I guess I am showing my age with this title. I remember ads where a soprano’s high note would be used to shatter a glass, and then it would be shown that the sound was actually from a cassette tape that had such high sound quality that it was hard to distinguish it from a live voice.
Now what does this have to do with anything spiritual? I had the joy and privilege of attending a retreat this weekend with women from New Life Orthodox, Redeemer and Omega Presbyterian Churches at serene Camp Susque, in Trout Run, PA. Our topic was Guilt: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly made Beautiful. I learned much from our speaker, Darby Strickland, a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary and a counselor from Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, but the nugget that I keep turning over in my mind is that God convicts while Satan accuses. I have been pondering how we know the difference.
We need to be convicted of our sin before we recognize our need for a savior. The truth of God, His Word, shows us our sin when the Holy Spirit works in our heart. As we repent and call on Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives, the Spirit indwells us, and continues to expose sin. This conviction is good and necessary for our sanctification. This is good guilt, as it comes from God who only gives us what is good for us.
But Satan takes what God means for our good and distorts it. He warps and twists God’s truth into a lie and tries to get us to believe it. Look back to his very first appearance in the Garden of Eden. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”” – (Genesis 3:1 ESV) Then look back a few lines to see what God REALLY said. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” – (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV) Do you see how Satan has turned the focus of what God has said? Instead of focusing on the positive, the abundance that God has given them, he urges Eve to focus on the negative, the one measly prohibition God has placed. Isn’t he accusing God of being harsh and not providing?
Satan is a fallen angel, and he knows God’s word. He knows who Jesus is. He meets Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry and tries to accuse and tempt him to sin. “Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'”” – (Matthew 4:5-7 ESV) Satan accurately quotes the words of Psalm 91, but he takes them out of context and so, twists their meaning. Jesus KNOWS the truth of the meaning. The Psalm is an exhortation to trust God and rely on His protection. But Jesus recognizes the subtle difference between trusting God and testing Him.
We don’t always do this well. We fall prey to lies whispered by Satan, who disguises himself in clever, crafty ways. “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. … For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” – (2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15 ESV) This is telling us that Satan can even disguise himself as a Christian! How can we protect ourselves from falling prey to him if this is the case?
Jesus tell us in Matthew 7 that we will recognize false believers by their fruits. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2 that they may bring heresies and sensuality and greed into the church. In 1 John 4 we are told they do not confess the truth about Jesus and they do not love. And Paul tells us “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” – (Romans 1:29-31 ESV)
Where is all of this knowledge coming from? From the Word of God! Just as Jesus used Scripture to defeat Satan and recognize his lies, we need to do the same. And thankfully, we also know that Satan is a defeated foe. Christ has already won the victory!
“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world–he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” – (Revelation 12:9-10 ESV)
Soli deo gloria,
Diane
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