The Conflict Between God & Satan

Transcript

GR 365
6/29/1980
The Conflict Between God and Satan
John 8:37-47
Gil Rugh

John’s Gospel, chapter eight. Since all the scripture is a revelation from God, it is all important for us. But is not all of equal value. Not every portion has the same significance in its ministry to us. We come to the eighth chapter of John-in particular the section we will be looking at which formed the heart of the chapter from about verse 37-47. It condenses in a very concise and summary fashion what the Bible is all about. It tells you about the conflict that exists between God and Satan, between the truth of God and the lies of Satan, the division that exists between those who belong to God and those who belong to the Devil, the explanation why some people respond to the truth of God and others do not respond. So the issue which pervades all scriptures in many ways is drawn to a point in the eighth chapter: the conflict that exists between God and Satan, between God and the children of Satan, the Son of God and the sons of the Devil. In verse thirty-one of chapter eight, Jesus had said that those who continue to abide, continue to dwell in His Word, those are the ones who are truly His disciples. So not everyone who responds somewhat positively, who believes certain facts about Jesus Christ is really a child of God, a disciple of Christ. Rather those whose lives are lived in the realm of the Word of God, lived consistently with and submissive to the Word of God. That is the demonstration and evidence that a person is a child of God.

Then Jesus drew the distinction between freedom and slavery. And it’s the truth that set free. The Jews that He is addressing do not understand the issue. They see freedom as related to a physical identification. Since they had a physical relationship with Abraham, they believed that that was indicative of the fact that they were free people. They were people who had a relationship with God. Jesus elaborates on what freedom involves. First by pointing to slavery, "everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin," and we noted that the emphasis on the committing sin is habitual sin. This does not mean that a child of God cannot commit sin. Even the same sin, or sins repeatedly. But rather even when a child of God sins, that is out of character. The Corinthians being a prime example. Paul said they were carnal, fleshly Christians. And yet there is abundance evidence that the Corinthians were really believers, children of God, even though they had certain sins that they repeated over and over, for instance, the abuse of the Lord’s supper in I Corinthians 11. So serious on a repeated basis that God had made some of them ill, had taken some of their lives. But they still had many evidences of the Spirit's work in their lives. But a person whose life is lived in the realm of sin is a child of the Devil. And I realize that there are many people who live moral lives and seem to be believers who are not. And there are probably some who seem to be unbelievers who are. Only God ultimately knows. But by enlarge its clear who the believer is and who the unbeliever is.

Jesus then concluded that section with the statement "if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed”. The one committing sin, who lives in the realm of sin is a slave of sin and the Son of God is the only one who can free from slavery. Now we're going to see in our section before us it is a key characteristic of the Devil that he is a liar. He is a deceiver, and one of the great deceptions that he has put across today is people are free when they can do what they want to do. And a person who can indulge in all kind of sin really is free, and some people are concerned that they would not want to become Christians because they would not grant to give up their freedom. Meaning they could not continue to indulge in these various sinful activities. And that simply points up how deceptive the Devil really is; how much of a liar he really is, and how successful he is at what he does. He has succeeded in convincing people who are slaves that they are really free. Convinced people whose life is lived in the realm of servitude and slavery that this is really freedom. So he has convinced people of just the opposite of the truth, that slavery is freedom and freedom is slavery. He is a liar and a very effective liar. He is a deceiver and a very effective deceiver.

Now Jesus has driven home the point that the Son of God is the one who sets free and when He makes you free, you are really free. You are now able to function in the relationship for which you were created. You now are free to be like the Son of God, to have the character of God produced in your life. You were created for that relationship and that purpose. That is freedom.

Having said that, He picks up on the point that they have made. In verse 32 he said "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Tying to the fact the truth, the person of the Son of God, the Word of God must be presented so the person may believe it and be set free. The response of the Jews was in verse 33 "We are Abraham's offspring." And their error was equating a physical relationship with spiritual freedom, and they are not related in any necessary way, except that those who have a spiritual relationship with God function differently in the physical realm.

Now is verse 37 Jesus picks up on that point, "I know that you are Abraham's offspring." So they have made the point in verse 33 "We are Abraham's offspring." Jesus drives home the point that they are really slaves and only can be freed by the Son. Now He picks up on the point they have made "I know that you are Abraham's offspring; yet you seek to kill Me, because MY word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father." Now you're Abraham's offspring, I acknowledge that. You have a physical relationship with Abraham, but you seek to kill me because my Word has no place in you. You see, these two points are what's going to be developed a little bit later in connection with their belonging to the Devil. They seek to kill Him, they're really murderers at heart. His Word has no place in them. His Word is Truth and they reject the Truth. When you reject the Truth that leaves you a liar. You either have the truth or you have a lie. You either stand for the truth or you stand against the truth.

Verse 38, "I speak the things which I have seen with My Father." In other words this point has been continually reiterated. I am not originating what I am saying, it comes from My Father; these are the words of My Father, this is what my Father wants said and done; I’ve seen it with My Father. The point being, I manifest My father’s character. This is the line that's going to be drawn through this entire section. You can recognize the father by the character of the child. I do what I’ve seen with My Father. Verse 38 in the middle: "therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father." This is the contrast to be developed: My father, your father; what I do, what you do; I do what My Father wants, you do what your father wants. The Jews respond, verse 39, "They answered and said to Him, 'Abraham is our father." You see how stuck they are on this point. It’s like a broken record. No matter what He says they keep coming back "Abraham is our father, Abraham is our father, Abraham is our father" as though this physical connection with Abraham assured them of salvation. And we’ve noted the point is no different, the average religious person today has the misconception in his mind that some kind of physical identity with a religious group or a religious person is going to assure them of a relationship with God. I've talked to a number of people about salvation and heard responses like "Well, my grandfather was a preacher." That has nothing to do with my spiritual condition. The physical tie is unrelated. Alright, "Abraham is our father’, Jesus picks up on that again. "Jesus said to them, 'If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham." Now He has told them in verse 37 "I know that you're Abraham's offspring" and now in verse 39 He says "If you are Abraham's children." In other words, I acknowledge your physical lineage. You are physical descendants of Abraham. But if you're true children of Abraham, not just physically, but spiritually, manifest the character that Abraham manifested. And the Jews could pick up on this because remember that Abraham had more than one son. He had several children, two prominent ones. The son of promise and the son by the slave woman. Ishmael and Isaac. And the Jews would acknowledge even though Ishmael was a physical descendant of Abraham, he wasn’t a son in the true sense. In the full sense of having that spiritual relationship to whom all the promises were given. So you must go beyond the physical tie. "If you are the children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God." You see that repeated emphasis? This is what I heard from God. This is what I saw with My Father. That continued point He’s making because we’re talking about the Father, and if what He is saying comes from God the Father, what they are saying cannot come from God the Father since they oppose one another. "This Abraham did not do." So do the deeds of Abraham; what you're doing, Abraham did not do. It's interesting, Abraham had opportunity to confront Jesus Christ Himself while he lived on earth. Abraham living about 2000 years before Jesus Christ. And he confronted Jesus Christ, but he did not do what these Jews are doing. He did not respond the way these Jews are responding.

Go back to the book of Genesis and the eighteenth chapter. And in Genesis 18, the chapter begins by telling us the Lord appeared to Abraham and Abraham was sitting by the tent door by the oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day. Verse 2, "And when he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, ’My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.' And they said, 'So do, as you have said." So Abraham hurries, makes all the preparation, and in verse eight "he took curds, milk and a calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate."

Then in verse 16, "Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. And the Lord said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do" since I'm going to make Abraham a great nation. Then you move into that great intercessory prayer of Abraham where he beseeches the Lord in behalf of Lot and Sodom. My understanding is that all the appearances of God in the Old Testament are appearances of the Son of God. We call them Chrisiophanies. Manifestations of Christ before His birth. So here when we're told in verse one of Genesis 18, the Lord appeared to Abraham, this is God, particularly God the Son. And how did Abraham respond to Him? He welcomed Him. He accepted Him. He acknowledged him as his servant. Later on he beseeches him in prayer acknowledging who he is in his righteous character and how he conducts himself. This is totally different that how the Jews in John eight, who claim to be the descendants of Abraham are responding to the Son of God. They haven't welcomed Him. They haven't accepted Him. They haven't acknowledged Him as Lord and themselves as servants. Not at all. That's what Jesus is talking about. Abraham didn't do what you're doing. Why don't you be like Abraham if you claim to be the child of Abraham.

Back to John, chapter eight. Now this is no different than we function today. We often remark about how much like the parent the child is. And that's what Jesus is talking about. I can tell who your father is by the way you conduct yourselves. If you have brothers or sisters in your family you've probably sat together and someone has said, "You know Dad said this" and someone else has responded, "You know, that sounds just like Dad." And if you don't live around him you probably say something like "Can't you see him saying that? That's just what he would do, or what he would say." And so what? You recognize the child in the father. We see a little young person walking across the foyer and say "Boy, doesn't he look like his dad?" "Doesn't he look like his mother?" "Doesn't she look like her dad?" or whatever. The children, like the parents. And sometimes if we're not careful in- our behavior we'll say things to our kids "you're just like your dad" as though that were something bad. We communicate something to the kids that we ought not to be. But that is in us, like father, like son; like parent like child. That idea, that's what's being developed here. That is true spiritually. It's like father, like son. The sons of God are like their father. The sons of the Devil are like their father, so do the deeds of Abraham. Here, because Abraham was a child of God and that's the point they're identifying with, Jesus is saying, that would be fine, you’re the children of Abraham, behave like Abraham. Abraham behaved like a believer in his response to God and the Son of God.

Verse 41, "You are doing the deeds of your father." Now they're beginning to get the point that "I acknowledge that you are a physical descendent of Abraham. You do not do the deeds of Abraham, but rather you do the deeds of your father." They are recognizing, even though they cannot perceive spiritual truth, that there is a spiritual issue involved here. That Christ is talking about more than their relationship to Abraham. You are doing the deeds of your father which are not the deeds of Abraham. Their response is very strong, "They said to Him, 'We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, God." They've recognized the point He's making. We are not born of fornication (only time that John uses this word in his gospel, I take it the background comes out of the Old Testament where when the Jews went after other gods they were said to be adulteresses or adulterers, committing fornication, having illicit spiritual relationships, being unfaithful to the one true God). Now they're saying, "We're not born of fornication. We're not the children of another God. We have one father, God." And the Old Testament substantiated that the Israelites were the children of God (Duet. 32; Isaiah 63; Isaiah 64). God is the father of Israel, but the father particularly of the believing remnant within the physical nation. You see how strong they can be. We have one father, God. These are very religious people. That is important to keep in mind in light of the point that Jesus is making. The point being that they are children of the Devil. They are people who are honestly convicted that they are the children of God. That God is their father. And they have been so thoroughly deceived by the Devil that now as the children of the Devil they believe they are really the children of God. That’s how confused you can be in sin.

Verse 42, "Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me."
Important statement. The indicator of whether the person has God as their Father is whether they love Jesus Christ. A person who does^ love Jesus Christ does not have God as the Father. That’s a natural relationship. The children of the Father love the other children of the Father. That’s true of other believers. Particularly here, though, it focuses in on Jesus Christ. A person claims to love God but they don’t acknowledge Jesus Christ and love Him. They don’t really love God, they just think they do. They have been deceived by the Devil in believing a lie, believing that they love God when they really don’t. Now this is important because it answers why so many people are so earnest and persistent and yet are contrary to scripture. They have been duped or deceived into believing a lie. "If God were your father

"If God were your Father, you would love Me." Why? "For I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me." So you see, I am a child of God. I am the representative of God. I am the manifestation of God. Now since I’ve been sent by God, I come from God, I tell you what God says, I reveal to you what God does, and you don’t love me, that means you don’t love God. It’s that simple. We do the same thing today to a large extent of how a person reacts to your children is a reflection of how they react to you. And we know what it is like, some children get favorable treatment because of the parents. I worked at US Steel when I got out of High School and I was hired at US Steel because my father worked at US Steel. And I was given preference over those who did not have a relative working at US Steel. My relationship to my father. People responded to me in light of who my father was. That’s what Jesus is saying, but you don’t know my father, you don’t love my father or you would be in love with me, cause I am my father’s representative sent on His behalf. That continued emphasis, continually repeated throughout Jesus’ entire ministry. I haven’t come on my own initiative, He sent Me. I don’t say my own words, I say what He has given Me to say. So the people can see that their reaction to Him is a reflection to their reaction to God the Father. And that point that we’re studying here was made 2000 years ago and people still don’t understand it. People still think they can respond to God apart from Jesus Christ, and Jesus is saying that is not a possibility.

Verse 43, "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word." Basic truth that continues to today. In I Corinthians 2, Paul says that the natural man cannot understand or grasp the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned. That’s a pattern that’s true today. The unbeliever can be exposed to the truth of the Word of God, can hear the Word of God taught, but it really does not make an impact on his life. It really does not become part and parcel of him. Jesus says you can't hear. The reason you can’t hear is you’re not of My Father’s family. And that’s where you com e to in verse 44, the heart of this entire section. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father." Like father, like child. You are of your father, the Devil. And so you want to pursue his lusts. Desire here is a strong word that is most often used in a negative sense in the New Testament. Those evil cravings and longings. And the desires and lusts that characterize the Devil, characterize the children of the Devil. Now this statement is not geared to winning friends and influencing people. No one likes to be told that they are the Devil's child, and furthermore you not only are the Devil's child, you have the same longings that the Devil has. But it's the truth presented in a very direct way here to people who have been exposed to the truth, yet are not responsive to the truth. And here is the explanation. Why. They are of a different family and so to speak they speak a different language. You’re not of the family. You know how it is in your family. Among parents and children there are often expressions and phrases used that carry special significance. In our home we spank with a ping-pong paddle and various offenses are graded. You may get one, two, three, four, five, depending upon the offense. And sometimes if we’re out someplace and there's some misconduct going on and I'll say "All right, you get two." Now no one there knows whether I mean you get two dollars, you get two candy bars, but my children know what I mean and they respond accordingly. We communicate. That’s what Jesus is saying. I'm not communicating to you because I’m saying what My Father says but you don't understand because you're not part of My Father's family. You don't relate to what My Father says. But My Father's children do. Those who belong to My Father understand what I am saying. But you are of your father the Devil. You respond to him and his character. You have his lustful, evil desires.

Two areas picked out, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies." Two areas. He’s a murderer and he's a liar. He picks up these two particular lusts of the Devil because those are the two particular areas that these Jews are manifesting. They want to murder Christ and they stand against the truth that He is speaking. They are liars. He's saying "I know who your father is, I recognize his character. He's a liar, he's a murderer. And you know what? You're liars and murderers also. Now again those are very direct, head-on statements revealing their character. Now he was a murderer. This could go back to the deceitfulness of the fall where Satan lied to Eve. He said if you eat the fruit you won't die. That was a lie. And she ate the fruit and she died spiritually and physical death as well set in at that point. Maybe more directly he’s talking about the murder of Cain, the first actual murder in the Bible where Cain murders his brother Abel. Thumb over to I John 3 quickly. As we noted the content of I John 3 is very similar to John, chapter 8 and you ought to take time to read through the entire third chapter of I John sometime soon while we’re in the eighth chapter. But in I John, chapter 3, verse 11: "For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brothers were righteous." So you note here, Cain commits the first murder and Cain is identified as belonging to the Evil One. And why did he kill Abel? Because Abel was righteous and he was not. Why did the Jews want to murder Jesus Christ? Because He is righteous and they are not. That seems to be the point that He is making, he's a murderer from the beginning. It was a motivation of Satan that Cain slew Abel. Back in John, chapter 8, verse 44, when it says he was a murderer from the beginning I think it’s talking about from the beginning of the human race because the word murderer was literally a man-slayer and so you would expect that there would be a man involved. And so the first man slain would be Abel and that would tie to how John elaborates it in I John 3. And he also, in John 8:44, does not stand in the truth. Not it is an important point, it explains why the unbeliever functions as he does. Satan does not stand in the truth. The reason is, there is no truth in him. He is totally, absolutely, completely corrupted. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks out of his own character. He's a liar and the father of lies. He was not created this way. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 talk about the existence of Satan before the fall. Ezekiel 28 tells us that he was perfect from the day he was created until iniquity was found in him. When he fell he became totally depraved and totally corrupted. So he's the father of lies and lies originate in him. And he is the motivator of falsehood among all of his children. Important to see the connection. We think it's almost too harsh. Remember, Jesus Christ is speaking and He claims to be telling us what God says. So if I am to know what Satan is like, if I am to really know what people are like, I must get that information from God. Now here He’s told me what Satan is like and we haven’t even delved into the fact that the Bible does speak that there is an actual and a literal, personal devil. That’s not even developed here and we’re not going to develop it. And beyond that, what his character is and what he does and what people are like who are his children. They are like him. Now that’s hard to say. He is a liar. There is no truth in him. And Jesus says you can recognize his children because they are just like him. This does not mean that the Devil never uses the truth. We've already looked into Matthew, chapter 4, where he tempts Christ. What did he do? He quoted scripture. But what was he doing with the scripture? He was using it for unrighteous ends. He was using it deceitfully because he wanted to use it to motivate Christ to function unbiblically. So even as he quoted scripture, he was quoting it in a context that made it a lie. Not that what he quote was wrong, but the use that he was putting it to was wrong. And it becomes very deceptive. Remember that Paul said that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. So even though there's no truth in him that doesn't mean that he never presents himself as one who is giving truth. This is significant because it explains why people are like they are. And it's hard for us to grasp how sinful we really are. We see a preacher or a teacher or a religious person and we say that they are so sincere. The problem is they are sincerely promoting and pursuing a lie.

Look at couple of passages back in I Timothy, chapter 4, verse 1, "But the Spirit explicitly says (drawn attention before to how God reminds us that the Spirit has clearly spoken on some of these areas and we ought not to be deceived) that in later times some will fall away from the faith (our word apostasy—fall away) paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." Doctrines of demons, teachings of demons, deceitful spirits using men and women to promote that which is not biblical. How do I know if I’m hearing a doctrine of a demon? If it's the work of a deceitful spirit? I must sift it through the truth of God. That is why the Devil has laid a plan, the end of which is to keep people ignorant of the scriptures. Because if you do not know what the Bible says, how are you going to determine whether what is being said is true or not? Some people think they fly by the seat of their pants, constantly crashing into walls. Why? Because you can’t tell that way. Someone comes and quotes a verse, they say boy that makes sense. The problem is, it’s being misused. I must sift everything through the Word. "I can just feel it, I can tell. You know, I feel that it’s right." But there are many people who have feeling that something's right that it's a lie. These Jews felt that they were right. They were convinced that what they believed was true. The problem was, it was not. If they had sifted what Christ was saying through the Old Testament scriptures they would have found out that what He said was true. Look over in II Peter 2. "False prophets also arose among the people." Plural. There were many false prophets, many convincing ones. Just looking at an article on false prophets in the book of Jeremiah. There were a number of false prophets in that one book during his ministry. Some of them did some very convincing things. Very striking. That didn’t change the fact that they were false prophets. And note: "false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you." Note, not false teachers someplace else, but among you. That's why in Acts 20, Paul gives the elders the responsibility to shepherd the flock because some would introduce destructive heresies. And that's what Peter is talking about here. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies. "Even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves."

So what? I have to sift carefully what I hear through the truth of the Word of God. I may hear something and it grates on me and I can't stand it and I don't like it. What do I have to do? I have to come to the Word and evaluate it. Is it biblical, or is it not? And if it's not, it does not matter how convincingly it was presented. It is error. A half-truth is a lie. It is a lie, and the Devil is using it to deceive and dupe people today.

Back to John, chapter eight. So the unbeliever, you can see how he is a slave. Jesus said that the one who commits sin is the slave of sin. He is under the domination of Satan and Satan now so controls him that the unbeliever thinks that he is standing for the truth when he is really promoting a lie. That’s what these Jews were.

Verse 45, "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me." Isn't that a terrible explanation? The reason these people would not believe Him was because He spoke the truth. You know what that means? What they wanted to hear was a lie. But since He was speaking the truth, they didn't hear Him.
They didn't relate to that.

"Which one of you convicts Me of sin?" One of the clearest statements of the sinlessness of Christ that you could want. Here is an opportunity, "who here can convict Me of sin?" And none of the Jews can respond. Why? Because Christ is sinless. "If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" Here's a dilemma. If I'm a sinner, point it out. If I speak the truth, what's your problem? Here's your problem. "he who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." It's just that simple. The one who is of God hears the words of God. In other words, the person who has come into a personal relationship with Him, has been born into His family, now hears and understands what God has said. That's the argument of I Corinthians 2. That's why a person can come and sit in this auditorium week after week, month after month, year after year and the scripture is just like water off a duck's back. Nothing happens. It makes no impact on them. They leave, their life’s not changed by it. Walk out the door and on to other things. Why? He who is of God hears the words of God. Coming and sitting in this auditorium doesn't make you a child of God. You can come and sit here for a hundred years hear some of the best sermons in the world. Some of the worst. But that doesn't make you a child of God. That's the same kind of error that the Jews made. They thought a physical relationship with Abraham.... Well, no physical relationship with this building does anything for you spiritually except it's an opportunity for you to hear the Word. But until you respond and believe the message concerning Jesus Christ you don't understand what's being talked about. You don't grasp what's going on. And sometimes you're deceived into thinking, yes, I'm the same, everything's all right. But look, and ask yourself, how is your life different as a result of the ministry of the Word. What place does Jesus Christ have in your life? If you love the Father you love Him. How is your life different as a result of the Word of God being at work in your life? What are the priorities of your life? You ought to be honest before God with yourself lest Satan be successful in deceiving and causing you to believe a lie which is not true. Note how these unbelievers respond to Christ.

"The Jews answered and said to Him, 'Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?' Jesus answered, 'I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me." We're going to pick up at this point next week. But just note how deceived they've been. Jesus Christ honors His Father and speaks the truth of God and they say, you must have a demon. Now here are the children of the Devil, motivated by the demons of the Devil telling the Son of God He must be demon possessed. You see how totally disoriented the unbeliever can be? How totally wrapped up in a lie he can be? That here is a child of the Devil thinking that he is a child of God and thinking that the Son of God is a child of the Devil. I tell you that is as great a confusion as you can have. They are totally confused. They are totally committed to a lie.
Jesus says, I honor My Father and you dishonor me. What does that mean? They dishonor the Father because their attitude toward Him is their attitude toward the Father and I take it we come very close to what we call the unpardonable sin here. Where in effect they are calling Jesus Christ the Devil. And the work that the Spirit is doing in and through Jesus Christ they are crediting to demons. What hope is there for them? They are so entangled and enmeshed and committed to the lie that they don't recognize the truth. How can the unbeliever go on in his way? How can he continue in the path that he is on? He's totally oblivious to the truth. He doesn't recognize it. He doesn't understand it. And when the Devil chooses to use it in his life it's for unrighteous purposes. It means you and I who have come to believe in Jesus Christ must be very careful and very sensitive to the Word of God that we not be deceived by the Devil ourselves out of ignorance of the Word, but that everything be sifted in light of what God says, that our lives be built upon the Word of God that the Devil not be successful in turning us aside. And perhaps you're here this morning, have you really examined yourself in light of the Word of God? Have you come to believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the Savior who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin? Have you come to trust Him? Is that faith in Him evidenced by the change in your life, that your one now whose life is lived in the realm of the Word of God; that your life is being changed as a result of the Word of God at work in your life under the control of the Spirit of God? Are you in love with Jesus Christ If not, you need to examine yourself very carefully that perhaps you've been deceived by the Devil and believed a lie, the greatest lie of all as far as you're concerned—that you're a child of God when you're really not.