The Whole World Deceived

Well, good morning again, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. I was commenting to Mr. Butcher how much I enjoy this type of weather. I think I might be in the minority, but it's just I love autumn and it's just a fun thing for me. We don't have a lot of announcements, but I'll mention most of you noticed that apparently Raleigh is not here today and is feeling fairly sick, so we certainly want to remember him in our prayers. And this time of year, I was talking to someone on the phone just recently that it seems like trials come on us sometimes in advance of the Passover and often during the fall Holy Day seasons.

We know Satan certainly doesn't like God's people obeying him and keeping his law and celebrating his plan for mankind, so we want to pray for our protection from him and for help for our brethren. And speaking of the fall Holy Days and God's plan, I just want to remind you that the Day of Atonement will be next Sabbath. That's one of the times when an annual Sabbath coincides with a weekly Sabbath and we'll be meeting right here at 1030 in the morning. And of course, the atonement is the one weekly or one annual Sabbath when God calls for a fast.

And that begins at sundown the night before and goes till sundown that day. I had a note to myself just remember that God's Word tells us to afflict our souls and says anyone not afflicted will be cut off. But there are certain circumstances where someone can be afflicted, but because of their personal health or required medications, they might not be able to totally abstain for the entire time. And that often the case is someone who's on a life-saving medicine or if they're a pregnant or a nursing mother.

I don't know if we have any of those here. Boy, I thought I'd get a chuckle out of that. But you know in those circumstances, I'm certainly not asking you to come and clear anything with me just to remind you that the Church has had that as a long-standing policy. Now, the Sabbath service after the Feast of Tabernacles, the next Sabbath after the Feast is October 22nd, and I am planning to come down for that Sabbath as well.

1030 services here, and of course be up for 230 at Portsmouth. I said, what's that other place? They both begin with bees. And I've got a note here that we were planning on doing the blessing of little children on the third Sabbath after the Feast in Portsmouth. Now, you know, we might have a child to bless here, so I'm going to have to look at the schedule. Well, we do have a copy of the speaking schedule, but I'll look at it afterwards.

Got a couple of notes for Feast of Tabernacles. Now, I wondered, is anyone that's here today going to Gatlinburg? Sanchez. I had a note from the home office saying there will be a signal for the hard of hearing at the Gatlinburg Feast site, and the services will be using a wireless FM receiver, or they'll be transmitting on 72.9 MHz. So anyone who owns a receiver that accepts that signal, they say, please bring that to the Feast, because they're not going to be able to provide their own receivers there.

Also, they're looking for technical volunteers in Gatlinburg. They need volunteers to help with the technical needs of the Feast, including the sound system setup and operating the system during services. So Steve Myers is the person to contact. Well, I'll leave that to Mr. Stanchill. There are going to be quite a few other people there, so I think you might be looking for backup. But Steve Myers' email address is the typical church address. It's steve then underscore space Myers at ucg.org, and I've got that written down if you want to look at it afterwards.

And I've got a couple moments. I don't know if you're interested. This isn't... I'm not normally one to do a lot of jokes during Sabbath services, but I was asked to prepare some remarks for the seniors' luncheon that they're going to have after services up in Portsmouth. And they said, well, Mr. Smith often has some jokes and things like that pertaining to the elderly. So I brought up a couple and I thought, you know, there's an awful lot of jokes that kind of make fun of how when you get older your memory isn't as good or you lose some of your strength.

What I really liked is I found some where it showed that as you get older you also get a little wiser and perhaps more crafty. So I might share a couple of those with you if you don't mind me taking a little bit of time. I'm assuming this isn't going on the recording, if it is then everybody will get to hear it. Let me share this one with you.

It says, A young man was walking through the supermarket to pick up a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on. But finally as he went to the checkout line, she got in line in front of him. Pardon me, she said. I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable. It's just that you look just like my son who died recently.

I'm very sorry, said the young man. Is there anything I can do for you? Yes, she said. As I'm leaving, would you say, Goodbye, mother? It would make me feel so much better. Sure, said the young man. So the old woman was leaving and he caught out, Goodbye, mother. Then he stepped out to the checkout counter and saw that his total was $127.50. He said, How can that be? I've only got a few things. The checkout man said, Well, your mother said that you would pay for her, too. Let me share one more that I thought was pretty clever. It says, My brother remembers the day when a police car pulled up to Grandma's house and Grandpa got out.

The officer explained that this elderly gentleman said that he was lost in the park and couldn't find his way home. Why, Bill, said Grandma, you've been going there for over 30 years. How could you get lost? Bill leaned close to Grandma, so the police officer couldn't hear and said, Well, I wasn't exactly lost. I just didn't want to bother to have to walk home. So I said, sometimes the memory in the body might fade a little bit, but some of the wisdom and craftiness over some of us younger folks grows.

Not that we would celebrate some types of craftiness, but boy, I just realized that fits in with my sermon more than I thought, but not necessarily the way I was hoping. Now, I want to talk a little bit about being deceived. If you will, let's turn to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation 12, this is one of the chapters that I mostly skipped past the other day, but it has some very interesting insight.

Revelation chapter 12 will begin in verse 7. It's a fitting great spiritual struggle and contest that went on and perhaps will be repeated in the future. It says, And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out. That serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Now, think about what that says. We've read this many times, but it says the entire world deceived. That's quite a concept, isn't it? Now, we believe it's true. It's in the Bible. But isn't it amazing to think of the whole world being deceived?

If you were to go out today and interview any important people, if you went to the manager of this hotel or your local county commissioners, if you went to Washington, D.C. and interviewed senators or even the president and said, Well, do you think you're currently deceived about any important thing that you believe? Well, they'd probably all say, Of course not!

I would know better. So if you like titles, this one could be called a world deceived. Satan has always been able to deceive the entire world. And as long as he's allowed to do so, he's going to continue this evil practice. It seems to be in his very nature to deceive. While we're in Revelation, let's look at some evidence of that.

Revelation 20. We're looking ahead on atonement. We often read the first part of the Scripture. As a matter of fact, we'll begin. Let's go ahead and begin in the first verse. We'll come back here and look at this again. But Revelation 20 verse 1. I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who was called the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.

So, once again, we're reminded that Satan deceives the nations, but when he's bound, there's going to be a thousand-year period when he's not able to do that. God will prohibit him. But after these things, he must be released for a little while. These things being the thousand years. If you skip down to verse 7, we'll see that Satan is like a recivitous criminal. Somebody who commits crimes over and over again. Now, when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose numbers is as the sand of the sea.

They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and that should say were, if you notice that in italics, and will be tormented day and night forever. But that's interesting. Satan is like some hardened criminal who's never going to change his ways. When he gets the opportunity, he'll go out and deceive once again, and he's very good at it.

He's more cunning than any of us. And when you think, an adult can usually, if they try, can deceive a young child. I hope that I don't with Connor, but if you think of the difference between me and him, it would be easier for me to pull the wool over his eyes and deceive him about something.

But the gap between our mind and Satan's is much greater than between mine and my little boys. Perhaps it's even greater than we can comprehend. He's more subtle, he's more diabolically clever than we can understand without God's help to understand. Satan has that kind of power to completely deceive human minds and to make people think that what's wrong is right and what's right is wrong.

Let's turn to Acts chapter 26. See very clearly again the power that Satan has to deceive. Acts 26 and verse 17.

It says, I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I send you now, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of their sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. But this was Jesus Christ talking to Paul about how he was going to turn people away and turn them into the light of the people of Satan.

And by the power of God's Spirit would bring them out of the power of Satan and his deception. So we can see by Scripture that Satan does have that power and he's been practicing it for a long time. And in the end he is going to continue doing that as long as he's able to. But let me ask a question. If Satan deceives the nations, how does he do that? How is it he's able to pull this off? Let's examine some of the various methods that Satan uses to deceive people and then talk a little bit about what we need to do about it. So let's go into some of Satan's tools of deception.

Just as truth is a fundamental characteristic of God and should become a fundamental characteristic of each of us, lies are Satan's foundation.

Lies are one of his fundamental tools for deception, and perhaps that seems obvious. But he builds his deceptions on plain old lies and half-truths, mixtures of truth and error. If we turn to John 8, verse 44, we'll see some scriptural support for that.

John 8, verse 44.

We're breaking into a thought where, once again, as he seemed to do very often, Christ was having a confrontation with the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders of his day.

And he said, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth.

Satan does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, or his own resources, as the New King James says, for he is a liar and the father of it. He is the father of it.

But he is good at packaging a lie so cunningly that it looks to us like it is truth.

Remember the very first recorded lie. He might have uttered lies before man was created, but the first one we know of is in Genesis, where he talked to Eve. And he said, you will not surely die.

He said, no, no, you're going to be like God, living forever and knowing good from evil.

And Eve believed him. What she saw with her eyes looked like what he was saying should be true. And mankind started down that long road, that dark path that he's been on ever since.

Satan has succeeded in counterfeiting, counterfeiting the teachings of God so cleverly, that the real meaning and intent of the Scripture has been hidden from most people for most of human history.

So Satan lies, but he's good at it. He makes his lies believable.

Another effective tool Satan has made use of, we can term as sorcery or apparent magic, working of miracles. People are greatly influenced by what they personally experience. If they see something with their own eyes or if they hear something with their own ears, they're much more likely to believe it. And Satan has power to do such things. Let's go again, let's look in the book of Revelation in chapter 18 towards the back of the book.

As I go into this, I want to make the comment, of course, remember that Satan is behind many organizations and people doing certain things. So this is actually the Scriptures talking about the Babylonian system.

But it's referring to Satan's power. Revelation 18 and verse 23 says, The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore. That's the city of Babylon referring to this false system. The voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth. For by your sorcery all the nations were deceived by sorcery.

Remember, these false religions are guided by Satan. How many of us have seen stories, and I saw one not long ago, I can't remember if it was 60 minutes or a date line, of some man down in South America who apparently is working miracles of healing people. They sent a camera crew to follow a man who, I think he had some type of cancer. He went to this fellow and had to wait for a couple of days and got to see him. By all intents and purposes, it seemed that he was miraculously healed. Now, that fellow down there is not teaching the truth out of the Bible, but it seemed that he had power to do something. There have been accounts of people seeing what they call weeping Madonna statues in various Catholic churches and missions where there's the statue, and they see real tears coming out of it. There's somewhat of a cult within the Catholic church of places called Fatima, where people have had this euphoria and seen visions. All of these things play their part in deceiving human minds. People seeing things that they believe are miraculous, and perhaps they are supernatural. Often they are, but Satan is supernatural. He has powers. Now, let's consider another one of Satan's most powerful tools, and it fits right in with the one we just discussed, and that's false religion. Satan established a counterfeit of the true worship of God. Actually, he's established several counterfeits. So this is no doubt one of the most powerful tools that Satan has, and he uses it to deceive people. That includes various pagan religions, and includes things like Buddhism and Hinduism and Shintoism, and you can add a lot of isms. There's more of them than most of us have heard of. One of the most deceptive has been the one that the Bible calls Mystery Babylon the Great, in the book of Revelation it uses that term, which stands in contrast to God's true church, which is also pictured as a woman. Let's look where in Revelation, turn back a page or two to Chapter 17. Revelation 17 beginning in verse 1. Mystery Babylon the Great in Revelation is portrayed as a woman. As I said, the true church is also portrayed as a woman, because Satan counterfeits the truth.

The woman was a raid in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. On her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. It's interesting, even one of the apostles was impressed. Saw this woman of a raid in this costly, gorgeous clothing and wielding power. And how many people have been impressed by the power of the false church, with its pageantry and its beauty and great works of art and such. But what's inside is often abominations, doing the opposite of what God commands.

If we skip down to verse 15. Then he, that's the angel, said, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues, and the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot and make her desolate, and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. Oh, I wanted to read verse 18. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.

It's interesting that the system, you know, the false religion has always persecuted the true church. And I know just recently I read Duggar and Dodd's True History of the True Church that was published in the early 1990s, I think around 1930. And of course Mr. Armstrong affiliated with them at one point in his life. And it portrays the true church being in hiding for centuries, hiding from the Roman church and often persecuted in people martyred.

And these false teachers, you know, they infiltrated the true church very early after Christ's crucifixion and began leading people astray so that those who wanted to remain true to the truth, who wanted to stick with the truth, had to leave and flee to be able to go by it, or live by it. And then of course this false church, as it grew in power, started affiliating with political nations, and gained power over them and influenced them.

For most of the history, the Roman Catholic Church has also governed an actual political entity. And the Vatican is even now still considered to be an actual nation. But, you know, it was only a hundred years or so ago, and it had a vast territory, as large as many of the countries in Europe.

Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11, to see a little more about this.

And we remember this false church, not only it brought in pagan rituals to substitute for the truth. Of course, it started, it adopted pagan holidays and gave Christian names to those holidays.

2 Corinthians 11, verse 13.

Here, the Apostle Paul is talking about such things early on. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And what he means is transforming their appearance, not their substance. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. We must never underestimate the power that religion can have over people's minds. When people devote themselves to a worship, it will affect their minds. Now, when they're in the true religion, which we are and we believe we are, then that's a great thing. Knowing that we have the truth can lead us to do great things. But if someone is devoted to a false religion, it can lead them to do very bad things. And I think of the Muslim suicide bombers. They do that in the sake of religion, strapping bombs to their chests and getting on public buses and airplanes. Let's look at another tool and a very powerful one that Satan has, and we should never underestimate that. And that is that he has a spiritual power. He's a spirit being one of the most powerful ever created, and he has the ability to directly influence and sway human minds and attitudes. Consider Ephesians. Turn back a few pages to the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2 will begin in verse 1. Here Paul is contrasting the difference with someone who had been under Satan's power and come out, but showing what they'd left. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which he once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Satan is able to broadcast wrong ideas, negative thoughts, bad emotions, and unsuspecting minds of humans in order to direct and even control them. He's been controlling a lot of the trends in world events for many years. And I wonder how many wars, how many atrocities, how many mass murders have been perpetrated by Satan directly influencing people and leading them to believe falsehoods and following his heart. Over 6,000 years has been great destruction, and maybe far more than we understand we might be astounded. Satan is invisible, so few people recognize a real source of those bad thoughts and feelings. Even the best and the brightest in the world don't realize that this unseen influence over them. You know, our college professors, our political leaders, they're completely deceived on this. But of course, this is another example of how clever Satan is.

Okay, now. We might be able to fathom out some other areas, but these are some of the main tools that Satan uses, how he's able to deceive people. Let's look at some of what he has accomplished with these tools. In what ways has he deceived mankind? Because there are some basic, major ways that he has done, that the world around us has deceived, in which we don't want to be. First, Satan has deceived people in regard to what they are. What is man? That's one of the first questions we often have. What is man? Satan has deceived people. Let's go to the book of Galatians, just towards the front of the Bible, a few pages here. Galatians 3 and verse 1.

Oh, okay, I read my notes wrong. Ha! Turn to the book of Genesis. That's not just a few pages. That's all the way to the front. I was looking at it, saying, that's not what I was looking for. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1. Now, remember, mankind had not been around very long at this point, and Satan was quick to begin to try to deceive them, Adam and Eve, as to not only why they were there, but what they were. Genesis 3 and verse 1. Now, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? The woman said to the serpent, Well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. I often think he might have said it in that tone, but we know he told her, You will not die. So when the... Oh, for God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.

From the beginning, Satan began foisting off this idea, and if we look to ancient civilization and their history, we'll see that very soon civilizations around the world all came to believe that man was consisted of a human physical body housing an immortal soul. That immortal soul, meaning it can't die, it's something that lives on. And these ancient civilizations in Egypt, in China, and Babylon, we know this because they prepared those who died for some sort of an afterlife, built these enormous crypts and put things in them for the journey to somewhere else. The Egyptians passed this belief on to the Greeks. Greek philosophy gained much from ancient Egypt, and their philosophers taught that the soul is immortal, and then the Catholic Church picked this up. And it's well known many of the original or early Catholic teachers were trained in Greek philosophy, and so they picked up on Plato's teaching that we have an immortal soul that lives on, and of course they would say that it goes somewhere afterwards. But this deception began with Satan all the way back in the Garden of Eden, and even though it's varied, it's been perpetuated for thousands of years. We know the truth. One of our memory scriptures, which I won't turn there because I'm sure most of you know, in Romans 6, verse 23, says that the wages of sin is death.

Death. Not suffering, you know, as your immortal soul burns in hell, but death. It's the gift of life, or the gift of God as eternal life. It can't be a gift if you already have it as an immortal soul. But clearly Satan deceived humans about what they actually are. And sadly, that blinds them to the incredible potential we have that we can be born into God's family as his children.

Secondly, Satan has not only deceived man about what he is, but also about where he came from. Let's turn back to the New Testament in Romans. Romans chapter 1.

This is one of the scriptures we like to turn to when we talk about this philosophy that's developed in our modern era about where we came from and what we are.

Because I should point out, the other deception that's more recent that's tied into the theory of evolution might not believe in the immortal soul, but believes that we're merely an animal and not something created in God's image. So Romans chapter 1 will begin in verse 18.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has shown it to them. In other words, people with some smarts and education should be able to look around at this creation and know things about God. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhood. So they're without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. Nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. Educators have suppressed the truth about the wonder of God's creation, and instead they've inserted this unprovable theory of evolution that we came from a lower life form, that came from one even lower than that, and going all the way back to some type of prehistoric sludge in some ocean that somehow came to life on its own and then evolved all the way into human beings. What's interesting is those who support the theory of evolution most strongly cry out against creation and say, well, you can't prove that, and it can't be scientific if you can't prove it. When there is absolutely no proof for evolution, and can't be proved. Let's turn to Psalm 119. Psalm 119 in verse 160. Psalm 119 is one of the easiest to find, of course, because it's so long. And I say that, and it's taking me a while to find it.

I want to show the contrast of what we know.

Psalm 119, verse 160 says, The entirety of your word is truth. Every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. The entirety of God's word, the Bible, from Genesis all the way to revolution, we believe all of it. And think, Jesus Christ quoted from the book of Genesis several times. He was God in the flesh, and he believed the Genesis account. That in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But it's sad to say many churches have left this belief.

There are churches out there, and now, including the Catholic Church, that is embracing the theory of evolution. They're losing their faith and saying, well, maybe God created things through evolution, and man might have come along, and then God exerted some power. It's a wonder that they believe in a God still. And what we see happening around us is what's described in the book of Genesis. It's what's described in the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy 6. You know, I'm beginning to wonder, actually, type these notes, thinking it would be easier to read, and I'm making more mistakes than I do when I look down on my handwriting.

1 Timothy 6 will begin in verse 20. This is the closing of the book, and it's an interesting warning from the elderly apostle Paul to Timothy, who was a young minister. And there is something when you're younger, sometimes it's easier to be fooled, and that does fit in somewhat with those jokes I was reading earlier.

Paul says, Oh, Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babbling and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. I like that the Old King James says, Science, Falsely So-Called. I think that's an apt description of the theory of revolution. It's falsely called science when it's really some type of terrible fable. Let's face it, multitudes have been deceived by this tool of Satan. And as I said, many so-called Christian churches believe it.

Flip forward a few pages to 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4 and verse 4, and we'll see this. It says, And that's just what we read in Romans 1 verse 22. These people, professing themselves wise, ignored the clear-cut evidence of the creation of God.

And you've seen those, and I've read many accounts. They say, if you see the creation in front of us, and yet say that it evolved, it's like if you went out and picked up a watch that you found on the sidewalk, and said, hmm, this must have evolved from lower mechanical devices and come together on its own. It's so ridiculous to think it came to be that way on its own. God says, professing themselves wise, they became fools. We want to be hesitant to call someone a fool, but that's what the Scripture says. And I remember, probably many of you have read Mr.

Armstrong's autobiography, as I have. And there's one point early on when God began working with him, he was challenged about the Sabbath, and he studied God's Word to prove whether or not the seventh day was the Sabbath. And then he was challenged later, not by his wife, but by, I believe it was, his sister-in-law. And she told him, Herbert, you're just plain ignorant. Everybody who has any education knows that man came about because of evolution. So he said, I'm going to study to prove that, too. And of course, you could study God's Word, which doesn't say anything about evolution.

And if you study seriously at science with an open mind, you'll see that's a theory, and it can't be proved. And let's turn to Colossians 2. Colossians 2, verse 8. Colossians 2, 8. Because Satan has deceived most of the world on these principles. They're built on lies and men's imaginations, but the truth is in the Bible.

And when you think about it, Satan, he likes to work through ideas and abstract concepts, because then they get at the thought process, and they affect everything that's built on it. These ideas of the immortal soul and going to heaven and hell are the examples of false beliefs that have become so worked into the fabric of our culture that people just assume them to be so without even thinking about them.

It controls and influences so many of their other beliefs, and evolution is about the same way. Now it's gotten to where everything is just based on evolution. We assume that it's so. And the world has just swallowed this whole thing, you know, swallowed it as one pill thinking that it's true.

Well, let's look in the other direction, then. When things have deceived mankind about who they are and where they came from, he's also deceived man about where we're going, what lies ahead for us. I just mentioned, you know, most people think that a Christian's destiny is either to go to this boring heaven or to be tortured forever in hell. And interestingly, most other religious beliefs or most other religious traditions have something similar. They believe that the good will get some kind of eternal reward and the bad will be punished. But God's not like that.

God never uses force or torture to force someone to do his will. Now we know God is going to force people to not disobey him, but he offers them a choice, or he will. Most people don't have that choice now, but when they're resurrected in the world tomorrow, everyone will have a choice.

We spent a fair bit of time a couple of days ago looking through the prophecies involved with the Feast of Trump, it's showing that Jesus Christ will come back to this earth and that those who are in his family will live and reign with him. I think it's interesting. When you think, when you look at Satan, his goal was to take over heaven. You can read about that in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. He wanted to take over heaven and go there. So he's forced that idea on to mankind. And his ultimate fate, his destiny will be to be thrown into the lake of fire, which is used to portray a hell of torture. So Satan has deceived mankind by incorporating his own desires and his own fate into those deceptions. And on the other hand, of course, there are atheists, who often believe in evolution, and they don't believe in heaven or hell, but they believe the deception that when you die, there's nothing else. They'll adopt the Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for tomorrow we die. And some very intelligent people believe that. I've read it. There's a quote from Stephen Hawking, who is the physicist. I read one of his books, and I think it's the dumbed-down version, called A Brief History of Time. And even dumbed-down, I had to really focus hard to try to understand it. But his idea, he said, human beings are just like a computer, that when it gets old and breaks down, it just quits, and there's nothing more. And that's what too many people think about us, that we're going to die and there's nothing more. Now, that's not to say that we believe in the immortal soul, but we do believe in a resurrection.

Now, the world, you know, most people out there don't know what's happened to the billions of people who have lived and died.

Men have speculated all kinds of things. They've speculated that we just die and we're gone. They speculate about reincarnation, suffering in hell, or luxuriating in heaven. But they're all ideas that just come out of human minds. They speculate about almost everything except the actual truth. And the truth includes the wonderful plan of God that mankind has the opportunity to become children of God.

And of course, that's why Satan wants to delude people. He doesn't want people to know that. We have the ultimate reward ahead of us.

Now, and of course, that leads into another deception. These two could have been combined to one. I separated them out. But Satan has deceived mankind about his purpose, about why we are here, why we were made. You know, if you ask people out on the street, what's the purpose of life? Why were you born? Most of them would say, well, I don't know. Or they might say, well, we were born just to enjoy the physical pleasures that are here until we die. You know, that's to eat, drink, and be merry. You know, religious people might say, well, we have to live a good life now and hope that God will let us into heaven. Or maybe we'll go to hell if we don't.

These people want... and I don't want to fault them for it because they're deceived, but people don't think big enough.

They're not looking big enough. But it's partly because, aside from God's Holy Spirit, no one is able to think big enough. Now, a minister in the church shared this account with me, and I don't know who the radio preacher was that he heard, but I find it amusing. He said, this guy was heading in the right direction. He didn't understand everything, but he said, you know, I don't want to go to heaven and just pluck a harp for eternity.

He said, after all I've gone through on this earth, I've got something bigger in store for me. So I said, rather than go to heaven and sit around and be bored, I'd rather go to hell and try to escape.

He wanted some new challenge, some bigger destiny.

But, of course, his mind, like millions and billions of others, was still deceived, even though God's plan is here, and you can read it. That's what Paul was saying in 2 Corinthians 4. Let's turn over there. This is another well-known scripture, 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4.

Why don't people know what our purpose is, why we're here? Because they've been blinded and deceived.

2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says, The Gospel is that message of the Kingdom of God. And remember, the Kingdom of God is not just the government, it's those who will make up the government, which is the family of God. The family currently consists of the Father and the Son, and now those who are begotten by a spirit who will be born into that family. So the Kingdom of God is going to be this ruling family. That's our destiny. No other church out there really understands that. When I say no other church, I don't mean just the United Church of God, but nobody that's not, that doesn't have God's Spirit and have their minds open, understands this because they've been deceived. There's another area that Satan likes to deceive people in, and that's the realm of religion. I mentioned all these religions, churches teaching different things. Now, this point is a little bit circular, because I said Satan uses religion as a means to deceive people, but much of what he deceives them about is the religious belief. What they worship, why they worship, how they worship. Satan has blinded them into doing things that are not directed from God and not pleasing to God. When you think about two-thirds of the people on this planet don't even call themselves Christian. Billions of people have worshipped under the false teachings of Buddha or Confucius or Muhammad. They never even had a chance to know the true God. Muhammad taught his followers that their religion was the true religion of Abraham. He taught people, and many Muslims still believe that Jesus taught a corrupted version of that religion. So they say Christianity has a little bit of truth, but it's off track. People who will go into that say, well, Muslims and Jews and Christians, they all worship the same God, they just have a different name for it. But that's not really true. And looking into this, I found out how much it was not true. Because I thought there were... You do see similarities on the surface, but there are books out there, and some written by Muslim authors who trace back the elements that have come together for Islam. Remember, Islam was founded by Muhammad about 600 years, maybe 500 years after Christ. I don't remember the exact date. And most of the things he brought into this religion can be traced back to ancient Egypt. And many to this Egyptian, what was called the moon cult of Isis. Isis was this goddess, and her symbol was a crescent moon. And many of the elements of Islam come from that. And some of those things have been translated into other pagan religions. In the Norse country, like... I was going to say, not the Netherlands. In Norway, in Scandinavia, and Denmark, in their ancient pagan religion, there was a cult of Frida, for whom Friday is named. She was involved with war and such. The day of worship for her was Friday, which is named after her. And of course, her symbol was also the crescent moon, as it is for modern Islam. So Satan has deceived Muslims into thinking they're worshiping the God of Abraham, when really, you know, they still are following many of the dictates of an ancient pagan system.

When God says, you know, Satan deceives the whole world, he means the whole world. Not just those who think they're Christian. But let's consider Christianity. You know, most of the people who claim to be Christian are not any more aware of the real truth than those who are not Christian. Although about one-third of people on the planet call themselves Christians, they often have little understanding of the Bible. Many don't read it at all. And they don't know the way of worship that's described here. Our Western society has become very secular. And a lot of that has happened in the last couple hundred years, really in the last hundred years. Whereas the Founding Fathers at least read this book and tried to base their life on it. They were deceived and didn't know the full truth. But since then, our society is completely secular. They were trying to separate church and state, and some people were trying to separate church from anything else. So when you think about it, you know, at the time that Christ lived, He spoke personally to thousands of people. He traveled around, had thousands of people following. And of those thousands of people had the very Son of God speaking the inspired Word. And yet when it came down to it, that first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, there were only 120 that were there and had God's Spirit put in them. Out of all those thousands that heard the truth. Many others were like the seed scattered by the wayside, where either the thorns choked it out, or the birds plucked it up, or it didn't have much root. A lot of seed is scattered, but few people follow the real truth. I read an account that a few years ago, one of the news channels, ABC News, decided to do a two-hour special on Christianity. So they brought in these great leaders and scholars of Christianity, saying, we're going to get down to the bedrock of truth and discover what's really real about Christianity. But it ended up, you know, if you understand the real truth, it was a waste of a lot of time. These experts didn't consider the Bible to be any different than any other book. You know, they looked at it as a history that some of it might be true, most of it not. There was no dimension of faith in their thinking. And one of them was quoted as saying, Christ had no idea how big this was going to get. Another said, you know, I know that Christ is quoted as saying this or described as doing this or that, but that didn't really happen. Much of what's in the Gospel accounts is just embellishment to make a good story. These are Christian teachers, you know, or so-called Christian teachers. It's evident that many who are considered top scholars and leaders in Christianity are deceived by Satan. And I don't really mean to fault them for that. It's not like they had a choice. No, do you want to be deceived? Do you want to know the truth? They think they know the truth. And of course, we would be there, but for God's Spirit opening our minds. Another area where Satan has badly deceived people is about the way they should live. And this is what we see day-to-day, most of all. Let's think of some of the basics of just day-to-day living and how Satan has deceived people. One area is marriage and family. And the institution of marriage has been under attack, you know, in our country for decades. It's gotten to the point where only 48% of adult Americans are now married. A few decades ago, that was 78%. Nowadays, people just live together. And homosexuality is also not only becoming more and more common, but accepted and condoned and pushed on people. And concerning sex. As a society, we've lost our innocence. Everything is just put out there in the open, and nothing makes people ashamed anymore. What used to be considered material for dirty movies, you can see on evening television.

And I think it's interesting, you know, and I remember this when I was young. Political scandals used to mostly be about bribes, or politicians giving unfair advantage or doing favors for people. Now more and more, when there's a political scandal, it's because there's a prostitute involved, or, you know, homosexuality or something like that. And that's what really... and maybe because bribes and things like that are considered common. As far as, you know, our feelings safe in our lives, our security. Just think what it would be like if a young person who died a hundred years ago could suddenly be brought back to a physical life here and now. They'd look around and say, you guys have all gone crazy! Look at this world! You know, we're in danger from crime, from terrorism, from diseases that no one heard of, you know, when you were young, or our grandparents were around. And when it comes to financial security, we've gone from being a society that planned and saved for the future to a society that spends like there's no tomorrow. And, you know, a lot of young people my age and younger don't expect there to be a tomorrow. And that's one of the reasons they live some crazy lifestyles. You know, I work with teenagers a fair bit at the summer camp, and I'm glad to say ours, ours meaning ours in the church, are a fair bit different. But they're surrounded by kids who think, well, the world could blow up at any time. Or I probably won't reach old age because I'll get some kind of terrible disease. And if I do, you know, the social security system is out of whack, and there's terrible inflation, you know, so they just, they wipe out thought of the future, and they live these crazy lifestyles. How did we get to such a situation? It's largely because the basic principles of how people ought to treat each other have been ignored, and Satan has foisted off a, take care of me first, get rich quick, do unto others before they do to you first. I wanted to comment on food also. You know, Satan, I gotta watch, I keep saying that, you know a lot. That's one of those bad things, habits that gotta work out. But early on, Satan deceived people into thinking they could eat anything that didn't eat them first. And we've seen that. Only a few people follow the dietary laws described in Leviticus 11 and in Deuteronomy, and when we do that, people think we're crazy. But it's gone further, hasn't it? Now it's not just, you can eat anything, but scientists first developed hybrid crops, and that had some good and bad, and then genetically modified foods, and animals, and cloning.

So to where we're in danger, I worry some scientist thinking he can create life might develop some disease that'll wipe out a large part of the planet.

The principles governing the way people live their lives have been undermined, because Satan has deceived people about them. They consider God's way to be some type of slavery, you know, all these restrictions. And they look at these sinful practices as freedom, I can do whatever I want. And they don't realize that going that way, doing whatever you want, doesn't bring happiness, it'll bring destruction. But fitting in God's law and believing what he says is the way to happiness and real freedom.

One more huge deception I want to talk about is that Satan has deceived many people about the existence of life in the universe. I'm going to think about this. As long as man's existed, I'm sure they've looked out at the stars and said, are we alone in the universe? What's out there? Are man unique? Of course, we can't answer those questions without the revealed word of the Bible. God tells us that we are unique. But people are always looking for more. If they don't believe the Bible, they start thinking different things. Since World War II, the number of unexplained sightings in the sky has skyrocketed. There's always been, every now and then, somebody seeing something saying, I'm not sure what that was. But you know this. In the recent decades, there's just a vastly increased number. You hear about Roswell, New Mexico, X-Files, and all of this. There's been a stream of books, movies, TV shows, all based on the belief in alien life. And they ponder, is that life going to be friendly or dangerous? I don't want to say guilty, because you can use fiction to tell a good story. I've been a big fan of Star Trek and Star Wars, and I like it. I enjoy the story, but a lot of people take that as real. They're radio telescopes scanning the skies for a message. But when people combine their belief in evolution with science fiction, then they start stoking up. They start believing something that's totally false. That there are lots of other planets out there with some life forms. They wonder, are those life forms friendly or hostile? Are they going to come get us? I wonder, is Satan's... Let me back up and say that. Perhaps one of Satan's greatest deceptions is to build up this fear that an alien life form is going to attack our planet. I think it was only two or three weeks ago I heard a story on the news. I'm not sure if it was meant to be serious or a joke saying that aliens might attack us because of global warming. They say, well, they're destroying the planet with global warming, so we've got to intervene and stop. But wouldn't that make it easier to understand why when Jesus Christ does return, armies will come gather to fight against Him? This is speculation, but it could be because Satan will have so deceived mankind in the thinking that they're hostile alien life forms that they'll think Jesus is some alien invader. Of course, I'm sure you know I'm not the first person in the church to speculate on that. And, of course, at the same time Satan has convinced us that there's other life forms out there that exist. He's been working hard to make us think that God does not exist and fooling people into thinking that Satan doesn't exist. Satan has blinded mankind to Himself, and they think, oh, he's just some fairy tale, some boogeyman for children. But they do believe that there's aliens coming down here to try to kill us. You know, what an irony. Satan has deceived mankind about the existence of life in the universe, trying to fool us about who and what we are.

Now, we've discussed a lot about how Satan deceives the world in almost every possible way. Is it possible that he's already deceiving you and me? You might think, well, he won't deceive me, but while we're in 2 Corinthians, let's turn to chapter 11 and read verse 3.

We don't want to be deceived, but Paul writes an interesting thing.

He says, Now, I'm not going to turn back to Matthew 24, because just two days ago I stood up here and read much of it. But let me just quote to you some of the things that Jesus Christ Himself said. In Matthew 24, verse 4, He said, 24, verse 5, He said, 24, verse 11, And down in verse 34, false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the very elect.

And, of course, we know it wasn't all that many years ago that we were about the only... Well, that when we thought we were the only church that had any of the truth, false teachers arose up among us and began saying, No, that's not the truth. Let's believe some new things.

But when we look around us, it's also true that there are a lot of churches out there that do have some of the truth, but are fatally wrong in many doctrines. And I think there are some big ones that preach the Sabbath. Of course, there's the Seventh-day Baptist, the Seventh-day Adventist that have that part of the truth, but are way off on some other things. There are some churches that believe in Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Well, of course, they all believe that. But I'm thinking, Messianic Jews believe many of those things, but they still lack a lot of the understanding. I read a book recently by a Messianic Jew who believed Jesus was a Christ and brought out a lot of good truths that could be understood from the Old Testament practices, most of which I was already familiar with. But he also believed fully in the Trinity. And I thought, Boy, you've got so much truth, and yet you're let off on this.

And, you know, what Jesus said, you know, false Christ, false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders. There have been, and there will be in the future, people working miracles and preaching, perhaps, some of the truth. But let's turn to the book of Isaiah, Chapter 20. We have a specific warning about this.

Isaiah 8. Did I say Chapter 20? I meant, say Isaiah Chapter 8, verse 20.

Good principle for us to keep in mind, because our eyes have already been open to understand God's Word, and we don't ever want to lose sight of that.

As a matter of fact, let's begin in verse 19.

When they say, Do you seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter? Of course, those are mediums and wizards often working miracles. They said, Should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? Meaning, should you go to someone who's doing a seance and say they can contact the dead and the mediums? But it says in verse 20, To the law and the testimony. To the law and the testimony, the Holy Scriptures.

And if they don't speak according to this Word, it's because there's no light in them. That's what's very important. Working miracles, having one part of the truth, isn't enough. If they teach anything that's false, then they're off track. They have to speak according to the law and the testimony. That's one way to avoid being deceived. Let's turn to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2, beginning in verse 9.

This is a vital Scripture on this, and it's become, I think, a standard for us whenever we talk about deception, especially within the Church. And I like to make a distinction. And I have to confess, about a week ago, when Mr. Eric got up and began giving his sermon about Satan's deceptions, I thought, Uh-oh! Because I'd already written most of the sermon. I said, I might have to come up with a whole new sermon and ditch that one. And I realized, he talked a lot about deception in the Church. I thought, well, I'm looking at how Satan deceives the world, so I think they complement each other. Because Satan has successfully deceived the world, we want to make sure that he's not able to deceive the Church. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9.

Now, Satan has deceived the world, but none of us have to be deceived. If we love the truth, we won't believe the lie. And if we realize we have the truth, let's turn back to the book of John, chapter 17. Because when there's deception involved, you could be like Pilate and say, well, what is truth? But we have a very clear answer to that question. What is truth? John 17, verse 17. This is one of the first scriptures I had to memorize when I started college. This is in Jesus' prayer to the Father, just before he was crucified. He said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. God's word is truth. God's word is our protection from the deceptions that Satan is voicing off in the world. It includes the law and the testimony that was cited in Isaiah, chapter 8. If we're devoted to God's word, and of course we study it, we make it part of our lives, that's our protection. Along with, of course, asking God, show me your truth, open my mind to it, and shield me from Satan and his deception. Protect us from that. God has opened our minds to great, awesome truths. But for now, we have to live in a world of darkness and deception among the people who are deceived, deceived about what they are. They're deceived about where they came from and about where they're going.

They're deceived about the purpose for life. They're deceived about religion. They're deceived about how to live, and even about the existence of life in the universe, including whether there is a God out there. That's a lot to be deceived about.

But of course, God's word tells us that this is Satan's world for now. It's a direct reflection of his mind and of his values. But we've got something better to look forward to. We're getting towards the close. Let's turn to Revelation 20.

Revelation 20. I'm going to read the first three verses again. We were there earlier. But let's see how this is all going to work out in the end.

I'm going to read the last verse.

And in verse 12, go to Revelation 22. I want to talk about deception. Satan is put away. He's bound first for a thousand years and then forever. In Revelation 22, we're going to see a vision of life after that.

Here's John once again in a vision after the millennium, after the thousand years when Satan is fully put away. And it says, He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. In the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

So the tree of life, all the way from the Garden of Eden. Now go to verse 14. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates of the city. So blessed are those who do God's commandments, who live according to this word that's truth.

But outside are dogs, saucers, sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

And of course, all those other things are bad, but we've been talking about deception. Whoever loves and practices a lie.

And I think it's interesting. Just as mankind's deception began near the tree of life, when Satan told Eve, you will not surely die. So its end is also going to be near the tree of life. At the end, when Satan is put away, anyone that loves and practices a lie is cast out and of course will cease to exist.

Only the truth of God is going to put us on the right side of that. He's opened our mind to it.

And that'll leave us free, like those that said, to take of the tree of life and to enter the holy city of God. Brother, that's something very exciting to look forward to. So let's do.