This transcript was auto-generated. 

So, you want to know how Satan works, it’s all here. 

1             He disguises himself. 

2             He makes you doubt the goodness of God by making you doubt the Word of God. (Usually by adding to is, taking away from it, or changing the intent of what it says) 

There is a third thing he does.

3             He outright lies and denies the Word of God. 

Let’s look at verse 4, together. 

 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman”.

He out and out denies a truth that God has spoken. He took Eves doubt and runs with it and escalated it into an out and out lie. 

God Word said, you shall surely die. 

Eve said you will maybe die

Satan says, you will certainly not die. 

Do you see what Satan does here, he denies is the punishment of sin? One of Satan’s major tactics, probably his main one is denial of the concept of their being any consequences for wrongful behaviour.  Here in Gen 3: 4 is the very first recorded out and out lie in the bible. Satan’s denial of the of judgement of God. 

There are those today, even within the Christian church who deny the very concept of personal sin and they deny any judgement of it. Satan has Eve now wobbling like a house of cards about to tumble, and all he has to do is push gently against her to make her fall. And look how he does it, next verse.

 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

(Ge 3: 5)

His final deception is to deceive Eve by promising her power and control. As soon as people deny God’s goodness and God word, they set themselves up as the final judge in all matters. They set themselves up as the authority on all things in life and by doing so make God their rival. Eat the fruit of this tree and you are going to be just like God, he says. Now let me share the irony of this, what Satan says here about Eve Saying she is like God is in fact a half truth. She already like Adam before has indeed been made in the image of God. Like all of Satan’s lies there is usually a half-truth contained within it. As someone I know used to say, there is always real cheese in the rattrap. That’s the very nature of deception, convincing someone that a half truth is the whole truth. 

These are the historic tactics of the devil. He disguises himself. He plants doubt. He denies God’s word and God’s goodness He deceives you, by lying or making a half-truth the whole truth. Perhaps if you can see how Satan works, you can recognise temptation when it comes. You can see past the disguise. You can get over the doubt. You can get past the denial and the deception. 

So that’s how to recognise temptation. I hope you found it useful. That’s how to recognise temptation. But how would you like to know not just how to recognize temptation but how to handle temptation also…. And I shall try and do that for you next time.