Be Delivered from Deception
Alright. We begin with our verse this morning in John 1:4
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Let us pray….
Lord JESUS, you are the light of the world, shine forth your light upon our lives this morning, dispel the darkness in our hearts and illuminate our minds with your truths this morning. IN your name we pray.. Amen..
Author HP Love Craft wrote this quote:
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
I bring this up because I realized that many Christians and well as many people fear what they do not know. And one of the unknows they fear is SATAN.
And Satan wants it that way, so that he can continue to rule in your minds. Fear debilitates, fear stops us from accelerating, fear stunts our spiritual growth, fear is the opposite of FAITH.
So today I want us to shed light on the ruler of darkness. To expose His character and reveal his intentions. Light exposes darkness. And when the light of JESUS exposes Satan – he is plain to see – in clear view for everyone to see who he really is.
You know, statistics will show that many people don’t believe in Satan. Or in the idea of a devil. They think he is a made up character. A fictional character in books and movies. That’s the second thing that Satan wants us to believe. That he’s not real.
But he is real. Satan is a created being. An angel who has fallen from heaven for his desire to be like GOD or as other scholars would put it to be GOD.
Isaiah 14:12-15 says this:
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
And so what does SATAN do on EARTH:
2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,
so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays
the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
And we are going to camp here to talk about how Satan blinds the minds of people and he does that through what I call conditioning. Say conditioning.
CONDITIONING is a process of training or accustoming a person to believe a certain way or to accept certain ideologies.
Conditioning is a very clever way the devil makes people believe what is essentially bad to appear good – and when people have bought in to the idea. There is no turning back. Conditioning is the first step to deception. And the devil has been doing this in many cultures, industries, nations.
Nowadays kids are being conditioned to believe that monsters, beasts, and the like maybe evil and bad from the outside but are good in the inside or have good in them. Vampires, Zombies are cool – infact Halloween has evolved into becoming a major holiday where mischievous behavior, dressing up as your favorite underworld character, and spooky decorations around malls, offices and schools are celebrated and well attended. Retailers call this the Halloween CREEP phenomenon that drives retail sales of evil character costumes, dark or underworld themed parties events and the like.
Men, Women and Children are now being desensitized to the work of satan and his minions.
Conditioning is entrenched in society – when you see your friend cheat in his or her relationship – you too become curious about it and then try it out yourself.
People are conditioned to believe there is no heaven there is certainly no hell. And you can do whatever you want. We are conditioned to believe that to be successful in this world, you need to comply to what the world dictates. To do wrong is normal – corruption, bribery, extortion – all of this ARE NORMAL and OKAY! That’s conditioning. That to get out of trouble, all you have to do is PAY-UP!
CONFUSION - refers to a state of mental or emotional disorientation where a person struggles to discern truth, direction, or God’s will. It often stems from a lack of clarity and spiritual attacks designed to distract and destabilize faith.
I think the devil learned this early on from Sun Tzu in his book The Art of War – or perhaps it was the other way around. Sun Tzu said in his book:
“The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”
One of the biggest confusion strategies by the devil that is affecting societies all over the world right now is same sex marriage. – the devil and his minions have planted the idea that same sex marriage should be accepted by society and that it is good – has been simmering in small progressive culture in the 1990s. 35 years after and several nations already accept this as what they would term progressive thinking. YET very recent statistics will show that most divorces happen in same sex marriages than that between man and woman. Infact 5X more divorce in same sex marriage than in opposite sex marriage. Its honestly ridiculous that I even talk about this because marriage since the beginning of time is between man and a woman
And speaking of man and woman. Another confusion strategy of the devil that has started in the early 1990s is the idea that gender and biological sex is totally different and the term genderfluid was coined. The idea that people can choose their gender based on preference and situation thereby being NON-conformist to the binary gender – male or female.
Gender Expression is clearly on the rise and the confusion is elevated to another level - you have intersex, genderqueer, agender, polyamory, polysexual, autosexual, demisexual, pansexual, asexual, omnisexual, aromantic, androgyne, androsexual.
And finally, the new buzzword since 2023 which is called the WOKE movement. Which to be honest with you, is in itself a term that is hard to define! Even the proponents of the movement have no definitive term to describe it!
Again this in itself is meant to confuse! Why because for SATAN and HIS minions the best strategy against a strong opponent.
Remember: “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”
And his intent is to lead us to destruction.
We all know that GOD is totally the opposite:
1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not the author of [i]confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
Conditioning and Confusing – 2 effective strategies of the devil to deceive man into thinking the lines between good and evil it total blurred. The line between FACT and FALACY, FACT AND FAKE are unclear. It is not definitive. It is not clear, it is fluid. What is good can be bad and what is bad can be good. You will notice this in how many many movies are now being portrayed. One of that is the movie Maleficent, has any of you watched this movie – a clearly evil character, a witch who curses those she envies and hates and dispels – a clear protagonist – evil, wrong, bad – who suddenly becomes a hero – with a good heart, now saving people. She suddenly has a change in character! Wow! What a subtle way of the devil right? The epic movie GODZILLA – meaning GOD Monster – this well, monster is an evil beast from the sea – somewhat mimicking the BEAST From the SEA as mentioned in Revelation Chapter 13. Anyway, this GODZILLA, clearly evil beast in recent portrayals is saving people from harm. But people will argue that GODZILLA is neutral – he doesn’t care – AGAIN! Conditioning combined with confusion.
2 Corinthians 11:14
But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
The Devils CONDITIONING AND CONFUSION STRATEGY - ARE part of His overall plan to continuously deceive man and bring HIM farther away from GOD.
The devils conditioning and confusing strategy ARE part of his agenda to take away our attention from what is noble, what is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.
The devils CONDITIONING AND CONFUSION STRATEGY ARE part of his plan to shift our Praises to GOD to Praising what is worldly and underworldly too.
And finally the Devils CONDITIONING AND CONFUSING PEOPLE STRATEGY ARE part of his plan to HIDE HIS hidden agenda to be like GOD to imitate God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit presenting himself as the source of power, deliverance, salvation, healing, miracles, comfort, rest and peace.
And finally we come to the third way SATAN deceives mankind is CONDEMNATION:
CONDEMNATION refers to feeling accused, ashamed, or unworthy, often as a result of sin or failure.
The devil is so good at this – he whispers words in your ear that your sin is too great to be forgiven by a holy, righteous GOD. He whispers words that you should feel ashamed of what you have done – as bishop tony always says – I know what you did last summer – the devil is good at bringing out your past digging deep into your wrongdoings – just like a bad old ex-girlfriend – parang yung ex girlfriend mo na malalim ang hugot di makamove on sa relationship…
He tells you, you are unworthy of GODs LOVE and mercy, and leads people to despair and eventually destruction.
Condemnation is so great a strategy of the enemy that it leads to a lot of mental issues that lead people to take their own lives through suicide. When people are condemned by the devil - especially teens – teens turn to social media for acceptance, for recognition for acceptability – but then all they see is comparison – social comparison. They determine their social status based on what is cool or uncool and so they try to imitate – or copy what they deem as cool. Which then results to cyberbullying – condemnation has reached a new level! This aggravates suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Romans 8:1 reassures us that “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Praise BE To GOD!
So lets summarize – The first strategy of the devil to deceive man:
1. CONDITIONING - is a process of training or accustoming a person to believe a certain way or to accept certain ideologies.
2. CONFUSION - refers to a state of mental or emotional disorientation where a person struggles to discern truth, direction, or God’s will. It often stems from a lack of clarity and spiritual attacks designed to distract and destabilize faith.
3. CONDEMNATION - refers to feeling accused, ashamed, or unworthy, often as a result of sin or failure.
These strategies of the devil to deceive mankind is because HE Knows the bible all to well. He clearly knows this verse in
Jeremiah 17:9
Which Says:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
And the devil knows this. People listen to things that they like to hear, not the things that are true or good. People choose what they think is good for them but sad to say, because of that desperately wicked heart in them, they choose the wrong things.
And this has led to the condition of people now a days and it gets even worse:
2 Timothy 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Well, terrible times are already at hand do you agree? These verses are a reflection of what is happening in society today!
So what do we do! What is our strategy to combat the deceptive ways of the enemy.
How do we re-condition the minds and hearts of people especially those dear to us? Well we start with obvious – WE turn to JESUS, HE is the only one who can transform deceitful hearts! We ask JESUS to step into the lives of those who have been conditioned, confused and condemned by the devil.
1. Turn To JESUS
Ezekiel 36:26
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
When we ask JESUS to step into our situation, only HE can soften hardened hearts, only he can renew our spirit, only he can align our lives to GODs WILL.
2. Seek Refuge in God
Psalm 91:1-2
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Intentionally look after your family. Talk to your kids. Know what they are doing. Be more involved in their activities – while they are still in your household. Pray together as a family at night. Summarize how your day went.
3. PUT ON THE ARMOR OF GOD
The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Ephesians 6:10-18 describes the spiritual armor needed to stand against Satan’s schemes:
• The belt of truth protects against lies.
• The breastplate of righteousness guards your heart from guilt and condemnation.
• The shield of faith extinguishes Satan’s fiery darts of doubt and fear.
• The sword of the Spirit (the Word of God) defeats deception.
Putting on the armor of God involves actively living out each piece in daily life through faith and discipline.
Start by fastening the belt of truth by grounding yourself in God’s Word and aligning your life with His truth, rejecting lies and deceit. LET YOUR yes be yes and no be no! Be a man of your word. Have integrity.
Wear the breastplate of righteousness by confessing sin, living a holy life, and trusting in Christ’s righteousness to guard your heart. STAND UP for what is right.
Use the shoes of the gospel of peace by sharing the Good News and standing firm in the peace that comes from knowing you are reconciled with God. The Believer's Tranquility - A Roman soldier's would have hobnails on the sole, very much like football cleats because when they were fighting they needed solid footing from which to move.
You will need to feed your faith and starve your doubts.
Wear the helmet of salvation by keeping your mind focused on the hope of eternal life in Christ and rejecting fears or insecurities.
Finally, wield the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s Word, by memorizing Scripture, speaking it aloud, and using it to counter lies and temptations.
Through prayer and daily dependence on God, you invite His strength to empower and protect you as you face spiritual battles.
4. GUARD YOUR MIND
Be cautious of what you allow into your thoughts. Reject lies and focus on what is pure and true.
• Philippians 4:8: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
• 2 Corinthians 10:5: Take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.
5. Fellowship with Other Believers
Being in a community of faith provides accountability and mutual encouragement.
Hebrews 10:24-25
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together,as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Romans 10:9 says this:
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile —the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
If you want to experience the goodness and love of GOD in your life today and for eternity.
Raise up your hands. For those who raised their hands. I invite you to close you eyes and we’ll do as Romans 10:9 says. LORD, I surrender my life to you today. I am a sinner in need of your help. Forgive me LORD for my sins and I confess that only you LORD JESUS have died on the cross for me, and rose from the dead for me. Thank you Jesus for reconciling me back to GOD. Thank you JESUS for the gift of eternal life with GOD. Amen!
Welcome to the kingdom of GOD! Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.
Praise Be To God!
