Let's turn to the Bible and go to the book of 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter, as we stand our feet this morning, 1 Peter 1. And we're gonna pick back up on the message that we started last Sunday morning, last Sunday morning on the trial of our faith, the trial of our faith. And we're gonna pick back up on the second part here, if the Lord will help us today. Good to be in the Lord's house, ain't it? Amen. Good to see everybody here today. What a joy it is to be saved, be able to come to church, and for the good day that the Lord's given us. Let's look in 1 Peter chapter one, and begin to read in verse one. The Bible said Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ of the strangers, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit, under obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations. Let the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen your love, in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. You can be seated this morning. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you today. We thank you again and that for the wonderful singing. We pray that the choir singing has blessed your name and honored you and special singing. I'm glad it is still the blood. that saves from sin. I'm thankful this morning, Lord, for the shed blood that you give us at Calvary, for taking our place on the old rugged cross. Lord, might we always be mindful of that and never wander too far from the shadow of the cross. Lord, we just pray now that you'd meet with us for a little while, God, our mind and our thoughts, and Lord, I pray that you'd just hinder Satan from this building and from this meeting and from folks' minds today, that folk would be very attentive in that to the Word of God. Lord, while we might preach for a little while, and Lord, we cannot do this without you. I'm a man that stands in need in that of heaven today. And Lord, I pray that you just come by and touch us and strengthen us from on high and give us a unction from the Holy One. Oh Lord, I'm just a feeble and frail man that cannot do anything on his own. And without you, this is gonna fail. And I pray for your touch this morning. We're gonna try our best to follow the direction. of the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We pray for these one lost, save them, convict their heart and bring them to a place that repentance and help those that need it. Strengthen your children this morning. We'll take it and we love you. Say that as soon as it's nearest to you. For these things in Jesus' name, we do ask and do pray, amen. And amen, as we started this message last week, and we looked at the very beginning of it, and we talked about how that we were elect according to the foreknowledge of God, and how that we have him, and we live in him, and have abundant mercy in him, and that we're kept in him, and how that our faith is what's gonna bring us, and that to the end. He said in verse nine, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I'm glad one day, Our faith is gonna end inside. What we have believed and what we have trusted is no longer simply seen in that far off, simply in that out in the future somewhere. But one day after a while, this thing's gonna end inside and we'll no longer believe by faith, but we'll be living in a real time. Thank God for that. of what we have believed. But we come down and we looked in verses six and verse seven when it talked about the trial of our faith. And there are trials of our faith that we go through. And we looked about how that God tries our faith and we talked about Abraham. When Abraham, when his faith was tried to take Isaac up on Mount Moriah over there and sacrifice Him and Adam, the Lord, and we talked about how that in the trial of our faith that sometimes God wants the most very important thing that you could ever have and hold on to, and he'll want you to give that up. And he's gonna see, and now listen. He knows what you'll do and what you won't do. He'll know what I'll do and what I won't do, but he wants us to know and he wants the world to see it. We talked about how that Gideon's faith was tried and Judges chapter seven, when he had to give up, how all those men, you know, and had to go fight the battle and fight a battle with 300 men and that of the Midianites and Amalekites that were scattered, I like grasshoppers out across the valley. And I mean, he started with 32 and ended up with 300, and he still trusted God. And then we talked about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, how that God not only led them to the furnace, but he put them in the furnace. You know, I said this last week, that a lot of us, we expect God, we know there's trials, we know that our faith is gonna be tried, and we expect God and that to lead us up to the furnace, and then right before we have to go in, we expect God to swoop in and get us away from the furnace. Hey, can I tell you these times, friend, that me and you, not only are we gonna be led to the mouth of the furnace, but we're gonna be put in the furnace. But ain't you glad today that according to Daniel chapter three, that in the midst of that furnace, the Lord Jesus Christ was ever present, and that with them boys, and he stayed all the way with them. until they come out of it. We talked about Daniel and all those times when he was in the den of lions and how it was to purge us. A lot of times he has a trial of our faith to purge us and not only to purge what don't belong there, but so that others can see. And we talked about what Paul said when he said over here He said, and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear that sometimes that the Lord tries our faith, puts us on trial where everybody else can see it, so everybody else can have strength and that in serving the Lord. Now if you've never had your faith tried, you have no idea what I'm talking about. And let me say this, that in the midst of the trial of your faith, And you know, there's an old song that the old quartet used to sing, Give the World a Smile. And I like that old song, I really do. But I'm gonna be honest with you, when you look in 1 Peter 1, he says that sometimes, if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations. Can I tell you, the trial of our faith is sometimes heavy, ain't it? I mean, we want people, and I'm as guilty as a lot of others are, in the midst of trials and tribulations, we tell people to smile and get your chin up and go, hey, I'm going to tell you, sometimes you don't feel like that. But you keep on trusting the Lord anyway. You may weep and you may cry and you may have dark times. I mean, how many times do you reckon David, you know there, one time David said, oh, that I had wings of a dove, then I would fly away and be at rest. He wanted to get away from it all. How many times have we wanted to get away from it all? Sometimes we go through the trial of faith, the Lord puts us through it, and that's so we'll look up to him and call on him and trust him. In my distress I called upon the Lord, David said, and cried unto my God, and he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him even into his ears. Now the Lord, he tries our faith to help us. Well then number two, and this is where we wanna pick up and preach for a little while, then Satan will try our faith. Now, I'm going to tell you, this ain't no trial or faith to help us. He tries our faith to destroy us. And then we have to understand that, that we do have an adversary that is against us. Be sober, if you take your Bible and you just go over a few verses, a few chapters in the book of I Peter, in verse eight, he said, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, who walks about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith. See, we resist in the faith, don't we? You know, what is it? Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. Now, some of y'all, well, I won't say some of y'all, maybe you've never faced the devil. I don't know if you have or not. I can say this, that if you've ever set out to do anything for God, in the honesty of your heart, and you've tried to live for God, I'll guarantee you, Satan's come knocking. I guarantee you, he showed up in your life, but he said, knowing that the same afflictions. Listen, the devil wants to afflict you. He's talking about the adversary, and then he talks about afflictions. You know, how many of us like afflictions? Well, not many of us. But David said, before I was afflicted, I went astray. Sometimes we, Brother Jeff, talked about that this morning. When you come to the book of Proverbs over there, you know, correcting your children. Afflictions come sometimes, how to get us straightened up, but sometimes afflictions come and that to try to get us to quit. I'll deal with that here in a minute. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. So I want you to understand something, that sometimes God tries our faith, but Satan will try our faith. First Thessalonians chapter three, the apostle Paul said, for virily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and you know, for this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faithless, by some means the tempter, having tempted you, our labor be in vain. The apostle Paul, as he wrote to the church of Thessalonica, he said, I told you that we were going to suffer tribulation. These things were going to come to pass. And he said, I'm afraid that it was saved. You know, he is the tempter, ain't he, today? What was it? Look in your Bible. Are we all right this morning? Amen, are we okay? All right, just making sure, wanna make sure everybody's awake this morning, doing all right. Listen, when you go to Matthew chapter four, when it talks about the Lord Jesus Christ and that being led by the spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted, the Bible said in verse three, and when the tempter came to him, We know that's what Satan does. We know he tempts people and he wants to get people and that to quit. Notice that he tempts with temptation. Notice he said you're in heaviness through manifold temptations. Manifold means many. That's exactly what it means. Many temptations. He's talking about, oh, there's tribulations that's coming, there's trial that's coming, and listen, it's easy to handle one thing sometimes, but have you ever just been bombarded from every direction in your life? And you say, what's going on? Let me ask you something, you ever just had a bad day? I mean, your dog ran off, and your kids are sick, and I mean, your debit card wouldn't work at the ATM, and they didn't have your favorite food at the restaurant, Man, we went to a restaurant the other day and they said, well, you just had to eat off the bar, we ain't cookin'. I said, well, that's good, I like the bar, amen. But I mean, it's just like everything goes wrong, but put that in a spiritual sense. I mean, it's just like everything has been unleashed on you in one day. You ever had that happen? You ever had it seem like that the devil every step you took, that the devil was in front of you, he was beside you, and he was behind you, and he would not leave you alone? Can I tell you today, dear Christian, if you believe that Satan will not bother you, if you believe that Satan cannot hinder you and stop you from doing the work of God, you're already in a bad place this morning. So how does Satan try our faith? Number one, how does he try our faith? He hinders us, don't he? He hinders us. We set out to do something for God, Satan will show up. You ever wanted to do anything for God? And I preached on this last Sunday about those boys in that boat being in the will of God. They were in the will of God. And the storm showed up. You remember Matthew 7? The man that built his house up on the rock, and what happened? The winds blew, the rain descended, and it still blew. Just because you're founded on a rock and in the middle of God's will does mean that those things will not come. because they will come. As a matter of fact, the closer you get into God's will, and the more you do God's will, the more there's probably gonna be a fight. Do you know that? Now I'm glad I'm gonna deal with this in a minute, but I'm glad that God's grace is very sufficient and very evident. I'm thankful for that today. But he hinders. First Thessalonians chapter two, the apostle Paul said this, wherefore we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but what did he say? But Satan hindered us. Every way that you turned, he stopped, he worked, he moved. You know, he's more than just a spirit. He's more than just an entity. He is a person and he has people that work for him. whether they're knowingly working for him, whether they understand that, I don't know sometimes, I think they do sometimes, but that word hindered means stop or impeded or obstructed or retarded. That means to be brought back, that means to be stopped and impeded from what you're trying to do for the Lord. How many of us have ever got in the middle of God's will, wanted to do something for God? You've heard me make this statement before. Listen to me, because you're gonna mess up right here. How many of us have ever got in the will of God, know that's what God wanted us to do, and then as time goes on, and as time rocks on, things get a little tough, things don't go the way that we wanted them to, things don't go like we thought they were going to, and then we say, hmm, reckon that really was the will of God. So now he's got you doubting, don't you? You know, he hinders us through doubt, I think we hinder ourselves sometimes. I've had to learn how to overcome doubt. You know, you gotta overcome doubt. You do, you gotta learn how to believe God, trust God, pray to the Lord, and say, Lord, if this is what you want, I'm still gonna go on, and if he don't tell you to stop, get another gear and keep going, amen. I learned that a long time ago from an old deacon that I love very much. He taught me this, he said this, he said, until I hear God say no, I'm just gonna keep on going. I think that's pretty good. Amen. But He hinders us. He hinders us. He sometimes wants to get in front of us. In the book of Zechariah chapter 3, the Bible said, and He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at His right hand to resist Him. Satan's there to resist you. He's dire to get us to quit and to stop and to quit serving God in the wonder, am I really where I need to be? Am I really doing what I need to do? Let me say this, I think it's a good thing for you to really say, Lord, am I where I need to be at? And if God says, yeah, you're right where I want you to be, then go do what you need to do. Quit worrying about, quit worrying about trying to figure it out every day. I had to get over when I'd hear about men resigning their church. And y'all don't know how my mind works. Man, my mind is crazy some days. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy around our house. Ms. Latham will attest to that. It gets crazy sometimes. And, you know, men would talk about resigning, and I said, I don't reckon I need to do that. You say, well, why would you think that? Well, yeah, why would I think that way? I ain't heard God tell me to do that. Why would I think that way? You see, I mean, he gets in and he begins to hinder and he begins to work on us sometimes. And by the way, Satan can get to you as long as the Lord lets him, amen. I'll do a joke here in a minute. Paul faced many hindrances in the ministry. Take your Bible, I want you to go to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 4. And we'll just look at just a couple right here real quick and then I'll move on. But just hindrances in the ministry. 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul's coming to an end of his ministry. He believes he is, and I believe he was. He knew time was getting to be short. But in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Look in verse 10, he said, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica. You know, one of the hindrances that you run into sometimes is when people leave you and they forsake you. Paul needed men in the ministry. Hey, listen, I mean, listen, God had chose Paul to be the Gentile, be the apostle to the Gentiles. He's got Paul on mission trips, starting churches, and he didn't, I mean, I pastored here for about six months, I guess it was, and there was a light bubbling off in my head one day, and I mean, it's crazy how you think, but it's just like God rushed down and smacked me on top of the head, and it's like, son, you can't do all this stuff. That's what people's for. I can't teach every Sunday school class. I can't play every instrument and lead singing and do everything that has to be done in the church, and neither could the Apostle Paul. I do everything. He needed folk to help him. He needed folk to be there. And so here he's got Demas who had been with him. And if you look up into this time, he talks about Demas, and that is a fellow worker, but yet it come to a time here that Demas had forsook him. When somebody that you love dearly, when they leave you or they forsake you, or they quit serving the Lord, does that hurt you? Of course it hurts you. And it hurts me. The book of Deuteronomy put it like this when he talked about the law over here. And he said, the officers shall speak further unto the people and they shall say, what man is there that is fearful and faint hearted? Let him go and return unto his house. Let his brethren's heart fain as well as his heart. And he's talking about going to battle right there. He said, if you're afraid to go to battle, he said, don't even bother to go to battle. He said, because if your heart gets, if you get scared in the middle of battle, he said, you're liable to frighten, you're liable to scare your other brethren also. And they get scared and quit fighting too. You'll become a hindrance and that to them. You'll become, boy, I don't want to be a hindrance to anybody. You read on down at what the Apostle Paul said. Read on down in the chapter. He said, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord rewarded him according to his words. Of whom be thou aware also for he hath greatly withstood our words. He had somebody that was against him. Alexander the coppersmith withstood his words. You know what, we don't have a lot of people withstanding our preaching and withstanding our doctrine. Now, I get some emails from time to time through the website. I do. I get some crazy emails sometimes. Most of them is Church of Christ. They're picking a fight. How do you know they're Church of Christ? They always won't talk about baptism. They always won't talk about water baptism. I know them Campbellites, them water dogs. I mean, hey, listen, that thing cannot save you today. Listen to me. Hey, what Brother Lewis is saying about, it's what saves you, it's the blood of Christ that washed our sins away. Hey, that baptistry cannot do that, amen? And they'll hinder the gospel if given the chance and think that they're doing God's service. But Paul said, for when we were coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fighting and within were fears. You're going to tell me the Apostle Paul wasn't hindered in the cause of Christ? A lot of us are not hindered because we just ain't doing a whole lot. Boy, ain't that good this morning. Huh? I mean, listen, you're not going to be hindered in anything if you ain't doing anything. You're not going to be bothered about anything if you ain't doing anything. When's the last time you handed out a tract? When's the last time you invited somebody and that to church or talked to them about their salvation or asked them if they was going to heaven? That is what we're left here to do, ain't it? Is to win others to Christ. I mean, it is to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ and know Him on a more intimate level. I understand that. I get to know Him, but are we not supposed to be winning others and that to Christ? Is that not our job? I walked in to buy some parts for my truck the other day and didn't have a track on me and felt so ashamed. I still talked to a fellow there, and I just felt like I needed to talk to him. Maybe he'll come on to church. I hope so. Amen. but He hinders us in the work. The hindrances of Satan is to get us to quit or at least to get us to wonder, is God really in this thing? Is God really in it? I heard one fellow say to me one time, he said, all I'm trying to do is figure out if it's God trying to stop me or if it's just roadblocks that Satan's put up. That's a fair assessment of things. I mean, it's really fair to ask that question. But once you figure out what it is, if it ain't a roadblock from God, then go on, man. It's just a hindrance from Satan. And keep on fighting. But he talks about in the book of 1 Peter, he said what? He said that the trial of your faith, he's going to try your faith by hindrance. The apostle Paul said, he hindered me, he hindered me, I could not go, he tried to stop me, he tried to impede against me. But then notice right here that when he talks about in the text verse, he said, in heaviness through manifold temptations, then Satan works with temptations. You realize that, don't you? He works with temptation. A temptation is to get us to sin, and we're always thinking that of some kind of gross sin, maybe like adultery or cheating or stealing or lying, and sometimes that's the way it is, but sometimes He just wants to wear us down and get us in a weak time that we might quit. That we just might give up and quit. Be easier to quit than it would be to go on. In recesses of your heart, you don't have to shake your head, you don't have to answer this question, but have you ever thought about quitting? You ever thought about quitting? Listen, 2019 was the hardest year, I believe, that we ever had at this church, including COVID. And that was a year prior to COVID. Somebody asked me the other day, you know, how'd you fire through COVID? I said, if we hadn't had 2019 prior to it, I would have been whistling through that thing, man. But we went through some hard times in that year. And that was the first time I could ever remember thinking about taking my tool bag and just going away from it all and just becoming an electrician all over again. I'd just go pull wire and do what I could. But you know what, every time I'd think about that, boy, God would bother me. Don't think it ain't crossed my mind to quit, because it has. Them old timers you used to talk about, they'd quit every Monday, you know. They'd come in, set out, they'd be looking for a job in the paper on Monday, and I'm like, what are you boys talking about? What are y'all talking about? I mean, I love, and I still love pastoring. I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have a desire to do it. You know, he that desires the office of a bishop, you gotta desire the office of a bishop. You gotta want a pastor. and God puts that wound in you. Sometimes there's a temptation to quit. He gets us in weak times, and sometimes he gets us to looking backward. Take your Bible and go to the book of John, chapter 21, John chapter 21. Now Jesus has risen from the dead. His disciples have Seen him, they know him, that he is risen. But he is over here on the seaside. But I want you to look in verse 1. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And on this wise showed he himself. And there were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathaniel of Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and the two other disciples. And Simon Peter saith unto them, What's he say? I go a fishing. And they say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into his ship immediately, and that night, and they caught nothing. What did Peter do? What did Peter do? He went back. He went back and started doing what the Lord had caught him out of, didn't he? What did the Lord come by and tell Peter and James and John? He said, I'll make you what? Fishers of men. What did Peter say after? Now remember, he's denied the Lord. You've got to remember, they said they hadn't been dealt with yet. God hadn't dealt. The Lord Jesus hadn't dealt with Peter denying Him over there at that fire. He hadn't dealt with Him yet. And so Peter, you know, he's went down to the tomb. He's seen the empty tomb. He knows the stories of what's happened. And Peter says, I'll go fishing. He goes back to his old way of doing things. If we ain't careful, Satan will get us in a place to where we'll start looking back and say, boy, I believe it's a little better back here than what it is up here. Well, he'll get to painting a picture of what it used to be like than what it is now. I'm going to tell you, sometimes it is hard serving God. You know, people that want to paint a bed of roses, let them paint a bed of roses, but I'm going to tell you, when the carpet gets jerked out from under them, and they don't understand that hard times are going to come, they set themselves up for a big fall. Now, I want to stop right here and step out of that part and into another and say this, it's not always so hard that we can't go through it. It's not always so hard that we wake up dreading being a Christian every day, and that, oh, they're just so hard we can't get through. What are we going to do? I don't think it's like that. But Peter went back to fishing. I want to show you something that happened right here. Peter said, I go fishing. And they said unto him, we also go with thee. So he not only took himself, but he took others with him. You know, no man having, what was it, Luke chapter 9 verse 62, he said, no man having laid his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. He not only took Himself back to the old lifestyle, to the old way, because how do you know He was in the old lifestyle, preacher? How do you know that? Verse 7, Therefore the disciples, whom Jesus loved, said, Well, let me just read you all this. Verse 4, But when the morning was now come, Jesus said, Now remember, they caught nothing. Well, I'm telling you, when you go back, when you go back, instead of going forward and going back, there's nothing there. Right? They caught nothing. They went out and caught nothing. But when the morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said unto them, Children, have ye any meat? And they answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. And they cast therefore. And now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Seems like we'd been here before somewhere, hadn't we? Seems like this ain't the first time that's ever happened. Remember the time when Peter got on, or the Lord Jesus got on Peter's boat and they had fished all night? And he said, let's go cast out in the deep a little bit. And he said, let out your nets. And Peter said, we've toiled all night, ain't caught nothing. But he said, at thy word, we'll let out our what? Net? Singular? He said, I'll throw out one net. I won't pull them all out. We didn't catch nothing all night. And you know what? They couldn't drag it in the first time. You know what the Lord's trying to do right here? He's trying to show Himself again, ain't He? For who He is. And therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John by the way, saith unto Peter, it is the Lord. Now I'm asking you, how do I know Peter went back to the old life? Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he garred his fisher's coat unto him, for he was what? He was naked. I don't think he's standing out there without any clothes on, but he ain't got much on. We can talk about naked later, but he ain't got much on. And he'd cast himself in the sea and he swims over the shore and meet the Lord. Peter's not only went back to fishing, but man, he's just going back doing things the old way. But I'm telling you, he's got hindered and Satan has bothered him greatly. I mean, he's trying to get him to quit and he's going back. And I'm going to be honest with you today. I kind of understand. I didn't say it's right. I'm not saying that everyone's going to do it. But you know, when a very young Christian who never gets in the book and never gets doctrine right and all these things, I kind of understand when Satan shows up and they're ready to throw their hands up and go back. I'm not saying I know that it's right. That ain't what I'm saying. I'm just saying that old Mark and his flesh can look at the situation and say, boy, I understand why they did what they done. They never got rooted. They never got grounded. They don't know much. They don't know much about the grace of God. They don't know how to pray. They didn't never learn how to do this. And some of that falls on us, church. Say amen. Listen, we're to teach them. We're to teach them. But Peter has spent three and a half years with the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows what Christ has done. He knows what he's capable of. And he says, but I go back fishing. We get hindered by Satan and he wants us to go back. He tempts us and that to go back, to quit, or maybe to sin, to disobey God's word, Satan is just trying to get us to disobey God. Is that not what he done with Job? He said, I'm telling you right now, God, if you take away everything Job's got, he'll curse you to your faith. He told the Lord that twice, in chapter 1 and in chapter 2. And even his own wife, who obviously was an agent for Satan, came out to her and said, I still retain that integrity. Won't you just what? Curse God and die. I know God turned him over to Satan. And he took his finances and took his family. even took his friends and afflicted his health, afflicted his flesh. I understand that. But the Bible said in all this, Job sinned not. Can I tell you what Satan wants to do is accuse us. He wants us to fail. so he can accuse us. How do you know that? Take your Bible and go to Job 1. I want you to see this. I had never really picked, I had picked up on it, but really hadn't gave it just much consideration while I studied the book of Job. Is Satan not called the accuser of the brethren in Revelation chapter 12? He is. He's called the accuser of the brethren. He wants to be able to accuse us before the Heavenly Father. I really believe that's what that means. And you say, why is that? Because if you look in Job chapter 1 and verse 11, Well, let me back up to verse 9. After God has offered Job to Satan, then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in length. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he'll curse thee to thy face. Job ain't quit, Job ain't... Listen, they're just talking about what they could do. Satan's having a conversation and Satan is telling God, if you take everything away from Job, he'll curse you to your face. He's already accusing Job of what he's going to do. You come on over here in chapter two, look in verse three, and the Lord said unto Satan, I say, I consider my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, perfect and upright man, and won't fear God, and is sure of evil, and shall hold fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him, to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord, and said, skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, he'll give for his life, but put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he'll curse thee with thy face. He's making accusations against Job without anything going what he's talking about. What are you talking about? Oh, he's lost everything. He's lost his family. He's lost his finances. But right here, Job has still got his health. He's still got his flesh. He said, you know, Lord, you could take all those things away from him and he may not curse you. He may not curse you to your face. But I'm telling you right now, if you touch his bone and his flesh, He'll curse you to your face. You know what Satan wants to do? He wants to be able to accuse you. And boy, if he can get you to fail, we'll make big accusations. Not only that, can he make big accusations, but you know what, when he talks about in the book of 2 Samuel, is it 2 Samuel chapter 12, where Nathan comes over and says, thou art the man? And what did he say? He said, how be it because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. What happens if me and you quit? What happens if we get caught in sin? What happens if we quit? What happens if we give up? Well, we give every sinner out here, and every back-seat Christian, and that every reason to stand, or back-seat believer, and that every reason to stand out there and say, I knew there wasn't nothing to them. I knew there wasn't nothing to this Bible stuff. I knew there wasn't nothing to this God stuff and this Jesus stuff. I think me leaving for church every Sunday morning and Sunday night and every Wednesday night is very important because my neighbors are standing out. and they see what's going on. They don't listen. I hate to say this, but if somebody wants to break into my house, they need to do it between 10 and 12, well, 10 and 1 on Sunday morning, 6 and 7.30 on Sunday night, and Wednesday night from 6.30 to 8.30. You break into my house, you probably get in. As a matter of fact, the only time I've been broken into it was during church time. And I'm determined, hey, I better be careful. They knew we were going to church, let me say that. Satan tries our faith. I'll cut that out before it goes on the radio. I stopped putting up that you went to Florida on Facebook. Hey, we're in Florida! You know, when your house gets broken into, you know, hey... He wants you to be able to stand before... Listen to me. Satan tries your faith to destroy you. He wants to destroy you. Do you understand that? He is after you, your family, your home, this church. He's trying your faith not to help you, but to destroy you. He'll drive you crazy sometimes. He wants you to doubt God's Word. He wants you to doubt God's ability. He wants you to doubt what God has already done. Did God really do that? Did I really see God do that? Did I really experience that in my life? Did God really move like I think He moved? But even in the trials that He's brought on by Satan, when He tries our faith, whether we're going to trust the Lord. You know, Job said in Job 13, though he slayed me, yet will I trust him, but I will maintain my own ways before him. Job said, I'm going to keep my integrity. And he says, though God's going to kill me with this trial that I'm going through. That's what he felt like. He felt like God was going to kill him. This thing's going to kill me. This thing is going to be the end of me. This thing is going to be what's going to get me. This is going to be it right here. But Job said, I'm still going to trust the Lord. You go back and you look what I said about the apostle Paul facing Alexander the coppersmith. Demas had forsook him and left him. But you know, just a few verses before that, Paul said, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept the faith. Paul said, I've done it all. Even though in spite of folk leaving me, in spite of Alexander the coppersmith standing against me, in spite of having fears on the inside, fighting on the outside, in spite of all this stuff, As a matter of fact, if you look in the same book, 2 Timothy chapter 2, in verse 1, Thou for my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Let me park right here and say that until Satan shows up to bother you, I know that man that is born a woman is a few days in full of trouble. But when Satan shows up, you're going to have to be strong in the grace that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He gives grace. Verse 2, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." Who are we warring with? Who are we battling against? Well, Ephesians 6 lays that out for us, talking about the armor of God that we put on. I mean, the principality of the Arab. I mean, we're fighting with Satan and his people. The rulers of darkness. He said, therefore endure hardness. Sometimes you just got to endure, man. You trust God and you go on. There's hindrances, but we keep fighting. Temptation comes, but we say no and we keep going. And we just serve the Lord. Endure hardness. I wish it was a cakewalk all the time. I'm not sure how many of us, I'm going to make a statement again. Some of us, I won't say not a lot or a few, I'll just say some. We don't understand what it's like to just to pray in the beans and the corn. Now some of y'all understand what I'm talking about right there. You didn't know how it was going to work, didn't know how it was going to finish, and didn't know what was going to happen. But if God didn't intervene, it wasn't going to get done. And sometimes it's that way, even in our Christian life. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, he said, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there is given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Do you realize that Satan is buffeting? Paul, the Apostle Paul, he's buffeting. You know what that means? He's beating on him. That's what the word buffet means. It means to strike. It means to hit. He said the message of Satan, come to buffet me. He hit on him. He struck on him. And he said, I even prayed about this. I prayed about this. that the Lord would make it go away, but he said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect. You know that the Lord can take Satan's trial of faith in our life and make something good out of it? He can use it to his good. Ain't that something this morning? So Paul said, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, for when I am weak, for when I am weak, then am I strong. It teaches us to trust the Lord. My brethren, count it all joy, it teaches us some things. I talked about this last week. Count it all joy. Now notice what James says. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. That don't make a lick of sense. Can I be honest with you? I know the book's right. I know it's right. He said count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. That means many and different. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. You realize what that does. The trying of our faith, what's it do? It works patience and what's patience do? It has a perfect work that it will make us perfect and entire. You realize the Lord, He'll take that and He'll use it to His best to mold us and shape us and use us. Paul said, not only so, but we glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. We go through this stuff so that at the end of it we understand there is hope through it all. He said that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried by fire, might be found under the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I want to be faithful no matter what's going on. I want to be faithful to the end. I want to be found doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Let's bow our heads this morning.