It's good to have you this evening and on behalf of the Minister here and the session, we'd like to welcome you in our Saviour's precious name. We're going to open our service by singing the hymn 539. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory his army shall he lead, till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed. The hymn 539, and we'll stand please as we sing the hymn. ♪ Stand up for Jesus ♪ ♪ Ye soldiers of the cross ♪ ♪ Lift high his royal banner ♪ ♪ It must not suffer loss ♪ ♪ From victory unto victory ♪ ♪ His armies shall lead thee ♪ Stand now, stand up for Jesus, let all men fall in love with him. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ Now stand up for Jesus ♪ ♪ Stand in his strength alone ♪ ♪ The arm of flesh will fail you ♪ ♪ Be there not as your own ♪ ♪ But on the gospel order ♪ ♪ And marching on to prayer ♪ Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Flesh by blood, love below. Hail that overcometh, our pride of life shall be. We pray that King of glory shall reign eternally. We'll carry and unite our hearts together at the throne of heavenly grace and let's seek the help of God and each one laying hold upon the Lord tonight that he might speak to our hearts. Let's unite together please in a word of prayer. Our loving God and our gracious Father, we approach Thee in our Saviour's precious name afresh this evening. We come upon the grounds and burials of the precious blood. We thank Thee for the one who has made us accepted in the beloved. We're glad that we're in Christ. We thank Thee that Thou hast given us all blessings in heavenly places in Christ. We thank Thee for our union with the Saviour. We're glad, our God, that we don't stand on any merits of our own, but we thank thee we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We thank thee for the one who lived that life of purity. We bless thee, our God, for the one who kept the law on our behalf and we thank thee that as we stand before thee tonight we have that righteousness that is impeccable. We thank thee for that righteousness that stands and we thank thee that as we come this evening that we're able to enter into thy presence. We rejoice in the acceptance that we have and we're glad that we're able to enter within the veil tonight. We have been bitten to come boldly unto the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need and our father as we come this evening we do thank thee for our salvation we thank thee we're saved and washed in the precious blood of the lamb we're glad that we have eternal life we'll never perish neither shall any man pluck us out of thy hand And our Father, we pray that Thou wouldst bless us afresh. We thank Thee that we can come for the fresh blessing from on high. We pray, our God, that Thou wouldst draw near to us. Our Father, we need the sense of the presence of God. We know that where two or three are met together in Thy name, there art Thou the midst. But Lord, we pray that thou wouldst draw graciously near and specially near to our hearts this evening and as we gather round thy word, we pray that thy word might have free course and be glorified, that thou wouldst speak to us and that we might be instructed from the word of God and that we might be helped even in our own souls, that thou wouldst build us up in the fear and nurture of the Lord that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And we pray that thou wouldst bless each one. Each one tonight is come, we have different needs, we think of our families, we Remember the circumstances that we face. Maybe those, Lord, that are under pressure tonight, we pray that even as we come this evening that we might have that blessed consolation of being able to bring our needs to thee, to bring our burdens to the Lord. and Lord that we might have the grace to leave them there. We thank thee that we have one who is able to meet with us and able to succor and to encourage and to help. And we pray gracious God that those that need thy touch in that way, Lord, they'll find it in the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Maybe those who are here tonight and they need not the word of encouragement but Lord maybe that word of help and we pray Lord that thou wouldst help maybe Lord that word of blessing we pray gracious God that thou wouldst come in mighty blessing upon our souls meet us at the point of our need our God we pray that thou wouldst undertake We pray for our loved ones, those who are still in their sins, still going down the road to a lost eternity. O God, we pray that thou wouldst have mercy upon them and draw them to thyself. We think of this town and district. pray that thou wouldst move our God we thank thee that in times gone by thou hast moved even around these areas and we thank thee that we come to the God who is the same yesterday today and forever and we pray Lord that thou wouldst bless bless thy servant the minister of the congregation we pray Lord that thou wouldst be with him we thank Lord of the new season of labour that our churches are entering into as meetings start again we pray for thy hand to be upon them lord that thou would bring children to the children's meeting or the sunday school we pray lord i was bringing young people into the youth fellowship and whatever other meetings there are we pray lord that they might be encouraged and strengthened and build up And our God, that thou wilt stand to the church in these days, such as should be saved. Our God, we thank thee that in the midst of all that's going on in the world, We have a God to whom we can turn. Lord, we think of the moral decline that there is in the nation and we pray our God that thou wouldst enable us and help us to take a stand that we need to take in this day. We pray that we might stand for God, for his law, for his precepts, for what thy word tells us and we know that the instruction of God's word is always the right way and so our father bless us tonight and be with us as we gather around thy word for it's in Jesus precious name that we'd ask these things. Amen. Amen. Your Minister has asked me to give a little report on the work of the Government and Morals Committee and We are very glad to do that, and we do thank them for the opportunity of being able to do that. We don't often do that, and I've never done it before, so this is the first this evening. But we do thank God for the work of the Government Morals Committee, it's a committee of our presbytery. and it is responsible for the promotion of righteousness and the defence of biblical standards in the nation and we are to represent and promote Presbytery's point of view in such matters. And just to give you a flavour of the work that we do, I'll just speak of some of the things that we've been doing over the summer months there. First of all, this year we have taken over the witness against the Pride Parade in Belfast. Up until now that has really been run by the Sandown congregation, but the Sandown congregation handed it over to Press Madrid, so we have run that witness, that protest in Belfast on the last weekend in August. And this year, the Reverend David McLoughlin, who's the secretary of the committee, was running that and he preached at it. There was 38 or so folks there that were there to take their stand. I have preached at it a few times in the past, and you always get those that are heckling you, but what we feel is that the Word of God needs to be preached. You can shout at them and heckle them, but what they need is the Word of God. There are those that are given over to a reprobate mind. As far as they're concerned, probably, well, there's nothing really that can be done if they're a reprobate mind, and the Bible speaks about that. But there are those there who are influenced by the trends and the fashions of the day, and they're caught up with these things. And even parents that bring their children along, and we are there to preach the Word of God. and we thank God for that opportunity. Some of our other congregations, not under the auspices of the Morals and Government Committee, but also have run protests at these Pride Parades. There's one there just the other week, and then Iskellan for the first time, and our congregation there. Some of the independent Methodists there in Enniskillen got together to run a protest, Cookstown too, there's a rural pride as it's called, and they run a protest there, I've been at that one as well. But we pray against this wickedness that has been created in our towns and in our districts, and we pray that God will bless the going forth of his word. Then many of you will have remembered the opening ceremony of the Olympics if you're watching it and there was a real attack really upon Christianity. Now there was a mockery of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, the painting. I am not going to say that Leonardo da Vinci's painting was a depiction of the Last Supper because it patently wasn't, but you can see the intent that there was. They had scantily dressed and outrageously dressed people behind a table with a very large woman scantily dressed with a sort of halo around her and it obviously was a mockery of the Last Supper. And there were many people who were outraged that it was an attack on Christianity. It was supposed to be a drawing together of everybody and that we were going to represent diversity. But diversity doesn't seem to include Christianity in these days. You can attack Christianity in the name of diversity. Now, we wrote to the French ambassador, the British French ambassador, or the French ambassador in Britain, and also we wrote to the president of the International Olympic Committee protesting about what was done. We then wrote to the newsletter to let them know what we had done so that there would be a little bit of publicity to it. But as happens quite often, the newsletter didn't carry that. Now, there were people that were wondering what the Free Presbyterian Church had done. I got a wind of somebody that was saying that the Free Presbyterian reaction was loud by its silence. But we had dealt with the issue. It's just that the papers didn't carry any report of what was done. And you find that from time to time. We will write to whoever it is. We will put out a statement. But it's not always that the papers will carry the statements that we make. And sometimes people think, well, all you have to do is put in a statement to the paper and they will carry it. But they don't always. In fact, more often than not, they don't carry it. So just because something doesn't appear in the paper or there's not a free presbyterian reaction in the paper doesn't mean that there hasn't been something that has been done about it. But we haven't had any reply from either of those two people that we wrote to as yet. But we pray that God will use all the protests. And can I say this tonight? You may think that making a protest doesn't make a difference, it does. We have seen that over the last little while in things that we have been protesting about and we have been listened to, even though you mightn't think that it makes any difference. But if you see something on TV or see something that is, something that's going against the word of God, write and say because If there are enough people that write and say, then there will be notice taken of it. So just to say that. Now, one successful campaign, not really, well, we supported it, but it was about Sunday football. And the Northern Ireland Football League was pushing the clubs in the Irish premiership, Linfield and Ballymena United and all those teams, to play on Sunday. The officials of Niffel, as they call it, were pushing Sunday football and pushing hard for Sunday football. The last time it was voted on, before this time, there had been a division and there was still a majority against Sunday football. But of course, as these things happen, they brought it back again. And this time, there was only one club that stood out against Sunday football, and that was Lough Goa. And Lough Goal stood their ground. They came under tremendous pressure to give in to Sunday football, but they wouldn't do it. So what happened was that the Northern Ireland Football League decided that they would put financial pressure upon them. And so they gave out the money, there's money that goes about £10,000, I think it used to be that went to the different clubs, every club in the premiership got £10,000. And that was money from television, there's not as much television of course in this country, but what little they got they would divide it and give it to the clubs. But this time, they decided that they would not give as much money to those that would not agree to Sunday football. So they cut the money that was going to Lough Gall. Now, after the vote in which Lough Gall only took the stand, Ballymena United, they changed their minds. and they came in with Lough Goal to stop Sunday football. So they had been put under pressure but they thought better of it and they began to back Lough Goal. So there were two clubs that were really taking their stand. In the past, teams like Linfield and Crusaders would have taken a stand against Sunday football, but the pressures and the financial pressures were upon them. But not only did they cut down the money that was going to Lough Goal or to Ballymena United when they wouldn't agree to Sunday football, but they said about the League Cup the Betfair League Cup, that really you couldn't enter it unless you were going to be agreeable to play on a Sunday, which meant that those clubs were not going to be able to enter that. So they took an appeal to the IFA appeals panel on the grounds of religious discrimination and on the fact that the IFA had a rule that nobody was to be forced to play on Sunday if they didn't want and they won both appeals. Our brother David Johnson The son of the reverend, Ron Johnson, is an official in Logall and he took, he argued the case against a barrister who was there on behalf of the Northern Ireland Football League and won both appeals. and that really has put a stop to Sunday football, at least it has stopped the pressure and they're not going to be forced to Sunday football. Our brother David Johnson has just been put onto the Government and Morals Committee but could I ask you really to pray that God will bless that stand and that they will continue to be able to stand against Sunday football. Some of the other things that we've been involved in over the last year, Belfast City Council was bringing in a law that you had to apply for a license. We're trying to make it as hard as possible to be able to preach in the open air in the middle of Belfast and also to give out literature in the middle of Belfast and what they were targeting was gospel preachers and those that were protesting against abortion. Those were the two things that they wanted really to stop. Now we got a very large response to a an appeal to put in some protests. And to date, nothing more has come of that. And we pray that God will stop that because there is that desire to stop the gospel. The other big thing is the RSE curriculum. and you'll know about that how that the last Secretary of State decided that he would bring in the teaching of abortion and so-called gay rights as part of the curriculum in RSE. Now, because of our writing, we got ourselves the Free Presbyterian Church and also the Christian Institute on as stakeholders. Now, the thing is that the Secretary of State had made this determination, so this thing has to go ahead. But we managed so far, we are able to meet with the, as a committee, we met with the Department of Education and also with CEIA, the curriculum body, and we were able to safeguard the parents had the right to withdraw their children, which they still have. Now, there were many of the liberals or the woke, if we call them that, who didn't want that. And they still don't want that. So that's still under attack. So we pray that God will safeguard at least the right for parents to withdraw their children. We see on the horizon it looks as if Labour is going to try and push for euthanasia. They will push for more abortion. They will push for all of these things. So we need to be on the alert and stand for these things. Government and Morals Committee not only stand against these, but we develop the safeguarding policy, the data protection policy, and things like that. But one more thing that I want to mention tonight because this is what we are looking for a little bit of money for just at the present time. We are charged with promoting biblical morality and righteousness and we thought that we needed to reach young people Now where do you reach young people on the internet, on the social media platforms? That's where they are. If you look at young people, where are they? They're on their phones and they're looking on their phones. So we have thought that what we would do is put on very short videos, maybe a couple of minutes, and then you would have a link to a longer video if somebody was going to watch it. Because young people only watch for a couple of minutes. If they're interested, then they might go on and look at something for about five minutes. So that's what we'll have, a two-minute thing. and then that will go on to something a little bit longer and we'll have all of these things on moral issues and why we believe what we do on moral issues. Now we have done a little bit of research and we feel that the best way to do this is by animation. And if you've ever seen the Bible Project, it tells the Bible stories by animation. And so what we are looking for is AI-generated animation. And what we want to do is produce one of these, first of all, so that we will be able to show the congregations and show the Presbytery what it is that we are aiming at. Now, we will be working with Let the Bible Speak there in Hothall because they have all of the equipment and stuff. We will be doing the scripts and things and some of the Let the Bible Speak people are on our committee as well. But we have this vision and we're very excited about the vision. We think that this is something that will reach young people and We have asked the congregations of ministers on the Government and Morals Committee to give and your congregation, the Reverend Stewart is on our committee, and your congregation has already given and we thank you. in our saviour's precious name as all of our congregations have given and we thank you in our saviour's precious name for taking that vision and we want to reach the young people where they are and so we'd ask you to pray for that. We're calling it the moral compass and if you remember the moral compass is what we're going to have and we will produce it as professionally as we can. We're having men trained in the kind of production that we want and we are supposed to be training in script writing. Your ministers going to be trained in script writing, as I will as well. So we're training ourselves in these things so that we're able to develop them. So would you pray about that? And we need to be of that in prayer because it could be a means just of reaching young people for the Lord Jesus Christ and we thank you for your prayers and we thank you for your giving in the past and we just commend those things to you and if you could remember them please at the throne of grace in prayer. Now I wonder if we could turn in our bibles please to the book of Ephesians chapter 6 It's a well known portion of scripture and we'll just read down through the chapter Ephesians, or well not all of it, maybe we'll go from verse 10 of the chapter. Ephesians chapter six and beginning our reading at verse 10. yeah i've gone too long here um well we'll try and cut this down so anyway uh ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10 finally my brethren be strong in the lord and in the power of his mind Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the winds of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole arm of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loin skirt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take in the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all sins, and for me that utterance may be given unto me that i may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel amen we know the lord will add his blessing to the reading of his precious word to all our hearts and my text is the last words um of the verse 11 we read all of verse 11 there put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, the wiles of the devil. In Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 and 11, Paul speaks about the spiritual conflict, it's really called arms. for the people of God. Finally, my brethren, he says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And Paul wants the Christians here to be conscious of the fact that they are in a warfare. They are in a battle. They are in a fight against a powerful enemy that's arrayed against them and arrayed against us. And we think about the wiles of the devil tonight. Now, we're not going to think about the devil. We need, first of all, to glorify God and uplift God. That's the first thing. Sometimes you get people who are so caught up with the devil that they never think about anything else. Our focus, first of all, has got to be on the Lord. But on the other hand, we are in a fight and we are in a battle. and olden times when they gave the spiritual or the military strategy the very first thing they said was know your enemy know your enemy and we think of what paul said in second corinthians chapter 2 verse 11 less satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices and we need to make sure that we are not ignorant of his devices. The awful thing is that even amongst God's people today, there are so many that are taken captive by the devil in the sense that they're snared by him and they are rendered useless by him because they are ignorant of his devices. and we know that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against angels and principalities and powers and it's not just satan himself but we think of all those fallen angels there that are the demons that are with him and we think of how he has that influence and we are wrestling against a mighty foe In this day we think of how he comes against the people of God and we need to remember that. Sometimes we can even take the devil for granted and sometimes we can even forget that there is a devil and that we are in a fight and in a battle. So tonight we want to think about the strategies of the devil. We want to think about the way that he works. so that we're armed, so that we're not ignorant of Satan's devices. We live in this world in which we see so much wickedness. We see so many turn away from the things of God. We think of the wickedness that's created in our streets, the wickedness that has been foisted upon us in so many ways, and we see the work of the devil in so many ways. So what we want to do tonight is just very simply think about the wiles of the devil. Now first of all let's just think about the strategy of our enemy. We think of how it speaks there of devils and principalities and powers and they operate with one central desire and that is to destroy the work of God. That's what they want to do. They want to destroy the work of God. They come against the church of God and the people of God, and they want to undermine the gospel, and they are wicked, and they are utterly unscrupulous. They are vicious. There is no Geneva Convention as far as the fight of the devil is concerned. He's not going to fight fair. He's not going to struggle in such a way as he does it decently or in order in any way and we need to be aware of that from the very start. We need to remember that we are soldiers of the cross and the enemy that we fight against is not going to be fighting fair. But the word why is there speaks about a scheme and tricks. It's a word that just means the methods or the tricks or the schemes. And we need to be thinking about the fact that we have a tricky foe. But let's just think in a general way about the strategy of the devil tonight. And we get some indication of the way that the devil works by the names that he has. And we think of the first name, the name, the devil itself, and the name devil, diabolos in the Greek is a name that means slander or accuser. And the name Satan in the Hebrew also means accuser or adversary, one who resists. So one of the things that we can certainly say about the devil is that he is an accuser, an adversary, one who slanders. That's one of his tactics. And he uses that in warfare. Now I wonder if you can think of times when the devil has come with slander against you. One of the great tactics of the devil when he is dealing with God's people is to remind them of the sins of the past. Remind them of the things that you feel God in. Remind you of times when you have slept and failed and the devil comes and then he says, well, what are you to stand for God? How are you worthy to witness for the Lord or speak a word of the gospel? You think of all the times that you feel, oh, you're such a hypocrite, and he comes like that. Now, we do need to keep short accounts with God, and we do need to come, there needs to be no unconfessed sin. But oftentimes what the devil does is remind us of sins that we've confessed long ago, and brings them up and magnifies them in our sight, and those sins are covered in the blood. Those sins are cast into the sea of God's forgetfulness, never to be remembered anymore, but the devil will use every opportunity that he can to remind us, to slander us, to say, oh you're not worthy. Not only that, but if you were to turn to John chapter 8 and look at verse 44. It says there, we read the words of the Lord Jesus in John chapter 8 and verse 44. He says there in that portion of scripture, he says, So there's something else about the devil. He's a murderer. He's a liar. He will tell lies. And you think of the lies that people listen to in this day and generation. You have the spin doctors in Westminster, and the devil's intelligent. He was the anointed cherub that covered and we think of how he is an intelligent creature and he's able to spin a lie. He's able, you know the way that they work in maybe political circles, and if there's bad news well we'll bury that we'll make sure that that doesn't get out and if there's good news we'll magnify it and we'll make sure that everybody hears about it and you can see the way that all of this is operating and the devil does the same thing but just magnified He's a liar. He will talk about the loveliness of sin, present sin as a wonderful, pleasurable way of life. And I'm not denying that there isn't any pleasure in sin, but he is a liar. He's also a deceiver. You think of the name there in Revelation 12, verse nine, it says, And we think of how the devil is that wily creature. I wonder, has he deceived us? You know, if we think we are not deceived, I think we don't realise how much the propaganda of the world gets in upon us. We are affected maybe less so than the world. but you know we are constantly bombarded with the messages about these things and the deceptions and the lies of the devil and he can get a campaign and he can get a bandwagon and becomes fashionable and we think of how the devil promotes lies. But I'm glad tonight that we have the truth. And what we need to do is bathe ourselves in the truth. The Lord said, you shall know the truth. and the truth shall make you free. What's the antidote to the propaganda and the lies of the devil? It's the word of God. It's the word of God. That's why we need to come to meetings and why we need to read the word of God day by day so that we are able to counteract the lies and the propaganda of the devil. He is a deceiver. You think of how he deceived Eve at the very beginning. He said, ye shall not surely die. And yet she died spiritually and then died physically later on. But you think of the strategy of the devil. He's a deceiver. He is a liar. But then I want you to think about the strength of the enemy, the devil. Now when you see that he is strong, we're thinking about the wiles of the devil, and we think of how the devil has power, and we need to remember that too. He's not as powerful as almighty God. He is limited in his power. God is almighty. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. But we think of how the devil has a certain amount of power, and you think of how We are fighting against, it says there, we fight not against, we're able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And he says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers. But I want you to see if you have to wrestle against those things, there is a power in them. There's a power in the devil. We think of how he's called the prince of the power of the air. And we think of some of the powers of the devil as they are depicted in the word of God. The devil has a certain amount of power over nature. You think of the book of Job, and it illustrates that. You remember how God was challenged by the devil about Job, and it was the contention of the devil that Job only served the Lord for the blessings that he got out of it. and we think of how Job was then smitten by the devil, but you remember the way that the devil was able to smite him. It says that there were those that came and told Job what had taken place. The devil had sent these things in order to try Job. But it says, fire of God has fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. So you can see that it was in the power of the devil to send storms and to send lightning. He was able to do it. Now, I hasten to add that not all storms and not all lightning is sent by the devil, but obviously, he is able to do it. He's able to do it. Another messenger came and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped to tell thee. So now here is the devil bringing a hurricane or a great wind caused by the devil. Again, not all winds are caused by the devil, but obviously some of them can be. Not only does the devil at times have power over nature, but he has a certain amount of power over animals. You remember the Lord cast the devils out of the gathering demoniac and they went into the swine and they ran violently down the slope into the sea. And you can see then that it is possible for a devil to possess an animal. There's a power in the demons or in the devil over the forces of nature. But let's come a little bit closer to home. There is a power of the devil over man. Now, I want you to see that the devil has power to deal with the mind. One of the things that the devil will do in using his wiles is to get into the mind, get into the way that you think. Now, you think of 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4. This is the text that illustrates the devil's power over the mind. It says there, if our gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are lost in whom the God of this world, that's the devil, have blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine onto them. So there the devil is described as the God of this world, and he's able to blind minds. He's able to blind the minds of those that do not believe. You have been blinded, maybe, by the devil. And there are hundreds of people, of course, and their minds are blinded because they're not saved. And you think of the constant propaganda of the world and how the world conducts itself against the how the devil conducts himself against the truth of God and you think of the intellectual hostility that there is today and the perversion of minds and people who are not even thinking straight and Not even thinking in terms of logic or rationality or science or anything else. They think a man is a woman and a woman is a man and all of these things. And there is that subtlety of the devil. He is strong. We see the strength of the devil. One more thing, I want you to see the subtlety of the devil. That's bound up on that word wild. You think of the word, it seems to describe a wild animal, cunningly stalking the prey, the wilds of the animal before it pounces and devours the animal, a scheming trickster. And one of the common ways that the devil will use his wilds is by insinuating doubts. That's the way that the devil operated in the Garden of Eden. Yeah, hath God said. And the old devil will come at every time and plant doubts in your mind, plant doubts in your heart. Maybe there have been times and you've been in the middle of the work of God and suddenly the doubts come and the doubts are planted. And sometimes there are people who are plagued by doubts. You think of Peter at Caesarea Philippi, and the Lord commended him for the confession, Lord, the Christ, the son of the living God. But you think of how then he turned round, and when the Lord spoke about the cross, he said, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not happen unto thee. And he denied the cross. And what did the Lord say? Get thee behind me, Satan. This was Satan. putting in the doubts, trying, if he could, which he couldn't do, but if he could, to try and get the Lord Jesus to doubt, insinuating doubts. Something else the devil will use is fear. Peter, in that time, was bold in his declaration. He said, though all men forsake thee, I will never forsake thee. And we think of how we might have that desire to serve the Lord and to stand for him. But you know, at times fear comes in, and fear came in for Peter. You remember, the Lord said to him, Simon, Simon, Satan, Satan had desired to sift thee as wheat, but I prayed for thee. And what happened to Peter? Well, he went in amongst the crowd and amongst those that had arrested the Lord Jesus and fear, fear got hold of him. Satan had desired to sift thee. How did Satan sift him? By causing him fear. And you think of how often we fear. Not only are there those kinds of fear, but there is discouragement and depression. And that's one of the wiles of the devil, discouraging God's people. Oh, how many of God's people today are discouraged, cast down, examining their own failures, examining the fact that so many reject the Lord Jesus Christ in this day. And if the devil can ensnare you in discouragement and get you down, dear friend, he'll do that. Oh, tonight maybe you're discouraged, maybe you're cast down. Thank God if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But fear, fear can enter in. Something else that is a tactic of the devil, false teaching. You think of how the devil is an expert of muddying the waters, trying to get the teachings of cults or heresies. and we think of how the devil uses that we think of what it says in first timothy chapter four in verse one it says now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils doctrines of devils The devil can bring in the false teaching. How many false teachings there are in this day and generation. Again, John says in verse three of 1 John chapter four, he says that every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist. whereof you've heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world, the spirit of Antichrist, the false teaching. And that's spreading abroad today. You think of the desire to get together. You think of the statement of the Pope there, was it last week? I think it was last week, where he said that every religion was a way to God. That's the religion of Antichrist. bring everybody together oh we'll have one god or every way leads to god or leads to the things of god that's the false teaching another while of the devil is the flesh fleshly nature is vulnerable and you think of the sexual types of sins that there are and how prevalent they are and how they can be spread by the internet and We think of how, and not only the sexual things, but also other sins of the flesh. You think of how it says about David, after his victories and successes, it says in 1 Chronicles 21 and one, and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And the reason why David numbered Israel was pride, pride. He will use pride. or any sin that he can use in your heart, he will use it. Pride, oversensitivity, whatever it is. The devil's all sorts of ways that he seeks to come against the people of God. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against angels and principalities and powers. What do we need? We need to be clad in the armour of God. What do we need? We need to stand fast. Stand, he says, put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. You think of the Government Morals Committee, we need to stand. the church denomination as a whole. We need to stand. You need to stand. Every congregation needs to stand. Oh, may we stand for the Lord and for the things of God in this day and generation. May God write his word. upon our hearts for his namesake and I hope I've not gone too long, maybe I have, but hopefully we've shortened a little bit. We're going to ask our brother Alan if he'd come at this stage and bring the next tune in.