Satan

It was a stifling hot morning that August in Hiroshima, Japan. In 1945, citizens feared a pending air strike from the allied forces of World War II. Many people were evacuating belongings from their homes and making preparation for their safety. Hiroshima was one of the largest cities in Japan that had not yet been hit, and most people expected a raid any day.

In 1939 just before the outbreak of World War II, Germany and Russia signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This treaty promised that neither nation would attack the other, and it laid out a plan for how they would divide the nations of Eastern Europe between them. Yet in 1941, without warning or provocation, Adolf Hitler sent his tanks across the Russian border in a sneak attack. Hitler had no interest in keeping his word; the treaty was meant only as a temporary measure until he could do what he wanted.

Charles Spurgeon used this parable to illustrate the bondage of sin. He said, “There was once a tyrant who summoned one of his subjects into his presence and ordered him to make a chain. The poor blacksmith—that was his occupation—had to go to work and forge the chain. When it was done, he brought it into the presence of the tyrant and was ordered to take it away and make it twice the length. He brought it again to the tyrant, and again he was ordered to double it.

Billy Bray was a Cornish miner who accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour in 1823 at the age of 29. He lived a life of drunkenness and debauchery before his salvation, but he became such an outgoing witness and testimony for God that he became known as “God’s glad man.”

One time he was digging potatoes from his garden and felt the devil oppressing him. It seemed to him that the devil said, “Billy Bray, God doesn’t love you. If He did, He wouldn’t give you such puny potatoes and so few.”

In late September 1864 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was leading his troops north from Decatur, Alabama, toward Nashville. But to make it to Nashville, Forrest would have to defeat the Union army at Athens, Alabama. When the Union commander, Colonel Wallace Campbell, refused to surrender, Forrest asked for a personal meeting, and took Campbell on an inspection of his troops. But each time they left a detachment, the Confederate soldiers simply packed up and moved to another position, artillery and all.

In 1896, Norman “Kid” McCoy was the welterweight boxing champion. In one of his fights, he learned that his opponent was deaf. McCoy finally discovered this; and as they were nearing the end of the third round, McCoy stepped back and pointed to his opponent’s corner indicating that the bell had rung. When his opponent turned his head, McCoy unloaded a powerful blow and knocked him out. It wasn’t fair, but it was very effective.

Satan does not play fair and temptation never delivers what it promises.

Sin at the door of your life is more persistent than a Jehovah’s Witness, more tenacious than a vacuum cleaner salesman, more widespread than girl-scouts selling cookies and more intrusive than a burglar. Sadly, sin has more takers, meets a higher quota and is more successful than any solicitor or door-to-door salesman has ever been!

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

When an English robber called Captain Thunderbolt escaped the law and moved to the eastern US in 1818, he began practicing medicine. He took on the name Dr. John Wilson. Often he wore three suits of clothes to escape recognition by making himself look larger and covering up a deformed leg. Just before the man died, he asked his friends to bury him without removing his clothes. But to prepare his body for proper burial, that request could not be honored. The mortician was surprised to find scars from wounds and a withered leg. A search of “Dr.

“The term Stockholm Syndrome first occurred in 1973 at an attempted bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. A man tried to rob a bank, and the police caught him inside. He took three female hostages and one male hostage and held them for 131 hours, during which time he terrorized them. He fired his Russian automatic assault weapon at them. He threatened to kill them on numerous occasions. He put nooses around their necks and threatened to hang them. But he didn’t harm any of them.

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!—Shakespeare

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

A hunter raised his rifle and took careful aim at a large bear. When he was about to pull the trigger, the bear spoke in a soft soothing voice, “Isn’t it better to talk than to shoot? What do you want? Let’s negotiate the matter.” Lowering his rifle, the hunter replied, “I want a fur coat.”

A Japanese soldier by the name of Shoichi Yokoi lived in a cave on the island of Guam to which he fled in 1944 when the tides of war began to change. Fearing for his life, this man stayed hidden for twenty-eight years in the jungle cave, coming out only at night. During this long period of time, this self-imposed hermit lived on frogs, rats, snails, shrimp, nuts, and mangoes. He had carried a pair of trousers and a jacket from a burlap-like cloth made from tree bark.

Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst;
He promises honor and pays with disgrace;
He promises pleasure and pays with pain;
He promises profit and pays with loss;
He promises life and pays with death.—Thomas Brooks