Pastor and Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Yousaf. Did you ever ask yourself the question, why do people get angry about biblical truth, that salvation is through Jesus and Jesus alone? Have you ever asked yourself why those people who really get worked up about this and get mad and angry and grit their teeth? Because the truth of Christ confronts them with their false worship. Because the truth of Christ confronts them with their sin. Because the truth of Christ confronts them with their false world view. Because the truth of Christ confronts them and exposes the emptiness of their lifestyle.
That's why they don't like it and that's why they get angry. You've heard a whole lot about truth in recent years. Culture has gotten to the point where truth needs to be measured in light of the source, looking at how a world view may impact definition or purpose. Welcome to Leading the Way with Atlanta pastor and author, Dr. Michael Yousaf. Today's message will help you gain an understanding of why truth is under so much attack today, especially biblical truth. Dr. Michael Yousaf is ready to share a message called, truth will always have enemies.
Listen with me as he begins. The name Harry Potter is better known throughout the world than the name of the president of the United States. Of course, he is a fictitious character, arose from a writing of fiction, of an English writer. But the Harry Potter phenomenon single-handedly managed to bring respectability to the occult and witchcraft. The Harry Potter phenomenon single-handedly managed to lead millions of children into the world of black magic and satanic power. The Harry Potter phenomenon single-handedly has been able to do for Satan what Satan has not been able to do for himself for hundreds of years.
What is that you may ask? Acceptance of his power, recognition for his strength, legitimacy to his operation. You see, Christians have known this all along. Christians have always believed for 2,000 years what the Bible said regarding satanic power. It is only the uninformed Christian who would deny the power of Satan in the world.
It is only the uninformed Christian who would deny the para-natural abilities of the devil to operate in this world. And that is why the Apostle Paul can say, of his devices, we are not ignorant. But the difference between true Christians and a non-Christian or a nominal Christian is this.
Listen carefully, please. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ are free from Satan's enslavement while the non-believers are his slaves. And if Christianity and Christians have a distinct message to our world today, listen carefully, it is this.
That Jesus alone can set you free from the clutches of Satan both here and hereafter. That's the message we have because we were once slaves to Satan too. We were not born perfect. We were born sinners. We practiced sinners and we were slaves to the enemy of God.
And then through the mercy of God, we were set free and you can too. For as long as humanity existed, Satan had tried to present himself as an angel of light. As long as humanity existed, Satan has been trying to present himself as a good guy.
Why? The Bible tells us that he is the father of lies. Therefore, he does not want the world to know who he really is. He does not want the world to know his real character, his real nature, his real identity. Satan not only will enslave non-Christians here and now, but he will take them with him into the lake of fire that has been prepared for him before the creation of the world. I want you to hear me right here because the media and the popular culture has sold you a bill of goods.
Hear me right. Satan's desire for acceptance and hatred for being exposed for who he really is goes back to the Garden of Eden. He hated early Christians for their effectiveness in bringing men and women, boys and girls from under his control into the saving power of Jesus Christ. He hated Christians and he hates all Christians who are constantly trying to liberate men and women from the slavery of sin and death.
In fact, if you look at the book of Acts, you're going to see the same thing happening again and again and again and again and again. In Jerusalem, he fought the Christians through organized religion and established religious institutions. In Antioch, he used prejudice and envy. In Leicester, he used paganism. In Philippi, he used his own demon possessed. In Thessalonica, he used the masses. In Athens, he used the Greek philosophers. And in Corinth, as he did in Jerusalem, used the Jewish religious leaders.
Hear me right because I'm going to give you a rule of thumb here. Whenever the gospel is boldly and faithfully proclaimed and witness to, there will be satanic opposition. Make no mistake about it.
Mark it down. So it comes as no surprise therefore that in the city of Ephesus, Satan is trying to pull all the stops in opposing the preaching of the gospel. He knew in his mind if Ephesus goes, so goes the rest of the Roman Empire. He knew that this was his last frontier and he did everything possible to stop the gospel from penetrating into the hearts of men and women of the city of Ephesus. Look at Acts 19. In the city of Ephesus, Satan pulled together a motley crew and he got them together to cause a riot in the city. Listen to this. I can tell you from personal experience and from the Word of God that demons often use human agents to oppose the truth of the gospel.
Let me repeat that. The devil always uses human agents to oppose the gospel. The truth will always have enemies.
The truth will always have enemies. Verse 20 of Acts 19, you're going to find that the demons found a human foot soldier by the name of Demetrius. Now Demetrius was a very common name back then, so don't associate him with other Demetriuses in the Bible. Demetrius had a business and he was making Harry Potter trinkets.
If you logged onto his website, you would have found all kinds of silver shrines for the goddess Artemis. Demetrius' company was a huge business. Big company. It was traded on the big board. And a lot of people bought the stock.
As a matter of fact, he made a lot of people a lot of money. And like Harry Potter, Artemis was the most popular cult throughout all of the Roman Empire. Ephesus was the city that housed the temple of Artemis, which really was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Pilgrims flocked into the city of Ephesus during the annual festival of Artemis that was held particularly throughout the spring.
In fact, the Ephesian economy was dependent on the sale of the Artemis Panifinalia. I know some of you have already blocked your minds. Loosen up the blocks. Because I want to tell you something that is of uttermost importance to your spiritual future. The difference between the early Christians and the Christians of our day is so pronounced, I want to spell it out for you. I even wonder as I thought about these things. And I'm not into prophecy and I'm not into all these things, end time events, but I can tell you in my spirit I began to wonder whether we are not really living at the end times. Back then with the early Christians, when the gospel was preached into a pagan culture and people embraced the truth of Jesus Christ, they abandoned witchcraft and the occult. Today, Christians dabble with the witchcraft and the occult and the horoscope and the tarot cards and the rest of it. Back then, pagans, when they saw the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, they abandoned the darkness of idolatry. But now, churchgoers are intrigued with the power of darkness. Back then, when people accepted Christ, they rejected idol worship. Today, those who have accepted Christ or claim to have accepted Christ are also keeping little idols. Back then, new believers did not care how much suffering, how much ridicule they may receive from their culture and from their nation and from the popular culture of the day. Today, we don't want to pay the price of standing up for the truth of the gospel, so we hide our heads in the sand. The Bible said that at the end times, the love of many will grow cold. The love of many will grow cold. Demetrius stirred up trouble in the whole city of Ephesus against the preaching of the truth of the gospel.
But you know what? Here's something you may not have thought of, what Demetrius was really telling us unwittingly so. He was telling us about the success of the preaching of the truth of the gospel in Ephesus. Why do you think people found the gospel appealing? Why did the gospel succeed in a city like Ephesus, a pagan city that is so dedicated to this goddess? I want to tell you why.
Listen carefully. It wasn't because they had a drama ministry. No. It wasn't because they were politically influential. No. It wasn't because they tried to accommodate to the pop culture.
No. Paul tells us in his farewell speech in Acts chapter 20, verses 27 to 31, he said that his influence on the city stemmed from one thing. It's his total devotion to his Lord and to the word of truth. And people saw that. They saw that.
He was there for three years. Demetrius' argument was basically this. Listen carefully. First he tried to appeal to their pocketbook. You know, that's always a vote getter. Get to the pocketbook.
Man, you got them. And he went from the pocketbook to appealing to their sense of culture. You know what I'm talking about? Their sense of civic pride. Look at verse 27 of Acts 19. He told them, Ephesus will suffer greatly. No wonder Jesus said, what shall profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Did you ever ask yourself the question, why do people get angry about biblical truth? That salvation is through Jesus and Jesus alone.
Have you ever asked yourself, why those people who really get worked up about this and get mad and angry and grit their teeth? Because the truth of Christ confronts them with their false worship. Because the truth of Christ confronts them with their sin. Because the truth of Christ confronts them with their false world view. Because the truth of Christ confronts them and exposes the emptiness of their life style. And that's why they don't like it.
And that's why they get angry. Acts chapter 19 verses 33 to 34 Paul wanted to go out into the with his wild riot and he wanted to speak but some key people in the city pulled him back said you know you don't want to get killed and they pushed him back because I want to tell you something this is wisdom. In verse 32 of Acts 19 tells you that the frenzy reached such a level of confusion that many people it says did not know what they were writing about. But ultimately Demetrius's argument was proven to be a false argument and it failed, listen carefully, it failed just like all enemies of the truth ultimately fail. The truth of Christ will always triumph.
Listen carefully please I'm going to tell you something of uttermost importance. It is precisely when God's people are willing to pay the price of standing up for the truth that the truth will triumph. Whenever God's people are not ashamed of the gospel the truth will triumph. Whenever God's people are not embarrassed about being different the truth will triumph.
And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that there is not a single human being on the face of the earth is worshipping Artemis of the Ephesians today while millions of people worship the Lord Jesus Christ and are willing to die for him. See truth does not triumph by appealing to numbers, no. The truth does not triumph by playing on people's emotions, no, no. Truth does not triumph by how many signatures we can get on a petition, no. Truth does not triumph even by having mass rallies for the truth. The truth will triumph when faithful men and women and boys and girls stand up for the truth. The truth triumphs when faithful men and women boys and girls refuse to compromise the truth for the sake of acceptance. The truth will triumph when faithful men and women boys and girls show the world how to live for Jesus Christ.
Truth will triumph always through God's people who lovingly but firmly say Jesus alone is the truth. I have no doubt that many of Harry Potter's devotees are really sincere people. I really believe that.
A theologian from Bristol England wrote a book talking about the good things in the Harry Potter books. Fine man, sincere man. I don't doubt that. I don't doubt the sincerity. The Bible tells us very clearly that there are two supernatural powers in the world. No third.
This is the thing. There's nothing neutral in the Bible. There are two supernatural power. There is a little supernatural power and there is a mighty supernatural power. There is Satan's power and there's God's power and you've got to figure out which power are you dealing with. When you face the fact, when you face the truth like this, you will have to ask yourself the hard questions. Which power is this that is being displayed? You see many people would point to some good things that performed by the characters in the book and say see here's some good things.
Even the lying they say it's for a good reason and it's a good cause. Let me tell you a story as I conclude about how people can be so sincere and yet sincerely wrong. In the 1600s the Great Plague hit London very quietly, really kind of silently and unnoticed almost like a thief in the night. In May of 1664 there were few isolated cases that were reported. Twelve months later that's May of 1665, 590 people died from the plague. Two months later 17,000 died of the plague. The next month, the month of August of 1665, the death toll reached 31,000. People began to panic and eventually two-thirds of the remaining population fled their homes and in hope of escaping the plague.
Oh, but they could not get away from their ignorance. I want to explain to you what happened. Somebody had the mistaken notion that the disease was caused by polluted air and so everybody started putting flower petals in their pockets thinking that the fragrance from the flower petals is going to help them and clear their lungs. Sometimes patients in hospitals were taking out of the hospitals and they would walk around the rose garden holding hands and in circle breathing deeply the smell of the roses and when patients could not walk the doctors would fill their own pockets with colorful petals of English posy and and they walk around the bed you know for the patient to smell. Another superstition that day that was perpetuated as a cure for the plague is by getting a spoon full of ashes and putting it under the nose of the patient so as he gets the ashes as he breezes it and starts sneezing that will help clear his dying lungs.
The truth? Well the truth was neither ashes nor posies of any value to prevent death. It was only when the real cause was discovered that they were able to slow down the rate of death. You see the disease had nothing to do with polluted air.
It was spreading through fleas from infected rats. The superstition of the time gave rise to the little song that many children sing and how my own kids were singing when they were little ring around the roses pocket full of posies ashes ashes we all fall down. You see people in those days were sincere in their belief but they were sincerely wrong.
You see I'm not presenting a worldview versus another worldview I'm telling you about what Jesus claimed about himself and today people are very sincere in their following of the occult and the wizardry and the witchcraft and the black magic and the tarot cards and and the crystals and the horoscopes and the rest of it. Oh but they're sincerely wrong. But here's a terrifying fact you see their death is not only physical death but is eternal death. That's the problem.
That's the problem. Sure the truth will always have enemies but that's the main reason why we must lovingly proclaim it without fear of intimidation. We do not proclaim it in a panic. We do not proclaim it in a frenzy. We do not proclaim it in fear but we proclaim it confidently because we know that the truth has already triumphed.
It's already triumphed. Truth has triumphed for 2,000 years and the truth will triumph for eternity. That's the core of the Christian faith. But the question is will you live by it or compromise it?
The question is will you share it or hide it? A challenge to stand for truth from Dr. Michael Yusef on this episode of Leading the Way Audio. Now the best way to stand for truth is to have a working knowledge and deeper understanding of God's Word and that is why Dr. Yusef wants to remind you about his book How to Read the Bible. It contains great content to equip you to understand more about the Bible and how to invite truth from God's Word deeper into your life. Do you read the Bible as if your life depends on it?
Well you should. In Dr. Michael Yusef's book How to Read the Bible he reveals how the Bible guides you through life with faith and power. You'll understand that from the first pages of Genesis all the way through the last words of Revelation God is pointing you toward the Lord who saves completely and eternally. Learn how to get your copy of Dr. Yusef's book How to Read the Bible today when you visit ltw.org ltw.org. If you'd like to call in order how to read the Bible just call and speak with a ministry representative at the Leading the Way Call Center. Here's the number 866-626-4356 and again that website to order securely online ltw.org. We thank you for joining Dr. Michael Yusef for this audio episode and please accept this invitation to listen again any time for more Leading the Way. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.
