The Sin of Satan / David Jeremiah

 

The Sin of Satan All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me. Matthew 4:9 This verse is the key to understanding the motive of Satan and the origin of evil. The devil desires to be worshiped as God. Professor D. Edmond Hiebert wrote, “In his ambition to assume the place of God, Satan is mastered by a consuming passion to receive worship as God. That master passion was revealed in Satan’s bold offer to invest Jesus with authority over the kingdoms of this world on condition Jesus would worship him.”1

Recommended Reading: Acts 20:19

Our Lord’s response was, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (Matthew 4:10). We may never desire to be worshiped as God, but that’s at the heart of the attitude of pride that drives much of what we think and do. God desires humility. We’re to serve the Lord with all humility (Acts 20:19), putting on “tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12). Psalm 147:6 says, “The Lord lifts up the humble.” And Peter assures us that God gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). Every day resist Satan by living in humble obedience to our one, great, true God.   All the cunning of the devil is exercised in trying to tear us away from the Word. Martin Luther