Welcome and appreciate I had the opportunity tonight in the Lord's providence indeed to finally be here. It's not too often that a subject has the ability to ripen for three years. That's a wonderful way to prepare a sermon, but that's a little long. And I'd just like to indeed challenge you to think along today from a more uncommon perspective on the subject of the war against the Lord's Day. The chapter that we read really is not what I'm going to expound, but I needed to find a scripture reading that fits with my topic tonight, but I didn't really have a very fitting one. But do turn for a moment to Timothy chapter 3 for just a few observations on this chapter. Paul's writing to Timothy about the last days. It's the days which we live in, the days that Paul lived in. that the days will be until the Christ comes back. Now we see the list of all the sins that we don't have to look very far in our own time frame. So I'm not going to comment on that, but can you for a moment zero in on verse 5? This list is not talking about the world. This list is talking about those who have a form of godliness. This list is talking about people that are in churches. Notice again verse 7. They're ever learning. They are being instructed somehow and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth Paul likens them to the magicians that are withstanding Moses. Who is Moses? Moses is a prophet. There is an assault on the prophetic voice. Because notice these are resisting the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. So that's really quite an interesting perspective, isn't it? We often read this and we think about the culture we live in. But actually, Paul, I don't think, was thinking about that. He was thinking about the church. Or at least about those who are part of the church. Then he comes to the end of the chapter as he instructs this Timothy pastor, how do we deal with this? And he brings him right back to the inspired scriptures. The only tool, the only weapon, the only power we have against the sins that are there accumulated in this list is the inspired scriptures. Now, what I want to do tonight with you is to look at the Lord's day through Satan's eyes. This is not an original thought. I have no clue where I got this from. I read an article somewhere in a magazine, probably three, four years ago. That's how long it is. I can't even recall exactly where it was from. I don't even know the author, so I'm not original on this. But in the article, the author took the viewpoint of, let's look at some of these things that face our church, not from our perspective, but through Satan's perspective. I thought that's really actually kind of a brilliant way of looking at things sometimes. And tonight I want to do that with you. What is Satan thinking about the Lord's Day? And what would be his approach and strategy to assault the Lord's Day? Why do I think that's an important perspective for us to realize? If you study the New Testament, particularly the Gospels of our Lord Jesus, you will finally notice, if you have ever noticed it, at least it was in the Revelations in May, that our Lord only speaks twice in all his public ministry about the church. Only twice. Tell her to the church. and on this rock will I build my church. Those are the only two times you use the word church. Over 114 times in this ministry, the Lord Jesus speaks about his kingdom. His focus is kingdom building. Perhaps that's a new thought to you, it was a new thought to me. Every aspect of our life falls under the kingdom, marriage, family life, my daily work, my interaction with the world around, my use of my media, the way I spend my money, how I use my talents, even how I drive my car and handle the people that frustrate me, wrote rage or not wrote rage. That's all part of the kingdom. And that's not the end, it's not an exhaustive list. Think of the parable of the leaven. Leaven is the little beginning of the kingdom, spreads in every aspect of our lives. That's how Jesus intends his church to be. Not just Sunday Christian, not just church Christian, but kingdom, every part of my day, every part of my life, every layer of my life is kingdom life. So, think about that kingdom. How does now the church relate to this kingdom? I'm talking about the Lord's Day gatherings of the church. That's a pivot. That's a center hold. church gathering as we do on our Lord's Day with our families and the instruction of the Word of God, you can see that as the heart, the pivot of the kingdom. Or perhaps maybe this way, the weekly gathering of the Word, sorry, the weekly gathering around the Word on the Lord's Day is to correct, is to instruct, is to reprove, is to instruct us in righteousness, that the man of God may go out in the kingdom life and be perfect in living his life furnished unto all good works. You see, the Lord's Day gathering, every Lord's Day, It's like the flock of sheep, and now I'm thinking New Zealand, sorry, but flock of sheep gathered by the shepherd into the sheepfold. They're getting special attention from the shepherd. They're getting a cleansing, and a dipping, and a feeding, and they're resting for a moment until they go back out in the paddock. The shepherd gathers his sheep that are wandering in the deserts of the world every day. And on the Lord's Day, he wants to gather them together to feed them, nourish them, encourage them, correct them, give them a drench to fight all the insects and the worms, you know. Or you can look at it this way, that the Lord's Day gathering is like the soldiers of Jesus returning to base camp to get encouragement, to get further instruction how to fight the warfare, or to be indeed resting after the battle of the week. Or you can compare it even to the children who are gathering at home after work or after school. Or you can compare it to the citizens gathering in front of their king who encourages them by showing how great he is and to tell us how wonderful he is involved and his faithfulness and his love to strengthen them and encourage them to go back into the battle. And besides that, There are the unsaved who sit in church. And the king is seeking to enlist them in his army. That's secondary. Primary is to strengthen his kingdom, people. Of course, at the same time, we're preaching because a sermon is either a fishnet catching new fish, Or a sermon is a classroom, teaching those who have been taught need to teach more. Now, that view I had in mind as I was thinking about this subject. And on the Lord's Day, one of the most crucial parts of the Lord's Day is the Sunday gatherings around the Word of God. Obviously, the Lord's Day Command does not only apply to the two times we're in church. The Lord's Day Command applies to the 24-hour period that God has set aside, needs to be protected, needs to be kept separate, needs to be dedicated to spend time with the Master personally, but also corporately with fellow believers. with the hope that as we take along our unregenerate family, our unregenerate children, our unregenerate friends and neighbors, that they also may be caught under the power of the kingdom through the Holy Spirit. Okay, so far. Now let's step back, and now let's look at the devil through his eyes. And he being the opposite kingdom, thinking, what can I do to assault that Lord's day, which is the pivot of the kingdom in which God's children are out in this my world in which I'm fighting against them. What can I do to destroy, to diminish, to weaken this kingdom gathering? Right before chapter two of 2 Timothy 2, you go back to verse 26, or 24, rather, 2 Timothy 2, 24. And a servant of the Lord must not strive, but must be gentle. unto all men apt to teach and patience and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will." And then we're in the next chapter. Because there's no chapter division here in the Bible. We've made that. So read on. See the connection? the snare of the devil, and then what comes next? Don't disconnect those two. What are the snares of the devil? I want to share with you ten strategies which the devil has in his arsenal to compromise or paralyze the Lord's Day observance and the worship services. So please remember, I'm saying it as he might say it to his subject demons. I'm sure that as the general-in-chief of the kingdom of darkness, he would gather his demons, as John Bunyan would so brilliantly set out before us in his holy war, to gather and instruct and come up with strategies. And that's what I'm doing. And after every one of them, we need to ask ourselves, as church leaders, as church attenders, as family people, how successful Satan's band in these strategies. Number one, this is what the devil would say to his demon horde. Concentrate your energy on church ministry rather than on individual people. Fellow demons, The main threat to our kingdom is the faithful preaching of the Word of God. Notice, any church out there that stands firmly on the Word of God is our biggest hindrance to win the battle of darkness against light. So concentrate wherever I sent you, to create division in those churches. Let these churches major on the minor points of doctrine. And distract them to major on the major points. Create the division among them. Keep them busy. Keep them busy comparing themselves to the other churches that are not quite as good as they are. Keep them thinking and keep them talking about the churches that are worse and let them say how wrong they are and how bad they are and how sad they are and how they declined they are. Why? Because then they will remain blind to their own faults and proud about themselves. What do you think? Have you been successful at that? I want you to take that home. I want you to think about it as leaders. How successful are we? Sometimes I listen to sermons in which I hear the minister blasting other churches. I've never found that to be very effective. It makes everybody walk out of the church thinking, oh, very good. The devil's just scored one. Number two. Fellow demons, implant the idea in people's minds that doctrine divides and love invites. Let them think that doctrinal emphases in the Bible only bring division. Let them think that, and let them think that when we come lovey-dovey, then you will invite. But we know that the key to destroying this kingdom of Jesus is to weaken the bones of the body. What are the bones of the body? Those are the doctrines. They're like the bones in the body. And demons, listen, we're going to remain ineffectual when we try to blow these cultural winds into the churches when we are not having churches that are weak in doctrine. So let's make them weak in doctrine. How do you do that? How do you do that? Well, make them feel embarrassed about some of their doctrines that are not popular to the people in the world. Well, like what? Well, you know, minimize total depravity. That's not popular. Nobody wants to hear it. They're a monster. So let's minimize that. And what else? Well, minimize the exclusiveness of Jesus Christ being the only way, the only truth, and the only name. Just begin to think them. Make them think, you know, there's other ways to God. Minimize the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus. Please don't harp too much on hell like the master of the kingdom did himself. Because friends, the devil knows his Bible. 95% of all the teachings on hell came from the mouth of Jesus. Don't be like him. Teach them not to be like him. Teach them to minimize the doctrine of hell. And majorly, don't say too much about the eternal wrath of God. Those are just the Old Testament doctrines we don't want to hear. Just let them think about the love of God only and the love of God indeed. Just give them more of that and let them not think too much about all the doctrines. and confuse them with the thought that God doesn't really care about the smaller details. All he cares about is that we love each other. It doesn't matter if you live as two males or females together. That's really not that important, as long as you love each other. Teach that to the churches. I wonder how far he is on that among us. It's this water with the wine, right? That's the approach here. That makes perfect sense if I was the devil, I think. That's a brilliant idea. We need to sometimes know the enemy's strategies and the enemy's weapons in order for us to become strong. That's what I'm going to do tonight with you. Now, number three. Sell the idea. That for a church to be effective in this world, they need to be culturally relevant. Get them to think that to hold on the biblically defined boundaries makes them repulsive, unattractive, unevangelical, makes them politically incorrect and unwelcoming. Just make sure you let them feel that they got to be What? Well, they have to be user-friendly churches, so that the people in the world don't get scared, but they get the feeling that it doesn't matter who you are and what you are, just let them think that the Bible truths are having a cultural use by date. It was okay for Paul's days. That was for Paul's days, but that's not for the 21st century. Let them think that. Sell the idea to them that the middle of the road in compromise on marriage, compromise on family definition, on sexuality. Make them think that those things are not important. Why? Make them think that if they don't emphasize these things, that will draw the crowds, that will make the people come. Make them think that. Make them think that if they do that on their websites, you know, just put all that to the side and focus on the relevant things of our culture, our family-friendly church. Sounds great? Get lots of tics and lots of social media attention. That's what they need to get. Just a thought, isn't it? How far are we trying to be accommodating? To win the world, we're somehow becoming user-friendly churches. Sounds good. Could it be a snare? Sure, Jesus was kind, he was friendly, he was merciful. But he wasn't user-friendly. Straight-lined. Stood squarely on the biblical doctrines. Approachable, yes, but not compromising. Let's ask that question as we work with our churches. Are we that way already, trying to be culturally relevant? Number four, fellow demons. Make sure you make these preachers aim at people's feelings. Make these churches aim at people's feelings rather than at the convictions of the heart. And how will you do that? Well, make these preachers take away the sharp edges of the Word of God. Coach them to turn their church service from an encounter with the living and holy God into a theological and experiential concept that makes them feel good about who they are and what they experience or not. So that they walk out of the church meeting not convicted. by the majesty and the holiness of God who demands and commands. Take that edge out of the preaching and let them think that when a preacher preaches repentance and demands his hearers that he's a false preacher. Now, let them feel good. Go light on the doctrine of sin, and go light on the call to repentance, and go light on the urge to examine their heart, and especially let lead those preachers to be weak on preaching holiness. Make them think that's duty religion, preaching on holiness. Why? Why would Satan do that kind of stuff? I agree with one of the Puritans who said there is no greater distinguishing marks between the almost Christian and the real one than holiness of life. You see, if you can diminish that and trivialize that and make yourself feel okay rather than be convicted and humbled, I ask you, preachers, in our midst, myself, churches, has he been somewhat successful in that? and especially make them avoid the controversial and demanding truths on the Lord's Day. Let them not feel that on the Lord's Day. No, let them focus on what's comforting and popular and soothing, and let them be preaching descriptions of salvation rather than the call to repent and to believe directly. Let them not preach like Peter preached and like the apostles preached. And how did Peter preach? Now, demons, listen to this. As he stands there before the crowds in Jerusalem, repent ye therefore and be converted. And let them hear this. You denied the Holy One, and you desired a murderer, and you killed the Prince of Life, and you have done that though you knew the man was not an imposing imposter. But truth. I ask myself, I ask each other, how much has the preaching lost that edge? And if you can, fellow demons, make sure you create the best atmosphere in the church with a little smart lighting, a little good music, a little light conversation. Let the people feel it's not so important how they dress. Casual is okay. Make them feel comfortable. And confuse them about the purpose of the church service. Let the people and the preacher think it's about people feeling comfort. Well, there is a truth to that, isn't there? But the greater emphasis of the Scriptures, my friends, is not on comfort. Comfort is coming, mostly. There is comfort here when we are told, if we are truly His, your sins are pardoned and your iniquity is paid double. But the main call for preaching is to make God's people conformable to the image of Jesus, holiness. And don't preach that, let them not preach that. That's too confronting. I'm going to ask myself, and I've asked myself a lot over the last three years when I worked through this whole topic, Lord, is my preaching having the edge, the sharpness? Are my people going home after I've preached to myself as well, feeling uncomfortable about the studies of my religious spirituality? That drives me on my knees. before the Almighty Savior to seek deeper grace, greater grace, more sanctifying grace, so I may reflect Him more and walk like Him wherever He places me. That's the purpose of the preaching, right? As we go out in this world, he wants me to be the salt. He wants me to be the light of the world. And if that edge is gone, Satan has made a major victory. So that leads me to the fifth strategy. Fellow demons, weaken the authority of the word and exalt the authority of the preacher. Arrange many to praise the minister. And especially arrange many to praise such ministers who dare to propose change and tweak the Bible with innovative applications. However, demons, be careful. Don't move too quick. Take your time. Let the people get used to slight change, and then you make a next change, and then you make a next change. And if they resist change, then go the opposite way. And make sure you fossilize a church. Make sure they become so ultra-traditional that they become totally fossilized in their traditions. So elevate the church traditions and elevate the customs that they've inherited and personal opinions. And sure, cultivate that thought. Well, yes, okay, it's biblical, but we've always done it like that. And so there's no need for change. So encourage the authority of the word to weaken and exalt the preachers. Make preachers more and more like entertainers, rather than preachers. Make them entertain their people and rather expose and expound the word. You know, if you're able to turn preachers into coaches to make people feel good, rather than prophets who say, thus saith the Lord, and proclaim it undiminished, as the prophets did. Help them to avoid too many scripture quotes in their sermons. Let them fill it with their own words. Less Bible, more words of men. So these are some of the strategies on this point that I thought of when I would be the devil. That's what I would suggest. I wonder how successful he is better than that. Some years ago I picked up a book by, what's the name now, the Baptist preacher, John Philpott. He writes a wonderful little commentary on the book of Ephesians. I don't know if you've ever read it. I think he only got to the first chapter and then he died, so he never finished it. If you read the introduction of that man's commentary on Ephesians, he makes an admission He says, now that I have expounded this chapter verse by verse, word by word, I have to admit something about my own ministry, he says. I realize that much of my ministry were Philpott's words and not much of God's direct word quoted in my sermons. He admitted that. It instructed me, for as a preacher, how often is it not my avalanche of words I bring to you, rather than, listen, thus saith the Lord, hear this. Thus saith the Lord, hear this. Pick up any Puritan and you'll see the difference. You see the difference when you read those men. Their sermons are chock-full with Scripture. I wonder if that's one of the reasons of the power of their messages. Sixthly, fellow demons, be inventive, but do everything to fight our chief adversary, John Calvin. That silly old man, he defined a church as this, four walls and a sermon. That's how he defined a church, four walls and a sermon. Fight that opinion of this man, this great reformer they call him, and introduce variety. to fill the time with less word ministry, more singing, more announcement, testimonies of people, guest speakers. Come on, let's embellish the entire service a bit to become a social event that will be nice for the people and it'll be nice to think that that will be making more friendly for the visitors. Don't make it in solemn meeting in the presence of our Chief Hanumei, the Almighty God. Do everything. to redefine a church as four walls and a sermon. Maybe introduce a little bit more music. Turn the music of the singing into interludes and preludes and postludes. Just imbalance it a bit. People like music. and also convince parents and leaders that kids' church is much better than letting church participate in the whole services. So maybe after a little while, ask the children all to leave and go somewhere else. Parents think that would make sense, it's much easier to listen when these kids are not sitting there next to them all the time. Again, if you think about that strategy, brilliant thinking, really, of Satanism. This church is kind of like that, isn't it? Four walls and a sermon, I think, on Sunday. Pulpit is in the center. You go to other churches today, you see what happens with the pulpit? This is how it should be. If you go to the Roman Catholic Church, the pulpit sits in the corner. Altar stands in the middle. I've been in churches where the organ stands in the middle, and the pulpit stands somewhere there. Just begin to notice that. The centrality of the word of God, my friends, is what makes the power of the church. And any time we begin to deviate from that, we're buying into this strategy of Satan. Number seven, water down the whole, the Lord say, institution, said down in the fourth commandment. Satan again says to his fellow demons, nothing has proven so damaging to us in the weekly worship services on the Lord's day. For when these servants of his and his disciples spend time with the captain and hear about him and his glory and feel the truth and feel the love and see the truth of the law and hear the power of the gospel on their heart, then our kingdom suffers major losses. So do everything. to minimize the Lord's day. How do we do that? Well, make him think that going to church is optional. Boom, there's COVID. That has helped Satan too, hasn't it? Because there are now many who believe that we can easily skip the services and just listen at home. There's a new word for that. That's called pajama church. And as far as I hear, there is many churches who have lost members to the pajama church. Satan's strategy. Keep them out of these Lord's Day gatherings. Keep downplaying the truth that the king summons them to come to him on the Lord's Day for instruction time, correction time, reproof time, for instruction in righteousness that they may be perfect men of God furnished unto all good works. Make them think it's optional to go to church. as long as they pay their tithes and their other things. Make them irritated with those pastors and elders who remind them that they ought to be in church. And please, as they come to the end of the week, help them to think of these excuses that will help them to decide not to go to church. It's been a busy week. And getting up early actually will not help because when I sit in church I'll be so tired anyway. I might as well sit at home and listen. I could at least get up and walk a little bit when I get too tired. How successful have you been in your churches that way? Sadly, I see in my own church a decrease of attendance in the evening services. I've been fighting it, I've been arguing it, I've been appealing to it, but it's there. It's there. Excuses, yep. Probably something to do with the preacher, something to do with the kids, something to do with the busy day. And yes, we listen at home, we listen along. But we're not in church at night. Don't know if that's here. Sadly, I see it in my own church. Satan's strategy. I don't think that it is without reason that God says in the fourth commandment, remember thou to keep the Sabbath day holy. Not thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy. No, no, no. Remember! Why is that one with remember? It's the pivot of keeping all other nights. If you can weaken that one, it's going to weaken all obedience to all others. So then, strategy number eight, if you can't convince them to skip church services regularly, then get them at least as unfit to go to church on Sunday. Get them as distracted as possible as they sit in church. How? Point out the mannerism of the preacher. That's just so an annoying mannerism. Keep pointing it out to them. Keep reminding them of that. The way he talks, the way he moves, the way he's too busy, too slow, too loud, too soft, whatever. But even better, teach them to listen for what is missing in the sermon. Great strategy. Make them listen for what is missing. Because then I don't listen to the rest. I can only talk about what's missing. Or before they get in church, point out that Mr. Ritz got a new car again. Or make him look to Mrs. Pretty, who has a new outfit in her family. Get them distracted in church. Do all you can to make church uncomfortable. How? Pinch the kids. Make them complain about how long it is and how boring and how hot they are and how hungry. And remember, fellow demons, the best way to make the sermon ineffectual is to turn their minds into a beaten pathway. So when the sermon comes, They're not just distracted. They don't even hear it, because the word just falls and bounces off on the pathway. So fellow demons, do you know how you get that mind of them to be a pathway? Have lots of little feet walking over their mind all day long, all day long. And then they come to church, and their whole mind is packed tight, tight, and the word doesn't penetrate. And how do you do that? Make sure the kids have a cell phone. Make sure mom and dad scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll all the things they want to know that are not necessary to know. And then when they come to Sunday, they are totally unready to hear the word of God. How successful do you think he's been? That was his ninth strategy, to get them to the Lord's Day in the worst possible condition. And the best way to get them is to keep on hammering on the Dutch gospel. The Dutch gospel, yeah. Working hard is super godly. They like that gospel. working hard and making much and growing bigger, that's almost godliness in that circle of the duchies. We have a name for it, but you don't tell them that. Don't tell them that we call that workaholic. It's just as bad as being alcoholic or as druggies. But don't tell them that. That's not smart. Just make sure you keep telling them to be godliest and to work hard. How successful has he been in that? But if they don't work hard, they'll be way too alert on Sunday. They've got to be tired, because they have to think about the Lord as a rest day. It's not a rest day to spend time with God, but a rest day to have a very extra long sleep in the afternoon, because they're so tired they have to catch up on their sleep. Get it, demons? Do that to them! How successful he's been in that. go to church, have coffee, hop in bed, sleep hours, go to church, have coffee, and the rat race begins again. I read a statement this week that I hope I will never forget. It was quoted in a book I was reading, and it was a statement that came from an old lady on a funeral to the preacher. Don't know what he preached about, but anyway, she came up to him and she says, Pastor, failure is to be successful in things that don't matter. Write it down, will you? Or put it here? Failure is to be successful at things that don't matter. And we are so successful in things that don't matter. while we are ignoring the things that matter, and that is this crucial day of the Lord, in which we are spending time. You know, friends, you're going to smile about this, but it's really sad. I sometimes take my wife out for a dinner, right? A little date. Good for marriage, especially if you have a lot of kids, which I don't, but I still do it. Anyway. And then you sit in the restaurant, and you look around, and you see other couples sitting there. What are they doing? Yeah? And you think, you might as well do that at home, it's a lot cheaper. And no communication. Now, before you judge these people, how many of us spend our Lord's Day like that? That day is for you and the Lord. That's why it is. He says six days work, but the seventh day I allow you not to work. You don't say it to your cows, do you? You got six days to give milk, but the seventh you got a day off. He said it to us. Six days I want you people to work for me, not for yourself. You work for him, don't you? Seven days for you and me. Put all the work aside, spend time together. And what do we do? We scroll through our family talk and our conversations, and we do all kinds of things but not spend time with him. That's Satan's strategy. He knows he wants to assault the Lord's statement. The last one. That will be a whole new topic, but I will touch on it, because I meet a lot of Christians that way, well, so-called Christians. Trick them with the text from Romans chapter 6. Make them all believe what that text doesn't say. And what does the text say? It says this, brethren, Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace, God forbid? Oh, sorry, the verse before. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law but under grace. Make them read that verse without checking the context and the whole context of the Bible. Just lift it out and take it out of context and let them believe that they're not under the law so they don't have to do the Lord's Day anymore. And there are many Christians, and I'm sure there will not be in this church, who indeed have put away the old Sabbath day as an Old Testament ceremony. We're not under the law. and let them see many who turn Sunday into a fun day after they've done their religious tick by going to church in the morning and the rest for them. Now that would be a different topic, but the strategy I think is used and has been successful. I hope I make you think. This made me think. This made me fight different for the Lord's Day after I've gone to this topic and my preparations. And I would love to have some other perspectives by which perhaps you say, you know what? If I'd be Satan, I would add this to that list. Knowing your enemy's strategies is to have the battle won, isn't it? And I have done tonight just something like that with you. with some exposition, I'd say, of what Paul meant and said, the snares of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. And I noticed in the next part of the chapter that they are Christians, or at least church people, who are listed with all these sins. And the only way that Satan can be successful in that is to whittle down the importance of the Lord's Day and the Lord's Day gathering and the preaching at that gathering. Let's fight him. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. And how do we fight him? Preach the word in season and out of season, praying with all prayer and supplication. Let us pray together in closing, and then we'll sing. Beloved Lord and King, thou art building the kingdom. the little stone in Daniel's or Nebuchadnezzar's dream, thou art still enlarging. For thou hast said one day, it will fill the earth. Thou hast promised, Almighty, that thou wilt indeed build thy kingdom till this earth will only be thy kingdom. And thou hast promised, Almighty God, to build thy kingdom through the preaching of the Word. Thou hast promised, Lord Jesus, that when we preach Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, the gospel, which is thy power unto all and every one that believeth, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But tonight we have not looked at gates of hell that will withstand the preaching. Tonight, Lord, we've tried to analyze some of the assault weapons of hell. And we must admit, Lord, we are no match to Satan. We are no match to the snares and the devices and the strategies and the experience of this devilish enemy. And we pray tonight that our thinking may be refreshed and refocused and redirected, or perhaps deepened, to recognize the strategies that Satan is also assaulting us with as churches who desire to be faithful to the Lord's Day, and faithful to the preaching of the Word of God, and faithful, Lord, to the honoring of Thy institutions. And we beseech Thee, Almighty, that Thou would indeed strengthen us and enable us and equip us to fight this battle, all Thy children. not only on the pulpit, not only in the consistory benches, but in the pews. O thou enrich our Sunday gatherings. O thou let them be encounters, not with a preacher's word, but with thy word. Let our places of worship become places of worship. O blessed Lord, pour out Thy Holy Spirit upon us who call to preach, that we may be baptized with Thy Spirit, to defy the word of truth as a prophet, unfearful, faithful, bold, with liberty, that in our preaching we may stretch forth thy hand, Lord Jesus, in convicting, but also in healing, in teaching, in instructing, enabling us to go forth as thy people into the world to build thy kingdom rather than our own. Help us then, every one of thy children, in the places with us, places in some of us, Lord, we work with an ungodly context. We live and work with people that don't know thee, that don't fear thee, that don't love thee, that have no respect for the word of God anymore, that have not even memories anymore of what made once this nation Christian. Help those of us who are in those settings. who stand exposed to the barrage of this world every day. But Lord, bless also those who gather in our churches who are not saved, who have not felt the touch of Thy regenerating saving hand. O Beloved God, it is only Thou who can quicken the dead in trespasses and sin and make them It is only Thou who can call out of darkness into light, raise up an army of new soldiers to fight the battles under Thy banner, blessed Lord Jesus, and teach us to live in hope of that day. which the apostle with eagerness looked at when he said, our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven. From whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies to make it conformable unto his body, according to the mighty power in him. We commend this whole night to Thee. Bless Thou us, Lord, on our way home. It may be treacherous. Command Thy angels charge over us to keep us and to bring us safely to our homes again. Bless those who are listening from home. Thank Thee for this technology. Pardon all our sin as pastors, as elders, as deacons, as church leaders, as fathers and mothers, as husbands, as wives, as children, as single, whoever we There are loads of sin in which we have compromised, weakened, indulged, dishonored Thee. And Lord, with Thee there is forgiveness. And we ask for Thy cleansing, Thy restoring, Thy empowering. In Jesus' name, amen.