God's Truth About Satan's Lies — Russell Kelfer

The lesson you're about to hear is designed to help you in your spiritual pilgrimage. We pray that this will be a blessing in your life. Our teacher is Russell Kelfer of the Into His Likeness radio broadcast.

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The Series on Satan’s Lies and God’s Truth

I started to say this is the end of Satan's Lies, but unfortunately it isn't. It's just the end of the series on Satan's Lies, a mini-series, to use the term as loosely I guess as you can, on Satan's Lies and God's Truth about the problem basically of double-mindedness where Christians are concerned.

For the last 14 weeks we have explored the basic areas of conflict and the lies that Satan tells. The last lie we discussed for the last three weeks, Satan's Lies about unequal yoking, friendships, dating, marriage, which brings us this morning to the conclusion of the series God's Truth about Satan's Lies.

It's a very simple outline, Roman numeral one, the picture, Roman numeral two, the pattern, and Roman numeral three, the present. The picture that we've painted is nine areas of conflict between a Christian and the world.

The 26 lies that Satan tells that have corresponding biblical truth. Roman numeral two, the pattern that has emerged, overlaying these lies with Satan's overt attacks in the garden and in the wilderness, we can discern, I hope, the keys to what he can stand and cannot stand and to what his methods are, and maybe begin to meet him more head on.

And then thirdly, the present events that are unfolding. Satan's lies are now up front, and the age in which we live now becomes the most exciting time in history to be a Christian. It also surfaces, perhaps, Satan's greatest lie of all, and God's most beautiful truth.

So that's where we're headed. If you would fasten your spiritual seatbelts, we will proceed. Well, what has emerged in these 14 weeks? What has emerged are nine areas of conflict in which Satan has declared war on the truth of God.

And within those nine areas, we've talked about 26 lies, lies that you and I must reject as Christians, and the corresponding 26 truths that we must accept as a conviction. Now what are convictions? Convictions, you recall, are the principles of scripture that you would rather die for than compromise.

The Character of Man and the Reality of Sin

See how many you can remember as we review very quickly. Number one, Satan's lies about the character of man. Do you remember? There were three of them. The first one is that man is innately good, left to himself.

Little jewels that we are, we will do basically that which is moral, just, and upright. It's a lie. The truth says, among other places in Romans 5, 12,. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so then death hath passed upon all men for all have sinned.

That's the truth about the goodness of man. The second lie in this area is that man is his own authority. If man is basically good, he is free to develop his own devices to represent truth. And you'll remember we decided that science says we define the truth.

Education says we teach the truth. Philosophy says we interpret the truth. Psychology says we apply the truth. History says we confirm the truth. But all of them say there is no truth. Even as Pilate asked the question, what is truth?

You'll remember Jesus answered in John 1, 17,. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. In John 14, Jesus added, I am the truth. The third lie in the same context is that man, therefore, can control his own destiny.

I am the captain of my fate. That's a lie. The great I am is the captain of our fate. The scripture says in John 3, 27, A man can do nothing except it be given him from heaven. In Proverbs 16, 1, the living Bible says we can make our plans, but the final outcome is where?

Humanity’s Relationship to God

In God's hands. The second set of lies have to do with man's relationship with God. Do you remember? Number one, there are many ways to get to God. It doesn't matter what you believe, only believe. But Jesus answered, you recall, no, I am also the way.

No man come to the Father, but by me. In Matthew 7, he said, enter ye in at the straight gate, because narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. Few there be that find it. The second issue regarding man's relationship to God is that Satan says eternity is a vague uncertainty.

John 14, let not your heart be troubled, Jesus said. You believe in God, believe also in me, because in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. Now I'm going to prepare a place for you, and when I do that, I'll come back again and take you with me.

That's the truth about eternity. Matthew 7, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men, what? Miserable. Because behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The third lie, that man has freedom to choose. That includes the freedom to make no choice at all. That's a lie. Truth is, Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. It is why God demanded of Israel to choose ye this day whom you will serve. If God, then serve Him. If the devil, then serve him, but serve one.

It's why Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. The fourth lie is that the Church is irrelevant. And that's a lie. The Church of Jesus Christ is neither dead nor dying. Like to Elijah, God would say, I have thousands, yea, perhaps millions who have not bowed their knee to Baal.

Happiness, Wealth, and Inner Beauty

And the Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well. And the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. The third area of lies regards man's happiness. Several lies. There you'll remember the first one said, that happiness comes from the good life.

Good times, good friends, good food. God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And what should it profit a man if he gained the whole world, but lose all that counts, his own soul?

The second lie in the area of happiness is that money brings happiness. And it's a lie. Not only does it not bring happiness, the truth is found in 1 Timothy 6, the love of money is in effect the root of all evil.

Lie number three is that physical attractiveness is what brings happiness. But the truth is found in 1 Peter, the first few chapters, that real beauty comes from the inside out. The truth is found in 1 Samuel 16, 7.

Moral Absolutes and Sexual Purity

It says, man looks on the outward appearance, but God doesn't. God looks on the heart. The fourth area of lies involves morality. Do you remember the first one was that morality is relative? There are no absolutes.

Truth is, morality is absolute. Stealing is a sin. Absolutely. Lying is a sin. Absolutely. Homosexuality is a sin. Absolutely. Drunkenness is a sin. Absolutely. And it will not change. It has not changed.

Malachi 3 .6, you recall, said, I am the Lord. I do not change. James 1 .17 says, in Him there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning. Morality is absolute. The second lie is that sex outside of marriage is acceptable.

The truth is that sex outside of marriage is abominable. 1 Corinthians 6, Paul said, no other sin affects the body as this one does. 1 Thessalonians 4 .3 says, this is the will of God that you abstain from sex outside of marriage.

That's the truth. The third lie is that divorce is a reasonable option, that marriage is not a permanent relationship. But that's a lie because of the hardness of your hearts, Jesus said in Matthew 19.

God’s Design for the Home

Moses allowed you to have a writ of divorcement, but from the beginning he said it was not so. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. The fifth area of lies is in the area of the home.

The first lie is that the home is not the center of society. The home is not the center of society anymore, and that's a lie. Because the Word of God says that the home is the two-fold center of God's plan.

First of all, it's a training ground for real discipleship. When they sit, when they walk, when they go to bed, when they rise up, it should be heaven on earth, we read in Deuteronomy 11, the home. The second area is that the home is God's picture book of God's most precious relationship, the Father-Son relationship.

John 3 .35, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon the Son. And you'll remember we studied some 20 or 25 illustrations from Scripture how God uses the Father-Son relationship to teach spiritual truth.

The second lie about the home is that men and women have no definable roles. The world's solution is ERA, which literally means give me my rights so I can lose my identity. But God's program, you remember, is EDA, Equality, Diversity, Authority.

Neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, total equality at last, but total diversity. Physically, the man, the stronger. I believe emotionally, the woman, the stronger. Spiritually, equal but different.

Total equality with diversity, but under authority. Husbands, love your wives the way Christ loved the church with no limits. Wives, submit yourself to your husbands as unto the Lord with no limits. And this is the picture that God has for the roles of men and women.

Authority, Discipline, and the Infallible Word

Satan hates it. The third lie is that parental authority threatens a child's freedom, and that's a lie. Children are to obey their parents that it might go well with them and that they might prosper. The sixth area of Satan's lies is the area of authority.

These are the lies. Discipline is outdated. That's a lie. Whom the father loves, he disciplines. The second is that rebellion is an acceptable means to an end. And that's a lie. Rebellion is to God is the sin of witchcraft, and it is never an acceptable means to an end.

The third lie, you remember, was that national loyalty was no virtue. But God reveals His purposes through the nations. We're to honor the nation, pray for its leaders, submit to its authority as unto God.

The fourth lie, you remember, in that area was that the Bible is not the infallible Word of God. But it is God-breathed, we read in 1 Timothy 3. It is perfect, we read in Psalm 19. And every word proves true, we read in Proverbs 30.

So we determined, you remember, three things in life that really last. Do you remember what they were? Say them with me. The Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of God. The Bible is infallible. The seventh area is the area of responsibility.

Personal Responsibility and Godly Heroes

Satan says you can blame society for your failures. That's a lie. Remember, we discussed eight things every man is responsible to do no matter what comes at him in life. Second lie in that area is we can blame our parents for our weaknesses, God for our defects, and Satan for our besetting sins.

Lies. The eighth area, you'll remember, was in the area of heroes. Satan says glorify those who entertain you and those who glorify the flesh. But God says, I will make the godly of the land my heroes and invite them into my home.

Alliances, Unequal Yoking, and Spiritual Fellowship

Well, the last area, we just finished the last three weeks, the area of alliances. Relationships. Satan says Christians and non-Christians can be aligned together. Nations can unite with their enemies in treaties.

Dating and marriage are the child's responsibility. This should be fresh in your mind. That's a lie. The truth is, how can two walk together except they be agreed? The truth is that what fellowship can light have with darkness?

What fellowship can idols have in the temple of God? What fellowship can there be between God and Satan? It's the parents' responsibility who do the children date. Line upon line, precept upon precept, every area of their lives are our responsibility.

Well, these are the lies and those are the corresponding truths that we've been wrestling with during this study. But to know them and to recognize them and to respond to these lies is not enough. These are but the polluted stream from which springs continually shades of deceptions.

Subtleties that come our way in part from Satan's five basic areas of attack. You remember what they were. The media, secular education, secular counseling, entertainment, organized religion. All which report and teach and reinforce and demonstrate and accept the standards of the world.

Satan’s Methods of Deception

But what are the patterns? Is Satan stupid? Does he always work from the same battle plan? I'm here to tell you this morning from the Word of God that he's not stupid. The Scripture said he was more subtle, more cunning and more deceptive than any other creature.

He's no dummy. But he does have a one-track mind or at least a four-track mind. And really those are the places he always surfaces and the ways he always surfaces. So that's what we're going to deal with for the next few minutes.

We have a great deal of information in the Scripture about how Satan works. You remember in Matthew 13, we know that he's a tear sower. He loves to put fakes among the real thing. He's a seed snatcher.

He loves to steal the truth before it can take roots in a Christian's life. In 2 Corinthians 4, you remember, he loves to blind the eyes of unbelievers so they cannot see the truth. In John 8, you remember, we are told he is the father of lies, the father of all unbelievers and he cannot tell the truth.

1 Timothy 3 .6, we remember, he is the perfect illustration of what happens when you try to be your own God. In Luke 13, you remember, he binds men through physical circumstances. In Luke 22, he desires to sift Christians until they fall.

In Acts 5, he fills men's hearts to lie. 1 Corinthians 7, he loves to destroy marriage through temptation. In 2 Corinthians 2, he battles to keep Christians from seeking forgiveness with one another. In Revelation 12, he knows his time is short.

While we have much information on how he works, there are really only two major confrontations in Scripture between Satan and man that are recorded. And I think if we superimpose those on one another and examine them in the light of this study, maybe we'll reach a few quick conclusions about how he works and what he loves to do.

Nine Strategies Satan Uses

Nine things Satan loves to do. Now you think about it. Number one, his timing is generally carefully planned. In the garden, he waits until Eve is alone and until she is in a position to listen to the voice of a stranger.

At the point of her greatest emotional need, he comes at her. In the wilderness, he waits for Jesus 40 days and 40 nights. He fasted. Then at the point of his greatest physical need, he approached him.

Your greatest spiritual tests will come at the point of your greatest emotional and physical needs. He knows when the lies should come. His second method is he's a master at overkill, at unanswerable questions.

Hath God said you can't eat anything? God trying to put you on Weight Watchers? What's happening? How can a God of love allow war to go on? How can a God of love allow death to go on? Asking questions the natural mind can't answer.

Number three, he is a master at innuendos that undermine the character of God with ifs. If thou art the Son of God, he said to Jesus in Matthew 4. Twice he said, if thou art the Son of God. Have you ever heard him say that?

If you really are a Christian, if your conversion was real, if God answers prayer, if Jesus were coming again, he's the master of the if. Number four, he loves to question the reasonableness of God's Word.

How can God be so narrow, he says, as to say, eat this, but don't eat that? What difference can a tree make? What do you mean you can't lie even here? How unreasonable. Why can't I steal? I'm hungry. How unreasonable.

The fifth method is he loves to get the Christian on the defense. Eve had to come back and say, well, God did too say that, I heard him. She was now defending God. Three times Jesus had to come back, but it is written, but it is written, but it is written.

Number six, he always minimizes the consequence of disobedience. Thou shalt not surely die. You've got to be kidding. God's teasing you. No God of love would follow through. That's a lie. No God of love would not keep his Word.

The seventh area is he ultimately questions the motives of God. Eve, he says, you can be just like God. The problem is God wants to keep you a slave. That's true. The thing that Eve didn't recognize was that we were designed in the image of God.

We were designed to reflect the will of God. Every man was, every woman was designed to be a slave to someone. The question was, choose you this day whom you will serve, not if you will serve. And if you're not a slave to God, you automatically are a slave to his enemy.

The eighth is, before long, he will always focus on satisfying the flesh. Look at that food, Eve. Jesus, I'll give you all of this. And then number nine is he's never around when it's all over. If these are the way he works, can we reach some conclusions about how he works, about the things he cannot stand?

The Four Things Satan Cannot Stand

If you'll notice these lies, these 26 of them that we've been studying, I think you'll notice, as I have, that there's at least four common denominators. Four things the devil hates. And everywhere he surfaces, these four things surface.

Number one, he cannot stand absolutes. Eve, he says life is not that simple. Eat this tree, don't eat that tree. It's not that easy. God is a God of love. He understands your heart. Just because he told you not to eat that tree doesn't mean it's absolute.

You have to reason it out. It's all relative. Number two, you remember Moses? Don't worry about it. Just strike the rock. God understands. David, what's one indiscretion? Ananias, just bend the truth a little.

Lie, not at all. Steal, not at all. Commit adultery, is it always wrong? No absolutes. Because if there are absolutes, he is absolutely finished. The second thing he cannot stand is authority. And you always watch Satan's lies surface when authority is brought into the picture.

He cannot stand God's authority. He cannot stand anyone else's. That was his line. I will be like the Most High. That was his line to Eve. You can be like God. You don't need anybody to rule over you.

You don't need a boss. You can be your own boss. Second Thessalonians 2 .7 in the Amplified talks about the mystery of lawlessness. And it describes it, that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority, which is already at work until the restrainer has been taken away.

Third thing he can't stand is an awareness of open spiritual conflict. That's why we spend so much time studying alliances the last three weeks. He doesn't want us to know who the enemy really is. He doesn't want us to know what the issues really are.

That the issues are the pulling down of spiritual strongholds. He doesn't want us to know that good and evil cannot coexist. He doesn't want us to know you can't trust the enemy. You're supposed to reprove a liar.

You don't listen to a liar. You flee from him. And the fourth thing he cannot stand is he wants to always do battle in the physical realm. He cannot stand doing battle in the spiritual realm because God is spirit.

He wants you to read your spirituality by experiences. He wants you to trace your growth by legalism. He wants you to trace your progress by numbers. He wants you to think physical. He wants your priorities to be in the physical realm, your goals to be in the physical realm.

That's his territory. But God is spirit and God's after character and God's after spiritual transformation. Jesus, do a miracle. God will save you. Jesus, eat the rock. God will turn it into bread. Jesus, all this physical kingdom can be yours.

Eve, eat of the tree. That's what we're here for. Eat, drink, and be merry. But he also wants to destroy the deeper spiritual truths that lie beneath those physical conflicts. For instance, we dealt with the deeper truth when we were talking about sexual purity and the reason that sex outside of marriage is always wrong, not just because of what it does to the commandment of God, because it violates the spiritual principle that a man cannot find God without a commitment to Jesus Christ.

And a man cannot find physical satisfaction without a commitment to marriage. It's the picture. It's the portrait. Then there's the portrait of the home, the heavenly home with the heavenly Father. That's why he wants to destroy the home.

Why does he want to destroy marriage? Because he wants us to believe there is no security in Jesus Christ, that the marriage which represents the relationship between Christ and the church can be broken.

Why is it he wants to do away with discipline? Because he wants us to believe there is no divine discipline, there is no hell. Why is it he wants to do away with responsibility and rewards through accomplishment?

Because he wants us to believe there is no Bema seat, there is no reward beyond this life. He wants to do away with the Bible because he wants us to believe there are no absolutes. He wants us to do away with national security, among other things, because he wants us to believe in the spirit realm, there are no real enemies, no real conflict, no real conclusion and no real distinctions.

He wants to do battle in the physical realm, but he wants to destroy spiritual truth. The real conflict, I think, oversimplified the Christian standing on absolute truth under absolute God-derived authority must recognize truth comes only from God and that only a lie comes from the enemy.

We must recognize that what comes from God is totally eternal. They are spiritual promises for a spiritual kingdom. That what comes from the world is totally temporal. They are physical promises for a physical kingdom.

And to try to pull into focus and enjoy both is double vision and it does not work. And so the four things he cannot stand are shown in that diagram. Absolute truth, God-derived authority, an understanding of the battle and the spiritual conflict that's involved.

Satan’s Defeat and the End of the Age

We must recognize that in no age in history since the cross has Satan battled so openly, so fiercely, with such reckless abandon, you would almost think he knew the game was about over and that he had lost.

Imagine, if you will, a prisoner sentenced to be executed for a horrible crime. Time after time, he's been granted a stay of execution. Finally, the day dawns and he is escorted down the corridor to the gas chamber.

He hears the roar of the crowd in a huge grandstand where seemingly all of humanity is gathered to watch. And as they round the corner, they take off his chains. Not because he's free, but because there's no place left for him to go but to his death.

Can you imagine what he would do? He would, in a frenzy, put on the show of his life, pretending to be showing the authorities a thing or two. He would rant and rave and swing and hurl himself at anything in his way.

The game of pretense at its most ridiculous level. The prisoner playing king. Until, having bruised and battered himself in this meaningless show of self, at the precise moment scheduled, the crowd goes silent, the gas chamber fills, and he has met his prescribed death.

All of his last-minute frenzy did nothing to alter his ultimate fate. Now, Satan, in these last days, is determined to behave just like that. He's a defeated foe. And the clock of history is at about 1155.

And like a madman, he is frantically ranting and raving to the delight of the crowd. But my friend, listen, at the prescribed moment in history, the song of victory that was penned on that Roman cross will break forth from those grandstands and the executioner will step forward to complete the preordained role.

Have you ever looked at a timetable or a timeline of Satan's life to see how close to the end he really is? Well, let's just look at it. At the top, you'll see Satan's fall, his refusal to submit to the authority of God.

And then he was cast out of heaven. And then you see below that his conflict with Eve in the garden. She, too, acknowledges his philosophy. No absolutes, no authority. Unaware of the real conflict, she chooses for the physical pleasure rather than to do the will of God.

She became her own boss just long enough to become Satan's slave. And all mankind was cursed with sin. Four thousand years or so pass and now we see Satan's conflict with Jesus in the wilderness. He tried to play let's make a deal with God, the lastest effort to avoid sin, but it didn't work.

And about three years later, on a Roman cross, Satan's death knell was finally complete. His future was sealed. It was all over for him. And then you see some two thousand years or so below that, the church age.

The age in which we live. Now the Holy Spirit has been placed in the believer. And now demonic warfare goes on between the agents of the enemy and the Spirit of God within the Christian. And the pressure begins to build and build and build as these two thousand years pass.

And by the end of the age, the struggle gets intense. And more and more the conflict heightens as the age draws to a close. We hear that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

Decadence, open rebellion, the outpouring of the wrath of Satan. But also the potential that God would anoint His people with His Spirit, that there would be an awakening of the saints, a revival in the church, an outpouring of God's power throughout the world as people come to know Christ as never before.

And we see that as this age draws to a close and to a climax, and it builds and it builds and it builds, that the lies become more visible. The conflict, the spiritual conflict becomes more intense. There are more natural disasters.

There are more emerging cults and false messiahs. There is the re-emergence of Israel. There is the hatred in the Mideast as it boils and festers like a cancer. But this is the exciting part, because at this time in history, the church of Jesus Christ gets a phone call.

And it's God on the line and He says, Come home, I'm waiting for you. And no matter how you place this in the level of, I'm placing it because I believe it belongs at the beginning of the tribulation.

No matter where you place it, it will make no difference in what we're trying to share this morning. But then comes the tribulation period, seven years. For seven years, Satan flings himself against the prison walls.

Death is imminent and he fights with all his worth. And the restrainer is gone, at least for the moment. And then comes Armageddon. And then the second coming of Jesus Christ in all of His glory. And then Satan is thrown into the bottomless pit during the millennial reign of Christ for a thousand years.

At the end of that thousand years, he'll be loosed, but only for a season. Then he will be cast into the lake of fire forever and forever and forever. That's the truth. That's where he's headed. So you see, Satan's biggest lie of all is that he will always be in charge of this world.

It's not true. His time is running out. 2 Peter chapter 3, many of you know it from memory. Verse 3, Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts. Here comes Satan's story, saying, where's the promise of his coming?

What's happened to him? It's been so long. For since the fathers fell asleep, all these years, things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. What's going to happen? Nothing. But Peter goes on to say, for this they willingly are ignorant of.

They choose to ignore the fact that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth, which now are by the same word, are kept in store.

They are secured, reserved unto fire until against the day of judgment. But beloved, ah, this is the passage. Be not ignorant of this one thing, Peter said. One day with the Lord is just like a thousand to us.

And a thousand like a day. Because the Lord is not slack concerning his promises. He doesn't forget. He doesn't change his mind. As some men count slackness, but rather is long-suffering. He's so patient to us, he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So God's most blessed truth is that except for the mercy of God, it would have been all over for Satan a long time ago. He's on borrowed time. But because of the righteousness of God, the promise of God will not fail.

Christ’s Return and the Believer’s Hope

And Christians, listen. Some golden daybreak, as the songwriter says, Jesus will come. Do you believe that? First he will come for us. Say it together with me if you know it. And the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Forever, and forever, and forever.

That's a long time. But not only that, then he will come with us. Matthew 16 .27 says,. For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels. Matthew 25 .30 says,. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory with the angels, then with him shall he sit on the throne in his great glory.

Colossians 3 .4 says,. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye appear with him also in glory. 1 Thessalonians 3 .13 says,. To the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

The scripture teaches us that on that day every knee will bow, and on that day every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is God to the glory of the Father. We won't have to listen to Satan's lies anymore.