Deception (Part 02) - Be Not Deceived, The Nature of Deception

---

 

III. The warning to be not deceived 1. Many people will be deceived (Mat 24:5, 11). A. Deceive v. - 1. trans. To ensnare; to take unawares by craft or guile; to overcome, overreach, or get the better of by trickery; to beguile or betray into mischief or sin; to mislead. Obs. (or arch.) 2. To cause to believe what is false; to mislead as to a matter of fact, lead into error, impose upon, delude, ‘take in’. b. absol. To use deceit, act deceitfully. c. refl. To allow oneself to be misled; to delude oneself. B. Delude v. - 1. trans. To play with (any one) to his injury or frustration, under pretence of acting seriously; to mock, esp. in hopes, expectations, or purposes; to cheat or disappoint the hopes of. Obs. 3. To befool the mind or judgement of, so as to cause what is false to be accepted as true; to bring by deceit into a false opinion or belief; to cheat, deceive, beguile; to impose upon with false impressions or notions. C. Many adj. - A. adj. The adjectival designation of great indefinite number. D. This means that the likelihood of being deceived is great. 2. God allows people to be deceived when He chooses to (Job 12:16). 3. Even the elect can be deceived (Mat 24:24). 4. Beware of those that would try to deceive you (Mat 24:4). A. Heed n. - 1. Careful attention, care, observation, regard. B. We must pay close attention to what we accept and believe because deception is accomplished by trickery. C. If we are not careful, we will not recognize the deception and be taken by it. 5. We are warned repeatedly to "be not deceived" (1Co 6:9; 1Co 15:33; Gal 6:7). A. Deceived ppl. adj. - Deluded, imposed upon, misled, mistaken, etc.: see the verb. B. All of these verses make it clear that we have a tendency to be deceived into thinking that sinful living does not have severe consequences. C. This type of deception is largely self deception (more on that later). D. We trick ourselves into thinking that we can sin and not be judged by the church for it because they won't find out (1Co 6:9). i. Be not deceived. ii. Your sin will find you out (Num 32:23). iii. Some men's sins get exposed and judged right away, and the rest will be judged in due time (1Ti 5:24-25). E. We trick our selves into thinking that we can hang out with ungodly people and their ways will not rub off on us (1Co 15:33). i. Be not deceived. ii. A companion of fools shall be destroyed (Pro 13:20). iii. If we are friends of ungodly people we will learn their ways (Pro 22:24-25). F. We trick ourselves into thinking that our foolish decisions will not have negative consequences (Gal 6:7). i. Be not deceived. ii. If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind (Hos 8:7). iii. If you sow sin and wickedness, you will reap the same (Job 4:8). 6. We are commanded to let no man deceive us (Deut 11:16; Eph 5:6; 1Jo 3:7). A. This means that it's possible to successfully resist deception. B. God will not command us to do something that is not possible for us to do (1Jo 5:3; Mat 11:30). 7. We are warned to let no man beguile us of our reward through false doctrine (Col 2:18). A. Beguile v. - 1. trans. To entangle or over-reach with guile; to delude, deceive, cheat. B. Deceivers will try to trick us into being burdened by extra-biblical commandments of men (Col 2:20-22). C. We must not let them do it (more on how to resist deception later). 8. We are commanded to let no man deceive us by any means (2Th 2:3). A. This means that there are numerous methods of deception. B. We must therefore be able to recognize the many ways men use to deceive in order to resist them. C. This outline is designed to help us do that. 9. Don't look down on people who are deceived because we all were deceived at one time (and probably still are in one way or another) before God saved us by His grace (Tit 3:3-7). IV. The nature of deception 1. A person who is deceived doesn't recognize that he is deceived. A. The Pharisees who were under the deception of Satan (Joh 8:44-47) thought that those that believed in Christ were deceived (Joh 7:47). i. It is common for deceived people to think that all but themselves are deceived. ii. This is why it's crucial to be careful to not become deceived, because once a person does, he thinks all others that disagree with him are deceived. iii. It is very hard to reason with a person in such a state. B. This is especially true of an idolater (Isa 44:17). i. God has shut his eyes and heart so that he can't see or understand (Isa 44:18). ii. Because he doesn't know he is deceived, he doesn't even think to consider his ways (Isa 44:19). iii. A deceived man therefore cannot deliver himself from the deception (Isa 44:20). a. Deceived adj. - Deluded, imposed upon, misled, mistaken, etc. b. He needs a preacher to instruct him and show him the error of his ways (2Ti 2:24-25). c. He needs God to give him repentance to the acknowledging of the truth (2Ti 2:25). d. And lastly, once he is aware of his error, he needs to be willing to repent of it and change his mind and deliver himself from the captivity of Satan (2Ti 2:26). C. We may not carve idols out of wood today, but if we have them in our hearts we will be under the same judgment of God (Eze 14:4-5; Col 3:5).