It's All About Jesus

All right. Um, welcome to people online. Justin and Natasha, Justin 6. So, a shout out to them.

They're watching online and whoever else is watching online. Um, one of the neat things about um, this job that God has uh, given me is I get to go to the word and I get to study it and I get to um, listen to him and have him give me messages and and uh, almost everything that I preach is something that I've not heard be preached somewhere else. That doesn't mean it hasn't been preached somewhere else. There's nothing new under the sun.

It's just the way he's shown it to me is a little different than um, I'd ever seen before. And so, um, I think one of the things that causes that is I when I see a contradiction in scripture, I I don't um, they're both true. What a lot of people do is the thing they that matches their belief, they just discard the other thing. You can't discard a part of this, okay?

If one part's true, another part's true, you have to find how they connect in the middle to because both parts are true. You You get that? And so, I'm going to give you an example of that that's going to lead into our sermon today. In Psalm 8, verses 4 and 5, David says this.

It's a great passage. What is man that you're mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor. But then in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 3, Paul says, "Do you not know that we will judge the angels?"

Meaning we're above them, we can judge on them. So, how do both statements reconcile? You know? Are we lower than them or are we above the angels?

The answer, like so often is case, is Jesus. And the Bible is often its best um commentary on itself. So, if you go to Ephesians 2:4 through 6, God gives us the answer. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our tras- trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. And raised us together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Okay? On Earth, yeah, maybe, because the angels are in the spiritual world.

But in the spiritual world, Christ is now, because of what he did on the cross and how he raised us and we're co-heirs with Christ, we are now seated with him in the heavenlies. The the hierarchy now goes Jesus, us, the angels, devil and his demons. Okay? The what what the devil tries to do is get everyone thinking that he's all this powerful thing.

Actually we based on what Jesus did, okay, are co-heirs with him and we are actually above the angels. So, the devil's plan, his main strategy, and again, think about if you're born again, if you you repented and you asked Jesus into your heart, you're born again, the Holy Spirit is inside of you. So, if God himself is inside of you, how can the devil be higher? Right?

How can anything be higher? Okay? But the devil's plan, his main strategy, is to get our eyes off of Jesus and back on us. Now, if if we don't Jesus is the one who gives us that authority, okay?

Without him, we go to the bottom of the list. But with him, we're right below him and above the angels. So, today I'm going to help you try to understand the truth about the devil and his demons. You know, the devil is below the angels.

He used to be an archangel in heaven with Gabriel and Michael, but he he um rebelled because we were we were created, really, and took a third of his angels with him. But, he's actually below the angels. Look at Revelation 20:1-3. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till a thousand years are up. So, there at the end, just a run-of-the-mill angel can take Satan, throw him down, wrap him up, put a seal on him, and put him down, okay? So, the angels are actually above them.

The devil is not omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Only God is. So, if the devil is messing with someone in China, he can't be messing with you in Georgia. He's not everywhere at once.

Whereas, God can listen to a prayer in China and be dealing with you in Georgia at the same time because he's omniscient, okay? He's omnipresent. There's only one creature one being like that, and that's God, okay? So, the devil doesn't have that much power.

There's also a finite number of demons. Demons aren't having little baby demons, okay? There's a finite number of demons. And we keep having babies.

There's 8 billion people on this planet now. There aren't enough demons to mess with us all, okay? And I say all that to say, the only ability that Satan has and his devils have to mess with us is deception and lies, okay? And so, his goal is to get our eyes off of Jesus.

Jesus himself says in John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. It's a very important verse, okay? You take Christ away, we go to the bottom.

But with Christ, okay? We're above even the angels. But the devil's goal is to get us off of that. So, the the title of this message is it's all about Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians 11, all right? Try to get there. 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 through 15, we see how deception works, how the devil works deception. So, here I and I read, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works." So, he deceives with false religions, okay? And with cults.

It's one way he deceives, okay? In the 1800s, there was a small Bible study group in Pittsburgh, led by a guy named Charles Russell, and it became the Um Joseph Rutherford uh coined that phrase for them. And the crux of that religion is that Jesus is not God. He's the son of God, but he's not God.

He's not divinity. He's not So, so what what What does that mean? The eyes are off of Jesus. He's no longer the one who sets us up in the heavenlies, okay?

Everyone that the Jehovah's Witness recruits to their their de- denomination, whatever you want to call it, isn't going to heaven, okay? Because they don't believe Jesus is Lord. And Jesus says the only way to heaven is through him, okay? He is the way, the truth, and life.

No one gets to heaven except for him. So, the devil's he he leaves them alone. They're doing his work, okay? Also in the 1800s, man, the 1800s, the devil was working overtime.

You got creationism with Darwin, you got pre-trib with Darby, you got Jehovah's Witness. And then a man named Joseph Smith was visited by an angel of light, okay? Um it's said here in this verse that for Satan himself trans- forms himself into an angel of light. And so, what he was told was what Jesus did on the cross wasn't enough.

You need to also do these other things, and that became the Book of Mormon. Okay? Again, if it's if the eyes are off of Jesus, what's happening? Is that an angel of light truly, or is it the devil?

Because the devil's goal is to get them off of Jesus. And that's wrong. He does it within the religions. There's other cults, but those are the two biggest ones, but he does it within religions.

He deceives with denominations, and ultimately a focus on self. The Bible just had Jew and Gentile. All these denominations we have, they're not of God, okay? They're our our creation, us us man's creation.

The Catholic religion, praying to Peter and Mary, okay? Instead of Jesus. Going to a priest to repent of your sins instead of going straight to Jesus, okay? What's happening?

The eyes are getting off of Jesus. It doesn't mean if you're Catholic, you're guaranteed to go to hell. If you've got a relationship with Jesus, that's the key. If you've got a relationship with Jesus, but if you're counting on your religion to get you to Jesus, it's not going to happen, okay?

If you got sprinkled as a as a child and then never had a relationship with Jesus, you're not going to go to heaven just because you were this religion, that religion. There are um rel- There's denominations that believe in Ephesians, we were just reading it, but at the beginning in Ephesians, he talks about how we were predestined to be in this place. We were predestined to be right below Jesus and above the angels, but there's a whole denomination around this predestination thing that only certain people are allowed to get in.

And and the group that's there is the ones that get to get in. I mean, it's it's crazy what the devil will do to get our eyes off of Jesus. And if you read that verse again, 11:15, it says, "Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works." Now, I'm going to step on some toes probably here, but the Pentecostal movement morphed into the charismatic movement, morphed into the Now, it's almost hyper-charismatic, neo-charismatic is what they're called.

But Paul says very carefully to test the spirits. 1 John 4:1-3. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is God. So, that's your key, okay? So, if you walk into a church where everybody's talking in tongues, like 10, 20 people talking in tongues, and people are falling down, and everything else like that, and the music's great, you may feel like you're in a spiritual place, but we've got to test to see, is this the Holy Spirit that's moving there, or is this demonic spirits that are moving there? Look at 1 Corinthians 14 27 and 28.

So, Paul speaks specifically to this. If anyone speaks in a tongue, speaking in tongues can happen. It's not It's not illegal, okay? If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at most three, and each in turn speak, and let one interpret.

So, there has to be an interpreter there. Okay? Cuz otherwise, you're just talking, and who's who's who's Wow, that person's full of the spirit. Okay?

But but there has to be an interpreter there, so you know what's happening. But if there is no interpreter, this is Paul saying it, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. So, in your prayer closet, that's where you go. Okay?

And if you're speaking Unless there's an interpreter there, you're not supposed to be all walking around doing that. If you're in a church like that, that's not pointing the the plate to Jesus. That's just stuff coming out of a person's mouth that no one understands. Okay?

The hyper grace doctrine, we've got someone here who's stuck in the hyper grace doctrine, had had a lot of very serious issues come from that. Grace is is We're going to talk about grace in just a second. Grace is amazing. But if you let's say your boy Johnny and a couple neighborhood kids get in trouble, okay?

When he asked Johnny what happened, Johnny tells you about what the neighborhood kids did, but he kind of doesn't tell you about his part in the problem, right? Is Johnny telling the truth? >> Nope. >> No, he's telling a lie.

So, if you only talk about one part of this book, grace, and never talk about the sin that even makes grace necessary, you're you're you're not taking the whole gospel. Before I got saved, I mean before I became a preacher, I used to defend people that would never talk about the stuff that no one wants to talk about in the Bible as, "Hey, maybe God, you know, they're accountable to God." And and maybe God is uh told them to just be encouragers.

And And And I would say, you know, I flicked on a channel on a Saturday, and one of those pastors is on, and it was good. But I'm telling you now as a preacher, that's not the way it is, okay? Every week God gets all over me over things to talk about, and and they're things that are good and bad, okay? There's no way a preacher is truly studying that word and comes forward every Sunday with a success message.

There's just no way. He's not following what God is telling him to do. And so if you're out there, preachers, I don't care how big your church is, you've got to tell the whole gospel, man. It's It's critical.

Um Grace. If someone's just preaching about success things, the doctrine is all on yourself. It says, "Test." Every message should point to Jesus.

Every single message. Um there is no reason for grace if there's no sin, okay? Then you have churches that are the opposite. They're They're almost anti-grace.

They talk about the mortification of sin. My friend was in one of these churches where it's all about you being as perfect as you can be so that people will watch you, and uh then they'll want Jesus because of how perfect you are, okay? Who's the focus of that? Once again, it's us, okay?

So all of these things are twists of religion, and they have the taste of God. They They sound kind of godly. You feel good when you're in there sometimes, but they deny the power. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power.

What's the power in the church? You can say it. It's okay. Jesus.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you, brother in the front. Um He deceives also by emotions and keeping sin in the dark.

We were just singing a song. Um But I have sinned. Okay? Everyone in this place has sinned.

And it says that the wages of sin is death. What we deserve is death. Okay? And God is just.

He has to punish based on the law. He has to punish. Okay? We deserve death.

But what the cross did was show that God is just but he's also love. Because he went to that cross and he took those lashes and he took all of that for me and for you. Okay? That's grace.

And if if if you try to make sin something that's acceptable, you you you violate what what even was done. Okay? We're not supposed to be that way. Grace is the most amazing thing because we all should be in hell.

But because of Jesus okay? We have a pathway to heaven. Now once you're saved that doesn't mean you'll never sin. Okay?

But you're no longer a sinner saved by grace. You're a saint who sometimes sins. I've been a Christian for 30 years and I have had There's no children here. I've had um intercourse with three women total in 30 years.

Okay? Now for you math majors, I've had two wives. That means one time I slipped up and I did it. I wasn't I was single.

But I did it. Okay? And it was before I was a pastor, but that doesn't matter. I was still a Christian.

Okay? I don't have an excuse. And you may say, "Well, I can't be in a church where the pastor isn't perfect." Good luck finding a church where the pastor isn't perfect, okay?

They just hide it. But here's the thing. And kids don't think because your dad screwed up that it's okay, cuz it's not. I was wrecked over it.

I was wrecked over it. I went to the my knees and I repented. Repenting is when you go to your knees weeping. And then you turn.

And you don't do it again, or you try not to do it again. I've dated 10 women since that time and not violated that, okay? Again, doesn't mean I'm out of the woods necessarily, okay? Because I have to be careful, cuz we can always get tripped up, right?

We can ever think that we're past whatever it is, because the devil can use that pride to then sneak back in, okay? This is how it works. But listen, not only did I repent and I turned, but I also apologized to that lady, because I did not treat her like the child of God that she is, okay? She thought I lobsters crawling out of my ears, but but um you know, but I'm free now.

Do you understand that? Jesus forgave me. He forgave me. I am now free and now I've brought it into the open so that nothing can come and trip me up.

All right? There's not going to be something that comes out of the closet in Brian Peerit's ministry a year from now, cuz I've told you guys everything. This was the last thing I was kind of been burdening me for weeks. And I was figuring, how can I get it flung in?

Here we go. If you keep things in the dark, okay? The devil can mess with you. But if you bring it all into the light, the devil has no authority.

He can't bring shame, he can't bring guilt, he can't bring anything against me. I'm clean. You guys want to judge me, you can. You know, and go somewhere else, that's fine, but I am clean and free.

I don't have to worry about ex- what ex-wives say, what anyone says. I'm free and I'm clean. And it's so beautiful to be free and clean. And that's the way it is for all of us.

So, we have to understand our position in Christ. Okay? But if the devil can keep you thinking that he's strong um or that you're guilty and shameful or dirty, then he can keep you he can keep messing with you and he can keep you in bondage. Another trick he does is distraction and busyness.

To where you don't have time for God, okay? We can all relate where you're just running running running running. The number one reason people tell me they can't obey the Sabbath, which is where you take a day off, is because they're too busy. That's the number one reason they give me.

They're just too busy. There's no way. Brian, you don't understand. I work all these days and then I have kids to take care of and this to take care of and they do do do do do do they always have the reasons.

But I'm telling you, you can take a Sabbath. I have two two full-time jobs and six kids, man. I take a Sabbath. So, if I can do it, anyone can do it.

But you have to be serious about it. But the devil can keep you too busy to where you don't have time for God. Doesn't mean you're losing your salvation, but it means you're you're you're like a weed a weeds have have choked your effectiveness, okay? Um and you don't have fruit.

So, if he can't get you out of heaven, he's going to try to to limit you. So, how do we put these tricks to shame? How do we beat the devil at his own game? We don't.

We don't play the game. It's a silly game, okay? Jesus showed us that. When the devil came to to to tempt him, he just replied with scripture.

He didn't play the game, he just replied with scripture. When he was going one way and and the devil had gone into Peter and told told Peter, "Hey, you got to go somewhere else." Jesus said what? Get behind me, Satan.

You're a child of the king. You're a co-heir of Christ. You are seated with him in the heavenlies. You can tell him, "Get behind me, Satan."

Okay? You are sealed with Christ in the heavenlies. You're above the devil. You're above his demons.

You have to walk in that new creation. Feed the Holy Spirit with the Bible. Um man, throw on some Jesus songs. It's It's always good for your spirit.

If you're feeling a little down, then throw songs. It's great. Feed the spirit more than the flesh. Second Corinthians 10: 4 through 6.

You got that on the screen? Paul says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." So, you start seeing something that begins to the temptation begins there, you take it immediately to Christ, to the obedience of Christ. You You You just lock it up and throw it away.

Okay? We must take every thought captive. Don't allow the stuff to to fester there and to And you put on the full armor of God. And I'm going to wrap up with that.

God showed me something this this week, very neat. As I was reading this, he he showed me it and I love I love that we can read this word and God can give us a fresh anointing, a fresh thing. It's so wonderful. And I've heard the the armor of God teached teached taught um preached on and and many times, but I've never heard anyone share it quite like what God showed me this week.

So, I'm going to read it for you. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You know, gunners, guys, gunners, right? On the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth. Who's the way, the truth, and the life?

Jesus. All right, follow me here. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Who gives us righteousness?

Jesus. Oh, man. And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. What's the gospel?

Jesus. All right, above all, take the shield of faith. What is our faith? Jesus.

With which you can be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation. Who is the author of our salvation? Jesus.

And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Okay? So, what is he saying? You wake up in the morning, and who do you put on?

Jesus. And that hot, and then you pick up this word, and you start reading this word, because guess what? In here is your uh plan. God's got a plan for you, plan to prosper you, not to harm you.

Where are you going to find it? You're going to find it in here, man. This is it. This is the key.

This is the key. This is the sword of the spirit. This is the only thing that's a weapon. Everything else was armor, but this is a weapon.

So, you put on Jesus, he's your armor, then you spend some time here, now you're now you're ready for the day. And the devil can come against you, but But what? You're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. He can't mess with you.

That's how you put him away. You go to Jesus and you pick up this word. That's all you need, man. That is the armor of God.

It's Jesus. So as the band comes up, I want to ask you. What about you? Yeah that's you've been hiding in the dark.

Afraid to bring it in the light. I just admitted a very embarrassing thing. Okay? If the preacher boy can do it, you guys can do it.

All right? Don't allow sin to stay hidden. Don't allow it to keep you bound up. Don't allow it to to limit you and allow the devil to mess with you.

Bring it into the light. You're and take it to the cross. Nail it to that cross. God is just and righteous to forgive you.

He will forgive you and you can walk free. You don't have to worry about anyone coming later saying, "I saw you do that, man." That's all gone, okay? It's done.

You're free. You can walk free in Jesus Christ. So I'm going to pray over us. Heavenly Father, Oh Lord, you're so good.

I just thank you for uh your presence in this place, Lord. I thank you for all that you do. I pray that everyone here under the sound of my voice will uh dig deep. Search Search the dark places.

Bring everything into the light, Lord. That anything that uh they confess it. They confess it to each other, Lord. And I pray now as we go into this song, if nothing else, that we have gratitude for what you did on that cross and how you gave us salvation and you gave us life.

And Lord, I just thank you and praise you for that life in Jesus' name. Amen.