The Truth and Consequences of Lies Women Believe, Part 2

Leslie Basham: Heard any good lies lately? If you stop and think about it, we hear lies everyday. It's Tuesday October 23,and you are listening to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Today on Revive Our Hearts, Nancy Leigh DeMoss takes us back to the Garden of Eden to help us understand how and why we are so easily deceived. And she'll also tell us why she believes lies are at the root of all our problems, and how believing those lies again and again eventually leads to our bondage. Here's Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I like looking at advertisements. You know, some of the advertisements you find in magazines, newspapers and on television make the most preposterous claims. You know what I am talking about. Let me read to you a few that I've seen:

"Become a world-class violinist, instantaneously"

Another one says, "How to play the piano instantly," wouldn't you like to able to this.

Here is another one that is an ad for a kitchen appliance and says, "Instant health at the flick of a switch." Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Here is one I really like, it says, "Melt 10 pounds in 10 minutes--a workout so easy, you do it in your pajamas."

Now sometimes deception in advertising is very obvious as in these outlandish claims. But you know, it's not always that easy to detect. Some of these advertisements seem harmless enough, but they reflect a simple reality that I believe is at the root of all the problems in our world today. And I am including in that all problems in your community and all the problems in your home and all the problems in your life.

The bottom line--when we go back to the Word of God and see how we got into these problems--is you and I have been lied to. We have been deceived. It is important for us to understand where we have been deceived, and how we have been deceived because, according to the Word of God, deception leads to bondage. When we are deceived, we become prisoners. And on the other hand, Jesus said "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32).

So I want us to open the Word of God today and go back to the beginning and see--where did all these lies come from? Where did deception begin? How did it start? Now if you turn in your Bible to the Book of Genesis (a portion of the Bible that is familiar to most of us). If I can just summarize Genesis chapter 1 and 2, the first 2 chapters of the Bible--I would notice some words that stand out in the text.

First of all one word that is repeated numerous times through those two chapters is the word good. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). And over and over Scripture says, "God saw what He had made, and it was good." In fact at the end of creation, He looked at it all; and He said that it was very good!

Then there is another word that appears three times in those first two chapters. And it is the word blessed. God blessed the man, God blessed things that He had made, blessed His creations. As I read those two chapters, I see a sense of a man and a woman having fellowship with each other and with their Heavenly Father. You see a picture of oneness, of harmony, of order, of peace as you read these two chapters--this is the feeling you get.

Then we come to Genesis chapter 3, and I am just giving you a brief nutshell overview here. And we are introduced to a whole new vocabulary beginning in Genesis chapter 3. There are some new words that appear, that we didn't find in the first two chapters--words like afraid, cursed, enmity, sorrow, thorns, sweat, anger, murder. In this chapter, we have the entrance of blame, bitterness, conflict, confusion, disorder. Now we find the man and the woman who had enjoyed intimate communion and fellowship with God--where are they now? They're hiding from God, they're scared of God, they're afraid. Now we see the introduction of shame and guilt. What has happened between Genesis 1 and 2 where things are good and blessed and there is fellowship and oneness and peace, and Genesis 3 where we see all this ugliness of life introduced. What happened?

Well, if you are in your Bible--Genesis chapter 3--we find that there was the entrance of a character into this plot, who comes first in the form of a serpent, now we know from the rest of the Scripture (Revelation chapter 12, for example) that the serpent was actually Satan himself. He comes to the woman and he introduces a series of lies. Now some of these lies, we are going to see in a moment are just outright lies--some of them are half-true, some of them are falsehoods that are disguised as the truth.

"He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'"(Genesis 3:1) Now what did God say? In the previous chapter, God had said to the man and the woman "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:16-17). God emphasized the freedom that they had.

But Satan comes along and emphasizes the one single keep-off sign. And he says, "Has God put limitations on you? Yes, you have all these other things; but has God said that there's something you can't have?" Isn't that what he does to us today?

God has given us so many things to enjoy, and yet Satan points out the one thing that we think we want, the thing we think we need, the thing we think we can't do without. And he says, "What kind of God will make you do without that?"

Well, "The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'"(Genesis 3:2-3). Now is that what God said? God did say, "Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." But do we have any record that God said, "Don't touch?" You won't find it in Genesis chapter 2 which is where that direction was given. Now I do think it was probably a good idea--if you weren't going to eat--probably best not to touch. But here the woman is led to distort the command of God. Women that is why it is so important to know the Word of God, not just what others tell us that God's Word says; but what God Word's actually does say.

And here comes in verse 4 the outright lie--"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.

God has said that in the day that you eat, you will die.

And now Satan says to the woman, "The consequences that God promised if you ate of that fruit--they won't happen. You will not experience those consequences." In effect, you can sin. You can have it your way, and you can get away with it.

It says in verse 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Now there is a lot more in that statement than we are going to take time to unpack today. But, you see, the big picture here is that he is promising benefits and blessings to the woman if she will do it his way rather than God's way. Verse 6 "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."

See, a lie was the starting place for all the trouble in the history of the universe. At that moment when she (Eve) chose to believe a lie, when she was deceived by Satan, the entire human race was plunged into death and darkness, fear, shame, guilt and despair.

In Revelation chapter 12, which is a part of the last chapter where God's Word tells how this all going to end up (we've just read the first part of the story)--in the Book of Revelation, we come to the consummation of the story. We're told in Revelation chapter 12 that Satan deceives the whole world. And also that he targets women in particular.

Over the next few days, we are going to look further at how Satan deceives us women.

But I just want to close this session by going back to Genesis chapter 3 and having us take a look at a wonderful promise that God gives to us there. Eve listened to the lie of the serpent. She believed it, she acted on it, she fell into sin, led her husband into sin with her; and immediately, in the wake of that failure--God comes back to meet that couple. He finds them in their hiding place. He draws them out and he says, "Yes, there are consequences, but there is hope. There is a plan to redeem this situation."

He said to the serpent in chapter 3 verse 15 "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers." There is going to be a war, there is going to be a battle between Satan and the human race. But He says that the woman will have a seed, a child, an offspring. He is speaking of Christ, the Promised Messiah. And He says, "You are going to strike his heal (to the serpent), you are going to do some damage, you are going to inflict a wound on the offspring of the woman." But here is the good news, "He will crush your head." The seed of the woman, Christ, will be the Savior, the Redeemer of the world--will permanently do away with the power of the deceiver.

Leslie Basham: That's Nancy Leigh DeMoss reminding us that we do not have to believe the lies Satan sends our way, and we won't believe them if we fill our minds and hearts with the truth of God's Word. Nancy will be back in just a few minutes to help us to apply what we have learned today and lead us in prayer.

But first let me tell you about Nancy's book Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free. Throughout these chapters, Nancy tells us how we can be delivered from bondage and begin to walk in God's grace, forgiveness and truth. We have this book available in our resource center, and we would like to send you a copy of this book for a suggested donation of $17. We also have a new wall calendar we'd be glad to send you absolutely free. Our Quiet Rest Calendar is filled with scriptures and quotes from one of Nancy's other books A Place Of Quiet Rest. We know you'll enjoy it. Just call us at 1-800-569-5959. If you would like a cassette copy of today's broadcast, perhaps to share with a friend, we have those available too. Just ask for it when you send in your suggested donation of $5.  Or you can write us at Revive Our Hearts. And don't forget, these resources are also located on our Web site ReviveOurHearts.com. We hope you can be here tomorrow when Nancy will open the Book of Genesis to find some clues to the origin of deception.

 

Now to close our time in prayer here is Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: "Father we thank you for giving us insight into how we got into all this mess that we experience today and for showing us the starting place. We confess that in many ways, like Eve, we have been deceived. We have bought into the lies of Satan.

But I thank you that there is a hope--that you have given to us through Jesus Christ--that He is the Truth. And for the promises that He has done away with works of the deceiver so that we might be set free through the truth. Open our eyes to Christ, who is the Truth and continue the process of setting us free from every form of deception. I pray it for Jesus sake. Amen". 

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

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