Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): How can we overcome Satan and his lies? Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: On the cross, Satan's back was broken. His lies are exposed. He's shown to be what he is: a fake, a fraud, an imposter. And you're never going to overcome Satan and his lies until you come to Jesus.

Have you been to Calvary? Has the blood of the Lamb, the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, become a covering for your sins?

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the timeless teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. Our enemy's favorite deception tactic is to cleverly craft subtle lies about the biggest truths. In part one of today's message, we learned that Satan's first two lies are that God is not loving or truthful. He wants us to think God is cruel. But all throughout Scripture, we are reminded that God does not take away joy, He gives it.

He also wants us to think skeptically about God to remove God's word from our minds so he can slip in other ideas to replace them. It's subtle, but once we can identify his lies, we can stand firm in the truth. If you have your Bible, turn now to Genesis chapter 3 as Adrian Rogers shares four lies that ruined the world.

Adrian Rogers: The title of the message today: Four Lies that Ruined the World. These are Satan's four biggest lies. Satan had rather you think a wrong thing, believe a lie, than to do a wrong thing. The thought is the father of the deed. It is more dangerous to believe a wrong thing than to do a wrong thing. You can do a wrong thing by mistake and the next time do the right thing. But if you believe a wrong thing, you keep doing the wrong thing over and over again, for the Bible says as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

The devil is the original liar. The devil is the master liar. The best lies sound the most like the truth. Those that are nearest to the truth and still a lie are the most dangerous. Satan, being a very clever liar, the master liar, wanting to do his work through a lie, which is murder, will tell a lie about the biggest subject. He is not interested in telling lies about little things. He wants you to believe lies about the biggest subject. God is the biggest subject.

Satan, being a very clever liar, wanting to do his work through a lie, will tell a lie about the biggest subject. If Satan can get your mind twisted about who God is and what God does and what God is like, then he's got you, because the thought is the father of the deed. A.W. Tozer, a great leader in the Christian and Missionary Alliance church, said—and I want you to listen to this quote—"No religion can rise higher than its concept of God." That is so true. No religion can rise higher than its concept of God.

Satan, in the very first book in the Bible, in the very first pages of history, is going to tell four big lies, and all of them are going to deal with the character of God. Satan does not want you to understand who God is. It may surprise you to learn that Satan is an evangelist. What Satan wants is not casualties; he wants converts over to his own ideas. Eve was his first convert. Rather than four spiritual laws, there are four spiritual flaws. Four lies that he wants Eve to believe. Eve takes the bait.

These lies are not just what Satan has done years ago. These are the four lies that you'll meet today and tomorrow. They're very fresh. They're very up-to-date. Satan may be double-faced, but he's not double-minded. He wants to do the same thing today that he has done always. Are you ready for these four big lies? Lie number one: God is not loving.

That's the first lie. Notice again in chapter 3 and verse 1, "Now the serpent," that's the devil, "was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'" What's he trying to do? He's trying to get Eve to think negatively about God. To get the idea that God is withholding goodness from her. Therefore, God Himself is not good. That God is severe. God is cruel.

Here's the beautiful garden of Eden, and God made it, and then God said you can't touch it, you can't eat of it. Of course, God had not said that they could not eat of the fruit of every tree of the garden. That was a lie. What had God said? Look in Genesis 2, verse 16. Just turn backward one chapter: "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat.'"

God said help yourself. Satan said God says you can't have it. Satan is trying to get Eve to think negatively about God. That God is cruel, God is harsh, God is unloving. If the devil can get you thinking negatively about God, he's already got you. That's the very first thing he did when he crawled his slimy path into history to get Eve to think negatively about God.

Lie number one: God is not good. Lie number two: God is not truthful. Notice he said in verse 1, "Hath God said?" That's a doubt. The doubt leads to a denial. Look in verses 2 through 4, "And the woman said unto the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.' But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 'Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.' And the serpent said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not surely die.'"

Verse 1, doubt. Now in verse 4, denial. You'll not die. You don't have to worry about God. First of all, Satan got Eve to think negatively about God. Then the next step is easy: to get Eve to think skeptically about God. Lie number one: God is not good. Lie number two: God is not truthful.

Satan had done in verse 1 is to put a question mark after the word of God. I want to say clearly and plainly that anyone who causes skepticism concerning the authority, the accuracy, the acceptability, the impeccability, the infallibility, the authenticity of the word of God is doing the work of the devil. I don't care what seminary he's in. I don't care what degrees he has. If he puts a doubt, a question mark, or a denial after the word of God, he is of the devil.

The devil is out to destroy the truthfulness of God. In today's society, we have substituted many things for God's word, but the most dangerous of all is something called postmodernism. Modernism would argue with conservatism about what is right or what is wrong. The postmodernist doesn't even bother to argue. The postmodernist doesn't even believe there is anything called truth.

He might believe that truth is everywhere, but no one truth is over against another truth. Somebody might say, "Look, you're into Buddha, I'm into Jesus. What is true for you is fine, that's your truth. What is true for me is fine, that's my truth." This is called postmodernism, and it's a big word for a lot of silliness and foolishness, but the devil doesn't want you to believe that God is the God of truth. He wants you to think negatively about God, then he wants you to think skeptically about God.

Lie number three: God is not righteous. Look in Genesis 3, verse 4: "And the serpent said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not surely die.'" That is, God is not really going to punish sin. There is no God of judgment. I want to tell you, friend, God is good, but God is also righteous. God is loving, yes, but God is righteous. If you preach the love of God to the exclusion of the holiness and the righteousness of God, you've only preached half of the truth.

When you take half of the truth and try to make half of the truth all of the truth, that half of the truth becomes an untruth. Satan is moving them along. Now since you don't believe that there is the God of the Bible who is good and loving, and since you don't believe that the God of the Bible is truthful or the Bible, the word is true, then you don't have to worry anymore about judgment.

When God gave the Ten Commandments, God was not giving advice, He was giving law. Law without penalty is only advice. There are a lot of people today who take these things of pragmatism, rationalism, subjectivism, and they do away with the idea of eternal punishment. I would be unfair to you as a preacher if I did not tell you there is an eternal hell. If you die without Jesus Christ, you're going to die and go to hell.

There is a fiery, burning hell, H-E-L-L, for those who reject Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. You say that's un-American. It may be. I have an idea that if the Supreme Court could vote on it, they would outlaw hell as cruel and unusual punishment. God has no right, God has no authority to do that. But God is a righteous God, and God will not let one half of one sin go unpunished.

New Ageism comes out of the idea that you will not surely die. The New Age is just a blend of Eastern religions that's come into America today. Satan knows that man fears death. That's the reason some believe in reincarnation. You'd be surprised how many people in evangelical churches say they believe in reincarnation. That you just keep going round and round and you get as many chances as you need.

The New Age has no personal God who's going to judge. These people believe that men and animals are all interrelated and we're all transmigrating. If your karma is good, you keep moving up high, and if your karma is bad, you move down. In your next life, you might be a worm. Or you might be a cow or a spider. That's the reason many of them are vegetarians. They won't go to McDonald's afraid they might be eating their grandmother.

They believe this stuff! Finally, one day, if your karma is good enough, you reach Nirvana. But they reject the idea of a righteous God, a God of judgment. Their imaginary God says that God is too good to punish sin. Friend, God is too good not to punish sin. God is righteous! The devil would have the idea that you can sin with impunity. Friend, God is good. God is truthful. God is righteous.

These truths are being taken away from our society. These are big lies on which the other lies are built. Lie number four: God is not gracious. Look in verses 4 and 5: "And the serpent said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.'"

What he was saying in effect is, since God is not good, since God is not truthful, and since God is not righteous, you need not to fear Him. You need to be your own God. You need to experiment a little bit. You need to work your way up until you are as God. Eve, you can never be capable of being all that you ought to be until you become autonomous. You don't need to depend upon God. This idea of God is cramping your style.

God came to set every woman free, and every man free, every boy and girl free because He is a God of grace. Notice I said the best lie sounds so much like the truth. He said, "God does know that in the day that you eat, then your eyes will be opened, and you will be as God." That's what Satan wanted to do to begin with. He wanted to be as God.

Satan says you be your own God. Your own autonomous God. You have your own way. What does God's grace want us to be? God's grace wants us to be like Him. God created us in His image so He could have fellowship with us, as talked about in Revelation chapter 22 and verse 4: "And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads."

What has God prepared for us? First Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9: "As it is written, eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Satan was saying, you don't have to believe in God as a God of graciousness and God has a great eternal destiny for you. God has a monopoly on this thing of being God. God is heading you off at the pass. You can never, ever be fulfilled until you do your own thing.

When it comes to sin, experience is not the best teacher. It's the worst teacher. Sin deceives. Those who know the least about sin are those who are the deepest into it. The Bible speaks of the deceitfulness of sin. Satan is saying to Eve, "Eve, you create your own little God, you will be like God." Again, that's New Ageism. All the New Agers believe that they are God. They believe everything is God.

Everything is God. Today in our schools, in the springtime, we dare not mention Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But I'll tell you what we can mention is Earth Day. We can't mention Father God, but we can mention Mother Earth. They believe everything is God. The birds are God, the trees are God, the sky is God, the air is God, I'm God, you're God, they're God, dirt is God. If God is dirt and I'm God and God is dirt, then that makes me dirt.

This New Ageism, it doesn't elevate men. Humanism really animalizes man. Satan is behind all of this. Friend, it's in the air like a fungus. Every ism, as Dr. Lee used to say, ought to be a wasm. They all go back to these four big lies. They deny, A, the goodness of God; B, the truthfulness of God; C, the righteousness of God; and D, the graciousness of God. God loves you. God wants you to be like Him. God wants you to enjoy eternal fellowship with Him.

Leave Genesis and go to Revelation. May I tell you two books the devil hates? One is Genesis and the other is Revelation, because in Genesis the devil's doom is pronounced, in Revelation it's carried out. Look in Revelation 12, verse 9: "And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent. That old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."

Accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him, here's verse 11, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. How are you going to overcome these lies? First of all, by Calvary's conquest. By the blood of the Lamb.

On the cross, Satan's back was broken. His lies are exposed. He's shown to be what he is: a fake, a fraud, an imposter. And you're never going to overcome Satan and his lies until you come to Jesus. Have you been to Calvary? Has the blood of the Lamb, the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, become a covering for your sins?

Overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Have you been saved? Number two, by the word of their testimony. What is the word of our testimony? Not just standing up saying I want to tell you what Jesus has done for me. This is the word of our testimony: the word of God. And they loved not their lives unto the death. What does that mean? Not only Calvary's conquest, not only courageous confession, but complete commitment.

They loved not their lives unto the death. They said, "I'm going for God. Every ounce, every inch, every nerve, every fiber, even if I die serving Jesus, I love not my life unto the death." Until a man is no longer afraid to die, he's not yet ready to live. Friend, do you know Jesus? Are you saved? See if you've got any of these ideas in your head. Have you been thinking that God is not good? Running from God? You ought to be running to Him. God is good.

Guide you in a prayer right now, and you can ask Christ to come into your heart. Pray this prayer: Dear God, I am a sinner and I need to be saved. And I know that the wages of sin is death. But Jesus, I thank You that You shed Your blood on the cross for me. Thank You that You paid my sin debt. And now by faith, I receive You as my personal Lord and Savior. Begin now to make me the person You want me to be. Lord, I'll make it public. I'll not be ashamed of You. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. And if you prayed to receive the forgiveness of Christ today, we would love to celebrate with you and offer a free resource on our website. It's the Discover Jesus page. There you'll find answers you may need about how to begin this journey. Go to lwf.org/radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus. We can't wait to hear from you today.

Have you accepted Calvary's conquest in your life? Have you committed yourself to God's word so that you may overcome the devil's lies? We are so glad you joined us today. This program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a non-profit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters like you.

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