Yes sir. Glory be. We don't mind you going down there. Yes sir. Because you talk like those folks. Come on. We just want you to know this is where you are. Amen. Sounds good brother. Sounds good. I was meeting somebody Friday at the hospital and they said man you from Louisiana? I said, I done lost a lot of my accent. I don't talk like I used to. I can go back, matter of fact, I have an old tape, one of the first times I ever preached. If y'all listened to it, y'all'd say, man, that don't sound like my preacher there. Kinda shaking off of me a little bit, but I'm sure I still say words, though, that you can tell. Yeah, well, to God be the praise, amen. Anybody have any questions, anything you wanna ask, anything you wanna give away, anything that, has just, in our time and our reading, any thoughts from this morning, anything you're walking through, anything like that, you ask, we'll talk about it as much as we can. And we're gonna look at a couple things in light of what we looked at earlier, but anything, anything, that's why we gather to be able to be a blessing to each other, to help one another, to bring clarity to things as we can. We want to do as we always see the scripture doing, pointing people to Jesus, take a look at Jesus, take a look at Him. Because that's really where we want to boil down to, you know, who has our answers for life? What we're dealing with in 2 Corinthians 10 about this battle that was being fought, these strongholds and vain imaginations and things that exalted themselves against the knowledge of God, it wasn't turning to Jesus, it was everything but Him. And that's why it's important for us. Who am I persuaded of? Who is teaching me? Who is guiding me? Who am I looking to as the example? But anything, we'll dive off in it. Wednesday night, you know, we were in five talking, but in four, when I was reading that, it was just a few words, and you know, you feel the anxiety when you turn the TV on. It was a good reminder to me that this is just temporary, and we have to fix our eyes on not on what's seen, but what's unseen. That's so hard sometimes, you know, because you see all the bad things, and you don't understand where the Lord is in all this, but you know He is. Anyway, that just... Yes ma'am no doubt about it and that we have to remind that's part of taking those thoughts captive we got to go back to what we know and we know that one God is ultimately in charge. When the scriptures refer to Satan as being the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world, it's in the idea of a world that doesn't factor God in. This world still belongs to the Lord. But there is a system, a way of doing business that doesn't include God, doesn't factor God in, and that is a system that is under his influence. Though he does not desire As Corinthians pointed out to us, he doesn't desire for the world to know he's behind all these things that are not factoring him. That's why it says he transforms himself into what? A messenger, an angel of light, or a messenger of inspiration. He transforms himself so there's not a threat that I'm being misguided by anyone or anything. And that's why he says, don't think it's strange if his ministers, his servants transform themselves in the messengers of righteousness. That happens every day, all day, all around the world. People have no idea that what's behind it. You have two sources fueling what is happening around the world. Either the enemy, Satan's fueling a way of thinking that doesn't factor God in or the Lord is the spring source feeding his people with his ways. And that's the only two sources that are feeding what's happening around the world and nothing escapes the Lord. He sees all, knows all, and every injustice will come into judgment at some point. And thankfully, we know that He's paid a price. As I mentioned this morning, what I said this morning, God's good, right? And because He's good, though, that's also a danger. Because we're not good in and of ourselves. The world we live in is not good in and of itself. And because he is good, he will require an account for what's not good. And thankfully he done what we couldn't do for ourselves. So that's just another reminder for us because God doesn't set aside his righteousness for his love. God doesn't set aside his mercy for his justice. God is fully, completely, unwaveringly always right and does everything right. And that's why he had to do what we couldn't do for ourselves to satisfy his own wrath. Somebody, he himself came and paid a price for us. And the world needs to know that. That's why we go tell them. They don't know it. They don't know it. So we go tell them that story. All they know is what they know. and what they've been told, those strongholds, they get built up in their mind. Now, you can't destroy the actual thought process that's being propagated worldwide. What you do, what we do, is we see God penetrate a life, and that life surrenders to him, and then that thing that they held to is no longer has a grip on them anymore. Even though that same thought is still going on in other people, he rescues an individual. And that's how we work. It's just one person, one person at a time. We just go in and chip away. One day at a time, one person at a time. Now, sometimes it will happen with a group of people. Don't get me wrong. That does happen that we see through the scriptures. We see it at various times in ministry work, but usually it's, it's just one person, one day, one individual, you chipping away with the light and the truth. And then God speaks that life into it. Yes, ma'am. It's right here in 2 Corinthians 10. That's where we are, 2 Corinthians 10. But back to where, we'll look at that in just a second, Ms. Pat. But what Pam is speaking of at the close of those things that Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians 4, that look, life is difficult with or without Jesus. Life's gonna be hard. Why? Because we live in a problematic world. We live among pragmatic people. We can be a problem for ourselves. So you got to be under pressure and deal with troubles. I would rather deal with troubles though God's way with his help, his solutions than have to deal with them with solutions that don't work. that only gonna mislead me and take me down a path that's only gonna cause more trouble in the end for me and other people who follow me. So you're gonna face troubles, that's inevitable. But how he can then take that and say, look, the troubles you're going through are not minimized in the fact that they difficult, you look at them in the fact that they temporary. They hard, and they troublesome, and they're problems. but they're temporary in comparison. So therefore we can see the comparison of what eternity we sang tonight. I was thinking when Greg led us on those songs, does he know something we don't know, huh? That's what you was thinking, huh? Hey, hey, yeah, praise God, amen. I just figured we'll use that as a way to capitalize on redeeming the time, huh? But they were singing about what our mind's fixed on, glory, and that's what Corinthians is teaching us. So he's taking a cue from these things we are walking through that, hey, this life is temporal. Even the longest life, like the funeral I did this week, I think Mr. Doby was 82. 82 years old he and his wife miss Donna been married for 64 years and 82 years is still brief, right? You think about some of our ladies in the community who lived into their 90s and 100. It's still brief. It's still brief. They saw a lot in those 190 and 80 years. You've seen a lot in the past 60 and 70 years. And there's still more to come. There's no doubt about it. But in comparison, that which is unseen is what we wanna be looking for. Remember we was in 1 Corinthians and Paul brought to light that we have to be very, very considerate of the fact that we have a race to run. And that when we run that race, we wanna run it to win it. because it's always consciously aware God's got a mission for us to work. And that mission is often unseen in this world that we live in. It's an unseen thing. If you only go by what you can see, you're gonna be frustrated all the time. But if you walk in and what you can't see, that is you live in by faith, taking God at his word, you won't be, we won't be like those children of Israel who went through everything they went through with Moses, but missed out on the blessing of it. Because all they focused on is what they could see. But they missed the unseen. But even though they missed the unseen, they were still part of the spiritual dynamic of it, they just missed it. Because they wasn't aware of what was coming through all that. So it is very, very important for us to live by faith. And that's where you get into chapter five, and Paul brings that to light, that brothers, we gonna have to face God one day. We're gonna have to give an account for what we've done in the body, good or bad. There are gonna be other people who are gonna stand before the Lord with no righteousness, and we wanna persuade them to look unto Jesus. And Christ's love compels us, that if he died for the dead, and those that die with him, or they live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and rose for them. Man, we have a ministry now. And that ministry is we carry the greatest news ever given unto men with the greatest message that man could ever have. We've been given the perfect motive and means to do it by with the best message that we could ever tell anybody. And we want to make people known of what's still yet to come because the Lord is coming. And he could come a whole lot sooner than what has been anticipated. But in chapter 10, he says that, Ms. Pat, look, if you would, in verse number five, casting down arguments, casting down. pulling them down, destroying them. This is 2 Corinthians 10. Casting down arguments, speculations. What are some of the words, some of y'all's Bibles, what is that word there in verse five? Casting down what? Imaginations. Anybody else got another word? Speculations. You use the New American Standard, right, Miss Barbara? Speculations, imaginations, arguments. You see, People will argue for a thing that they imagine to be true or they speculate to be true. But remember, these are lies. These are lies that have been fortified in their way of thinking and it's got them captive. Well, we want to be used by the Lord to break through that. You're not gonna change that particular lie. It is what it is. What you wanna change, what we wanna see change is a transformation within that they no longer see the lie as being legitimate, that they're willing to throw it down to put their confidence in Jesus. And he says in that, every high thing that elevates or exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's that taking every thought captive right there. That's something that we're all accountable to do in the thought worlds of other people. That's what we're doing. We're taking that thought they got that's exalted itself against the knowledge of God. It's a speculation. It's imagination. It's just empty lies, though they cling to it. It's done built a fortification in them. Now we have something to help pull that down, but that also applies with us, that we wanna take those thoughts in captivity to the obedience of Jesus. And then Paul says in verse six, also and being ready to punish, being ready to revenge, being ready. The word ready means we have an answer. If you're ready, you're prepared. You're prepared with an answer, solution, and the word punish or revenge has the way of that you're ready to deal with. You're ready to deal with all disobedience. The word disobedient has the idea of hearing. It's a listening thing. When we're ready to listen, God's ready to give us the answers. If I'm not ready to listen, we can't expect God to give us the answers. There's so much in the scriptures that teach us that we have a, we are responsible to position ourselves of seeking the Lord, to hear from Him, to hear from Him, to listen to Him with every intent to hearken and heed what He says. And if I'm not in that position, I cannot expect God to give me what I need. Matter of fact, James tells me That if I've got an issue and I need an answer I can go to God But if I don't go in faith believing he has the answer. I can't expect him to give me the answer it ain't gonna happen because God only gives the answer to those who believe that he has the answer and He said, if you come to him lacking faith, not believing or being persuaded that he has the answer, you're gonna be tossed to and fro like the waves on the water. You're gonna be unstable. So we have to believe that he has the answer, he is the answer, and he's the solution that I'm coming to, and he'll give me what I need. But if I'm not in that position, I won't be in a place to receive what I need from him to deal with these strongholds, these arguments, these speculations, imaginations. I won't have what I need to deal with though. I can't take these things captive. I'm already in a defeated position because somewhere, somehow I'm not persuaded he has my answer. I have to be convinced he has the answer. because being unconvinced he has the answer is a slap in the face to him who can pull down any and all strongholds in our life. And if I don't believe he has the answer, that would mean I believe somebody else has the answer. And when I believe somebody else has the answer, whether it be myself, which why would I believe I have the answer if I'm in a struggle? But I believe somebody has something or I'm putting more confidence in what I do know but I don't think God's reliable enough to trust him. And that's a dangerous place to be. You know what the Bible calls that? An evil heart of unbelief. That's what that is. It's evil to think he can't give me what I need when I need a solution or an answer. Now there are times. Scripture teaches us this as well. And this is why we take all these things captive to the obedience of Jesus. Let's say I'm in a position and God has already been given me the solution or the answer, but I've not paid attention to it. I've not listened to him. I've pushed it away, pushed it away, pushed it away. And then I get to a place where man, my lack of hearing from him has put me in a bad situation. So now I go to him because I've gotten in trouble and I need something from him to get me out of this trouble. God says there are times when he would withhold the answer because I didn't glean the answer when he was giving it to me in so many occasions before. Now I found myself in a situation and he says, I'm not gonna answer you. you'll have to eat, he calls it, eat the fruit of your own fancy. Now it doesn't mean he won't eventually, but it means you're gonna have to fight for it. And if he's really trustworthy, you won't give up fighting for it. But the evidence of you giving up, fighting for it, you realize in your mind, he's not worth the keep seeking. But he is, isn't he? I mean, however long it takes, it's worth it. And I've told you this before, and I have to remind myself, we don't necessarily have to have the why. But how can I glorify you in this? I don't necessarily need to know why this happened or why this is going on or why. Now he can give me insight on all that. He can help me with it as he sees fit. He can give me understanding that I can see and discern the times. That's a gift from Him. He doesn't have to, but He can, and He often does. But what's more important that He wants to do is what? Help me realize, okay, I can't change anything that's going on around me. I can't change with anything that's happening outside of me, but I can ask God to help me with what I need to glorify Him in spite of what's happening around me. What can I do? How can this be a situation that I can glorify you? And I believe he will what? That's acknowledging him. He'll lead me, he'll help me with that. So that's that taking those thoughts captive. And if you think about some of this words, look at the words here, verse four. Strongholds. When you think of a stronghold, you think of something that's fortified. A stronghold is something that's been built to protect. to surround somebody with, to protect them in like a castle. When people would build castles in days gone by, that would be considered a stronghold. Let's get to the castle. As long as we got to the castle, we were safe. Normally castles would have a gate, that would be closed and the only way you can get in, they would allow you in or you're just going to have to scale those walls. But by the time you attempted to scale the walls, they normally had measures and means they could get you off the wall. It was a safe place. A lot of them, what did they build around those castles? They'd put a motor around it. So see, a stronghold is something that is fortified, been built, and you're putting your confidence in it as a means of protection. Now, these vain imaginations and speculations are these strongholds, but they get built in our mind. Have you ever sat around and talked with somebody and they had a belief or they had their ideas about a thing and they wasn't wavering and they were convinced in it and they'd fight you, get aggravated with you, wanna fist fight over what they believe. You see, those are strongholds. That's what that is. It has a hold on them. It's got a grip on them. They also would put people in prison. And when you put people in prison, the design of the prison was a stronghold that they couldn't get out of the prison. That would be another dynamic. See, that's how the enemy uses it. You think you're building a safe haven for your thinking, but the whole time you're putting yourself in a prison that's gonna lock you in, and then what you will do is you will die in there. That same idea of a stronghold was also used as putting somebody in a tomb. You would put them in a tomb and lock them in, in a cave or whatever it is, you would seal them in there like Lazarus was in a stronghold of a cave until Jesus what? Called him out. and said, take the grave clothes off of him. So that word was used for a tomb, it was used for a prison, it was used for a castle, it was used to fortify somebody in a thing that they would be protected in it or they couldn't get out of it. And therefore, if you can't get out, people's not gonna be able to get in. Well, that's what happens with The idea is these strongholds, what is it doing? What is the whole objective of the enemy using a stronghold is to keep the truth out from getting in. It's blindness to the truth. He talks about it. Look in chapter four. Go to chapter four. Yeah, we were just in four. Look in... Say like the gospel, verse number three. Remember, we are the messengers of this good news of the gospel. But notice what is going on in the mind of the world we live in currently. But this is chapter four, verse three. I'll start in verse three. But even if our gospel is what? Hidden, veiled, meaning can't be seen. It is hidden or veiled to those who are what? Lost, meaning perishing. That's the idea, they're perishing. They're in a stronghold. And in that prison of a stronghold, they're dying. Don't even know it though. They think they got life in there because they trust in what they believe. Verse four. whose minds, notice where this battle's at, the minds, the God of this age has what? Blinded. Who do not believe. Least the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should what? Shine on them. See, the gospel is covered up, but then the minds of those that it's covered up in are blinded. They're in the dark. They believe in something. They believe in another spirit, another movement. That's why when John wrote to the church in 1 John, he said, brother, don't believe every spirit. Because not every spirit is from But people believe in a spirit. A spirit is a movement or idea, a thought that somebody's clinging to as the truth. Because it's true to them, they believe it's truth. And we know that we wanna have truth to the truth. That is, you gotta have Jesus to know the truth. Without Jesus, you don't know truth. He tells us that in chapter three, that in chapter three, notice what he says. Look in verse seven, let's just start there. Because we're talking about a group of people who had the Word of God. We know the Word of God's true, right? So they had God's Word. But if the ministry of death, Written and engraved on stones. He's talking about the law He's talking about the law that's right the law the principles of law was the law say love God with all your heart love your neighbor as yourself That's a death sentence Because God's God's standard is perfect Right. Your standard is perfect That's where Jesus in Matthew 5, 48 says, look, your father, which is in heaven is perfect. You be perfect as he is perfect. That's his standard. He said, if your righteousness doesn't exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the scribes, you'll never enter in the kingdom of God because the Pharisees and the scribes appeared to be righteous. See, but they were messengers of what? They were messengers of Satan. They transformed themselves as messengers of righteousness, but their righteousness in the law was empty. So he says, if the message of death was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at Moses' face because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away. How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? Praise God. See, we're in the ministry of the Spirit and the Spirit has a way because the Spirit is God. And there's there any stronghold God can't tear down? No. Is there any vain imagination that he can't pull down? No. We have the Spirit, for if the ministry of condemnation, which is the ministry of death, which is the ministry of the law, had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. So what the Spirit is working and producing is going to be righteousness, but the law without Jesus is only going to produce condemnation and death. Verse 10. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. That would be the work of righteousness. That'd be work of the Spirit. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses. who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. His glory was constantly fading when he left the presence of God. So he's noticed, man, it's fading, so what should I do? I cover it up so people can't see it. Well, we don't have to cover our faces up because we're going from glory to glory. He's transforming us. Verse 14, but their minds were blinded for until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Older Testament because the veil is taken away in who? How's the veil removed? Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, amen. When you come to know Jesus, now you have access to the truth, where that truth that you know will what? Set you free. That's right. It'll set you free. Now go back over to chapter four in this idea of blindness. So if the Older Testament is veiled, the gospel is veiled and their hearts are blinded, you see in that the common warfare methods don't work on these people. You can't use what everybody else is using. You gotta have the gospel, the light, and the power of the spirit that is able to bring that stronghold down and transform a life. And that's what God does. Look in verse five. For we do not preach ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the same God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Who has to say, let there be light? God does. Remember in the beginning when he said, let there be light and what? There was light. The darkness could not overcome it. It overcome the darkness. Well, the same thing with people today. Who's going to overcome that darkness in their life? God's got to do it, but he's going to do it through messengers like you and me. What we do, remember our battle's not with them, but with what they thinkin' and how they believin'. So we come with the light of the truth to penetrate that, and that's where the spirit begins to work in our life to see that take place. Let me give you a couple places to think about. Look over in 1 John. Go to 1 John, toward the end of the book, 1 John. We'll look at 1 John 4 and see how this goes right along with these ideas that we're talking about. And we'll look in chapter 3 as well. But 1 John 4, 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Spirit, same word for the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit, it means breath, and breath is where life's at. And so you could simply add the word, don't believe every person who is depending on a certain way of life. Because that's what the Spirit is, the movement that they're clinging to. But that Spirit's not gonna come to you in a transit, Lucent form it's gonna come in a person and that person's gonna have an idea. Why do I say that? I love it. Do not believe every spirit, but do what? Try them or prove them or test them Test the spirits whether they are what of God because many what false and Okay, a false prophet is gonna go and somebody's gonna believe that false prophet's message. And when they believe that message, whatever that prophet is saying, whatever that person is saying, now that spirit is gonna come to you and attempt to convince you to believe what they believe. But now you're gonna have to test that way of thinking, right? Because not every word or not every movement, not every word, not every prophet is from God. Not every person is from God. So you have to prove it. You gotta test it. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. What do these false prophets do? They influence people. They teach people. They inspire people. And people believe their message. And then they go teach that message. Well, a false prophet can be anything or anyone that's teaching anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, right? If it ain't of God, what is it? False. It's come from somebody else, come from somewhere else. Oh, there's so many, they're everywhere. Because now he's gonna move from the idea of the false prophet, that he's gonna start talking about Antichrist. And what is an Antichrist? Somebody that contends with the glory of Jesus. And any time we have a message that contends with Jesus' message, that's an anti-Christ message. So he says in verse number two, by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Now when you take that simply with understanding what does he mean when he says confess, Well, you have to then say, he's confessing, that word means in agreement. They're in agreement with the message of why Jesus came, what Jesus came for, and who he came for, and why he came. They're in agreement with that. And when they're in agreement with that, that's gonna be somebody from God. For an example, look over in verse number nine. Yeah, 4.9. That girl knows how to have fun by herself, amen. Verse number nine, yeah. It says, in this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might, what? Live through him. Okay, so you got to take that as part of the confession. So you can't just say, yeah, I believe Jesus came, if you don't have life and living through him, because he came so that you might live through him. What does 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15 say? That all died and he died for all, that those that live should live no longer, for themselves, but for him who died and rose for him. So that confession, Brother Shannons, lines up with what God says about Jesus, not what just any Joe Schmuckatelli says about Jesus. It is saying, as Paul would say about the gospel, when he says, this is the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15, that Jesus died according to what? The scriptures. Well, the whole Bible is pointing toward that. So to confess and to be in agreement with God means that they're in agreement with the word of God. They're in agreement with the purpose of what Jesus came to do, not the mere fact that just anybody will say, yeah, I believe Jesus came and I believe he died, but I'm still gonna live my life and you go live your life. That's an antichrist. That's an anti-Christ, that's a contender. Because what did Jesus say? Jesus said that he's either worth it all or he ain't worth nothing. And there's other religions out there for an example. The Islamic people in Islam say they believe Jesus was a good man. He was a great man, they said. You can learn a lot from his teachings. He's just not what we as the believers claim him to be. But I go back to say, well, if he ain't what he says he is, He ain't worth trusting. How can I claim He's good if He ain't what He said He is? I can't take His teachings and run with them if He's not who He said He is. Who did He say He is? He says He's the, I am the Son of God, and that He's the way, the truth, and if He don't mean that, He's lying to me. And either He is or He isn't, right? So see, that would be an antichrist who would say, yeah, I believe he came in the flesh, but he has no bearing on how I live my life. That's an antichrist. That ain't a spirit of God. So he says in verse number three of chapter four, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of what? Antichrist, the arch enemy of the things of God, Satan himself, the future Antichrist that is to come on the scene. But you got to keep in mind, which he's going to say, which you have heard was coming and now is already what? His. Mm-hmm. It's the spirit of the Antichrist that's already in the world. That is one, Satan is not a physical being that we see with our eyes. He is a created being, but he's a spirit that is at work in the hearts and the minds of people who belong into his kingdom in a world that doesn't factor God in. Antichrist contender contends for, attempts to replace, to nullify, and to contend for God's glory in your life. That's why the Bible would refer to all these rulers and leaders of past days, as well as what is yet to come, like the Antichrist in the future. How does the, there will be one coming, that's right, that's right. there will be a person that's coming. That would be the man of lawlessness that Thessalonians talks about. He's coming, but he has not come yet. But his works are at work already. It's called the mystery of lawlessness is already at work in the world. That's what that's referring to there. But the, because John also says there's many antichrists. There's many of them, but they all had the same spirit. And what is it? That Jesus is not who he says he is, that he's not worth giving everything to, that he's not the son of God, and he's not the man who was God. He's not everything that the Bible would claim him to be, and that's the spirit of Antichrist that contends with that. Well, 2 Thessalonians 2 is where you find this mystery of lawlessness. And Paul wrote to Timothy, he says there's a mystery of godliness. You see, godliness and lawlessness. We're gonna see it here in a moment in chapter three. Look over in chapter three. Chapter three before we go tonight. What I wanna do in this as we look in the chapter three, we're gonna see the difference that only God can make through the Spirit in doing a couple things that God said the Spirit would do when the Spirit came. Well, chapter three says in verse number four, whoever commits sin also commits what? This is three, four. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness or transgression. because sin is lawlessness. And you know that He, Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins and in Him there is no sin. Okay, see that goes back to the agreement. When you confess Jesus, you're confessing these truths that He came to take away sin. He came to do this work in our life. Verse six, whoever abides in him does not sin, whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. So notice what we see in the idea of sinning is in the idea of knowing and believing, seeing him by faith and trusting that he is everything God says he is. That's the idea. We're talking about the difference between believing and unbelieving. The sin that he's referring to, and you will see it in a moment, is the sin of unbelief. Jesus came and sent the Spirit to what? Convince the world of sin. And he tells us what that means in John 16, nine through 10, and we'll look at it in a moment before we go. So verse seven, little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous. That is, he takes on the same life of righteousness as Paul said. Remember, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation. We've been given the message of reconciliation. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus with a new mission in life because of Jesus' work in our life. Verse eight, he who sins is of who? The devil. For the devil has sinned from when? The beginning. Unhindered sin. That's all he can do. He can't do anything else but sin. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, made known, brought to light, unveiled, that he, the son of God, Jesus, might destroy the works of the devil. Praise God, amen. What does the devil do? What did we read in 2 Corinthians 4? What has he done? He's blinded the hearts of those that are what? Lost, perishing, right? Blind to their hearts. Why does He blind their heart? So that they can't see who Jesus is because in not seeing who Jesus is, you live in unbelief of Jesus. But what the Spirit does, He convinces us that Jesus is everything and worth everything. and that I lived in unbelief and that unbelief was sin, but now I put my confidence in him and not myself. And what you're gonna see in this is those three things that the Spirit does in these next verses, the three things the Spirit gonna convince us of, that's what he does in the life of God's people. Verse nine, whoever has been born of God does not does not commit sin. That simply does not commit the sin of unbelief. They know who Jesus is. It's not that you never miss the mark with God because there's nobody on the earth that doesn't ever miss the mark with God. If you could say in here that you've not sinned since you come to know Jesus, I'm gonna tell you, you're a liar. You're a liar. Matter of fact, John dealt with it, didn't he? Yes and he says that there's no one who doesn't sin and he who says he hasn't sinned calls God what? A liar. So this idea that John's dealing with is about unbelief, living in a position where you're not persuaded that Jesus is your Redeemer. That is sin, that is sin and I'll show you exactly what I'm talking about in a moment. For his seed, the seed of life remains in that person and he cannot sin because he's been what, born of? And when you've been born of God, what do you see? Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus? What did he tell him? Unless you are born again, you cannot what? See or enter the kingdom of God. You have to be born again in John chapter three. You have to be born again. So everybody's born again, sees Jesus as the king of the kingdom. They see it. They're not operating in unbelief anymore. He is their king. They know it. He's their shepherd. They know he came to be manifested and die on their behalf for their sins. It's a supernatural thing. They've been born of God. Now they see the things that God does in their life. As Jesus would say, that you don't believe me in John eight to the people, you don't believe me. Why do you not believe me? He says, because you are of your father, who? The devil. Everybody that is of my father hears believes and follows my voice That's what Jesus said and I believe that because I know what he's done in my life Verse number 10 in this the children of God and the children of the devil to two kinds of people the children of God and the children of what I The devil. So we see in that this idea of sin is dealing with unbelief because you get taken out of the kingdom of the devil and you put in the kingdom of God. Now you look at sin and life differently than you did before. Whoever. This is how it's manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. who doesn't practice righteousness. All right, so I want you to remember the word sin, remember this word righteousness. Verse 11, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love, what? One another. Now Jesus taught us that we're to love as he is loved. How did he love? He laid his life down. Verse 12, not love as Cain, who was what? Of? Okay, he's of the devil. What did he do? He murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's was what? Righteous. So we're talking about the difference between God's child, Satan's child, how it's manifested. What happened to Cain? He what? He was judged and banished. Mark was placed upon him. Who was he? Who was the DNA that was in him? We trace back to who? The murderer. Who is what? Satan himself. All right, just turn to John 16 and we'll go tonight. And the reason we're looking at these things because all these apply to exactly what we're talking about with these strongholds, in vain imaginations. And while we go one person at a time, day by day, little by little, penetrating into their darkness with the light and the life and the love of Jesus, we gotta have the Spirit. at work, and we gotta have the scriptures that we're standing upon. John 16, John 16. Looking about verse number eight, let's just kind of get close to it. Verse five is gonna tell us, He's going away, He's gonna send somebody, nevertheless, verse seven, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I'll send him to you. Do we need the helper? If we're gonna bring down strongholds and cast down vain arguments in the minds of people, the helper's gotta be involved. It ain't gonna happen apart from the helper. Gotta have the helper at work. What is the helper gonna do? What's the spirit gonna do? What's he gonna do, verse eight? And when he, the spirit, has come, he's gonna do three distinct things. Now he does a lot more, don't get me wrong, but these are three distinct things that he does in the life of those that he rescues. Number one, he will convict the world of what? Sin of righteousness and of what? Okay, Cain was what? Judged and banished, right? Abel was righteous. And sin has its roots in the devil. Look in verse number nine. Sin because they do not what? Believe in me. That's what first John's dealing with. It's about believing in Jesus. That's the work that Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. This unbelief, this blindness that couldn't be penetrated by natural means. It takes the gospel and the spirit to reveal sin that is unbelief that that they don't believe in Jesus. The Spirit's gotta do this. You see these strongholds and veins, imaginations that got people in their prison, in their trap, they live in an unbelief because they don't believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. That's why when we go forth and take thoughts captive and bring the message, the truth, with the Spirit's help, God brings light and he can shatter that darkness. And that darkness begins with their unbelief that they just don't believe Jesus. So look, verse nine, of sin because they do not believe in me. Verse 10, of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more. Okay. He hadn't died on the cross yet, but he will. And how does he go to his father and we see him no more? What happened? He came out of the grave. Amen. So that's preaching the message of the gospel. That's where righteousness is found. It's found in Jesus. And of what? Verse 11. Of judgment because the ruler of this world and all his children is what? Is already judged. And the Spirit will convince the world. And the world he's talking about is the believer. The believers who are gonna believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, they're gonna see that their unbelief is the main sin that they was operating in, that Jesus is the only way to the righteousness of God, and that Satan and everything associated in life to him has been judged. No different than Cain was cast out and banished. Because he, what? Remember when God warned him and said sin was waiting at the door? But because he was a Satan spawn, what did he do? He functioned in lawlessness. Because why did he do that? He didn't believe God. He did life his way. He didn't trust him. Well, this is what the Spirit is gonna do in our life. And that's why John carries that over in 1 John to tell us that, look, that's the purpose of the manifestation of Jesus, so that we can believe the Father, we can believe Him, that He's the only way to righteousness, and anything and everything not attached to Him is already under judgment. and will be judged in a future day. So when we go in the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word of God, the scriptures, God is able to what? Tear down those fortification lies of unbelief, of unrighteousness, in judgment that people are condemned in, and he's able to penetrate those and transform a life. He did it with us, that's how he's gonna do it with them as well. And man, we can trust him, amen? That's why we go tell the story again and again and again. Some days we see the fruit of it take place. Some days we don't. But nonetheless, if the Spirit ain't at work, and the scriptures ain't at work, and the servant of God ain't at work, nothing's gonna happen. So therefore, we the servants, we've got the scriptures, and we need His Spirit at work in our life to penetrate those darkness of the world that we live in. Because this world's in a mess, isn't it? World's in a mess. And we believe the only thing that can transform a life for eternity and now, because eternal life goes to work in us now. It's a now thing that lasts for eternity. The only thing that can do that is the work we've been given to do, amen? And anything that would exalt itself against the knowledge of God is speculation, is vain imagination. is a stronghold that's gotta be what? Destroyed and pulled down in people's lives. It's not gonna change the next man and how he thinks about it, but boy, we can sure change, see it changed in somebody's life little by little. So the world's gonna keep doing what the world does. People in the world are gonna keep doing what the people do until a servant with the gospel and the Spirit shows up and it changes a life. little by little, amen? For him be the glory. That's the work we in. Man, it's good work, ain't it? Will you suffer? Sure will, but we don't have to fret over that, right? Remember what we said this morning? Those adversaries is proof they need Jesus and proof of Jesus working us. So it's a gift. We don't boast in that. We just rejoice and wanna stay fit for the kingdom, amen? And ask God to use us. Any questions on any of that? We'll pray for, amen. But anybody else, anything? When I was with the church, matter of fact, in both churches, we talked about some of these things, but more when I was with them in Alabama, and I think, some of the truths we looked at on how, and I haven't, matter of fact, I think I did share it last night, and it's on, they do Facebook Live, so those messages are on there, but I took the audio and added it to the sermon site. of how God is the one who decides who's going to be rulers and leaders over lands. And we looked at some of those things and how important it is for us to know that and recognize that and submit to what God is doing and rejoice in the fact that we've got a mission to do in the midst of it regardless of what the world does. We want to do it in peace and quietness and keep going with him, amen, and going for him. So if you get a chance to listen to some of those, because we look at some places in the Older Testament, which we've all looked at them before. There's nothing that I've shared with them that wouldn't be something that I've already shared and taught and we looked at here as well. New Testament, Older Testament, Timeline together. And I just sensed that it was one of those that was a really welcoming, eye-opening view that probably they had not recognized nor seen. And I think it put them on a foundation to just say, thank you, Jesus, for what you're doing. Thank you, Jesus. And they see, God got involved in it to help them see those things. And boy, it just puts you in a place that you could be at peace with God, no matter what chaos is going around you, amen? And that's the sweet pleasure of it. So to him be the glory. Well, let's pray. Thank you, Jesus. We bless you. We thank you tonight. I pray for Carolyn that you'll help her, that you would help her with school, that you would help her in her home and around the community and with each other. And we just come thank you for your kindness. We do ask that you would use us. We know that there's a lot of hurting people out there, a lot of people that are perishing and they're lost in this and they don't even know it. Use us to be a blessing to people. Use us to bless your kingdom that we do carry your light, your life, your love into a world that don't love you. And we're going to thank you for it and praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Love y'all.