This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, December 8th, 1985 at the Trinity Baptist Church in
Montville, New Jersey. I'm sure that many of you, even
the children, are familiar with the words of the Lord Jesus spoken
in Matthew's Gospel when he said, Come unto me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And in that wonderful gospel
invitation, he described himself as being meek and lowly in heart. Now, people who are meek and
lowly in heart never find pleasure in arguing and in debating with
other people. It is proud and arrogant people
who love to debate and who love to argue. However, in the Gospel
records, particularly in the Gospel of John, we find our Lord,
though meek and lowly in heart, engaged again and again in very
strong and sometimes heated arguments with the religious leaders of
His day. And in the 8th chapter of John's
Gospel, and I would invite you to turn there with me if you
will, please, we have the record of one such exchange between
Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem. If you read through
the passage, you will find that again and again you have words
along these lines. Then Jesus said, They said therefore
unto him, He said to them, they answered him. So there was a
running discussion and debate and at times nothing short of
heated argument between Jesus and the religious rulers. Now,
in the midst of that argument, our Lord is drawing his own accusation
of these religious leaders to a climax. in which he tells them
precisely what their spiritual condition is. They were claiming
to be the sons of Abraham. And Jesus is showing them, no,
though they have Abraham's blood in their veins, they are not
his spiritual children. They have no spiritual affinity
or likeness to Abraham. But, by contrast, and I now read
verse 44, He says to them, you are of your father, the devil. and the lusts of your father
it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and stands not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
of his own, for he is a liar, and the father thereof. Now,
tonight it is not my purpose to open up this text and to show
its relevance in the course of the whole argument with these
religious leaders. Rather, we're going to come to
the text in that setting in order to see what Jesus tells us about
the devil. And he tells us at least two
categories of truth about the devil. First of all, Jesus declares
in this verse, in language that is unmistakable, the fact of
the devil's existence. Jesus declares the fact of the
devil's existence. Surely all of us have heard the
word devil, or other words referring to the same being, such as Satan,
or the adversary, or the accuser of the brethren. Now the question
is, does such a being as the devil really exist? Is there a personal spirit with
intelligence and power who is alive and able to influence others? Well, according to Jesus, and
in particular this text, John 8, 44, there is an undisputable
answer to that question. And the answer is, yes, there
is a devil. Jesus declares the fact of the
devil's existence. Notice how he assumes that fact,
and then he speaks on the basis of the reality of that fact.
He says to the religious leaders, you are of your father, the devil. He is not calling them sons of
a notion. sons of an abstract idea. Surely he is not calling them
sons of a superstitious medieval religious notion. He is saying
that they have a spiritual relationship to a real spiritual being who
truly exists, who is to be identified as the devil. Further, he describes
this being as possessing lusts. And the lusts of your father,
that is, the devil, it is your will to do. This spiritual being,
the devil, exists. He exists as the spiritual father
of these religious leaders. He is described as possessing
lusts of his own, and furthermore, he is described as one who influences
others with his lusts, for he goes on to say, it is the lust
of your father that you will to do. And so in this passage,
as in many others, our Lord does indeed declare the fact of the
devil's existence. Furthermore, He indicates that
he has existed at least from the beginning of creation. He
was a murderer from the beginning. He had existence from the beginning,
and He says that existence stood and was maintained to that present
hour. There is no truth in him right
now. When he speaks right now a lie,
he speaks of his own, for he is right now a liar, and the
father thereof." Now, unless we are prepared to accuse our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself of being a liar, then there is no
doubt that in this text our Lord declares clearly the fact of
the devil's existence. It is no overstatement to say
that apart from the fact and the reality of the devil's existence,
the very coming of Jesus was a mistake. For the Scriptures
tell us that He came to deal with the devil and with his works. In 1 John 3.8 we read, For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested. There was a manger seen in Bethlehem. There was a real incarnation. There was a real life in Nazareth. A real presentation in the Jordan
River. A real life of obedience and
death upon the cross. Why? Why was the Son of God manifested
here in the flesh, upon the earth, in space and time? John tells
us, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He
might destroy the works of the devil. If there is no devil,
and there are no works of that devil, then the Son of God was
manifested in pursuit of a mirage. Furthermore, Hebrews 2.14 tells
us, for this purpose He took upon Him human nature that He
might destroy him that had the power of death. That is the devil. and that He might deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. Yes, Jesus Christ declares the
fact of the devil's existence. And according to the Scriptures,
Jesus was manifested because there is a real devil who has
real works that need a real destruction if we real sinners are to be
delivered unto the blessings of life and salvation. Furthermore,
according to the Bible, Jesus was tempted by this devil and
overcame him. Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 to
11. And bless God, one day this very
Jesus, from His place of exaltation upon the throne of judgment,
will, according to Revelation 20 and verse 10, cast this devil
into the lake of fire. settle it then in your minds
as an indisputable fact as sure as you exist and you know that
you do as sure as you exist and you know that you are here and
you know that you are then just as surely you must be convinced
that from the beginning a real personal wicked spirit called
the devil has existed and he has and continues to this day
actively to influence men and women and boys and girls by his
own horrible insidious damning power For we read in Ephesians
chapter 2 what to me are frightening words. Paul describing the state
of all the Ephesians before they were converted. He says, you
did he make alive when you were dead through your trespasses
and sins. wherein you once walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
powers of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons
of disobedience. And that word, working, is the
same word used in Philippians when it says, God is at work
in His people to will and to work for His good pleasure. God
is energetically and powerfully working in His own, both to will
and to do, of His good pleasure. The same verb is used to say
that this Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit, That
is, the devil himself is actively, effectually working in all of
the sons of disobedience. And Paul says, in spite of all
his religion, in spite of all of his religious training and
background, he says, I was such a one among whom we also once
lived in the lust of our flesh. So the first fact regarding the
devil clearly established in many places, but especially in
our text tonight, is the fact of the existence of the devil. But Jesus does a second thing.
Jesus not only declares the fact of the devil's existence, He,
in the second place, describes for us the nature of the devil's
character. the nature of the devil's character. Among all that is said in John
8, verse 44, Jesus tells us two things about the devil's character. Now, I told you children that
I was going to ask you a question tonight, and now I'm going to
fulfill my promise. If you studied the verse at Mommy
and Daddy, some of you who are younger read it for you and looked
at it with you, did you see the two things that are said about
the devil's character by the Lord Jesus? If you didn't catch
them, see if you can catch them as I read the verse and put the
emphasis upon the two things Jesus tells us about the character
of the devil. You are of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father it is your will to do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and stands not in the truth because
there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. You see,
the two things that Jesus describes about the nature of the devil's
character, he tells us that he is a murderer and that he is
a liar. Now, let's think of that for
a few minutes together. First of all, he says he is or
was a murderer from the beginning. And Jesus does not use the ordinary
word for murderer found in the New Testament, but a word which
literally means a slayer of men. You see, when the policeman in
the course of duty must use his gun in seeking to defend innocent
people or to apprehend people who are seeking to harm others
and kill someone in the line of duty, he's not a murderer. He is not unlawfully taking another
human life. When a soldier in a war fires
his gun at a soldier on the opposite side of the battlefield and takes
his life, If he is engaged in a legitimate war, he is not guilty
of being a manslayer. We're thankful that in the accident
that happened tonight, no life was taken. But if someone in
an automobile accident through a mechanical deficiency, not
through driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or willful
carelessness, should be involved in an accident that takes another's
life. That is not to be guilty of being
a manslayer or a murderer. No, a manslayer is one who deliberately,
willfully, out of malice and hatred, snuffs out the life of
a human being. Now Jesus said the very character
of the devil from the beginning, from the first entrance of the
devil upon the scene of human history, he appears in one character
and in one character alone according to Jesus. And that is the character
of a murderer. He is out to slay human life. He is out to murder human souls. That's what Jesus tells us about
the devil. He is a murderer. And I have news for you. He's
not been converted into a lover of life. He has not been changed
into someone who is out to nurture life and to bring life to its
fullest and most wonderful expression. That's part of His lie, but Jesus,
who is the truth, says He was a murderer from the beginning,
and He has never changed, and never will be changed. He'll
be sent into hell with His own murderous nature, unchanged. But then there's a second thing
that we are told about the character of the devil, and it's this.
He is a liar. See what Jesus said? He is a
liar. Now, who is a liar? Well, a liar
is someone who deliberately misrepresents the truth or reality. Truth and reality are the same
thing. Let me illustrate it. I stand
before you as a man who is approximately six feet tall. That's reality.
You could prove that by getting me to back up to the wall, make
a mark, and then take a yardstick, or take a tape measure, and you'd
see it would come out at about 72, 73 inches with my shoes on. Now that's truth. That's reality. Now if someone says, how tall
are you? And I say 5'8", or I say 6'4", and I know that I'm not
that, I am a liar. I am misrepresenting reality. When mom and dad say to you kids,
have you got your homework done? Because you know that unless
you do, you can't watch that favorite television program that
they permit you to watch, that they have monitored and screened
and continue to monitor and screen to know that it's fit for you
to watch it. And because you so desperately want to watch
that, you say, oh yeah, it's all done. But you still had three
more problems on your math homework that you didn't do. And you knew
that. So when you said, yes, it's done, you were a what? You
were a liar. You were misrepresenting what
you knew was reality and truth. Now, that's what a liar is. Now,
notice how much Jesus emphasizes this aspect of the devil's character. He says, with reference to this
part of his character, that he does not stand in the truth. He was a murderer from the beginning
and stands not in the truth because there is no truth in him. You see how the two things are
related? It is only those who have truth in their hearts that
stand in the realm of truth. But the devil is such a liar
through and through that because there is not a gram of truth
in him, he's never found in the circle of truth. He is always
found in the circle of the lie. He has never once even put his
big toe half an inch into the circle of truth. There's no truth
in him and he never stands in the truth. Why? He is a liar
through and through. Every atom of his existence as
a spiritual being is dripping with the disposition of the liar. Then he goes on to say, when
he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own. That is, he speaks out
of himself, out of his very nature, out of his very being. He is
such a liar through and through. He needs no outside influence
to make him lie. He speaks of himself. And then
Jesus goes on to emphasize it even further. For he is a liar
and the father thereof, the father of it. He is not only the one
out of whose nature the lie comes, but who in one sense then, by
that lie, spawns every other lie that has ever been floated
upon the face of the earth. Now, can Jesus make the issue
more plain than this? You want to know the character
of the devil? Listen to Jesus. He is a murderer. He's a manslayer. From the beginning, he has one
intention, one intention only, and that is to destroy human
life and human souls. And he is secondly a liar. There
is no relationship between the truth and the devil and the devil
in truth. Now, here's the very, very important
question. What's the relationship between
those two parts of the character of the devil? He's a murderer,
he's out to slay human life, and he's a liar. Here's the relationship. The lie is the devil's weapon
by which he seeks to murder the souls of men. When the devil
comes to murder men's souls, how does he come? How did He
come to our first parents in the Garden of Eden? Did He come
with a rifle on His shoulder? With a sword in His hand? With a grenade in His pocket? No. He came with a lie upon His
smiling face. That's how He came. He came with
a lie in His mouth. And upon his smiling face, he
lied about God. He lied about God's word. He
lied about sin and its consequences. And because his lie was so convincing
and was believed, our first parents and all of us in them have been
plunged into sin and into death. Now then, this brings us to the
core of what I want to convey to you tonight in the time that
remains. What are some of the devil's
lies by which he seeks to murder you and me? Now I'm going to
make it personal. You see, we first of all have
seen what Jesus says about the devil. He declares the fact of
the devil's existence. He then describes these two aspects
of the nature of his character. He's a murderer and a liar. Now
we want to make it very personal. What are some of the devil's
lies by which he seeks to murder you? For remember, whether you
know it or not, or even think of it or not, you are very important
to the devil. Important enough that he will
use whatever instrument is at his disposal within your own
fallen nature within the world about you and all of the ways
that this world system impinges upon your eyes, your ears, your
emotions, your affections, your thinking, your desires, your
ambitions. He has a thousand ways to float
his lies into the soul, but he always has but one end in doing
it. That's to murder you. That's
to take you into hell with himself. Now listen to me, dear young
men and women and boys and girls. And this is where pastor wishes
that if I could have made me in my mother's womb, I wouldn't
have made me with these deep wrinkles in my forehead. But
I got them from my grandmother. And when I was a very young lad,
she used to quote a Swedish phrase that said, the wrinkled brow
bespeaks the thoughtful mind. Well, whether that does or not,
I don't like it that I have those deep wrinkles. The first time
I saw a picture of me, I was just 21 years of age and someone
took a picture of me talking to someone very earnestly about
something and I didn't know it. And they showed me the picture
and I said, do I look like that when I get serious? They said,
that's you. And that's why I count those times at the door with
you children so precious when you see me smiling and we hug
and we kiss and we laugh and we play together and you know
I'm your friend. But when I get serious about
the matter of what the devil wants to do with you, I can't
stand up here and smile. Because you know, dear children,
as much as pastor loves you and wants to take you to heaven with
him, the devil hates you. And he wants to take you straight
down to hell to burn with him forever in hell. That's what
he wants to do. And he's determined until he
himself is cast into hell, he's going to take as many of God's
creatures with him as he can. And he's going to take you if
he can. And you know how he's going to get you? With his lies.
He's going to get you with his lies. He's out to slay your soul. And the way he's going to attempt
to do it is with his lies. That's why you and I need to
be able to know what his lies are and to see those lies in
the light of the truth of God's Word and above all, in the light
of the truth embodied in the Lord Jesus, that we will have,
as it were, the mask pulled off the devil's lies. And we will
embrace the Lord Jesus, who is the truth and think according
to the truth of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and what
Jesus says. All right. As time permits, we're
going to look at three or four of the major lines by which the
devil murders souls. And he's trying to murder your
soul. Lie number one. Turn back with me to Genesis.
Chapters two and three. And here I want to speak particularly
to those of you in the age bracket, probably eleven and twelve onward,
you'll understand every word I say. There are times when I'll
try to drop down and speak at the level of the six and five
year olds. I can't address everything to
one age bracket. But here's the first lie of the
devil. It's the one he floated to our first parents. I'm going
to state it, and then I'm going to show you that this is exactly
his lie from the text of Scripture. Here's the lie. You can only
be truly happy by having and doing what God forbids. You can
only be truly happy by having and doing what God forbids. Now let's look at Genesis chapter
two. At the end of chapter one, it tells us that when God had
finished his work of creation, he looked at everything he had
made and it was good. He had pronounced blessing upon
Adam and Eve and given them some clear guidelines as to how they
were to serve him in his world. And then we read further on in
chapter two that God commanded the man, verse 16, saying, of
every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it,
for in the day you eat, you will surely die. Now, Eve was not
yet created when God spoke these words. God comes to Adam and
says, Adam, I have made you. What I have made is good. I'm
putting you into the garden. I'm giving you a task. But now
I'm telling you, Adam, all the trees you may freely eat, all
of the delight of enjoying different tastes and the smells of the
different foods that will come from the various trees. Adam,
it's all yours. There is but one tree, that special
tree in the midst of the garden, and of that tree you are not
to eat because, Adam, in the day you eat of that forbidden
tree, you will die. Adam, your blessedness is to
be found in only having what I give you and in doing what
I tell you. And the minute you take something
that I've said you shouldn't take, and do what I've told you
not to do, you'll die. Your blessedness, your happiness
will come to an end. You'll die. Now then, God sees
the man in his singleness. And to further show that that
command was not given out of a narrow heart, a heart that
wanted to cramp Adam's style, God takes the initiative and
says in verse 18, it's not good for the man to be alone. I will
make a helper answering to his needs. And you have that beautiful
account of the creation of the woman. And then the creation
account ends. with this beautiful, chaste,
and lovely description of the man and the wife in total nakedness
before God and one another, and I believe inferred in the passage,
in the total intimacy of their sexual embrace, the creation
account ends. with that glorious, holy, chaste
picture. They were both naked, the man
and his wife, and were not ashamed. And how do you think the devil
looked upon Adam and Eve, perfectly happy, because they were perfectly
obedient, taking only what God said they could take, and staying
clear of that which God says was forbidden? Now, the devil
looks upon them in that blessedness, and he's determined to do what?
He was a murderer from the beginning. He could not tolerate seeing
Adam and Eve in the full blossoming of that life that God had given. He was out to kill them, to destroy
them, to slay them. So what did he do? Chapter 3,
verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and we
know from the New Testament there is no question who this serpent
was, that the serpent was an embodiment of this evil spirit,
the devil. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
has God said, You shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But of
the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it. And there is some debate about
whether or not she added to the word of God or whether that was
part of what God originally said to Adam. But that's not important.
This is what's important. She says to the tempter, to Satan,
to the devil, yes. God has said there is something
forbidden. And God has made known that it
is forbidden for our good, as well as His glory. In the day
we eat, we will die. It is for our happiness that
God has said, don't take of that tree. God has revealed to us
we can be truly and fully happy only when we have and do what
God commands and avoid what God forbids. Now notice how the devil
comes with his lie. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die for God knows that in the day
you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, you shall be
as God, knowing good and evil. Eve, there is a dimension of
blessedness in the realm of knowledge to be gained if you will only
have what God says you shouldn't have and do what God says you
shouldn't do. God has told you to have it and
to do it is to bring death. I have news for you, Eve. To
have it and to do it is to open up a whole new dimension of blessedness. You will come to a higher elevation
of knowledge that will make you more like God or the gods. You will have a dimension of
knowledge. Eve, you've been sold a bill
of goods by God. God has told you true happiness
comes by having and doing what God commands. But I've got the
inside track. True happiness comes by having
and doing what God forbids. And in pursuit of happiness,
an illusion of happiness fostered by the lie of the devil. Verse
6, when the woman saw that the tree was good, good, she made
an evaluation, it is good for food. and a delight to the eyes. Why would God forbid what is
good for food and is aesthetically pleasant a delight to the eyes? And furthermore, Why would God
forbid that which would make me wiser, and to be desired to
make one wise? And here are the most tragic
words in the Bible. She took of the fruit and did
eat. She gave unto her husband with
her, and he did eat. And then what happened? And the
eyes of them both were open. and they broke into a new dimension
of blessedness and happiness and communion with God. No! Immediately there was shame and
aversion to God and running from God and then death and destruction
and disease and all the horrors that come down in the stream
of fallen humanity as it flows by our feet tonight. And how
did it all begin when that fiend, that murderer, that manslayer,
the devil came armed with his lie and he floated his lie. And the New Testament says Eve
was utterly deceived. That is, she bought the lie thinking
it was the truth. She bought the lie thinking it
was the truth. And when she did, She found that
God's word was true. In the day that you eat dying,
you will die. And there was immediate spiritual
death, alienation from God and aversion to God and discomfort
at the thought of communing with God. And ultimately, there was
physical death. And if God did not intervene
in grace, there would be eternal death, separation from God in
the place prepared for that very murderer and liar, the devil
himself. For hell is described as the
place prepared for the devil and his angels. Now, you see,
that's exactly the lie he's floating to you, young people. You look at the Ten Commandments
and you say, are you crazy? I'm not going to take those seriously.
I mean, let's be reasonable. To keep my heart free of any
attachment to anything that rivals affection for God? Man, I'd have
no place for boyfriends and girlfriends and the latest styles and the
latest music. I mean, I can't love God supremely. There'd be no place for the things
that really bring me fulfillment. It's my friends. It's my music. It's my fashions. It's being
with it. That brings fulfillment. Not
having a heart jealous to have no other gods before the true
God. You go right down through all
the commandments. I mean, I couldn't take the whole
of the Lord's Day, the Christian Sabbath, and give it to thinking
of God and reading His Word and reading good books about godly
men and godly women. No, that's misery and that's
pain and suffering and torture. Surely, you don't mean to say
that if I regard my sexual appetites as not my own property to do
with as I please. And I determined that I shall
come to marriage, not only a virgin as a man or a woman, but with
my hands having never indulged in petting, and the other parts
of my body having never been given to sexual indulgence, turned
inward upon myself? or turned outward upon others
outside the sacred ties of marriage? You mean to say that a person
can come to fulfillment? You see, the devil's lie is no. You want true happiness? It comes
in the way of having what God forbids. You've got to have sex
when you want it, with whom you want it, and how you want it.
You've got to have things and acceptance and popularity at
any cost, because without those things there is no happiness.
Oh, dear young people, that's the devil's lie. It is the lie
of the devil that you can only be truly happy by having and
doing what God forbids. The way of happiness is in doing
what God commands. That's why the scripture says
that as sinners who have fallen in Adam and who by nature do
not keep God's commands, to repent, that is to turn from a life of
determining to do and to have what God forbids, And to live
a life by the power of God, in which we have and do only what
God commands, that's repentance. God says repentance is unto life,
not death. Acts 11, 18. God has given to
the Gentiles repentance unto life. You see, the devil says
life is in the way of indulging yourself in what God forbids,
to please yourself. God says, no, that's the way
of death. The way of life is the way of
keeping God's precepts as a forgiven sinner who has been given the
power of the Holy Spirit, both to love God's ways and to keep
God's ways. Now I ask, Do you believe that
the devil has changed his tactics? Do you believe that you are so
special that God has sent some kind of spiritual influence to
surround you, that you are not vulnerable to that same lie?
If he dared to come to Adam and Eve in innocence, And float that
lie and get away with it. Can't you imagine how bold he
is to come to you and to me in our fallen state? And believe that he can float
his lie? And isn't that precisely why some of you teenagers sit
here tonight in spite of all the reality you've seen in your
mom and dad, in other Christians, in spite of all the truth you've
heard? The reason you're still in your sins is because you're
believing this lie. You really believe that you can
only have good in the way of having and doing what God forbids. That's why you won't repent.
Because you think to repent is to turn from the way of life
into the way of death. And that's the lie of the devil.
And I want to put it as bluntly as I know how. Continue to believe
that lie and you'll perish in hell. You'll never become a Christian
until you repudiate that lie. But there's a second lie. And
it's right here in the Garden of Eden as well. And it's this. You can sin and not have to pay
the consequences. You can sin and not have to pay
the consequences. God had said in chapter 2 in
verse 17, in the day you eat, you will surely die. We are told by those who understand
the Hebrew language well that a good rendering will be dying. You will die. Death is sure. Adam, don't mistake me. To sin
is to pay the consequences. Well, you talk about the devil's
lie in direct opposition. No subtlety now. Verse 4, And
the serpent said unto the woman, Genesis 3, 4, You shall not surely
die. Now, the issue is very plain,
isn't it? Well, I believe God or the devil. God says sin, you'll
pay the consequences. The devil says sin, and you'll
not definitely have to pay the consequences. Now, what will
Eve do? Believe God or believe the devil?
Will she believe the word of the God who made her and who
evidently surrounded her with his goodness and manifested the
largeness of his heart and all of his gifts? Or will she believe
this unknown character who has come and floated a lie that strikes
at the very throne of God, whose throne is established upon truth
and righteousness. You see, the devil lied to Eve
and said, no, you can sin and get away with it. And do you
believe Eve would have ever reached out to take that fruit and let
she, first of all, believe the lie? Do you believe if she really
had in her mind and heart conscious stirrings of what death might
mean, that she could have ever reached out? No! She would have
repelled that very word of Satan. You shall not surely die, she
would have said. No, that cannot be! God, who
is truth, has said, eating it, you shall surely die. And that's the lie that the devil
brings to you and to me. God has said that sinning leads
to bondage. You see, each act of sin is not
an independent, isolated act. It says the wicked shall be held
by the cords of his own iniquity. Jesus said, Whoso commits sin
is the bond slave of sin. Each act of sin forges another
chain, which eventually binds us and chains us and holds us. God says, If you willfully sin
in any given area, you are giving yourself over to bondage and
slavery. And the devil says, No, you can
sin and stop anytime you want. I have seen people in their midlife,
who would give their right arm if they could quit puffing on
cigarettes that they knew were going to lead them to an early
grave, but they couldn't stop. You see, the first time they
took that puff behind the barn or down at the schoolyard with
the other guys or gals to prove that they were big shots, Do
you think they believed that time would come when as a mature
adult, able to raise a family, hold a job, buy a home, they
would be slaves to a little tube of nicotine? Come on, do you
really think they would have ever taken that first cigarette
if they knew that that little tube of tobacco would become
their master? I've seen the pictures of people
with holes in their throats, to breathe, sticking their cigarette
in there to suck in the next butt. That's right. You think the first
time you, young man, stopped by that 7-Eleven store and glanced
at that girly magazine, you think the time would come when you
could not go through one week without buying your Playboy? without buying your penthouse
or some other filthy, glossy sheet? Oh, no. You didn't think
so, but that's where you are tonight. I would be very surprised
if I'm not speaking to more than one man, one young man or older
man in this place who is a slave to the glossy lie of pornography. And it all began when you thought
you could sin and sin again and stop any time you wanted. But
your sins become your masters. And we were lying. First time
you thought that up, that lie and said, Oh, I can just tell
one lie to mom and dad. And I would never. I mean, I
think too much of mom and dad ever to make a pattern of lying
that would destroy all meaningful communication. I won't do that.
I just tell one lie here and maybe what's happened. You become
an inveterate liar. You can lie either in an easier
than you can breathe. What's happened? The wicked shall
be held by the cords of his own iniquity. God says, You cannot
sin and get away with it. Sinning produces bondage. Furthermore,
the scripture tells us sinning in the face of light produces
hardness of heart. Sinning in the face of light
produces hardness of heart. God says you can't go on in a
path of sin when your conscience has the light, not only of nature,
but of the Word of God coming streaming in from your Christian
family, the Christian school, from your Sunday school, from
the pulpit. God says if you reject light
and will not repent and believe on Christ and become a Christian
in the face of that light, your heart will get harder and harder. He that being often reproved
shall suddenly be cut off in that without remedy. Romans 2
5 says after thy hardness and impenitent heart, you are treasuring
up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God. The devil's lie is you can sin
and get away with it. You can do an isolated act of
sin here and there. There'll be no bondage. God says
no sin produces bondage. The devil says you can sin without
hardness. God says no sinning in the face
of light produces hardness. And then the ultimate lie of
the devil is you can sin and not pay its wages or have its
wages paid out. But the wages will be paid out
for the wages of sin is death. Would God, would God, that somehow
we would take seriously for just 30 seconds, just one of those
phrases quoted by Pastor Nichols this morning about hell. Just
take seriously for 30 seconds, weeping, wailing, gnashing of
teeth, the smoke of their torment ascending up forever and forever. They have no rest day nor night. God says that's where sin will
take you. The devil says, no, you shall
not surely die. God loves his creatures too much
to send them to hell. If that's so, why did he send
his son to hell upon the cross? If God loves his creatures too
much, there's one that he loved above all others, his well-beloved
holy son. And yet God, as it were, took
hell out of hell and fastened it to the soul of Jesus upon
the cross. And if he did that to his son,
do you think you'll escape? Don't believe the devil's lie. As I said a few weeks ago, I
repeat, I've searched in vain in my Bible to see that there's
a teenage hell, a preteen hell, a midlife hell and an old man's
hell. I do read in my Bible there'll
be degrees of punishment in hell. He that knew his Lord's will
and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes. He who knew
not and did not beaten with few stripes. The Bible does teach
degrees of punishment in hell more tolerable in the day of
Solomon Gomorrah than for the people of Jesus day. Yes, but
I don't read there's some other hell. Hell is hell, dear people. Outer darkness is outer darkness. Weeping and wailing and gnashing
of teeth is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And frankly,
I don't understand how some of you young people can sleep at
night with all the light you've had. And you know God is true. Has the devil so duped you at
this age that your heart has become hardened beyond feeling? He's a murderer. The lie that
you can sin and get away with it is the devil's lie that he's
bringing to you to destroy you. Then, in closing, time has gone
from us. Let me touch just briefly on
this third lie, because it's so vital. And I believe so relevant
to not a few of you, and it's the lie that we don't find in
the book of Genesis. But we find it in the book of
Acts very clearly illustrated. It's the lie that you can repent
and believe when it's more convenient to do so. You can repent and
believe when it's more convenient to do so. Turn to Acts chapter
24. The great apostle Paul, a prisoner
of Jesus Christ, It stands before one of the great ones of the
earth, and he speaks to him about the things of God. Acts 24 and
verse 24. But after certain days, Felix
came with Drusilla, his wife, who was a Jewess, and sent for
Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus. Paul became a gospel preacher
before this man, Felix. Drusilla, his wife. And as he
is preaching Christ, he's trying to bring this man to see why
he needs Christ. You've heard the old adage. Someone
had a bumper sticker. Christ is the answer. And someone
looked at it and said, fine, what's the question? If Christ
is the answer, what's the question? Well, Paul is preaching about
the faith in Christ. Christ is the answer. But he's
also telling him what the question is. The question is, how can
unrighteous, undisciplined, self-indulgent, guilty sinners be right with
God? So he reasoned of righteousness,
God's inflexible standard of right and wrong, the holy law
of God. Self-control, what we must have
if we're to live in the light of that law. and the judgment
to come, the results that are ours, because we have not lived
a life of self-control in the light of the standard of righteousness.
We've broken the law. We have turned to our own way. We've indulged our flesh. We
have given ourselves up to the lust of the flesh and of the
mind. Ephesians 2. And therefore we stand under
judgment. That's why Christ is the answer. Judgment is real. Because sin
is real and hell is real. That's why we need Christ. That's
why Christ died. That's why he rose. That's why
he's given us his word. That's why he equips and commissions
his servants to plead with you in his name, to be reconciled
to God. And you know what happened? Some
of this began to get under the spiritual hide of this man, Felix. Look what happened. As Paul was
reasoning of these things, Felix was terrified. Oh, how I've cried to God, Lord,
hasten the day when somebody under my preaching will get terrified. God, bring the day when the terrors
of God will fall upon this place. You say, that's cruel. No, it
isn't. Until you're terrified, you'll never be comforted with
a comfort that will stand the test of death and the judgment.
It got under his hide and he was terrified. I mean, the next
meal wasn't going to go down so easy. The next television
program wasn't going to bring him much comfort. The next tumble
in the bed with his wife wasn't going to bring him much joy.
He was full of terror. What should he have done? He
should have done what the Philippian jailer did when he was full of
terror. Fell down before the servants of God and says, Sir,
what must I do to be saved? But instead, you see what he
did? Look what he did. The devil came along and said, Felix, Felix,
this is all true. This is all right. But there'll
be a more convenient time. He answered, Go your way for
this time. When I have a convenient season,
I'll call you unto me. Yes, Paul, I feel in my conscience
the terrors of God. His law, his demands, his judgment. Hell, these are realities and
I stand in the matrix of those realities. But Paul, I can, at
my convenience, put myself right back into this present frame
of mine and pick up where we left off and we can move from
there to faith in Christ. I'll still be in control. When I'm ready to settle this,
in his case, you know what the issue was? He hoped to have his
palm rubbed by Paul. Look at the next verse. He hoped
with all that money would be given him of Paul. Therefore,
he sent for him the offender and communed with him. But there's
no further record. He was ever terrified again.
When he believed the devil's lie, you can repent and believe
when it's more convenient for all we know from the record.
He passed the line and there's no indication he was ever terrified
again. He crossed the line. Now, let me ask you honestly. Let me ask you honestly, unconverted
man, woman, boy or girl, has there never been a time when
you felt something of the terrors of God? Has this generation,
with its jungle music screeching in your ears, with its pot and
its coke and its uppers and downers and its quaaludes and the rest,
so blown the mind of this generation that no one thinks of hell anymore? Is there no one here who's felt
the terrors of God? what you would do standing naked
before the God of the universe, laden down with every lie you've
ever spoken, every dirty word, every dirty thought you've ever
thought and spoken, every act of disobedience to mom and dad,
every Sabbath spent in self-indulgence, every bit of hatred and envy
and pride. Oh, have you never felt any terror? that you would stand before God
with all that sin hanging upon you, crying out to the God of
the universe to send you to hell. Have you never felt any terror?
If you have, what have you done? I'll tell you what some of you
have done. The devil's breathed his lines. It's all right to
be terrified. That's fine. That's fine. But
just don't do anything about it now. There'll be a more convenient
season. And for you it's not been your
hope to have your hand rubbed with a little money? You say,
I'm afraid if I repent and give myself to Christ now, I'll be
mocked out by every fellow and girl in my school, even though
it's a so-called Christian school. I'm not going to be mocked out.
No way! I'll become the most unpopular
girl in the whole class. So you'd rather have the smile
of your girlfriends and burn in hell? Is that what you're
saying? Trample under Christ in order
to embrace your friends? My friend, my dear young girlfriend,
my dear young man friend, listen to me. Which of those friends
can take those sins off you so you won't have to go to judgment
with them? Come on, answer me. Which of those friends can take
you by the hand and lead you into the presence of Almighty
God and plead your cause in the day of judgment? I tell you,
there's only one friend who's worth anything in that day, and
that's Jesus. And to have Him, you've got to
be prepared to be mocked out. That's the cost of discipleship.
You've got to be prepared to be rejected if necessary. Yes,
you have to. You say, well, yes, I felt the
terrors of God, but I know if I get serious with Christ, it'll
put a question mark over a particular relationship that I have. And
I'm in that relationship deeply. I'm tied to that man, that woman. And I'm afraid if I get serious
about Christ, that relationship may be axed off by the word of
God. My friend, let me ask. That person
you're so tied to may be tied to them because you've already
been bonded by illicit sexual intimacy and you're not even
married, but you're bonded by that intimacy. Listen to me.
Listen to me. Can that friend plead your cause
at the judgment? Can that friend? I don't care
how intimate the relationship. Can that friend wash you from
your sins and clothe you with a righteousness that will enable
you to stand pure in the day of judgment? and acquitted by
the God of Heaven. You see, it's the devil's lie.
You can repent and believe when it's a more convenient time.
No, the Bible knows only one time. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear His voice,
harden not your heart. Today, God's day of salvation. Would to God that this night
Boy, girl, young man, woman, older man or woman, it matters
not. There is not a one of you who
ought not to be terrified if you're yet in your sins. But
there's not a one of you who cannot know the comforts of the
gospel if you will only repent of your sin and run to Jesus.
There's not a verse in the Bible that says he won't receive you.
And there are dozens and hundreds that say he will. Seek the Lord
while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord, for he will have mercy upon him
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Jesus said the devil
is a murderer. His murder weapon is the lie. The lie that he floated in Eden
was the way to happiness is to have and to do what God forbids. That's a lie that will damn you
if you go on living by that lie as though it were truth. His
lie to our first parents was you can sin and get away with
it. The truth is he that covers his sin shall not prosper. The
wages of sin is death. Be sure your sin will find you
out. His lie to Felix was you can
repent and believe when it's more convenient for you. The
truth of God is today is the day of salvation. God is under
no obligation to cause his word to come home to your heart with
power and make you to feel the powers of the world to come.
If you've known the slightest motions of that power, don't
say, a more convenient time, cry to God. And if there's been
no sense of terror, cry to God, even in the light of that, and
ask Him to take away the hardness and the blindness until spiritual
realities terrify you and then bring you a comfort known only
to those who are in Christ. I want to close by just giving
a little bit of my own testimony, something I rarely, rarely do.
But because I believe many of you young people do regard me
as your friend, I hope you do. I love you as my friends. When Pastor was just a little
boy, just the age of some of you younger ones here, as long
as I can remember who I was and where I slept and the homes in
which we lived, I can remember going to bed almost every night,
fearful that I might die in my sleep. And you know, I was afraid
I might die in my sleep because I believed what the Bible said,
that sinners who don't have their sins washed away in the blood
of Jesus will go to hell. And as I got older, that terror
deepened, and I tried to drown it, and I tried to avoid it,
until to my shame, I say this to you teenagers, I had the audacity,
and I marvel now, God didn't kill me. I had the audacity. After living to please myself,
though God kept me from a lot of outward sin, and I thank God
I didn't live in the midst of the tremendous waves of ungodliness
that crash upon the shores of society, or I'd have been a thousand
times worse than I was. But I can remember having the
audacity to live the whole day indulging my own desires, and
yet daring to pray as I drifted off to sleep, O God. Don't take
me in my sleep. Oh, God, let me live another
day so I don't die and go to hell. I tell you. Since my senior year
in high school, when God brought me to embrace the Lord Jesus
to throw off the devil's lies and find peace of conscience
through the blood of Christ, you asked me Has the Christian
life been easy? I'll tell you, no. I paid a price. No sooner did I embrace the Lord
Jesus than I lost almost all my friends. I was mocked out
even way back in the dark ages of 1952. Yeah, I was mocked out. I'd walk
down the hill from my high school and the guys would roll down
their windows and shout out the windows. Hey there, holy roller!
Walk on your heels! Save your souls! Ha ha ha ha
ha! Yeah, that's right, I got mocked
out. That's right! You think it cost something when
I felt all the passions and sexual drives of any young man? to determine
that I would keep pure and in my dating relations to keep my
hands to myself. Sure, it cost at times when every
cell in my body cried out for sexual fulfillment. You think
it didn't cost to remain pure? You think it hasn't cost through
the years to be hated, to have your purest motives maligned,
Sure, it costs. But listen, you can take all
of that cost and multiply it a thousand times over, and I
wouldn't trade it off for the privilege of just going to bed
one night with a conscience at peace with God. What a wonderful
thing to go to my bed at night and know in the language of that
simple little prayer, if I should die before I wake, not I pray
the Lord my soul to take But now I can pray, I know the Lord,
my soul will take for to be absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord, to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better. Oh, dear children, young people,
men and women, don't believe the devil's lies. But flee to
Him who is the truth, who came to give us life, not to murder,
but to give life, who proved His claims by His death. Take
all the devil's lies and unpack them at the foot of the cross,
and look at his lies in the light of the cross. How can you believe
his lie that happiness comes in the way of having and doing
what God forbids? when that's what resulted in
the wounds and the suffering and the blood and the gore and
the cries and the agony of the cross. How can you believe the
lie? You can sin and get away with
it while you look at Jesus on the cross. How can you believe
the lie that there's a more convenient time when from his cross he calls
you to himself? Oh, run to him. Embrace him.
Become his child. Live for him. And in a few short
years, you'll then be with him and with him forever. Let us
pray. Our Father, we confess that we
feel such a mingled sense of anger and hatred at the devil
when we think of his vicious, murderous lies and how the destruction
and sorrow and grief and death have come in the wake of those
lies. And yet our hearts are filled
with joy and wonder and amazement that you would in Jesus Christ
come and expose the lies of the devil and do everything necessary
that we could have our sins forgiven. and be accepted with you through
the blood and righteousness of another. Oh, Lord, may there
be none who will be like Felix tonight, saying a more convenient
season. Oh, God, this night for them with the gospel. Oh,
Lord, may this word not be preached in vain. But may we yet live
to see the fruit of it in the conversion of some who have sat
here this night. We thank you for your grace.
Thank you for opening our eyes to the lies we once believed
and which were the rule of our lives. We thank you. How we praise
you. Seal your word to our hearts
and dismiss us with your presence and with the sense of your word
burning in our hearts. abiding with us as we leave this
place. Amen.