Resisting the Mark of the Beast: Lessons from the Courageous Life of Marie Durand - Leah Hodge (Sermon Audio) Go Teach All Nations - 2546

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go, therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Leah Hodge. Speaker B Well, good morning everyone and happy Sabbath. It's good to be here. It's a privilege to actually be in the pulpit for God and I don't take it lightly. But today the topic is resist. And before we start, I just want to say another word of prayer, if that's okay. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we get to hear your word. And I just pray now, Lord, for your Holy Spirit. I pray for you to send your heavenly angels here. I pray that you'll bind the enemy and cast him from this place and that we all may hear your word today. In Jesus name, Amen. So we're going to hear about a lady named Marie Durand. Now this lady, before we get into actual story, I want to show you where she lived in Bible prophecy. Now, the 1260 day Bible prophecy is where she lived. Now it's mentioned numerous times in the Bible. I haven't put them all up there. It's quite a significant prophecy. And you find in Daniel, it's named as a times time and half a time there, the little horn wearing out the saints, the most high. Also Revelation, it's named as 42 months. And that's talking about the Old and New Testament witnessing in sackcloth and ashes. And Revelation 12, it's called the wilderness experience of God's church. And then in Revelation 13, it's there as the sea beast power persecuting God's people. So she lived in this time period. And when did that start, my friends of Bible prophecy? When did this start? 538 A.D. so if you haven't studied this before and you want to know more, please come and talk to us. There's sure there's someone who would love to study the Bible with you on this topic. And when did this 1260 day prophecy finish? 1798. So we're picking up the story in the time of the Reformation. And this is actually in France. She was from France. And it's not a pretty picture of the time that she lived. France was in religious and political upheaval. There was a series of about eight civil wars that happened. Millions upon millions of people were killed and slaughtered, some through violence, some through disease, some through famine. And one of the most notorious days that we have on record is the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, where thousands were butchered over about a two month period. And you might have heard of this before if you believed in the Bible, if you held to your faith, you were considered a heretic, you were persecuted, you were fined, you imprisoned, or you went to the stake, or you were sent to the galley. And this is, and this was happening year after year. Now something really good happened for the Protestants here because this was. Sorry I didn't mention this war was between Catholics and Protestants. This is what the civil war was over. There was something called the Edict of Nantes in 1598 by King Henry IV. Now this is one of his major achievements for Protestants. And this ensured the coexistence of peaceful coexistence of Catholics and Protestants. It gave them their religious freedom, their freedom of conscience. They'll be able to worship according to their Bible and their own dictates. And so this was really good for the people of France because it actually stopped a lot of bloodshed that was happening over this 36 year period leading up to Henry's reign there. However, unfortunately, this did not last. And when King Henry. Not king, sorry, who did I say before? That's meant to be King Louis, by the way, King Louis xiv. When he started to reign, he revoked this edict of nuts. And this consequently started up the fires of persecution again. This was 87 years after this edict was first brought in. So the Huguenots, this is what French Protestants were called, they were called Huguenots. They started being persecuted again. This revocation, all their church buildings were to be pulled down and destroyed. Protestant pastors had to give up their rights as a pastor or go into exile. And many of them did immigrate out of France. A lot of them were killed as well. There was a whole congregation of Protestants worshipping in a barn and they were just all wiped down and massacred in one hit. The people who stayed in France and didn't leave because of this revocation, they were called new converts and they were stripped of their Protestant title and they were called Catholics. They had to attend Mass, they had to have their children baptized. And when they were dying, they had to receive extreme unction. But many of these new converts kept practicing their Reformed religion in their family circle, in private gatherings and in secret meetings. 26 years after the revocation of this edict, a little baby was born, Marie Durand, into the family of Etienne Durand and Claudine Durand, who were, as a Protestant family. This was in 1711. And this was in. This is their family home. It's Actually a museum. Now you can go to the Vivarais region in southern France and their home is now there on display as a memorial to Protestants. Pierre was her older brother and he is a well known Protestant preacher and pastor, which was against the law. Now this was the time of what's called the Dragon Age. Who's heard of the Dragon Age before? I don't know if I'm saying that correctly. Well this, I'd actually never heard of it before but this was one of King Louis XIV tools of trying to get them to stop practicing Protestantism and revert back to Catholicism. They'd get soldiers, unruly cruel soldiers and they'd put them in the homes for them to feed and to house them against their will. The soldiers would live there, eat with them. There would be abuse, there'd be violence, there'd be intimidation for them to revert to Catholicism. Thousands and ten thousands of Protestants even renounced their faith at the threat of the Dragon aids. And Marie Jerome's family became the victim of the Dragon AIDS when she was 8 years old. This led to a mass immigration with these Dragon aids. When they started happening, they fled to different countries like Dutch Republic, England, Germany, Geneva, Switzerland, North America, Sweden and Denmark. The Juron family though stayed strong and they had a lot of psalm centered worship. They found a lot of comfort in the Psalms. As you can imagine why they paid a heavy price for their illegal gatherings. This is a picture of their kitchen and just sorry, there they had was a recess for storing crockery and hidden above this was a deep cavity where they hid their Bibles. They also had another spot where they could hide a fugitive from hidden troops in a little catch it behind the fireplace. Now sadly, on the night of January 29, 1719, Marie Jeron's family was to be forever separated. Mother, father, son and daughter would never be together again. There was an ambush of five companies of soldiers that came to a secret meeting of worship that was being held at midnight. At that meeting only three girls were captured. However, Pierre or Pierre, Marie's brother, fled and was absent for seven years from France. And then Marie's mother, not too long after this secret worship meeting she was captured and imprisoned. Marie was eight years old and she never saw her mother again. When she was 18 years old, her father was then arrested and imprisoned for a life sentence in the Fort di Bresco. And shortly after, at age 19, so just one year later, Marie was arrested because of her connection with her brother who was practicing as a Protestant pastor, which was illegal. They were Trying to bait him. So they captured the father, Etienne, and then Marie, the sister, to try and stop him from preaching and practicing as a present pastor. They thought, if we get his family, he'll stop doing what he's doing. So Marie was imprisoned in the tower of Constance. And as she walked through this main heavy door, this was inscribed in the door. All hope abandoned. Ye who enter here into the dark, dank stone walls and room was to be her prison with other women Protestants. Conditions were difficult and degrading for the women. Upon imprisonment, their heads were shaved. There was no plumbing, bathroom or toilet facilities, no windows, Only the narrow defensive loopholes of a fortress. There was a well like hole, about 180cm in diameter, that pierces the center of the fort, thus opening the whole entire interior to the elements. The women could not easily bathe or cook. There was no medical facilities or birthing facilities for women who were arrested while they were pregnant. Not a nice place to be in. They were given a portion of bread and straw every day. The straw was to be for their bedding. Although some women chose to burn their straw to try and dry things. Because there was no sunlight that reached into this big, large room. They were frequently cold, wet and damp. They lived in constant dampness. And there was a lot of disease that started happening. This is what someone said in 1722, when they saw the prisoners there, abandoned by everyone, given to be the prey of vermin, destitute of clothes, looking like skeletons, breathing only so much as to show that they were not dead. However, Marie and all of these women could get free. Did you know that? All they had to do was abjure their faith. All they had to say is recant, I don't believe in the Bible. And then he could go free. And that temptation came to them every day. And you know, some women did indeed do that. They found, and they chose to give up their faith. Just two years after Marie's imprisonment, she learned of the arrest and trial and execution of her brother by hanging. Although she was surrounded by these circumstances, Marie Durand refused to be broken by her circumstances. She rose up and became a leader among the women in the tower. She encouraged them to preserve hope and faith in God, even amidst the squalor and wretchedness of their circumstances. She led them in song and prayer. She wrote numerous letters to the Protestants on the outside world and advocated for the needs that they had for better living conditions. And she actively petitioned the authorities for a book of psalms to be given to all the women in there. For Marie Durand, freedom From the prison without freedom of conscience. Was not freedom worth having? Jaron refused to convert and remained in that dungeon for 38 years. She was finally released at the age of 57, when public opinion turned against the oppression of protestants and the tower of Constance was closed. She died in her home eight years later. Scratched in the limestone floor of the tower of Constance is this writing in French? It says resist. Now, no one knows who actually scratched this. This was actually scratched near the refuse hole. There was one hole they used to go to the toilet. This was scratched there, I believe by a knitting needle or something. But no one knows who exactly wrote scratched that in there. But it's been closely associated with Marie Durand for over two centuries now because she was a woman who bravely resisted the tyranny of the French king and of the Roman Catholic church. She was a heroine of freedom of conscience. I just want to go quickly into some lessons that we can learn from Marie's life, and then I want to dive into where we are in Bible prophecy and what we and how we can resist. So Marie resisted doubt and unbelief. She didn't live by her circumstances. She lived by faith, not by sight. Marie resisted freedom, and she chose to suffer the affliction with God's people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. She ministered to others in her affliction. She was an advocate for the needy. She fought for better living conditions. She served while she was there. That's something that we need to learn to do, too. And lastly, she resisted the beast power and feared God rather than man. I want to switch gears now and go and look at where we are in Bible prophecy, because do we have the same beast power to resist as Marie Durand? Yes, we do. Now, this is a picture I got from hope through prophecy, if you wanted to look that up and get one for yourself, because I find it quite good. We are living where? Right here. We're living in the time of the investigative judgment, which started when? In 1844. We're living in the time of the first, second and third angels message that's to be proclaimed to the world. And we've got this ahead of us here, the Sunday law crisis. We've got the latter rain and the loud cry, which is exciting. And then we've got the time of trouble and the close of probation. This is where we're living. We have the same beast to resist as Marie Durant. The mark of the beast crisis is coming upon us in darkness, and it's going to be Coming upon us, as Ellen White says, as an overwhelming surprise. We're going to be surprised even though we think we know, we don't know when it's coming. So the people who keep the commandments of God at the end of time, all 10 are going to be hated by the world. They're going to be hated, they're going to be persecuted, they're going to be betrayed by their family and friends. Who is ready to resist? We're not going to be able to buy or sell unless we receive the mark of the beast. Is this not going to be a strong temptation, not being able to buy food for our family? It is. This is going to be a strong temptation for us. Are you ready to resist? Let's have a reality check. None of us need expect that when the last great trials come upon us, a self sacrificing, patriotic spirit will be developed in a moment because needed. No indeed, this spirit must be blended with our what our daily experience and infused into the minds and hearts of our children, both by precept and example. That's found in testimonies volume 513 5. So I want to put it to you. To resist the mark of the beast that's from without, we must first resist the beast from within. Let me say that again. To resist the mark of the beast from without, we must first be daily resisting the beast from within. You might be thinking, what beast is in you? What beast is in me? What is the source of our temptations? Let us go to James 1. Let's open our swords. James 1, 13, 14. Please open your Bibles. What is the source of our temptations? James 1, 13, 14. And when you get there, please say amen. James 1, verse 13 and 14. Let no one say when he is tempted. I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Verse 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. What's the source of our temptations according to this verse? Does it say the devil? It says our own lust. The temptation is coming from our own heart. There are innumerable tempters, men, women, the devil, of course. But they have no power unless we have a traitor within ourselves. You know we have the key to the fortress. We can't, the enemy can't get in unless we let him in. So this is where the crucial battle has to be fought. It's within our own heart. This is where this temptation starts. One of the best results of temptation is that actually Shows you what's already in your heart. It reveals who you are. This quote here I found interesting. By the sifting of temptation, the genuine Christian will be revealed. Great controversy 625. By the sifting of temptation, the genuine Christian will be revealed. So there's a sifting happening. When we're tempted and it matters how we respond to temptation. Will Satan be successful in our hearts? Will he find room in our hearts? Will there be a traitor there for us? Let us look at the temptation of Jesus for a moment. Many look on this conflict between Christ and Satan as having no special bearing on their own life. And for them it has little interest. Maybe that's you. Maybe when you saw the scripture, you go, oh, yeah, I already know that story. Little interest. But within the domain of where every human heart this controversy is repeated. Never does one leave the ranks of evil for the service of God without encountering the assaults of Satan. The enticements which Christ resisted were those that we find it so difficult to withstand. And they were urged on him in a. In much greater degree as his character is superior to ours. With the terrible weights of the sins of the world upon him, Christ withstood the test upon appetites, upon the lust of the love of the world, and upon the love of display, which leads to presumption. These were the temptations that overcame Adam and Eve and that so how often readily overcome us. So these are broken up into these three temptations. In a sort of broad sense. Christ resisted these and we. Ellen White says. She says that we so readily are overcome by these things. So let's take note. The appetite and passions, love of the world, love of display. If you go to. We're not going to go there. But the Epistle of John says the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the what? The pride of life. This is to be our experience of where Christ's disciples read this quote because this is encouraging. I hope you're not discouraged, but I'm going to encourage you. The life of Christ's disciples is to be like his. A series of other uninterrupted victories. Who wants to have uninterrupted victories? Me not. Not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter. That's testimonies, volume 6307. How are you faring in the warfare each day? How are you faring? I've come up with sort of three categories on how you might be in one of these three. Either one, you're resisting, you're Fighting every day you're winning battles for Jesus. You know, you spend time in prayer and you're going to conquer and conquer. If that's you, praise God. There are some of us who have begun the fight. We've become weary in well doing and we've become discouraged. And there's a third group who have forgotten that they're actually in a war and they're not even fighting. They've just become a bystander and the war's going on and they're getting darts and wounds and everything and they're not, they're actually not really cognizant of it happening to them. Life has gotten busy. I've got bills to pay, I've got a job to go to, I've got kids to feed, I've got studies to do, got degrees to get. The cares of the world have overtaken them and they've lost the fight. They've lost the will to even fight. I'm going to get into some practical things because I like practical things. These are some of the sins of the flesh that we readily fall into. Anger and impatience. Now can I be vulnerable here this morning? Can I tell you something about me? Before I became a mother, I didn't actually realize I had a problem with anger. It's not until my sweet little daughter turned two or two and a half that my buttons started getting pressed every day and I was losing patience. I'm losing self control and I'm thinking, well, I didn't realize I had such anger in me. And there's a verse in the Bible that's become more sort of clear in my mind. It says a woman shall be saved through childbearing. And I'm thinking the Lord is revealing to me defects that I actually didn't know were in me. Anger, impatience. Are you quick, short to lose your fuse and temper? Do you have little, little patience when you're irritated or provoked? We'll see that something that I am seeking to overcome by the grace of God's selfishness, greed, the love of money is what the root of all evil, hatred, envy, rebellion, which is in the Bible says witchcraft and idolatry. These are those who got defiance and opposition to authority. Not just God's authority, but authority in our country, in our world. So you might not be think you're rebelling against God. You might think you're a Bible believing Christian. But if you have a problem with authority that shows that there may be some rebellion hidden in your heart. Pride, appetite and lust, gossip. I want to stop on this One for a minute. Some of us tempted with gossip. We like to talk about other people. We like to hear juicy details of other people. We have unrestrained conversations. And to cover it with a cloak of righteousness, we say, oh please pray for this person. But we really have no burden for them. We're not even praying for them ourselves. What about criticism and fault finding? This is one that is also a difficult one. We are tempted to find fault with everyone. Our leaders, our pastors, our elders, our brothers, our sisters. If we can find just if they were doing everything right, but one thing was wrong, we'd just focus on that one thing. Are you tempted to condemn and criticize everything and can never see the good in anyone? You can only see all the things they're doing wrong. Or they could be doing this better. They should have worn this. They shouldn't have said that. They should have made this dish and taken that out. Criticism, fault finding. You know that when you're doing this that you are working with someone. The devil. He's the accuser of the brethren. Let none censure and condemn others, for in doing so, in doing this, they are co laborers with him who is the accuser of the brethren, who would steal from their hearts every particle of love for one another. Christians will not see, seek to tear one another down in order to build up self, but will endeavor to strengthen and encourage one another. Gospel workers 4, 5, 9. Strife. You know people who like to debate and argue and find contention with everything unforgiveness. Now this one is some people are holding onto unforgiveness. And I get it. It's hard. People who have had suffered like terrible traumas and abuse in their childhood or in their adulthood, and they're holding onto this unforgiveness. Let's read this quote. He who is unforgiving cuts off the very channel through which alone he can receive mercy from God. We should not think that unless those who have injured us confess the wrong, we are justified in withholding from them our forgiveness. It is their part, no doubt, to humble their hearts by repentance and confession. But we are to have a spirit of compassion toward those who have trespassed against us, whether or not they confess their faults, however sorely they may have wounded us. We are not to cherish our grievances and to sympathise with ourselves over our injuries. But as we hope to be pardoned for our offences against God, we are to pardon all those who have done evil to us. That's from thought of the mount of Blessing 113.3. Back to this list. Bitterness and heresy, teaching and speaking false theology. Now, I want you guys to do something with me now, right now. Can you please count how many you think these sins of the flesh have to do with our tongue? How many do you think? And call out a number when you've counted them. Anyone counted, Someone says all of them. I think all of them. Generally, yes, but I counted seven in specifics. Definitely anger, impatience, definitely gossip, criticism, fault, finding, strife, unforgiveness and heresy. But I think all of them could have something to do with our tongue. But see that the tongue is a problem. I want us to go to James, Pick up your Bibles again. We're going to James. James 1, verse 26. James 1, verse 26. Because James is not afraid to call a spade a spade, and he tells you how it is. So James 1, verse 26. And it says in James 1, verse 26, if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. I like the way that the NLT puts it. If you can look up on the screen, if you claim to be religious but you don't control your tongue, you're fooling yourself and your religion is worthless. Who wants a worthless religion? And how scary that we deceive ourselves. You know, in James 3:2, actually, let's go there. James 3, verse 2. You can tell I've been studying the book of James because I have been for the last couple of months. James 3:2. And it says, for in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is perfect, a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. He's saying that if you can control your tongue, you're perfect and you can control every other part of your body. Isn't that powerful? You know when you go to the doctor and you're sick and they want to examine your physical condition, what does the doctor say? Stick out your tongue. And you know what James is saying? Essentially he's saying, stick out your tongue so I can see the condition of your heart. This is how we can assess ourselves, by what we're saying. I want to get closer to home, if that's all right. Because I believe that our homes are suffering and the devil is having a heyday in our homes. We're living so close to the end and our homes are broken. There's trouble happening, there's strife, there's hurt. There's pain, there's lots of things going on. And if we have a worthless religion in our home, what's going to happen to our family? How do we treat each other in the home? How do the husbands speak to their wives? And how do the wives speak to their husbands? Is there petty disagreements and arguments? Wanting to win the argument to prove your point that you're right? How do we speak to our children? Are we using harsh, sharp, snappy words? And how are the children speaking to their parents? James is saying that our tongue exposes the hypocrisy of our religion. We do not want a worthless religion. Our children are the first ones to pick up on hypocrisy. How many times have you heard this? And this is, I've heard this. So that's why I think you've heard it too, of children that have grown up in the church and left. And they say the Christians are a bunch of what, Hypocrites? And maybe we are hypocrites. Let's not be stumbling blocks to our family members. I want to go now to how do we resist the devil? How do we resist temptation? Because we have all these struggles that we go through on a daily basis, surprises, disappointments and temptations. Let's go to James 4. We're still in James, James chapter 4 and verse 7. So you just turn the page, or on the same page, James chapter four and verse seven. And it says, this is answering the question, how do we resist the devil? Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So how do we. How do we resist? Submit. It seems so simple, but it's actually hard to execute if you don't really. If you're a bit vague about what submission looks like, James actually paints a perfect picture of what submission does not look like. And if you want to read with me, I've got it on the screen here. James 4, 1 6. And then James 7 is what we just read. So if you don't want want to know what submission does not look like, let's just read this together. Or I'll read it and you can follow along. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members. You lust and you do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us, but he gives great a greater grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That's found read from the NASB version. So we've got a picture here of fighting wars, murders, quarreling. This is showing clearly of people who are not submitted to God. You know, submission is. Is a choice, and it's a matter of the will. And has God given us all free will? Yes, he has. So it is in ourselves that we have to make this, because our natural tendency, our natural flesh wants to rebel against the people and the circumstances that God allows into our lives to facilitate our submission. We need to come to the point when in the day when the submission tests come to us, that we say, not my will, but thy will be done. Because the submission tests are coming to us every day. But notice this in verse 6. It's only the humble that submit. The pride ever fights against this sweet surrender. The key here is, if we are submitting to God by default, we're resisting the devil. Whenever you're submitting to God by default, you're resisting the devil. Did you know that we need to submit? Look at this. Was Jesus in subjection to God? We know that he was. Jesus revealed no qualities and exercised no powers that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all his followers may possess if they will be in subjection to God as He was. So every day we are either resisting the voice of the Holy Spirit, or we are resisting the devil and temptation. Every day we're either resisting the voice of God or resisting the devil. We're either yielding ourselves to God or we're yielding ourselves into temptation and sin. Who do you want to resist? God? Surely not you want to resist the devil? In closing, I want to look at four practical steps to resist temptation. So we know that resisting temptation, resisting the devil is. Is submitting to God. So these are four practical steps of how to submit to God. The first one is confession of unconfessed sin. And you might be thinking, why have I put this as the first step? But you'll see in a moment. I believe we actually all struggle with this one. Not so much confessing our sins to God, but confessing to one another when we've done something wrong. I feel like we really do badly at this. We're not good at saying we've done something wrong to someone even though we know we have. And when we do, we don't really say it all. We sort of say, oh yeah, I'm sorry for what I'm done. Like when I teach my daughter how to confess, she has to say this thing that she's done wrong. She doesn't just say I'm sorry, she says I'm sorry for doing xyz. And so if, yeah, if we have unconfessed sin, we need to be confessing that. There's a great chapter in Steps to Christ on confession and it clearly spells out what confession is acceptable to God. Because if we have unconfessed sins in our life, do you know that this is giving Satan legal access to you? It is he rightfully. Because we've chosen his way has claiming you and we don't want that. We're in this warfare between Christ and Satan and there's a rules of engagement. And when, when we have unconfessed sin that we know is sin, God's hands are tied. He can't actually protect us anymore. And I'll show you this quote. All who indulge sinful traits of character or willfully cherish a known sin are inviting the temptations of Satan. They separate themselves from God and from the watch care of his angels. And as the evil one presents his deceptions, they are without defense and fall an easy prey. Let us not invite the one who hates us, the one who wants to destroy us and our family members into our lives. We need to close that door. And then we do that by confessing unconfessed sins. We've done something wrong to someone. We need to go and talk to them. And we need to talk to God if we need to. The second step, the second practical step is watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. And Jesus said these words in Matthew 26:41. He said that to his disciples, Peter, James and John. Do you remember that? What happened to Peter? What happened to all of them? They fell asleep. He said, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. Remember Peter, self confident Peter, zealous Peter who was ready to go to death with Jesus. What did he end up doing only just hours later? He denied his Lord. Not just once, not just twice. He denied him three times because he didn't watch and pray. If he watched and prayed, he would not have had this shameful record in the Bible for us to read. But you know what? It's Peter who wrote. And I know why he wrote this. Now be sober, be vigilant. For your adversary, the devil is walking about seeking whom he may devour. Peter had an experience about this, didn't he? We need to watch and pray. How is your prayer life? Are you satisfied with your prayer life? Many of us are doing exactly what the disciples doing. We're sleeping instead of praying. We're not getting up in the morning. It's cold, it's dark, I get it, it's nice and warm in bed. But we should be getting up and I know I should be getting up and praying. And we wonder why we're falling into sin and temptation. You know, there's a verse that says in First Thessalonians 5:17. Do you guys know that one? Pray without ceasing. I never took that literally. Now I'm taking it literally. I don't know why I never took it literally because I thought, yeah, praying without ceasing, that doesn't seem very practical. But I've found that if I have my morning devotions and I have my Bible study and then I leave, go about my day, I forget I'm easily going to fall into sin. I'm easily going to be tempted, I'll easily lose my patience. But I actually have expound found victory. When I am in a constant state of praying and surrender throughout my day, I always have to be in an attitude of prayer. And I found this is what it means to abide in Christ. This is what it means to be connected to the vine, to be constantly talking to him. Behold the Son of God bowed in prayer for his Father. Though he is the Son of God, he strengthens his faith by prayer and by communion with heaven. Gathers to himself power to resist evil and to minister to the needs of men. That's Acts of the apostles 56. This one is about watching. So we're to watch and we're to pray. Every Christian must stand on God continually watching every avenue of the soul. Where Satan, Satan might find access. He must pray for help, divine help, and at the same time resolutely resist every inclination to sin. By courage, by faith, by persevering toil he may conquer. Let him remember that to gain the victory, Christ must abide in him and he in Christ. Adventist Home 403 the next one is put on the whole armor of God. And I want to talk about the sword of the spear, spirit, because we need to put on the whole armor by faith. But every other armor is defensive and the sword is what offensive. It's how we attack, it's how we fight. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So how did Jesus, what did he use when saying, okay, what's the only thing Jesus used? It is written, we need to have the word of God in our minds, but the weapon needs to be taking place where the battle is. Does that make sense? If I'm in the Australian army and I've been deployed to the Middle east to go fight and I leave my weapons in Australia, what's going to happen to me in the Middle East? I'm going to get hurt, probably I'm going to die. I might die or I get wounded. We need to have the word of God with us in battle. Now where does the battle take place? In the heart, in the mind. It's no use to me, my Bible being on my bookshelf. It's no use to me, my Bible being in my car, the console of my car. It's no use to me, my Bible being in my pocket, a little pocket Bible. It's no use to me, my Bible being on my bedside table. Because when the hot moment of temptation comes, we do not have time to get our Bibles out and go through it. It has to be in our mind ready for combat at any given moment. That means we have to memorize our scriptures. Now we have to be strategic though, because Jesus, when he quoted scripture, where did he quote from? What did he quote from? He told. Yeah, but let me rephrase what I asked you. Did he start quoting from Genesis, saying about creation? No, he quoted scripture that was for that particular temptation, didn't he? That's where the power was. This is how we use the sword effectively. And we need to be hiding God's word in our heart. So we need to be memorizing scripture that we're struggling with a certain thing. We need to memorize scriptures about that. I've memorized a lot of scriptures since I became a Christian ten years ago. I memorized the whole book of Ephesians. But now I'm memorizing scriptures that are helping me deal with my impatience. And so one of my go to ones is my favorite One is James 1:19:20, which is be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger because the anger of man worketh not the righteousness of God. This is the one that I love to go to. And we. And you need to start memorizing scripture if you want to be successful. Because was Jesus successful? Yes, he was. This is the weapon that works and you never fails. The Last one. And I want to say that Marie Durand strengthened her faith by scripture too. The last practical point is aggressive service. What does this say? Idleness is what? The devil's playground. And that's a picture of King David there. How did David fall into sin with Bathsheba? He was meant to be at war. Who was he meant to be fighting? The enemies of God. What was he doing? He was at home. What was he doing there? Nothing. He was idle and temptation came in. So we just need to look at the example of Christ. Christ was always ministering to others. So much so that his family and friends said he was crazy. They didn't even have time to eat. He was always ministering to others. Acts, the Apostles 105 says, Strength to resist evil is best gained by aggressive service. And we see this in Marie Jeron's life. She was in that squalor. And what did she do? She was ministering to others. She was calling people for worship and prayer. She was writing letters to try and get better living conditions. This is just a summary of the practical steps to resist temptation. So I want to give you a charge right now. Resist talking about others faults or even thinking or dwelling on them. You'll never be able to love your brother or sister when you do that. Resist your doubts and unbelief. You know, if you want to doubt something, doubt your doubts. That's the only thing I want you to doubt. Resist discouragement under persecution, trial and suffering. Resist the temptation to conform to the standards and customs of the world. Resist watching and listening to worldly entertainment. Resist scrolling aimlessly on social media without purpose or intent. Resist pornography. Resist overeating. Resist speaking or listening to gossip. Resist laziness. Resist an unforgiving spirit. Resist impatience and temper. Resist the devil. Some temptations though, seem almost unbearable. I'm going to tell you how they'll go away like that now. If the one in trouble and temptation keeps his eye fixed on Jesus and draws nigh to God talking of his goodness and mercy, Jesus draws nigh to him. Sorry, we need to look to Jesus. You know that's the answer to everything. Jesus draws nigh to him. And his annoyances that he thought were almost unbearable vanish. Jesus is the answer. It sounds so simple. Letter 43, 1892. We're finishing now. To resist the mark of the beast, we must yield to the Holy Spirit. Now every day we are either resisting the devil or we're resisting God. The mark of the beast is going to involve a lot. It's going to involve our appetite, our jobs, our possessions, our freedom, even our life. Those same temptations that Jesus won the victory for are going to come to us in the mark of the beast. Let us yield to God and submit ourselves to him now, who has our very best intentions. If you desire to yield yourselves to God fully now, I want you to stand and sing our song of submission. I surrender all. Heavenly Father, please take our hearts and let them be wholly consecrated. Lord, to thee. We pray for your Holy Spirit that we will yield to your voice, Lord, every day, and we will submit ourselves unto you, that we may be found faithful and standing when you come in Jesus name. Amen. Speaker A This message was made available by the Dora Creek Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit Doracreek.church. Speaker A This program has been brought to you by 3 ABN Australia Radio.