Today's lesson is part 2 in our faith series. Last week, we instructed on what is saving faith? Now, we look at Satan's counterfeit faith designed to deceive a soul into an eternity of hell. Thank God, we have His Word, and He will guide us. We can know the truth and that truth will set us free. Prayerfully read this lesson and ask yourself, "Do I have saving faith or a false faith?
Section 1: Satan's Imitation Faith
Satan as an imitator does his best work in the realm of faith. Satan is a greater imitator in the area of faith than in probably any other realm of religious experience. We live in a day when there is much talk about faith. A few years ago, and it continues today, there was a movement called the "Word of Faith" heresy led by men and woman such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Hagin Jr., Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Fred Price, Joyce Meyer, Andrew Wommack, Paula White and many others too many to name. They talked about "your great faith," the exercise of your faith," "putting your faith to work," "turning your faith loose," and all such expressions are examples of a false faith. The emphasis is on the wrong place. The emphasis is on the person's faith. Read this entire article and you will see why this is a Satanic faith.
Here is a faith that is satanic, that is of the flesh, which is not saving faith. 1 Corinthians 13: 2 states: "And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity (love), I am nothing. Paul knew there was a faith, a great faith that could be exercised by the flesh that is not saving faith. It is not the faith of the true Christian. When you hear someone talking about his faith, and putting the emphasis on faith, you should note that his faith is his god. That is what he knows and what he worships. Most of the books on prayer emphasize faith, the exercise of faith to secure what the individual wants. The faith most talk about today is nothing, but soul force put forth to get what they want. They have made faith a god. Faith is the object of their worship. It becomes a form of witchcraft to get their fleshly desires. Such faith is satanic. It is a faith of the flesh.
Faith is a gift from God. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8) If faith is a gift of God, no sinner outside of grace has it. Faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 5:22) Faith is a grace: "And they believed through grace." (Acts 18: 27) There is such a thing as increasing in faith, because our Lord said, "O ye of little faith." Faith is of the Lord Jesus Christ: "The life which I know live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Saving faith, living faith, is the faith of the Son of God that is given to the individual when he comes to know Christ as his Lord and his Savior. There is no such saving or living faith, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The born-again believer is always putting the emphasis on the Lord Jesus Christ and not on his faith. The unsaved religionist is always putting the emphasis on faith instead of Christ. Do you see the difference? The individual who is always making over his faith has not the faith of the Son of God: he has the faith of the flesh. His faith is satanic. Such a false faith is always required to be built up, propped up, worked up, prayed up, and kept up. True faith of the Son of God lives within and is a gift. It is wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit. You don't have to continually work it up. Satan wants to keep you from real faith and keep you deceived.
Section 2: Receiving True Faith
How does one receive saving faith? Romans 10: 17 teaches us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. There is no such thing as saving faith apart from repentance. Trusting "Jesus" doesn't save you because repentance is the foundation of saving faith. God does not give faith to any heart, regardless of what they know, apart from repentance. If you have built your religious superstructure, or religious life, without repentance, then your faith is void--it is not saving faith. Acts 20: 21 reads: "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Can you see it? You cannot have faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ until you have repented toward God. The Mercy Seat sat on top of the Ark of the Covenant and was associated with the Day of Atonement. Listen very closely: THE SINNER MEETS GOD AT THE MERCY SEAT, BUT GOD MEETS THE SINNER IN REPENTANCE. When the lost soul comes to the Mercy Seat as a brokenhearted sinner, guilty and condemned, seeing that he is to blame, God will meet this person in his repentance. God will give faith to him to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Repentance is acknowledging to God what He shows you about your old, wicked heart and life. There is no partial repentance. You have either repented or you have not. It is not a question of whether you have repented enough. God will save every repentant sinner. He puts Himself under obligation to save a sinner when he repents, when he comes to the Mercy Seat, when he comes to Christ taking his place as a lost guilty sinner with a rope as it were around his neck. That is repentance toward God. True faith says, "I want Christ! I want Christ! The seeking soul says "Lord, give me faith to trust Christ. Give me faith to just trust Him. I can't live without Him!" Our Lord will not disappoint or turn away the person that comes in this type of repentance.
Section 3: Faith as a Gift
Saving faith is a gift of God. When the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to the heart at the Mercy Seat, then the individual can lay hold of Christ, the Object of his faith, because the Holy Spirit has wrought faith in the heart through the Word of God. At this point, you can believe His Word, you can believe His promises. You can lay ahold of Christ as the sinner's substitute. Now that is saving faith!
It is not faith that stands out, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you listen to most word of faith preachers, i.e. prosperity preachers, they faith an idol. They claim faith as a possession. They are lost unsaved religionists. It is Christ that stands out, not faith. The born-again believer is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. CAN YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE? The unsaved world places the emphasis on their faith, not Christ. However, the saved individual says, "I have the greatest Savior that God ever gave a poor old wretched sinner like me." It is Christ that stands out, not faith. That is one of the many errors of the word of faith movement.
A faith that is given to you doesn't have to be worked up, prayed up, read up or kept up in any way. The oil of grace is constantly being poured into that heart by the Holy Spirit. When you really know Christ, you can see Him in every Scripture. You are not conscious of your faith; you are conscious of the Christ that is constantly revealed through and in the Word of God.
Section 4: Examples of Satan's Imitation Faith
Satan will do all he can to fool you into thinking you are saved when you are not. In this section, we will examine some of his best tactics. II Corinthians 11; 13-15 reads: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transferred into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works."
First, Satan capitalizes on the fact that every individual wants something tangible to hold to as an assurance that he is saved. In some groups, they adhere to a strict dress code, e.g., women don't wear pants, women don't cut their hair, they don't go to movies or watch television. They perform these acts and say, we must be saved because look at what we do and don't do. Anything that draws your attention away from the Lord Jesus Christ is of Satan. He wants your eyes off Christ.
Second, people like to believe they have received some sign, vision, or experience and they base their faith on some sign, wonder, or experience. "I speak in tongues so I must be saved." It is not a vision or a dream, not a religious experience, not anything but the pure Word of God that will save you through the blood redemption provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.
You must not rest your faith on anything tangible that you do. You must rest 100% on the Word of God, and rest on Christ, the living Word. The living Word, Christ, and the written Word of God go hand in hand. The Bible says that Jews seek for a sign and Greeks seek wisdom. The religionists of today seek a sign. You will hear something like this, "Yes, I know I'm saved because back years ago I had a great religious experience, I saw a vision, saw Christ, or a face in the clouds." The emphasis on experiences is Satan working as an angel of light. Again, anything he can do to get your eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ is a win for him. Don't be deceived. Don't have a false faith!
People that base their faith will have doubts about their salvation once the emotion of the experience wears off. This is so because the experience was all he or she had. They never got to the Lord Jesus Christ. They got to a sign, a wonder or an experience, but not Christ.
Conclusion
If the Holy Spirit ever takes hold of the heart of such an individual for salvation, He has to bring him out of, and away from all feelings and emotions except those accompanying repentance and brokenness before the Lord. The individual must be brought to the Word of God, look to Christ and to Him alone for salvation. Anything else is a false faith. Don't be fooled. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ and to Him alone.
Next week: The Evidences of Saving Faith.
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