Truth and deception

SERMON TOPIC: Truth and deception

Speaker: Ken Paynter

Language: ENGLISH

Date: 8 October 2017

Topic Groups: SOUND DOCTRINE, HERESY

Sermon synopsis: Any Christian who is not on their guard can be deceived.

2 Cor 11:3-4 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
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Truth and deception.

First Christian Church website.

Do you have a Biblical worldview? A recent survey found that less than 4% of all Americans have a Biblical worldview.

Someone with a Biblical worldview believes his primary reason for existence is to love and serve God.

A Biblical worldview is based on the truth of the infallible Word of God. When you believe the Bible is entirely true, then you allow it to be the foundation of everything you say and do.

People with a Biblical worldview are called intolerant by those with other worldviews. However, the source behind the so-called ‘tolerant’ crowd is actually evil.

Every Christian has a duty to confront an evil world through the power of the Holy Spirit. All those who have the Holy Spirit within them through faith, and utilize the Word of God, have all the tools they need. Even if the entire world turns away from the Bible and perverts their way, we are without excuse if we join the crowd. A crowd may sin together, but we will all be judged as individuals.

First Christian Church website.

Isaiah 5:20-23.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.

We see this passage lived out in our culture today as sin is called good, morals and values are called evil, those who are ungodly are honoured, and those who are living for Christ are demonized. Frequently, we hear about leaders being caught taking bribes, committing crimes, and perverting justice; yet they will be honoured and re-elected instead of prosecuted.

We see justice perverted for financial gain, retaliation against a political enemy, or for changing the values of a culture, but there will be a time of judgment.

First Christian Church website.

When the church loses its focus on Christ and His Word and tries to become relevant to the culture, it becomes weak and loses its influence in society.

As a result, the standard of the culture continues to decline.

Look at the most common problems in schools now as opposed to the 1940’s when Christianity was still the foundation in public schools.

The top 7 problems reported by schools in 1940 were:

1.Talking out of turn

2.Chewing Gum

3.Making noise

4.Running in the Halls

5.Cutting in Line

6.Dress-code violations

7.Littering.

First Christian Church website.

Fifty years later, in 1990, the top 7 problems reported by public schools were:

1.Drug abuse

2.Alcohol abuse

3.Pregnancy

4.Suicide

5.Rape

6.Robbery

7.Assault.

Things that repulsed Americans a generation ago have been accepted and normalized today.

First Christian Church website.

Our culture has no moral compass other than the acceptable standard of those around them. When the culture has a greater influence on the church than the church does on the culture, restraint is cast off.

As the culture continues toward worshipping the antichrist, it will be challenging for us to keep God’s commandments. We need to set our heart on the things of God now, know His Word now, and seek His face now. We cannot control what those around us are doing, but we can live by the Word of the Lord and faith in Christ. Since God alone will hold us accountable, we should fear God rather than be intimidated by man.

Jesus made it clear that when we live as His disciples, those in rebellion will say that we are of the devil. Do not be surprised when this happens, for it will happen if we truly stand upon Truth. Indeed, it is even happening within the church, as Bible believing Christians are being called judgmental, hateful, and divisive. Nevertheless, we are commanded to speak the truth without fearing the threats of men.

Truth and deception.

Any Christian who is not on their guard can be deceived.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4.

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

Clever arguments are presented to justify wrong attitudes and actions. Some people will even seek counsel to justify doing something that God’s Word and their conscience condemns.

2 Timothy 4:2-4.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage, with great patience and careful instruction.For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths

Truth and deception.

God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:3-7.

This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle, I am telling the truth, I am not lying, and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

Man however is prone to deception.

Jeremiah 17:9.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?

The Lord desires to enlighten, Satan deceives.

1 Corinthians 4:2-6.

Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Foolishness and deception are choices.

Proverbs 15:14.

ERV: Intelligent people want more knowledge, but fools only want more nonsense.

EXB: People with understanding want more knowledge, but fools ·just want more foolishness.

GNT: Intelligent people want to learn, but stupid people are satisfied with ignorance.

Ephesians 5:17.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Foolishness and deception are choices.

Ephesians 5:5-11.

No immoral, impure or greedy person, such a person is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

Therefore do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Foolishness and deception are choices.

Psalm 51:6.

You desire truth in the inward parts.

Psalm119:30.

I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.

Romans 1:21-25 &28.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ....

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie.....

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

Foolishness and deception are choices.

1 Thessalonians 2:9-12.

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Foolishness and deception are choices.

Hosea 4:6-11.

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.

The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not flourish, because they have deserted the LORD to give themselves to prostitution; old wine and new wine take away their understanding.*

*(Alcohol dulls the conscience)

Truth and deception.

One of the methods that Satan uses to deceive the conscience is psychology. (Human reason)

In our sin ridden society this profession has flourished as people find themselves with troubled/ tortured consciences. People are encouraged to excuse their sin rather than repent of it, circumstances and parents are blamed, and even God, as people fall into the trap that Adam and Eve fell into, of refusing to accept responsibility for their choices and actions and tried to shift blame.

Blaming Satan.

People blame the Devil for their own lusts.

Galatians 5:19-21.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Who are you blaming for your sin?

“I’m only human”

“it’s Adam’s fault”

“it’s my wife”

“it’s my husband”

1. We deceive ourselves by not obeying God’s Word.

James 1:20-24.

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Many Christians deceive themselves by thinking they can’t stop a certain sin, but truly just don’t want to stop a certain sin.

Others deceive themselves by believing something bad is good. They go out of their way to find a false teacher who will justify their sins even when the Bible and their conscience says no.

2. We deceive ourselves by not holding our tongue.

James 1:19 & 26-27.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this:

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.......

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

A lot of unnecessary hurt is caused by speaking glibly instead of being slow to speak. (Think before you speak)

3. We deceive ourselves by not acknowledging our sin.

1 John 1:6-10. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

4. We deceive ourselves by allowing pride in our hearts.

Jeremiah 49:16. The terror you inspire and the pride of your heart have deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks, who occupy the heights of the hill. Though you build your nest as high as the eagle’s, from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.

Obadiah:3,4. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself,

‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.

4. We deceive ourselves by allowing pride in our hearts.

Galatians 6:1-3. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.

1 Corinthians 3:18-21.

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

So then, no more boasting about human leaders!

5. We deceive ourselves by thinking that we won’t reap what we sow.

Galatians 6:7-10.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

6. We deceive ourselves by entertaining unbelief.

Hebrews 3:12-13.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

We all have to face doubt, but we do not have to accommodate it.

Mark 9:22-24. (Faith is a statement in the face of doubt)

It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. If you can? said Jesus.

Everything is possible for one who believes. Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!

7. We deceive ourselves by twisting Scripture.

2 Peter 3:15-16.

Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.

He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Jeremiah 5:31.

The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?

8. We deceive ourselves by keeping bad company.

1 Corinthians 15:33.

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

2 Timothy 3:13.

While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

9. We deceive ourselves by blaming God for our sins.

Do you attribute God’s providence to coincidence?

James 1:13-18.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.

Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all he created.

10. We deceive ourselves by focussing on wealth.

Jeremiah 8:10-11.

"Therefore I will give their wives to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is greedy for gain;

From the prophet even to the priest Everyone practices deceit.

"They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace.

10. We deceive ourselves by focussing on wealth.

1 Timothy 6:2-10.

These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

10. We deceive ourselves by focussing on wealth.

Mark 4:19.

But the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Revelation 3:17.

Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,

The seven great lies in the Church today. (Steve Hill)

Editor’s Note: Most Charisma readers remember Steve Hill as the fiery evangelist from the Brownsville Revival who has since continued to win countless souls for Jesus around the world. But what many readers don’t realize is that Hill only recently came out of a three-year battle with melanoma. During that time, he received a prophetic vision warning the church of an impending “spiritual avalanche” that could kill millions. The following article on deception in the church is part of this timely message, now delivered in his latest book,

Spiritual Avalanche. In the vision I saw the church, depicted as a beautiful ski resort, with an enormous avalanche hovering overhead. The Lord immediately revealed the interpretation. This impending spiritual avalanche carried a threat that could destroy everyone. I’ve spent countless hours in the past attempting to rescue those who had fallen prey to false teaching. No one who loves God willingly preaches deception, yet a spiritual whiteout of unhealthy, unbalanced and, in some cases, unbiblical teaching is blinding the body of Christ in America, and it is quickly spreading around the world

1) Overemphasis of Prosperity.

Undoubtedly, some adherents of the carnal prosperity message are motivated by greed. For them, preaching Jesus is a means of financial gain, something Paul rebuked in the strongest possible terms, speaking of men “of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Tim. 6:5). Yet many sincere believers embrace this message too, and back their case with Scripture.

I am not against you having money. But I am adamantly against money having you. The problem is, there’s more to the story that the carnal prosperity preachers fail to mention:

Jesus warned against storing up treasures on earth (Matt. 6:19-24) and covetousness (Luke 12:15).

Jesus emphasized caring for the poor (Matt. 25:31-46).

Jesus did not die to make us financially wealthy but to save us from our sins (Matt. 1:21).

God chose the poor to be rich in faith and kingdom heirs (James 2:5).

2) Exaggerated View of Grace.

This hyper-grace teaching has become an epidemic It has slipped in almost unnoticed and taken root like an unwanted weed, easy to get in but hard to get out of the Christian.

I have personally dealt with many young people who were once on fire but fell under this “kicked-back” view of God. Now, instead of pursuing Him, they are partying. This “unmerited freedom,” if not tackled and taken out, will spread to future generations, leaving us with millions of lukewarm Christians who have traded their passion for poison.

But not every hyper-grace preacher is looking for a way to justify sin. Some truly love Jesus but are simply preaching truth mixed with error. They’ve taken an undeniable, glorious truth about God and presented it in such an exaggerated form that they nullify all divine warnings and even claim that the words of Jesus don’t apply to New Covenant believers. If this seems judgmental, then it’s time to honestly line everyone’s teachings—including mine—alongside the Word.

3) Antinomianism.

The word literally means “against law.” It’s a short jump from an overemphasis on the grace message to complete antinomianism. In practice, it means that “anything goes,” since Jesus has set us free.

The problem is, Jesus didn’t set us free to sin; He set us free from sin.

Jesus died for us and broke sin’s power on our lives so that now, by the Spirit, we can live out the righteous requirements of the law (Rom. 8:1-4). Yet purveyors of this poisonous teaching fail to realize that Jesus calls us beyond the requirements of the law in His teaching, stating, for example, that adultery refers to adultery of the heart and not just the physical act (Matt. 5:27-28).

Definition of antinomian.

1 :one who holds that under the gospel dispensation of grace the moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation.

2 :one who rejects a socially established morality

4) Deification of Man.

Many false teachings today start with man rather than with God. In contrast, when Paul laid out the gospel message in Romans, he started with God and then went to man:

God is holy and we are not;

He is righteous and we are not;

We are under His judgment and in need of mercy,

That mercy comes through the cross.

Today’s gospel, especially in America, has a very different ring to it; rather than being all about God, it’s all about me.

Just as the American way is to make everything bigger and better, the American gospel says that Jesus came to make you into a bigger and better you.

That is not the gospel!

5) Challenging the Authority of the Word.

The challenging of God’s authority goes back to the Garden of Eden. Starting with the serpent’s challenge to Eve: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). This satanic challenge was twofold: First, did God really say that? And second, God didn’t really mean what He said. After all, you won’t die if you eat from the tree (vv. 1-5).

That twofold challenge continues to assault us today. Best-selling authors tell us the biblical text isn’t reliable, that the biblical manuscripts we have in our possession are hopelessly contradictory, and that we can know little or nothing about the real, historical Jesus. Other authors tell us that the Bible is no more than a collection of religious traditions and that God Himself is nothing more than a religious myth. For the most part, though, the challenge to the authority of the Scriptures is subtler, and some of it flows out of the deification of man, which says, “The Bible must live up to my standards. I will judge the God of the Bible based on my morality rather than the God of the Bible judging me based on His morality.”

6) Rejecting Hell.

Nowhere is this questioning of God’s Word seen any more clearly than when it comes to the subject of hell and future punishment.

Because we preach an imbalanced gospel, emphasizing God’s love and ignoring His wrath, emphasizing His mercy and ignoring His justice, we no longer have room for hell and future punishment in our theology.

Why did Jesus use such strong language in talking about the fire of hell and about people weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth (see Matt. 8:12)? And why did He teach that “it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matt. 5:29)? And why do other New Testament writers warn us repeatedly about the wrath to come (see Eph. 5:1-6)?

It’s one thing to debate the exact nature of the future punishment that awaits those who reject the gospel. It’s another thing to downplay or eliminate it.

7) Universal Reconciliation.

Universal reconciliation promotes a get-out-of-jail-free mentality, that in the end, everyone will make it into heaven because of Jesus’ death on the cross.

Universalism teaches that all paths lead to God. There may be future suffering, but it will be purging rather than punishment, and ultimately everyone will be saved.

Proponents of universal reconciliation point to verses that teach that God reconciled “all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). And they point out that just as in Adam all die, in Jesus all will live (Rom. 5:12-21).

What would you say if someone attempted to persuade you that Adolf Hitler was in heaven? “Abomination!” you would scream. “You’re deranged!” Yet that’s a sample of the fundamental false teaching of this layer of “avalanche snow.”

Truth and deception.

Colossians 2:1-5. I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

Ephesians 6:11.

Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Psalm 32:2.

Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.

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