(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right everybody, how you doing today? Good? All right, my name is Pastor Steven Anderson. I'm from Arizona in the United States of America. Arizona is the state that's right next to California, and that's where the Grand Canyon is. Who knows what the Grand Canyon is? You heard of that? All right, and then Arizona is also the only place in the world that has those cactuses that have the arms that come out. The typical like Wild West type of cactuses, and there are a lot of like cowboys and old Western type stuff in Arizona, like Tombstone and Wyatt Earp and stuff like that, if you might have heard of that. And also a lot of people in Arizona carry guns, you know, on their hips in a holster, like a gun belt with a holster. And like if we go to church, we have like at least like 50 men at our church will be like just in church just with a gun on their holster like, you know, like a Wild West. So that's where we're from in Arizona, and this is my second time in Guyana. I really like Guyana. It's a very beautiful country. I really like the people here. So you're actually very blessed to grow up here. It's a nice place to grow up. But today I want to talk to you from the Word of God, and the title of my sermon today is that the devil is a deceiver. The devil is a deceiver. The Bible talks about the devil a lot, and the one thing that it emphasizes over and over again is that he is a deceiver, meaning that he wants to trick you or fool you or beguile you. Now the Bible says in Revelation chapter 12 verse 9, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with them. So the Bible calls the devil a great dragon and a serpent, and it says that he deceives the whole world. Now notice it doesn't say that he tries to deceive the whole world. It said he deceives the whole world. Why? Because most of the world is deceived today. Most people do not believe the truth today. The Bible says, Broad is the way which leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. So most people today are deceived. Most people are being lied to, and they don't even know it, because the serpent, the devil, has deceived them. Now in Revelation chapter 20 verse 1, the Bible says, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, that's talking about hell, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season. So the Bible talks about the devil again, deceiving the whole world, being a snake, being a serpent, being crafty, and tricking people. It says in Revelation 20 verse 10, The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever. But not only is the devil a deceiver, but the devil has his workers, his minions, his henchmen, if you will. And the Bible says that the devil is transformed into an angel of light, and that his ministers, or his workers, are transformed into the ministers of light. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 13, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The Bible says in Matthew 24, Take heed that no man deceive you. It says in verse 11, And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. So one of the ways that the devil deceives people is through false religions, through false preachers that lie to you, and beguile you, and deceive you. Now the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3, But I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we've not preached, or if you receive another spirit which you've not received, or another gospel which you've not accepted, you might well bear with him. So the Bible's warning that there are deceivers that would preach another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit, and he's warning us about these people, and we want to make sure that we're not deceived by them, because there's only one Jesus, and there's only one true gospel, but there are a lot of false prophets, a lot of deceivers out there that would lie to us. And the Bible says that they want to corrupt your minds from the simplicity that's in Christ. Now what does simplicity mean? What does it mean when something simple, basic, easy? So if something is simple, I should probably be able to explain it to like a seven-year-old, and they can understand it, right? Or if I explain it to a six-year-old, if it's very simple, they might understand it, right? Now I was looking at some of this stuff, this doesn't look very simple, you know? Like I don't even, a lot of this stuff, I know I used to do this back when I was in school, but a lot of this, I have no clue what a lot of this even means. This is not simple, all right? But see, a lot of preachers, this is how they make the gospel. And you're sitting there like, what? You know, what? And you're trying to figure out, like, how do I get to heaven? How do I get saved? And they're like, oh, it's just right here. Yeah, I mean, right there. So here's the thing. God did not make the gospel this complicated, okay? The gospel is actually very simple, but there are a lot of preachers that will beguile you or deceive you. They'll come at you with something like this, and they'll use a bunch of complicated words and complicated language, and they try to make the gospel complicated, where you ask people, hey, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? And they don't even know. People go to church their whole life, and you're like, hey, what do you have to do to go to heaven? I don't know. Or, hey, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? I hope so. I mean, I'm living a good life. I don't know. Because they've complicated the gospel to deceive you. The Bible says don't let the devil deceive you from the simplicity that's in Christ. See, being saved is actually very simple. The Bible compares being saved to drinking a glass of water. The Bible compares being saved to eating a piece of bread. The Bible compares being saved to opening a door and walking through it. Pretty simple, right? It's easy to be saved, and I'm going to tell you exactly how to be saved right now very simply, very easily, from the Bible. And in fact, I'm going to use a Bible verse that you've already heard your whole life to do it. Okay? John 3 16. Who knows John 3 16? Put up your hand. Okay. Let's say it together. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now that verse right there tells you how to be saved, but I can't even count how many times I've told somebody that verse. And as I told them that verse they started to quote it because they already had it memorized. And then I asked them, so what do we have to do to be saved? They said live a good life. Does that verse say live a good life and you'll be saved? No. That verse says that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So what's the one thing we have to do to be saved according to John 3 16? Believe. Now is that hard? Is that complicated? Is that simple? That's pretty simple. All you have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. But other people will complicate that and say, well, there's seven steps to salvation. You know, no, no, there's one thing we have to do to be saved, and that's believe in Jesus Christ. Some people will say, oh, you got to get baptized, you got to get catechized, you got to confess, you got to go to the priest, you got to do all that. And they'll make a big complicated process, but the Bible says the gospel's simple. The simplicity of Christ is this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's what the Bible says. The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in my heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. You just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again and confess that with him to your mouth, and the Bible says you shall be saved. Isn't that good? Isn't that simple? Now, why is that so important? Well, because a lot of people think they're going to heaven because they're a good person, right? Well, let's see how well that lines up with the Bible. I can't even tell you how many times I've asked someone, why do you think you're going to heaven? And they say because I'm a good person. Okay, well here's what the Bible says. There's none that do it good, no, not one. Jesus said there's none good but one and that's God. The Bible says no one's good. Why? Because the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Has anyone in here never sinned before? Everybody's sinned, right? I've sinned, you've sinned, so if we go to heaven by being good, none of us are going because we've all sinned. Not only that, but the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. So even just thinking of bad thought is a sin and I'm sure we've all thought many bad thoughts. We've all sinned. We probably sin every day because none of us is perfect. So if we had to go to heaven by being good, no one would go to heaven. Okay, another thing I hear is that some people say, well, you got to be baptized to go to heaven. If you get baptized, that's how you get to heaven. I heard that a lot. Well, here's the problem with that is that, first of all, that's not what John 3 16 said. That's not what the Bible said anywhere. The Bible said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The Bible said that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. But here's the other problem. You don't baptize yourself, do you? You go to church and the church baptize you. Well, here's the thing. That means you're relying on someone else to save you. You're relying on a church or a preacher or a pastor to save you instead of just putting your faith and trust in Jesus to save you. Now it's a man that decides whether or not, you know, you get baptized and whether or not you go to heaven. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, not by baptism. Baptism is a good thing to do, but that's not what gets you into heaven. We're saved by believing in Christ. Another thing that people will bring up as being a way to heaven is they'll say, well, you have to repent of all your sins. You know, if you repent of your sins, you'll be saved. Well, the word repent means to turn from. So if I have to turn away from all my sins to be saved, then that would mean I have to stop sinning. And guess what? That's impossible because nobody's that perfect. Nobody's ever turned from all their sins. Now we could try, we should try, we should try to turn from our sins, but are you ever gonna really turn from all of them? Are you ever gonna be perfect? No, because we're human. The Bible says that if we say that we have no sin, it says that we make him a liar. It says if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. The Bible says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you say, hey, I turned from my sins, you're a liar because all of us are still sinners. None of us is righteous. None of us does good all the time, right? I mean, is anybody here gonna stand up and claim, Pastor Anderson, I'm perfect. I've never sinned. I've turned from all my sins. I've repented of all my sins. No one would say that because if you did, it'd be ridiculous because we know you. And so the Bible says that we're not saved by turning from our sins or repenting of our sins. That's a works-based salvation. And the Bible says we're saved not of works lest any man should boast. So it's not by being good or we'd all be going to hell. It's not by repenting of your sins or we're all going to hell. It's not by baptism because then we'd be relying on a church or a man to save us. When in reality, salvation is a personal thing between you and Jesus. It's in your heart. The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. A lot of people will say this, well, yeah, okay, believe on Jesus to be saved, but then if you don't live right you'll lose your salvation. Who's ever heard somebody say you could lose your salvation? You could lose it. You heard that before? Like you'll lose it. Okay, but here's the thing. The Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal means forever. So if God gives you a gift that lasts forever, how many times do you have to get that gift if it's gonna last forever? One time. Now if God were to take that away from you, he lied when he said it was eternal. The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus said I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The Bible says verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life. Once you believe on Christ, you've already been passed from death to life. You'll never come into condemnation. You have eternal life. You cannot lose your salvation. Now let's say you did something really bad after you got saved. Let's just get crazy and say that you killed somebody. God's gonna punish you for that, obviously. You're going to prison or whatever. He's gonna make sure you get your punishment in this life, but you would still go to heaven if you believed in Christ. Why? Because once you believe in Christ, there's nothing you could ever do to lose your salvation because God has promised us eternal life and he will never break that promise. That's why in the Bible there's a famous quote about the people who go to hell that Jesus will say to them one day, depart from me I never knew you. Who's ever heard that before? Depart from me I never knew you. He didn't say I used to know you. He said I never knew you because once he knows you, he knows you. You're saved. Once you're born again, once you're a child of God, you'll always be saved and there's nothing that could ever cause you to lose your salvation. Now it's sort of like this. I have nine children, okay? This guy in the green shirt here is my oldest son, but he has eight younger brothers and sisters, okay? So I have nine children. Now if my son disobeys me, do you think I just smile and tell him that's okay? That's all right. Just do what you want to do, man. Just express yourself. No. If he disobeys, I'm gonna punish him. But am I gonna throw him out of the family? Tell him you're not my son anymore. Who here wants to give me a rule? What's a rule in your house? Who's got a rule in your house that you want to share with us? What's one of the rules that you have in your home? What, you got something? Don't be disrespectful, right? So what would be an example of being disrespectful? Cursing. So what if you, what if, what's your name? Arielle? Arienne? All right. So let's say Arienne comes home today and says, hey mom, blankety-blank-blank! Hey, what the bleep is going on, mom? Now do you think, do you think that she's gonna say, all right Arienne, you will leave this house and you can never live here again. You're not my daughter anymore. Okay. Or, or, or is she gonna say, or is she just gonna say, wow Arienne, you learned a new word in school today. Now the true story is she's not gonna do either of those things. You know, you know what she's gonna do? She's gonna punish Arienne. Arienne's getting a whooping. Okay. But, but she's still, she's still their daughter. Okay. And, and here's the thing. Even if Arienne were to run away from home, she's still their daughter. That's not gonna remove the DNA from her body that those are her parents. Because your parents will always be your parents no matter what happens. They're your parents. Now if you disobey your parents, you're getting a whooping. But they're not gonna throw you out of the family and say, you're not our daughter anymore because you've used the wrong language. That's not gonna happen. You understand what I'm saying? Now who do you think's a better parent? Our parents or God? God is our Father in heaven, right? Well here's the thing. If we break God's rules, he's gonna punish us just like Arienne's mom would wash her mouth out with soap if she came home talking that way. She'd shove a bar of soap in her mouth. But here's the thing. God's gonna punish us for our sins on this earth if we're a Christian. But if we're truly a Christian, if we believe on Jesus, if we've received Christ as Savior, he's never gonna throw us out of the family. Does everybody understand? He'll discipline us, but we still have eternal life. We're still going to heaven. So look, no matter what I do, I'm going to heaven. But if I go out and live a sinful life, God's gonna punish me. And if I live a good life, God's gonna bless me. But at the end of the day, I know where I'm going. And I'm going to heaven for one reason. Not because I'm good. Not because I turned from my sins. Not because I got baptized or did anything else. It's because I do what? I believed on Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believed on him. So do you see how simple the gospel is? You could express the plan of salvation in one word, believe. It's just believing on Jesus. That's it. His death, his burial, and his resurrection. Now I want to ask you a question today. Who here believes what I just preached to you? Who here believes that Jesus died for all your sins and that he's the only way to heaven? Put up your hand if you believe that Jesus died for all your sins and that you go to heaven by believing in him. Just if you believe in him, you'll be saved. It's a free gift. Who believes that? Put up your hand nice and high if you believe that, okay? All right. Now here's the thing. I want to lead you in prayer right now to tell God that that's what you believe so that you can know for sure you're going to heaven, if you believe that. Only if you believe that, all right? So let's bow our heads right now, and if you believe that, you could pray with us with me out loud unto God. Say, Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know I deserve hell, but I believe that you died on the cross for all my sins and rose again. Please save me right now and give me the free gift of eternal life. I'm only trusting you, Jesus, and thank you for making it simple. Amen. Now who just prayed that prayer and you meant that right now? Put up your hand nice and high. Look, that right there is what the Bible says you have to do to be saved. Just confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and just believe that Jesus died and was buried and rose again, and thou shalt be saved. I mean, it's that simple, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be. He didn't say you might be saved. Thou shalt be saved. So you're saved now. If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're saved. You already know that no matter what happens between now and the day of your death, you will be in heaven. But the question is, how do you want to live your life in between? You could just say, oh, well, I'm going to heaven no matter what. I'm just gonna go out and party. Well, here's the thing. If you do that, if you do that, you will still go to heaven. But you're gonna screw up your life on this earth bad, and God's gonna whoop you harder than Ariene's mom will whoop her when she comes in and starts blankety bleep blank blank. Okay, so God is gonna punish you if you do that. You don't want to do that. But if you choose to live a life that follows the Bible, that follows God's Word, you know what? God's gonna bless you. It's a much better way to live your life. Plus, if we love God, we should obey Him. We should want to serve Him and please Him. You know, I don't want to just go waste my life getting drunk and sleeping around and being an idiot and getting diseases and hurting other people and hurting myself. You know, I'd rather live a life trying to get other people saved, trying to get other people to heaven with me by preaching the Word of God. Isn't that a better way to live your life than just puking your guts every morning because you're out partying the night before? I'd rather do something valuable with my life. I'd rather study God's Word, preach God's Word, and get people saved so that when I get to heaven, I want there to be a whole bunch of people there that got there because I preached to them. Wouldn't that be a good thing to have up in heaven for all eternity? That's how you want to live your life. And I want to thank you very much for listening so well and being so respectful. Nobody cursed me out or anything. I appreciate it. And so God bless you all and have a great day. Thank you.