Believing a Lie — Manley Beasley

Believing a Lie Through Unbelief

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to one verse of scripture found in Romans, Romans 1. This verse of scripture is a verse that I only want to use because I feel like it suggests to us something of an idea that I think we should develop.

So you will want to keep that in mind, because I'm just lifting this verse out of its context in its primary interpretation. But I'm not lifting it out of its context and abusing it because the principle here involved is what I want you to get, and I want us to apply it to our own personal lives.

Romans 1. Of course, the truth here is that God is talking about people who are receiving light and refusing it. And in the 25th verse, it says this, "...who change the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forevermore.".

Who change the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forevermore. When it comes to this matter of trusting the Lord, I find that the devil hasn't taken any naps.

In fact, as some people would put it, he's working 26 hours a day. In other words, he's getting with it. He works in many, many different ways, but one of the ways that I find that's at the very heart of the matter of keeping God's people from learning how to trust the Lord or learning to trust the Lord, to entering into the faith life that's such a pleasure to God and so much benefit to the believer, is the fact that he is doing everything he can to create such a situation within all of our circumstances to turn the truth of God into a lie.

Now the devil cannot turn the truth of God into a lie. He can't do it. The truth is truth, and that's an absolute fact. But if he can work in your situation to where you see the truth of God as a lie, and you cannot see the truth, then you change the truth of God into a lie by your life, by your response to that truth.

Joseph, Jacob, and the Consequences of Believing a Lie

And so I want us to see how the devil works to change the truth of God into a lie. Turn with me please to Genesis, the 37th chapter, and I believe you have one of the most unusual illustrations of the tragedy of unbelief that there is in the Bible.

The 37th chapter of the book of Genesis. And by the way, you may just go ahead while you're turning there and turn to Genesis 45, because I want to put these two portions of scripture together. Genesis 37 and Genesis 45.

And with this we will see how the devil is at work to work on the person who loves the Lord in such a way that they will change the truth of God into a lie. And here we have a story that just lets us get in on the principle of the truth that I'm sharing with you.

The story is very familiar to most of us. It's a story that many of us have read about many, many, many times, because it goes right to the heart of that story about Joseph. And you remember that Joseph was one of the great men of God in the Bible, God so mightily used, so mightily blessed.

And of course he stands out as one of the outstanding men of the Old Testament. And we look in on the scene here in the 37th chapter of the book of Genesis, and we find that the brothers of Joseph had gone out, taking care of their responsibilities, and Joseph's dad, Jacob, had sent Joseph out with a message.

And obviously there was some awful, awful bitterness, jealousy, and so on, in the hearts of these men, the brothers of Joseph. And of course, when you have a wicked heart, it's going to come out, isn't it?

It's going to be expressed. It's going to express itself to the depth of its wickedness. And the brothers of Joseph saw Joseph coming, and that ignited that hate, that resentment, that bitterness, and so on, in their life, and they immediately took action to do away with Joseph.

First they threw him down, you know, they were going to destroy him, and then about that time, providentially, and never discount providence, friends. Providence means God is on the scene. Never discount providence.

Do not be such an unbeliever as to act like a heathen and say it's accidental. Amen. I like what one dear Saint said to me one day. She said, Preacher, Christians do not use the words good luck and bad luck and accidents.

She said, That's the language of a heathen. Thank you, ma 'am. And I went on, but I've never thought about using those words anymore. But providence would have it. God was at work. Of course, no one seemingly saw God at work at this point, except the fact of a man by the name of Joseph.

And he was sold into bondage, you remember that? And then these brothers, they went out and took that beautiful cloak and of course just covered it in blood. And the story is right here, I'm not reading it to you, but it's right here, beginning in the 29th verse of that 37th chapter.

And they took Joseph's cloak and just covered it in blood. With this in mind, their deceitful hearts had reached its heights of deceit, indicating that here Joseph had been killed by an evil beast. And of course, when they got home, they told Jacob, the father, about Joseph being obviously killed because they had his coat that was so meaningful, and there it was covered in blood.

And it just looked like an awful, awful, awful death, an awful, awful death. And it is something. And Jacob, when he heard this story, when he saw his son's coat, and he assumed that an evil beast had killed him, in the 34th verse it says this,.

Then Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And of course the children tried to comfort him, the children tried to comfort Jacob, but they couldn't.

And he said he would go down to his grave, mourning his son's death. Now, this is awful, because here is a story where a man looks out upon the circumstances, and he literally believes that his son is dead.

And he goes into mourning. And do you know how long this man lived in mourning? Twenty years he lived in mourning, because he believed his son was dead. He lived in mourning for twenty years. Twenty years later, the 45th chapter of the book of Genesis, 25th through the 27th verses,.

Now the sons of Jacob had gone to Egypt for help, because of a famine, again providence. They were in Egypt. And there was a man in charge of things down in Egypt. And to you and I, but not to those men at that time, but we know that it was Joseph.

Of course, they discovered that it was Joseph, right? And they discovered it was Joseph, and they came home to Jacob and told their fathers, they said, Listen, listen, Joseph is alive. When they told him that Joseph was alive, he didn't believe them.

And the story tells us, it's very plain, beginning at the 25th verse. They went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan and to Jacob, their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive. And his governor over all the land of Egypt, in Jacob's heart, fainted, for he believed them not.

Twenty years he's been in mourning, twenty years he's been in mourning. They told him all these words of Joseph's which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived.

After twenty years, his spirit revived. Isn't that beautiful? He had a revival after twenty years. Now tell me something. What caused him to mourn for twenty years? Did he believe the truth, or did he believe a lie?

He believed a lie. The truth was that Joseph was not dead. That was the truth. But he believed a lie. And when he believed that lie, that lie caused him, and his attitude towards that lie caused him to live in mourning for twenty years.

Twenty years. Now what revived him? The truth. That's number one. Second thing is that he believed the truth. Right? He not only discovered the truth, but he believed it. And when he believed it, after twenty years, he was revived.

Boy, I'll tell you, to me, this is one fantastic illustration of what the unique strategy of Satan on the life of the believer in our day. He is out to get us to change the truth of God into a lie. Not by changing the truth of God, but by, my dear friends, taking the truth and not accepting it as true, and by our unbelief, changing it into where its expression in us is a lie.

It's not real. It produces mournfulness and lies and difficulty, confusion, and so on. And this very hour, the devil is working in this fashion to get you to not discover the truth of God. And of course, when you fail to discover the truth of God, you'll believe anything.

That's right. You'll believe anything. Now, I want you to turn to the 13th chapter of the book of Numbers. And as we turn to that chapter, I'd like to remind you that the children of Israel had been led out of the land of Egypt with a cloud by day and a fire by night.

Israel’s Testing and the Report of the Twelve Messengers

And at this point, where we find them here in the 13th chapter of the book of Numbers, they had had ten miracles. And every miracle they saw was a miracle revealing to them that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was all they needed.

It didn't make any difference what the need was. Jesus was the answer. And that so blesses me. It still doesn't make any difference what your need really is. Jesus is the answer. And here they had ten miracles proving to them that Jesus was the answer.

Now they had come to that crucial hour when they were to get their graduation diploma and now become useful servants to the Lord. Now this is so interesting. A lot of people have it fixed in their minds that crossing over into the land of Canaan by the children of Israel is the Spirit-filled life.

And that's where that represents the Spirit-filled life. But I think if you'd get technical with the truth and get back to the truth in its complete scope, that you'd find that identification truth took place at the Red Sea, as it does in Romans 6, and as it does with the baptism of Jesus.

And after Romans 6, you go into Romans 7, where you find yourself tempted. A better word, or a word that might be more easily understood for you, is testing. Jesus Christ was baptized not after he was tested or tempted, but before he was tested or tempted.

Right? The Red Sea definitely takes on a significant point when we relate it to Romans 6 and the baptism of Jesus as a point of identification of the believer with his risen Lord. And this takes on a very significant meaning to us when we realize that they were sent into a legitimate wilderness experience, not an illegitimate wilderness experience.

Some folk are so afraid of being immature that they forget that they have to grow up. And it reminds you of a three-year-old child acting like they're twenty. They make a lot of foolish mistakes. Amen.

And the children of Israel, my dear friends, went into a testing, a temptation time. And they were being tested, tempted, to get them ready to go into the land of Canaan. And you know what? They flunked the course.

They flunked the course. Because after all their learning, or after all, I don't know if I should say after all their learning or not, I've always believed that when you learn something, that means you do not have to go back that way twice.

It's settled forever. Now, to my definition of learning, obviously they didn't learn. But they had the opportunity to learn that Jesus Christ was all they needed. And when they got to the height of their temptation, the height of their testing, do you know what they did?

They doubted God. They doubted God. The day of provocation. They rubbed God in the wrong place. They doubted God. They would not trust God. And therefore they turned back. Now we find these people at this point.

And Moses sent out a committee. The committee was to go over into the land of Canaan and look it over to see what they could find. And of course they were to see what kind of people lived in the cities, or lived in the land, and what kind of cities they had, and a few other things.

And so these twelve men, I refer to these twelve men as twelve preachers. The reason I do that is because the Bible gets a little technical about it and causes them, we call them spies usually, but the Bible does call them messengers.

And I want you to know these fellows did preach. And I want you to know they did have a response to their invitation. They went out. They looked over the land. They saw the land. Obviously they saw it rather thoroughly.

They even brought back some of the fruit of the land. And when they came back in, they started giving a report. And they gave a report of what they saw. It's interesting what people see. It really is.

And it is of deep significance what you see. You see, when Jacob saw the coat, when he saw the coat covered in blood, when he saw the coat, immediately he concluded his son was dead. It's very significant what you see when you see things.

He did not see the truth. Twenty years later, he saw the truth. Twenty years later. Now these men that went out, these twelve messengers went out. They went out. They looked over the land. And they brought back a report.

It's all found right in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, in the seventeenth verse, Moses sends them out, tells them what to look for, and so on and so forth. In the twenty-sixth verse, they came back.

And as they came back, they started telling what they saw. And the first thing they said, they said, we saw the land, and it's a land that flows with milk and honey. That's beautiful. Not only that, but they said, we saw the land, and it's not only a land that flows with milk and honey, but it's a land that has huge walls, cities.

And it's very simple. They said, not only that, but it's a land that has huge giants. Well that's the third thing they saw. They just named them right here. And they said, not only that, but it's a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.

That's sort of an interesting thought, because eateth up the inhabitants thereof, to me, that sort of interested me. So I went looking to see if there was something back in the wording, you know, in the original, and saw them here.

And it indicates that when they looked over the land, it was so awesome, it was so great, it was so marvelous, it was so fantastic, that it just swallowed them up. And they couldn't comprehend it. They couldn't take it in.

And that's what they said. Boy, it's just a land that just swallows you up, eats you up. It's so great. It's so marvelous. It's so wonderful. Well, I think we get just a slight idea of what I'm talking about when I say, boy, it's just too good to be true.

You know, that sort of concept. Then, not only did they stop there, but there's one other thing they said they saw. They said, we saw that in our sight, we were as grasshoppers. In our sight and in the sight of those people, we are as grasshoppers.

By the way, friends, that's all found in that little portion of the scripture. But you know, that's what they saw. You say, how do you know that's what they saw? That's what they reported on. Right. And friend, that's about all you talk about is what you see.

I mean, there are several ways that you can see. You see with your eyes, you see with your imagination, and so on. But you talk about what you're able to perceive, right? Very simple. There's nothing profound about this, but it will get rather practical in a few moments.

And not only practical, but get rather applicable in a few moments. And so, this is the thing that I want you to get with, is the fact of what they did not see. So obviously, they did not see the truth about Canaan.

And the devil is constantly working to keep believers from seeing the truth about any given situation. That's his job. And I'm saying today that when it comes to the faith life, his number one approach to keeping us from trusting God is to keep us from seeing the truth about a given situation.

That's what he did in Jacob's life. And Jacob doubted and mourned for twenty solid years. When he discovered the truth and believed it, he was revived. And do you know, the devil is not only a liar in word, he is a liar in demonstration.

How Deception Distorts What We See

One time I was studying a great man of God by the name of Macintosh on the book of Genesis, and he came across this idea of when Lot lifted up his eyes and behold the plains as the garden of the Lord.

And you know, my heart passed, my mind passed over that thought, but my heart just bumped a little bit. Something happened in my heart. And God seemingly said to me in the spirit, said, there's something you're overlooking.

I went back and read it again. Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld the plains of Jordan, and it was as the garden of the Lord. My heart said, there's something there. And then all at once I realized that when a man will allow the devil the privilege, he'll not search the truth out.

The devil cannot only tell a lie, but he will illustrate, demonstrate a lie to get you to believe. Lot saw that place as the garden of the Lord. I'll assure you that friend Lot thought that was God's will for his life.

Yes, sir. He saw it as the garden of the Lord. And the devil is constantly out to deceive you and get you to believe his lies and change the truth of God into a lie. So we need to learn how to discover the truth.

Now the reason I say that these 12 spies came back and told about what they saw, but they did not see the real facts of things. They did not see the real truth is because the fact that Calum and Joshua got disturbed.

First, Calum got disturbed, and then Joshua joined in and said, listen, man, there's more to this business than just blessings. There's more to this business than walled cities. There's more to this business than just these huge giants.

There's more to this business than a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. There's more to this business than us being as grasshoppers in the sight of these people and in our own sight. There's more to this business.

You say, how do you know they said that? Because the Bible indicates that they got a different idea about this whole project. In fact, Calum stood up and said, listen, if God be for us, he said, we can handle it.

Let's go. Joshua joined in, and I mean, friends, they almost got stoned to death. You know why? That bunch of fellas sitting over there declaring their humanism, sitting around there figuring, trying to work out how they were going to get by these big problems, the whole crowd actually believed what they said.

And when they believed what they said, they literally turned against the men of God that had faith in God. And so, something happened, and it's awful, and here's what I want you to see. I want you to see what they did not see, what these ten men did not see.

The Blesser Behind Every Blessing

What do you think it was? First of all, they did not see that behind every blessing, there's a blesser. You see, they fixed their eyes upon the blessing, but friends, there can't be any blessings if there's not a blesser.

They did not have their hearts fixed on the blesser. They didn't see him. But the key to Canaan was not the blessings, but the what? The blesser. When the Israelites finally got into Canaan and moved through Canaan, what was the key?

Not the blessings, but the what? The blesser. Do you remember when Joshua finally led the people across the River Jordan, and he met the man with the drawn sword? Who do you think that was? By the way, when he met the man with the drawn sword, he fell on his face, and he worshiped the Lord.

And I'll tell you what. As he worshiped the Lord, the Lord let him know in a hurry that he didn't come to help him out. Instead, he came to take over the whole proposition. And the key to the victory in the land of Canaan was not the blessings, but it was the blesser.

And if the devil can in this hour, he will do everything he can to deceive you into believing that the key to victory in the Christian life is to get this blessing or that blessing, this blessing or that blessing.

But friends, I want to remind you that that's the strategy of Satan, for the key to victory in your life is to get to know and see and literally live with the blesser himself, the Son of God himself. And we're having movements, movements, it's worldwide this hour of seek the blessing instead of the blesser.

And I submit to you, whether you agree, disagree, like it or not, that my dear friends, this is one of the unique strategies of Satan in this hour to keep people from getting into the fullness of God.

Fixing Our Eyes on Christ Rather Than His Gifts

That's right. Boy, he is at work. I love to tell the story about my kiddos. The one that I'm making reference to is 18 years old today. He wasn't 18 years old when I picked up this illustration. But years ago, after being gone several weeks, I'd call home and I'd talk to my wife and the kids would all have to say, hello, hello, hello, hello, so on and so forth.

The oldest daughter would get on the phone and really this would happen. She'd say, Daddy, said, when are you coming home? I'd tell her. Manly Jr. would get on the phone, Daddy, when are you coming home?

I'd tell her. But that next one, when he got on the phone, you know what? He'd say, Daddy, what are you going to bring me? And I'll tell you, friend, he'd say it, Daddy, what are you going to bring me?

And I'd say, well, I've got you something. And if the little one, which was real tiny at that time, if he could manage to get to the phone, he'd ask me the same thing, what are you going to bring me? And as soon as I arrived at the airport, if the children came, the older two knew how to help me get the luggage.

But as soon as we got the luggage from that chute, that boy would say, what did you bring me? What did you bring me? Where is it? And friend, it was a fight to get home to a decent place to open that piece of luggage so I could get my gift for him out.

And then I would get that gift out and give it to him. And we lived out on five acres of land with some horses and so on. And we had a great yard to walk around in with a big swing under a beautiful, lovely Louisiana water oak tree.

And it's just a lovely place, you know, to get out. And so, man, first thing I knew, I was out of those suits into something more relaxing and I was out enjoying the yard. And as I went around walking around, just having myself a time, you know, I'd look around and there would be my daughter and there would be my oldest son.

But if I started looking for that third child, especially him, you know what, I'd find him in the playroom playing with his toy. And if I watched him long enough, he would go to the telephone and he'd call up Monty.

He'd say, say, Monty, you know, I've got a gift. My dad brought me a gift. He said, boy, it's something. He said, Ben, you need something like this. He said, oh boy, I said, I'll tell you, he said, this is it.

And the next thing I know, Monty and a two or three other kids in the community would be down there in that playroom playing with that gift. And they would make over that gift to the point that that gift just absolutely fell apart.

And here, that boy would come back to me, or maybe it's the next trip now, saying, Daddy, I've got to have another gift. And I never will forget when Debbie, the girl, got big enough to drive, I had her a credit card.

I gave her a telephone credit card. I gave her a set of keys to the car. You know why? Because I realized that that girl was constantly interested in one thing, and that was being with me and pleasing me and doing what I wanted her to do.

In fact, my dear friends, that is so much the case that now I have to pray that God will break her away from Daddy a little bit so she'll be an individualist. That's right. And that boy that's now 21 will be married next week.

He is identically the same way. I was on the phone this morning, 630, with him, Daddy, is this OK? And those kids are so taken up. Now the point is, the illustration has many breakdowns, but I think you've got the point.

That friend, the key to this whole thing is not getting our eyes fixed upon things out here that's less than the real and the genuine and the truth. And the truth is that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, is the author and finisher of our faith and all else that we really genuinely need.

And if there's to be any gifts given, I'll tell you, you let him be Lord and give them as he sovereignly wills, and they'll not make a fool out of you when you get them. Well these people saw the giants.

Seeing Problems as Bread for Spiritual Growth

I'm going to take it that way because I may not be able to get all this in. Now this is what they did not see. Caleb and Joshua let us in on this fact that there was something more to see at the 9th verse of the 14th chapter of the book of Numbers, if you happen to be there.

This is what Caleb and Joshua said as to the response when the people said that there's huge people, giants, they'll devour us, they'll kill us and all this stuff. Here's what Caleb and Joshua said, only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the Lord, of the land, for they are bread for us.

Now notice that, they are bread for us. Their defense is departed from them and the Lord is with us, fear them not. Now did you notice that? Did you notice when these men and women stood up and said these people will destroy us, will absolutely kill us, ruin us?

Did you notice that Caleb and Joshua stood up and said, listen, these people of the land, they are bread for us. Did you notice that? That's interesting isn't it? You know a few weeks ago I was in a church and a sweet doctor friend of mine came up.

He said, Manly said, you know, he said, I've been very close to your case all these years. He's in one of the research departments there in the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. And he said, I want to tell you a couple of things.

He said, one thing is I hope you'll never get away from the fact of sharing the reality of Jesus in taking care of your body because he said, I want you to know, the men that I associate with and you know and I know down there, the doctors, we have no explanation for why you're alive.

And so we just fellowshiped together and I, you know, I told him how much I loved him. He's a great Christian and he hasn't been directly on my case. He's just been with it, sort of. Next time I went to see my doctor, he said, you've got to go here to this department and see Dr. Taunton.

He said, you need some help. And he didn't know that Dr. Taunton was such a personal friend. So here I end up over in my friend's office and boy, are you talking about me having preached to him for several years about how to live for God and all at once he starts preaching to me how to live physically.

And so he put me on a diet. And the first thing he said is go and bread's got to go. I said, why? And I wanted him to say it just for you. I said, why does that bread have to go? He said, because you know, we were being very non-professional.

He said, because it makes you fat. I said, it does? He said, you know it does. Well, I knew it did, but I just wanted to hear him say it so I could say it to you. Now friends, these men, Caleb and Joshua, they got to the heart, they saw the real truth.

They saw the people of the land as bread, not as enemies to defeat them. And here's what I'm saying to you. We as God's people constantly pray that the Lord will enlarge us and make us more usable for his glory.

And here comes a batch of bread giants, whichever way, how are you looking at those things today? Amen? They come out here and friends, we reject these giants because we do not see them like we're supposed to see them.

We're supposed to see them as bread. And by the way, when you get a nice loaf of hot bread just cooked by grandmother or mother and a big jar of jam and a big bowl of homemade butter and a big glass of milk and you're a Christian and you're wanting to eat it, what's the first thing you do at this point?

Bow your heads and say, thank you, Lord. Amen? Now friend, the key to this business is not allowing the devil to literally throw, we see all of these enemies, but we are to really see the truth about those enemies.

And these men let us in on what the truth was. Caleb and Joshua saw these enemies, the people of the land, sure they knew they were there, but they really saw the truth about them, that they were bread for them.

And bread makes you fat. I believe the reason today that Christians are so lean living in such poverty spiritually is because we are incapable in our understanding of truth to submit to the discipline of God and interpret our problems as means to benefit us.

And we are going out lean because all of these problems that we are facing in life are not benefiting us one iota. Oh, I'll tell you, to me, this is so sweet and important, precious, that we do not let the devil lie to us, deceive us, work in our lives and cause us to believe a lie.

Amen? Well, what's the truth about your problems? They are from the Lord. You say, is that really the truth? Yes, sir. You say, what are you going to do with the devil? I'm going to leave him right where he is and let him constantly be God's delivery boy to bring you problems, or bread, however you want to say it, to enlarge you and make you more like Jesus.

Right? You know, when you see this, you start praising the Lord in all things. You really do. One of the sweetest Christians I know in this country lives, well, she did live fairly close to here, about a 30-minute drive.

She came into one of my meetings one time. She had the beauty of Jesus all over. Long about that time, she was, I suppose, about 65. And man, her life was just so filled with Jesus. Her life just radiated the Lord Jesus.

She was a radiant person. And I found out she went to the jail houses, very aristocratic type lady, almost high culture. And man, she'd go to jail houses, preach. Oh, you know, not preach, but testify.

And she's a Baptist, good Baptist, so she couldn't preach. But she testified. She had a great time. I mean, the Lord just mightily used her. And I thought to myself, I said, now where did this glory come from?

Well, I knew it came from the Lord, but how did this glory get here? Well, I was invited to her home for breakfast. I went to her home for breakfast. She said to me, she said, Manly, I'd like for you to meet the preacher that God has used to so bless my life.

And I thought, you know, my imagination went wild. I said, here's a wealthy family that's taken an old preacher in and they're feeding him and, you know, taking care of him his last days. And I had all this big mental picture of this man.

And here I went out to a room, a fairly nice large room. And in the corner of that room was a bed. It was a normal size bed, but it was made like a baby bed, you know, with bars on it and so on. And I looked in that bed and there was a little body about that long.

But that body was 35 years old. And we walked up beside that bed. And she said, Brother Manly, there is my preacher. And tears were rolling down her cheeks as she said preacher. She said, he has been used of God more in my life than anyone in this world.

She said, when we first got him, she said, I put him in an institution. And I just said, I refuse this. But she said, then I discovered the truth was that God allowed him to come my way because I needed him.

And I was not going to miss the blessing. So I went and got him and hired me someone to help me with him. And she said, for all these years, God has used him. And then I knew the secret of the glory. I knew she had learned, friend, that her problems were not enemies to devour her, but bread to feed her.