Our Adversary the Devil: His Might, cont.

[0:00] All right, we're live. It may not last long, so bear with us.

[0:15] Is that me? Or I'll set this over here. Okay, let's see.

[0:32] I think we want to find in the Bible Revelation 13 as our beginning point this morning. Revelation 13, and we are in the second portion of our study on our adversary, the devil.

[0:55] We began studying his making, that is the being that God made him to be, and a lot of detail and thoughts that we learned from that.

[1:07] And now we're studying his might, his power, or his ability. I'm pointing at the screen. Thanks. So we're in the second phase. We'll probably wrap this up today.

[1:19] And what we've learned so far, learned a lot from the story of Job. We learned that Satan has power over people groups, and that's small stuff.

[1:31] We learned that he has power over not just a nation, but all nations. In Revelation 20, he shows up and just, in a short amount of time, gathers them all together to battle. We studied that he has power over the elements, over the wind, and was able to call the fire of God down from heaven.

[1:48] And saw that that's a God thing. That's something that the Lord does to display that he alone is God. And yet Satan, we saw, has that same might. If God permits, he has the ability to do that and to manipulate pretty much anything in this physical universe, as far as I can tell.

[2:05] The third point was that he is the ultimate engineer of evil. And really analyzing that story from Job, seeing the timing of it all, seeing that he allowed one servant alone to escape, to get back to Job.

[2:18] The timing of it, just one after the other after the other. That was serious stuff there that he could formulate such a plan. And have it come to pass, execute it. Last week, then, we studied that he has power over man's body.

[2:32] And we saw places already that he could indwell a body. We see it with Peter. We see it with Judas Iscariot. We see it with the prince of Tyrus, or the king of Tyrus, in Ezekiel 28.

[2:46] And then we also considered that he has power to oppress their bodies, men's bodies, with the ability to torment or to inflict disease. And we noticed that in Job, where he gave Job the boils from the head to his feet.

[3:03] We noticed it in Luke 13, where the woman that had a spirit of infirmity, Christ said, Satan hath bound this woman 18 years. We noticed it with the apostle Paul.

[3:14] He says that that thorn in his flesh was the messenger of Satan to buffet him. And he wanted God to take it away, but God wouldn't do it. We saw also in Mark chapter 9 that this man's son had a dumb and deaf spirit.

[3:29] And, of course, made some comments there to show that's not a proof case that every kind of handicap or deformity or whatever you want to call it in the human race is an attribute of Satan or evidence of Satan working.

[3:45] But that case, that kid was foaming and casting himself into the fires and an awful lot of extreme things associated with that kind of devil possession.

[3:56] So then we also saw, this is the final thing from last Sunday, was that Satan can source out his power. And we saw that here in Revelation 12 and really in chapter 13, where he gives power to the beast.

[4:09] He gives power to this another, what's called the false prophet later on. And we saw that Paul said the same thing. Daniel said the same thing, that he can transfer his power into other beings, something you and I can't do, but something that the Lord Jesus Christ did do when he was here on earth with his 12 apostles.

[4:28] He gave them power over unclean spirits and to cast out devils and to raise the dead and to heal the lepers and all of those things. So Satan has the ability to do the same thing. And I'm showing you these things because it's Bible.

[4:41] But on top of that, to help you realize, we'll see this later on in our study, that he is a great counterfeiter and imitator of what God is. And one day he's going to sit in the temple of God and show himself that he is God and the whole world is going to fall at his feet.

[4:56] And no surprise, because he's been doing this for a long time, counterfeiting the work of God. We ended last Sunday talking about healers. Now, obviously, healing, we believe God has the ability to heal and that he can and does when he sees fit according to his will.

[5:14] But what about healers? What about the men that claim they have the power in them from God to do these miracles? And that was something that I have a big problem with. And it's something that we looked at in the book of Acts.

[5:26] I really briefly kind of stepped through this ministry of the apostles and displaying that that was something that was early on that phased out. And by the end of Paul's epistles and writings, he mentions nothing about signs and healings and wonders.

[5:42] Early on he does. Later on he doesn't. And so they seem to have phased out and perfect opportunity for Satan to capitalize on the working of God in the past and to carry it forth with his ability into the future if he's allowed.

[5:57] And so we already saw that he has the ability to empower other beings and to perform miracles. And if God permits him to use his power, I think it's certainly worth considering that he would use those powers to deceive men and allow men to believe it was the Holy Ghost and use it to pervert the gospel of Christ.

[6:17] And so the final statement last week was if there's anything supernatural going on, and I mean that by the hands of men, not by God, but by the hands of men doing miracles, I believe it's devils.

[6:30] It's a deceitful work of Satan to deceive men. And I don't apologize for that at all. I think that's solid, sound doctrine. But you could disagree with that. And if you'd like to have healings, then go get healed.

[6:44] Go to some service. Go to some church where they're going to speak in tongues and heal you and do those kind of things if that's what you want. But you're not going to get any of it here ever. And you're just going to get a teaching that that's deceitful work of the devil.

[6:56] And it's coming to pass to a, what do you want to say, to a church near you in the future. It's going to be on a worldwide scale coming up soon.

[7:07] All right, so Revelation 13 this morning. And Satan can perform supernatural feats. He can perform miracles. He can do wonders and signs. And here we see a place where he takes it to another level, in my opinion.

[7:22] We've already pointed out. I've kind of walked you through that just now. Now, the Antichrist comes in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9, after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.

[7:34] And here in Revelation 13, we have the Antichrist in a beast description and then this other beast in verse 11. And let's pick it up right there in verse 11 and move through this passage a little bit and get to another point that's similar to the rest, maybe categorized as supernatural, but to me it's over the top and it gets its own category.

[7:55] Verse 11 says, And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him and causeth the earth, and then that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

[8:13] And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast, which had a wound by a sword and did live.

[8:32] And now catch this. And he had power, verse 15, he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

[8:54] What in the world are we talking about here? Well, some of the preachers today get excited with modern technology, and they say, AI! AI, it's artificial intelligence going on, there it is.

[9:08] And even Schofield, in his reference notes, calls this a lying wonder. And I'm not so sure that any of them are right. Taking the words of your Bible the way the Holy Spirit wrote them and gave them to us, he said in verse 15, he had power to give life unto the image of the beast.

[9:27] What I believe, the ability of Satan, his might, is that he has power to give life. I'm not talking about spiritual life. Like the Lord Jesus Christ, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.

[9:40] Not eternal life. But rather, what I've already taught is that he has the ability to manipulate anything in this physical realm. And it seems here that Satan can't make this image a living soul, but he can manipulate non-living matter.

[9:57] He can put it into a way that it's alive. He can animate the inanimate and give life to something that's non-living. And again, this is over the top to me.

[10:08] This is, you thought only God could do that. But here Satan has the power and the ability to do something that is far above and beyond anything that most of us would have ever even ever thought to give him credit for.

[10:21] I didn't say he can create. The Bible says that God, the worlds are framed, or that he did it out of nothing. And it doesn't, or the things that are made were, things that are made of things which do not appear.

[10:33] Something like that. And so God made this universe and all things therein are things that aren't in appearance. Satan can't do that. I don't see how that's a possibility.

[10:43] But what I do see is that in this physical realm, he has so much power. He has so much ability. He's not a physical being like you and I. He's not locked into the rules or the laws of this world and this creation.

[10:57] He can travel from heaven to earth. He's a different kind of being. And when he comes down into this physical creation, it's a playground for him. He can do what he wants if God allows him to.

[11:10] He's made that way. He has that ability. And by the way, this is not a slight on God in any way because God created him and is in total control of him. And so the Lord is that much more powerful.

[11:22] And so don't get spooked or scared or feel like, what in the world? What can we do? This is just the words of your Bible. I'm trying to bring them to light.

[11:33] And we'll study this out a little bit, try to understand what's going on. So it says that in verse 15 that he gave power. He had power to give life unto the image of the beast. Recognize this is a man-made image from verse 14.

[11:47] It was another beast, the false prophet in verse 14 that said at the middle of the verse, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image.

[11:58] So he convinces men, you need to make an image to the first beast. Sounds like Nebuchadnezzar. You need to make an image. And so men follow through with their orders.

[12:09] And they make, probably comprised of natural man-made materials. They build some kind of image. And then he makes that thing come to life so that it's speaking. And it's not just speaking.

[12:20] It says in verse 15, it says, Both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. So this is like a, in my opinion, this is like a Hitler-type presence, where he's just a great swelling words kind of a speaker.

[12:35] And the people are amazed. But he's not just wowing them with the ability to talk. He's causing people to be murdered. He's causing men that made him to now kill other men that won't worship him.

[12:49] If you get that, you see that. That's what it says. That's kind of some wild stuff. And I don't think it's artificial intelligence at all. Like people want to say, oh, this is coming to pass.

[13:01] It's the generations right here preparing the way for this. It doesn't say that this is a robot or that it's programmed or that there's battery packs hidden under its surface at all.

[13:12] It says the word L-I-F-E, life. He had power to give life. That's what the Holy Spirit of God said when he wrote this book, that he had power to give life.

[13:25] Now, you go look up that word in a dictionary or try. You go find a good definition for life and come back and tell me what it is. I'd love to hear it. Because I've looked for one and I haven't found one.

[13:36] I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. You can't define life without using the word life to explain itself. Anyway, besides that, that's a whole other thought.

[13:48] You thought only God could do that. And I think it's better to say that Satan can manipulate. He's a powerful being. And I said earlier, he doesn't have any restrictions when it comes to the physical realm unless God's restricting him.

[14:02] And I get that. It's a hard concept to think on. It's hard to accept that because we think that only God can do supernatural. Or we think that only God can. Like, he's the creator.

[14:12] He sits on the throne of his creation. But understand, he created this being. And he's given him power. Now, let's understand this, if we can, and search this out a little bit. Come back to Genesis chapter 1.

[14:24] The first time we see anything like this go on, look at Genesis chapter 1. So, in the very beginning, God's going to create man.

[14:44] And he's going to make him, as he says in verse 26, let us make man in our image after our likeness. In verse 27, so God created man in his own image.

[14:55] There's the word image that we saw back in Revelation. There's an image that God designed the human being to look like and to be like.

[15:06] So, look at chapter 2. And here it is, the actual forming of this image. In Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

[15:23] Now, I picture, I guess because of Chick-Tracs, I don't know, I picture this being laid on his back on the ground. And that's all I've ever thought of, never even had a reason to think otherwise, until a man that does pottery was describing and saying, No, if God's going to make a man, he's going to do it just like a potter, with a potter's vessel and take the lump of clay and put it up.

[15:46] And he goes, Man is perfectly symmetrical. He's going to work on him. So, now I'm picturing, no, God designed him standing upright. Why not? Just like the image everywhere else you see in the Bible. And God made Adam, fashioned him, square on, not laying on the ground, because he couldn't carve out the backside, could he?

[16:05] But there's the front side and the backside, spins him around, if you want to picture it like that, however you decide. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. That's what he used to form this image, but it's just an image, made of elements right there in the dirt.

[16:21] But then he does something. He breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. And then that man becomes a living soul. So, the question is, can Satan do that?

[16:32] Can Satan build something? Can he take elements that are already created, put them together, and then insert or place or breathe into that, the breath of life?

[16:44] Many would say, No, of course not. God's the only one that has the breath of life. So, the question, I mean, like, God, life begins with God.

[16:55] No question about that. When he puts a plan in motion, when he puts life on this planet, is he reproducing every plant, every tree?

[17:06] Or did he create that tree and then tell it, reproduce after your kind? And so now his hands, in one sense, are off of it, and it's doing what it was programmed. It's obeying its creator.

[17:17] The human race is reproducing at an incredible rate. And they're doing it however they want to do it, whenever they want to do it. And so is everything else, the animals, all of creation.

[17:31] Does that mean that God is inserting life each time into each individual plant, flower, blade of grass, you name it? And so my thinking and my looking on this is God is the originator, the giver of life.

[17:45] And as he puts life out there, for Satan to be able to manipulate or to deal with it, I know it's kind of a tricky thought and intellectual concept, but I don't see him from being too limited with things that we might otherwise not even consider.

[18:02] All right, go to one more place here, Ezekiel 37. The question is, can Satan put life into another being?

[18:15] You male and female as human beings have the ability to procreate and to bring about a new life.

[18:32] Does Satan have the ability to take of his life or his spirit or however you want to call it and put it into another?

[18:42] And look at Ezekiel 37. Here's a vision that Ezekiel gets. It's a valley that's in verse 1. It's a valley that was full of dry bones.

[18:54] And it's just bones. And God gives him this drone view of going around this valley. In verse 2, he calls me to pass by them round about.

[19:05] And so as he's circling around, he's just seeing just bones upon bones upon bones upon bones just all over the place, nothing else. And the question in verse 3 is, can these bones live?

[19:16] And he just replies, O Lord, thou knowest. And he's told to prophesy unto the bones. And in verse 5, thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.

[19:28] And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you. And then he does it. Ezekiel prophesies. And in verse 8, he sees the sinews.

[19:40] He sees the flesh come up upon them, skin covered them. But at the end of the verse, it says, but there was no breath in them. So there's a standing army in verse number 10.

[19:51] A standing, exceeding great army that's standing up, skin all the way down to the bones. The entire thing's there, but there's no life. There's no breath. And then he has to prophesy.

[20:04] And he prophesies to the winds, and says them to breathe. In verse 10, I prophesied as he commanded, and the breath came into them, and they lived. And so now he explains the vision.

[20:14] It's about the house of Israel. And he says these bones are the whole house of Israel, in verse 11. Now skim down to verse number 13. Ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my, not breath this time, but he says, my spirit in you, and ye shall live.

[20:35] It's the same thing as the breath of life back in Genesis chapter 2. It's the breath in verse number 9 that he's talking about. He said it was the breath of God back in verse number 6.

[20:46] I'll put breath in you. And what is that? He's putting spirit in you. Verse 14, my spirit. So in this vision, it's very similar to what we're seeing back in Genesis chapter 2, with God forming and putting the skin, the sinews, the flesh, all of it together, and then putting life into that being.

[21:06] It's a God thing, right? Well, in James chapter 2, the Bible says the body without the spirit is dead. In John chapter 6, verse 63, Jesus Christ said, It is the spirit that quickeneth.

[21:22] It is the spirit that quickeneth. Without the spirit, it's a dead being, an image. Now, come to Revelation 11. Revelation chapter 11.

[21:36] Here's a future glimpse into what we call the tribulation period, where there's two men that are preaching. They're God's witnesses.

[21:49] They're called prophets. And they have ability and power given to them of God to shut heaven, to turn water to blood, to smite the earth with plagues.

[22:03] And the people of the earth, though, assemble and they kill them. In verse number 7, when they had finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them.

[22:17] And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city. And so there's these dead bodies laying there, but they're not going to stay dead for long. Verse number 11 says, After three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and in great fear they were resurrected.

[22:41] Now, the bodies were there the whole time. They needed the spirit of life from God placed back in them, and they became alive. And now, two chapters later, in chapter 13, Satan is empowering another beast to do something that we thought only God could do, and to put life.

[23:03] He had power, it said back in 1315, he had power to give life unto the image of the beast. I believe what's taking place there is he has the ability to put spirit into that beast.

[23:17] Now, just to get a glimpse of something else, this is the last thing we'll say here. Look at chapter 16. Revelation 16. And this, I don't believe, is directly related.

[23:31] It's just something to help you envision or picture what could have been going on here. This may not be related at all. But here's the dragon, which we've already studied from chapter 11, which is Satan.

[23:45] And the beast and the false prophet, all three, the satanic trinity in verse 13. And it says, I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, for they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world to gather them to the battle.

[24:09] So these beings have, you see, spirit coming out of them. And so I'm kind of connecting that or giving that thought, at least, to help you to see that he has the ability to do things that you can't do.

[24:22] You can't cause a spirit to come forth from you in that sense, or your spirit to go and do some work or accomplish something. This is completely on a different level.

[24:32] And my point from all of this study is Satan is on that level. He is on that level. And I think he can put life or spirit into an inanimate image.

[24:45] And that's, to me, that is the definition of inspiration, of putting your spirit into something else, inspiring them or inspiriting them.

[24:56] That's a whole other course of study and discussion to see how that plays out. But back to the study at hand, Satan has the power to give life, according to your King James Bible.

[25:07] And it's no wonder that the world believes on him. It's no wonder. I mean, talk about showing himself that he is God. I'd say that's a pretty powerful statement there, for men to behold this being come to life and speak, and then begin to influence and cause them to kill each other.

[25:26] That's quite a thing. All right, so let's get to the one more final thing here on this study about Satan. This is number seven in the points of his might.

[25:37] And this may not sound like much compared to that, but I think this is the most deadly. And this is the scariest for you and I where we sit today in our lives, is that Satan has the power to influence the thoughts and the decisions of men.

[25:55] He has the ability to influence your thoughts, to get inside of your head. He can suggest things or recommend things, or maybe even go as far as to persuade you to do some things, or even further than that, to be the one that's leading you and guiding you throughout the decisions you make in your life.

[26:14] And you think, no, no way. That's not me. I'm saved, and I know I'm saved. You might be surprised. He's closer than you think. And we'll see this in the book again.

[26:26] There's, without a doubt, Christians that are carnal, that are not in the scriptures, they're not feasting on the word of God, they're not exercising their senses and discerning good and evil, and there's a subtle serpent that has slithered into their mind and has led them in a positive way to perceive and to conceive thoughts and ideas that sound good.

[26:51] And isn't that where it started in Genesis 3? Yea, hath God said? Don't you want to be as the gods, knowing good and evil? Well, it's all good from here on out.

[27:02] As a matter of fact, it's the very beginning where he beguiled Eve in a one-on-one conversation and convinced her that it was in her best interest to violate the words of God.

[27:14] It's in your best interest to disobey the scripture. Now, we've already seen he can do this when we're talking about the Job and the Sabaeans and the Chaldeans and them coming against Job and what he did there, and including Revelation 20, the nations gathered to battle.

[27:31] But let's look at this on an individual level so that this strikes a chord with you. And I want to caution you and warn you and hopefully cause you to become more aware. So come back to the book of Job where we began this study.

[27:47] There's another woman that I think Satan goes after and deals with and influences her thoughts. Job 1, and this is the battle between Satan and God at this time.

[28:14] They're talking back and forth about Job. In verse 11, notice what it is that Job, or that Satan is suggesting Job will do.

[28:26] Put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath, and what's Job going to do? He will curse thee to thy face. So that's the end game from Satan is to get Job to curse God.

[28:39] So then turn the page or find chapter 2, and that whole process, that plan that he executed, just extreme measures with all of his substance, his children, etc., did not work.

[28:54] It backfired. Now in chapter 2, verse 5, he says, or God said, put forth, but put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh. This is Satan accusing and saying, and he will curse thee to thy face.

[29:08] If you touch his body, if you harm him, his person, his body, then he'll curse thee. That's still what he's after, is to get God to curse him, right? So that didn't work.

[29:19] No evidence of that working at all when he was smitten with sore boils. And so in verse number 9, then said his wife unto him, Now, dost thou still retain thine integrity?

[29:33] Curse God. Curse God. Now, it doesn't say it in the text. I get it. I know this. And if we took a little liberty here and read between the lines, where does she get the idea that that's what Job ought to do?

[29:51] It sure makes pretty good sense to consider that she's being influenced by the one who could get Job by taking his kids and taking his cattle, and he couldn't get to him by taking his health and putting boils all over him.

[30:05] And so what else is left? He's not given up yet. There's only one person that we know of that's left in his life that's pretty close to him and that's hurting and grieving in a horrible manner.

[30:17] And so it seems to me, again, it's not in the text, but it seems a pretty viable solution to what caused her to come forth and say those very words.

[30:28] And in this chapter and the previous, that is the exact thing that Satan is after Job for is to curse God. So what do I think?

[30:40] I think Satan's goal is being played out through Job's wife as a third attempt. I think Satan's influencing her thoughts to speak those very words against her husband.

[30:52] But I could be wrong about that, so let's go someplace where I'm a little more certain. Come to John chapter 13. John chapter 13.

[31:05] There's no getting around this one. Satan has the influence or the ability to influence man's thoughts, to put things inside of your heart, to get inside of your head.

[31:17] The picture is the little devil standing on your shoulder, whispering in your ears. That's probably nonsense in the whispering thought.

[31:31] Why would he need to whisper? He can just get on in. Look at chapter 13 and verse number 2. And supper being ended, the devil, having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, how does the devil put something into a man's heart?

[31:54] How would you do it? You would suggest it. You would say it. You would verbalize it. You would hint at it. You would be subtle, probably, if you really wanted it to happen.

[32:05] How does a wife hint at her husband that, you know, she, or try to get her husband to buy her something new that's broken. She says, look, this thing's broken. It's a piece of junk.

[32:16] Or after a while, she throws it out. Or after a while, she stops making meals because she doesn't have this anymore. I mean, there's ways of getting that into the man. It probably takes that much to get through the skull, to get inside, to suggest.

[32:29] How does Satan put it into a man's heart to do something? That's what the text says. You can read it in your Bible. That's the Holy Ghost's words. The devil now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot.

[32:42] So that's small stuff again. Look at Acts chapter 5. He's going to betray Jesus Christ for money. It doesn't say that he wants him to be crucified.

[32:54] It doesn't say that Judas wants to get this Christ off of the earth. He's not even thinking along those lines. He's thinking he's the Christ. He's God. But I can make some money.

[33:08] Look at Acts chapter 5. You know this couple, Ananias, Sapphira his wife.

[33:20] Verse number 1. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife sold a possession and kept back part of the price. His wife also being privy to it.

[33:31] So they've had a discussion beforehand. Did they not? He brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. And Peter said to Ananias, Why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land?

[33:46] Why did he do that? Why did he do that? Now that's not a question Ananias can really answer. Why did Satan fill my heart? But nonetheless, the plot and the plan and the discussion from verse 2 where they were privately discussing the amount that came in versus the amount they were going to declare, Satan put that into their heart not to do it.

[34:10] What does this have to do with anything? What retribution? What cause? How does this influence anything? Who cares what they say they paid for and didn't pay for it?

[34:23] It doesn't affect the apostles. It's not like causing children to starve. This is not betraying Jesus Christ to the Pharisees. Why is this a big deal? You might say, Well, the outcome's not really that grave of a matter how much, if they gave it all or not, if they lied on their taxiders, on their tax returns, if they, how they decide.

[34:44] But he's showing us something. Satan decided to come at this couple and it's Satan. That's what it says. And filled their hearts with the thought of being deceitful and lying and keeping money.

[35:00] Money, money, money. And you know what? You know what I think this tells us? Not just with Judas Iscariot, but with Ananias and Sapphira because it shows that they were deceitful about money.

[35:11] I think it shows us that Satan knows not just what's, how to get you to sin or tempt you, but he knows what's in your heart. He knows what makes you tick or what you love and that's where he attacks you.

[35:24] I don't think Satan tried ten different things and it just landed on the money one. That's the one that worked. I think he knows, I know this guy and I know this lady and they're going to sell this and give all of that money away to the church.

[35:38] What a stupid thing to do. I can convince them to keep some of it. And who benefits from that? Well, they both ended up dying, dropping dead that very day.

[35:50] Now, what are we learning? We're learning he can influence the thoughts and decisions of men. Both of these cases with Judas and Ananias and Sapphira, Satan put this into their heart to do this.

[36:01] Back in Revelation 13, we don't need to go back there, but what we read in that passage earlier this morning was that it was Satan empowering these beasts and these beings to do some things and the one thing they did was it says, causeth the earth to worship the first beast.

[36:20] And it says, he'll cause many to be killed. And another one later on in verse 16, it says, he causeth all to receive a mark. Now, how do you cause someone to do something?

[36:34] Well, you can do it by threat. You could do it by force. You could do it by a gift. Maybe by persuasion or deceit. You could trick them into doing something.

[36:45] You could bribe them. I'd say there's many ways to cause someone else to act. And that may not sound like a big deal just to get somebody to do something, but realize when we're talking Revelation 13, we're talking about not just me tricking you into going and doing something for me.

[37:00] We're talking worldwide scale. The entire population going forth like zombies believing and doing what they're told to do. And it's, who's behind it?

[37:13] Satan. Satan has power to influence the thoughts and decisions of men. Come back to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew 16.

[37:33] You want to talk about an influencer? These jokers on TikTok and YouTube got nothing on this one. Matthew 16, verse 21.

[37:46] From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.

[38:00] Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me.

[38:11] For thou saverest not the things that be of God but those that be of men. Now again, he's addressing Satan. So Peter's speaking out this rebuke of Jesus Christ and you could say it as simple as he's totally under the influence of Satan to think and to speak and to say these words.

[38:32] Be it far from thee, Lord. What you just said is dead wrong and I'm not going to let it happen. What a terrible thought. Come to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9.

[38:46] Satan has the power to get inside your head. Luke chapter 9 and listen to these two disciples. These are some pretty good guys. We're talking about Peter and now we're talking about James and John.

[38:59] That's the top three, the inner circle. Luke chapter 9. And so what happened here is in verse 52, they sent messengers before his face.

[39:10] They went and entered into the village of the Samaritans to make ready for him and they did not receive him because his face was though he would go. So the town didn't receive him. And so how are these disciples going to react to somebody not receiving their Savior, their Messiah?

[39:24] Verse 54. When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did? That sounds noble.

[39:36] Yeah, right? I mean, they don't want you? Then, no, that's terrible. That's horrible. That's satanic. And verse 55, but he turned and rebuked them and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

[39:50] For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. What in the world are these boys talking about? They were of such a manner of spirit that they wanted to murder the people that did not agree with them.

[40:06] They wanted to send the lost to hell right then and there. And Jesus Christ said, no, I didn't come here to do that. I came here to save those people, even the ones that are rejecting me.

[40:20] I didn't come to damn them to hell, but these men are just thinking completely different. Why? They're of a manner of spirit and they don't even know it. What are you going to call that? You're just going to say that's their flesh?

[40:34] Which, what is that anyway? What are you going to call that? Manner of spirit. I believe Satan has the ability to influence the thoughts of men. I realize that you here in church this morning, Sunday morning, dressed up nice, here for church, you don't imagine yourself to be possessed with the devil or influenced by Satan.

[40:55] And I don't think Peter, and I don't think James and John, and I would doubt that even Judas Iscariot fully understood that he was either. And those guys are walking literally with Jesus Christ.

[41:08] and speaking with him, being personally trained by him. I think if you pay a little closer attention to the thoughts that enter your mind, whether they're small and subtle, or whether they're big and abominable, I think you'll find out that Satan's a little closer than you think.

[41:28] And I mean that. I think he has access to your mind, and I believe it from the scriptures, the ability to influence your thoughts, your decisions, to get things inside of your heart.

[41:41] Now I bet we can all acknowledge this. We'll close here with this, but I bet we can all acknowledge that we've had things enter into our minds that we would not want to discuss with the rest of the people in this building.

[41:53] We've even entertained thoughts in our minds and hearts that we would not want to tell anybody, the very closest to us, especially. You ever sit down and read your Bible, and a river of thoughts comes in one after another and just begins to flood your mind and distract you from reading the words of God?

[42:19] I can tell you it's not the spirit of God distracting you from his book. What do you think that is? Oh, it's just my flesh. Is it your flesh? Is it your flesh bringing up some, I mean, I've read passages in my Bible, and as I'm reading it, just some filthy thoughts come to my mind, and I'm thinking, what in the world?

[42:42] I have the holiest thing on the planet right in my hands, and right here, 12 inches from the page is just hell, a gutter.

[42:53] How is it that I'm thinking on such a filthy thought and I'm trying to read my Bible? I think I know what it is. Years ago, I heard a message from Brother Gipp.

[43:07] He was talking about, I have no idea of the message, I just know the thought. He was talking about somebody standing on a bridge and looking down and he said, why is it, why do you suppose it is that when you stand on a bridge that this thought comes to your mind, jump?

[43:24] And I'd never thought of that, but when he said it, I was like, I kind of know what you're talking about. And when he said it, he goes, I think it's a spirit that's trying to seduce you, trying to tempt you, that's right there with you.

[43:39] And somebody that's saved and somebody that's walking with God, that doesn't affect them and they never entertain that even though, I don't know about you, but even though you can stand there and just kind of picture your body laying down there.

[43:53] Isn't that weird? Am I the only weird one? And you know, when I think, when I took that thought and I thought, that could be very true, I began to think similarly about a pandemic of sodomy in our nation and in our world and I thought, that thing is absolutely a seducing spirit.

[44:15] And what's already happened, it's already grown to such a degree and influenced so many that now our society has established a platform to where it's acceptable.

[44:28] And now that it's acceptable, our generation is seeing this sin and this filthiness being promoted and being just pushed and pushed and pushed from every angle.

[44:39] And the result of that is the youngest of children being confused and perverted and destroyed at a young age having no hope, having no understanding of truth and what's right and what's normal because the normal has been dismissed.

[44:55] It's being stripped away more and more. I think it's a spirit. I think it's a spirit that is tempting and seducing the weak and the frail and the hurting and the unwanted and the ones that feel like they're unnoticed and saying, this is what you should be doing.

[45:15] This is a crowd where you'll be accepted. And however they do it, I don't even know. But I bet you, you've had thoughts come into your mind along those lines that you don't even want to entertain and don't want to admit and I think I know what it is.

[45:30] Now anyway, one more verse. We can't close on that. Look at 2 Corinthians 10 and this is it. 2 Corinthians 10. I think that just suggesting that, I think it goes a long way because I know for a fact that Satan has power to influence thoughts, to get inside your head, to place things in your heart and if you don't check them with the word of God, you might be following the devil in your life.

[46:00] You better get in the Bible. 2 Corinthians 10 and this is your verse you want to know. Verse number five. The Bible says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

[46:26] You see how the thoughts are associated with high things and it's a spiritual warfare in verse number three and four. There's something going on there.

[46:39] There's not a doubt in my mind that it's satanic and that he has access to your mind to get in your head, to influence you. It's not just you're mad and upset and having a bad day but certain things come out of your mouth they never should have and if you step back and think about it, you never should have said it because you truly didn't mean it but you still said it and there's a spirit when you get in a rage and let go of your control and get in the flesh, there's a spirit just right there.

[47:05] Push, push, push, push, push. Try to blow it up. So your job is to cast it down. Your job is to, first of all, know the knowledge of God so that you can recognize what's exalting itself against what's right and what God says and bring it into captivity.

[47:25] Put it down. And so they must be cast down, they must be replaced with scripture and this book is more important than I can even state this morning for your welfare and for your spiritual warfare.

[47:37] So, like I said, that's the close there of his might and I think probably the scariest of all, I'm not too worried about him manipulating the fire of God and bringing it down on my life and family and house.

[47:51] If God allows him to, maybe he would. But one thing I know he will do is try to get inside my head and if I'm not walking with God and then discerning, I'll have thoughts and I may follow through with them and they may be dead wrong and against the will of God for me or for this church or for my family and if I follow through with them, I'll be following somebody that's trying to take me away from the Lord.

[48:16] So be careful when you make decisions, that's why you pray. That's why you pray about things and when you pray about things, you get a peace in your heart whether it's right or wrong. If you don't, if you got nothing but confusion and pressure, it's not from God and so when you soak prayer on that situation, that decision, a peace comes in when it's right and if the peace never comes, you just walk away from it and then there's peace that fills in that void and says you made the right call.

[48:44] So anyway, we got to stop there. Let's take a few minutes of break.