involved study. And if you're a guest and hadn't been here, you're just going to have to dive in head first right in the middle of the study, all right? We are talking about some pretty interesting stuff. And my problem is that I have not, oh here it is, I thought I left my stuff in my office, but here it is. That would have been interesting. WE'RE TALKING TONIGHT, PART TWO, ACTIVITIES OF SATAN AND THE WORLD OF SATAN. WE STARTED THIS OFF TALKING ABOUT ANGELS, AND WE HAD TWO WEEKS ON ANGELS, WE'VE GOT TWO WEEKS ON SATAN, AND THEN WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TWO WEEKS ON DEMONS. YOU SAY, WOW, DOES THE BIBLE REALLY TALK ABOUT ALL THAT STUFF? YEAH, A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN YOU THINK. and so we're going to look at it. Satan's Activities, that's part one of this two-part study tonight, and it's already 728, so put on your spiritual tennis shoes, your mental tennis shoes, and let's see if we can't buzz through this. The variety of names that Satan has alerts us to the fact that he can attack his opponents in a variety of ways. We described him and looked at him in the Bible as having the fierceness of a dragon, that was Revelation 12, 3. He has the attractiveness of an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11, 14. He can adapt himself and his tactics to suit the person and the occasion. Satan does not know everything. I do want you to understand that Satan does not have the characteristics of God. He is not omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. He doesn't know everything. He is not everywhere. He is not all-powerful. However, Having said that, he is more powerful than you or I. He's very powerful, but he's not all powerful. So Satan's activities, first of all, in relation to Christ, in relation to Christ, there is hatred, animosity. The old King James word was enmity, E-N-M-I-T-Y. We don't use that word anymore, but it basically means hatred with passion. The hatred between the spiritual descendants of Satan and the family of God was predicted first in Genesis 3.15. On your paper you'll want to write this in. Christ was from among woman seed. That verse says that there is going to be the seed of a woman, not Not the seed of a man, because Christ who is coming, He is the seed of a woman, but He had no earthly father. He was born from above. He was born from God, and we've been through this many times. He was of the woman's seed. He was going to deal a fatal blow. First blank, fill that in. Fatal blow to Satan's head. And while Satan is going to cause him pain, he's going to bruise Christ's heel in a non-fatal blow. but one that did cause him great suffering. In fact the suffering of Christ was probably greater than any other could ever endure considering that in addition to the physical pain he also carried all of our sins. In addition to that the Father turned His back on him. Wow, separation between the Father and the Son for the first time in history. So the blows took place at the cross. Satan made a concerted attempt to thwart or to put off God's Kingdom and His mission to die for the sins of the world. There are four ways, at least four major ones. There may be others that we might mention that are more large in scope. But here are four specific times that Satan used people to try to put Jesus off of the track of dying for our sin. One, Herod. Herod was alive, and well, he died soon after, but he was alive when Jesus was born. And if you'll remember, he did the killing of the children. That was inspired by Satan. He tried to kill all the boy babies. The Old Testament called the city of Ramah. R-A-M-A-H, but it is actually the city of Bethlehem. The children, the women were weeping. They could not be consoled because their children are not. He killed all the boy babies trying to kill Christ. Then there was a second, this might surprise you, Peter. Peter, I thought Peter was the first Apostle and the biggest voice among the Apostles, he was. But the Bible, Christ Himself clearly said that Peter had aligned himself with Satan's plan unknowingly, he didn't know it, but he was still being used when he wanted to dismiss the idea that Christ would have to die in Jerusalem. Peter said, I'll never let you die, it's not going to happen, no way are you going to die. And so he told him, get behind me Satan. I always think that's interesting if Peter was the first Pope to Jesus didn't have something good to say to Him when He said, get behind Me, Satan. That didn't work very well. So that was that passage. Then the third one, Judas. Judas, when Judas was about to betray the Lord Satan entered him, that's John 13, 27. And then the temptation, that's probably the main and the biggest, most principal time that he was attacked to try to be sidetracked. That was the temptation, Matthew 4, 1-11, it's in other places as well. So the animosity. Then the second thing I want you to see, letter B, the word test or tempt includes two ideas. Make sure you get this. Test or tempt includes two ideas. There's the idea of proving or putting to the test, proving. And then there's the idea of soliciting to evil. soliciting to evil. So Satan's testing of Christ involved both of them, to prove Him and also to get Him to commit evil. God was proving Jesus through the testing in the wilderness, but Satan was trying to get Jesus to short circuit His path to glory and to bypass the cross and all of those things. And so God and Satan were both involved in the test. Now please don't misunderstand this. Somebody says, well, you know, God couldn't have been involved at all. There's no way because the Bible says that God never tests or tempts anybody. Well, He does prove people and sometimes even what Satan does can be used of God. Who is it that led Jesus to be tempted when He was in the wilderness? Who led Him? The Holy Spirit led him, it clearly says it three times in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit led him in the desert specifically to be tested by Satan. That's interesting isn't it? So for 40 days Satan went at him, but it was the last three attacks at the end of that time that were really the big issues for everyone in life, but especially for him. He mentioned the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These tests were particularly suited to the God-man. It talked about turning stones to bread, it talked about jumping off the pinnacle of a temple, landing unharmed below, and then also being able to lay claim early to all the kingdoms of this world. Now listen to this, God's purpose, we're talking about Satan's activities in relation to Jesus. God's purpose in Christ's temptation was to prove His competence to be the sinless Savior. God's purpose, let me say that again, God's purpose in the testing in the wilderness by Satan was not a solicitation for him to do evil. No, no. It was to show by his resisting of all temptation. And folks, we know about the last three temptations, but he was 40 days and 40 nights without food or water. So he was tempted unendingly during that time. Every temptation that could possibly be conceived of, the only three we have listed are these categorical temptations that come at the end. God's purpose in Christ's temptation was to prove his ability, competence, or power to actually be the Savior of the world. Why would that be so true? Because the Bible says he was tempted in all points as we are, yet without what? He had to be able to identify with our temptation. For him to be able, the old King James word, to succor those who are in any temptation or any trouble, then he needs to go through those things. Now folks, I'll say this very clearly. Jesus did not have to be tempted to know what it's like Why? Because he made man and he knows every facet of man and all of our emotional makeup. Everything about it. He knew what it was like to be tempted before he ever was tempted. But we are confident that he knows what it's like because he actually did it. You see what I'm saying? I can stand up here, and if I've never been through what you've been through in your life, I might have a mental comprehension of it, and I may be able to talk my way through it and say, I know what it's like. I know what you've been through. Tim, I might say, speaking of your life, I know what you've been through. Well, you know the truth is I don't. You see what I'm saying? Well, Jesus does know everything that anybody could possibly ever go through before he ever was tempted. However, he was tempted. He did go through it, not for his benefit, but for ours so that we can know that we have a high priest that is not untouched. with the feeling of our infirmity. We know that He knows because He did go through all of those temptations. So God's purpose was to prove that He was worthy of being the Savior of the world, but Satan had a purpose altogether different. What was Satan's purpose? Satan's purpose was to cause Jesus, our Lord, to deviate, to sidestep, to move away from the path and purpose for which he came into the world. Jesus said over and over, I came to preach the gospel, I came to announce the kingdom, and I came to die for the sins of the world. That's what he came for. He came to die. And Satan wanted him to do anything but that. And so he wanted to sidetrack him. He didn't mind him dying. He just didn't want him to die on the cross in propitiation for our sins, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies. So here's some specific things that Satan tempted Christ to do. Number one, he attempted him to independence. He tempted him to independence. You say, what does that mean? Well, he didn't doubt Jesus' identity. You know, the devils and the demons never doubt who Jesus is. What do they say in every case in the book of Luke as we've been studying whenever he encounters a demon and they want to speak up? They start speaking up and they say, I know who you are. You're the Holy One of God. They never doubt Jesus' identity. Only people doubt Jesus' identity. Only humans doubt. Devils, demons, Satan himself, he never doubted Jesus' identity, but he wanted Jesus to assert His independence from the Father. He wanted Him to sidetrack His purpose. He wanted Him to pull Himself out from under the provision, direction of God the Father in Heaven. Anything other than complete obedience to the Father and doing His will would have stopped everything in the road to Calvary. We would be lost. This is what Satan, he wanted him to turn bread, stones to bread. That would assert his independence of the will of the Father. He was hungry, it was right to eat, yet he was not going to eat independently of the Father's will. And so Satan tempts Christ's followers to take things into their own hands. rather than yielding to the Father's will. The next thing, Satan tempted Christ to something else, indulgence. First, independence to supply his own needs outside of the Father's will. Second, to indulgence. And what is that about? Verse 5-7 of chapter 4, we're not really going to read this tonight because we've preached this passage, to have cast himself off the pinnacle. What did Satan ask him to do? He says, you know you really could get everybody's attention if you do something spectacular. I mean come on now, you know who you are, and he even quoted Scripture. You know if you throw yourself off the pinnacle up there, evidently he took him up to that 600 foot high pinnacle of the southeast wall of the temple, looking over the Kidron Valley there, or the Dung Gate as it were. He says, if you just throw yourself off of there and come down, you know that nothing's going to happen to you because He's going to send His angels unless you dash your foot against a stone. He's quoting Scripture. And in other words, he was trying to get Jesus to get everybody's attention by doing a spectacle. There's a lot of people that'll do that today, but that is not what Jesus did. To have done so would have been to take a shortcut at a lack of faith. Signs, presumption, rashness never substitutes for the constancy of faith, though Satan still tempts us to indulge in these kinds of things. The last thing he tempted to was to idolatry. to idolatry. Satan has temporarily been given authority over this world, the word is Cosmos, but ultimately Christ will rule it. Satan had the right to offer the Lord the kingdoms of this world at that time. He's the prince of the power of the air and so on. But had Christ taken him up at it, he would have shortcutted the plan of God. Shortcut the plan of God, bypass the work of his death. Make sure you understand that, that Satan is still tempting us two ways. He tempts us with immediate results, and he tempts us with visible results. In other words, he had visible things. He said, look at the kingdoms of this world. He showed it all to him in a moment of time. I'll give you all of this. Just one little caveat. Just bow down and worship me. Satan has always, since day one, his desire has always been to be worshiped. He has always wanted mankind, people, and everyone else to worship him. And so that is what he was trying to do. He wanted Jesus to bow down and worship him. And God is the only one worthy of worship and so he did not do it. Now what is Satan's work in relation to God when we speak in this way? In his relation to Christ we are speaking of Jesus. When we are talking about his relation to God we are speaking of the Father. So Satan attacks God and His program this way, by counterfeits. He always uses counterfeits. C-O-U-N-T-E-R-F-E-I-T, for those of you who don't know how to spell that. Counterfeit, kingdom and program. This was evident when he originally sinned by wanting to be, get this now, He wanted to be like God. He did not want to be unlike God. In other words, he didn't say, wow, you're God, you're the most powerful, so I'm going to make myself something altogether different and unlike you so that there'll be a good alternative. No, he didn't do that. He wanted to present a counterfeit to God. And so that's what he did. He wanted to be like God. That's Genesis 3, 5. The temptation of Christ was also an attempt. counterfeit. And so a counterfeit is very much as much as possible like the genuine article but without a vital feature. Satan's offer to the Lord was to have glory given to Christ but without His death. He wanted to sidestep the death of Christ. So in relation to God Satan still today promotes a form of godliness but he denies His power. How does he do it? He disguises His servants as servants of righteousness and HE PROMOTES A DOCTRINAL SYSTEM THROUGH THE DEMONS WHO IN TURN USE PEOPLE TO ADVOCATE FALSE ASCETICISM OR UNBRIDLED LICENSE. THEY ALWAYS DO ONE OR THE OTHER. THE BIBLE SAYS LET ALL THINGS BE DONE IN MODERATION. THE BIBLE SAYS WE OUGHT TO USE COMMON SENSE WHEN IT COMES TO THE WAY WE BEHAVE. WE OUGHT NOT DO ANYTHING TO BRING SHAME TO THE NAME OF CHRIST AND BOTH OF THOSE THINGS. EXTREME ASCETICISM. YOU SAY WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? WELL YOU KNOW DRESSING IN A BURKA AND CALLING IT SOMETHING GODLY. Because that's not godly. You don't impress God by doing extreme things. Neither do you do God's will by having extreme license. So you have two things. You have one group that treats themselves roughly. I'm going to do self-flagellation to impress God. That has nothing to do with godliness. I'm gonna beat myself in the back like they do every year. It's coming up Easter again, so there's one guy that's been crucified, I don't know, 30 times. He can't do anything. That's how he lives all year long. They drive nails through his hands, hang him on a cross. He's been doing it for years. He almost died of the infection two years ago. and he does that. He does that so that they pay him to do it and that's how he's paying for his sinful life and his sinful attitude. That's not anything at all what God desires. So he's not looking for asceticism, he's not looking for rough treatment of the body or any extreme behavior. Back in the early Middle Ages, well not too long after Christ around 300, 400 and then again in the Middle Ages there were those people that lived on pillars, pillar saints. I've talked to you about these before. They wanted to be separated from the world, separated from all things that are evil. They didn't think they could be in this world and be holy, so they built pillars. And everybody, you know, to be more spiritual, you built your pillar higher than anybody else. And poles, you know, poles with a platform on top. They'd climb up there and they'd stay there. Simon Stilite stayed up there for years and years and years. When he came down, the first thing anybody said to anybody was, you know, that really was tough up there being by myself because, you know, I didn't like any of the food they sent up to me. He complained the first thing he did when he came down. He really was holy. That doesn't work. So somebody says, you know, we have pendulum swings, you know, in our, we do that, you know, I don't want to be too holy. And then we say, okay, I'll be real wicked and think then we take license. But the Bible says that the grace of God teaches us to deny what? Ungodliness and wickedness. We're not, we're not supposed to take the grace of God and say, oh, well, you know, everybody's a sinner. I might as well choose which sin I want to do and just do it to the max because God's going to forgive me. A person that says that's probably not saved. You don't understand the grace of God. And so this is what it's about. Satan promotes a form of godliness and he wants us to do that. So to do this Satan disguises his servants. The ultimate counterfeit. Who will be the ultimate counterfeit that he is going to put on this earth? Who's that going to be? the Antichrist. He's going to be a false Messiah. He's going to be Messiah-like. He's going to offer peace. He's going to get economic plans. There are so many things. And all the people are just going to, I can't get into it, Revelations, they're all going to go, the Bible uses a strong word, whoring after the Antichrist. They're going to go after him like he was some sort of an intimate thing they are going to love him so much. And he is going to be terrible. I won't get into that. In relation to nations, what is Satan doing in relation to nations? Well, his principal activity in this area is to deceive the nations. He is a deceiver of the nations. And when you say the word nations in the Bible we are not thinking about political and geographic boundaries. We are thinking about people groups, groups of people. And the word is ethnos, E-T-H-N-O-S. For instance, there are the Quechua people. I happen to know them well. I worked among them. There are the peoples of Slavic origin. There are the peoples of Russian origin. There are the peoples of Scandinavian origin. The peoples of common culture, common language, and so this is what it's talking about. He wants to deceive the nations. How does he deceive them? This is something. Write it down. This is probably a really big import. How does this deception work? He wants to apparently make them think they can govern righteously and bring peace in the world apart from the presence and rule of Christ. There's an organization called the United what? And you know what their goal is? That. to govern this world righteously and to bring peace. They organized around a little before 1950. And since 1950, when they organized to bring peace into the world and to say that we're going to govern the world, there have been more wars, problems, difficulties than any time in the history of mankind. And so in relation to nations, they want to convince the world and people that they can govern themselves and bring peace without Christ. Won't happen. What does he do? Letter A, presently, what does he do? He hinders the gospel. He employs demons in carrying out this deception. He uses governments to hinder the progress of the gospel. Just think about this awesome opportunity for our mission offering this coming week as one-third of that is going to go to buy Bibles, but specifically tablets, like iPads and what have you, probably not that kind. these tablets to be able to get Bible study materials, thousands of books that will be recorded, the Jesus film and so on. And they are going to go to national pastors in North Korea. Why? Why are we having to do it in such a hidden way? Because that government satanically inspired hates God. 22,000 Christians known in prison today simply because they are Christians and routinely they bring them out and shoot them in the head. Yet, they keep growing. Christians still grow even in places like that. Christianity still grows. What else is he doing? Well, he's going to manipulate everything during the tribulation. During the coming days of the Great Tribulation Satan is going to deceive the nations, the ethnos, the people groups into receiving the Antichrist as their Savior. He is going to manipulate, he is going to have a false prophet and he is going to build an image and that image through the false prophet is going to be able to do all kinds of miracles and things like that. It is going to be miraculous it seems, that image. I don't know what it is, a super computer? I don't know what it is. it is going to do something that is going to convince all the world to bow down and worship the beast, the Antichrist. Satan the dragon will give the Antichrist his power and the world will give allegiance to him, 13.2 of Revelation. At the conclusion of the Tribulation Satan and his demons will influence the armies of the nations to march to their doom at the war called Armageddon. after that there is going to be deception after the Millennium. Millennium means mil-annus or mil-annum-annus which is basically 1,000 years is what a Millennium is. So at the close of the 1,000 year glorious reign of Christ at the end of that guess who is going to deceive the nations again? Satan. Have you ever stopped to think about that? I just get this picture. Regardless of whatever you think the rapture is going to happen, there's one thing that's absolutely sure. That before we go into the period called the Millennium, there will be no believers on planet Earth. Or no unbelievers, excuse me. No unbelievers on planet Earth. In other words, only Only raptured saints who will be ruling and reigning with Christ and natural bodied humans who are all believers survive the tribulation. significance of that? Well, that means going into the 1,000 years and you've got to read the book of Zechariah, read Isaiah to find out what life in the Millennium is going to be like. Life in the Millennium is going to be almost absent of any sickness or death. I mean if somebody dies at 100 years old they are going to say, oh, it was just a baby I can't believe he died. 100 years old, die? Think about this. Jesus is ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. Peace is prevalent. Prosperity is unending. Everything grows. Everything works. No war. No problems. No anything. Don't need a union to get a good job. So on and so forth. Not even the football teams. You didn't catch that, did you? I just thought I'd throw that out there. You don't need any of those things because I mean Jesus is right there and he's just going to put down everything. You say, well why would there be any rebellion? Well because these natural-bodied people are going to be having what? And those children are going to grow up in this utopia. They're not going to remember anything about what went on. They're going to hear stories. But even our parents have told us stories. Do we believe them? Does it affect our lives? No, not really. My mother and father, you know, my mother was a depression baby, lived through it. I mean, she's got everything she's ever had. She's got it all. She didn't lose anything. My father didn't lose a screw, a nut, a bolt. He had it all. Austin's got a dad like that, had a dad like that. How many of you had dads and moms like that? They didn't lose anything. I mean, they had it, they knew where it was, or else they didn't. You know what I'm saying? They knew what it was like to come up in the Depression. Well, what about their kids? Well, not so much. What about their grandkids? Well, a whole lot less. What about their great-grandkids? Not at all. Why, this is the society of me first, and I deserve everything. I've got expectations, you know? I mean, after all, I'm an American, and therefore, when I'm 16, I need a, you know, brand-new Camaro, and so on. Entitlement society. Do you think human nature is going to change during the millennium of those that are being born? Remember now, they're still going to be born with a sin nature. Where's the devil? No, he's bound. Nobody's going to be able to say the devil made me do it. Nobody. You know what's going to happen? There's going to be a growing sense of rebellion all the way through the millennium. There's going to be murmurs. Jesus is going to say to them, you've got to come up to Jerusalem one time a year, and whoever doesn't come up to Jerusalem one time a year for the festival, for the Passover, for the remembrance of the Passover at Ezekiel's Temple so to speak. If you don't come here then I'm not going to let it rain in your area, so by force. Remember He's ruling with a rod of? So by force they are going to do what He says, have to, but murmuring. You know where murmuring first got its name, you know where it first showed up in the Bible. Where did it show up? Murmuring. Showed up among the who? Exodus. It showed up among the delivered people. Not the dead people, not the Egyptians. Murmuring showed up against those that God miraculously delivered. Everything is It's just a forethought and a picture of what was to come. In the millennium after deliverance, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren, those people, the rebellion's gonna rise, and you know what? Satan's gonna be loose for a very short time after the millennium. He's gonna send out his call, all right, let's rebel, let's overthrow, and once again, they come. This time, there's no, Jesus doesn't give them any time. Quick, sudden, immense destruction of every one of them. Then comes Revelation chapter 20 and the great white throne and so on. Amazing, amazing, amazing thing, the deception after the millennium. Number four, what is Satan doing in relation to unbelievers? What's he doing in relation to unbelievers? Well, he's blinding their minds. 2 Corinthians 4.4, he blinds it, blinds their minds. He makes them think that any way to heaven is as good as any other way to heaven. It's a counterfeit. The blindness attacks the minds of people. While unbelievers may think and reason, a greater power than Satan must remove their blindness and so on. Nobody is going to find God and find Jesus and find the way to heaven through human reasoning and logic. It doesn't happen that way, not by philosophy. That's what Paul preached about in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2. He says, you know what? He says, I preach with fear and trembling. I preach the cross to Christ and nothing else. Where is the philosopher? Where is the disputer of this age? Where is the wise one? They're all gone. They can't say anything because they can't find God through their own wisdom. blinds the mind, what else does he do? He steals the Word of God. This is what Satan does. He is stealing, we are talking about in relation to unbelievers, he steals the Word of God away. In the parable of the sower, remember the parable of the sower? In the sower it says, the seed is sowed on the hardened ground, who comes and steals it away? Satan, he sends his minions, he steals the Word before it ever penetrates and takes any action. Just nothing happens with it. What else does he do? In promoting blindness, and let me spend a moment on this one, letter C, under number four, in relation to unbelievers, letter C, in promoting blindness, Satan uses counterfeit religion. The most difficult obstacle in winning people to Christ is not heathenism, paganism, wicked living, drunkenness, adultery, or sodomy. Those are not the most difficult obstacles. The most difficult obstacle is for a person to have just a little bit of religion. Because if they got some kind of religion, well, my religion against your religion, let's compare religions. I'll fight for mine, you fight for yours, and that'll be the end of the matter. Religion will keep more people out of heaven than any paganism you can ever name. And this is why Satan is working as hard today in promoting false religion and taking the true religion and perverting it than he is any other thing. religion. I could go on and on about that when 1 John 2, 15-17 talks about it. So, then in relation to believers, what is He doing to you? What is He doing to all of you that are sitting out there? Here is the kind of thing you can expect, Satan the tempter, just as Satan tried the Lord he tries believers. He wants us now, this is not the Father tempting us to prove or improve us, this is Satan trying to get us to commit evil. GOD MAY SOMETIMES USE SATAN IN TESTING AND PROVE US IN RESISTING HIS TEST, AND THE TEST CAN BE BENEFICIAL. HERE'S THREE OF THEM. HE MAY PROVE US, THAT'S 1 PETER 1, 6-7, PROVE US. HE MAY TEACH US, THAT'S HEBREWS 4, 12-13, HEBREWS 5-8. AND THEN HE MAY INCREASE OUR LOVE FOR GOD, JAMES 1 AND VERSE NUMBER 12. BUT MAKE SURE YOU GET THIS, SATAN'S ONLY PURPOSE IS TO TEMPT BELIEVERS TO COMMIT EVIL. He never wants us to pass the test. He wants us to commit evil. He wants us to do wrong. There are three major categories, three major areas in which Satan tempts you, believers. The first one is conforming to the pressure and structure of our society. Romans 12, 2 says, don't be conformed to this world, but be what? TRANSFORM. SATAN WOULD LOVE TO CONFORM YOU TO THE STATUS QUO. I MEAN, YOU'LL HEAR THINGS LIKE, HEY, MAN, EVERYBODY'S DOING THIS. WHAT'S WRONG? WHAT PLANET DID YOU GET OFF OF? WHAT ROCK DID YOU CRAWL OUT FROM UNDER? HOW COME YOU DON'T, HOW COME YOU'RE NOT GETTING HIGH WITH ME? HOW COME YOU'RE NOT GETTING DRUNK WITH ME? HOW COME YOU'RE NOT... You know, going, how come you're not doing all these things? What's wrong with you? Peter says they will think it strange that you do not run with them to this dissipation and this heathen. They'll think you're crazy. You're missing out on everything if you don't do all of these things. So the pressure of society is to conform you to them. into the status quo, into whatever is, you know, folks, I just gotta pull over and say it. I mean, do you not see media, education, higher education, culture, Hollywood, and everyone forcing the idea that sodomy is wonderful upon everyone? It's being forced upon us. We are being called bigots. We're being called every name under the sun and intolerant because we would dare to say that marriage is between a man and a woman. How dare you say that? That's the conformity. I get riled up because we don't even know what was happening to us. We see all the, well, just live and let live. What a fool to say something like that. Because it is the conformity mechanism. Conform us to everything. That doesn't mean we hate them. That doesn't mean we don't reach out to them with the gospel or love them. That hasn't got anything to do. We're not even talking about the same thing. It's not about them and the sin that they've fallen into. It's about the pressure upon us to put the stamp of approval on everything. That is the pressure. World Vision tried to do that. didn't they? They were pressured unendingly, ceasingly. Well if you're really Christian then you just know that God just loves everybody, well of course He does. And that Jesus died for everybody, well of course He did. And that He just receives everyone, well of course He does, but He changes everyone He receives. I've quit teaching and started preaching. You understand, conformity. Boy, do not offer up your soul, your spirit, and your mind upon the altar of immediate go along to get along in this world. It won't work. God is not pleased when we completely acquiesce to the conforming nature that Satan uses. Second, what else does he do? He tries to tempt us to cover up selfishness. This is a very habitual sin of Christians today. We can always justify our lifestyle, justify the way we spend, can't we? We can. I mean, after all, I gave 10% of the Lord. I mean, you know, I make $275,000 a year, but I gave 10% of the Lord. The rest of it, man, I'm just gonna live it up. I'm gonna take a cruise every other week. I'm gonna, you know, I'm just gonna live it up, have fun. I mean, do we not even pay attention when the guy who said, My inheritance has produced so much and it's increased so much. What shall I do? Well, I know what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger barns and I'll save these things and I'll just have so much stuff and life will be great and I'm going to eat, drink and be merry and so on. I'm just going to have a great time. It's all for me, for me, for me. Would it ever even occur? to a believer that great increase might be so that we could have a greater impact for his kingdom? I mean just how much do we need to save for a rainy day? And I'm not picking on anybody, I'm not talking about it, but how much, I mean really? Satan tempts believers to cover up selfishness. Have you got a Bible story? Yeah, how about Ananias and Sapphira? cover-up? Well, they saw how well Barnabas was received. They said, well, look at Barnabas over there. Everybody loves Barnabas. Why? They didn't give him the nickname. They called Barnabas the Brother of Consolation. They called him Brother Comfort. That guy is such a blessing to everybody. Why, look, he sold that inheritance, or he sold that piece of land that he had, and it's a terrible time. People are going without food, and people are hungry, and persecution is terrible in Jerusalem, and he sold his land, and he took it and laid it at the apostles' feet. Man, they fed all kinds of people, and people just thank God for Brother Barnabas, Brother Comfort. They just thank God for it. Man and I, since the fire got together, talked it over, said, well, you know, we got a little piece out there. Let's sell that. And he said, but you know, we'll give some of it. We'll hold back some of it. And then and we'll we'll give some other. And but let's just tell him we're giving it all. But they won't know. We'll just hold back part of it. You have not lied to man. You have lied to. Because when they came in and they told the apostles that they had given it all. Peter said, did you sell this land? Is this all the money that you... It wasn't about that they had to give it all. Nobody said that they had to give it all. It wasn't about that. It was about this idea, I'm going to impress with some of it and I'm going to hoard the rest of it and make them think that I made a great sacrifice. Satan induces believers to self-centeredness, selfishness. We can always justify. Americans are the world's greatest Christians at justifying affluence. The question is, did God give us everything? Sure, we're supposed to enjoy it. 1 Peter 6 says He's given us all things freely to enjoy. We're supposed to enjoy, I mean, take a vacation, take a trip, take a cruise, go anywhere, go anywhere you want to, do anything you want to, but that's, it's not that it's all about doing anything you want to. You see what I'm saying? It's not all to be indulged. God has given to us so that we can give to others. And this ain't about giving to Grace Church. This has nothing to do with this building or this ministry. It has to do with a general spirit. I'd say this if I was in another place. I'm convinced that this is, boy, what an infectious thing it is, that affluence, more and more and more, and it just never runs out. Satan tempts believers to cover up selfishness. Well, I'll get off that one because people get so uncomfortable when we talk about it. Number three, Satan tempts believers to immorality. Immorality. 1 Corinthians 7, 5, the whole chapter 7 says, He let every man have his own wife, and wife her own husband, and so on. Let them share themselves one with another. I won't go into it. You know what it means. Just read the passage. Physical needs and relationships are to be met within the bonds of marriage, and Satan, he is having a heyday. in Christianity today with lives being ruined by not being faithful to their promises and all the other immoral things. I mean I could go into so many things but let me move on. Satan the adversary. Satan the adversary, letter B, as adversary Satan accuses and opposes believers in various areas of their lives. He accuses and opposes. First he opposes our witness to the gospel. He confuses us when he plants tares among the wheat. He snatches away the Word. We talked about that. He aligns governmental authorities against believers to stop their witness. He imprisons believers. He does it around the world. So he opposes our witness. Second of all, Satan spotlights our sins. He accuses us. He accuses us before God when we sin. He accuses us of sins we've already confessed. He accuses us of sins we are doing now. And I mean He keeps the list running all the time. Christ is our Advocate, 1 John 2, 1-2 I covered it last week. We have an Advocate with the Father. But this is how Satan attacks. He opposes our witness. He wants to take away the opportunity. And second, he spotlights our sins. Third, Satan opposes the believer. by bringing unbearable pressure upon them. How does he do it? Unbearable pressure. Well, one of them is given in the case of the disciplined church member. The disciplined church member, there was a church member in the city of Corinth in that church, and this church member was there, he was living wickedly, he was living in sin with his father's wife, probably not his mother, probably his mother had died, father remarried, and so he was living with his stepmother in an adulterous, sinful, even incestuous if you will, relationship. And so the church was wrong. They bragged about it. They were so tolerant. They said, oh, well, you know, we're just, you know, we're so tolerant. And so, you know, the Apostle Paul and his thumb sucking sort of away with his timidity and all, he just came in and basically thundered and said, you know what? He said, this is not right. This is wrong. I'm coming to you. And he says, it's not going to be nice. And so they decided, oh, we better get this straight. So they did bring that brother in and they said we could repent or else get right, quit, stop, you know, cease and desist and all those things. You know, we've got wimpy churches today, you know that? Wimpy pastors, wimpy, we're scared of everything and everybody. We live in a society where people, this is a society that despises authorities, you know that? You know how we know it's the last days? Because this society hates dignitaries and it hates authority. Authority, that's what we hate. Even Christians hate authority. somebody in the church misbehaves and just gets into living a life that is so despicable that it's an absolute embarrassment to that person, to that person's family, to the church, and it's bringing slander to the cause of Christ, and then the world itself is mocking us. Can I call a few names? I would, but I don't want to. I don't want to pick on anybody, but there's, you know, TV evangelists, it's full of them. They give these mock repentances and go on living the same life and step right back into the pulpit and nobody ever holds them accountable and everything's just hunky-dory because they cried on television. Do I have to call names? But it's even simpler than that. People in churches can be caught in wicked, wicked, wicked, wicked practices and behaviors, even those that are involved in certain ministries of a church. They can be approached about it, told about it, asked to repent, given time to repent, prayed with, and even witnessed to as if they were unbelievers. But they can get bad, leave the church, go to another church of like faith that has the report of being a fundamental church, and the next thing you know, they're leading music in that other church with no repentance ever happening. That's why I say we have wimpy churches, wimpy pastors that are going to have to answer to God. No accountability. You say, Pastor, you're kind of fighting mad tonight. Well, you know, we're talking about the devil. You know that? We're talking about our adversary. He is so tricky. He would like to make us think that in the body of Christ, an unrepentant believer who's living a wicked life and continuing to live it, sticking his tongue out at the whole world, just ought to be given free license and we just ought to pray for him and hope that everything turns out right. All that does is tell every teenager in the church that this is just a joke. This is a mockery. There's nothing to this. They don't mean it. God doesn't really care. So what we're supposed to do is do what they finally did in Corinth. They did approach him. They did call for repentance. He didn't repent and they put him out of the church. He could come but he could not fellowship. Everybody that saw him said, hey let me share Christ with you. You're not saved. That just crushed him. He repented. Then the church didn't want to receive him back. Oh, that was just as bad a sin as the first one. And so this pressure, unbearable pressure Satan uses, you say, what does that look like today? It looks like a person who gets onto somebody who really is upset with somebody's misbehavior. And then when they do repent and begin to change, you don't want to give them a chance. There ought to be room for repentance in every church. It ought to be there, ought to be able to repent, get right, come back. And then there was the case of younger widows. You say, well, younger widows, younger widows, what do you mean by that? Well, Paul gave his opinion. I think he had the Holy Spirit, because all the Scripture is by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He gave his opinion. He said, I want younger widows to marry. I want them to marry and guide the house. Why? Because if you don't, you're going to get out there and be busybodies. You're going to be sticking your nose in everybody's business. You're going to want to be married and not be married. You're going to long to be married. And I won't go into all of the things that you're wanting. He says they need to get married. And so he said that there's the pressure upon younger widows, both men and women. I'll leave that alone. Satan's world. Let's go to Satan's world. I have two minutes to finish it. I'm not going to get it finished. Let's just launch it. We've already noticed that Satan is called both the God of this age, that's Aion, Aion. We get our English word Aion, it's Aion, A-I-O-N. And he is the God of this age, or Aion, and he is the prince of this world, and that word is Cosmos, Cosmos, Cosmos. on Fox, I think it's Fox or one of those channels, Cosmos, the old Carl Sagan program has come back on and they're putting millions into it and nobody's watching it. Have you noticed that? They're going to have to drop it because nobody wants to watch it anymore. That old thing of, you know, that we're just all nothing but cosmic dust, that just isn't flying anymore. Interesting. The cosmos, he is the prince of the cosmos. It's the relation of Satan and the Christian to the cosmos that is the subject of this chapter. So, what is the meaning of cosmos? We'll just introduce it and pick it up next week. The meaning of cosmos, the word cosmos is used 185 times in the New Testament. Usually it's the word world or world system. In the New Testament, 105 of those occur just in the writings of John. The Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and the book of Revelation, the cosmos. Basically the world denotes, and this might surprise you, it denotes an ornament or order. Ornament or order. Cosmos being, to understand cosmos, it is the opposite of chaos. Cosmos is an orderly, ornate system, and chaos is a disorganized, non-ornate system, or no system. The concept is found in 1 Peter 3, 3, and the modern word for cosmos that we use comes from cosmos is cosmetic. And the word cosmetic for a woman means to try to bring some order to this thing. I'm just telling you that's where the word comes from. That's it. Class is over, right Jerry? That's the end of it. I knew that would get a rise out of half of you. Chaos or cosmos? I'm just telling you where the word comes from. The universe can be referred to the heaven and the earth, the cosmos, it's an ornament of harmonious relationships. The inhabited earth and the people are called the cosmos in the Bible. And then here's a suggested definition, we'll stop with this. Here's a definition for cosmos. Love not the cosmos, the Bible says. The cosmos world is that organized by Satan, headed by Satan, run by Satan system which leaves God out and is a rival to him. The cosmos is Satan's counterfeit kingdom in conflict with God's kingdom. So cosmos, it literally means an organized system. That organized system that we're talking about in the Bible, we talk about love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For anyone who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It is not talking about the planet, the universe, the stars and all those things. It's not talking about, you know, ecology. When we're talking about the world, we're talking about that system, that organized system. that is created by, run by, and is all for the benefit of Satan himself. Satan is running all these things. It is running parallel to God's kingdom. And we might say, well, man, he's really got the world in his hand because his kingdom's really got the upper hand right now in this world. And Jesus' kingdom, which started when He came to earth and began it by preaching the kingdom, dying on the cross, and giving examples of the kingdom, it's a whole lot weaker. Yeah, but the kingdom of God is growing. Not only that, We know that ultimately, I love this part, Hebrews chapter 1 says that He's going to come to all this stuff in the world, all this cosmos and system including all of the created universe, He's going to take it and fold it up like a set of clothes, like a garment. He's going to say, okay, all done, fold that up and put it away in a box, better yet fold it up and burn it, throw it away, destroy it, and blow it away. Daniel chapter 2 says it's all going to come to nothing, it's going to be like so much powder on a rocky hill and it's just going to blow it away. So that cosmos, though incredibly strong at this moment, is a very short duration because the Kingdom of our God is forever and ever and ever. I'll stop there.