The Ministry of Deliverance — Dr. John Kleinig

Machine-generated transcript; may contain errors.

Remember, I started yesterday. By enunciating, the principle that the darkness is exposed by the light. That, for me, is key to working in this area, and helping people, ministering to people, who are under attack by the evil one. Now, those of you who know me well, know that one of my favorite little principles it's not principles, it's kind of a thumb rule, it's one of the climbing rules that I give to my students, is the rat principle. You know, scholars always like principles. So, rat principle, inadverted commas. But what's the climbing rat principle? Well, I happen to live close to a race course, one of the main race courses in Adelaide, and around this race course there's many horse stables, and where there's horse stables, there's grain, and where there's grain, there's rats.

So the area is infested by rats. And I happen to have a compost heap, where I put not only the compass, but all the scraps from the kitchen, go onto the compost heap, because I'm a keen gardener and I like composting the soil. However, there's one problem when you put kitchen scraps on the compost heap, in my area, you attract the rats. Now, I've found that there's two basic ways of dealing with the rats that come into my garden, and then from my garden, I get to my shed, and from my shed, they eventually get into the house. Or if not in the house, they get up in the ceiling and make a big mess up there. On the one hand, I can either poison or trap the rats. That's the usual tack to take.

However, for every single rat that I trap or poison, another rat comes back. Why? Because they're attracted by the garbage. The garbage brings in the rats. So the best way, if I'm really keen on getting rid of the rats, is by getting rid of the garbage. There you have it. Simple thing. Get rid of the garbage, you get rid of the rats. Get rid of the garbage in people's lives and you get rid of the demons. Because they temple off their backs. Not rocket science, it's simple enough. But it's very profound, because there is a close connection. There's a close association between sin and impurity. You all know it instinctively. You sin and how do you feel? Unclean, tainted, contaminated, polluted defiled.

And this is not just from the sins you commit. Strangely enough, when somebody sins against you. And you can see it particularly, this this, this phenomenon, particularly in sexual sins, if somebody sins against you likewise feel tainted, contaminated worthless, useless, you are dirty. A bad conscience is an unclean conscience. Impurity. Now, the Old Testament talks a lot about impurity, and from both of these sides Can I make clear? Not just from the scenes you commit, but also the sins that are committed against you, and living in a polluted, simple environment means that you are contaminated by that spiritually. Well, how does Satan work then? I don't know whether you've noticed or touched on this yesterday, but one of the commonest terms for the demons is unclean spirits.

Now, beware, most of the modern translations dumb it down and just say evil spirits, unclean spirits. Now, why are they unclean spirits? Because impurity is their habitat, their environment? That's, there are, that's their place. That's what they live off. And, it's not just the evil spirits that do this, the unclean spirits but Satan himself works in and with impurity. So Satan digs up the dirt in people's lives. He doesn't do it for people who are not Christians. He excuses it and says they're all right and they're better than anybody else. But for Chris Jones, his main task is to dig up the dirt in their lives and to throw it in their faces. You know what I mean?

Digging up the dirt, fishing around for the unclean stuff and rubbing people's noses in it. And he does that, and I spoke about this yesterday, to destroy their faith on the one hand. By the sins that they've committed, and more commonly to destroy their love. On the other hand, from the sins that Christians commit against them. So he digs up the dirt and he keeps rubbing people's noses in the dirt. Well, how do you deal with it, then? It's simple enough. Because, Satan himself and does his own works. Another paradox, the whole area of that we're talking about, is full of strained paradoxes, because what happens when Satan digs up the dirt, he brings the things that are hidden, deepen the soul out into the light, and once they're in the light, then they can be dealt with.

He does God's work. Diagnostically, and particularly, when he uses God's law to expose sin. Then he brings sin, whether it's the sins that you commit, or the sins that have been committed against you, he brings them out into the life where they can be dealt with. So, he discloses them by attacking a believer. And once they're there, then they can be dealt with spiritually, how you deal with it, you can taste your sins, receive absolution, or you confess the sins that have been sinned against you, and then you can have appropriate ministry. Or if there's something to do with the occult, with Satan himself, then it's very important that you renounce the devil and all his works in all his ways. So, the renunciation of Satan, after the confession of these things.

So how does Christ deal with our impurity? Well, first of all, he lets Satan bring our sins out to the open. He covers our sins until he's ready to deal with it, and then you let Satan do his work for them by exposing it, once they expose them, he comes along, and he delivers us from the darkness. He's the garbage collector. That's his great ministry. He collects the trash from our lives. And he doesn't do it all at once, because initially, he covers over our sins because if he showed us our sins, now, as soon as we became a Christian, what would happen? If the full depth of our iniquity was brought face to face with us, we would be so devastated that would be the end of us. But when he's got the support system in place, when the time is ripe, when we have this sufficient maturity, in us, our congregation, then he lets things come open, so that he can deal with them, so that he can deal with them, so that he can deal with them.

Let's, he brings the garbage out from the hidden places under the bed, and in the cupboards, into the trash can so that he can take it away and use a fairly, dramatic illustration. Now, I don't know whether you're aware of it, but out there, there's developed a whole, a very, very seriously developed doctrine of what's called demonic entry points. Now, how many of you have come across this? It's very, very common in evangelical charismatic Pentecostal circles. How many have you come across demonic entry points? Okay, now, you need to know about this because this is a big business out there. And particularly, your young people will be exposed to this, if they go to college and movement evangelical circles.

I can't touch on this. There's been a lot that's been different. But basically, the notion of demonic entry points is that certain things open you to possession by demons. And there's 2 very important doctrines that are part of this one is that, No, as demons are transmitted from generation to generation, via soul ties. So intergenerational sin, soul ties demonic entry points. They are the 3 key terms. This is very seriously developed and they've got a whole complex way of dealing with it. As always, there's an element of half truth in it, but it's basically wrong, and it is awfully abusive, brutually abusive. Now, what's meant by soul ties intergenerational sin? Well, let's say, for example, I'll give you one illustration.

Let's say my father was a Freemason. Huh? It takes those horrible oaths. He uses God's name in vain. So my father is a Freemason, and by Freemason, you're automatically into the occult. Now, because I have a soul tie with my father, then the demons that come into my father are handed on to me, his son. And then from me, they'll go to my children. So, there's the soul tie. On the one hand, that's close relationship, spirit to spirit, soul to soul, and then, through that, then the demons are handed down by the generations. People go into this big, it's interesting. You reject one doctrine and you get a rather crude substitute. The same people who hold to this opinion reject original sin in its real sense because what is the demonic entry point if you like, is sin, not in particular sins, but original sin.

And how is what's the greatest sin that can be committed by the people that are closest to you, who are over you in headship over you. So, you know, teaching of original sin and then the Luther's teaching, the biblical teaching on the orders, and the importance of headship and subordination and orders, is the correct teaching. This is the perversion of that correct teaching. Now, I just want to make you aware of this, this doctrine, it's very, very common. I wouldn't mind betting that if some of your younger people involved in these particular gelical circles would be quite familiar with it, even if they've never brought it up, to your face to face. You need to know about it, yes? How do you distinguish that between the future, he will visit the iniquity into the third and fourth generation of those that take me, and then also about the characteristics of addiction, possibly being inherited?

Yes, going in families and alcoholism going in families, and also the occult Covington families. Always, there's a hard truth. But I take for it's there. Proof text is visiting the fathers, the iniquity of the fathers, upon the children, to the 3rd and 4th generation has to do with the 1st commandment. Either Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers to the 3rd and 4th generation. Now, what God is teaching here is that sin has consequences. Sin has consequences, not only for the sinner, but those who are, sin against but the Bible doesn't teach karma, the Bible teaches that God limits the scope the effect, the consequence of the sin. If I sin, and particularly if I reject God, if I hate God, if I am apostate, then who's going to suffer?

Not just me, but my children and grandchildren at the most. And then God draws the line. That's as far as it goes. There's not an endless chain, generation after generation. So the judgment goes, the consequent goes to the 3rd and 4th generation at the most. This is not a law. This is the judgment of God. He lets people suffer the consequence of their sin. So that they will come to repentance. But this is contrast. And so there's the limited effect of sin for both those who sin and sin against. On the other hand, this is contrasted with the unlimited effect of faithfulness but showing stead past love or better mercy to how many generations. Thousands of them who love me and keep my commandments.

So I'm the beneficiary of my ancestors going right back, hundreds of years who've been faithful to God. The blessings that Ivris have now has come to them to me via these generations completely different teaching. That's their, their one, about the only reasonable text that they have for this very dubious and very dangerous teaching. Okay, well, what's the entry point for Satan? It's said. It's not intergenerational sin. It's all sin, opens us to attack by the evil one. And if you want to know what the basic points or fronts are that we need to watch against, just look at the Ten Commandments. Because the 10 commands are given to us by God, primarily not as a moral code, but for spiritual reasons.

For us to diagnose, the points in which we are vulnerable to attack. These are the places where it, notice they are prohibitions, they set boundaries. If those boundaries are crossed, then we open ourselves to the evil one. So it has to do with boundaries. And there's four basic areas, then, if you like, of darkness, which are, you can define by taking the 10 commandments as a diagnostic tool. This is very important in Luther's treating the Ten Commandments. The 10 Commandments are to help us prepare for confession and absolution to help to prepare us for holy communion. For Luther, they're not primarily A, a code of ethics, but they have that spiritual function of self diagnosis. Okay? There are, if you like, the sins of the 1st table.

The 1st table of the law have to do with our relationship with God, and they have to do with sins that involve the desecration of his holiness. The 1st commandment, his holy presence with us, his panning. You shall have no other gods, al panei, in my presence. Before me is watered down a bit. It means in my presence. So God gives us his presence in the divine service, anything that desecrates his holy presence with us in the divine service. First commandment. Has to do with worship. The 2nd commandment, what's the holy thing? His name. Third commandment? Word? Word? Yes, his holy word. So, this, you can use this diagnostically in two ways, how have I sinned against first, second, and third commandments by worshiping in a way that's contrary, that desecrates God's holiness, how have I desecrated God's holy name?

How have I desecrated God's holy word? Now, and then you turn the flip side? Now, the receptive side, how have I, how have others abused these holy things against me? How have I been abused with, ritually abused, and that, by the abuse of the divine service? How have I been ritually abused by the misuse of God's holy name? How have I, and this is most common, been ritually abused by the misuse of God's holy word? The whole church is full of that kind of ritual abuse of those three kinds and people suffer from. So, that's the first table of the law. Can I just pause there, because this might be new to you, but I found that this is immensely helpful and very practical for me in my ministry.

Yes. I was hoping you just might elaborate on that. What does it mean to be abused for a person to be abused by bad worship? I mean, what does that look like? You can see it everywhere. Do you want me to name… Stuff? Okay, it's worshipping in a way. One very important loop from distinction between, on the one hand, there are certain mandated things, things that God has commanded, as instituted, and there's certain things that God has prohibited and then there are things that are neither divinely, commanded nor divinely forbidden at the Afra. So this has to do with those things that God has given command, and, the abuse of them, or the things that God, the fact that God has forbidden.

Okay? That's the 1st commandment. The Second Commandment I don't have to elaborate. I assume. Right. Okay, the abuse of the holy name. Just think of that case that I had of a young girl who was ritually abused, by the use of God's name, and the abuse of God's holy word, by that pastor and his wife. The First Commandment is the one where we have the biggest trouble, and a lot of the mucking around the people do with worship, and I'm a delicate ground here so I don't want to push this too hard because it's best that you receive it and work it through yourself. Involves the desecration of God's holiness. Quite frankly. I think if your commentary on Leviticus where the whole point of worship is to get God's holiness.

For the gift of holiness. If we depart from that, what is handed down, then you're calling into question whether or not you're getting the holiness. That's right. You are desecrating God's holy presence. And particularly young people, and new Christians have a much sharper sense for this than people who've been in the church all the time. And those who are most likely to be careless with holy things and worship are guess who? Pastors because we're so familiar with them. Just the way we do worship and the way we abuse the holy things in the divine service. Okay, that's one big area, that has severe consequences and brings about, the desecration of God's holiness. The second table has to do with spiritual impurity that comes from defiling ourselves, sinning, and being sinned again, that makes us unclean.

Once again, you get the both sides. Okay, so the sins of the second title of the law, rebellion against parents, and people in authority, physical abuse that you shall not kill, sexual abuse. That's one where we have been sensitized in recent times. Sexual sins, then economic sins, verbal sins, all across the second table of the law, and turn those around, and you get the corresponding forms of abuse, abuse of authority of parents and others. There's the abuse of physical power. Physical abuse, and the sexual abuse, there's economic abuse, there is verbal abuse. And then there is, people like art, the abuse of emotional abuse, which is the ninth and 10th commandments.

Okay, do you have the basic picture? This is, we could do a whole conference just on that area, and I'm outlining it and you'll have to work this through yourself. So God gives us the Ten Commandments to diagnose impurity, because the danger is if we are unclean, we come into the presence of the holy God, God's holiness is both desecrated and defiled. And that opens us, not God, but it opens us. To the works and the ways of the devil. And the demons. On the other hand, if you're going to get the devil off your back, these are the problem areas. This shows the places to use Luther's very, very graphic description. He says, where the fence is low, then the devil holds over. Now, where the fence is down, where the protection's down, where the walls are down, that's where the devil will get at you.

Those areas. Now, just in all of this, the worst fallout spiritually comes from the abuse of office, the sins of office, the abuse of headship in the three holy orders. You know, if I sin sexually, against somebody, that's bad enough. But if I, as a father, and a pastor, abuse my daughter, sexually, can you see that's far worse? Sexual abuse in, as of a stranger is bad enough. But if it's abuse of a person in office over you is ahead of you, father, is utterly traumatic, but it's even worse spiritually, when I, as spiritual father abuse her sanctually. Now, this is a particular sin of pastors we don't realize that the sins that we commit against our members are not just ordinary moral abuses, but they are abuse of office, they are abuse of the holy office, and they have caused great damage and bring great defile into the people who are on the receiving end of this.

Here, as he is to hear, let him hear. Hey? But the purpose of the exposure of impurity is for us to turn to Jesus and receive deliverance from him. I don't need to spell that out. If you don't know that, you should resign from the ministry. But just a reminder of two things, in terms of two texts. But first of all, Colossians chapter 1, 13 to 40, he, that's God the Father, has delivered us from the domain or the authority of darkness. Notice it's not the kingdom of darkness. It's the domain and the power that's exercised in the domain of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption. We brought free from slavery, the forgiveness of our seeds. Now, the Greek term for forgiveness, the old authorized version always used to translate not forgiveness, but the remission of sins, and I like that because that covers both sides.

Remission means release. The forgiveness of sins means the release from sins, the freedom from sins, which is both the release from sins you commit as well as release from the sins that are committed against you. Christ redeems us from both sides of that. And then you have the lesson that we had last Sunday, if you're following the three electionary, a rather graphic passage in Hebrews two, 14 to 15. Let me read. Since the children have flesh and blood they share, he, too, shared in their humanity, so that by his death, he might destroy him, who has the power of death that is the devil, and free those who, all their lives, were held in slavery, by their fear of death. Destroying Satan, who has holds power over people, are the power of death, and who works through the fear of death.

Remember what said about Satan being a murderer today? He doesn't actually have to do it in murdering, the way he gets us us is through the fear of death, our fear of death, which is understandable enough. He is the, fear monger. He's the ultimate spiritual terrorist. The God given weapons, or resources, for the ministry of deliverance that we're involved in, right? Yes, there was just… Okay, yes. You might be touching on this here eventually, if you find… Speaking of the things that are kind of against us, I would absolutely be applied to… It is not absolution that's applied. You don't need absolution from the sins that are committed against you. You need cleansing. You need to be purified from the stainless scene, and you need to have cleansing from the city.

They need to be confessed. They need to be brought out into the open. You deal with it, the same things that you use for any kind of ministry, the word of God, prayer, blessing, and particularly the sacrament of Christ, body and blood. Okay? Since you raise this, then, let me tell you a story, sort of, we can have a little of our easy time. This is one of those memorable experiences ministry, and I tell it over and over again, because it's such a good story. It's a real tear joke. So be ready. Okay. The 1st time I visited the evangelical Lutheran Church of Malaysia, I was asked to preach at the cathedral in Kuala Lumpa. It's called Zion Cathedral, there. And the question was, what should I preach on?

I said, well, do you want me to preach on one of the, you know, a lesson set for the day? And the pastor said, no, no, no. All our pastors have had training in ecumenical seminaries. And that means that even though they hold to the sacraments, they haven't had much teaching on the sacraments. Our people are devoted to the sacraments. They love the sacraments, but they don't have any much teaching on it. Baptism, some, but particularly the sacrament of the altar, they don't have. So he says, why don't you preach a sermon on holy communion? We have inconvenience, a pre-chop communion. So I did a very simple, well, I thought it was a very simple sermon on just one part of Holy Communion, which is the blood.

I preached on, Jesus says, take and drink. This is the blood of the new government which is shared for you for the release the remission of sins. And I spoke about the blood of Jesus, in the sacrament. I said, the blood of Jesus 1st is life giving blood. It gives life, not human life, but it gives us the life of Jesus, supernatural of life, divine life. So by receiving the blood of Jesus, we receive the life of Jesus, which is the life of God. We have eternal life here and now. Already before, we die. In this life, we share in the life of the triune God. We receive the Holy Spirit, the life giver. Then I said, secondly, through holy communion, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and impurity.

And I are focused on the words that you use. I think that most of your services before confession and absolution. God is faithful, and if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and do what? Or cleanse us from unrighteousness literally injustice. That's the Hebrew, the Greek word for abuse. So he will cleanse us, he will not only forgive our sins, but he will cleanse us from the injustices that we've experienced the abuse that we've experienced. So I said, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from the stain of sin and gives us a clean conscience, and it also cleanses us from the sins that have been committed against us. No matter what the sin is, that we've suffered, the blood of Jesus cleanses us.

And by the time I come to this, there was some other stillness, over the whole assembly of the congregation. Everybody was sitting, all ears attentive. And then, thirdly, the last part of the sermon, I touched on the fact that we received the blood of Jesus, when we received the blood of Jesus, to make us holy. By receiving the blood of Jesus, we are covered with the holiness of Jesus, we are made holy. We're kept holy, how holy? As holy as Jesus. So that when God looks at us, he sees us as we are covered with the holiness of Jesus. Don't, no, it was a simple enough sermon, at least I thought that. Then I helped the past to distribute holy communion. And the 1st group of people, in the 1st group of people, there was a youngish woman, who, unlike all the other women there was dressed in an utterly drab, are sari, and her hair was unkempt, which is most unusual, for Indian women, at least by the ones that I know.

She came forward, and she knelt, and then as she received, the pasta took the bread I took the wine, the blood of Jesus, and when she received the wine from me, she was crying. And when the other people had received the sacrament, they went back to the seats, but she stayed there, crying our heart out until the end of the distribution. Okay? At the end of the service, went the vestry, side so that we could go the back door to greet the people, and the pastor was grinning from ear to ear. And he was around the reserve character normally, but he was utterly super. He said, John, something wonderful is Happo. And said, what? He says, oh, it's too complicated. I'll tell you after we've greeted the people.

So, I went around the back, and, then the people came out, and when this woman came out, she fell on her knees, and, did this. You gotta stand up. Now, normally, you don't touch any woman in all Asian society. So, normal readings like this, okay? I was going, like, this, instead of shaking hands, you go like this, I come down, I hold my hands like this, and she grabs hold of them, like this, that goes… Yes. Okay, and she just said… I picked my pin. Careful, anyway. Yes, she said thank you. And then she disappeared. Okay, when all the people had gone the pastor told me her story. He said the last time that woman had received Holy Communion was about, seven, eight years early or something like that.

I don't know the exact dates, when she was confirmed. Fairly soon after confirmation, she was sexually abused by a member of her family. And that had a devastating effect on her and the whole family. Initially, she, never came to church. The pastors tried to help her and explain to her that it wasn't her fault. She hadn't sinned, but she'd been sinned against. Basically, she felt worthless, useless unclean, contaminated. Her life was over. She had no right to exist. And she was ugly and unacceptable before God and before any human being. Basically, her life was finished. When she came to church, she'd come in after everybody else had already arrived and go and sit in the back pure, and she'd leave before the service was over so that she didn't have to face any people.

And she'd always, you know, have veils and stuff, she'd always have a veil over her face, because she couldn't, she lost her face. That's what was happened. It, it wasn't just receiving the sacrament, but receiving the good news that the blood of Jesus cleanses in the sacrament, the preaching of the sacrament that, made all the difference. The blood of Jesus cleansed her from the awful abuse that she'd suffered. Now, the story doesn't end there, because two years later, I was preaching at the same church, and I greeting people at the door. I was confronted by a very, very attractive young woman, lovely, dark hair shining hair, beautiful, sari, ugly radiant. She had a lovely little baby in her hands and there was a real handsome hunk of an Indian man who was there at her side.

She said, Do you remember me? And I looked at her, and I said, Look, I'm sorry. Should I know you? She said, Remember when you were here last time? Remember that person who stayed at the altar? That's me. That's me. The blood of Jesus, cleanses, from all sense. Now, in dealing with abuse, whatever the abuse, particular sexual abuse, which is one of the most intractable of all, holy communion, and the blood of Jesus and holy communion is the best asset that we have. Which one of our God given sources, which I'm going to talk about next.