A Children’s Story by Harold Moll, presented Feb. 6, 1999
A boy who loved nature lived with his parents. They had very little of this world's goods and often lacked money for necessary items.
He often went out to the barn and got some grain wheat, oats or perhaps some corn and scattered it just outside of his window so he could watch the birds from his bedroom window when they came to feed.
They lived about 2 miles from town. The boy walked to school every school day, two miles to school and then two miles back to his home. He was getting to be a big boy and he had nearly worn out his school coat. It had patches and worn spots. He needed a new coat. So he and his mother went to town one day in their wagon pulled by the horse. They stopped in front of the dry goods store and tied their horse to the hitching post. They looked at coats in the store. There was one that he liked very much. His mother had him try it on. It was very nice. Because they didn’t have enough money to buy the coat mother put it on layaway. But the coat she laid away was somewhat larger so he could wear it for a couple of years.
He went home so happy! All summer long he worked for who every one he could to earn enough money to pay for his new coat. Finally he had enough money. His mother let him walk to town to buy the coat because father was using the horses to do the fall plowing.
The store man went into the back room and got the coat. The boy put it on and laid his money, just the right amount, on the counter. It was the money he had worked hard to get at odd jobs all summer long. The store man counted out the money, and sure enough it was exactly the right amount. But the boy did not know that when his mother had laid the coat away that she had paid ten dollars down. So the store man handed the boy ten dollars.
The boy was so happy. He put on the new coat and put the ten dollars in his pocket. His new coat was pretty, and snugly warm.
As he walked along toward home he saw a man sitting on a stump by the side of the road. He had a big cage and it was full of birds -- cardinals, blue jays, titmice, chick-a-dees, buntings, sparrows and many others. All were trying to get out. It was a large cage and there were hundreds of birds in it.
"How did you get all of them?" asked the boy.
"Oh I just took some real good bird food and sprinkled it on the ground near my hiding place. When the birds came to eat I caught them with a long handled net and put them in the cage!"
"What are you going to do with them?" asked the boy.
"I'm going to kill them!" And with that statement he hit the cage with a big stick he had in his hand. The birds screamed and thrashed around the cage, all trying to get away. Then he hit the cage again and laughed. And he said, "I'm, going to kill them!"
"You are going to kill all of those birds?" And in his mind he remembered that hardly any birds were coming to his feeding place lately. He loved every one of those birds. He paused and thought. Then he said, "Can I buy the cage and all the birds?"
The man gave the boy a sideways glance. He thought, "I'll get all I can from this boy."
"How much money have you got to pay for the cage full of birds?"
The boy put his hand into his pocket and felt the ten-dollar bill. "I can pay you ten dollars."
"What!" said the man, "only ten dollars for all those birds that I have spent so much time catching? Tell you what I will do. Give me the ten dollars and your coat and it’s a deal."
The boy handed the man the ten-dollar bill and he slowly took off his beloved, brand new coat and handed it to the man. The man grabbed it and ran into the woods.
The boy walked over to the cage, reached down and opened the door. The birds flew to freedom. He had paid a big price. Now the birds were free to fly to their homes, nests and babies. He was happy, but he had paid a big price -- all his money and his beloved new coat. But the birds were free.
A Sermon by Harold Moll, presented Feb. 6, 1999
He walked down the celestial way, and came to a man sitting by planet earth -- the cage. Every person on earth was in the cage.
"Is that your cage?" Asked the celestial visitor.
"Yes, it’s my cage, I own it all!"
"God gave the earth to Adam, Adam gave himself, his descendants and the earth to me, Satan. I am the god of this world."
Gen. 1:26 And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
The Bible writers through the ages recognize Satan as the ruler of this earth.
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
2 Cor 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
"How do you get the people into your cage?" asked the visitor.
"Oh, that is easy. I just offer them things that they would rather have presently than to obey God. They curse, love money and goods, don't honor the creator neglecting His Sabbath, disobey parents and superiors, kill, lie, steal and fight."
Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
[And if your Bible reads differently than I have read, you can be aware that translators sometimes write their ideas rather than translate what the original Bible text actually says.]
"They all do it and all get into my cage."
"What are you going to do with them?"
"I'm going to kill them!"
"But didn't you say one time, that people would never die but would ‘Be like gods?’"
Gen 3:4-5 And the serpent said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
"If you kill them you say they will go to heaven. Nearly all the churches teach that one goes to heaven when he or she dies. In many of the obituaries on the back page of the newspaper- rather than saying, ‘He died,’ say ‘He went to heaven to be with his Lord.’"
"Yes," answered the man beside the road, "I said they would never die. My servants, many of them popular ministers, teach wrongly about death. The people don't check it out, even though God had arranged for each of them to have a Bible. Yes, nearly the whole world follows this lie regarding the condition of the dead."
[Why don't we read a little about it in our Bibles?]
1 Th 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (go before) them which are asleep.
Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
Job 14:21 His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
Heb 11:39-40 "And these all," [After reciting the acts of some of the good people in this chapter of the writer concludes] "having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:" [That is Eternal Life!] "God having provided some better thing for us, that they, without us, should not be made perfect."
John 20:17 Jesus had been dead for parts of three days and then, Jesus saith unto her, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father . . . but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."
"But" says the man by the side of the road, "I have taught the whole world things that are not so! They are my followers. They are in my cage."
"How are you going to kill them?" asks the traveler.
"Oh that is easy. Bar room fights, robberies, wars, tribal fights, wrong food, etc. But that is not all. I spread disease often by illicit sexual encounters -- AIDS, Gonorrhea, genital warts, anything to kill them."
"You see, it was God who threw me out of heaven."
Ezekiel 28:14 and on [paraphrased] "I was the anointed angel that stood over the ark that held the law of God. I was just as good as the angel Michael who was with God in the triune. He cast me out of heaven."
Rev 12:9 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 him.
"Yea, that God who threw me out of heaven loves every human being. You know how you love little innocent babies and lovely little children. Well God loves these humans that surpasses even parental love. Whenever I kill one of them, God grieves. And if that person has not repented of his sins, God grieves even more! I do anything I can do to make him feel badly. I love to hurt Him. I hate Him!"
"You know the Bible says that a couple of humans got into heaven. There's Moses . . ."
"Yea," interrupted the man by the side of the celestial road. "He was a sinner. God had no right to take him to heaven. I fought Michael in person on Mount Nebo!"
Jude 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke thee."
"He had no right to take Moses. No price had been paid for my human!"
"Yes," said the celestial traveler, "He also took a small group that were resurrected at his rising from the dead. By then He had paid the price for them -- He had paid the price for Moses then too."
"Yes! I killed Him on the cross. My gang and I will fight to the end. One slip and the universe will be mine. I will be the Most High. When he gets his city back here on the earth again after the 1000 years of his evil actions toward me, me and my gang will destroy it."
Rev 20:7-9 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
"What is your latest plan to get people into your cage?"
"Well, you see most people think they go to heaven when they die. Many theologians and church leaders teach people this erroneous doctrine. Now that so many people believe this, I can deceive them very easily. I send my angels to them disguised as their dead loved one. My angels have studied each person and they can imitate them in voice and appearance. When people see the one they loved so much who has died they don’t suspect that it my agent. The impersonator tells them he’s just come back to them from heaven. We tell them that parts of the Bible are fiction. Just stories written by men who claimed to have had visions.
One of these incidents was recounted in the January 15, 1998 Review by Roger Coon.
It occurred in 1974 and involved Ruth Montgomery, one of the world’s foremost psychics and a prominent writer on psychic phenomena. A man who had been an active psychic was converted as a result of his study of the Bible. He was a close friend of Ruth Montgomery. In an effort to help her spiritually he sent her a copy of The Great Controversy, by Ellen G. White. In a few weeks Ruth Montgomery wrote back to the Adventist convert that through her spirit guide she had received a message from Mrs. White, who had died in 1915, some 60 years before. Ruth Montgomery quoted Mrs. White as saying that she now had changed her mind about what she had written regarding the state of the dead in her religious classic, The Great Controversy.
"Did Sister White really appear?" asked the traveler.
"Certainly not!" Said the man by the side of the road, "The message come directly from me to get at the few who dare to teach people that death is only a sleep."
"Well," said the man who had come down the Celestial Way, "You really have a big cage and it’s just filled with people. They’ve all decided to go in and only a few have ever escaped -- Enoch, Moses, Elijah!"
"Would it be possible for me to buy all these people along with your cage?"
The devil looked at the man with piercing eyes. He thought, "Could this be Michael, Jesus? If only I could get Him to stay down here, I might be able to trick Him into my cage! Maybe I could overcome him once and for all. I’m going to take the chance."
"Yes," said the Devil, "you can purchase them but it might cost you your life!"
So He came as a little baby to this earth. He lived as a boy, as a young man, continuously tempted during his life. His mother, Mary, guided Him. His father, who it appears from the genealogical record would have been the king of Israel, might, because of his lineage, have had the manuscripts of the Old Testament. It is apparent that Jesus, as a boy studied the manuscripts. He, as a man, had to have the background provided by the Bible to withstand the harassment of Satan while living as a human here on this earth.
[We all need that background or we will fail, trapped in the cage not knowing how to escape!]
As Jesus approached age 30, John the Baptist, his cousin, was teaching that it was time for the Messiah to appear. Jesus went down into the waters of Jordan and was immersed by John the Baptist. As He came up onto the river's bank, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, descended on Jesus. Jesus urgently needed the Holy Spirit in order to endure the next three years. Now He needed to pray.
[As the disciples gathered together and prayed-the Holy Spirit came upon them and they carried the Gospel message, the story of Jesus' sacrifice for humans, to the world. We as Adventists, looking for Jesus to appear soon, need God’s Holy Spirit to empower us to give the message to the world. Let us all bow and beg for that out-pouring of the Holy Spirit that will prepare the world for Jesus to return.]
So Jesus left the river and went into the solitary wilderness to beg his Father to give him strength as a human. For 40 days he prayed and communed with the heavenly Father.
Then Satan came to Him. "Look Jesus, you have come to this earth to let those people out of the cage. You are going to have to suffer the cruelest death known to mankind. Let me help you. I own the world. Adam gave it to me. First you need food. There is not much to eat out here in the desert. You are powerful. You can create. Just change these stones into bread and after you are refreshed, I will tell you how you can gain your objective and not have to die as originally planned. Then Jesus quoted the words he had read in Joseph's manuscripts – [Mat 4:4] But he answered and said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." [As is recorded in Deut 8:3]
Deut 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
[Man does not live by bread alone, but by the words of God, that is, the Bible.]
The devil was perplexed. But he had another little gimmick. So he took Jesus to a high place in the great temple that Herod had restored and made most beautiful.
"Now Jesus, you have come to redeem Israel. But the people have been deceived by the powers that be, the ministers. They don’t believe that you are the Messiah. The people are expecting a mighty king to come down from heaven and make Israel the Great World Power. You are the Messiah. Just jump down from here into the mass of people in the temple. The people will see you coming from heaven and they will accept you as the King of all. Besides God won’t let you get hurt. His angels will hold you up – [Psa 91:11-12] ‘For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.’"
Jesus answered, "It is written again, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God’ (Deut 6:16)."
Perhaps some time elapsed, we don’t know, but Satan had one more heinous idea. Soon he was back to unleash his most powerful temptation. He took Jesus up on the highest mountain. Then in vision -- something the devil is capable of giving -- he let the human Jesus see Egypt and its splendors, Rome and its magnificent beauty -- all the great places in the world, all the people in the cage. "Now look Jesus, you have come to get the world back. You know that I own the world. Adam gave it to me. You don't have to die an insidious death to get it. Just bow down and admit that the world is mine and you can have all!"
[What an offer! Just bow down, say a few words and it’s all over! No misery, no suffering, no messy death! What a deal!]
But Jesus answered, "Get behind me Satan, and quit tempting me for it is written," and again quoting from the books that were in his childhood home, "Thou shalt worship God and Him only shalt thou worship."
Deut 6:13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
When Jesus answered, "You shalt not tempt the Lord your God." Was he putting Satan in his place? Was Satan being told, "You shall not tempt Me, the Son of God"? Anyhow the Devil left and didn't try any more tricks for a while
Luke 4:13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
Jesus ministered to the people for about three years. He helped everyone. But he was not accepted. Finally Satan got Him hung on a cross. Jesus died. Sinless-human Jesus became the redeemer. The cage door was opened!
But Michael, the archangel, Jesus, the Christ, the creator of hundreds of island galaxies, who walked among the stars and whirled universes into orbit, imprisoned himself within His own creation. It is because Jesus is ever encased in humanity that he commissioned and sent the Holy Spirit in a form that could be everywhere at once.
Yes He lost His coat. He is forever a man like us.
But the cage door is open. No matter how bad we who were tricked by Satan are or have been. All we have to do is to accept Jesus as the one who paid the price for our sins.
Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Acts 2:37-38 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins...
Rev. 14:12 Here is the patient endurance of the saints, . . . they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
The door is open and you can come out! Even though you may again be lured into the cage, the door is still open and you can come out again! Soon even the cage will be destroyed -- the whole earth recreated.
But for now the door of the cage is wide open!
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).