Sabbath Afternoon - May 27, 2023

Reading for the Week

 Rev. 12:9; Rev. 16:13, 14; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; Ezek. 8:16; Ezek. 20:1-20; Rev.18:4, 5. 

Prayer Thought

But as the church approaches its final deliverance, Satan is to work with greater power. He comes down “having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Revelation 12:12). . . . For six thousand years that mastermind that once was highest among the angels of God has been wholly bent to the work of deception and ruin. And all the depths of satanic skill and subtlety acquired, all the cruelty developed, during these struggles of the ages, will be brought to bear against God’s people in the final conflict. And in this time of peril the followers of Christ are to bear to the world the warning of the Lord’s second advent; and a people are to be prepared to stand before Him at His coming, “without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14). At this time the special endowment of divine grace and power is not less needful to the church than in apostolic days. . . . {BLJ 349.3, 4}


Memory Text

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."  {John 17:17}


This week's SS Lesson will direct our attention to the origin of deception and the last/final deception that poses a threat to the existence and destiny of Humanity. This also includes the difference between the two kinds of worshippers and the hope of every believing one to achieve and obtain life eternal through His grace.


Study Outline

The Deceptions of Satan.

Sunday - May 28, 2023

The Way That Seems Right in a Man's Eyes - A Universal Deception

Mk. 13:22; Matt. 24:31; Rev. 12:9; Prov. 14:12; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:9-18 

Monday - May 29, 2023

The Old Lie of Immortality -The Immortality of the Soul

Rev. 16:13, 14; 18:2, 23; Eccl. 9:5; Job 19:25-27; 1Thess. 4:16, 17; Rev. 14:13

Tuesday - May 30, 2023

Babylon: The Center of Sun Worship - The False Day of Worship

Ezek. 8:16; 2 Kings 23:5, 11; Rom. 1:25; Rev. 17


Staying Safe from these Deceptions

Wednesday - May 31, 2023

A Call to Faithfulness - The True Day of Worship

Ps. 46:1; John 17:17; Ezek. 20:1-20; 1 Cor. 10:11

Thursday - June 1, 2023

Grace for Obedience - A Call to Obedience

Rev. 18:4, 5; 1John 3:4; Rom. 14:23; 1:5; Deut. 4:6


Friday - June 2, 2023

Further Study and Meditation

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The Deceptions of Satan

Sunday - May 28, 2023

The Way That Seems Right in a Man's Eyes - A Universal Deception

Mk. 13:22; Matt. 24:31; Rev. 12:9; Prov. 14:12; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:9-18

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.  (Proverbs 14:12)


The Foundation of Education - Goodness, Mercy and Love

The principles of the character of God were the foundation of the education constantly kept before the heavenly angels. These principles were goodness, mercy, and love. Self-evidencing light was to be recognized and freely accepted by all who occupied a position of trust and power. They must accept God’s principles and convince all who were in the service of God, through the presentation of truth and justice and goodness, [that] this was the only power to be used. Force must never come in. . . . {CTr 13.2} 

These principles are to be the great foundation of education in every administration on the earth. The rules given by God are to be observed and respected in every church. God has enjoined this. His government is to be moral. Nothing is to be done by compulsion. Truth is to be the prevailing power. All service is to be done willingly and for love of the service of God. All who are honored with positions of influence are to represent God, for when officiating they act in the place of God. . . . {CTr 13.3}

Ignorance - Not an Excuse for Error or Sin

"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Ignorance is no excuse for error or sin, when there is every opportunity to know the will of God. A man is traveling, and comes to a place where there are several roads, and a guide-board indicating where each one leads. If he disregards the guide-board, and takes whichever road seems to him to be right, he may be ever so sincere, but will in all probability find himself on the wrong road.  {RH, June 28, 1906 par. 5}  


Consider the Following

Jesus foretold that false prophets would deceive the world with signs and miracle. They would deceive even those who want to remain faithful to God (Mark 13:22). How will they do that?

In the past, “Babylon” made people ignorant by moving them away from the Bible and teaching false human philosophies.

It still acts the same way today. It uses false human thoughts to move people away from the biblical truth (Proverbs 14:12). Almost everyone will follow its leaders and worship Satan eventually (Revelation 13:3-4, 14-15).

Only Bible study with the help of the Holy Spirit can help us to distinguish truth from error.


Monday - May 29, 2023

The Old Lie of Immortality -The Immortality of the Soul

Rev. 16:13, 14; 18:2, 23; Eccl. 9:5; Job 19:25-27; 1Thess. 4:16, 17; Rev. 14:13

“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’” (Genesis 3:4)


The Immortality of the Soul May Gain Through the Gospel

For the conversion of one sinner the minister should tax his resources to the utmost. The soul that God has created and Christ has redeemed is of great value because of the possibilities before it, the spiritual advantages that have been granted it, the capabilities that it may possess if vitalized by the word of God, and the immortality it may gain through the hope presented in the gospel. And if Christ left the ninety and nine that He might seek and save one lost sheep, can we be justified in doing less? Is not a neglect to work as Christ worked, to sacrifice as He sacrificed, a betrayal of sacred trusts, an insult to God? {AA 370.2}  


Threefold Persecuting Union 

Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of Spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of Spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.--The Great Controversy, p. 588.  {ChS 160.1} 


A Great Deception - Ye Shall Not Surely Die

The only one who promised Adam life in disobedience was the great deceiver. And the declaration of the serpent to Eve in Eden—“Ye hall not surely die”—was the first sermon ever preached upon the immortality of the soul. Yet this declaration, resting solely upon the authority of Satan, is echoed from the pulpits of Christendom and is received by the majority of mankind as readily as it was received by our first parents. The divine sentence, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20), is made to mean: The soul that sinneth, it shall not die, but live eternally. We cannot but wonder at the strange infatuation which renders men so credulous concerning the words of Satan and so unbelieving in regard to the words of God. {DD 14.4} 


Consider the Following

Babylon and spiritualism are clearly related (Revelation 18:2). Thus, most of today’s Christians are accepting “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).

One of the most common is that we are immortal, that we cannot die, as Satan told Eve). They believe that we go straight to Heaven once we die if we’ve accepted Jesus as our Savior. If we haven’t, then we go straight to hell, or we just wander as a bodyless spirit, or…

The Word of God explains that death is like a dream, that our souls are mortal. We will wake up from this “dream” on the day of the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 115:17; Revelation 20:5-6).


Tuesday - May 30, 2023

Babylon: The Center of Sun Worship - The False Day of Worship

Ezek. 8:16; 2 Kings 23:5, 11; Rom. 1:25; Rev. 17

“So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.” (Ezek. 8:16)


For a deeper study, please visit the following site:


When Seal of God Is Refused

If the light of truth has been presented to you, revealing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and showing that there is no foundation in the Word of God for Sunday observance, and yet you still cling to the false sabbath, refusing to keep holy the Sabbath which God calls "My holy day," you receive the mark of the beast. When does this take place? When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labor on Sunday and worship God, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God.--Review and Herald, July 13, 1897.  {Ev 235.2}  


History Will Be Repeated

History will be repeated. False religion will be exalted. The first day of the week, a common working day, possessing no sanctity whatever, will be set up as was the image at Babylon. All nations and tongues and peoples will be commanded to worship this spurious sabbath. This is Satan's plan to make of no account the day instituted by God, and given to the world as a memorial of creation.  {7BC 976.7}  

The decree enforcing the worship of this day is to go forth to all the world. In a limited degree, it has already gone forth. In several places the civil power is speaking with the voice of a dragon, just as the heathen king spoke to the Hebrew captives.  {7BC 976.8}  

Trial and persecution will come to all who, in obedience to the Word of God, refuse to worship this false sabbath. Force is the last resort of every false religion. At first it tries attraction, as the king of Babylon tried the power of music and outward show. If these attractions, invented by men inspired by Satan, failed to make men worship the image, the hungry flames of the furnace were ready to consume them. So it will be now. The papacy has exercised her power to compel men to obey her, and she will continue to do so. We need the same spirit that was manifested by God's servants in the conflict with paganism (ST May 6, 1897).  {7BC 976.9}  


Consider the Following

The Jewish people became corrupted by worshipping the sun as the Babylonians and other nations did (Ezekiel 8:16).

The Christian Church has never openly worshipped the Sun, but they started to worship on the day that Rome used as the “day of the Sun” (Constantine’s edict, 321 AD).

This change of the day of worship has never been questioned in mainstream Christianity, although it has no biblical roots.


Staying Safe from these Deceptions

Wednesday - May 31, 2023

A Call to Faithfulness - The True Day of Worship

Ps. 46:1; John 17:17; Ezek. 20:1-20; 1 Cor. 10:11

“hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.”
(Ezekiel 20:20)


The Lord's Promise - a Blessing of the Sabbath 

Christ has said: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20. Wherever there are as many as two or three believers, let them meet together on the Sabbath to claim the Lord's promise. {CCh 265.3} 

The little companies assembled to worship God on His holy day have a right to claim the rich blessing of Jehovah. They should believe that the Lord Jesus is an honored guest in their assemblies. Every true worshiper who keeps holy the Sabbath should claim the promise: "That ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Exodus 31:13. 477 {CCh 265.4} 

The Sabbath was made for man, to be a blessing to him by calling his mind from secular labor to contemplate the goodness and glory of God. It is necessary that the people of God assemble to talk of Him, to interchange thoughts and ideas in regard to the truths contained in His word, and to devote a portion of time to appropriate prayer. But these seasons, even upon the Sabbath, should not be made tedious by their length and lack of interest. {CCh 265.5} 


God's Power of Turning the Flinty Rock into Life-giving Streams

But of old the Lord led His people to Rephidim, and He may choose to bring us there also, in order to test our faithfulness and loyalty to Him. In mercy to us, He does not always place us in the easiest places; for if He did, in our self-sufficiency we would forget that the Lord is our helper in time of necessity. But He longs to manifest Himself to us in our emergencies, and reveal the abundant supplies that are at our disposal, independent of our surroundings; and disappointment and trial are permitted to come upon us that we may realize our own helplessness, and learn to call upon the Lord for aid, as a child, when hungry and thirsty, calls upon its earthly father.  {RC 353.5}  

Our heavenly Father has the power of turning the flinty rock into life-giving and refreshing streams. We shall never know, until we are face to face with God, . . . how many burdens He has borne for us, and how many burdens He would have been glad to bear if, with childlike faith, we had brought them to Him.--Signs of the Times, Sept. 10, 1896.  {RC 353.6}  


The Sabbath - Special blessing with Light and Health

The Sabbath is God's time. He sanctified and hallowed the seventh day. He set it apart for man to keep as a day of worship.  {FLB 35.5}  

We need to cherish and cultivate a spirit of true worship, a spirit of devotion upon the Lord's holy, sanctified day. We should assemble together believing that we shall receive comfort and hope, light and peace from Jesus Christ.  {FLB 35.6}  

All heaven was represented to me as beholding and watching upon the Sabbath those who acknowledge the claims of the fourth commandment and are observing the Sabbath. Angels were marking their interest in, and high regard for, this divine institution. Those who sanctified the Lord God in their hearts by a strictly devotional frame of mind, and who sought to improve the sacred hours in keeping the Sabbath to the best of their ability, and to honor God by calling the Sabbath a delight --these the angels were specially blessing with light and health, and special strength was given them. {FLB 35.7} 

 

Consider the Following

Demons have led Babylon, and they have deceived the world with their “wine” of human doctrines (Revelation 18:2-3; 14:8). They also mock and persecute the minority that still worship God in a different way (Revelation 12:17).

However, this little group are still worshipping God as He encouraged us to do in His Word, on the Sabbath day (Exodus 20:8-11; Ezekiel 20:20).


Thursday - June 1, 2023

Grace for Obedience - A Call to Obedience

Rev. 18:4, 5; 1John 3:4; Rom. 14:23; 1:5; Deut. 4:6

“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’” (Rev. 18:4)


Obedience is a Joy of the Christian

"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." The joy of the Christian is not found in transgression of the law of God, but in obedience of all its precepts. None are in slavery and bondage to the law but those who transgress it. Obedience produces love to God and man--the two great principles of the law of God. This obedience and this love brings fullness of joy to the disciples of Jesus. He still impresses upon them the importance of carrying forward the work which he has begun, and bearing fruit to the glory of God.  {ST, January 24, 1878 par. 5}  


No Man Being Independent in the Work of Salvation

Christ might have remained in heaven, and retained all his outward glory and majesty; but he did not do this. In order to bless humanity with his presence and his example, he came to earth as a man, He came that he might call humanity to unite with him in his work, to become members of the firm in the great plan of salvation. In this work there is no such things as every man's being independent. The stars of heaven are all under law, each influencing the other to do the will of God, yielding their common obedience to the law which controls their action. And, in order that the Lord's work may advance healthfully and solidly, his people must draw together.  {SpM 121.2} 


Our Duty Calls for Reform

In our work more attention should be given to the temperance reform. Every duty that calls for reform, involves repentance, faith, and obedience. It means the uplifting of the soul to a new and nobler life. Thus every true reform has its place in the work of the third angel's message. Especially does the temperance reform demand our attention and support. At our camp meetings we should call attention to this work, and make it a living issue. We should present to the people the principles of true temperance, and call for signers to the temperance pledge. Careful attention should be given to those who are enslaved by evil habits. We must lead them to the cross of Christ.  {LLM 239.1}  


Consider the Following

The remnant who are faithful to God’s doctrines are only a small portion of the people of God. Most of them are still inside Babylon.

They’re not aware that they’re worshipping God on the wrong day, or that they’re accepting Satan’s deceptions as truth (like the immortality of the soul).

Therefore, they need someone to teach them the truth and invite them to exit Babylon. They must be taught that transgressing God’s Law is sin (1 John 3:4; James 2:10-11).


Friday - June 2, 2023

Further Study and Meditation

Satan's policy in this final conflict with God's people is the same that he employed in the opening of the great controversy in heaven. He professed to be seeking to promote the stability of the divine government, while secretly bending every effort to secure its overthrow. And the very work which he was thus endeavoring to accomplish he charged upon the loyal angels. The same policy of deception has marked the history of the Roman Church. It has professed to act as the vicegerent of Heaven, while seeking to exalt itself above God and to change His law. Under the rule of Rome, those who suffered death for their fidelity to the gospel were denounced as evildoers; they were declared to be in league with Satan; and every possible means was employed to cover them with reproach, to cause them to appear in the eyes of the people and even to themselves as the vilest of criminals. So it will be now. While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor God's law, he will cause them to be accused as lawbreakers, as men who are dishonoring God and bringing judgments upon the world.  {GC 591.1}  


Questions to Ponder


From the Pen of Inspiration

“The wine of Babylon is the exalting of the false and spurious sabbath above the Sabbath which the Lord Jehovah hath blessed and sanctified for the use of man, also [it is] the immortality of the soul. These kindred heresies, and the rejection of the truth, convert the church into Babylon. Kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers are all in corrupt harmony.” E. G. W. (Selected Messages, book 2, cp. 7, p. 68)