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  OVERCOMING THE THRONE OF INIQUITY
  by Shane Idleman
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of overcoming the throne
of iniquity by seeking truth, standing firm in faith, and improving
mental diet. It calls for repentance for carnal living and challenges
the notion that affiliation or good works alone can save. The message
urges listeners to know Jesus personally and to worship authentically,
allowing God to work in their hearts.

Topics: "Overcoming Iniquity", "Authentic Worship"
Scripture References: Psalms 94:22, 1 John 5:4, James 2:26, Proverbs 4:23, Philippians 4:6, Isaiah 41:10

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of overcoming the throne of
iniquity by seeking truth, standing firm in faith, and improving mental
diet. It calls for repentance for carnal living and challenges the
notion that affiliation or good works alone can save. The message urges
listeners to know Jesus personally and to worship authentically,
allowing God to work in their hearts.

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CONTENT
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Of iniquity and I just pray, Lord, I need your help through this
message. I need your confirmation. I need the power of your spirit,
Lord.

I just come to you, Lord, humble and broken and speak to your people
through this overcoming the throne of iniquity. And if you didn't hear
last week's message, you need to go and listen to that message. It was
the title was unveiling the the deception and pulling down that veil of
deception that is overcoming our nation.

I'm not going to talk about a lot of those things because I already did.
We've got the sermon notes also were turned into an article as well. So
you can find all of that on shaneidelman.com for the article, the sermon
notes.

And I was reminded this week and actually what we talked about last week
ties into this a little bit because overcoming the throne of iniquity,
it's all going to make sense in a minute when I read Psalm 94. The first
way to overcome the throne of iniquity is with the truth. And that's
what we talked about last week, the truth of what's really happening.

And I was reminded just this week, I was actually reading an interesting
book from 1877. It is lectures on preaching from Yale University back
when Yale was more conservative. And I was reminded that the prophets of
God's time of the Old Testament, and what I mean by prophet is the
spokesperson that God would use, and God would raise up people to
proclaim his truth.

And I noticed that they were watchmen, they were reformers, they were
authors, they were preachers, and they were statesmen. That's what God
called these people to do. And this is a very crucial time in our
nation's history where we need more of these voices being watchmen,
being reformers, reforming the church back to God's Word, being authors,
getting the Word out there, being preachers, filled the Spirit of God,
and being a statesman.

Many of the prophets would go and speak to the king about political
issues, and the enemy has done a great job of deceiving us, telling us
that the church needs to stay out of politics. And I think it's become
crystal clear. If one thing has become crystal clear during this
COVID-19 crisis is that the pulpits need to get involved with political
things and sound the alarm and speak the truth, because if not, you have
this fear-driven culture looking to the media, and there's no voice of
truth balancing that out.

And what we see right now is greed is leading this throne. I don't know
how many of you are aware of this, but greed is behind this, this throne
of iniquity. And maybe I should just read it for you from Psalm 94,
where we left off last week.

Verse 20 and 21, God says, shall the throne of iniquity, that's God's
title, not mine, shall the throne of iniquity. In other words, these
people who sit on the throne of power and judgment, and God calls this
this throne of iniquity. They devise evil by law, and they have
fellowship.

Should they have fellowship with you, God says? He says, shall this
throne of iniquity, this evil group of people who devise evil law, are
they having fellowship with you? They gather together against the life
of the righteous, and they condemn innocent blood. If that's not what we
see today, I don't know what is. So that's what I mean by the throne of
iniquity.

And often this throne of iniquity would be laced with greed, that greed
would be permeating all areas of that throne of iniquity that he's
talking about in the Old Testament. But it also happens now, today. What
are we seeing? You see this big talk about vaccines.

That's a billion dollar business. You see this talk about bailouts, and
this greed, and bailouts, and stimulus, and surplus money, and give me,
give me, give me, give me. And isn't it interesting how all the major
outlets, Lowe's, and Home Depot, and Amazon, and I mean, you name it.

They are doing great. Their numbers are wonderful. It's the mom and the
pop businesses.

It's the small business owners that are being hurt big time by this
pandemic. And that's why they call it a plannedemic, that they are using
it to hurt a lot of different areas of our economy, not to mention the
president, and I believe the upcoming election. I'm not going to talk
about that.

I did last week. Greed is also leading the throne of iniquity. What
about all the hospitals? I mean, you've heard how hospitals get paid
more for COVID.

And what's happening is hospitals now are going bankrupt, and they're
going to have to start laying off healthcare workers, believe it or not.
Hospitals that were once full are now not full because they're caring
for COVID, and they're wanting all this extra money. What about the
housing crisis? You need to watch this in the months to come.

Recently, I don't know how many of you know this, and again, I think the
truth should come from the pulpit. This is all verifiable. I think now
they're at 4.1 or 4.2 million people have not made their house payment.

That's 8% of all homeowners have not made their house payment. And if
you don't make a house payment, guess what? The bank doesn't say, hey,
no problem. We'll tack it on the end of the loan.

Guess what they tell you? In about three months, those house payments
you're missing are going to be due, or you're going to have to
refinance. And what about if there's not enough equity? What about the
interest rate is high? They don't just forgive this. So we have millions
and millions of people not paying their house payment.

Does this remind you of anything? And so we just need to be careful, and
I think greed is part of that. Why didn't the bank say, let's help you,
truly help you, and tack it on to the end of the loan? It's not truly
helping people if you say, hey, don't worry about your house payment,
but in a couple months, we're going to ask for it. If you can't pay
$2,000 now, how are you going to pay $6,000 in three months? It makes no
sense.

So we see the greed. We see this throne of iniquity. We see political
jockeying for position and taking advantage of this crisis.

And I will tell you that our administration needs our prayers. I was on
a conference call this week with many other pastors, with the president
was on it, Ben Carson was on it, Mike Pompeo was on it, William Barr
with the Department of Justice, and there's so much support for the
churches. They understand that the truth is the pillar and the
foundation of our society.

You see, if the truth falls apart, everything falls apart. The media
outlets do not care anymore if they lie, as long as it hurts this
administration and hurts the churches. And so at some point, I think we
need to speak against that.

Be loving, yes, but also be bold. Be as gentle as a dove, yes, but also
wise as a serpent. And so we see this from Psalm 94, shall the throne of
iniquity, which devises evil by law, by legislation, shall you have
fellowship with them? So we see here, there has to be a line drawn in
the sand.

What he means by that, by fellowship, is influence. Shall this throne of
iniquity continue to influence you? So that's my first point, was we
have to overcome the throne of iniquity with the truth. What are the
facts? That was last week.

And then now we're talking about drawing a line in the sand. So to
overcome the throne of iniquity, another point here is crystal clear.
Many of you listening to this, you might be driven by fear, you might be
beholden to a certain political party, you might be embracing some of
this iniquity.

And there has to be a clear line of demarcation drawn in the sand. You
must not allow this throne of iniquity to continue to influence you. And
that mainly comes from the mainstream media.

That mainly comes from fear-mongering and wanting our nation to not
thrive. And it's just ironic now, I look at, let's say, the Drudge
Report, and I just laugh because it's so obvious. They're trying to
inflate the numbers.

Here comes another wave. Here comes this, the number. And they just,
they're just trying to do, trying to create this fear frenzy.

But then we also see here that unity is not a recommendation from God.
It's essential. Evil is uniting.

Evil is uniting right now. So Christians also must unite. What do I mean
by that? We have to get away from the petty arguments and the bickering
and the planning and the hard-heartedness.

This has united Christians so much, and we need to keep that unity
going. That's where the power of the Holy Spirit comes from. And I
believe sometimes God will clean house and remove things, remove people,
remove situations to get the church united and to show us our flaws so
we come broken before Him.

And there's a united cause. Isn't it interesting that we're going to
talk about next week? The Bible says, and when the believers were
bickering and complaining, the Holy Spirit fell? No, it says when they
were in one accord, united, not divided, when they were seeking God as
brothers and sisters, united, the Holy Spirit said, that's fertile soil
for my spirit to fall. And He did.

Unity is essential. Be crystal clear, evil is uniting. We must unite as
well and not be caught up in all the gossip and the slander and the
backbiting, even denominationalism.

I'm of Peter, I'm of Paul, and just God, we're going to be united on
your essentials, and we're going to move forward in the power of the
Holy Spirit. Listen, I could read to you things that would be alarming,
but I just chose one. I Harvard professor Elizabeth Bartholet, she
claimed that homeschooling is a health and safety risk for children, a
threat to society, and that homeschool kids could become enemies of the
state.

It's out there. These are her exact words. So you see there is a clear
line of demarcation being drawn.

You've got the wickedness and the evil being drawn, and now you have the
good and the trying to shine. That's why there must be a uniting, and
that's why the Bible says they condemn the innocent. Why is Planned
Parenthood trying to get millions of dollars? Why are they trying to
condemn the innocent blood? Because evil is being united here in this
area.

We have to speak up and be united because I just got an email a few days
ago from actually a member here. You're not going to believe this. She
travels with her work, okay, different places, and apparently she was
exposed possibly to someone who has COVID.

By the way, you've probably all been exposed to someone. I believe it's
been in our nation for quite a while. I think it's ran.

It's affected so many different people, not minimizing any deaths or
anybody being sick, but we have to look at this for what it is, and her
work told her she needs to self-quarantine for two weeks and cannot
leave her house. You might say, oh wow, well yeah, guess what? They went
by and checked on her yesterday to make sure she was staying home. This
is getting very interesting, and this is where we need to be united in
our cause, united with one voice.

Why is that? Because a divided church is powerless. A divided church is
powerless. When we start worrying about the non-essentials and arguing
over the non-essentials and putting down this and putting down that,
basically a critical heart is powerless.

The church must repent and be filled again with the spirit of unity. So
unity. We overcome the throne of iniquity by unity.

Remember, Satan's kingdom is not divided, is it? Why is the church so
divided, but Satan's kingdom is not divided? Jesus said they're not
divided. They are united in their cause. When that man was filled with
the demonic spirits, they said we are legion.

We are united in the cause of evil and darkness. The church must put
down her preferences, put down her dispositions, put down her critical
heart, and come united and say, God, I repent of my division. I repent
of my hardness.

I want to love fellow believers, and God, that is fertile soil for the
power of the Holy Spirit. Another area where we must overcome the throne
of iniquity is this. You must, let me say this loudly and clearly, you
must, without a shadow of a doubt, overcome fear.

Why is that? If you don't overcome fear, fear overcomes you. You can't
walk in between both of those types of scenarios I just laid out. You
overcome fear.

As a matter of fact, you don't even have a spirit of fear. You overcome
fear, or fear will overcome you. And here's my big concern, to be honest
with you.

How many people are so fearful right now, or have been in the past?
Nobody is prepared. Very few people are prepared for something worse.
Granted, God spared us.

God had his mercy. We understand that the numbers were off. What about
if the numbers weren't off, and we have something that comes against us
far greater than what this was? If we're fearful now, I hate to see what
happens when something of a deeper, of a stronger magnitude comes
against us.

Thank God, but also be prepared going forward in this battle. We thank
God for his mercy, but we're also going to be prepared going forth.
Recognize that this is a battle.

I don't know how many of you realize this, but I want to tell you that
this is a clear battle, and it's not going to let up anytime soon. It's
going to go into November, and if President Trump wins again in
November, all hell is going to continue to break loose. If he loses in
November, all hell is going to break loose against the church, and
against Christians, and against true believers.

The floodgates, I believe, are going to pour in, because you get the
wrong person in positions of leadership, and those foundations begin to
crumble. And I understand what people are saying when they say, Shane,
don't worry about any of that. Just trust in Jesus.

I do trust in Jesus, but I made a big mistake many years ago. I read the
Old Testament, and it says, and it filters into the new, that leadership
plays a huge role in how the people experience religious freedoms. Look
at Russia.

Look at North Korea. Look at China. Look at all the countries.

Look at America. Leadership matters. God has an opinion about
leadership.

God wants godly people leading people. He does not want the throne of
iniquity leading people. He often chastises the thrones of iniquity.

He would judge the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, and even the children
of Israel when they got wayward. Leadership matters, so we need to get
away from this idea out there, well, if I just trust in Jesus, which I
do, and that's good, please do it, then all this other stuff doesn't
matter. That's not biblical.

We trust in Jesus, that's why we are concerned for the poor and the
innocent. That's why we care that they slaughter hundreds and hundreds
of children per day in abortion clinics, just like giving and offering
sacrifices to the god of Molech. We care that people are being taken
advantage of.

We care that political people are lying and deceiving. We should care
about those things, and we must make a difference, but you must overcome
fear. Here's what living in fear is, and okay, you might say, okay
Shane, how? Well, I'm getting there, don't worry, but the first thing
you have to do is repent of it.

We don't even have a spirit of fear, God says, as a believer filled with
the Holy Spirit. You don't have that spirit of fear in you, so it comes
upon you. I believe it's demonic, and we either embrace it or we remove
it.

We cast it away. So what is living in fear? Well, I'm glad you asked.
I'm going to tell you.

I'm sure many of you are asking, so I'm just saying that. What is living
in fear? Here's what living in fear is, especially relevant to what
we're going through now. Okay, if I find out that a family has, say,
COVID-19, or has the flu, or sick, or chickenpox, and my kids haven't
had it, wisdom says, you know what? I'm probably not going to go there.

I'm going to use wisdom, and that's probably not a wise thing to do. I
don't want to tempt God. I don't want to presume that we'll be okay.

I mean, God gives us wisdom for a reason. Actually, Proverbs says,
wisdom is the principal thing. It's the main thing.

Therefore, get wisdom, and all you're getting, get understanding. She
will exalt you. She will promote you.

She will be your safeguard. She will cover you. Wisdom is a precious
gift that God has given us, but living in fear looks like this, when it
paralyzes, and when it controls, and when it inhibits you from being who
God has called you to be.

So, oh, the COVID-19, living in fear. We're not going out of our house.
We're not doing anything.

We're listening to what the state recommends, and we're living in fear,
so now I'm paralyzed. Now I'm useless for the kingdom of God. Now it's
controlling me.

Now I won't go here, or do that, because now I'm living in fear. That's
a big difference in using wisdom, and saying, okay, if they have that,
then I'm probably not going to go over there right now, or maybe God
will call you to go, and lay hands on the sick, if God strengthens you,
and God confirms that in you, and the power of the Holy Spirit is
residing in you, and you make that decision, but that's the difference.
When a person lives in fear, all their choices are manipulated, and I
use that word on purpose, manipulated by the fear.

The way they spend their money, the way they spend their time, who they
don't see, who they do see, where they go, it's all controlled by fear.
They're paralyzed, and you'll see that's why many people across the
United States will not come back to church for a while. I mean, they can
go in Lowe's, stand in line, and grab carts that weren't clean, and
touch ATM machines that 100 people touched already, and go, but they
won't come to church, because fear is paralyzing them, and I believe a
lot of people are actually using it as an excuse not to go.

Oh, here's my excuse. I don't have to seek God again. I just live in
this comfortable fear, and listening to the media all day long, so
that's the difference.

You can use wisdom, like we're going to use wisdom when we open up, and
we're going to go by the guidelines they put out. I have personal
thoughts about that, but I'm going to leave it for later, but we want to
be respectful of that, but also we're not going to live in fear.
Philippians 4.4 on this idea of overcoming fear.

Rejoice in the Lord always, always, and he says, and I say it again.
Isn't that interesting? You don't see that too much in the Bible. Three
times you see in the book of Hebrews, harden not your heart, harden not
your heart, but often you don't see rejoice in the Lord always, and
again, I will say it.

Rejoice. Why is he saying that? Because it's a commandment. We have to
get our hearts right and rejoice in the Lord, even when I don't feel
like it, even when all hell is breaking loose, even when I'm fearful.

Lord, I'm taking my thoughts captive. The mind is a powerful thing.
Rejoice, and then it's interesting.

He says, let your gentleness be evident to all men. Let your gentleness
be evident to all men. Here's what happens when you're not rejoicing and
you're fearful, you're not gentle.

They go together. Rejoice in the Lord. Again, I'm going to tell you,
rejoice in the Lord, and the church in Philippi, if you think we have it
tough, they knew real persecution.

Let your gentleness, let your meekness be known, be evident to all that
the Lord is near. So fear causes you to snap at your children. Fear
causes you to yell.

Fear causes you to go back to that, maybe that addiction or that
bondage. Fear causes you to make bad decisions, and when you're trapped
in that sin of fear, it's hard to rejoice. You can't rejoice.

You're not gentle with people. It all goes together. So taking pleasure
and delighting in the Lord is foundational.

Well, Shane, how can I rejoice right now? Because you should thank
almighty God. This could have been way worse. This could have been a
hundred times worse, and God in his mercy allowed it and exposed our
hardness in our hearts and our fearful hearts.

We should rejoice. Thank you, God. You are good.

We don't know what the future holds, but we know the God who holds the
future. And again, I don't believe gentleness is an accident here. It's
a byproduct.

If you want to work on gentleness, if you lack love and you have a
heart, critical heart, and you lack gentleness, I mean, that would list
most guys out there. I got you. If you lack gentleness, it's not an
accident here.

The more you rejoice in the Lord. Why? Because a thankful heart is not
angry. It's thankful.

It's rejoicing in what God has done. And that word rejoice, I don't have
time right now, but anytime they put, often when they put re in front of
it, rejoice, remind, redo, renew. There's finding joy.

Find joy again. Rejoice. So yes, you had the joy.

Find that joy again. And it's a matter of taking your thoughts captive.
Listen, we all know this.

This is not rocket science. This is biblical truth that we know, but
sometimes we have to be reminded of it. And this is why gentleness, I
believe, is so important right now.

We have to be gentle with people because they're searching. See, many
people are searching for God. So we need to be careful when we make fun
about wearing masks or when we make fun about what we have to do because
people are searching.

And we have to be careful that our overbearingness doesn't hurt others.
And I just, you know, talked to somebody today who lost a loved one. I
talked to their husband about, and this person lost a loved one to
COVID-19.

And so we have to be careful that our abrasiveness doesn't hurt people.
And they have to see that gentleness in there. I know it's hard.

Trust me. This is a very difficult season for me to try to remain gentle
and understanding when you've been played. I got it.

I got it. I understand it. Hashtag don't drink the Kool-Aid.

But at the same time, there has to be a gentleness. So just pray for me.
Pray for me as I work through this.

Because you know, when you've been played, when you see really what's
going on, it's hard. It is very difficult to remain optimistic and
positive and joy-filled and not step on toes. And sometimes I think we
do need to step on toes, but we have to be careful whose toes you're
stepping on.

And it reminds us here, the Lord is near. The Lord is near. And what
speaks here to me too is He's near to the brokenhearted.

He's near to those who cry out to Him. And He looks to that gentleness
of heart. And He's reminding people here, the Lord is near.

And then He goes on to say, do not be anxious about anything. Oh boy,
Paul, isn't that easy? That's easy to say. Don't be anxious about
anything.

So what does He mean there? Because you're going to have anxiety about
something. You're going to be anxious about this decision. So when that
comes to you, that's normal.

But what we do with it is what makes the difference. In other words, I'm
kind of anxious about opening the church, just to tell you. Just so many
different things could happen, so many different scenarios.

You know, what do you do if somebody comes down with COVID-19 at the
church? Do you shut down the church again for two weeks? You know,
there's probably not. There's things to be anxious about. I don't even
want to go into detail all the different things.

So when that comes in, I'm not to be anxious about these things. But in
every situation, my prayer and my petition, I go to God with
thanksgiving, and I present my request to God. So see, you take that
anxiety, and you take it to God.

It's very hard to be anxious and fearful when you're praying. Try it.
Open up the Psalms and start praying, crying out to God, and worshiping.

Your fear and anxiety will run. And the problem is, many people aren't
running to God. They're running to fear and anxiety.

So he says, have thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the
peace of God which transcends all understanding. In other words, I have
this tremendous peace that doesn't make sense. When you look at the book
of martyrs by Fox, and all these people who went to be burned at the
stake, I don't know if you're having a bad day, but I don't think you're
being led to be burned at the stake right now, or being hung, or being
beheaded.

And many of these men and women, they would have tremendous peace that
surpasses all understanding. How can you have that? Because their eyes
are fixed on Christ, and God gives them this peace, and it guards their
heart, and it guards their mind in Christ Jesus. But you have to bring
your thoughts captive.

That's why it begins with, do not be anxious. Instead, give these things
to God. So do not be anxious.

Actually, if I read this correctly, is a command. So if I'm being
fearful and anxious, I'm entertaining those thoughts. I'm not doing
anything about it.

I'm sinning in this area. It's a command not to be anxious. Also, many
people, you know why they're anxious right now? They're consuming
anxiety.

They're consuming things that make them anxious, whether mentally, of
course, or even, I mean, I could spend a half hour on what caffeine, and
alcohol, and drugs, and all the people are taking all these things that
actually fuel anxiety. Not fight it. They actually will fuel this area
of anxiety.

And then He gives unconditional peace, but it is conditional. And it's
interesting here. He said, pray by prayer and by petition.

Now, you have to understand there's two separate words here. Prayer. You
see, prayer isn't always asking.

Sometimes many of us think that prayer is, okay, I'm going to pray. I'm
going to ask for this, ask for this, ask for this. This type of prayer
is not asking.

It's receiving from God. I think it was Robert Murray McShaney who said
he spends the first hour of prayer getting ready to pray. And that's
true.

If you've ever spent extended time with God, you don't just go right
into heartfelt, passionate prayer. Sometimes you have to spend that time
getting your heart ready for prayer. So this kind of prayer is receiving
from God.

What do I mean by that? Well, you sit at the foot of the cross, or you
sit in your chair, or you kneel at home, or somewhere, or go take a walk
out in the desert, or up in the mountains, wherever you're at, and you
receive from God. God, heal my spirit. God, fill me with your presence.

I need to hear from you. And you're just open to receiving God. And then
he says, and then also you can bring in petitioning.

That's where asking comes from. Have you heard that word petition? God,
I petition you. I ask you, Lord, would you do these things? So we see a
clear call here to prayer in the sense of receiving and waiting on God.

And then there's a time for petitioning God. And then he says, and then
the peace. Isn't it interesting? He doesn't just say, give up anxiety,
don't be anxious about anything, and then you'll have peace.

No, it says, and then bring it to prayer, bring it to petitioning, and
have thankfulness in your heart, present your request to God, and then
the peace will come. So that one we just covered was we must overcome
fear to overcome the throne of iniquity. The next point is this, improve
your mental diet.

Amen. Come on, most of you know this. I'm not going to spend a lot of
time here because I do often, but Paul goes here, so I have to go here
as well.

He says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is
true. Okay, I'm going to say, whatever is true, meditate on these
things. Why are you meditating on the fake news? Why are you meditating
on news with an ulterior motive? I'm all for getting information.

I'm getting some information, but I'm not allowing that news to affect
me. So he says, whatever is true, meditate on these things. So it's too
many of you are meditating on what is false.

You're meditating on things that are not true, and they're building
fear, and they're not sustaining us. And then whatever is noble,
meditate on what is noble. So what is noble? Well, here's what it is.

It means morality. It means a person who is principled. It means what is
noble.

You know, like purity and nobility and things that are good and
pleasant. So Paul says, you know what, that would just eliminate 99.9%
of your Netflix diet right there. You're done with Netflix and voodoo
and all of this if we focus on what Paul says.

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is
pure. What does that mean? It's free of contamination. It's free of
sexual perversion.

It's free of mocking God. And then he says, whatever is lovely, meaning
whatever is beautiful in God's eyes. So let's take a break here for a
minute.

How are you doing? How are you doing in this area? If you're struggling
with fear, you're struggling with anxiety, you don't know what to do,
are you following Paul's advice? Whatever is true, whatever is noble,
whatever is right, whatever is clean, whatever is uncontaminated,
whatever is of God. Fellow brothers and sisters, meditate on these
things. Let your mental diet be focused on the glories of God and the
purity of God and on worship and on his word.

And as you begin to fill your heart with these things, the glorious
gospel of Jesus Christ will come out of your mouth and you'll begin to
live it. You'll begin to lead people to God because you're full of what
is pure and noble and right and upright. And he also says, what is
admirable? What is admirable? This word we don't use too much anymore,
but it means something that is excellent.

It's worthy of praise. And much of the garbage out there that we're
viewing, and the reason I spend so much time on this, is this is where I
believe many people are at right now. They are filling their minds with
things that are not true.

They're filling their minds with things that are not noble. It's not
right. It's contaminated.

It's sexually perverted. It's not beautiful in God's sight. It's not
excellent and admirable and worthy of praise.

They're meditating on these things. And as a man thinks in his heart, so
is he. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth is going to speak.

And this is what we are seeing. This is a decadent society. You would
not believe how many people I hear from that have a problem in this
area.

And then Paul says, whatever you have learned or received, you know, let
me just talk about that for a minute. Spouses, couples, I'm just talking
to everybody right now. When you turn on the media, why do you keep
gravitating towards darkness? Why do you keep gravitating towards all
these shows that are so ungodly? You've got Christians loving The
Bachelor, or you have, you know, now I saw this show, I don't know
anything much about it, just saw the news headlines, where 15 guys are
in a contest to try to impregnate this one girl.

And it's this new show out there, a reality show. And it's just bunch of
garbage. Remember when Swapping Wives was on? And we've never, but see,
Christians are watching this stuff.

Christians are embracing this stuff. A couple, maybe a young couple will
go home, and they'll watch things for a couple hours that is just
ungodly. And they wonder, why am I struggling my walk? Why don't I feel
the power of God? Why do I not want to go to church anymore? It's
because you've allowed this lukewarm, carnal lifestyle to come in and
quench and grieve the spirit of the living God.

And to overcome the throne of iniquity, you must improve your mental
diet. Get it back on track, what Paul said. What about if we desired, I
love what Jesus says, oh, those who hunger and they thirst for
righteousness, they shall be filled.

There should be a hunger in your heart not to do this perfectly. I make
mistakes too. But we should say, God, I want things that are true and
honest and noble and upright.

I want to see children being given that picture of purity and things
that are admirable and things that are honest and lovely. God, I want to
meditate on these things again. I don't want to be corrupted by the
pollution of this world.

And that's why true and undefiled religion, James would say, is to
become unpolluted and uncontaminated by the world. So I do want to ask
this question. Parents, what are our kids seeing in us? What are your
kids or grandkids seeing in you? Because it will affect the next
generation.

How can we bring them to church and talk about God and then have garbage
on at home? It's where that word hypocrisy comes from. And this is why
the essentials of the faith are so important. This gets us back to what
is right and admirable and good and beautiful in God's eyes.

And then the final point I want to leave you with, it is so important to
overcome the throne of iniquity that is taking place right now. Is you
overcome this throne of iniquity by exercising your faith. And I chose
that word exercise on purpose.

We all know that the benefits of physical exercise. What is physical
exercise? Well, number one, it's doing what I don't want to do. Amen.

You want to sit on the couch or go ride a bike? I mean, most people want
to not do physical exercise. So it takes some work. There's exercise
involved.

And you don't see results. Have you ever tried to lose 20 pounds? You
see it in two days or those commercials, 20 pounds in 20 days. That's
not going to happen unless you fast.

That's the only way that's going to happen realistically. Or get on Fin
Fin and Crystal Myth and don't eat. And that's not healthy.

I don't even know Fin Fin's even out there anymore. Sorry. It's
Ephedrine, I believe, and Guaranet and all these different things.

But anyway, my point was exercising faith. You don't feel like it
sometimes. It's difficult sometimes.

It hurts sometimes. But 1 John reminds us, 1 John 5, for whatever is
born of God overcomes the world. Listen, you can take this to the bank.

If you are of God, you can, you will overcome the world. And this is the
victory that has overcome the world. Our faith.

Isn't that amazing? Your faith is what overcomes the world. That's why
we have to exercise this faith. We have to display this faith.

We have to live in this faith. And then it goes on to say, and who is
the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the
Son of God. So when I talk about exercising faith, many people go, oh,
amen, brother.

No, I'm talking about the faith that says Jesus is the only way to the
Father, that Jesus Christ died on the cross, that Jesus Christ saved me
from my sin. And because of that, I have the faith in the Son of God
that he is going to overcome the world. This isn't faith in some God
that might be out there, or the new age God, or I have faith, we all
have faith.

No, this is faith in Jesus Christ. That is the only way to get through
this. And that word overcome is interesting.

Let me just read the scripture again, it's powerful. For whatever is
born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has
overcome the world.

Our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So this word overcome, it's
interesting in the Greek, it's nikaio, nikaio.

And it means this. Well, it doesn't mean you won't die. Okay? People
think, oh, if I just have faith, look, I won't die.

No, it doesn't say that. Well, if I have enough faith, if I exercise
faith, I'll have a great life. No, it doesn't say that.

Well, no challenges will happen. No, it doesn't say that. Overcome is
this.

You are a conqueror. Stephen, who was martyred for the faith in the book
of Acts, the first martyr actually was killed because of what he
believed, actually overcame the world. Overcame.

See, so it has nothing to do with not dying. It has nothing to do with
going through hardship. It means conquer.

I will overwhelm. I will overpower. I will capture.

I will take over the demonic elements that are trying to come against me
and my family. You can overcome them as a conqueror. In other words, the
world will not overpower you.

And it means to overpower, to be victorious, to overcome. Oh, well, keep
in mind, they will win some skirmishes. Don't get me, don't
misunderstand here.

Have you ever lost a skirmish? A skirmish, a battle with the enemy? Or
just me? Don't leave me hanging out. There's some hands out there
raised. I'm not talking about losing a battle every now and then.

I'm talking about losing the entire war. You will overcome the enemy.
You will become a conqueror.

In other words, when the day you die, the day you live your last breath,
or as you're living now, you are living a life of overcoming because of
what the Son of God has been defeated. You might get hit. You might fall
down.

But you get back up and you conquer. And if you studied that word
conquer, especially Old Testament, you know, this king would conquer or
this would conquer. They didn't win every battle.

Joshua lost a battle. David lost battles. But this overall, overall,
they will conquer the pull of the world.

And I hear men often say, oh yeah, my wife's good at that. Well, you
need to stop saying your wife's good at that and you need to start
leading. You need to start leading your family.

Oh, my wife's good at that. She's a great conqueror. She's a prayer
warrior.

She leads our family. You need to be leading that family. You need to
wake up, repent of selfishness, repent of cowardness.

That's why it's so hard for men to lead. That's why God said in the
garden, He said the woman's desire is going to be to lead. The man's
desire is going to be lazy.

So men, you need to get up, repent, and lead. And the woman needs to
allow the man to lead. And God says there is unity in that.

There is power in that. There's authority in that. When the man gets up,
he pulls himself off by his bootstraps.

That means he gets up and he says, you know what? I haven't been leading
very good. I haven't been reading. I haven't been studying.

But by the grace of God, I'm going to be a conqueror and I'm going to
get back up on track. It also means gird up, gird up your faith. What
that means is get ready to do something.

Get ready to deal with something. We girded ourselves and we prepared
for action or trouble. So let me tell you, all of you thinking, oh, I'm
glad this is almost over.

Churches are opening. Businesses are opening. Oh, no, no.

You need to gird up, like you said, or gird up and get ready to do
something. This is the battle we are in until the day we die. Things are
not going to just fall to the wayside.

The enemy is not going to say, well, I've been defeated for now. Let me
just go over to a different nation or let me just take a vacation. The
enemy is going to ramp up things.

You're going to see, I guarantee you're going to see news stories,
outbreaks in churches. We must close them down again. Mark my words, all
the fake news is going to come up.

They've allowed businesses to open. Look what's happening, spikes and
pandemics. We need to close up shop again.

And I like what the president said, if that happens again, we are not
closing shop. The church is called to be the church of Jesus Christ and
overcome and not let fear pull us down. Remember this, our faith
overcomes.

But it's not, don't get too high and mighty here. It's actually our
faith in the overcomer. That's what faith, when you say, Shane, you have
great faith or you have great faith or you, what it really means is I
have great faith in Jesus Christ.

Don't put any pastor or any person up on a pedestal. They actually have
faith in the overcomer himself. So I do want to ask this question.

If you have shaky faith, what is shaky faith? I'm talking to believers.
And I like what Ian Bounds said, faith that ceases to pray ceases to
live. So if you are a believer and you have shaky faith and you're kind
of living in fear and shaky faith, you need to make a decision when you
hear this to repent, to repent of carnality and repent of fear and
repent of allowing the world to come in and allow and control you and
your family.

And you get that shaky faith and you put that faith on firm ground. It
doesn't mean you won't have challenges. It doesn't mean you won't
struggle with anxiety or fear or not sure what to do.

But James also reminds, we taught, I taught on this before, that if you
ask for wisdom and you do not doubt like a double-minded man, unstable,
shaky in all his ways, then God will see you through. You need to repent
of shaky faith. And there's people listening.

I know because we hear from them every week that you have no faith right
now. You have no faith because you have no faith in the Son of God.
You've never repented of your sin.

You have no relationship with God. What's it going to take? So my call
to you when you hear this is to repent of your sin and turn back to God
for the first time or maybe again if you've fallen away and allow that
faith to begin to build you up. See, here's what happens.

You go from no faith. I have no faith. I'm lost.

I see my sin. I see my need. But then I turn to the God who saved me and
redeemed me.

And from that, that faith begins to well up inside of me. And now I have
great strength and faith because I've trusted in the one who will never
leave me. He will never forsake me.

Let me tell you just for a moment what Jesus Christ has done for me.
He's picked me up out of the ashes and he's rebuilt my life. He's
someone that I can call it to in the morning and say, oh God, would you
help me? He looks.

Like Israel said, I looked into the hills and where does my help come
from? My help comes from the Lord. Jesus is my Sabbath rest. He is my
beginning.

He is my end. He is the conqueror. He is a strong tower.

He is the redeemer. He will set us free. And when he comes back again,
the Bible records that he will tread the fierceness and the wrath of
almighty God, just like treading a wine press.

And we look to the lamb who was slain before the foundations of the
world and he will come back as a conqueror. That is our faith and our
trust in Jesus Christ. Now we don't know where this virus came from,
manipulated, released.

God allowed it. But we do know this, God is using the shaking. God is
using this shaking to build our faith.

Same way, how do you build muscle? Lifting. And this shaking builds our
faith. We should thank God that he cares enough to shake our faith
sometimes.

And then going back to Psalms, I know I'm all over the place, but I just
want to share what was in my heart. Back to Psalm, verse, the chapter
we're in, verse 22, he reminds us the throne of iniquity, all these
different things. He says, but the Lord has been my defense and my God
has been the rock.

He's been my refuge. And it's interesting, this word defense, it means
God has been my protection. God has been my safeguard.

God has been my security. God has been my fortification. God has been my
cover, my shelter, my resistance, my deterrent, and my vindication.

And we all must realize, I believe. Think about this for a minute as we
close out soon. Who has ever fought against God and won? Please email
me.

If you know of anyone, who has ever fought against God and has won? All
the great leaders? No. All the great leaders have to submit to God's
sovereignty. Who has ever rebelled against God and defeated him? Who has
ever acted against God and has prevailed? No one.

God stands alone, high and lofty. One of the prophets even said that.
They said, when the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and
lifted up.

I saw the train of his robe filling the entire temple and just the
breath of his nostrils. The temple would shake and kings would fall down
in the holy presence of God. Rulers would shake and tremble under the
power and the weight of God.

That's who you have to trust him. And it begs the question, do you know
him? Do you know him? Even in the church, that question has to go out.
Someone asked Leonard Ravenhill this question.

If you don't know who Leonard Ravenhill, he lived in the 1970s, 80s,
90s, a prophetic voice. And someone asked him, Mr. Ravenhill, do you
ever pray for the dead? He said, no, I preach to them. He said, I think
every pew in every church is death row.

What he means by that is many people, maybe you listening to this, they
have a form of godliness, but they deny God's true power. They have a
form of godliness. You see it.

Doesn't it make you sick if you're a true Christian? They have a form,
this arrogance, this critical hard heart. And there's a form of
godliness. And they do certain things for God, but they're hypocritical
and God calls them out.

Or are you a person listening and you do, do, do, you know, God says to
do this and do that and do this and do that. And he's going to look at
all my good works when I die. If you believe that lie, let me wake you
up.

Let me burst your bubble. Let me step on your toes. Let me ruffle your
feathers right now.

God is not going to say, well, let me see all the good things you did at
this judgment seat. He's going to say, have you accepted my son who died
on a cross and paid the penalty? That's the only good work that'll get
you into heaven. No good works.

All good works about filthy rags in the sight of almighty God. So stop
saying, I hope God sees my good works and start saying, I hope, I hope
that he sees that I've trusted in Jesus Christ. Why do I say that?
Because so many people think, so many people think they are good.

They are a good person and you might be a good person. I'm not, I'm not
dismissing that, but in God's sight, none of us are good. We are filthy.

We are wretched. We are blind and poor, miserable, physically,
spiritually speaking. We stand before God.

That's why the Bible calls it imputed righteousness. We stand before God
because of what Christ has done in our hearts and in our lives. And I
have to remind you that your affiliation will not get you in.

Your affiliation to any denomination, any group will not get you into
heaven, will not put you before God in a right standing. No affiliation.
Let me say that.

No affiliation to Jehovah Witness. No affiliation to the Mormon church.
No affiliation to the Baptist church.

No affiliation to this church. I pray to God. If somebody asks one of
our members, do you know God? Well, sure.

I go to West Side Christian Fellowship. That does not get you into
heaven. There's no affiliation.

And I just say that because I've heard from at least two people, Roman
Catholics this week, just this week who emailed our church and they have
questions because they've been taught that their affiliation with this
church will get them into heaven. I was baptized as an infant. I belong
to this church.

Is that good enough? No, not at all. The Bible actually talks about a
believer's baptism. You don't baptize little infants that can't accept
Jesus Christ.

You can dedicate them, but you baptize someone who confesses Jesus as
Lord and Savior and chooses to get baptized as an outward sign of what
they have done in their hearts. So no affiliation will put you in front
of God. And I know that upsets people.

People get angry. Are you telling me? I've had people, are you telling
me? I've been a Presbyterian for 30 years. I've been a Roman Catholic
for 40 years.

I've been a bishop. Are you telling me? Yes, that's what I'm telling
you. That you are not right before God if you have not repented of your
sin and embraced Jesus Christ.

If you are trusting in an affiliation, trusting in a religion, trusting
in a man, trusting in your works, it will all fall apart on that day of
judgment. So I want to end with that question. Do you truly know him?
We're going to go into worship in just a minute, and I want you to
contemplate that question.

Number one, who I talked to earlier, the carnal Christian, maybe the
Christian who has not really surrendered their life to Christ, has not
given God everything. They're carnal. That's why Paul calls them carnal,
meaning they're living out of their carnal flesh.

It means when my flesh begins to control me and pull me around. See,
when this is pulling me, I'm a carnal Christian. I'm being pulled.

I'm carnal in my nature. I'm not filled with the Spirit of God. There's
a carnality there.

There's a lukewarmness that happens. So our affiliation won't get us in.
Thinking you're a good person won't get you in.

Doing, doing, doing won't get you in. Having a form of godliness won't
get you in. It's only knowing who Jesus Christ is.

If you've never repented and believed also. So the first call was to
carnal Christians, those living a lifestyle they know is not pleasing to
God. They have no peace.

They have no joy. They're living in fear. Ask that God would fully fill
you with His Spirit as you repent tonight.

And then the final person I'm talking to as blessing comes up and leads
us in worship is that person who doesn't know God. They've been trusting
in religion. They've been trusting in their own strength.

Maybe they've been mocking God. They've been ridiculing Jesus Christ.
But Lord, I pray you bring them to saving faith through this message,
through the power of your Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, that
they repent and cry out and call out to you.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.

So as we go into worship, what worship is, it's a time where, okay, the
sermon's penetrated my heart. I need to do business with God. And while
she's going to, while she does a few songs, what I do is, okay, Lord,
let's do heart surgery.

What are areas that I need to work on? What are areas where I've fallen?
What are areas I need your encouragement again? God, I want to come back
to you. Would you use this moment of time to pull me back to the Father?
Lord, I'm tired of being a bad example for my kids or my grandkids or my
spouse or others. God, I've been playing the game.

I'm a hypocrite. I've been playing church. And this is the time during
worship, maybe even at home, you can let your kids see you.

Let your kids see you, possibly even now, get on your knees before God.
I love when my kids walk in my room. They see me praying.

They see me. I'm not embarrassed. I have prayer lists and a dry erase
board.

They know I pray for them. They see me doing that, but they also see me
in my moments of weakness. And when I have to apologize and say, Daddy,
shouldn't have done that.

I shouldn't have got upset. I didn't mean to get so busy and push you
away. And they see, they see Christ in you.

They see that Christ is doing a work. And see, that draws them to Jesus
Christ. See, you think your mistakes push them away.

It's how you handle your mistakes. Sometimes it can draw them in because
they see, I see a genuine need. I see a genuine brokenness.

I see a genuine humility in my mom and in my dad. I see that
genuineness. Oh, and I'm driven to Jesus Christ because of that.

But when they see the hypocrisy, when they see the outright lying and
saying, go do as I say, but don't do as I do. They see a God they can't
follow, but you start to show them a broken and humble heart. And those
kids, those grandkids will begin to follow Jesus because they see
genuineness in you.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/heHNenLuNNA.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/shane-idleman/overcoming-the-throne-of-iniquity/
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