Deluding the Masses

You know, in our neighborhood, I think I've said this to you before, usually people decorate, they put lights up, and if you drove down the street where we live, you would see most all of the houses lighted up, but our house has nothing. We don't, of course, have anything up for any of the holidays of the world.

But, you know, in looking at this world as it celebrates one of the two greatest religious holidays, it really causes me, I'm sure it causes all of us, to wonder how so many people have been deceived. How is it that everybody, it seems, has been deluded? They've been deceived. You know, when you look at the tensile, when you see the ornaments on trees, you know, and consider the fat man, you know, in the red suit, with the open sleigh flying through the air, with the reindeers reversing, the entire globe passing out gifts to all the children around the world, squeezing down those chimneys past blazing fireplaces, while spending thousands upon thousands of dollars buying gifts that they can't afford, you know, people observe this holiday.

And my question, when I started thinking about this particular message, is how were people sold on that? How did you sell people on that to participate? You know, what about Easter? That would be another one, you know, that people have been sold on. You know, rabbits laying eggs, you know. These things are hard to understand how people could ever be sold on these things.

And I began to think about it in the Old Testament sense, in terms of religions that Israel came into contact with. You know, how were people sold on this? Guess what? This religion is really great. You get to burn one of your children to death. Now, again, think about that. People were sold on that, where even kings of Israel sacrificed their own children to false gods. And yet, people bought into it. And, frankly, most of the kings of Israel who embraced some of these pagan religions that are, of course, today probably expressed in different ways, but have been around a long, long time, but they rejected, in lieu of that, God's law.

They rejected the law of God. And, again, read through the law of God and tell me what is objectionable. You know, what is objectionable about not lying? You know, telling the truth. Does someone have a problem with being faithful to your wife? You know, of course we know that these are some of the laws of God and the Ten Commandments. You could go through all of them, but I'm not going to do that. But why were people so willing to go and offer their children to Moloch, in some cases, and reject God's law?

Well, brethren, why are the masses so deluded and duped in this world? Why are the majority of people in the world duped? Of course, if it's not Christianity, it's something else, isn't it? It's another religion of some kind that people are doing. I mentioned you. I went to Thailand, and I really had never seen people actually kneel down and have an idol in front of them where they're kneeling down and they're praying to this idol.

It was this idol, and they were burning incense on it, and they were very earnest. I don't know what had happened in that person's life. Maybe they had a sick relative or family member, and they were crying out to this false God who could do no good at all.

Again, why are the masses so deluded and duped in this world? Well, I think all of us, when it comes from the standpoint of Christianity, probably would say, well, if they only knew the truth, then the world would understand and not go along with these things. They wouldn't accept these things. Well, in one sense, that's probably true. In the purest sense of the word, if they truly did know what these things were about, however, in another sense, it is not true because just knowing is not enough.

Some know Christmas, by the way, has a totally pagan origination, but they do it anyway. What they do is they justify it. They say, well, it's just a national holiday, or just for the kids. They do something like that to explain away the knowledge that they have gained. The world has become saturated. The masses have been deluded, brethren. They've been fooled. They've been duped. They've been taken in. Well, brethren, does it strike you as strange that Jesus Christ is called the Prince of Peace?

And yet, on the other hand, he is also a great warrior. He's a great warrior. And he's depicted that way when he returns. Let's go over to Revelation 19. I'm going to tie that in to what we're talking about here, and that is how the mass is so deluded and duped in this world. But here in Revelation 19 and verse 11, this is a depiction of the Prince of Peace. It says, And now I saw heaven open, and behold, I white horse. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he judges, and he makes war.

And so Jesus Christ, when he returns, is going to have to make war. You know, he's not going to necessarily at this time be one bringing peace, an olive branch, but he's going to be bearing war to this earth. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no one knew except himself. And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word of God. And we know that is none other than Jesus Christ. And the army's in heaven. And so not only is Christ a great warrior, brethren, but the army's in heaven. No, they are soldiers in the army of Jesus Christ, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Follow him on white horses. And now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he would strike the nations, and he himself shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he himself treads the winepress for the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. So that's a description of Jesus Christ. Yes, he is a Prince of Peace, and he's going to bring peace to all mankind around this world and the world tomorrow. But he's going to come back as a warrior, and he's going to be fighting. He's going to be engaging in battle. Now, it's kind of interesting that Satan the devil also has been on a military campaign since his rebellion, since he was cast down, and he is also a great warrior.

And when, of course, Christ returns, he will have brought armies together to fight Jesus Christ when he returns. Let's go to Revelation 17, verse 14. So there's going to be a war that will be taking place when Jesus Christ returns. And here, in talking about the beast power and how the 10 are going to come together to form one nation, and they're going to be one mind with each other, and they will be given the beast which will be given power, and they're going to give their power and their authority to the beast as it says here in verse 13. But in verse 14, notice, and these will make war with the Lamb. And the Lamb, it says, will overcome them. For He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are called chosen faithful. So we are to be called chosen and faithful, brethren, and we're going to be with Him. And I believe, frankly, that we're going to probably be along for the ride when Jesus Christ intervenes in this world and begins to make war when He returns. And so Christ will fight the beast power when He returns.

It's going to be on the scene at that time. Now let's go over to Revelation 12, in verse 7. Revelation 12, in verse 7. Here we're told, and war broke out in heaven. Now, I think the last time I gave a sermon here, I was talking about this war that took place that Satan thought or Lucifer, as he was called then, that he could take over the throne of God. And there was a great war that took place. So this prophecy here we know hearkens back to that rebellion. But there's going to be another rebellion on the part of Satan and his minions. And it says, so war broke out in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought with a dragon, and the dragon is angels fought, and they did not prevail, nor was place found for them anymore or any longer. You go back to the book of Job, by the way, and you could find that Satan had an access to the throne of God. It talks about the sons of God coming together. I believe it's in Job 1, verse 6, where it talks about that in the Old Testament. So he had access, apparently, to the throne of God. But there will come a time when he will have no longer access to go before God, and he will be cast down permanently, and he will have no place whatsoever in that time. And so this is a dual prophecy, but there's an ultimate fulfillment that is going to come to pass at the end of the age. And so Satan is a great warrior, as well as, you know, the fallen angels are great warriors as well. Many of them are powerful angels who make war, and Satan is a master tactician at making war. Well, let's notice on down here in chapter 12, when he's cast down, let's notice down in verse 13 here, and now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. And so he persecuted the woman, this is symbolic as we understand, of the church. The woman of a chaste woman is the church. A fallen woman is a false church that, in fact, is talked about in Revelation 17 there. And it talks about in verse 14 about how the church was given, or the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she's nourished for a time and times and half a times from the presence of the serpent. And so there will be those that will escape this terrible time when Satan will vent his wrath upon mankind. But he makes war, we see here, on the church.

Let's go on down here. It talks about how the church is going to be taken into her place, and how God is going to protect her, going down to verse 16 here, where the earth opens up her mouth and swallows the army or the flood that the dragon spewed out of his mouth. But in verse 17, and the dragon was enraged with the church or the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring. It says, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And so he's going to be in the process of making war, brethren, not only in this world, but on the church. The church is going to be the vortex of his wrath. And I'm telling you, brethren, he is attacking the church right now, and this time that we're in. And I think some people are being used in ways unbeknownst to them and causing this to happen. In the end of the age, by the way, when the beast and the false prophet come on the scene, because they haven't come on the scene so far as we understand yet, but they will come on the scene in the future. And we believe that they will emerge out of Europe. But let's go over to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. You know, it's important, brethren, that we as Christians understand these things lest we become caught unawares, that we're not knowledgeable of these things that are prophesied to take place. You know, there were those, by the way, during Paul's day that we're sending around letters, fake letters. And so Paul had to write letters in such a way that they could be proved to be genuine, as we read here in chapter 2, you know, the first part of it. I'm not going to go through all of this, but let's notice at the end, talks about the arrival of the beast. It says in verse 9, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan. So Satan is going to be working behind this beast, which is going to be not only a combine of nations eventually, but it will be a human being. It's going to be somebody that Satan is going to work behind and through. Of course, the false prophet will be also worked. Satan will work behind him as well. But it says, with all power, signs, and lying wonders. And so they're going to be lying wonders that are going to be done, probably by this, you know, where they're going to be fake things that could appear to be miracles, but they're not. And going on down here, we see, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.

And it says, for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness.

And so here we see, brethren, in verse 11, God is going to step back from man and allow him to be completely deluded. He's going to face delusion such as has not happened before where people were going to be taken in by this false prophet and this beast. The word delude, by the way, is a verb meaning to persuade someone to believe something incorrect or to mislead. The origin of the word is the Latin word deludeir, which means to mock. It is Satan's way of mocking someone, to deceive someone, to delude them into thinking something that's incorrect.

And the word deludeir means to play. He plays the game of mocking God, standing against God.

And, you know, the devil has a strategy, brethren. He has a strategy in making a war against God.

We're told in 2 Corinthians 4.4 that Satan, the devil, is the God of this world, and he is a great deceiver, blinding the minds of people lest the light of the glorious gospel should be shined unto them, it says. And so through him, as a result of his, you know, confusion that he pumps into people's mind and the deception that he pumps in people's minds, man has not seen the true gospel that Jesus Christ delivered to us to present and has not listened to it or adhered to it. Like I said, the devil has a strategy in making war against God, and all great generals have a method of making war, by the way. Some, of course, have had that strategy such that they've studied great men a battle in the past, like Napoleon, Alexander the Great.

These men are studied in war colleges, by the way, some of the battles that took place. If you saw the movie Patton, you know that George Patton was a student of history, and, you know, he could go on a battlefield, he could tell you what happened on that battlefield.

In fact, in the movie of Patton, it's almost like he had a spiritual guide of some sort, maybe demonic, that he could sense where a battlefield was. And so, great generals, you know, study war. And the devil, by the way, has probably the greatest strategy of any military leader that has ever lived. Besides, of course, we know God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, and in terms of making war, if they want to make war, they're going to always win, by the way. There's no contest with that. So, all great generals have methods of making war, and Satan is extremely good at what he does. I don't know if any of you have read this book called The Art of Making War by Sun Tzu. I haven't read through the whole book, by the way. I've read parts of this book. It's very laborious, and you would have to be a military leader to really want to read the whole thing in detail. Sun Tzu, by the way, is known as the author of this book, The Art of War. Some historians question whether he really existed, but other historians place him as a great general, a Chinese general under King Hulu of Wu. I have no idea who that is, but they say from 476 BC to 221 BC. When Chinese states were warring with each other, this is where his strategy that is revealed in this Art of War came from. They take the descriptions of the battles that took place, and they base that on assuming that, because these things, these wars, took place between those dates or the years that I mentioned to you.

Now, looking at Sun Tzu and what he says, I think can help us understand how Satan works.

How Satan works. You'd be surprised at things that Sun Tzu says. But let's also not only just look at what Sun Tzu says, but what the Bible says, and how Satan makes war so that we can know our enemy.

In fact, the rules Sun Tzu has is you have to know your enemy. You have to know who is against you. And, brethren, Satan the devil is your number one enemy. He's your number one enemy. The number two enemy you have is yourself. All of us have that, don't we? We work against ourselves.

Sun Tzu said this, and I think you'll see the automatic tie-in to what I'm talking to you about today, and that how the masses are so deluded and duped in this world. Sun Tzu says all war is based on deception. Deception. I think about that. Even in the United States, the war that we make is a lot of its deception. Not letting the enemy know what you're doing and keeping them in the dark. Well, let's go over to Revelation chapter 12 and let's notice what, in fact, Satan has done with mankind. You know, he's not going to step out on the stage and say, ta-da, I'm the devil.

Come and follow me. He knows that. It won't work. But in Revelation 12 and verse 9, it says, So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. The whole world. It says, And he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. So again, think about that reality, brethren. This verse, by the way, here was what changed my entire life. Verse 9. That's what changed my life. Because up until the point that I really understood this verse, I believed that all people in the world, that there were good people in the world, and that they're fine people, and they couldn't all be deceived. And then when I realized that I had been deceived, and when I began to understand fully that yes, indeed, the whole world has been deceived, and it changed my life. It started me to keeping the Sabbath when I found out about that. I knew I had to transform my life, and maybe that was the way it was for you.

But Satan says, all were, were, is based on deception. And Sun Tzu reveals that to us.

All were. And that is what he does. He is a great deceiver. I could go and show you other scriptures about that. He is the father of lies. Does it say that? In John 8, Jesus Christ said he was the father of the lie. And so he's the father, in fact, of all those sins that have entailed going against God's law. Let's move on to something else that reveals the way that Satan, the devil, works.

Sun Tzu says, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

We have to attack the enemy's strategy according to Sun Tzu. When Lucifer was cast down, brethren, God changed his name to Satan because he became an enemy of God. And so God identified who was his enemy. And he called him Satan, which means adversary, as we all should understand. God always names someone what they are. That's a rule you can find throughout the Bible.

When oftentimes a child was born, they were given a name that reflected who they were or what happened at the time of their birth. And so God always names things as they are. Now, one thing we do know about how Satan works, for sure, is he's always, always, brethren, working against thwarting God in whatever God's way is. That is what the devil does. You know, that is what his purpose is. You know, you and I, when we get up in the morning, we know what we're going to do that day, generally speaking. But when Satan the devil, who never sleeps, by the way, thinks about what he's going to do is I'm going to thwart God's plan in some way today, every day, that is what he's thinking about and he's concentrating on. How can I destroy God? How can I destroy God's plan?

How can I destroy God's people? That is what he thinks about every day, every day.

Now, what is God's plan, brethren, for mankind? What does he want to do with each of us? What is God's plan? He wants, brethren, to reproduce himself and he wants to bring us into his family. You know, the Bible tells us that he's going to bring many sons into glory, the Bible says. In the New Testament, again, I won't take the time to go to those verses, that Christ is the captain of our salvation. And so there are going to be many sons that are going to be brought into glory and to be a part of God's family. You know, did Satan the devil, by the way, know why man was created? Did he know the purpose for mankind? Well, you know, I know Mr. Armstrong said that he felt that probably when Satan found out what God was going to do with human beings, that is when he began to think to rebel against God. You know, when he realized that, you know, mankind was going to be over him in authority and that God was actually tailoring Adam and Eve and their progeny to become superior to the angelic world, that is probably what pushed him over the edge and he began to work against God. In Genesis 1 verse 26, you might write that down, I think it's pretty well spelled out that God is reproducing himself. Remember when Adam was created? He said that Adam was created in his likeness and in his image. And of course, Adam and Eve both were created in God's image and likeness. And so God began to reproduce himself there in the Garden of Eden when he formed Adam and then Eve. And when the devil spoke to Eve, what did he do? Well, again, he's a master tactician. You know, what he did is he capitalized on what God's plan was and is, and that is to bring many sons into glory. And what he did is he went to Eve and he said that to Eve there in Genesis chapter 3, when he asked her about the tree and she said that God had told them not to eat of it or touch it lest we die, Satan capitalizes on the plan of God by saying to her, no, God is a liar. Because God knows that in the day that you eat this fruit, you're going to be as God, knowing good and evil. In other words, brethren, his point was this, because he knew this. He knew the process for Adam and Eve and all of mankind to be a part of God's family was going to take, you know, time. It wasn't going to be like that, the snap of the fingers, that it was going to take time for them to build a holy righteous character that was necessary to be changed from a mortal to an immortal being. But what Satan came and he did is he said, okay, let me tell you, God is lying to you because if you take of this fruit, today you will be God. You see, he twisted it and he deceived. You don't have to wait. In other words, he was he's telling Eve, you can have it now. And now we in this world, brethren, have seven billion people that are a little prima donnas who think that they are God.

They think they're God already and they decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong.

So Satan, brethren, perverted what God said and told Eve that God was lying to her. He said, you can be God right now. You can be God right now if you only eat of this tree. And as I pointed out before, brethren, he worked with a woman to get at Adam. And Adam, unfortunately, simply followed his wife and abdicated his responsibility to lead her. And it says in 1 Timothy 2, in verse 24, that Eve was deceived but Adam was not. And so what happened in that case is Adam knew what the stakes were. He understood that you can only come to that conclusion. When he made that decision, if he was not deceived, he made a conscious decision to do it and unfortunately let his wife sway him in making that decision and he just abdicated his responsibility and went against God. And so, brethren, this is just one example to show us the enemy's strategy, what he does. He takes what God's plan is and he perverts. Everything God does, he perverts.

And mankind, we of course know, live in a world here where it seems like that people have to have gratification right like that. You know, this is the way the world runs, doesn't it? That's the way it rolls around. That's the way people are. They want it now and they want it right now.

So, Sun Tzu tells us what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

Know that that is the way Satan works. Know that, brethren.

You know, I don't know what you think of some of this wisdom of the East, but I think there's some interesting things that Sun Tzu says. And of course, we can apply it in the spiritual sense, comparing it with God's Word. Sun Tzu says, next, he who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.

He who knows, in other words, when to fight will be victorious. Let's go over to 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. You know, I told you several weeks ago that we should, brethren, stand still and see the salvation of the Eternal. In other words, when you don't know which way to go, you don't know what to do, you stand still and you look to God.

And we ought to be looking to Jesus Christ, brethren, each one of us, and gluing our eyes on Jesus Christ. You remember when Peter was in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, that he saw Jesus Christ walking on the water. And Peter was, of course, always a bombastic kind of guy. And of the disciples, he's the one that said, Lord, grant that I might come to you.

And remember how he got out on the water and he began to walk and apparently had his eyes fixated on Jesus Christ. But then, when he took his eyes off of Jesus Christ, he began to sink.

He began to go down. And so, brethren, that's what we as God's people must do. Keep our eye on Jesus Christ or we will fall. 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. The story that is here to me is most interesting because, as we know, some of the kings of Israel and Judah were not very faithful to God. But here's a man that had faithfulness, at least up to a point. But in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, in verse 1, it says, it happened after this that the people of Moab, with the people of Ammon and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. He was, of course, the king of Judah here. And here was a formidable army that was coming toward King Jehoshaphat. He knew what he was going to face. He knew his army was not equipped to take on this great battle. So many were coming at him that he knew that they just simply could not do it. And read on down here in verse 3, and Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the eternal and proclaimed the fast throughout all Judah. And so he did the right thing. He feared.

And he decided he was going to turn to Jesus Christ. I have to mention here about our president, Mr. Lucre. I have been told, of course, I have not been at the home office, but throughout this entire crisis that we've had as God's people, that what has occurred is that he has been on his knees every day, and he has been fasting. I don't know how often he does it, but when they have meetings in his office, they all kneel down and pray for God's guidance. I think, rather than we need to see the kind of man that Mr. Lucre is, he's a man that looks to God. What Joseph, Jehoshaphat, here himself feared. He was afraid. He looked at what was happening, what was occurring.

And it says, "...and proclaimed the fast throughout all Judah." And so here King Jehoshaphat turned to God, and not only him, but so Judah gathered together to ask help from the eternal, and from all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the eternal. And you know, you can read what was said here in this particular case. They recite what God has done before for them and other things.

And so this was a very terrible situation that Judah was in. Possibly, you know, they could have fallen to the armies that were coming against them. But let's go on down here in verse 14. After they turned to God with their hearts, brethren, it says in verse 14 and 15, "...then the Spirit of the Eternal came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaniah, the son of Jeo, the son of Metaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph in the midst of the assembly. And he said, Listen, all of you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem and you king Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord, the Eternal to you, do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is yours." And it says, but it is God's. It's not yours, but it is God's. And so they were told to go down against them. And it says, and they will surely come by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jerul. And they were to position themselves for this day of battle that took place. And it says in verse 17, you will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Who is with you, O Judah in Jerusalem? Do not fear be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you. The Eternal is with you.

And so they went out to war, brethren. And if you read the whole story here, is when they began to approach the enemy, the people, the soldiers were asked the same praise to God. Kind of harkens back to the time of the fall of Jericho. And what happened is the enemy that was coming against them, Mount Cyr, ended up killing the armies of Moab and Ammon. And then the people of Mount Cyr killed one another. And Judah went in and took the spoil and went home. As a result of Jehoshaphat, Judah was enriched. And she began to prosper even more. And so we see here how God fights the battle.

You don't have to do anything. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And then, of course, afterwards we know that in this case Judah was not defeated. She was victorious. Actually, God was victorious. So, brethren, we need to know when we should fight and when we should wait.

You know, we need to know when to fight and when to wait. And in this case, God told them to wait, as it were, and let God fight this battle for you. Sometimes it was not that way. God told David, go down and do battle with these people. And they were successful. And David, of course, enlarged the borders of Israel. Remember the case where David's son Absalom stole the hearts of the people? He went out and said, oh, that I was the king over Israel because the people came to me. Then they would have justice. And he would take, maybe somebody's, hug them a little bit and say, oh, I understand. You know, the king is, it seems like he's too busy for you. You know, he began to play the head game. And the Bible says that he stole the hearts of the people of Israel. And, you know, he had one of those, some of the people that were with him declare him to be the king. You remember what David did. David didn't stay to fight, but he left Jerusalem.

And, of course, God was still with him. But there was a time, in other words, to fight, and a time to wait, and as it were, David waited. And it's interesting the attitude of David toward Absalom, even though Absalom was his enemy. He loved him so very dearly. Remember what Joab says? You know, he says, we sort of think because of the reaction to the death of Absalom that maybe you loved him more than you love all of Israel. You know, you'd rather we died, in other words, than Absalom. And so, brethren, we need to know when to fight and when to wait.

That's what Sun Tzu says, and I think that is a very good principle to remember. You know, God tells us if we wait on him, we will rise up on the wings of an eagle.

As I said, you know, sometimes we can feel like we're spinning our wheels.

But, you know, what in reality is happening is God has his hand on our head, and we can't do anything.

But when he's ready for us to go, guess what? I'd a whole lot rather if God had me by the back of my bridges pushing me forward at a rapid rate. You know, we can go herbal if God's behind us in anything. And so, again, it's important to know these things. This is what Sun Tzu continues to say, again, in this wisdom from the East. Hence, that general is skillful in attack, whose opponent does not know what to defend. And he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack. And, you know, Satan uses this strategy sometimes. You know, when we've had problems in the church, what we find is that sometimes people are in the church unawares, and they rise up among us, and they begin to attack us, and sometimes they hide because they're in sort of a war against the church to actually hide from someone who it really is that is guilty of whatever it is that they're accusing the church of.

You know, Sun Tzu says this, in the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole in an attack. To shatter and destroy it is not so good.

So, if somebody is trying to take over the church, brethren, they don't want to shatter the church into a thousand pieces. They want to keep it together. And unfortunately, brethren, I think we have had a circumstance where this was attempted in the United Church of God to hijack the church, to take the church over. And so this is the way, again, Satan works, brethren.

Be aware of that. You know, during this current crisis, as I mentioned to you, that there's been a spirit campaign that has taken place. And the council has been smeared. And also, our president has been smeared. And unfortunately, before the world, before the entire world, which is an amazing thing to realize that someone would be so cold in heart to do that to someone.

Sins have been revealed that happened, in some cases, brethren, 25 and 30 years ago, that somebody repented of in order to win advantage. Satan, brethren, is a dirty fighter.

And I think we need to realize that that is the way he is. Right now, brethren, we have people that have been on the internet using pseudonyms or false names in order to discredit. The church. Discredit the council. Discredit our president. And you know what, brethren?

I think when people do that, I think it shows their fruits right there. You know, I think it's important for us to realize what fruit is. You know, if somebody's going to accuse us within the church, you should know who it is that is accusing you. And they shouldn't hide behind somebody else. Unfortunately, some have not only used pseudonyms or false names, but they have had members act on their behalf so that they would not be revealed. So, this is the way Satan works, brethren. And so, we need to understand, again, that this is the way physical military leaders work, and this is the way Satan works. Sun Tzu goes on to say here, the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. So, it'd be better if you can come in and subdue the enemy without even raising a hand. You know, this is what the Russians, in fact, said that they would do to the United States. You know, that they would basically defeat the United States without lifting a finger. And, brethren, I hate to tell you this, they're almost succeeding in the United States of America. I don't know if any of you know George Soros, but he is a multi-billionaire. I believe he lives over in Hungary, if I'm not mistaken. But, George Soros gave a five-point plan for taking over America. And, by the way, this is something that is well known. So, I'm not saying something that is hidden somewhere, you know, in some book from years ago, and that these things are fairly recent. The five-point plan for taking over America is, number one, create a shadow government under the guise of humanitarian aid. And, they'll think about how sometimes when people go into nations that they will come in with this humanitarian aid, and pretty soon they have more and more power, and they begin to influence the government. This is, of course, what happens, you know, around the world today. And, unfortunately, I think even the United States gets involved in this kind of corruption. Number two, he said, take control of the media.

Take control of the media. You know, if you're able to have the media, you can tell people exactly what you want to. And, I don't know about you, but I've watched news very closely. And, you know, I have noticed the dumbing down of news for a long time, where we watch news, and usually we're talking about things that are absolutely no significance whatsoever. Take control of the media. You know, the media is very good at this, by the way. If you see something where people complain about that, Americans are. They know what a short attention span Americans have. They'll change the subject and go something else. If there's a problem, in other words, that really needs to be rectified. They change the attention. Believe it or not, brethren, this is what Satan does, and he can do it with us, as well. Number three. Number three, destabilize the state by building anti-government sentiment. Build anti-government sentiment. Again, what is happening within even the church right now? Where does that come from? Well, brethren, ultimately it comes from Satan the devil, you know, trying to get people to be anti-government within the church, against the governance that God has set within the United Church of God. Number four, subvert the American electoral system. And what do we have problems with? You know, you've got the chads, you know, down in Florida, where you've got this guy cross-eyed looking at a chad to see whether or not someone punched a card. And who knows, in fact, how much sometimes that has been manipulated. We know it happens in other countries, some of the banana republic countries.

Saddam Hussein, I think, had, he was elected, of course, as president in Iraq before his downfall, and usually he had 90% of the people behind him. Now, tell me, I mean, if you're throwing family members and meat grinders, you know, if you're doing all of this to your own people, is he used, you know, gas and different chemicals to destroy his own people?

People are not going to, again, support him at that high rate, as he always claimed.

And rather than again, if we watch things in the United States and what is going on in the United States now, we know that things are changing rapidly and not for the good. You know, somebody sent me this not long ago about how an American manufacturing has declined so rapidly in this country and moved out of this country, and how Americans consume so much, you know, from the Chinese, but how very little they buy from us, and how things are heading economically in this country. You know, one thing is for sure, brethren. There are service industries that are very important in the United States, but you know, all of us can't have service jobs.

You think about that a little bit. You know, if all of us have service jobs, we're serving other people, in other words. That is not going to be sustainable in the United States.

You've got to have, you know, some sort of an economic base besides the service industries.

And besides, a lot of the service industries are being shipped out, too, now. And so it's getting worse.

And number five in his plan is take over the world. Over the world, of course. This is what some men want to do. They want to take over the world and make it a one-world government.

And, you know, people used to be crackpots that talked about one-world government, or considered to be. But, you know, that's not true anymore, because I think most people do recognize it. You know, I think another thing that is interesting that Sun Tzu said, is he said, secret operations are essential in war. Upon them, the army relies to make its every move.

And so Satan is always, you know, making incursions and watching and determining what he's going to do.

Sun Tzu says, supreme excellence consists in breaking enemies' resistance without fighting. Again, it's better to do it, to undermine it. I remember when I was at Northeastern State University, as a student there, SDS had started. You know, if any of you remember, the students for a democratic society, which was nothing more than a communist group that was operating on campuses at the time I was there, it was, again, one of those efforts to undermine the country. And this is what, again, people do when they're subversive within a country and where they're trying to take a country over. Now, what is the one of the major goals that Satan has in the world today? One of his major goals, brethren, is to bring down the Church of God. That's what he wants to do. He wants to bring down the Church of God. Now, this is a letter that I want to quote to you from Mr. Rose and Mr. Luecker. It's dated December 23rd. I encourage all of you to make sure that you read this letter. I'm just going to give one quote from it. It says, quote, It remains deeply painful to see new church groups start up in some pockets of the country, and former ministers still publishing or putting on the internet statements that have little or no basis in fact. Based on recent information sent to us from a number of sources, we now know with certainty that former trusted ministers have been and are now actively and openly trying to draw away faithful members like yourself to new groups, as they will find separating into other groups will not solve their problems. The Council of Elders is in possession of an irrefutable documentation that demonstrates complicity by certain ministers and members in secretive efforts to undermine and destroy the very organizational fabric of the United Church of God. We are greatly saddened to see this, as it hurts to know as a fact that some have essentially said one thing regarding reconciliation or resolution of differences while working behind the scenes with a completely different agenda. Sun Tzu, brother. Satan the devil, of course.

In other words, we have had subterfuge in the Church of God. And that's what's happened, brethren. And it's shameful. It really is. It's shameful. Let's go to 2 Peter 2 and verse 1. Again, this is how Satan makes war, brethren.

He comes in by subterfuge. He uses human instrumentality to do what he strives to do.

2 Peter 2 and verse 1, it says, But there will also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

As we've said, brethren, Jesus Christ is the head of the church. 2 Peter 2 and verse 1, it says, Do we accept him as the leader of the United Church of God?

Talks about here about people denying the Lord.

I've said before that we need to again accept Christ's leadership within the church. And it says, And many will follow the destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

And it says, By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words.

And it says, For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

And so there's a deception that takes place, brethren.

And that is told to us in prophecy that came from the Apostle Peter. This time we don't have a doctoral issue. That's been a bogus thing, a bogus lie that has been circulated.

But there are those who are going to break away from us that need a financial base to do that.

And that is why they are trying to garner a following.

You know, what it is, brethren, is a government issue, as I told you before. It's a power issue.

You know, if they could be in charge, and again, I'm not going to define they here, they would stay.

They would remain.

So it's a power issue.

And the question is whether we will let Jesus Christ rule and govern the church.

Now, brethren, these are important things for us to understand. This is the way, again, men of war work, and we need to know Satan works this way as well. He infiltrates.

He undermines. He divides and tries to conquer.

How can we battle, brethren, against Satan?

How can we do that as God's people? First of all, be armed.

Be armed is the way that Satan works in this world. You and I can't outsmart him. We really can't. We can't stand toe to toe with, in fact, an angel, any angel, let alone the devil.

He is an angel, and there are other awesome angels with great power and super intelligence.

You know, Satan, by the way, treats mankind as though he is an animal.

That's why, in his religions, he allows the sacrifice of babies and that sort of thing in the Old Testament time.

God treats us like we're going to be potential sons in his family.

God respects us. God cares for us. Satan does not.

The key to battling with Satan the devil, brethren, is to realize that he has no ultimate rule.

He has no ultimate rule.

If you say black, he will say white.

In other words, he will do what it takes to get you to be deceived to the point of deception.

You know, some people have not realized again how Satan is always playing that game.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

But the devil's method of life varies so that we can never figure out how he will come at us.

We just need to know his poise so that we can recognize it when it comes our way. We don't know how he's going to do it, but we know he's going to do it. He's going to come against us.

You know, he is one of the most despicable, evil beings to exist.

And yet, brethren, on the other hand, he can present himself as an angel of light.

See, this is the way he is. He will do anything to deceive.

Last time, he came at us with false doctrine, and we had to separate from our former association.

This time, he caused some of our leaders to rebel against the government God had placed within the church. This time, it's not a test of doctrine, brethren, but it's a test again whether we will let Christ rule in the church.

This time, brethren, we must stand still and support what God has put in place to beat the devil, and to live righteously and let God fight our battles for us.

So, realize, number one, if you're going to fight against the devil, is that you're no match for him. Your strength is going to come from God.

Number two, brethren, number two, to fight the devil is you need spiritual discernment.

Spiritual discernment comes by experiencing and facing trials and doing so in a godly manner. And knowing the wiles of the devil. Let's go to Hebrews 5.

Hebrews 5 over here, because there we're told by Paul what, in fact, discernment is, or what it's about. In Hebrews 5 and down in verse 12, it says, for though by the time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. So, hopefully we've had our milk, we've had our meat. And it says, for everyone who protects only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. In other words, they're mature. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. We have to have discernment, brethren. When someone criticizes authority, do we have the discernment to see that error?

You know, if we can see that, brethren, then we see the fingerprints of the devil.

In Ephesians 4, verse 14 through 15, I'm not going to turn there, but it says, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth and love. It says, may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. So, except Christ is the head of the church and grow up to the head who is Christ. And so, we need to discern, we need to discern. Number three in fighting against Satan. Our greatest tool, brethren, is fellowship. We're going to fight against the devil. And understand, this fellowship should always be positive. Fellowship is a positive process of one member relating to another where iron sharpens iron. You know, I will say also, sometimes fellowship can be also a workshop for the devil to spread negative wisdom within the church. You know, it's like the mother's room can be a very good place to take your children. But if women go into the mother's room and they talk during the sermon, and again, I'm not saying that this is happening here at all, and then they get into being critical of the church, then it's the devil's workshop, right? It's not being used the way it should be. You know, I'm not going to go to Proverbs 3 verses 1 through 6, but I encourage you to read it again. It tells us not to lean on our own understanding. And we are to trust in God, and then we are to know God's way of life and stick with it to the end.

And so, brethren, we need to again remember these things. One thing I think is very important for us is to focus again on positive things. Like it says in Philippians 4 verse 8, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, or of good report. If there's any virtue, if there's any, it says if there's any praiseworthy, meditate on these things. So this is what our fellowshipping should be about as well. I'm not going to go to Titus 1 verses 15 through 16, but you know, this is something to really meditate on, brethren. To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled. You know, if people get caught up in talking against the church and speaking against the church and speaking against people, you know, that are in leadership within the church, you know, they're going to examine every letter and try to find every evil that they can find in it. I read a letter and it's encouraging to me that somebody's taking leadership. Somebody else might read the same letter and see, well, see, he lied there. He lied here. And, you know, it's because to the pure, all things are pure.

Now, it's not that we are dumb sheep, brethren, but that we're not looking for people to flub up.

And quite frankly, I think that this is what the church has done. We've tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. You know, we've even sent men out, by the way, that we knew were against the council to churches to pastor them. You know, that's how evil the administration is, that they actually put trust in men, good faith in men, and they sent them out and they spoke against the council to those very churches where they had been sent the pastor.

It's shameful. It really is. The church has tried. It really has tried to reconcile.

You know, if our minds, though, and our consciences are defiled, then we can't see things straight. We simply can't. You know, when you have someone come up to you and they say that our leaders on the council or the president are liars, that's a pretty strong word to use, isn't it? What we need to do is have the courage rather than to say, no, they are not. You are a liar because you've said this thing. And, you know, I know every one of, just about everyone on the council, every person on there I've met and talked to, and I know probably three-quarters of them very well.

You know, we spent hours and hours together. And, you know, somebody comes and tells me that one of them is a liar. You see, you've got to be kidding. I've known this person so long. I've known Denny Luker a long time. You have too, brethren. Is this man, does he have the character of a liar?

Obviously he does not. He does not. But if someone comes and says somebody's a liar, brethren, I think we need to have the courage to say no.

You know, we ought to be able to say, wait a minute, I know these men. I believe that these men are honorable ministers. And I know, I've known them for a long time. I've seen them in action.

You know, Mr. Luker and I worked together down in the southwest when we were in Phoenix.

We fought that battle down there in 1995. And so, brethren, let's have the courage. We need to stand up and be counted with God's people to stand for God's church. We just can't stand by and let the strong man enter the house and wreak havoc. And I know it's not human beings, brethren. It is Satan behind human infrontality. And so, we shouldn't focus on men because, frankly, Satan is the one playing the game against us and God. And he uses human instruments to do that. So, brethren, let's use that powerful tool of fellowship to fight against the devil. And let's make sure that we don't become defiled. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11.

You know, over here, the Apostle Paul, in talking about the Corinthian church, expresses it in a way, a loving way. He was a very loving minister, patient minister. But here in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3, he said to them, "...I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceive ye by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he comes, preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received." In other words, if somebody becomes hostile and they've got another spirit that you're not familiar with, it should send your antennae up a little bit. And I believe, brethren, that some do have a different spirit. I mean, here, even in the Stockton area, there are people that I've spoken to, love greatly, and still do, that, quite frankly, are hostile now.

They're hostile. That's not the same spirit that I remember. But this is what the Bible tells us.

It says there that if somebody comes to us, or a different gospel which we have not accepted, you may well put up with it. You know, they would, of course, put up with it, probably in Corinth, as they did the man who was committing adultery, who was his own mother-in-law, or stepmother, I should say. Next thing, number four, brethren, is a way to fight the devil is make use of the armor of God that you have. Because that armor, brethren, and I'm not going to go into detail about the armor. That's for maybe another time, for another sermon. But that armor protects us.

You read down again about the different parts of the armor of God. Paul says, above all, take faith to fend off the fiery darts of the devil. And so, you know, we need to, again, remember these things in this difficult time. Brethren, we do need to have the knowledge of the wiles of the devil, lest we become corrupted. That's the worst thing that can happen to us, is if Satan comes in, and again, he can use human instrumentality, and he corrupts us.

Our number one enemy is Satan the devil. Satan is a master tactician. He's a great warrior, fighting against and thwarting God's plan. And, brethren, in this world, he has been almost 100%, I would say, we could say 100%, and deluding and deceiving the masses of this world into rejecting God. And without having our minds open, as they have been as a result of God working with us, we'd be like everybody else. However, the good news I have to give to you, brethren, is when we read the end of the Bible, as Mr. Herbert Armstrong used to say so often, we know in this battle, this great battle that is taking place and will be intensifying at the end of the age, not only for the world but the church, at the end of this battle, we win.

So, brethren, let's make sure that we educate ourselves about this master tactician, Satan, and know his wiles.