Home pageYou remember the first temptation the first people faced. After creating Adam and Eve, God gave them a little test of obedience. He placed two special trees in the Garden of Eden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and instructed Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge. They had plenty of other trees in the Garden to eat from, and this particular tree should not have appeared to be very attractive to them. But that was till Satan appeared on the scene. He managed to plant the idea in their mind that God had some ulterior motive in forbidding that tree. According to Satan, God was afraid that if they ate that fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they would have knowledge within themselves and become independent like God. There was one problem. God had warned them that if they ate that fruit, they would die. But Satan told them that actually they would not die, but instead, they would become like God. They believed it and ate the fruit.
What Satan said was a blatant lie. They did die. They died spiritually immediately. All the relationship and fellowship which they used to have with God earlier suddenly got broken. They became afraid of Him and tried to hide from Him. They lost their innocence and they also lost their confidence before God. Their bodies began to degenerate, and finally they died physically too. Instead of becoming independent like God, they lost their dependence on God along with all His provision and protection. Without God, they suddenly felt their helplessness.
Eve believed Satan's lie even though it was completely opposite to what God had told them. She then chose to believe Satan and ignore God who had created them and had taken good care of them till then. Even though Satan was a new being who had appeared only then on the scene, Eve was deceived into trusting him rather than God whom she had known all the time. Eve made four mistakes. 1. She believed what Satan told her. 2. She stopped believing in God. 3. She ignored what God had warned. 4. She obeyed Satan and disobeyed God.
When I titled this message, Satan is lying again, I knew some people would tell me that it is nothing new for Satan to lie, and that he is called the father of lies. That is true. He has been telling lies from the beginning, and he is an expert at twisting truth and playing with lies to make them look like truths. Remember how he tempted Jesus in the desert, quoting a verse from the Bible to tell Jesus that if He jumped from the top of the Temple, angels would protect Him. This was a lie, because he was quoting the verse out of context. If it was someone other than Jesus, he could have thought that Satan was quoting from the Bible and that therefore it must be true. Yes, the verse was from the Bible, but Jesus recognised it immediately that it was not applicable in the present situation! See how Satan lies, using truths!
A similar thing is happening now. And that is why I say Satan is lying again. He is using some truths, out of context, and deceiving many Christians. They are getting deceived because they have not bothered to examine this deeply. Sad to say, many leaders are also not able to notice the deception, and they have become Satan's tools in spreading the deception. This is a huge deception that I am talking about, that has affected a large number of Christians. So please listen carefully, praying that God will give you understanding.
Knowing that the root cause of all the problems that man faces is sin, God sent His Son to save us from sin (Matt.1:21). He wants to save us from the guilt of our past sins, by providing us forgiveness (1Jn.1:9). He saves us from the power of sin that makes us sin again and again, by giving us power of the Holy Spirit to deny ourselves whenever we are tempted and to do His will (Php.2:12,13). He will also save us from the presence of sin, by giving us a new, sinless body in eternity (1Cor.15:42-44). All this is included in 'saving us from our sins'. This is all the result of true faith in Jesus when we come to know who He is, the holy Son of God, and what He has done for us in going through death to pay the penalty for our sins. When we are born again and receive the Holy Spirit, our heart no longer enjoys sin and its pleasures, and we want to stop sinning. That is what God wants for us too (1Jn.2:1).
Jesus came to break the works of Satan in our lives, but Satan wants to keep us bound to sin so that he can have power over us (1Jn.3:8). So now Satan comes to us, whispering his half-truths and innuendos. "God is love. He loves you with an unconditional love. His love does not change no matter what you do. That is grace, the unmerited favour He is showing to you. You can receive salvation only as a free gift from God, and there is nothing you need to do except believe. The battle belongs to the Lord. No matter how you fail or how many times you fail, if you confess your sin, He will forgive you." When people hear this, don't they feel good, comforted and encouraged? They think he is only talking about the promises of God. Certainly, there is truth here, but not in the way Satan implies. God is certainly characterised by His love. But He is also holy, righteous and impartial in His justice, isn't He? When we come before God, we will have to face those aspects of His character too, don't we? But Satan implies that we don't have to, and that it is only grace we will experience!
Is God's love unconditional towards us? It is true that He loves everyone whom He has created. He doesn't want any of them to perish. So He offers His salvation unconditionally to all people, no matter how deeply they have been in sin. But isn't it also true that those who respond humbly to Him, close the gap between them and God through the bridge of Jesus Christ, give up sinful ways and choose to walk according to His ways will experience more of His love? But if people believe that God's love will be unconditional, won't they be tempted not to take sin seriously? That is what Satan wants. The implication behind saying that God's love is unconditional towards everyone is that it doesn't matter how we live, His love is always available to us!
Then Satan tells people not to worry if they fall into sin because any time they sin, forgiveness is freely available to them. In effect, what he is saying is, "Even if you sin, you won't die!" Technically it is true that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us. But confession here implies a sorrow over sin and a desire not to do it again. If we have fallen into sin, confessing it is a part of repentance. When we are sorry we sinned, we confess it to God and people we have sinned against, implying that we don't want to do it again. God can see through anyone who tries to take forgiveness for granted and sins as he likes.
If we believe what Satan says, we will not look to see what God says. Then we end up disbelieving the warnings God has given us, and take disobedience to Him lightly. That is how Satan succeeds now, just as he did with Eve.
What Satan says and what he prompts many preachers to say appear to be like messages intended to comfort and encourage us after we have fallen. But after offering comfort and encouragement, what will come from a true prophet of God will be a warning not to sin again. Without that warning, this becomes a false comfort, making people feel comfortable while they continue in sin. Unfortunately, many preachers who want to be those who comfort and encourage their people take the same line as Satan! This has become so common that any one who calls out against sinning is immediately labelled as a legalist, outside of grace, a false teacher, etc. But people of God are not getting the nourishment they need to keep fighting against the temptations to sin, and many churches all over the world are losing their power.