Ron Dunn Podcast - Satan's Plot to Take Over the World

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

In this message, we’re reminded that Scripture says this world lies in the grip of Satan. We explore how the enemy does have a certain kind of power—he can reveal things, offer shortcuts, and make bold promises. In the temptation of Jesus, Satan even tries to bargain, offering what appears to be authority and influence in exchange for worship. But Jesus never loses sight of His purpose. He refuses the shortcut, stands on the Word of God, and shows us what it looks like to remain faithful in a world under pressure.

All right, open your Bibles tonight to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis chapter 3. We're going to be reading a number of verses and passages throughout the Bible tonight. The message is the satanic plot to take over the world. Satan's plot to take over the world. We're going to read as a beginning the first six verses of Genesis chapter 3. Genesis the third chapter, verses 1 through 6. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said under the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said, under the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,

and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also one to her husband with her, and he did eat. Now, one of the significant parts of that six verse is when it makes the statement, and when the woman saw that the tree was good, now this was not the first time she had seen the tree. She had seen the tree many, many times. but it had never seemed good to her until the devil came with his suggestion to eat of it.

And many things never really seemed good to us. We may never really want them until the devil puts the suggestion in our minds that perhaps we're being cheated by not having that. And when she saw then after the devil had made this suggestion and planted this seed in her mind, suddenly the tree that she had never before had any desire for, suddenly this tree looked good to her. Now, Satan lost the first round with God. We saw this last time. And his overthrow was complete. God cast he and all the angels that came with him out of the mountain of God. And he lost round one, but Satan did not give up. Round two took place on the planet earth, which was the scene and was to be the scene of God's greatest revelation. Man was made in the image of God. And this is where Satan launched his second

line of attack. And what Satan wanted to do now that he had been cast out of the mountain of God, now that he had failed in his first attempt to overthrow God and set himself up in God's place, his next effort was to take over the world. And it seems to me that he has been successful in that operation. For in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in the fourth verse it calls the devil the god of this world. In Ephesians chapter 2 in the second verse, it speaks of him as the prince of the power of the air. And three times in the gospel of John, once in the 12th chapter, once in the 14th chapter, and once in the 16th chapter, Jesus calls Satan the prince of this world. So he is called the god of this world, the prince of this world, the prince of the king of.

the world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now energizes the children of disobedience. And 1 John chapter 5 in verse 19 says the whole world lies in the wicked one. And the picture of that is of a little baby lying in the lap of its mother, absolutely helpless in the lap of its mother. And the Bible says that Satan has been so successful in his plot to take over the world that the whole world, that's this world's system, lies in the lap in the green. in the power of the wicked one. But I think the most revealing verse of all is found in the Gospel of Luke chapter 4. This is when Jesus has been led of the spirit into the wilderness,

and for 40 days he has fasted and prayed, and now he is facing the devil in temptation. Notice verses 5 and 6 of this satanic attack against the Son of God. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Now that gives you a little indication of the supernatural power of the God of this world. He was able to just in a moment of time to show Jesus all the kingdoms of this world. Now Jesus had come to set up a kingdom.

And Satan in just a flash and the twinkling of an eye has the power to reveal to Jesus all the kingdoms of this world. And verse six, and the devil said unto him, all this power will I give thee and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore will worship me, all shall be thine. Satan said, all the kingdoms of this world and all the glory has been delivered unto me. And it is mine, and I can give it to anybody I want to.

And the amazing thing is that Jesus did not contradict him and call him a liar. And the most revealing verse about the satanic thought to take over the world and showing that he was successful is this verse. The devil very simply and plainly says, and Jesus does not contradict him because it is true that all the kingdoms of this world belong to the devil. and the glory of the kingdoms of this world belong to him, and he can deliver it to anybody he wants to. Well, now, the question that I need to ask myself is, how did Satan get this? Where did Satan become the God of this world?

And the answer we've read just a moment ago in Genesis chapter 3. The Bible teaches that when God made man, he gave him dominion over all the living creatures. He gave him dominion over this world. We talked this morning about the authority of God and that God delegates his authority. And when God created Adam and Eath, he delegated his authority over this planet to Adam. And Adam held the title to world dominion.

But Satan challenged him, and in the greatest heavyweight fight of human history, Satan defeated him, and with him, he won the title of world dominion. That's where Satan got it. The worlds and the kingdoms of this world and all the glory was delivered under the devil when he subdued Satan because the moment Satan disobeyed God,

he immediately fell within the power and under the dominion of Satan. This is why Jesus says when a man commits a sin, he becomes the servant of that sin. It is impossible for you to sin without giving up your mastery over that ten. temptation. It is impossible for you to listen to the devil without becoming the slave to the tempter. And so when Adam yielded, when he submitted himself to the temptation of the devil, then Adam, everything he was, everything he possessed, all his rights fell under the dominating hand of Lucifer. That's how he became the God of this world. That's how he became the prince of this world.

That's why tonight this whole world system lies in the grip and in the power of the evil one. They have been delivered unto him by Adam. Adam forfeited all of it when he lost to Satan there in the Garden of Eden. Well, now, why is Satan so eager to be the God of this world? What was Satan's motive in taking over the world? The motive of Satan in taking over the world was to deify himself. Now that is important. You'll never understand the devil and you'll never understand the course of human history. You will not be able to understand the prophecies of the future that we're going to talk about in the moment unless first of all you understand this one thing.

Satan has a God complex. He has a thirst to be worshipped. And the devil has never abandoned his original gold in Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 14 as it reveals there the sin and the rebellious. of Lucifer. He says, I will be like the most high. I will be like the most high. And one thing you have to say for the devil, he has never been discouraged in that purpose. I heard a story years ago about a woman who always had something good to say about everybody. And it really bothered everyone else because no matter who it was or what it was, this dear sister always had something good to say about somebody and everybody. And they were trying to figure out how could we get her to say just one bad thing about anybody? And so they said, well, here's what we'll do. We'll just ask her what she thinks about the devil, and she'll have to say something bad about him. And so they approached her one day, and they said,

sister, what do you think about the devil? She said, well, I'll have to say this much, so he sure is a hard worker. And I have to say this much about the devil tonight. He is not easily discouraged. And the amazing thing is that Satan knows his time is short. He knows the future. He knows that he is going to be cast into the abyss, into the lake of fire, and yet he is working tonight as though victory was within his grass. He has never abandoned that original purpose.

He wants to deify himself. He wants to be worshiped. He has a God complex. He can't quit talking about God. And the same temptation he gave to Eve, he said, if you do what I say, you shall be as gods. In your King James Version, that's translated as gods with a little G in the plural, but it's the same word that you'll find in chapter one, verse one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And what Satan was saying to Eve is, if you follow me, if you listen to me, you'll be exalted up to where God is. You'll be just like God. That's the same thing he offered to Jesus in that temptation. He said, if you will fall down and

worship me. He really wants to be worshipped. He said, I have all these kingdom. You name you price. I'll give you the kingdoms of this world and all the glory if you'll just fall down and worship me. He wants to be worshipped. And the Bible tells us that one of these days, he will be worshipped openly, publicly, in Second Thessalonians and the second chapter, you have a preview of a climax of human history. And one of these days, the sin of man is going to culminate in the man of sin, and just as Satan entered into Judas, he is going to possess and enter into another man whom the Bible calls the Antichrist, the man of sin. and in the fourth verse it says of this man of sin he comes to oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God seteth in the temple of God

showing himself that He is God Satan wants to deify himself Now how does he accomplish this self-dification He does it in two ways and you have those two ways revealed in that fourth verse of 2 Thessalonians. It says that he opposes and

God and exalts himself. Now remember what Satan wants tonight from you is to be worshipped. And he has two lines of activity to accomplish this. One is to oppose God. He opposes God.

You know what worship is? Worship is not coming into this auditorium and singing songs. Do you know what worship is? Worship is obedience. Worship is obedience. If you obey somebody, you are worshiping them. If you worship somebody, you obey them. God know, the devil knows that when I obey God, I worship him. And so he is desperately opposing the work of God. He is setting himself against God. What does he want? Why does he bother me? Why does he bother you? Because he knows that obedience is worship. And he wants to create a spiritual vacuum in your life. He wants to stop you from

worshiping God. So he knows that if he can get you to disobey God, you're really obeying Him. And when you disobey God, you're obeying Satan. And that means you're worshiping Satan. And you don't even realize it. But did you know tonight that every time you disobey God, you have to disobey God to worship the devil? Every disobedience of God on the one hand is an obedience of Satan on the other hand and obedience is worship and every time a Christian sins, every time a lost man sins and rebels against the authority of God. In essence, he is worshiping Satan. Now right now, Satan accepts that. That's good enough for him, but that's not going to be good enough long. So what he wants to do ultimately is not only oppose God, he wants to exalt himself. And the Bible

teaches that he is setting up, he is setting up plans to completely take over the world religiously. And one of these days, he is going to come in the person of a human being. I don't know who it is. There's a great deal of speculation about who he is. Nobody knows who he is. I don't have too much to say about it except that I believe he's probably already alive. somewhere, if Jesus comes in this generation, that he has to be alive somewhere. But this is going to be a man who is going to come and promise peace and promise prosperity. And the Bible says he is going to exalt himself as God, and he is going to be worship as God. Now, be very honest with you. I don't think that Satan is too happy with these Satan worshippers today. Sometimes we look at a murderer, a drunker,

a Satan worshipper, and we say, brother, there's the devil's masterpiece. No, I believe that's the devil's failure. I believe he failed there. I'm not too certain that the devil wants people to come out boldly right now to worship him. Because the Bible says he is a deceiver, and he travels incognito and wears dark glasses and comes as an angel of light. And I'm not too certain but that Satan has failed in these people

who are worshiping him openly. Right now he wants to oppose God. He's not ready right now to exalt himself. He has to do a little groundwork, first of all. And this is why 1st John chapter 2 says that already many Antichrist have come into the world. Just as Jesus Christ had a forerunner in John the Baptist to prepare the hearts of the people to receive Jesus, so the devil has forerunners already gone into the world to prepare the hearts of people to receive the instead of Christ. That's what the word Antichrist means.

anti, as the Greek word, that means instead of. So you can see the devil what the devil is doing. The devil, first of all, is creating a spiritual vacuum. He is getting people to disobey God. He is contradicting the truth of God. He is trying to do away with the deity of Jesus Christ. He is creating a spiritual vacuum. The rise of false religions is unbelievable at this moment.

We're not going into that tonight. When we come back next time to talk about the demons, we'll talk about heresy and false teachings, and just suffice to say right now that every false teaching, every cult is a demon, is a demon religion and a doctrine of demons. But what the devil is doing tonight in this present day is creating a spiritual vacuum.

He is getting people away from God, and so when the Antichrist comes in the near future, he's going to find a ready-made congregation who will bow down and worship these people. and Satan's motive for taking over the world is to be deified. He wants to be worshipped. And I think you need to understand that every time you disobey God and every time you sin, you are in essence worshipping the devil.

You are worshipping the devil. Now, how does Satan take over the world and keep control of the world today? His motive is that he might be deified. His method is deception. His method is deception. And this is the main thing that I want us to talk about tonight. The method of the devil, not only in originally taking over the world, but also hanging on to the title. How do you suppose these millennium Satan has been able never to lose a fight, never to lose his title?

He's never lost his title. He is still tonight the God of this world. does it through deception. Let's read two or three verses. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, the third verse, Paul says, but I fear, less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now, that shows me that just as Satan has never abandoned his original gold, he's never abandoned his original method of operation. Paul says, just like Satan approached, Eve and deceived her, this is the way he's going to work in your life. In John chapter 8 and

verse 44, Jesus said, you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Now let's listen to what he says about the devil in Revelation chapter 12. And the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiva the whole world. In Revelation chapter 13 and verse 14, it says this, he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth. And then in the 20th chapter of Revelation and verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.

So the primary characteristic of the devil is he is a deceiver. He is a deceiver. Now there are three ways the devil is doing his work of deception tonight. First of all, the devil deceives us by concealing the truth. by concealing the truth. Satan cannot stand the truth. Did you notice that when he approached Eve, he approached her with a question?

You know why he approached her with a question? He wanted to discover how much she knew about God. He wanted to discover just how much she knew about God. He found out she didn't know too much. She said two things that were wrong. First of all, she said in verse three, God said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. She put in that little word, less you die.

That has maybe so sound about it. God didn't say lest you die, he said you will die. He said you will die. E wasn't too certain about that, you see. She wasn't too sure that you really would die, but there's a good chance that you might die. So Satan asked a question, he found out she didn't know much. And then she said, God said you shall not eat of it. Neither shall you touch it.

Now, God didn't say you couldn't touch it. Because, you see, the sin of the tree was not in the material aspect of the tree. There's nothing wrong with touching it. And a lot of people today believe that there's sin in material, you see. No, the sin was in the attitude, in the spiritual. God didn't say you couldn't touch it. He said, don't eat of it. So Satan began asking a question to find out how much he knew about the Bible.

And let me say right here that when you do not know much about the Bible, then, boy, you are a prime. candidate for the devil's deception. And when you are ignorant of the truth or you reject the truth, then you are subjecting yourself to error and falsehood. And the devil first of all deceives

us by concealing the truth. He said, Eve, let me tell you something. If you will eat of this tree, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. But what he didn't tell them was, and the same thing will happen to you that happened to me,

boy, you'll be cast out of the mountain of God, you'll be cast out of the garden, your heart will be broken, in childbearing, you will have pain and sorrow and suffering, and you'll be faced with eternal death. He concealed the truth. And the devil tempted Eve by saying, why don't you eat of this tree, and then you will be like God, having knowledge of good and evil, and right there is where he concealed the truth. Because he led Eve to believe that if she was going to really live life to its full, she had to live. life according to her knowledge of right from wrong. Now I want you to listen very carefully because this is so important. Why do you suppose God told Adam and Eve don't eat of the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil? Didn't God want them to know right from wrong? No, he didn't. You don't need to know right from wrong when you're living in obedience to God. God did not want man living according to his knowledge of what was right or wrong. God wanted man to live just in utter dependence upon God. And it is not necessary for a man to know what's right and to know what's wrong when he is living in obedience. All he needs to know is to know what God says for him to do, then he'll do it. You see, man's mind was not originally intended to be a transmitter. It was originally intended to be a receiver. And God gave man a mind to receive revelation and then to obey it. God didn't give a man his mind in order for him to judge what was right and wrong and they live

according to what he thinks is right and wrong. He gave him his mind simply to receive a revelation from God and then to obey it. So he says, I don't want you eating at that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I don't want you trying to figure out yourself what you ought to do. You just listen to me. And so the devil comes up and he says, listen, you eat of that and you'll know right from wrong. You'll be like God. You won't have to depend on God. You won't have to listen for God. You won't have to wait until God tells you to do something. You'll know right from wrong. You'll know good from evil. And then you can live according to what you think is right and what you think is wrong. And I want you to know tonight that all of your problems have arisen from this one thing.

You live your life according to what you think is right and wrong. And so nowadays, when God gives us a command, and when the Bible, as this morning tells us to submit, you know what we do? We take the word of God and we parade it past the jury of our own knowledge of right and wrong and decide whether or not to obey it. And if this command seems right to us, and if it seems reasonable to us, then we obey it. And that's not the way God intended us to live. God intended us to give unquestioning and unhesitating obedience to His word when God says do it, you do it. You remember when Jesus was praying in the garden of the Gassimony?

And he said, Father, if it be this by will, let this cup pass from me. If it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. You know what Jesus was saying there? Jesus was saying, Father, the supreme thing is not dying on the cross. The supreme thing is doing your will. That's the main thing. During your will.

Now, you know, I guess I had always thought the most important thing was Jesus dying on the cross. Jesus said, no, that's not the main thing. The supreme thing is not dying on the cross. The supreme thing is doing the will of God, whatever that is. Whatever that is. What Jesus was saying is, he says, Father, it seems good to me. It seems right to me if you could just let this cup pass from me. If it's possible, I would like for this cup to pass from me.

But Jesus says, but I'm not going to live according to my knowledge of what is best or what's not best or right and wrong, Father, just your will be done. Just your will be done. And the devil concealed the truth from Adam and Eve as he conceals the truth from us tonight. He comes and he says, listen, now you've heard what the preacher said and you know what the Bible teaches about tithing. Now, you sit down and you figure out whether or not you can afford to do it. Does that seem reasonable to you? Does that seem right to you? And if it seems reasonable and right to you, then you do it.

The devil comes along and he says, you know what the Bible says about giving up this thing or doing this thing or obeying this. But what you need to do is to sit down and weigh all the possibilities and analyze the situation. And if you come to the conclusion that it's a good thing to obey, then you obey. And I submit to you, that's the way most of us live our daily life. There are very few of us that the minute God says do it, we do it. First of all, we have to try the Word of God in the court of our own reason. and so the devil said you eat of that tree of knowledge of good and evil then you'll be able to make your own decisions god never intended it to be that way and the devil deceives us by concealing to us from us the truth

the second way he deceives us is by contradicting the truth by contradicting the truth in verse four and the serpent said under the woman ye shall not surely die By the way, let me back up just a moment with this matter of concealing the truth. You suppose that's why he came in the form of a serpent so he wouldn't know who it was, wouldn't know who was behind it? You know, I've read this passage over and over again

and there's one thing that strikes me. He wasn't surprised by that serpent talking to her. Now, that'd surprise me. Of course, I would never let one get close enough to talk to him. Now, this is mere speculation, but one man, he's got a book coming out before all. thinks that the serpent was Eve's pet. And I don't know about that.

That's just man's opinion, speculation. But I do know one thing Eve wasn't surprised that this serpent spoke to her. It was a familiar animal. It was a familiar sight in the garden. And Satan concealed the truth. She didn't know who was behind it. She didn't know who it was. And he still works that way today.

The Bible says he is transformed as an angel of light. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But getting back to this next point, He contradicts the truth. Eve said, God told me that if I ate that, if I touch it, I would die. And Satan says, you will not die. You will not die. He contradicts the truth.

Now, the Bible teaches in 1st Timothy, chapter 4 in verse 1, that as the day draws to a close, as human history rushes on towards its climax, there are going to be doctrines of devils, doctrines of demons. That simply means that demons are going to propagate doctrines, And we're not going to say any more about that tonight. We want to say that for the next message on demonology. But the method that the devil is using tonight is by contradiction of the truth. And the way he contradicts the truth is he mixes a little truth with a whole lot of error. The bait, the come on, is the truth. The come on is the truth. The bait is the truth and the hook

is the error. He was right when he said, if you have... eat of that tree, you will be like God in a certain sense. You will know good and evil. And the Hebrew word knowledge there means to know from experience. And boy, he was right there. He said, you will experience good and you will experience evil. Now he was right there. And so what Satan did was mix a whole lot of error with a little bit of truth. And that's the way he deceased people today. Did you know that every false teaching, every cult, every false religion today has a lot of truth in it? It has a lot of truth in it. You turn on your radio and you listen to the world tomorrow.

Boy, there's a lot of truth in what Armstrong says. But there's a whole lot of error in it too. And every false teaching, every false religion today has some good things. to say about Jesus Christ. And that's the hook that the devil uses to pull us into error. But not only does the devil deceive us by concealing the truth and by contradicting the truth, but most importantly, he deceives us by counterfeiting the truth. Now, this is what is so important for us to see tonight. Because if you are going to be saved from being drawn into the delusion of the devil in the near future in your Christian life, you must understand that all that

glitters is not gold. That Satan has the power to counterfeit truth. Actually, what the devil is trying to do is to duplicate what God has done without God, you see. He told Eve, he said, you'll be like God. You know what evolution is, the theory of evolution? That's the devil's attempt to duplicate what God did only without God. The devil comes along and says, sure, man is real, but he evolved. God did not create him with a fit act of creation. Evolution is simply the devil's attempt to create man, man without God. Do you know what modern religion is? It's the devil's, it's the devil's attempt to ate God without Jesus Christ, without repentance. You must be very careful because the devil is able to counterfeit truth.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 14 and 15, we have this statement. And no marvel, let's read verse 13 first. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of life. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be. be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works. Now, I said some time ago that in our day we have an increasing desire to see miracles wrought. And if we see somebody working miracles, our first inclination is to say, man, that person really

has the power of God upon them. And that is one of the greatest deceiving tricks of the devil. He is able to transform himself into an angel of light. I believe Joseph Smith when he said an angel showed him where those golden tablets were. I believe that. A lot of people think he's crazy. I believe with all my heart, an angel appeared to Joseph Smith and showed him those golden tablets. Only thing is, it was a fallen angel, an evil spirit. Transform into an angel of life, a minister of life, because it was false teaching.

You remember when Moses stood before Pharaoh? and he took the rod of God and he began performing those miracles. There were two men there, two magicians, who duplicated everything Moses did. And in 2 Timothy chapter 3, the Bible says that in the last days, there are going to be people just like that coming on the scene. They're going to be able to duplicate the miracles of God. As a matter of fact, in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2, when it is describing the workings of the Antichrist, it says that he is going to come with lying wonders, and the word that the Apostle Paul uses to describe the miracles

and the wonders that the Antichrist will use are the same words that are used to describe the miracles of Jesus. Someone asked me a week or so ago about a certain person who goes all over the country and great miracles follow this. person's ministry. They said, what do you think about this person? I said, I'll be honest with you. I don't know. I've never met the person. I've never been to one of the meetings. I really don't know. They said, do you believe that's of God or the devil? I just don't know whether it's of God or the devil. And then somebody said to me, well, I've listened to this person and they always say that it's done in

the name of Jesus. So that must mean that what this person is doing is of God. Listen to Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 not everyone that saith unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in by name and in by name have cast out demons and in by name done many wonderful works or wonderful miracles. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Here are some people who said three times what we have done. We have done in your name, in the name of Jesus. We've cast out demons. We've stood before demon-possessed people, and we've said, in the name of Jesus, I command you to come out. We've stood over people who are

physically ill. And in the name of Jesus, we have performed wonderful works. We have prophesied. We have been able to tell the future. We have been able to make predictions. We've been able to prophesy. And we've done it because we said it is a gift of God. We have done it in thy name. And Jesus said, I never knew you. And there's a great prophetess in the country today that says that she has her gift, and it's a gift from God. And yet the Bible is full of warnings against that sort of thing and says the Bible plainly teaches that it is demonic and devilish. Simply because somebody comes along telling the future,

making predictions, being a prophet, prophesying, casting out demons, doing wonderful works in the name of Jesus, that is not enough for you to accept them. That's why Paul says, lay hands suddenly on no man. Miracles alone are not credentials enough, the Bible says. That's why Jesus always played down his miracles. The devil is counterfeiting the truth today. I think this is the place to say it. Now let me preface what I'm going to say right now with this statement. I believe in the gifts of the spirit. Now the Bible says,

says that some of these guests will pass away, but it doesn't say when. And I have no right to say that they have passed away because the Bible doesn't say when they'll pass away. I believe that there is a genuine gift of tongues. And if God wants to give that gift to somebody, I believe he can. If he wants to give it to me, he will, and I'll receive it. But I am dead convinced tonight that the vast majority of the tongues speaking that is going on

today is not of God that it is demonic I'm not saying at all don't you go out here and say that Brother Dunn said everybody that speaks in tongues is of the devil I didn't say that you say how do you know that well one way I know it is that they are

receiving this gift of tongues not scripturally And we've discussed this before in different places, but when somebody has to get you in a circle and lay hands on you and tell you how to hold your mouth and tell you to think whatever you're thinking and just to say it as fast as you can, friends, the Spirit of God doesn't have to operate that way. and I want to know why it is that you don't have to receive the other gifts of the spirit that way. I've never seen anybody come and say, here, let me help you get the gift of healing. Let me help you get the gift of evangelism. It seems that only in the gift of tongues do I need somebody else to come and help me.

And when someone comes and says, if you'll do what I say, and you'll hold your mouth in a certain way, and you just think about whatever comes into your mind, and you say that as fast as you can, and it may come out Latin, or it may come out Spanish or it may come out some kind of heavenly language, that's the gift of tongues. They have no proof, they have no scriptural proof that is the gift of tongues because you don't have a record of anybody in the New Testament speaking in tongues. It's never recorded. How would you know it's the real thing if you heard it? You've never heard it. It says that people in the New Testament

spoke in tongues, but it never records it. It never writes it out for us. We don't know what it is. In Acts, it was foreign language for the purpose of preaching the gospel, but this thing they had in 1st, Corinthians 14, was some kind of ecstatic utterance, and how do you know what it is? Now, as I have studied this, I have discovered that pagan religions, the voodoo religions, and the heathen religions had ecstatic utterance. Muslims have ecstatic utterance. They speak in tongues, many of them did. many buddhas speak in tongues and yet they do not receive jesus as lord and sage and you study this matter and you'll find that there that among pagan religions among cremative religions and among those diabolic religions there was an ecstatic utterance and when a christian deceived because somebody says you don't have it if you haven't spoken in tongues

and God wants everybody to speak in tongues and you need to have it or you're not going to have everything God wants to you. And they get down on their knees and they allow somebody that they do not know is really of God, lay their hands on them, and they make themselves passive and just open up their minds and their spirits

for any kind of an experience. Then the devil can come in and counterfeit the experience. Now, I know a great many people that have the gift of tongues or say they speak in an unknown tongue. With the exception of two people, I believe that two people I know of may have the genuine gift. But I tell you what I have observed in dealing and talking with dozens of people who come to me with this gift of tongues. There are three symptoms that nearly everybody today that goes after tongues, now I'm talking about these people that go after it, they seek it, and they get it.

You stay with it long enough, and one or all of these three symptoms. become obvious in their life. Number one is doubt. Many of them begin to doubt their salvation. They begin to doubt. Fill with doubt about themselves, about God, not knowing which way to turn. The second characteristic is depression.

Depression. They become emotionally unstable and become depressed. And their substance, to periods of great melancholy and oppression and a depressed spirit. And thirdly, they are open to further deception. They are open to additional deception. Now, let me recap what I said. I believe there is a genuine gift of tongues. And I believe it is given sovereignly by the Holy Spirit, if the Spirit of God wants to give that to you,

you won't need to have anybody help you to get it. You won't have to have anybody pray over you. You'll receive that gift just like you receive any other gift of the Spirit and you will exercise it according to the Scriptures. But if you open yourself to receive that experience, what you want is an ecstatic experience and you make yourself passive and you open yourself to that experience,

I'm saying to you, you are opening yourself to a different, demonic experience. And I have known people who have had the gift of tongues, and they have been filled with doubt about their salvation. They have been so depressed, some of them, to the point of taking their lives, and until an evil spirit was rebuked in their life or a demon was cast out, they were never delivered. A man who is not a member of our church lives in Fort Worth, came to see me. He was a new Christian. I saw him the first time. Man, he was. was rejoicing in the Lord. He came to me a second time. He said, preacher, I've had the gift of tongues. He went to one of these meetings where everybody just said, you've got to have it, you've got to do it,

they prayed over him, he got the gift of tongues. The next time, the next time I talked to him, he had all three of these symptoms. He was doubting his salvation. He was being oppressed in spirit. His mind was depressed beyond belief. and he was opening himself up to further deception and going off farther and farther away from the Word of God. If God wants to give to somebody the gift of tongues, he'll do without your hell. And you'll exercise it privately in prayer and praise to God.

But when you say, I've got to have this, this is the sign, this is the evidence, this is what I've got to have, and you've cast aside the plain teachings of the Word of God, you're so eager, thirsty to have some kind of an emotional experience. I'm saying to you tonight, the devil can counterfeit that gift. And the reason I say so much about it tonight is because so much of it is going on. And one way the devil is deceiving people tonight is by counterfeiting the truth.

By counterfeiting the truth. You say, well, what is our armor against this counterfeit truth? How can I be delivered from the deception of the devil? either when he conceals the truth or when he contradicts the truth or when he counterfeits the truth. The only way, knowledge of and obedience to the Word of God. Knowledge of and obedience to the Word of God. And you know, we've been accused of having a real tongue problem in our church. Did you know that?

We had a man in Methodist Hospital that said that we finished off our Sunday morning services with everybody speaking in tongues. I had a pastor called me from Arlington the other day, and he said, one of my, they invited me to come over for a Bible conference last week next year, and he was talking about it to the deacons. And one of the deacons said, well, I've heard that some people have joined that church from another church because they hear they speak in tongues. Well, then they want to go there where they speak in tongues. He said, do you want me to call that deacon and set him right? I said, no. No, we don't have to defend ourselves.

I'm not going to fall into that trap of the devil. starting to fight a rear-guard action and going around trying to put down lies and such as that. No, sir, let God take care of that. Let him take care of the devil's not going to scare us all. That's what he's trying to do, of course. And, of course, what the devil wants to do is to counterfeit all of these things.

But I've told all these people, I said, you know, we just haven't had any problem with it. Now, we've got some people in our church that privately they believe they have this gift and they may have it. But I said in our church, we've never had any real problem with it at all. and many, many other churches around us have. I said, I think the reason is

because our people know the truth about it. They know the truth about the gifts of the spirit. A pastor in the nearby city said, I don't want you talking to my people about the filling of the spirit because we're having so much problem with the tongues around here. Friend, he has fallen into the trap of the devil. That's why they've got so much problem with it is because that pastor, that church has failed to speak

and teach on the fill. of the Holy Spirit. Boy, you can destroy error with a double-barrow blast of the truth. And the only armor that you and I have against being deceived by the devil is knowledge of, but that's not enough,

knowledge of and obedience to the Word of God. And he's working. He's working in the believer's life. He's working in the believer's life. Let me close with this for two reasons. first of all, because you're the object of God's love.

And he hates God. And he works against you because you are the object of God's love. But he works against you because you are the subject of God's plan. God wants to work through you, and God has committed to you the Ministry of Reconciliation. And God wants to reach loss. people through your witness and through your testimony. And if he can deceive you by concealing the truth, contradicting the truth, if he can counterfeit a false experience in your life, if he can somehow get you away from this defeat you, then he has struck at not all the object of God's

love, but he has struck at the subject of God's plan. Because God wants to work through you. And he cripples the plan of redemption every time he defeats a Christian. Thank you.