These things that they invade our mind with are designed to affect or alter our behavior. That is what Satan did in the Garden of Eden. The reasonings are the key to understanding. God created you and me with the ability to reason. But what line of reason do we follow? The key to following the right line of reasoning is this phrase, against the knowledge of God, because the thoughts that invade our mind coming from this evil, wicked, subtle, deceitful spiritual leader are going to lead us to exalt our reasoning against the knowledge of God.
Why would he want to do that? Because we have a relationship with a person - He is a being with personality, character, and a wonderful wholesome way of life that produces every good thing. Satan tries to destroy that relationship by getting us to doubt either the Person and His goodness or the rightness and goodness of His promises and way of life.
The idea is to catch him as he is beginning to use his device, twisting us mentally to the line of reasoning that he wants us to follow. If we can catch it as it begins, we will not be entrapped by it. We know that Adam and Eve did not catch it and as a result they were led astray.
It seems pretty clear that the teaching of these false prophets, false ministers, and false apostles, is right inside the church. That is kind of mind boggling, but these people are hearing them. Paul's fear is that they might be diverted from the simplicity. His fear is well-grounded, because Satan is always there and there is therefore the possibility of attack - an attack against our single-hearted devotion to Christ.
What has been pointed out to us from God's Word is that the most obvious characteristic of Satan is his subtlety. Does it not follow then that subtlety will also be the major characteristic of the ones that he is using - wolves in sheep's clothing? We see the parallel appear in different contexts.
Satan set the pattern and he did it in the Garden of Eden, but he will use a multitude of circumstances - like the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, it does not have to be the same thing that is used all the time. But if he can create the illusions, the distractions, the ploys - whatever we might call it - to get our reasoning, our minds focused on something that is of lesser or minor concern to God than the purpose God has called us for, he has us. He at least has us going in the wrong direction. It does not mean that we cannot turn from it, but at least he has caught our attention where he has then the possibility of destroying us. It will not happen all at once. In one sense of the word, he is very patient that way. But he will, nonetheless, work to lead us step-by-step in that direction.
Satan's lies produce death through sin and they are deliberate attempts to wipe us out. Satan is a cold-blooded life destroyer and I mean life in two ways: life in terms of ending in death and life in terms of the quality. What is so sad is that he seems to have such an easy time of getting people to swallow that somehow or another it is going to be better to disobey God than obey Him.
I would like to change the word cunning here just for the sake of this sermon, because I think that it is a little closer to our English word shrewd. It means sharp, clever in a selfish way. I do not mean to say that cunning is wrong, but somehow or another shrewd has a little bit clearer connotation to me.
If we were talking about a human being, we would say that he was cunning or shrewd. But in the case of Satan the serpent, we have to think of whom it is we are dealing with. To be cunning and shrewd like Satan indicates malevolent brilliance - with the emphasis on malevolent. He is seeking to kill. His cunning is like that of a cat - I do not mean a house cat. I am talking about a tiger or a lion that is silently padding through the forest with eyes malevolently staring out looking for something to eat, to kill, to feed on.
Look how clever his tactic - his device; … . . .
Without going into all the details, we know (from Ezekiel 28) that pride arose and grew in Helel's heart - leading him to consider that he was just as good, and just as great, as his Creator. And then he began believing that God's governance was unfair in His dealings with him. Pretty soon, he was just as good as God at determining what was good for him. And he infected other angels with the same attitude, until he was able to lead them into a war against God. They were, of course, defeated and cast down. But they were present whenever Adam and Eve were created. I do not mean that they were right Johnny on the spot, but they were certainly aware of what was going on.
Now, pay close attention to episodes like this. God includes them in His Word because they establish patterns by which those who believe God are able to discern,We've got a pattern here. Many of these patterns are established in the book of Genesis.
God draws our attention to Satan's subtlety. He is ingeniously clever - with evil intentions - unless you are equipped to discern them. To those of us who are living in this end time, we had better pay attention to this. Jesus warned us in Matthew 24 that if it is possible, the very elect are going to be deceived. It does not mean that we cannot be deceived. It means that it is possible for you to be deceived; and, if you do not discern what is going on, you are going to be deceived. Satan is that slick! And right now he is pulling off a masterpiece.
The implication of Satan's question to Eve was that God is not fair. He did not say it directly, but that is the implication. The implication is that God is withholding something good from them. He said nothing about the fact that there were other choices that they needed to have for a fuller, freer, and more exciting life. But the implication of his question to Eve put the spin on everything; and he twisted God's statement into a negative. When God talked to Adam and Eve, He started out by saying, You can eat of every tree of the Garden, except one. Satan turned it around - into a negative.
Understand what Satan was trying to get her to do. He was attempting to get her to question God's Word about what they could and could not do. Let me put it another way. He was getting them to question God's law. And he put enough of a negative twist on it that it was making the law look harsh, restrictive, cruel, and binding. And, of course, the Giver of the law (the Giver of the word) was then the same way as the law appeared to be.
Of course, the fruit looked good to Eve. That is simple enough. But Satan succeeded immediately, because in verse 3 she added to what God said! What God actually said is recorded in Genesis 2:17, and when Eve said what God said, she added to what He said. You know what the Bible says about adding to what God says! That is just as bad as taking away from what God says. So, you see, Satan had her mind rolling in the direction that he wanted it to go.
And then he sweetened the pot by stating unequivocally that she would have much greater liberty doing what he suggested, because she would not die. Death is the greatest robber of liberty that we face, and it is the last enemy to be destroyed. So he hit her with this lie that she is immortal already; and he succeeded, then, in producing an enmity against God's law and His governance. That is evidenced by the fact that she sinned (and Adam, right along with her).
So we can see the pattern that began all the way back when he rebelled and mounted a war against God. Then, when God created Adam and Eve, he mounted a war against Adam and Eve; and he succeeded then in getting them to rebel against the government of God - by breaking the law of God. They had different opinions than the One who created them; and so they rejected the Word - the law - of God.
