IN THE LAST DAYS MANY WILL FALL AWAY
2 Timothy 4:3-5 "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you."
There is groundswell of deception rising up in the world, just like God said there would be, as he spoke these words through his apostle Paul. Many people today are seeking to "get in touch with their spirituality," but their desire for this spiritual enlightenment is leading them into a spiritual realm that has nothing to do with the truth regarding God's Spirit. Instead, many people are following teachings and practices that encourage them to blank out their minds through various forms of meditation. This meditation is a self-willed temporary escape from the realities of this world, followed by a hope that some impersonal "God force" will then come in and become a part of the human spirit. Thinking that truth is a concept or ideal, the followers of such human philosophies are not seeing that "truth" is actually a person. God himself, in Christ, said to his disciples, as he says to us today, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also" (John 14:6-7). Just like Pilate, many people ask "What is truth?" But what they are not seeing with their spirit is that the One who is truth is standing right there in front of them. They do not "see" him because they will not open up their hearts to him, even though he says that he stands at the door of our heart and knocks.
What is this groundswell of deception,and what is the real source of it? Through Jesus, God told us that we have a very real adversary, who is looking to "steal, kill, and destroy." People who try and venture into the spiritual realm, without coming to the Lord, are opening themselves up to the thief instead. What this thief wants to steal is God's gift of righteousness to us, which we receive by faith in Christ's finished work on the cross. Satan wants to steal away the fact that God declares the sinner to be right with him, based on this kind of faith in Christ alone.
Because of Christ's righteous act for the unrighteous on that cross, and because we choose to believe him and trust him, God puts the Spirit of Christ in the heart of the believer. Of course, the devil objects to this by saying, "How can you be declared righteous because of what Jesus has done for you?" To that, I can only say, "God has declared me to be sinner from birth because of what Adam did, so why can't God make me right with himself based on what his Son has done for me?" Basically, my answer to Satan comes down to this: "Because God says so."
Because the Father's righteous Son lives in us by faith in him, the Father sees us as righteous, even though we still do sin against him in thought, word, and deed. Even so, this grace of God to us is an unearned, unmerited, undeserved gift. Our right standing with him is not something that we must first strive to earn through human effort alone. But if Satan can get us to believe that salvation depends on our own sense of goodness, rather than on Christ's goodness to us, then he can steal away God's gift, not because God no longer offers his gift to us, but because we don't see this gift as actually being a gift.
If we wrongly see our right standing with God as something that we must first earn, we will end up fearing that we have somehow broken relationship with God every time we stumble and fail him in some way. Satan tempts us to believe this lie, because he knows that if he can get us to fall into the trap of self-condemnation, and if he can get us to drift under a merit system with God that does not exist, then he can rob us of the peace we have with our Father. But the truth is that we do have peace with God, a peace which passes all understanding, because of what Christ has already done for us on the cross, not because of what we do for God.
So, included in Satan's temptations are his attempts to get us to believe that our obedience to God's written laws is the way we must first qualify ourselves, in order to then receive God's favor. Although a gift does not have to be earned or paid for, Satan is effective with this temptation because of the world's "merit system for rewards" that we live in. What he wants is for us to grasp onto something first, in addition to Christ, as the way to salvation. Under the world's merit system, if I do good things for other people, work hard, and make logical plans to reach my goals, then I believe that I should be rewarded for my own plans and efforts. But God tells us that all merit is in his Son, because of what he has done for us. It is his obedience to the Father's will, in going all the way to the cross for us, that enables God to declare us righteous by faithful belief. Then, as we trust Christ's indwelling Spirit to correct us, lead us, and empower us, our obedience will be the fruit, not the root, of our salvation. Bearing the fruit of the indwelling Spirit is what God wants to see in our lives.
Yes, we have to go to school and work according to this world's merit system, and we are to be financially responsible to our families, but God wants us to know that he has something far better than that system when it comes to our relationship with him, or anything to do with his kingdom. He has a huge added advantage to offer us, in addition to the world's merit system. He tells us that all power to live for him is by his Spirit, which he sends into the heart of anyone who chooses to believe and trust him as their Lord and Savior. God is always looking for believing volunteers to help him expand his kingdom, but he does not choose people based on worldly qualification standards. You do not need a theological degree, in order to be included in God's far greater, eternal plans. Trusting him to live his life through us, and following his voice, is all he asks of us. As he leads and guides us, he will always lead us in obedience to his will, never in disobedience. His power to obey is in his commands. If we disobey, it isn't because his grace was not there. It's because we basically said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to his grace in that moment.
The pressure that Satan put on the early Christian church was to try and get them to grasp again at the religious traditions of the Old Covenant, in order to be saved, even though the Old Covenant way died when Christ died. Through certain people he was able to influence, Satan wanted theses early Christians to add to Jesus' finished work on the cross, implying that God's grace alone does not have the power to save us. His deceptive goal was to persuade them to add in the Old Covenant works of animal sacrifice, circumcision, obedience to God's laws in their own efforts, and adherence to certain dietary laws. Today, he wants to tempt us to believe that we must first make ourselves "good enough," or "religious enough," in order to then merit God's favor.
Satan is a legalist, always looking to lure Christians back under the legalism of the Old Covenant. Once he gets us to wander under that false covering, he then looks to accuse us every time we fail God on some level or another. His accusations are his attempt to get us to then fall into the trap of self-condemnation, thinking that our failure has separated us from God. That is when we start hearing those thoughts that tempt us to believe we have to do "7 things to be a better a Christian" first, before God will listen to our prayers again. These are lies that tell us we have to make ourselves well and align our life with God's will first, before God will bless us again. In other words, "You better go and heal yourself first, then maybe the doctor will see you." No, we live under the New Covenant of God's grace now, where his grace comes first, bringing us to true repentance and strengthening us in Christ's faithfulness to us. So to the liar, who tries to block us from going to the doctor's office, we say, "I can't get well until I see the doctor first, so get out of my way." Satan's goal is to keep us from entering the prayer closet, because he does not want us to "come boldly before God's throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy in our time of need."
As Christians, we all need to "keep on seeking," and "keep on asking" for, God's discernment to work in us. We all need his revelations of truth. And as he discerns truth from lies, he then reveals us those truths. In other words, he does not give us discernment apart from himself. God's word says, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." The One who is truth, Jesus, is able to set us free from Satan's lies and deceptions every time he tries to tangle us up in them. But he can only do this for us if we are willing to spend time with him in prayer, and in the reading of his word. If you do not think that Satan lies to you directly, then consider the next thought that seems to "come to you out of nowhere." Consider that thought that accuses you, and then tries to tell you that God is exasperated with you, or that God is now mad at you. Those accusations, and lies to you about God's nature and character, are not coming to you from "out of nowhere."
Satan cannot read your mind, but he doesn't have to. He's been dealing with people for roughly 6,000 years now. He can look at your circumstances and guess what you may be thinking. He knows how we tend to lean, so he tries to throw us just a little bit more off balance with his lies. Keep your "belt of truth" on. Abide in Christ and stay firmly rooted in his word. In the same way, God commands us to "test the spirits," by comparing what we hear with his truth. Failure to obey this command is what opens the door to receiving deceptive teaching from people who are not truly living by God's discernment themselves. Yes, this can include popular preachers. If Satan could influence Peter when he was talking to Jesus, to the point where Jesus had to say, "Get behind me Satan," he can influence anyone to "see things merely from a human point of view, not God's" (Mark 8:33). Even Paul told his listeners to check everything he preached with the Scriptures. Check this website with God's word. Over and over again, throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus say, "Be alert. Be vigilant. Be careful to hear. Be watchful."
1 John 4:1-3 "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard is coming; and now it is already in the world."
Satan's clever deception is evident in how he tries to worm the world's merit system into God's church, and into the way we relate to God. His work of clever deception is evident in many of the well-meaning Christian books, and in many messages we hear preached today. These teachings sound logical, telling us that there are 7 or 8 steps needed to be done by us first, in order to be a better Christian and then receive God's favor and blessings. The truth is that God's grace is what brings about true repentance. His grace is what imparts greater faith. His grace is what enables us to know his will, and have the power to obey it in the way he calls us to. In other words, his blessing of undeserved, unearned grace comes first, and we receive his grace by faith alone, not by first doing 7 or 8 things to earn it.
We are saved by God's grace, so his grace must continue to remain the root of our salvation. His grace must always be our starting point foundation. Being rooted in his grace, by abiding in him each day, is what produces the kind of fruit he is looking to grow in our life. My human efforts cannot be the root of my salvation. My level of obedience to God's written laws cannot be my foundation, upon which I then receive God's grace to live for him. That's putting the cart before the horse, but that's what Satan wants to convince Christians to do. He wants us to get out in front of God, rather than follow his indwelling Spirit's leading in our life. He wants us to depend on our own human efforts to please God, rather than depend fully on God's Spirit working through us. He doesn't want us waiting on God, listening to his voice, and then stepping out in faith. He doesn't want us to see that following Christ will always cause us to walk in obedience to God's will.
Instead of thanking God for his gift of righteousness, Satan wants to get us to try and establish our own sense of righteousness. But God's blessing of salvation did not begin with our obedience, and with our determination to align our life with his Word. We did not earn salvation from God. He died for us while we were yet sinners, and while we were still living in disobedience to him. In other words, we were still living for ourselves and depending on ourselves. Whether we following God's voice has nothing to do with being "good enough," or "religious enough," so neither of those two things have anything to do with salvation.
Before God saved us by his grace, we may have been hoping that our own sense of goodness would prevent him from condemning us, but then God brings us to end of ourselves. He causes us to see that we can never measure up to his holy standard, both outwardly and inwardly, in our own human plans and efforts. Finally, he causes us to see our need for a Savior, because without him, we have no answer for our sins against him. So, Jesus did not die for us because we did something first to deserve it or earn it. His undeserved, unmerited, unearned grace was made available to us first on that cross, before we were even born yet. And his great love was there for us, before we even began to give a hoot about him. Therefore, because his grace came first, and because he saved us by his grace, we cannot say that the rest of our Christian walk depends on our own level of obedience to the law. We were saved by his grace, because of Christ's obedience, in going all the way to that cross for us. We were saved because of his undeserved goodness to us, not because of our sense of goodness to him.
If Satan can tempt us to believe that God's gift robe of righteousness in Christ is not enough of a gift for us, or is a gift that we have to pay for, then he has caused us to minimize Christ's victory over him. If he can make the cross less relevant to our righteousness and salvation, then the empty tomb can end up becoming merely a backdrop for nice Easter Sunday church services once a year. But without Christ's cross, we are still dead in our sins. And without Christ's resurrection, the Bible says that our faith is meaningless, no matter how faithful we proclaim ourselves to be to God. God is not looking for us to proclaim our faith to him, as much as he is looking for us to proclaim his faithfulness to us. His great faithfulness to us is what the world needs to hear about. Telling the world that we are faithful to God does nothing to help them come to see how great he is.
Paul goes on to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me-the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
The crown is the crown of God's gift of righteousness to us. We don't crown our heads with a crown of self-righteousness, based on how well we think we have obeyed the law. God's undeserved, gracious gift is what Paul is proclaiming. In other words, he is saying that he has finished the race, by depending on God's faithfulness to him. He has fought the good fight by resting in God's gift of righteousness, through faith in Christ's finished work. Jesus has already done the hard part for us. The gift crown of righteousness is the crown Satan wants to prevent you from getting.
There are may people who are trying to decipher the Bible, as to the timing of Christ's return. We have many clues, but we cannot forget that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2). God is not telling us when he's returning in Christ. What Jesus did make clear is that we must remember Lot's wife, who turned back to look at what she was leaving behind, perished because she disobeyed God's command not to do that. So Jesus says that we are to run to him when he comes again, with no longing look-backs at what we are leaving behind on earth. It is important that all Christian parents tell their children to run to Jesus too, when he returns.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 "As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered up together with him...we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter...Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat at the temple of God, declaring himself to be God...And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when the time comes. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, and lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned."
A false sense of righteousness, or right-standing with God, is what Satan is after. This is the "wicked deception" and "powerful delusion." False self-righteousness is what Jesus had the harshest words for. So is "lukewarm" Christianity, in which people feel that they have no need to fully depend on Christ's power to work through them. God's word tells us that what people will fall away from is his grace, not because he withdraws it from them, but because they prefer to depend on their own plans, efforts, and strength. This human effort was the basis for obedience under the legalistic Old Covenant, but that kind of self-reliance has been made obsolete under the New Covenant. "You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace" (Galatians 5:4).
"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). If you have any doubts about Satan targeting your gift of God's righteousness through faith in Christ, just look at how Satan is going to disguise himself as, in order to deceive us.
"And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
If the modern-day message you are hearing is focused on you and your efforts, or on earthly rewards and material prosperity, you are hearing something other than the true gospel. You are being deceived and lured into a trap. It makes no difference how big the arena is, how nice the entertainment is, or how polished the preacher looks. It has nothing to do with the speaker's charisma or popularity. If the message is focused on what you need to do, and how you need to first align yourself with God's Word through your own efforts, you are being drawn into the beginnings of the "powerful delusion."
Do not get deceived into believing any teaching that is luring you into a form of righteousness, other than God's unmerited gift of righteousness to you, through faith in what Christ has already done for you on the cross. Satan is coming as an "angel of light," and he will deceive and influence certain ministers to become his "ministers of unrighteousness." Paul, speaking under the inspiration of God's Spirit, said that anyone who perverts the gospel of God's grace is accursed. Then he repeated this warning. A message from a pulpit that is 95% truth, but deceives you into believing in a false sense of self-righteousness with the other 5%, is a perversion of the true gospel of grace. It is accursed. That 5% door of self-righteousness is the worst door to leave open because opening that door of deception gives Satan legal ground to accuse us every time we fail God in some way.
The only righteousness the Christian person can have is God's righteousness, because that is the only righteousness that God will accept. It's all about Christ's righteous act on that cross for us. From the moment that our Father declares us to be right with him, we stand under a waterfall of righteousness. We have unbroken fellowship with him at all times, and nothing can separate us from his love and embrace. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice, and they follow me. They don't even listen to the voice of the thief." In whatever you hear, "test the spirits" by comparing what you hear to God's Word. Ask God to discern truth from deception, and then listen to his revelation. God is going to send a "powerful delusion," in order to hand people over to what they insist on believing, despite the truth he gives us. Don't have "itching ears" that just simply take people at their word. Pray and read your Bible, by allowing your Bible to read you. God is never too busy to listen to you, so be willing to listen to him.
Isaiah 45:8 "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness...and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the Lord have created it."
Isaiah 53:11-12 "The righteous one, my servant (Jesus), shall make many righteous...because he poured out himself to death...he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
