The Devil Uses God's Word, Too

 August 5, 2024

Monday

A church member goes out of town and visits a church. He comes back praising the preacher who uses the Bible to give him new truths that he never heard before. The preacher said that Jesus simply changed himself into the Holy Spirit to be with the believers. The church member claims that this came right out of the Bible. When I try to explain that this is a heresy called modalism, the man balks and says, "But the preacher used the Bible!" Using the Bible is not the criteria for truth. The whole word of God is the criteria. The devil frequently picks and chooses the scripture to get others to do as he wishes.

The devil said:

Matthew 4:6 (NASB 2020) ⁶ and he said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written: ‘He will give His angels orders concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will lift You up, So that You do not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ”

The devil knows God's word. He is using it to cause doubt in Jesus who knows who He is. It will not work because Jesus has the whole counsel of God's word.

Matthew 4:7 (NASB 2020) ⁷ Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written: ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Jesus would not fall into temptation because He was the Word. He could not unknow the Word. He was all of it and, therefore, lived all of it.

This is not true for many. Unfortunately, we preachers haven't made our congregations aware of these tactics. We have failed to address the whole Word of God and therefore have produced Christians who are susceptible to the temptations of the devil as he twists the Word of God.

The other side of this is that Jesus knows the devil. He was there when Satan was kicked out of heaven.

Luke 10:18 (NASB 2020) ¹⁸ And He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

Of course, none of us were there when that happened since it did so before the creation of the world. We only have knowledge of Satan through God's Word and our own personal encounters with him. We are able to recognize him as we mature in our faith.

The best idea for most believers is to bring any new teaching to his or her pastor and elders. These are the people who have been assigned to watch over their souls. Eventually, that won't be necessary because the Christian has matured to the point that he or she recognizes the manipulation of the Bible. 

Truly, be careful folks for:

1 Peter 5:8 (NASB 2020) ⁸ Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.