Introduction:

 The best way possible to deal with one's enemy is to be informed about him, being aware of his tactics or "modus operandi," meaning simply His methods of operation. In the passage at the heading of our lesson we learn some things that should assist us in understanding Satan's methods. Paul wrote
 
 "Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully: But if our gospel be hid (veiled ASV) it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

 "For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ.  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted form the simplicity that is in Christ."

 Peter admonishes us to "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." Having said this, he then warns us "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. In other words, "don't feel like the Lone Ranger" in this matter. Nothing is happening to you that isn't being experienced by your brethren elsewhere in the world. (1 Peter 5:6-9).

I Have Listed Fourteen Points Of Things I Would Do If I Were Satan To Get People not to Serve Christ . Then of course they would be serving me, (Satan)!

1). I WOULD USE VARIOUS MEANS AT MY DISPOSAL TO CONVINCE YOU THAT THERE IS NO GOD. I would convince you that this was some hold over idea from the dark ages when people were superstitious and didn't know any better.  Because I would know that if I could convince you of that, I could keep you in my service for:(Hebrews 11:3,6; John 8:21-24) respectively, say:

     "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear... But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." And:

 "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go ye cannot come..I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." (Note the following contexts for further reading about God's existence (Romans 1:18-32; Acts 17:22-29; Hebrews 12:9; Psalms 19:1-2).

2).  I WOULD CONVINCE YOU THAT THE SCRIPTURES AREN'T RELIABLE; that the Bible is filled with contradictions and that through all the many translations that have been made it is so corrupted so as not to be  credible. Why such an old book is outdated and out of touch with the times, etc.  I would have lots of help in this method of destroying folks belief in the Bible's credibility from so called preachers and other denominational folks and even a few brethren!

 Jesus said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My  words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:25). Jesus said: "He who rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judgeth him: The words that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48). Peter said: "Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth...Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever....But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Peter 1:22-25). Note: (Revelation 20:12-15; James 2:12; Romans 1:6-11; 2 Corinthians 5:10-13).

 3. I WOULD CONVINCE YOU THAT (I) SATAN DON'T EVEN EXIST-THAT THE IDEA OF A PERSON KNOWN AS SATAN IS OUTDATED ALONG WITH THE IDEA OF GOD'S EXISTENCE.
 
 This would also make Jesus look like a fool in the eyes of those who ever read about His personal confrontation with him out in the wilderness immediately after His baptism at the hands of John the immerser (Matthew 4:1-11). To whom was Jesus speaking on this occasion? Was He having hallucinations?

 "Then was Jesus let up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights He was afterwards hungered.  And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread, But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And said unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord they God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth Him , and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him."

 Paul admonished the brethren at Corinth to deal properly with the one needing discipline by the entire congregation, saying they should take care to do it, "lest Satan get advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices" (11 Corinthians 2:11).

       4).    I WOULD CONVINCE FOLKS THAT EVIL IS GOOD AND GOOD IS EVIL: HASN'T HE DONE HIS WORK WELL?

  "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" (Isaiah 5:20-21). He mentioned strong drink in the same context, a problem of great magnitude in our society. Alcohol is one our worst drugs, yet legal!

 The Hebrew writer has something to say about folks who aren't capable of knowing the difference between good and evil in (Hebrews 5:12-14; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Peter 2:1,2; 3:18). Many today cannot discern between evil and good. They call evil good and good evil as in the days when Israel was on their way down!

5).    THE CHURCH IS UNIMPORTANT "JOIN" ANY-CHOICE

 Conversely of the above idea (truly a creation of Satan), our God planned the church from eternity as the relationship in which men could be reconciled unto Him through the blood of the cross of Christ. All Old Testament prophets till John and Jesus came on life's scene both in writing and preaching spoke of the time when "The God of heaven would set up a kingdom that would stand forever as they spoke of the then coming rule of Christ in the hearts of men and women (Isaiah 2:2-3; Daniel 2:44; 7:13-14; Matthew 3:1-6; Mark 1:15; Matthew 4:17; Mark 9:1; Acts 2:22-38, 40-41, 47; Colossians 1:13-14; Ephesians 2:13-16; 3:8-11; 4:1-6) All of these blessings today are realized in the church of Christ.
 
6). PROMOTE DIVISIONS AMONG THE BRETHREN

  It is Christ's wish that people unite on the teaching of His apostles whom He guided into all truth (John 17:20-21). Paul wrote that we should "all speak the same things and that they be no divisions among you."( 1 Cor. 1:10). He called divisions a sign of carnality, not spirituality (1 Cor. 3:3). Denominationalism exists in direct contradiction to the wishes of God and is sinful rather than being a blessing. The price Christ paid for His church was His own precious blood (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:25; 1 Peter 1:18-19).

7).  DESTROY THE HOME AND FAMILY-DIVORCE & REMARRY WITHOUT SCRIPTURAL CAUSE (MATT. 5:31-32; 19:9); AND STILL BE IN FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD'S PEOPLE

  I read recently some startling statistics about the moral decline in America, and of course it is probably even worse in some other countries than in the USA.  The article said: "The rate at which Americans are marrying is more than 25% lower than in 1960. Almost 3 million American households are composed of unmarried couples, an increase of 80% since 1980.

 A census taken in May 5, 1992 said that while nonfamily households accounted for 15% of all households in 1960, they will reach almost 30% by 2001. Just double percentage-wise.  Then he added, "Today, more than 2.9 million households are composed of unmarried couples, so then, what's happening is not rejection of family, but a new definition of what marriage used to be, so as to eliminate marriage. He spoke further of a redefinition of family, referred to by one writer as "nonfamily households" -as being "never married mothers, single-parent families, step-families, cohabiting couples, and lesbian families." I don't know why he didn't also mention male homosexual families? We know about Hawaii recently OK'ING same sex marriages. To our Congress and Senate and even Mr. Clinton's credit, same sex marriages will not become the law of the land any time soon at least.

 In a sense we are not all that surprised when secular society and denominationalism falls in the this trap and sanctions preachers and priests who are homosexual and lesbian in their pulpits (even though that was unheard of even among them years ago), but when our own dear brethren in Christ begin to sanction multiple marriage partners and fellowship folks who are the guilty part in causing a divorce as well as the innocent party. When they begin to teach that one isn't amenable to the law of Christ on marriage until they put themselves under said law, that when baptized for past sins they may remain in what after conversion would be called adultery, then we have even greater reason to be worried, and we had better be heard speaking up and speaking out or the church of our Lord will be so filled with adulterers and such that it will take Christ's return to settle things. (Matthew 19:1-9; Romans 7:1-4; Matthew 5:32; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18; 1 Corinthians 7:10-11; 39).

  Redefining doctrine to suit the practices of our sin cursed society isn't the answer to our problems of immorality, no, no, repentance and a return to the law of Christ is. Also churches must begin to deal with those who are "living in adultery" (Colossians 3:5-7). Paul said to "avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife (not someone else's) and let every woman have her own husband (not someone else's) for that is fornication.

8).        REDEFINE SIN-GIVE IT ANOTHER LABEL

   Immodesty - just changing styles
   drunkenness- a sickness
   lying - psychologically impaired
   stealing-  they would waste it any how
   bad language- I'm no prude
   adultery-  sexually active
   homosexuality- alternate lifestyle
   gambling -  every thing's a 'gamble'

 The above is somewhat like what we earlier spoke of concerning "situation ethics." You can "justify" anything under the sun if you don't believe there are any unchangeable standards for human conduct! We need to call things that are wrong what Christ does, sin! I couldn't remember all the new "handles" given the above sins.

9). GET YOU TO MISS SERVICES OFTEN WITHOUT A REASON GOD ACCEPTS

 About the first thing that shows one to be on his/her way out of faithful service to Christ, and back into service to Satan, is, they will begin to find all manner of excuses not to assemble with the people of God. Then they will begin to bad mouth those who are at least faithful to attend even though they may not be as mature in other areas of their life as they should be. They will quibble over whether or not it is essential to make all of the services based especially on the use of (Hebrews 10:23-29). See (1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11-21; 1 Peter 5:5).

10). TELL YOU THE BIBLE CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD

 Then you will not study. You will see no real reason to compare that taught with the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). Doctrine will now mean little if anything to you if you are convinced of this. Here too, Satan gets a lot of help from Protestant so called "pastors" and Roman Catholic so called "priests." The Bible tells us to understand it when we read in more places than you can shake a crooked stick at! (Ephesians 3:1-4; 4:1-2; Romans 16:17-18; 2 John  9-11; Jude 3;  Ephesians 5:17; 1 Corinthians 1:10-12; Matthew 7:15). Many more which have a bearing on this matter could be cited but these should suffice.

11). TAKE AWAY THE FEAR OF ETERNAL TORMENT

 The doctrine of eternal torment has fallen into disrepute nowadays. Many who claim to believe the Bible have cut those passages out of their theology like Jehoikin did the pages of the old Testament when the scribe Baruch read him God's will. Did that change what God's will was in his case? Why, no! Will it make it untrue if we decide not to believe in torment in hell for the ungodly and the disobedient? Why no!  Jesus believed very deeply in hell and spoke of it in graphic language too clear to misunderstand in such passages as (Mark 9:43-49; See Matthew 23:33; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9; Revelation 20:12-15; Matthew 25:46).

12).       DISTRACT YOU FROM LISTENING TO THE PREACHER'S SERMON-OR CLASS DISCUSSIONS

 I would distract you while the preacher was speaking. It only takes a split second to destroy a point he has worked hours to prepare  for presentation. If you miss the full force of it, you will not make application to your life. That's exactly what Satan desires.

 I would influence you to read the song book, whisper to a friend, play with a cute baby or whisper to your wife or husband just a little, just until the point you needed most to hear was lost to your ears.

 I would tell you that to visit with folks is much more important than listening to the radio program. After all, I have heard everything he may say all of my life. He just says it over and over. This way, other Christians, visitors, children etc., will also think that this is of little importance.

 I would have you convinced that you don't get much out of the class sessions anyway. Besides there are just a few who fuss and argue over about every passage under consideration. How much preparation have you made for the Bible class period? You get out of something in proportion to how much you put into it.

13).       I WOULD TAKE EVERY WORD THE PREACHER HAS TAUGHT WHETHER IN THE  CLASS SESSION OR THE SERMON OUT OF YOUR MIND (HEART) SO IT WOULD HAVE DONE YOU ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD WHATSOEVER TO HAVE ATTENDED THE SERVICES TODAY.

14.  WHEN THE INVITATION TO ACCEPT AND OBEY THE LORD JESUS IS EXTENDED, I WOULD SEE THAT SOMEONE DISTRACTED YOU (FOR IT ONLY TAKES A SECOND TO DESTROY THE MOOD THAT WAS SET IN YOUR MIND BY THE POWER OF THE PREACHED GOSPEL)! THEN YOU WILL NOT HEED CHRIST'S CALL TO "COME AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST" (Matt. 11:18-30; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; John 6:44-45).

           If you are here today and have not allowed Satan to distract you, IF YOU BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST AND YOU ARE READY TO TURN IN REPENTANCE AND FOLLOW HIM, while we stand and sing won't you come and yield your life to King Jesus? Come to the front of this assembly confess your faith in Christ Jesus and we will assist you in putting on Christ in the final act of the new birth, water baptism in to Christ and into the one body, His church.  Won't you come, now?

Kenneth E. Thomas, preacher at Pekin, Illinois church of Christ. We meet at 1451 Valle Vista Boulevard. Each Lord's day at 10:00 AM for Bible classes. Worship assembly from 10:45 to approx. 11:45. Lord's day evening at 5:00 PM. Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM. All are welcome to attend. Call for a FREE home bible study by appointment.