Can someone sell their soul to the Devil? | Bible Questions & Answers

the question i want to take up tonight is can someone sell their soul to the devil in exchange for wealth or fame this is a concept you may have seen in the movies or comic books or elsewhere it's the idea that what someone does is they have a conversation with the devil and the devil promises them some sort of worldly blessing whether it's fame or wealth or whatever it is but in exchange for that they have to give the devil their soul when they die apparently now this concept originates as best i can tell from faust which was a a german legend where what the man did is he sold his soul to the devil for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures and this faust i believe was set in the 16th century so that's the idea the question we want to look at is is this a thing in the scripture what does the scripture say about this of course i'll say this as a reminder the opinions of men and the traditions of men don't really mean anything right because you you don't have any way of knowing if they're true but the word of god is true and the word of god is authoritative so let's look at what the word of god would say on this subject and there's two basic sections that i want to cover this evening the first is we'll look at the concept of a faustian bargain from the human perspective and then we'll look at it from the devil's perspective so let's start with the human perspective get john chapter 8 verse 44. john chapter 8 verse 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 when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it so what we see from john 8 44 about the devil is there is no truth in him he's the father of lies in other words he's deceitful he's deceptive he's not trustworthy now what that tells you is this does it make a lot of sense to enter into a contract or a bargain with someone that you know to be completely untrustworthy doesn't that seem like a pointless exercise in other words if they're completely untrustworthy how likely are they to live up to their end of the bargain well not much look with me at revelation chapter 12 revelation chapter 12. revelation chapter 12 and let's look at verse 9 and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and satan notice which deceiveth the whole world so what does satan do he deceives the whole world there's no truth in him he's a liar and the father of it and he deceiveth the whole world obviously he's untrustworthy and obviously it's dumb to negotiate a deal with someone who is deceptive what's going to happen there'll be lies and misinformation in the negotiation of the deal so it would from a human perspective it doesn't make any sense to enter a deal with the devil because the devil is a liar and so it would just be an enormous mistake now let me point out another problem let's say and by the way the short answer is these the idea of making a deal with the devil is not a scriptural thing that this can't be done i don't believe but let's just think through it for a moment so let's say you enter a deal with the devil and you have a signed contract how do you enforce the deal in other words what happens if the devil just fails to perform his obligations under the contract what do you do look with me at first samuel 17 first samuel 17. first samuel chapter 17. and what we see in first samuel 17 is we see a situation that i think is very similar to the situation that we're we're currently considering so look with me at first samuel 17. now look at this these pages don't want to come apart there we go first team is 17 verse 8. this is the story of david and goliath verse 8 and he stood and cried under the armies of israel and said unto them why are ye come out to set your battle in a ray am not i a philistine and ye servants to saul choose you a man for you and let him come down to me so goliath goes out and he challenges israel and he says send someone to fight me now notice verse 9 if he be able to fight with me and to kill me then will we be your servants but if i prevail against him and kill him then shall ye be our servants and serve us so what goliath proposes is a very interesting deal isn't it israel can choose someone of their choosing he will go fight with goliath if he beats goliath then the philistines will become the servants of israel that's a good result that means israel wouldn't suffer loss of life they wouldn't have people killed and what's obviously going to be a battle and the philistines would become their servants now what's in it for the philistines of course is if goliath wins and they're thinking that he's going to then israel will become the servants of the philistines well has is anyone familiar with the story of david and goliath has anyone ever heard of that before hopefully maybe what happens well israel chooses david goes down and fights with goliath and much to the surprise of the philistines what happens david wins look with me at verse 51 first samuel 17 and verse 51 therefore david ran and stood upon the philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith and when the philistines saw their champion was dead what does it say they fled so what happened here goliath was offering a deal if you send someone to fight with me and you beat me the philistines will be your servants what actually happened philistines thought goliath was going to win and if goliath had won they would have said israelites you have to be our servants you made a deal why are you backing out of the deal now we had a deal what happened when david won well the philistines said um we're leaving not interested we're not going to honor the deal now what's the point of this what happens is when you enter agreements like this where do you go to enforce them do you call the cops and ask the cops to arrest the philistines do you sue them i mean what do you do the point is that you don't really have a remedy and that's exactly what would happen if you entered a deal with the devil and the devil didn't live up to his end of the agreement you wouldn't have any way of enforcing the agreement now turn with me to matthew 16. matthew chapter 16. matthew chapter 16 for what is a man profited verse 26 so studio audio keeping me studio audience keeping me honest matthew 16 26 for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul so what is the relative value of your soul and the entire world your soul is greater than that so if someone offered you all the kingdoms of the world and all the riches of the world and all the possessions of the world and so on in exchange for your soul it would be a foolish foolish deal because this world is temporal right how long is this earth going to last well it's going to be consumed so if you give up something eternal like your soul for something that is temporal like this life it's just it's dumb right it doesn't really make any sense look with me at mark chapter 8 mark chapter 8 mark 8 verse 36. mark 8 36 for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul obviously the soul is the most valuable thing that you have now let me make a further point on this it is true that a person has a soul so as a human being you consist of three things spirit soul and body you're a three part creature but you have a soul not in the sense that you have a foot i'm tempted to put my foot up here as a visual aid but i think some people will object so i'm not going to do that but you have a soul in a way that's different than having a foot right because actually you can live without a foot right if you're if you were to lose your foot you could still function but a person fundamentally is a soul i'll put it a different way the part of you that is you is not your body think about what happens at the rapture what happens at the rapture romans 8 23 describes it as the adoption to wit the redemption of our body at the rapture you get a new body so the one that you have right now no matter how much you like it guess what you're not going to keep it forever because you get a new body at the rapture but the soul that you have the soul that you are is with you forever a person can get a new body but they can't get a new soul because the soul is who they are let me prove that to you get with me luke 12 luke chapter 12. luke chapter 12. luke chapter 12 and verse 19. luke 12 19 and i will say to my soul soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry when he's saying this to his soul he's really saying it to himself he's not saying it to his body he's not saying it to his foot he's saying it to his being his person he's describing himself as a soul look with me at revelation chapter 6. revelation chapter 6. revelation chapter 6 verse 9 revelation chapter 6 verse 9 and when he had opened the fifth seal i saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of god and for the testimony which they held so in this vision in revelation what does he see under the altar well he doesn't see their bodies he sees their souls and it's their souls that were slain and it was their souls that held the testimony in other words the the soul was the decision maker of the person's being so you are a soul so to state the obvious the idea of making a bargain with the devil for your soul is an insanely stupid idea because your soul is who you are you'd be giving up yourself you'd be giving up your eternal person and you'd be doing so entering a deal with someone who is untrustworthy and you'd have no way of enforcing the deal so it's it would just be a colossally stupid thing to make a deal with the devil but you may say well that's true but people do dumb things all the time and i will admit you have a point because people do a lot of dumb things but let's turn to the second section and the second section is the devil's perspective so in the first section from the human perspective it doesn't seem like this would be a deal that a sensible human would want to enter into but let's consider would the devil actually want to enter into a deal like this so let's consider it this way if the devil was contemplating entering a deal with someone for their soul there's only two types of people that he could enter a contract with one is saved people and one is lost people so let's take each of them so let's say the devil enters a contract with a saved person for their soul and they agree that he can have it well what what would actually happen so let's say there's a believer during the dispensation of grace and they have believed on the lord jesus christ they have trusted the blood that he shed for them on the cross what would happen if they went and made a deal with the devil would they lose their soul well they wouldn't because here's what happened the moment they believed the gospel who were they sealed by does anyone know they were sealed by the holy spirit they're sealed by the holy spirit under the day of redemption so if a saved person enters a deal with the devil the devil doesn't get their soul their soul is already spoken for because it's been redeemed by the lord jesus christ the devil can't have it now the act of entering a contract with the devil would be a sin obviously so that would be a bad thing to do but even if you tried to do that it wouldn't be effective because you've already been saved you've already been sealed it's not possible for the devil to obtain possession of your soul it's just it can't happen so let's then consider the other possibility well the other possibility is what if the devil was negotiating with someone who was lost so that person hasn't been saved their soul hasn't been redeemed that person is lost well let's think about that for a minute if the person is lost does satan need a deal with them for them to go to hell i mean think about it they are already going to hell if they're an unbeliever right so what would satan get out of that and i suppose you could say well what satan could get out of that is he would put in the contract that uh you're currently an unbeliever and you agree that you will never start believing and so if you start believing you're in breach of the agreement now a lot of this stuff you may think think to yourself well this sounds like hypothetical and conjectural and abstract and all this stuff and it is the reason why it is is the bible doesn't talk about these things right this is an extra biblical concept so we're trying to think through the concept using scriptural principles so let's say that satan enters this agreement with a lost man and the lost man says okay satan mr devil i will agree that i will not believe on the lord jesus christ and be saved and therefore you can have my soul at death well here's what i believe would happen and a legal contract is unenforceable so let's say that you and i make a contract and we agreed to commit some crime together i don't know what it would be but you know some sort of crime maybe jaywalking that we would agree that we are going to jointly jaywalk across the street or it could be something more serious i don't know maybe we'd make a i don't know maybe would make a contract to steal like lawn figurines i don't know but think of whatever criminal conspiracy comes to mind okay so let's say that you and i make this agreement and we say look here's what we're gonna do we're gonna meet on friday at 8 pm and we're going to go and commit jaywalking or whatever it is we're going to do and then what happens is after we sign the deal i say to you you know what i thought better of this i don't want to steal lawn figurines i'm just not going to do it and you say to me we got a contract you signed it so you got to do it well what if i said sue me what are you going to do are you going to go down to the court show up to the judge say hey judge dave signed a contract with me we're going to enter a criminal conspiracy to steal lawn figurines and he signed it and now he's like he doesn't want to do it and i told him a contract is a contract a man needs to be a man of his word and so judge i want you to issue an order instructing him to assist me in thieving lawn figurines what's the judge going to do well he's going to knock that guy upside the head because he's not going to enter an order that instructs someone to violate the law that's the reason that an illegal contract is unenforceable you can't require someone to violate the law as part of a contract now you say well that's all interesting but what is you know that's just man's law what does that have to do with how the scriptures work get with me isaiah 28. now listen none of you anyone listening to this if a bunch of grace believers go out and start stealing lawn figurines that would be an embarrassment to the body of christ and so i hope none of you get that idea in your minds and start doing it because that would be it would be a reproach and it's unwise and you just don't want to do that you don't want to end up in some sort of max security prison because you stole lawn figurines so isaiah 28 verse 14 wherefore hear the word of the lord ye scornful men that rule this people which is in jerusalem now notice verse 15 because ye have said we have made a covenant with death and with hell are we in agreement when the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us for we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves so what happens in isaiah 28 is these people literally say to the lord that they've made a covenant with death and they've made an agreement with hell which is pretty close to making an agreement with the devil well notice what happens in verse 16. therefore thus saith the lord god behold i lay in zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious cornerstone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make haste keep reading verse 17 judgment also will i lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters shall overflow the hiding place now notice verse 18 and your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand see what israel says in isaiah 28 is they say look god you can't punish us you can't scourge us because what we did is we went to death and hell we had a conversation with him and we entered an agreement and we have an agreement that they're not going to harm us well does god who created the universe is he stuck with that he's like well i was going to judge israel but i didn't know they had a contract i guess i can't that's not what he says in verse 18 what he says is your covenant with death shall be disannulled in other words god says i'm not interested in whatever agreement you think you made i've decided to invalidate it and your agreement with hell shall not stand what god's doing is he's disannulling there in a legal contract and what he's doing is he's disannulling the covenant that israel entered with death in hell israel was going to face god's judgment and there was no way out of it so the point that this tells us is this illegal contracts are not enforceable and it's not like some created beings can get together and say hey we've made an agreement that we're going to do something and now god's hands are tied he can't do anything about it because we entered a contract it doesn't work that way god has the ability to do what he wants so now let's take it one step further so let's say that you are lost you're an unbeliever and you communicate with the devil and you do enter a deal and as part of the deal he promises to give you lawn figurines or whatever ever else is you lust after and you promise not to believe on the lord jesus christ so what happens if you get the lawn figurines or the riches or the worldly fame or whatever whatever it is that you're interested in and you then decide you know what i promised in the contract that i wasn't going to believe on the lord jesus christ but you know what i'm just going to do it i'm going to believe the gospel and i'm gonna become saved and satan says wait a minute i gave you the lawn figurines i gave you wealth and fame and fortune and this that and the other you can't do this we've got a deal what would happen because you want to believe on the lord jesus christ but he says no you can't well we we understand the contract is illegal the contract is unenforceable look with me at first timothy chapter two first timothy chapter two and look with me at verse three first timothy chapter two verse 3. for this is good and acceptable in the sight of god our savior who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth what first timothy 2 tells you is that god's will god's desire is for how many men to be saved it says all god would save the entire world if the world believed right if every single person on this planet decided to believe the gospel god would be thrilled he would save every single one of them so if you're in a situation where you entered a contract with the devil and promised not to believe the gospel god is not going to say well i would have saved you but you sign that paper and therefore i can't he's not going to do that because his will is that all men be saved so he would just invalidate your agreement tear it up destroy it and the moment you believe the gospel you would be saved well some might say well your deal with hell that that's an unforgivable sin no verse says that in isaiah 28 the covenant with death and the agreement with hell was disannulled so it seems to me that what happens is any deal you made with the devil not to believe you could simply violate it and if you violated it would god save you yes you would that's his will first timothy 2 tells you that let me give you another thing to ponder does the devil negotiate individual contracts with people and the reason why i ask that is this god is omnipresent god's everywhere satan is not satan is a being limited by time and space he can only be in one place at one time so if god comes down to negotiate god if satan negotiates a deal with you that's what he's spending his time doing now think about this just for a minute what do you think the ceo of a fast food company does does the ceo say you know what i'm going to do today i'm going to work the drive through and i'm going to help the individual customers he may do that from time to time but does he do that on a regular basis and he doesn't because there are other people in the company that do that his job is to set policy for the entire company in other words he his responsibility is broader than working with one individual customer he's setting policies that address thousands and millions of customers i would suggest to you that that's what satan is doing today look at me at first timothy chapter four first timothy chapter four and verse one now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits notice what it says and doctrines of devils so what satan wants to do is he wants to damn the whole earth and he wants to damn the whole earth not by i'm going to sit down and negotiate a contract with this person and then tomorrow i'm going to negotiate one with this person and so on he'd never get through the billions of people on the earth right he wouldn't be able to do that but what he wants to have is he wants doctrines of devils that those doctrines can be repeated and taught and aired on the radio and put in books so that those doctrines can damn millions and millions and millions of people and that's what false doctrine does now get with me second timothy chapter 2. ii timothy chapter 2 and i want you to notice something here what satan does with people today he doesn't negotiate with them he takes them captive second timothy chapter 2 verse 26 and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil what's a snare it's a trap so satan has traps that he has set where they grab hold of people now notice verse 26 who are taken captive by him at his will see satan doesn't have to negotiate with people you negotiate with people that you can't just overwhelm in other words what happens if you have a really powerful army and the other side doesn't maybe you negotiate to try to avoid loss of life but what often happens is if you have the superior force what do you do you just secure your objective by force you take it and that's what second timothy 2 26 is talking about when it talks about snares there who are taken captive by him at his will what satan does is he takes people captive he doesn't negotiate with him look with me at second corinthians chapter four second corinthians chapter four second corinthians chapter four and verse three but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost notice verse 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 so what did the devil do to damn people did he enter contracts did he negotiate agreements or did he blind them so that they couldn't see the gospel you see contracts are normally entered by parties that each have some sort of bargaining power but if one party has all the force has all the power they don't need to negotiate they just take people captive they just exert their will and what satan has done is he has exerted his will by doing what by blinding people so that they don't see the light of the glorious gospel and be saved now let me draw one contrast can you think of any time in the scriptures where satan did try to make a deal think of any time where that was matthew 4 matthew 4 when the lord tempted christ in the wilderness and of course christ didn't sin what did satan do well lord if you do this i'll do this if you do this i'll do this you know why satan had to try to negotiate a deal with the lord which one of them had more power colossians 1 16 tells you that all things were created by him the lord jesus christ and for him the lord jesus christ is the eternal god satan is a created being the lord jesus christ the creator god created satan satan couldn't go to christ and overpower him he had no ability to do that so the only thing he had the ability to do was to try to deceive sweet talk persuade the lord into some sort of a deal and what did the lord say not going to happen not going to do it there's no deal satan offered the lord the kingdoms of this world and you know what the lord said you don't need to give them to me i'll take them when i want satan said no i'll give them to you i'll give them to you right now lord let's do a deal the lord's like i don't need anything you have in my perfect timing i'll take what i want and you can't do a thing about it that's where satan tried to enter a deal and the lord said not interested so can a believer sell his soul to the devil today i don't think so there's no verse in scripture that says anything of the sort and the agreement would be an illegal contract it wouldn't be enforceable because all that you have to do today to be saved it doesn't matter what you've done in the past there's no unforgivable sin during the dispensation of grace all that you have to do to be saved is to believe on the lord jesus christ the lord jesus christ died on the cross for your sins he was buried he rose again the third day the moment you trust the blood that jesus christ shed for you he saves you forever how glorious is the gospel that we're not saved by our works we're not saved by any religious act or our continued goodness or any of those things we're saved in an instant when we have faith in the shed blood of the lord jesus christ hallelujah father god thank you for this time we thank you for your word we thank you that it's perfect we thank you that you've preserved it for us we pray lord that each day we would grow an understanding of your word and that you would be glorified in all things it's in the name of the lord jesus christ that we pray [Music] amen [Music] you

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Length: 38min 26sec (2306 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2021