Several years ago, a middle school in Oregon faced a unique problem. A number of girls began to use lipstick and put it on in the bathroom. After they put on their lipstick, they pressed their lips to the mirrors leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Finally, the principal decided something had to be done. She called the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the custodian. She explained lip prints caused a major problem for the custodian, who had to clean the mirrors every day. To demonstrate how difficult it was, she asked the custodian to clean one of the mirrors. He took out a long-handled brush, dipped it into the toilet, and scrubbed the mirror. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirrors (Brett Kays, www.Preaching Today.com).
Sin looks like fun until you see the real filth you’re kissing. That’s because Satan disguises sin very well. He’s a great scam artist, the father of all scam artists, and if you’re not careful, he’ll scam you before you even realize it.
But the good news is Satan is not very creative. He has used the same scam over and over again ever since the beginning; and If you can learn his scam, you can also learn to avoid it. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 3, Genesis 3, where God reveals Satan’s scam.
Genesis 3:1a Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
Satan is very subtle here. He uses a serpent to make his first attack.
Now, when we think of serpents today, we usually think of ugly, slithering snakes. They make your skin crawl, and most people can’t stand to be around them. But in the beginning, serpents were beautiful creatures and probably walked upright. According to verse 14, snakes didn’t slither on the ground until AFTER God cursed them.
That’s why Satan uses the serpent to get Eve’s attention. It is not something she loathes. It is something she finds very beautiful. And that’s the way Satan works. He makes himself and sin look so beautiful and right.
That’s why Mel Gibson used a veiled female figure to portray Satan in his Passion of Christ. At a screening near Chicago, he said, “Evil takes on the form of beauty. It is almost beautiful. It is the great aper of God. [I.e., a close, but clumsy copy of God]. But the mask is askew; there is always something wrong. Evil masquerades, but if your antennae are up, you'll detect it” (Christianity Today, March 2004).
In a classic "Twilight Zone" episode from 1960, an American is on a walking trip through central Europe when he gets caught in a raging storm. He Staggers through the blinding rain and comes upon an imposing medieval castle. It is a monastery for a brotherhood of monks, who reluctantly take him in.
Later that night, the American discovers a cell with a man locked inside. An ancient wooden staff bolts the door. The prisoner claims the “insane” head monk, Brother Jerome, is holding him captive, and he pleads for the American to release him.
The prisoner's kindly face and gentle voice win him over. The American confronts Brother Jerome, who explains that the prisoner is actually none other than Satan, "the father of lies," held captive by the Staff of Truth, the one barrier he cannot pass.
This incredible claim convinces the American that Jerome is indeed mad. As soon as he gets the chance, he releases the prisoner—who immediately transforms into a hideous, horned demon and vanishes in a puff of smoke!
The stunned American is horrified at the realization of what he has done. Jerome responds sympathetically. “I'm sorry for you, my son. All your life you will remember this night and whom you have turned loose upon the world.”
“I didn't believe you,” the American replies. “I saw him and didn't recognize him” – to which Jerome solemnly observes, “That is man's weakness… and Satan's strength” (Kevin Stump, "Is the Devil Dead?" The Plain Truth, Mar/Apr 2001; www.Preaching Today.com).
Satan looks good, and He makes sin look good. But once you let him loose in your life, the horrible reality sets in.
J. C. Ryle, put it this way: We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself to us in its true colors, saying, “I am your deadly enemy, and I want to ruin you forever in hell.” Oh no! Sin comes to us like Judas, with a kiss; like Joab, with outstretched hand and flattering words. The forbidden fruit seemed good and desirable to Eve; yet it cast her out of Eden. Walking idly on his palace roof seemed harmless enough to David; yet it ended in adultery and murder. Sin rarely seems [like] sin at first beginnings (J. C. Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool, England, 1800s, Tony Lane, Timeless Witness, Hendrickson, 2004, p. 392; www. PreachingToday.com).
Or as someone else put it: The trouble with trouble is that it usually starts out as a whole lot of fun (Anonymous. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 4; www.PreachingToday.com).
So watch it. Satan can make sin look so beautiful, and he will catch you when you least expect it.
There is a play on words going on here in the text. At the end of chapter 2, the text says, The man and his wife were both naked – aroomim in the Hebrew. In the first verse of chapter 3, it says, The serpent was more crafty – aroom in the Hebrew. The words are almost identical, indicating that Satan in his craftiness will play on their nakedness.
Now, the fact that Adam and Eve were naked means a whole lot more than just the fact that they had no clothes. It speaks of their openness and innocence before each other and the world. They lived without fear of exploitation or threat. They had no idea they were in danger. And that’s when Satan likes to strike. He likes to strike in the times and places where you least expect it.
On January 14, 2005, Shane Maixner died in an avalanche. The 27-year-old and four of his friends drove to the Canyons ski resort outside Park City, Utah, rode the ski lift, hiked up to the backcountry gate outside the Dutch Draw area, went through the gate posted with warning signs, and started snowboarding.
On the second trip down the same slopes, someone in the party shouted, “Avalanche!” but Shane could not escape. Two days later, they dug his body out of the snow.
The media criticized Shane and his friends as “reckless riders,” picturing them as novices, unaware of the possible dangers. In fact, Shane Maixner and two others in his party were “avalanche-certified backcountry guides.” The men owned special avalanche gear, but they didn’t bring it with them.
Come to find out, this kind of thing happens a lot on the slopes. The April 2005 issue of Outside Magazine commented, “Skiers with the most avalanche training are more likely to be seduced into faulty reasoning by factors like tracked slopes and group enthusiasm. Maixner didn’t die because he was a fool. Like his friends, he was lulled into letting his guard down” (Grayson Schaffer, “Powder Keg,” Outside, April 2005, pp.32-33; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s how Satan works. He lulls people into letting their guards down. He attacks people in the places where they think they are strong.
Several years ago, Gordon MacDonald, a well-known, respected Christian leader, was asked, “If Satan were to blow you out of the water, how do you think he would do it?”
MacDonald replied, “I’m not sure I know, but I know there’s one way he wouldn’t get me. He’d never get me in the area of my personal relationships. That’s one place where I have no doubt that I’m as strong as you can get.”
Do you know that’s exactly the place where Satan hit him a few years later? A chain of seemingly innocent choices became destructive. “Choice by choice,” he says, “each easier to make, each becoming gradually darker” until he found himself in bed with a woman who was not his wife.
In his book, Rebuilding Your Broken World, MacDonald writes, “Funny! During my earlier years I’d thought we were most vulnerable at our weakest points—until I realized from personal experience that where we perceive ourselves to be the strongest is where we’re least likely to be prepared for a battle that isn’t psychological or emotional. It’s spiritual!”
Oswald Chambers once said, “The Bible characters never fell on their weak points but on their strong ones; unguarded strength is double weakness” (Gordon MacDonald, Rebuilding Your Broken World).
Did you hear that? “Unguarded strength is double weakness.” 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”
Satan can make sin look very attractive, and he will attack you when and where you least expect it. He is very subtle, so...
WATCH OUT FOR HIS SHREWD WAYS.
Be wary of his craftiness. Guard yourself against his scams. And by all means…
REJECT HIS LIES.
Disregard his deception. Ignore anything Satan has to say, because he never tells the truth. He always lies. In fact, Satan has two basic lies he uses over and over again. First, he’ll tell you, “God’s Word is not true.” And Second, he’ll say, “God’s ways are not good.” So don’t believe Him.
Ignore him when he tells you “God’s word is not true;” or “God didn’t really mean what He said.” That’s what he told Eve.
Genesis 3:1b-4 He said to the woman, “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.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die” (ESV).
Literally, “You will surely die—NOT!” Satan took exactly what God had said in Genesis 2:17 and put a “NOT” in front of it. He blatantly denies the truth of God’s Word. But notice, he avoided a frontal attack. Instead, he started with a question (vs.1): “Did God actually say? Satan gets Eve to question God’s Word; and before you know it, he is denying it all together.
Don’t you know? That’s what he still does today. Satan gets people to question God’s Word until they come to deny it all together. Did God actually say He created the earth in 6 days? Did God actually say Homosexuality is an “abomination?” Did God actually say, “Abstain from sexual immorality?” Did God actually say, “The husband is the head of the woman?” Did God actually say, “I hate divorce?” Did God actually say, “Be holy in ALL your behavior?” “Did God actually say those things?” people begin to think. “Maybe He had something else in mind.”
And so major denominations debate whether they should ordain practicing homosexuals. Evangelical Christian couples get divorced at just a slightly higher rate than non-Christian couples. And many believers wink at sexual immorality in the church like it’s no big deal.
That’s why the church has lost its influence in the culture. Satan has defeated a lot of churches before they even get started, because they don’t take God’s Word seriously anymore. Please, ignore Satan when he tells you that God’s word is not true.
And ignore him when he tells you that God is not good, that God is holding back on you. This is the second lie Satan told Eve.
Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (ESV).
Eve, God is trying to spoil your fun. He’s holding back on you. He’s stingy with His gifts. He wants to keep you from becoming a god like Him. It’s the same lie Satan uses today, so ignore him when he tells you God is not good.
On the contrary, the Bible says, “God…richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 5:17). Jesus himself said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Even the Old Testament says, “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
Reject the idea that God is a stingy ogre, waiting to zap anyone who has a little fun. Instead, believe that He is generous and good, wanting to “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20).
Harry Adams was a pastor for 23 years before Lou Gherig’s disease (a.k.a. ALS) forced his retirement and eventually took his life. In the years Harry had ALS, it took his voice and robbed him of the use of his limbs. It also forced him and his family out of a lovely home.
Even so, he still believed in the overwhelming goodness of God, trusting God to give him the desires of his heart. Before he died, he wrote:
“I desire a healthy body, and He promises me a body that is powerful, incorruptible, glorious and spiritual.
“I desire a home that is beautiful and spacious, and he is preparing such a home for me in a city whose builder is God.
“I desire a world without crime, lies, or violence, and he promises me a world where righteousness dwells.
“I desire to be with those I love, and he promises that I will be caught up together with them forever.
“I desire an end to my sorrow, and He promises me fullness of joy in His presence.
“I desire a heart so filled with love that there is no room for sin, and He promises to make me like Jesus when I am in heaven.
“I desire a ministry, and he promises I will serve Him eternally.
“I desire a voice with which to praise Him, and He promises I will sing before His throne.
“Most of all, I desire to see Him, and He promises I will always behold His face” (Kindred Spirit, Summer 2005, p.15; www.PreachingToday.com).
Here is the wonderful truth! Even the worst believer is better off than the richest man in the world. God is not stingy. He is generous and good with those who trust Him. Believe it! Because without such faith you’re a ripe target for Satan’s scams.
Steve Brown put it this way: God is not a policeman; He is a Father concerned about His children. When a child picks up a snake, and the father says, “Put that down right this minute!” the child thinks he's losing a toy. The fact is, he is not losing a toy; he is losing a snake (Steve Brown in Key Life, July-August 1994, Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 11; www.PreachingToday.com).
God only wants what’s best for you, so trust Him enough to obey Him. Otherwise, like Adam and Eve, you will fall, and you will fall hard.
Genesis 3:6-7 So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths (ESV).
Their innocence is gone. They now live in fear of exploitation. Sure, their eyes are open. Sure, they know good and evil, but not in the way they hoped. For now, they have experienced the pain of evil at the deepest, most intimate level. It’s not what God wanted for them, but it’s what they got when they fell for Satan’s lies.
Please, don’t let Satan trip you up. Watch out for his shrewd ways, and reject his lies. God’s Word IS true. God IS generous and good. Please, Believe it!
Several years ago, Kathy Chapell, and a friend gathered up their kids and made a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. A new attraction had just opened called “Big Cat Country,” which took the lions and tigers out of their cages and allowed them to roam in large enclosures. Visitors observe the cats by walking on elevated skyways above their habitats.
As Kathy and her friend took the children up one of the skyway ramps, a blanket became entangled in the wheel of the friend's stroller. Kathy knelt to help untangle the wheel while her boys (ages 3 & 5) went ahead. When next she looked up, Kathy discovered that the boys had innocently walked right through a child-sized gap in the fencing and had climbed up on the rocks some 20 or 25 feet about the lion pen. They had been told that they would be able to look down on the lions, and they were doing just that from their hazardous vantage point. Pointing to the lions below, they called back to their mother, “Hey, Mom, we can see them!”
They had no concept of how much danger they were in. Kathy saw immediately. But now what could she do? If she screamed, she might startle the boys perched precariously above the lions. The gap in the fence was too small for her to get through. So she knelt down, spread out her arms, and said, “Boys, come get a hug.” They came running for the love that saved them from danger greater than they could perceive (Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace, 2001, p.107; www.PreachingToday.com).
Your sin puts you in a dangerous position, much greater than you could ever perceive. Even so, Jesus spread out His arms on a cross; and now He invites you to come get a hug. Please, if you haven’t done it yet, come to Jesus this morning and let Him save you from Satan, who “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
