The spirit of Satan, then, finds its climax in the worship of man,
rather than the worship of God. Here is the heart of all sin. This is
the central lie of Satan by which he deceives men. The final religion
of man, before the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth again, will be the
religion of humanity, the worship of man as the only deity. Paul brings
all men who reject God’s revelation under this condemnation: “They
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.”
We have been speaking of the great conflict of the ages between Jesus
and his Adversary, the conflict that underlies the raging of the
nations to-day, as Satan works out his plan to put the creature in the
place of the Creator, to send that one, inspired of Satan, who will
come in his own name and who will be received because he comes as man.
But this same conflict goes on in each individual life.
Every man, because God has given him free will, must make his choice
as to which of these he will follow, the Son of man, or the Man of
Sin. Even the Christian, who has made his choice, will find constantly
before him the possibility of serving in the spirit of his Lord or in
the spirit of Satan.
When the Christian is not serving after the example of the Lord
Jesus, let him ponder this well,――that he is serving after the spirit
of Satan. How startled must Peter have been when the Lord not only
told him he savored of the things of men (the spirit of Satan),
but actually addressed him as Satan, knowing that it was the great
Adversary he was meeting again in one of his loved disciples. Very
often is it true of Christians that “ye know not what spirit ye are
of.” Is it too much to say that much of the service that is being
offered to-day in the name of Christ, by followers of His, is mixed
with the spirit of the evil one?