Four Lies That Ruined the World Part 2

From the Love Word Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Word Finding today. Kerry, Adrian Rogers picks up part two in Genesis chapter three, four lies that ruin the world. And you know, Satan is constantly telling lies. It goes all the way back to Eve in the Garden of Eden when he told her those lies. You know, God doesn't love you. You know, God, God's not truthful.

Right. He's a deceiver. He's a trickster. But I think as you look at some of this, and this is a wonderful sermon, by the way, part two, I'll give you one of the lies, right? It says God is not truthful. Well, God is truth, right?

His Word is truth. And we will never be over what we're not willing to come under, is what Adrian Rogers says. And so I think when we stand on the truth of God, we kind of dispel all of this. And so this is a great sermon that you can dive into and really begin to look at scripture to back this up.

Well, Adrian Rogers clarifies what we're talking about best this way. We have over Satan. Now, it doesn't mean that Satan cannot hurt us.

He can hurt us, but he can't harm us. How did they overcome him in the Book of the Revelation? They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They love not their lies unto the death. That is, if they died, they're still serving God. And their death, therefore, was a way of overcoming Satan. So Satan cannot win and we cannot lose.

And we need to understand that. You know, Kerry, Adrian Rogers again says, on the cross, Satan's back was broken and through the blood of the Lamb, every lie that you believe can be forgiven. You can see through the lens of the cross what the real truth is. I love that. I do, too.

I do, too. Revelation 12, 11, right? And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. We must remind ourselves, victory has already been won. There's nothing else we need to do but claim it.

You know, that's a good word, Kerry. That is so true because, you know, we need to constantly be filling our minds and hearts with God's word. And that's why love we're finding is so thankful to be a part of your spiritual life as you tune in each day and grow with us in hearing the messages of Adrian Rogers. We love hearing from you, our listeners.

Here's one from Facebook. Adrian Rogers could say more in five minutes than most preachers could in 45. Lord, hear our desperate cries. We need more of this in our generation. We are tired of monkey business and junk from our modern day pulpits. We need a word from God.

They shot it straight. That's the spiritual gift of frankness. They're tired of the monkey business. But I appreciate the honesty and the desire there to know the truth. Well, what Adrian Rogers knew and what he preached was the word of God. So it's not so much what we say today.

It's not so much what the denomination says, it's what the Word of God says. And that was his message, and that was his mantra, and that was his life. Well, a great resource is always at LWF.org.

We encourage you to stop by. We've got a great resource right now called Discover Jesus Book. Kerry, tell us something about this book. Great book. It's a new book, and so you'll want to take it and give it to friends and family, but this is a way that you can dive in and discover truly, really who Jesus was and who Jesus is.

And so take advantage of this resource. Well, with today's message, Four Lies That Ruined the World, here's 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.

Why? Because 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. And so the devil is the original liar, the devil is the master liar, and the best lies sound the most like the truth, and those that are nearest to the truth and still alike are the most dangerous. Now Satan, in the very first book in the Bible, 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. That 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, and rather than four spiritual laws, there are four spiritual flaws, four lies that he wants Eve to believe. And Eve takes the bait, and these lies are not just what Satan has done eons ago. These are the four lies that you meet today and tomorrow.

They're very fresh, they're very up-to-date. Now Satan really, he may be double-faced, but he's not double-minded. He wants to do the same thing today that he has done always. So are you ready for these four big lies? All right, lie number one, God is not loving.

That's the first lie. Look in Genesis 2 verse 16. You're in the Bible, just turn backward one chapter. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. Now what did Satan say?

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, and he said unto the woman hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. God said help yourself. Satan said God says you can't have it. Now what is Satan trying to do? He's trying to get Eve to think negatively about God, that God is cruel, God is harsh, God is unloving. Now 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, corroding 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. God is not truthful. Now notice he said in verse one, hath God said?

Now that's a doubt. The doubt leads to a denial. Now notice in verses two through four, and the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, she knew better, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. Verse one, doubt. Now in verse four, denial.

You'll not die. You don't have to worry about God. Now you see what Satan did, first of all, was to get 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. Now what Satan had done in verse one 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, and the acceptability, the impeccability, the infallibility, the authenticity of the Word of God is doing the work of the devil. That's the work of the devil. I don't care what seminary is in.

I don't care what degrees he has. If he puts, if he puts a doubt, a question mark, or a denial after the Word of God, he is of the devil. 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, and this is the thing that is happening in the society we live in, is something called post-modernism. Post-modernism. Now modernism would argue with conservativism about what is right or what is wrong. The post-modernist doesn't even bother to argue.

The post-modernist doesn't even believe there is anything called truth. Or he might believe that truth is everywhere, but no one truth is over against another truth. So 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. And this is called post-modernism, 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, if you will, now 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. And if you preach the love of God to the exclusion of the holiness and the righteousness of God, you only preach half of the truth. And 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.

Now, Satan is moving them along. Now, since you don't believe that there is the God of the Bible who's 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. Now, when God gave the Ten Commandments, God was not giving advice, he was giving law.

And law without penalty is only advice. Now, 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, well, that's un-American.

It may be. I have an idea that if the Supreme Court of the United States of America could vote on it, they would outlaw hell as cruel and unusual punishment. But 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. You know what the new age is?

It's just a blend of Eastern religions that's come into America today. Satan knows that man fears death. That's the reason we have some believe in reincarnation. You'd be surprised how many people in evangelical churches say they believe in reincarnation. As you just keep going around and around, you get as many chances as you need. And the new age has no personal God who's going to judge.

You see, these people believe that men and animals, we're all interrelated, and we're all transmigrating. And if your karma is good, you keep moving up high. And if your karma is bad, you move down. So in your next life, you might be a worm.

That's right. 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 little 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 you to have the idea that you can sin with impunity. Friend, God is good. God is truthful. God is righteous. But 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. God is not gracious. Look if you will now in verses four and five, and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. For God does know that in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes will be open, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now 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 like God. Now, 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. Eve, you need to be liberated. Adam's rib, Satan's fib, women's lib. God came to set every woman free and every man free, every boy and girl free, because he is a God of grace.

But notice, I said the best lie sounds so much like the truth. Think of it. He said, God does know that in the day that you eat, then your eyes will be open, and you will be as God. That's what Satan wanted to do to begin with. He wanted to be as God. But you see, the Bible teaches we're to be like God, not as God.

Small little difference. Satan says, you be your own God, your own little autonomous God. You have your own way. Well, 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 does that mean, his name in our foreheads? That means God-likeness. What has God prepared for us?

First Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, as it is written, I have not seen, nor you heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But what Satan was saying, oh, you don't have to believe in God as a God of graciousness, and God has a great eternal destiny for you. Why, God has a monopoly on this thing of being God, and God doesn't want you to get in on it. God is heading you off at the pass.

You can never, ever be fulfilled until you do your own thing. Eve, what you need to do is experiment. Try it.

You might like it. How do you know it's wrong? Because he said so? Because he said so?

How do you know? After all, experience is the best teacher. Friend, 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. But what Satan is saying to Eve is, Eve, you create your own little God, you will be like God. And again, that's New Agism. All the New Agers believe that they are God. They believe, however, that everything is God. You know, in India, they would say love is God. Now, God is love, but love is not God.

Listen very carefully. God is over all things and God is in all things, but God is not all things, and all things are not God. People today have the idea that they are all a part of God in some way. This New Agism has pervaded and perverted our ways.

Let me illustrate how it goes. Today, in our schools in the springtime, we dare not mention Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But I tell you, what we can mention is Earth Day. We can't mention Father God, but we can mention Mother Earth.

Why? Because 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, we're God, dirt is God, we are dirt.

Wait a minute. If God is dirt and I'm God and God is dirt, it makes me dirt. And the animals are God. This New Agism, it doesn't elevate men.

Humanism really animalizes man. But you see, Satan is behind all of this. Now, you say, Pastor, why are you saying all 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. Now, let's come to the conclusion. How are we going to deal with these lies? How are we going to overcome them? Just leave Genesis and go to Revelation. May I tell you, the two books the devil hates, one is Genesis and the other is Revelation, because in Genesis, the devil doom is pronounced. In Revelation, it's carried out. Look, if you will, in Revelation 12, verses 9, and that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent. Now, we've already seen that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Those are his four big lies. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him, and that's the reason we have such mayhem here on earth. I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come the salvation and strength and kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.

Listen to me, friend. Here's how we're going to overcome these lies. For the accuser of our brethren was 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. Now, how are you going to overcome these lies?

How? First of all, by Calvary's conquest. 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 know 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 sin? I know, again, it's politically incorrect to talk about the blood today.

We're supposed to talk about feel good religion. The Bible says without shedding of blood is no sin. Billy Graham, when he first started preaching, had a professor from Cornell University come to him and say, young man, you're gifted, you're a great speaker, you're very persuasive, but if you want to go places, you're going to have to leave out that blood stuff. Billy said, I determined to preach on the blood of Jesus more than ever. They 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 love not their lives unto the death.

What does that mean? Not only Calvary's conquest, not only courageous confession, but complete commitment. They love 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 good, running from God?

You ought to be running to him. God is good. Have you been thinking that God is not truthful, that the Bible perhaps has errors and somehow you can do it some other way?

It's a lie from hell. God is truthful. Have you been thinking that somehow that you can just skate on through and that you will never come to judgment? God is righteous. Have you been thinking that perhaps God doesn't have a wonderful plan for you?

He does. God is gracious, for by grace are you saved through faith. I want you to know him, and you can know him. If you're not certain that you're saved, I want to guide you in a prayer right now, and you can ask Christ to come into your heart. Would you 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. I 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. and click the tab that says Discover Jesus.

We can't wait to hear from you. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. 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? Thanks for joining us today, and be sure to tune in next time for more timeless truth from Pastor Adrienne Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding.