"God is Truth. Satan Lies."

"God is Truth. Satan Lies." Those words from last week's sermon on Genesis 3 sum up the heart of the blog series that has been "percolating" in my heart and mind for months.  About a month ago, I posted some background thoughts behind that series. I had planned to introduce it the following day.

Various things happened, and that introduction didn't. 

Until today, that is...with a new title and a little different intro than I had planned.

Here's my heart in this:

Satan is the father of lies. From that very first recorded appearance in Genesis 3, his mission has been to deceive God's most precious creation: man. Genesis 3:1 affirms his craftiness, and in the next few verses, we see that craftiness in action.

He first plants doubt in Eve's mind: "Did God really say...?"  Then he twists what God actually did say.  He...and Eve...knew that God didn't say they couldn't eat out of any tree...just one.  At this point, Eve makes a critical mistake.  Rather than refuting the serpent with truth, she misquoted God, adding "neither shall you touch it" to God's original command.

I wonder: Was this intentional on Eve's part?  Was she embellishing on purpose?  Or did she really not know exactly what God's words had been?  Had she heard them and simply forgotten?  Whatever the reason, she didn't face the serpent with truth, and it had disastrous consequences.

Satan's response completely contradicts the character of God.  He insinuates that God's commands are meant to withhold good things from His people.  Eve buys into this and not only eats the forbidden fruit herself, but offers it to Adam.

Satan still works in this way today.  He will do anything to deceive and destroy man. He twists truth so that his lies sound good, and pleasant, and even wise. He leads us to doubt God, and to completely misunderstand His character.

His deception is not only rampant in the world, but in the church, among Christians, as well.  "Follow your heart," we are told.  "We must be tolerant."  "God wants us to be happy." 

My hope in this series is to expose some of  the deceptions that are commonly seen in our culture so that we can stand firm in the truth.  I love these verses from 1 Corinthians:

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.  

Do everything in love.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

We can be on our guard against deception, stand firm in the faith, be bold in truth, while still doing everything in love.

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 

 but speaking the truth in love, 

we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 

 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, 

 causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:14-16

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