FOUNDATION STATEMENT: Deception is a weapon used by Satan to keep believers under the bondage of his system. As believers to come out of the bondage of Satan’s system, we must come out of deception by getting the truth of God’s Word. – Matthew 12:25
I. Satan has a kingdom, a system, or a way of doing things that has been established in the Earth by men who work for him (Matthew 12:25)
A. Satan’s kingdom/system is designed to keep you from reaching your full potential and experiencing God’s best in your life
1. There are too many believers who aren’t walking in their potential and experiencing God’s best in their lives and the reason is because they are still hooked to the world’s way of doing things
a. You can’t reach the destination that God has for you and do things the world’s way
2. Psalm 81:10:14 – God had better for them, but they didn’t reach their full potential or experience God’s best because they did things their way and not God’s way
a. 10-God brought them out of Egypt (the world), but they were still doing things Egypt’s (the world’s) way
b. 11-My people-This isn’t talking about sinners, this is talking about God’s people wouldn’t go his ways
1) Saved folks aren’t working God’s system
c. 13-God had 3 things for them if they would have done it His way:
1) Humiliated and vanquished enemies
2) Finest wheat – God had the best for them
3) Satisfied – fulfilled, stuffed, bursting, have one’s desire satisfied, to have in excess, surplus, oversupply, enrich
d. They had the potential to be greater, the potential to experience more of God’s goodness, but they were kept from it because they went their own ways
B. Satan tries to train believers to operate and reason in a way that keeps them in bondage and keeps them from receiving God’s best in their lives (Mark 10:17-30)
1. The rich young ruler operated and reasoned in way that said if I give all this stuff up I might not get it back and that kept him from reaching his full potential and experiencing God’s best in his life. He was left in bondage to things
a. God had better for the rich young ruler, in fact it was a guarantee where he would get no less than 100 fold of everything that he sowed
b. He wouldn’t enter into the Kingdom of God (God’s way of doing things) and it kept him from reaching his potential and experiencing God’s best in his life.
1) EX: God’s best is no debt. Satan’s system trains people to operate and reason in a way of borrowing and they are left in financial bondage.
c. When we operate and reason according the world’ system/Satan’s Kingdom we will never reach our potential and experience God’s best in our lives
2. Religious, carnal, immature Christians have hard time with God’s best because it’s extreme to the natural mind
a. The Kingdom of God is a mystery – it’s not humanly comprehendible (Mark 4:11)
1) It’s one thing to receive healing, it’s another thing that sickness and disease can’t touch your body
b. We have seen God’s best as the extreme, when God’s best for the believer ought to be the norm
1) Ps 91:10, Isaiah 54:17, 1 John 5:18, 2 Corinthians 2:14, 9:8, Matthew 4:23, 15:30 – This is our potential, this is God’s best, but when we operate in reason in line with the world’s system of religion/Satan’s kingdom we are kept from this and kept in bondage.
2) God’s people are supposed to be walking in God’s best and God’s best is THE BEST (Deut 7:14, Lk 13:16)
C. Satan’s system is faulty because it leaves people in bondage. God’s system is perfect because it sets people free (Psalm 1:6,18:30).
1. If Satan’s way is faulty and God’s way is perfect, then why are believers still operating Satan’s way?
a. Why would a person choose a way that is faulty?
1) Because they don’t know it’s faulty and to them it looks good
2) A person won’t walk across a bridge that’s faulty if they know it, but if they didn’t know it’s faulty they’ll walk across it
2. The reason that many believers are still going that way is because they have been operating in deception where they don’t even know God’s Kingdom verses Satan’s Kingdom and believers are doing things Satan’s way thinking it’s God’s
a. Proverbs 14:12, 12:15-There’s a way that seems right, but it’s wrong
II. Satan’s whole system is faulty, consequently he has to base his system on deception because to get you to operate in it he’s going to have to deceive you first
A. Satan’s going to have to make his system look like something that it’s not (Revelation 12:9, 20:3)
1. EX: Me and Mark selling the motorcycle with the flat tire
2. Satan’s system wants to have the appearance of right in order to get people to engage in it, because it knows it’s wrong
1) Satan has set up his system in way that carries the appearance of freedom, but the reality is his way is set up to keep you bound
3. Deception is Satan’s chosen weapon and the foundation of his system
B. What is Deception? To cause someone to accept something as truth that really is false
1. When you’re deceived you believe a lie is the truth
2. Eve was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14)
a. She was deceived because she believed a lie to be the truth (Genesis 3:6)
3. When Jacob tried to get Isaac to believe that he was Esau that was deception (Gen 27:1-24)
C. To not be deceived we have to identify what’s truth
1. If we can define what truth is, then we can define what a lie is and keep from being deceived
a. EX: They identify counterfeit money by studying the real thing. That if you know what the real looks like, you can identify a counterfeit because of your knowledge of the real
2. Defining Truth – Truth vs. Factual lies
a. Truth is the Word of God (John 17:17)
1) Anything that’s not in line with the Word is not the truth
b. Factual lies are things that are facts in the natural, but they don’t line up with the Word of God so they are not truth and that makes them a lie
D. Deception is when you believe something other than the Word of God is truth
1. When the basis for your belief is something other than the Word of God, you’re deceived
a. Deception begins because you based what you believe off of something other than the Word of God
1) Eve based what she believed about that tree off of something that God didn’t say
2) The Genesis question – Who told you that?
2. Romans 3:3-To keep from being deceived we have to make the word of God final authority in our lives and believe it over anything else
a. If in every situation I’ll let God and His Word be true and everything else be a lie, then I’ll never be deceived
E. Deception is designed to keep you from believing the truth of God’s Word and keep you in bondage because if you believe God’s word it will make you free (Jn 8:32)
1. The word that you believe will make you free
2. If believing the truth sets you free, then believing a lie will keep you in bondage
3. Satan’s whole system is based on deceiving you and getting you to believe something other than the Word of God is truth, because then he can keep you in bondage
III. The two aspects of deception – If deception is going to work, these two things must be in place
A. If deception is going to work, the deceiver has to make a lie look true
1. A deceiver knows what he’s saying isn’t true so he tries to make it look true (Genesis 27:1-24)
a. A deceiver knows the truth
1) Jacob knew he wasn’t Esau
2. One way that he makes a lie look true is he’ll use scriptures in the wrong way to make what’s He’s saying look like it’s scriptural (Gen 3:1, Mt 4:3-7)
a. He’s used scriptures to make the church think there supposed to be poor; he’s used Job and the thorn in Paul’s flesh to make the church think that God was making them sick
1) They think what they’re believing is God because they got some twisted scripture and usually an experience to back up what they believe
b. Those messed up ideas about the word come because people don’t have revelation of the word, they have head knowledge
3. The second way that Satan makes a lie look true his he submits physical evidence that lines up with his lie, to see if you’ll judge it as true
a. They made Jacob to feel like Esau to Isaac
B. If deception is going to work the deceiver has to quarantine the deceived from truth – Satan has to quarantine the Church from truth
1. If a person doesn’t know truth, then they are vulnerable to deception
a. If I don’t know what the real looks like I’ll never be able to spot the counterfeit
1) Isaac couldn’t see the truth and was vulnerable to deception
2. Satan wants to keep people out of the truth/word, he wants to keep preachers from preaching the word/truth, and if you are in the word and hearing it preached he wants to twist it, water it down, and compromise it
a. 2 Timothy 4:2-4 (AMP) – 2Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching. 3For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, 4And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.
b. Satan doesn’t want somebody in here preaching debt-deliverance, everybody gets healed, and victory all of the time because if you get the truth on that, you’ll come out of deception and walk in that. He wants to keep you from those truths.
IV. Believers are deceived for two reasons
A. Believers are deceived because they don’t know the truth
1. These can be people who don’t even know what the word says or people who think they know what the Word says, but they don’t
a. Genesis 2:17, 3:4 – Eve’s misquoting God and she was deceived because she didn’t know the truth
b. You got to get in the book and find out what the truth is
2. One reason that believers don’t know the truth is because they haven’t heard the truth (They might not have heard the truth because they don’t come to church or they come to church and the truth is not preached)
a. You don’t need somebody up here ministering the Word to you trying not to offend you and trying to make you feel good
1) You need to know the truth (what the Word says) because that will make you free and not knowing the truth will keep you in bondage
3. Numbers 13:30-33, 14:7-10
a. Exodus 33:1-3 was the truth, Numbers 13:31 was the lie
1) 10 of those spies were deceived, believed a factual lie
2) Joshua and Caleb weren’t deceived, the believed the truth
b. The non-logical truth will make people mad (Numbers 14:7-10)
1) The 10 spies preached something that was acceptable to their flesh and logical to their minds, but it wasn’t the truth and it caused the people to stay in deception and out of the promise land
2) Joshua and Caleb preached something that was unacceptable to their flesh and unreasonable to their minds, but it was the truth and it was brought forth to bring these people out of deception, but instead of receiving the Word, they got mad and stayed in deception
4. The truth might not always be what you want hear and it might stretch you, challenge you, or hurt a little bit, but it’s what you need to keep out of deception
a. John 15:3 (AMP) – The word prunes you
b. 2 Timothy 3:16 – The word will correct you
B. Believers are deceived because they have no revelation of the truth
1. When a person knows the truth, but doesn’t have revelation of the truth they’ll always be mentally ascending to the truth and straddling the fence. They say they believe the Word, but when the pressure comes on they don’t look like they believe the Word. They have that word in their head, but they have no revelation of it in their hearts. Revelation will get both of your feet on one side of the fence.
V. Revelation knowledge is the key component in walking free from deception
A. Revelation knowledge is when the Word of God enters your heart bringing illumination and giving you a perspective that you didn’t have before the revelation came
1. Matthew 8:23-27, 16:13
a. Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God in Matthew 8 as much as he was in Matthew 16, but in Matthew 8 Peter had no revelation
b. When the word of God entered his heart and revelation came it brought with it illumination and gave him a Godly perspective
2. Revelation gives you Godly sight and allows you to see things for how they TRULY/REALLY are
a. EX: Under this towel is a can of coke. When I take the towel off it’s not a can of coke, it’s Pepsi. Before the cover was taken off you believed a lie. You believed that lie because you couldn’t see.
B. Without revelation you can’t see truth
1. When you can’t see truth you are vulnerable to deception
a. Isaac was vulnerable to deception his eyes were dim and he couldn’t see truth (Genesis 27:1)
2. The entrance of God’s Word brings revelation or light, enabling you to see truth (Psalm 119:30)
a. When a person doesn’t have revelation spiritual sight is diminished and they can’t see the truth
3. 1 Samuel 17 – People who have no revelation are spiritually blind to truth and therefore easily deceived
a. The Truth – Every man in that army was in covenant with God and Goliath wasn’t and that made him very small and each one of them very big
b. The men of Israel couldn’t see truth because they had no revelation
1) With no revelation, they were in the dark, and in the dark Goliath was huge
2) If God would have taken the spiritual light of his word and shined it on that situation they would have seen it for what it really was
c. When David saw Goliath he saw the situation for what it really was because he had revelation
1) When David saw Goliath he didn’t see a giant, he saw what God saw, an uncircumcised philistine
a) 25-Haven’t you seen this man that has come up to defy the armies of Israel?
2) David couldn’t believe that he was going to get all this stuff for going down there and killing this guy. It seemed too good and too easy to be true (1 Samuel 17:25-27).
4. People who can’t see are forced to feel their way around
a. Isaac couldn’t see so he had to judge whether or not the person he was talking to was Esau by feeling his way around (Genesis 27:21)
1) This is a physically blind man trying to use his feelings/senses to dictate truth and his feelings lied to him
2) If Isaac could have seen with his eyes, it wouldn’t have mattered how much fur they put on Jacob or how he smelled because Isaac could see truth
a) When you can see the truth it doesn’t matter how bad it looks to your senses, because you can see truth
b. A person who has no revelation has no spiritual sight and they are left to live their lives governed by their senses
1) A spiritual blind person will try to use his senses to dictate truth
c. Your senses will lie to you because they’ll say things to you that don’t line up with the word (2 Cor 4:18,5:7)
1) The men of Israel had no revelation and they couldn’t see reality consequently they were left with what they sensed and they sensed that he’s a giant that’s too big for us, but that’s not the way it really was
d. A life governed by your senses is a life below the line, where you are trapped in darkness with information knowledge, having your life governed by what you see. It’s a life like a physically blind man forced to feel his way around. Revelation will bring light, give you a Godly perspective, and take you above the line.
1) Revelation will take beyond the boundary of your five physical senses and into the realm of God where you might not be able to see it (with your physical eyes), but you can see it
5. When revelation knowledge comes it comes in such way that it shines light, takes the covers off, exposes the deception of the enemy, and reveals truth. Once that happens there’s no way that I can get you to believe the lie.
a. Peter went from flaky to solid because he could see
1) Once you receive revelation and you can see the truth you’re a rock, you’re convinced, and you can’t be talked out of it
a) Once the can of soda was uncovered I could never get you to believe it’s coke
b. Satan wants to blind the minds of believers to keep them from seeing the truth (2 Corinthians 4:4)
C. The church is supposed to be built on revelation knowledge to keep us from being deceived and to keep hell from prevailing against us (Matthew 16:13-19)
1. If Satan can’t get us to believe what he’s saying through deception, he can’t defeat us
a. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world’s system, therefore unbelief (believing a lie) must be the defeat that is overcome by the world’s system (1 John 5:4)
1) The gates of hell can’t prevail against people who have revelation knowledge, because they won’t be believe a lie
2. As a believer you cannot live successfully in the Earth without revelation knowledge (Matt 16:13, John 16:13, 8:32)
a. Mediation brings revelation (John 8:31-32, Joshua 1:8)
1) Matthew 6:22 – If you’re eye is single you’ll be filled with revelation
b. Revelation will cause a revolution (Matthew 16:13)
1) If there’s no revolution, there was no revelation there was just mental ascent
c. A revolution will always bring about a manifestation (Mark 11:24)
1) When you start thinking, talking, and acting like the Word is true that’s faith
VI. The Kingdom of God is a mystery, but the kingdom of darkness is somewhat of a mystery too in the since people are in bondage to it and don’t even know it (Mark 4:11)
A. There are a lot of believers out there in bondage and they don’t even know it (John 8:31-33)
1. I know the Jews were in bondage because Jesus told them the truth would make them free. They didn’t know they were in bondage.
2. The first step to getting out of something is knowing that you’re in it
a. Satan wants to keep bondage a secret because if you don’t know you’re in bondage, you won’t do anything to break out
1) He keeps bondage a secret in a subtle way. It’s not just horrific terrible bondage. It’s bondage that’s comfortable to the flesh.
2) Egypt was comfortable bondage
3) People don’t like when you start messing with their comfort
3. The first thing that the gospel of the Kingdom is going to show you is that you’ve been in bondage – Why? Because that’s the first step in making you free
a. People don’t like that because nobody likes the thought that they’ve been deceived
B. Satan’s subtle and the thing he’s pushing can’t be a blatant lie because that’s too easy to spot
1. People who are deceived don’t know that they’re deceived because the lie they’ve been told started off subtle
a. A good counterfeit has looks a lot like the real
b. He wants you to think that what you’re believing is right
2. A lot of his deception with the church has a “churchy” look to it. It’s supposed to look “churchy” but subtlety be out of line with the word
a. That stuff only looks spiritual to people who don’t know what the real thing (the word) looks like
VII. Teach me your way Lord
A. Psalm 27:11, 86:11, 119:27, 33 – Teach me your way
B. Psalm 25:4 – Show me your ways
C. Psalm 32:8-9 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go
D. Psalm 25:9 – The meek he will teach His ways
E. Psalm 18:21 – I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God
F. Psalm 37:5 – Commit your way unto the Lord
G. Psalm 37:23 – Delight in the way of the Lord
H. Psalm 37:34 – Keep the way of the Lord and He will exalt you to inherit the land
I. Psalm 67:1-2 – Cause us to get results so that the world will know you’re way
J. Psalm 95:10 – They didn’t know his ways
K. Psalm 119:101 – I have refrained my feet from every evil way
L. Psalm 119:104, 128 – I got understanding from the word and it cause me to hate every false way
M. Psalm 128:1 – Blessed is the guy who walks in the way of the Lord
N. Psalm 146:9 – God is going to turn the way of the wicked upside down