The Devil’s Dirty Deed – Part 1

The Christian's enemy, the devil, wants us to believe whatever we hear instead of what we read. This is why so many Christians inherit folly, as told in Proverbs.

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Podcast 12 Transcript

(This is a computer generated transcript of this podcast.  This is NOT a typed transcript and it has not been edited. Expect grammatical and syntactical errors.)

Welcome and good day. I am B. R. Maul, and this podcast is Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. Welcome. It's so good to have you here with me today. I love to teach and I love to preach God's word, but most importantly, I am just thankful to be a child of God. He's a wonderful God, and every day I look forward to knowing him more and becoming just a little more like my savior, Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit sanctifies me and I pray that you, my brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing the same as you continue to search out the Lord in His word daily and pray to Him. I know from personal experience that he will sanctify you. He will change your hearts. Living in the upper Midwest, I look out my study window. There's still some snow on the ground, so as I visually see one season depart and springtime finally set in, I can't help but think of days of yesteryear.

When I was growing up, my family often had AM radio playing. In fact, come to think about it, it seems like almost everywhere I went, no matter what relative it was, grandparents, aunts, and uncles house and even our own place had often just a radio playing in the background. One voice that I remember hearing often was that of Paul Harvey.

I don't know if you yourself remember, listener, the rest of the story that Paul Harvey would tell. I mean, even as a child, usually news was quite boring. I wanted to just get onto some fun music, but Paul Harvey had a way of captivating his listeners, his audience. And the rest of the story. That's the name of his program, he would keep the listener kind of dangling or just kind of holding on the edge until the very end, until he told the rest of the story and he did an amazing job. He was wonderful at it. The reason I bring that up is because he tells a story that I'm going to read that corresponds to what I'll be talking about today, next week and perhaps even the week after that, I will be talking about baptism. And the reason I want to talk about baptism is because there's a large debate that is going on about baptizing. Well, I want to explore that with you and go over what God's word says about that. And I've had some personal experience, the Lord.

Led me through this is something he has placed on my heart that is near and dear to me, and so I want to share that with you. Oh, a little bit about Paul Harvey. He was born September 4th, 1918 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He passed away on February 28th, 2009 in Phoenix. The rest of the story segments were from 1951 to 2008.

That's pretty amazing. He'd worked right up to when he passed away. Now, I don't know Paul Harvey's relationship with the Lord, but I do hope and pray that he was indeed born again and that he had blessed the lives of many with his stories. The story I will share with you in just a minute, is Paul Harvey's If I were the Devil. The reason this is such a good story to read and then look into God's word about is because the story that he depicts shows much of humanity's weakness and often people's inability to move on to correct something that is wrong.

We have a tendency to want to keep things the way they. We have a tendency to take great comfort in things that we know, and often what happens. The things that we know, we of course pick up from people before us, our own parents, our family. So we can often have these behaviors that are learned. We can have knowledge that is learned from other people over and over again, and then we pass that on. There's many examples. We can take Christmas and the traditions that go with Christmas, and of course we can sit and we could pick out ones that have absolutely nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, but we still associate it with Christmas because of, well, whatever reason. So we carry that on and that's just one we can look at any holiday.

In any country, look at the holiday historically, find out where it came from, why they're celebrating what they're doing, and in time we would learn that there are parts of that directly connected to the story. But then we would also find maybe more recent aspects of the tradition, things that perhaps at one point fit and now they don't we feel so things have. And so that's why I encourage my listeners, my brothers and sisters and those who I speak to about Jesus to always go to his word and not just go by what we were taught. Well, why is that? I'm glad you asked. I am in Proverbs 14. And I'm going to go over 12, 14, 15, 16, and 18. Now, just to kind of spice things up a little bit, I'm not going to read 'em in that order.

I'm going to read 'em in a different order because I think it helps correspond to what it is that we'll be talking about after I read If I Were the Devil. So Proverbs 14 verse. The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. So the simple inherit folly. Well, what does that look like?

Well, inherit, so once again, as I have just talked about, going from generation to generation, passing on traditional know, But the problem is in that passing along, things can get mixed up for whatever reason, intentionally and unintentionally. But the simple inherit that folly and going by this proverb, that's what makes the person simple as they inherit the folly and then they stay at that.

They don't continue on. They don't try to learn more. Cuz the second part of 18, but the PR. Are crowned with knowledge, a prudent person in Proverbs, also the wise person, okay? Are those who are very meticulous and careful with what they're doing. They have a care for God's word. They do things unto God. So in other words, you give it your best.

And in this case, being crowned with knowledge that tells us that the prudent, the wise being crowned, having a lot of knowledge. They're not just taking whatever information that they've inherited and going with that. They are looking into it. They are reading God's word for themselves. It's good that we pass information on, but it's also important that we, our ourselves go directly to God's word. And as we teach our children, because when we teach right, especially children or somebody who doesn't know God, we don't just open the word right away and just start reading. Cuz that can be very complex for a child or somebody who has never heard of Jesus and doesn't understand the gospel.

So it's important then that we do discuss it and we, we verbally help them and we pass that information on. Okay. They've inherited that information. They, they can take that. But we also need to teach our children. We need to teach those who come to the Lord to also get into his words so they're not relied upon us, that they themselves continue to grow and walk with the Lord.

The next one is verse 15. The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps. Okay, so we see a progress there, right? So the simple inherit the folly, the simple here, this information, and they believe every word. They don't question it. Now, I can relate to that firsthand because you know, growing up as a Lutheran, that's what I did.

I just went by what the pastors said in church. From what I heard in Sunday school. What I. What I heard family talk about from time to time, you just kind of gather this stuff up. It just kind of, oh, what I hear on tv, movies and listening to music, all of that, I was just accepting. I believed every word. 

I was simple. I wasn't going beyond that for myself. That was just being lazy. But the prudent considers, well his steps, again, the prudent somebody, not cautious, but well aware. Okay. Being prudent takes effort because you have to open up God's word and you have to read it and, okay, so we have 18, the simple inherit folly.

15, the Simple believes every word, and then we go on to 12. Now it gets to be a little more dangerous. Because with this information that the simple gather from what they hear 12 says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death as proverb 14 verse 12. Now listen to this one more time.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. So the same person, this simple person who from birth growing up as a child, has inherited this information of God and remaining simple believe every word. And now as they have grown, they have kept this information as a part of them.

And it seems right in their eyes. So now they're to the point where they will even defend the information that they have come to know, because to them it seems right again, I can relate to that. And maybe you're there as well. Maybe you're still at that point that you are still thinking, well, you know, there's no way my family could be wrong.

There's no way my pastor and those who love and care for me are wrong. This seems right, and so when it comes to baptizing babies, it's very convincing and I think it's convincing because even myself, I wanted to believe it. There's times I would still like to just believe it because of so many people I know in my family's circle and friends.

It would be much easier just to get along because that is what they believe it seems right in their eyes, and unfortunately these are loved ones who do not spend the time in God's word. They are using the information they inherited and they just believe it. They don't question it, and then they will even argue it.

I argued for infant baptism. I think it was because, well one, that is all I knew. It didn't make sense the other way around the biblical version of it. And next week, in the week to come, we'll talk more about the details of baptism, what Jesus himself says about it, and we'll reference that together solely we can continue to grow in God's word.

But the danger in that is the second part of 12, but its end is the way of death. Beloved, are you holding onto something that you have inherited growing up in a certain denomination and because that is what you know, that is what seems right to you, you're going to hang onto and you're willing to defend that, be weary of that.

If you have not read God's word, if you have not walked and talked to God about this because the end can lead to death if you are wrong. And death means spiritual death, not physical death, because we will all physically die. It is appointed unto man once to die. We may have heard for the person who is born once they die twice for the person who was born twice, they die once.

What does that? For the person who isn't born again, as Jesus speaks about it in John three, if a person is not born again spiritually, that means they are only born physically. And not only will they physically die, but then spiritually they also die for the person who is born physically. Everybody, right?

But then. They are born again spiritually. Now they're born twice, and the only death that they will experience is their physical death because now that they are born spiritually of the spirit, they will not die spiritually more on that part, of course, in detail. So be wary of that. Verse 12. There is a way that seems right to a man Mankind.

And so that person or people, they continue to go to church, they follow that denomination, they follow what they are told to do, and they don't ask questions. And from time to time they may read into God's word, but if that person is not walking with the Lord, if they are not born again and seeking their savior, there's no way for them to know if what they are doing is the right way.

It only seems right. Verse 14. So Proverbs 14, verse 14. Okay. The backs slider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways. What could be happening here? Well, someone who's a backslider is somebody who has tasted the knowledge of Jesus Christ and as the simple may have inherited this information that they hang onto how to get to heaven, the way of walking with the Lord.

And then they may actually hear the message of the gospel. Learn of being born again. Might even be looking into it, but then decide no. That's not for me. That doesn't seem right. And so they backslide and that can be on different levels. They backslide into their own traditions. Once again, they find comfort or worse.

Well, I don't know. Come and think about it. I guess I used to think it's worse, but it's on my heart to say maybe it's not worse. I was going to say worse that they backslide and they don't even want to believe in God. But maybe that's not worse, because both of them, both of those paths can lead to the same destination of spiritual death, of going to hell.

That's a backslider in heart. As it says here, the backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways. I don't have room, in other words. I'm filled with my own way. This feels good to me. I am comfortable believing this about God. I am comfortable going to this church and doing things in a particular way, even though now I've heard that it doesn't correspond with what God is saying.

The backsliders filled with their own way do not have room for what is right. The second part of that, it's kind of a remedy to get beyond that, but a good man will be satisfied from above. In other words, somebody who is following the Lord is satisfied with what the Lord says. Reading God's word. This person is, is willing to open their hands and take whatever God gives them in their reading of His word.

That's quite amazing because that's not as easy as it sounds because most people have to be able to put aside what they learned, what they inherited, what we thought was the way, because people who are important to us, that we even love and look up to told us a certain way. And mind you, beloved, we can be amongst those who are teaching the wrong way if we are teaching just out of our emotion what we feel comfortable with.

And it's not what God is saying. People are not intentionally misleading their loved ones. It is the act of our enemy. We are not each other's enemies. Denominations, I pray, can get beyond fighting one. In fact, someday they will be because the anti-Christ, well indeed have a one world religion and that will make the people feel just so great.

Hey, we can all get along. We're all worshiping this way now. And of course, as Christians we won't be able to do that. We will have to deny the one world religion. A good man, a good person will be satisfied from above, from the information that God has given us, we will be satisfied. I'm happy with that. I don't have to question that, but, oh, okay.

That's, that's the way it is. This is the way Jesus says to do it. All right, well then let's just do it that way. And I thank the good Lord for helping me get to this place in my walk with him that I can say that as I'm reading His word. It was hard, and I'm telling you that now. I want to share that with you because that was very difficult for me.

I really fought that and I know some of it was pride, some of it was just not sure, scared even. So it's okay. But again, I encourage you to read God's word for yourself and get with another Christian who has been walking with the Lord for a while as well that can help walk with you and guide you through that.

Now, what's the other one? Ah, yes. Verse 16. A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident. These proverbs fit in various venues, but in this case, I'm using it with the knowledge that one obtains about. A wise man fears. That's that reverent fear of the Lord. And because of that reverent fear, Christians, we don't need to fear evil like, I'm going to stay in my house and hide.

No, God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but a wise man fears and departs from evil. In other words, yeah, this isn't good for me at all. This doesn't make sense. This isn't. Whether it's just actions, things they're doing that isn't right, or in this case belief, that wise person, that prudent person as they discover what God is saying to do, following God's commands and just loving the Lord can at that point depart from evil.

Now, I get it. Some are going to hear that and think, well, you're just calling my family and friends evil. If they're the ones who are practicing in their traditions that do not correlate with God, then are they evil? I'll say what they're doing is evil because we do that even as Christians, as we find out, wow, you know what?

What I've been watching, I found out from walking with the Lord how much evil I was watching things that I was listening to was evil. Ways I was speaking to other people was evil. Did I feel evil doing it at the time? No. Do I feel evil now when I hear it? Yes, but that doesn't mean our loved ones are intentionally doing evil.

Now, that's a whole other discussion because there's a wickedness and wicked people actually search out evil, but that's not what we're talking about in this particular spot. It's people who don't understand what they're doing is evil because it's tradition, whatever it may be. And at this point we're talking about baptism, where that fits in.

The other part of that is, but a fool rages and is self-confident. And I pray that that is not you, but if it is, I pray even more that you look to God for the courage and help to see that, admit to it and move on. Fool rages and is self-confident. I can look back at a time when that was me. I raged, I was defending the faith that I had learned as a child without truly understanding from God's word, and that's what made me a fool.

And rage. Yes, because there's. And I think what made me so angry wasn't just the fact that I was being told I was wrong, because who likes to be told that, but in my heart starting to realize that I had been misled. So there's conflicting emotions with that. And then that last part is self-confident, but a fool rages and is self-confident.

Once again, that's building ourself up. Self-confidence is never a good thing. We should have confidence in what the Lord has given us and we have confidence in Jesus so we can be confident defending what he has told us. And I hope that makes sense. So with those verses in Proverbs 14, hopefully that helps to prepare you for the reading of If I Were The Devil, and then we'll look more into that because this is not easy stuff to wrap your mind around. Not at all. And please, you are so welcome to contact me on my website, B. R. Maul. That's B R M A U l.com. Just click on the contact and you can send me a message there if there's something that you would like to talk about and I'd be happy to do that. As I read, if I Were The Devil by Paul Harvey, keep in mind these different areas that he talks quite a bit about and how many of these have come about by just accepting, not putting up a fight from what's right and wrong.

Many of these things are because Christians haven't stood up or worse, Christians just don't know their own Heavenly Father's words in the Bible. And so our ignorance is just as bad and it leads us to where we are with what Paul Harvey had said, and it soul rings true today, more true today than it was when he had aired it on the radio.

Paul Harvey, If I Were the Devil. If I were the devil, I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world. I would delude the minds of the people into thinking that their power and prosperity had come from man's effort instead of God's blessings. I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people instead of the other way around.

I would dup entire states into relying on gambling for their main source of revenue. I would convince people that character is not an issue. I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies. I would make it socially acceptable to take one's own life and invent machines to make it convenient. I would take God out of the schools where even the mention of his name was Grounds for a lawsuit.

I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them. I would get control of the media so that every night I could pollute the minds of every family member for my agenda. I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation. I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and I would call it art.

I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agendas as politically correct. I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, and that the Bible is for the naive. I would institutionalize the church to the degree that her number one priority would be preservation of the institution and not preaching the gospel of Jesus.

I would dull the minds of Christians and make them believe that prayer is not important and that faithfulness and obedience are just optional and that it really doesn't matter what you believe about God as long as you are sincere in your belief. I would well come to think. I would leave things pretty much the way they are now.

That's the reading by Paul Harvey. I, myself, have to pause after reading it again. Very powerful and yes, beloved, as Christians, we are to blame for much of what is going on. For once again, either our ignorance just going from generation to generation what we inherited as what we thought, and for some of you still think is Christianity going by the fact that, wow, that can't be wrong.

We have these huge churches, beautiful temples that we, we go and worship in. Look at all the money given, look at all the people who go. They can't be wrong. No way. It's impossible, but it is possible, and unfortunately it is true. What can we expect if we stay on this path? This discussion is going to lead into the biblical way of baptizing and what baptizing is meant to be, and I'll say it now.

Baptizing does not save. And that is the biggest lie that is encompassing churches today, churches that are claiming to be Christian, claiming to follow Christ, but the very leaders themselves have taken on what they have carried on from generation to generation, what they inherited and whoa, to the leaders in the seminaries who continue to teach it without question, and I say this beloved, with my own experience being in a seminary, speaking with pastors, professors, having them hmm and ha about ways that they are trying to answer that is not biblical. And they too strive to remember what they were told. We can't do that as Christians. We do not have the privilege of living in such a way.

To just accept whatever is convenient and easy. As much as my flesh here on this side of eternity would love to so I no longer have backlash from those who completely disagree, but still cannot back up what they say in the Bible. They are the fools raging, as it says in Proverbs, and are self-confident, but refuse to look to God. In Amos, the book of Amos, chapter two verse four. In the New Kings James version, there's a title above it, judgment on Judah, verse four. Thus says the Lord for three Transgressions of Judah, and for four I will not turn away its punishment because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept his command. Their lies led them astray lies, which their fathers followed.

Beloved, that is inherited information that's been passed down from generation to generation and right through seminaries, right through the brilliance of the mines of men and women over the years that have meant to do good, but unfortunately their information isn't quite on key with God's word. And I'm not talking about just baptizing babies.

There are many false prophets, false prophecies that continue on from generation to generation to mislead people. Some is a matter of convenience that takes away some of our blessings on the side of eternity. Some are very dangerous and if people believe it and are misled, unfortunately they are being misled directly to hell.

That second part of Gant Amos two, four, I will not turn away its punishment and that's to Judah. Because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept his commandments. Brothers and sisters, that just means reading his word. Right. And I know for you who are listening to my podcast, you may tire at times of hearing it that yes, we have to read.

We have to read God's word. How can we follow the commandments? How can we follow his ways if we don't know them and their lies lead them ast. Just like in Proverbs when they're talking about the fool, the simple just being led astray. So many people are letting themselves be led astray because over and over they hear on radio programs and from family or friends who say, no, listen, this is what the Bible says.

And they say, well, you know what? You can interpret the Bible your. But leave me alone. This is my way of interpreting God's word. But the problem is they're not reading God's word. Their interpretation with quotation marks around that is what they have been taught their whole life, what they perceive to be right, because those lies, he says, which their fathers followed.

Generational lies. Think about that for generations, people can be misled. Are you beloved being misled? Worse? Are you using that information? And unintentionally misleading loved ones? Know his word, know his commandments, know his ways, and he will keep you straight on the righteous path. And I want to end in Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24, it's a little more positive because we always have hope. There's always hope. I know striving with our pride is painful. It's hard to do, boy is it hard to do. But here in Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24, it reads, search me oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.

Just ask him, take the time now or as soon as the podcast is over, and just ask him. Lord, search me if there's any wickedness in me. If I'm being misled. If I am misleading others, show me. And I'm looking to you to lead me in the way everlasting. That's something I often pray to the Lord about because it is on my heart to teach and preach God's word.

I want my brothers and sisters who are born again and who just love the Lord, but like myself, was led astray in misunderstanding really what we are to do. There's so much to learn, so much. Keep listening to my podcast and if there's something I'm not covering that you have questions on, well go to my contact page and and send it to me and I'll cover that.

But there's so many things that I didn't get and I'm still learning. I was taught, well, you know, we're all sinners. That's just the way it is. You know, we can't help it. We're going to just live a sinful life. And I took that as Oh, okay. You know, that's just the way it is, I guess. So I have my vices. I, I guess I just keep doing it, but then as long as I go to church and participate and be as good as I can, I guess that means I, I'm forgiven and I'm good to go.

But that's not true. We're even told that because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as born again believers, that he does give us the way to overcome sin. Yes, we will fall from time to time, but we are not sinners that from time to do time do saintly things. No, born again believers are saints holy people that from time to time sin.

But we are quick to ask for forgiveness because we know in our hearts what we did is wrong. I want you to know that everything that I teach and preach is directly from God's word. I have tried very hard over the years to stand back and take my own biases out, and believe me, that was very hard to do. And to this day, it can be hard to do, but the Lord has helped me to do that.

And so I come to you with this knowledge to pass this on, hoping that others can learn as well from my own mistakes and to hear my voice amongst other voices. Who are trying desperately to get the attention of those who are either seeking the Lord, but also for those who love the Lord. But just don't feel like they have that connection, because you could be that person.

You could be among those who were misled and honestly feel that, well I, I'm a Christian, I do this and I do. But all those thises and thats going to church and giving money and being baptized as a baby, being confirmed everything and anything that is outside just loving the Lord and knowing that his blood washed away your sins and the acknowledgement that you are a sinner and that you need him as your Lord.

And. Not just savior, but a Lord of your life. If Jesus isn't the Lord of all your life, then he's not Lord at all of your life. So with that said, I look forward to having you come back next week and I will get into the details of baptism. What does Jesus say about that and how does that fit in to a Christian's life?

So come back next week and until then, God bless.

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