How to Get Wise to the Devil's Lies

Buying a used car can be tricky.  They may tell you all about how wonderful that old car is but do they tell you about the oil leak?  The rust underneath?  The bent frame or the flood the vehicle went through?

Satan doesn’t tell you everything, either.   When we read the story of Adam and Eve, we get the full picture of Satan’s “sales pitch.”

Here are the things that Adam and Eve were not told when they innocently reached out and plucked that forbidden fruit:

1.    “Blame”

The first thing the devil doesn’t tell you is that you are always going to blame someone else for your own sin.  It’s our nature to self-justify.  In reality, however, “blame” divides us from others and from God himself.

Adam said “The woman YOU gave me, SHE gave me the fruit.”  He blamed God and Eve.  He left out the part that neither one made him eat it!

Three words are the signal of taking personal responsibility for sin:  “I DID IT.”

2.    “Shame”

On the heels of “blame” comes “shame.” You feel embarrassed, humiliated, and disappointed with yourself for a personal or even family failure.

Trying to cover up that shame is fruitless.  Your guilty conscience cannot be silenced.  The only remedy for a “wounded conscience” is BLOOD.  The shedding of another’s blood in your place transfers the punishment for your sin to someone else.

That is the EXACT reason Jesus Christ died on the cross:  “To remove the sense of guilt, shame, and inferiority from my life.”

3.    “Flame"

Now comes the last thing the devil doesn’t tell you:  “you may lose some things you can’t retrieve.”

Sin has consequences.  God removed Adam and Eve from the Garden.  (It was His mercy.  If they lived there, they were in danger of eating the fruit of the tree of LIFE and “living forever” in their sin.)  He placed two angels with flaming swords at the gate to guard the way back into Paradise.

Esau LOST his birthright for one bowl of soup!  He couldn’t get it back.

Samson LOST his eyesight for one night with Delilah!  He could never get it back.

“Three words are the signal of taking personal responsibility for sin:  “I DID IT.” ”

THE GOOD NEWS

In Christ and His cross, we can overcome all three:

       1. BLAME—We take full responsibility for our sin and ask for God’s perfect and complete forgiveness.

       2. SHAME—We are totally exonerated and freed from our past.  All guilt, shame, inferiority, and hiding are removed from our crystal clean conscience by FAITH in Jesus’ blood.

       3. FLAME—All judgment and fear of punishment is removed.  God can restore what the devil has stolen.  We can “draw near” to the presence of God, running back into His arms.  We are no longer cast out from His presence!

When you are tempted, when the enemy is wildly screaming his sales pitch into your ear, remember these three words he doesn’t mention: 

“Blame…shame….and flame.”