God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton on this edition of The Encouraging Word.
We're headed to Mark Chapter 1 on a two-part series today and tomorrow giving us the ammunition to go into battle. It's called Experiencing God Despite Spiritual Warfare. We all face spiritual warfare, and sometimes the first thing we have to do is acknowledge that.
Today we'll gain insight from Dr. Wilton, and also you need to know you've gained a friend, a partner in this warfare. We'd love to pray you through whatever's going on in your life at the other end of our prayer line. 866-899-WORD is the phone number. Jot it down. Store us in your cell. 866-899-9673.
Or go keyboard to keyboard on our website at www.tewonline.org. We'd love to connect with you. And now today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Please take a copy of God's Word this morning and turn with me in your Bibles to Mark's Gospel, Chapter 1. The Gospel according to Mark in Chapter 1. Our subject today is a very critically important subject, Experiencing God Despite Spiritual Warfare.
Now friends, I want to spend a good couple of minutes introducing our subject today because it is so vital and so critical. Experiencing God Despite Spiritual Warfare. How real is spiritual warfare? Well, the Bible tells us, my friends, that we are to put on the whole armor of God. That's what Paul told the church at Ephesus. He warned people about spiritual warfare.
And in fact, there are many, many passages right throughout Scripture from Genesis through to Revelation that deal with the subject of spiritual warfare. I believe that God gives us permission to come aboard His grace. God grants to us the privilege of being able to experience Him. It is not an automatic right. I don't believe that experiencing God happens by osmosis.
It's not a decision that people make. It is an encounter with a living God based upon the grace of God and rooted in everything that God is. Experiencing God is knowing God and we all experience God.
Every time we meet with Him in the fabric of our daily lives and hearings on Sunday mornings. You and I need to fasten our seatbelts, not only because the best is yet to be, but we better fasten our seatbelts because I'll guarantee you that God's Word teaches us that Satan doesn't like it one bit. I wonder if you've heard anybody say, just when things seem to be going so well, everything fell apart. You see, it doesn't have to be like that, my friend. It doesn't have to be like that in your marriage.
It doesn't have to be like that in your personal life. It doesn't have to be like that anywhere you go because the Bible says we can experience God despite spiritual warfare. But we've got to be prepared to understand the biblical mandate and we've got to be prepared to put on the whole armor of God. We need to keep our eyes open. You see, the materialistic, naturalistic world is pulling away from this side and from that side. The spiritual world as opposed to the materialistic world are engaged in absolute armed combat on a daily basis and the Bible says that Satan is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
I wrote a summary and I wrote it down. Five conclusions that are drawn with regard to the materialistic world in which we live. Here's what the world teaches us today. Five conclusions of the materialistic, naturalistic world as opposed to the spiritual world that is rooted in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Number one, the first conclusion that the universe is a cosmic accident that has no ultimate purpose. The universe is just simply a cosmic accident that has no ultimate purpose. You see, friend, everything the Bible tells us about experiencing God is rooted in Genesis chapter one and verse one.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and if we are ever going to continue to experience God, we've got to understand that the universe is not a cosmic accident and it has absolute and ultimate purpose because God is the foundation of everything that we have and everything that ever was. Number two, that human life is a biological accident that has no ultimate significance. That's what the materialistic world would have us think. That's what Satan wants to write upon our hearts. It's no wonder, my friends, that so many people have no problem whatsoever in killing unborn babies. It's no wonder in America today that we are witnessing the greatest slaughter of innocent lives that you could ever witness anywhere upon the face of the earth. That is putting even Hitler and the Third Reich to shame back in the 30s and the 40s.
Why? Because the naturalistic world, spiritual warfare under the leadership of Satan himself would teach us that human life is a biological accident that has no ultimate significance. What does the Bible teach us?
From the moment of conception that we are created and formed in the image of God from before the foundation of the world. Look at number three, life ends forever at death. That's what the naturalistic world would teach us. That's what the New Age movement is all about. That's what the occult would teach us. That's what Ouija boards and spiritism and all these spiritual mediums are trying to teach.
That's what the poison is that is being spread all over television programs at 95 cents a minute and you've got to be over the age of 18 in order to cover a multitude of transgressions. But friends, what the world is saying out there is that life ends forever at death. That's not what the Bible says.
That's not what happened to Mignon Jeffords yesterday, no sir. The Bible says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall never die but shall have eternal everlasting life. And she was taken by the angels transported to be seated at the feast table of the king. Number four, the mind has no separate existence or survival apart from the brain. Number five, that humanity's belief in God is a form of self-deception. You see, this is what the world out there would have us to think. They would say experiencing God, that's self-deception.
Getting religious, getting to know God, let's not get into all that stuff. That's eccentricity. That's going over the board. I mean, that's stretching a point. Let's, you know, be religious but don't get so involved, man.
I mean, go and shout for a ball team. But whatever you do, don't get excited about the word of God. Pray for overtime at the NBA finals so we can stretch the popcorn for one more lick. But whatever you do, never pray for overtime in God's house. Otherwise, God forbid the Methodists might beat us to the cafeteria.
Uh-oh, did I say that? You'd say to me today, well, pastor, what is this? It is the battle between good and evil. It is the battle between right and wrong. It is the battle between light and darkness. It is the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of evil that Jesus spoke about repeatedly throughout the synoptic gospels. It is the essence of everything that Jesus Christ is as the light of the world.
And in him was no darkness at all. You'd say to me today, pastor, how do we understand these things? We can only understand it from three perspectives. Number one, theology. Number two, exegesis. And number three, the experience of God's people.
You say, how do those three things help me to understand spiritual warfare? Well, number one, theology. What is theology? Comes from the word theos.
What is theos and who is theos? God. You'll never understand spiritual warfare until you understand God, my friend. Until you're prepared to come to an experience with God. Until you're prepared to come to a deep understanding of who God is. That's why I'm so grateful to God for our church and for the movement that has been sweeping across these hallowed halls.
Why? Because we're coming to grips with theology. I want you to know, friends, that what we believe is going to determine the way in which we live. But there's a second way in which we understand spiritual warfare and that's through exegesis. The word exegesis is from the word exegete, which means to come to grips with the word of God. We're not just coming to grips with theology, which is God. We're coming to grips with the word of God. What is said about God? How we learn about God?
The unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus. We've got to understand theology. We've got to understand exegesis. That is why it is so important every Sunday that this pastor and these Sunday school teachers and experience God major everything that we do in the unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus.
There is never an exception to that rule. The third thing is the experience of God's people. It's what you and I know to be true about God through the exercise of our own lives.
So how can we understand this? I want us to have a look at one passage that will help us to understand this. There are many passages in Scripture, but one of them, Mark chapter 1 and verse 21, follow along in God's Word with me this morning. The Bible says that they went to Capernaum and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.
Now, hold it there for just a minute. Did you know three things there? Theology, exegesis, the experience of God's people.
It's right here in that first verse. Jesus in the church teaching. Watch what happens.
The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then, now this is shocking folks. Are you ready for this? Please don't leave.
Listen to what happened. Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God. Be quiet. Said Jesus sternly, Come out of him. The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, What is this? A new teaching and with authority? He even gives orders to the evil spirits and they obey him.
News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. May the Lord write his word upon our hearts. Four things that I want us to understand about experiencing God despite spiritual warfare right here in this passage. Number one, the evil one possessed this man. Number two, the evil one protested the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Number three, the evil one had no power to resist the command of the Lord Jesus Christ. And number four, the evil one punished the man before he came out of him.
Now let's look at this closely together. First of all, the evil one possessed the man. Friends, if we're ever going to understand spiritual warfare, we've got to understand the deep significance of spiritual possession. You see, the Bible says that when Jesus Christ comes into your heart and life, he doesn't sit next to you, he doesn't just cuddle you, he doesn't just carry you, he possesses you.
That's right. I mean, he just takes over all of you. Now watch what's going to happen here. It is biblically and spiritually impossible for a born-again believer to be possessed by a demon or an evil spirit.
Here it is. Very important point here, folks. It is biblically and spiritually impossible for a born-again believer to be possessed by a demon or by an evil spirit or by Satan. You say, how can that be, pastor?
Well, it's very simple. The Bible says it is impossible for the temple to be occupied by light and darkness at the same time. Darkness cannot comprehend the light, according to John chapter 1. Jesus said, I am the light, and in me there is how much darkness?
There is no darkness at all. Now, while the Christian cannot be possessed by the evil one, the Christian can be influenced by the evil one. Are you going to say, well, now, pastor, you're splitting hairs here?
No, I'm not. We're looking at exegesis in the mind of God. You see, it is possible as a born-again believer for Satan to try to influence me. It's called temptation. In fact, Jesus himself was tempted, yet with no sin.
That was the difference. You see, I can be tempted, I can be influenced by the power of darkness, but I can never be possessed by the power of darkness because the Bible says, because of the spirit who dwells within me, he immediately sets up a revulsion and he kicks the power of darkness away from me. Now, that word possession is very interesting in verse 23. The Bible says just then, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit. That word possession there literally means to be taken over completely.
It means to be controlled by. That's why if you remember in John 8 and verse 44, Jesus said to his disciples, he said that Satan is the father of lies. That means that he is the controlling, manipulating factor of everything that is the antithesis of the holiness of God. Little wonder that in just a moment, what is the one thing that the evil one could not tolerate as far as God was concerned? It was his holiness.
And in fact, the evil one in the next verse is going to say, get away from me. I cannot tolerate your holiness. I cannot tolerate your righteousness. I cannot tolerate your sovereign grace.
I cannot tolerate everything that you are. Number one, the evil one possessed this man, but there's something interesting about that. Did you notice that this man was possessed inside the church? That's what the Bible says. Jesus went into the synagogue. There the people were, verse 23, just then a man in their church, in their synagogue.
You say, pasta, horror upon horrors. You know what that means? That means that Jesus Christ is just reminding us, folks, that just because a person comes to church doesn't mean to say that they know Jesus Christ. Just because a man is a preacher doesn't mean to say that he knows Jesus Christ.
Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message in just a moment. But as Dr. Wilton challenges us all in our study of God's Word to experience God despite spiritual warfare, you need to know you are not in this alone.
God has built each of us for community, a part of the body of Christ. And if you're facing spiritual warfare and you need someone to pray with you or for you, we stand ready to do that right now at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673.
Available not just now during the broadcast, but any time, 866-899-9673 will connect you with one of us happy to talk or listen or pray or connect you with resources that will give you ammunition in your spiritual warfare, like the Daily Encouraging Word Bible Guide. You can receive it physically in a small booklet that we'd be happy to send you absolutely free. You can call or visit our website, tewonline.org, to request your copy. Or you can even sign up for the email online at tewonline.org, and we'll begin sending it to you every morning. It's a powerful word from God's Word, encouragement from Dr. Wilton in how we should pray through the day and how to apply God's Word to our life. Again, it's called the Daily Encouraging Word email from Dr. Don Wilton. Sign up today at tewonline.org.
Or if you'd like a physical copy, just call us and ask for it at 866-899-9673. Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Just because you're sitting in the pews today, or you're worshiping with us by way of television, does not mean to say that you know the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says this man was not under the control of God, he was under the control of Satan, and to make matters worse, he found himself inside the church. But you know something? That's good news. You say, oh no, Pastor, now you've really... You're telling us it's good news the man was possessed by the evil one in the church?
Yes. Do you know why? Because it was in the church that he encountered the presence of Jesus, folks.
And look what happened. That's the good news. That's why I love the invitation. Some people say, well preacher, surely the invitation needs to be sad and morbid.
Uh-uh-uh. That's the best time of the whole service. Do you know why? People are joining the church, people are coming for baptism, people are coming to know Jesus Christ, people are confessing sin. That is the climactic culmination of the entire worship experience.
Do you know why? Because we are sinners saved by the grace of God. And the Bible says this man was possessed inside the church. Note in the second place that the evil one immediately protested the presence of the Lord Jesus. That's what the Word says in verse 24. What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Is it possible? Do you really think that the devil recognizes Jesus? Yes, sir. Someone said to me one time, does the devil believe in God? You better believe it. He believes in God, but it didn't mean to say that he had the Lord Jesus living in his heart. See, most of Americans today know about God in their heads, but they don't have Jesus living in their hearts. Bible says the devils believe in God and they tremble. They understand him. They know exactly who God is. And the Bible says that immediately Jesus came into the house of God.
The evil one protested the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was pastoring a church in South Louisiana. That's why I speak with a Cajun accent. And I was there for six years, precious group of people, love them to this day. And one day I received a phone call from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which is the home of the LSU Fighting Tigers, which, according to Dr.
Pounds, used to be a very good team. And I beg your pardon, Jerry. But any rate, I got a phone call to go up to General Hospital in Baton Rouge and there was a family there. They met me at the door and they said to me, Pastor, we heard you preach at a meeting and we really need you. They were in agony. Said our daughter, 16 years of age, is in this hospital room and she's dying. I said, what's wrong? They said nobody knows what's wrong with her. She's tried to commit suicide. She's been immoral.
She's got involved in everything, but she's got nothing physically wrong with her. Well, I didn't know what to do, folks. You know, I've got a doctorate, but I didn't have the right one for this.
I didn't have one back then either. And I walked into that hospital room and I'm telling you something, folks. I don't know if you've ever been in a place where you feel the evil. There was just evil there. It's like Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
My wife and I just stopped going to Bourbon Street. You could just sense the evil, just walking down the street. Just evil.
You can't just sit. Just evil, folks. That's all it is.
Ugliness, the antithesis of God. And when I walked in there, I knew that there was only one thing I could do and that was to pray. Isn't that silly? I mean, can you imagine having to resort to prayer? I mean, how can anybody get so weak? I didn't know what else to do. Maybe I didn't understand the power of prayer like I do today. And there were about 10 people in there and I realized I needed an ally. I needed someone who knew Jesus Christ to pray with me. I went up to the first man and I said to him, sir, are you a born-again believer? He said, well, it depends what you mean by that. I said, would you mind leaving, please? Out with you, please, if you don't mind, sir. I couldn't take the risk, folks. I went up to the next lady and I said, ma'am, are you a born-again believer?
She said, oh, yes, preacher. I love the... I said, don't explain. Just write here. Don't move. It's written all over your face. You love Jesus. I went up to the next person. I said, sir, are you a born-again believer? He said, well, I go to church every Sunday. I said, would you please leave? Man, I can't run that risk, not if I understand this passage. Just because he goes to church, you know, just because you're born in a garage doesn't make you a motor car.
You know that, don't you? I said, would you please leave? Well, I ended up with several people standing around. We joined hands together, and I turned to this young lady who was so angry. When she looked at me, I've never seen such hate in eyes. And I began to pray, Lord Jesus, I know you shed your blood for me and for Colleen upon Calvary Street.
I don't know what to say. I'm probably saying all the wrong things, God, but would you do something for this young lady today? Would you come into her life?
Would you presence yourself? Folks, the lights didn't fall out. There wasn't an earthquake.
The Mississippi River didn't overflow at its banks. But I'll tell you, a piece of God came over that room such of which you cannot imagine. And she turned around to me, and for the first time in weeks, she smiled and said, hello. And I looked at her, and right there with her mother and her aunt and these people, I led that young girl to the Lord Jesus Christ and baptized her some weeks later. When last I heard, she was still growing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, isn't that all what we desire to continue to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ?
But that growth starts with a single choice, a decision. The Lord is not gonna force himself on any of us, but there is an opportunity for you to change your life with a simple decision today, a life-changing decision that Dr. Wilton's gonna share with you next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.
This is exciting news. As Dr. Wilton was praying that powerful salvation prayer, perhaps you agreed with him in your heart, and you, like I did many years ago, are saying, God, as best I know how, I need you to save me. What do I do next? Well, you've given your life to Jesus Christ. That's the most important thing. But next, we'd love to walk with you in not only growing your faith but helping you plug into a local church near you.
All of this takes place by just starting a conversation. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD, and we stand ready to talk with you, pray with you, and give you free resources from Dr. Wilton that'll help you grow and, again, help you find a local church to plug into. You may already know the church you know to go back to, but know that we're here to help you at 866-899-WORD.
Again, the number is 866-899-9673 or online at tewonline.org. If you missed the information a little earlier in the broadcast, we'd love to help you sign up for the Daily Encouraging Word as well. The Daily Encouraging Word is a daily devotional made available in a quarterly booklet or delivered each morning in your email inbox. If you would like to request this free devotional, please call 866-899-WORD or visit our website at theencouragingword.org. We are confident that it will be a blessing to you. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener-supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Our time's gone for today, but tomorrow we bring you the conclusion of this Experiencing God Despite Spiritual Warfare message from Dr. Don Wilton. And again, it literally is giving us ammunition to fight the battle and to also know how we can defend each other and defend ourselves as we struggle to be the men of God, the women of God that we know we're called to be on a daily basis. All that's coming up tomorrow. Between now and then, let's stay connected on our website at www.tewonline.org.
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