good guys bad guys

m00600

TITLE: WHO'S WEARING THE WHITE HATS?

OUTLINE:

INTRODUCTION

I. THE BAD GUYS

II. THE GOOD GUYS

III. THE FALL GUYS

CONCLUSION

We have a time when the king of Syria was having his plans foiled by Elisha. Each time the king would make plans, Elisha would tell the king of Israel. The king of Syria is upset and so is sending a force to take care of Elisha, and this is where we pick up the story. READ II Ki. 6:15-23

INTRODUCTION:

In 1990 we were in a fundamental Bible church to fill the pulpit. We were in the adult Sunday school class which consisted of a video that was more entertaining than edifying. Not that the speaker was bad, indeed he was very good. The problem was that his story telling outweighed any truth that he might have given.

The point to all this is that the teacher stood after the video and was talking about some management seminars that he had attended. The seminar leaders were from Harvard and other Ivy league schools back east. One of the seminars that was very interesting to him was the one that concerned our ora.

Now I'm not sure what "ora" meant to the seminar leader, but they were talking about pairing up the people and sending them off to separate rooms and allowing them to get in touch with one another's ora. An ora is supposed to be a glow around your head.

The indications were that you could communicate and gain knowledge from one another through being in touch with each others ora.

The Sunday School teacher ended his comments by saying that the people can have a 90% accuracy with this ora melding, and that he didn't know what to think about it, or where the ora came from.

Now I don't want to step on anyone's toes today, and I trust that none of you are into one another's ora, but I think that Sunday School teacher needs a good dose of knowing who the good guys and the bad guys are in this present world. He doesn't even recognize false philosophy when it circles his head!

Now I don't know what these "ora" are either, but I know that they aren't hallos! I may not know what they are, but I certainly know where the philosophy behind them came from, and I don't think that I would term it heavenly!

We Christians today in America are so prone to accepting anything and everything that we are basically accepting most anything that the Devil puts in our path!

We had seen a movie on television that depicted a nun that was living in the old west. She was a good woman and did many nice things for people in the movie. One of the women in our church was describing this good Christian movie that she had seen on television. It was the nun movie. The woman declared that this was a movie about this beautiful Christian woman doing all these great things.

I was recently in a meeting of Christian leaders and one of the men mentioned that a certain movie was going to be on that evening. I had nothing to do that evening so sat down to watch this movie that had been so highly recommended. I was a bit shocked to say the least. The movie was about ghosts telling people what to do in the first place, and in the second place, the swearing was so bad that we turned it off before it had gone very far.

I don't know what that Christian leader would classify as a movie that should not be viewed, but I feel anyone that fills their minds intentionally with language of that sort has some spiritual problems, or soon will if he doesn't.

We cannot fill our minds with garbage and expect roses to come out in our lives!

We recently found out that someone was upset with a television show that we were watching. The problem was that a man had shot a woman. Now that is really something to be concerned about in this day and age in television viewing. The same person by the way watches shows that have extensive swearing in them. The person was so upset with that show that we were watching that they began using swear words to describe it. Now isn't that just consistent as all get out! Degrade a TV show by swearing about it.

COME ON CHRISTIAN!

I. THE BAD GUYS

As we begin our study, I would like to let you know where I'm going, just in case I'm able to get there. If I get there it will really impress you. If I don't get there you will probably be so confused that you won't care.

We want to look at the "BAD GUYS" or the Devil and the demons, then we want to look at the "GOOD GUYS,” or the Angelic host, and finally we want to look at the "FALL GUYS" - that's us believers that don't know the good guys from the bad guys.

The demonic host is in conflict with the angelic host in the spirit world, even today. We don't know about this conflict much for we don't get 5:00 o'clock news on the battles like we did on the Viet-Nam war.

We don't know of the battles because they rage on a spiritual plain, with spiritual armies.

Now if all this is sounding bizarre, weird, and like science fiction, please hold onto your negative thoughts against your church leadership for asking me to speak this morning, and allow me time to dig my self out of this hole and look into the scripture with you for a few minutes to see what the Lord says on the subject.

Let us take a look at the bad guys.

We all know that when Lucifer rebelled against God, he had many followers that fell with him. The fallen angels appear to be the demons that the Bible mentions so often.

We also all know that the demons are active in making life miserable for people in the Gospels. The demon activity seems to be very intense in the Gospels, and most believe this intensity was due to the Devil's intense efforts to thwart God's plan of redemption.

These demons were active before the time of Christ, and are still active to this day. The Scripture does not give much mention to this activity, I believe, due to the fact that the Lord was showing in the Gospels that The Lord Jesus Christ had power over the demons. He could command them at will. This was a part of the verification that this Jesus was really and truly The Messiah-God.

We know that the demons can cause many many physical and mental problems for the unbeliever, indeed one must wonder how many of the sick crimes of our own day are caused by demon activity.

I recently saw a news cast of a woman that had been beaten for several minutes and then stabbed a number of times. One of her attackers yelled at his friend that this one wouldn't die. He kept on beating her. Both her arms were smashed and her head severely beaten.

The detective that interviewed the woman said that he had been told that the woman described the man and ended by stating that when she looked into the man's eyes she saw pure evil staring back. Later they found the young men were involved in Satan worship.

We don't hear much about demon activity here in America, because the Devil is not outward with his activity here.

If you talk to missionaries from Haiti or the Netherland Antilles you will find that demon activity is great even today.

HOWEVER, here in the United States the Devil is much more laid back.

He uses much more subtle tools in our laid back, accepting American society. He uses things that even we Christians accept as okay in our homes. He uses the:

Television set - You know that thing with the on/off switch on it, that never sees the off position.

Magazine ads - Some of the ads I see today, I must turn away from without reading because of the trash they contain.

I do not even look at Playboy and such magazines, yet when I pick up some catalogs that used to be available to the family, I am forced to quickly turn pages because of the same things that Playboy carries. We are throwing away many of those catalogs without looking at them.

Videos - you know the movies that we wouldn't think of going to a theater to see. Or the "Christian" video series that are on the market to tickle our ears. We have seen some that have absolutely no Scripture in them.

Self help books - you know, the ones that tell you how to take care of your family, the books that give you all the answers of the world, and seldom answers from the Word of God. I read an article by someone that had done a very extensive study of Christian literature and found that 87% of the Christian books on the market are of the make me feel good type. The self help - the Christian novels - the get in touch with yourself "Bible" studies - etc.

Even the Charismatic movement has seen the psychological junk the "Christian psychologists" have been feeding us! I fear most evangelicals are still wallowing in it.

WE HAVE ONE SELF HELP BOOK! IT COMES IN A PLAIN BLACK COVER FOLKS!

Sports - You know, the common expression years ago concerning car racing was that people liked it and went to the races because they wanted to see the wrecks. Today, I wonder how many watch football, baseball, and basketball to see the fights and the slugfests.

We have talked to good Christians that have rented motel rooms while on a trip to watch a Nebraska game. They watch the game and leave.

Radio - I might take an hour or two on secular radio, but I won't, I will just mention some of the trash on the "Christian" radio stations. We were listening one bright sunny Sunday morning and the preacher was boldly preaching the insecurity of the believer. In fact he preached that if you don't attend church properly you will lose your salvation.

The saddest part of Christian radio and television is that good fundamental believers are helping support the false teaching that is going out to pollute the airwaves and peoples minds.

I Timothy mentions that we are to avoid false teaching, not listen to it and support it's spread!

Enough commentary! END HOBBY HORSE! Let's get down to business.

Deut. 34.1-6.

"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,

"And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea,

"And the Negev, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

"And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swore unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over there.

"So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.

"And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day."

Now you are sitting there thinking, "Why did this character take us to that passage to show us the bad guys?" Turn with me to Jude 9 and I will show you.

Jude gives us a word of commentary concerning the Deut. passage.

"Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses..."

Now we don't want to get into all the ramifications of this text, but we can note that there was a dispute between the devil and Michael the angel over the body of Moses. We know from Deut. that Michael was victorious because it tells us God buried Moses.

The lesson we want to see is that there are conflicts on the spiritual plain. There are things going on that we are completely unaware of.

Let's look at another text which will show us the same principle.

Dan 10:10-21 I would like to read verses 12, 13 for you. The prophet Daniel had desired to understand a vision and the Lord had sent an angel to him with the information.

The angel has just arrived and is speaking.

"Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.

"But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me...."

Michael gets into all sorts of problems doesn't he! What a battle - 21 days - but God's forces were victorious! We aren't told the specifics of this withstanding, but it is quite evident that there was a spiritual confrontation.

Michael is also mentioned in Dan 12.1, where it tells that he will stand one day for the nation of Israel. "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."

Another account which shows angelic intervention into man's world. Herod in this account is trying to disrupt things, but God again sees the victory! Acts 12.6-10 carries the account of the release of Peter from prison by an angel. This release seems to have been in response to the prayers of the saints. Vs. 5 mentions, "...prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto God for him."

Paul relates this conflict to the security of the believer in relation to God's love, in Rom 8:38, a very familiar passage to you, I'm sure. "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God...."

Paul also relates to the church at Ephesus the truth that there are powers in the heavens. Eph. 3.10, "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places...."

Another text which shows the conflict is Ps 107.2, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy."

We won't take time to look at Luke 8.4-15 where the parable of the sower relates that the Devil can take the word out of the heart of the listener.

And now to our final text for this section let us look at Eph 6:12 for a moment. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Folks we are involved in this same conflict in this life as we go about our daily routine today.

We are involved, whether we want to be or not!

We are involved, whether we know it or not!

We are involved, whether we want to recognize it or not!

How involved, depends on your proximity to God. If you are walking with Him there will be more spiritual conflict. If you are walking away from Him there will be less spiritual conflict. Satan won't bother a sleeping saint - except to rock his cradle!

II. THE GOOD GUYS

The fact that there are good guys is seen in the vast army of the Lord that is mentioned in Ps 68.17. "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place."

Angels are mentioned over 300 times in the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. The term means simply "messenger."

They are created beings: Ps. 148.2-5; Col. 1.16; Jn. 1.1-3.

It would seem that they were created primarily to praise and serve God. Ps 148.2-5; Heb. 1.6.

They are spirit beings: Heb. 1.13,14

They are powerful: II Thes 1.7; II Pet 2.11; Ps 103.20.

There are many of them: Dan 7.10 mentions there were 10,000 times 10,000 which is 100 million at one function, and then Heb 12.22 mentions that they are innumerable. A WHOLE BIG BUNCH OF THEM!

To the point of them being the good guys.

a. They seem to minister to the believer in some manner. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Heb 1.14 "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones [children]; for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father, who is in heaven." Mat. 18.10

b. They serve God: They guarded the gate to the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve went out for lunch at the thistle labor café. Gen 3:22-24

c. We have already seen that in the conflict in the spiritual realm, that they are those that oppose Satan's forces.

d. They are involved in the after death experience of the believer in some manner. They are mentioned in the death of Moses as well as the death of Lazarus in Lu 16.22.

It is of interest that the Lord would send ministering spirits to minister to us at what is usually the most feared time of our earthly existence.

e. They carry out God's judgments: This is seen in Revelation as well as in Acts 12.23 where it mentions that an angel smote Herod with a great affliction.

We might draw some conclusions about the angelic host.

1. They serve God willingly.

2. They minister to man at times.

3. They are involved in the great spiritual conflict that is going on.

It is my personal opinion that they are involved in the rise and fall of nations. The fact that Daniel was closely tied to angels, as well as to his prophecies of the rise and fall of nations, seems to indicate it to me. Michael standing for Israel in the end time may also indicate the working with the nations.

At times there are things that go on in the nations that are really unexplainable in normal terms.

Many have wondered just why the Allies won WW II. The war was not going all that well, and most realize that the hand of God was upon the allies in some manner. Hitler was developing weapons that could have turned the war his way, indeed probably would have won it for him.

During one of the battles between Israel and the Arabs a number of years ago the enemy had missiles aimed at all of the major Israeli installations and armies. They had to do nothing but press the button and the missiles would have done their work. The soldiers saw the Israeli armies advancing and all panicked and left their stations without pressing the button. The Israelis walked in and took over.

Even the events of 1989-90 in the communist world smack of supernatural intervention.

The Kuait crisis that appeared almost over night has seen most of the world come against one nation.

4. There is one more passage that indicates that we may well be involved with angels in this life in ways that we may never know. Heb. 13 1-2, "Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

I'm not sure what that means, but I'm careful to read literally, and assume some strangers may be angels.

One late cold winter night in Colorado as we topped a mountain pass in a near blinding blizzard we saw an old dilapidated pickup on the side of the road with the hood up. We were going slow due to the weather and as we passed by the truck I noticed someone under the hood - literally he was sitting on the radiator with one leg on each side of the engine.

I pulled over immediately to see if I could help the poor man.

The snow was very wet and blowing almost horizontally. As I reached the truck the old unshaven, unkept man grinned and began thanking me over and over for stopping. He told me several times that he did not know what he was going to do. He said that he had been there for some time and no one had even passed by.

I had taken a flashlight with me and fortunate I was for the man had no light, and he was using paper matches in the driving wind and wet snow to try to see what was wrong with the truck. As he described the problem I assumed that his distributor had gotten wet. I had him hold the flashlight and I opened it to drain the melted snow from within.

We dried it out the best we could and put it back together. The truck started immediately. As I closed the hood of the truck he came to the front with tears in his eyes again thanking me over and over for taking time to stop for him.

Was this a man or angel? I have no idea, but as I drove off down the interstate the later fit the situation best. There was no one out on the road that night except the foolish Derickson family and an old stranger in an old pick up.

The whole situation seemed so out of character to any reality I wondered if that were angel.

III. THE FALL GUYS

Well we have identified the bad guys and the good guys, and now we want to get onto the third group in our outline, the fall guys.

That's us folks!

We seem to fall for all the garbage that the Devil and his world system feed us.

We fall for the lies of Satan concerning proper sexual behavior.

We fall for the lies of Lucifer concerning proper ethical and financial conduct.

We fall for the lies of the Deceiver concerning what is wholesome entertainment.

We fall for the lies of that Old Serpent concerning what is right and wrong according to the Scriptures.

We fall for the lies of the Arch Enemy of God, and put our Lord to shame!

We, folks are the fall guys!

We don't need to be however, for the Lord has given us all the tools we need, to face the Devil.

He has given us all the armor we need, but we have to put it on.

He has given us the answer, that is to resist him, but we have to do the resisting.

He has given us the Holy Spirit to assist, but we have to allow Him control.

I Pet. 5.8-9 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."

We are to be sober.

We are to be vigilant.

We are to resist the devil. Not now and then, but steadfastly!

HE IS OUR ADVERSARY!

Let me try to illustrate the thought of an adversary.

Many years ago I saw a movie as a child. It was the story of a destroyer and a submarine. The destroyer was on the trail of the submarine and no matter what the sub would do the captain of the destroyer would out guess him. Each and every move the sub captain would make the destroyer captain would follow.

The sub captain was one of the most cunning of the German U-boat fleet, yet he could not shake this crafty American captain on the surface.

After one of the depth charge attacks the captain of the sub shoot debris and bodies out of the torpedo tube to try and convince the American that he had destroyed the sub.

The sub played dead for as long as their air supply would last. Hoping that the destroyer had gone, he began to surface to get air and recharge his batteries.

The destroyer was waiting and sent another round of depth charges.

The sub captain knew that he had to surface for air and power. The depth charge attack caused more damage. As the sub came close to the surface, the captain was able to get a torpedo off which struck the destroyer. The destroyer being good at strategy played dead in the water. As the sub surfaced to finish the destroyer off with its deck gun the destroyer captain ordered his crippled ship to ram the sub.

The close of the movie was a mass of twisted steel and fire as both ships sank.

The American captain was certainly an adversary. He did not give up the fight even when the other captain made it hard for him.

The thought of our verse is that the Devil is our adversary. He will chase us down and defeat us if we give him any opening at all. His main purpose is to destroy us and our effectiveness for God.

THAT FOLKS IS THE BAD NEWS, BUT GOD DOES NOT LEAVE US ONLY WITH BAD NEWS. WE HAVE SOME VERY GOOD NEWS ON THIS SUBJECT AS WELL!!

James 4.7 is a verse that is critical to our understanding of all that we have mentioned thus far in our study. "Submit yourselves therefore to god. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Now, don't you take that verse lightly! Don't you pick up on only the last phrase and tell me that you are going to resist the devil. The first phrase is there for a supreme purpose! Without it you have no hope of resisting the devil.

"SUBMIT YOURSELVES THEREFORE TO GOD." THEN YOU CAN RESIST THE DEVIL.

HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU - HE WANTS NO PART OF A BELIEVER THAT IS SUBMITTING TO THE LORD IN HIS LIFE!

Yes, there are bad guys. The fallen angels are causing all sorts of problems for the Lord in the heavenlies,

BUT

We know that the good guys are always on the winning side in the heavenlies.

The devil and his forces are constantly trying to ruin what God is doing, YET there is never a time when they accomplish their task.

They may be able to side track some at times, but God always has the victory!

God will not be stopped, nor will His plan be stopped.

The angelic host and God will always be the winning side in all battles, as well as in the war. Satan and his followers will in the end times be cast into the lake of fire for all of eternity.

The point of all this boils down to the fact that, again we can see that God is most worthy of our obedience, service and praise.

He is not only victorious in the cross and in the end times, but He is victorious in every battle.

It is our place to allow Him free reign in our lives so that we will always be resisting the devil.

Not only can we give Satan fits through walking with God, but we can have confidence in the future.

No matter how fierce Satan gets in his battle, God will be the victor!

God is all powerful - He will put the Devil down.

God is all knowing - He will always know what Satan is up to and will block his efforts.

God is everywhere - The demons, nor Satan can ever sneak up on you without God intervening.

He will be victor if we allow Him to be in our lives - Submit to God not the Devil!

May we stop being the fall guys and begin to be the guys with the white hats. That is our main purpose in life folks.

Don't be a fall guy.

We never need to fall, but if you do fall, then take the count and come back fighting for all you are worth.

Reject the junk you hear, see and read.

Remove yourself from contact with things that are wrong.

Renew your mind when you find it walking where it ought not.

Resist the Devil and he will flee from you!