#6 QUESTION: WHAT’S NEW WITH THE DEVIL?

Sometimes Satan sideswipes us. Remember the time you were playing with Jack and your mom handed you a five-dollar bill and said, “Hurry to the 7/11 and buy a loaf of sandwich bread for lunch.” On our way there, Jack asked, “Did your mom actually say we could only buy a loaf of bread?” I had to admit that she had not. “So,” Jack went on, “let’s buy some bubble gum. She won’t care. If she’s like my mom, she’ll only think of it as a reward for you going to the 7/11 for her. And we can get some of that new watermelon flavor. It tastes wonderful.” We stuffed our mouths with gum and started home. It was great! It wasn’t until we were almost home that I looked at my shirt. What a mess! Then I remembered mom saying, “Don’t ever buy bubble gum. It gets all over your clothes.” When I got home, Mom took one look at the bubble gum stuck to my shirt and promptly prescribed severe punishment. She was livid.

Eve got into a similar situation with the Devil disguised as a serpent, Genesis 3:1-6:

“… the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

Look at the tactics the Devil used:

  1. He began by asking a question, no doubt, to establish doubt, “Did God actually say…”
  2. Next he lied, “You will not surely die.”
  3. Then he arranged the tree to look great. It was just food. And there was a benefit if you ate.

Centuries have passed, but the Devil still uses the same tactics, because it continues to work.

Consider baptism:

How often have you heard doubt-causing questions and comments: “Where did God actually say that I would go to hell if I’m not baptized?” “Is baptism really that important?” “I can belong to the biggest church in town and they don’t never mention baptism.”

“Isn’t baptism just a work, and we are saved by faith and not works?”

Think about the lies about baptism: “My granny was never baptized and I know she went to heaven, because she was such a good person.” “Uncle Joe was a preacher, and he was never baptized. At the funeral, they said he was in heaven.”

“Our preacher has a master’s degree from a theological college. He says ‘just believe.’ I know he is right.”

Here’s what God says about baptism in His book:

Acts 2:38-40: “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

1 Peter 3:21: “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”

Jesus included baptism when He told His disciples how to make disciples, Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Mark 16:16: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

Want to have your sins forgiven and go to heaven? Want to be a disciple of Jesus? According to the Bible, baptism makes you a Christian on the road to salvation.

Don’t believe the Devil. He will try to cast doubt. He will lie to you that baptism is not important. He will depict the better-known churches as the place to be without being baptized.

The answer to the title question of ‘What’s New with the Devil?’ is ‘nothing.’ The Devil has nothing new because his tactics still work.

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