It is interesting how that most Christians are so slow to accept that someone is caught up in false doctrine because they appear to be genuine. Often those spreading false doctrine may indeed be very sincere, but sincerely wrong. Some people are intentionally deceptive and some have no intention of being malicious but the errors they communicate still cause harm to those led away by the error. For this reason, many Christians struggle to identify deception because it so closely resembles the truth. If it didn’t look good, who would be deceived? In order for a Christian to be persuaded into falling for temptation they must be first convinced that the temptation is something that has greater value than righteousness.
True deception requires a willing victim. When someone is in ignorance, they are easy to deceive. This is why the Bible constantly stresses the importance of studying the word. The Bible says that God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge because they reject the knowledge God has provided in His word[1]. The vast majority of false teaching would fall harmlessly on our ears if we had knowledge of the word that is available to us through scripture. Without knowledge of the word, we cannot indentify the false beliefs that masquerade as truth and we cannot properly divide the word of truth[2] to understand it in context so that we know how to apply it to our lives.
Ignorance is the result of apathy and many who claim to know Christ do not care about His word. Jesus stated that those who love Him will keep His word and those who do not love Him will ignore His word[3]. In once sense, ignorance of the word is a willingness to leave ourselves vulnerable to temptation for ignoring the scripture puts us in the path of failure. The scriptures also state that to know good and to not do it is a sin[4]; therefore, if we shun our call to study, we are already sliding into a lifestyle of disobedience.
There is another aspect to deception that I would like to point out for it clearly demonstrates how that our desires drive us to or lead us away from sin. The Bible says that we sin when we are drawn by our own desires and enticed[5], but the Bible also states that the one who delights himself in the Lord will have the right desires in his heart[6]. When someone’s desires are grounded in the Spirit, they will be drawn to the will of God and find satisfaction in the pleasures that come from God[7]. When someone is grounded in the flesh, deception will have a powerful draw because it is appealing directly to the lusts of the flesh. This is why false teaching captures the hearts of so many. When a teacher promises wealth, worldliness, and pleasure, those who are seeking these things will pursue it even when deep down they know otherwise. The Bible tells us that God’s spirit of wisdom warns us when we are going down the road of harm, but most will not heed because their heart is on the wrong path[8].
A few years back a woman fell for a common scam where someone promised that they would receive a large sum of money if they first paid the legal costs up front. This woman drew out her entire life savings and sent it to a crook who left her with nothing. She made an interesting statement that I have never forgotten. She said, “Deep down I knew this was a lie, but I wanted so much for it to be true”. This is the art of self-deception. Even when we know something is a lie, if we desire it enough we will blow past any warnings to pursue the lusts of our flesh. Greed was such a driving force that someone who knew something was wrong was willing to ignore all her suspicions and risk the consequences. She is not alone for similar scams catch thousands of people every year.
Temptation
holds this power over the lives of Christians as well. When our desires are in
the flesh, we will eagerly convince ourselves that something specifically
warned against in the scripture is of God. This is why the scripture warns that
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately pursues wickedness[9].
The human heart is grounded in the flesh. This is why Jesus gave this warning
in Mark 7:21-23
21 For from within, out of the
heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from
within, and defile the man.
Since these come from the heart, to justify temptation we must only provide a way for the human will to feel justified in stepping away from fellowship with our God to pursue these things. Anyone who walks according to the flesh is already a willing participant and only needs to find what appears to be a good excuse. Unfortunately, this problem affects all of us. Whether someone has grown in their maturity or just beginning in the faith, we all live in a body of flesh that craves sin and to overcome we must do so through the Spirit.
We have already looked at the scripture’s guide to overcoming the flesh by walking in the Spirit; therefore, the purpose of this portion of study is to shine light on our common problem so that we recognize what is going on and can be resistant to its draw. When addressing the Corinthian church, Paul stated that his goal for pointing out deception was so that the church would not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes. If you recognize someone’s scheming, it is harder for them to deceive.
One
of the most powerful schemes of the devil is the misrepresentation of scripture.
Almost every cult and false teacher uses scripture but twists it out of its
intended meaning. This is warned against throughout the scriptures and a good
example of this is found in 2 Peter 3:15-18
15 And account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be
understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also
the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye
know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the
error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now
and for ever. Amen.
In his last letter to the church, Peter is warning the church not to forget the word that has been delivered by the apostles and to be aware that false teachers will come in and pervert the word. Don’t miss the final point Peter made. The solution God has given to help believers avoid the drawing of deception is to grow through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This comes through the written word. This helps us to identify the problem described in verse 16. Unlearned and unstable people will come in an wrest (or twist) scriptures to lead others away into destruction. We have been told beforehand that we should not be led away with this error. Satan’s first goal is not to turn you away from the word, but to twist the word out of its intended meaning in order to lead you astray. One of the most powerful methods of deception is to take the word out of context in order to give the false impression that God is teaching something that is actually contrary to the word. This is what Peter meant by ‘wresting the scripture’.
One of the goals of Satan is to merely cause you to miss the target of maturing into the image of Christ. Of course he is more than happy to lead those into darkness who are willing to go far from the truth. Most are not willing to completely abandon the truth; however, many are willing to compromise it for what appears to offer personal gain. Often times it is much harder to instruct those who are slightly off course than it is to reach those who have not known the truth at all. Those who are close but miss the main point of doctrine are often inoculated from the truth for their confidence is in their beliefs rather than the unaltered word of God.
Getting someone to miss the target is much easier than getting them to turn away from God completely. After high school I joined the military and learned a practical lesson that serves as an illustration to what is being discussed here. In Basic Training every soldier had to learn to use and qualify with a rifle. To qualify you had to hit so many targets ranging from 25 meters to 600 meters away. To prepare for qualification, we had to go on a short range and shoot a paper target that had a numbered grid on it. After shooting the target, we would adjust the sights on our rifles to the left or right and up or down based on how many lines we were away from the center of the target. We would keep adjusting our sights until we were hitting the center of the target and then we knew we were shooting straight and could have confidence that what we saw through the gun sights was where the round was going.
This is what truth does to our lives. As we submit to the teachings of scripture, we adjust our lives according to the conviction of the Holy Spirit as we study the word. When we see an area where we are off, we surrender to the Lord and through the Spirit adjust our direction by obedience through faith. In the military, if our rifle was off by one click on the sights we would miss the target down range by a long shot. This is the devil’s goal in the Christian life. He does not have to get you to completely abandon Christianity, but to have your focus off just enough to miss the target. He has won a major victory when you can have religion and still not know what it means to walk in the Spirit and conform to Christ.
One
of the most powerful litmus tests against teaching is to ask, “Does this appeal
to the flesh or does it call me to surrender to the will of God?” False
teaching almost always appeals to the flesh. Anything that calls us to put our
will above the will of God is not of God. Anything that calls us to put the needs
of the flesh above the spiritual need is not of God. The temptation of Jesus gives
us a good insight into the battle against temptation. Let’s look at this in
detail from Luke 4:2-14
2 Being forty days tempted of the
devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he
afterward hungered.
3 And the devil said unto him, If
thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
4 And Jesus answered him, saying,
It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of
God.
5 And the devil, taking him up into
an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of
time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All
this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto
me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship
me, all shall be thine.
8 And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
9 And he brought him to
10 For it is written, He shall give
his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11 And in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering said unto
him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13 And when the devil had ended all
the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
14 And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into
There is much to glean from this passage of scripture. In every temptation, Satan appealed to the flesh by offering something that appeared good. In this passage the devil promised to satisfy hunger, glorify God, show the power of God, and prove the truth of scripture. How easy it would be to justify any of these things; however, through Jesus’ example we can see that none of these were right in God’s sight. In the end, the power of the Spirit was revealed in Him after crucifying the flesh and resisting the call of temptation.
One
of the great challenges of the Christian is to wait on the Lord to reveal His
power in His time. To the human mind it only makes sense to do something to
help God out or to make spiritual things manifest through our efforts.
Christians often put God to the test contrary to the word. To tempt the Lord
does not mean to entice Him to do evil, but to put God to the test. To tempt
God is to put yourself in a position where God is forced to intervene in order
to validate our claims of His word or His name. Be aware that God is not
required to intervene and often He will not for we are acting contrary to His
word. Scripture gives a good example of this from 2 Chronicles. King Josiah inherited
the throne after many generations of kings who were filled with corruption and
had turned
27 Because thine heart was tender,
and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against
this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before
me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also,
saith the LORD.
28 Behold, I will gather thee to
thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall
thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the
inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.
Josiah took this as a promise of invincibility. At this
moment in
20 After all this, when Josiah had
prepared the temple, Necho king of
21 But he sent ambassadors to him,
saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of
22 Nevertheless Josiah would not
turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him,
and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to
fight in the valley of Megiddo.
23 And the archers shot at king
Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
24 His servants therefore took him
out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they
brought him to
Josiah believed God was with him and had promised that he
would go to the grave in peace; therefore, he assumed that he could not die in
battle. God did not promise to protect Josiah if he acted foolishly; God
promised that
This
is what Satan is asking Jesus to do. If Jesus leapt from the top of the temple,
it would take a miraculous intervention to save Him from death. Jesus rebuked
the idea by pointing back to the word which instructs us not to put God to the
test. Many Christians have put themselves in harms way by obeying the word of
God, but that is not what this passage is warning us against. Those who live
godly will suffer persecution, but this is the word of God putting us to the
test, not us putting Him to the test. Obedience often calls us to put ourselves
at risk with the knowledge that God is able to intervene, but He may not. Our
position should be the same as those who refused to worship the image the king
of
17 If it be so, our God whom
we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto
thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image
which thou hast set up.
The three men who were facing a death sentence made the statement that God is able to deliver them, but if not, they were willing to suffer the consequences for obedience. In this account, God did intervene for the purpose of showing His power to Nebuchadnezzar, but many were not spared martyrdom throughout history. There are many martyrs in the scripture and in history including most of the prophets and eleven out of the twelve apostles of Jesus. Here we must realize that there is a difference between acting in the flesh to put God to the test and walking in the Spirit even when it puts our lives in the flesh in jeopardy. The word of God empowers us to walk in the Spirit and resist temptation just as it did for Jesus in this passage, the men in Daniel’s time and the apostles who suffered for their faith. Jesus used the word of God to resist the flesh and we too must be grounded in the word to overcome temptation.
Sometimes the way we tempt God is more subtle but is just as unbiblical. I once had a conversation with a few Christians who asked me a question on giving. They were being told that if they gave all their money (including bill money) to the church that God would restore it a hundredfold and miraculously they would be able to pay their bills. I explained that this was unbiblical but they were insistent that God was telling them to do this. In reality, it was the hope of getting barrels of money that was speaking to them. I explained that if they wanted to give sacrificially because they believed God was calling them to do so, they should give their own money and not the money that rightfully belonged to their creditors. If someone is willing to fast for the week because they want to give their own food money, fine, but God will never call us to give away someone else’s money.
If you borrow money or use services, you have promised that you will pay that money to the company or person you borrowed from. Once you make that promise, that money is no longer yours. If you have spent money on a credit card, used electricity, water, or phone services, you have taken from someone else with the promise that you will fulfill your obligations by paying for what you have used. From that point you are not giving your money, but sacrificing what rightfully belongs to another. God will never call you to renege on your obligations to fill up an offering plate. Plus you are also violating scripture by putting yourself in a position where God must intervene in order to save you from a foolish decision. This is putting God to the test and is contrary to the scripture. Several of these people chose to give away all their money anyway believing that God would pour money upon them but they soon fell into financial hardship. Some eventually had their utilities and phones turned off. Giving money to God does not get us out of debt; managing our finances wisely gets us out of debt. Giving is a part of our walk of obedience, but putting God to the test is not.
In the temptation of Jesus we see a common strategy that is used against God’s people today. Satan offered Jesus success for sin. Many fall into this trap thinking that the end justifies the means. Jesus came to redeem the world through fulfilling the Law and paying our debt on the cross. Satan offered to relinquish his God given authority in the world back to Jesus if He would bow down and worship him. Jesus sharply rebuked him for the clear violation of scripture. Unfortunately many fall for this scheme by using unbiblical works to force what appears to be success thinking that they are doing God a favor.
One
thing every Christian must realize is that success and producing fruit belong
to God alone. Human accomplishments mean nothing in the eternal scheme of
things. Success belongs to God, faithfulness and obedience belong to man. It is
easy to fall into the mindset that we must do something to help God along, but
this is a failure to understand the power and foreordained plan of God. God
shows Himself[10]
powerful to those who are humble and whose hearts are right before Him[11].
God does not need man’s effort to accomplish His purposes for we are dependent
on Him; He is not dependent upon us. Daniel 4:35 says it well:
All the inhabitants of
the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the
army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can
restrain His hand Or say to Him, "What have You done?"
This was the testimony of King Nebuchadnezzar when God
humbled him to show that the Lord lifted him to power and the Lord had the
power to bring him down. It is tempting to look at ministry as a thing we do
for God rather than what God is doing through us. He has privileged us with an
invitation to be used by Him to accomplish His will, but we must always
remember that it is His work, not ours. The Jewish leaders looked upon
themselves as being those needed by God, but Jesus said that God is able to
raise up His people from the stones. God does not need the educated, talented,
or equipped leaders to accomplish His work. He is able to raise up workers from
the stubble of society to accomplish His work. When God proclaims a work, it
will be accomplished even against impossible odds. When God proclaimed that
God does not need a mighty people to do His will. In fact,
just the opposite is true. God usually chooses the weak and feeble to overcome
the mighty and to accomplish the impossible[13].
This proves to all that God alone is the power behind every good work. Consider
all the examples in scripture where God determined to raise someone to power
who was unqualified and had no ability to gain that authority by their own efforts.
God foretold that Joseph would be raised to a position of authority and this
turned out to be deliverance for the families that would one day become the
nation of
Jephthah was driven away from his nation because they
despised him. He was the illegitimate son who was born from a prostitute. He
was considered a disgrace and was not allowed to live among his people, yet the
Lord raised him to power to deliver
As
There are so many other examples but these suffice to make the point we must consider. All the powers in the world cannot prevent the word of the Lord from accomplishing what God has declared. This applies to every part of history as well as every part of Christian ministry. The Lord will put us to the test to see if we are faithful, but we must not abandon the truth to save our churches or ministries. If God has not purposed our efforts to accomplish His will, there is nothing we can do to change this. If God has called us to a mission, there is no power in the world that can prevent us from accomplishing what He has called us to do. The problem is that we usually measure success based on our own ideas while God accomplishes His work in ways that we cannot foresee. It is only after faith has been proven that we can look back and see the power of God shown in ways that we could not have accomplished by our plans.
God often accomplishes His work in ways that the fleshly
mind cannot comprehend. This can be seen through the life of Jim Elliot. Jim
Elliot spent years studying to be a missionary to reach a remote tribe in the
jungles of
The only power that can hinder God’s work through us is our human will turning from His call to follow our own ways. Remember that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is death. Anyone who follows the way that seems right to the flesh will find that they are far from the will of God. Just because we think something is right does not give us the right to contradict what the Lord has declared.
An example of this can be seen in the life of King Saul. He
was the first king of Israel and while he was humble in his own sight he served
well, but when he was lifted up and thought his ideas of right and wrong were
what determined truth, he fell out of God’s will. In one situation Saul was
waiting for the prophet Samuel to perform the sacrifice which was reserved for
the office of the priest only. Before going to battle,
13 And Samuel said to Saul,
Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy
God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy
kingdom upon
14 But now thy kingdom shall not
continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath
commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that
which the LORD commanded thee.
It seemed right, but in reality it was a departure from the
faith as Saul trusted his own actions rather than trusting the Lord. God
delivered
Later
in Saul’s life he again chose his will over the Lord’s command and justified
his disobedience by declaring that it was for the Lord. In 1 Samuel 15 the Lord
commanded that Saul destroy the Amalekites as judgment against that sinful
nation. As part of the destruction they were to also destroy the cattle and
leave none alive. When Saul returned and saw Samuel he declared, “I have
performed the commandment of the Lord”. When Samuel confronted him about the
livestock that he returned with, Saul gave his excuse in 1 Samuel 15:14-15
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth
then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen
which I hear?
15 And Saul said, They have brought
them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of
the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly
destroyed.
Even after being reminded of the commandment of
God, Saul continued to defend himself by stating again that the livestock was
spared so they could sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel finally spelled it out clear
enough so that Saul could no longer justify his actions in 1 Samuel 15:22-23
22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight
in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
rams.
23 For rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because
thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being
king.
This applies just as much today as it did in
Saul’s day. Everyday ministers and laymen alike justify themselves by declaring
that they are disobeying the scriptures in order to accomplish a greater good
for the Lord; however, God rejects the work that is accomplished by
disobedience. In the previous conversation with Saul, Samuel stated that the
Lord had declared that He had sought after a man who was someone after God’s
own heart. This is the heart of the matter. The great commandment that
everything is built upon is to love the Lord your God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength[14]. If
we fall short of this commandment, we will not accomplish the Lord’s will. If
we fulfill this, we will fulfill God’s will in our lives regardless of what
challenges us even when circumstances appear to be impossible. Look at the
words of Jesus in John 14:21
21 He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved
of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
…
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and
the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
We examined this at the beginning of this study and it equally applies here. (Continued on Part 4)
Eddie Snipes
Exchanged Life Outreach
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