and then we gonna get to our lesson. I'm hoping not to hold y'all long. So I'm hoping my Baptist roots don't come into effect while I'm up here. Okay. Gracious heavenly father, we come again with Thanksgiving, thanking you that you have allowed us this privilege and this opportunity to stand before your grace. and your throne to say thank you. Now father, we ask that you forgive us of our sins, our iniquities, fill us with your spirit, open up our eyes and our understanding so that we do not propagate ignorance of your word, but we propagate that truth because your truth is life. For your word is a light unto our path and a light unto our feet. So let us walk in the light of your word, Father, at all time. Therefore, lifting up Christ and glorifying you. We ask this in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Years ago, I worked for a guy that made fishing rods. And he made them from graphite material, fishing rods. And one day a fisherman came in, and he brought his tackle box with him. And when he opened up his tackle box, he must have had about 200 different lures off in there. And he started telling me what all the different lures was for, for the different fish that he fished for and everything. And in that, It immediately came to mind to me, 1 John, where John talks about the laws of Satan. So go with me to 1 John 2, and we gonna look at verses, the main verse is 16, but to keep it in context, we wanna read 15 and 16. John writes to the church, said, do not love the world or the things in the world. If one loves the world, the love for the Father is not in him. Because all that's in the world, the lust or desire of the flesh, the lust or desire of the eyes, and the arrogant pride of life, is not from the Father, but from the world. And the world is passing away with all its desires and lusts, but the person who does the will of God remains forever. I wanna talk to you for a few minutes tonight on this subject, Satan, Three Lures. Three Lures of Satan. John tells us that it's three things Satan uses. He uses the flesh, he uses the eyes, and he uses pride. We know from Proverbs, the proverb wrote, a hearty spirit of pride goes before a fall. And one of the things we have, as believers, we have to continue to stay mindful of, not to get prideful. Because when we get prideful, Satan will use that to knock our feet out from under us and causes us to, not only in our fall, But many, many fail to get back up because they get this mindset, I'm not usable anymore because of whatever I've done. God will never use me again, and that's what Satan want. He don't want you being effected. If you ever read the book, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, that's one of the great books I recommend people read because Lewis deals with how Christians are manipulated by Satan and his imps. In one of the letters that Wormwood, that Screwtape writes to his uncle Wormwood, he tells him that he has a problem trying to keep the enemy from going, the man from going to the enemy house. I just can't stop him. He always, every Sunday, he wants to go to the enemy house. where Wyrmwood, who is his uncle, but also who is over him, writes back to say, don't stop him. Let him go. Just don't make him affected. And unfortunately, I feel today, and as I see in the world today, many Christians today are not affected because of Satan has caused them to fail, and in that, they have not confessed it so that they can continue to go forward down this road called Christianity. They are lingering in disgust. As the young man told me today at the prison, he said, Mr. Neal, I messed up. I just don't feel worthy. I say none of us feel worthy, you see, but it's God's grace. And that's what we have to be concerned about, making sure we stand in the word of God's grace. So Satan is going to use the lust or desires of the flesh, he's going to use the lust and desires of the eyes, and he's going to use the boastful pride of life. Satan has employed these lures from the garden with Eve all the way to Christ. The temptation of Christ, Satan used these on the very person who created him. But he used them first, you find these first in the Bible in Genesis 3. Satan used the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes against Eve, and then the boastful pride of life. To where when she ate, nothing happened. But when Adam ate, that's when it all went down the drain from then on. And man has been trying to dominate man ever since. His laws have been successful on humanity that he has not had a need to upgrade them or to add any to them. These three is what he used in the garden to what he's using to this very day. So you need to be aware of what Satan is going to use to try to manipulate you, control you, so that he can call, so he can run and accuse you to the Father. The first one we're going to look at is the lusts or desires of the flesh. The lust of which was sent and sourced is in the human nature. Satan tried the temptation first on Christ. Command these stones to turn to bread, if thou be the Son of God. Satan knew who Christ was. He knew he was the Son of God, but Satan was trying to get Christ to disqualify himself. from being the Messiah. If Christ had gave in to Satan, then he would have disqualified himself from being our Redeemer, because he wouldn't have gotten out of the plan and will of the Father. I don't know if it was Charles Ryrie I read, but I think it was Charles Ryrie in his book, The Best is Yet to Come. And he dealt with the temptation of Christ. And he made a statement that be advantageous on our part to realize too. When Lucifer came to Christ to tempt him, He did not ask Christ to do something that wasn't in his purview to do. As God, Jesus could have spoke and stones could have turned to bread because he's God. But when it comes to us, when he comes to tempt us, he will never tempt you. or me or anybody else with the temptation of doing something that's outside of our preview. But whatever he tempts you with is going to be something in which you can do. And that's what he's going to tempt you with. And remember, Satan cannot make you or I sin. It's impossible. He cannot make us sin. What he does is manipulate us into sin. As I told the guys today, he's like Las Vegas. 12 o'clock at daytime, I have friends that have went to Vegas for vacation, and they said, 12 o'clock in the day, those neon lights are blinking, blinking. When the sun is at his highest and it's brightest, they still blinking neon lights, get you to come here and that's what Satan is doing. He's always trying to get you to do something that's gonna put you outside of the will of God. And he's not trying to do it to unbelievers because he has them doing what he want. It's you and I who has came, who are in the body of Christ. He wants to disqualify us, make us sit on the sideline, become benchwarmers in the economy of God, in the battle for the hearts of men. And unfortunately, many, many, Jesus said is true. The road to destruction is wide and many finds it, but the road to life is narrow and few, few finds it. So, he uses this preview to Jesus. He also will use The desires of the flesh, and mostly what he uses, the desires of the flesh, and what I've told guys in the prison system over the 15 years I've been doing it, whatever you desire most, that's what Satan is gonna make sure you have. Especially to the guys that I find out are getting ready to parole out and coming back into society. I always give them the same message. You can't run with your old friends no more. You can go speak to them, you can go minister to them, but you can't run with them. Because if you start running with them again, thinking that I can handle this, you're gonna wind up right back here, right back here. So therefore, you need to understand, and Satan knows your weakness. If your weakness was drugs, guess what? He's gonna make sure drugs are always in the arena. If it's alcohol, he's gonna, if it's money, he's gonna, if it's women, he's gonna do it because he is going to do whatever he can to make you invalid in the work of God. So he's gonna use the flesh, or as some people, the sin nature. I always use the flesh when I deal, when I teach, because the sin, I believe because of what Paul, I've never read in the New Testament where Paul used the sin nature in his epistles. He's always dealing, writing to Christians, and he's dealing with them with their flesh. And I use the flesh. But I do not have a issue with somebody wanna use the sin nature. It's my sin nature. Okay, your sin. I don't, I won't go to the back because of that. You see, I, but I always use the word flesh. It's our flesh because that's what Paul uses in Romans seven talking about the wrestling, the flesh and the spirit wrestle. It's the flesh that you walk in, or the spirit you walk in, you see. And Satan is going to attack your flesh. Never believe you have arrived. I don't care how long you've been on this Christian walk, never believe you have arrived. Because the moment you think you done arrived, that you are untouchable, guess what? Al Capone is gonna show up. See, I'm old. I remember the untouchables, okay? The lure of the eyes. This is included in the lust of the flesh and as a specific manifestation. All merely sensual desires belongs in the economy and is not of the father. The one thing My mom and my dad, before he died, used to tell my sisters, and it's true, he said, men are visual, are visual. Through our vision, just as David, when he walked out on his ledge that night and saw Bathsheba, The Bible said when he saw her, he lingered. His vision, and from his vision, he commanded her to come. And then he took her and everything. Means are visual. That's the reason I had no problems when A lot of the elderly people would tell the young girls specifically, make sure you dress correctly. Because men are visual. And men, as fathers, we should have tell our sons and explain to them the problem with vision. Because once you see something, you can't unsee it. Esther Eden Davis said, I'm going to guard my eyes. Because once you see something, you can't unsee it. And because of that, we have gotten so that we refuse to talk to people correctly to help them overcome the problems that Satan rides up with the flesh of the eyes. You see, we see people living the life of Riley. And therefore, we want the life of Riley. And what happens? We gonna go and we will rob people. We'll take things that doesn't belongs to us because we have visualized and we insult people having more than what we feel they should have. And we don't have that much. And so therefore, we won't. And it starts with vision. Satan uses that vision to deal with us in that sense. The desires of the eyes does not involve appreciation. It is satisfied with the It represent a higher type of desire that is desires of the flesh in that it seeks sensual and mental pleasure when others seeks physical gratification. The eyes. Some people take for literally what Jesus say, if your eye is bad, pluck it out. If your hand is, cut it off. But Jesus wasn't talking about plucking out your eye or cutting off your hand. He was trying to get the children of Israel to understand how Satan attacks them. And therefore, they need to be sensitive to how they are being attacked. And if, The seven avenues with which outwardly things of the world, riches, prompt, beauty, inflames us. And Satan tries the temptation of Christ when he showed him all of the kingdoms of the world and its glory. Remember, Satan wants one thing from you. He wants you to worship him. So he will offer you the world if he could get you to bow down and worship him, and worship him. Satan uses his lures because position, power, prestige. Position, He'll give you position because position brings about power, and power brings what every man want, prestige. Many of you are my age, so you watch the old westerns on Saturday. If you ever notice, when Black Bart came to town, And he got up on the sidewalk. People got off the sidewalk and walked in the mud because they was afraid of Black Bart. But what did Black Bart sense from that? I got power. I got position. I got power. And now I got prestige. You see, and this day, this very day, that's what's going on in the world today. The war in Ukraine is about position, power, prestige. Every war that's ever been is because man wanted position, he wanted power, and he want prestige. The poor church, came about in America, the power church. And what we called the power church in church history was organization that came into existence, such as you find on KHCB, they call that the power church. because some members of the church didn't feel that they was being utilized enough. So what did they do? They went and started an organization outside of the church so that they could have power, a position and power and prestige, you see. The church, because The church was instituted by Christ, and because some couldn't get the prestige that they wanted, they started their own organizations to get that prestige. And we have to be careful, too, because there are people in the church who were set up clicks to get to cause problems in the church. You know, you can really teach. I don't know why the pastor don't use you as much as he should. I think he's afraid of you. And guess what? That head gets a little bigger to where pretty soon he gonna have to have a wheelbarrow with his head in, you see. You have to be careful who you take your accolades and your praise from. The one thing I told my son when he became a pastor, be careful of people patting you on your back. Because sometimes all they're doing is tenderizing the spot to stab you in. And also they can be using that to cause disharmony in the body. Your job is to honor God. Your job is to teach what God has commanded you to teach and feed his people. Don't worry about what other churches are doing, how they growing. If God just give you one, you teach that one. God will add to the church as he did in the book of Acts. He add to the church daily as he see fit. So don't let the lures of one more prevent you from doing what you have the ability to do now. The boastful pride of life. literally the arrogant assumption, vainglory display. Pride was Satan's sin whereby he failed and formed the link between the two fours of man. If you read the Bible in Genesis on, you're gonna find this. Cain killed his brother. And if you dig deep enough, you're going to see it was pride in Cain that caused him to kill his brother. Pride was the underlining of it because God accepted Abel's and didn't accept Cain's. Cain wound up killing his brother. Pride. As it's been said, the middle letter of pride and sin is I. When you start I, I, I, you setting yourself up for pride to take over. Pride, we see David's pride caused God to wipe out 25,000 Jews because God told him not to number his army. But what did he do? He sent Joab, go number them. Joab tried to tell him, no, you don't need to number the army. I'm the king, go number them. And when Joab came back from numbering, guess what? God brought judgment, brought judgment. and in that judgment brought the demise of 25,000 Israelites. And would have been more if God hadn't stayed that angel with the sword. You see, remember guys, We always have to understand that whenever we sin, even though Jesus died for every sin, past, present, future, for all men, It's what the Hebrew writer says, he tasted death for once for all men, unbelievers and believers alike. Jesus is about. So it's not sin that we are going to have to deal with. But remember, when just like Adam, when Adam messed up, it just did not affect Adam. I have people tell me all the time, well, I'm not bothering nobody but myself. I'm not hurting nobody but myself. No, you hurt more than just yourself. Just like Adam hurt everyone. Even though he was the only man on the face of the earth and Eve was the only woman on the face of the earth, guess what? That sin is still permanent through the whole world, even to this day. So whenever we mess up, we do not just hurt ourselves. We hurt society. We hurt the community. We hurt each other. when we mess up. That's the reason it's imperative that when we mess up, we confess. Don't get so stubborn you can't nobody tell you you messed up. And that's one of the hardest thing for a man to do is say I was wrong. I was wrong. I remember one time me and my ex-wife was going somewhere and I missed the getting off the freeway, the sign came up and I missed it. And she said, Ken, you missed it. But because she told me, I drove three miles trying to get off the freeway. I had to go three miles before I could get off the freeway and come back, you see. But that's the problem with man. We have the Adams syndrome. And we have to constantly be aware we blame everybody but ourselves. Adam told God, it's the woman you gave me. He blamed God for his failure as well as the woman. The woman blamed the serpent, but Adam blamed God. What Adam was really saying was, God, if you hadn't gave me this woman, I wouldn't have never messed up. So it's your fault. And as I tell the guys in the units that I teach, you got to learn to take responsibility for your choices. We all do. We need to learn to take responsibility for our choices. If we mess up, if you don't do it today, just remember, I have to apologize. I have to say I was wrong. You're not gonna be belittled so that you can't say, I was wrong, I messed up. It doesn't take your manhood from you. And I'm talking to the men because it's mostly the men that refuse to acknowledge when we mess up, you see. Most women will acknowledge when they mess up, you see. And therefore, as well as they mess up, by when they do find out we done messed up, they don't let you forget you done messed up either, too, you see. But the boastful pride of life was Satan kill his heel to him. Because of that, he was cast out of heaven, he was cast out of his position, as the overseer of God's glory to where and cast down to the earth unredeemable to where now he wants as many as us to follow in his footstep. The lures. It's not like when that Satan used. It's not like when we was younger and we took a cane pole, tied a string to it, put a bobber head on it and a hook with an earthworm and threw it out there to fish, you see. Now it's as sophisticated today as men's fish today. Satan's sophistication has not changed. It's the same as the day in the garden as the serpent of old with Eve. I'm almost make this time period. Satan may have three lures to catch men, we do not. We only have one, the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's all we have. Just as we are called to be fishers of men, we cannot fish other than what God has given us to fish. with, and that's the gospel. Go to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. I have begged for the last few years that I stop hearing people in the church telling, especially young people, ask Jesus to come into your heart. Because that's nowhere in the Bible. No one is justified from the penalty of sin by asking Jesus to come into your heart. And I wish the church will quit using that, especially with young kids. Telling them, just ask Jesus to come live in your heart. No, give them the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is the gospel. Paul said, now I wanna make clear for you brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preach to you, that you receive and on which you stand, that Jesus died according to the scripture. He went into the grave and he rose on the third day according to the scripture. That's the gospel. not asking Jesus to come in your heart, not all this other stuff where the faith alone and Christ alone plus, no. To me, that is a damnable gospel being preached when you add anything to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the same yesterday Today and forever, Jesus died, he went into the grave, and on the third day, he rose. Come this Sunday, we are going to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. But if Satan had been able, remember, if Satan had been able to disqualify Jesus in the temptations, where would we be? Thanks be to God, Jesus didn't fall for none of his tricks, none of his tricks. So therefore, that he is the savior of the world, of the world, the savior. But that's the gospel. And that's the only thing we have to proclaim to people. Don't add to it, don't take nothing away from it. give them the gospel. That's the only thing the church has. In here, I also said, in 1 Corinthians, I always did 1 Corinthians 3 and 4, but in 1 Peter tells us what Christ did. First Peter 2.24 says, he Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his womb, we are healed. John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only. son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have life eternal. For God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in the order that he might save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, the son, But whoever does not believe, who does not believe is condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Remind people what Jesus did. He bore in his body, by his wounds, we are healed. We are made whole. You see. Satan lures, will have us thinking, I can do it. I got the potential. I got the education. I got the charisma. I got everything. Just give me the opportunity. Not realizing that Satan's setting us up for a fall. And what's so bad about it is those who sit upon you is gonna fall as hard. Act 1630 said, when he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Well, if you give a few donations, Go to the blood bank, give some blood. Let people live in your house and everything. Plus, believe on Jesus, then that's what you need. No. We know the gospel. That's what Paul told the Philippian juror. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. pastoral, put your faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins. And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we need to be telling people. Don't believe in me because I'm fallible just like you. I mess up just like you. I tell the guys coming home from Huntsville on 45s, I said, sometimes don't people drive so bad? I done said something before I can think about it. I done called them a name. And now I got to repent in the car for it. And then 290, coming out Highway 6 and 290. They drive just as bad. Probably worse, but now I don't think nobody's worse than 45. Round that, the woodlands and stuff. Once you get to Conroe, it's fine until you get to Conroe. Then that traffic gets bad. I tell them all the time, I can't wait until I get my wings. I'm gonna fly over this mess when I get my wings. but we need to understand. It doesn't take, it's like what my mother said to us, you know, it only takes a minute to get in trouble. And sometime it takes a lifetime to get out of it. It only takes a minute for you to sin. And then Satan will try to make it a lifetime before you repent. You need to not fall for his stuff and do what you know to do. which is 1 John 1.9. If you confess with your sin, confess your sin, heed, God is faithful. The Father is faithful to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Get up, dust yourself off, and continue on down the road being used by God. Don't let a mistake stop you. from doing the will of the Father, because Satan's lures are out there, and his lures are not for the unbelievers, his lures are for you and me, because he done lost us. We are in the body of Christ, but he don't want us to be affected in the body. He wants us, as Paul say, devouring one another. devouring one another. No. Remember, we are one body, but with one head, and that head is Christ. We are thankful we asked that you lift up David. He was I really didn't understand why he wasn't gonna be here tonight, but when he called me, I told him, yeah, I'll do it for him and everything. So we might need to get some rocks to have a stoning, you know, like they did in days old, you know, so we can be the church to see if he's really saved. If he comes back like Paul, we know he's really saved, okay? It's all right to laugh in church, guys. God laughs at us every day. I believe God done fell off his throne a couple of times laughing at me. You know, see that Neal boy there? That boy hurts my side laughing at him. So don't take yourself so serious. Remember, we are servants. and we are accountable as servants. And we one day will give an account for our servitude before Christ at the Beamer. Let's pray, we go home. Gracious heavenly father, we come again with thanksgiving, thanking you for your word that you gave on us. Your written word that you left us and the word that became flesh. and dwelt among men. Tabernacle among men's father. And because of that, we too now are in the family. Because we put our faith alone in your son alone, work at Calvary. For it was he that hung, bled, and died. It was he that went into the grave. And it was he who on the third day rose. but rose with all power in heaven and earth in his hands. And because of that, he has given us a commission to go out and preach the gospel. That there's no other name given among men by which they can be saved than other than the name of Jesus Christ. And that he and he alone will judge The father will judge no one, but he alone is the judge. Just as Abraham said in Genesis 25, you, when talking to Christ in his pre-incarnated state, you, who is the judge of all the world, Abraham knew Christ was the judge of all the world even then, as we know today through your word. So Father, let us proclaim thy truth at all times to all people so that they can escape this wrath that they are under, because your word said they are already under your wrath by not accepting your son. So Father, we ask that as we go to our different destination, that you would take us safely. And then if it's your will, Father, bring us back Sunday. Let us come with a heart of worship to lift up holy hands and to praise Christ and you for giving your son and your son dying in our stead. We ask this now in his precious name, we pray, amen.