Satan the God of Assyria - February 15th, 2026

So if you guys can rise again to your feet, I'm gonna be reading. Today's sermon is gonna be coming from Nahum 3 1 to 7, but I'll read for us just verses 4 to 5. Okay, and it reads, all because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries who sells nations by her harlotries and families by her sorceries. Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts, and I will uncover your skirts over your face and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace. Let's pray together. Father, we ask that this morning that you would minister to your people, teach us, equip us, and train us to discern truth from falsehood. And I pray that as your truth goes forth, that it would evoke in all of us the appropriate response of humility, terror, and great love.

Increase our faith as we go deeper into what is concrete truth in your scriptures. So bless our time. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats.

So can you discern which one is true and which one is false? I'm gonna be starting this morning's sermon by drawing you a picture with my words. So I want you to do your best to visualize the scenario in your heads. Alright? And I've used this illustration before, October 2024, about 16 months ago. So if you remember this, or if you've heard this before, don't say anything, just follow along. It actually will be helpful if you do remember it. Okay, but don't say anything. So we're gonna start by each of you picturing uh, let's say an Asian man about my height and my build. So a man about my size and my build, he leaves home. He's running, he jogs a little ways. At the corner, he makes a left.

He runs a little bit more, and then he makes another left. He jogs some more and then makes another left. And when he arrives at home, he sees two men waiting for him. They both have masks on.

Quietly think of the answer to these two questions. Who are those two masked men? Why is the man running? I'm gonna repeat this word for word. A man about my size, my build, leaves home running. He jogs a little ways, and at the corner he makes a left. He jogs a little bit more, then makes another left. He jogs a little bit more and makes another left. And when he arrives at home, there are two masked men waiting for him. One of them is not happy with what the man just did. Now, deception can come in many forms. Deception can come in the form of inserting a few harmless details or words here and there. I added the words, I added words that were not necessarily untrue, but they were deliberately unspecific or vague to divert your attention away from the truth.

Who cares what the size of the man is? Who cares what the look of the man is? And I added that one of the men was unhappy with him, and when I did that, I changed my tone, and I deliberately try to throw you off the path of truth in reality. I didn't say anything inaccurate, but I inserted and added details to purposely distort your understanding, and those insertions were deliberate. And it makes you think how many things are added to the gospel of Jesus Christ to sneakily turn it into a different gospel. Deception can come also in the form of inserting words to distract or divert, right? Or it can also come by leaving key details out. Had I used the words, a man leaves home plate running, the one word would have immediately and completely changed the entire picture, just one word.

That word would have changed the entire trajectory of the visual for you. So how many souls are plunged into ruin by just the key truth being left out of the gospel message just to make it more palatable. And the good news of the gospel has turned into just religious information because the horrible news of sin and the depth of man's depravity are missing from many presentations of that gospel message. So I'm going to share with you two humbling and sobering truths about the way of our fallen condition. So first, you and I are easily tricked. We are easily deceived. We are very easily manipulated. If you've ever cried watching a drama or a movie, there's proof right there. You've been played.

You cried over a made-up story and you liked it. You'll pay money for it, right? So first, you and I are easily tricked and deceived. We are gullible people, and we like being tricked. So second, there's a part of every single one of us that likes to be deceived. There's a magic show tonight at 7:30 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. The magician's name is Shin Lim, and that show is nearly sold out. Tickets are going from anywhere between 179 to 529. People will pay 500 to enjoy being deliberately tricked. Everybody knows that a magician's powers are not real. If they were, we would not go to the show. We would be scared, right? But magicians are great at illusions, at diversions, and at deception, and people will pay big money to be entertained and deceived.

So human beings, we like to have our ears tickled. We are attracted to trickery. We are moved by flattery. And we have no problem holding on to our opinions and preferences as facts when we don't like the truth. People willingly exchange the truths of God for lies. So one, we are easily deceived. Two, we like to be deceived. And hopefully, none of this is coming as a shock to you, right? These are things that are pretty much spelled out for us in the scripture because that is part of the human condition. 2 Timothy 3 13, evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. So most false prophets don't know that they're false prophets. Romans 1 25, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. Here's a bonus truth. We are living in a world under the control of an expert deceiver. Satan, the father of lies, John 8 44, and the master of disguises has always been up to no good. He is a liar and he's a murderer, and he is obsessed with diverting our attentions away from God, and he's obsessed with plunging us into ruin and destruction. He is obsessed with these things. And he is really good at deception. He makes lies believable. He schemes to convince us that the lies he tells are truths. And under Satan's influence, the taking of human lives has become justifiable. Evil has been celebrated, and actually been called good. Human achievements have been elevated over God's glory.

And Satan convinces man that man was not created by God. God was created by man. That all the order and the beauty that we see in the cosmos are just products and a combination of chaos, chance, and then a billion billions of years. Dissensions, envy, factions and strife, national and international hostilities, wars, constant rumors of wars have simply become the way of our fallen world. And Satan has convinced many in the world that God is to blame for all of that. And Satan has removed in the minds of many the truth that judgment is coming. No one is going to be able to pass this judgment by merit. That man without the intervention of the love of God and the atonement through the blood of Christ has no hope.

People don't want us to think about those things. Let's think of positive things. So Satan is an expert liar. He is beyond amazing at deception, and here's the reason.

So today, through Numbers 3, 1 to 7, we're going to be told of Assyria's doom and of their end. Why? Because as an entire nation and an empire, they've been plunged into ruin and destruction by the God of this age, Satan. The Assyrians had become almost unimaginably violent, and God was going to come to avenge. So when you think of a very violent people, you wonder how did they become this way? How did they become so cruel, so violent, and so ruthless? How did they get to this point in their history? Satanic deception. In the judgment of the Assyrian Empire, we're going to get a picture of the judgment that's going to fall all mankind. Satan is efficient, he's not creative. There have since been many Assyrias and many many Assyrias that have come and gone.

And what we're going to read about that's soon going to happen to Assyria in Naham's prophecy will in many ways become the spiritual reality for every single one in this world in the end times. So here's a sermon outline of today's passage of Nahum 3, 1 to 7. First, we're going to be looking through Nahum chapter 3, verses 1 to 3. Nineveh's fruit, the fruit of their deception. Fruit has two meanings. The first meaning of fruit, it's an identifiable product, right? That's where we get the word produce. And it's also used to say it's an outcome. So Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, they're called the city of bloodshed. Bloodshed was the product of the DNA in their lives. So the fruit of the deception of their lives was violence.

And Nineveh would eventually reap an outcome that they had sowed. And we're going to be provided with a very bloody scene describing the end of Assyria as a geopolitical nation. Trees are known by their fruit. You've heard that before. So in verses 1 to 3, we're looking at the fruit. And then in verse 4, we're looking at the tree. Okay? We're told of Assyria's spiritual DNA. Assyria was a satanic nation. Nineveh was a satanic city. So, of course, the fruit of their lives would be satanic violence. So, third, we're going to see through verses 5 to 7 that God would make Nineveh a display of his wrath. The Assyrians would be destroyed in the same way they had destroyed others, and that's the destiny that awaits them.

So they were destined for wrath. Holistic and all-encompassing wrath. So, first, the fruit of their deception. Second, the source of their deception, verse 4, and third, the destiny of the deceived, verses 5 through 7. And you're gonna have to pay very close attention because the things we see in Nahams chapter 3, 1 to 7 is pretty much a depiction of the world in which we live in today. So pay very close attention to the biblical thought that we see here. Nahum chapter 3, verses 1 to 3. The theme of all of Nahum chapter 3 is that the entire world will see the end of Assyria, and they're gonna clap their hands at their demise. They're gonna celebrate a Syria's fall. Why? Because their fruit had been so bitter, it's been so toxic and bloody.

And that's the theme of all of chapter 3. So I'm gonna start with the first three verses. Woe to the city of bloodshed, completely full of deception and pillage, her prey never departs. The sound of the whip, the sound of the rumbling of the wheel, galloping, horses and bounding chariots, chariots, horsemen charging, swords flaming, and spears flashing, many slain, a mass of corpses. There is no end to the dead bodies. They stumble over the dead bodies. So that's pretty bloody. If this was a movie scene, you would cover your kids' eyes, right? And we saw last week in chapter two that the Ninevites are going to be judged for their greed, their pride, and their hatred of man. Greed, pride, and hatred have always been the most obvious fruits of people who are deceived.

Man has always been prone to steal, kill, and destroy. And then to glory in their stealing and their killing and their destroying. And no one was better at those things in their day than the Ninevites. Nineveh was a city and Assyria was an empire that were historically savage. They were a cruel and a brutal people that pillaged and plundered everyone whom they had conquered. That was what they were known for throughout their world. So they were a very murderous people.

And the word for bloodshed here in the Bible was first used in Genesis chapter 4, verse 10, after Cain had murdered Abel. And he said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood shed is crying out to me from the ground. And this is Cain being taught to by God. And Cain is an archetype here.

Cain represents the deceptions of satanic false religion and satanic hatred. Abel's blood and the injustice and the evil of the act had echoed like a deafening cry in the ears of Yahweh. Murder was the violent fruit of Satan's treasonous rebellion against God. And so later in Genesis 9, 6, God vowed permanently to shed the blood of all blood shedders. Everyone who took the life of someone who's created in the image of God, God would avenge. Life is precious. So the lifeblood of every individual human being slain under the hands of another individual human being would cry out to God. So God is coming to avenge, and the Assyrians were a murderous people. They had taken the way of Cain, and that was the fruit of their very existence.

And they celebrated and delighted in the shedding of blood. Violence was their glory, right? And here's King Shalmaneser the third. This is what he had written. Okay, obviously, this translated into English. I slew their warriors with the sword, descending upon them like a dad when makes a rainstorm poured down. In the moat of the town, I piled them up. I covered the wide plain with the corpses of their fighting men. I dyed the mountains with their blood like wool. I took away from him many chariots and horses broken to the yoke. I erected pillars of skulls in front of his town, destroyed his other towns, torn down their walls, and burnt them down. So the Assyrians had chosen the way of Cain, and a woe would be declared to Nineveh the city, completely full of bloodshed, deception, and pillage.

So verse one gives us a description of the Assyrian produce. But then verse two and three gives us the outcome. The imagery of verses two to three historically was characteristic of the Assyrians in their conquest and the pillage of the nations. But here in verses two to three, it's not describing what the Assyrians were to do, but but it's detailing what the Assyrians would have done to them. The city of prey would herself become a pile of corpses. So God will repay with affliction those who afflict his people.

Their violence would be repaid with violence. Verse 2, the sound of the whip, the sound of the rumbling of the wheel, galloping horses, and bounding chariots, horsemen charging, and swords flaming, and spears flashing, many slain, a mass of corpses. There is no end to the dead bodies. They stumble over the dead bodies. And the Assyrians, they would be slaughtered, while they're trying to fend off both the flood waters that have come in and the Babylonian attackers. Yahweh was truly a vengeful God. He would exact an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, bruises for bruises, burns for burns, pillars of skulls for pillars of skulls. So what Assyria had done, they would have done to them. They had been an empire characterized by their being completely full of deception and pillage.

Other translations say, full of lies and murder. Lies and murder actually go hand in hand. And these were the fruits of their existence.

It was because they were like their father the devil.

And Satan's DNA was what drove the Assyrian nation. John 8 44. This is talking about the Pharisees. But let me read the description of the devil. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever the devil speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Satan was a murderer from the very beginning. Satan has always hated God, and he has always hated the people God had created in his own image. Satan has always sought to murder people, and then to get them to murder themselves. So murderous hate has its origins in Satan.

And every human being who remains in murderous hatred and violence is of the devil. A tree will be known by its fruit. A good tree cannot bear good bad fruit, a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Satanic trees always bear satanic fruit. You guys following along? Okay, first John chapter 3, verses 8, and then I'm going to read 10 to 13. The one who does sin is of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning. The Son of God was manifested for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious, manifested. Everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as who?

Cain, who was of the evil one. Did you guys catch that? Cain was satanic. He was of the devil. He was of the evil one. You caught that? He slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. So do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you. Hatred is the fruit of the father of lies. Persecution is of the devil. Murderous hatred is of the devil. All forms of murder, homicide, suicide, abortion, and even character assassinations that we call slander are all satanic and demonic in nature. Jealousy, envy, which inevitably gives rise to bitterness, hatred, and murder are all of the devil. And Satan loves it when people believe lies about other people and begin to hate them.

Satan loves it when man ultimately desires to injure man. Satan has always delighted in getting people killed to getting people to steal, kill, and destroy, because he is the thief of all thieves, the father of murderer and the father of lies. So the ultimate fruit of the father of lies is murder and hatred. And how does Satan accomplish his purpose? He prowls around, he lures and distorts, and then he misleads and blatantly lies. Satan lies by adding details. Satan lies by leaving details out. He lies to get people to hate God.

And we've seen this from the very beginning. So the first things spoken by Satan recorded in the scriptures are a misleading question and then a blatant lie. Okay? So Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 to 4. The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, You shall not eat from it, you shall not touch it lest you die. God never said, Don't touch it. Okay, but uh the serpent then says to the woman, you surely will not die.

So Satan started by throwing out a seemingly harmless question to the woman. And when she inaccurately quoted God, Satan pounced on her, naivety, and then boom. This is the lie that has plunged all of mankind into ruin and destruction. You surely will not die. How many of you guys know you're gonna die? Satan had his way. Death will come upon all men, and then the blame game would be introduced into the world. Distrust is entered into the world. Adam blamed Eve. Eam blamed God for having put the serpent in the garden of Eden in the first place. That's your fault. And then going forward, everything in all of creation will be doomed to die, and the entire world would be under the control of this murderer and the father of lies.

First John 5, 19. So it's important to remember that the struggles that we wage in this life is never ultimately against people. Amen.

But they're our easy target because you can't physically, spiritually fight something in a demonic spiritual form. So we hate the person. We blame the people. But it says in Ephesians 6, 11 and 12 that our struggle is against the devil and against all the spiritual forces of darkness and wickedness. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against people, but against the spiritual forces behind the rulers, the authorities against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. So all wicked nations and all the empires that have come and gone in the world have always been under the power of the evil one.

The democrats are under the rule of Satan. The republicans are under the rule of Satan. You guys follow?

A satanic. Monarchies submit to Satan. Democratic republics submit to Satan. All of these things that I just mentioned: the Democrats, the Republicans, socialism, capitalism, monarchies, democratic republics, they all result in strife and death. You guys tracking? Why did Cain do what he did? He belonged to the evil one who was a murderer from the beginning. Why were the Assyrians a cruel, murderous, and bloodthirsty people? Because they had followed the way of Cain. Jude verse 11. Because they too were of the evil one. They were under satanic influence. Look what's happening in our world today. Deception and killings a plenty, not just in America, all over the world.

And the source of all human deception and hatred is Satan. Nahum chapter 3, verse 4. All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries, and families by her sorceries. This is both a description of Satan and everyone under satanic influence. Harlotries and harlots and mistresses, what do they promise? Pleasure. Charming ones do not repel. Right? If someone's charming, they are attractive and they lure and entice. Satan doesn't draw near to entice man in the form of a monster. He comes disguised as 2 Corinthians 11. What does he come disguised as?

Say it. Angel of light. Satan appeals to your senses. He appeals to your instincts. He does not repel unless your heart is different. Harlotry may have multiple meanings, but the primary word, the meaning of the word harlotry in the Old Testament is in the describing of false religion and idol worship. On the surface, false gods look like real gods. On the surface, idols promise blessing. And any time people engaged in idol worship in the scriptures, there was a degree of sorcery and superstition and voodoo involved in their idol worship. Assyria had been led astray by false gods. And as a result, the Assyrian leaders had opened themselves up to demonic influences through their idolatry. So the Assyrians were under the influence of the charming one, the mistress of sorceries.

And then the Assyrians employed the same strategies of the charming one to bait and to lure nations into traps. So Assyria lured people historically into slavery by appealing to a false sense of protection, security, and comfort. If you side with us, we will be your defense. So here, I'm gonna give you the Assyrian messenger, Rhapsekah's words to the people of Judah. It's a little lengthier, but I felt that so many of the details in there are going to be helpful, so please pay attention. Rabshaka is a smooth talking messenger who literally can speak the language of the Hebrew nation. So he speaks against Hezekiah, one of Judah's few godly kings, and he calls Hezekiah a godly king, he calls him a liar.

Alright, so let's read.

So now come make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to provide riders for them. Then Rabshaka stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from his hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, Yahweh will deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, make your peace with me. Come out to me, and each of each of his vine and each of his fig tree, drink each of the waters of his own cistern.

You're gonna have fresh tap water, like the Ninevites do in your house. Do you notice how liars call truth tellers liars? People who lie, what do they first accuse of other people of? You liar. No, you're a liar. So who do we believe? Liars are always saying that others are lying. What's the message here? Don't listen to Yahweh. Don't listen to Yahweh's king or his word or his messengers. Listen to me. I'll give you two thousand horses. I will give you peace. I will protect you. I will give you fruit of the vine, fig from the trees, and your own wells. Satan promises and lures with false hopes of protection, comfort, luxury, power, and happiness. And those who are under Satan's control and power use the exact same strategies.

Trust us. Follow us and we will protect you. We will help you prosper and get rich. Don't vote for them. Vote for us. We will make this world a better place. We will provide you with security and happiness. So in other words, the charming ones of the world and the charming one of the world, they all appeal to the senses to the destruction of souls. And remember the things that are characteristic of us, we are easily what? Deceived, and we like it. Proverbs 7, 21 to the discipline of an ignorant persuasions, she entices him with her flattering lips, it's not up here of this proverb.

It says that this will cost the poor man his soul. So it's imperative that every single one of us learn how to discern truth from falsehood. Amen. And especially that we learn how to discern truth from nearly truths. And that's harder. I started the sermon with an illustration. For those of you who had heard me share that baseball illustration before, you knew what exactly to listen for. You were paying less attention to what I was saying, and you were honing in on to what I was meaning. Right? Because you had been previously told the truth, and you have been since trained not to be distracted or deceived, right? So it's important to remember the spiritual force behind every nation's wicked ways is Satan.

Amen. And one of the greatest strategies of Satan is to get those of mighty nations to think much of their nation. To think that their nation is great. Let us become great. Let us make a name for ourselves. Let us build a city in whose tower will reach up into the heavens, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth. Do you know who said that? Babel.

And we're going to be looking at this next week. Progressive liberalism is easily employed by Satan to deceive. Nationalism is easily employed by Satan to deceive. Why? Because a lot of the ideas behind both liberalism and nationalism contain a lot of truth. So much of both progressive liberalism and nationalism comes from ideals based on truth. They have the form of godliness, but they have no power. Progressive liberalism is not biblical. Nationalism, even Christian nationalism is not biblical. They both contain dangerous ideologies.

So stay tuned.

And the question that's in your mind is like, but that's all those are all the options. Right, left, Republic, Democrat, liberalism. Ah! So how do we function? Nod your heads if you feel tension. Yeah, because you're citizens who belong to a different kingdom. So you're homesick. Welcome to Christian life, all right? Satan's strategy has always been to divide and conquer, and he loves to turn brother against brother, friend against friend, countrymen against countrymen. He loves to turn Christian against Christian. So it's absolutely imperative that we understand who our enemy is and who our enemies are not. Amen.

No matter who becomes president, America is doomed. Do you guys realize this? No empire has survived historically. Okay, so sooner or later, we're done. And people are scared. But we have to understand that a Christian has to take every opinion, every feeling, every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, who is not in this world. Amen. He did not come to make this world a better place. He came to get rid of it and in the process save people out of it to make a new heavens and a new earth. So, 2 Corinthians 10, 3 to 5, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, as we tear down speculations, every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

We are divinely and spiritually equipped to successfully wage war for the demolition of strongholds. And here's another thing I want to reemphasize. We need to remember that people are never our enemy. Amen. Even the ones who have injured you are not the enemy. The harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, the thief, the murderer, Satan, he's the source of all the deception that we see around us. He is the enemy. So thirdly, the destiny of the deceived, and this is going to be a simple and a relatively short point, because next week's sermon is all going to be jumping off of this point. So let's read Nahum 3 5 to 7. Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts, and I will uncover your skirts over your face and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace.

I will throw detestable filth on you and display you as a wicked fool, set you up as a spectacle, and it will be that all who see you, Nineveh, will flee from you and say, Nineveh is devastated. Who will console her? Will I seek comforters for her? Nineveh, who had gloried in their power and strength, are going to be disgraced and shamed. They will be exposed and mocked for their shameful nakedness. Do you guys have, I mean, don't visualize this. The skirt is over their face. Everyone's looking at their privates. And you're like, ha ha. And it's a mockery. They will be displayed as idiots permanently, wicked fools eternally. So the Ninevites who fell in the battle of 612 BC are in hell still to this day in eternal torment and shame.

They're unlike Jonah's Ninevite days, right? Those guys repented, Matthew chapter 12, verse 41. They're in heaven. These guys are spectacle and an examples for all the nations to learn from for all time. So here, God is prophesying that Nineveh Nineveh has become a byword. No one's going to be want to be associated with them. Everyone is fleeing from Nineveh. No one is looking to console. No one is looking to comfort. Next week we're going to learn that they're clapping their hands. Praise God, Nineveh's done. Nineveh's wound is permanent and eternal. All their riches and fame and pleasure that the harlot had promised turned out to be a lie. The charming one who had whispered a ton of flattery had enticed them with nothing but lies.

The mistress of sorceries had provided nothing but illusions and trickeries to deceive people into thinking that they were stronger than God, that they didn't need God, and they could do whatever they wanted with God's people. And this is what we are often promised in this life, right? Wealth, health, happiness, endless pleasures outside of God. But Satan's crafty. You know another strategy he uses? Use God to get health, wealth, and happiness. Go to church to get wealth, health, and happiness. Satan is unrelenting.

You guys have read that before, right? Their obsessions are always for this life, and that's the hallmark of an enemy of the cross of Christ. Philippians 3, many walk, of whom I have often told you, and now even tell you, even crying, as enemies at the cross of Christ. And this is the description of the enemy of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame, who set their thoughts on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the fruit of deception is all around us. The God of this age has blinded the mind of unbelievers, so they can't see the truth of the gospel, 2 Corinthians 4.

But because of the hardness of man's heart, God then sends a deluding influences that the worldly man believes and clings to all satanic lies at truths. 2 Corinthians 2, uh 2 Thessalonians 2.11. So think about this.

People of the world are emboldened in their deception because they believe lies to be truths. Some of the most dangerous people that are around us today are not those who have outright rejected Christ. The most dangerous people in your lives are people who are churched, but who are wrongly and dangerously believing that God is on their side of their unbiblical beliefs. You know what the Bible calls those kinds of people? Wolves in what? In sheep's clothing. But wolves in sheep's clothing are emboldened because they believe with all their heart that they are right. And they are enraged with what they think is a righteous anger. So here's I'm going to train your eyes a little bit. The truly righteous are never hateful.

Amen. The truly righteous give expression of their anger through grief, repentance, and prayer. The truly righteous are never hateful and condescend other people. The truly righteous pray, Lord have mercy on us. The falsely righteous will say, God get rid of them. So that's an easy way to pick off certain people. Righteous people are always looking to edify even their enemy in love. 1 Corinthians 11. Amen. So it's imperative that you and I know what we're up against. Many in the church today are engaged in friendly fire and are losing battles, and Satan is having a lot of fun. So how do we make sure ours is the destiny of the redeemed and not the destiny of the deceived? I'm just going to close with a reading of just Apostle Paul's words.

Put on the full armor of God, so you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all of that, having taken up the shield of faith, which which you will be able to extinguish, all the flaming arrows are the evil one.

Also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times, with all prayer and petition in the spirit to this end, being on the alert for whom? Satan, with all perseverance and all petition for the saints. May we not enter daily into battle with missing pieces of armor. Amen. Satan is a master strategist. Statement's strategy will be attack where the armor pieces are missing. He's not going to hit you where the armor is there. He's going to hit you where it's missing. So if you read a lot, you don't pray. You know where you're going to get hit, you're going to get hit. If you read and pray, but you don't really care about lost souls coming to faith, you don't evangelize.

He's going to hit you there. Make you self-righteous. If you walk by sight and not by faith, and you don't have a shield of faith, he's going to hit you with a lot of logic, a lot of science that is corrupted. Let us put on the full armor of God. We are not the underdog in this fight, because 1 John 4 4, what does it say? Greater is he who is in you than he who's in the world. Amen. So we're living in scary times. And the Bible actually is coming true. Let us walk by faith and not by saying. Let's pray together. Father, help us really to be sober, alert, awake, and discerning. Help us to keep our mouths shut when we think we are in the right, but we actually don't know what we're talking about.

When others assail us and slander us, give us love. Then Lord, help us to be prayerful so that you can build the church that truly is not just pleasing to you, but useful to your glory and purposes. So we pray for your mercy in our generation. And would your light shine in and through us as the darkness increases? I pray all this in Jesus' name.