Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com I'm Pastor Greg and I welcome you to our study of the tempter in 1st Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 5. The conclusion of this two-part study can be found at bbfohio.com where you'll also find our contact and donation information. All of our messages can be accessed at bbfohio.com. Click on the sermons link at the top of the page and then you can find any sermon you want using the sermon audio page itself or searching through the playlist that is embedded on that page. again the website is bbfohio.com and now we begin with the current events update and then our study titled the tempter beginning in first Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 5 this is part one of two the current events update number one you've seen the bank failures no doubt most of you at least probably have are most likely just the beginning sadly. I'm not even sure who this guy is, but I think he explains it as well as anyone. The Fed cannot raise interest rates high enough to bring down inflation because inflation is mostly supply side. They can't do anything about that. So they're trying to take inflation down by raising interest rates, in other words, crushing demand alone. Right. But when they raise it up a certain level between five and six, I've been predicting you're going to start getting financial instability. And we see that already now with the Silicon Valley Bank, because the tech sector is the most exposed right now. You know, there's like 250 companies that have their money in Silicon Valley banks, a lot of them startups. And if that bank goes belly up and they lose that money, well, a whole bunch of startups are going to crash, right? That's where the government, I think, is going to really jump in and bail it out. There's already signs they're doing it. But we don't know the contagion. between Silicon Valley Bank and other tech financial funders and other commercial banks that fund these tech banks. The tentacles of contagion are very widespread and we don't really know it because these tentacles, these debt tentacles are always very opaque. We saw that back with the housing sector crash. And we're going to find out over the weekend. or start to find out, what are the contagion potential here for the collapse of this bank, a very important bank. And it'd be interesting to see what happens on Monday, both in the financial markets, stock and bond markets, and also all next week, because we're beginning to see it will leak out. Now, you're already seeing, that was over the weekend, and he was talking about Monday. What we're seeing is, of course, Signature Bank and other banks going kaput. What you're also seeing is, though, he thought that what they might do is continue to raise interest rates in order to fight inflation. And what they're actually doing is announcing that they're lowering interest rates. And then, so inflation was coming down, but that then will jack it back up if they're going to do that. So it's all, you know, a mess because these guys play God. And the whole Federal Reserve System is man playing God and trying to control economies. controlled economy leads to and is socialism. That's all it is. It's just a matter of then coming in and actually taking over industry. Then you have full-blown socialism, which is what you've seen over and over, fails. But what we're being told by the liberal socialists in this country is it just hasn't been done right. Sadly, historically speaking, the cure for economic downturn has been war. In some countries, they haven't even hidden the fact that when their economy's going in the tank, they go to war. And, well, how many of you saw the drone being knocked out by Russia? And a Russia air jet knocked...military jet knocked out one of our drones. And now there's a fight over going in and getting it because it's in the Black Sea and we don't have a ship there. And on and on it goes. So this is a meme that I saw today. It's pretty right on. It's not funny, but funny. Democrats, when everyone starts to realize they're destroying the country, start war. And that is what it looks like is happening. But there may be more of a cover-up behind bank implosions than at first meets the eye for this reason. So, Congressman, you're going to get your hands on these suspicious wire transfers from Yellen, but you're also making progress where else? Well, we have bank records. We have bank records from one of the 13 banks in hand that were used by the Biden family members in these business schemes. So these bank records prove that the Bidens did receive money through a shell company from the Chinese Communist Party. So this is the first link. Hopefully within the next 48 hours, we'll have more bank records from another bank. And we're just going to keep following the money. We know from our sources that have come in, the whistleblowers, where the money trails are. And, of course, the Democrats have denied it. The White House has denied it. There's no denying it now with the bank records. And now Treasury is forced to have to give us the suspicious activity reports because they acted all along like there was nothing there. Well, I can assure you there's something there and everyone knows it now. From the bank records that you've seen so far, what can you tell us? What was the money for exactly? That's a great question, and that would be a great question for the media to ask the Bidens. They got money from people directly linked with the Chinese Communist Party for what? For years we've heard, well, it was because of a business deal, it was an energy deal. I don't see any energy deal here. All I see are transactions from China to an LLC, which was essentially a pass-through, and then deposits into the Biden account from that LLC. It doesn't show any business activity and on where it says in the wire for the purpose that's left blank. So we don't know what that money was for, but I don't see any business activity here. It looks like it was influence peddling, and if so, that's illegal. That's called lobbying. You have to be a registered foreign agent, and we don't see any evidence of that. All right, well, keep us posted on what you see from these bank records and these SARs. We're curious, unlike the rest of the media. Thank you very much, James Comer. Thank you. Now, if that was a conservative, not necessarily Republican, but if it was a conservative, that would be everybody be lit about this. That's money laundering. It's a crime. It's criminal. And every time these guys accuse the conservative of doing something, that's what they're doing. They project exactly what they're doing onto their political foes. Just amazing. So my question is, is there going to be another Oklahoma City bombing, I spelled it wrong, or 9-11? Why? We've pointed out numerous times in both instances there were huge amounts of records and including digital storage that was destroyed and they said, oh, we can't go on with the investigation any longer. You know, the two or three trillion dollars that the Pentagon couldn't account for and that plane that nobody saw that eyewitnesses said was a missile that hit the side of the Pentagon and just happened to blow up all those records so that they couldn't investigate the missing two trillion dollars. Building seven at 9-11. filled with those kind of records that investigations were ongoing. Within how many, it wasn't even a month, I think, of 9-11 that they took all the, instead of allowing them to go in and investigate the pile of everything, took it all off, shipped it out of the country, destroyed what they could destroy. Total cover-up. But those of us who ask questions, we're truthers, and you're not a patriot. You're on the side of the Muslims, and that kind of stuff. Well, there's going to come a judgment day, and we're going to find out about all that stuff. But a lot of this stuff is not going to be revealed until then. And then number two, sodomite groomers at Netflix. This isn't new, but I've been asked several times about it, so I'm going to just show you. This is just one of the Netflix programs where they're grooming children. This is called Ridley Jones. Came out in July originally. And it's a series for preschoolers. Preschoolers, okay? And they have a non-binary bison named Fred. The name Fred. That's because I'm non-binary. And Fred is the name that fits me best. And I also use they and them because calling me a she or a he doesn't feel right to me. I'm sorry I used the wrong name and pronouns. They're coming after the babies. There was a day when that's the only place you'd see that kind of thing. Just a reminder, Luke 17, 2, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Why? You'd be better off having a millstone tied behind your, or around your neck and cast into the sea. You might repent and avoid the lake of fire you're heading to. That's why. Hell is real. And at the Great White Throne, everyone in hell is going to be brought forth for the Great White Throne judgment, and their names not being found in the Lamb's Book of Life, they will be cast into an everlasting lake of fire. You may think I'm horrible, but I think I didn't feel this way the first decade of my Christian walk. But now, in the last 20 years or so, I have come to look at the lake of fire and look forward to it. You say, oh, well, that's being Christ-like. You need to adjust your attitude if you don't think that wicked reprobates who reject Jesus Christ, having died to pay for their sins, buried and rose again, and they reject that, and then especially, we're gonna find out, most all those people at the great white throne were probably actively engaged in promoting wickedness. And so every time God takes one of those people and drops them into a lake of fire, you're saved you will be there and you will say amen every single time so be informed and pray accordingly amen so we're going to start there with our reading in first Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 5 we've titled this message the tempter we left off here and they're going to Park here this evening and look at What this is telling us in verse 5 if you dare read it with me For this cause when I could no longer forbear I sent to know your faith Lest by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. Amen So as I said, we ended our study there and this look at the Named it, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you. The tempter wants you to turn from Jesus and stop serving Him. That's the bottom line. The tempter will not always use blatant sin. If he can just get you to lose your fire, if he can just get you to lose your focus and get involved in the world and get your focus off of Christ and serving the Lord by any means, then that's what he'll do. That's what he wants to do. And that's what Paul is saying here. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith. He wasn't asking, you know, are they living in sin? He sent to know their faith. Lest by some means the tempter have tempted you. and our labor be in vain. That's one of those heartbreaking things about being a pastor. For 30 years, I look back on all the people that I've taught, and I know other preachers, and I know they told me the same stories. I look back on decades of ministry and how many, and I would say how few of those people really stayed the course and served the Lord. Of course, you shouldn't do that to please your pastor. You should do that to please the Lord. And I'm here to tell you that that's probably why a lot of people quit. If you're not doing what you do to please Jesus Christ, you've got the wrong motive. and that's when your preacher dies, or maybe he gets caught in some sin, or he gets sick and can't pastor anymore, or a lot of these guys will take a church, you know, a thousand miles away, and you never hear from him again. And if that's the guy you were trying to please, he's gone, what are you gonna do now? I don't know how many of you experienced this, but when I got saved, it was kind of on the tail end of all that, Jimmy Swaggart and Jimmy Baker stuff and all that. And I knew a bunch of people who were professing Christians who, when that happened, totally threw in their chips and walked away. Well, most of them were Pentecostal charismatic types that didn't have their focus on the Lord to begin with. It was all emotionalism and that kind of thing. But it was a very sad thing, even as a non-Christian. I thought, that's pretty pathetic. And then I've known other people involved in churches that were of sound doctrine, but the pastor, for whatever reason, maybe, it doesn't even have to be moral failure, just when he quits the ministry, they quit. Or then how many Christians you know that had financial hardship? or this is something I would, you've probably heard me say this, most of you have been here long enough, but how many of you have, hopefully I'm not talking to anybody in here that's done this, but they know somebody who had a Christian or a church treat them bad, and then they walk away from the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said, Jenny and I were talking one day, and I said, you know, how crazy would it be If Charlie, you know, said something mean to me, which he does all the time, I'm just kidding. Charlie's very good to me. Let's say Charlie did say something really nasty to me one day, and I walk in, pack my bags, and leave. Jenny's like, where are you going? I'm leaving you. Why? What did I do? Nothing. But Charlie, and that's it. She'd be like, what's that got to do with me? See how crazy that is? Well, that's no crazier than people walking away from Jesus because of what some church did, or what some Christian did to them. It makes no sense. That's the kind of thing Paul had already seen, and that's why he was checking on their faith here. He's checking on their faith. I sent to know your faith. Now, the tempter referred to here, as I said, is Satan. And so scripture with scripture, the first temptation in the Bible was Satan in the garden, amen? Most of you know what we're going at right here with Genesis chapter three, verses one to five, and Charlie's gonna read that, or Bronwyn's gonna help. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, 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 hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. What's he tempting her to do? Well, eat of that fruit. But you know what he's really tempting her to do? Doubt God's word. Doubt and disobey God's word. then fill in the blank what the act is. That's what causes people to do what they do when they sin. And so that's been, now, of course, the names and the places have been changed, but that's the same tactic he uses all the time. And you talk to people long enough, you'll find out that's the root of it. The root of sin is unbelief. Unbelief produces sin. And if Satan can get you to doubt, I was reading not too long ago, and then Sister Jessica left me a voicemail yesterday I got in the evening. I didn't get to call her back on it, so if she's listening, she'll get her answer right now. She was asking about how that, and I believe it's in Matthew, where he just says, before the cock crow, Peter will deny me twice, and Thrice, it says that. And then in Luke, we just read, where he says, before the cock crow twice, you'll deny me thrice. And so the question people ask is, well, which is it? Like there's a contradiction. There's no contradiction. One gave you the number of two, and the other just didn't mention a number. And that's the kind of thing people will look for in the Bible. Why? Because they think it gives them an excuse not to believe the Bible, which gives them the excuse to sin without consequence. All these so-called scholars like Bart Ehrman and these guys who go around trying to debunk the Bible, you're going to find out on Judgment Day, John 3, 19, that this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Bart's a sinner who loves his sin. He don't want to repent, so he spends his life trying to debunk the book that's going to judge him on judgment day. Yeah, foolish. So God allowed Satan to tempt Eve because of a thing called free will. I got a message this week on a listener of Sermon Audio sent me a message saying, God's the first cause of everything. God caused all this. God caused sin. God caused death. Of course, he's a coward. He didn't give me an email so I could respond to him. And in his defense, I mean, He's probably not even a Christian, but he's using that as an excuse not to believe the Bible. It's the same thing we just saw in Genesis 3. Once you can doubt God's word, then the sky's the limit. And everybody wants the free will until it means they have to suffer consequences. Suddenly, God's terrible for allowing free will. That's how they do it. So we see Satan's temptation then in the book of Job, which chronologically speaking probably happened before the next couple ones we'll look at, because Job, we believe, is probably the oldest book in the Bible, as far as when it was written. So who's got Job 1? Oh, so Charlie's gonna, well, just read with a high-pitched voice. Joe 1, 6 through 12. Oh, Jenny. Yeah, go ahead. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and askeweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power. Only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. You notice there that Satan's a false prophet. But again, God allows Satan to tempt us. He does not do the tempting. And I think it was yesterday's devotional in the morning. People take that text in Proverbs 16, I think it's verse four, and it speaks of the fact that the Lord made everything. He made the wicked for the day of evil. And they'll say that, see, God made them to be wicked for the evil day, and it doesn't say God made them to be wicked. He made everything, including the wicked. It doesn't say he made them to be wicked, but he made the wicked. And they are reserved for the day of evil. See how people, it's all about your attitude toward God's word. And one preacher used to say that God gives you enough rope to hang yourself. If you want to, you can hang yourself. But if you have the right attitude and right heart. Yeah, Johnny? I just also find it interesting to note here that Job is already amazingly an exception here. From what we've seen, most of the time there's lots of people who they become rich and then they turn from God because they're rich. While Job is actually doing the opposite here. Job was the exception, but he was afraid his kids were not, if you remember. He was afraid the prosperity was hurting his kids. James 1.13 says, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Well, we'll come back to that in just a minute. Even Jesus faced such temptation of Satan, which was allowed by the Father when Jesus was on earth. Who's got Luke 4, verses 1 through 4? Is that Jill? And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.