Has God Said?

I'm in the noon street. You've been watching the news lately. Of course, everybody has a big New Year's celebration. You know, on January 1st or December 31st at midnight, everybody goes out and rings the bell rings in the great New Year and all that. But so far, this New Year has not been real great for a lot of people.

And you know, we are...you look at what's happening in the first part of this year, since it's going back about four or five, four and a half months. We are now living in very, very monumental times. A lot of things are taking place. A lot of things that can tie into the fulfillment of end-time prophecy. And it really kind of...what happens in the Middle East...of course, the whole Middle East has been on fire for the last five months. And it really started back...at the very end of last year...it started back on December 27...actually, December 17th of last year, when a 26-year-old produce stand vendor in Tunisia...he fatally set himself on fire.

The government was very corrupt there, and he had just like the old days of the mafia. You had to pay the mafia in order to get protection from the mafia. And...well, he had to be paying...you know, he didn't use...it's hard to make money there with the vendor...to produce, but he had to pay the government in order to stay in business.

They would collect money from him every month, just to be a little...to stay in business. So...and he saw the corruption there, and he was protesting against the government corruption. And it's very hard to do that in these countries where it's got dictatorships and very controlled. And so he set himself on fire, and that rose the common person up to protest some of those things. And it really set the entire Middle East on fire. The President of Tunisia, after that, had to flee the country.

And, of course, as we know, then in January, President Mubarak was forced from office, leaving Egypt in a state of uncertainty. And he'd been in office for many, many years. And leaving Egypt as a state of uncertainty in this very dangerous situation for the West. Since Egypt is the most populous nation in the Middle East, and it also... since Jacob's descendants gave it away, they now control the Suez Canal, one of the key water gates. And then bloody protests, of course, have risen up against the governments of many of the Middle Eastern countries, like Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Syria, Libya. Of course, right now, they're still ongoing. Against Qaddafi, as well as other Arab nations. A lot of protests have broken out, and they're still ongoing.

Even in Iran, there have been some protests, which the government has very quickly put down. A lot of people, protesters, have been killed, and so on. So the Middle East, you know, really is in a state right now of transformation. It's being transformed before our very eyes. And as we know, Islamic radicals, like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere, are waiting in the wings to kind of fill in the gaps, and to be able to gain power and control for themselves, if they can take advantage of this unrest in this situation that's been created here in the last few months. And of course, those radical Muslims would like to unite the Middle East into a worldwide community of Muslim believers under Islamic rule and shira law.

They would like the Middle East to really, what we know, be transformed into what Daniel Levin calls the King of the South. And we can almost see things are being set up for that formation to take place. And it could take place very quickly in the next couple months or year. And then that turmoil in the Middle East took center stage during the months of January and February. That's about all you saw on the news. That was the main news headlines. Until March 11th, and on March 11th, a 9.0 earthquake hit off the coast of northern Japan.

And that took center stage in the news, even though the other was still ongoing and is still ongoing. That took center stage for quite a while because of the resulting tsunami that just devastated portions of northern Japan. Then you had the nuclear power plant with the radiation leakage there, which has now gotten to a level 7, they said. Just a level that of Chernobyl. And I don't think they got that totally under control yet. You don't hear too much about it lately, but they had to create like a 50-mile... U.S. created a 50-mile zone around there that you have to clear out of.

And again, so that's still an ongoing situation there. But that has been upstaged now by what happened in April. The month of April brought the worst tornado disasters in United States history. The month of April saw over 500 tornadoes. Some of them have F5s, EF5s, and EF4s. And brought just horrible devastation throughout many states in the South.

And in one day, I think it was April 27th, the ones April 27th, there were 226 tornadoes in one day. Which by far set an all-time record for the numbers of tornadoes in one day. And of course that's basically devastated certain portions of Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina. And as you saw, we've seen on the news, some communities were totally obliterated. They no longer exist. The entire community was destroyed. Just nothing but just rubble.

Thousands of people have lost everything. They don't have a home to go back to. They don't have any possessions to go back to. They've lost just about everything. They have to start over again. I think a little over 300 lives were lost in that. And then, continual thunderstorms and heavy rains have also brought tremendous flooding into certain areas there.

In fact, we're going to see some of that when we go from Arkansas up to the conference. Probably leaving next Thursday afternoon and Friday driving up there because we have to go right by Carroll, Illinois. Which, we go right past there. Hopefully the freeways are not flooded. I know I-40 was flooded for a while. I haven't closed down. I don't think they closed down I-55 and I-57. Hopefully they haven't. But I know the waters of Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers are still rising, and that hasn't crested yet, totally. And then another thing that just devastated some of the farmland. 130,000 acres had to be flooded because, to protect that town of Carroll, Illinois, they had to blow up one of the major levees, which was compromised, and they were afraid it was going to break and would have destroyed the town of Carroll.

So to prevent that from happening, they blew up part of the levee so that water could be flooded down towards the Mississippi River, but in so doing, they flooded over 130,000 acres of prime farmland, which of course has the farmers there. They've lost their crops for this year. That's it. It's all over for them.

And very few of them had that kind of insurance to cover that. So that's going to be a tremendous loss for them. They're quite upset about that. And of course, now on Texas, just right next door, practically, in Texas, they've got one of the worst droughts they've had. They've had a severe drought for months now. And then they had the wildfires that started because of that drought, and I think those wildfires are still ongoing. They haven't been put out yet. And all these events, one on top of the other, and one overshadowed the other, and yet all of them are still ongoing events.

And it makes you wonder, what's the next event that's going to overshadow those events, and when's it going to happen? So we are now living in very monumental times.

And of course, right after all these events, just recently, last Sunday, it was announced, it's Osama bin Laden. We had a group of Navy SEALs that raided his compound. He'd be living there in a million-dollar compound right outside of Islamabad in Pakistan. And I think that's what it is. I forget the time of the town. But anyway, he was right there in Pakistan, one of the major cities, and they raided that, and they killed him. And that particular event now has overshadowed all the other events that are still ongoing. And of course, what everybody's asking is, will the safer place now that Osama bin Laden is dead? Well, probably not.

Because we all know that the power behind Osama bin Laden and other evil men like that, that power is still very much alive and well. And we all know who that is. Satan. And here's the thing. Satan knows, with all these things, we can see all these things building up to fulfillment of prophecy. And I think Satan knows and realizes his time is short. I think he knows this is monumental times as well. So what does that pretend then for the people of God? That's what I'm going to look at here this afternoon. Revelation 12 makes it plain that once Satan realizes that his time is short, he's going to greatly intensify his efforts to devastate and destroy the true people of God, the true Church of God. Revelation 12 makes that very plain. And I think he's been very much intensifying his efforts since 1995. And just look at what happened with the Church of God since 1995. He's been very much devastated and scattered and weakened. Let's go to Ephesians. It's still my introduction here, but let's look at one verse in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, verse 11, where Paul saw Satan working at his dehay. And of course, he's working even more fervently right now, but it says that in mind, Ephesians 6, 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. My margin, and margins of many Bibles, says that it's down against the schemines of the devil. What is Satan's main scheme in trying to divide, weaken, and destroy the true people of God? Well, when you stop and think about it, it's as old as the Garden of Eden. But it's still Satan's main tactic to try to destroy the Church of God.

It's a scheme and a tactic which Satan has been using successfully for the past 6,000 years. He uses it over and over again because he's been very successful at it. It's proven tactic. It works. It's very simple, and it's a very easy tactic for Satan to use. And that's what we're going to take a look at today. My title for my sermon here this afternoon is, Has God Said? As God Said. Let's begin back at the beginning. Let's look at the very first words recorded in the Bible that came out of the mouth of Satan directed towards mankind. Or directed towards Eve in this case, but directed towards mankind. Let's go back to Genesis 3, verse 1, where we're introduced to the serpent, or the symbolic of Satan, the devil. And it tells us right off the bat that he's very, very cunning, very subtle. And I'll define what that means here in a moment. Now the serpent was more cunning, he's more subtle, as says the old King James, I believe, than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, Has God said?

Now note carefully who said this to, and he said to the woman. To the woman. In this case, Genesis 3 here, the woman was Eve. But as we all realize, the woman later came to symbolize the church. Let's see that in Revelation 12. Let's turn to Revelation 12, where we clearly see that the woman here is symbolic of the true people of God, the church of God, the spiritual woman.

Revelation 12, and let's begin in verse 12, with woe to the inhabitants. Revelation 12, 12, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time left. He knows he's building up to monumental times, and his time is short. So he has great wrath. Against whom is he going to direct that wrath? Verse 13, And when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman.

This is now talking about the church. He's going to direct his wrath towards the church, towards the people of God, living at the time of the end, in these monumental times leading up to Christ's return. He's going to go after the woman, the spiritual woman in this case, who gave birth to the male child, who proclaims the truth about the kingdom of God and the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and who proclaims the true Christ and the true God. Verse 14, But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for time and time and a half a time from the presence of the serpent.

So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood. He says, I can't do that. I can't let her get away. I've got to destroy her. Out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, after the church, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.

But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened his mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon has spewed out of his mouth. So then what did Satan do? And then the dragon was enraged with the woman, with the church, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the true testimony of Jesus Christ.

So the woman here is obviously referring to the church, to the true people of God, who are living at the time of the end, leading up to Christ's return, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, and who are living in monumental times, even as we are now living in very monumental times, as we look at what's happening in the news. So here the woman is the church.

So let's go back to Genesis 3, and take a look at this again with that concept in mind. Genesis 3.1, again. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, and this includes the spiritual woman, and he said to the woman, has God indeed said? Now stop there and think about that. What tactic was Satan using here against the woman? Does he still use that same tactic today against the people of God, against the spiritual woman, against the church?

What was Satan's tactic against the woman? And why was it successful here? Was it successful here in Genesis 3? Of course, the woman here is ME, but was his tactic successful? Did he keep the woman, in this case Eve and her husband, who partook with her, did he keep them from the tree of life?

That was the object. The object to keep him from the tree of life. Was Satan successful? Did his tactic work? Genesis 3 verses 22 to 24. Genesis 3 verse 22. Then Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to no good and evil. And now, as he put out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. And he drove out the man, and he placed caribim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword was turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life, to guard the way to eternal life.

So he was successful. He kept him from the tree of life. Million-dollar question. Does Satan still use this same tactic that he used here? Does he use it today against the church of God? And if successful, will it prevent the people of God from obtaining access to the tree of life?

Another big question. Why was Satan successful here? He obviously prevented Adam and Eve from the tree of life. He was successful. Why was he successful? How was he able to pull this off? He says he's very subtle, very cunning. How was he able to pull it off? What prevented Eve from seeing through what Satan was up to here? From seeing through his scheme. How was she deceived? Why didn't she see what he was up to, and why didn't she see it? And what didn't she see? What was it she missed? Well, let's first look at where this took place. As we all know, it took place in the Garden of Eden, as it tells us in Genesis 2, verse 15.

What were the stakes? What did this involve? Well, it involved, as we read, having access to the tree of life. It involved having access to the way to eternal life. So, when you look at the stakes, the stakes could not have been higher here than they were. Because the stakes were gaining access to receiving eternal life. But back to my previous question, where did this take place?

Well, as we see, it took place in the Garden of Eden. It tells us that in Genesis 2, verse 15. And that's where I want to go back to where I give you a little bit of lesson in ancient Hebrew, back at the Women's Conference, and then the same Sabbath here. I want to go back to that a little bit, a little bit to ancient Hebrew, because ancient Hebrew is very interesting here, when you look at what the Hebrew word Eden means in Hebrew, in ancient Hebrew.

Eden in ancient Hebrew is spelled with three Hebrew letters. The first letter is An, A-Y-I-N. That's the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And you'll find that word written above Psalm 119, 121. The Hebrew letter An became our letter O. It was originally written kind of elongated because it was a picture of an eye. The second letter in the word Eden was the letter Dalit, D-A-L-E-T, or D-A-L-E-T-H. It's the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and you'll find it written above Psalm 119, verse 25. Dalit became our letter D.

Now, how was that written in ancient Hebrew? Very interesting. The D is very similar. You take capital D, and you take the straight line here, instead of making a horizontal line, just tilt the D like this, so it's like this. And then you elongate this here and have it come down draped like that. It pictured a doorway with a drape on it because in doorways back then, mainly, they had curtains. So Dalit pictured a door or a doorway that led to something.

The third letter, so letter N, spelled N-O-O-N, or N-U-N, as it is above Psalm 119, 105. It's the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It became our letter N. I explained that, I think, in the lecture I had. It's very similar to our letter N, except it was one jot down here, and then a short jot up, and then another jot down. It was like this. I used to go swimming in Lake Chelan when I was a kid, and they'd have little minnows there, and I'd have my mask on, my snorkels, and my fins, and I'd be swimming there, and I'd see these little fish, and I'd try to reach out to touch one.

But you just get so close to it, you go, brrrr! It dashed off, just like that. Well, that's what that letter NU-N symbolized in ancient Hebrew. It symbolized the darting of a fish. It symbolized as such a symbolized life. So those three letters, A-N, D-L-E-T, NU-N, are the equivalent of our letters O-D-N in English. Again, A-N was drawn to picture an eye.

It thus pictured seeing or to see. A daylet was drawn to picture a door or doorway. That's a picture to door or way into something. And NU-N was drawn to portray a fish darting through water as such a symbolized life. So Eden was then spelled A-N, daylet, noon.

A-N to see, daylet the door, noon, life. The word picture meaning then of the word Eden is to see the door to life. Now that's interesting because here, this is introduced in Eden here, God is showing that there's a way to life, a way to eternal life. There's a door, a way into eternal life. If you follow God, obey God. So in this case, back in Genesis 3, it was a door to eternal life because that's what the tree of life symbolized in the Garden of Eden.

Interesting, the last two letters in the word Eden, daylet noon, also spell a Hebrew name. They spell the Hebrew name Dan. And the name Dan in Hebrew means judge. So Eden also pictures to see the judge. And judge pictures the door to life. And of course, there's only one judge who's the door to eternal life, and that's Jesus Christ, as is even pointed out briefly in the sermon end. But Christ said, I am the door. We'll see that in a moment. So Eden means to see the judge or to see the door to life.

Who is the door to life? Who is the judge? Who is our only judge and who is the only door to eternal life? Let's go to Romans 14. Romans 14, beginning in verse 10, where Paul writes, Why do you judge your brother? They had that problem back there, too. Age-old problem. Why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? And of course, the problem of Paul is, what was that going on in the church? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You know, the only one judge we have to worry about.

Only one judgment we have to worry about. We don't worry about how anybody else judges us or nobody else has to worry about how we judge them. There's only one judgment that counts, and that's the judgment of Jesus Christ. He's the one we're going to have to stand before someday. For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, As I live says the Eternal, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

So the knee shall bow shall give account of himself to God. Not to anyone else, just to God. Therefore let us not judge one another any more, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. So we're all going to have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Christ is our only judge. And as such, Christ is our only door to life. He is the door to eternal life. That's what Judgement pictured in ancient Hebrew and the Old Testament.

Let's go to John 10. John 10, beginning in verse 7. Again, going back to the sermonette. Then Jesus said to them again, Moses said, Surely I say to you, I am the door. I am the door of the sheep. I am the door, Christ said. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers. In other words, there's only one door that will gain its access to the tree of life. There's only one door that we can go through to gain access to the kingdom of God and eternal life.

And that's through Jesus Christ. That was pointed out in the sermonette. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Hopefully. But I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. And we'll go in and out and find pasture. He'll go through that doorway. He can go through Christ. He's the only doorway into the kingdom of God and eternal life. The thief does not come except to steal. There's somebody saying, well, I'm going to find another way in.

No, you can't find any other way in. There's no other way to get into the kingdom of God or gain access to eternal life except through Jesus Christ. Can't steal our way in. Can't break our way in some other way.

There's no way to do it. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd, he gives his life for the sheep. He lays down his life.

He'll sacrifice anything as Jesus Christ did for all of us. He's willing to give up everything. His glory, his power, his position, his eternal life potentially. That he could be our Savior. He'd give up everything. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a hireling, someone who's just working for hire, who's just working to earn a living or to earn a wage, or to maybe earn a position or to earn a position of power or influence or a little bit of glory for the sake of vanity.

That's a hireling. He's not really in it for the sheep. He's in it more for himself. But the hireling, he is not the Shepherd, not a true Shepherd. He is one who does not really own the sheep. But maybe sometimes some people can be hirelings, if they can think they own the sheep, because they want to control the sheep. But nobody owns the sheep. Only Jesus Christ owns the sheep. All of us, the sheep, belong to Jesus Christ. He bought us with his own blood. But a hireling sees the wolf coming, and he leaves the sheep. And flees. And then the wolf catches the sheep, and they're all scattered.

How many times has that happened in God's church since 1995? Where hirelings have fled and left the sheep to the wolves and been scattered. Why does the hireling flee? Verse 13. The hireling flees because he is a hireling, and he doesn't really care about the sheep. He cares more about his own position, what he makes, about his position of glory or whatever. Maybe power or control, but he doesn't really care for the sheep. If he cared for the sheep, he would not leave. He'd stay with the sheep, unless he had to leave, because the sheep had to leave.

This is what happened in 1995. The sheep had to leave. And so a good shepherd then followed the sheep, which is what I did. The sheep left first. But the hireling flees because he is a hireling, does not care about the sheep. But Christ said in verse 14, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known by my own.

See, Christ is our only judge, and as such, he is the only door to eternal life. I am the door, he said in verse 7. And that is what the word for judge is pictured in ancient Hebrew. It's pictured the door to life. It's pictured the judge over the door to life. It's pictured Jesus Christ.

Now that adds a great deal of meaning to the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. Let's turn to Matthew 25. Matthew 25, verse 1. Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five were wise, and five were foolish, and those who were foolish took their lamps, but they ran out of oil, didn't have enough oil, didn't have enough of God's Spirit using the right way to keep them going to the end of the road.

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps, and while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept, they all let down spiritually. And at midnight a cry was heard, behold, the bridegroom was coming, go out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, wait a minute, our oil is running out.

Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. They said, wait a minute, you know, we can't work God's Spirit in your life. I can only try to work it in my own life. So the wise answered, saying, no, there should not be enough for us and you, but go whether to those who sell and buy for yourselves. You have to build your own relationship with God. You have to use God's Spirit in your own life.

You can't let somebody else work that out for you. It doesn't work that way. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with them to the wedding, and the door was shut. The door to life, the door to eternal life was shut. See, Christ is our only judge, and He is the only door to eternal life. And if Christ shuts the door, we will not be able to enter into the kingdom of God.

There's no other way in. The only way you can get in is by standing before the judgment seat of Christ. Going on in verse 11, well, afterward, then the other virgins, they came also, and said, well, Lord, wait a minute. We want to go through the door. We were hoping to us. Because they realized there's only one way in. And that's through Jesus Christ.

But He answered and said to them, I assured they said to you, I don't know you. I don't know who you are. What a scary thought. To stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ after thinking you were a Christian all those years and then find out, wait, He doesn't know me? And then in verse 13, He says, Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. We don't know the day or the hour. We'll have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Before we'll have to stand before the judge, who is Jesus Christ. Watch therefore, says, okay. What must we watch? What must we watch?

What must we be watching for? See, what was the first tactic Satan used to prevent the woman from seeing the door to life, as Eden pictured the word Eden pictured in ancient Hebrew? And what prevented her from walking through that door that was open to her initially?

Go back to Genesis 3 once again. Let's look at this one more closely. In Genesis 3, verse 1, See, what is Satan doing here? In a very subtle and a very cunning way. It's interesting, the English word subtle means having fine distinctions and meaning. Requiring mental keenness and alertness. Delicately skillful or suggestive. Not easily detected. And cunning means firstly the same thing. In other words, it is knowledge which is mostly good, but it's just a tiny little bit of evil thrown in. Just enough to get you going in the wrong direction.

That's what Satan was trying to do with Eve. That's what he tried to do with the spiritual woman, the church as well. And the amount of evil was so small as to be almost undetectable. In fact, if you go through this, as we will, it's hard to detect.

In Jesus 3.1, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, as Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, As God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

Which is basically what God said, as we recorded in verses 16 and 17. Where He said, He commanded the man, saying, If every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now, Satan is very cleverly leading her in a certain direction here.

He's trying to get her to go in a certain direction, to where he can introduce something to her. Actually, it's even more subtle than that. He's actually getting her to go in a certain direction. He's getting Eve to lead herself in a certain direction. Here's what he's doing. He's putting this to us. He tries to get us to lead ourselves in a certain direction.

Then he springs the trap. Verse 4, Then the serpent said to the woman, Well, you won't surely die. Go ahead and eat that fruit. I'll guarantee you, you will not die. Not immediately. You won't die.

For God knows, in the day that you eat a bit, your eyes will be open. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise, she took up its fruit and ate. She gave it to her husband with her, and he ate.

Now, how much of what Satan said here was true?

Did Adam and Eve die after partaking in the fruit of the tree, and the knowledge of good and evil? No, they didn't. They didn't die. Not physically. They didn't die right then.

They did not truly die at that moment. Just like Satan said they wouldn't. Did Adam and Eve have their eyes open to be like God, knowing good and evil? Well, we read that in verse 22. God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. Okay, that was true.

Nothing wrong with that.

Was the tree good for food?

Was it pleasant to the eyes? Did it make them wise?

Is it doubt that Satan told them it would? And the answer to all three of those questions is yes, yes, it's true. It did. Everything Satan told Eve turned out to have an element of truth in it.

What then was the catch?

What was the trap?

What was it in all this that Eve did not detect? Because it was too subtle. She didn't see it and detected it.

Did you detect it? You know what it is? See, what is Satan's tactic here?

And does he use the same tactic today?

What was Satan's tactic? What was his strategy?

Well, if you stop and analyze and think about it, his strategy was the first thing he tried to do that he had to do. His strategy was to first introduce doubt into Eve's mind. Has God said? Is that really what he said? Are you sure?

That can't be right. That can't be right. Because you're not going to die. You surely will not die.

And that's where Eve got tripped up.

See, as we know, he was talking spiritually. God's talking spiritually here. He wasn't talking physically. No, they were going to die physically. But they were going to die spiritually. They were going to have themselves cut off from God if they disobeyed God and followed Satan.

See, God's focus was spiritual, and Satan's focus was physical.

And Satan got Eve to focus on her physical life instead of her spiritual life. That was the trap.

It is true they didn't die physically, immediately after they partiqued the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But they did die spiritually by cutting themselves off from God.

And the tree was good for food. But not all food is good. There's some food that can slowly kill you if you eat too much of it. Especially the wrong spiritual food will kill you.

The tree was pleasant to the eyes. But everything that's pleasant to the eyes is not good, is it? Some things that are pleasant to the eyes, if you pursue that, it'll lead you away from God. It'll cut you off from God.

It did make them wise, but not all wisdom is from God. Some wisdom is worldly wisdom that will lead you away from God. It cut you off from God.

See, Satan got them to focus on the physical instead of on the spiritual. And by so doing, he introduced doubt and suspicion into their minds.

Now we all know Hebrews 13a. You probably know that one by heart. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. I think that principle also applies to Satan. I think Satan is also the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In fact, I'll show you an example of that. Four thousand years after the Garden of Eden, Satan tried to use the very same tactic on Jesus Christ.

I'm the husband of the woman, of the spiritual woman, the husband of the church, the one who's going to be the... I'm the husband of the church. Fortunately, he didn't fall for it. Let's go there in Matthew 4.

Matthew 4, verse 1. Then Jesus was led into the wilderness... or led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, after he was hungry... that's an understatement if I ever heard one.

And when the tempter came to him, verse 3, he said, If you are the Son of God... Hmm. The first thing Satan tried to do was to introduce doubt into Christ's mind, into the mind of Christ.

Are you, if you are the Son of God? Then what did Satan try to do next? Verse 3. If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. First, Satan tried to introduce doubt, and then he tried to get Christ to focus on the physical, instead of on the spiritual, just as he did to Eve. Exactly the same tactic.

And also, just in the case of Eve, it appeared to be good. It appeared to be good.

Christ was famished at the time. He needed bread. He needed food. He desperately needed food. My whole body was crying out for food. He was starving to death.

What would be wrong with commanding that these stones become bread? What would be wrong with that? Well, two things. One, he would have been playing into Satan's hand, and he would have been allowing Satan to take the lead, lead him, down the path he wanted him to go, as he did Eve. And number two, he would have been focusing on the physical, instead of the spiritual.

That's going to take you down a long, wrong road every time.

Christ thought through Satan's very subtle deception and refused to take the bait.

Matthew 4, verse 4, He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, from the mouth of God. So Christ immediately focused on the spiritual and away from the physical.

He knew Satan was setting a trap.

He immediately focused on the Word of God. But then Satan tried to set another trap. He tried to set a trap by using the Word of God.

Matthew 4, verse 5, Then the devil took him up to a holy city, set him on a pinnacle in the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, again, if you are the Son of God, Hey, if you really are the Son of God, demonstrate it to me, show it to me, prove it.

Hey, surely you can do this?

If you are the Son of God, you have the power of God with you. So if you are the Son of God, show me.

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, Here is God's Word to back me up, Christ, he is Satan is saying, For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you, And in their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. Satan hears, quoting from Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12, Which tells me that Satan knows scripture.

Is he misquoting it?

Does it say what he says it says here? Well, let's go back to Psalm 91 and find out if he is misquoting it or not. Interesting thing, you find out he is not misquoting it.

Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12, He shall give his angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways, And in their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. So other than leaving out the last half of verse 11, Satan quotes it verbatim.

What then is the catch? What's the trap?

The catch is Satan is misapplying the scripture, And he is taking it out of context.

Now, if you read all of Psalm 91, I'm not going to go through it, But you can read the previous verses, And this is referring to God's supernatural protection On the people who have faith and trust in Him During times of great tribulation And during the time of the great tribulation. It's not talking about jumping off a building.

Let's go back to Matthew 4. Matthew 4, verse 7. So then Jesus said to him, It is written again, He just called Scripture right back to show him That he's misapplying this scripture. It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. So Christ immediately focused spiritually on another scripture Which shows that Satan was misapplying the scripture that he was quoting. Then Satan used one final tactic, verses 8 and 9. Again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain And showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you just fall down and worship me. And maybe what he's saying is, I'll give these to you right now. You don't have to go through all that suffering, You can die, and death, and everything. Why? Why go through all that? Why wait for God to give it to you? I can give it to you right now. See, he offered Christ immediate power and glory. Don't wait for God to give it to you. Hey, you can work it out yourself. I'll give it to you right now. Don't wait on God. Just take it now. Again, Christ thankfully didn't fall into Satan's trap. Instead he immediately focused spiritually on another scripture And commanded Satan to leave, as it tells us in verse 10. Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. See, Satan does not want us to see or to walk through the door to life. He wants to do anything he can to throw us off track, get us to go down a wrong road, away from the door to eternal life. He wants to get us going in a different direction, away from the tree of life, if you will. And do that, his strategy is very simple. It's really a time-tested strategy that's worked over and over again on many of God's people over thousands of years. Satan the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's got something that works. He just uses it over and over again. It's basically a three-fold strategy. Number one, introduce doubt into someone's mind. How's God said? If you are the Son of God. Number two, tries to get you focused on the physical. Hey, look at that, that's not right. Something's wrong there. Focus on the physical. Command that these stones be made into bread. And three, seek instant gratification. Try to get a person to seek instant gratification. All these things I will give you now. Introduce doubt, focus on the physical, and seek power, gratification, and recognition now. And if you can, get you to take matters into your own hand. Don't wait on God. Don't wait for God to work it out. You can have it now. Just take matters into your own hand. You can have it right now. Why wait? Don't wait for God to give it to you later. You shouldn't have to do that. You deserve it now.

See, how can we counter that and prevent Satan from steering us in the wrong direction? Just real briefly, two scriptures. First one is in Philippians 4, verse 8. A very familiar scripture, one that I like to read quite often. One we should all read quite often. This is where our mind should be. This can prevent us from falling into Satan's trap. Philippians 4, verse 8. Finally, brethren, he said, because Satan was using the same tactics back then. But Paul is continuing with it. He's trying to alert people how to thwart that tactic. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, you better find out. Know it's true. Don't believe it because somebody says it secondhand. Wait until you know it's true. Go to the source. Find out if it's true or not. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, if it has a noble cause, if it's going to be uplifting and encouraging and positive and do somebody some good, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, they're right. Things that are lovely, whatever things are of a good report. Human nature likes to hear bad reports. Oh, do you hear this? Do you hear what this person did? Do you hear that over there? That's what Satan tries to do. He wants us to tune into bad reports. And there are bad reports. Bad things happen. You have to be aware of that. But you better make sure it's true first before you say anything. Whatever things are of a good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate and focus on these things. And if you do that, you won't fall into Satan's trap and Satan's schemings.

And look to meditate on the Word of God and things that are spiritual. One final scripture, Colossians 3. Colossians 3, verse 1, verse 1. If then you were raised with Christ at baptism, as we were, seek those things which are above. Seek the things that are spiritual. Don't look at the physical things. They mean all kinds of faults and problems. Seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above. Set your mind on the spiritual. Not on things of the earth, not on the physical. You're always going to find things that are wrong with the physical. And if you focus too much on that, Satan can get you going right down a wrong road, as he tried to do with Christ, and as he did do with Eve.

So focus on the spiritual, not on the physical, as Christ did and as Eve should have done. So in conclusion, then, don't ever allow Satan to introduce doubt into your mind. And don't focus on the physical, or seek to find instant gratification by working things out your own way. Remember how it all started. Remember the very first recorded words that Satan never issued out... ...whatever he should have said in his mouth to a human being. Has God said?