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Have You been Bought Off?

We call Satan “the enemy.” But in many cases, it looks like regular church people have accepted payment from him to ignore the work of God. Are you one of these individuals?

God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you
Romans 1:9-10

In this verse, the word serve literally means to serve as a hired menial. So Paul is saying that he considers himself hired by God for a purpose. He understands that there’s a payment, a reward that he will receive from God for a job well done.

How do we handle this? In our modern American culture there’s not a lot of job loyalty anymore. People are constantly keeping their resumes tuned up in case a better position opens up in another company. It’s unfortunate, but this same mindset has spilled over into the church.

Satan tries to capitalize on this thinking.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Matthew 4:8-10

In this verse we see Satan trying to give Christ a better offer. It was promised that the Messiah would one day rule over all the kingdoms of the world. But by God’s way, the Lord would have to suffer and die in agony to receive it.

Satan is giving Christ the chance to bypass all the pain. By a simple act of devotion, He could receive the reward without the pain of the cross. I’m so glad that Jesus saw through the deception, and carried out God’s plan as it was meant to be done.

Satan tries to buy us off all the time. He holds out to us all the pleasures, entertainments, and activities of the world. He tells us to just play with these toys for a little while.

“They’re not sinful, and nobody will be hurt by them.”

But there’s a price that’s being paid. The work of the kingdom is being ignored by a large segment of believers. There are souls not being saved, prisoners not being set free, and lives not being healed. There’s a calling that only you can fulfill.

If you’re looking for a better offer, Satan will give it to you; he just won’t follow through with it. It’s time for the church of Christ to rise to its feet. We must throw off the distractions of the world and complete the assignments that we were call to do.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
Hebrews 12:28

Our wages from the Lord are well worth what we are called to do. We are hired by God for a purpose. Let’s give all and do great things for God!

Questions: How has the enemy tried to buy your time? How have you answered his offer?

1 Comment

Posted by Revzacc on November 4, 2013 in Ministry, The Church

Tags: better offer, better position, bought off, Christ, church people, deception, destiny, have you been bought off, hired by God, ignore, Jesus, loyalty, Messiah, payment, purpose, Satan, serve, serving God, the enemy, work of God

A Last-Days Deception

28 Jun

This post is the last in a series about our relationship to the Word of God.

The Book of Revelation mentions synagogues of Satan (Revelation 2:9). These are places where the teaching of Scripture was done by satanic influence. I need the Holy Spirit to help me interpret the Bible. Yet, there are those who listen to the demon’s view of it.

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
1 Timothy 4:1

There are those who teach the Bible, but not the Word of God. This is a great deception. Of course no one would listen if a minister got up and said, “Satan says to do this.” But if he reads a Scripture verse and puts a demonic twist to it, the church seems to fall for it most of the time.

Just because someone quotes Scripture doesn’t mean that what they’re preaching is of God. I need the discernment of the Holy Spirit to protect me from false teaching. How can I tell the difference between Satan’s teaching, man’s teaching, and the true Word of God?

Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Mark 16:20

This verse literally says that the Lord was a co-worker with them. They did their work – proclaiming the Word of God. God did His part – confirming the Word that was proclaimed. Miracles were commonplace. As the disciples went out, the Word of God spread, and there were signs and wonders everywhere they went.

When Satan quoted the Bible to Jesus (Luke 3:9-11), he used it to try and convince the Lord to jump off the highest point of the Temple. If Jesus had jumped, would God the Father have confirmed that “word”? Of course not.

Just because I quote the Bible, it doesn’t put God under any obligation to confirm it. Even if I’m preaching from a text on healing, there’s no confirmation unless it’s a Word God wants preached at that moment.

There are questions I need to ask myself. Is God working with me? Am I proclaiming the Word of God for these people? If the answer to both of these is “yes”, then I can expect a move of God.

We may not like it, but the truth is plain and simple. If there are no signs following, then it wasn’t the Word of God that was preached.

When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.
Acts 8:6

Scripture is very clear as to relationship between the preaching of the Word, and the response of the hearers. When the Word of God is confirmed, there is a supernatural manifestation that draws people’s attention.

America needs a revival of hearing the Word of God. It will only come from those who have received and planted the Word into their lives.

Questions: How hungry are you for a revival to sweep our nation? Are you willing to seek God for it?

Recognizing the Truth and the Lie

18 Feb

The Word of God is Truth. Do we really understand how absolute this truth is?

The opposite of truth is lie. Being able to recognize the lie is an important part of serving God.

Christ could see through the lies of the enemy and did so on many occasions. Once, when upset by the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Jesus said the following.

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
John 8:44

Here Jesus clearly teaches about the devil and his relationship to the truth. Is there a little bit of truth in the devil? Absolutely not! “He does not hold to the truth, for there is no truth in him.”

While studying this, I was convicted and had to repent of some things that I never thought of as sin. Satan makes true statements from time to time if it suits his purposes. But, according to this verse, saying true statements and speaking the truth are two different things in the Lord’s eyes.

The above passage implies that if you make a true statement, in order to get someone to believe a lie, then you are in fact lying. That’s what got to me.

For instance, if I was heading out of the house on an errand, my wife might say to me, “Honey, there are some important bills that need to be mailed.”

Being the wonderful husband that I am, I would tell her that I’d be glad to do it. So, with the best of intentions, I take the letters. I go through the day and complete my errands without ever giving the letters a second thought.

Then when I arrive home, the first thing my wife asks is, “Did you mail my letters for me?”

Not wanting to get in trouble I reply, “Oh, I took those with me first thing this morning.” My hope is that my true statement would lead her to believe that I had mailed the letters, when in fact I hadn’t. I always thought I was speaking truth – at least in part.

According to Jesus, this isn’t the case. The devil uses true statements to get us to believe lies. Jesus said that he cannot hold the truth and there is NO truth in him. So that when Satan speaks it’s a lie, even if his statement happens to be true at the moment. Because of this, I had to repent of all the true statements I’ve made, trying to cover my tracks.

Of course my wife can usually see through it and immediately says, “I didn’t ask if you took the letters, I asked if you had mailed the letters.” So, in most cases, I was caught anyway. But the fact is that making true statements with the intent to deceive is the same as telling a lie.

Question: Have you ever experienced this type of lie?

The 5 Warning Signs of Legalism

10 Sep

Many Christians are bound by legalism. Are you one of them? The trouble is that legalism can be very deceptive. You can be caught up in it and never know it – unless you see the warning signs. I hope this will be both a challenge and a blessing to you.

1. Elevating works over position. Do you worry about what you can do to please God? The correct answer is – nothing!! It’s the blood of Christ that makes me acceptable to God. Nothing I do can make Him love me any more or any less. While works can affect my rewards and blessings, they will never change God’s love and acceptance of me if I’m in Christ. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

2. Seeing yourself more of a slave than a son. Yes, we do serve God and are expected to obey Him in all things. But the way we obey is as mature sons and daughters. As spiritual children we learn servanthood. It is the training ground for our growth in Christ. The purpose of servanthood is so that we can walk in maturity. The Lord desires sons and daughters to represent Him to the world. (Galatians 4:1-7)

3. Relying more on your confession than God’s grace. I believe in the confession of Scripture. Rehearsing and memorizing it is an important part of the believer’s life. Just as important is the reason we do it. The purpose of confessing God’s Word is to increase our faith in Him. But ultimately, it’s not my confession, but the power of God that will bring about the changes that I need. (II Peter 1:3)

4. Giving more time to studying Scripture than to intimacy with Christ. Scripture study is very important – it is one of my passions. I couldn’t live without it. But, spending quality time with the Lord is even more so. Jesus rebuked the Scribes and the Pharisees for diligently studying the Scriptures, yet not going to the Christ that they pointed to. It’s not enough just to know about Christ. I need to have an intimate, personal knowledge of Him that only comes from time spent in His presence. (John 5:39-40)

5. Being confident more in the comparison with others than abiding in Christ. Comparison is a deadly trap. the problem is that I can always find someone less committed than me. It gives me a false sense of security because I’m no worse than anyone else. On the other hand, I can spend my days feeling worthless, because I look at others who are farther along than me in the faith. I can’t base my self-evaluation on someone else’s life. My goal is not to be better than you, but to be like Christ. (II Corinthians 10:12)

Question: Have you battled with legalism? How have you overcome it?

The Spirit and the Word

Tag Archives: deception

Have You been Bought Off?

A Last-Days Deception

Recognizing the Truth and the Lie

The 5 Warning Signs of Legalism

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