Deception
Deception is defined as; "The act of deceiving, or state of being deceived; also, something that deceives or is intended to deceive; an artifice, a sham or cheat."
Satan introduced sin into the world by deception. He must continue to deceive man in every possible way or man would turn away from sin. Without the deceptions of Satan, sin would appear as it really it. Sin is in reality deception. The writer of Hebrews speaks of "the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb. 3:13) The one who sins is in the "state of being deceived." Sin promises so much but gives nothing. The pleasures of sin are so attractive that many are deceived. Moses was not deceived by such. He "had respect unto the recompense of reward." (Heb. 11:24-26) The "wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23) Regardless of how much sin may offer; how attractive its pleasures are, just remember that the wages paid for a life of sin is death. Not just physical death, but eternal death — eternal separation from God and His glory. (2 Thess. 1:9) The price is too high. The person so deceived is truly cheated. Because of this, I believe that preachers of the gospel should seek to expose sin for what it really is. I realize that the one who points out various ways Satan deceives will incur the wrath and displeasure of those emissaries of Satan who practice deception and even of those who have been deceived. But none of these should deter the faithful preacher of righteousness.
There are many ways employed by Satan to deceive. The New Testament scriptures warn over and over, "Let no man deceive you...." From this we see that Satan uses Men to deceive. These are known in the word of God as false teachers. The rest of this paper could be used showing the various ways false teachers deceive. However, I shall deal with the deceptions which are seldom selected as subjects for sermons.
I believe one of the most deceptive of deceptions is one practiced by ourselves. 1 Cor. 3:18: "Let no man deceive himself ...." Here Paul speaks of the man who prides himself on the worldly wisdom he may possess. The apostle does not condemn education in things of this world, but he does condemn the one who depends on this worldly wisdom to guide him in things spiritual. God has given us a plan to follow and regardless of how much worldly wisdom one may possess, he must follow the plan of God. It seems that when one gains a godly amount of this worldly wisdom he turns away from the wisdom of God. By depending on his OWN wisdom he deceives himself because, "0 Lord, I know that the way of man is not in Himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." (Jer. 10:23) Thus the warning of the Holy Spirit, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit...." (Col. 2:8) Philosophy is simple "human reasoning" and when anyone depends on human reason to guide them in things spiritual they have departed from the teaching of God.
Paul said, "For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." (Gal. 6:3) Many of God's children fall into this category. They may be members of an active congregation and find themselves saying, "Look how much WE are doing," when in reality, they are not doing but very little themselves. They think themselves to be something when they are nothing. We all need to examine ourselves and see if we are really working in the service of the Lord. Just how much of the work and financial responsibility of the congregation are we assuming? Are we letting others do our part? Paul continues in the next verse (Gal. 6:4) "But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another." He goes on to say, "For every man shall bear his own burden." It has been said that twenty-five percent of the members of the church bear the burden of the work and financial responsibilities of the church. I don't know if this is true or not, but I do know that the majority of the members of the church do little or nothing in carrying on the work of the Lord. They would be astounded if you should speak to them about their deceiving themselves. A good test is to ask ourselves this question, "If every other member of this church did exactly as I do, just what kind of a church would this church be? If no member gave any more money than I do, how much would the contribution be? If no member did any more personal work than I do, how many people would be contacted each week? If all members did as little in preparing themselves to preach, teach and other things necessary to carry on the work of the Lord as I, how much of the work would get done? If every other member attended the services as I, how many would be present? If every other member cared for the widows and fatherless and the sick and afflicted as I do, how would those in need fare? And what would the reputation of the members be in the community? On and on we could go, but this is enough to convince each of us that we should examine ourselves. Let us be sure that we are not deceiving ourselves.
Another deception Satan practices is mentioned in James 1:26: "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." I fear this will damn the souls of more members of the church than any other thing. There are so many members who are faithful in other things; they give, never miss a service, preach, teach, do personal work, assist the needy sick and about any thing else you can mention; yet they do not control their tongue. The Bible teaches that such a person's religion is vain. That means simply, that all that they do will avail them nothing. They will be eternally lost. We need to read the third chapter of James, at least, once a week. Jesus teaches that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt. 12:34) The wise man, Solomon, said of man, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...." (Prov. 23:7) Truly, we must control our tongue because our speech betrays us to others.
We must always be on guard lest we are in "the act of deceiving" either ourselves or others, or "being in the state of being deceived" by ourselves or others.
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