What Satan Won't Tell You
What Satan Won't Tell You
The father of lies is busy
Almost everybody has heard of Satan/the devil (literally, “the adversary” and “slanderer”). Even those who are not familiar with him are certainly familiar with some of his lies. Jesus gives us great insight into our spiritual enemy in John 8:44: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
In Revelation he is described as “the accuser of our brothers… who accuses them day and night before our God” (Rev. 12:10). Satan wants to do whatever he can to keep people from the truth. As the father of lies, he loves to distort the truth, contradict the truth, or conceal the truth. Here are some things that Satan won’t tell you.
God’s Word is Truth
From the beginning of his career as our adversary, Satan’s fundamental goal has been to get us to doubt the truth of God’s Word. This was Satan’s gameplan in the Garden of Eden to get our first parents to sin. Satan began by sowing seeds of doubt regarding the truthfulness of God’s Word: “Did God actually say…” (Gen. 3:1). He finished the coup d’état by flat out contradicting God’s Word: “You shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). Satan loves to undermine the veracity of what God has spoken.
Satan does not need us to lose our faith in God’s existence or commit some heinous sin or be a blasphemer. He simply needs us to doubt the truthfulness of God’s Word. With this one simple trick Satan can turn the world upside down in a bad way. Almost every cultural flashpoint comes back to this question: “Has God really said?”
Has God actually said there are two genders (Gen. 1:27; Matt. 19:4)? Has God actually said marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman for life (Matt. 19:6-9)? Has God actually said homosexual behavior is unnatural and sinful (Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9)? Has God actually said drunkenness is a sin (Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:21)?
You could go down the list of every popular sin. You could examine every culturally celebrated instance of immorality. It all goes back to this: “Certainly God doesn’t really mean that!” Satan’s popular refrain still echoes in our cultural consciousness: “Sure, the Bible says these things, but you don’t really believe them, do you?” Satan does not need us to lose our faith in God. He just needs us to believe that God doesn’t really mean what He says.
Satan would have us forget the words found in Jesus’ prayer to the Father: “Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Satan wants us to ignore the words of the psalmist who declares, “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever” (Ps. 119:160NKJV). Satan is a liar, but God’s Word is truth!
There’s a Way Out of Temptation
A universal aspect to the human condition is that we have all been tempted, and we have all given into temptation. Temptation itself is not sin, as Jesus’ life shows us (Heb. 4:15). But temptation is part of the “life cycle of sin” (Jas. 1:14-15).
Many times, when we are tempted it feels like we have no choice but to give in; to yield and to commit sin. Sometimes it feels like there is no exit sign and no way out. In temptation it can feel like we’ve crossed a point of no return and now must sin. This is a lie from Satan.
Satan won’t tell us that—even in moments of intense temptation—there’s always a way out. No matter how high the heat of temptation, God provides an exit.
The Holy Spirit provided these words to the Corinthians struggling with the temptation to idolatry: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
We are promised by God that when we resist the devil, he will flee from us (Jas. 4:7). No matter the situation, with God’s help there is a way out of temptation.
Sin’s Pleasure Is Short
If sin wasn’t pleasurable, we wouldn’t commit it. If sinning was like going to the dentist or the DMV or paying taxes, we would all be holy. Sins seems enjoyable, as if there is no downside. We lie to ourselves (or believe the lies of others) that our sin will be a one-time thing, that nobody will find out, that it’s a good idea, that we deserve it. There’s no limit to the things we can conjure or the truth we can contort to justify our own sin.
Satan invests heavily in minimizing the downside of sin and maximizing its pleasure. Once Satan could convince Eve that the forbidden fruit was “good for food” and “a delight to the eyes” and “was to be desired to make one wise,” it was over (Gen. 3:6). Satan uses the same tactics today (1 John 2:16).
Satan won’t tell us the truth about the pleasures of sin. Sure, sin can be pleasurable, but the pleasure is always short-lived—especially when compared to its disastrous consequences. Satan won’t tell us that the pleasures of sin are “fleeting” (ESV) or “passing” (NKJV) or “for a season” (KJV). Whatever pleasure comes from sin is temporary and transitory. Then comes the bitter end.
SEE ALSO: 20 Truths About Temptation
Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
Satan has deceived many people by convincing them that ignorance is bliss. Some do not even look into Christianity or the Bible because if the words of Jesus or some passages in the Bible make them uncomfortable or trigger them, they can just avoid them and not worry about it.
There may be some instance when ignorance is bliss (as the saying goes, sometimes it isn’t good to see “how the sausage is made”). But when it comes to the things of God, ignorance is not bliss. The only way to be saved is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and the only way to renew our minds is to learn about God through His Word.
Satan wants is to be ignorant. But knowledge is power. The knowledge of God has the power to save a soul from death.
Encouraging the Christians in Ephesus to abandon their former way of life, the apostle commands them, “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (Eph. 4:17-18). When people are living in “the futility of their minds” they become “darkened in their understanding” and are “alienated from the life of God” because of the “ignorance that is in them.”
Ignorance is very much not bliss! Jesus tells us that eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (Jn. 17:3). God warned that His people would be destroyed because of a “lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6), so Satan strives to keep people ignorant of God and His Son (2 Cor. 4:4). The knowledge of God and His Son is a prerequisite to a saving relationship with God through His Son. Ignorance isn’t bliss when knowledge is soul-saving!
Hell Won’t Be a Party
The way hell is often depicted draws people to it. Our culture portrays hell as a party where Satan is a DJ spinning your favorite music. It seems that the basic idea is, since God is anti-fun, hell must be full of fun. I think Satan probably loves this depiction of hell. Satan doesn’t want people to know that hell will be very much unlike the way it is often portrayed. It is very much like any party any person would ever want to go to.
Jesus talked more about hell than any other person in the Bible. He described it as “outer darkness” and a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:13). Hell is further described as “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” and “eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:46). Again, not a fun place.
Satan won’t be the boss of hell, either. He’s not going to be reigning in hell. Hell won’t be a place of unrestricted license to do whatever one wants. Revelation describes when, at the great judgment scene, the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire to be “tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). Satan will be joined by anyone who does not have his name written in the book of life (Rev. 20:15).
Hell will not be fun. Misery loves company, so Satan would love for as many people as possible to join him in the lake of fire. But we must reject his lies and trust Jesus’ depiction of hell as a place we do not want to go.
God Wants to Forgive Us
No doubt, Satan capitalizes on the popular misconception that God is an angry tyrant who takes pleasure in sending people to eternal torment over the smallest infraction. But this depiction could not be any further from the truth. Though God is perfectly just and holy, He is merciful, gracious, and loving.
God does not take pleasure even in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23, 32) and desires every person to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved (1 Tim. 2:3-4). He is patiently waiting to send His Son in judgment, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
It’s not that God begrudgingly saves us because we’ve twisted His arm. God actually wants to save us. It is His “good pleasure” to save us (Luke 12:32). No matter how many times we’ve messed up, how sinful we’ve been, or how far we’ve drifted, it will always be true that God wants to save us and we have the opportunity to repent and believe (2 Tim. 2:24-26).
Satan doesn’t want us to know that God is eager to forgive the repenting sinner.
Christ Is Our Only Hope
God wants to forgive us, but He can’t magically wave His hands and forgive us of our sins. Because God is just and holy, and because sin is an affront to His holiness and deserving of His wrath and justice, we need something to bridge the gap between us and God. Thankfully, what God’s justice demands, His love provides.
Though we deserve to die because of our sin, God provided an atoning sacrifice on our behalf to die for us: His Son Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:23-26). Jesus alone is uniquely qualified to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins because He is truly man and truly God (1 Tim. 2:5).
Satan would love for us to believe that there are many paths to heaven. Satan wants us to think that we can make it to heaven by being a good person, or that any “savior,” guru, or instructor can save us. Satan does not want us to know that, because of the nature of in, and the nature of God, and the nature of Christ’s sacrifice, Jesus is our only hope. Such is why Jesus could confidently declare, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The apostles understood that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Without Jesus, we have no hope of salvation. Satan doesn’t want us to know this, but we need to tell everybody we can.
There’s a lot Satan doesn’t want us to know. We must reject the lies of the devil and embrace the truth of God’s Word.