The Devil’s Fifth Lie
St. Luke 15:11-32
July 6, 2025 anno Domini
I stole this morning’s sermon. Those of you who attend Sunday Bible Study might realize that. This summer, as odd as it sounds, we have been spending our 19-minute Bible studies with Satan. I’m crafting the Bible study from the book Ten Lies Satan Loves to Tell by Pastor Andrew Jones. Since I cited my source, it’s not considered stealing, but research.
The goal of the study is to know Satan better, not so we can be friends, but so that we can defend against his lies and fight him. Our study is military intelligence or warfare college for the baptized Christian.
What I’m preaching to you in this morning’s sermon is last Sunday’s Bible Study in 19-minutes (more or less).
Satan’s fifth lie, which is played out in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is this – You are Exempt. What applies to everyone else doesn’t apply to you. When Satan tempted Eve in the garden he told her, “You will not surely die” when you eat the fruit. God had said the opposite, “you will die.” Satan said, “Eve, that doesn’t apply to you.”
Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness with this same lie. Jesus was hungry after fasting forty days. Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. He wanted Jesus to exempt Himself from the inconvenience of His human flesh. You don’t need to be hungry. You’re God. Make yourself some food.
In both the garden and the wilderness, we learn what’s behind Satan’s lie. He wants us to fear insignificance. Eve could be like God if she ate the fruit. She would be somebody. Never mind that she was the greatest, most perfect, and beautiful woman in all human history, made in God’s own image without sin, the perfect woman and perfect wife. In the wilderness Satan did the same with Jesus. You are the Son of God, why do you suffer in human flesh? You’re better than that. You don’t deserve what Your Father is asking of you. You’re the Son of God. Take things into your own hands. Serve Yourself. Don’t stoop down to humanity.
Let’s listen for the lie in the parable. The younger son thought himself insignificant. He wanted to be his own man – not second to his brother or under his father. Satan tempted him with his dad’s wealth and the promise that money would make him a real man. You don’t need to wait until your father dies. Ask your father for the inheritance now. Tell him you want to make something of yourself and you can’t wait. Who knows? Maybe Satan pointed out all the fun Sean Diddy Combs had with his money, how famous he was, how people still loved him after all his abuse of women. “Now there’s a real man,” says Satan.
At the end of the parable Satan tells the same lie to the older brother. You don’t need to celebrate your brother’s return. Why should you rejoice in his forgiveness? He squandered your father’s money and you worked hard. He tried to make friends with cash and you didn’t even get a goat for a 4th of July BBQ with your friends. He rebelled and you obeyed. You’re too good for that party. You’re better than your brother and your father. Stay out here, where everyone can see you’re a better man.
Where did these two brothers end up after listening to the Devil’s lie? They were alone. The younger brother ends up in the pigsty – the older brother ends up outside of the party. That is Satan’s goal – to isolate us from God and each other. Once we’re alone we’re an easy meal the evil one to devour and destroy.
What has Satan told you that you are exempt from? What rules don’t apply to you? Take your pick. You don’t need to go to church if you’ve got other commitments. You’re exempt from the 3rd Command. You can speak evil about other people if it is the truth. Exempt from the 8th. You don’t need to honor your parents if they’re old and ornery. That’s #4. The Devil whispers in your ears, like Eve, that God’s rules don’t apply and that there are no consequences. You should be exempt from suffering, even though you know you’re sinful and the world is broken. Why are you surprised when you get cancer or your kidneys fail or a loved one dies suddenly or slowly? That might happen to other people, but it shouldn’t happen to you, or so the Devil lies.
As bad as that lie is, there is a worse lie – God’s love isn’t for you. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ doesn’t apply to you. The Devil lies with the double tongue of the serpent. He tries to convince you that you’re just too rotten, smelly, and messed up for God’s love. He could have told that lie to the younger son in the parable. “Look at you. All you wanted is money. You wished your dad dead. You walked out on your family. You spent all your dad’s money on momentary pleasures. You whose life is a pile of manure.” The last thing Satan wanted that younger son to remember was his father – his merciful, waiting, forgiving, gracious father – looking down the road everyday hoping for his return.
If Satan can’t deceive us with our sin he’ll snare us with pride as he did the older son. You’re too good for the party. You’re obedient and hard-working. You don’t need to be around a stinking sinner like your brother or a foolhardy forgiver like your father.
The truth of God’s Word is that you are not exempt from sin and its consequences – or from God’s grace and forgiveness. The younger brother suffered the consequences of his sin. Thank God for his suffering. How would he have remember his father’s goodness without his suffering? How would you be mindful of your sin without suffering? How would you know you were dying? Would you even look to Jesus if you never suffered and felt the consequences of sin? When we suffer we pray for it to end quickly – a better prayer would be for faith, to repent, to cling to Jesus, to endure.
The greatest truth is that you are not exempt from God’s love and forgiveness. When the younger son turned away from his sin and walked home, his father welcomed him. No conditions, no requirements. Forgiveness, love, and an abundant feast of the best of the best. Brisket, baked beans, corn bread, and watermelon.
How do you know you’re not exempt from God’s love? The Son of God became man. Ironically, Jesus did not exempt Himself from anything common to man. Jesus did not consider Himself above you, He took on flesh, wore a diaper, suffered hunger, and used an outhouse. Even though He had no sin, He even became sin for you. Not one of your sins was excluded from the cross — He died for all the sin of all the world. That all means you and your sins – all of them.
In Luke 15 Jesus tells three parables – the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. All three parables end with a party when the lost object is found. The Shepherd invites his neighbors to celebrate the found sheep — the woman does the same over her lost coin. The father throws a feast for the whole farm. The first two parables end with the miraculous fact that the angels in heaven party over a single sinner who repents.
Why these great feasts? Because God wants you back. He created you for Himself – but by your sin you rebelled and walked away. In Christ He has forgiven your sins and He’s always looking down the road – with wide open arms to receive you. His greatest delight, which causes the whole Kingdom rejoice, is when He has you back, when you turn from sin and receives His forgiveness. By the way that’s your greatest significance. You’re a child of God and you’ve got a place in the family – younger son, older son, pastor, father, mother, teacher, machinist, nurse, or French fry production artist at MacDonalds. Don’t listen to the Devil. You’re not insignificant. You’re not exempt from the Law or the Love of Your heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus. Amen.