Sermon Outline:
“You Gotta Serve Somebody”
1. Their Claim (8:39-41)
2. Their Character (8:42-44)
3. Their Censure (8:45-47)
Sermon Text:
John 8:39-47
You Are of Your Father the Devil
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Sermon Notes:
Satan doesn’t want to fight the church; he wants to join it and infiltrate with a different gospel of his own invention.
He will always scheme in the amphitheater of the crucial, never in the arena of the trivial. He attacks the character and nature of God; the person and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ (His Virgin birth, sinless life, once for sacrifice on the cross as a propitiation for our sins, His bodily resurrection from the dead, etc.); the gospel of sola fide; and he counterfeits the ongoing work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
But his number one priority is to attack truth, promote error, subterfuge the gospel, and try to discredit the divine work of God among His creatures (2 Cor. 10:1-5; 1 Tim. 4:1-3). His first deception in the garden was not only to add to God’s word, but also to wrest God’s word through subtle and clever trickery. “Hath not God said…” was his ploy with our first parents—Eve was deceived and Adam sinned (Gen. 3:1-16; Rom. 5:12-18). He first plants doubt, then deceives, distorts truth, advances disobedience and fosters distrust against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. He loiters as the “accuser of the brethren night and day before the throne of God (Rev. 12:1-12) and revels in the spiritual defection of God’s people.
Satan’s gospel wants to mix our works with Jesus’ grace (Gal. 5:1-4); our righteousness with the perfect righteousness of Christ (Is. 64:6). It demands no repentance from sin; misrepresents the character and nature of God; promotes love of self and self-esteem as its core value; denies the efficacy of the cross, the sinless life of Christ, His bodily resurrection from the dead, His eternal Sonship, His virgin birth, and His claim to being the only way, the truth and the life for salvation. Satan’s “gospel” focuses on man and his felt needs; not with God and His glory. He will come with the seductive notion of: obey your thirst; greed is good; do what you want as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else; surrender to passions; love the one you’re with; be happy – not holy. That is his devilish creed. He is the Pope of the postmodern church. He is the author of the Pomo-Study bible. He’ll convince you there is no absolute truth—for truth is whatever you want it to be. Truth must remain fluid; liquid; changing with every new generation and adapting its claims in every culture. He wants to reduce Jesus Christ to the status of being only one of many lords and saviors in the multi-cultural, moral pluralistic, politically correct pantheon of gods.
In the gospel according to Satan the audience is always sovereign – appealing to people’s sense of belonging and becoming. “Don’t bore them with theology or confuse them doctrine—for doctrine only divides” he’ll say; “but a compassionate faith unites and places as its primary goal, a culture of civility.” Satan is nothing but a liar and the father of lies!
