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Isn't it rather delightful that God has made it possible for us to say not only I want to be there, but I positively will be there. Who can say positively, except when we have something that can't break down? That's a guarantee to be able to say I'm going to be there. We're looking forward to that day, and we can't rush the Lord regarding that day because he won't make any mistake. He'll come at the right time, but we do want to be occupied until that day. And I ask you to turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter twenty two and reading from verse thirty one.
Luke's Gospel twenty two and verse thirty one. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Verse fifty four.
Then took they him and led him and brought him into the high priest's house, and Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were set down together, Pete- Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him and said, this man was also with him. And he denied him, saying, woman, I know him not. And after a little while, another said, saw him and said, thou art also of them. Peter said, man, I am not. And about the space of an hour after, another confidently confirmed, saying, of a truth this fellow also with him, for he is a Galilean.
And Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. The Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, before a cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. And God will add his blessing to the reading of this portion of his word. Last night, I did ask you to turn to this same chapter, and we started verse thirty one and I ask you to memorize the six words right in the middle of that verse thirty one. It were words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ in the form of a prophecy, when he said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you.
And we were looking at what the prominence that our Bible gives to God's arch enemy, Satan. Among the things that we talked about wa- were the main aim and purpose, the ambition of the devil, and that is to keep people from trusting Jesus Christ, to take sinners along with him down to a lost eternity. We noticed his method of operation primarily are in two categories, rather far apart, sometimes as a furious angel of, or rather a roaring lion. And if that doesn't work, he has perhaps even a better, a more clever way, and that is to transform himself into an angel of light.
And I think perhaps he is successful in this area more than any other way. Are you agreed that most likely the number one ambition of the devil is, I want to take sinners to hell. And the reason I want them to take them hell because God has planned to take as many as he can to heaven, and I want to spoil everything that he has done. And we have to bow to this. The devil is doing a rather good job, is he not? Just think of the souls that he is taking to hell. I enjoy preaching the gospel, and sometimes I am invited for a series of gospel meetings, and very often I am asked to bring with me Caleb Baker's chart, Two Roads and Two Destinies, and many of you have seen it and know all about it, but in case there's someone here that hasn't seen it, it's a very simple gospel chart, and it takes it from our Lord's words in the Sermon on the Mount.
There is a narrow road that leads to life and glory, and there's a broad road that leads to hell, and this is drawn in the chart, a broad road that goes down and a narrow road that starts and goes up to heaven. And one of the things I think that God has blessed from that chart more than anything else is, on that broad road, Caleb Baker drew a line exactly the same width as the narrow road going up, and he called it the clean footpath. It really is a room for counterfeit conversions. When the devil has a person that wants to try to convince, who has had a Bible background, he believes the Bible is the word of God, and he has difficulty in persuading him to be an infidel or anything else, he says to him, all right, I agree with everything that the gospel preachers are telling.
You should turn over a new leaf. You shouldn't be on that broad road. That's where the sinful people are. You will feel much better if you come to my narrow road. Clean up, reform. In fact, your conscience tells you that you're almost ashamed at a lot of the things you've done. You would feel much better if you joined a church, if you were baptized, if you were religious, and it would look much better when you come by if in the obituary in the newspaper it would say he was a member of, that will satisfy your neighbors, and it'll make them feel very, very good, just that he was really a member of the church.
The devil is interested in counterfeit conversions, and he wants people to get as close to the gospel as possible and miss it. Many years ago, I sat in a, in a church where there was a gospel preacher. I heard about him. He's rather popular in the North Carolina area, and he preached on the grace of God, and I didn't know that anyone out of the assembly, outside the assemblies, could preach on the grace of God quite as clear and as wonderful as that man did. It wasn't really in my place to say amen or be loud in meeting, but silently I said, amen, brother, amen, amen.
It was delightful. A lovely sermon on the grace of God. And when he got to the end of his message, he said, now, I've presented to you the way of salvation. If there's anyone here who would like to be saved, the doors of this church are open. The pastor is here, and he will glad- be glad to take your name. You may join the church, and you may be baptized and come into the fellowship of this one church. I was shocked. And I said, you know, I believe the devil doesn't mind if you preach the gospel very clear, if at the very end you detour them and give them a counterfeit conversion. And that is where the devil has probably had his greatest success.
Do you believe that every person who tells you that he's saved is really saved? That brought to my attention many years ago when a missionary came back, and while he was here on furlough, he joined some Christians who were having a street meeting. You young folks don't know what a street meeting is, but we older people know what it is. And, uh, this missionary got out to speak on the street corner. He said, um, Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I would like to tell you two jokes. The first one happened in Africa. I talked to a man one day, and I said, are you a Christian? He said, oh yes, I'm a Christian. How do you know you're a Christian?
Because I wear trousers. And everybody laughed. Ha ha ha, that that was a good joke. Now, my second joke. Yesterday, right here in North Carolina, I was standing on the street corner, and after the meeting, I was preaching to, talking to a man, and I asked him if he was a Christian. He said, yes. And I said, uh, how do you know you're a Christian? Because I joined the church. No one laughed. He said, friends, that was my second joke. I expected you to laugh. Why didn't you laugh? One is just as ridiculous as the other. You laughed at that African who was very sincere, and he thought he was under that impression.
And it is just as ridiculous to believe that a man is a Christian because he wears trousers as it is for a man to say, I'm a Christian because I have joined the church. The devil is interested in taking people to hell by whatever means it be, and he's a clever man. He searches every person, and he looks through him, and just like a super sail, he says, where is his weak spot, spot? And he comes in, zeros in on that weak spot, and if he can get a person very, very close to being saved, but not quite. He's got him pretty well held that no one else will ever attack him, and he's got him to take him down to a lost eternity.
Some years ago, I was talking to a y- young people's group, and uh, this was an informal meeting, and we drew answers from the audience, and I said to these young people, what is the worst thing that can happen to a person on this earth? And uh, it didn't take them long before they could tell me, what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? To live on this earth, and at the close of his days on earth, have to go down. That is the worst thing that could ever happen to a person. Then I said, can you tell me what is the second worst thing that can happen to a person on earth? It took them longer, uh, to lose your life, to be killed in an accident, a dreadful disease, and they went over a number of them.
They were just listing a few of them. Then one young fella got up, and he said, I would say a person who is saved but misses the opportunity of living for Christ from the day of conversion to the day he is co- called home to glory. And at that time I had to agree with him, and I still do agree with him, until after a meeting like this, someone comes up and corrects me. I will still say that this is evidence that the devil is not only interested in taking sinners to hell, he is tremendously interested in Christians.
Because, from his point of view, the day that you did trust the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, he was defeated and perhaps just a little bit enraged. And he had to say to himself, I can't do what I plan to do. I want so definitely to take him to hell, but I can't. He trusted Christ, and I'm through, but I'm not going to give up. I'm going to try to get him to flounder around as a believer in Jesus Christ. I don't want him to be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ. I want to try to stumble him, and instead of him being a stepping stone for Christ, I want to make him a stumbling block.
And I rather think that he has been rather successful in this area as well. He is, after all, very persistent, is he not? You probably heard of that lady who had something good to say about everyone else when he was in the midst of gossipers, and they all talked about this person, the bad things, and she was silent. We're just a little bit ashamed that she was silent. But after they asked her, what do you have to say? I have seen some lovely traits in that person. She always spoke well of the person. Then one day s- someone said to him, you know, you have a habit of speaking well of everyone.
Wouldn't be a bit surprised you could say something good about the devil, couldn't you? He said, yes, I can. Really? Imitate his persistence. That's a pretty good answer, wasn't it? Imitate his persistence. He doesn't give up. No, if he wasn't so persistent, he would say, after the man saved, I got to let him alone. I'm going for those who are sinners. No, he doesn't. And the proof of it is that this is a dialogue between Simon Peter and Jesus Christ. Christ said to Peter, and Peter was not a sinner at this time, Peter was a Christian. Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you.
Yes, he does still want Christians. It would seem that he can do a tremendous deal of work by stumbling Christians. I remember a missionary writing some months ago, and he said, really, in our area, we don't need more Christians, but we need better ones. And after we have better ones, we will soon have more. That's worth saying, isn't it? We need better Christians, and after we have better, better ones, there will soon be more because dedicated Christians preach the gospel better than evangelists can preach them.
People can argue with the preacher who preaches the gospel, but they can't argue with changed lives. And when the devil can get a Christian to stumble, he wants the Christ- the sinner to say, there you are, that's what it means to be a Christian. Believes just like you do. They claim they're going to heaven. Look at them. The devil is interested in Christians. He is interested in getting us on detours, and at this particular point, he was tremendously interested in Peter. He had his trap set for Peter. I look over the, uh, converts that I have seen.
People have made profession of faith in Christ, and my wife and I were engaged in camp work for a number of years. Woody Murphy took charge of the boys' camp, and my wife and I had the, the girls' camp for two weeks each summer, and we kept the list of all the girls, two hundred and eight or so, every year, and year after year we had the record of them, and once in a while on a snowy day, and we have nothing else to do, and you can't get up, we bring out the old record, and we go over those names to see how many we remember. And then we ask the question, I wonder where that one is now. I remember the testimony she gave at the campfire. And then we say, we have no idea where she is today.
We go down the list, and we say, ah, that one. She's going on so well for the Lord. What a delight. She's still going on. This may be twenty years later. She's still going on. It's wonderful. Another name. Oh my goodness, I can't believe it. What a horrible mess that girl was in. She seemed so sincere. We can hardly believe she was saved. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. Oh, what a job the devil, the devil did on that young lady, and that we can do about all conversions. There are a few who start out strong right from the day they're saved, get into the word of God and the enjoyment of the ministry of the word of God, and grow and go on and on and on.
It's delightful to see them in that category, but there's one thing wrong with that category, the percentage is just a bit low. You would have to put Saul of Tarsus into that category, wouldn't you? At least if everything is recorded about him. Let's say, what is recorded? Do you remember any time that Saul of Tarsus took a detour from the day he was saved? He said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to? And it would almost appear that the rest of his days, he may have started every day out by saying, as for today, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
The Lord doesn't want me to lift up Paul as a perfect man. He was not. But what is recorded about him, we can say it is possible for a person from the day of conversion to go strong for the Lord and to brush aside all of the attacks of Satan. I have no doubt that Satan had his eyes on him. That was a terrible moment when my number one man, the best man I've had, turned traitor. I could use him. I held down the work of the Lord. I used him as a ra- a roaring lion to commit those Christians in the prison and even consent to their death.
What a shock. I told you there are some of the devil's blunders in the Bible, and here's one he didn't get. If the devil ever had a red face and was defeated, it must have been when his big man, his general, Paul of Tarsus, bowed down and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. I say this because, from observation, besides the Apostle Paul, I have witnessed some Christians, as far as I can see, and I can't see their hearts, they went strong right from the beginning. They took seriously what we have in First Corinthians fifteen: therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
That's a good text to start out on right on the day of conversion. There are other conversions that are just a bit different, maybe a rather poor start and remain as infants for many, many days, and maybe never really grow as they ought to. You may know a few like they, like these, and I guess they will come under the category of what we have in First Corinthians three, saved so as by fire. You wouldn't know. I guess we'd have to go to the old Testament and pick out Lot as maybe an example of one who had very, very little evidence of any real contact with God, and yet our Bible does say that he was saved, and he must have been saved so as by fire.
There are some who get a very poor start, and you have to wonder if they really were saved or not. And then, sometime later, there is a tremendous spiritual awakening. It seems as though they are coming out of a dark dungeon and all at once into the bright light, and some of our friends would call it the second blessing. But it might be the third or the fourth, but at least it's a spiritual awakening that happens to a person who has trusted the Christ, the Christ and has floundered around and eventually got his bearings and went on strong for the Lord. And that's delightful, is not, except for those wasted days.
I have a friend in Durham who is not a Christian, used to attend our service, stopped attending the service, but I visit him once in a while, and he has as a hat, a hobby, uh, homing pigeons or carrier pigeons. What do you call them? At least he has them in a crate that he takes them miles and miles and miles away, turns them loose, and wants to see how many of them come home. And this is his delight, to have them labeled and to see which one comes in first and so on. And he tells me that when he turns them loose, some of them get out of that, and just as soon as that, zoom, just like a beeline, straight for home. There are some others, he said, who flounder around.
They go this way around, then they come over this way, and they go this way. They just can't get their bearings. They just flound- flound around, and finally you see them take off, just like that, all up. It took them a while to get their bearings, and it appears that the devil has been able to keep some converts from getting their bearings and seeing the significance and the profit of right from beginning going on straight for the Lord. But we do thank God that they are at least awakened and that they do go on well for the Lord. There are some who have a good start and go on well, and you're delighted. And then Satan says, I want the person.
I'm going to get that person. I see talents in that person that I can use, and that person starts to go down. Sometimes, like a big calamity, like an avalanche, a landslide, goes all at once. You say, I didn't think that could happen. He's like two persons. I don't see anything of that good start that he had, which just reminds us that the devil is not a weakling and that he can still pick up converts, and some of them never recover after that. But let thank God that some of them who have a good start and are tripped by Satan recover very quickly, realize what has happened, and go on out for the Lord.
A man in our city who was an alcoholic before he was saved, and after he was saved, he said, this is tremendous. I tried myself. I knew it was a shame to my family to be a drunkard, but I couldn't. And when I got saved, I had the power over the liquor, and that's wonderful. He was thrilled with it, told people how wonderful it was to be delivered. I guess he was saved about three weeks, and he stubbed his toe, and he went back in the bottle. And it just made him feel like committing suicide. Look what I have done. I knew it wouldn't happen.
I knew I'd never drink in my life. I was positive, but I did. He recovered immediately from that, and he said, I don't know whether I should tell people this, but I believe it was good it happened because I had self-confidence. I knew how strong I was. I have willpower. When I say I'll never take a drink, I'll never take a drink. And the Lord had to bring me down to teach me your willpower can easily turn into won'tpower, and you must trust God to help you every moment because you thought you were big as the devil, and you have learned that you are not.
He never touched a drink after that. He may have needed that one little lesson to teach him that he cannot rely upon himself. I say that some people go down all at once, a terrible tragedy. Others, devil can d- do better by just pushing them one inch at a time, just from one little distance from the Lord and a little farther and a little farther, and he can do the job much better that way. The devil has certain traps set for individuals, and he is trying to get different ones to fall into some category where they will no longer be used of God.
Now tonight I want to look at Simon Peter, who at this particular point had plenty of self-confidence, and I think that the problem or the trap that the devil used to get Simon Peter here was very similar to the man that I just described. Peter, at this point, had self-confidence. Uh, I am in the company of eleven other men, and I have looked over those men, and I have, uh, really wondered at, uh, some of them because they, um, they're rather weak, and I'm glad that I'm not, uh, like they are. I'm strong.
I don't mind speaking up. When the rest of them are too timid to speak up, well, a fisherman, he's got to be hard-boiled, and I'm strong. And I can say I'm ready to go with thee both into prison and into death. And he may have entertained in his mind, if it came to a test, I wouldn't doubt Andrew, my brother, probably flunk out. He wouldn't stand. I don't know if Tom would. I don't know if Thomas would, and he may have gone over the list, but I've settled that. I'll go with him to death. I'll stick with my savior. Even if all the rest turn their back on him, I won't do it.
I'm going to stand for him. And the Lord who could read the, the thoughts of his mind, knew that he was getting on slippery ground. And that's why the Lord said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat. And in those verses from fifty four to sixty two, we read about that event the same day. Things are getting rather serious. The Savior is now inching his way towards the cross, at least the authorities have him, and they have all the power they need, and unless there is some intervention by the Savior's Father in heaven, it looks as though things are getting very serious.
They mean business. They're crying for him. Crucify him. And while all of this is going on, the devil gets around Peter. He brings him first into the company of those that are against Christ, and he warms himself at their fire. Someone points him out, you're one of them. I don't know the man. The second time, I don't know them. And he must have been getting under his skin that they're pointing him out, and he had to defend himself. And the third time, with a good song voice, I don't know what you're talking about.
And the Lord had one of his creatures ready. And a cock who wanted to crow, the Lord could say to him, not yet, not yet, wait. No, not yet. No, not yet. Until at a certain point. Now you may crow. Woo, woo, woo, woo. And Peter heard it. What did my Savior say just a little while ago? What did he say? I did it! I did it. There's something rather nice here when we read the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.
It's good I wasn't there. I might have said, shame on you, Peter. I don't think I had enough nerf- enough nerve at that point to say it, but you wonder why his master might not have scolded him a little bit, or might have said, didn't I tell you? We love to say that, didn't I tell you? But he didn't. He just looked. And that look did the job. That's my savior. He prophesied I would do this. He knew I would. I've done it. The most disgraceful thing I could ever have done, to denied my Lord.
What in the world am I going to do? He went out and he left bitter. Peter learned a lesson that he needed to learn. Until this time, he has self-confidence. The flesh, I can, I can trust in it. I don't remember ever reading after that, that Peter could say, when I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. It was a lesson that stayed with him the rest of his days. It was, I guess you would call it, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and Peter learned his lesson. One of the saddest things in regard to our Christian experience is not only to make one blunder, but to repeat it.
Isn't that terrible? And we are oftentimes guilty of repeating the same thing and not really learning the lesson. But I think I should go farther than just this one trap he has set, because there are many, many others. I would like to mention just a few that the devil has used successfully, not only in the record of our Bible, but in observation I have seen in my lifetime. If I mention immorality as a trap, you are running ahead of me. Right now, you are thinking of someone who you believe is a real Christian.
And when you heard that sinners are guilty of immorality, you said, well, what can you expect? But when you heard that that brother or that sister, and you had a lot of confidence, was caught in the trap of immorality, you say, I cannot believe it. I cannot believe it. I'm not going to mention the names. I don't need to, because I think you already have one or two or three at your fingertips that you are thinking about. And you say, I just didn't think that could ever happen. The devil has been doing it. He studies individuals just like a super salesman should. He tried this on David one day, used the same trap.
It worked. You know, he used it before that on Joseph, and it didn't work. So the same trap doesn't work on the same person. So the da- devil has to have a variety of traps. What worked with David did not work with Joseph, but it has worked with many, many people. Now, the burden of my message tonight is that many of us who have been saved for many years, and as far as we know, so far, there hasn't been anything really public or really what you would say, a terrific detour from loving the Savior that has become public, uh, gossip.
And we are liable to say, after being saved this many years, I doubt if the devil could ever get me in that trap. And if the devil can read what you are thinking, you might be his next target. And I say, don't say it. Don't think it. Don't believe it. Because I think every one of us would say, unless God preserves me, this could happen to me. In fact, I think I am safe in saying there's only one sin that a sinner can commit that a Christian can't commit, and that is, a Christian cannot deny from the heart that he has trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
But all the other category of sins that sinners are indulging in, the Christian can be trapped in every one of them except that one. It is impossible. When our Lord prayed for Peter, he said, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. He did not say, I have prayed for thee that thy courage fail not. That's really all that fails, is courage. The figure prayed for his faith that it wouldn't fail, and if the Savior prayed that it wouldn't, it was impossible, wasn't it? And it's impossible for the devil ever to take us to hell, but he can ruin us on the way to hell, and he wants to.
I have some more traps beside that that he's using. He is using materialism to detour or to at least hinder the progress of a Christian. And there are many people who say, I started out well, and then I started making money, and the Lord blessed me. The manager said, come on, go up the ladder. We've got more money for you. I didn't ask for it, they just pushed me up, and I was so busy. I could, I didn't have time for the work of the Lord, and I hardly realized it. He slipped up on me, and materialism caught me, and he trapped me, and my spiritual progress has been held at bay for so many months and years because I got wrapped up in what the world thinks is real success.
I've noticed a few Christians who started out well, who got trapped by another one, and the label on that trigger of the trap was intellectualism. And I've seen a couple young fellas that were delightful, even would get up in the assembly and give a little message, and then decided, I don't think I can speak intellectually enough to reach the general public because most of the people now have a college education, and they ought to go to a school and be able to use big words. They might not put in those words, and they just have a desire for more and more and more.
And once they get appetite for education, some of them can't stop. Thirty five years of age, still taking courses. I want to know more, more. Now that's wonderful. God can use those people, and I guess Paul, the apostle, was a highly educated man, and we dare not speak against it, but I have known that the devil used it as a trap to spoil people who were otherwise very promising young fellows, who got the idea, I have to present the gospel not in ABC language, but in the realm that my audience, my intellectual audience, is listening, and some of them have been ruined.
And my time is up, and I still have some more traps. What am I going to do? I don't think I need to mention any more because you're running ahead of me again. You've got your own traps that you've noticed, and you do know that the devil is busy, anxious to carry out this promise. Satan hath desired to have me as a Christian. He wants you. Now, there are some safeguards, and they were mentioned in that person that we sang tonight, and it is not necessary for us to fall into his traps. He cannot force us. The devil didn't make us do it. He didn't make David do it. He did it himself.
The devil can only encourage and try to make you, but I think that each one of us should recognize that this statement that our Savior made to Peter could be made to me. Welcome. Satan has desired to have you. He's still looking for you, and you will never get to the place where you can say he's no longer looking for you. He's no longer, oh, I should change that when I get that, but I mean on earth, right to my last day. And that's why some men ahead of me, who were godly men at the close or towards the close of their life said, oh God, keep me from dying a terrible sinner after you have saved me by thy grace.
Those men recognized I am still eligible to go down in defeat because the devil is a mighty foe. But I want to close the meeting by reminding you of that verse that says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And in order to be sure that he doesn't carry out what he desires, we have to start the day by recognizing, Lord, the devil is still loose, and he could get me today, and there's nothing I can do to keep him from it unless you will shield me, you will protect me, you will make me alert of his, uh, subtle wiles and the cunning way in which he carries out.
There ought to be a fear in our hearts. The devil can still destroy our testimony and bring dis- bring disgrace to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And just in case there's an unsaved one in the meeting tonight, let me tell you that you have a wonderful privilege tonight of making the devil mad and making the Lord Jesus Christ very happy. Would you like to do that? If you'll be honest with yourself and say, I'm a lost sinner, and I know that I ought to be saved. I've done a number of other things, but I have never trusted him as Lord and Savior. And since my Savior loved me and died for me, and that will make him happy, I would like to make him happy, and also make, uh, heaven happy for one sinner that repents.
If you are ready to trust the Savior and you have some problems, some hurdles that need to be crossed before you can, and you need my help or another person in this audience in whom you have confidence, I ask you not to go home tonight until you make the devil mad and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Our Father, we thank thee. Thou hast revealed thy word, thou hast uncovered the devil in his tactics. We've seen him work all around us, and we dread to think that someday he will overtake us. Lord, watch over us. This Lord from falling prey to him. We ask thy blessing on everyone, and for those who have already been snared, we pray for their immediate recovery, and that thou will bless each one who has fallen into his trap.
We commend ourselves to thy loving care in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.