Recognizing Evil

Welcome to Insights. I'm Pastor John

and today we want to talk about

recognizing evil. It's important that we

understand what evil truly is. And evil

is anything that raises itself against

God.

And we there there's a lot going on in

this country right now. Uh hate,

violence, and all those kind of things.

And those are all evil. But what I want

to do today is I want to talk to about

recognizing evil itself. Because

sometimes

we have people and things that are

presented to us that we initially it

sounds really good. It sounds like

they're uh trying to do what's right and

the intentions behind it are actually

evil. And so we need to understand some

things. So we're going to be looking at

two different passages of scripture

today. uh in uh 2 Corinthians and in uh

second Timothy. And what I want to do

right now is I want to pray. Heavenly

Father, we just thank you and praise you

for today. We thank you for your word,

for your understanding. Lord, we ask

right now that you help us to see the

truth in your word and apply it to our

lives in such a way as that when we

reach out to people and talk about you,

Lord, that we're able to present it in

in truth, in a spirit of love. In Jesus

name we pray. Amen.

So in 2 Corinthians chap 11 uh verses

1-15

Paul starts talking about recognizing

false prophets and uh false teachers

and uh

verse 14 he says and no marvel for Satan

himself is transformed into an angel of

light. Therefore, it is no great thing

if his ministers also be transformed as

the ministers of righteousness whose end

shall be according to their works. Um,

Satan likes to come in and he likes to

present himself as something good when

he's entirely evil. And we need to

recognize the fact that um

we're here today

uh by God's grace alone. We're saved by

God's grace alone. You can't work your

way into heaven. But he also puts some u

he he puts some requirements on us that

we need to be able to look at what

people do because their actions matter

and not just hear the words they say.

And in second Timothy, he he talks about

how the world presents what's good as

opposed to what's evil. And I want you

to to remember this. He says, "This know

also that in the last days perilous

times shall come. For men shall be

lovers of their own selves, covetous

boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient

to parents, unthankful, unholy, without

natural affection, truce breakers, false

accusers, incontinent, fierce

uh despisers of those that are good,

traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of

pleasure more than lovers of God, having

a form of godliness, but denying the

power thereof. from such turn away.

For this sort are they which creep into

houses and lead captive silly women

laden with sins led away with diverse

lusts, ever learning and never able to

come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now as Janice and Jambers withstood

Moses, so do these also resist the

truth. men of corrupt minds reprobate

concerning the faith, but they shall

proceed no further. For their folly

shall be manifest unto all men as theirs

also was. So we have to take a look at

at how people speak, what they stand

for, what they uh proclaim to be good,

what they say is important.

And I want you to think about this. If,

and this is big, if the things that they

stand for go directly against the word

of God,

then they're

they're not truthful. They're not

faithful. They're not uh doing anything

good. Their motives are purely

um

it's about self

promoting themselves. So let me ask you

a question, something to ponder about,

something to think about.

We have witnessed

some

crazy things in the last year,

uh, attempted assassinations,

assassination of Charlie Kirk,

attacks on our law enforcement,

um, government representatives,

governors, mayors who get up and promote

exactly what the Bible says not to.

Um,

and the way they do it is they're

telling you that if you're a good

person, you have to accept all this evil

that's going on uh because it's okay.

And the Bible clearly says it's not. And

when you re when you begin to study

God's word and you see what God says is

good

and you see what the world says is good,

you discover that they call evil good

and good evil. How many times have you

seen recently

where politicians,

newscasters,

people of all of that nature have come

out and openly said,

um, if you stand against this, you're a

bad person.

If you stand against abortion, if you

stand against um

attacking people for their faith,

that you're an evil person.

I want you to think about this. When

George Floyd was killed,

pe there were riots in the street.

People, a couple dozen people were

killed.

Police departments were burnt to the

ground.

Police cars were bombed.

People rioting in in the streets. And I

use George Floyd because it's the most

recent. But this goes back to Kansas

City. That's where it started.

And the and because and these people

rioted, they destroyed. uh they they

took in went into businesses and robbed

them, busted out their windows, took the

belongings. These are people's

businesses

simply because it was convenient. It was

right there and they continued to do it.

Now, let's contrast that with the most

recent event.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated at uh Utah

Valley University.

There were no riots.

There were no bombings.

Police departments weren't attacked.

What you saw happen was Christians came

together and first they prayed

and then they put up remembrance

memorials to Charter Kirk because he was

shot because he stood for something

real. And um you have all these false

narratives out there that he was a

racist that he was he was anti-gay,

anti-LGBTQ,

all this kind of stuff that he he was

filled with hate speech and racism. And

if you actually go back and watch

his videos and things that he did and

said, you will find out that's not true.

But it uh suits the narrative of causing

division of actually taking Christians

and putting them in a bad light because

Christians didn't riot.

We we didn't go burn down cities. We

didn't attack people. We didn't throw

rocks. We didn't throw bottles. We

didn't uh launch fireworks. We did we

didn't um do any of those things. We

stopped and we prayed

and we set up prayer vigils.

And then I watched the memorial service

and was probably the biggest church

service I think I've ever seen. You

could feel the presence of the Holy

Spirit in that place even through the

television. I didn't go there

personally.

And you could feel God working in

people's hearts. And you had people who

got up to speak and o

exception, they all said the same thing.

This is a moment to turn to Christ. This

is a moment to seek that which is good.

Understanding that Charlie didn't want

people to write because he got killed.

He wanted people to pray. He wanted

people to go to church.

And that's the point.

We as Christians have to come to the

place where we say enough. We're going

to do what the Bible says. And then you

get a lot of people saying, "Oh, we

shouldn't be this. We shouldn't be

that." But you know, it's not said that

in the Bible. It says that we're

supposed to pray for our leaders, that

God puts leaders in place. He puts them

there to exact certain things. And you

can look it up in Romans chapter 13.

uh he says there are he puts people in

place and I made this statement

uh right after the election when

President Trump was reelected and what I

said was this. I believe God put Joe

Biden in as president of the United

States so people could see the evil that

these people promote.

And after four years, we decided to

change and to follow God and put

somebody back in place that promotes

God, faith, and family.

And u it's a real fight

because Satan's number one tactic is if

he can destroy the family unit, which is

what God built everything around,

he can he can destroy this country,

which was founded on faith in Christ.

And uh you should do some studying. You

shouldn't just say, "Oh, this isn't a

Christian nation." Actually, it is. And

it was founded that way.

And uh

2 Timothy 2:15 says, "Study to show

yourself approved unto God to work the

needing not to be ashamed, rightly

dividing the word of truth." And that is

your strength. The word of God is

sharper than any two-edged sword. It

divides things. It separates things. It

allows you, if you use the word

correctly, it allows you to deter to

distinguish what is evil. And you need

to see it. You need to look at it and

you need to stand against it. You need

to take a stand and say enough.

I am following Christ

and I am going to stand against that

which is wrong.

So, as you go through this week,

remember you have people that have been

voted into office in this country that

promote evil. They promote division.

They promote the destruction of family.

What they want is a a

populace that allows the government to

tell them what to do, how to do it, and

where to do it. And that's not the

purpose of government. The purpose of

government is to enforce law.

and to uh enact the will of the people

and uh as as members of the body of

Christ, we need to be able to walk out

amongst them and say, "No, I stand for

what's right. What you're doing is

wrong." And uh you need to not only have

convictions in doing so, but you need to

know what the word says about it. You

need to be able to tell people. And

here's the key. You have to do it in

love. You have to do it in a way where

it shows that Jesus loves these people

who are walking a far off. They are

walking and doing things that go against

God's word. Yet Jesus still loves him.

Jesus still went to the cross. He said

the last thing he said as he hung on the

cross is father forgive them for they

know not what they do.

And so the idea is not to demonize them

but to convert them. The word of God,

the power of the word of God is that it

convicts and it converts. It convicts

the sinner of his sin and it converts

him into a believer when he accepts

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and he

becomes justified in the sight of God

and able to go forward and begin to

change his life according to God's word.

And it's God's word that does it. It's

the sincere washing of the water of the

word that removes the stain of evil

because of the shed blood of Jesus

Christ. And so as you go through this

week, some are having traumatic week,

some are having real issues. Uh and I

don't make light of them and I don't

laugh at people who are having issues.

Um, but the source of the answer is

always Jesus.

And so as you are making your way

through your week, keep Jesus at the

beginning of everything. Keep him first.

Let people know what you believe.

And do it in love. Do it with

conviction.

allow people to tell you what they think

because if you don't engage in dialogue

with them, you're not going to have an

opportunity to present the gospel. But

above all things,

promote the gospel. Tell people what

God's word says. So, I want to leave

that with you this week. I want you guys

to keep in mind that this fight is real.

It's a spiritual battle. This is not a

physical battle. This is a battle

between the forces of good and the

forces of evil.

And

Ephesians chapter 6, it tells you that

we wrestle not against flesh and blood,

but against spiritual wickedness in high

places. So your fight is against

spiritual wickedness in high places. So

remember,

do what God's word says.

Seek after that which is good.

be willing to stand up for what you say.

The Bible also says that we have to be

able to give account for ourselves to be

instant in season and out. You need to

be prepared because you spent time with

God because you're going to be

confronted and you need to know what to

say. And the it says the word says Jesus

said, "I will give you the words you

need at the moment." But to have those

words available, you're going to have to

be able to

know what God's word says, you got to

read it. You got to study it. And don't

just read it from cover to cover and

say, "Oh, I read the Bible through in a

year." Read it. Learn it. Understand it.

If you ask God, "God, I don't quite

understand, but but can you can you open

my understanding?" He will do it. That's

one of the things that's one of the jobs

of the Holy Spirit is to lead you into

all truth and understanding.

So prepare for the week,

do what God wants you to do and be a

witness. We'll see you next week. Thanks

for joining me today on Insights.