De Witt Tabernacle Teaching Series
Does God Lie?
C.W.
Wood
September/October 2002
I hope that the title of the sermon has attracted your attention! Of
course, your quick response to the question “Does God Lie?” is a very
emphatic, “NO.” Of course God does not lie. He has never lied, He will never
lie, and He cannot lie! Our God is the Fountain of all Truth, right? All of His
words are eternal, right? Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but His Word
endureth forever, right? If any man adds to His Word, or takes away from it his
name will be removed from the Book, right? His Word is forever settled in
Heaven, right? His Word is a Lamp unto our feet, right? The words He speaks to
us are Life, right? Whosever will not harken to His Word, he will require it of
him, right? From Genesis to Revelation the Bible proclaims that the Word of the
Lord is the solid foundation for faith. Exactly Right!
Now, let us look at God’s enemy, and ours, and see what the scriptures
say about Satan and his honesty. We will ask the same question about Satan that
we asked about our Lord. Does Satan lie? And again, our quick response is,
“Yes he lies. He is the father of lies.” The truth is not in him, right? His
business is to oppress the people by lying, right? He came not but for to steal,
to kill and to destroy, right? He sinneth from the beginning, right? Jesus came
to destroy the works of the Devil, right? The scripture says resist the Devil
and he will flee from you, right? Also, the scriptures say that the Devil
BELIEVES AND TREMBLES AT THE WORD, right? Yes, this is exactly right also!
Then in view of all that has been previously said about our Father and
His perfection, and about Satan and his perverted, lying ways,
I would like to set forth a question for those of us who say we believe
the End-Time Message. Here is the question, and it is not meant to offend, but
rather to make us stop and think! Why is it that the devils, who are lost and on
the way to the pit, read God’s Word and believe it to the point of
trembling before it, while some of us who are suppose to be full of the Holy
Ghost and on the way to Heaven, read the Word and doubt it? Is not this a
great paradox? I can’t off hand
think of a greater mystery than this, when the devils read and tremble while
Saints read and doubt! It seems that the reverse would be true, but we must face
the facts.
I know that our readers are intellectually in agreement with the two
truths as set forth above; the Faithfulness of God and the unfaithfulness of
Satan. But, we also know that mental
assent can agree and admire the Word when there is no faith there to produce
action. Would it surprise you to hear that Satan has more faith in the Word than
many Christians? He knows for a certainty that the Word of God is forever true!
He knows full well that he must obey it when a Saint of God takes his stand
behind it. He is in no way deceived about the Word being true, so his tactic is
to cause the individual Christian to doubt it. In the very beginning, in the
Garden of Eden, we see the result his lies had on Mother Eve. He managed to cast
the shadow of doubt into her mind, so that she was deceived. Adam was not
deceived, and neither was the Devil. The Devil knew quite well what would happen
to Eve for doubting the Word of God. How did he know? Simply because he believes
the Word! Satan believed the Word therefore, he knew what would happen to Eve if
only he could make her doubt it!
Now hear another staggering revelation, Message Believers, the Devil
cannot be talked out of the fact that God’s Word is eternally true and always
comes to pass. At first, you may think what a strange kettle of fish that is!
But, let’s continue with this revelation that Satan has and see if the Lord
will give us a revelation that will help us. In order for you and me as
believers to be able to hold Satan to the promises of God, he (the Devil) must
of necessity, have the revelation that the Word is everlastingly true. Ever
since the day that our God put Satan and his evil angels out of Heaven, he has
known that God’s Word cannot be defeated. He knows this by personal
experience. He cannot forget it. God proved it to him!
Therefore, we can use Satan’s revelation against him. Since we know
that he KNOWS the Word is true and that he has no choice but to obey it, we
should be able to hold it up before this enemy and KNOW that sooner or later he
must obey what it says. May I pass another mighty revelation on to you? Unless
the Devil can convince you and me that our Heavenly Father has falsely quoted
some of His promises, then he has no power at all over us! No Born-Again
Christian is going to ever agree that our Lord lied about any of the precious
promises in the book. Then, since we know they are true, and since the Devil
knows they are true, and since we know that our God will never change them,
there should be no problem in standing before the enemy and demanding that he
obey the Word. I hope you see it dear friends. How terrible for Saints not to
believe the Word to the same degree that the Hell-bound devils do! Oh Lord,
reveal to us our failure!
Let us reason together with the Lord for a moment. If you and I already
know that God’s Word is true, and if the enemy cannot convince us that God has
misrepresented it, and if we know that Satan also knows it’s true, and that he
must obey it, then we can conclude that the enemy has lost his power over us.
This should be all the revelation we need to be able to hold the enemy to the
Word. He knows this very well and his only hope is to cause us to waver in our
belief as Eve did.
The Devil is not one bit afraid of the five senses kind of faith. I speak
of the kind of faith that demands some physical evidence before it will believe.
It has been my experience that a large percent of our so-called faith is physical-evidence
faith. As long as there is plenty of natural evidence to back up our
believing, we do well, but once the five natural senses cannot detect any
evidence that the Word is working, we fail.
In other words, we place this physical evidence above the place that the
Word should hold. In true revelation faith,
the Word holds first place. The Word declares a thing to be so and that is
enough. If physical evidence denies that the Word is true, then revelation
faith casts out the physical evidence and clings to the Word. Revelation
faith does not need to have physical evidence.
People who depend on physical evidence are apparently not aware of this,
but they have been caught in one of the Devil’s most deadly traps. No lie of
Satan is more deadly than when he convinces us that if the natural senses cannot
register the promise as being true, then it is not true. These people must have
physical evidence or they will not believe. But, revelation
faith believes that no Word from God is void of power and it rests in
perfect confidence concerning what God has said. Revelation faith accepts the word of God without any other evidence
than God said it and that is enough!
There is another most important truth about Faith that we must never
forget, and that is “Faith must be delivered to us from the heart of God or we
seek for it in vain.” We must, “Contend
for the Faith that was once DELIVERED unto the Saints.” (Jude 3) As one
who has taught Faith for many years, I have observed that it is impossible to
bring a disobedient Christian to the place of real Faith that works. God has
declared, “That only the obedient shall
know of the doctrine.” (John 7:17)
That is to say if there is a person who refuses to walk in all the light God has
given him, he will not have the Faith of God delivered to him.
Every obedient Christian who has laid their life on the altar is being
given God’s Faith. I am not speaking of people who have become perfect in
obedience, but rather of those who confess their sins and failures and pray for
the strength to follow closer. One of the main reasons for the lack of revelation faith in the churches today is that we hold back some
things that our God is requiring us to lay on the altar, or else we refuse to
take up some things that He is asking us to take up.
Show me a Christian who has the faith to stand and trust his God in any
kind of a trial, and I will show you one who has laid his whole life on the
altar. Not that his life is perfect, but that he desires it to be, and strives
toward that goal with all his strength. Many things clog up the channel from
God’s heart to ours; the love of money, the failure to give up our own plans,
putting the love of the world ahead of the love of God. “He
that looseth his life for Christ’s sake shall find it.” (Mat. 10:39)
I have often been dismayed to see that after preaching Faith to people
for a number of years, they are no more able to trust God than in the beginning.
In seeking to understand this prevailing situation, I have often discovered that
the people in question have not committed some things to the Lord, and you
cannot teach faith to a disobedient Christian. God delivers His Faith to those
who are striving to obey Him, and who repent at once when they fail!
The kind of faith that we will need to have a body change and go in the
Rapture is not mysterious at all when we look into God’s Word and see what He
says about it. It is the simplest thing in the world. First of all, we must
“Be born-again.” We must know that the Spirit of Christ has come into our
hearts. From that point on all we have to do is study His Word and pray and then
follow Him as best we can in all that He requires of us. He will lead us one
step at a time into more and more revelation of His Word. The more truth He
gives us, the more He requires of us, and the more of our lives that we give
over to Him, the more Faith He delivers to us.
No person who is willing to give up his life in this world for the sake
of Jesus Christ will miss the Rapture. On the other hand, every person who is
not willing to give up the things that God requires of him will be left and
enter the Tribulation. The plan is so simple that even a child should not err in
the way. Both the educated and the uneducated can understand this simple plan:
serve God and live eternally, or refuse and die. The choice is ours. God does
not lie, what blessings He has promised, He will send and what curses He has
promised, He will also send! God does not send people to Hell because of our
weaknesses and our failures, but because we refuse to repent and submit our
wills to Him daily. (I Cor. 15:31)
It is knowing that our Faithful High Priest is effectually interceding
for us that keeps our heart in peace and lets us to know that His unchanging
Grace promises the repentant heart His favors. But what good does it do to lead
people into the deeper mysteries that our Prophet revealed while they fail to
walk in the light that has already been revealed to them? This is but putting
new wine in old wine skins and causing all to be lost. We may listen to all the
Prophet’s tapes and read all his sermons, yet if our heart is not right, we
will not be profited. Our head knowledge may be increased and our false pride
increased, but our soul is not fed and we do not draw closer to God.
Men may be well taught in the End-Time Message, believe in the One True
God, accept Christ as their personal Saviour, contend for the Faith that was
once delivered to the Saints, and pass among other Message Believers as Bride
Members, yet be no better than “White
sepulchers, full of dead men’s bones.” (Mat. 23:27)
The longer we are left here, the more clearly do we see this truth. Many
have a name they are living, but are dead. We cannot see into the hearts as
could the Prophet, but we can watch the fruit and hear the words spoken and know
that, “Out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh.” (Mat. 12:34) The worldliness and lack of faith
to be found in the majority shows that Christ is not ruling in the heart. To
have Jesus Christ ruling in the heart is so much more than just believing the
Message of the hour, but how very many are resting on their sound doctrinal
views of the Prophet’s Message? They believe in one God, the Deity of Jesus
Christ, they believe the Serpent Seed teaching, the Blood of the Cross, the
Resurrection and the Rapture. They believe God sent the Prophet of Mal. 4:5
and they believe all the mysteries that he taught, yet, the giving of the entire
soul unto God is being withheld. They have failed to renounce all else and to
yield fully to this Christ they say they love and follow. This makes such a
person to be just an empty professor. He is trusting in his own good opinion of
himself, but the Lord is looking into his heart. He sees every door there that
is closed to Him!
It is certain that thousands of people who are confident they are going
in the Rapture have never given the entire will over to the Lord, and therefore,
can show no scriptural evidence that they have the Token! We are told to make
our “Calling and Election sure.” (II
Peter 1:10) God does not waste words. He saw the desperate need for us to check
ourselves; therefore, He placed this warning in the Book. These things being
true, then how can we KNOW Him with a Saving Faith? God has not left us in the
dark. I John 2:3, “And hereby we
do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
A life lived
that has a Godly fear of disobeying the Word is one of the best proofs that we
are a Child of God. “He that saith, I
know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him.” (I John 2:4) To see a person who has sat under the preaching of the
End-Time Message year after year, and heard the exhortations of God through the
voice of His Prophet, yet continues to willfully disobey parts of the Word, this
is a sign that something is radically wrong. John went on to say in I John
2:5, “But whoso keepeth His Word,
in him verily (surely) is the Love of
God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him.”
It is the empty
professor who rides roughshod over God’s Word, and who is not convicted when
he fails to keep some part of it that has before times been brought to his
attention. This person may have a head-knowledge of the Message, but not a vital
heart-knowledge of the One who sent it. He may boast that he believes the
Message, and that he is resting on Christ’s finished work, but he keeps not
God’s commandments. He talks Faith, but does not really have it because of his
disobedience. When the hard trials come to him, his supposed Faith vanishes as
the morning mist. God only delivers the real Faith to His obedient children.
The “Good Ground Hearers” that Jesus spoke of in Luke 8:15 are
those, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, KEEP IT and
bring forth fruit with patience.” Dear Friends, the test of our knowing Him is
FRUIT, not goose bumps from the music in a church service, not our knowledge of
the mysteries (as good as that is), not our boastings over recognizing a
Prophet, but Fruit of the Holy Ghost seen in our lives, and the nature of the natural
man cannot produce this Fruit. True, it may be counterfeited for a time, but
as has been said, when the chips are down, all but the real
fruit is lost in the storm.
To receive the Token, to believe on Jesus Christ in a saving way, is to
turn our backs on the world, separate ourselves from the religious
make-believers and bow to the yoke of Him who has called and saved us. It is to
surrender to His Lordship, and to live for His Glory, and this cannot be done by
the natural man. It is no easy task;
it takes the Spirit of Christ in us to accomplish such a work in the soul. We
must be very much in earnest and ready to overcome many difficulties and forsake
all other interests that would hinder our seeking. We must go through fightings
without and fears within. We must cut loose the chains of the world from around
us. We will go through continual failings of the flesh, and be stung by many
fiery darts of the Devil, yet be called upon to trust in the One who has saved
us and press the battle!
All Message Believers desire to be saved from the great Tribulation and
go in the Rapture, but as we look around us we clearly see that some of these
are not so ready to be saved from their sins. Their lives show that the love of
certain sins outweighs their Love of Jesus Christ. “Whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke
14: 33) Solemn words these, words that the flesh man had rather not be reminded
of, but better now than at White Throne Judgment! Amen.
A PERSONAL NOTE
TO OUR
READERS
The Lord Jesus has blessed our writing ministry above all that we could
have ever thought. For a big part of this year, I have been saddened at my
inability to keep up with answering my mail and filling all the orders for the
books and sermons that are stacked on my desk. I have been saddened, and yet,
filled with joy at the response of the Bride around the world concerning the
sermons. This is not to say that we believe the teaching is without flaws. We
fully understand that we only see in part and that the revelations are
progressive.
We do know that many of you who read our material have more knowledge
about certain subjects than we do, and therefore are able to see some
corrections that should be made in our teaching. We appreciate your patience
with us and ask for your continued prayers. What a grave responsibility to start
out to instruct the Apple of God’s Eye, His Bride! My only consolation is that
I did not start this task on my own, but was moved into it as the Lord led and
as Spirit-filled Brothers encouraged me.
The burden on my heart is that I have not been able to meet all the
requests that have come in. It is not the shortage of money that has hindered,
but the shortage of hours in a day. We have read every letter and prayed over
every prayer request. We have prayed over every request and tried our best to
follow the leading of the Lord. We cannot send all that is requested.
We love to hear from our readers, but sadly it is humanly impossible to
respond to each one individually. We pray that you will not have your feelings
hurt if there are times when we could not write you a personal letter. We read
all mail and seek to answer the questions in our monthly sermons, if not by
personal letter. Also, I would like to inform our readers that I do not use a
computer. Your e-mail letters come to me second or third hand and there is also
no way that I can respond to all of them, although I do list the requests that
come that way and try to fill them according to date. We do so appreciate your
encouraging testimonies.
I am very happy to report that my health is still improving and that I am
being able to do more work as each day dawns. The faithful prayers of our
readers have played an important part in my recovery and we are very grateful.
God’s Grace endureth forever toward His Own. Our prayers continue for each of
our individual readers. Press the battle, the time grows short and the darkness
deepens day by day. The Lord is with you. Amen!
Brother
C. W. Wood