John 10:1-10
The Thief Is In the House
There are few things so frightening than a thief being in your home,
not merely because he/she might take your possession, but because one
does not know what else they might do. Such an event is a violation
that runs deep into ones psyche. It takes away your privacy, your
security, your peace of mind. Unfortunately, I must report to you
that there is a thief in the house. Let’s consider the text.
I. The thief is in the house.
A. Jesus gave a parable in which He described the thieves and
robbers \\#8\\ coming before Him, attempting to enter His
house.
1. Of course, one of the main points of the parable was to
inform us that there is only one way into God’s kingdom,
through the Door, through Jesus Christ.
2. If you are attempting to enter heaven some other way, for
example by being good, by keeping the commandments, by
being baptism, by religion, whatever—you will not make
it!
3. You become the thief and robber for you are attempting to
break into His home!
4. That is God’s way of saying heaven is NOT your home. You
don’t belong there and you will not get there.
B. However, I do not believe that was Jesus’ only point.
1. \\#10\\ Jesus was not longer talking about thieves and
robbers (plural) but "the thief" (singular).
2. Who is "the thief"? I believe that is Satan, the devil.
3. Not only are there thieves attempting to break into God’s
house to stay—those who refuse salvation and attempt to
enter heaven another way—but there is "the thief" who
wants to break into heaven to steal some things that do
belong in God’s house.
4. It is that thief that I want to talk to you about this
morning. Satan wants to break into God’s house and remove
what does belong there. Satan is "the thief."
C. \\#10\\ Jesus told us what it is that Satan wants to do to the
precious things that belong to God.
1. Satan wants to steal anything that is removable and of any
value. That is what a thief does. He steals whatever he
can carry out that has value. That is Satan’s goal too.
2. But Satan is not just a thief. He is also a murderer.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and
the lusts of your father ye will do. He was
a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him….
a. As I said, one of the fearful things about a thief is
one does not know what else he MIGHT do.
b. Jesus told us plainly what the devil would do. He
will take your valuable and kill those in the house.
3. And last, Satan is a destroyer. If he cannot take it, he
will destroy it. Satan will leave nothing. Anything too
heavy or too difficult for him to take with him, he will
destroy it.
D. I have the sad new of telling you that the thief is in the
house—right now, today.
1. What house? All of them. The thief is in God’s house,
our house, your house.
2. For example…
a. The thief is in the family house.
(1) For years, the devil has been stealing, killing,
and destroying the home.
(2) I believe that the divorce rate has been at 50%
my whole adult life! That is terrible. How many
people have been torn apart? How many children
have been raised in a nightmare?
(3) But divorce has not been Satan’s only crime
against the home. There has been adultery,
unfaithfulness to one another. It has been
happening before marriage, during the marriage,
and after the marriage.
b. The thief is in the church.
(1) Most churches have so lost their mission that they
will not even mention sin, let along stand
against it. They are so worried that they might
offend a sinner that they have offended God,
dismissed His Word, disobeyed his Word,
slandered His holy name, dimmed His glory, and
shunned His power.
(2) The church’s identity as the herald of God’s Word
has been destroyed. The church has unbelieving
pastors, women pastors, gay pastors, and
divorced pastors—all of which are condemned by
the Bible.
(3) Someone says, "Pastor, that offends me." I’m
sorry. Not that I said it, but that it you are
so ignorant of the Bible that it offends you for
I would rather you be offended than God.
c. The thief is in our nation.
(1) Our Supreme Court has removed prayer, outlawed
God, licensed us to kill our babies, and told us
homosexuality is good, decent, and protected by
the law.
(2) Our current president, dictator Obama, has
commanded the people to accept men in the women’s
bathroom, women in the men’s, and the confused
everywhere—including in our schools. If that is
not a reason to take your children out of public
school, I don’t know what is.
(3) Isn’t kind of strange that privacy laws won’t let
the information center at a hospital tell you if
someone is in the hospital but you a strange man
can follow your daughter into the bathroom and
watch her to do her business?
3. I can go on, but you get the picture. Satan, the thief, is
in the house.
4. What is he doing? He is stealing whatever is good and
precious; he is killing whoever is within it, and he is
destroying whatever is left.
II. How has the thief entered the house?
A. Some of you have heard of Paul Harvey’s poem, "If I Were the
Devil."
1. There seems to be two versions of that poem, one dated
1996 is likely the one you have heard, but here is the
first known copy of the poem, dated 1963.
If I Were the Devil
If I were the Prince of Darkness I would want to engulf the whole
earth in darkness.
I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its
population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest
apple on the tree. So I should set about however necessary, to take
over the United States.
I would begin with a campaign of whispers.
With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whispers to you as I whispered
to Eve, "Do as you please."
To the young I would whisper "The Bible is a myth." I would convince
them that "man created God," instead of the other way around. I would
confide that "what is bad is good and what is good is square."
In the ears of the young married I would whisper that work is
debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution
them not to be "extreme" in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct.
And the old I would teach to pray—to say after me—"Our father which
are in Washington."
Then I’d get organized.
I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that
anything else would appear dull, uninteresting.
I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies, and vice-versa.
I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing, less work. Idle hands
usually work for me.
I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could, I’d sell alcohol to ladies and
gentlemen of distinction, I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.
If I were the Devil, I would encourage schools to refine young
intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions; let those run wild.
I’d designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts
and I’d get preachers to say, "She’s right."
With flattery and promises of power I would get the courts to vote
against God and in favor of pornography.
Thus I would evict God from the courthouse, then from the
schoolhouse, then from the Houses of Congress.
Then in his own churches I’d substitute psychology for religion and
deify science.
If I were Satan I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol
of Christmas a bottle.
If I were the Devil I’d take from those who have and give to those
who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. Then my
police state would force everybody back to work.
Then I would separate families, putting children in uniform, women in
coal mines and objectors in slave-labor camps.
If I were Satan I’d just keep doing what I’m doing and the whole
world would go to hell as sure as the Devil.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/devil.asp
2. I do not know if Paul Harvey was a Christian or not,
but I do know that he had more Bible sense in 1963
that most preachers alive today.
B. How close was Paul Harvey to the Bible.
Matt 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a
strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except
he first bind the strong man? and then he will
spoil his house.
1. Jesus told us that before a thief can enter a home, he must
first bind the strong man in the house.
2. Who is God’s strong man? Who did God leave to protect the
family, the righteous, the very core of civilization
itself?
a. He left the church.
Matt 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if
the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall
it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot
of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is
set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it
giveth light unto all that are in the house.
b. The church, God’s strong man, has been bound—or even
worse, some in the church have been felt sympathy for
the thief. Like kidnapped victims who feel empathy
for the kidnappers, they have become to help the
thief!
C. But again, how did Satan bind the church? How did he
infiltrate it, sedate it, and subdue us?
1. He broke our dependence on God.
a. He did this pretty much the way Paul Harvey observed in
1963. He whispered in our ear that the Bible is a
myth, that God did not create man but man created God,
that cocktail parties are fun and holy living is a
drag.
b. Satan’s campaign of lies has been based on the adage
that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will
begin to believe it. And they have.
c. In short, Satan told us that the world was good and
good for us but God—if He exists—is a cruel task
master.
d. In time, the church replaced prayer with pleasure,
truth with theory, and obedience with opinion.
e. Most Christians today have been so confused that they
do not know what truth is anymore and those who still
have a notion are dismissed and maligned that they
are becoming afraid to speak out.
2. He has divided the people of God.
a. This has been one of Satan’s long-range goals as is
seen by the creation of denominations, but it has
grown far beyond that.
b. Even inside denominations of similar beliefs, doctrinal
fractures have occurred. It used to be that only a few
major doctrines could divide the people of God, but
today’s God’s people cannot agree on much of anything.
c. Perhaps that is true because the most basic and
simplest of truths are no longer accepted in the
church.
(1) We cannot even agree on what a good Bible
translation is, what is appropriate dress, or
what is godly music.
(2) Friend, if we cannot agree on those kinds of
things, what is left?
d. These divisions have left the church angry, arrogant,
self-willed, and DIVIDED.
e. And what Paul said would happen, has happened. We
became ignorant of Satan’s tricks and he has taken
full advantage of us.
2Co 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of
us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
3. Perhaps he has darkened the minds of the believers.
a. Typically a feat only able to be performed on the
unbeliever, Satan has somehow managed it on those
inside the church.
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the
blindness of their heart:
b. Perhaps that means that most inside the church today
are just plain lost.
(1) Before a Christian’s mind can become darkened, his
spirit must become darkened.
(2) Christians are not like other people. They do not
operate on the thoughts of the mind alone, but
they are influenced by their continuous spiritual
connection with God.
(3) Since the Holy Ghost abides within us, He is
always speaking to us - warning, convicting,
encouraging, rewarding.
(4) That relationship cannot be broken!
c. But if somehow Satan could darken the minds of the
believers, they would be just as confused about right
and wrong as the lost.
d. Perhaps they would also…
(1) question creation.
(2) wonder whether there are absolutes.
(3) doubt the Bible.
(4) think wrong is right and right is wrong.
III. What will happen?
A. I would like to go a bit further this morning to explore with
you what I think will happen next, but I am out of time.
B. Let me stop here by saying, I would recommend you ready for
Jesus to return. I am not setting any dates, but I believe
our world is getting close to the line of no return—indeed,
we have already crossed it.
C. Why? Five fast reasons.
1. The whole world is turning—not just from God but against
God!
2. The time of Israel. They became a nation in May, 1948, 68
years ago. \\#Matt 24:34\\, if Israel is the fig tree,
Jesus promised that His words would be fulfilled during
that generation.
3. The church has fallen away \\#2Thess 2:3\\.
4. The devil is changing times and laws \\#Dan 7:25\\.
5. God’s glory is being trampled.
<OutlineIndex> <Close Window>
