Spiritual Wickedness

[0:00] Spiritual wickedness. Are you aware of the wickedness in high places?! The Bible talks about wickedness, spiritual wickedness in high places. Now, we know the world's all caught up with this invisible enemy.

[0:13] ! That's what the governments are calling it, aren't they? The invisible enemy. Of course, we're talking about what? The COVID. The coronavirus. There's so much talk about that, isn't there? The invisible enemy.

[0:24] The coronavirus. But I put to you, we have an invisible enemy by another name. And he's got an evil agenda. I'm talking about spiritual wickedness in high places.

[0:35] We're going to go to Ephesians 6 there. There's a prevailing wickedness. And it's working at the highest levels of society. Sometimes, I put to you that we're not always conscious of this kind of stuff that's going on.

[0:49] It's kind of, we just got so accustomed to the day by day. We're not always conscious. There's actually a spiritual wickedness behind it. And there's a complete lack of spiritual discernment for many as they can't see this wickedness that's working at the highest levels of society.

[1:08] Most Christians have got no idea about this. About what's going on. Or they couldn't care less. They bury their heads in the sand. They don't take this seriously.

[1:18] Friends, I put to you, this is important. And we see the Bible tells us about this wrestling that's going on. I know we've got some wrestling people here in our midst.

[1:29] And this is a wrestling that's not physical, but a wrestling that is spiritual. We see that in Ephesians 6 verse 12. What it says. Paul says this. He says, Friends, it's saying here there's powerful forces at work.

[1:57] There's a wrestling going on. And this term, high places, refers to idol worship. You know, in the Old Testament times, there was pagan gods.

[2:08] There was these altars that were dedicated to the worship of pagan gods of various kinds. And they called these places high places. They built them on the mountaintops.

[2:20] And there was immorality present there. There was a false worship there. And God commends men of God, such as Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

[2:34] One of the things that Hezekiah got right was to deal with the high places. In 2 Kings 18 verse 4, it says of Hezekiah that he removed the high places.

[2:46] He removed them. He demolished them. And he broke the images, it says. The idols. He broke them. And it says that he cut down the groves, these places of pagan worship.

[2:59] And he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. For unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it.

[3:10] And he called it Nahashton. It's interesting. Here's Hezekiah, his commander for some things. He removed some things that grabbed the hearts of the people of God.

[3:20] He removed those things that stole the worship from them that they gave to other things. These idols, these false gods on the high places.

[3:31] And even the bronze snake that Moses had made in Numbers 21, God had instructed Moses to fashion the snake, the serpent, that they would trust and see healing given.

[3:49] And it was a picture of the cross of the cross of the cross lifted up. But for them, even this that was made with a godly intent, they started burning incense to it.

[4:02] They were worshipping it. And we could reckon, well, even something that you might say has some sacred, godly purpose can be misused.

[4:16] If I had some relic of the Holy Land and I put it in a glass case and you would come down and kneel before it and utter your prayers to it, we'd be better smashing it and burning it and destroying it, even if it was something from the very time of Christ.

[4:34] You know, some churches that bow down and worship skulls and bones of supposed dead saints and such things as that, even though they might have been godly men or women, we're not to bow down and worship anything but our holy God.

[4:50] Amen. And so Hezekiah was commanded because he smashed these high places and these idols that was a false worship.

[5:01] They were false gods. What about today, brothers and sisters, are there some false gods in Australia? Yeah? I put to you there are some false gods in Australia. This is a pagan land.

[5:13] It's an idol worshipping land. And it's a sickly, spiritually wicked place at times, in these challenging times. It's as if the wrestling is still happening.

[5:26] Amen? The wrestling is still happening. We're in a struggle. We're still in it. Now for some, it's almost like they've checked out of that kind of picture of a wrestler. They've kind of, that's something that's, they don't capture that.

[5:41] But friends, the wrestling is happening. We're in a fight. And how will we respond? We can respond in, I'll put you in kind of two ways. And the Church of God has been likened in an analogy to a ship.

[5:55] And it's like there's two kind of ships. Or two kind of Christians. We're just going to get ready to cue a video to play. Hopefully we can get it to play. I gave our tech team five minutes notice so it may not happen.

[6:06] But we're going to have to switch from this to the, can we do that? We just, as they do that, this video pictures these two analogies of the Church as either a cruise ship or the Church as a battleship.

[6:20] Now I know there's some people watching from home with their coffee and cake and the big screen. And they're probably laid back in their comfy, comfy sofas. But we can get such that we can almost be like a cruise ship.

[6:33] Like some Christians enjoying their lives as like a cruise ship. But then the other picture is of a battleship. So we'll just see if we can get this to work. Maybe, Michael, could we just turn the lights off?

[6:44] Just see if we can get it on. It may not work. Not happening? Alright. We'll let that go. Sorry, Michael. Check it out on the internet. Do a search for battleship, cruise ship.

[6:57] What kind of church are we? It shows this picture of these people easing back in their deck chairs on the cruise ship and just having fun. It's all carefree and pleasant.

[7:09] And some churches are like that where it's all about easy breezy, easy going. Nothing about the sense of battle. Of the sense of battle that we're actually in the midst of a blistering warfare.

[7:22] Wrestling against principalities and powers. And the picture that we sure have of the church is not of a pleasure ship, of a cruise ship, but of a battleship.

[7:34] That we are in that place of battle. Because we're in a dark and broken world. And something is desperately wrong. People don't know who the real enemy is. And he's attacking us on multiple fronts.

[7:47] Yet many are just in that cruise ship kind of mentality. That cruise mode. We ought to be getting a grip of this reality that we are in a wrestling, a spiritual warfare.

[7:59] And the Bible speaks about high places. Of an authority, of an agenda that's actually anti-God. And there's a new governance taking over. It seems like we're witnessing the rising of a new Caesar, if you like.

[8:14] And there's a convergence. It's across all, many fronts. In many spheres of life. It's all around us. Now we see it in the music industry. The rock stars these days.

[8:26] Following Satan. And it's in plain sight. You know, as they do their, whatever they do with their signs. And, you know, the different things that they do. But it's becoming not so hidden now.

[8:39] It's almost like it's in plain sight. It's like they're not hiding who they've got their allegiance to. Who they belong to. What they advocate. When you see what's happening. And I don't want to give them any glory.

[8:50] But there's a sense where you take a look at such things. Even just a glance at it. And you can see whose side are they on. There's something spiritual going on. It's a spirit.

[9:01] It's a spirit that's driving them. And what is it? It's spiritual wickedness. That's what it is. And it's in high places. The spirit of the Antichrist gets a hold of these men and women.

[9:12] Who then are virtually glorifying immorality. And sin. And even Satan worship. And these are folk who are committed enemies of the gospel.

[9:23] Of God. And of God's people. And they are in power. They are ruling. They're in high places. I put to you. In other words, they're elevated. Aren't they? People go there and they worship.

[9:34] Don't they? In these rock concerts. And they jump and dance and jive. And sing praises. To what? It's a spirit. It's a spirit, people.

[9:45] And there's spiritual wickedness there. And we need to be very guarded and careful. Of where are we going to put our worship? What high places are we going to go to?

[9:56] And these ones, they're dictates godless. There's an ungodly influence that they are promoting. And it's escalating. And we see this spirit of antichrist.

[10:09] It's weaving its way through human systems. Through laws that they're making. Through the culture. It's escalating. And they're promoting unethical ethics.

[10:20] And valueless values. Humanism. Materialism. Humanism. You know, you see some people. And they talk about their success.

[10:31] They talk about their children's success. About careers. About houses. About wealth. About professions. About making money. And that's all they want to talk about.

[10:43] As if that's the be all and end all of life. Friends, it's not. It's not. We're seeing the enemy working. Even in our own state government. Our own state government.

[10:54] Our own state politicians. That they would not care about human life. They don't care about life in the womb.

[11:07] It's like some babies don't matter. That's what they would think. They would have values, these politicians. Such that they would devalue a human life.

[11:19] That's the values they have. I want to tell you today that an unborn person. An unborn baby. Is a person. An unborn baby is a person.

[11:32] Doesn't matter whether the human government acknowledges that or not. We're talking about spiritual wickedness in high places. Even in our government. Let's pray for them.

[11:42] Let's pray for Christian politicians to speak up. To oppose ungodly laws. There's a wrestling happening people. And it's spiritual.

[11:52] We see that further in 2 Corinthians 10. Verses 3 through 5. It says. Paul says. For though we walk in the flesh. We do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

[12:04] But are mighty through God. Through the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down it says. Casting down it says. Imaginations. And every high thing. There's the high things. What should we do with them?

[12:15] Cast them down. Every high thing. Every high thing that exalts itself. Against the knowledge of God. And bringing into captivity every thought. To the obedience of Christ. Notice there's some high things here.

[12:27] That which the world would elevate. That which the world would worship. That which the world would put its value on. Exalting itself against the knowledge of God. What should we do?

[12:38] We should throw it down. Cast it down. Cast it down. These high things we must cast down. We as Christians. We know who is in ultimate power.

[12:50] Our sovereign God. One of his names. The most high. That's who's got the highest place. He is due all power and glory. And he's reigning from his holy throne.

[13:04] For now. We see. Demonic influences are at work. Across every layer and facet. And dimension of our lives. And these forces. They're attacking faith.

[13:15] They're attacking values. Undermining. And the high place that speaks of authority. Of power. And our invisible enemy. Is as it were the puppet master. Reaching across many places of power.

[13:27] It's like he has a hierarchy of evil. And it seems. These days. When you see the government overreach. Due to the pandemic. Not discounting this. The sensible precaution.

[13:39] But this overreach that's happening. And we're seeing many people have lost their freedom and liberties. They're giving it away. Sodom is taking control. Babylon. Baal.

[13:50] Spiritual wickedness. That's what it is. And it's in high places. It's in the very corridors of power. Of our land. In parliament. In Canberra. In North Terrace.

[14:02] Friends. Systems are crumbling all around us. Because the spiritual wickedness. And it's in high places. We need to be aware of such a thing. And reject the pagan gods.

[14:13] Cast them down. Don't bow down. Cast them down. Keep wrestling. And don't give in. It's like systems are crumbling all around. As we've seen these. As some have described them.

[14:23] Control freaks. These control freak rulers. Taking away human rights. And people seem to be living in terror. It's spiritual wickedness. That's what's driving it people.

[14:34] Spiritual wickedness. And it's in high places. You see. What's happening in the education system. It's powerful. It's a high place. You know. Our children are being taught. Obey the state.

[14:45] Don't worry about what your parents say. Obey the state. There's a battle going on for our children. It's another high place. The education system. Now I'm a product of the public education system.

[14:57] I'm a proud graduate of what was called Elizabeth High School. And that's what I did my year 12. But you know. It's not to say. God can't do something. Despite the evil.

[15:09] But we must pray for our children. Especially if they're in a secular public school. Many children are in spiritual danger. It's interesting. When Peter and Trent and I were out yesterday.

[15:20] We came across a woman. And without prompting. She talked about the education system. And saying. I'm going to be homeschooling. My little tot. And we commended her for that. And she said.

[15:31] Because I don't want her getting indoctrinated. You know. This is someone on the street. Literally on the street. Saying there's a problem here. There's an indoctrination here. There's a spiritual danger here.

[15:42] Government schools are. At times pagan. Brainwashing centers. That are indoctrinating our children. Against the truth. God help us. Christian parents today.

[15:54] It's something we need to be very aware of. It's like classrooms have become. These battlegrounds. The Philistines. Have taken over the classroom. And they're stealing our children. And we as parents.

[16:04] Are handing over our children every day. To total strangers. Who work on children's minds. That should alarm us. That should make us want to be very careful. And very aware.

[16:15] Every day they're dishing out more and more humanist lies. Lies such as that men came from AIDS. And that life has no real meaning. And where the mention of God is something that is illegal. Even if you happen to have a Christian teacher.

[16:28] They can't say anything. They're muzzled. They can't speak. And they in the secular system of schooling. Would teach your children. Accept all behaviours.

[16:40] As normal. And don't judge others. There's no such thing as right and wrong. It's all just fuzzy now. And for 14,000 hours of their lives.

[16:52] These children. These children. Will be controlled. But in their world view. As to what they adopt. And it's been said.

[17:02] I quote. The philosophy of education in the classroom. In this generation. Will inevitably become the philosophy of government. In the next generation. They're training the leaders of tomorrow.

[17:12] Now. As to what they will believe. We must stop giving our children. To. Over to the enemy. To train. God wants Christian parents. To raise up a godly generation.

[17:24] We must rescue. Our children. Then you've got another high place. Is the media. These are things. You know. We sometimes tune out. We're not even aware of these things. This is a high place people.

[17:36] It's the media. Who's operating the media? Largely godless men. The entertainment industry. It's very persuasive. It's like.

[17:46] The media. Tells us what to believe. Here's a quote. In the modern world. There's no power greater than that of the news media. No king of old. No pope. No great conqueror or priest.

[17:58] Could come within a hundred miles. Of matching the influence of the mere handful of men. Who control not only the world's news media. But all sources of entertainment as well. And the power penetrates every home.

[18:10] And moulds the ideas of every citizen. Young or old. Rich or poor. End quote. Friends. The media. Is constantly barraging us. With sensual messages.

[18:21] To tolerate sexual immorality. To actually teach them it. It's spiritual wickedness. It's crazy out there. And the constant media messaging. About the virus.

[18:32] Scaremongering. It's all part of the plan. It's keeping us under this kind of fear. Notice with our political leaders. The media is constantly feeding us these messages. Fear.

[18:43] Of crisis. And now there's a rise in globalism. That's the answer they say. The danger of tyranny across our world. These are high places. And it's spiritual wickedness. That's what's happening.

[18:54] This is not just different political views. This is not just left versus right. This is heaven versus hell. This is spiritual wickedness. That's what's happening. And people are panicking such that they're giving up their freedoms.

[19:07] And the media is telling them it's all a good thing. Just take the facts. Some are turning into drugs. I read that antidepressant medication in the USA has gone up 600% in the last four months.

[19:23] That's a recent quote. That's a quote I heard just lately. 600% antidepressant medication. Now maybe some people need that stuff.

[19:35] But this is where it's just gone wacko hasn't it? It's driving people. And people are just crying out. They're depressed. No wonder. There's the media telling you.

[19:46] Get depressed. Get fearful. Panic. Get terrified. Friends, you must heed the warning signs. It's a conditioning from the high places.

[20:00] And what are we to do as God's people when we see all these things, these messaging? We should be aware. We should wise up and sound the alarm. Not be clueless like many today.

[20:12] There's a need for brave voices. Christians who will be brave. To see things for what they are. We're living in a spiritually bankrupt nation.

[20:25] This is a forbidden book. They don't want it in our hands. They want to outlaw it. And the real problem, it is a spiritual one. That's what it is. Spiritual wickedness.

[20:37] It's been called this world we live in, the post-truth world. Post-truth. Like truth has been banned now. No truth. Just anything goes. Whatever you want to believe.

[20:47] And God is irrelevant in this so-called progressive society. This open hatred towards God. And the things of God. A disrespect of elders.

[20:58] A denying of God's truth. That's been foundational for our laws of old. There's this worship of science so-called now.

[21:11] As if science is some new God. That puts science on the high place. And the philosophy of the world is contrary to truth. It's anti-God. Anti-Bible. Friends, the Bible warns us about such things.

[21:24] It says, Paul says, Paul says, Beware of this.

[21:40] Be alert to this. How can we answer this? Where can we turn? What is our hope? In such a hopeless scenario.

[21:51] It's not found in worldly philosophy. In man's worldly thinking and secular thoughts. It's Christ. It's Christ. That's who we need. That's who we need to go to.

[22:02] The invisible enemy doesn't want you to run to him. The invisible enemy wants this incessant propaganda campaign. The rising new world order. An increasing surveillance.

[22:13] A control system. An information control. It's very apparent. You might have seen some stories about fact-checking. You know, they're fact-checking everything.

[22:24] And if it dares to say anything that's about trusting God and not trusting the world, they want to censor that. They want to remove that. There's this real problem of truth decay.

[22:36] Not tooth decay. Truth decay. That's the real problem. How do we answer it? By the Bible. Fact-checking. It's the new censorship. There's this information control happening.

[22:46] And it's weird. I saw someone mention this. How weird it is that the Chinese Communist Party and the Ayatollah of Iran are free to tweet whatever they like.

[22:59] But Twitter has banned the President of the United States. The former President. You know, what he says is just too kind of in your face. They just want to hear what the Communist Party says.

[23:09] What the Ayatollah of Iran says. But God forbid that someone should actually speak something that hits the nerve. They don't want to hear that. They want to censor that.

[23:21] And we see these big tech corporations like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Apple, Amazon, Pinterest. There's this crusade that they've launched now to censor the speech of pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom citizens that don't bow down to their politically correct ideologies.

[23:43] It's like there's a campaign happening. And everything is getting filtered. You know, I've been warned our YouTube channel could be shut down. And we've got 1,400 videos on our YouTube channel.

[23:57] They could just be wiped, erased at the stroke of a pen, at the click of a button. That's what can happen. And that is what is happening to some ministries I've heard. That ministries that would dare to say there's something happening.

[24:10] We need to be informed about it. They will erase us. They will cancel us out. So our voice will not be heard. That's what they want to do. Shut down every ministry that would dare to say such things as this.

[24:25] Who knows how long we'll be online for. Maybe that's a good thing. But, you know, there's a growing cause for a global ID of this worldwide system of tracking people, of vaccinating people.

[24:37] Where's it all leading to? Where is all this going? It's control. That's what it is. It's high places. It's spiritual wickedness. One thing's for sure. Mind control is everywhere.

[24:49] We're conditioned all the time. What is acceptable to us? They don't care if it's condemned by God, that it's ungodly. It's what they say. What they say is acceptable.

[25:01] What they call, what they consider as acceptable. What they call true. And the crowd just goes along with it. We have to say no. We cannot accept that.

[25:12] We need to be willing to open our mind to the truth. And hear God. If we send the next generation to spend 12 years in the government indoctrination camps, schools, they won't teach them about God-honoring principles.

[25:31] And the people that get 12 hours a day of television indoctrination, they don't know that they're getting a program, a TV program, a programming.

[25:43] It's a hypnosis. It's messages lodging in the brain. And it's a thought control. It's disinformation. Friends, it's all part of the invisible enemy's plan.

[25:55] And no wonder there's a rising militant atheism. It's like atheism is the new religion for Australians. And for many, it's all about career, about material prosperity, about success, as the world would gauge it, about your standing in society.

[26:10] It's not as if that's how you measure whether a life is meaningful or not. They want God out of the picture. Our invisible enemy wants to shut down the church. That's what's happening right across the world.

[26:22] They're silencing churches. Our invisible enemy is doing a good job of silencing the church. And by and large, God's frozen people are lulled into apathy and indifference.

[26:37] They just go with the flow. And the spiritual lamps have run out of oil. And it seems like most of the church is totally unprepared for what happens next. Fearlessness prevails.

[26:49] Friends, the church of God. We need an awakening. We need a revival. We need to wake up to what's happening. We need to see the spiritual wickedness in high places.

[27:02] It's happening. It's happening now. And there's a global shaking going on right now. It's like when the storm comes. I know at home, we've got some gum trees.

[27:13] When the storm comes, the bark falls off. It flies off. The superficial gets torn away. Friends, the storm is coming.

[27:25] The storm is coming. And the weaker trees are going to get uprooted. Because they've got no stability in the soil. That's not the foundation. The grounding. We need to get grounded.

[27:37] We need to get to where we can study the Word. Get hold of some good Bible study stuff. To grow. Come to the Bible study.

[27:48] The superficial is going to get blown away. It's going to be torn off. The loose bark. And the weaker trees are going to be uprooted. Friends, the storm is coming. And a lot of people are going to be caught unprepared.

[28:00] And many are abandoning the old landmarks. It's like they don't know the Bible anymore. A lot of Bible illiteracy. And the warning signs are going unhindered. What of the church?

[28:11] What of the church in a day when spiritual wickedness in high places is prevailing and overtaking? Where are the Bible believing Christians? We must wake up a sleeping church.

[28:23] We've got a crying need of authentic biblical Christianity. Even if they call us then enemies of the state.

[28:34] That's what they're going to call you. You who believe the Bible. You who believe what the Bible says. You're going to be an enemy of the state. And they're going to come after us.

[28:45] I can see that happening. We can face, I believe we are going to face some increasing persecution in the days ahead. So we should prepare now. How can we overcome spiritual wickedness in high places?

[28:59] We must have resistance. We've got to get our resistance back. We have to say no to them. It might mean civil disobedience. We must obey God rather than men.

[29:10] Now this is, I'm probably talking a bit strong here. But I believe this is the reality that could face us. That the evil agenda is going to get more and more so. And we've got to fight for our families.

[29:22] This wrestling is going to get more intense. Amen. We've got to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's important that we know what to do when the situation worsens. Now these days a lot of people have got these little gadgets here.

[29:35] And I was just reflecting lately how someone would say, Alexa, Siri, guide me. Show me. And we would see where we want to go to get direction, to navigate, to find answers.

[29:51] Oh Google, tell me this, that or the other. It's like people are talking to their virtual assistants, but they're not talking to God anymore. Isn't it? It's not talking to Him anymore.

[30:02] God give me direction. God give me purpose. God show me the truth. And you see them. You know, you're driving along and they're talking in their cars. You think, are they praying?

[30:13] No, they're talking to their phones. They're walking through the shopping centres and they're talking. Are they talking to God? No, they're talking to their phones. It's like they're permanently attached to their phones.

[30:23] It sounds as if some people are actually praying to their phones. As if this becomes a holy, sacred idol that we should worship and bow down and get direction and more meaning from.

[30:36] That's not going to help you. When the spiritual wickedness comes against you, friends, that's not going to help. But we do have one. We have one who we can call upon.

[30:48] We have one who is the answer to spiritual wickedness. And it's not Siri. It's not Alexa or any other of these names. The answer to the spiritual wickedness of this world is the one whose name is higher than any other.

[31:06] Whose name is above every name. And what does it say of Him? It says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in fashion, sorry, and was made in the likeness of man.

[31:29] And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This one, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He took upon Him the form of a servant.

[31:41] He was made in the likeness of man. He humbled Himself to the very cross, to the death of the cross. And then it says, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

[32:09] Spiritual wickedness in high places, this one is higher. His name is higher. His name is higher than any other. And here's the one, friends, this morning, I urge you to trust Him.

[32:22] Trust Him now, trust Him more than you've ever trusted Him before, because every day, we're getting closer to that day when everything shall bow down to Him. And ultimately, we, who are the church, we need to wise up, not be part of the spiritual wickedness, see it for what it is.

[32:41] Fall, fall before Him, His name is higher than every other name. That our God, He's the most high, He's the highest source of authority and power, and He has the highest name.

[32:54] Wherefore, God also, highly exalted Him, rightfully exalted Him, not like Satan, who want to exalt himself, but this one, His name is higher. We must give Him the highest praise.

[33:05] It's time to flee the spiritual wickedness. It says in Revelation that God urges the people, come out of Babylon. We need to rise up, to be alert, to be alerted, to be informed, to discern false from true, and to find the truth, and hold it fast, and keep it real.

[33:28] Our Lord is the highest name. Now, of course, in the context of our starting verse, tells of spiritual armor. We're not going to touch on that today, but read Ephesians 6. It talks about the whole armor.

[33:39] Our wrestling must be done, clothed with the armor of God, to find His strength. Where we be the church. Some churches are getting shut down.

[33:51] The pastors are shutting them down. It's just too hard. Thank God we're able to meet this morning. Maybe next Sunday they'll say, church is closed. There's another outbreak.

[34:03] Panic. Friends, and I know some Christians, they've not been attending worship for many months. Some churches are not meeting. Well, they're meeting in such a diminished way, that people are staying home, and just watching it on their boats.

[34:19] Boats. Or their TVs, whatever. And the church is messed up today. The apostate church. Shortly, I believe, we're to enter an hour of increasing testing.

[34:31] I believe we're shortly to enter that. And I really believe many people are not ready. They're not ready. I believe we are not going back to normal. I saw something in the media today.

[34:43] They're saying, even the best case scenario, if everybody gets, well, the vaccinations happen, seven years. They're saying, interesting, seven years, isn't it? Seven years before we get back to normal.

[34:54] No, I don't think so. I don't think so. This is as good as it gets, I think. Our invisible enemy has spiritual wickedness in high places. Notice, it's a spirit.

[35:05] This is a spiritual attack. These are not conflicting, just different opinions, or values, or ideas. It's spiritual people.

[35:15] It's a spiritual thing. It's a spiritual attack. It's a spiritual agenda. And our invisible enemy, he's reaching out across culture, across education, media, entertainment, you name it.

[35:28] All aspects of people's lives and values are subject to his control. Forces are mobilizing their intent on criminalizing Christianity. Christianity. This could be an illegal meeting.

[35:41] We might have to find secret ways to worship. We might have to meet at different houses, in different places. I'm not meaning to be alarmist here, but the possibility is there.

[35:54] And there's this rising anti-Christian bigotry and persecution. And the propaganda is everywhere. We see the lessons in history. If we're just seeing what history tells us has happened, consider the early church during Nero.

[36:09] There was rampant persecution. Should it be any less for us? Days of darkness lie ahead. And you have an assignment.

[36:20] And that assignment might lead to persecution, to imprisonment, even death. And the threats are increasing. Even right now, as I speak, right now, recent vote in Victoria has brought in restrictive laws.

[36:34] And these laws have possible nationwide ramifications. These new Victorian laws, laws in the state of Victoria, they've been called the biggest attack on religious freedom in Australia's history.

[36:46] Here's what one Christian commentator has said. It's not conversion therapy that is now illegal in Victoria. It's Christianity. Prayer, counsel, biology, common sense, and help for those who are struggling.

[37:01] It's now banned for them in Victoria. To answer, live out your faith in this Australian state, and you can be imprisoned for a decade. It's a 10-year prison sentence.

[37:13] If you try to counsel a man who's struggling with same-sex attraction, or a woman, and they're wanting help, they're wanting counsel, they're asking you for it.

[37:25] And you were to offer it, you could face massive fines and lengthy prison sentences. If you're a mum or dad, or a teacher, these ungodly laws could risk, it could mean that you will risk jail time for just chatting with these gender-confused kids.

[37:41] The ramifications are huge. And something I read said, it could be considered certain sermons, and prayers are illegal. They could be criminal.

[37:52] Some of what I'm saying today could actually be perceived by some people. If someone in Victoria tunes into our online service, and they think, oh, that's offended me.

[38:05] This could be illegal, and I could be in jail. This is reality. This is how serious it's getting. And churches are being closed as the virus scare ramps up.

[38:18] There's a criminalisation, a criminalisation of Christianity. It's an all-out war on heterosexuality. We're not allowed to speak the truth about the trans agenda.

[38:29] These are things I've read. This is happening now. This is contemporary. This is what's happening right now, right here in our land of Australia. What does the Bible say?

[38:40] Woe to them. Woe unto them. That call good evil, and evil good. That put darkness for light, light for darkness. That put bitter for sweet, sweet for bitter.

[38:51] It's mind-warping. What's happening? What's happening? And our enemy is slowly, subtly, surely, fulfilling his agenda.

[39:05] These changes to culture, they're incremental. And we're being conditioned to think, this is normal now. This is acceptable now. These radical changes. What was once considered a criminal act, sodomy, is now being promoted to our children.

[39:20] They're being taught how to do it from a young age at school. I don't mean to go too deep here today. It's been said, first we overlook evil, then we permit evil, then we legalise evil, then we promote evil, then we celebrate evil, then we persecute those who call it evil.

[39:43] That's what's happening. Godless communism is escalating. Social engineering, the whole world's getting turned against Christianity. We're such bigots now, they say.

[39:54] And the real activists and bullies are those who are pushing aggressively these radical agendas, the so-called pink agenda. And the pink agenda, I've read lately, they will not settle till the deviant is declared normal.

[40:11] And more than that, that the normal is declared deviant. Oh, you're one of those heterosexual families. Oh, you're the weirdos now.

[40:22] That's what they're saying. That's what they want to teach. Friends, I'm being a bit strong here, but these radicals are pushing weird things on school children.

[40:37] That gender is fluid. They've got books written that are promoting such radical ideas. We're talking about children as young as four years old.

[40:48] This has been happening in Brisbane. Four-year-old children, radical activists dressing up in their get-outs.

[41:00] I don't want to show them because it's so vile to even look at it. They're recruiting children for the homosexual lifestyle. And the goal of these radical homosexual activists is the complete alteration of society to fit the homosexual view of human sexuality, marriage and family.

[41:18] They want total control to forever change Western civilization. It's a transformation. Basically, though, what matters, the spiritual element, is they're denying God's design.

[41:29] They don't want a God who says they made them male and female. They don't want a God that says that's the way men and women have been made with a purpose to know their creator, to find his life. And conservative Christians, we face a mounting crackdown, a purge.

[41:46] This is just the thin end of the wedge. This is just the start of something more. And our invisible enemy, he's working, people. We should be wrestling, shouldn't we? We should be speaking out.

[41:58] And yet the enemy would shut down every discordant voice, and that means you and me. They want to shut you down. The multitudes are bowing down of these high places to these altars of demonic deception.

[42:11] And the invisible enemy is working in all the high places of our land. And friends, we're in his target sites. You that would say you believe the Bible, they're actually going to demonize you, believe it or not.

[42:24] You're going to be demonized when we know where the demons are, people. And through history, we see it's a pattern that's recurring. Godless governments, they've tried banning churches altogether, seeking to silence them, seeking that they compromise.

[42:40] You know, there's churches in the neighborhood, they're compromising. They're just going with it. Ultimately, they become tools of their own wicked agendas.

[42:51] That's how Hitler did it. Hitler Youth. He had a youth group. Hitler did it. Our invisible enemy wants to infiltrate, neutralize, re-indoctrinate.

[43:03] It's the high places to intimidate and bully and ultimately to eliminate Christianity. That's his goal. It's spiritual wickedness.

[43:14] That's what's happening. Spiritual wickedness. These enemies of the church, they're enemies of God. How do we overcome? Friends, we must pray. We must wrestle with God.

[43:25] We must wrestle in prayer. We're in the midst of a culture war. A culture is being foisted on us that calls tolerance its highest virtue and yet our tolerant culture, they're highly intolerant of anyone who perceives it to be intolerant.

[43:44] It's weird, isn't it? They call us, they say tolerance, tolerance, but you dare to say something that doesn't fit their mind and they will attack you with a vengeance.

[43:59] A culture is framed by what it venerates and believes. It's the high places. Where are the average Aussies worshipping? What are their high places today?

[44:12] There's lots of high places, aren't there? Sports can be one, can become a substitute God. People show such devotion and love. Julie and I were driving lately, it was the pouring rain and they were there worshipping, kicking the ball around in the driving rain.

[44:28] Such devotion, such sacrifice, such worship, such love, that it becomes an idol for them. Now I used to play soccer or whatever, not saying sport is wrong, but it's the emphasis is wrong, isn't it?

[44:46] The emphasis is wrong. When something becomes a substitute God, it's a high place. It's a high place. Friends, look out for the high places. We need to be alert to this.

[44:57] The biblical values are under attack and the gospel is what the world needs. We need to be grounded. We need to realise, yeah, this is spiritual wickedness.

[45:08] This isn't just Australian culture that's got this and that going on. It's spiritual wickedness. Anything to take people away from worship, from God, from truth. We need to get grounded in the word.

[45:21] It says that righteousness exalts a nation, but sinners are reproached to any people. Friends, what will the people of God do? Are you going to get back in the wrestling match?

[45:33] You know, we need to get, get into the thick of the fight. To see spiritual adultery for what it is, is compromise. We can't, we can't play two times with God.

[45:46] We can't have Babylon and God. We can't have Baal and God. It's got to be God. It's got to be Christ. It's got to be our Lord front and centre, our devotion, our love, our zeal for Him.

[46:00] And we need to remove the high places, whatever they are, whatever it is that takes His rightful place, whatever it is that diminishes our love and service to Him, we must cast it down and to restore the worship of the true God as our heart's devotion.

[46:20] spiritual wickedness is everywhere and we, as I started by saying, sometimes people, they're just not even conscious of it. It's everywhere and it's rampant.

[46:36] We've seen the debased Hollywood entertainment industry. It degenerates, it defiles, it degrades. It's destroying an entire generation. Most modern movies, France, discernment, discernment is called for.

[46:53] Not saying don't ever watch a movie but be discerning. Reject anything that is of the high place as it were, of the devil, of that invisible enemy.

[47:04] So what will we be as a church? Are we going to be like a cruise ship, just kick back, set up the deck chairs, get the coffee and the cake and the entertainment, make it all warm and fuzzy and pleasant and easy?

[47:17] or are we going to board the battleship and enter into the very front of the enemy fire and to go right into the very heart of the battle to be a battleship?

[47:28] That should be our aim. I don't know if we can still play that at the end but it would be a good thing to close with if we can cue that possibly. I'm not sure. We've just got a little tech issue because one of our tech gurus is not present but we've got some budding tech helpers here.

[47:45] We don't go there quite yet but it would be a good one to close just to capture that picture that we should be a battleship, not cozying up to the world, slouching back on the deck chairs of the cruise ship headed to our peril but realising the desperate situation we're in.

[48:01] It's been called a world war of world views in the media, in the university campuses, in the market places, in the pulpits, in the parliaments, in the homes and the hearts.

[48:12] We must return to a biblical world view to believe this book is entirely true. This is the foundation on which we can build a life, the very maker's instructions, our creator's message and spiritual wickedness.

[48:26] We need to see it for what it truly is. It's wicked and it's damnable. I'd like to go to YouTube itself, James, to the history on YouTube. May we be alert to all that is toxic, that is taking over mainstream culture and realise that God's word is the strong foundation that we need and see sin for what it is too.

[48:48] Now what does the Bible picture sin as? You know, I don't have a picture to show you of this one because I think it'd be too repulsive but what does God talk sin as being like? It talks about a picture of a dog returning to his vomit.

[49:02] That's the picture of it. It should repulse us, shouldn't it? And again, this isn't something I wanted to picture because it's so gross. I didn't want to spoil our worshipful atmosphere with a picture of it but the Cadbury Easter Egg commercial now features two sodomites kissing with an open mouth kiss and Cadbury Easter Eggs.

[49:21] That's how they're promoting Cadbury Easter Eggs to you now. That was such a picture. You know, the sick things of this world are sick and they should repulse us. Godliness should prevail, not godlessness but we're seeing a church that is largely asleep and many false professors.

[49:42] Friends, there's no room for compromise. We cannot be having this Christship mentality but rather a battleship mentality and so as we close that we would be as Daniel calls such a people the people who know their God the ones who are strong and shall do exploits.

[50:01] Let's be such a people. The wrestling must continue for a season. It's going to get more intense I put to you. Trust the Lord. Know the Saviour today. Know that you know that you know that you're saved.

[50:13] If you've yet to trust Him trust Him now. Time is short. May our hearts be fixed on this blessed hope that we can have that awaits us and we can cry out even so come quickly Lord Jesus and know that Jesus is the most high and cast down the high places that are full of spiritual wickedness.

[50:35] Just going to see if we can if we possibly can play that but we may not be able to. Just give it one moment or two. we're ready now if you've got it there.

[50:49] Alright, it's just projecting it. Yeah, we're not sure. We have a little problem there but we'll let that go for now and as I say possibly we can put that out on the video version that we put out.

[51:06] It's a very telling picture contrasting the cruise ship and the battleship and how it's urging us to be a church that is a battleship not a cruise ship. Let's pray.

[51:19] Lord we thank you today that we can pray and know that you are the most high and your name is higher than any other name and that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. All the high things, all the high places will come crumbling down one day yet Lord we know for the meantime there's a spiritual battle, a wrestling happening.

[51:38] Steal us for the fight Lord help us to be ready for the battle and not to shirk, not to fall back but to step forward and help us Lord to be your people that will rise up to do exploits in your name.

[51:54] All to your praise in Jesus name. Amen.