2. Our hearts/flesh are bursting with
deceitful, evil, corrupt, and
anti-God desires which "war
against”
our souls.
[Eph 4:22; Col 3:5; Gal 5:17-21; Rom
7:14-24, 8:7-8; 2 Pet 2:10]
3. Consequently, we are easily
deceived (and even willfully
deceived!
[Hos 7:11; 2 Cor 11:4; Gal 1:6; Rom
1:18-32; Isa 30:9-13; Jer 2:25, 6:16;
Prov 1, 5, 7, 8; 2 Tim 3:1-9, 4:3-4]
4. Not only do our idolatrous hearts
naturally reject, forsake, and pervert
what is true, pure, right, and life, we
also tend to excitedly embrace what is
broken, false, corrupt, evil,
delusional, and deadly.
[Ps 16:4; Isa 5:20, 30:9-11, 44:9-20;
Jer 2:5, 11, 13, 17-19; Jer 4:22, 5:7,
6:16-19, 7:24-28, 14:14; Gal 1:6-8, 3:3,
4:9; 1 Tim 1:3-11, 4:1, 6:20-21]
5. We dwell in a fallen, deceived,
deceiving, dark, corrupt, and evil world
that is filled with charming
counterfeits and hostile enemies of God,
truth, light, and followers of His Word.
[Jn
3:19-21, 17:14; Phil 2:15-16; Col 2:4,
8; 2 Pet 1:3-4; Gen 3; 2 Cor 6:14ff; Jas
4:4]
6. The church is surrounded,
infiltrated, and bombarded by
popular, yet false, teachers and
“deceitful workmen” that appear good and
are “among you” and “even from
your own number” (i.e., in
the church and leaders of the
church), and who fight against
those who fight for the truth!
[2 Cor 11:13-15; 2 Pet 2:1-2; Jude 4,
8-19; Acts 20:29-30; Matt 7:15-23,
22:15-46; 2 Tim 3:5-13, 4:3-4, 14-15;
Jer 18:18; 2 Chron 30:6-10, 36:15-16; Jn
3:19-21; Gal 2:4-5]
7. Through these “leaders” and “teachers,”
our easily beguiled hearts are inundated
with a myriad of subtle and
seductive false teachings, blatant lies,
errant ideologies, and the
ever-attractive “wisdom” of the world.
[Jer 6:13-15, 8:8-9; 1 Cor 1:17, 2:16; 2
Pet 2:18; 2 Cor 11:3-4; Gal 1:6-8, 5:4;
Eph 4:14, 5:6; Col 2:4, 8, 20-23; 1 Tim
4:1-2; 2 Tim 2:16-29, 4:3-4]
8. These destructive ideas become even
more alluring, believable, and
deceptive for the Christian when
church leaders teach and approve of
blending and integrating man’s “wisdom”
with God’s pure, perfect, and all
sufficient Word of truth.
[Ps 1:1; Isa 8:19-20, 55:8-9; Ezek
22:26; 1 Pet 2:2; Eccl 9:18-10:1; 2 Pet
1:3-4; 1 Cor 1:20-21, 25; 2 Cor
6:14-7:1; Eph 5:6-11; Col 2:8, 20; 2 Tim
2:16-28; Jas 3:15, 17, 4:4-6]
9. Many others—loved ones, enemies,
neighbors—are deceived and on the path
to destruction and death; therefore, we
are called to warn, confront, correct,
encourage, save, refute, and even
“rebuke sharply” these same people.
[Matt 7:13; Isa 30:9-11; Eph 2:1-3; Jude
22-23; Prov 24:11-12; Gal 6:1; 1 Tim
4:15-16; 2 Tim 2:24-26, 3:15-4:5; Ti
1:9-13, 3:3]
10. There is (or will be) a “powerful
delusion” on earth—a massive,
comprehensive, “unified” departure from
the truth on a global scale. As more and
more people fall for this universal
deception, it will be increasingly
difficult to believe, follow, and stand
up for the truth of God’s Word.
[2 Thess 2:1-13; Amos 8:11-12; 1 Tim
4:1; Jude; 2 Tim 4:3-4; Matt 24:9-12,
21-24; Mk 13:12-13; Lk 18:8]
11. This sinful world is occupied by the god
of this world—the Tempter, the
Deceiver, the “father of lies”—and
his countless “seducing spirits” who are
not only better at deception than we are
at discernment, but are violently wicked
and who masquerade as angels of light
and whose sole objective is to deceive,
devour, rob, kill, and destroy us.
[Eph 2:2; Jn 10:10, 14:30; Gen 3; 1 Pet
5:8-9; Rev 20:10]
12. On top of this, with all of these
well-known deadly dangers and snares to
the children of God, the church (the
people who should be leading the battle
against such darkness and deception)
seems disinterested in, if not fearful
of, discernment and fighting for
the truth (e.g., it might offend, it
causes “division,” it means more work,
“we might lose some people over this”).
[2 Cor 11:4; Gal 1:6-9; Rev 2:20]
13. To make matters worse, many church
leaders have become more interested in
seeking “unity” and “common ground” with
those who subtly or overtly oppose the
clear truth of God’s Word. This will
inevitably result in compromising the
truth, deceiving many, and weakening the
church. In fact, this aptly describes
where the body of Christ stands today.
Therefore, few things, if any, should be
given higher priority than
discernment—as it is clearly a matter of
life and death for all of us. [2
Jn 7-11]
