Participants: Pastor Stephen Bohr
Series Code: CGC
Program Code: CGC000008S
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01:12 Shall we bow our heads for prayer?
01:13 Our Father in heaven, we thank You once again for the privilege 01:18 of being here to open Your Holy Word to discover what 01:23 Your will is for our lives. 01:25 We ask that as we study about the genuine and the counterfeit, 01:29 as this is addressed in the book of Genesis, 01:32 that Your Holy Spirit will be with us, and help us to learn 01:35 those things which will be important in our personal 01:38 walk with Jesus. We thank You for hearing our prayer 01:42 for we ask it in His Holy name, Amen. 01:45 I'd like to begin our study today at the gospel of 01:51 Matthew 24, and we're going to read verses 23 and 24, 01:58 Matthew 24:23, 24. 02:03 Here Jesus is speaking about the end time. 02:08 And I want you to notice the warning that Jesus gives 02:12 concerning the end time. 02:14 He says there in Matthew, once again, 24:23, 24: 02:44 Now imagine deceptions that are so powerful that they will 02:51 almost deceive even the elect. 02:55 Now the question is, to whom did Jesus give this warning? 02:59 Notice Matthew 24:4, Matthew 24:4. 03:06 Notice who Jesus is speaking to. 03:09 And Jesus answered and said to them,... 03:13 That is the disciples, if you look at the context. 03:16 ...Take heed that no one deceives you. 03:22 Who was in danger of being deceived? The disciples. 03:28 Deceptions so powerful that they would deceive, if possible, 03:33 although the syntax indicates that it's not possible. 03:36 But if it were possible, the very elect. 03:41 Obviously Satan's final deception's will be very, very, 03:45 powerful, very delusive. 03:48 And, therefore, we need to understand how the devil 03:53 deceives. Now let's go to Genesis 2:15, and read once 04:00 again the command that God gave to Adam and Eve 04:04 in the garden of Eden. 04:05 Genesis 2:16, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 04:14 Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree 04:21 of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat: 04:25 for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. 04:31 Now I need to ask you some questions about this prohibition 04:36 that God gave Adam and Eve. 04:38 First of all, was the command of God clear? 04:43 Was it complicated? hard to understand? No. 04:48 Was it simple? His command was simple and clear. 04:55 Was it an easy command to obey? Sure it was. 05:01 I mean, do you think Adam and Eve were starving to death 05:04 when they came to the tree? 05:06 They had no reason to, because God told them that they could 05:10 eat of every tree of the garden. 05:12 So probably Eve, when she came to the tree, wasn't even hungry. 05:17 There's more than physical appetite involved here. 05:20 So what I'm saying is that the command was clear. 05:23 By the way, Eve understood it, because she repeated the words 05:26 of God to the serpent. 05:27 Only she added a few things that God had not said, 05:31 like God didn't say you can't touch it. 05:33 He said you can't eat of it. 05:35 Eve added to what God said. 05:37 We'll come to that later. 05:38 But what I want you to notice is that the command was clear. 05:41 The command was easy to obey. 05:45 And, furthermore, God did not explain the reason why they 05:51 could not eat from that specific tree. 05:53 Now God explained the consequences of eating from 05:57 the tree. He said, if you eat from the tree you will die. 06:00 But He did not explain why they couldn't eat from that tree, 06:03 as compared from all of the other trees of the garden. 06:06 God simply said, Don't eat from the tree. 06:12 Clear command, easy to obey, and a command which 06:18 God did not explain the reason for, and which He explained 06:23 what the consequences would be if they disobeyed. 06:26 Now there's one detail which is extremely important 06:30 in Genesis chapter 1, and that is that God did not actually 06:38 allow Adam and Eve to see Him create anything. 06:41 You know, this is something that many people pass up. 06:45 Many people haven't even noticed that God did not allow Adam 06:50 and Eve to be eye witnesses of His creation. 06:52 They saw God create nothing. 06:54 The first day God created the light. 06:57 They weren't around. 06:57 The second day God created the firmament. 07:01 They still weren't around. 07:02 The third day God created the dry earth and the vegetation. 07:05 They still weren't there. 07:07 The fourth day God made the sun, the moon, and the stars. 07:10 Adam and Eve still weren't around. 07:12 The fifth day God made the fish, and the birds. 07:14 Adam and Eve still had not been created. 07:17 The sixth day God made all of the land animals, 07:20 on the first part of the sixth day. 07:22 Adam and Eve weren't there. 07:24 And then God, of course, created Adam. 07:29 Adam did not see God create him, obviously. 07:32 And then, to make this story even more amazing, 07:35 God put Adam to sleep, and then He created Eve. 07:40 So Adam did not see the creation of Eve. 07:42 What I'm saying is that Adam and Eve did not see God 07:46 create anything, which means that if they were to believe 07:50 that God was the Creator, they had to believe it because God 07:54 said so, not because they saw it, or not because they had any 07:59 type of scientific, visual, or sensorial proof. 08:03 They simply needed to believe that God was their Creator 08:06 because God said that He was their Creator. 08:09 And, of course, God put the test in the garden of Eden to see if 08:12 they would recognize Him as the Creator. 08:15 Clear command, clearly understood, easy to obey, 08:22 without any explanation as to why God gave it, 08:25 but explaining the consequences of eating from the tree. 08:30 Then, of course, the serpent comes into the garden. 08:34 Go with me to Genesis 3:1, Genesis 3:1. 08:40 It says there: Now the serpent was more cunning... 08:44 Jesus says that we're supposed to be wise as serpents. 09:04 Now it's very probable that God had warned Adam and Eve 09:11 that there was an angel who had fallen from heaven who was going 09:15 to come to the garden to tempt them. 09:16 You say, how do you know that? 09:19 Well, we can only deduce that from circumstantial evidence. 09:26 Have you ever stopped to think about why Satan would use 09:31 a serpent to try and get Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge 09:35 of good and evil? Why didn't he just come as an angel and say 09:40 to Eve, you know God has sent me down to the garden to tell you 09:43 that He's changed His mind. 09:45 You can eat from any tree, including from this tree. 09:48 Why didn't the devil come down as an angel such as he was? 09:53 Why did he use a serpent as his medium to try and convince Eve 09:59 to eat? Perhaps it was because Eve was expecting an angel. 10:04 And so the devil says, I can't come as an angel. 10:07 I have to use a more careful, planned specious way 10:14 of deceiving her. By the way, it's virtually certain that 10:17 the serpent at this time had wings. 10:20 There's three reasons for this. 10:22 1. Isaiah 14:29 speaks of serpents with wings. 10:26 2. In all of the ancient inscriptions of Egypt, 10:32 and these ancient cultures: Babylon, Assyria, you'll find in 10:36 caves and in tablets that have been on Earth, 10:39 serpents depicted with wings. 10:42 But the third and most important reason is the fact that God, 10:48 when the serpent allowed itself to be used as an instrument 10:52 of temptation, God said to the serpent, from now on you will 10:56 drag yourself on the earth, and you will eat dust. 10:59 That would not have been any punishment unless the serpent 11:03 was not dragging himself before this. 11:06 And so the ancient depictions in the caves are really a memory of 11:12 this original event that took place in the garden of Eden. 11:16 And so you have this serpent coming to Eve in the garden. 11:21 Now I don't need to go through the whole story 11:24 of the temptation and the fall, although we're going to examine 11:26 certain aspects of it in our study today. 11:31 What I want to do is go to Genesis 3:13. 11:35 This is after Eve has sinned, and God is asking her to render 11:40 an account for what she's done. 11:42 And I want you to notice what Eve says, Genesis 3:13. 12:03 What did the serpent do? 12:05 The serpent deceived her. 12:08 Now lets talk about that word deceived. 12:12 By the way, I like the way the King James expresses it: 12:15 beguiled me. That's an old English word that we seldom use 12:21 anymore. It really means deception. 12:24 And so Eve says, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. 12:29 Now let me ask you a question, What do you need to do 12:33 in order to deceive someone? 12:39 What's at the foundation of every act of deception? 12:44 What's that? Dialogue. 12:46 What else? Lying. 12:49 I hear several of you saying, lying. 12:51 Okay, now look at me. 12:54 If you don't want to participate in this experiment don't look 12:57 at me. I'm going to deceive you right now. Okay? 13:02 Everybody looking forward. 13:04 I'm going to deceive you. 13:05 You see this suit? This suit is red. 13:14 Right, Norma? It's red. 13:17 Oh, is she ever deceived easily. 13:19 Or else she's color blind. 13:22 Let me ask you, how many of you were deceived by what I said? 13:27 Just Norma. Why weren't you? 13:31 I lied, didn't I? Didn't I lie? 13:33 Of course, I lied. Why weren't you deceived by my lie? 13:37 Because my lie was absolutely obvious. 13:42 It was a huge lie. 13:45 I mean you could see through it instantly. 13:47 Do you know which lies deceive people? 13:50 The lies that are closest to the truth. 13:53 When you make a lie as close to the truth as possible, 14:00 that's when the lie becomes dangerous. 14:04 And we're going to find that that's exactly what Satan did. 14:10 By the way, what comes first, the genuine 14:15 and then the counterfeit, or the counterfeit 14:18 and then the genuine. 14:19 In time, what comes first? 14:22 What comes first is the genuine, and then you have what? 14:26 The counterfeit. Allow me to give you an illustration. 14:30 How many of you have ever seen a counterfeit six dollar bill? 14:36 Yeah, you haven't seen a counterfeit six dollar bill? 14:41 No? Neither have I. 14:45 Let me ask you, why isn't there a counterfeit six dollar bill? 14:50 Because there is not a genuine six dollar bill before. 14:55 In order to falsify something, that something has to exist 15:01 first. So the genuine comes first, and then afterwards comes 15:07 the counterfeit. And listen up, everything that God has genuine 15:10 Satan has a counterfeit. 15:13 Now let me ask you, how can you distinguish a counterfeit from 15:17 the genuine? The only way is knowing what? 15:22 Knowing the genuine will help you detect the counterfeit. 15:27 So three ideas: the greatest counterfeits are those who 15:33 appear closest to the truth. 15:34 2. The genuine comes first, and then afterwards 15:40 comes the counterfeit. 15:41 Correct? Are you all agreed with me? 15:44 3. Is what? How do you detect a counterfeit? 15:52 By knowing what? By knowing the genuine. 16:01 Very good. Now let me give you an illustration. 16:02 For six years of my life I had the privilege of teaching in a 16:07 university in the city of Medellin, Columbia. 16:10 I love that place. 16:12 We visit there every year or so. 16:17 My wife has relatives who live down in Medellin. 16:20 I taught there for six years. 16:21 One day I went downtown to a store, department store, 16:27 kind of life Wal-Mart. 16:29 Let's give K-Mart some credit, too. 16:31 Okay, kind of like K-Mart, and when I went to the cash register 16:38 I took out a 5,000 peso bill, and I paid with the 5,000 16:44 peso bill. Immediately the girl at the cash register 16:49 took the bill, and she looked at it in the light. 16:52 She crumbled it in her hand. 16:54 And she had a little black light there and she put it underneath. 17:00 And she gave a signal to a couple of police officers, 17:05 and she said, come over here. 17:07 This man has given me a counterfeit 5,000 peso bill. 17:11 Now you need to understand that down there you're guilty 17:14 until proven innocent. 17:15 It's a totally different thing than it is here 17:18 in the United States. 17:19 And so they took me to a back room in that store, 17:22 and they started interrogating me. 17:24 They said, Where did you get this 5,000 peso bill? 17:28 Well, I said, I have no idea. 17:29 You know, I didn't check it out. 17:30 I just had it in my pocket when I paid. 17:31 They said, Where do you have the machinery? 17:35 I said, I don't have any machinery. 17:37 And so one of them says to me, Where do you live? 17:41 What do you do for a living? 17:42 And I said, Well, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist Pastor, 17:45 and I teach at our university here. 17:50 He said, Oh really? Wow! 17:56 That's a good university. 17:58 I know lots of people from there. 18:00 Those are good people. 18:01 Boy, I was feeling a lot better now. 18:03 You know, knowing that this police officer had a positive 18:07 opinion of our school. 18:09 And so he says to me, Look, lets go to the cash register 18:14 and I'm going to show you something which is going to 18:17 keep you from going through this experience again. 18:19 So I went to the cash register with the counterfeit bill, 18:23 and he asked the cashier for a genuine 5,000 peso bill. 18:27 And he showed me the counterfeit. 18:29 He said, Look at the counterfeit in the light. 18:31 Do you see there's no brown line running through it. 18:33 Then he put the genuine up in the light, 18:36 and it had a brown line. 18:37 And sure enough, I said, Isn't that interesting? 18:40 So then he took a counterfeit 5,000 peso bill and he crumpled 18:43 it up in his hand, and it stayed crumpled. 18:46 He took the genuine 5,000 peso bill and he crumpled it in his 18:50 hand, and it started opening, kind of like the flowers; 18:52 a different kind of paper. 18:53 And then he put it up in the light and he says, Look at the 18:57 face of Simon Bolivar, which is the equivalent of 19:00 George Washington. 19:01 Do you see that it's nice and clear? 19:02 His face is nice and clear on the genuine bill? 19:04 I said, yeah, it looks pretty clear. 19:06 So then he put up the counterfeit one, and he says, 19:08 Do you see the face is not very clear at all? 19:10 I said, sure, I noticed that. 19:12 I can see now. And then he took the counterfeit bill and he put 19:17 it under the black light and nothing happened. 19:20 And he put the genuine bill underneath and the two circles 19:23 on the bill shone in a deep purple. 19:26 So I said, Oh, now I know how to distinguish a counterfeit 19:31 5,000 peso bill from a genuine 5,000 peso bill. 19:35 Let me ask you, How could I not now detect a counterfeit? 19:41 Because I knew the characteristics of the what? 19:44 of the genuine. You cannot detect a lie unless you know 19:49 the truth, especially when the truth and a lie are very, very 19:55 close together. And so when I went to pay at a store 19:58 after that, I would take out a 10,000 peso bill, 20:03 and I would pay. The cashier would take it and she would look 20:06 at it in the light, and she would check it all out, 20:10 and then when she gave me the change, I would take the bill, 20:14 and I would look at the bill in the light. 20:16 And one day one of the cashiers says to me, What's the matter? 20:19 Don't you trust me? 20:20 And I said, I trust you as much as you trust me. 20:26 I wasn't about to be deceived again, because I knew from the 20:32 genuine bill how to detect a counterfeit. 20:36 And by the way, there could not be a counterfeit 5,000 peso 20:42 bill unless there was a genuine one before. 20:44 Is that correct? And the genius of the counterfeiters is to make 20:50 the counterfeit as close as possible to the genuine. 20:54 So when Eve says that the serpent beguiled her, 21:01 or deceived her, he deceived her because he made the 21:05 counterfeit appear very, very close to the genuine. 21:11 By the way, 2 Corinthians 11:3 says that the serpent deceived 21:16 Eve by his subtlety. 21:18 Revelation 12:9, if you go with me there, Revelation 12:9 21:25 speaks about the devil in the end time. 21:27 Revelation 12:9. We've read this verse before. It says: 21:38 Who does what? 21:49 Notice that this is speaking about the end time. 21:51 It says he deceives the whole world. 21:54 Let me ask you, is he going to use the same methods 21:57 of deception at the end as he used at the beginning? 22:01 I believe, absolutely, yes. 22:04 Now we're going to study in our lecture five methods 22:09 that the devil used at the very beginning of human history 22:14 which he is using now, and he's going to use more and more 22:18 as we near the end of time. 22:21 Let's go to his first method of deception in the garden of Eden. 22:26 Genesis 3:1, Genesis 3:1. It says there: 22:45 Now let's stop there for a moment. 22:46 He said to the woman. 22:49 How many of you have ever seen a talking snake? 22:52 If you went to a zoo and you were looking in a snake cage, 23:02 and suddenly the snake in the cage lifted his head and said, 23:06 Good morning, Steve. 23:08 What would you do? 23:10 I guarantee that you would run, because for a snake to speak 23:16 would be a miracle. 23:19 It is a sign, it is a wonder. 23:21 The serpent could not speak. 23:25 In other words, the first thing that the devil does is perform 23:29 a counterfeit miracle, a sign or a wonder. 23:35 He gave the serpent the capacity to what? 23:38 The serpent the capacity to speak. 23:41 Now let me ask you, is that what the devil is going to do 23:45 in the end time according to Bible prophecy? 23:49 Let's go to John 6 just for a moment, and notice that the 23:54 same thing happened during the ministry of Christ when He came 23:57 to this earth the first time. 23:59 Do you know why many people followed Christ when He came 24:01 to this earth the first time? 24:02 Because He was a great what? 24:06 Because He was a great miracle worker. 24:09 People love to follow signs, and wonders, and miracles. 24:13 Notice John 6:2. 24:21 For what reason? 24:31 What was the reason they followed Jesus? 24:34 Because of all of the signs, and wonders, and miracles that Jesus 24:38 performed. And then, of course, Jesus feeds 5,000. 24:41 The people are liking this. 24:42 They're saying, this is great! 24:43 And He has multitudes following Him. 24:46 But then Jesus starts preaching. 24:48 You can read it there in chapter 6. 24:51 And He says some very unpopular things that they don't like, 24:55 like you've got to eat my flesh, and drink my blood. 24:57 He's saying that you actually need to assimilate Me 25:01 through a study of the Word. 25:02 You need to obey the Word. 25:04 And when Jesus finishes His sermon, notice John 6:66, 25:10 how many people are left? 25:12 John 6:66, It says here: From that time many of his disciples 25:23 went back and walked with him no more. 25:27 And you continue reading to verse 71 and you'll discover 25:32 that only His disciples were left when the miracles 25:37 came to an end, and Jesus started preaching the truth, 25:40 what happened to the multitudes? 25:42 The multitudes left, because people want signs and wonders. 25:48 They don't want to follow the Word, because the Word crosses 25:53 many times their lifestyle, and their tastes, 25:55 and what they like. 25:56 Now notice also 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:9. 26:06 This is speaking about the end time anti-Christ. 26:08 Have you ever heard about the coming of the 26:11 anti-Christ at the end of time? 26:12 Notice what he's going to do when he comes. 26:15 2 Thessalonians 2:9. It says: 26:26 Now notice this. 26:35 How is this emissary of Satan going to come? 26:39 He's going to come with power, signs, and what? 26:43 and lying wonders. 26:45 Now listen to what I'm going to say. 26:46 There is only one other verse in all of the Bible that uses these 26:51 three words, which, by the way, here the words are power, 26:57 signs, and wonders. 26:58 There's only one other verse in the Bible that uses 27:01 those three words together. 27:02 Go with me to Acts 2:22, Acts 2:22. 27:09 I want you to notice who is doing these signs and wonders 27:13 in Acts 2, and, by the way, they're not translated the same, 27:15 but they are the identical three Greek words. 27:19 It says there in Acts 2:22, Peter here is speaking. 27:39 The identical three words. 27:47 According to this verse who performed miracles, wonders, 27:50 and signs? Jesus did by the power of whom? 27:54 by the power of God. 27:56 Is the anti-Christ going to do many of the same things 28:00 that Jesus did according to this? 28:01 Yes or no? If 2 Thessalonians 2:9 uses the same three words, 28:09 and it says that the anti-Christ is going to perform signs, 28:12 miracles, and wonders, it must be that the anti-Christ is going 28:16 to be able to counterfeit many of the signs and wonders 28:21 that Jesus performed. 28:22 And, of course, people who go by signs, and wonders, and miracles 28:28 rather than what God's Word teaches will be easily deceived. 28:33 Go with me to Matthew 7, Matthew 7 on this same point. 28:38 We're dealing with the first way in which the devil deceives, 28:41 and that is by performing signs; counterfeit signs and wonders, 28:46 and miracles. We know the snake could not talk. 28:49 The serpent could not talk, but the devil gave him 28:53 the miraculous ability, counterfeit ability, to speak. 28:57 It says in Matthew 7 beginning with verse 22, listen to this: 29:16 Are these Christians? 29:19 How do we know they're Christians? 29:21 Because they're doing it in the name of Jesus. 29:27 Cast out demons in Your name? 29:50 What was their problem? 29:53 They claimed the name of Jesus. 29:56 They performed signs. 29:58 They gave prophecies. 29:59 They did miracles. 30:01 They professed the name of Jesus. 30:03 But Jesus says, I never knew you. 30:06 Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. 30:10 They had problems with what? with the law of God, 30:15 because they were lawless. 30:17 And so Satan's first method in deceiving Eve, and in deceiving 30:24 the world at the end, is to perform signs, and miracles, 30:28 and wonders that are counterfeits of the true. 30:33 And, by the way, if you read Matthew 24, listen to what I'm 30:36 going to say, Matthew 24:23-27, you're going to discover 30:41 that the devil is even going to counterfeit 30:44 the second coming of Jesus. 30:45 Once someone said to me, I don't really care how Jesus is coming, 30:52 I only care that He's coming. 30:54 Well, let me tell you something, if you don't know how Jesus 30:59 is coming, you'll probably receive the wrong Jesus, 31:03 because Matthew 24 says we have to know how Jesus will come. 31:10 So that's the first method. 31:13 Second method: Go with me to Genesis 3:1 again. 31:17 Genesis 3:1, here it says: 31:39 Is the serpent claiming to quote the Word of God? 31:42 Is the serpent claiming to quote the Word of God? yes or no? 31:47 Of course he is. Is he quoting it correctly, 31:50 or is he twisting it? 31:54 He's giving it a twist because he's saying, God told you that 31:59 you can't eat of any tree of the garden, right? 32:01 And Eve immediately says, No, that's not exactly what God has 32:05 said. God has said that we can eat from all of the trees except 32:09 for this one. Does the devil here misquote God's Word? 32:14 He most certainly does. 32:16 The devil's second method, which he revealed from the very 32:20 beginning, is that he is going to add, he is going to take 32:24 away, he's going to embellish, he's going to take scripture 32:28 out of context, and he's going to change the meaning 32:32 of God's words, and he's going to lead people to add 32:35 to God's words like Eve did. 32:37 Oh, God has told us that we not only can't eat from the tree, 32:42 but He said that we can't even touch it. 32:44 That's not what God had said. 32:45 So Eve adds to the Word, and the serpent gives the words 32:50 of God a wrong twist. 32:52 In other words he misinterprets the words of God. 32:55 Is it just possible that in the end time the devil is going 33:00 to do the same thing with the Word of God? 33:03 That he's going to add, subtract, misquote, change, 33:08 take things out of context, in order to deceive people with 33:12 the very Word that they claimed to follow? 33:15 I believe so. Now how did Jesus face the devil in 33:21 the mount of temptation? 33:22 Matthew 4:3, 4 says the tempter came to Jesus, 33:27 and he said to Jesus, Listen, if you are the Son of God, 33:32 do what? Turn these stones into bread. 33:39 How did Jesus answer? 33:41 Jesus answered, Man shall not live by bread alone, 33:47 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 33:52 How did Jesus answer Satan? 33:54 He answered Satan with the Word of God. 33:57 He did not allow Himself to be deceived. 34:00 He used the Word of God as His protection. 34:02 By the way, after the first temptation the devil learned 34:06 something. He says, Oh, this is the man who likes to live by 34:09 the Word of God, huh? okay. 34:10 So in the second temptation he takes Him to the temple tower, 34:15 and he says, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. 34:22 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you, 34:27 and they shall take you in their hands lest your foot 34:34 crash into the ground, into the stones. 34:38 Now what did the devil do? 34:42 He says, You like to live by it is written? 34:44 He says, jump! It is written that God is going to protect 34:50 you. And, by the way, do you notice that he quoted from 34:56 Psalm 91:11, 12? And he did not misquote the Word. 35:01 He quoted it correctly. 35:04 It is a correct quotation from the Psalms. 35:07 And so you say, well, the devil quoted it right. 35:11 Yes, but we need to notice something. 35:14 The devil quoted verses 11 and 12, but he forgot to quote 35:18 verses 1 and 2. What do verses 1 and 2 have to say 35:26 in this Psalm. Let's notice. 35:27 Psalm 91:1, 2, Psalm 91:1, 2. 35:35 This is the condition for Jesus claiming the promise. 35:38 It says there, Psalm 91:1, 2, He who dwells in the secret 35:44 place of the Most High, shall abide under the 35:47 shadow of the Almighty. 35:49 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress, my God 35:56 in whom I will trust. 35:57 If Jesus had jumped from the temple tower, would He have 36:02 been abiding under the shadow of the Almighty? 36:05 Would He have been obeying His Father, if He had jumped 36:09 from the temple tower? 36:10 Absolutely not. Do you know, this was the sin of presumption. 36:14 Presumption is claiming the promises of God in disobedience. 36:22 In other words, it's the devil telling Jesus, jump from the 36:25 temple tower, when God hasn't told you to jump, and then you 36:30 can claim the promise that He's going to protect you. 36:34 It's kind of like a student who doesn't study for a test, 36:36 and when he gets to the desk he raises a prayer to God. 36:41 He says, Lord please help me pass this test. 36:43 That's presumption. 36:45 It's claiming God's help in disobedience. 36:47 It's kind of like praying before you go on a journey, 36:50 or on a trip. Please, Lord, protect me on this trip, 36:54 and then you drive 100 miles an hour! 36:57 You're claiming God's protection, and God's promise 37:00 in disobedience. That's what the devil is doing. 37:02 He's saying, claim God's Word, but you can disobey Him 37:07 in the process. And so the devil can quote God's Word. 37:11 He can misquote God's Word. 37:13 He can take God's Word out of context. 37:16 He can quote only part of a verse to make you think that 37:20 the Bible is teaching one thing, when the Bible is teaching 37:23 something very different. 37:25 You know, many people do this with the writings of the apostle 37:29 Paul. Do you know that Peter says that the apostle Paul wrote 37:33 many things that are difficult to be understood, 37:35 which the unlearned twist, along with the other scriptures, 37:42 for their own destruction. 37:44 That's what Peter says about Paul. 37:47 He doesn't blame Paul for being complicated in his writing. 37:49 He says that those who are unlearned twist 37:53 to their own destruction. 37:54 In other words, there are many individuals who are in the 37:57 church today who twist scripture. 37:59 Let me give you three examples. 38:00 And I'm not going to look up these verses. 38:02 I'm just going to mention them. 38:03 Romans 3:28 where it says that man is justified by faith, 38:08 without works of law. 38:12 And so people say, Oh, see, we're justified by faith 38:15 without works of the law. 38:16 Our works make absolutely no difference. 38:21 But if they just read in verse 31, just three verses further 38:27 down, they would discover that that's not what the apostle Paul 38:29 is trying to teach. 38:30 He says, what do we do then? 38:33 Do we get rid of the law because of faith? 38:38 He says, No, we don't get rid of the law, we what? 38:42 we establish the law. 38:44 And then there's that famous verse in Romans 5:20, 38:49 where the apostle Paul says, Where sin abounded, 38:52 grace did much more abound. 38:54 And so the conclusion is, if there's a lot of grace, 38:59 where there's a lot of sin, let's sin a lot so there's 39:02 a lot of grace. I've heard some Christians say that. 39:05 The apostle Paul knew that they were going to say that. 39:09 And, therefore, in the book of Romans 6:1, the apostle Paul 39:14 says, What shall we say then? 39:16 Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 39:19 Certainly not! How shall we, who died to sin, live any longer 39:27 in it? Did the apostle Paul know that someone was going to take 39:30 that text? He most certainly did. 39:32 And then there's the famous text in Romans 6:14, 39:37 where it says, You are not under law. 39:39 You are under grace. 39:40 And that's a beautiful verse. 39:42 So some people take it and they say, because I'm not under law, 39:45 I'm under grace. I don't have to keep the law. 39:48 Is that what the apostle Paul is trying to teach? 39:51 Notice the apostle Paul knew that somebody was going to 39:55 use it that way. And so in the very next verse the apostle Paul 39:59 says this in Romans 6:15: What then, shall we sin because 40:05 we are not under the law, but under grace? Certainly not! 40:11 So when people say, Well, I'm not under law, I'm under grace, 40:15 and they quote Romans 6:14. 40:18 All I do is I tell them, Would you, please 40:20 read verse 15 as well? 40:23 When they quote Romans 5:20 I say, Would you continue 40:26 reading Romans 6:1, 2? 40:29 When they quote Romans 3:20, I say, Would you please read 40:32 down to verse 31? You see, the devil has led even Christians 40:39 to misquote scriptures, and to defend certain actions in their 40:45 lives based on a wrong interpretation 40:48 of Holy Scripture. Now we have to move on here. 40:51 Let's go to our third method of deception. 40:53 What is the first method of deception? 40:57 Signs, wonders, false counterfeit miracles. 41:00 2. To play games with the Word of God. 41:04 3. Genesis 3:4-6. Then the serpent said to the woman, 41:16 You will not surely die. 41:19 What is he saying about God there? 41:21 God is a what? God's a liar. 41:24 You will not surely die. 41:34 What is the devil saying there to Eve? 41:36 God wants you to be what? 41:40 God wants you to be blind. 41:41 He wants blind service. 41:42 God says that He's your Creator. 41:44 Do you have any proof of that, by the way, Eve, 41:46 that God was actually your Creator? 41:49 God has told you not to eat from this tree, 41:53 but it's not because He's your Creator, it's really because 41:58 He does not want any rival god's around. 42:01 Let's continue reading. 42:03 Notice verse 5. It says in Genesis 3:5: For God knows 42:10 that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. 42:15 In other words, God had you blind right now. 42:17 And you will be like what? 42:19 Like God, knowing good and evil. 42:23 Who is the absolute arbiter of right and wrong, good and evil? 42:25 Who defines what is good, and who defines what is evil? 42:28 God does, correct? Do you need God's guidance to know what 42:33 is good and what is evil? 42:34 Is that standard outside yourself? 42:37 It's found in the law of God. 42:39 God defines good and evil outside of us in His Holy Law. 42:43 Do you know what the devil is saying to Eve? 42:44 He's saying, God has told you that if you eat from this tree, 42:46 you're going to die. 42:48 Do you know why God told you that? 42:49 Because God is trying to intimidate you. 42:52 Because He knows that if you eat from this tree, 42:56 you're going to be like Him. 42:57 And He doesn't want any rivals around. 43:00 Is that what he's really saying? 43:01 Think of it! He's saying God knows that the day you 43:06 eat of this tree, you're going to be like God. 43:09 You're going to be just like Him. 43:10 And God doesn't want any other gods around. 43:13 You're not going to die. 43:15 God has intimidated you because He doesn't want anyone around 43:18 like Him. He wants to have all the power. 43:20 He wants to be the head honcho. 43:22 And He wants everybody to render Him blind service. 43:25 Are you understanding what the devil is really saying? 43:27 He's saying, You can be your own definer of good and evil. 43:31 You will be like God, knowing good and evil, without God 43:34 telling you what is good and what is evil. 43:37 The third method that the devil uses is playing mind games 43:41 with us; lead us to follow our own logic, our own reasoning, 43:48 which might appear very logical because Eve is thinking, 43:52 you know, really God didn't explain to us the reason why 43:55 we weren't supposed to eat from the tree, other than to say that 43:59 we were going to die. 44:00 Now I have the explanation. 44:02 Now I understand. 44:03 It's because God doesn't want anybody like Him around. 44:06 Now I know that God was lying to us. 44:09 What is the devil doing with the mind of Eve? 44:12 The devil is playing what? 44:15 He's playing mind games with Eve. 44:18 He's leading her to follow her impressions, her logic, 44:22 her intuition, instead of following what God said 44:26 in His Holy Word. 44:28 Now allow me to say that many Christians follow their heart, 44:33 and their mind, in place of what God has said in His Holy Word. 44:39 Let me just mention a few things here. 44:42 Do you know the apostle Paul says in Romans 12:9 that our 44:46 love should be without dissimulation. 44:48 Now that's a word that we don't use much in English. 44:51 Love should be without dissimulation. 44:52 That means that love should be without faking. 44:58 Is there such a thing as false love that comes from inside 45:03 our hearts? Is there such a thing that is really 45:05 sentimentalism. It's not really love? 45:07 Absolutely! Have you ever found a young man that courts a woman, 45:12 you know, and he's all sweetness, 45:16 and, you know, buys her presents, 45:17 and does this, and does that, and courts her and everything. 45:20 And when they get married he's a wife beater? 45:23 Have you ever heard of those kind? 45:26 Individuals who feign love, but it's counterfeit love? 45:32 Now let me ask you, how can you know whether love 45:35 is true or false? Is it by what your mind tells you, 45:37 by what your heart tells you, or by some other external standard? 45:41 We read Romans 13:10 where the apostle Paul says that 45:48 love is the what? Love is the fulfilling of the law. 45:52 What is the true definition of love? 45:56 Love is the fulfilling of the law. 46:01 Many Christians want to separate love and law. 46:03 They say, you know, I don't go by the law, I go by love. 46:08 Well, the fact is that love is implementing the law 46:14 in the life, because the law is a law of love, 46:17 as we've already studied in this seminar. 46:19 So to go by an internal standard, by feelings, 46:22 and by emotions, and by our reasoning, and by our thinking, 46:26 by our mind, instead of going by what God says, 46:29 is a dangerous endeavor. 46:31 Some Christians say, well, I go by what the Holy Spirit says 46:35 inside of me. Do we need to check out the voice of the Holy 46:42 Spirit? Yes. Do you know that someone came to me once. 46:46 It was a church member, not from here but from another place. 46:51 He says to me, Pastor I've been praying to the Lord to reveal 46:56 to me whether I should separate from my wife, 46:58 and marry this other woman. 47:01 I looked at him and I said, Has your wife 47:03 been unfaithful to you? No. 47:09 Does she mistreat you? No. 47:12 So why would you want to separate from her? 47:15 Well, because I don't love her anymore. 47:18 So I looked at him and I said, Listen, don't bother to pray 47:25 anymore, because the Holy Spirit isn't going to tell you 47:30 to separate from you wife and marry this other woman 47:33 when the Bible says that the only reason for divorce 47:36 and remarriage is adultery. 47:37 See, God gives you the standard. 47:40 Don't follow your heart, follow what God says. 47:43 Don't follow your mind, follow what God says. 47:48 In fact Jesus said in John 14: 15, 16, He says very clearly 47:54 there, If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will 48:01 pray to the Father and He will give you another counselor. 48:04 Now do you see the sequence there? 48:07 First it's loving Jesus. 48:09 He says, If you love Me you will what? 48:11 You will keep my commandments, and if you love Me and keep My 48:16 commandments, I will pray to the Father and He will give you 48:21 another counselor. And what is the name of that counselor? 48:23 It is the Holy Spirit. 48:25 The Holy Spirit was never meant to take the place of obedience. 48:29 1 John says, He who says I know Him, and does not keep His 48:36 commandments is a liar. 48:39 1 John 5:3 says, this is the love of God, that we keep His 48:47 commandments. And then he goes on to say, and His commandments 48:51 are not grievous, and they're not burdensome, in other words. 48:57 You know, only the unregenerate man looks upon the commandments 49:01 as being grievous, and a heavy load, and a burden. 49:04 Those who love Jesus will delight to do the will of God. 49:09 In fact, in Psalm 40:8 Jesus says, in a prophecy 49:14 that is given before His birth, I delight to do Your will. 49:18 Your law is written where? 49:20 Your law is written in my heart. 49:24 So Satan's third method is to lead us to follow our reasoning, 49:29 our logic, our mind, our heart, an internal standard, 49:34 instead of following what God says in His Holy Word. 49:40 Now we need to move on to the devil's fourth method. 49:42 Go with me to Genesis 3 again, and I want to read verse 6. 50:12 Let me ask you, are her senses involved here? 50:14 What is she following here? 50:17 She's following her senses. 50:20 She sees that the fruit looks luscious. 50:25 She takes the fruit, she touches the fruit. 50:28 She's hearing what the serpent is saying. 50:33 She even tastes the fruit. 50:37 The devil's fourth method is to lead us to follow the testimony 50:41 of our senses: our eyes, our ears, our touch, instead of 50:49 strictly doing what God has said in His Holy Word. 50:52 And we have many examples of this in scripture. 50:56 You know, we have the example of Sampson you can read in 51:00 Judges 14:2, 3. You know he says to his parents, 51:03 I want this woman from Timnath. 51:05 It wasn't Delilah. It was another Philistine woman. 51:08 Sampson had this problem. 51:09 He said, I want her. 51:11 The parents say, don't you think you should get a Hebrew? 51:13 He says, Oh no, get her for me for she's pleasant to my eyes. 51:17 Since when are your eyes a good guide? 51:22 That's a big mistake that many young people make today. 51:24 They go by what their eyes say instead of going by what 51:29 God says in His Holy Word. 51:31 What a contrast with Joseph. 51:35 He sees this beautiful woman. 51:37 You can read it in Genesis 39:9. 51:39 You know, he could have gone by what his eyes said, 51:42 and by what his ears said, because she really talked sweet. 51:45 You can read it there in Genesis 39. 51:48 He could have said, wow, this is amazing, 51:49 and could have gone after her. 51:51 But what did Joseph say? 51:52 He says, How can I commit this terrible sin against God? 52:01 What was the standard of behavior for Joseph? 52:04 It was what? It was obeying the will of God as revealed 52:12 in His law, as revealed in His Word. 52:17 Then, of course, you have the story of David. 52:20 It says, He went out onto the balcony of the palace one day, 52:22 and he was looking out, and he sees this woman bathing. 52:24 She was naked. 52:26 He should have turned away immediately, but he followed 52:31 the testimony of his eyes. 52:33 And this eventually led to the act of adultery. 52:36 And it led to the act of murder. 52:40 Because he followed the testimony of his senses 52:43 instead of following the Word of God. 52:46 You see, the Bible says that we live by faith, not by sight. 52:51 All of the Hebrew heroes that are found in Hebrews 11, 52:58 lived by the Word of God, even when logic told them that it 53:02 was ridiculous to do so. 53:03 For example, God tells Noah, I'm going to send a flood to 53:06 the world. Build me a boat. 53:08 It had never rained! 53:09 We're going to study about Noah in a couple of lectures. 53:13 God says, build a boat, because I'm going to make it rain. 53:16 Rain? What's that Lord? 53:17 He didn't know what rain was. 53:19 And yet God said, I'm going to flood the world. 53:22 Noah believed what God said, even though he could not see 53:27 the rain. He'd never seen the rain. 53:28 He'd never heard rain. 53:30 And he built the boat because he trusted God. 53:33 God told Abraham, Leave your land. 53:36 I'm going to take you to another land. 53:37 You don't know where I'm taking you yet, but just obey Me. 53:39 Abraham left. God told Moses, I want you to lead the children 53:44 of Israel out of Egypt, and not stay and become the next 53:49 Pharaoh, and have all of the riches, the pyramids, 53:52 and all of the fame in the world. 53:53 I want you to go out with these people who are going to 53:55 criticize your every move, who are going to want to kill you. 53:58 You'll have to put up with heat and with snakes, 54:00 with lack of water, and all of these things. 54:03 If Moses had gone by what his senses told him, 54:07 he would have fallen in a minute. 54:08 But Moses obeyed the Word of God. 54:11 In other words, faith means obeying what God says 54:16 implicitly, no matter what. 54:18 Now we need to go to our last method. 54:22 It's found in Genesis 3:6. 54:25 We won't have a lot of time to deal with this one. 54:28 It says in Genesis 3:6, So when the woman saw that the tree was 54:34 good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 54:38 and a tree to be desired to make one wise,... 54:42 Now notice this. 54:43 ...she took of its fruit and ate. 54:44 She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. 54:49 Do you know what the final method of deception of Satan is? 54:54 Using people to tempt other people. 55:01 The devil did not tempt Adam directly. 55:05 He tempted Eve. And, by the way, 1 Timothy 2:14 says that 55:10 Eve was deceived. Adam was not deceived. 55:12 Adam knew that Eve had done wrong, but he could not stand 55:18 the idea of living without Eve, so he gave in 55:21 to the peer pressure. 55:22 The devil's last method is the method of using people 55:28 to pressure us into committing wrong acts, as he used Eve 55:36 to tempt Adam. That's why Jesus says, Anyone who loves father or 55:41 Mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me. 55:44 And He says the day is coming when one's enemies will be those 55:49 of his own household. 55:52 So if we give in by pressure or pulls, or the majority, 55:56 we're going to be on the wrong side. 55:59 We have to trust God. 56:02 So we have the devil's five methods revealed in Genesis: 56:09 Counterfeit signs and wonders, misusing and abusing 56:14 the Word of God, leading us to follow the testimony 56:18 of our senses, leading us to follow the logic of our mind, 56:23 and follow the feeling of our hearts, and our intuitions, 56:27 and using people to tempt other people into doing evil. 56:33 Do you know what Eve should have done? 56:35 She should have said, Listen, what you say sounds logical. 56:40 I didn't know that snakes could talk. 56:43 The fruit looks delicious. 56:47 There's only one problem and that is that God has said, 56:51 Don't eat, and we live by every word that proceeds 56:58 out of the mouth of God. 57:01 Folks our only protection in the end time is going to be 57:07 to read the Word, understand the Word, 57:10 and live by the Word of God. 57:14 We cannot trust miracles. 57:16 We cannot trust other's interpretations of scripture. 57:20 We cannot trust our senses. 57:22 We cannot trust our reason. 57:24 We cannot trust others; only the Word of God. |
Revised 2023-10-07