Stronghold Beliefs Part 8
Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 2:11; Psalm 119:105; 1 John 2:15-17
Last week I gave you the definitions of the words persuasion and influence. As you recall, persuasion is defined as “the act or fact of persuading someone or being persuaded to do or believe something.” Influence is defined as “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone.” As I shared last week, everyone has been persuaded and/or influenced by someone at some point in their life. This morning I want to add one additional phrase to these definitions as it will add some clarity to the message this morning. The phrase is, “peer pressure.” Peer pressure is defined as “influence from members of one's peer group.” Peer pressure can come in the form of individuals applying pressure on someone to believe or behave in a certain manner or it can come through a group. For example, when pressure is put on someone to adopt a type of behavior, dress, or attitude in order to be accepted as part of a group is social group peer pressure. Let me give you a couple of examples from the news this week pertaining to peer pressure.
Two years ago a former member of the U.S. World Cup team declined a call-up to the U.S. Women’s National Team because she didn’t want to wear a Pride-themed jersey in support of LGBTQ rights. She said “I just felt so convicted in my spirit that it wasn’t my job to wear this jersey.’ She also stated that she was ‘essentially giving up the one dream little girls dream about their entire lives….I knew in my spirit I was doing the right thing. I knew I was being obedient.” The fallout was immediate. One of the current USWNT members responded and said the following, “our team is about inclusion. Your religion was never the problem. The problem is your intolerance and you are homophobic” Another person wrote, “The players have an inclusive bible study, they pray before and after the WC games, and they are open to whatever faith you follow. Not all Christians are bigots.…..(name removed), on the other hand, hides her bigotry behind her faith.” The point that these people were saying is that a true Christian does not have a problem with how others choose to live and will accept the lifestyles of others regardless without being “judgmental.” That’s their definition, not the Bible’s definition. I looked up the definition of bigot because we often hear that word in relationship to race relations. But when you look at the definition of bigot it actually means “a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.” If that is true then I guess most Christians who believe sin is sin, who believe what the Bible says about sin, is one – including me. By the way, this also makes God a bigot because He has no tolerance for sin or for opinions that goes against His word.
There was another story that was in the news this week about the Bachelorette' star who sent one of the contestant home after having an argument about having sex before marriage. The contestant said he was saving himself for marriage while the bachelorette, who claimed to be a Christian, boasted of having sex with another contestant on the show and stated that even though she was having sex “Jesus still loved her.” Then she turned the tables on him and said based on his comments he was acting with pride which equally was a sin. In her words she believed that regardless of what she did, Jesus still loved her and therefore it was not a problem. She was right on one point: Jesus does love her. But I want you see how Satan has twisted the knowledge of Jesus’ love for us into granting us permission to sin. Jesus truly loves each and every one of us, those who belong to Him and those who don’t. But hear me closely on this next point: it was NEVER about Jesus’ love for us! It was ALWAYS about our love for Him. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) If we love Jesus we will keep His commandments, and yes, even those commandments pertaining to separating ourselves from sin. His love for us will not keep us out of hell if we choose to go there! I was happy to see that the contestant stood his ground; he was not yielding to the pressure of how the others on the show were choosing to live.
These are just two examples of what is happening in the world around us today. Christianity is under attack, not by the world, but by those who are proclaiming to be Christians, and this is what our enemy wants. In part seven, I shared with you how Satan rebelled against God with a third of God’s angels joining him. This was the beginning of sin. I shared with you last week that Satan knows his end and his only goal right now is to take as many of God’s children to the lake of fire with him. And what I want you to understand this morning in part 8 of this series is that his greatest weapon is persuasion and influence, especially when used by our peers who already belong to him and may not know it. This morning we are going to examine the fall of man and how Satan continues to use sin to separate us from God. Please pay extra attention to “how” he uses others to lead us astray because our peers are much less threatening than if we were dealing with a “known” demonic spirit. But regardless of how he approaches us, if we will keep our minds focused on what the Bible says we will see him exposed. Second Corinthians 2:11 says “So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” As children of God, we have the capability of seeing through the darkness as Satan attempts to seduce us. Again the Bible says in Psalms 119:105 that “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” The more “light” we put on, the more Bible we put on, the more we’ll see his attempts to lead us astray for what they truly are – feeble.
Most Christians don’t truly understand how persuasive and influential Satan can be as we saw last week. We don’t realize that he’s constantly whispering to us his thoughts, desires and dreams for our lives. He has one goal: to lure us away from serving God. And the more we listen the more we start to believe his thoughts, desires and dreams are really our own. What we fail to see is that the whisperer is the same created being whose lies about God and His goodness were so persuasive that one-third of the angels believed them and turned their backs on God. We underestimate him. No one lies better than Satan. Remember what Jesus said about Satan in John 8:44? He said, “[he] does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” But what makes him so deadly is that when he talks to us he tells us what we want to hear. “God wants you to be happy.” “God wants you to be rich.” “You are a child of the king. You should live like one.” “You should have this and you should have that.” “Jesus loves you so your sins are not an issue for him – remember He hung out with sinners.” His whispering never stops. When Satan whispers, his focus is to fulfill the lusts of the flesh in our lives. The Apostle John writes in I John 2:15-17 – “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
I want us to use our imaginations of how things could have possibly played out after Lucifer rebelled against God. Please close your eyes and listen with your hearts the word’s I am about to speak. After being kicked out of heaven and stripped of everything that was dear to him (his home, his job, and most important – his “ desired kingdom”), Lucifer’s rage against God consumed him. “God had to pay for what he had done,” he thought to himself. He saw God create the universe and then the earth. Day after day, he watched as God brought forth life, birds, fish, animals and plants. But it was on the day that God made man that Lucifer saw, once again, God’s love and tenderness. And when Adam took his first breath, Lucifer saw an expression on God’s face that he had never seen before. He saw a Father’s love for His son. I can just see him becoming furious! “I was the cherub of cherubs,” he said to himself. “I was the one the angels looked up to. I was the one they followed. Me! But God never looked at me the way he looks at” – and he says the next words with such distain – “this clay!” So day by day he watched as the relationship between the Father and son grew. They would talk for hours as they walked in the Garden. With each passing day, Adam began to see and understand more and more of the Father’s heart. One day God stopped and pointed to a tree in the distance. “Never eat of that tree son. If you do, one day your heart will stop beating and when it does you will die. But that’s not the most important reason. If you eat of that tree, we will never be able to walk together again.” I can see tears in Adam’s eyes. “We won’t be able to take our long walks anymore? Father, you’re telling me that I will never see you again?” Lucifer heard God’s instructions to his son. “Now I know how I can hurt the one who is now a father,” he said. “Since God loves this clay so much, I will turn the clay against him. I will make the clay like me. Then God will feel what I feel!” It wasn’t until God introduced Adam to his wife, Eve, that Lucifer was able to see an opportunity to execute his plan. It’s interesting that Satan never approached Adam, he approached Eve. At this point I believe he had watched them closely to determine which of them would be open to his suggestions. This is not a condemnation upon women; this is just how this one story played out at the beginning.
All of this brings us to Genesis 3 where God exposes Satan for who he truly is – a killer who lives in our midst. And He does this in the very first book of the Bible. Do you see how important the Bible is? God wants our eyes to be wide open to Satan’s true nature and what he does to tempt us, deceive us and ultimately, cause our spiritual destruction. Last week I told you that the Bible describes him in this way: “……for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14) What he says will sound good. What he says will be easy to hear. But what he says, if we continue to listen to him, will lead to our spending an eternity in the lake of fire. What the Genesis account teaches us is critical. Satan can only seduce us if we are seducible and we make ourselves seducible when we – now listen to me – when we don’t treat God’s Word, the Bible, as the final authority for truth in our lives.
Let’s begin with verse 1. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?’ Satan is not a serpent, but he used a serpent in the Garden to speak to Eve. I do not believe that he turned himself into a serpent because after this incident God cursed the serpent. The Hebrew word for serpent in this verse is the same word used throughout Scripture for serpent so it must have been a literal snake. However, since the fall of man, snakes have been used to describe people who are cunning, sneaky and sly which is how it was used in the Garden of Eden. God wants us to understand that Satan has to get us to agree with him so that we will do what he can’t – cause our own destruction. So the first thing he does is ask Eve a question. No big deal, right? It’s only a question. This is exactly what he wants us to believe. He asks the question for one reason: to see if Eve is willing to consider it. If she doesn’t, it’s game over for him. If she does, it’s game over for her. Satan slowly weaves his tapestry of doubt, lies and deceit. “Eve, did you really hear that from God?” he asks. “You know God’s ways are higher than ours. Who can truly understand Him? So, Eve is it possible,” as he watches her expression change, “that maybe, just maybe, you misunderstood what God said?” Here’s what I want you to see: Satan wants Eve to believe that what God said He did not mean. New Light, Satan has not changed. He wants us to believe that God’s Word doesn’t mean what its saying; that it changes with the times and evolves with the needs of society. It does not.
Now let’s pick it up with verses 2 and 3. “The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” Eve tells the serpent the thing that he needs to know to ruin her: how she interpreted, how she understood, what God had said. At that moment, Satan knew Eve was not in agreement with God. New Light, it was game over for Eve. Now let’s see what God really said. Turn to Genesis 2:16 and 17. “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” What Eve said was different than what God had said. God was very specific in His commandment, but Eve’s response left the door open for “wiggle room.” Many Christians are like Eve. We want God to be “our God” instead of us being “His children.” When that happens, we open the door for Satan to do in our lives what he does best – steal, kill and destroy.
Eve’s answer to the serpent’s question is a key lesson for us, New Light.
? The first thing we see. Eve changed God’s commandment into a statement to be considered. When God “commanded the man” not to eat of the tree, He was giving him, to use a military analogy, a direct order. But Eve didn’t see it that way. For her, it was “God has said” – an instruction to be considered. Again, most Christians are like Eve. God’s Word, the Bible, is not absolute for them. It’s merely something to be considered, not the book that they must follow.
? The second thing we see is that Eve is not in full agreement with everything God had said. God said she could eat of every tree freely except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve said she couldn’t eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. But that was not what God commanded. Now contrast this with what Jesus said in John 12:49. “For I did not speak on My own initiative; but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” When the Father gave Jesus a commandment, He obeyed. Jesus is our pattern for living a victorious life.
? The third thing Eve did was add “her understanding” to God’s commandment. She said “God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it.’” On the surface this sounds good, doesn’t it? But God never said anything about touching the fruit. He plainly said don’t eat. If God didn’t say it, then it doesn’t matter how good something sounds, does it? Deuteronomy 4:2 says “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” But all too often Christians find themselves doing just that – adding to God’s Word to make it easier to live by. What they are doing is living by a lie. Now listen to me: God cannot join Himself to a lie, no matter how good it sounds. He can only anoint and bless His Word. One more point I want to make here. In the Church today, we are hearing teachings that sound so good but they are not from God. They originated with “the serpent.” In I Timothy 4:1 it says “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines (or teachings) of demons.” People, that is happening in pulpits across our country as I stand before you this morning!
? One more thing that Eve did: she changed God’s Word from an absolute to a possibility. This is a big deal, a real big deal! God said “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Eve said “or you will die.” Most Christians have great difficulty with absolutes. For them, God’s Word is only a guide for how they are to live; it is not their standard for how to live. For them, when, where, how and to what degree God’s Word holds a place in their lives is dependent upon the situation and the people involved. But God’s Word is not flexible. It never has been. It never will be. Psalm 119:89 says “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.”
Now this is what I want you to see in all of this. God’s Word was not in Eve’s heart. David wrote in Psalm 119:11 – “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” Satan counts on Christians not having God’s Word as a treasure in their hearts. He knows that without God’s Word, without the Bible, in our heart, he can defeat us. And God shows us this in the very first book of the Bible! In verses 4 and 5 we read, “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” I wonder how long it took Satan to convince Eve to believe him when he said “God lied to you about what would happen if you ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?” My point: just like with one-third of the angels, Satan took as much time as he needed to ruin Eve, knowing that his chances were great that if he got Eve, Adam would follow. How many of us are following a voice that was sent to lead us astray? Satan is more than willing to take all the time he needs to ruin us, New Light. Notice Satan tells Eve “God doesn’t want you to eat of the tree not because it will hurt you. Oh no. He doesn’t want you to eat of the tree because you will become just like Him.” New Light, Eve was already like God. She just wasn’t deity and we see this in Genesis 1, in the first part of verse 26 and all of verse 27. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness … God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Eve already had God’s nature. She didn’t need to do anything else to be like God. New Light, when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we received the same life that God gave man in Genesis1. We are already like our Father!
We’re going to read one more verse. Verse 6 says “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” I want to draw your attention to three things in this verse: the words “saw,” “delight to the eyes,” and “desirable.” Each of these words tell me that Eve’s response was based on what she saw and not what God had said. Eve believed what she saw more than what God had said. Let that sink in! As I said earlier, Satan had been talking to Eve – whispering in her ear – for quite some time so much so that she, now please hear me, so much so that she began to see things the way he saw things. Satan convinces Eve to give into “the lust of the eyes” – to give into an intense and strong desire, rather than live by “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Satan is so-o-o-o sly. He did not directly open the door of disobedience to Eve. He simply walked her all the way up to it and then just stood by and watched it unfold. The choice to sin was Eve’s decision.
We know how this record ends. God’s heart was broken. The serpent that Satan used was cursed. Eve was punished. Adam was punished. All of creation was punished. And Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, which to this day is guarded by Cherubims who have flaming swords. So what can we learn about Satan from this account in Genesis?
? First, Satan always tries to get us to doubt God and what He has said in His Word. He wants us to “consider” what God says and thus add our interpretation to what He said. Are we not seeing this played out today? This is just another way of doing what he did in heaven when he rebelled. Each time we do something that the Bible says we shouldn’t, we are in rebellion. We have to decide to take God at His Word and live by faith.
? Second, we cannot, cannot, cannot give Satan an ear. That’s the first mistake Eve made. That’s the mistake many of us make. We listen to what he says through men and women who say they are hearing from God but are not. And we believe them because we are not “examining the Scriptures (ourselves) daily to see whether these things (what they are teaching) were so.” (Acts 17:11b) New Light, I’m telling you right now, stop it! Take everything you hear from the pulpit, including this one, and see if it lines up with the Bible.
? Third, Satan will tell us that God is holding back on us, that He really has not given us everything that we need in this life. The Bible disagrees. Romans 8:32 says this about our Heavenly Father. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”
? And the final thing we learned, and this is really important: Satan will take us by the hand and lead us all the way to the point of disobedience, but he cannot make us disobey, we have to choose to do it of our own free will! That’s all he can do. We are the ones who must make the choice to sin. We have the last word. This is why the Bible tells us once again, “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) God has always made a way for us to escape the temptation and sin that Satan presents to us – we just need to choose His way versus “our” way. Let’s make sure that our last word is “It is written!” You see, God’s Word, the Bible, is our guarantee of victory against everything Satan can and will put in our paths. New Light, the key for us is to always let God’s Word be our first and only response in all situations. And in order for that to happen, it has to be treasured in our hearts. Always, always, always let the Word of God be your treasure and foundation. Let us be like the prophet Jeremiah, who said in Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” When we do this, Satan has no chance against us and He will have to flee! Amen!
As I close this morning I want to share with you a scene I witness this week while I was waiting for one of my team members in a hospital waiting room. There was a man standing in the lobbying “witnessing” to another man who was in a wheelchair. I was not listening to their conversation until I heard the man say that people are looking for Jesus to return in the clouds but they are wrong. He said Jesus would not be returning in the clouds because He never died. The man in the wheelchair told him that wasn’t right but the man pressed on. He said people are looking for Jesus to return in the sky, but really Jesus was going to return in our minds and he pointed to his head. He went on to say that Jesus was not crucified so therefore He never died and rose from the grave. He said he could prove it in the Bible because when Mary saw Him he was “dressed” as a gardener. He said Jesus was incognito. As I listened to this conversation my thoughts went to how often people are twisting God’s Word. The man was referencing John 20:15, but it does not say that Jesus was dressed as a gardener, but that Mary thought He was the gardener. You see the difference? This is why we need to know the Bible for ourselves. We need to be studying. We need to be searching the Scriptures and then asking questions about things we do not understand. It’s the only way we will survive against the forces operating against us.
Many Christians are living their lives as if the things happening in the world do not involve them. Many Christians do not share what they believe because either they are not sure or they do not want to be labeled as a bigot because they are intolerant of the sinful lives others are living and they refuse to accept and condone it. The reason I am doing this series is so that each of us can know the truth. We have a foundation of what we should believe and if we do not currently believe it we will take these messages and go back and search the Word of God to see if what has been presented is the truth. You have to know what you believe and why you believe it.
Next week we will continue with what it means to be “born again” and I can promise you that you might be surprised at the real meaning of being born again.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
