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Satan’s use of Scripture

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When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, the enemy slithered in close to Jesus’ ear and uttered something that should send a shiver down our spines. His words are shocking. They’re shocking because they are actually God’s words. He proves that not only is he familiar with the biblical storyline, but it seems that he has also committed portions of it to memory. He quoted Psalm 91:11-12. In verse six, he said, “for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Now he leaves out a portion of those verses. It actually reads, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up…” But this isn’t why he mishandled Scripture. Often times even the NT authors use Scripture liberally. No, the danger here is in the fact that he misapplied the verses.

The Psalm is referring to the people of God who trust in him to deliver them, not to putting a test before him to see if he would do so. Let’s look at Psalm 91.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (vv. 1-2)…


 “Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent….

(vv.9-10).

“When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him” (v. 15).

When rightly applied, it means that God will help those who love and trust him. He will help them when trouble comes. It doesn’t mean that we should go out and do something crazy–like jumping off a building–in order to see if God will protect us. That wouldn’t be trusting in him; it would be putting him to the test precisely because you’re not sure if he is trustworthy. That’s why Jesus responded, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Be careful in how you apply Scripture.

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2013 Scripture Memory

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Last Sunday we introduced a church-wide Scripture memory plan. The verses are selected strategically in order to build faith. Each week’s verses will focus on a different aspect of our faith in Christ.

  • first week: Gospel
  • second week: God’s character
  • third week: God’s works
  • fourth & fifth weeks: battling sin

Download 2013’s Sword Verses

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Care for one another’s souls

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“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb. 3:12-14).

“The inevitable effect of treating church as worship services and classes is to make the people of God passive and too dependent on ordained experts…If God designed the church to function like a body with every member ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit to other members, in regular interpersonal relationship, then would it be surprising to find that the neglect of this regular interpersonal, spiritual ministry cripples the body in some of its functions and causes parts of the body to be weak and sick? Isn’t that what you would expect” (John Piper)?

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Hunger

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“I wonder if followers of Christ 150 years from now will look back at Christians in America today and ask, ‘How could they live in such big houses? How could they drive such nice cars and wear such nice clothes? How could they live in such affluence while thousands of children were dying because they didn’t have food and water? How could they go on with their lives as though the billions of poor didn’t exist?” David Platt, Radical

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