Devil Will Get You If He Can — E.A. Johnston

Spiritual Desperation and False Religious Profession

I believe, friends, we are living in desperate days, where evil runs like an ever-increasing stream, polluting this once great nation. I believe we have a generation of young people today, many of whom grew up in church, but now are living godless lives, with little belief in God, and their only pursuit is instant gratification and pleasure, and the accumulation of wealth.

I believe we live in a godless society, that hates God, and rejects all things holy, and promotes evil. I believe the pulpits in our day preach mainly another gospel, and one that will damn you rather than save you.

I believe we have a vast majority of preachers today, who are unsaved men and blind guides. I believe also, friends, that the majority of folks sitting in church come Sunday morning are deceived, and they sit upon a rotten foundation of an empty religious profession.

The plankboard of their faith is faulty, and it creaks and cracks, and will soon break right beneath them, plunging them into the eternal fires of hell. Like I said, these are desperate days in which we live, and I also believe that the devil will get you if he can, and that's the tale of my message this evening, friends.

The Devil's Three Attributes

The devil will get you if he can, and there are three attributes of the devil I want to bring before you this evening. I will first list them, and then elaborate upon them. Number one, the devil is a deceiver.

Satan as the Deceiver in Genesis

Number two, the devil is a destroyer. And number three, the devil is a devourer. Let us look at this first aspect of Satan, that of being a deceiver. Turning your Bibles, friends, to Genesis chapter 3, we're going to be in verse 1.

And I want us to look at this important passage of Scripture at this time, and listen to how this deceiver operates as he beguiles Eve. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Notice he says to Eve, Hath God said, placing a seed of doubt in Eve's mind about the truthfulness of God, and then he even suggests that God is a liar. Listen, friends, Satan is a deceiver, and he will deceive you if he can.

He can pose as an angel of light, and he can deceive you into thinking you have salvation when you do not. He can give you a feeling. He can give you a vision. He can let you hear a voice. He can even make your room go full of bright light, deceiving you that you're having a religious experience from God, but it's from the devil.

There are multitudes of deceived church members who have missed Christ, and they have believed a lie of the enemy of their souls and called it salvation. You may be deceived yourself, friend, but let me ask you a question.

Satan as the Destroyer of Lives and Society

Have you missed Christ? The next attribute of the devil is that of a destroyer. Well, he wants to destroy your Christian home, destroy your Christian testimony, destroy your witness, and if he can, destroy a loved one.

Satan is a destroyer. Sin ruined an entire race. It drowned an entire world. It was sin that rained hell from heaven and destroyed the inhabitants of the cities of the world. It destroyed the plane, making them a burning, smoking furnace, and sin today runs rampant in the land, destroying everything in its path, destroying the very fabric of society.

Satan as the Devourer

Satan is a destroyer. Lastly, friends, I want us to see Satan as a devourer. Listen to what 2 Peter 5, verse 8 declares. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

Peter calls the devil a devourer, prowling about like a hungry lion seeking its prey. You better watch out, friend, where you walk. You better be careful who you spend company with. You better guard what you watch.

Satan is hiding in the bushes, crouched and ready to pounce on you and devour your family through ruin and wreckage and sin. If you let down the hedge around you through willful and presumptuous sin, then be prepared for an attack by the lion and enemy your souls.

Like I said, I believe the devil will get you if he can. There's a book I'd like to recommend to you, friends, and it's worth its weight in gold. This gem is written by the Puritan Thomas Brooks, and it is entitled Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices.

My personal copy is dog-eared, as I've read it at least six times. Read it and learn about your enemy in this powerful little book by Brooks, which will tell you in great detail about how the devil is a deceiver, a destroyer, and a devourer.

Let us pray.