All right, so hopefully this afternoon, if you had time to think, some of you already asked me about it earlier, but I left you with the question about why is the world the way it is? If I say to the average Christian, I'd say the average person here, and I'd say, why is there death? Why is there disease? Why is the world like it is? Your answer would be? Sin, yeah, the fall, right? Because Adam and Eve, the sins into the world. That's right. We know that we're here because of that. Adam and Eve plunged man into sin, sin and death. It all came. It's 100% true. But is it all the truth? That's not how the Old Testament people saw it. They saw it that way, but they saw more than that. They said that there was more. Same way with the New Testament. They agreed with the Old Testament people. They had the same kind of mindset as they looked at these things. So they had two other factors that they said were to blame on why the world is the way it is. Why mankind is the way it is. So Genesis 3 is Adam and Eve. The fall brings death, disobedience, came murder shortly thereafter. There's rebellion just in general because of Adam and Eve's rebellion that comes upon the whole world. And when I say those things you know death disobedience murder and rebellion we read a lot into that because we're in 2017 and we have a fuller grasp of how depraved those things could be More so than I think that might have been even right then Because the next event was only three chapters over and There's three chapters over that the Old Testament Saint and the New Testament Saint would say, this is why the world is depraved as it is, why it's fallen, why there's death and why there's disease. We know what sin is to blame, but why it's as bad as it is. Three chapters over from Genesis 3 to Genesis 6, if you want to turn there. might say uh... some of you will genesis six one through four says they came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth that daughters were born unto them that the sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair took them wives all that they chose and the lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he is also flesh yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years And there were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bared children to them, and the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown." This is the angel mischief. You know, we're satanic fallen angels and the influences of mankind. They saw this event as adding to the depravity of the world. They had the fall of man, yes. This is more. And I think that because we're so far removed to where we are here today that we don't really think of this in that light. Matter of fact, this is a verse that, as a general rule, has always been skipped, unless you're a weirdo like me. And then we bring it up. It's like, why is this here? What's this talking about? What all does this mean? And we've spent some time with that as we came through Genesis 6. But we live in a time when a lot of the Old Testament books have been verified through the Dead Sea Scrolls. They have not changed down to what was there. But they found other books along with the Dead Sea Scrolls which fill in a lot of blanks. And they shouldn't be in the Bible, I'm not saying they should, but it just kind of gives us an idea of what their time was like. And we have benefits of that. Like if you wanted to study a little house on the prairie, knowing what life was like then kind of gives you a fuller understanding of why they did what they did and how they did it. We went to a really boring family reunion on my wife's side, not my side, we're excited. But on my wife's side, I mean to the point where we're all like, we finally like, we're not coming to this anymore. They ran it like a business meeting. Danny's laughing, he was there. It was just one of them and they would read and they read, one of the things that they do, they'd read from Laz's journal and Laz was a very boring boy who did very boring things. But he would mention stuff sometimes and he just lived over here, I think it was Bud, wasn't it? Bud is a town where there's the sign fell down so you don't know it's there anymore, but just passed on 44 and there's this little town in the curve of the road there and that used to be Bud and And they'd go to Franklin, and it was like an all-day trip, you know, to go to Franklin because, you know, it's horse and buggy days, gravel road, you know, not much going on. And they mentioned a few different things that I do remember that kind of piqued my interest. They're like, what's that? What are they talking about? Because we're out of context, you know, we don't do things that way. And so history helps you. If you could look up and define those words, you're like, oh, that would make Laz's adventures of going to town, you know, seem exciting. And so there are books that add to that, as a matter of fact, and they even address us. But to keep it simple here for tonight, angels are the sons of God, that's the fallen angels, that they raped women, and it goes on to tell us that they taught men more perverse things, that they added to the depravity. The offspring here were cannibals. That's a new one. Before they were abusing animals and each other, but now they begin to eat men, so cannibalism comes into play. That's nothing new for us. I'm trying to remember how old he was when Jeffrey Dahmer came out, but he was a mass murderer who ate his victims. At the time it was so shocking to me, but happens all the time now. They only wait until they're dead sometimes and they're eating people. And so that's there. One of the things it says that they taught was makeup, to keep it simple, but the ways of seduction, how to paint the face and draw and for women to manipulate men and ultimately even other angels. The mixing of kinds, they talk about that, doing genetic mixing. what we're doing today, a lot of that, and then the perverse sexual things, that they take it further, to where God says, I've got to make some laws, and he makes laws against those things. The Old Testament and the New Testament man would look at it and say that angels added to our fallen state, that they brought in these perverse things. They took man deeper and further down. They invent incest, or show us what incest, and bestiality, and torture. Not even just killing somebody, but you torture them first, and then I tell you what, get pleasure out of torturing them. You know, you sadist, and so that takes us down, down, even deeper. You know, you can turn on your TV station and watch through and you'll see all the special victim and whatever else. That's all depraved things. And that doesn't shock us hardly anymore because it's what wicked people do. They do wicked things. They taught them the sacrifice of their own children, infanticide, that they would do that. You know, horror, horror, who would do that? The angel's like, hey, here you go. You know, think what this is. And stuff that we all know all too well, dark things. dark things that we don't even need to mention. But man fell, and the devil and the angels piled on to the problems of mankind by enticing them to do even more perverse things. And it gets so bad that God says, I got to take the world out. And so he floods the world. Noah is the hero, and more of a hero than you and I think. I mean, he's a hero, and he's a hero to us, and a pretty all right guy, but there's a lot more going on there than even I would even think about. And we'll talk about it at a later date. But it's so bad that he has to judge the world. Verse 4 says that there were giants on the earth in those days and also after that. So it happens again. And when we know that David has to fight a giant, and that's after the flood, you know, so it happened again. And we've talked about some of that before. To the point where even Paul's worried about it in his time. He even writes about it. And you're like, I don't remember Paul worried about angels coming down. And we'll look at that later. But Satan isn't done. And so he's going to do more things. He's still going to do more perverse things. And there's a whole battle that is going on that you and I don't care to think about. But it goes all the way back to Genesis. And it's called the seed war. Between God's seed and the double seed. And so it's this battle of kinds and charge over the earth. And we're pawns in the middle. I said that there were three. So there's the fall. And then there's the demon and the angels and Satan that add to man's depravity. Not hard for us to imagine, we believe that. There's even a show on TV now, Lucifer, going around doing, I haven't watched it, but going around doing perverse things, I'm sure. But there was another event that the Old Testament and the New Testament believer said that why the world was the way it was. And it's five chapter layers in Genesis. So Genesis six, then go five over, that'd be Genesis 11. That's the Tower of Babel. They said that that's why man and the world is like it is. Because man united in rebellion against God, that God gives them a rule to go and spread and prosper. And they're like, no, we won't do that. Genesis 10 is called the Table of Nations. Go through it and it talks about so-and-so begat and so-and-so But you know in the land that they got and how it went and so he divides the world up into 70 nations Some some get 72 I say 70 from some New Testament things that Jesus said I think he knows what he's talking about so I think I'll go with him 70 nations and so there's others who divide it up and so 70 nations Who is the God that these people know, these 70 nations that are divided up after the Tower of Babel that were there? When we have the table nations in Genesis 10, they'll be divided in chapter 11. They're all descendants of Noah. So they know the God of the Bible, right? There's the one Lord, there's the one God. They know him, they know his story, they know what is there. It is preserved. When you go to the Ark, some of the things in Noah's study I found interesting. He wanted to remember the story to keep it going. So he has a lot of his art that he has in his office on the Ark, which he would have a study. It's like his map room, I think it was. Tree of Knowledge and Good and Evil and Adam and Eve there, a serpent in it, and they're walking away. He has another applique thing on the wall of the Tree of Knowledge and Good and Evil. So he had several times throughout the Ark you will see these images that Kinham and them have done a good job putting on there that he doesn't want to forget the story of the fall. Cain and the first murder and there's a few other places they have that. And I thought they did a really good job of that. They would know the story. They would know what was going on. Everything else had been wiped out. All the perverseness. They would know that there was one God. They would know his rules. They want him to worship him. They want him to be worshipped all over the world. Take me, make the world yours. Go out and replicate the Garden of Eden. We know it's in a fallen state, but go and do it. And they said no. No, we don't want to do that. We want to make a name for ourselves. We don't want to do what you've told us to do. We want to rebel against you. So man united in rebellion to overthrow God. And then to say, no, we're going to call the shots. We're going to control you. And there's a lot that is probably going on in the Tower of Babel that we don't get that is in there. But again, that would be another time. So they blame this. So the Old Testament and the New Testament saints said there was the fall. That plunged man into death and disease. We have that. Angels, giants, fallen angels, mischief. That goes on. And Babel. So the trifecta. Wicked on three fronts. And so we have more going on than that. So the thing went up when I was hearing that, and I was like, well, you know, I can see that. And I can see those in there. And so I've been looking at it for a little while. And I want to think, why did we abandon that? You know, why is it so hard to go to Genesis 6 and talk about it? Or if you bring it up to somebody who's not here and been through the lessons like we've been through, and then not to look at you like you have three eyes or something like that. You know, okay, you know, fee-fi-fo-fum, that's what you're talking, you know, like, oh, giants. And yet, we live in Indiana, a state named for Indians, and yet we deny most of our Indian heritage. And yet there are mounds everywhere. At the bottom of those mounds, 12-foot skeletons. I think the closest one to where we are standing right now would be Shelbyville. I think they found like a 12-footer there. Ohio River crossing, there was a whole island full. They found them with copper tools and double rows of teeth, six fingers, six toes, the guys we talked about. They called the Ohio Valley between Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. the valley of the Nephilim that is here. It's like they came here. One theory is that Joshua was going in wiping them out. They came over here to get away and hid out for a while. Maybe. But yet we're going to deny that? Now we do live in a time and age when it's been suppressed. You can go, and I got a book for Christmas that was all about just the recounting, at least as far as I've gotten it so far. It's just them republishing the news accounts where in New Harmony, Indiana, a man found these boats and he kept them in there, you know. The Smithsonian Institution stayed and came and got them, investigated the bones, took them. We don't know where they are to this day. That's how generally every article would end about a giant bone. The Smithsonian Institution came to get it. We don't know where they are to this day, and they deny having them. It's called Smithsonian Gate. Because it doesn't fit into evolution. No, we're smaller, getting bigger, stronger, faster, you know, because we're evolving. And that doesn't fit, so let's get rid of that. And they want to make sure that Indian was a depraved, you know, creature. We have the right to take his land from him and use it like we want. And so you suppress that knowledge and build one up, you know, because the victors tell the history, you know, the way they want it. And so we're kind of victims of that. And so I think a lot of that is that you can't go along saying they were giant people because that makes the Bible true and it makes this all different and we have to look at the paradigm a little bit differently and so they don't like it so they deny it. And so when you realize that there is a war going on. And I think even primarily in the church that we deny the supernatural. We say we do believe it. We're like, okay, I believe in God. But outside of that, that's why there's statistics like I told you this morning that one third of the Christian church in the United States denies that there's a Holy Spirit. That's baffling to me. Do you deny your Bible? Do you deny what's there? How do you not get that? How do you say you believe in that and yet you deny it? And deny that there's a Satan, deny that there's a fallen creature, that this is part of the battle. He's involved in all three of these. You know, he's there tempting Eve, right? God has not said, right? And he's trying to get him to eat and to take and to do all this. And so, and yet, we're going to say, no, he's not even a factor. That's not out there. It's just, you know, some quaint story that we tell, you know, because we're scientific. You know, we don't believe in that. And so, it is curious. You know, and so, mass shooters, we just, Mom and Dad were just mentioning another one. Mass shootings are going on. You know, a common theme of a lot of them is that there is somebody in my head telling me that I should do this. There's some wicked source in there telling you that you should go out, do violent acts that cause blood and wreak terror on people. There's a voice telling me, I have an idea who that voice might be. It seems consistent with what the Bible says. He likes violence, he likes blood, he wants it to be that way. And yet we're going to say, chances are they're just crazy, they've got a mental condition, you should put them on some drugs. I'm not saying they might not need suppress, but I think there's a spiritual factor in here that we take out. That's what I don't get, and I think that's where, with Timothy, he later says, in the last days, the church has a form of godliness, but denies the power thereof. It's kind of like. It's a nice little crutch that we have, but that's why they fall away by the thousands. Ken Ham wrote the book, Already Gone. If your parents really don't believe you by the time the kid leaves the house and goes to college, college is going to do a really good job of driving anything out of you that was even halfway remotely that way. It's a war. We're in a war. We're denying the supernatural. I think we should bring the supernatural back. I think we should embrace it and we should take it because it makes the Bible even more fantastic. You know, and we should take it. When we say that we believe these things, we ought to believe these things. You know, the resurrection is a miracle that we believe in. Yeah, Carl. Yeah, they'll buy the alien story. And I was reading some accounts from NASA the other day about how they'll buy that a naturalistic way. Well, oh, we evolved on another planet. Surely that'll be that way. Yeah, but they won't believe in God. One, because God has rules. And God has a way to govern you. And he tells you what is right and wrong. And so we don't like that. We like to be able to govern ourselves, do what we want, when we want, and how we want to do it, and not feel bad about it, which it says that would be part of the battle that we will face, that they will turn away from him. And they'll seek to change his times and his laws. And I think we see that. Look at Ephesians 6, there's a memory verse in the fall, so it should sound familiar. And when I felt like this should be the memory verse to kind of keep it in our mindset, that was before. WikiLeaks leaked the Podesta emails that told us how dark it was. And the saying was, at least the story that I hear, that those who saw all the emails that he had from everybody and why the FBI, Comey, didn't release everything he did, why he said what he did, is that if we'd have known everything And the whole scare tactic was tell the world that something wicked is going on so they don't reward this wickedness because it's darker even than you can think. It'll destroy our nation if you knew how dark and evil this was. And they talked about spirit cooking, getting together where they had, there's pictures I found where they had this party out west where they had a cake that looked like people and they cut it all up like blood and they all ate it and they had heads of people in the table and they all simulated doing all this, like they were killing people and eating it and this is Hollywood stars, Gwen Stefani, she was one that just kind of shocked me being there, but Debbie Harry, you can go on and look on it, it was like the Los Angeles art, it was seen as art. as they cannibalize, stab and rape women and eat them, all these people who are feminist and for women's rights. It's like, what are you talking about? Why would you simulate that? Why would that be the cool and trendy and neat thing? And apparently Anderson was another one there. There's a whole bunch of famous people that were there. It's like, what? You guys are into this dark, dark thing? And they said, you would not know and understand how dark it is. And we could not handle it, so they suppressed it. And so that all came out and I was already thinking about, man we need to have our spiritual eyes awaken that there is another realm. We live in a time, well one, we live in a time of scientific enlightenment where we know that there is. CERN has come out Again, you can say, oh, the conspiracy theorists are like, what's CERN doing? It's not more than trying to find this god particle in the Hadron Collider. And they admitted that we are trying to open doorways to other dimensions. We're trying to communicate with them on the other side. There's pictures of the target area where they tried to send the message through, and it's written in ancient Hebrew, paleo-Hebrew it's called, and other foreign, like Sanskrit and a few other different languages. What are you trying to do? Why are you trying to open up? If there's been something closed, why would you try to do that? And then you read Revelation about it. Well, the connections open, the doors are open, and all these demons come pouring through. And it's like, shouldn't we vote on this before we go doing things like that? And they're trying to build a bigger one of these in China. There's some dark stuff that you can look at. But in Hebrews 6, verse 12, it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Paul reminds us of that. Don't you forget this. That we are wrestling against this, and yet we do. And the church has done a pretty good job of sterilizing it and taking it out, because it's like, that's kind of iffy. Like I said, I remember being a teenager, going to my pastor saying, hey, what do you do with this? And being told, I think that might be true. We'll never say anything about it, and I'll never confirm that I told you that I think that might be true, because hey, you might lose your job if you say supernatural is real. I think it's interesting, because in the United States, we're talking about sterilizing so much. That's what fascinates me with what Franzi's saying. I mean, did you see anything there or could you just feel it? You feel it when you're there. It's obvious. I didn't really see anything waiting. I mean, we were there over New Year's. That's a big deal. That's a big celebration. The things that go on in other countries, and most of them identically are what we consider third world or less. There's a spiritual warfare that I don't think we in America could even begin to have. No, and I think you're right. Like I said, the missionaries that I had talked to before that were to Haiti, he was like, he goes, if I told the things that I faced and I had to go through, he goes, I would not get support from a Baptist church anywhere. It's too supernatural. You can't do that. It's like the hexes that were placed on the property, the things that they would say that they'd see and do. Franzi talking about all that food they're offering to the demon. Remember, he said he was so hungry, I went and ate some. He was like, at this point, I don't care. I'm going to go eat. I've got to have some food. And then how that brings him to Christ. And so that's out there. But is that fake? Because I was always kind of taught that was fake. There's no nothing. It's just a rock, right? It's just a superstition. Is there something behind that? Is there more? Paul says there is. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. The Bible talks about three heavens. There's the sky, there's space, and there's where God's abode is. So that's another dimension. We can look at it. It's there. And you get glimpses of that in the Bible, like with Elisha, with his servant. And he's like, open his eyes. And they looked, and he's able to see that there's all these angel realms that are there that are guarding and protecting them. It was there all the time. He couldn't see it. And so what else is there that we can't see? I don't know. Do you think when we feel that, our own selves, do you think it's just our own mind messing with us, or do you think it's really there? It could be. That's where we fall into the line of, do you give it too much? And make it like, I don't want to be afraid of anything that's out there. One, we shouldn't, I mean the New Testament tells us time and time again, do not be afraid, do not be fearful, don't be, you know, greater is he who is in you than he is in the world. So we should be trusting that, but does that mean that there's not something going? He does oppress, and he does try to quench, he does try to keep down and suppress. He does run interference that is out there, but I don't want to be looking for him so much that I overlook, but I also don't want to ignore him to the point where I see him as a non-threat, and so then you're blindsided, and so yeah, it's kind of a balancing act. Chesterson, Indiana, there's a place where spiritualism goes crazy. People flock to there for some reason because they're having contact with something, lion spirits I would think, but here principalities means Archons, or the first leaders. Doesn't mean much to me because I've not been taught any of that. Doesn't mean it's not there, just means we've usually spiritualized it. Elaine was asking, she goes, when did this, because we've been debating this a lot. She's like, she always plays the devil advocate. I'll throw you out, you nut. I want to go where the word tells me to go, and if I don't say it, then I'm going to be the one that's like, why didn't you say it if you knew and understood it? But that's the dilemma of a teacher. And so she's like, well, when did it stop? And we think it goes back to Constantine. And so if you went back to Constantine, that's when the Holy Roman Empire, he embraced Christianity, went from being the Roman ruler who was persecuting the church to he made it the state religion. And so now all of a sudden, if you're a teacher and you're sponsored by the state, and you come out and you want to preach a text that talks about the ruling government being wicked and evil, That guy pays your bill, you might say, well, I think this is talking about a spirit. And they kind of round it off, soften it up, spiritualize it a little bit, and say, well, it really doesn't mean your kingdom. And so they begin to push it down and suppress it and put it further back. And so you have a lot of spiritualizing. Well, it doesn't mean Israel. It means whoever the current church is. And they begin to always think of some fancy way around it instead of doing what the text actually says and what it puts there. And I think God knows how to use what he uses. Deeper meaning sometimes yes, we talked about that this morning, but I think we've just suppressed it and then as we got more and more first world Yeah, like Tim was talking about the third world more and more first world the more we trust in science more has to be Has to be explainable something that we can see feel and touch and know and understand repeatable that we can do it this way and God doesn't work in that you don't put him in the bottle and you don't make him do what those things and yet He is supernatural. We are trusting in Him and being supernatural. He says that there are angels. He says that they are out there. He tells us that there is a dark force that rules over us. Then Paul tells us this, that we have these archons that are over us in that way. Another one's power there. That's governmental rulers on a spiritual level. Like God says, which, you know, there's angels, but we talk about messengers like Malachi, and there's delivery messages, and that's the ones we mostly have record of, right? Gabriel delivering the message to Mary, and delivering the message to John's father, Zechariah. Oh, you're going to have a baby in this way. He delivers some messages to Daniel. He's delivering a message. He's that kind of angel. He's an archangel, but he's also delivering a message in that way. There's a few others that battle. But there's other realms. There's the ones that went out destroying angels that did these things. And so they all have, there's like a military and there's like a governmental, there's a regional area in that way. And so there's the powers of government, the ones who are head over there who have them underneath them. Just like we would have a government, you know, with the governor and then you have vice governor and it went on down. They have a hierarchy because God's a God of order. And so he has that. And there's rulers. That's like, Lords or rulers of this age one that I would think of would be like with Daniel fighting against Well when Gabriel comes to give him the message like hey I came the minute you were praying But I had to fight the Prince of Persia you know or he had to fight that's a Grisha I think it was you know we had to get by someone had to come take over for me I Delivered the message now. I got to come back and fight the Prince of Persia, and that's I how it went. Greece was in charge, then Persia was in charge, and there was a spiritual entity behind that, that we learned from Daniel, that was there, that had to fight these things to get through in that way. So it's these different rulers and different lords are in that way. And so that's going on, and yet we're down here going, la, la, la, I don't understand that anything's happening, and yet it's happening. And the last one there says spiritual wickedness. That's a deprived Wicked ones. I mean the word is Pornania. So that didn't take you much to think about. These guys who are at the baser level. The baser ones who are pointing us away. So this whole story about these guys and what's going on goes untold. And you're like well it's because in the spiritual realm we don't know and understand it. We don't know and understand because we've not studied it. We've not looked for it before because we kind of denied that the supernatural is there. So it's not for us to know, we don't know and understand. Where do demons come from? I don't know. They're just these non-corporeal spirits that float around. A lot of people say angels have no physical body, but they grab people by the hand, they eat food, they kill people with swords, they do all this. It's like, do they not have a body? I think they do have a body. But there are demons who don't have a body, and they've got to try to put it all around them. It's like trying to fight a battle with your arm tied behind your back. So where do they come from, and how does that happen? And I think we have hints to how it does happen, and it answers a lot of things up for us. But I think it's just because we've denied it. So the angels, devils, demons, it just sounds sci-fi stories. It's science fiction that's just fantastic. It's too far out there. But, you know, it's here for us to discover. And we live in a time when we have more tools in our pocket. I didn't bring mine. Your pocket. If you have your phone with you than most Bible scholars had ever. How many different Bible versions do you have on your phone? You can get about any. Mine comes with, I forget, eight, I think, free. You know, they're on there. You can download more versions. How many do you get, Gerald? I don't know, Gerald on his computer, he's got a bunch of them by different software, studies, commentaries. It's not anything you can compare it to. Before, you just had what you had. We've got the old Bible. I can look here and probably say, well, I know there's NIV, there's a new King James. If Elaine was up here, she'd have her New American Standard. So we've got several different versions that we can kind of cross-reference this with right here and get a fuller understanding of the text. But you're kind of victims of that. And when they were written, how they were written, who they were written to. I trust God's Word and I always err on going with God's Word, trusting God's Word. I don't even like it when the side of the Bible says, well some versions might say to me it causes doubt on God's Word. We shouldn't have that. But God's Word is true and original in the, it's called the autographs, in the original ones, in the handwriting. Now, there are some transcriptual errors, but they're well-known. You know, there's problems with all the texts, but they're well-known, and scholars know and study it. I don't make big deals about them, because I want to breed confidence in you, not doubt. And yet, some leave a half-off on the notes. This isn't a lot here. We argue about, well, is that there or not? We know what God's Word is. It is here. It is consistent. We can test it as tried and as known. But with the use of this different software, you can go on and I can read the Bible in Latin. I can't read Latin, but I can take the Latin Septuagint and look at it because that was the Bible of Jesus' day. What were they thinking? What was this passage written like in the Septuagint? And so written in Greek and translated into that language, I can look at it and see, and sometimes the word's a little different. And they change it because we don't think that way. And so it's changed a little bit to make it fit us. And sometimes it's phrased. The NIV's a good thought for thought. If I said to you, the morning has gold in its mouth, you'd say, like, good for you, Brian. That's a weirdo saying, right? Because it's a phrase. But if I said to you, the early bird gets the worm, you know what I'm talking about, right? Same phrase, one's German, the morning has gold in its mouth. Ours is the early bird gets the worm. Gold sounds better than worms. I don't know why we have the worm one and they have the gold one. But it's an ideology. So that's a thought. I can convey that thought with different words. And so that's where the NIV puts it in that way. It kind of gives you the consensus of the thought. And so it does bring it. And we kind of have those phrases that are translated in that way. But with having this available, you can look and see and you get a better perspective on how it ought to be. And I'm saying all this to build you up for one that's going to, I hope you go home and you're like, well, hey, and you really argue about it, and you really think about it, and you really wrestle with me. And you don't just take it because I said it, but I want you to think about it because it's different. It's different than what we've been told. A lot of it's our American understanding of what a word means. Psalm 82. There you go. The verse you'll say, huh? Psalm 82. Carol, can you look up the ESV version for me? I was going to have it on my phone and I left it back there. Psalm 82. The ESV is a newer translation I really like. It's a modern day English version. that really stays true to the core language. If I was gonna go look it up in Hebrew, if I was gonna go look it up in that, it really stays true to that definition and it does a good job. What was one they had for a while that was going? I forget, but there's a lot, they're all good translations. We can look at, we know the bad ones, we avoid those, but Psalm 82. I'm gonna read it and then the King James, it says it, and what it says is right, but it also kind of veils it a little bit because I don't, think in King James English, right? I mean, I do more than most because I've studied it for so many years. But Psalm 82, verse 1, God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, he judgeth among the gods. So even at that level, in my 2017 mind, having been raised in a Baptist church since I was 13 in that sense, that already kind of rubs me wrong because it says, He's among gods, little g-gods, I'll give it that. I think it's translated right, little g-gods. But I was always taught they were nothing. When you went to Haiti and they were praying to some foreign god that was carved out of a rock, they were just superstitious praying to a rock. I was kind of told to deny that there was anything behind that rock. That there was anything that they might actually see that would keep them fearful and keep them in bondage in that way. You know, that the pagans throughout the years would see anything. They were just foolish, unlearned people. Once you taught them how to read, write, and read the Bible, then they would quit those foolish things and you would agree that there is no supernatural behind that. There's just God. You want to read the ESV version? God was taken and put into divine counsel in the midst of the God of people's judgment. and the Divine Council. There's a Divine Council? And I'm not saying anything that's denying the Trinity, because there is the Trinity. It's God, the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And it says there's a God of Gods. If any of you have your phones with you, if you have your Bible translating software, if you would look this up, God, the capital G God, at the very beginning is Elohim. That's what we say, that's one of his names, one of the names of God, right? Elohim. which we've kind of used, even knowing this basic, like if you go to Genesis 1, you know, God said, let us make God in our image, or let us make man in our image. I didn't mean to say God. God said let us make man in our image. Elohim. And heme, we know enough about Hebrew, just enough sitting in the room here, that that's plural. Cherubim means more than one cherub. Cherub is cherub, cherubim is plural. It's like us putting an S on the end of it. And so we're like, ah, they should know there's a hint there that God's a trinity. That's using the plural word to define him. Close, but not really. There's an Elohim council. There are other Elohims. Because if you also look at the last word in the King James Version there that says among the gods is Elohim. The first word is Elohim, the last word is Elohim. How can that be? Now, am I saying that God is just the chief of all these but He's like them? No. The Bible makes that very, very, very, very, very, very clear. He is above. There is no one like me. I could go and we could look at verses here for a good while. There is none like me. I look around and there is none like me. I am above all. There is nothing like me. But there are other people who have powers that we would call them gods. We would look at them and say, how do they do it? And He has made them in that way. It is more than just an angel. It is a higher ranking. And there are those ones that He would have there. Why would He have a divine counsel? Does God need counsel? No. He doesn't. But does He need man? No. But He made us, right? He wanted to and he wanted to rule among us and do this and so he makes this because it pleases him and it does it. And so here he is among this and we're kind of at the, they've done wrong and he's having to judge them. God stands in the congregation and he's going to judge them. What have you done? That's where he goes on in verse 2. How long will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? How can you keep doing wickedness and how can you keep rewarding wickedness and you make the wicked to prosper? Why have you done this? You've perverted everything. It's more about the fall. It's more about these guys and their fall and what they've done and what they've come down and done. And we can take this text, and we'll take it more in the future, and look at it and say, well, what did they do? And where did they do it? And when did they come down? And when did they have these things? But a lot of it happens around Babylon. He divides it up. And we're going to look more at what happened at Babylon, what fell, and what God did that changed. That should help us then make a little more sense of a few things. Again, so we have to realize that there's a supernatural, that he's among the Elohim, and so that's where we would have to say, and so this is where the whole way that we've been taught, at least I'm speaking, I'm assuming that you were taught and thinking like I was. When I would say that he is the God of gods, I was like, oh, he's just saying he's bigger than all of them because they're nothing. But wait a minute, he's a king of king and there are other kings. Or he's a lord of lord. And there are other lords, but again, thinking of rulers, men rulers, for him to say he's the God of gods, does that mean that he was the God of nothing? It'd be like saying that he was better than Superman and Superman's a made up fictitional character. I'm better than Superman. At least I can live and breathe and walk around. I'm not a cartoon drawing. And so are we trying to say that God is comparing himself to nothing and then saying that how big I am? No, he's saying he's bigger than something that is bigger and better and stronger than these guys. Yeah, it does, because what were they talking to? Where were they going? That's part of what he said they shouldn't do. Yeah, we'll look at that even further more next week, but I wanted to look at Deuteronomy 10. We'll look at a couple real quick. So you ladies, you should be thinking, if you're thinking like my wife when we were talking about this, she goes, wait a minute, we did a whole Bible study on God's name. Elohim was the first one. She went and got her book out and it says, Elohim, he is above all the other Elohims. So you can try to hear it in our text. It's one of those things we've been looking at it for years, but we always read past it because we had glasses on it that would change it to make it fit in our non-spiritual realm eyeglasses. There's nothing supernatural. What did I say? Deuteronomy? Deuteronomy 10. I don't have my glasses with me so it will probably be a new version of Deuteronomy 10. Look at verse 17. Deuteronomy 10.17 says, For the Lord your God is God of gods, he is the Elohim of Elohim, and the Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. He's the God of gods. Of all them, he is the bigger and the best one. And he made them. He calls himself an Elohim. And again, if we take the time and you really went and you defined the word Elohim, it's anybody who lives in the spiritual realm. dead people who were alive who went there are called Elohim because they live in the spiritual realm just like we all live in America so we're Americans. It's like a title that goes to them and they have different ranks that are in that way. I need to study that more before I say anything further but it's kind of in that rank. But if you look at the end of Samuel when the witch of Endor is trying to call up Samuel And she says, I see gods descending to us. Why would she say that? It's a guy. It's spirits. But it's these creatures who live in the next dimension. They live in that realm, the Elohim. And you can kind of take it through. I would challenge you to go home and look up what the little g-god is, how that fits, where it goes, how many times that's in there. And do your own study and wrestle with it. What's another one? Look at Psalm 136. I just brought a couple tonight. But it does, the Bible was written in a time and a place to a people who no one understood what they were doing. It wasn't necessarily written, it's written, it's for us. They understood in a certain way that we've lost. But it was written in a time that we can go back and say, what were they thinking? And then it helps unlock the mysteries, because once we think like they were. Psalm 136, verse two. Oh, give thanks unto the God of gods, for his mercy endures forever. I mean, it's a phrase that's repeated again and again. I guess I didn't give you a bunch of them, you know, that we could go. Look at one in Exodus 12. Speaking of the big confrontation when it goes down between Moses and Pharaoh And God had more on the table than that He is not only fighting Pharaoh And we hint at this, like I said, I've taught it and we've spoken of it before, but there is a power behind it. Paul even says that. He says, when he talks about eating the meat sacrificed to idols, he's like, there's a demon behind that. Now me, I'll go buy the meat, doesn't mean anything to me, but you don't want to, you know, that there is. If you're involved in that, there is a demon that they were offering that to. And the whole way that they did idols and what they thought they were doing, it's all about manipulation and control that we might get into, but Exodus 12. Verse 12, he says, for I will pass through the land of Egypt. Again, he's told them to be ready, he's getting ready to judge, it's the last judgment. He said, and this night will I smite all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Was he battling nothing? Was he just battling their thoughts? Or was he battling Someone who is exercising control there, and he's like, I'm showing you who's boss. You guys are going to stand down, and you're going to let me go. I mean, he wouldn't just say it if it's like in the figments of your imaginations that I'm going to battle against. No, there's a supernatural realm. But see, he is above that. We'll end with this. Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46, in verse 9, Isaiah 46, 9, he says, Remember the former things of old, for I am God. There is none else. I am God. There is none like me. There's none like me. Are there Elohims up here? Yeah, but there's none like me. I made them. I'm the creator. I'm the one who made all this. And so there's none like me. I'm above that. And we can look at a bunch of them that way, too, where he keeps going, and he's always saying, I'm above them. I'm above all this. But we need to remember, in Revelation, He is coming. He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords. All things will bow down. All things will confess. Things above, things below. Everything's above the earth, everything beneath the earth. What's below and what's beneath the earth? Spiritual beings. He says they're going to bow down. There's a spiritual realm that we have just, a spiritual supernatural realm that we have suppressed. I think that we need to revive because it's going to be on the stage at the last day. And plus, we're going to live in a supernatural realm. We're going to see these creatures and interact with them, so we better understand a little bit about them. Plus, like I said, it opens up text to us. I mentioned Paul saying he was afraid about an angel incursion happening again where it would breed on him. So he tells the women to cover their heads. Why? So you don't tempt the angels. He was worried that that might happen again. Keep your head covered. And he talks about, don't you entice them. We're not to try to entice them. Could it happen again? I don't know, but he's kind of worried about it to the point where they think he was talking about it because that was a part of their culture and where it was. There's a lot that Paul says. There's a lot that Peter says. There's a lot that they address here and there where it is, these events happening. So we're going to go next week. We're going to look at, there's a time when God put 70 of them Daniel calls them watchers. The book of Enoch, which is the book that they found alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls, gives us a lot of these details. Again, not a Bible book, I don't think it should be, but it opens it up and it tells us who they were, what they were doing. It happens after the fall of Babylon that man has rejected God, so God puts Little God's in charge. You are in charge of these areas. And we'll look at that, and that's why he's yelling at them in Psalm 82. You've done wickedly. They weren't supposed to do wickedly. They were supposed to be good. They were supposed to represent Him. They were supposed to point men to Him. And they're like, you know, I kind of like the power. You know, I kind of like being idolized. I kind of like people being afraid of me and worshiping me. You know, I kind of like all this. And so they pervert it. And God's like, I've got to hold you. I'm going to hold you accountable. Now, you're going to die like men. He talks about that. You're going to die. You're not going to be judged. Again, different stuff than we've heard before, how it's going to go that way, but I hope you take the time to look at it and think about all those verses and look some of them up about He's the God of Gods, Lord of Lords, King of Kings. He is saying this in his boasts. Look up the little G's and see if they're not Elohim and just spend some time thinking on it and then we'll come together again next week and we'll talk about it some more. Well, I'll give you a little glimpse. When Peter starts talking about baptism in chapter 3, he's comparing it to all these things and what the ancient world would do when they were baptized. they would also renounce the works of the devil and there's control over them because he was the depraved one that would draw them into that and the flood was to remind them remember the flood that drowned all of you and got rid of you I'm identifying with Jesus Christ I'm identifying with Noah and what he did I'm identifying with the flood this is your fate not mine I'm back up and alive again there's a whole passage where Jesus goes down and preach to those of captives in hell that's all a reference back to this that goes back to Enoch It's like, oh, they're seeing this all played out again, and Jesus is telling them, bad news, it gets worse for you. And so we'll look at that. So that whole strange passage, in Peter's mind, he's looking at it with this mindset, and he says, here's what I'm talking about. So like I said, there's a lot of this that changes it, and you can go through, just like Mom did, where she took it to the Ten Commandments. You have no other gods before me. Little rocks. Why are you putting these other spirit beings in front of me for he starts? Don't you be like those who move in the nation? Don't you be like them don't you learn their ways? No you get that out of there You burn it tear it down and hide it and get rid of it Then he gets mad at them when they turn to him and so and we'll look at that and why he's angry and again He's a jealous. God. He's made them. He doesn't want his glory going to someone else, but That's enough to melt your brain for tonight to think on and not to be afraid of because He is the victor. He is the one who is over us. The greater He is in you than He is in the world. So we don't have anything to be afraid of, but we at least ought to know our enemy better. So that's the best rule that He can have is to pull things on us, to hide us and even deny that He is there. So we'll take time and look at it a little bit more in the future. Let's close in prayer.