The Great Beguiler

2 Corinthians 11:1-15

In the passage for our sermon we see that Satan is said to beguile Eve. Paul also states that he is afraid the Corinthians will be beguiled and have their minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ. In this sermon we will look at some of the tactics that Satan used to beguile Eve and also how we can avoid being beguiled or having our minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.

Beguile – to delude; to deceive to impose on by artifice or craft.

Delude – lead from truth into error, mislead the mind or judgment.

How did Satan beguile Eve? (Genesis 3:1-7)

1)  Satan questioned the word of God, but that he did it from a positive format (verse 1)

• You must really look at the conversation because Satan is a master at twisting the word of God (Genesis 2:16-17 with Genesis 3:1-5)

2)  Satan changed God word where it suited him and his ultimate goal (verse 3)

• Here Satan used the right wording but changed it to “not” surely die.

3)  Satan convinced Eve that God was hiding something from her that she needed (verse 5)

• We should note here how the first sin by mankind was in the pursuit of knowledge. Many are falling today with this same old temptation.

Something to note in this is that Satan was able to take Eve’s focus off the negative fact of death, through his subtil beguiling. This is every easy for him to accomplish give the deceitful lust that are found within our own bodies (Ephesians 4:28).

How can we avoid being beguiled?

Before we look at the ways to avoid being beguiled we must note that Satan has the power to transform himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Therefore if we are going to avoid being beguiled we are going to have to transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds. How can we renew our minds?

1)  The first step is in the knowledge of Christ (Colossians 3:10 ; 1 Corinthians 2:16)

• Note the placement of Ephesians 4:23 in it’s context.

2)  We must cleanse our flesh and our spirit (Psalm 51:10 ; 2 Corinthians 7:1)

3)  The above two must be done daily (2 Corinthians 4:16)

4)  We must wait on God at all times (Isaiah 40:31)