5 Lies The Enemy Will Try To Tell You

There are many lies that the enemy will tell you but here are five common lies that Satan or his demons tell you and me.

You’re Headed to Hell

Almost every day I hear from someone who’s afraid they’re not saved and that they’re headed to hell.  I asked them about the time in their life where they repented (turned away and forsaken their sins) and trusted in Christ.  All who have believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, will be saved (John 3:16-17) and there isn’t any more condemnation (Rom 8:1) and they have peace with God (Rom 5:1) but they might not feel peace.  The problem is we sometimes rank “feelings” above and over “truth” which is found the Bible.  Our feelings can lie to us but God’s Word is always truthful.  Paul tells Timothy that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2nd Tim 1:7) and “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1st John 4:18).  If you are saved, the Spirit of God will convict you of sin and you’ll repent. The enemy will make you feel condemned and see it as pointless to repent since you’re headed to hell anyway.  Don’t trust feelings, they could be influenced by the Devil.  Trust God Who says through the Apostle John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1st John 1:9).  All sins are forgiven…not most or some but all of them.  God cleanses us and purifies us from all unrighteousness.  Again, all means all.  Don’t believe the Devil’s lies.

You Can Compromise

When we see others getting away with things, we’re tempted to compromise with God’s law.  If we think, “Well, this is only a small thing and it’s no big deal” we can rationalize our sin away and deceive ourselves into thinking, “It’s not that bad” but sin has a way of making us compromise.  When we see others hedge on their income tax or take things at work because “everyone else does” we begin to accept sins as not being “real bad” when the truth is, all sin is bad.  We cannot compromise with sin or with the world. Sin is sin and God doesn’t allow us to try and rationalize our so-called “small sins” and think its okay when it’s not.  The Apostle John writes that “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning” (1st John 3:8) because “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1st John 1:9).  Unchecked sin can lead to a hardness of the heart and after some time, we are not even convicted by it anymore and that’s a dangerous place to be. The Devil would love nothing more than to have us believe we can get away with some sins but that is a lie straight out of the pit of hell.

I’m Not as Bad as they Are

The Devil can nail us when we start to justify ourselves by thinking, “Well, I’m a sinner but I’m not as bad as they are.”  It’s never a wise thing to start comparing ourselves with others because our standard is Jesus Christ and not others.  The Apostle Paul wrote that’s it’s unwise to start comparing ourselves with other people by writing that we do not “dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding” (2nd Cor 10:12).  The truth is “it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends” (2nd Cor 10:11).  Paul askes the rhetorical question, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you” (2nd Cor 3:1)?  The obvious answer is we don’t need the approval or recommendation of others or even ourselves but it is “the one whom the Lord commends.”

The Bible is not True

Even in the Garden of Eden, Satan tried to question God’s Word by saying “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’” (Gen 3:1b).  No, God did not say that but actually said, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’” (Gen 3:2-3).  Notice that Eve is now stretching the truth of what God said.  Yes, He said Adam and Eve can’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but Eve added that “neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”  That’s false.  God never mentioned touching it and Satan lied to by saying “you shall not eat of any tree in the garden.”  Satan has always challenged God’s Word and his own ministers take it out of context or twist it to mean what they want it to mean.  Satan or his demons will try to get us to doubt the truthfulness of Scripture because Satan “was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made” (Gen 3:1a). 

God Doesn’t Hear You

Have you ever felt like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling?  That’s just what Satan and hid demons want you to believe so that you’ll stop praying to God but don’t believe it!  I know I have felt that but what does Scripture say?  The Apostle John wrote “this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1st John 5:14), which is what the psalmist wrote, “He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them” (Psalm 145:19).  The psalmist never had any doubt that he was heard by God, writing that God “heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help” (Psalm 31:22). Stop believing Satan’s lie.  God does hear and God does answer our prayers; perhaps not in the way we ask but something better.  If we confess our sins and come to God with a clear conscience and not harboring any sin, God will hear us for certain.

Conclusion

Don’t believe your feelings but believe God. Don’t believe that any child of God is headed to hell.  Don’t be deceived into thinking you can compromise with sin. Don’t start comparing yourselves with others because they’re sinners too and Christ is our true standard.  Don’t ever question the Word of God for it is always true and ignore the thought that God doesn’t hear your prayers because that’s not what the Scriptures say.  Jesus reminds us that Satan “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” (John 8:44).  God never lies but we can’t say the same thing about our feelings or the father of lies, the Devil and his wicked, lying demon cohorts.

Article by Pastor Jack Wellman