Why Do People Prefer Spiritual Darkness?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, it's good to see everybody in again today, and we like to welcome our television crowd as you join with us, whether in your living room, your kitchen, or wherever. And again, I always have to respond to your letters and your phone calls of encouragement, as well as, of course, your financial help. We can't do it without that either. But most of all, we covet your prayers, because after all, we're in a spiritual warfare, and it's only as we lean upon the power of His Spirit that we can continue to hold forth the Word of God, which we trust we're doing it in truth and verity. I hope I can always avoid error. That's my constant prayer anyway, that we never teach anything that is contrary to the truth, but Lord knows we appreciate so much your letters. And I was thinking of this morning, how many times I'll be reading a letter, and I got to answer this, and so I got one little box for letters to be answered. And pretty soon, I've just got so many that I can't possibly do it. So when I start answering, then I have to filter out some of them again. But rest assured, we do read every letter, and we're aware of every prayer request by phone and by mail, and we do take you into the throne room every day. And again, we covet your prayers on our behalf. Now again, we always like to make it known that all the past programs are available on videotape and audiotape, and it's also been transcribed into the little printed booklets. If you're interested in any of those materials, you give us a call or drop us a note, and we'll get the information out to you. Again, I think Kim made note of it in our newsletter that we have a lot of materials that are free for the asking, and those are printouts of Salvation Verses, for example. And we have, of course, all the listings of the past programs on a special format. You can call in for that. And Home Bible Studies—my goodness, we've got Home Bible Studies just propping up all over the country. And of course, we never give out names for anything without permission. So if you have a Home Bible Study and you are open to have people call you and become part of it, let us know that as well. And also call and get our list of Home Bible Studies that we can send out. So all those things are available if you're interested. All right, this is just a simple, informal Bible study. I've always said I'm more like a Sunday school teacher, I think, than anything else. And we've been taking it pretty much verse by verse as we come up through Paul's epistles, because Paul, of course, writes strictly to you and I as Gentile believers. And consequently, there is so much in here that we just cannot glibly pass over it. And so we have been coming rather slowly, and we'll continue to go slow. Although, like I just told our studio audience, I'd like to finish the book of Ephesians in this next four programs so that we can have it all within book number 38. But we'll see what happens. Ephesians chapter 5, and Jerry's got it on the board. Ephesians chapter 5, and we covered verse 6 in our last taping. And rather than just jump down to verse 7, I'm going to go back again to verse 6 for an introduction to what we're going to say next, where he writes, Let no man deceive you with vain words. Now, you all know what the word vain means. It's superfluous. It's that which doesn't make sense. It's confusing. And Lord knows there's so much of that out there today. So this is so appropriate that we take this verse to heart, that we're not to be deceived with words that are not appropriate, that are not based on the Scripture. So many times, you know, Monday morning is when our phone rings the hardest. And invariably, it's because of what people have heard on Sunday morning. And then they've got questions. Well, when they come up with some of this goofy stuff, the first thing I say is, did you look for it in your Bible? Yeah, I looked. Did you find it? No. In other words, it's not in there, is it? No, it's not in there. Then forget it. Then forget it. I don't care where it comes from. If you can't back it up with Scripture, forget it. It's a deception. It's a false teaching. And as we're going to see in a little bit, you want to remember that Satan is the angel of light, and he can transform himself into that. So we have to be so careful that we're not taken in by vain, deceptive words. All right? Verse 6, reading on then, for because of these things, because of this massive deception that is coming out across the world, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Now, I think I mentioned in our last program then that most of the unbelieving world scoffs at the idea that God will one day yet pour out His wrath and judgment upon Christ rejecting mankind. They think that's just some figment of our imagination, but I got news for them. It is coming. May not be in my lifetime. May not be in the next. We don't know, but we know it's coming. There will be a day when God will finally say enough, and His wrath is going to be poured out, and a big portion of that will be on these who have been deceiving the multitudes. All right, now then we can go on into our next verse. Be ye therefore not partakers with them. In other words, God has given every believer enough knowledge of the Word that with just a little effort, doesn't take a lot, but with just a little effort, we can line these things up with the Word and see immediately that it's false, and if it's false, we run from it. See, and that's what Paul is admonishing, that we do not partake of these false teachings, these deceivers that the Scripture is telling us is coming on the world. Now verse 8, For you were sometimes, or today we would say you were at one time in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Consequently, since we have come out of darkness, and we are now walking in the light, we are to act accordingly. And again, you can just take that into any kind of an everyday experience. It's no fun to walk in the pitch dark, is it? Most people don't get a chance to do that anymore, because like I've explained on this program before, we're living in a world now that is polluted with light as well as with everything else. You can't hardly find darkness anymore. But if you were in a position where you were to actually walk in absolute pitch darkness, it's no fun. You're stumbling, you're unsure of yourself, and you don't know which way you're going. Well, it's the same way spiritually. When people are walking in a spiritual darkness, they are in utter confusion. They just don't know up from down, and this is where we see so much of the world with regard to the Spirit. This is where most of them are tonight. They are walking in darkness. But you and I as believers don't have that problem. We're not walking in darkness. We can walk with the surety that we're in the light, and the light, of course, we're going to see in John 3 in just a little later verses here. So now come on into verse 9, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all, that it be in all things, goodness and righteousness and truth. Now, who in the world can find fault with those three words? Who can find fault with goodness? I don't know who could. Who can find fault with righteousness? Who in the world could find fault with truth? The world is always looking for truth, but they're looking in the wrong places. But see, these are three words that are the epitome of the Christian experience, and consequently if we walk in the light, as John puts in his little epistle, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with Him, and in us there is no darkness at all. All right, so as a result then of our walking in the light, we should be able to put forth goodness and righteousness and truth, which no one should be able to find fault with. All right, now then verse 10. I'm moving a little quicker here, because like I said, I'd like to finish up this little book of Ephesians. Verse 10, as we walk in the light, as we are the epitome of goodness and righteousness and truth, at the same time what are we doing? We are proving what is acceptable, not unto society, not unto our friends and relatives, but what is acceptable unto whom? Unto God, see? Unto the Lord. That's what counts. Are we doing what is pleasing in His sight, or are we simply pleasing friends and community and so forth? All right, now then verse 11. This is what people don't like to hear, and he says, have no fellowship, have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Now, we're living in a day when even some of our politicians and some of our more belligerent elements of Christianity think that we can literally turn the world around, that we can just stop this slide down into more and more wickedness, down into more and more satanic power, and they try to give us the idea that we can turn this whole thing around and reverse it. No, we can't, nor does the Scripture say we will. But what are we to do? We are to be in constant opposition to these forces. We are to stand like a dam in the river and hold it back, but we're not going to reverse the direction of that river. I just cannot find anything in Scripture to indicate that we are admonished to reverse the trend. It just won't happen. But if we can certainly stand in opposition, we can reprove these works of darkness, and that's all that God expects. Now, to back me up on that, I always have to go to Scripture—you know that—and go to 2 Thessalonians, verses that we've used in other respects with the coming of the Antichrist and so forth. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and let's jump in at verse 6. Now, this is the responsibility of every believer in whatever time we may have lived, whether it was in Paul's day or whether it was a thousand years ago or whether it's now today. This has been the prerogative of the true believer. Verse 6 of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where he says, "...you know who withholdeth, or holdeth back, that he," the Antichrist up there in verse 4, "...thou there is this power that is holding back, that the Antichrist would be revealed in his time." In other words, not ahead of time, not behind time. And so we become then a force under the power of the Holy Spirit to hold back these forces of iniquity that would literally prepare the world for the Antichrist before his time. And God doesn't want to let that happen, of course, but He uses us to, as He says back here in Ephesians, that we are to reprove these works of darkness that are coming in as a flood. All right, now let's read on in 2 Thessalonians again. Verse 7, "...for the mystery, or the secret of iniquity," and iniquity and wickedness all fall into that same category, "...for the secret of iniquity doth already work." I mean, this isn't something that started in the 1900's. This isn't something that started in the last thousand years. This has been going on, I think, especially since the Tower of Babel when Nimrod caused people to fall under the trap of false gods and satanically inspired mythology and all these things. So this is where I think Paul is referring back to the time that iniquity began to work, although Lord knows there are plenty of it also between Adam and the Tower. But whatever, we know, as I've stressed so often in this program, that all of the false religions that we are up against today, I don't care what it is, whether it's a huge religion or whether it's a cult or whether it's some little offshoot of something else, they all have their roots right back to the Tower of Babel, every one of them. And that has been working now for the last 2,000, 2,000, 4,000 years. So it's nothing new. All right, now back to the text. "...for the mystery or the secret of all this iniquity is already at work. Only he who now hindereth will hinder until he be taken out of the way, which I've always felt is the work of the Holy Spirit working in and through the believer. We are the ones that are to stand up and reprove and hold back these forces of iniquity that would cover the world and make the Antichrist's appearance premature. But we are with the power of the Holy Spirit to hold it back." And like I said a moment ago, be like a dam in the river. We're not going to change the course of the river. Forget it. It's not going to happen. But we can slow it down, and that's all we can do. All right, and then he says in verse 8, "...after we're taken out of the way..." And it'll be just like, again, lifting the dam out of the river. Downstream, it's going to be a flood like you can't imagine, and it'll be a flood of wickedness, it'll be a flood of iniquity, and even though the first 3 1⁄2 years of that 7 are not going to be anything like the last 3 1⁄2, yet rest assured, it's going to be bad enough because of the flood of iniquity. All right, verse 8, and then we'll go back to Ephesians. So, "...and then, when that dam in the river, the body of Christ indwelt by the Holy Spirit, when it is taken out of the way, then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord at the end of the seven years shall consume," and so forth. Well, anyway, coming back then to our portion where we're studying in Ephesians, back to chapter 5, verse 10, 11 rather, "...we are not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather we're to be a dam in the river." It's the best way I can explain it. We're to hold it back. Now, that doesn't mean we have to go out and demonstrate and do all these things that cause all kinds of problems in society, and so forth. But we are to be that constant power of the Holy Spirit to admonish people, to refrain from these things, and to be a reproving of these unfruitful works of darkness. All right, now I'm going to come back to John's Gospel here in a little bit. Verse 12, "...for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." Now, up until a few years ago, most of this abject wickedness was kept secret, and we called it in the closet. But anymore, it's coming out in the open. There is no shame, there is no holding back, and they have absolutely no consciousness of what's right and wrong. And so then we have to move on to verse 13, "...but all those things that are reproved, all of these things that the Bible declares as anti-God, its wickedness, its iniquity, all these things that are reproved, are made manifest," in other words, shown to be what it really is, by what? The light. The light. Well, those of you who have heard me teach now forever so long, you know I always come to that word manifest, and I make the comparison of the little light under your microscope. Now, not everybody has had a chance to use a microscope, but anymore, I imagine most have. And you know that when you put that slide under the lens, you still don't see anything until you turn on that powerful little light. That powerful little light goes through your slide up into the lens, and you see things that you'd never see otherwise. All right, that's what the Scripture, I think, means over and over when it uses the word manifest. It is put in such a powerful light that you can see things you would never see otherwise. All right, now let's go back to John's Gospel and see how Paul is in perfect accord with even the Gospel accounts of some of these things. And you come into John's Gospel, chapter 3, and Jesus, of course, is speaking in His earthly ministry. And of course, I always have to make people understand that He was more than just the carpenter of Nazareth. He was the Creator God who knew the end from the beginning. He was the God of all power. He was the same Most High God that Nebuchadnezzar came to recognize. But now, as He has come in the form of the flesh, this same God speaks with that authority that only God can have. And now look what Jesus said in John's Gospel, chapter 3, beginning with verse 19. John's Gospel, chapter 3, and let's jump in at verse 19. Now there, again I've got to remind myself, the folks in television write all the time, take your time so that we can look it up in our living room, and we have to keep that on our mind. All right, verse 19. Jesus is speaking, and He says, This is the condemnation, this is why the human race is already condemned, that light has come into the world. And even with the light on the planet, walking there on the dusty roads of what today we call Israel, or what in the old days was called Canaan, or Palestine in some quarters, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light. But isn't it stupid really? Because like I've already explained, there's nothing more miserable than trying to walk in pitch darkness. You stumble, you don't really know where you're going, you don't know what's ahead of you, it's just not a very happy experience to walk in total darkness. And yet mankind is stupid enough, and I think I can use that word, they're stupid enough to rather walk in spiritual darkness as to step into the light. You know, way back in one of my earlier programs, somebody reminded me the other day, and they liked it, so if they did, maybe others did. I used the example, you know, I'm a rancher, and I'm down here in the mountains of southeast Oklahoma, and I have an abundance of rocks, and every once in a while on a hot summer day, I'll just flip over one of those rocks to see what's underneath. Might be a snake, and it might be a black widow, never know what. But you know what I've always noticed? When you turn over a rock on a real bright, sunny Oklahoma day, what do all those little creatures under that rock do? Hey, they scurry for their little tunnels. They'll find a hole somehow or other. Why? Because they don't like the light. They are accustomed to their darkness. And consequently, when you flip over the rock and the sunlight hits them, they just scatter to get out of the light. Well, I think it is a good example. That's mankind. Just as soon as the light of the Word of God hits them, they scatter like a covey of quail, because they don't want the light. They love their darkness. Leave me alone. I'm happy in my miserable state. And that's what they are. They're miserable. My goodness, all you have to do is read the paper. Now, I know it's not the vast majority, but too large a percentage is in total misery. Most of the time, they don't even know it. I don't know whether I should put this on the program or not. I hate to bring a bad reflection on the state of Oklahoma, because I love this country. I really do. But the other day in my Daily Oklahoman, I just happened to be going through the legal section, and there was a list of names in small print, at least that long, of the divorces that had just been filed that week, in just one city, in one day. And I look at that, and I think, look at all those couples that are going through the trauma of divorce. And I've visited with enough people from coast to coast in various segments of my life that I've never yet talked to anybody that said divorce was a pleasant experience. It's a traumatic experience. And yet, these multitudes are going through all of this because, I don't know, they're walking in darkness, and they know not what it is to walk in the light, and consequently, they don't even realize the source of so much of their unhappiness and their misery. All right, but coming back to the text in John 3, verse 19, and so they love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are not good. They're what? They're evil. They're evil, and that's why they love the darkness. And now the next verse, "...for everyone that doeth evil..." Now, this is the Lord Himself speaking. This isn't my idea. This is God Himself in the person of Christ speaking on earth to His—I think this is written primarily to the disciples at first, and, oh, this is when He's still talking to Nicodemus, but whatever. And He says, "...everyone that doeth evil hates the light, neither do they come to the light, lest his deeds should be..." What? "...reproved." See? That's why they hate the light, because if they step in the light, then they suddenly see themselves as God sees them, and they don't like that. And so immediately they flip back into the dark, just like my bugs under the rock. They don't like the light, so they head right down into the darkness. All right? Then verse 21, "...but..." And everybody from coast to coast knows what I call that word. Flip side. Flip side. "...but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they can be put like that slide under the microscope..." They're willing to let their deeds be seen, because the light is now dealing with them. And remember that the light of Scripture, the Lord Jesus, does not deal with that seeking sinner who wants salvation in his wrath and judgment, but instead how does He deal with him? In grace and mercy and compassion and love. And He says, "...you're the one I'm looking for. I've loved you. I do love you, and I want you for myself." And all we have to do is step into the light, and we understand all that. "...and so he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they can be seen for what they really are, and that they are wrought in God." Now, of course, the deeds that are made or promoted from God Himself would be the good deeds as a result, then, of our stepping into the light. Oh, the light makes all the difference in the world. And then what the Lord speaks of Himself a little later, I think in this same chapter, if I'm not mistaken. I am the what? The light of the world, see? And we experience the results of that light when instead of running from it, we step into it. And of course, that takes the prodding and the wooing and all the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us out of that darkness and into the light. Okay, so now then, just for a little quick wrap-up of what we've been saying for the last several minutes, is in verse 13, "...all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light." And remember, Christ is the light, "...and for whatsoever doth make manifest is light." And so the whole secret for our Christian experience is that we rest on the knowledge that comes from the light, and the light of the world is Christ. So, that's route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. 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