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Peace is a beautiful thing that cannot be bought with money. Peace also doesn’t come in the same package as the Devils schemes. When we follow the truth of God’s word, God grants us a peace that is hard to explain.
Hebrews 3:12-14 – Deception is one of the most worn tools in Satan’s toolbox. None of us are immune to this. We are all called to stand, to put up a guard.
We have the answer to this tactic, “hold fast to the truth.” We must build on the truth of God’s word. We also cannot live the Christian life on our own. We must be in community, the struggles that we are dealing with are not something that we alone struggle with.
The heart doesn’t harden quickly. The hardening that we are talking about is something that happens little by little. Casualness. Indifference. Lack of sensitivity. This process is so slow we often don’t even realize that it is happening.
When this happens we find ourselves living a life of deceit. We never intended to go there, we never intended to come to this place.
All sin is deceitful, it always promises more than it can deliver. Wealth. Prosperity. Popularity. Etc.
Sin assures us of pleasures that it never imparts.
Jeremiah 6 talks about a people who are beyond shame. They are completely past it when they sin. They have given up.
Genesis 2:2 – The end of sin is always death. Satan would never tell you that up front, but the Bible makes it very clear that the penalty of sin is ultimately death.
James 1:14-15 – Note the progression here. This is the life cycle of sin. Starts with me and my flesh, yielding to the supposed happiness or reward that Satan puts in front of us. Again the end result is death, but Satan keeps that well hidden from us at the start.
We commit sin for many different reasons, but the one reason that is always part of the equation is Satan’s desire to deceive us. He is portrayed in scripture as being “very busy.”
Satan would like us to not know these things. He would like these things to be kept hidden.
- Satan is the adversary, slanderer of God and man.
- Satan is the accuser. He will say, “oh you think you’re a christian? Why do you keep doing that?”
- Satan often wears the clothes as an angel of light. Yes he is also a roaring lion, but that usually doesn’t come until we are bound and captive. Then he roars out his
Samson, at the end, after he had told the truth to Delilah. We read that Samson new not that the Lord had departed from him. How many people think that they are doing ok, but don’t realize that God’s spirit has left them?
1 Kings 13 – A man of God, who started out by doing God’s will, then he went to doing nothing. He was then deceived. Many Christians don’t make it when they are in survival mode when it comes to their walk with God. Survival mode is never a good place for a Christian to be.
Acts 4:32-37 and Acts 5:1-11 – Disobedience to the brotherhood agreement. It sounds like the people weren’t required to sell their properties, but it seems as if there was an understanding that if they were to sell, they would give the money to the church.
There was intentional deception here. Ananias new, his wife new, they both were intentional in how they lied to try to cover what they had really sold the land for. They were not simply lying to Peter, they were also lying to the Holy Spirit.
There is a similar progression in each of these stories. A good start. A temptation. An openness to what Satan has to say. Disobedience then becomes logical. There is a lack of sensitivity to the Lord. Then there is a taking of the bait, and ultimately the paying of the price.
Don’t give place to the Devil. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.