I want to go ahead and talk today about how the Word of Yahweh gets spread and then the way it ends up not taking root. My wife was telling me this week when she was planting some plants we had gotten from the store for the front of the broadcast building and for other places around the property.

When she dug her hole into the ground and came across a little ‘Missouri potato’ also know as rocks. She kept moving the shovel and by the time she was done uncovering the rock it was huge. If she had actually planted that plant it would of probably died since there isn‘t any soil for its roots. To grab on to.

It reminded her about how we if we are not careful can end up stumbling over stumbling stones. Yahushua the Messiah gave the parable about the seed falling on the stony places and discussed that very thing actually:

Matthew 13:20 – But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;

Matthew 13:21 – yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

It is that stumbling we are warned about when it falls among the stony places. We need to make sure we have a good root system, a good soil for a root system to form so that when the sun rises up and the heat, the tribulation comes, we do not whither.

That is actually what we are going to be talking about today is watching out for the danger of ‘Stumbling Blocks’. We know in Scripture that it talks about stumbling blocks; that one example I gave you. Stumbling blocks are one of the main reasons why the gate is so narrow.

Matthew 7:13 – Enter by the narrow gate; for wide [is] the gate and broad [is] the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Matthew 7:14 – Because narrow [is] the gate and difficult [is] the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Very interesting – few who find it. Now if there are few who find it, it would seem to me that there are fewer that even do something with it that find it. The way to life is very difficult, very narrow and there are very few find it. It is kind of scary I guess you could say.

It should get our attention because one of the things we here a lot about is for those who are in mainstream churches and so on, they stumble at this. They say, “how can so many people possibly be deceived? How can all these other people be wrong and yet, what you are following is right?” That is one of the things they stumble in.

Based on the Scriptures here, the first thing we need to be careful of are crowds. Don’t be looking for a crowd when you are looking for the truth. Don’t be looking for a road that everybody else is on. If you are on a road that everyone else is on or a WHOLE lot of people are on then how can you be on a road that few find? It is not a road that is often traveled upon.

Yahushua said we have to seek that narrow gate. Then we have to walk the difficult road that leads to eternal life. If we read about the life of Yahushua, we see that He definitely faced a lot of stumbling blocks; things that would potentially cause Him to trip up. Yet, He overcame every single one of them. It is His example and His life dwelling in us we need to walk out.

What exactly are stumbling blocks? How can we overcome them and successfully walk down this narrow path few find and fewer actually live and walk? Based on what I see in Scripture, there are 3 major causes of stumbling.

If we can learn to recognize these 3 causes of stumbling and find out from the Word of Yahweh what to do to overcome those things, then we will better be able to handle them as we walk this narrow road.

I am about to embark here on a [5] part study on stumbling blocks. The stumbling block we are going to examining today is one we are all going to be able to recognize first of all. We are going to learn based on the Scriptures, how to deal with this first major stumbling block called Satan.

The hebrew word satan simply means adversary, enemy, to attack, or figuratively to accuse. When it is used as a personal name it is referring to the fallen entity know as Satan or the devil.

We have to be on guard because we know our adversary, the devil, is looking to devour wherever he goes and he has various agents known as demons who try to trip us up and cause us to stumble.

Numbers 22:22 – Then Elohim’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of YAHWEH took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants [were] with him.

This is actually a generic word. It is probably not even his (Satan) personal name. It is a title which basically has to do with being adversarial. Another example:

Psalms 109:5 – Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.

Psalms 109:6 – Set a wicked man over him, And let an accuser stand at his right hand.

There is an example where the hebrew word ‘satan’ is actually translated accuser. The reason why it is translated accuser because that is one of the things that an adversary will to…accuse or point the finger.

We discussed the topic of judging a couple weeks ago and that is what judging ultimately leads to when doing improper judgments is false accusing. We know base on other Scriptures that, Satan according to Revelation, is accusing us day and night before the Father continually.

We know based on the Scriptures that the word Diablo in the greek translates to devil and means to accuse.

That is one of his traits. Someone who is always wagging the finger, always pointing the finger, always trying to accuse the brethren and find fault. We have to be very careful that we are not imitating his spirit and that we are not being inspired to speak his words.

We know Satan being a spirit being would communicate with our spirit and put things into our minds that are not from the Father. The same way we have Yahweh and His spirit dwelling in us and communicating His doctrines, we also know that Satan has ways of creating temptations for us just as he did to Yahushua in the desert as he was in the wilderness.

We face temptations also which are a part of our walk here. Satan has tried to create stumbling blocks to cause us to stumble in man ever since the Garden of Eden. His tactics are sometimes exposed but most of the time he is very subtle. If we recognize that he is very subtle then we are going to be very aware of his devices.

One of the things we are going to do is examine some of his tactics that he used in the Garden of Eden. We will find out a lot of things he used then he is using today in a even more subtle way.

Genesis 3:1 – Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which YAHWEH Elohim had made. And he said to the woman, Has Elohim indeed said, `You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?

The first thing out of his mouth is to create doubt in the Word of Yahweh; to first create doubt and then contempt. He is creating doubt here by asking “Has Yahweh even said that?” This “Has Elohim said” is even a tactic used today.

At some point somewhere along the lines in Christian history, Satan has come along and said to someone “Has Elohim said that the Sabbath is on the 7th day of the week?” Or “Has Elohim indeed said “That you shall keep His feast days?”

Or “Has He really said you should keep from eating unclean?” and create doubt in the Word of Yahweh and give you just enough other Scripture to create deception. What we have today is a church that has departed from those commands. Other commands they hold onto such as the need to love you neighbor and so on.

But certain commands Satan has managed to create doubt about the Word of Yahweh whether or not certain commandments apply to them.

Through his deceptions people have abandoned Yahweh’s commandments and they withdrew from those who sought to keep the commandments such as these that I mentioned were considered to be Jewish heretics and eventually were dealt with their Roman government and by the Christian Catholic church.

Other ways today, in a more modern sense, Satan is able to create doubt by causing someone to doubt that the Word of Yahweh as an unreliable record.

Evolutionists, atheists, followers of other religions, now even leaders of Christian colleges have fallen prey to these kinds of deceptions. The Words of Yahweh are suppose to be a seed that is sewn to our hearts bearing the fruits of His Spirit.

If you take that seed out and create doubt about the Word to begin with it is impossible for there to be a plant present. That is the major problem that we have today. The Billy Graham revivals of the 1950’s and so on were all very effective because most people believed in the Bible.

Today such revivals have limited effectiveness because a lot of people have doubted Scripture especially in the first chapter or two dealing with creation vs. evolution. The central focal point is the attack on the Words of Scripture.

It is no coincidence that we are facing the same problem that Adam and Eve faced in the Garden of Eden and the people of Israel faced over dispute on what the Word of Yahweh actually is. That is one of the biggest attacks that Satan is going to do.

The biggest attack on the Word of Elohim today is the very field of study that we ought to be rejoicing and standing in complete awe of the complexity and glory of this world we live in and that science.

The theory of evolution is so wildly accepted today that is stated ‘matter of factly’ in newspapers, magazines, books, and various publications and is taught as though it is one of the many scientific facts that have been uncovered. It’s taught that way in government schools, and secular colleges in spite of the abundant amount of evidence against it.

I am going to share with you, which is especially good for young people, the validity of Scripture which is a firm foundation and why things like evolution are abominable and is not even according to what science teaches to begin with. First of all, this idea every once in a while where a new find will come out that claims a missing link between humans and apes.

They look at fossils and think some of these missing links demonstrate a link between an ape like species to the human being of we have today. Obviously if we are descendant from some common ancestor of ape then the record in Genesis chapter 1is simply not true. So from the very first chapter of Yahweh’s Word, Scripture is being attacked.

That ripped out the foundation from the rest of Scripture because His Word is founded upon the first chapter in Genesis. If Satan can rip that foundation out from under people then it is going to be very difficult for us to persuade anyone the rest of Scripture ought to be followed and heed it as facts.

Even one of the world’s leading anthropologist has said, this very famous so called ‘missing link’ called Lucy, her scull is so incomplete and is mostly made up of what he called imagination made out of plaster.

I have a quote here from a very prominent evolutionist, Richard Leakey, and he says this “Biologists would dearly like to know how modern apes, modern humans, and the various ancestral hominids have evolved from a common ancestor. Unfortunately, the fossil record is somewhat incomplete as far as the hominids are concerned, and it is all but blank for the apes.

The best we can hope for is that more fossils will be found over the next few years which will fill the present gaps in the evidence. ‘David Pilbeam [a well-known expert in human evolution] comments wryly, “If you brought in a smart scientist from another discipline and showed him the meager evidence we’ve got he’d surely say, ‘forget it: there isn’t enough to go on’.”

That is from Richard Leakey’s book “Making of Mankind”. Look at this very neat comment here…’hope for’. They are hoping for transitional fossils to show up one day. They have never found any in spite of millions, perhaps billions of dollars worth of research. They are hoping to validate their theory of evolution but so far they haven’t been able to do so.

This is a world leading paleoanthropologist who is very anti-religion which I find that to be very interesting. For the last century or more, science has been trying to find some kind evidence to evolution. Whenever they found something that would support evolution, they grab a hold of it, take it and run with it.

But when something comes along that may not support the theory of evolution, they scratch their heads and they go one about as if the evidence doesn’t exist. It reminds me of a quote by Winston Churchill. He said, “Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened.”

That is pretty much what they do when it comes to evidence that is contrary to evolution. The number 1 friend of evolution is time. They claim the earth had evolved over a period of billions and billions of years…the earth and life in it I should say has evolved. If they did not have billions of years then they would not be able to support evolution.

Whenever they go into look at the evidence the first thing they think of is the timeline of billions of years. There is a real problem with millions and billions of years. When you have something that you are hoping for, you have something called faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for ; the evidence of things not seen.

They are placing and hoping for things that are not yet seen. Basically what they have is a religion. They have a foundation that they are hoping to be able to prove one day although some claim there is enough evidence in there minds to already prove it. There are some contrary things to the idea that the earth is 4.54 billions years old.

Here are some pretty good quotes that are pretty solid evidence against this idea of the earth being billions of years old. (1) Minerals are constantly being washed away from our soil which in turn goes into the streams and rivers ultimately going into the ocean. The level of salt that is in the ocean is naturally going to be increasing over a period of time.

This increase of the salt content is actually measurable. Based on the present rate of increase, tracing it back to 4.5 billion years old, and assuming you have salt free water in the beginning, the oceans should be so salty that there would be no possibility of life to exist.

You could almost walk on the water because the salt content would be so high causing no life to exist. The Dead Sea in Israel is a testimony of that. They call it that because nothing can live in it. The salt content is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25%. That is one example. (2) The fact that we have the moons orbit.

Every year the moon is slowly going away from the earth at the rat of inches per year. They have been able to measure that rate. If the earth was 4.5 billion years old, then the moon at one time would have been so close to the earth that it would have been in contact only 1.4 billion years ago.

The tides on earth from the moon would have been making life on earth totally impossible. There is no geological evidence that the earth has been anywhere near in contact with the earth. So if we have a 4.5 billion year old earth and moon and so on then we have a real problem just in the moons orbit alone. (3) The existence of soft tissue found in dinosaur fossils.

How can soft tissue, even blood vessels, survive in a normal environment over a period of 65 million years? Obviously they cannot survive that long causing them to scratch their heads while trying to figure out how did this happen. (4) Dating systems are another thing that a lot of people question and wonder about.

Carbon 14 dating and other forms of dating seem to have some form of accuracy. Carbon 14 dating loses its accuracy if the world wide flood is true. That is about the time period it starts to lose its accuracy. Although it is even off in other ways like radiometric dating and so on.

The amount of fossil fuels they are assuming that the level of carbon 12’s to carbon 14’s difference is going to be the same rate today as it was in previous time periods.

Based on the amount of fossil fuels in the earth, which is decaying plant and animal matter and different things, that was buried in the flood creating oil then the biosphere in the earth before the flood would have had a tremendous amount of vegetation causing more carbon. Pre-flood material is going to be particularly inaccurate and actually other forms of dating are inaccurate as well.

For instance, they went and took some newly formed rock, that was from the Mt Saint Helen’s Volcano that had erupted, to a laboratory. They didn’t know where it was from and dated it anywhere from 0.5 million to 2.8 million years old based on their dating systems.

If you had rock that was newly formed in the 1980’s and was taking it to a laboratory and it ended up from 0.5 to 2.8 million years old, there is obviously some kind of flaw in the dating systems they are using. (5) Fossilized trees are transcending various levels. We also have the fossilization and burial of soft things like jelly fish that are supposed to decay right?

How do these fossils end up in the rocks? When a plant or animal dies it decays right? The only way it could really fossilize, the way we see it today, is it got buried. If we have a world wide flood that is covering the entire planet full of water, you are going to have a tremendous amount of sediment that is going to be coming along with rushing ways of water.

That sediment is going to bury plants and animals with different kinds of sediment coming through causing fossils to form. What they are really looking at today are plants, animals, and different things that were buried in the flood and were fossilized because there was no time for the soft tissue to decay. The sediment became rock layers.

With huge erosions, such as the Grand Canyon, can be formed in one of two ways: formed over billions and billions of years they say, or with a little bit of water over a very long period of time. Or you can have a massive amount of water in a very short period of time creating the same gigantic ditch.

This huge ditch known as the Grand Canyon, if there was a world wide flood, is certainly quite plausible and possible. There is actually some evidence that there was a huge lake at the top where this canyon begins that may have actually opened up causing a huge in rush of water draining out creating the Grand Canyon.

That is just another one of those things that you can investigate further. One of the things you should have in these layers that come down happening over millions of years are borrow marks from animals digging or plant roots between these rock layers. But there is

nothing there; just buried plants and animals. There are just some of the examples that contradict the idea of ‘millions of years’.

Someone mentioned ‘what about distant starlight’. When you are looking at a star that is suppose to be millions of light years away, how could the light reach us? That is also a problem for evolution and the big bang theory because they have not been able to figure out how light can reach from one end of the known universe to the other.

Even the time period they have for evolution, the big bang theory, and the age of the universe is still not enough time for light to be reaching from one end to the other. We realize Yahweh could of done so supernaturally but there are also some natural explanations as well.

A book by Jason Lisle, called ‘Distant Starlight’ is a pretty interesting book to check out if you get a chance. There is a lot of evidence for a young earth. The rock layers are actually a result of a world wide flood, not millions of years. It all has to do with how a person looks at and interprets the evidence base on his preconceived notions.

There was a secondary explosion of Mt Saint Helens in 1982 which actually created a miniature Grand Canyon on a scale of about 1:40 as far as size. There was a lot of ensuing but that came down. If you were to go look at that miniature Grand Canyon, you would see horizontal bands of sediment along the sides of this canyon. Guess how long it took for that canyon to form…..5 days.

So it is all on how you look at the evidence whether it is through faith in the Word of Yahweh which plainly says He created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in 6 days in the book of Genesis chapter 1 and Exodus chapter 20. Yahweh says, “I created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them in 6 days” in Exodus chapter 20.

And the 7 day, I rested, therefore I commanded you to keep the Sabbath day so you may also rest following the pattern. You also have a problem with some people trying to fit an evolutionary time period into the book of Genesis chapter 1 by saying Yahweh guided evolution. They are trying to find some way to mix the 2 together but you have a real problem because evolution says the stars came first then the earth.

Genesis chapter 1 says the earth came first then the stars so I do not know how you get around that one. People are looking at the evidence through their own viewpoints whether one believes or doesn’t believe in the Scriptures. What amazes me the most is how the world acts about the secular mindset being nonreligious. Satan is very tricky.

He can get you thinking, and I have been caught in thinking that secular is being no religion. The world acts like there is this religious world out there and the secular world regards religion in another category somewhere else and they are above all that in a separate world. It was secularism, they claim, that brought all of the technology we have today. Not true.

It is not really science that tells us how things happened in the past. Science is something that is observable and repeatable. You cannot observe how the earth or heavens were created and you certainly can’t repeat it. What you have is them looking at evidence using some measurements that are accurate in some cases to do different things but science itself cannot tell us how this world was created.

The truth is the secular world has excepted a religion of humanism. The idea that man is the center of his own world rather than Yahweh being the focal point. Most people today want some kind of sign, miracle, or proof of a spiritual realm of something beyond ourselves. Humanist and atheist will often say if you can perform some kind of miracle here I will believe there really is a god.

In fact, I used to work with a guy who was very atheistic and said if there really is a god, then pray for this to happen. He was always trying to test me on that. They basically say we are not going to believe in the supernatural without scientific evidence of supernatural occurrences. What is supernatural anyway? To me what is supernatural is in the eye of the beholder.

To me it is an absolute complete total miracle that there are blades of grass growing in my lawn right now. The process of photosynthesis, a process that science hasn’t even been able to explain, is so complex.

I’m sorry my friend but I have a hard time believing that that blade of grass was smart enough to figure out photosynthesis on its own or somehow it just randomly came together. It doesn’t work that way. The fact that the sun sets and rises everyday is an absolute miracle to me. I don’t know how anyone can witness the birth of their child and not say this couldn’t of happen by chance.

To me a baby’s birth is an absolute miracle. How can all the information, all the DNA, all the instruction, all the intelligence that is needed for a single cell to become a fully developed intelligent human being even fit inside one cell? They found out now the DNA molecules, the DNA string, if you were to string them out, will go back and forth to the moon many times.

There is a tremendous amount of information in our DNA so how did intelligence get there? Did it just show up? How could intelligence come out of a rock? It just doesn’t happen that way. For me it takes a tremendous amount more faith that all this intelligence just happened.

Even new born babies have a certain amount of instincts that they do and in animals such as geese when their babies hatch, the first thing they look for is a mom. If you are the first thing they see, they think you are the mom and will follow you around. How do they know that? They didn’t learn that in the egg did they? No. It is that intelligence that Yahweh placed in that animal.

People say, “How about evolution? We watch evolution.” There are all the different dogs that are out there that descended from one ancient wolf. That may very well be true. It’s quite possible that Yahweh implanted into the DNA, a kind of variety in their DNA, into the first animals that were created to create all the different kinds of species of species of dog that we have today. Same thing with the cat.

The DNA information is already present in the first created form. Same with human beings with the tremendous amount of variety in the way we look. Some people have darker skin, larger noses, smaller noses, shape of our jaw, shape of our head and different things are all variable. One thing they have never witnessed or found evidence of is one kind of animal turn into another kind like a dog to a cat or anything of that nature.

There hasn’t ever been any evidence found or observed of new information coming into the DNA. It would require new information new things to grow such as an extra hand or finger or whatever. I do believe in micro-evolution which is the miniature evolution showing up in different dogs like a St. Bernard, fox, or coyote where they descended from the same kind of animal that Yahweh created originally.

We have never seen macro-evolution; one kind of animal turning into another kind. That is some things, hopefully brothers and sisters, above and beyond the Scriptures that will help to enrich your faith and combat this major onslaught and attack on the Word of Yahweh which is very prevalent in our generation.

People want that sign, that kind of proof, of some kind of supernatural god they can follow. I think this is a setup. I think this whole thing, this gravitation is a big setup. Almost the whole area of Europe now are humanist, secularist, and other nations are following suit. They are trying to get this into the United States also.

With evolution really being the driving engine to drive people away from the Scriptures and treat Yahweh’s Word as some sort of cute little religion somewhere. In the Scriptures, based on the Book of Revelations, there will be in the future, a lot of supernatural activity happening. Especially during the last 7 years

2Thessalonians 2:9 – The coming of the [lawless one] is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,

2Thessalonians 2:10 – and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

This is a setup because when Satan appears with his powers, signs, and lying wonders, everyone who doesn’t believe in the Scriptures and maybe some that do believe are going to say, “There he is, there is god. There are the supernatural thing we have been looking for. Here’s the proof.” They will all flock to him. Then Satan can teach them whatever he wants.

Whatever philosophy or doctrine and they will buy it, hook, line, and sinker, because they have been without any form of religion. Now we are going to be learning a new religion where it is much harder for people like us who believe in the Scriptures, cleaving to Yahweh’s Word to being our guide, to be persuaded and deceived into thinking he is really the true Elohim.

That’s why, brother and sisters, it is very important that we are grounded in the Word of Yahweh.

The truth is the Scriptures are reliable. What we call the Bible, as we know it today, contains 66 books, written over a period of 1500 years by about 40 different authors who lived on 3 different continents, many of whom simply wrote down the things that they saw and heard. They were eye witnesses of what took place.

If you are in a court of law, one of the things you are going to look for is fact. Lets say you got the ‘who done it crime’ appearing before the judge. One of the most important thing that is necessary are eye witnesses. They bring witnesses to the witness stand to determine what happened in the past.

What we have in the Scriptures are a series of eye witnesses who all, amazingly, agree with each other with 2 different ways of thinking. Some say the Bible has been translated so many times and they use that as a basis for mistrust in the Scriptures. You can use the analogy about whispering something to someone and passing it around the room until the time you get to the last person and the story the last person tells is vastly different.

That is what college professors will try to do and they will use that to show people that the Scriptures cannot be trusted. The truth is that the Scriptures have not been translated many many times. It has only been translated once, maybe twice, at the most.

Our English Bibles are not the translations of translations of translations. Almost all of them are from direct translations from very ancient manuscripts. Are the ancient manuscripts congruent with one another? Are they consistent with one another? Yes. Are they historically accurate with many external proofs from other sources? Yes.

The doubters used to teach back in the 1800’s that the Book was nothing but a book of fairy tales just like the mythological tales from the Greek religions from years gone by. As time goes on, people are finding that the Scriptures are very historically accurate. The truth is we have a copy of most books of Yahweh’s Word in the Dead Sea Scrolls that trace back 200 years before the Messiah even arrived on the earth through Mary.

These Dead Sea scrolls when found were discovered to be almost word for word, letter for letter, identical to the Hebrew Scriptures we have today with a few insignificant variance here and there. The Isaiah scroll for instance dated back to 100 B.C. and contains prophecies that describe Yahushua the Messiah in minute detail.

Just in Isaiah 53 alone there are over 58 characteristics of what this Messiah would be like. The world gets excited because Nostradamus they think had a few prophecies that came true and different things through very subjective reading. We can place our hands on manuscript of Isaiah that describes Yahushua the Messiah in complete total detail in very many different respects. Some people don’t regard that as being significant.

In my mind, it is significant. Psalms 22 for instance describes Yahushua being pierced in His hands and feet. Micah 5 predicts the birthplace of the Messiah being Bethlehem. How could a man control where he is born? A lot of other prophecies demonstrate that this is a reliable Book with supernatural prophecies that are coming to pass.

Unlike mythological tales, which have no historical reliability or context, the Scriptures are reliable a source of history. The people, places, and events which are mentioned in the Scriptures have been supported in historical records, archeological finds, and inscriptions containing biblical kings of Israel and kings of Judah.

Even the events mentioned in the Scriptures have been corroborated in other historical documents. For instance, lets take a look

2Kings 18:13 – And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

2Kings 18:14 – Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay. And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

Now Hizqiyah was a righteous king. If somebody were going to make up some story about a narrative of the Bible out of his own head and said because Hizqiyah was so righteous there was no judgment on them. They wouldn’t have any problems of any wars or anything like that but no, he told the truth.

The truth was even though Hizqiyah was considered to be a righteous king, king Sanherib came down and took these cities of Judah laying a siege on Hizqiyah and his people. Continue to read here

2Kings 18:15 – So Hezekiah gave [him] all the silver that was found in the house of YAHWEH and in the treasuries of the king’s house.

2Kings 18:16 – At that time Hezekiah stripped [the gold from] the doors of the temple of YAHWEH, and [from] the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

2Kings 18:17 – Then the king of Assyria sent [the] Tartan, [the] Rabsaris, [and the] Rabshakeh from Lachish, with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which [was] on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.

This is a siege that was laid with archeological data supporting this actual account with evidence of wide spread destruction throughout Judah during this time. An inscription was found on this hexagonal prism that was made out of baked clay found in the ruins of Sanherib’s palace in Nineveh.

This account here mentioned on this clay prism actually agrees with the biblical accounts saying the king had laid siege to 46 of Hizqiyah’s fortified walled cities and surrounding towns. It then says he shut up Hizqiyah like a caged bird but does not say that he was able to take the city. This also agrees with the Scriptural account of Hizqiyah was surrounded and under siege by Sanherib, the king of Syria but his siege was not successful.

He ended up returning back to Syria. This is an event that occurred in 691 B.C. that the Scriptures over a period of 2700 years is accounted for in our Bibles today corroborating this evidence. It also mentions the building of a tunnel by Hizqiyah. People found this tunnel called Hizqiyah’s Tunnel and if you go to Jerusalem today, you can walk through that tunnel.

There is an inscription on the walls of this tunnel mentioning how the tunnel was created under the direction of Hizqiyah. So we have, unlike other religions, I believe with out a doubt brothers, the most historically, scientifically accurate and experientially true and accurate faith in the world. There’s nothing like it.

We also have very ancient documents that have been demonstrated clearly to be accurately transcribed from one generation to the next. To me there is no reason to say, when I read something in the Scriptures, has Elohim indeed said? I don’t believe for a minute that Yahweh would enable His Word to be able to be corrupted to the point where we would be led into unrighteousness, into the lack of faith in the Messiah Yahushua.

Yahweh knows Satan’s tool he likes to use is to create doubt in the Word of Yahweh. If you have doubt upon the Word of Yahweh, then you have no foundation upon which to believe anything. You will be just like any other religion coming up with there own ideas of whatever it is they want to believe based on what kind of god they want to form with their mind and with their hands.

Lets continue reading here about the other tactics that Satan uses:

Genesis 3:2 – And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

Genesis 3:3 – but of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, Elohim has said, `You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’

Now some people take exception to Eve’s comment about touching it. I think He may have said touch, He just didn’t mention in the earlier portion but He have said don’t touch nor eat it. I’m not going to assume that Eve was wrong here. But actually, what Eve was doing, was a good thing because she was quoting, basically the same thing Yahushua did, what Elohim has indeed said.

She used the sword of Yahweh’s Word to fight against the serpent’s sole attempt to create doubt. She stood on the Word of Yahweh in this passage. This is the same exact thing Yahushua did in the wilderness when He was being tempted.

Luke 4:5 – Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

Luke 4:6 – And the devil said to Him, All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for [this] has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Luke 4:7 – Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.

Luke 4:8 – And Yahushua answered and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, `You shall worship YAHWEH your Elohim, and Him only you shall serve.’

So Yahushua successfully defeated the enemy by His faith in the Word of Yahweh, using the Sword, which is our only offensive piece of armor to destroy the enemy. We attack Yahweh’s enemies and ours when we use His word wisely. That is why it is so so important we believe in the words of Scripture and the reliability of Scripture.

If you start picking and choosing, what is going to happen is Satan can start picking you apart to where you doubt more and more and more. We don’t go there. We put our faith in trusting in the Word of Yahweh that His Word is true. But if Satan is successful in creating just a little bit of doubt he can wreak havoc.

For example, the latest Gallop Poll is 95% of the people in the U.S. believe in God. Now that’s their words. Yet of that, about 50% go to church every week. Now there are other gods when someone ask do you believe in god they could believe in a Hindu god, Buddhist god, an Islam god, or whatever god they want. So they do recognize some sort of supernatural power.

I remember as a high schooler when they taught me evolution. They took a poll about whether we believed in evolution or creation and most people believed in a little bit of both. But there was enough doubt in my mind as a young man where I wasn’t sure if I really believed the Bible therefore my lack of belief caused me to do things I normally wouldn’t do because I wasn’t so sure about this Bible to begin with.

We have to be firmly grounded in the Scriptures, otherwise our Sword is nothing but a dull piece of metal with no sharpness to it. That sharper than a two edge sword Word is what Yahushua was able to defeat the enemy with and that is what we will defeat the enemy with when we are faced with these kinds of temptations and other kinds of temptations.

Now if Satan is successful in creating some doubt, he will lie to us and try to feed us his doctrines, his beliefs, his lies. That is what the serpent said next to Eve saying, “You will not surely die.” Interesting. This is the first lie recorded in Scripture.

When Yahweh speaks, we will here the truth preceding from him, but when Satan speaks, he will speak lies, or lies mixed with truth. Those who walk in the image of Satan will become Satan’s children rather than Yahweh’s children. This is clearly demonstrated in:

John 8:44 – You are of [your] father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [resources], for he is a liar and the father of it.

Now you might wonder why I said he mixes truths with lies. What he does is give you half truths. The reality is a half truth is a whole lie. They are more hidden therefore more deceptive. One of Satan’s biggest lies is this, “You will not surely die.” It’s the same doctrines of demons that Satan is using today to create havoc on mankind. This deception is very prevalent today.

It is this deception of ‘once saved, always saved’ doctrine. Once you come to faith in the Messiah, it is impossible for you to ever fall away and end up

being judged in the end as a sinner worthy of the lake of fire. This kind of deception that we can live however we want to live and still be saved is the same deception that basically Satan was trying to feed Eve in the Garden of Eden saying you can do these things, you can disobey, and you will not die. You are not going to die.

The same thing is going on today. People are taught that they can still sin, they can lay there and return to the vomit, lay there like a pig in the mud, and surely you will not die. You will not face judgment of Yahweh. Some will say there is no Yahweh in some cases, therefore there is no judgment.

In case you do believe in Yahweh and what He says isn’t really true, you will not surely die. Yahushua did predict actually that a lot of people would fall prey to this kind of deception

Matthew 7:19 – Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 7:20 – Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Matthew 7:21 – Not everyone who says to Me, `Master, Master,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

So we have to do the will of our Father because not everyone who says ‘Master, Master’ will enter in

Matthew 7:22 – Many will say to Me in that day, `Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

Matthew 7:23 – And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Interesting. These people, who are many, will not enter in because they are practicing lawlessness. What is lawlessness?

It is a pretty important word if it is something that is keeping people from the Kingdom, and they are still calling Yahushua their Master. This is the word in the Greek: it’s 458, anomia. The meaning according to the Thayers Lexicon is the condition without law (a)because of ignorance of it, (b)because of violating it; contempt and violation of the law,

iniquity, wickedness. Again in the Strongs Lexicon from 459 list anomia as illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness. Now, before anyone says we are free to do whatever Yahweh hasn’t commanded us to do or we are free to disobey what Yahweh has said, you need to make sure they haven’t fallen prey to this deception of them not knowing there is a law we have to follow.

They might say, “You mean to say that the law has not been abolished?” This is a satanic doctrine of demons that the law of Yahweh is not to be followed and not to be obeyed because it is done away with, abolished. Yahushua clearly says He will tell them in that day, who do not do the will of the Father in heaven, who do not walk in obedience to the law, depart from me, you who practice torahlessness or violation of the law.

It says, many will say to me, we have cast out demons. How can it possibly be that we are not saved. He is going to say to them you are not saved, depart from me, you who practice torahlessness. I’m not making this up on my own my friend. I did not say this. Yahushua said this. I am just pointing it out to you.

I’m not condemning anybody or picking and choosing who is going to hell and who is not because the reality is what is going on in our hearts is what the Father’s after. Is our heart turn to His will?

We need to be sure that we ourselves also are not falling prey to “well yeah, He said that but I don’t really have to do it”. That is exactly what Eve did….If I don’t do what Yahweh says, I will not surely die. Same deception is going on today. Same thing. It’s no different. Isn’t that amazing? To me that is one of the most amazing things. The 3rd chapter of Genesis opens up a window into the very temptations that we face today.

The same doctrines and methods today. To me, that shows me how timeless Yahweh’s Word really is and how awesome it really is. The fact we are still facing the same thing.

What’s the next tactic that Satan uses? Here comes the half truth.

Genesis 3:4 – Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die.

Genesis 3:5 – For Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.

Because a half truth is a whole lie. It is true, Elohim did know good and evil. It is true that she would gain this knowledge by eating from the tree of good and evil. The subtle temptation was she would be equal to Elohim and Elohim was holding back something good from her to keep her from being like He is.

When Satan brought in that doubt and lied about the consequences, the fleshly desire for the fruit was kindled and she finally succumbed.

Genesis 3:6 – So when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make [one] wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Her husband is sitting here watching this whole thing. Apparently Adam is failing to protect and lead. What he should of said was “Eve, lets get out of here.” The tree of knowledge of good and evil is actually in the midst of the garden so they had that choice often of what tree they wanted to choose from. Man even does the same today, my brothers and friends, saying: Well this woman that I got….blaming her his sins.

These are the methods that I am exposing today so once we are aware of Satan’s devices, we will become acquainted with them to realize the way he does it. First he causes doubt or deception in the Word, then lies to enter in like: well, we are saved by grace right, we will be forgiven.

Then the next step is our fleshly tendency to go after the things that are pleasant to our eyes, doing what is good in our own eyes and taking of that forbidden fruit. Yahushua continued to deal with various attempts to cause Him to stumble. A very subtle attempt is found in

Matthew 16:13 – When Yahushua came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

Matthew 16:14 – So they said, Some [say] John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

Matthew 16:15 – He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16:18 – And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Right there Yahushua is exalting Kepha/Peter ,which means hollow rock, saying that flesh and blood did not reveal that to him but it was revealed spiritually. Now watch what happens

Matthew 16:19 – And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:20 – Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Yahushua the Messiah.

Now after this proclamation,

Kepha must have been very exalted. Maybe it went to his head. Very next thing following this, Kepha took it upon himself to rebuke the Messiah. This is what Satan was using back in Matthew chapter 4 where Yahushua was being tempted in His own pride. That is the exact temptation that he was doing again.

Matthew 16:21 – From that time Yahushua began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

Matthew 16:22 – Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, Far be it from You, Master; this shall not happen to You!

As though, this could never happen to the Son of Man. As though Yahweh would be wrong to be leading the Son of Man, the Savior of Man to be doing these things. So Yahushua said to Kepha:

Matthew 16:23 – But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of Elohim, but the things of men.

This is the one time we can see Yahushua directly rebuke one of His disciples and actually rebukes Satan. This is a little window on how Satan was functioning and being used by this man, Kepha,

first he tempted Kepha with pride after Yahushua made this revelation here, then Satan tried to tempt Yahushua with pride. It is that one person to the next that happens all the time among brethren. We have to be aware of these kinds of devices to realize what methods the enemy is using to try to destroy our souls and keep us from being effective as disciples of Yahushua the Messiah.

We read later that He wanted to sift Peter like wheat but Yahushua said but I pray for you that your faith would not fail and when you return, strengthen your brethren. We have to be sure we are not being used by the enemy in the things that we speak when we speak to others. It was Peter himself that became aware of Satan’s devices and said to be sober

1Peter 5:8 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Do you realize there is a roaring lion looking for who he can devour? He is walking about trying to devour the people of Yahweh. There is no one more that he would love to devour than those who have been revealed these truths. In the same way that flesh and blood did not reveal the Messiah to Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal that we need to keep the commandments of Yahweh to us. This is spiritually revealed.

The worst thing to do is follow the example of Peter by getting prideful about it. Getting puffed up and falling into temptation while all of us are in a room laughing saying, “Those Christians, those Christians this, they don’t know this and we know that.” Look out!

We have to be careful of pride. That is Satan’s main thing. Pride has caused him to rebel against the Heavenly Father. It is pride that causes us to rebel against Yahweh also. The people of this world has chosen Satan to be their ruler if they realize it or not. It reminds me of this proverb

Proverbs 28:15 – [Like] a roaring lion and a charging bear [Is] a wicked ruler over poor people.

Satan is the wicked ruler accusing us before the

Father day and night. He’s trying to trip us up and cause us to fall but we need to choose Yahweh as our King, our ruler, the One we cleave to, and not His enemy. We have to be on guard about that. We don’t want to fall prey to the exceptions. Most of this world is walking to rebellion to Yahweh’s ways and do not want to walk in Yahweh’s image.

So Satan has a variety of images to cause men to follow. Men mold their own image in some cases guided by the adversary themselves. That is something that we have to understand. You know Satan is the ruler of this world but he is not in that position because Yahweh gave it to him.

Do you know when Adam was given authority to all creation it also included the serpent in the Garden of Eden? Adam chose this serpent to be his ruler when he sinned along with wife. That is not going to be so with us. We have submitted to the ruler-ship of Yahushua the Messiah and we are his body on this earth. We have authority over the enemy, the serpent, given to us over the very beginning of creation.

It was Adam’s failure to take dominion over the serpent that created the condition we are in today. There are men that follow the serpent to be their ruler just as Adam did. We don’t cower in fear of the enemy and we don’t spend most of our time worrying on what he is going to do next. We aren’t ignorant either

2Corinthians 2:10 – Now whom you forgive anything, I also [forgive]. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Messiah,

2Corinthians 2:11 – lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

What are one of his devices? Unforgiveness. If we harbor unforgiveness towards others, Satan will use that to divide and conquer the people of Yahweh. Therefore, devour like a wicked ruler

Hebrews 12:14 – Pursue peace with all [people], and holiness, without which no one will see YAHWEH:

Pursue peace. Looking carefully lest anyone fall short the grace of Elohim. How do you fall short?

Hebrews 12:15 – looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of Elohim; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

We can fall short from the grace of Elohim by allowing a root of bitterness to grow in us. What does a root do in a plant or the purpose of a root? It is to gain nutrients and water from the soil to feed the plant. If our roots are rooted in hatred and bitterness toward other people, all the nutrients we take in are going to be filtered through this root of bitterness.

Therefore, when we look at another human being who could be totally innocent before Elohim and doing a completely innocent action, we make look at them and start accusing, “Well they’re this, they’re not really that they’re doing this and that.” It will cause us to imitate Satan himself when we harbor unforgiveness. How do you know you are harboring unforgiveness?

Is there a person when you think about them you get this high octane disgust about? That is bitterness and unforgiveness. We are told in the Scriptures to let all bitterness go because out of all that bitterness comes wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking. Let all these things be put away from you with all malice, just as Paul said, you forgive, I forgive. We don’t want Satan to take advantage of us.

He takes advantage of us by allowing the root of bitterness of not forgiving to set in then we start walking in anger, clamor, and evil speaking. Instead, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, by forgiving one another just as Elohim and Messiah forgave you. That is how we end up falling from grace.

Lest anyone fall short from the grace of Elohim because Yahushua says if you will not forgive, then you will not be forgiven. With what mercy you’ve given, it will be given back to you. You fall from grace simply by harboring bitterness and unforgiveness. A very serious thing. If we have a real problem with anger, it is a sign that there is bitterness and pride in our hearts.

Pride because as we all know, everybody sins. When somebody else sins and you get so mad at their sin yet you sin yourself, that is hypocrisy and pride. When you are mad because somebody sinned against you and you know yourself that you have sinned against others, that’s pride. Be angry and do not sin.

Otherwise, when you feel that high octane anger rising in your heart, do not sin with it because sin is lying right there at the door. Don’t let this bitterness continue to exist in your heart otherwise you give Satan a foothold. That is another tactic he uses causing us to walk in hatred, rather than love toward our fellow man, because our fellow man sins against us in some fashion.

The reality is we have also sinned against a even greater person. Yahweh. Who has done absolutely nothing wrong to us yet we sin against him. Get off your high horse and humble yourself before Yahweh and forgive. Another thing Satan can do through these roots and different things is create physical diseases on people.

Some examples:

John 5:14 – Afterward Yahushua found him in the temple, and said to him, See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.

What is He talking about? He healed a man who had an infirmity of 38 years. Read the context.

The man is laying there next to the pool trying to get a healing and Yahushua comes along and heals him and says to him later, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing comes upon you.” It is possible, not always the case, for a persons sickness or disease to be a result of sin in there life. There is a direct connection in Scripture between sickness and sin.

Another example you might recall in 1cor 11 where those who were abusing the body of the Messiah by getting drunk on the fruit of the vine and so on with different things they were doing.

1Corinthians 11:30 – For this reason many [are] weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

They were not regarding the body of the Messiah as holy. Sicknesses and diseases can come, but not always, from sin and can be inflicted on us by Satan himself.

Luke 13:11 – And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise [herself] up.

Yahushua recalled this particular instance and said so ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound think of it for 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath. Satan was actually creating this condition which basically looked to me like osteoporosis. Yahushua was able to rebuke the enemy and create a healing in her body.

This is reality. What about us? We have authority also over unclean spirits. We see that many times in the book of Acts when Yahushua would send people out at different times to have authority over demons to rebuke them. Certainly the demons do not have authority over us. Yahweh is not going to allow that. Yahweh is our authority.

We are not equal to them in authority yet we have authority over them. We have to understand that. We can tell them quite frankly where to go. By faith we can drive them out. We are the body of Yahushua the Messiah. We have to realize that also because it is not we who live but Yahushua who lives in us so Yahushua can tell him where to go.

There are certain things we have to understand also. If we have this bitterness in us, all these sins we are not repenting and renouncing, and saying I don’t want a part of them anymore then you can cast out Satan all you want and he will keep coming back in. He might not even leave at all.

We have to have wisdom and understand we have authority over the enemy and also understand when it is appropriate to cast him out and when it is not. There are other things happening in the spiritual realm we may not fully understand. Daniel had prayed he would have this vision revealed to him:

Daniel 10:12 – Then he said to me, Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your Elohim, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.

What’s this kinds of Persia? Does that mean an actual physical kind of Persia could go and defeat an angelic being? No. This is why Satan is called the ruler of this world because he has set up for himself or mimics the kingdoms of this world by inspiring everyone to worship him so he can gain ruler-ship and control to cause even more people to follow after him rather than his enemy.

There are many mysteries in this spiritual realm. Many of those who have encounters with the spiritual realm find this to be true. So what are we suppose to do about these things? There are many who get involved in very heavily spiritual warfare. Others hardly ever involve themselves. What are we suppose to do as believers in Yahushua the Messiah? We are getting pretty close to the 2 hour mark on this study.

I plan to continue our discussion on the first stumbling block known as Satan the devil. In the next study we will go into this deeper and will also discuss a little bit about kingdoms and their important roles. Yahweh’s kingdom vs. the kingdom of Satan. We know the enemy is trying to attack us and destroy us. We as Yahweh’s people need to come together and need to understand what is really going on in the spiritual realm.

We need to be living our lives understanding these things so we are not ignorant of his devices and not falling prey to the things he is doing. The first thing Satan wants to do is make himself invisible; to make you think he‘s not there. Whether it be in a disease or in a way we are thinking in our hearts or the way we are living our lives.

He wants to make us think he isn’t there and is very subtle about it. As long as we think he isn’t there, we are ok.

We are going to continue this study and until then I say to you shalom. That is actually the ending to my radio broadcast and am used to saying that. But until then brothers, lets research the Scriptures and discover where the enemy is and where he can be exposed so we can better handle how to deal with him.

We are going to get more practical next week on how to deal with him in a practical sense so number one we are not deceived and number two we know what to do. We can do just what Yahushua did and just what the disciples did. We don’t have to be going over board in it or fear the enemy but we do have to be aware of him. Scripture has a lot to say.

So brothers and sisters, may Yahweh reveal to you and I, all that the enemy is doing to harm us and may Yahweh bless you and may Yahweh have mercy on us all.