HOW TO SPOT SATAN & RESIST HIM PT.2

Just a short recap on April 2nd I wrote part 1 of this blog. And in that post, I discussed some of the clever ways/tactics satan uses to disguise himself to the world. I mentioned how the world will tend to portray satan as this evil-looking person with red horns & a pitchfork. And also how Hollywood movies portray blood, gore, vampires, exorcisms, etc. as being associated with satan. For our foundational reference to build our case on I used the three temptations of Christ from the bible in Luke 4:1-13. However, I decided to only focus on the first temptation of Christ from the bible in Luke 4:1-13. I focused on the first temptation of Christ by satan found in verses 1-4 (see for reference). Today I want to focus on & draw our attention to the second temptation of Christ by satan in that same chapter beginning with verses 5-8 it states “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give you, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” 8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.”

This particular verse gives us tremendous insight into the mind of satan & his strategies for tempting us. Notice how satan has a disillusioned self grandiose idea that the kingdoms of the world have been given to him. Now it is true that satan has a big influence over the world system, but he does not have control of the nations. God alone controls mankind & appoints nations to rising & fall. To back this up let’s take a look at Acts 17:24-26 in the bible it states “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood[a] every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings”. To sum it up this verse is saying God is in complete control of the world including satan & his evil forces. God is using all the corrupt evil in this present world to ultimately bring about a completed end that will display his glory.

So going back to this particular temptation another ingredient we can see in the strategy of satan is to receive worship. Satan has always wanted to be worshiped in the same way as God. This desire for worship is the very reason why he was kicked out of Heaven. Jesus being God incarnated knew from eternity past the events that took place with satan. Jesus made a declaration of this in the book of Luke 10:18 (ESV) it states “ And he (Jesus) said to them I saw satan fall like lightning from heaven”. So with that being said what is the number one way satan deceives people into worshiping him? Short answer false religion. When satan wanted to deceive the children of Israel in the wilderness to turn against God & Moses he had them make an idol out of gold for them to worship. satan is hard at work concocting all kinds of false religions around the world. Here are just a few false religions he has established: Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Hinduism, Gnosticism, Free Masonry, Confucianism, Mysticism, Word of Faith Movement, Catholic, & thousands more.

Now you may be wondering why I would consider all of these religions to be false. Well, it’s because in reality there are only two religions in the world. Even though they all have many names & come in many forms. There is on one hand the religion of works, the religion of the flesh which can also be called the religion of human achievement. Which says? To one degree or another, you earn your salvation by your good deeds/religious activities. On the other hand, there is the religion of faith & the spirit which is the religion of divine accomplishment which says it’s all done by God & you can’t do anything, & the two do not mix. I was recently speaking with a good friend of mine & we were discussing how satan uses false religion to cleverly deceive millions of people around the world. & he made a statement I thought was profound he said “you know satan offers false religion to the world as a delicious fruit basket. And he doesn’t care which fruit you eat/pick, the only thing that matters to him (satan) is that you bite on one”. Hence meaning satan doesn’t care which false religion/lie you believe in, his only concern is that you pick one. The reason satan doesn’t care is that they are all lies & lead people to the same destination which is hell.

The reason I mentioned all this is because I wanted to paint a clear picture of how important worship is to satan. So going back to the temptation of Christ in Luke 4:5-8, satan is showing Jesus in a flash the glorious splendor of all the kingdoms of the world. And he (satan) says to Jesus he will give it all to him if he (Jesus) falls & worship him. Now please understand this was no small temptation, satan was trying to draw a wedge into the Trinity (Father-Son-Holy Spirit) & cause the entire universe to go into chaos. For satan this would have been equivalent to accomplishing his original rebellion to overthrow God. I’d like to point out in this temptation what satan was saying to Christ. he (satan) showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world to say: look Jesus you can bypass going to the cross & experiencing all that humiliation, or better yet you don’t have to experience the agony of being separated from God. Don’t you want to bypass all of that? Look why put yourself through all of that Jesus? Here it’s no sweat, all I want is a little worship & you can have it?

The clever temptation/tactic of satan here was to get Jesus to distrust God's plan. satan was saying to Jesus look you’re God too what makes your father’s plan better than any plan you could devise. satan tempts us in this way all the time. For example when a Christian is doing everything they can to live & honor God, but their life is not turning out the way he/she planned it’s tempting to say God I know you love & know what’s best for me. But right now I got no money, my family is struggling, I have been dealing with this sickness, etc. So until I hear from you I’m going to get some satisfaction & go out & make something happen in my life. Or I know this man or woman is not a Christian, but hey Lord I’m not getting any younger so I’m going to go ahead & marry this person & I know you will work things out for me. satan will use these types & many other situations in our life to get us to distrust God’s plan & to think we have a better one. But of course, Jesus fires back at satan from the scriptures saying “ You shall worship the Lord your God, & him only you shall serve. I’m going to stop here. But in my next post, I am going to discuss the third & last temptation satan attempted on Christ & how it applies to our life.