The great deceiver!
If you are one who reads and studies God’s Word, then you will surely agree with me that the devil is the master of deception. He has been perfecting his process of deception ever since he tricked/deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. “Did God actually say, ’You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.’” And upon hearing Eve’s words the dastardly destroyer of souls followed up with the false and misleading lie, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan can be pretty clever in how he tries to deceive us and get us to do those things which God has commanded/called us not to do. He can lure us into believing what we are doing is a good and right thing, something the Lord would be in favor of, when in reality our actions are in direct disobedience to God’s wishes. Scripture clearly tells us about such dishonest and treacherous deeds in Isaiah 5:20, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Today in America, we are dealing with this kind of extremely misguided thinking as we look at those people who are adamantly supporting the Pro-Choice side of the abortion debate. These individuals are stand firm in their belief they are doing a good thing by opposing laws and organizations which are designed, and have been established, to save babies and protect woman. Satan has infiltrated their minds and he has led them to believe the evil they are carrying out is a good, a very good and noble activity. And sadly, these brothers and sisters have been blinded from seeing the horrible truth of what is really happening.
Temptation is a very powerful tool the master of disaster uses to cause us human beings to perform sinful acts that are in complete defiance to the “good and perfect will of the Creator. The devil was so prideful and confident he even tried to tempt Jesus himself. Now that my friends, is arrogance at the highest level! And though Satan is the best there is, at the business of deception and trickery, he was putdown and driven off by the Word of God. Why did this happen? It happened because lies cannot hold up against the truth, and the Word of God is the ultimate proclamation of that which is true, and just, and right!
Faithful followers of Jesus, the greatest weapon known to man which has been proven most effective against the deceptive measures of the evil one, is the sword of the Spirit that is the Word of God. The devil is well aware of this, and he absolutely does not want you and me to know the truths shared in this precious Book. Nor does he want us to use it to defend ourselves, or even better attack him with it. Knowing this important information, let us then make it a priority to be in the Holy Scriptures daily and stay connected to Jesus, and in doing so may Satan and his deceptive tactics be kept at a safe distance! Pastor McCarty