Deception

DEUTERONOMY 11:16 NKJ 16 "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them,

If there was no danger of believers being deceived, the Bible would not warn us about deception.

LUKE 21:8 NKJ 8 And He said: "Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time has drawn near.' Therefore do not go after them.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:33 NKJ 33 Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits."

GALATIANS 6:7 NKJ 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

The devil is a deceiver. That is his only real weapon against a believer in Jesus Christ: to deceive them, so they will not accurately act on God's Word.

2 CORINTHIANS 11:14 NKJ 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

REVELATION 12:9 NKJ 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The thing to remember about deception is that the person being deceived does not know it. No one who is being deceived realizes it. Otherwise, by definition, they would not be deceived.

JAMES 1:22 NKJ 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

This verse is very sobering. When we don't act on God's Word, we open ourselves up to deception.

We should never be so proud as to think we could not be deceived. Yet, as we walk closely with the Lord, depending on Him, we need not fear. But we should live soberly, realizing we need to love Truth and diligently press in for understanding of God's Word.

SAY THIS: The only defense against deception is understanding and acting on God's Word.