The Simplicity in Christ Part 4

B. Satan can wedge himself in between God’s words and your mind by playing word-games like the cults do in repurposing Biblical terms and concepts. 1. The Trinity of a Christian Scientist is not the “God in Three Persons” of 1JO 5:7 but rather Life, Truth, Love. 2. The Jesus Christ of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is not the Incarnate Deity of JOH 1:14; 1TI 3:16 but a created god who is really Michael the Archangel, and he did not rise and ascend bodily into heaven. 3. To the Mormon, Jesus Christ is the son of Adam who pre-existed as the spirit- brother of Lucifer. 4. There are “lords many” (1CO 8:5), “another Jesus” (2CO 11:4) and “false Christs” (MAT 24:24). The only true “Lord Jesus Christ” is the One Who can be declared from the words of Scripture.

C. Satan can corrupt your mind by convincing you that there are contradictions in Scripture so you cannot trust it. 1. There are no contradictions in Scripture (2PE 1:20); the contradiction is in the mind which by nature prefers the bondage of a lie and is at war with Scripture. 2. It is too easy to default to the holding of irreconcilable opposites rather than put in the effort with patience that is required to rightly divide the word of truth. 2TI 2:15. 3. God is of one mind and completely consistent. JOB 23:13; JAM 1:17. a. His judgments are “...true and righteous altogether” (PSA 19:9). b. altogether: The whole together, the entire; everything, the whole, the total. c. Any system that requires its adherents to believe polarized positions is not representative of the God of the Bible.

D. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God through plain unbelief. 1. The words can be plain, understandable, applicable to you, but for various reasons you don’t believe them and so they don’t have the effect in your life that they should. 1TH 2:13. 2. This applies to the preached word as well as the written word. HEB 4:1-2. 3. Here a few reasons that one does not believe the plain words of God: a. The fear of man. ct/w HEB 13:6-7. b. The fear of loss of creature comforts. ACT 26:28. c. Deeming something else as final authority. ct/w PSA 119:128. d. A faulty presupposition such as “The Bible is full of contradictions.” e. A faulty presupposition such as “The Bible is entirely too difficult and cannot be understood.” ct/w 2PE 3:16; EPH 3:3-4.

E. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God by pulling things out of context in Scripture to lead to a false conclusion. 1. He tried this on Christ by twisting PSA 91:11-12 which is a promise to the man who trusts in God, not the man who tempts God. MAT 4:5-7. 2. How many have taught “anxious seat” salvation of unbelievers from HEB 3:15 when the context is to believing holy brethren to not give in to the temptation of unbelief? HEB 3:1, 12-13.

F. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God by tribulation. MAT 13:20-21. 1. Israel because of oppression ceased to hearken to Moses. EXO 6:9. 2. Satan works through discouragement. NUM 21:4-5. 3. We must be convinced that tribulation is part of this life (JOH 16:33), especially to dedicated believers (2TI 3:12), is temporary (1PE 5:10), is temporal (2CO 4:17- 5:1) and that God’s love for us is not measured by our circumstance but by Calvary. 1JO 4:10. 4. Without a stedfast faith in God’s words and promises, especially the word of His grace (ACT 20:32) we will lose our joy of salvation (ROM 5:11) and the joy of the Lord is our strength. NEH 8:10. 5. No matter the situation, encourage yourself in the Lord. 1SAM 30:6; PSA 27:10-14.

G. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God by cares and pleasures of life and the deceitfulness of riches. MAT 13:22; LUK 8:14. 1. Under this delusion of success, only the words of Scripture that appeal to the natural man will be heeded. ROM 8:5. 2. The lust-driven will look for other teachers with sweeter stories. 2TI 4:3-4. 3. Ambition for worldly increase and worldly success can blind one to the need for blessed prosperity, not blasted prosperity: the difference between Abraham and Lot.

H. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God by hardening your heart against those who teach you the truth. GAL 4:16. 1. Your mind can be evil affected against your teacher. ACT 13:48-50. 2. This may occur when somebody else with a false gospel bewitches you, as happened in Galatia. GAL 3:1. 3. It may occur when your teacher steps on your fantasies and delusions, or reproves you as he must do from time to time. Counter this with David’s heart. PSA 141:5.

I. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God by the blinding power of sin in your life. 1. Sin must be laid aside to receive the words of God. JAM 1:21; 1PE 2:1-2. 2. God will even accommodate your delusion if you love unrighteousness more than the truth. 2TH 2:10-12. 3. This can become such a severe condition that you develop an outright antagonism towards God’s word and refuse to even consider it. ISA 30:8-11; ZEC 7:11-13.

J. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God through worldly philosophy. COL 2:8 JAM 3:14-15. 1. There is a worldly wisdom which fascinates but opposes God’s words. 1TI 6:20. 2. The world by such wisdom knows not God. 1CO 1:21-22. 3. Remember that not all deep thought is profitable thought. PSA 64:6; REV 2:24.

K. Satan can corrupt your mind from the words of God by slick orators who know how to get you “under the ether” by appealing to your lusts/natural instincts. 2PE 2:1-3, 18; JUDE 1:16. 1. Good words and fair speeches can deceive the simple who have not grounded themselves in apostolic doctrine. ROM 16:17-18. 2. With a little effort, a false teacher by appealing to your carnal instincts can convince you of a false prosperity gospel (1TI 6:5) or that the gospel encourages fornication and mingled religion. REV 2:20. 3. Saints can be so mislead as to willingly accept such bondage and call it liberty. 2CO 11:19-20 c/w ROM 6:1-2. 4. Watch out, therefore, for the misleading power of emotion. GAL 4:17. a. A false zeal is a dangerous zeal. ROM 10:2 c/w GAL 1:14. b. The heart is untrustworthy (JER 17:9). Satan knows he is opposed by faith but that he is supported by feelings. c. Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith, not feeling (EPH 3:17), and faith comes by hearing the word of God. ROM 10:17. 5. People can be deceived into thinking they are having true spiritual experiences because of the feelings they experience in connection with them. 6. Scripture nowhere speaks of feeling God’s presence. 7. ACT 17:27 speaks of feeling after God. This is describing someone seeking God in order to find Him, NOT someone who has already found Him and is enjoying His presence through faith in His word. 8. There is a big difference between finding God through good feelings and finding good feelings through God by faith. 1PE 1:8. 9. Sadly, the errant model is not atypical of many Christian churches and parachurch organizations. This is a likely contributing factor to the cults’ ability to recruit from professing Christian communities: the weak/unstable/unwary/emotion-led have long been accustomed to equating feelings with God’s presence.