A few weeks back during our prayer and worship night a brother brought up a question that’s been very close to my spiritual walk.

There is a lot of evil, sinful, and downright satanic stuff going on in the world right now. I’m unsure if it’s any more than in the past, or if it’s just exposing itself more. We can see it in the news, entertainment, online, and even within our government. It really doesn’t take much to see that our nation has turned its back on God, and we’re starting to feel the result of that. If you were here the night I did an expository on our original Canadian National Anthem, you’ll see exactly how far we’ve fallen as a nation.

And while none of this is a surprise to God, many people, even Christians are just waking up to this agenda of deep deception. As Jesus plainly told us, Satan is the god of this world. He rules and corrupts man on a spiritual level which has a direct impact in the physical world.

The question imposed by our brother was, how do we as Christians respond? I struggle with the concept that God will have us do nothing during times like this. In fact, I believe there is no foundation for that at all. We’re commanded to do many things.

Our brother briefly touched on the differences between amillennialism and premillennialism and how each has a different biblical worldview which outlines why they would respond in a specific manner. But both live within biblical principles and know that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour.

Shortly after that meeting, I believe God made an obvious point to me that regardless of our doctrinal differences, our call to action is the same. But before I get into that, I want to highlight some things going on in the world that should have all of us very concerned.

• We’re currently witnessing the obvious collusion between China (a Godless and communist empire) and the corruption within our government and capital corporate systems being exposed. For the love of money (the root of all evil) and desire for power have now fully been exposed.

• China is one of the most restrictive countries that not only have complete control of their citizens’ lives with a social credit system that resembles the mark of the beast, but they also run slave camps and harvest human organs from the Uyghurs against their will.

• Across the world, we saw a 28% increase in depression symptoms and 25% increase in anxiety disorders since the pandemic response. Many experts predicted this and cautioned against such heavy restrictions, but were ignored because of the deceptive fear narrative being pushed. If you know anyone suffering from these conditions, you’ll understand the direct spiritual attack that this is.

• In the last few years we see ungodly and immoral narratives being pushed from all angles. From critical race theory to antisemitism, and LGBTQXYZ+ gender-affirming churches. You’d practically have to be blind not to see the parallels between today and the fall of Babylon or Rome as our society is embracing pagan gods, rituals and acceptance of our fleshly desires more than ever.

• For the first time, we’ve seen Canadian pastors and Christians arrested and persecuted for keeping Gods authority above the government and continuing to gather in their churches. Again, we see the parallel today of what happened in Nazi Germany. At first, the churches were told to close, then once they were allowed to re-open, they were told they could teach anything in the bible, providing it didn’t contradict anything the state was saying. This resulted in many Christians being arrested for standing against such tyranny. Show me a church with great cultural influence today that dares preach anything regarding government and worldly events. They’re far and few between and focus more on motivational speeches and personal development than the actual word of God.

• In 2021-2022 1 in 200 people around the world are slavery victims. Child sex trafficking accounts for about half of that. It’s a $100 billion + dollar a year industry. Males only account for about 10% of these victims.

• While the “adult film” industry is hard to track all of its revenue, estimates from 2018 show it’s about 15 billion dollars a year. That’s double of the NBA that year and about a billion more than the NFL. Speaking of the NFL, the Superbowl is not only filled with pagan and satanic rituals, but it’s also the #1 event of the year in the USA for human trafficking according to the FBI about a decade ago.

• In the USA there is 1 abortion every 34 seconds. If that’s not horrifying enough, entire fetuses are sold on the black market for thousands of dollars every day. I won’t speak of why.

This is just a small dose of reality, a reality many of us want to ignore.

We already know the world is evil, but if we push it just far enough away, we believe we don’t have to deal with it. We say there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s out of my control, or worse, we say “God will take care of it”.

So, back a few weeks ago right after our prayer night, I see this interesting image on my phone that says “Failure to speak against and oppose evil is a failure to obey God. And it points to Ephesians 5:11.

Let’s turn there:

Verse 5:11 says “And have no fellowship with the UNFRUITFUL WORKS of darkness, but rather expose them.”

I’m not sure about you, but this seems pretty clear to me. We must distance ourselves from that which is evil and specifically ITS FRUITS, and we must expose them. Would you disagree with this verse?

But let’s not stop there, as always, we need to make sure we have the full context. We can’t allow one verse to shape our opinion or take us down the wrong path of action. Let’s go back to verse 1 and get some more context.

V 1-2: Imitators of God as dear children. It’s not hard to look at these young children in our chapel and not see the love of God. Their love for others and our love for them is effortless, isn’t it? It’s so innocent. And yet, as we get older, wiser, and a little jaded by the world, it seems to take more effort to show the love of Christ in us, doesn’t it? But that’s the standard God points us to. Let’s continue to verse 3.

V 3-7: Wow. Here is a pretty stern warning from God we can’t simply brush over. And if I can be honest, I believe the church brushes over this a lot. By that, I don’t mean our chapel specifically, but rather the church as a whole.

The church has been preaching a soft gospel. A seeker-friendly gospel that paints a picture of Jesus Christ being a cross between a hippy and a care bear. “All you need is love” is the core message of this feel-good gospel. The problem is they don’t teach the biblical definition of love. They don’t say what we just read in Ephesians.

So here’s where things get difficult. It’s easy for us to point to the world and say “There is the problem”. It’s easy to complain about what’s going on outside these doors and believe we’re not the problem.

Oh no, not us, we’re men of God.

We’re not the problem.

I’m not asking for a roll call or a show of hands here. But can I ask you:

• How many times have you caught yourself in a lie?

• Do you often find yourself desiring more money for earthly pleasures?

• Do you seek positions of power and control simply because you enjoy it?

• Do you find yourself envying others who have more than you?

• Do you look at other women with lust or partake in adult entertainment?

• Do you knowingly buy from companies that use slavery conditions, or promote evil and sinful things, or simply have satanic messaging?

• Do you idolize people or things other than God, even just some of the times?

• Do you sometimes feel like even though you have enough…you want more?

• Do you sometimes have pride in yourself when comparing yourself to others?

If you said yes, to any one of these questions, each has a direct connection to one of the problems in the world I mentioned before.

I’m not here to point fingers. And if you feel I am, please remember I have 3 pointing back to me. I’m not claiming innocence or superiority in any of this. Other than I’m reading the word of God and listening to what God is trying to teach me. I think of all these sinful thoughts and desires we might struggle with and I suggest, these are not the loving thoughts our children have, just as God wants us to have.

God warns us in verse 6 that if we are deceived and do not take heed to His warning, you and I may not see His wrath, but the sons of our disobedience, our children, the next generation will.

If I were to summarize these first 7 verses into one sentence, it might sound like this.

The sin that you tolerate from within, is the same sin you allow to fester in the world.

Let’s turn to John 8:4-12 and see what we can learn there.

Now. In many church circles, and in unbelievers who do know these stories come to the same conclusion.

We’re all sinners, so stop pointing out other sins that are not your own.

But if you read verse 12 He’s very specific in claiming who He is and commands those who follow Him to walk in the light. And in verse 11, we hear the same words we’ve heard Him say many times. “Go, and sin no more”. This is a command!

I believe our response to the world is very clear. We are called to be the light in the darkness. We are to be in the world and use our talents and treasures to show the light of Jesus Christ. In doing this, Jesus can heal the world of its evil desires. We can’t simply push the evil aside and say “God will deal with it”. God works through His children, us. We must ask, are we preparing ourselves by keeping our temples clean to be used by God?

If we’re bathing in darkness, if we’re a slave to our sins, if we’re truly not saved of our demons, how can we possibly be a light to the world and expect that God will use us to our full potential?

The devil knows that if he can get you on that one small sin, to get you to take that one little bite of the fruit, he’s got you. And he will use that to hold you back from calling out evil because every time you try, he will remind you of what you’ve done so that you will say and do nothing. Instead, you’re pulled into darkness rather than being in the light much like this woman’s accusers. They could not stand there and tell Jesus they had the light of Him within them.

As we see a world around us that has turned its back on God and see the coming wrath of our disobedience, we know that there is still good news

While I’m sure most of us are very familiar with this passage, let’s turn to John 3:10-21 so that we can dwell on the word and promise of God.

Brothers in Christ. As men of God, protectors and providers of our families, God gave us a very important responsibility. We’re called into a spiritual battle. We cannot fight that battle in darkness but in light. Jesus tells us, men love darkness because of their deeds. God gave us His word, showed us a real-life example, and paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sinful ways so that we could have eternal life with Him and show the world by example, His light, that He saved the world.

If we want to fight the evil that enslaves the world, it always starts from within. Knowing. Believing. Confessing. Repenting. And Obeying.

Prayer

Our Father in Heaven. We thank you once again for the ability to gather and hear your word. As we gather on Easter weekend we remember what you did for us. Your death, burial, and resurrection. When we say that, it sounds so simple and superficial. But it’s only when we truly understand everything that went into making that one event happen that we realize its enormity. And it’s only when we truly realize how sinful and disobedient we are to you, that we can recognize the immense grace you have for us by the sacrifice you offered us in your only begotten son, so that we may have eternal life with you and that you saved the world. Let that not be lost on us. Allow us to stay in your light and make disciples of the nations as we express your love and what you did for the world. In your name. Amen.