Satan's Strategies - Pr Daniel Christie - GTAN2530

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising 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, Pastor Daniel Christie. SPEAKER 3 The subject we're going to deal with today is very much in line with World events. Before we go into our topic, I just want to bow our heads for a short prayer and ask the Lord to bless us. We've got a lot to get through, and you all know that I preach short, so while you're laughing, okay, so we're gonna. We're gonna pray for God's guidance here because we've got a lot to get through, so. All right, Father in heaven, as we go to open the Word of God, we just ask briefly that the name of Jesus Christ is uplifted, that the love of God through the pain, the suffering of this world is revealed like a bright light shining through the dark clouds. So I pray as we go through youh Word that yout preach and speak to us in Jesus' name, amen. As my brother who prayed about world events, anybody today who turns news on can see that the world is in an interesting place. And I certainly in my lifetime, I'm only 18. In my lifetime as a young man, I've certainly not seen the world like this before. And, you know, there's always been issues in the world, but, you know, as we look around, whether it's the COVID situation or the global economic forums and conversations that are going on as they talk more about a socialist system worldwide, whether or not it comes to fruition, or the war in Ukraine, as we've just been praying for. Even that, just to look at home, are we not facing more floods and natural disasters? Are we seeing on an economic scale, how's it been fueling your car up lately? Has that been fun? We see everywhere from economics to morality, to culture, to politics, it doesn't seem like things are getting better. Amen? And it raises a lot of questions for people. In fact, many of you in conversation have asked me, Pastor, is this the end? Is this the signs we're looking for that tell us Jesus is about to return? If you're not familiar with Scripture, the Bible talks a lot about the end days. And so Christians are often looking to the future going, When will it be? When will the Lord return? Because it's the great hope of the believer. in our lives. But what I wanna do today is to sort of take a lot of those conversations I've had with people and try to boil it into a sermon and give you some signs to look for. Because I think for most people, that the moment a politician says something or there's some, or the Pope says something or anything happens, people go, that's it, this is the end. But more often than not, we're not looking at the larger picture. And so I wanna give you some tools, the true signs to look for, and how more so to understand why things are going on. And we start with a very important text in Ephesians chapter six. The Apostle Paul writing to the Christian church describes the Christian experience as warfare. He says here, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now notice this, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. In other words, Paul says that although you may see politicians and people in positions of power gaining their advantage or seeing evil things happening in the world, Remember that behind all of it is who? Satan. That there is actually evil forces at work within the world pulling the strings, so to speak, with a specific agenda. This has always been the case in history. There are people who are good and bad in positions of power. Not all people in power are bad. There are good and bad people. But just as people can be influenced by God, people can be influenced by evil. And I would say this, friends, that as we turn the television on today, we can see clearly that Satan is at work. But more so, I want to show you why he's doing this. What is Satan doing and why it is he's doing it. So we're going to look today at Satan's attack on humanity, not just on the religious world, but on all people, whether you're religious or not, God loves people. He loves everybody, even people who don't believe in God. God loves them. And Christians are out to serve all humanity. So as we see here in Scripture, we're gonna see in Matthew chapter 24, this question coming up to Jesus. Now, many of you have probably read or heard the term, signs of the what? Times. So you've probably heard that term. This is the chapter where Jesus gives the signs of the times. or the signs to look for as we approach the end of time. And as we go through this, what I'm going to show you is that Jesus doesn't simply list a bunch of things or events that will happen, but they're actually Satan's strategy. They're Satan's what? Strategy. Now, we often read in Matthew 24, where Jesus says there'll be earthquakes and famines, we go, oh, there'll be earthquakes and famines. But that's not actually what Jesus is saying primarily because friends, I could get up here and say, I reckon there's gonna be more earthquakes. Is that a pretty good guess? Yeah, there's always been earthquakes. There's always been wars. Jesus wasn't saying anything amazing. They knew there was- anybody could say there's wars or earthquakes. But what Jesus is saying is that each one of these, and when you study Matthew 24, this is actually Satan's strategy to achieve an end goal. So we're gonna look at Matthew 24 like this. And the second thing is, that each one of them affects the other. It's almost chronological, like a domino effect. As one thing happens, the next thing causes the next thing. And so we're going to study this today. So let's take a look at this verse. Matthew 24, verse 7 says, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. Are we seeing this in our world today, friends? Have we always seen war? But if you study Matthew 24, and especially where He says it again in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus would say that these signs will not only happen, but they will increase in intensity and frequency, like the birth pains of a pregnant woman. Now, ladies who've had children, how do the birth pains start? Do they start Intense, no, they start mild. I remember my wife had her first contraction, she's like, eh, that was it. I'm like, oh, that's not so bad. All this talk of these ladies complaining, and a few hours later I knew what they were talking about. Okay, so what that increases in intensity and frequency and why, as they get more intense, what's coming? The baby, right? So Jesus says the same thing. So it's not that there hasn't been wars or famines or any of these things, but rather if you see in the world, They're more intense and frequent and frequent and frequent and frequent. What's about to happen? Jesus is about to return. Now, are we seeing this friends? Absolutely, in the world. But more so as we look at the strategy, Satan is actually intentionally behind a lot of these things. And we see here that conflict, war and strife is an intentional strategy of Satan to achieve an end goal. Satan is behind the evil of this world. Now, I noticed this quote from Great Controversy. Satan delights, Satan what? What's that word? What does he delight in? SPEAKER 1 War. SPEAKER 3 For it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. Does war bring out the best in people? No, it destroys lives. It brings more harm than good. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another. Is it possible that the wars we see in the world, that Satan, the principalities and heavenly places are behind pulling the strings and influencing political leaders? For he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of the preparation to stand in the day of God. We know that Satan is all through Scripture is behind politicians, behind people, to achieve an evil goal, to sow discord within humanity. So why does he do this? Why does he want war and conflict in the world? There's many reasons, but he brings the worst out in people and creates unrest and fear. It diverts the energy and the minds of the people from the work of preparation of the Second Coming, and it breaks down societies and has a ripple effect on others. Just the people who come back from war. It affects generations of people. Just look at this one war in Ukraine. Has it affected us in Australia? Look at the prices of things. Look at how it's affected the economy. War has a domino effect. Now imagine, friends, if China invades Taiwan. Is that right on the conversation now? China right now is prepping to take Taiwan. If that happens, you think the war in Ukraine has an economic issue? on Australia. You wait till that happens. It's right on the precipice. Will we see more war? Jesus says yes. It will happen more intense and more frequently and when war happens it has a ripple effect economically, socially and on the lives of those poor people who get caught in the war itself. So we want to think about this. Why is Satan doing this? He has an intention Satan is very intelligent. He doesn't just create anarchy for the sake of anarchy. We're going to see that there's an intentional reason for it. The next strategy he has is economic chaos, natural disasters, and social collapse. Now we know the Bible says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. Can Satan affect the environment, friends? In the story of Job, who brought the tornado that destroyed his family? Satan. We know that Satan can create storms, Satan can affect nature itself. So it's important to understand that often people will look at a tsunami or an earthquake and say, that's God punishing those people. Well how do you know that was God? How do you know that wasn't Satan trying to kill or destroy people? And sometimes it's simply nature itself being nature. But we have to understand that Satan has the very power over the elements. Notice this statement from Great Controversy. Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature and he uses all his power to control the what? The elements as far as God allows. Even now he is at work. How? In accidents and calamities by sea, by land, in great conflagrations. in fires, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hail storms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest and famine and distress follow. Now notice that point. If you get a natural disaster, what happens to the farmer's crops? Anyone tried to buy lettuce lately? If you got a lettuce, you are rich. You're gonna flaunt that on Instagram or something, right? So we know that just natural disasters just is happening somewhere here has a ripple effect. Again, just like war, why is he doing all of this? Why is he causing this ripple effect of chaos and from the economy to our social life to there's a tensionality that Satan has here. We go on with the statement. He imparts to the air a deadly taint. What does that sound? What have we just gone through for the last two years? Interesting. He imparts to the air a deadly taint and thousands perish by what's that word? Huh. Is it possible that COVID, he might have had a hand in that? The thousands of lives, the economic downfall, the political unrest, the social anxieties, the riots. Look at everything that is happening. I see his fingerprints all over it. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. Now let me just pause to say, friends, my job here today is not to scare you. I don't want anybody to think, oh, this is terrible, I'm going to go hide in the basement. That's not the objective today. But we need to see Satan's strategy. As we talk about just the effect, it's simply just the floods, and it's not even a major crisis has on our wallets, on our lifestyles, and this has a impact on families. So why does he do this? To summarize, there's an economic impact, why he causes natural disasters. There's injury, there's death, and notice that famine and distress follow. Whenever you have war, whenever you have natural disasters, Usually after that you get famine, you get distress, you get issues within society. This is a domino effect. All of this equals unrest. Now here's the answer to the question, why does Satan do this? Why is he doing this? Does he just enjoy creating pain and suffering in the world? He does, but he's very smart. He's very smart. The Bible says, In these situations, something happens to us. People's hearts begin to fail them for what? Fear. What is he trying to do? Well, the first thing we have to understand, the most important thing is he understands human nature better than anybody. He's been around a while. He understands you. He understands me. He understands what happens when human beings are placed under pressure. Have you seen lately that what would be normal civilized people quickly change in the last two years? Have we seen people on the streets rioting, burning, anarchy? These are people that just three years ago before the isolation and the lockdowns and everything else, would have been people who just simply went to work and tried to pay their bills. So what have we learned just to take COVID as an example from this social experiment that we've just been through? What have you learned about human nature under pressure? How do people respond under pressure? Did you go by try and buy toilet paper? Did some people have make decisions out of fear? and legitimate, we didn't know what was going on. When it first happened that first week, I'm like, let's start building a bunker straight away. Then we got a machine gun, now we're in Australia, let's get a gel blaster, you know, whatever. But it's pretty normal, it's a normal experience for a human that under pressure or under economic stress or political unrest to look for safety. We cry out for safety, we want to feel that we're safe. If we feel that financial burden, How many of you got pressured in your jobs during COVID How many of you weren't sure what to do? Did you feel that pressure? Did you feel all of that? I mean, again, friends, this is nothing. Satan is going to turn the dial up more and more and more. So the question is, how did we all respond in the last two years? It was a very interesting social experiment. Now, I want to share with you from a man from a book called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. and I'll get Cullen and Jacob to come up the front while I read this statement. Viktor Frankl lived through the Nazi concentration camps. He was a psychologist, a Jewish man. And in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, he dialogues and sort of documents from a psychological perspective the way that humans responded under such pressure. I mean, that is as pressure as you get, those Nazi concentration camps. And he says there in his book, he describes how when he's on the train, he would see these affluent Jewish people with fur coats and pearl necklaces and they're all talking and they're helping each other on the train. They don't fully know where they're going. And he says, Within days, people who were civilized and courteous were turning on each other to survive. Any one of us in this room under the right circumstance would be capable of doing things we never thought we would do. When you've got to feed your kids, when you've got to pay your bills, when you've got to deal with tremendous pressure, we are all capable of doing things that would surprise us. And he says this in his book, Life in a Concentration Camp, tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths we again found human qualities which in their very nature were a mixture of good and evil? and evil. And he reveals from this psychological perspective that humans are totally different under pressure. The moment you apply pressure, it reveals who we really are. That's why if you want to get into special forces, you know, what do they do? Do they give them a good cuddle? And they say, hi, let's play chess. No, they put them, they make them go through tremendous pain and suffering. Why? To reveal their characteristics. That's where they're really who they are. They put them without sleep, without food, and then they're like, now let's see who you really are under pressure. It's the human nature, it's the quality of man. And so I've got two Christians here on stage with me. Do they look like Christians? Now both of these two Christians come to church. This is an allegory of course, and they're both lovely young men, and they come to church regularly, but there's a difference between them. One of them, Colin, is Cullen comes to church, but yeah, church is just something you do here and there when it's convenient. He comes to church, but it's kind of boring. He'd rather go off and do whatever you kids do. Hula hooping, I don't know. But church for him, yeah, it's there. He kind of believes in God, but doesn't really read his Bible, doesn't pray, but, and Joy's coming to church. Now, Jacob, he comes to church too, but he's holy. Can we all say amen? and Jacob, I mean, he comes to church, but when he goes home, he actually reads his Bible and he's invested in the relationship with God. He loves Jesus. He prays. He even sings songs. Do you want to hear him sing a song? No, we might not do that. Okay, so he sings songs. Now, the difference between them, they both look Christian. They both believe in God, but one puts more investment, more energy into the relationship with God than the other. Now, if I come along, and I apply some pressure in their lives. Okay, well these are actually really heavy. Jacob, on your shoulders. And I apply some pressure. Now, under pressure, they both go to church, but under pressure, one has a solid foundation and one doesn't. There's some, I'm gonna take some economic challenges on you, Cullen. You're gonna lose your job. We're just gonna apply some pressures. Now, under pressure, the foundations are revealed. Now let me add one more pressure to Cullen, because it's just going to be funny. Now Cullen, does Cullen have a strong relationship with God? He's like, I believe in God, but the moment I apply pressure to his life, he's going to fall on the ground. Now why is that? Why has Jacob held and Cullen fallen? They both believe in God. The reason is, is because the foundations are different. SPEAKER 1 Right? SPEAKER 3 Jesus tells the parable of the seed sower. You guys can get up now, thank you. I just felt like doing that to them, yeah. Power trip. All right, you can chuck them over there, boys, thank you. The difference between these two Christians is this. We can come to church, and this is a challenge for me, and Jesus talks about this in the parable of the seed sower. He talks about different Christians. He says, when the seed has gone out, a lot of them receive it like, wow, I believe the Bible, I believe in Jesus Christ. But he says, the moment pressure is applied to the seeds in different ways, some of them thrive and some of them die. And the one, for example, grows up, but when the sun comes, it withers that plant. Now, is the sun good or bad for plants? It depends on the plant's roots and solid foundation, right? I'm going to pretend like I know what I'm talking about. But when the parable Jesus says, it withers away because its roots are not what? Deep. And so for the one Christian, pressure actually makes you stronger, but for the other it destroys them. Why? Not because you're strong, but because they are the one Christian has learned to rely on God. They've learned to hold on to Jesus through the small storms of their life. So when the big storms come, they can handle the pressure. Now, the reason why Satan is doing this, his strategies, is because he understands that human beings under pressure will compromise on their values for safety. Did that make sense? He understands that if he applies pressure to your life economically, practically, relationally, if he can apply pressure from top down on your life, He knows if you are weak in your foundations, you will compromise on your values for peace and safety. Does that make sense? And we've seen in a small way that this last two years how many of us have been challenged in our values and what we stand for in different things. Okay? And the other issue that it has when you apply these sorts of things in the world is that it makes people ask this question of theodicy. A lot of people, especially people who are not really sure about religion, immediately look to it and go, Where's your God? You religious people, you pray, but look at everything that's going on. If God's so good, why does He allow bad things to happen? This is the question of theodicy, right? And I see people do this all the time who take a dig at religion. Oh, we're gonna pray. We're gonna pray about this. All you do is pray. Where's your God? Look at the economic issues. He's abandoned us. And so this is another way that Satan works. to bring about this kind of stress in the world. So as a bit of a summary, just on our first sort of core point, Satan's strategies in the end, conflict, war and strife, natural disasters, economic chaos and social collapse. He applies pressure on your shoulders to reveal your foundations. He will get you to buckle under that pressure. The most dangerous place to be as a Christian is to sit in church and think everything is great, and treat your Christian experience as sort of a hobby on the side. It's easy to be Christian when it's all happy and clappy and peace and safety. One of the best things that God can do in our life is to allow some suffering to come eventually. James 1 says, My brethren, count it all joy, count it all what? When you fall into diverse temptations. SPEAKER 1 What? SPEAKER 3 Is James crazy? James says, Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. In other words, God will put some weight on that bench press to make you what? Stronger. Will it hurt a little bit? Will it take you through some trials? Absolutely. But the Christian doesn't look at trials and go, oh, God's abandoned me. No, they look at trials and say, Here's an opportunity for me to cling closer to God. to go stronger to God. And one of the most dangerous things, friends, is I see people in the church, the moment there's issues in their life, they put God on the shelf and go, I've got to deal with this. That's the opposite of what you should do. You need to go closer to God, closer to prayer, or more on your knees. Take God with you through the fire like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. God doesn't promise to remove all the issues and obstacles of our life. He promises to be with us through it and to strengthen us through those trials. Now the second thing to understand, and this is our second point here to look through, and this is the one that most people don't understand, is the signs of the spiritual world to look for. One, we know that Satan's going to work, he is working right now, to apply what? What's that word? Pressure economically, politically, socially, morally in the world in your life. But the greatest deception that Jesus warns us of is in the spiritual world. If you read Matthew 24, Jesus spends more time warning us against false Christians, false Christianity, false religion than anything else. And yet as Christians, a seven-day Adventist, what do we talk about the most? Have you seen this politician and this politician and this policy and this thing? That's interesting. But I is your finger on the pulse of the religious world, friends. That's what to look for. So let's take a look. Matthew 24, For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great, what's that word? Signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. What Jesus is saying here is not that there'll be some guy in a robe with a beard and I'm a prophet, but the idea of false Christ, false prophets, really encapsulates anyone who claims to represent Jesus Christ is claiming to be a Christian or representative of God. In a very minor way, a preacher is a prophet. He receives through the Word of God and is a mouthpiece for God. I'm not claiming I'm not a prophet, but in a minor way, that sort of thing. What we're going to see is that many people who claim to be Christian will actually be deceived and lead people astray from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the number one, the first thing we see is false and counterfeit messages and miracles in the church. Now the Bible says in Revelation 13 that Satan in the end will cause great signs and he makes even fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. Now if we think about this symbolism here in Revelation 13, talking about the antichrist and the end of the world, Right in the middle of this, it says that Satan will work through these systems to make fire come down from heaven. Now, this is not a literal thing, this is symbolic. If you think about it, where do you see fire come down from heaven in the Bible, friends? Mount Carmel, but where else? Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, Holy Spirit comes down and it looks like tongues of fire upon the disciples. So what we see, what's very interesting when you piece it all together, is that anywhere in Scripture you see fire, it's always a symbol of the presence of God. Mount Carmel, all through the Bible, fire is a symbol of the presence of God. Is it possible that Satan will bring a counterfeit Holy Spirit movement in the religious world that will look like God is with it, but it's not God? Very possible. In fact, this is exactly what he's going to do because he knows Satan doesn't come with his horns and pitchfork. No one will believe him. He's going to come as ministers of righteousness, as the Bible says, as angels of light. He will come in positive, happy, love, come together. And when you really look at the strategy, friend, as Satan is applying the pressure, he then offers the solution. that's what He does. So we're gonna see as we head through time, Satan's gonna pile the pressure on and under that pressure, He's gonna go, Here's the solution. We need to come together. We need to love one another. Let's unify. Let's just compromise on a few things, but let's come together. Does this sound rewarding? Does this sound appealing? Does this sound good? And friends, if you don't go along with it, how do you think people will treat you? The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2, The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. How will he work? He will use all sorts of displays of, what's that word? Power. Now the word power is always associated with the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 1, Jesus says, you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Okay, the Greek word there is dunamis, dynamite, right? So we get this power when the Holy Spirit comes. But Satan always has a counterfeit for the true, a counterfeit for the true. And what we see Satan is going to do, working through these systems, is a counterfeit power. What is he going to do with that power? To bring about signs and wonders that serve the lie and all the ways that wickedness, what's that word? Deceives those who are perishing. All through Scripture, over and over again, when we put our finger on the sign, what we're gonna see in the spiritual world is this idea of miracles and signs and wonders. And we've got to sort of ask, why? What is Satan doing? Notice Revelation 16:14, again, just to re-emphasize, who's behind these signs? They are demonic, what? Spirits that perform signs. They go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle of the great day of God Almighty. So, what is Satan doing? We know he's going to apply pressure, but in the spiritual world the greatest deception will come. Now I want you to think about this. Why would he use signs and wonders? Why miracles? Why why that sort of emphasis in the Christian church? Would you be deceived by that? So here's a question. How can you tell the difference between true and false manifestations of the Spirit? If Pastor Dan got up and I was preaching to you and all of a sudden I saw someone who was sick and I prayed over them and they were miraculously healed, how would you know that what I did was from God or from the devil? because guess what? You're going to see that. Not from me, hopefully. Will we see it in the church? Jesus tells it's coming. It's pretty clear in Scripture Satan's strategy is false deception through miracles, signs and wonders. How can you tell the difference between the true Spirit and the false Spirit? I believe the answer is found in a parable I want to share with you. very confronting parable of the end times. Jesus gives an end time parable. He says, Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.' Now notice the difference. Just because you pontificate that you're a Christian is not sufficient for Jesus. He's looking for true followers. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Cast out demons in your name and do many what? Remember we saw signs then, wonders in your name. Now let's pause there. How many of you have cast a demon out or prophesied? Do these sound like pretty good Christians? Pretty amazing. They're casting demons out. They're prophesying in the name of Jesus Christ, doing many miracles, probably healing. I haven't done that. That sounds, these people seem to be amazing Christians, don't they? What does Jesus say to them? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Is that a confronting parable? SPEAKER 1 I mean, wouldn't you want to see. SPEAKER 3 The Holy Spirit work in your life to the point where you can cast out demons? You can take on the forces of evil for the power of God. I mean, wouldn't that be amazing? I've seen demon-possessed people. It's pretty scary stuff. But these are amazing Christians. But Jesus says, I don't know who you are. Who are you? I don't even know who you are. So what's going on here? These are people who claim to be followers of Jesus. You and me. Jesus gives a parable around the same time of the wheat and the what? Tares. I have a picture up here of wheat and tares. Now, which one's wheat and which one's tares? They look pretty similar. Jesus says that the church will be like this. There will be people who claim to be Christians in the church, and they'll be like wheat and the tares. And you cannot tell the difference, just like Cullen and Jacob up the front. We go to church, we follow the Lord, but He says, Not until the harvest will you know. You won't know. Now, what does He mean? Jesus says, you,'ll know them by their fruits. Now, when He talks about fruits, this is the Middle East. This is the fruits He's talking about. Not apples, we live here in Australia, we get mangoes and stuff. Fruits in the Middle East is like wheat, right? So, Jesus is saying this, Just like wheat and tares, when wheat and tares come up, the tares are fake. They don't have real fruit. The wheat has real fruit, and what does it do? Notice the picture? Drops. Can you tell the difference? On this side, on this side is the wheat, and that side is the tares. The only way you can tell is by their what? Fruits. Now let's think about that. What brings fruits in the Christian life? The Holy Spirit. They're called the fruits of the Spirit. In the Christian church, there are two spirits that will be working. One is the true Holy Spirit, one is the false spirit. Both can both produce miracles and incredible things. But there's one distinction the Holy Spirit has that the false spirit doesn't do. The Holy Spirit brings what? Fruits, character transformation, true Christ likeness in the person. The false spirit doesn't do that. Let me tell you this friends, if you are involved in any church where the focus is on the gifts of the Spirit and not the fruits of the Spirit, be concerned. if it's all about supernatural manifestation and seeing something incredible, that is not the focus of the Holy Spirit. The primary role of the Holy Spirit is to produce the character of Jesus Christ in your life. That's the fruits of the Spirit. Does that make sense? The gifts are there like tools to help get the job done. They're important, but they're secondary to the fruits of the Spirit. So that The true followers have transformation of character, not just spiritual manifestation. In fact, Paul would tell us in 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 12, he lists all the gifts and tongues and miracles, and we're reading, wow, wow. But then 1 Corinthians 13, he says, though I have the tongues of angels and have not what? SPEAKER 1 Love. SPEAKER 3 I'm a tingling symbol and a sounding brass. And though I could prophesy, But I don't have love, the fruit of the Spirit. It means nothing. Paul quickly balances us out and says, love, the love of God through your life is the most important thing. That's the distinguishing factor between true and false spirit in the church is this whole thing. Now, who does the strategy appeal to? It appeals to Christians who do not have a solid relationship in God, the emotionalism the experientialism will draw them away. If your Christianity is based on the visual and not the deep abiding walking in the Word of God and prayer every day, you are open for this kind of deception. The Bible says that those who are deceived do not have a love of the truth, a love of the what? The truth. And the truth is more than just some knowledge. Who is the way, the truth, and the life? Jesus. We have to have a love of Jesus above everything in this world. That's the core. So not only is there false miracles, but what are the false miracles doing? For example, friends, let's say I'm a deceived teacher. Okay? Now, if I'm a deceived teacher, I don't know I'm deceived. I'm preaching with good intent. I'm preaching the Word of God. And that scares me to think there are gonna be ministers. It breaks my heart. I pray I'm not one of them that really believe they're preaching truth. but are actually deceived. Is that a scary thing? And friends, does that mean you should just follow everything the preacher says? No, Seventh-day Adventists don't do that, do we? We're Berean. We go back to the Word of God. We go, yeah, I'll listen to Pastor Dan with his beautiful moustache, but I'm gonna go back and check the Word of God. Thank you for complimenting on the moustache. So, false miracles, false message. Now, we have to understand, if you notice back to the verse, it says that when he uses these displays of power, what is it doing? It says he will use sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the what? Interesting, right? So the miracles support the lie. So if I'm up here and I'm preaching stuff and you're like, eh, he's a bit shady. I'm not really sure about that, but all of a sudden I heal someone, you're like, whoa, God's with him, right? See what happens? The miracle supporter, it gives a credence to it. And so that's a very powerful thing. So Satan, in order to get his deceptions through, and they're gonna be subtle, he will give spiritual manifestations and powers to Christian people, to religious people. Is that pretty powerful stuff? That's right. So we've got to go to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this, there is no one in them. No light. So the Bible gives us that thing. Friends don't listen to pastors. And that's what I love about the Adventist Church. We study the Word of God. I don't care if it's a great preacher on the internet or whatever it is. They're all human. They're human. pray for them, but study the Word of God yourself. As we get towards our finish, as a summary, strategy one, counterfeit miracles and a false counterfeit revival. He brings fire to come down from heaven, false Holy Spirit movement. God is working through the church, but it is of another spirit. So we have to remember, friends, that as we're looking at the signs of the world today, we have to remember that the last great movement of Satan is not a secular movement, it will be a religious movement. It is a counterfeit against the Three Angels' message of truth. It is a false religious revival with religious motivations, religious arguments. The focus should not be on secular atheist or corrupt politicians, but the religious world. Don't take your eye off that. Keep your eye on the spiritual deceptions. Are you studying the Word of God? Do you love the Word of God? Do you love Jesus more than everything in this world? Focus on that. Don't listen to what every pastor says. Challenge everything, question everything. Go to the Word of God. It's the best advice I could give you as a preacher to you. We know, for example, that the greatest enemies of the Christian church have been Christians, have been religious people. They will put you out of the synagogue sink in their offering service to God. Well, the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, There will be terrible times in the last days, having a form, a show of Christianity, of godliness, but then denying what? The power. Where does the power come from again? The Holy. So notice again and again, the difference between the people in the church. There are people who have a form, but don't have the true working of the Holy Spirit, and then those who truly are submitted and working with the Holy Spirit. So friends, should we be seeking the Holy Spirit? SPEAKER 1 Amen. SPEAKER 3 So let's analyze the key statement as we, I keep saying we're getting to the end. We are, we are, okay. This is just too good stuff, all right? Are you enjoying this? Good, thank you. Okay, let's keep going. Before the final visitation of God's judgments, this is a powerful statement. In the italics, I've added this so you could understand. Before the final visitation of God's judgments, what are God's judgments? The seven last plagues. There will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive what? Godliness, okay, as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. Will Pentecost come again? 2.0, and instead of being in a little area in Jerusalem, it will be around the whole, what, Earth. God's people will come with the Holy Spirit. Satan has his counterfeit. God's true will come through and destroy it. As has not been witnessed since apostolic times, the Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children called the Latter reign. If you don't understand it, don't worry. At that time, many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted the love for God and His world. Are there churches today that have put being cool or popular above the Word of God? Should we preach the Word of God even if it offends? Should we stand for truth? because I'm seeing even in the Adventist Church, ministers compromising because of cultural pressure. Who cares what the world thinks? What does God think? SPEAKER 1 Yeah? SPEAKER 3 Many both of ministers and people, notice that, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at the time to prepare our people for the Lord's second coming. Now notice this. As God is doing this work, what is Satan doing? The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work. This is the Holy Spirit moving through the church. How is he gonna do it? And before the time for such a movement shall come, he, Satan, will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a. SPEAKER 1 So. SPEAKER 3 Before the latter rain, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes, before that, Satan is going to have a what? before it. A counterfeit ladder rain. A counterfeit fire from heaven. A counterfeit Holy Spirit revival in the church. Not the Seventh Adventist Church, of course. SPEAKER 1 Right? SPEAKER 3 Did you know that we're told that healing will be a special, the miraculous healing will be a special test for Seventh Adventist? It's going to be, imagine seeing right in front of you someone healed from cancer. How can you not say it's of God? But can Satan give cancer and take it away? Are we reading the Scriptures? What does Satan know? He knows that under pressure people change, people compromise. So what do we need when we face pressure? Do you need to be stronger? Let me tell you right now, you're not strong enough. You're not. You're too weak. But, Pastor, I'm going to pray more. That's good. Give up. You cannot face the weakest demon of hell. You have no chance. But armed with Christ, the legions of hell stand no chance. they run at the face of Jesus. The true Christian understands that in order to stand against any pressure Satan throws is whether your foundation is in the rock and not on the sand, is in Jesus Christ. The story of Jacob, we're told, will come again. It's called Jacob's time of what? Trouble. Jeremiah predicts in the end that this Jacob's trouble will come again. What is Jacob's trouble as we finish? And we are finishing. Jacob lied and deceived his father and brother out of the birthright. Jacob was the son of Isaac. You have Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs. And Jacob was a deceptive character. He thought that in his human wisdom and in his human ability he could he could get to where he wants to be. This is the most dangerous place to be, is to think you're somehow smart enough. And he becomes deceptive. And because of his sin, he had to leave home. He was cut off. He went away and he moved in with Laban, who was a very good symbol of who? Satan. And Laban deceived him, got him to marry one daughter, and then he waited and eventually married the right lady. Then Jacob decides that after 20 years, he's going to come back home to Canaan. Now you've got to remember that 20 years earlier he had deceived his brother who, Esau, out of the birthright. Remember he put the fur on and he deceived his father, he couldn't see and his father prayed over him and he got the birthright, all deceptive. And he's coming back home now with his servants, his wife, his children, his livestock. And as he's coming back he finds out that his brother is coming with 400 armed men to kill Jacob. From a human perspective, Jacob has zero chance of survival. He's got some servants, but nothing compared to 400 armed men. From a human perspective, if Jacob tries now in his strength, his wisdom to somehow fight his brother and win, he will die. He will fail. Is he facing pressure? Imagine that night as you're there and you know your brother's coming, your death is inevitable. He's coming to kill you. Would that be pressure? Is that what the people in the end will face? A death decree. And as you're facing this, this is what's known as Jacob's time of trouble. But here's the clue for us all. We may not live to see the end days, but Satan has some end days for you in your own life. Will Satan leave you alone? Does he have some things he's mixing up for you right now? Is he wanting to lull you to sleep spiritually and then at that weak point take you out to separate you from the rest of the sheep like the lamb? Is he trying to get you to disconnect from your faith in God and from the church and from the community and from the service of God? Does he want to tell you just distance yourself a little bit? It's not a big thing and then that's exactly where he wants you to be. Jacob that night became Israel. He for the first time realized what it meant to be truly Israel. Instead of doing things in his wisdom and his strength and I'm really smart, he actually finally gave up. He gave up. He surrendered and realized, I am too weak. I cannot face the pressures of this world without you, God. And the Bible says that he wrestled with the angel. And as he's praying, if you don't know the story, he's praying, then all of a sudden someone turns up. He thinks it might have been one of Jacob's men, and they begin wrestling. And it's in the dark, he can't see. But as the sun is starting to come up, it's just starting to break, he realizes he's wrestling with God himself. He's wrestling with God. And as he's wrestling with God, he realizes in that moment, well, he's not. SPEAKER 1 Going to win this battle. SPEAKER 3 And he clings to the Lord. And he says, I will not let you go unless you bless me. In other words, I cannot face the pressures ahead unless you are with me. I cannot face this world unless you are with me. I'm too weak. I can't face anything unless I have you, Lord, with me. That's when Jacob finally became Israel. That's what Israel is. those who wrestle, who strive with God, who surrender to the fact that in our human ability we're too weak. The social challenges coming in your life, the physical challenges, the moral challenges, they're all coming. You are too weak to face them. Cling to God, because He is strong. He will carry your burden. He will help you through the storm. that's the answer to it all. All this stuff is scary, yes, if I'm on my own strength, but with Jesus, I have nothing to fear. We're told Jacob's night of anguish, when he wrestled in prayer for deliverance from the hand of Esau, represents the experience of God's people in the time of what? Trouble. So friends, the more you surrender the more victory you gain. Through humiliation, repentance and self-surrender, this sinful, erring mortal prevailed with the majesty of heaven. So we're going to see, friends, that as we look around the world, will there be economic challenges ahead? Does it look like it's slowing down? Some of us will face this more severe than others. Will there be physical hardships? Will we see Relationships shattered because the culture of this world is getting more and more secular. And as you stand for religious principles, people will get more and more aggressive and antagonistic towards you. Are you ready for that? Do you love God more than your friends? Jesus says, Any man who loves his mother and father more than me is not worthy of me. He's not saying, Don't love your mother and father, but he says, I have to be first. if you want to stand in the storms ahead, cling to God. He has to be the foundation of your life. Don't build your foundation on the sand. Build it on the rock, which is Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we pray, I hope this message has been challenging. but encouraging. We're not told that you're going to alleviate every stress in our life, Lord, but that you're going to be with us through it, through the trials. And a Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood in that fire. You were with them in that fire as you were with all your people through history. If we just hold firm to Jesus, hold on and say, I will not to let yout go unless yous bless me. Then we will make it through anything if we hold on to Jesus. We pray, Lord, this morning that yout will empower us with the Holy Spirit. Give us a zeal and a passion to connect with Jesus above all things. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. SPEAKER 2 This message was made available by the Glenvale Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube page Glenvale SDA Church. SPEAKER 2 This program has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia Radio.