Episode 83 - Satan's Tactics - Satan the Great Deceiver

Someone once said that a half-truth is a whole lie.  We hear a lot of lies and half-truths, especially when it comes to spiritual things.

In this episode I continue to look at how Satan attacks us with various tactics.  When he does, he is robbing us of true and lasting hope.  I'm looking at how Satan uses deception to get us to believe lies and half-truths.

Transcript

Hello Friends, I’m your host Dr. Dave Laton and thank you for joining me in Our Journey to Hope.

 It is my desire through this podcast to bring you information about how to discover, sustain, or perhaps regain hope.  

 I’ve stated many times that my overall goal is to help listeners of this podcast to learn that true and lasting hope is found through our Lord, Jesus the Christ. So in addition to learning secular or non-religious information, I also want to present spiritual information to guide others to this knowledge.

 In this episode I am continuing to look at Satan’s tactics to separate us from God.

 In a previous lesson I spoke to three overall strategies he uses.  He seeks to prevent someone from becoming a disciple of our Lord, or he seeks to weaken or destroy our faith, or he seeks to weaken or destroy our influence.  The first is preventing someone from becoming a disciple of our Lord is his most successful strategy.  The other two are often used together as a follower of Jesus seeks to grow spiritually.

 I also said there are a variety of tactics he uses to accomplish these strategies.  A tactic is a more direct action to accomplish a strategy.  I mentioned pride as perhaps the most common tactic.  Satan seeks to separate us from God by causing us to focus on ourselves.  That is what harmful pride is, focusing on self.

 In this episode I want to look at another tactic commonly used by Satan.  It is the tactic of deception.  He seeks to deceive us into disbelief.  

 In John 8:44 our Lord describes Satan as a liar and the father of lies.  So Jesus not only identifies the existence of Satan but also provides insights into his character or nature.  

 There are some who say deception is Satan’s main tactic.  It is certainly a powerful tactic.  Satan uses deception as a method for instilling doubt and harmful pride in our lives.  Whether we are seeking God or are well established in our faith, Satan will attempt to deceive us into believing something in an attempt to look to ourselves and thereby turning us against God.

 Satan uses this tactic, and others because he knows that he cannot directly attack God and he cannot control us against our will.  He uses deception to lure us into a state where he can extend influence over us.  Through this process he gains more and more control until finally he does possess us.  No one is immune to this tactic, especially Christians.  We must not buy in to Satan’s lies that paint an attractive picture of this world.

 Most of us understand that deception basically means to lie or to misrepresent. The opposite of deception is truth.   Truth is the facts about something: the things that are true.  So deception is untruths presented as truth. The two concepts, deception and truth, are completely opposed to each other.  

 Another element of the opposition between the two is that while deception seeks to destroy, truth seeks to preserve.  Satan seeks to cast doubt on anything that contradicts his goals. Let’s look now at how Satan uses deception as a tactic. 

 One way Satan uses deception is to present a false reality and claim it to be true.  In Genesis 3 we read of the first incidence of Satan’s use of deception.  Satan did not take a direct attack but by deception he caused Adam and Eve to believe in a false reality.  God said they would die if they disobeyed Him by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Satan presented a half-truth that conflicted with God’s statement and enticed Adam and Eve with a false reality.  

 Satan is identified as a deceiver by the opening statement of Genesis 3.  It states,  “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1

 There are several outcomes of Satan’s deception in Genesis 3:1 – 5.  He takes the same actions against us today in other forms.

 Satan presented God’s command in a negative light. (Genesis 3:1b)

 Satan implied God’s motives were not pure. (Genesis 3:4-5)

 Satan lied that man could be like God.

 Satan presented sin in a favorable light. (Genesis 3:5b)

 A common way Satan deceives is through “half-truths”.   There is an old quote that states, “A half-truth is a whole lie”.  We see religious half-truths, distortions, and outright lies around us all the time.  Incorrect or misunderstood teachings of salvation, baptism, worship, the role of faith, and many others are common examples of this.  As disciples of Jesus and students of God’s word we must ensure we are not teaching half-truths as well.

We also hear spiritual half-truths regarding sin.  Some examples of spiritual half-truths that are in reality sin include what is referred to as, “White lies”.  Any form of sexual immorality, no matter what is stated in our world is sin. It further includes mistaken beliefs such as, “It can’t be wrong because it feels so right.”  Or “No one will know…”   Simply stated, Satan will do whatever it takes to cause us to fall…sadly, we sometimes help him.

Here are some other examples of Satan’s deception 

 He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

 He continues to seek an opportune time to temp us, as he did Jesus (Luke 4:13).

 He tries to hide the actual truth about God or direct our attention away from God (2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Acts 13:6-13).

He presents an image of true religion to get us to believe in a counterfeit form A counterfeit form of religion are spiritual beliefs created by men.  (Matt 15:9 James 1:26-27; Ephesians 4:4-6).

 He twists scripture to fit his purposes (Matthew 4:1-11). 

 We see that deception is a powerful tactic Satan uses against us.  That leads us to the question of how we can defend against Satan’s deception 

The primary way is to study God’s word.  God’s word clearly identifies who Satan is and what he is attempting to do. Study involves purposeful mental activity.  It  means to not only read it, but to understand it.   

Studying God’s word also means to understand it in context of how it was and is to be applied.  If we only have basic knowledge of scripture at the awareness level, then we are not growing as God would intend for us to do.  Jesus strongly stated the need to put his words into action.  That’s the point of the parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew chapter 7.  Jesus states that someone who does not do what he teaches is foolish.  Someone who does as he taught is wise. 

James echoed the principle behind Jesus’ statements in James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. “ 

There are countless examples of how scripture has been misunderstood and consequently misapplied.  This alone, even when done with the best of intentions, is harmful, even deadly.  There are many people in the world that know of God’s word but do not understand it.  This frequently leads them to misapply it.  Sadly, this is sometimes done intentionally.  This misapplication and unfamiliarity results in believing something that is not true.  When Satan threw his strongest efforts at Jesus to destroy him through what we know as the temptations of Jesus, Jesus effectively countered by accurately applying God’s word.  Jesus not only knew God’s word, but how it was to be used, including obeyed as God intended.  (Matthew 4:1-11), 

Another way to defend against Satan’s use of deception is to know your adversary and be on guard against him.  We’ve already stated that Satan is referred to as the great deceiver that is looking to destroy us (1 Peter 5:8).  Revelation 12:9 describes Satan as, “who leads the world astray.”

Satan is our enemy and seeks every opportunity to destroy us so we must continually be on guard.  Informed Christians need not be caught off guard.   

Satan's advantage is based upon one being "ignorant of his tactics.  When we are aware of the methods Satan uses to lead people astray, coupled with God’s power active in our lives, we can successfully resist him.

There is an interesting statement in James 4:7. James states, 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

There are three elements to this verse.  First, submit yourself to God.  We have trouble and are perhaps helpless before Satan is we are not first part of God’s family.  We become part of God’s family through Christ.  So first, we must submit ourselves before God.  The second part is to then resist Satan.  If we tried to resist Satan without being part of God then we lose.  This brings us to the third part, “and he will flee from you.”  Armed with God’s power working through us, we resist and Satan flees.  Be aware however, that Satan will return so we must continue to seek God’s will and be on guard of Satan’s efforts.   

We must also stay focused on the prize.  The world is full of “noise” or distractions that appear pleasing to us but cause us to stray from the course. 

There are two common types of distractions:  materialism and things that appear to be the “right thing” to do.  Anything that interferes with our true allegiance and service to God, whether material or action, falls into this category and can easily interfere with our focus.  

These were Paul’s words in Philippians 3:14-15, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”

We know Satan and his minions can take on the form of angels of light thus appearing as right and proper while all the time leading us astray.  The words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 are indeed sobering,  

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”    

We must continually be on guard to ensure that what we are engaged in is not interfering with our truthful service to God.  As Christians we are in a constant struggle against Satan.  He is continually trying to corrupt us through deception, getting us to believe a lie.   Just as the Satan didn't come against Eve with a frontal assault, but rather used words to deceive her, he tries to deceive us through half-truths and distortions that are contrary to God’s word.

So to repeat what we learn from James, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 

Friends, thank you for joining me as together we journey to hope.  I trust in some small way we have encouraged you to discover, sustain, or regain hope through this effort.    

I invite you to contact me if you have questions or comments, or if you wish to share with me something you’ve experienced in your journey to hope.  My email is info@ourjourneytohope.com.   

And please, share this podcast with someone whose hope is being challenged. 

I look forward to sharing more with you soon.  Again, I'm Dr. Dave Laton, and thank you for listening.  And until our next episode, remember, we give all glory to God our Father.