Avoiding Deception In The End Times

I want to talk to you today about deception. Especially end times deceptions, but deception in any form is something we should learn to discern.

In November of 1978 a horrible tragedy occurred. Jim Jones caused over 900 people to drink cyanide-laced Koolaid to commit suicide in a jungle in Guyana. As he routinely threatened those in his cult-group, few had managed to escape, but did you know quite a number of those 900 were Christians??

So HOW ON EARTH did they find themselves drinking poison Koolaid on November 18th in the Guyana jungle???

THEY LET SOMEONE TALK THEM OUT OF THE TRUTH.

THAT is what deception is – it is when you let someone talk you out of the truth.

Genesis 3

1 Now the serpent was more subtil (subtil here means shrewd, crafty or SLY) than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Basically the devil said : You WON’T DIE – it will make you SMART!!

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

SO EVE DECIDED TO AGREE WITH THE ENEMY, and the result was now we are all paying the price! And

Adam, by the way, was NOT deceived, but he fell to PEER PRESSURE. Sometimes we agree with something we KNOW IS A LIE because of peer pressure.

We must remember as we walk closer to the end that "Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11.14).

So let’s talk about how deception comes…

Deception may come through the people you care about most: Isaac was deceived by Jacob. Samson was deceived by Delilah. Tamar was deceived by Amnon. Rachel helped Laban deceive Jacob. Righteous Abel was deceived by Cain into going for a walk with him that ended up being his death march.

Deception may masquerade as a GIFT:

According to Homer the Greeks besieged Troy for ten years without success. And then when the warrior Achilles was killed, many wanted to give up the fight. But the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, came up with a plan to get the Greek army into Troy. Odysseus built an immense wooden horse.

Odysseus and his warriors hid inside it. And after leaving the horse at the gates of Troy, the Greek army sailed away. The Trojans thinking the Greeks had given up, and left the horse as a gift, brought it inside the gates.

That night, while the Trojans were sleeping, the Greek ships quietly returned. The soldiers in the horse slipped out and opened the city gates. The Greek army quietly entered Troy and started fires all over the city. The Trojans awoke to find their city in flames. As they tried to flee, they were killed by the waiting Greeks. (Trojan Horse story taken from a Sermon Central Illustration)

How to test the spirits: You can’t argue with the Word of God so anything that contradicts the Word is automatically FALSE. – NO EXCEPTIONS !! And if you think there IS an exception to that, then you’ve already been deceived.

EXAMPLE – this is a TRUE STORY -

I heard a story about a visiting minister at a small church that had gotten into deception. He said the church was just not ready for everything he knew. He said there were times when he cast demons out that kneeled before him, accepted Jesus and he ushered them up into heaven.

What happened was he had started out WORKING IN DELIVERANCE and HE became PRIDEFUL.

So the DEMONS convinced him they could be saved by putting on that show (or his own mind put on that show) – Okay – so HOW DO WE KNOW THAT HE’S WRONG ABOUT THIS???

James 2:19

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

So the demons BELIEVE – THEY KNOW Jesus is the Son of God. But they were CAST OUT of heaven because they are condemned.