Mark Finley

HopeLives365

Satan’s Final Deception EXPOSED!

In our program today, we're going to look at Satan's final strategy.

And what to do to overcome his deceptions and not be deceived?

A Number of years ago, there were a series of robberies in Miami, Florida.

At 1 of the homes, a very expensive television was stolen.

At another 1 of the homes, a distant part of the city, jewels were stolen.

Another place a valuable painting was taken.

As the police looked at these, they initially looked at them as separate robberies.

Until 1 detective began to notice a similarity between every 1 of the robberies.

He called it the modus operandi or how these thieves were actually operating.

He studied the pattern, and then they anticipated where the robberies might take place next, the neighborhood.

You know, It's important in any kind of battle, any kind of struggle, any battle with the forces of evil, it's important to know the modus operandi.

So we're gonna wanna look today at how Satan is gonna try to deceive the world just before his coming, before Jesus coming, and how you and I can be prepared to meet his deceptions.

Now, the first thing that's important to notice is the objects of Satan's attack or the 3 groups that he's going to attack.

The first group that the devil deceives are secular materialists.

We might call them atheists, agnostics, they are unbelievers.

Second group that he focuses on is half committed, half-hearted Christians.

Those who have a superficial religious experience.

I mean they may claim to be Christians but their experience is very superficial.

He has a special object of attack for them.

And then those that have a growing relationship with Jesus, they're committed Christians.

The unbelievers, atheists, agnostics, those who are secular materialists, second group is nominal Christians, and third group is committed believers.

So let's group it, let's look at group number 1.

How is Satan going to lock them in deception?

What can he do to get them to disbelieve in God?

You remember in Matthew chapter 24, we often look at this as 1 of the signs of the times.

It is, but it's also part of a strategy that Satan has, as you will see.

Matthew chapter 24, Jesus giving the signs of his time says, you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you're not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

So we've had wars down through the centuries.

A single war is not simply a sign of the times.

But when you see wars happening at an increasingly ever frequent scale, when you see these wars magnified on a global scale, Jesus says, verse 7, for nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There'll be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in different places.

So we listen to that 1 verse, 2 things, wars, conflicts, strife among nations, and natural disasters.

Why would Satan be interested in stirring up the hearts of nations for war because it raises a question.

Why would Satan want to bring about natural disasters and tamper with the laboratories of nature?

And here's the question it raises by many secular people.

I find it as I travel the world with my evangelistic meetings.

If God is so good, why is the world so bad?

If there is a God who is love, then he must not be very loving, they say, if all these people are being blown apart in war, kids having their legs blown off, innocent seniors having their houses destroyed and bombed with drone bombs, and the cities being destroyed.

And look at all the floods that sweep away whole villages and the typhoons that take out island communities and the hurricanes that destroy.

Ellen White makes an interesting comment about war, rumors of war.

For it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity Its victims steeped in vice and blood It is his object whose object Satan's object to incite the nations to war against 1 another for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God." So the devil's desire is to bring about war and that accomplishes 3 purposes.

1, people that are unprepared it sweeps them into eternity.

Secondly, it causes disrepute on the character of God.

And thirdly, it distracts from the preparation to meet Jesus.

So war is, and rumors of war, are 1 of the devil's strategies to attack, deceive secular people.

Also, what about this Satan working through the elements of nature?

What about Satan tampering with the laboratories of nature?

Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls.

He studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature.

He studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature and he uses all in his power to control the elements so far as God allows.

In accidents and calamities by sea and by land and great conflagrations, what's that, fires.

In fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms and tempest floods, cyclones, tidal waves, earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms.

He sweeps away the ripening harvest and famine and distress follow.

These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous.

Because he wants us to blame God for those things.

He also wants to sweep people who are unprepared.

They've had every opportunity to prepare, of course, but he wants to sweep them unprepared into eternity.

And then thirdly, the devil wants to distract us to keep us focused on what's going on around us rather than to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

The devil knows if he can do this, he can get people to blame God for these wars and natural disasters.

And he also eventually, as church and state unite to enforce the mark of the beast, the devil can say, if we only all came in unity, these problems of war, conflict, strife, natural disasters would be solved.

It's those, that faithful remnant of God, who are not yielding to the demands of the state.

Who is it that is the responsible for all this disastrous and conflict strife?

It's those who won't yield to the commandments of men, but they're holding on to this idea, the importance of Sabbath.

So that's how he's gonna try to deceive group number 1.

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

03 Memorials of Grace

We're studying the book of Joshua and lesson number 3 this week.

I know this will be an exciting lesson for you, so let's pray as we open the word of God.

Father in heaven, Thank you for the opportunity to study Joshua.

May the lessons this week touch our hearts, draw us closer to you, and give us a sense of your divine presence.

As we learn about memorials of grace, help us establish practical memorials in our own life, where we never forget you, where we remember your goodness and grace.

Our author begins this week's Sabbath School lesson, under Sabbath Afternoon's lesson, with a kind of humorous but a very fascinating story.

John was traveling down the highway, evidently going too fast.

A policeman stopped him and he said, may I have your driver's license?

John's face turned red, he was a little chagrined, he said, I forgot it at home.

The policeman said, well, John, what do you do?

And the policeman said, you know, I'm writing you out something, and I don't want you to think of this as a ticket, John.

Your students pay tuition, and the reason they pay tuition is to learn something.

And I'm giving you this ticket, and you're gonna pay a fine, but I want you to think about it as a tuition, not a fine or punishment.

Because John, you need to learn something.

You know, that's a humorous story, but yet it's true.

John forgot his driver's license and often we can forget too, can't we?

For example, when you have a birthday celebration, it's a memorial.

You remember your kids' birthdays and you affirm them on those days.

When you have an anniversary, that's a memorial of your marriage.

In our lesson this week, we're going to study God's memorials to Israel, and these memorials of grace, and how they were to keep ever fresh, keep ever forefront in the memory of the Israelites, the goodness, the graciousness of God.

We jump right into Sunday's lesson, Crossing the Jordan.

Israel's getting ready to cross the Jordan.

They're getting ready to march around Jericho.

This takes absolute, total dependence on God, but it also takes an honest heart.

So we read in Joshua 3, verse 2 and 3, so it was after 3 days that the officers went through the camp.

And they commanded the people saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it." So the Israelites were to follow the ark of the covenant.

The ark of the covenant represented the presence of God.

Be conscious of where God moves, and move when God moves.

Now, remember what was in the Ark of the Covenant?

The 10 Commandment Law, Aaron's rod that budded, and the pot of manna.

These 3 things represent God's commands in the law, they represent God's guidance through his appointed leadership in the Aaron's rod that budded, and they represent God's provisions for us in manna and his healthful diet.

So, when Israel followed the ark, they were staying in the presence of God, saying to God, we accept your commands, we accept your guidance through your leadership, and we accept that you have a unique diet for us that's different from Egypt and that you'll always provide for us.

Staying in the presence of God opens our hearts to be obedient to God.

Now, here in Joshua chapter 3 we read that the Israelites were to keep a space between them and the ark about 2, 000 cubits, that's about 3, 000 feet, It's a little more than half a mile that they were to keep between them and the Ark, showing the holiness of God and the unholiness of humanity.

Then it says, don't come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before." So they were keeping their eyes on the ark because God was guiding them into new territory, uncharted territory.

Joshua said to the people, verse 5, "'Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Notice the 2 contrasts, the 2 relationships, sanctify and wonders.

God is saying in Genesis in in Joshua 3 verse 5, I'm going to work wonders among you.

But for me to work those wonders, your hearts must be right with me.

For every great work that God prepares us to do, God does a work in us before he can ever do a work through us.

God does something for us before he does something with us.

God longs for you to come in harmony with him so he can bless your life abundantly.

You know, here in our lesson, about 6 lines up from the bottom, it says, the consecration involved the laying aside of sin and the removal of all ritual impurities.

The same command appears in Numbers 11, 18, relating to an impending miracle of God.

Such a preparation was also required before battles were fought in war.

Before God can fight for Israel in battle, they must show their allegiance to him and trust in him as their commander." So God wants to work miracles in your life and mine.

God wants to do something special in our lives, but it's only as our hearts and minds are dedicated to him that we allow him to work those miracles in our lives.

We go to Monday's lesson, The Living God of Wonders.

And here we see that God is not limited by God's creation.

Genesis, rather, Joshua chapter 3, verse 6 and onward.

And I'm going to go to verse 13 in Joshua chapter 3.

It shall come to pass, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap." God's saying, I'm the God of all creation, and I can roll back the waters of Jordan.

God says to you today, I can roll back the troubled waters of your life.

God says to you today, I can work a miracle where it seemed impossible for Israel to go through the Jordan River.

The springtime, the river is overflowing, but God says, I can take you through, don't worry about that.

What is the lesson of Israel going through the Jordan say to us?

It says that God intervenes in human history.

In contrast to the gods of other nations who cannot save, who are powerless, God is all-powerful.

In Isaiah 44, verse 8, we read God's great challenge.

Isaiah 44, verse 8, we read this challenge of God.

Have I not told you from that time and declared it?

I know not one." God is saying all the other gods, so-called gods, all the false gods, are indeed ignorant and powerless.

But God says I'm all wise and I have all strength.

The scripture says in the book of Zechariah, thus says the Lord of hosts, if it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of the people of those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the Lord of hosts.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I'll save my people from the east and west country and I'll bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

So God had promised throughout the prophets that he would bring Israel into the promised land.

And God is a God that fulfills his promises.

Israel's wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

And God's end time people have wandered too.

We've wandered in the wilderness of this world.

However long the journey is, however dark the valley is, however uncertain the times are, however hopeless life appears, God says, I am leading my church, I am leading my people to the promised land.

02 Surprised by Grace

The book of Joshua has practical lessons for us today.

Although this book was written centuries ago, its lessons speak to our heart and encourage us on life's journey.

Father in heaven, as we study lesson number 2 in our series on Joshua, I pray once again that the principles of scripture would leap off the page, transform us as we study.

Oh Lord, bless us in a powerful way, we pray thee, during our time together, in Christ's name, amen.

You lost your temper and you said I'm never gonna do that again and then a short time later here you go doing it again or have you ever felt I can control my appetite I'm not gonna eat that which is unhealthful for me again.

I'm not going to take 3 pieces of pie and 2 chocolate chip cookies." And then you end up doing the very thing that you said you wouldn't do.

You say, Mark, well, 3 pieces of pie, 2 chocolate chip cookies is a little exaggeration.

It is, but it still makes the point, doesn't it?

That sometimes we just can't control those appetites of ours.

Some people have a difficult time controlling their lust or their pornography addiction.

Other people have a difficult time controlling the fact of their watching violence on television or video games or et cetera.

Just like Joshua felt extremely weak, and just like the Israelites were too weak to go into the promised land and to confront the Canaanites.

So God gave them that strength and power, and God will give you that strength or power.

But 1 thing that's brought out in our lesson today, and that's God is a God of second chances.

But what it does do is it lifts up people who are discouraged.

And you may have been discouraged over the fact that you have failed your Lord, that you've not lived in harmony with the principles of life that you have wanted to live with.

We find that here in our lesson under the Sabbath afternoon reading, second paragraph.

Israel has a second chance of entering the promised land and Joshua takes this mission seriously.

The first step is to have a clear understanding of what Joshua and the Israelites face.

Joshua sends out 2 spies to bring him valuable information about the land, its defense system, military preparedness, water supplies, and the attitude of the population in the face of an invading force.

1 would think that God's promise of giving the land to the Israelites did not require any effort from them.

Yet the assurance of divine support does not override human responsibility.

That sentence, that 1 sentence is incredibly powerful.

If you grasp that 1 sentence, it can be life transformation.

The assurance of divine support does not override human responsibility.

In other words, because God promised Israel that he'd lead them into the promised land, did not override their responsibility to cooperate with God.

In the Christian life, God invites us to cooperate with him.

In fact, in the book of James chapter 4, verse 7 and 8, it says, submit yourself to God and resist the devil and he'll flee from you.

If we don't do that, we can never resist the devil.

Then we resist by making a positive choice to obey God and to renounce or forsake that sin.

If we fail, he's right there to pick us up.

Why do you think Joshua sent out the 2 spies?

You remember, he remembered what happened 40 years before, I'm sure.

They are to evaluate, they're cooperating with God.

What's the water supply, et cetera, et cetera.

Now just at the beginning of that conquest of the promised land, Joshua has to evaluate the challenge to cooperate with God.

And so we read in Joshua 2 verse 1, now Joshua the son of Nun sent out 2 men from the Acacia grove to spy secretly saying, go view the land, especially Jericho.

So they went out and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there.

You know, it's sometimes easy to miss divine truths that are really significant.

It says, Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out 2 men from the Acacia Grove.

Now in my Bible, I have a little number 1 after Acacia Grove.

And you go down there and it says, Shittim, S-H-I-T-T-U-I-M, Shittim.

But yet, our author explains what it's about.

In this spy story, that was the place that the Israeli spies were sent out from.

It was the place where they ultimately come back to and it is the place that is a similar name.

See, it's not the exact location, but it's the similar name.

And then they come back to that place with a negative report.

The first is another spy story, see Numbers 13, featuring the same essential elements, the commissioning of the spies, the secret incursion of the spies into enemy territory, the return of the spies, the report of the spies on their findings, and the decision to act based on the report.

See, the place from which they're sent out is Shittim in the text.

It reminds us of that first negative experience, that negative episode where the spies come back and they give this negative report.

But there's another instance at Shittim, and it represents 1 of the most defiant, idolatrous violations of the covenant by the Israelites when at the instigation of Balaam they committed debauchery with the Moabite women and worshipped the false gods." Shittim really creates this tension of idolatry and rebellion and negativeness.

He sends the spies out from the Acacia Grove, the shittin' place, and he sends them out.

We find constantly that God is the God of the second chances.

The Lord says, 1 of you are gonna deny me.

Jesus says, before the cock crows 3 times you're gonna deny me.

First, his weakness, and secondly, the strength of the temptation.

He didn't know his weakness, and he didn't know the fury of the storm.

But after the resurrection of Christ, He appears to Peter and a few of those disciples by the shore of Galilee.

3 times Jesus calls out this expression of faith and Jesus says, go feed my lambs, go feed my lambs.

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All Teachings

Satan’s Final Deception EXPOSED!

34m

03 Memorials of Grace

24m

02 Surprised by Grace

25m

01 Recipe for Success

27m

What You Call “Grace” Is Actually Compromise

56m

13 The Tabernacle

22m

12 Please, Show Me Your Glory

23m

Why Did God Let Charlie Kirk Die?

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11 Apostasy and Intercession

23m

10 The Covenant and the Blueprint

27m

The Seal vs. the Mark: Who Will Stand the Final Test?

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09 Living the Law

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