An Enemy in Disguise

​2 Corinthians 11:14-15 ~ “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
 
On this day, in countries around the world, there will be millions participating in the observance of Halloween. Children will be sent out in costumes to fill up their bags and buckets with candy from their neighbors while others will attempt to scare their friends or family with foreboding displays of death and mayhem. For the most part the day passes innocuously, with most people merely dispensing candy to children. Some, however, will see the day as one of rampant evil and a day when wickedness has a greater effect and the enemy of God has greater influence upon this world.
 
Yet, dear reader, lest we forget, the enemy of God does not parade himself around in obvious forms that are easily distinguished and discarded as wicked. For the most part, the elevated rise of chaos on this day is caused by raucous people living in wickedness. As our text will testify today, the enemy of God comes in disguise. We read, “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” Far more appealing to the mind of man is one who comes to them as one who holds some form of benefit. It began in the garden of God when the enemy slipped in as a serpent, “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’” (Genesis 3:4-5). The serpent offered to Eve a rebellion against God that seemed by its very offer to provide her and Adam a benefit unlike anything God had promised. Not only that, he invited the idea, through his trickery, the possibility that God had actually deceived them.
 
We need to understand that before the rebellion that took place in heaven, by the angels who fell from their exalted place before God, the enemy of God was named “Lucifer” which means “star of the morning.” It is revealed in Isaiah 14:12, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!” The term, “day star” is the name “Lucifer.” He does not work to merely bring rampant and vulgar wickedness. There is far more danger from that which seems to be good or beneficial to mankind and yet goes against the word of God. We find even the great Apostle Peter momentarily influenced by the enemy of God when Jesus rebuked him in Matthew 16:23, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
 
The next statement in our text today is a grave caution, “So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” I would say this, beloved, there is more danger from a false apostle who is able to masterfully disguise himself in a cloak of external righteousness, than there is in a blatant satanist who proclaims his anarchial desire for rebellion. Look at the grand disguise worn by the Pharisees. Jesus confronted them in their masquerade, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). For certain, it wasn’t the demon possessed people of Judea that crucified the LORD of glory, but it was the religious charlatans who handed Jesus over to Pilate and murdered the Messiah. And though God Almighty had planned for and predetermined that these things would happen (see Acts 2:22-24), it did not remove the guilt for their actions.
 
We have, in our land today, the same impostors who disguise themselves as apostles and servants of Christ. Paul warned Timothy of this in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” Those who twist the word as skillfully as the enemy of God are a greater threat to the stability of young and impressionable Christians than any costumed party of children seeking candy on one particular night.
 
Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” So, my friends, let us use this day to remind ourselves to watch out for those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, twisting the truth to the harm of others. Let us, instead, proclaim to all who walk in darkness the hope of Christ and the salvation that He offers.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

---