Let No Man Deceive You

Let no man deceive you

2 Thess 2:3 “…Let no one in any way deceive you...”

Ezekial 33:6 “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’”

I. There will be some who try to deceive you

A. The sword is coming, some intentional and some unintentional.

1. Some people get off the right path, focusing on one aspect or another, instead of the right true way

a. 1 Cor 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise

b. most religions came from this.

11. Henry VIII and the Anglican Church

22. Jehovah’s Witnesses

33. Mormons

2. Some men try deliberately to deceive and fool you, but this is rare. Usually it is just a church taking hold of one particular belief, not knowing it is ungodly.

a. Jer 29:8-14 "For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, `Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. 9 `For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the LORD.

b. Romans 16:17-20 17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. 18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. 19 For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

c. Ob 1:7 All the men allied with you Will send you forth to the border, And the men at peace with you Will deceive you and overpower you. They who eat your bread Will set an ambush for you. (There is no understanding in him.)

1. Don’t worry that the Lord will ignore their wrongdoing.

aa. Amos 8:4, 7 “Hear this, you who trample the needy, 7. The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds”

bb. 1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

d. It is obvious who the deceiver is. The devil. He is trying to get you off the path and onto some other way that will lead to desctruction.

11. Romans 20:3 “…and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer,

II. How does one get deceived?

A. Step at a time. A little bit of bad doctorine here and there, and then you are on the wrong path, heading the wrong way.

B. Be careful who and what you are taking to heart. Listening is fine, but making life and spiritual decisions based on someone’s words is a dangerous thing. Be careful.

C. Isa 64:8 “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand”