Mysteries of the Unseen World

Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer talks about the spiritual realm. Jesus spent his whole ministry casting out demons. We're not talking about like a side kind of element of his ministry. We're talking about one of the major motifs in his life. And if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you believe that he reveals truth, then you don't really have the option to not believe in an active and vibrant spirit world because he very clearly did. Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. So when you think about the concept of demons, what first comes to mind? I think a lot of us picture something from a movie like the Ghostbusters running around with their vacuum cleaner trap packs or the latest horror film on Netflix. It feels like a little out there, a little crazy and the stuff of fiction to us. But today, Pastor J.D. shows us that the spirit world is very real and it affects our lives a lot more than we probably think. We only have a few days of teaching left in the book of Ephesians. So grab your Bible, a pen and a notebook and let's join Pastor J.D. as we seek to get a clearer picture of the unseen world.

Here we go. Ephesians 6, starting in verse 11. He says, quote, 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 and against the authorities and against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places. Now, this has actually sort of been a confusing verse to me, that verse 12, because Paul certainly did wrestle against flesh and blood.

Right? I mean, he was beaten at least four times, not by a spirit, but by a Roman whip. That's flesh and blood. He was criticized by flesh and blood. He was imprisoned by flesh and blood. He was abandoned by friends of his who were flesh and blood. So he wrestled against flesh and blood. But what he is saying is that he realizes that he doesn't wrestle only with flesh and blood. Behind that world of flesh and blood, Paul recognized the presence of a powerful and active spirit world. He calls them cosmic powers of darkness, spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places, or spiritual forces of unbelievable power in the oppressive governments, in the dysfunctional relationships, in his bouts with loneliness and depression and even sickness, and in his struggle with pride and temptation, there was something he recognized that was larger and much more powerful at work, a world he could not see with his eyes.

C.S. Lewis made the statement in his book Screwtape Letters, when it comes to devils and demons, there are two equally wrong and equally damaging errors. The first, he said, is to disbelieve in their existence, but the other is to have an unhealthy interest in them. Those are the two errors I'm going to try to address and deal with out of Ephesians 6. Two errors that people in our culture, in our day, two errors they make about the spirit world. Here they are again, in case you want to jot these down. Number one, failing to recognize that the spirit world is there, that's the first one, failing to recognize that it's there, and then secondly, engaging the spirit world wrongly.

All right, let's jump into the first one. Number one, failing to recognize the spirit world is there. Now, the Ephesians to whom Paul is writing, they had absolutely no trouble believing in the presence of demons. The Ephesians were a very spiritual and a very superstitious people. If you recall, back when we started this series on Ephesians, I walked you through Acts 19, where Paul first enters into Ephesus, and one of the things that he does when he gets there is he starts to cast out demons.

And I told you there was this local Ghostbusters type squad that thought that this was great. Here's Paul casting out demons. So they would go up to people that they thought had demons, and they would say, hey, hey, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches to come out of this person. And in one of the greatest scenes in all of the book of Acts, one of the demons that they're trying to cast out actually stops and has a conversation with them. This is verse 16 of chapter 19, if you want to look at it later. One of the demons says, excuse me, Jesus I know, I know Jesus, and Paul I have heard of, which I told you again, makes me laugh every time, of wondering, what does that tell us about Paul I've heard of? Like there's some kind of newsletter that's gone out about Paul talking about who's hot and who's not in the Christian world. And it says, verse 16, that the spirit was so ticked off that they were trying to throw him out that he leapt on them, verse 16, and he mastered them so that they fled out naked and wounded. Remember I pointed out, like, did he really need to say naked and wounded?

Because when you're in a fight and somebody beats the clothes off of you, you're wounded in about every possible way, right? So these people, suffice it to say, they're very aware of the spirit world, very aware of the spirit world. Our culture that we live in has the opposite error. We tend to think that educated people don't really believe in the demonic. They don't show up in our microscopes and we have microscopes that can see down to the some of the smallest matter in the universe. We can see electrons through our microscope and, you know, we're scientific people so, hey, we can't see them, you can't reproduce them in a test tube, so they're not there. They can't be real because we can't see them. So let me explain to you just for a few minutes here why I do, why I do, just almost by way of introduction to this. I'm gonna explain to you why I do and why I've come to be convinced of their existence and why I think something that educated people would only not believe in to their peril, okay?

Here is number one. There's no question that the Bible presents them as real with passages like this one. You know I mean it's crystal clear that the Bible writers are talking about it as if it's real.

Primarily for me it's the life of Jesus. Jesus spent his whole ministry casting out demons. We're not talking about like a side kind of element of his ministry. We're talking about one of the major motifs in his life and if demons are not real then Jesus is reduced to a buffoon, right, or at least a guy who played on people's imaginations or a comic book figure. I trust at the end of the day y'all, I trust that Jesus understands the realities of the universe better than I do. And if you believe that Jesus is the son of God and you believe that he reveals truth then you don't really have the option to not believe in an active and vibrant spirit world because he very clearly did. And I've taught you before that faith is accepting what I cannot understand based on what I can understand. And if you understand that Jesus is the son of God, if you understand that Jesus is the revealer of truth, then I can embrace even things I can't see and get my mind around because I trust and I believe in him who raised from the dead and revealed truth to me.

So number one is I believe in it because Jesus believed in it and the Bible clearly teaches it. The second reason I believe in the spirit world, the reason I believe that world is real is number two, we can see the effects of the demonic world in our world. We can see the effects of the demonic world in our world just like people in the 1850s could see the effects of disease before they could see the actual germs. We can see the effects of demons.

You say well how so? Well look at the two names that Satan is called in this passage. One in verse 11, one in verse 12. Verse 11 he's called a schemer and verse 12 he's called a ruler.

Let's look at those one at a time. Schemer, verse 11 means that his role is to deceive. He comes up with schemes of deception.

You say well what scheme is he up to? Well you got to understand who he is and where he came from. Isaiah 14 verses 12 through 14 describe the genesis or the beginning of Satan, specifically his fall. Satan evidently was one of the highest angels, one of the archangels that God had created and many scholars, many commentators believed that he was like the the worship pastor basically for lack of better terms.

That's not personal, I'm just saying that's what he was all right. So he was the worship pastor and one day he decided he didn't want to be that anymore he wanted to be sitting on the throne and so he makes a speech that Isaiah records and maybe this was an internal speech I don't know but here's the way it goes. I will ascend to heaven. I will set my throne on high. I will make myself like the most high God. You go look at these verses you'll see five times Satan says I will. I will because I know better than God. I will because I want to be the point in that God. I will because I want to be in charge and I'll do what I want to do because I want to be God.

I will. That's why I told you and I tell my children when you think of sin, sin is the big I problem that's all it is. S-I-N take the middle letter of the word sin it's when I do what I want to do instead of what God wants me to do and you might think it's relatively harmless because you may not think of yourself as that bad of a person but when you say I will instead of God's will at that point you have undergone cosmic treason of the worst possible type.

I will. Sin is the I problem and so what Satan is scheming is to get people to choose the same path that he chose to repeat after him my will be done instead of God thy will be done or in the words of Frank Sinatra I did it my way. That is not a song you want to be humming on judgment day I assure you that okay. He is scheming to get people to do what he did. I went through the New Testament and tried to pull out this week most of the places where it describes how Satan goes about that in addition to the stories in the Gospels where you've got him possessing people and making them crazy and all kinds of stuff like that. I just went through the epistles mainly and began to pull out what he was up to.

Watch this. John 8 44 Jesus told us that the devil is the father of lies. First John 3 10 calls him the father of hatred and murder. First Timothy 4 1 says he spends out false doctrines and corrupts existing doctrines. Second Corinthians 11 14 and 15 says that he imitates religious authorities.

He loves to put on pastor clothes. Even giving many of these religious leaders the ability to imitate signs and wonders. Genesis 3 1 through 7 shows us that the devil plants doubts in people's minds about the word of God which means he teaches at seminary sometimes.

He makes people forget about death and impending judgment and he puffs people up with a sense of self-sufficiency. First Corinthians 7 5 tells us that he tempts the saints specifically the saints with illicit sex. Second Corinthians 2 11 tells us that he turns unresolved anger into bitterness in the hearts of God's people. First Thessalonians 2 18 tells us he puts obstacles in the way of God's missionaries.

Romans 16 verses 17 through 20 tell us he sows discord and division over doctrine and leadership among God's people. In Matthew 4 we see that he tempts us with power and makes us question God's love for us and question our identity in him. Second Corinthians 4 4 he blinds the minds of unbelievers. In Ephesians 2 2 he keeps unbelievers attracted to their sins and even ensnares them so they get addicted to their sins and desire. Second Timothy 2 26. First Thessalonians 3 5 he attacks faith wherever he finds it. First Timothy 3 6 he puffs up Christian leaders with pride so they fall. Then Second Timothy 2 24 he brings to the minds of unbelievers the pride and the fall of Christians so they won't take the gospel seriously. You'll see this he is a schemer and I would say you probably can see the effects of these things in your own life.

I know I certainly can in mine. Some of you this is exactly where you are right now. That's what's behind your confusion. That's what's behind the temptations. That is what is that is what is behind some of you your depression and your despair.

And just because you can't see it at work doesn't mean that it's not there. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Before we return to our program I want to share with you about a new tool that we've created to help you take your study of the Bible to the next level. It's the second installment of our popular Gospel Flipbook series this time focusing on four of Paul's letters.

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. It's a unique and interactive way to engage with these four key epistles found in the New Testament. This new resource has a ton of helpful features like a reading plan through each book, key passages and themes from each book, historical context, reflection questions and so much more. It's available exclusively to our Summit Life listeners when you support the ministry with your gift today. So whether you're a seasoned believer or just starting out on your faith journey, the Gospel Flipbook is a valuable tool for you to really know these four influential books in greater detail and in turn to know Jesus more each day.

To get your copy simply call us with your gift at 866-335-5220 or visit us online at JDGrier.com. Now let's return to today's message here on Summit Life. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Here's the second word that's used to describe him. Verse 12, ruler, ruler or authority or spiritual forces which means that he controls many of the world's systems. Now there's a question among theologians.

Let you in on this because I think it's actually kind of important. Verse 12, they wonder whether or not that when Paul says domains and powers and authorities, whether or not Paul's referring to actual earthly authorities like Caesar or if it's a reference to something above that that is unseen that you know then just you know is not really talking about the presidencies and the rulers of the people in our world. And you got theologians on both sides, but there's many other commentators, myself among them although I'm not an authority on Ephesians at all, that think that Paul actually left that deliberately ambiguous because he's talking about both of them. What he's showing you is that behind the Caesars of this world, there is another authority structure that is at work in and through the existing earthly power structures, making them his, making them accomplish his will and that he is dominating the direction of the most powerful institutions on earth.

You say that's a little like gloom and doomish, yeah I realize. But let me show you another conversation Jesus had that's just absolutely fascinating. The temptation. Satan takes Jesus high up on a mountain, shows him all the kingdoms of the world, says you bow down to me, I'll give you these. But here's what's amazing to me is the logic that Satan uses. Listen to this, it's Luke 4 6. To you I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I will give it to whom I will. And here's the thing y'all, Jesus doesn't dispute that.

He's not like no man, shut up. He acknowledges that that is true. Now it's true that Satan's authority is a derivative and a temporary authority.

He couldn't have any authority if God wasn't temporarily tolerating it, but the fact remains that for now he's the predominant influence and he is the ruler. Or check out the scene in Daniel 10, this is one of my favorite places in the Bible, and most confusing, Daniel the prophet. He's praying and in the midst of his prayer an angel shows up and the angel is so large and so glorious that Daniel falls down like he's going to die. Which by the way, the little picture that we have of angels is kind of chubby with little white satin robes and harps and shooting, but not at all true. I've never seen an angel but I can tell you that's not true because here's why. Every time somebody in the Bible sees an angel, the angel's first words are, don't die, don't die.

I know you think you're going to die, but you're not. And that's what the angel does here with Daniel. He puts his hand on his shoulder and says, fear not, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard and I've come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days. Okay, so Daniel starts praying a month ago and the angel gets dispatched to go and deal with Daniel and help him out in his prayer. But en route, somehow he gets tied up with the prince of Persia and they're duking it out and they're wrestling it out and there's all kinds of stuff going on and he says I got held up for 21 days. So I had to, you know, call my buddy Michael who's the archangel and he's got a lot of like people so he rolls up. He came to help me because I was stuck there with the king of Persia. Now I got to return to fight against the prince of Persia.

I just had to get away for a little bit, come and talk to you and then I got to go back and when I go out the prince of Greece will come. What are you talking about? Suffice it to say Satan is the ruler and he's the power behind this world. He is the dominating influence. The world governments are his governments. Its Wall Street is his Wall Street. Its entertainment is his entertainment. Its record companies are his record companies. Its newspapers are his newspapers.

Its educational system is his educational system and if you want to exceed in those arenas he's going to bombard you with enticement to play by his rules. That certainly does not mean you should not be there and should not be active because we're to be there showing the subversive revolutionary kingdom of Jesus in those but what that means is that because they are so influenced he is going to always bombard you to play by his rules and I would tell you that whether you're religious or not whether you are spiritual or not you can see unmistakable evidence of his work in and through human history and that he has indeed ruled it. You look at certain chapters of human history you're like how could that have happened? I take for example the Holocaust. Have you ever talked to a German person about the Holocaust? They're immediately hit with a mortified embarrassment.

You ever talked to them about this? Because they can't understand how that could have happened in their country. You know we're not talking about an afternoon where everybody got ticked off and went out and did some racist things. We're talking about years of scheming and planning the complete annihilation of a certain type of person. It was not only justified by philosophers and ratified by government leaders it was backed by religious leaders in Germany at the time and you get away from that and they look back on it from you know 40 50 years later and they're like I don't know how that could have happened.

The Bible says I can tell you how it happened. There was an enemy whose goal was to kill to steal and to destroy that was taking some of the natural weaknesses of mankind and was amplifying them and pouring nitrous on them until it turned into utter annihilation. Or take another one child pornography. We're talking about something beyond aberrant desires. Wouldn't you agree? And I've even known of people that who were in that for a while then after they got out they almost look back on it and say the same kind of thing like I'm not even sure what was happening. I don't understand how I could have gotten into that. The Bible tell you why. Because you have an enemy who is scheming to kill and pervert and twist and destroy. He amplifies evil and persuades us to do the most vile things.

Can't you see that? Can't you see that there's something greater at work in the world than just human dysfunction or bad parenting. I mean seriously even if you don't consider yourself religious and even if you're like I don't believe in this stuff look at human history can't you see that there's something beyond just human dysfunction. Our culture doesn't recognize the reality of the spirit world. I will point out though that interestingly to me the idea of evil has made a comeback in our century. You see at the beginning of the 20th century the idea was that evil could all be explained by psychological and sociological and biological factors and the idea was if you could change those factors give people better homes better education change your economic status then everything would just self-correct and then we live to the bloodiest century of mankind and a lot of people coming out the other side are like wait a minute where does all that come from.

The bible has an answer. It comes from an enemy whose role is to kill too still and to destroy. Got him Andrew Delbanco a self-described secular liberal at Columbia University recently wrote a book called The Death of Satan and it got a lot of interest and attention. He opens the book the first lines in these books are these very poignant lines listen to this. A gulf has opened in our culture between the visibility of evil and our intellectual resources for coping with it.

The evil that was always there is still there but since we have gotten rid of the idea of sin and sinners and we've gotten rid of the idea of original sin and we've gotten rid of the idea of the devil and we've gotten rid of the idea of all the transcendent aspects of evil now we're absolutely astounded by the fact that there is clearly something beyond what we can manage or control here but we have no way of dealing with it anymore. Delbanco says he thinks the best place in modern literature where this is evident is in the novel that later became a movie The Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter Anthony Hopkins is an incredibly evil man and Jodie Foster who plays Officer Starling at one point is listening to the things that Anthony Hopkins or Hannibal Lecter is saying and she interrupts with him she says wait what could have made you like this?

What happened to you? And Delbanco notes in his book he said those are such modern questions she is asking. They assume that we're only wrestling with flesh and blood. So what biological thing caused this? What psychological thing?

Did your parents not potty train you right? Is that what's going on here? And Hannibal looks back at her.

Do you remember this thing? Hannibal looks back at her and says why? Nothing has happened to me Officer Starling. I haven't. You can't reduce me to a set of influences. You've given up good and evil for behaviorism Officer Starling. You've got everybody in moral dignity pants.

Oh it's never anybody's fault is it? Look at me Officer Starling. Can't you stand to say that even I am evil? Delbanco makes the comment in the book he says these words are the epitome of the modern horror and dilemma. The horror of knowing that we cannot answer the monster's question. So maybe you are not religious at all but I'm just telling you most of us can see things that are going on in the world that are beyond biological abnormalities. And I would even argue one step further that most of you practically speaking can see the effects of the spirit world on your own life and in your own family. Don't fail to recognize the spiritual world is there all around you. That's the first error people make about this unseen realm.

Join us next time on Summit Life for the conclusion of this message titled Mysteries of the Unseen World where we'll learn the second error we commonly make. I hope you've been enjoying this teaching series in the book of Ephesians as much as I have and in case you missed it earlier in the show I also want to be sure that you know about our latest featured resource that ties in perfectly with this series. This month we are sending all of our financial supporters and gospel partners a copy of Pastor JD's new resource. It's the second installment in our gospel flip book series which we started last year.

We've included all kinds of helpful information to give you a better understanding of four key epistles from the Apostle Paul, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. You can receive your copy today with a gift to this ministry. Give us a call at 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgrier.com. While you're on the website be sure to sign up for our email list to get ministry updates and blog posts from Pastor JD delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up when you go to jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us next time when we continue this message on spiritual warfare. Have a great weekend of worship and join us again next week here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.