Do Not Be Deceived

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Spiritual Rip-Offs and the Need for Discernment

Welcome back to No Compromise Radio ministry. This is Mike Abendroth, and I'd like to talk to you today about the Bible. But what the Bible says regarding, drumroll, deception, trickery. We live in a world where there are rip-off artists, con artists, whether they're in the back streets of Manhattan or they're in Wall Street, there are rip-off artists everywhere you go.

I remember one time, Kim and I were in Hawaii, and we signed up for some kind of luau. And it was some 16-course luau, pick you up with the bus, and they took us from the hotel in Waikiki into some area.

And I saw a big building, some kind of structure in the background, and it happened to be some nuclear power plant in the background. And what was going on there is right next to it, they had some sandy beach area, and that's where the luau was.

Maybe it wouldn't have been bad if the food would have been good, but the food was horrible. It was small. It was chintzy. And Kim and I took that 16-course meal for whatever it was, $50 a person, and it hasn't done me any good except it's a good illustration of how to get ripped off as a tourist.

I travel the world, and I can't believe I fell for such a horrible thing. And maybe we saw Don Ho the 19th sing whatever songs are Hawaiian, I don't know. But there are spiritual rip-offs as well, spiritual deceptions.

Did you know Satan disguises himself as an angel of light? It'd be one thing if Satan went around with some kind of pitchfork and horns and talked in some kind of demonic way. Satan knows better than that, and he disguises himself as an angel of light.

Verse 15 is not surprising, therefore, 2 Corinthians 11,. If his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their deeds. And so we need to make sure that we're not tricked.

Sometimes it's Satan who's tricking, and sometimes it's our own heart. The heart that we have, even if you are a Christian, your heart is deceitful. Your heart is not yet free from sin. You may be free from the penalty of sin, but you are not free from the power of sin, but you're not free from the presence of sin yet.

And so today I don't want you to be deceived. And here are four times in the Scripture where the Bible says, don't be deceived, meaning that you can be deceived. If the writers of the Scriptures say, New Testament church folks, you could possibly be deceived.

These are some of the areas I think that'd be important for you to listen to. I don't want to be deceived. I don't want to be tricked. I don't want to buy some kind of, you know, swamp land in Florida someplace, some kind of land that's been tainted by, you know, Three Mile Island nuclear waste.

And then when it comes to spiritual issues, I especially want to know the truth. Truth is like a B -24 bomber. I think B -24 bombers were called liberators, weren't they? Here are kind of four B -24 bomber liberating truth facts.

And so I want to make sure that we destroy any kind of speculation or lofty thing that's raised up against the knowledge of God. I want your mind to be taken captive, your thoughts to be taken captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10 .5.

And here are the lies. Lie number one, Christians don't have to live righteous lives. Lie two, live for today with no view to the future. Lie three, spend your life and your money on yourself. And lie four, God is to be blamed for your problems and sins.

And so let's take a look through the Word, through this light to show our path, through this Word that's like a laver to cleanse, through this Word that pierces our conscience, through this Word that breaks the wheel like a hammer, through this Word that's like a fire so we can understand that we don't need to be deceived.

The word deceived is the word planeo, where you get a planet. It looks like it's wandering. It looks like it's spiraling out of control. Four passages in the Bible that say, do not be deceived. I'm glad I don't make my living talking on the radio.

Maybe I need to have some kind of crack staff to edit those kind of things out. I mean, if you're saying enough words, you're going to make a mistake. That's for sure. I don't want you spiritually to get snookered, ripped off by some kind of vacation home in New Jersey, some kind of dateline scam artist.

Christians Must Live Righteous Lives

Don't be deceived. Number one, you could possibly be deceived because you might believe the lie that Christians don't need to live righteous lives. First Corinthians chapter 6. If the God of the universe changes you, you will be different.

I'm not talking about perfectionism. I am talking about living a holy life. Listen to the passage. Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? You know that because Paul says, I've been there at Corinth for 18 months, Acts 18 teaching you that.

Do not be deceived. You could be deceived. Here's the deception that happens even today. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Don't be deceived. People that live unrighteous lives, characterized by unrighteousness, will not go to righteous heaven because they have not been changed by God. You can pray the prayer, walk the aisle, sign the card, have membership in a church, be baptized, be consecrated, irrigated, exasperated, but you aren't a Christian unless your life has been changed.

And Paul says, don't be deceived. This is especially important when you have family members, people close to you that you want to be Christians. You want them to be. Nobody wants your family members to be unsaved, but for you to do some kind of mental gymnastics, to lower the bar, the high hurdle of Scripture, to somehow redefine them as Christians so you can sleep better as your Christian family member is an adulterer, a fornicator, a homosexual, you ought not to do that.

Don't be deceived. Your heart can make you deceived because you've got familiar love, family love, and you don't want that to be true. But what is true is true. Jessica Hahn, who used to be the secretary for Jim Baker, the PTL club, said way back in 1987 that God gave her real peace about getting an interview, granting an interview to Playboy magazine, and then posing topless.

See, that's the kind of deception people can have. And the text says in verse 11, and such were some of you. You used to be the fornicator, and now you live a holy life because your life has been bought by Christ.

You are a new creature. Old things have passed away, 2 Corinthians 5, behold, new things have come. The gospel is a gospel of grace, and the gospel, the good news of God's grace through Christ Jesus given to sinners, is a grace that changes people from one level of glory to the next.

If you are saved, you are not the same person you used to be. Sure you may struggle, sure you may sin, but you are not the same person, and you cannot say to yourself, I am the same person, I live the same way, because if you do, you would be deceived.

You would be deceived. It's obvious, 1 John says, chapter 3, by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness as a lifestyle, as a habit, as a direction, is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

And so you must be careful that there is a grace that is greater than all our sins, and that grace transforms people. You are saved by God's grace alone, faith alone. But that faith that alone saves is flooded with, is commensurate with, is followed by works.

And the sanctification without, no one shall see the Lord, Hebrews 12, 14. So you say to yourself, is there a faith that doesn't save? Yes, that was a dawning in my mind, that was important for me to know, that there was a faith that didn't save.

John 2, many believed in his name, but Jesus did not commit himself to them. There is a faith that does not save. John 12, many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him.

They didn't have saving faith. It was an intellectual faith. It was less than saving faith. It was an aborted faith. Luke 8, these have no root, which for a while believe. There's a temporary faith, a false faith, a non-saving faith, a faith that says, Jesus, you be my Savior, but not my Lord.

If you think I'm going to change my lifestyle for you, you've got another thing coming, God. I like to sin, you like to forgive, we've got a good arrangement. Don't be deceived. God can never be divided.

Jesus is received as Christ the Lord, and so you walk in him. Even look in the book of Acts, Savior occurs twice, I believe, in the acts of the apostles, in the acts of the Holy Spirit, and the Lord is mentioned 92 times.

Lord Jesus, 13 times. The Lord Jesus Christ, 6 times. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Don't be deceived because you've got some relatives who have died, and they died carnally, they died in some other religion, and you get all emotional about it.

I'm sorry to say that what is done is done, but for you who are living today, you must believe in the real gospel. Spurgeon said to his students, if the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will, but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved.

G .I. Packer said, if 10 years ago you had told me that I would live to see the day where literate evangelicals, some with doctorates and a seminary teaching record, arguing for the reality of an eternal salvation, divinely guaranteed, that may have in it no repentance, no discipleship, no behavioral change, no practical acknowledgment of Christ as Lord of one's life, and no perseverance in faith, I would have told you that you were out of your mind, stark, staring, bonkers, is the British phrase I probably would have used.".

So don't be deceived. You could possibly be deceived thinking that you can take Jesus as Savior, not Lord, and you can go on and live your life without repentance, without a faith that's transforming you, and you can just say, you know, I need my hell insurance, and we're good to go.

You are deceived, and so today could be a good divine wake-up call for you. There's another area of deception that could be found in the Bible. Do not be deceived is found four times in the New Testament with these exact words.

There are other ways to be deceived, but using these particular words, there are four times don't be deceived is used. Second time is found in 1 Corinthians, and here's what you ought to watch out for.

The Resurrection and an Eternal Perspective

You, if you're not careful, based on society, based on culture, based on living on this earth, based on being in a body, you might not live with an eternal perspective. And you, if you're a Christian, need to guard your hope of the resurrection.

You need to have an eternal perspective. You need to lock onto or latch onto the eternal perspective found in 1 Corinthians 15. And so, let's look at 1533. Do not be deceived, the exact same word, two words in the Greek, bad company corrupts good morals.

Now, lots of times we use that just kind of as a proverb, and of course it's true as a general proverb, bad company corrupts good morals, and you say that to your kids on the way out to go to high school or whatever.

And so, we want to be a little more cautious to see what the text says specifically in context, because the big context is, in 1 Corinthians 15, it's the resurrection chapter. There are negative implications of denying the resurrection.

And when you hang out with those who do deny the physical resurrection of anybody, including the body of Jesus Christ, when you hang out with those who deny the literal resurrection of Jesus and any other person, you hang out with people who say, when you're dead, you're dead, this is all that life has, there's no spirit, there's no eternity, there's no heaven.

When you hang out with people like that who are practical Sadducees who deny the resurrection, it will rub off. You will be influenced. That's just the way we are. We are influenceable people. Guard your eternal perspective by watching out for associations with people who deny the resurrection.

For people who live for today, he with the most toys wins. For those that have no accountability, for those that are propagating evolution, you need to guard yourself against that kind of thinking, because it'll rub off.

And you need to guard yourself toward the hope of the resurrection. Guard against those who say no. Guard unto this hope of the resurrection. It is a vital doctrine. Jesus in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 has blazed a trail for your resurrection.

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ also be made alive.

And did you know your resurrection is all planned? It's all planned. This is not some kind of blind faith thing. It is all planned. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 23 and following. But each in his own order.

Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at his coming. Then comes the end when he will deliver, when he delivers up the kingdom to the God and the Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

See all this is perfectly planned. He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. There will be a total and complete conquest using language very familiar to those who read the Old Testament.

And the last enemy that will be abolished is death. And he puts all things in subjection to his feet. The resurrection also in chapter 15 verse 30 puts temporal trials in proper perspective. When you think about the resurrection to come and the hope of eternal life, you'll look at your trials in the right way and you'll have good incentive to serve today even though life is difficult.

Paul says in verse 30, why are we also in danger every hour? And he's talking about his death that he dies daily practically. He is in every day dying, ready to die because he's in peril for the gospel ministry.

And then he says, if from human motives I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, what profit does it do me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. So now he comes to the passage in verse 33 and 34, watch out and guard your eternal perspective.

Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Don't buy into the damning deviant doctrine that denies the resurrection. There's a little alliteration there. The damning deviant doctrine that denies the resurrection.

Don't do that. Don't somehow have a mental worldview that adopts beliefs, which will lead to behavior that does not consider the resurrection. You would need glasses to somehow correct your myopia. And now use 1 Corinthians 15 as spiritual glasses to correct your spiritual myopia for just seeing things that are too close.

Look up, look out, look beyond this world. You can be deceived and you can either be an influencer or you can be the influenced. That's why local church is so important because you can be around other Christians who say, I'm not living for today, I'm living for the Lord for eternity.

And I want to be like 1 Corinthians 15, 34 goes on to say, become sober minded as you ought and stop sinning for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Wake up, come to your senses, man.

Live for the present like the pagans were. No way. Who wants to be shamed and do that? And now you can take a look at this eternal perspective in anything you do. Work and school, dishes, diaper, oil, diapers, oil change.

You say, you know what? I'm doing this for the Lord. This is kingdom work. We need to make sure we don't deny the resurrection because 1 John 3 says everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.

We want to make sure we keep our eyes up. Well, we're talking today on No Compromise Radio about being deceived. Don't be deceived. You can be deceived even if you're a Christian. You can be deceived by thinking you used to live, you live like you used to and still be saved.

That's a lie. You can say, well, I can hang out with people who, you know, all my best friends and all my associates and all my other friends, you know, they're all denying the resurrection and I'll rub off on them.

You can be deceived. Number three, the third deception is you must never blame God for your sin. Or I could expand that. Don't blame God for anything. Paul says, James says in James chapter 1 verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Don't be deceived. And what is the context? If verse 16 says don't be deceived, there's a context and that context is in James 1 .13 about people who say temptations from God. You can't say you're tempted by God.

You can't say God is tempted by evil. You can't say God tempts anyone. You can't say that at all. No one should ever, ever, ever, ever, ever say it's a present imperative that God somehow tempts me. That, you know, I can blame and I could say, well, the woman you put here, God, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.

No, that's depravity. That's wrong thinking. That's insanity that somehow God is responsible for some kind of sin that you committed. Oh, I'm only human. That kind of language is blaming God. He made me with a capacity to sin.

And Ecclesiastes said properly that God made men upright, but men have fallen in Adam. God doesn't have to try to trip people up. He guides people in the paths of righteousness. That's what he does. God's character is holy, absolutely holy.

His eyes are too pure to look upon evil. Habakkuk 1, you are never able to forgive God because he never does anything wrong. God is untemptable and he can't tempt other people. He has no experience in some kind of evil and sin.

He himself does not tempt anyone. His character, he's holy and his actions are holy. Does God test men and try them with Abraham and Isaac or Job or King Hezekiah or you? The answer is true, but he tries them and tempts you without evil intent.

He tests you to strengthen your faith, never to induce you to sin. And so, each one is tempted when he is carried away by his own lust, carried away and enticed by his own lust. The temptation doesn't come from the outside, whether it's Satan, environment, culture, worldviews or God himself.

No, the problem is on the inside. Each one, each individual without an exception is tempted when he's carried away by his own lust. So don't blame anyone anymore. Don't say, I've got an Irish heritage, PMS, all these other kind of things.

I'm not going to blame anyone. I made myself sin. I made myself sin. These may contribute to a background where it might be easier to stumble into sin, but they never make you sin. Don't be deceived. You could be deceived.

The world's going to tell you, you don't do that. The world's going to give you all kinds of medicine to say, you're okay, I'm okay, you're okay. But the Bible says, don't be deceived. Well, there's one last thing we need to talk about when it comes to being deceived.

Sowing, Reaping, and Supporting Gospel Workers

The fourth area that you could be deceived in, there could be more, but just these two Greek words that make up the four English words, do not be deceived, is you need to lay up treasures in heaven. Galatians chapter six, do not be deceived.

God is not mocked for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. Paul's getting to the end of Galatians and we probably should see the verse before, and let each, excuse me, and let the one who has taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.

And so, if you receive instruction from Bible teachers, you need to think through this verse. As Jews back in the old Testament were taxed for the support of the, Jews were taxed to support the priests.

What about sharing things, money, I'm not here to try to get more things from my congregation at all, I'm probably overpaid, I'm sure I am overpaid knowing what I deserve and what I kind of sinner I am and was, but you want to share all things with the instructor.

And basically what happens, if you look at the expositors commentary, it says, to support the Lord's servants is not, however, a grim duty, though some congregations seem to treat it as such. Instead, Paul speaks of it as sharing, it is a fellowship or a partner.

As the teacher shares the good things of the word, so the congregation is to share all good things with the teacher. You are not to think about your pastor and say to yourself and the congregation, we got to keep him humble, don't pay him much.

No, the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the labor is worthy of his wages. Did you know that's in 1 Timothy 5? Did you know 1 Corinthians 9 says, so also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel?

Technically, you don't pay the pastor, you share with him based on Galatians 6. You fellowship with him, you share with him, and that's exactly what you ought to do. You say, well, the Bible has taught me this and I ought to do it.

I don't feel like it, I don't want to do it. If the pastor makes more than I do, I'm mad. That's typically what churches do. Well, I don't want the pastor to make more than I do. And so you say to yourself, if the pastor's in it to make money and to get rich, he's in it for the wrong reasons.

But you ought to say, I contribute to the pastor, I fellowship with the pastor, and let's make sure he and his family are taken care of if he preaches the word. If he doesn't preach the word, then I think you should fire him, but if he does preach the word, you cannot pay your pastor enough.

It's worth a million dollars to your soul, isn't it? To have a pastor who will teach you the word of God, Christ crucified and resurrected verse by verse. This is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. We talked today about being deceived.

First thing is, you have to recognize you could be deceived, and Paul and James have talked a lot about deception. Don't be deceived. Fill your scripture, fill your mind with scripture, and say to yourself, Lord, help me be wise.

Put me in a good local church where other people can help me not be deceived.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.