Recorded in Isaiah 14:14 is Lucifer’s statement, I will be like the Most High.” Lucifer decided to act and live independently of God! He has deceived the inhabited world of men into believing, they too, can live independently of their Creator. This deception is seen over and over again in Scripture: “ In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe no, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4). In the latter days this deception will continue: But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
During the Tribulation the Bible tells us of the devil’s deception through the Anti-christ. During the Millennium his deception is stopped for a thousand years. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”
After the Millennium Satan will be turned loose. “ And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. (This doesn’t sound like he’s going to enjoy his stay in the pit!) and shall go out to the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together in battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. His deception will come to an end at the hand of an Holy God. “ And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Having observed the above verses we have no trouble agreeing that Satan’s plan is to deceive—and his plan is working quite well. Much that appears good is used by him. He uses education. It has been aptly stated that, Education without salvation is damnation.” God has been kicked out; The Bible has been banned from the public education classrooms. The public educational system in America has Biblical illiterates and moral degenerates. You say, “Preacher, I don’t like that!” Well, I do not care what you like or do not like. The truth of the matter is that we have raised up a generation that knows not God.”
A lot of what we see in the educational system is a direct result of the lack of God- centeredness in the home. But that should be no surprise. Satan uses the family. He takes that which God started and spoils it. He uses any family that does not have God’s direction in it. That’s why it is so important that dad’s provide godly leadership in the home. Satan uses many other things. He uses art. He uses commercialism and materialism. Have you noticed how the stores have Christmas junk on the shelves now in October? They, at least, used to wait until after the Thanksgiving holidays to hit us with it.
Morals are used by Satan. He doesn’t mind how moral you are, so long as you don’t see your need of Jesus Christ as Savior, so long as you think you’re good enough without God. Satan uses money to deceive many. Money is used by him to keep many from coming to Christ. Money is also used by him to keep many from serving Christ. I see it often. The dad that has no time for his family or the Lord because he wants to work that overtime and get that big money. The business man who can’t serve God because his business is being blessed so much. He just has to get one more super contract.
I think it is quite clear to any thinking person that Satan has a lot of folks deceived—and part of that deception is that they don’t see anything amiss with what they are doing! Another aspect of Satan’s plan to deceive is that part-truth-ism comes from Satan. With this scheme Satan uses just enough truth to get people pulled into what appears to be okay. Music is one of the prime areas for this in the Church and in the lives of Christians today. He has sold the Christian community a bill of goods by slipping in good lyrics with lousy rhythm. A Biblical principle to use for a guideline is found in Acts 16:16-18. “ And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried saying, these men are servants of the Most High God, which shew us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.”
The message was right. The medium was wrong. Still we have a vast number of church members who see nothing wrong with allowing themselves to fly high on so-called contemporary Christian rock. In my opinion this is a big mistake! To say Christian rock is like saying Jewish Ham.” There isn’t any such animal! Humanitarianism is another area in which we have been hit with the part-truth-ism. Is it right to feed the hungry? Of course it is! But we will never be able to feed and clothe the whole world. Jesus said, the poor ye have with you always.
After taking a good look at the matters we have already discussed, I think we would be pressed to agree that Satan is doing a good job of using these things to deceive the world of mankind. We need to note, however, that Satan’s plan to deceive works best when he applies it to religion. Note carefully 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Verse five says having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. In the last days forms of godliness (things that look and sound good) will appear which deny the power of God.
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