The Truth Will Set You Free – Part Two

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’ 4 And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” Genesis 3:1-5

As described in Genesis 1, the goal of Satan was to have man and woman disobey God. He used a lie to get them to be disobedient. God said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.” Satan countered, “You surely shall not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Eve, then Adam, decided to believe Satan rather than God. Bad choice. Just as God said, they died spiritually and eventually died physically.

Believing the lies that Satan has perpetuated in this world can lead us to adopt and embrace those lies and they can become ungodly beliefs. Remember what Jesus said about Satan while addressing the scribes and Pharisees in John 8:44. He said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Satan is the father of lies and there is no truth in him.

Let’s return to the Garden.

We learn in Genesis 3:6-7 that “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

The woman and the man believed Satan’s lie. As a result, they develop some ungodly beliefs.

From that day forth, humanity has believed that they know as much as God does. They believed something negative about their nakedness. They believed that God could not be trusted and that the world offered something better. They believed that there was an alternative to the truth.

These ungodly beliefs continue today as part of Satan’s worldly system of beliefs. One of the things we should endeavor to do is to identify the lies of Satan that has been embraced by the world and make sure that we do not enfold them into our lives as the truth.

For example, much of the world has been convinced that marriage is not meant to be exclusively between one man and one woman as found in the Word of God. Marriage other than between one man and one woman is an ungodly belief based upon the word of the father of lies.

Another widely accepted lie of Satan is that power, prestige and possessions can bring us happiness, whereas the Bible teaches to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 The Bible also teaches us that true joy can only be found in Jesus and His Word ("These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:11)

God has called us to live in truth, which means we need to study and understand His Word so that we might be pleasing in His sight.

Take some time and ask the Lord if there is any lie of the enemy that we embrace as truth remembering that only the truth can set us free.

Something to think about…