Don’t Be Deceived

Don’t Be Deceived

November 8, 2026, Sunday AM

Text: 2 Timothy 3:13-17(NKJ)   (  This morning I will be sticking close to my Notes  )

*I want to minister a message this morning that I hope grabs your attention.

-There has been a verse in the Bible that has always given me pause to wonder.

-It is found in Matt 24:23-24(NKJ) Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

-I have, over the years, wondered, how can this be, it always seemed so impossible.

-But now we live in a time that is filled and over flowing with deception.

-And it is making its way into the church at an alarming rate.

*I believe the reason our time so much different that other times never before in human history have we had so much information available to us, so quickly and so easily.

-With a phone in our hand, we can access almost anything we want to know.

-We can listen to preachers from around the world . . . We can study the Bible . . .

-We learn from people we may never have the opportunity to meet.

-And much of the time it is wonderful!

*But there is another side to this.

-Along with all that wonderful information comes an enormous amount of misinformation.

-Everybody has an opinion . . . Everybody has an interpretation.

-Everybody seems to have discovered something that nobody else knows.

-What concerns me is how easily something can be made to sound credible simply because it is presented convincingly.

*Someone speaks with confidence . . . They quote a few Scriptures . . . They tell a compelling story.

-They seem knowledgeable, sincere, and persuasive.

-Before long, people begin accepting what is said without discovering whether it is true.

-And the problem is . . . There is a real enemy that is determined to destroy your life.

-And one of his strategies is using the overwhelming we have with technology.

-So much misinformation and downright blatant deception is being pumped into our lives.

*I'm not here to preach against social media . . . The real problem is much older than the internet.

-People were being deceived long before anyone ever owned a computer.

-In fact, the very first temptation recorded in Scripture involved deception.

-What has changed is the number of voices competing for our attention.

-And here's the question I want us to consider this morning . . .

-With so many voices telling us what to believe, how do we keep from being led astray?

*I believe the answer is found in our text . . . 2 Timothy 3:13-17(NKJ)

But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

*Paul describes a world in which deception is increasing, but his instruction to Timothy is very simple . . . Continue in the truth you have received.

-He doesn't tell Timothy to panic . . . He doesn't tell him to become suspicious of everybody.

-He doesn't tell him to spend his life chasing down every false teaching.

-He tells him to continue in what he knows is true.

-And then he points Timothy directly to the Bible.

*The greatest defense against deception is not becoming familiar with every lie.

-It is becoming completely fill with the living Word of God.

1.  Deception Doesn't Always Look Like Deception.

*This morning I want you to understand something about deception . . .

-If deception were always obvious, it wouldn't be very effective . . . Now that seem obvious.

-But the problem is because the way it is packaged and delivered is seems right.

-It looks right, it feels right, it makes sence . . . After all how can something that feels so right be so wrong.

-The danger is that deception frequently contains just enough truth to make it believable.

-Go back with me to Genesis chapter 3 . . . We have the very first attack of God's Word.

-The serpent questioned God's Word, challenged God's character, and suggested that God was withholding something good from Adam and Eve.

*Gradually, the issue moved away from what God had actually said to what Eve began to believe about what God had said . . . That's a dangerous place to be.

-Because once you begin questioning the truth of God's Word, you open the door for something else to take its place.

-Deception is often most effective when it appeals to something we already want to believe.

-Sometimes we accept something because it confirms an opinion we already hold.

-Sometimes because it makes us feel important.

-Sometimes because it offers an explanation for something we don't understand.

*There is another remarkable example in Matthew chapter 4.

-When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he actually quoted Scripture.

-Think about that! . . . The devil quoted the Bible!

-But Jesus recognized that Scripture was being misapplied.

-The question for us is, can we? . . .  Can we recognize when the Bible is being misapplied?

*There is an important distinction between being exposed to the truth and being established in the truth.

-Someone can attend church for years, listen to excellent preaching, and still be vulnerable to deception because they have never developed a personal relationship with God's Word . . . They may think they have but there is real instability.

*We must learn to be aware of the danger of allowing other voices to shape our understanding of truth when we are not personally grounded in the Word of God.

-Not everything that contains a Bible verse is necessarily a biblical message.

-A person can quote a Scripture accurately and still apply it incorrectly.

-They can take a promise out of context, ignore the circumstances in which it was given, or use one passage in a way that contradicts the clear teaching of others.

*Not every thought someone has it from God . . . The Bible says very clearly in 1 John 4:1(NKJ)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

*That's why we cannot afford to build our understanding of God on isolated statements, impressive personalities, or carefully selected verses.

-We need to know the Word of God for ourselves . . . Not just a collection of favorite verses.

-We need to become students of the whole counsel of God . . . Not just select verses!!

2.  What You Continually Listen to Will Influence What You Believe.

*Let me take this a little further.

-I believe one of the greatest dangers facing Christians today is they have allowed so many other voices to occupy their attention . . .

-The unfortunate outcome of this is . . . The Word of God no longer has the influence it should.

-And for many that happens almost without our realizing it.

*We listen to a little of this, read a little of that, hear somebody's opinion, follow somebody else's interpretation . . . And gradually, our thinking begins to change.

-Not necessarily because we made a conscious decision to abandon what we believed.

-But because we have allowed ourselves to be influenced by what we continually hear.

2 Peter 3:15-18(NLT)

And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him, speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.  You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever!

*Not everything we listen to is harmless.

-Peter warns us that we can actually be lead away from the truth we already know.

-Sometimes we think we can continually expose ourselves to questionable teaching without being affected by it.

-But the Bible tells us there are some voices we need to stop listening to.

Ephesians 4:14(NKJ) That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

*Spiritual immaturity makes us vulnerable to persuasive voices and changing opinions.

-Paul describes believers who are constantly being influenced by whatever teaching comes along . . . They lack the spiritual stability necessary to distinguish truth from error.

*This is particularly relevant today.

-Just because someone speaks confidently, presents an impressive argument, or quotes a few Scriptures doesn't mean what they are teaching is biblical.

-The answer is not to become suspicious of everyone.

-It's to become so grounded in the Word that we can recognize what is not consistent with it.

*This brings me to Psalm chapter 1.

-The psalmist describes the blessed man as someone who refuses to walk in the counsel of the ungodly . . . But then he tells us what this man does instead.

-Psalm 1:2(NKJ) says . . . But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

-Notice that the psalmist doesn't simply describe what this man avoids.

-He describes what this man embraces . . . His delight is in the Word of God.

-And he meditates upon it day and night.

-That means God's Word is not merely something he hears occasionally.

-It becomes something he thinks about, considers, reflects upon, and carries with him into everyday life.

*When our roots are established in the Word of God, something changes . . . We become stable.

-Our faith becomes less vulnerable to every changing circumstance.

-We learn to recognize when something doesn't agree with the truth.

-And instead of being constantly moved by what everybody else is saying, we develop confidence in what God has said.

-Church, we need more than occasional exposure to the Bible.

-We need to become rooted in it.

3.  Knowing the Word Is Different from being Familiar the Word.

*Now, here's where I want to challenge us a little.

*As we said earlier . . . There is a difference between being familiar with the Bible and actually knowing what it says.

-And there is an even greater difference between knowing what it says and allowing it to change the way we live.

-Listen to what James said in James 1:22(NKJ)  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves . . . Did you catch that?

-James says it is possible to deceive ourselves . . . How?

-By hearing the Word without putting it into practice.

*Now that's an interesting thought, especially in light of what we're talking about today.

-We tend to think about deception as something somebody else does to us.

-A false teacher deceives us . . . A misleading message deceives us.

-Someone twists the truth, and we believe it.

-But James tells us that there is another form of deception.

*We can deceive ourselves by believing that hearing the truth is the same thing as living the truth.

-We can hear sermon after sermon, attend church faithfully, and agree with everything being preached.

-But if the Word never makes its way into our decisions, our attitudes, our relationships, and our daily lives, we have missed its intended purpose.

*God never intended His Word to be merely a source of religious information.

-He gave us His Word to reveal Himself to us and transform our lives.

-Look again at our text verses 16 & 17 . . . All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

-God's Word teaches us what is right . . . It exposes what is wrong.

-It corrects the things that have become distorted . . . And it instructs us in how to live.

*The Bible is not simply a book we consult to prove somebody else wrong.

-It is the Word through which God reveals truth to us, including truth about ourselves.

-Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is living and powerful, discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart.

-That means when I open my Bible, I shouldn't only be asking, "Lord, what does this say about everybody else?" . . .

-I need to ask, "Lord, what are You showing me about my own life?"

*In Acts chapter 17, Paul and Silas came to Berea and began teaching the Scriptures.

-And the Bible makes a remarkable statement about the people there.

-Acts 17:11(NKJ) says about the Bereans . . . These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

-I want you to think about that . . . These people were listening to the Apostle Paul!

-If there was ever a preacher whose teaching could be trusted, certainly Paul would qualify.

-But the Bereans didn't simply accept his message because of his reputation.

-They examined the Scriptures . . . And the Bible commends them for doing it.

-We also should develop the habit of examining what we hear in the light of Scripture.

-And that includes what you hear from this pulpit.

Conclusion   ( Call up Worship team )  ( Do salvation altar call )  (  Call up Ministry team )

*I want to challenge you this morning . . . Make room in your life for the Word of God.

-If you've neglected your Bible, begin again.

-If you've allowed other voices to dominate your thinking, give God's Word its rightful place.

-And don't let the confusion around you rob you of the confidence that comes from knowing what God has said.

-Don't be deceived . . . Be established in the truth.