There are people in this city, relations of yours, colleagues of yours, friends of yours, and it is so difficult to reach them with the gospel. Every time you say a word, they have got a whole string of objections that have been fed to them by society. It is Satan acting. They have seen some of these atheistic books dredging up once again all the old hostile arguments. Most of which have been answered, but there are always new ones. New protests against the faith – You cannot be a believer, you cannot believe in God for this reason, for that reason. The brainwashing continues on the television, in literature, in schools now. The degree of atheistic brainwashing in the schools is staggering at the present time.
We go on witnessing and we pray, because God will move in his time, in his way, and we sow the seed, and then God will, the Holy Spirit will humble that person, open the mind, create a sense of need. We have a power far, far greater on our side than all the combined authors of all the antagonistic material, and if he moves in answer to prayer, and we proceed in faith that God will cause the seed to germinate and open eyes.
You cannot always say that, you know. If you missed the bus and get to your friend late, you cannot say, Satan hindered me. The context of these words is the gospel. Paul’s evangelising and caring for the converts. It is Christian work. Now in that you can say sometimes, Satan hindered us. The apostle says it, but he does not tell us how. It could have been an act of persecution, something which was clearly inspired by Satan and his hosts, which made it impossible for him to get back to the Thessalonians to see them as he desired. It was a hindrance of Satan.