Do Not Be Deceived

2 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll read the entire chapter. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll read the entire chapter.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll read the entire chapter.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll read the entire chapter.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll read the entire chapter. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll read the entire chapter. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll read the entire chapter. Because they refused to love the truth and be saved.

and for this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will be believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness but we ought always to thank God for you brothers loved by the Lord because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth he called you to this through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ so then brothers stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you whether by word of mouth or by letter may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word the Lord Jesus said to his own disciples watch out that you are not deceived James writes don't be deceived my dear brothers the apostle Paul says don't let anyone deceive you in any way and again do not deceive yourselves all spoken to believers now that's just a sampling of the warnings about being deceived in fact the word deceive in its various forms is found about 150 times in our Bibles and my question to start with is why such warnings from the Lord Jesus and the authors of the Bible about being deceived and the answer of course is because the danger is very real God doesn't waste words warning us about things that aren't dangerous he doesn't post warning signs where there is no threat but just as you parents out of love to your children say watch out don't be deceived by this or that so our heavenly father comes to us in scripture and out of love says watch out you my children are vulnerable to deception watch out that no one deceives you in any way so we recently studied our threefold enemy the world and the flesh and the devil and these are three great reasons we're vulnerable to being deceived I just want to go quickly through them because we spent some time with that but it's particularly applicable to this issue of deception first of all the reason we're warned don't be deceived is because of Satan's lies once upon a time there was a world in which there were no lies and only the truth was spoken it was the world as God created it to be with Adam and Eve living in perfect harmony and peace with each other and with God and in supreme happiness and then state Satan started speaking and what came out of his mouth were lies did God say you will surely die if you eat from this forbidden tree you will not surely die it was a lie wasn't it and Eve was deceived

Satan got her to believe that his lie was the truth and that God was really the one who was lying isn't that something he actually got a perfect woman without sin to think that God was lying to her her blessed creator and so Jesus says of him there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks his native language he is a liar and the father of lies think of all the lies being told in the world today and you can trace them all right up the family tree to the father of lies he's the father of lies and he's a good liar sometimes our children came to us and you could tell by the look on their face that what they said was not true Satan is not like that he's a good liar he had Eve deceived a sinless woman found his lies more convincing than God's truth so if she was deceived there's good reason for us to watch out lest we be deceived secondly there's the fact that the world believes and repeats his lies it would be enough to watch if we just had the devil and all his deceiving spirits to deal with but it's no longer just one voice spouting lies he leads the whole world astray revelation 12 9 the whole world system has bought into his lies and now repeats them as truth so this world is now a place where truth has fallen in the streets and Satan's lies predominate that's that's God's picture of the world a whole world going astray following Satan's lies like children following the Pied Piper we're blind to the truth the truth of the gospel the truth of where eternal life is found and because Satan's lies predominate in the world that gives credence to his lies lies repeated often enough by enough people are soon perceived as truth take the lie of evolution that all things have evolved out of lower life forms you and I included there's not a shred of evidence for it and yet it has been repeated enough times by enough professors enough textbooks enough people in high places that it has been swallowed as truth that's the power that the world gives to the devil's lies so Satan told his first lie through a talking snake didn't he children he now tells his lies through televisions radios internet through institutions governments schools

PhDs through churches and ministers through friends through books in many ways and it's the endorsement of the world that gives Satan's lies all the more make them all the more believable so that's why we need to be careful lest we be deceived Satan's lying and the world's believing and repeating his lies but the third danger of being deceived is the worst of all and it's the deceitfulness of your own sinful flesh and that's what we saw in our threefold study Jeremiah 17 9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure who can understand it now I wonder if we understand this verse this is talking about the heart of every sinner as they come into this world every unconverted person every lost person this is true of their heart not only is Satan deceitful not only is the world deceitful and sin deceitful but your own heart by nature is more deceitful than all of these your own heart will lie to you it's that deceitful so when the world and the devil are telling their lies your heart will tell you that's the truth you know what she just said that's reality for me the sinful nature is prone to self deceit the sinful heart is prone to believing lies rather than the truth by nature we like lies more than the truth and that's the dirty little secret behind why the devil's lies find such success in the world we don't love the truth we don't love the truth it does not flatter us it does not support our sinful desires and lifestyle it calls us to repent or perish and we don't like either option and so we believe a lie instead we exchange the truth for a lie we give up

God's truth and we take a lie it appeals more to us it scratches where our itching ears want to be scratched now if you're following the Lord Jesus Christ excuse me if you're not following the Lord Jesus Christ this morning if he's not your savior and your Lord then this is true of you you're following the devil's lies because you don't love the truth and when people suppress the truth and refuse to love the truth the Bible says God gives them over to believe a lie that's why we read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and it tells us how Satan deceives those who are perishing and how people will be deceived in the last days they perish because they refused not to hear the truth they refused to love the truth that's why they perish they refuse to love the truth and so be saved and 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 that's true of you if you're lost this morning but if you are a Christian this morning Jeremiah 17 9 is no longer true of you your heart is no longer deceitful above all things and beyond cure for God has cured that heart by the power of his grace God has given you a new heart through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit he's taken out that heart of stone that didn't love God's truth and wouldn't bow to God's ways and he's put in a soft pliable heart that loves God's word and loves his ways but though your sinful flesh no longer reigns in you it does still remain in your heart as we saw in our study and that means that in the best

Christian there is still a part of you there's still a part in your heart that is called the flesh that would rather believe the lie than to believe the truth that's not the whole of you that's not the entire word about your heart but there is still that flesh that we see in Romans 7 Galatians 5 and other places and that's why even believers are repeatedly warned by the Lord Jesus and his apostles and New Testament scriptures as well as old do not be deceived and even more so do not deceive yourselves well that's different isn't it do not be deceived by the world by the devil but don't deceive yourself you mean there's a part of me that would lie to me yes so do not deceive yourself James tells us that twice

Paul in his epistles John in 1 John 1a do not deceive yourself saying you don't have sin in your life these are real ways that we can deceive ourselves so we're still in danger even as Christians of self deception and of being deceived and so our kind heavenly father warns us to not be deceived and these warnings in the word of God are themselves tools instruments means by which God keeps his children from being deceived the very warnings alert us to our danger and are the means that God uses to keep us from self deception and he's also given us a book that exposes Satan's lies for every lie that we face there is in scripture a truth that exposes that lie and that's something of all the lies in the world being told there is a truth here that says that is a lie in fact what are lies but distortions of the truth

God says you will die if you eat from this tree and Satan's lies no you will not die it's a distortion of what God has said and so bless God he's given us a new heart Christian he's given us his Holy Spirit he's given us the scriptures and he's given us these warnings to keep us from being deceived by them is your servant warned and in the keeping of them there's great reward now I want to mention some of the more common lies of the day as we studied this in our threefold enemy I didn't want to take a time out and spend time on it but having finished that study I want to come back to it if the devil is such a liar if the world is just repeating his lies and if our hearts are prone that there is a part of us prone to deception what are some of the common lies in the world now there's hundreds of them so I had to be selective let me give you seven the first is there is no

God there is no God now that's an old lie isn't it 2700 years ago the psalmist said the fool says in his heart there is no God that's just a lie isn't it there is no God he's lying to himself he says in his own heart there is no God but you see the lie suits him better than the truth it suits him better than the truth that there is a God who made us and one day is going to judge us and if he finds any sinner with any sin not under the blood of Jesus is going to damn them forever that's an uncomfortable truth to live with and so men would rather say there is no God it's gone don't have to worry about that I just keep telling myself there's no God there's no God and as every liar has found when you once tell one lie you've got to tell another lie don't you to back up the first lie and it's that way with this lie there is no

God well then naturalistic evolution is the next lie to support the lie that there is no God I mean you look around and you look at yourself you just look at the way God made us and you say there's no God how do you explain that well there's naturalistic ways to explain everything we don't need God anymore to explain anything in the universe and so one lie helps forward the cause of another lie everything can be accounted by naturalistic causes over long periods of time and the one lie makes the other lie more believable but the Bible counters both lies with its very opening words when it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth you see it slays both lies in the beginning there was already God and he is the creator things did not evolve from lower life forms into mankind and so on so the

Bible speaks the truth and yet the reality is that billions of people daily eat the food breathe the air enjoy the gifts of the one they say does not exist and every day they get closer to their appointment with that one that they say does not exist though there are not many atheists in our own land comparatively speaking think for a moment of the masses living under atheistic communism in China alone perhaps one out of seven grows up under atheism then take Russia and the old USSR and those that were under communistic atheism where people are taught from infancy that there is no God I mean it's not just that no one's teaching them that there is a God but they are positively being told children there is no God religion is simply the opium of the masses it's an illusionary drug

God is an imaginary crutch to help weak people get through hard times the Bible is a book of lies written by men evolution is the truth that's what they grow up with and it's sold as the truth and there's not only communistic atheism but there's secular atheism so popular in France and in much of Europe that once had the truth about God but is now promoting there is no God indeed as David Vaughn wrote in his October letter that regards religion as a harmful influence which atrophies and deforms the intelligence so young people if you want to be bright be sure you don't believe in this silly nonsense about a God remember the way he wrote about their daughter Michelle and how she brought that very respectable high school friend over for the night and they gathered to eat their meal and

David started to pray and give thanks to God she immediately started laughing uncontrollably it was laughable to her to see a man and a family close their eyes and talk to someone she couldn't see here's a 16 year old girl and she had not seen a person praying to God in France young people what if you'd have grown up in communistic atheism and secular atheism of Europe what if since infancy you were not taught the holy scriptures but you were taught there's no God and everybody around you was saying there's no God what's the likelihood you'd be sitting in a church this morning worshiping God do you see how kind God has been to you but do you see how Satan has spread his lie oh then love and fear and obey and serve God as your

God dear Christian as we hear about these lies and we go through them maybe this isn't something you've been tricked by you believe in God right but may we use this as an opportunity to worship God why do I believe in God has he come to me with his truth and cause my heart to believe in him whom I've not yet seen and to love his truth that I once hated then worship him and realize what a privilege salvation is the Bible is very clear in Titus 3 that at one time we too were foolish disobedient deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared he saved us thank God he saved us from the lies that we would still be holding what lies would you be believing today had he not saved you well then we need to get the saving truth to people don't we who are still believing the lie the second lie salvation is not only through

Jesus Christ there are many roads to heaven think of the masses under the darkness of this lie you must put into this lie all the world religions outside of Christianity there are just so many lies Islam Hinduism Buddhism Christless Judaism Animism they all offer salvations through their own ways not through Jesus Christ while I was up in Grand Rapids at the youth retreat I had an opportunity to speak with Pastor Dave Merrick who just returned from Nashik India one of the four holy cities in Hinduism and he said that every 12 years over a period of 45 days as many as 100 million Hindus will come to Nashik they'll make a pilgrimage to this holy city to wash in the Godavari river believing that if they come there to that holy place and wash in that dirty filthy river that their sins will be washed away and they will receive eternal life my friend as we sit here and worship the Lord

Jesus through whose blood alone sin can be washed away millions hundreds of millions of people are going to be washing in a polluted river thinking that is what will wash their sins away you see the world is believing the lie and repeating it millions deceived pity pray for such and get the truth of the gospel to them we have the same in our own land Christianity today voted as one of today's most influential spiritual leaders none other than Oprah Winfrey just recognizing her influence her spiritual influence upon our land and for many years this talk show host pumped the devil's lies of new age spirituality right into the homes of countless millions no need for Jesus

Christ you just get in touch with all the power you need right within you she would bring her gurus on to tell you how to do that there's no end to the variations on this lie that there are many ways to salvation and the Lord Jesus was surely aware of these lies not only of those being told in his day but of those that we would be hearing today and so he says in John 14 6 I am the way I am the truth I am the life and no one comes to the father except through me now to believe that today will cause people to call you narrow-minded bigoted radical fundamentalists but it's the truth we must not be ashamed of our savior in this wicked generation that believes satan's lies the apostle Peter stood up and said salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved and he said it when those words would bring him persecution when

Jesus was not a popular name in Jerusalem and though the scriptures so plainly teach salvation only through Jesus Christ how many this morning as we sit here are under the delusion the lie of the devil that there can be salvation found in other ways but then there's not there are other lies that are being told in the Christian church not just the world religions there's lies being told from pulpits and from inside churches indeed Peter warned us about those who would twist the scriptures to their own destruction he's not talking about the pagans that don't know the scriptures he's talking about those who call themselves Christians they have the Christian book the Bible and they twist it to their own destruction and so the New Testament is riddled with warnings about false teachers and let me just mention a couple of lies being taught within the church the first is that being a good person will take you to heaven when you die it's a lie heard from many pulpits across our land and it's the lie that's often repeated at funerals she was a good lady she never hurt anybody she did a lot of good for other people she was a member of such and such a church for so many years she was baptized and so she's in heaven as if entrance into heaven is earned by the good things a person does in this life that's the one thing that all religions!

in common that each has their own definition of what has to be done to get to heaven but it's all what we do whether it's praying five times toward the east making a pilgrimage making a blood sacrifice washing in a holy river keeping the ten commandments keeping the golden rule this is one of the greatest lies being told in Christian churches both Protestant and Roman Catholic that your good works are what gets you into heaven and makes you right with God you know that you talk to people you hear what their confidence is in I mean I'm a pretty good person I think he'll accept me in the end it's a damning lie because as long as they are resting on anything that they do for salvation they are not resting entirely upon Christ and what he does for sinners salvation and so the Bible again exposes the eye on observing the law to be saved if you want to go the law route to be saved then you're under a curse because cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law you want to go the law right you've got to have perfect obedience and so can you not see that you're cursed so here's two broad jumpers and and there's a chasm they're jumping over this chasm that's hanging out over the grand canyon and and one only makes it five feet and falls to his death and the other makes it 19 feet and six inches but the chasm is 20 feet you see they both fell they both came short doesn't matter how many works you do they all come short and they're less than perfection and if you're going the works route you've got to be perfect and so the

Bible exposes the lie that there's something you contribute to salvation you only contribute to your sin that makes you need what Jesus does for salvation your good works don't count for anything do you know in justification God doesn't even look at your works he looks at Christ's works and if you trust in Christ he puts Christ's works on your account doesn't have anything to do with what you've done or haven't done he looks at what Jesus has done that's what justifies you and makes you right with God and so the Bible exposes this lie he saved us not because of righteous things we have done ever thought why does why does the Bible have to negate that why do we have to have such verses in the Bible saying it's not because of righteous things we have done I'll tell you why because people think that you're saved by righteous things that you do why does Ephesians 2 8 and 9 say it's by grace you've been saved through faith and this not from yourselves it's the gift of

God not by works so that no one boasts why all this not not by works not by yourself not because and God in grace is warning don't be deceived don't be deceived look to my savior where alone is found eternal life but an equally damning lie that's deceiving many in American Christianity is the lie number four you can be saved without repenting of your sins the lie this lie denies the previous lie of salvation by works oh no we're not saved by our works Jesus is the only savior and I prayed that Jesus would save me and I asked him to save me and I kept on living my same sinful life but you know we're saved by grace not by our works I keep disobeying

God's law that's what characterizes my life but we're saved by grace do you see the lie do you see how subtle it is it it jumps into the ditch on the other side of the truth that of looking to our own works and so pollsters can find no significant difference in the moral lives of professing Christians and those who don't profess to be Christians they think they can be saved without repenting of their sins!

have heard those words not everyone who claims me as Lord yeah Jesus and me we're buddies he's my Lord he's my savior not all of those will inherit the kingdom but only those who do the will of my father who is in heaven only boys and girls who do the will of my father only men and women who do the will of my father no one else will many will call Jesus their Lord in that day and tell of the many religious things that they did Lord didn't we go to church every Sunday and Lord didn't we give and weren't we members and weren't we this and that and didn't we keep the golden rule and he will say I never knew you depart from me you workers of iniquity why does he!

say! such harsh thing he is wanting to expose the lie that is taking people to hell by the church false church is a social thing we go to church but Jesus is not the savior and it's seen because they don't do the will of the father in heaven you're doing the will of the father in heaven does not earn heaven for you it doesn't earn salvation it only proves that God has saved you by faith that is real faith that is not dead faith faith that is not worthless faith as James tells us a faith that repents that's the only saving faith that there is and so Galatians tells us the acts of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality impurity he's talking to Christian those who call themselves Christians he's talking to those in the Galatian churches!

idolatry witchcraft hatred discord jealousy fits of rage selfish ambition dissensions factions and envy drunkenness orgies and the like and I warn you Galatian professing Christians I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God why spend time warning and rewarning the church about such a thing unless it's because some in the church think that they are on their way to heaven when their life says otherwise and God in love is warning so he says in Galatians 6 don't be deceived God can't be tricked you can't fool God a man reaps what he sows the one who sows to please his flesh from the flesh will reap destruction!

the life but there are some in the church who think I can sow every day to please my flesh that's the driving force of my life I do what I want to do and in the end I'll reap everlasting life don't be deceived Paul says won't happen you may deceive yourself you can't deceive God and it wasn't just a problem in the Galatian churches the church at Ephesus gets this letter for this you can be sure Ephesians 5 no immoral impure greedy person such a man as an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God impure greed do those acts define your life you can be sure of this you will have no place 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 you see if these sins define you you you're not a

Christian you're not heading for God's heaven you're heading for God's wrath and he's speaking these things to the church in Ephesus as it's found in the gospels is repent for the kingdom of God is at hand repent turn from your sins and come to me that's that's the gospel of Jesus Christ it includes turning from our sins unless you repent you will all likewise perish Jesus says in Luke 13 3 all saving faith is repenting faith and if you claim to have saving faith and are not turning from your sins you are deceived and the Bible gives you no grounds whatsoever to believe that you are a Christian for those who love God will keep his commandments and repent when they fall God has now commanded all men everywhere to repent that is to confess and forsake your sins to turn from them with hatred and disgust and with cries to

God for help against them it was the same in Corinth 1st Corinthians 6 do you not know the church this is church stuff do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God you should know this he's saying do not be deceived evidently there's some of you there in Corinth that think that you can remain wicked and still inherit the kingdom no don't be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God now that's what some of you were he says but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God you see what he's saying those who are saved by the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit will forsake their evil practices and walk in newness of life obeying

God's commandments and yet there are scores of professing Christians today who are deceived on this very point they are claiming that a man can be a Christian homosexual do not be deceived they will not inherit the kingdom of God that leads us to our fifth lie Jesus loves and accepts us just as we are Jesus loves and accepts us just as we are some of you will remember Ray Bolts was a successful recording artist of Christian music for many years wrote and sang that song people need the Lord many others that I'm sure many of you would know and then he broke the news that he was a homosexual and he left his wife and pursued his homosexual lifestyle but he's still claiming to be a

Christian and he's still writing Christian music still writing and receiving awards for spiritual songs one of his newer songs is don't tell me who to love but he claims to be a Christian he's talking all about Jesus Jesus loves and accepts us just as we are that's what he said the only people Jesus ever judged when he was on earth were religious people who thought they had it all together and looked down at others who didn't you see he's believed the lie homosexual offenders will not inherit the kingdom of God now there is salvation for those sinners just as there is for us we come through the one blood of the one cross of the one savior and we cannot look down our noses at them but we must come to them pleading that they will see the truth they will see the lie that they are believing and the cleansing blood of

Jesus does not leave people as homosexuals makes them new creatures in Christ Jesus such were some of you you no longer are a homosexual you were and then Jesus blood washed you the spirit of God cleansed you and made you a new creature in Christ Jesus if Jesus accepts us just as we are then why did Jesus come into the world and suffer damnation and die on a cross if Jesus accepts and loves us just as we are then why is there a day of judgment why is there hell why are we called to repent of our sins or perish by this Jesus you see the truth is that you and I are not acceptable just as we are to Jesus he's too holy to look on sin and our sins are what make us rejected by

God the only way we're acceptable to God is to be found in Christ Jesus to have him damned in our place so bad and unacceptable were we to have his righteousness cover us so foul were we every one of us to have his Holy Spirit give us a new heart that will turn us from our old ways and bring us trusting in Christ and walking in the truth we're only accepted in the beloved in the beloved Jesus who refuses to leave us as he finds us in sin so if you were a sexually immoral person when Jesus saved you he doesn't accept your immoral lifestyle he loves you so much that he's not going to stand for you continuing to be ruled by that sin but is going to change you by his Holy Spirit and make you a sexually pure person and if you a greedy person when Jesus saved you he's going to make you a generous person he's not going to leave you under the slavery of that sin either he's determined to make you as holy as himself and he begins that work at once in all whom he saves none of this accepting you just as you are in the sense of leaving you just as you are that's simply another lie to make people comfortable in their sins and to remain deceived about their eternal state and there's another lie number six be true to yourself and follow your heart have you heard that be true to yourself follow your heart it's the stuff that they put on coffee mugs or on another

Ray Bolt song I will choose to love though they shake their fists at me I will be myself and live in authenticity I will be myself and authenticity that's the word of the day isn't it just be yourself be true to yourself follow your heart it comes from the father of lies be true to yourself but what if myself is sinful and fallen and self centered what if my flesh within says get even lie steal follow your heart but what if my heart is deceitful above all things what if my heart lies to me what if my heart says live for yourself John ignore God's commands what what a damning lie to tell people to be true to themselves and to follow their hearts hell is populated with people who are true to themselves and follow their hearts rather the prophet

Jeremiah says no the pride of your heart has deceived you talked about this in Sunday school didn't we that's what makes it so hard when we're evaluating ourselves because the pride of our hearts can deceive and lead us astray and the bible says there is a way that seems right to a man and we look at and we evaluate that's the right way but in reality it leads to destruction and so he who trusts in himself is a fool but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding no I dare not be true to myself and follow my heart. I must be suspicious of myself and the flesh within and be true to the Lord and follow his word. And lastly, the last lie we'll consider. I have plenty of time to get right with God. You see, I haven't fallen to any of these other lies. I realize there's a God. I realize Jesus is the only way. I realize I can't get to heaven unless I repent of my sins.

I realize I can't just follow the way that seems right and be true to myself and follow my... I know all of that. Those are lies. But you may be under one of the devil's most pernicious lies, and that is that you have plenty of time to repent and get right with God. So I don't need to do it today. I certainly don't need to do it today. And God's word says, do not boast about tomorrow. You do not know what a day will bring forth. It is a lie to say, I have plenty of time. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. Outside of Jesus Christ, you are one breath away from eternity in hell. You are just one moment away when that oncoming car slides on the ice into your lane and you're in eternity. That person's looking down at her phone and one second later, you're in eternity. Don't believe the devil's lie of tomorrow. Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow has ever been the devil's work. The devil's lie. Well, there's many other lies. There's many other lies that we believers fall prey to, like there's more pleasure in sin than in pleasing God. And there are times in our lives that we fall to that lie.

This thing would be more pleasurable. Saying these words would be more pleasurable. Doing this would be more pleasurable than enjoying God's fellowship unclouded by sin. And we fall to the lie.

Live for today. Now is all that matters. A lot of that being done. I can scoop hot coals into my lap and not be burned. I can play with temptation. I won't be burned. The other guy might, but not me.

All of these lies and many more. As we've looked at God's portrait of the world, it's a picture of an unconverted world going to hell. And what's leading them there? Their lies. From without, reinforced by the world, reinforced by the world, reinforced by the world, and agreeing by their own deceitful hearts. And they're going. I plead with you, unconverted friend, come to Jesus Christ today.

Embrace him who is the truth, in whom alone is salvation from sin. And if you're a believer today, think about that. What lies would I be believing today had Jesus just left me to myself?

And then worship the God who found you deceived and following the devil's lies and powerfully brought you to himself and his truth and gave you the Holy Spirit and a Bible that exposes Satan's lies so that you might not be deceived by anyone with fine-sounding arguments. All that you might know him who is the truth and be saved from the coming wrath. And even as Christians, when we start believing lies, he convicts us by the truth and he brings the truth to mind and he brings us back into the way and he renews our repentance and renews our faith and so keeps us from falling completely away.

Worship him, love him, serve him by walking in the truth. And secondly, bear witness. Bear witness to the truth of the gospel.

This picture of the world going astray, following lies, and here God has planted you in this world with the truth, the only truth that will set men free. It exposes the lies. Can you draw near to sinners?

And try to identify what are the lies this person is believing? And can you help by pointing them to the truth to expose those lies?

Can you pray that God would give light to their hearts and save them lest it be too late for them? May the Lord help us and make us worshipers of him and witnesses for him in a world that's following lies.

Let's pray. Lord, who are we that we should be found in a land where we're not being taught from infancy that there is no God?

We didn't choose our place of birth. We didn't choose our family, our churches. You've been gracious to us and we pause to thank you. And for a host of other lies that you've saved us from, we were once deceived, every one of us, following that broad road that leads to destruction.

So thank you for delivering so many of us from going our own way, thinking it was the right way. And Lord, would you protect us?

Would you keep us from all deceitful paths and be gracious to us through your word? Would you help us to stand in a world of lies, unashamed of the truth and with a burden for people who are this very day following lies?

Have mercy upon all those living under communist and secularistic atheism. Come and reveal yourself that you are the Lord.

Save, we pray, through the Lord Jesus. For those who are trusting in their own works, for those who are thinking they're saved when they've never turned from their sins, have mercy on them, Lord.

Open their eyes. Have mercy on Ray Bolts. Bring the gospel and power to his heart. pull off those blinders of the devil who's taken him captive to do his will.

Show him the loveliness of the Lord Jesus and save him and thousands of others like him to the praise of Jesus Christ, the one who washes and cleanses and justifies us and makes us different from what we were and makes us different from what we would be.

We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.