God will allow us to be deceived - Zac Poonen

the disciples came to Jesus and asked him when will this happen Lord verse 3 what the last part of verse 3 what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age Matthew 24 verse 3 what will be the indication that you're coming soon and the end of the age I believe we are approaching the end of the age when Christ will come soon and then the first thing Jesus said was make sure nobody deceives you that's the first thing beware of deception and he repeated it again and again beware of deception he said further on a number of times false prophets verse 11 will arise verse 20 for false prophets will arise showing miracles do you see all these signs and wonders on Christian television these signs and wonders being done in great healing Crusades with famous names you all know the names of these famous healers you're deceived I am NOT deceived I've already read scripture they will show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even God's children a lot of God's children will be deceived because they don't have the fear of God and he says I've told you in advance so the main sign that Jesus gave about the last days is deception that's why we keep on warning against deception in this in our church and in that connection I want to show you a verse which is very important in Matthew sorry 2nd Thessalonians in chapter 2 which I've taught in this church for 40 years as the way to be protected from deception if you want to be protected from all deception please listen to justice one verse and I guarantee you will be protected 2nd Thessalonians in chapter 2 and verse 10 and 11 speaking about the deception that will be there in the last days Satan's activity verse 9 will come with deceiving power signs miracles and all that and at all types of deception verse 10 but why do they these people get a lettuce tray by this two reasons written in verse 10 please remember these two reasons if you can escape these two dangers you'll be protected from deception they did not receive the love of the truth they did not love the truth what does that mean that means if I see something which God shows me as the truth for example I read scripture and I see something there and I say that's different from what I believed for so many years if I love the truth I'll change my view and accept what God's Word says when I got converted I had been baptized as a baby by my parents many years earlier and I thought that was good enough I was born again and there were many other born-again people who had taken only infant baptism so I did not take baptism I said I'm saved Christ has forgiven me but I studied the Scriptures and I saw in the scripture clearly there was not even a single child baptized in the New Testament as always adult believers but I know people told me your church will throw you out and those are the people who need you need to witness - to bring them to Christ why go to a church where they're already believers they're already born-again stay here unconverted nominal Christians and bring them to Christ I said yeah that's a good idea and what God showed me in his world i disobeyed for the first one and a half years after I was born again and in all those one and a half years I never grew spiritually because I did not receive the love of the truth finally I said when I was when I was kneeling down before God in prayer God said if you're not listening to me why should I listen to you so I said Lord I don't care which church throws me out I'm going to obey you and I took baptism and from that moment I began to grow spiritually and I love the truth I know from my experience so the other way the other area where we need to love the truth is in some situation God shows you that you were wrong but you don't love the truth you will not acknowledge that you are wrong you will not apologize you want to defend yourself you will be deceived because you don't receive the love of the truth of yourself so it is either that you don't love the truth which God shows you from Scripture or you don't let see the love the truth which God shows you in your own life that was wrong God says there you were lusting after that woman be honest don't cover it up that statement you signed in your office was wrong it was a lie and you say no no no everybody does it okay you will ultimately go over everybody else goes to hell love the truth about yourself whenever God shows you sometimes you're sitting in a meeting like this and God speaks to your heart and you know Scott start convicting you about something don't shut down that voice listen to it love the truth then you'll be saved the second thing is you've got to love the truth and then you must have a desire to be saying so there are two things here I must love the truth and I must want to be saved verse 10 want to be saved from sin so if you don't have a desire to be saved from sin desperately in your life I don't have a desire to be saved from anger at any cost think of how much you're willing to pay a hospital if you were diagnosed with cancer and the doctor says it's going to be expensive the treatment otherwise you'll die or your child will die oh you'd be even willing to borrow money to get treated because you want to be freed from cancer I do not find believers who are as eager to be free from anger like they are desiring to be free from cancer are you free from anger in your home that's the place to test it in your office answer it's a cancer if you're not eager to be free from it you don't have a desire to be saved what about all that lusting that goes on in your mind sexual lust are you desperately eager to be free from it like to be free from cancer and I'm willing to pay any price if not I want to tell you my brother you may not be widely deceide you'll be deceived a little bit because you don't have a passionate desire to be saved from all sin so those are the two conditions you must love the truth verse 10 must want to be saved from all sin and if you are not having either of these two it says here is what it will happen to you verse 11 God Himself will send a deceiving influence on you this is not the devil who is called a deceiver of the whole world lusts are called deceitful lusts no this is not our last there's another devil this is Almighty God sending it's not the devil sending it is not even you can beat the god permits the devil to send that's not what the Bible says read carefully God Himself will send a deluding influence so that you will believe listen to this this is a scary part I've often said this is the scariest verse in the Bible that you will believe what is false you will believe that your spiritual when you're not spiritual you'll believe that you're saved when you're not saved it's very dangerous if God makes me believe what is false what hope is there for me but he says your God will do that whom does he know it to those who don't love the truth when God shows it to them and we have no desire to be saved from sin or who take it casually or who have become so senior in the church that now they relax I've seen that people who in the early days when they came to the church were so gripped by the message of the Cross and the message of dying to self and following Jesus but now they become senior brothers Senior sisters now they can relax and be careless in their attitude to sin in their thoughts and their words and God allows them to believe that they are spiritual just because they've been believers for twenty thirty years that's one of the great deceptions I've been a believer thirty years I'm a senior brother who said that you're a senior brother if you're overcome sin they're a senior sister if you have overcome sin not because you sat in the church for forty years now that young brother who's 25 years old maybe more senior to you because he's overcome sin seniority in the church comes through overcoming sin please remember this to your brothers and sisters so turn back to Matthew 24 Jesus speaking about the last days how we can be deceived and here is how we can be deceived not only by the false prophets and the false preachers God Himself allowing us to be deceived because we don't love the truth about ourselves God speaks forcefully to you in a meeting and you don't face up to it or you see something in the Word of God in your private reading and you don't face up to it you're always thinking of maybe some of you anyway nothing you are there's a good message I can preach to others never preach a message to others that has not cut you first the Word of God is like a two-edged sword one edge must cut me then I can use it on another I must never preach something that is not first convicted me and delivered me or at least at least I'm longing to be delivered from it very very important to avoid deception and then let's read on in Matthew 24 verse 11 many false prophets will arise and will mislead many and because so much of lawlessness in the world in the last days listen what will happen it does not say many believers love will grow cold I think most people and he's referring to believers because unbelievers don't love the Lord most believers love for the Lord will become cold and when I read most I have to ask myself does that include me is my love going to become cold because of the tremendous amount of sin there is in the world lawlessness is sin and it says here because of the sin in the world is very easy for that to influence me in such a way that my fervent love for Jesus becomes cools off and I'm not so fervent in my love for Christ as I was in the early days in the early days maybe you were very particular in money matters that you don't do anything unrighteous even for 10 rupees or 1 rupee you sort of become a little slack there maybe you're watching movies now in your home which you would not have watched when you were first converted I know there are clean movies there are children's movies there's nothing wrong with those but I'm talking about other movies which have to pollute your mind there are Christians watching that on television and it's they say oh it's only a little bit it's like saying this cup of milk has only got one drop of poison not too much only one drop of poison that's how it is nobody puts a full cup of poison into no the devil is not a fool one drop is enough and they say yeah there's a little bit in that movie that is dirty and bad well okay where do you think such believers are going to be finally we'll spend more time with television than with the Word of God who are ignorant of Scripture but have plenty of time to watch all these things for entertainment this is how decline comes very slowly into churches and fervent love for Jesus becomes cold and that initial love that you had is God has that happened to you and it is in that context that we have this verse on top but the one who verse 13 who endures to the end will be saved that means the one who keeps battling this downward drift and say I'm gonna preserve the fire of God love for Jesus in my heart at any cost I'm gonna preserve that fire I'm gonna keep it burning where everybody around is cooling off let them cool off I'm gonna keep that fire burning and if a few people want to come and light a fire from my heart they can come and light it from my heart but I'm gonna keep it burning my brothers and sisters I urge you be a brother and a sister like that in these stays be a flame for God with fervent love for Christ endure to the end in a love for Christ that will be willing to pay any price in order to please him that's how Jesus lived throughout his life and he is our example

Channel: A True Christian

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Keywords: Deception, God allowed deception, CFC Bangalore, True word of God

Id: yIkKW2Z0vko

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 24 2019