Guard Your Gates – The Battle of Good and Evil

Do we recognize what is good and evil in our modern life? Reading Isaiah 5:20 tells us that evil has been called good and good, evil long ago, but is this still relevant today? How do we discern evil in today’s context? What does evil look like? What is darkness and what is considered bitter to God?

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 5:20 NKJV

To be clear, I have witnessed family members, friends, and loved ones fall into pits of darkness, because they could not discern that what they were getting into was evil. This includes me. We explored the deceptive world for knowledge and found darkness sold as light. Examples? There are many!

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5

Entertainment

The word entertainment (enter-tain-ment), means to enter and hold (tain) the mind (ment) or can be thought of seducing mind-control. It is to ensnare us to watch, listen, and consider what is being shown to us through music, movies, tv, and social media. All these items have one thing in common with how they are put in the world, that is the black box and the black screen. These devices have captured our imaginations and interest for decades and going on 100 years and the implications of what they do to humans can be studied to determine the implications. While not long ago, much of the programming of television and radio was considered enjoyable, useful, helpful, and even good, todays programming has come a long way to turn the light emitted from the black screens to become darkened. Take for example the 3 most popular songs on Apple Music right now:

1. Super Gremlin – Kodak Black
2. AHHH HA – Lil Dirk
3. pushin P – Young Thug, Gunna, and Future

Many do not know that many artists in the music and Hollywood have given oaths against God and to serve the devil. Many practice witchcraft, magik, and other forms of spells, incantations, rituals, potion sorcery, etc. to obtain wealth and fame at the high cost of their souls. For the sake of brevity, we will skip over the darkest content in movies and TV shows that are in every sphere of the internet, Netflix, and Apple TV. We all know they exist, but few know how readily available these are for our children to gain access to it.

Social media is another area where we must guard our kids and our grandchildren. The content on Twitter (highly used by porn and sex trafficking, including children), Instagram, Tik Tok, and others that kids seem to gravitate to mainly because the apps’ addictiveness and allure of risky content.

5 Things Parents Needs To Know About Tik Tok

Yikes! Darrell, do you mean that if we watch or listen to these things that we are not living a life approved of by God? In short, yes.

We must recognize the grace and mercy that Jesus gave us when He forgave us on the cross and we must also recognize that the Lord commands that His children be kept from destructive knowledge. God said in Hosea 4:6 that His people are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge, a lack of knowledge about the danger in the knowledge these songs, shows, and movies contain.

and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Ephesians 4:19

If we give any person, child or adult, access to Netflix, Apple (or any other channel) music, video games, and all the rest, we will have a child (of God) that will not be able to discern right from wrong, good from evil, or bitter from sweet, because they will no longer have their conscious to help them. It will be seared by what they have bore witness of or grew up watching and hearing. This includes the destructive mental consumption of pornography, fantasy books, and new age materials, blogs, books, and other media that further seduces the young and old into thinking that anything goes and nothing should be off the limits.

To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

Titus 1:15-16

There is a danger to not watching over our gates. These gates include our eyes, ears, and our minds. We must be watchful and aware that what goes in us, while it can’t defile us, can roll around in us and tempt us to sin. Once something is seen, heard, or thought, it may cause us to be troubled and unable to remove the guilt, shame, and condemnation from seeing, hearing, or thinking evil. We must have Jesus cleanse us of it when we do.

In modern life, we must recognize and discern evil, wherever and whenever it appears so we may guard our hearts. We do so by filling our minds and hearts with the word of God and acknowledging what God has spoken about all matters. We can see in the world around us filled with temptation, wicked media programming, fearful news, discouraging reports that evil is in the world and it’s working against our faith in God. Our bible gives us ten commandments and there are 7 things the Lord hates. These can be guides to what God wants from us and what we should want for each other. They can be the measure by what we determine what is good and evil, even in our modern times.

Blessings to you this day. May the Lord add revelations of wisdom and knowledge to your mind as you review this message and continue to give you peace of mind as you guard yourself and your neighbor against the devil’s schemes. Amen!