000 So it was, I mean, it took time. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:35.919 It took months with Cher, and there was that crowning moment where God came, and it was exciting to see what he did with her brain and everything, but that was months. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.320 I mean, that was, that was, that took time. 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:39.919 So keep coming. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:43.440 I tell people all the time who are dealing with stuff who come to the road. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:45.679 I said, just keep coming. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:55.360 Just, guys, you can't even, I can't even tell you enough how important it is to be under the teaching of God's word every week. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:57.600 The fellowship of belief. 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:00.480 There's power in this room that happens no other place. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:01.919 That's absolute truth. 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:08.080 And I'll tell you, one of the theories that's out there, because I read about it and I study it and I know about it as a pastor. 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:09.279 You don't need church. 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:15.039 Oh, I have, you know, we have church out there in Pueblo catching fish, or I can't, I, you know, I have church at 11 Mile Canyon. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:16.399 I love all those places. 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:18.320 But that ain't church. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:22.159 Church is people coming together. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.320 I didn't make this stuff up. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:26.480 Book of Acts, it all started. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:31.519 Acts chapter 2, and prophetically it began back in Genesis with the Exodus. 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:40.320 God brought the body of Israel together, the ecclesiast, the body, and then and then he created the church. 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:41.759 It's his idea. 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:54.879 So, so if God didn't need the church, then his spirit would have fallen on everybody who's out there in their motorboat and camping all around Palestine on Pentecost. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:57.600 But he didn't. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:09.440 He took 120 worn-out, crazy, poor, poverty-stricken, fearful people who came together and prayed for 10 days, and bam! Spirit of God hit them. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:11.440 It changed the world. 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:13.679 And God wants to do that again. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:17.679 And God wants to do that in Colorado Springs, and God wants to do that in the road. 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:19.679 And that's what He does. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:25.840 So the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy and to annihilate because you're created in the image of God. 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:29.759 So you think, well, I don't know why any spirits would have any problem with me. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:31.200 I'm just a shmo. 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:35.519 Well, let me tell you why. 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:39.759 Before you were a shmo, you were created in the image of God. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:50.320 And so whether you like it or not, you're an image of Jesus walking around, a beautiful, beautiful image of Jesus walking around. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:12:00.159 And when you feel love and when you experience forgiveness, and when you experience grace and you extend it to others and you receive it, that's the image of Jesus in you. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:03.600 Dogs don't, I can tell you, I train dogs. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:08.159 And dogs do not experience forgiveness. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:14.240 They definitely don't experience it for me most of the time when we're working on, you know, holding a point. 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:20.639 But but fish aren't walking and swimming in the grace of God. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:23.039 We're creating, we're unique. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:42.080 Whatever our secular humanists tell us that we're just like, was it was it Phil Donahue who talked about us just being sort of uh natural, born, natural, higher level animals, is a lie. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:50.720 We are created in the image of God, and we are unique, our unique creation of God, and God's spirit flows through every one of you. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:52.720 And his spirit is upon you. 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:54.559 And so Satan hates that. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:13:02.080 And so as we study, we're gonna we're gonna look at the power of God too, and what God can do through you. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:08.000 Eye is not seen, ear is not heard, all the great and awesome and powerful things God wants to do through each one of you. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:09.840 You just gotta believe it. 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:20.960 So part of our study of the word is to create faith in our hearts over the next few weeks and months that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:25.200 I want to begin with a story. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:29.519 Um I like to elk hunt and deer hunt. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:35.519 I haven't deer hunt in a long time because I've been building up preference points, but um I elk hunt every year. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:39.519 And we use a topo map, a topographical map where we hunt. 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:51.279 And if you lay that topographical map on a table like we do often to kind of think through our hunt, it's got these little squiggly lines that represent elevations. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:14:08.320 And if you're looking at the squiggly lines of a topo map and you see little squiggly lines on the topo map that represent distance and height and hills and valleys, on that particular map, it doesn't look like much. 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.600 But let me tell you something. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:22.720 When you get to those little squiggly lines in real time, it could be a cliff that's a hundred feet down, and it's just one little line on the thing. 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:37.519 And then you look, and that one little line that was really really close to another line has a big line down at the bottom of it because here's then a valley that's that's level and has no more depth to it. 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:53.039 It's across there, and then there's another little squiggly line, and it's another 150 feet over there, and you've got to get from this side to that side, and you plan to get there in about six minutes when you are making your plan, and two hours later. 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:56.399 Right? 00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:00.080 Well, that's what happens in a particular verse of scripture. 00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:02.960 So turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter one. 00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:08.159 Genesis chapter one. 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:11.120 Verses one and two. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:13.600 Genesis one, one and two. 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:21.919 We're gonna read the squiggly lines, and then I'm gonna explain that there's a massive gap between the two. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:30.960 Most believers are not aware of this, and we read it as if the two verses are actually connected in time. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:36.240 Now they're connected on the page, but they're not connected in time. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:16:04.879 And I will say this at the very outset that there is much discussion over what I'm gonna teach tonight, and there's not full agreement in the evangelical community, but there's but I'll give you good evidence for it, and uh, but I will not argue with anybody about it, because uh more intelligent minds than mine believe in it, and more intelligent minds than mine don't believe in it. 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:07.519 But let me read it to you, and then I'll leave it up to you. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:11.600 Bottom line is that there was a war in the heavenly, so we'll get to that. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:15.840 Verse one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:16.480 Period. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:17.440 Stop. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:18.559 Period. 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:20.240 Does everybody have a period there? 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:21.600 All right, that's good. 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:23.120 Good grammar. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:24.799 Verse two. 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:41.200 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:49.600 Now, most readers of the Bible would say verse one and verse two are connected in time. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:17:00.240 I'm gonna challenge that tonight and say there's actually a huge, possibly million-year, possibly billion-year gap between the two verses. 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:02.000 And here's why. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:14.720 The meaning of without form and void from the Greek to using English words would be wasteland, chaos, or wilderness. 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:16.000 Let me say that again. 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:21.759 The meaning of without form and void is a wasteland, chaos, a wilderness. 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:30.720 You cannot find any place in Scripture that shows or exemplifies that God creates chaos. 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:34.960 God does the opposite. 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:40.799 God takes chaos and brings order. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:47.359 You know what God did to Cher's mind is that he unscrambled her eggs. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:50.480 He unscrambled her eggs. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:51.119 All right? 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:55.599 And so some of you are really got, you got kind of scrambled eggs, life. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:01.359 And if you let Jesus have control, he'll bring order to your chaos. 00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:08.160 God's in the business of taking waste land and turning it into something beautiful. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:20.160 You know, we were up at the top of the parking lot tonight praying, and we could see the Chapel Hills church facility with that cross there against these majestic mountains. 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:23.519 God created those majestic mountains. 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:24.559 That's what God does. 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:37.839 He takes things that are chaotic, he takes things that are wilderness, he takes things that are wasteland, and he brings order, beauty, healing, and fertility. 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:41.680 God never takes a fertile woman and then makes her barren. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:44.240 God takes a barren woman and he makes her fertile. 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:47.599 God doesn't take people who are well and then make them sick. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:50.319 He takes sick people and he makes them well. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:57.519 So it says here that the earth was a wasteland, a chaos, a wilderness. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:18:59.839 It was without order. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:10.000 Let me explain that when we interpret scripture, you always, you always, let me say, you don't always. 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:10.880 The hermeneutic. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:12.960 Hermeneutic is interpretation of scripture. 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:20.240 But the the best way to interpret a hermeneutic of scripture is with scripture, not with experience. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:22.240 You understand that? 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:27.279 You understand how dangerous it can be if you create your theology just from your experience. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:37.279 So I could talk all till the cows come home about casting out demons out of Yahoo, but if I can't base it in scripture, I'm on flimsy ground, folks. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:43.440 Now that doesn't mean that just because we can't find guitars in the Bible that we can't have rock music. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:47.119 And that doesn't mean because we don't have cars in the Bible, we can't drive cars. 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:53.039 I'm talking about the interpretation of Scripture as it relates to truth theologically and spiritually. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:57.039 So, so Isaiah 53 is a great case in point. 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:01.200 You read Isaiah 53 and it's about a suffering servant. 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:07.279 Now, the way the rabbis today, the Orthodox Jews, interpret that is that's a picture of Israel. 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:20.000 But we now know on this side of the life of Christ that Isaiah 53 is a beautiful, almost perfect, prophetic word about the life and the death of Jesus Christ. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:29.759 So Isaiah 53, which was written thousands of years before Jesus came as our Messiah, is a prophetic word about the Messiah. 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:39.119 So we see Isaiah 53, remember, the Ethiopian eunuch is reading Isaiah when Philip comes along and he gets saved and baptized. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:44.559 So we interpret Isaiah 53 based on Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts later. 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:45.599 Does that make sense? 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:52.880 So we're interpreting a passage of Scripture based on another passage of Scripture, another example, the Trinity. 00:20:53.119 --> 00:21:05.599 There's no place in the Scripture that specifically says the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are of one substance with the Father, but three persons. 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:09.440 And so people try to wrap their mind around the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:10.160 It's hard to do. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:26.160 But yet, all through the Bible, there's references when you put it all together of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, notwithstanding Jesus saying in his great commission, go ye therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:28.720 But there's no clear, there's nothing that says Trinity. 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:30.559 Trinity's not in the Bible. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:46.720 But the great theologues and commentators and pastors and leaders and church fathers in the third, fourth, and fifth century, because of heresies that were rising up, were able to put together the idea of what they then called the Trinity. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:58.960 And now the Roman church, the Orthodox Church, the Protestant Church, every evangelical church and Orthodox Church, not big O, but smaller Orthodox Church believes in the Trinity. 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:06.880 So I'm a So we study Genesis as it relates to Revelation. 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:09.519 We study Deuteronomy as it relates to Galatians. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:12.799 We study Joshua as it relates to James. 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:30.559 And that's why Paul would say to the Corinthians, And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your fa should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:38.799 And so when we read God's word, men and women, we are looking for spiritual things related to spiritual words that give us spiritual truth. 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:40.160 That's the power of God. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.720 And so that's why we can trust the scriptures. 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:45.279 So that's why cults get started. 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:53.519 Cults get started where one man's interpretation of one particular passage grows into an entire theology and he can't support it with the rest of Scripture. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:54.960 Jehovah's Witnesses, case and point. 00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:56.480 Mormons is case and point. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:12.400 They have built entire theologies and cult groups, they've built entire fallacies based on the interpretation usually of some charismatic leader that they have that doesn't use all of Scripture in his interpretation. 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:16.319 So, why do I say all that? 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:21.119 Because I'm going to give you some passages that support what I'm talking about. 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:26.720 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:27.759 Period. 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:28.799 Stop. 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:30.319 Verse 2. 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:34.880 The earth was without form and void. 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:39.599 New King James Version says, without form and void. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:45.359 The American translation is the earth was formless and void. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:56.880 Other translations have it as a waste, waste and void, coming from the Hebrew words, and you ought to write this down on the side if you're taking notes. 00:23:57.200 --> 00:23:58.319 Tohu bohu. 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:06.799 Tohu bohu means wasteland, wilderness, confusion, a wreck. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:09.839 The French, listen to the French translation? 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:11.839 This is just like the French. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:13.519 Topsy turvy. 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:20.640 Anybody of French extraction here? 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:24.960 Oh, Pierre, of course. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.200 He's even got a name that sounds like it. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:28.079 Alright. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:30.000 So, Topsy Turvy. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:35.599 In the message, Eugene Peterson, in his translation, Genesis 1, 1 and 2, says this. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:38.559 God created the heavens and the earth. 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:42.319 All you see, all you don't see, period. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:43.680 Then he said this. 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:52.000 The earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, and an inky blackness. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:00.000 So comparing the Bible with the Bible, listen to this. 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:06.240 From Isaiah, I didn't write the reference down here. 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:12.640 I think it's Isaiah 45, 8 or 18 says, For thus says the Lord, listen to this, really important. 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:19.359 For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, he is the God who formed the earth and made it. 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:25.200 Now listen up, and I've underlined this, and did not create it a wasteplace. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:30.799 He did not create it a wasteplace, but formed it to be inhabited. 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:36.640 And that's the same word, tohu bohu, used in Genesis 1, 2. 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:40.000 He did not create the earth, tohu bohu. 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:43.039 He did not create a chaos, Genesis 1-2. 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:46.079 The revised Standard Version actually says this. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:52.640 So there is a great gap. 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:54.079 That's my premise tonight. 00:25:54.240 --> 00:26:01.920 There's a gap between verse 1 and verse 2, and we don't know how many years it is. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:04.079 It could have been like this. 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:06.240 It could be millions of years. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:09.039 It could be billions of years. 00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:14.079 So here's a translation that's actually an accurate translation. 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:20.960 You could say this, that God's earth, let me go back. 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:26.880 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, period. 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:34.799 Then verse 2, and it became, the earth became a void and without form. 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:37.200 It became a wasteland. 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:41.440 So something happened. 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:43.200 The church. 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:48.480 Something happened between verses one and two. 00:26:50.240 --> 00:27:15.599 Thomas Chalmers, a divinity professor at the University of Edinburgh, greatly admired, one of the great theologues of England in the 1700s, who wrote one of the most famous called the Bridgewater Treatises Works, a series by some of the best British scientists and clerics devoted to natural theology and the proof of God's design in creation, wrote this. 00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:39.279 My own opinion, as published in 1814, is that it, Genesis 1.1, forms no part of the first day of the seven days of creation, but refers to a period of indefinite antiquity when God created the worlds out of nothing. 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:41.519 Interesting. 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:54.000 Nelson Bible, the Nelson Study Bible published in 1997, says this in its study Bible in relation to Genesis 1 and 1 and 2. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:28:00.160 Quote, here it means that God renewed what was in a chaotic state. 00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:08.559 God changed chaos into cosmos, disorder into order, emptiness into fullness. 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:14.480 The two words without form and void express one concept, chaos. 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:17.680 The earth had been reduced to this state. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:41.200 Author Constance, a Canadian physiologist with a doctrine in anthropology and author of the well-known Doorway Paper series on creation and Christian evidences, wrote a privately published book, Without Form and Void, in 1970, arguing the same theory. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:51.119 Charles Ryrie, who is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, obtained his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, author of the famous Ryrie Study Bible. 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:56.799 In his book, You Mean the Bible Teaches That, and that's a great title. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:58.079 That's in 1974. 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:07.759 You mean the Bible teaches that, admits that Genesis 1, 1 and 2, quote, may cover an intermittably long period of time. 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:10.480 I jot this down. 00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:13.839 Jeremiah 4, 23 through 26. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:16.079 Jeremiah 4, 23 through 26. 00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:17.519 Quite interesting. 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:37.440 Jeremiah, like all of the great prophetic men of the Old Testament, would see things and would write things and would prophesy things, not having a clue in many cases what it was they were writing down or what the meaning was. 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:46.720 I'm sure that Isaiah had no idea that he wasn't in chapter and verse back then, but that, you know, anyway, Isaiah, what do you think about chapter 53? 00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:49.119 And he goes, What are you talking about, chapter 53? 00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:54.480 But, you know, if we meet Isaiah someday, we can say, hey, remember the part about the suffering journey? 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:54.880 Oh, yeah. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:56.480 And that was like two-thirds of the way through my letter. 00:29:56.559 --> 00:29:57.599 And I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. 00:29:57.759 --> 00:29:58.079 That part. 00:29:58.240 --> 00:29:58.880 Who's that about? 00:29:58.960 --> 00:29:59.680 Well, that's about Jesus. 00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:00.319 Did you know it at the time? 00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:01.599 He said, No, I didn't know it's time. 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:02.559 God just gave me revelation. 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:03.039 I wrote it down. 00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:04.480 I was inspired by God. 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:07.359 And so I think that's a case here of Jeremiah. 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:09.839 He doesn't even know what he's saying, but here's what he's saying. 00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:18.960 He's in the first person, God speaking through the prophet, and he says, This I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form and void. 00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:19.680 Bohu. 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:21.039 Tohu bohu. 00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:23.440 And the heavens they had no light. 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:27.279 Remember, light hadn't been created yet, because we haven't even got to the seven days. 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:29.920 I beheld the mountains, and indeed they tremble. 00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:31.359 So there's mountains. 00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:35.680 And all the hills moved back and forth. 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:38.319 Some translations say, like a wave. 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:42.000 I beheld, indeed, there was no man, because man hadn't been created yet. 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:46.720 With all the birds in the heavens, they weren't created yet. 00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:55.680 I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord. 00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:58.640 Listen, by his fierce anger. 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:06.000 Could that be a prophetic picture of a great battle? 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:13.680 Of a great battle that took place in times immemorial in antiquity. 00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:19.920 Sounds like a prophetic description of this chaos being created on the face of the earth. 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:25.839 Donald Gray Barnhouse, which I would encourage you if you're interested in getting his book, The Invisible War, as you can see. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:27.440 Mine's all torn up. 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:30.960 This is a book I got years and years ago, probably 25 years ago. 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:34.079 Read this, and I probably read it, I probably read it like five times. 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:36.880 And uh The Invisible War by Donald Gray Barnhouse. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:42.960 The other book I'd recommend is The Adversary by Mark Bubeck and Overcoming the Adversary. 00:31:43.119 --> 00:31:46.160 This one's very theological, and this one's very practical. 00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:55.519 Donald Gray Barnhouse, famous theologian and pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and author of The Invisible War, writes about this passage. 00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:57.039 Here's what he says. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:04.400 Quote, that something tremendous and terrible happened to the first perfect creation is certain. 00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:14.480 We know that later the earth, which had become waste and empty, was reformed and refashioned in the six days and peopled by the newly created beings. 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:24.880 Adam and his wife, and that God renewed and restored the earth, of which it is stated six times that God saw that it was good. 00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:43.200 We have every right to argue from analogy that the original creation long before Adam's remade world was cursed because of earlier sin fell into chaos because of the righteous judgment of God upon some outbreak or rebellion. 00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:55.839 Somewhere back, before the chaos of the second verse of Genesis 1, there was a great tragedy and a terrible catastrophe. 00:32:56.480 --> 00:32:58.079 So we don't know. 00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:03.279 And I'm not advocating evolution at all. 00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:04.880 Don't hear me say that. 00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:13.279 Because some have taken that to mean you're advocating evolution because you're saying it could be millions and billions of years as the age of the earth. 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:14.000 I'm not saying that. 00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:23.039 I'm not saying, I mean, it could have been, it could have been in five minutes that this war took place between verses one, uh chapter one, verse one, chapter one, verse two. 00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:24.640 Not saying that. 00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:32.160 Some believe, and as far as a natural theology of creation, would say that that's why we have the sediments. 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:34.079 I believe that's from the flood, you guys. 00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:36.400 Okay, so I'm not I'm not advocating that. 00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:45.039 Matter of fact, I would never advocate evolution because I'm not saying there was even anything created, any created beings in that uh first creation. 00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:51.200 It could have just been the physical earth, and and I don't know what that would have constituted. 00:33:53.519 --> 00:33:59.279 Because evolution, in my opinion, slaps right dab in the face of creator God. 00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:03.039 But we're not gonna go there right now. 00:34:05.839 --> 00:34:09.920 Here's what we are saying: that something happened. 00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:13.440 And God's about to show up. 00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:20.159 Starting in verse 2, he's beginning, we believe, is a 70, and I believe, I'm a I'm a young earth guy. 00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:22.960 I believe in seven literal days. 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:26.639 Call me a fool. 00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:29.119 But I like to say to people, I'm a fool for Christ. 00:34:29.199 --> 00:34:30.079 Whose fool are you? 00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:33.199 You know, we're all a fool for something, right? 00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:34.559 Because we don't have all the facts. 00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:35.679 We weren't there. 00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:43.039 I choose to believe God's word that eons and that days, literally were 24-hour days. 00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:56.079