DO NOT BE DECEIVED! – Various Passages

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 5, 2019 under 2019 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; May 5, 2019 from Various Passages

Theme: The Bible gives the repeated warning to God’s people not to be deceived about sin.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

This morning, I’d like to share with you from various passages in the Bible. But those various passages have one theme in common. It’s a warning that is given to us several times in the New Testament. Sometimes, it’s given by implication. But four times, it is expressed very clearly in these four words:

“Do not be deceived.”

God only needs to say something once to us; and that should be enough. But when He repeats a command like this, in the same exact words not just twice, and not just three times, but four times, then we’d better pay attention. He would not repeatedly warn us not to allow ourselves to be deceived unless there was the real danger that we might indeed be deceived.

And so; let’s take the time this morning to learn what is meant by this repeated warning, “Do not be deceived.”

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Now; to understand this repeated New Testament warning, I believe we need to go back to the Old Testament—and to the source of the ‘deception’ that these words are warning us about. And to do that, we need to go all the way back to the beginning of the story of humanity.

In Genesis 1-2, we’re told of how God created the first man and the first woman. In order to truly heed the warning that the word of God gives us, we need to have it settled in our heart that the story being told to us in Genesis is the report of actual history. God truly did create all that is. He truly did create humanity in His own image. He truly did create Adam as the first man, and Eve—his wife—as the first woman. He truly did place them in a literal place called the garden of Eden. And He truly did give them the command to eat of all the fruit of the ground except for the fruit of one tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve were blessed by God in a paradise on earth. So long as they walked in obedience to their Creator, they enjoyed a perfect relationship of joy and delight with Him. But then came their first encounter with deception. Genesis 3:1 tells us

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1).

The Bible teaches us elsewhere that this was Satan—taking the deceptive form of a serpent. And notice how subtly his work of deception was introduced. He did not, at first, openly lie to the woman. He began only by raising a question—but in such a way as to make room for a lie to be slipped in. What God had actually said is found for us in Genesis 2:16-17;

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (2:16-17);

… and the devil knew this. And so, his question was a sly one. It was designed to leave out a part of the whole story. He didn’t ask the woman if God had said that they may eat of every tree of the garden … except for one. Instead, he asked, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” He framed his question in such a way as to plant discontent in the woman’s heart—as if he was asking her, “Don’t you have the right to eat the fruit of whatever tree you wish?” This question was the beginning of the devil’s attack on God’s word.

Now; the serpent left a part of the word of God out. But the woman fell into his trap by adding something to it. Verses 2-3 tell us;

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’” (vv. 2-3).

You’ll remember that, back in Genesis 2, God said nothing whatsoever about touching the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He only said not to eat of it. But Eve fell into the devil’s pattern of distorting God’s commandment by adding to what God said.

And all of these subtle alterations to God’s word set things up for the devil’s most daring attack of all. Verses 4-5 tell us;

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (vv. 4-5).

The serpent had just called God a liar and declared God’s word to be untrue. He began his attack on God’s word by leaving something out of it; and then, he further attacked it by encouraging the woman to add something to it; and it all finally culminated in him denying God’s truthfulness altogether—and saying that what God said is not to be trusted or obeyed.

And that, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is the nature of the deception that the devil has been spreading throughout humanity ever since. Please don’t ever let yourself forget this when you hear the hotly debated social and political and philosophical and cultural debates, and think of the moral controversies and divisions that are going on in our time. Just remember that they have their roots—ultimately—in the whole question of whether or not God has spoken authoritatively in His word.

In fact, I have learned to quit thinking of the division as being between “liberals” or “conservatives”; or between “blue” or “red”; or between those on the “left” and those on the “right”. In saying this, please understand that I am not trying to identify those categories as either good or bad. I’m simply saying that those are arbitrary terms that—for me—are not very helpful in identify the true nature of the controversy. Instead, I now think of the many conflicts and battles we see today are between those who believe that “God has spoken”, and those who ask, “Has God indeed spoken?” The true dividing line is the word of God. The devil is the ultimate author of the question, “Has God indeed said …”; and his great work of deception is intended to make people doubt that there is a God or to question that God has spoken authoritatively and decisively to the moral issues we deal with today. What the devil wants, in a practical sense, is to persuade as many human beings as he can to try to solve their problems—or to try to meet their needs—or to try to make life work meaningfully—or to try to achieve happiness and fulfillment—or to view the challenges of life in some other way than through submission to what our Creator has told us authoritatively in His revealed word.

So then; the woman believed the serpent’s lie. She fell for the deception. She believed that fulfillment could be had apart from what God said. She questioned in her heart that God had even spoken the truth. And once that happened, she became open to sin. As verse 6 tells us;

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate (v. 6).

And thus humankind fell. Thus sin and death spread throughout the whole of humanity. And it was all done by deception. Look at what God said to the woman in verse 13:

And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v. 13).

And this is describing for us the true beginnings of the one thing that has most plagued and robbed and destroyed humanity. It is the devil’s ‘big’ deception—the big ‘lie of all lies’—that God has not really spoken in an authoritative way; and that there’s ultimately no consequence to be suffered for having disobeyed His plain, clear, revealed commands. It is staggering beyond imagination to think of the human suffering and damage and death that has come—and that is still going on in this world—from having fallen for this one great diabolical deception.

Now, I praise God for redemption; don’t you? I praise God that, in love, He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ into the world to take the debt for our sins upon Himself and to pay for it all on the cross. That was the promise that God even made to Adam and Eve—that the Seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus, would one day come and crush the serpent’s head.

But dear brothers and sisters; we need to remember that we are still in a fallen world, and we are still living in an environment in which the devil’s great lie is being actively spread, and we are still very easily subject to deception—if we do not keep on the alert. The apostle Paul once wrote to the Corinthian believers who were—themselves—dabbling in areas of sin; and told them;

For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it! (2 Corinthians 11:2-4).

We absolutely must heed the Bible’s repeated warning to us: “Do not be deceived!”

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Now; I mentioned earlier that there are four times in the New Testament in which this warning is explicitly given to us. And it’s interesting that, on each occasion, it uses the same Greek grammatical construction to express it. Forgive me if this sounds like a grammar lesson; but it’s important for you to know that this command is given to us as a prohibition in the present passive imperative. What that means is that it is a command to stop doing something that is assumed to be going on at the time that the command is being given. The way we would translate this is, “Stop being deceived.” Right now—in this world—the devil is seeking to deceive you and me. He is trying to get you and me to stop believing that God has spoken and that His word is true. And we must heed the warning and cease allowing ourselves to be deceived by him any further.

Now; where are the four places where this warning is given? Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6. It’s there that we find the first of these New Testament warnings; and it is given in order to warn us to …

1. STOP BEING DECEIVED ABOUT SIN’S SERIOUSNESS.

Paul had been writing to the Corinthians because they had been allowing all kinds of sinful practices and beliefs into enter into the church family. They had been following the patterns and practices of the unbelieving world around them. But Paul wrote and told them;

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Those sound like very controversial words today; don’t they? They specify some practices that the world around us justifies and celebrates. But let’s be careful not to simply highlight certain things in this list and ignore the others. Paul is here warning us that there are several practices and habits that people often embrace—things that God has clearly forbidden to be done in His written word—that will prevent them from inheriting His kingdom. Holding on to them will keep someone from being saved and from entering into heaven.

Now; I am grateful for the grace of God. In the very next verse, the apostle Paul wrote;

And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (v. 11).

In other words, right there—in the Corinthian congregation—were former fornicators, former idolaters, former adulterers, former homosexuals, former sodomites, former thieves, former covetous persons, former drunkards, former revilers and former extortioners who were forgiven and who were destined for the kingdom of God. What a picture of God’s grace through the redeeming blood of Jesus! Praise God that some members of the household of God were once those things … but were them no longer.

But please note carefully the warning. The people of this world will justify these things, and celebrate them, and even put the very best possible spin on them. People will say that these things are not wrong or sinful; and that you can embrace them and practice them and still be a child of God on the way to heaven. The temptation will be very powerful to believe that these things are practices that do not have to be taken seriously; and you and I will be made to feel very intolerant and unjust and immoral if we ever think otherwise. And yet, God’s word clearly says that those who ongoingly practice these things, and hold on to them, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There would not be a need for the warning not to be deceived about this, dear brothers and sisters, unless the danger of being deceived was very real. Therefore, “Do not be deceived!”

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We find another warning later on in 1 Corinthians—in Chapter 15. And it teaches us to …

2. STOP BEING DECEIVED ABOUT SIN’S INFLUENCES.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul was writing to the Corinthian believers in order to correct some bad theology that they had embraced. They were listening to some false teachers, and were believing that there was no such thing as a ‘resurrection’. And that’s dangerous; because bad theology is never a neutral thing. It always ends up leading us down the road toward disobedience to God.

And so, in 1 Corinthians 15:33-34, Paul wrote and told the Corinthians;

Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame (1 Corinthians 15:33-34).

One of the ways that the devil deceives us is through the influences of others who are already listening to his lies. We can be deceived into thinking that we can have close associations or fellowship with people who are committed to sinful behavior and beliefs, and yet still ourselves remain unaffected by it.

I wonder if you remember the warning that God gave to the ancient people of Israel as He led them out of Egypt. He warned them repeatedly not to make alliances with the sinful nations round them. He warned them not to enter into agreements with them or to draw up close to them in such a way as to learn their ways and traditions. If the Israelites did so, they would end up adopting the same sinful practices of those nations that God had driven out of the land. God had to warn the people of Israel not to do this because it would be tempting to think of one’s self as warm, and friendly, and tolerant, and open-minded to the ways of others who did not reverence and obey Him. Sadly, the ancient people of Israel often ignored this warning from God—and they suffered terribly as a result. They were brought down into terrible levels of sin. They chose to ignore the important principle that ‘a little leaven leavens the whole lump’ (1 Corinthians 5:6).

Does this mean that we should never have any contact with unbelieving people? No; of course not. We’d have to go out of the world in order to do that. But rather, it means that we must be very careful in how we engage in relationships with the unbelieving people of this world. We must show love to sinful people, but never allow ourselves to be deceived by the devil into enter into partnership with them in their sinful practices.

We absolutely must heed the warning: Stop allowing yourself to be deceived! Bad company truly does corrupt good habits. Keep yourself pure in your relationships!

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Another place that we find this warning is in Galatians 6. And it’s there that we’re told …

3. STOP BEING DECEIVED ABOUT SIN’S CONSEQUENCES.

In Galatians 6:7-8, the apostle Paul sets before us a very important principle:

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:7-8).

I have come to believe that this teaches us about one of the devil’s most fundamental acts of deception. He seeks to make us believe that this principle is not at all true—that you do not actually reap what you sow—that if you sow to the flesh you will not really reap destruction, or that if you so to the Spirit you will not really reap eternal life. It’s his way of getting you to believe that it doesn’t do any good ultimately to follow God’s commandments. Sinning won’t really lead to harm; and obeying God’s instructions won’t really lead to blessing. He even seeks to get us to believe we can cheat God in all of this—to sin … and somehow manage to get away with it. That was how the serpent tempted the woman in the garden; wasn’t it?

Now; I love how Paul responds to this deception. He goes on to write;

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith (vv. 9-10).

Paul affirms the principle that we truly will eventually reap the good that we sow; and so, we should be careful to sow obedience to God and do as He tells us. But before stating this affirmation, he first gives the sober warning: “Do not be deceived!” Don’t be fooled into thinking that the principle of sowing and reaping isn’t a true one.

Just think of how much human suffering has been brought about by believing the lie that we do not reap what we sow!

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And this leads us to one more time that we find this warning. We find it in the first chapter of the Book of James; where we’re told to …

4. STOP BEING DECEIVED ABOUT SIN’S SOURCES.

We’re often being told today that many people who embrace a lifestyle of sin against God’s commandments cannot help doing so—that it’s not a matter of what they do, but rather a matter of what they are—that sinful practices are redefined in such a way as to become unchangeably fundamental to someone’s identity—that this is the way that God has made them and there is no other way that they can be. Some lately have even gone so far as to say that if you are troubled morally by the way they live, then you should ‘take it up with their Creator’.

And yet, in James 1:13-16, Pastor James writes this:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone (James 1:13).

What a diabolical lie of the devil it is to say that God made someone to have to sin! The devil uses this lie to keep people clinging to sin; and to enable them to justify living in a way that is contrary to God’s clear commandments; and to even make others feel guilty for believing what the Bible says. But we must never allow the devil to fool us into thinking that when someone is living a lifestyle in contradiction to God’s commandments, God is somehow responsible for it. James goes on to place the responsibility for our sin where it rightfully belongs:

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (vv. 14-15).

And look at what James then goes on to say in verses 16 and onward:

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (vv. 16-18).

God does not give commandments, and then create people in such a way that they cannot help but disobey them. He only gives what is good. He even sent His own Son to die on the cross for us and redeem us from sin, so that we will go on to live righteously before Him.

Now; whenever we see someone who is struggling with sin in their lives, dear brothers and sisters—whenever we see encounter someone in our lives who is sincerely wishing to break free from some habit or practice that God has forbidden—we should always have compassion and love for them. We should pray for them, and stand along side them in their struggle, and be as much of a help to them as we can. We should always do this because that’s the way our Savior behaves toward them. But whenever we see someone justifying a sinful lifestyle by saying that God ‘made them this way’, we should never let ourselves be fooled. It’s a lie from the devil. “Do not be deceived!”

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So, dear brothers and sisters; we find that we’re given the same word of warning four different times in the New Testament: “Do not be deceived.” We’re to cease allowing ourselves to ongoingly fall for the ancient lie of the devil. We’re to no longer be among those who are influenced by the serpent’s deceptive question, “Has God indeed said?”

But what should we do instead? Well; I’m grateful for the apostle Paul’s exhortation to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3. He writes;

But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:10-17).

Let’s not believe the devil’s deception any longer. Instead, let’s be among those who affirm, “God has spoken!” Let’s make sure that we continue faithfully in the Holy Scriptures—the word of truth!

EA