Therefore, My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it. Isaiah 5:13-14
This season is a time of great deception, people are struggling to find the truth. It is hard to know what news is real and what news is propaganda, what some political candidates really stand for when one day they are definitely against something and the next they are 100% for the very thing they criticized the day before. A supreme court nominee could not define what a woman is, yet they want to hold a position in the highest court of our land. Children are being taught they can be anything they want to be including the decision of whether they want to be a boy or a girl. People who have come into our country illegally are given free healthcare, education, cell phones, transported anywhere in the USA they want to live and now many states are giving them money to buy their first house with. I know we are living in times of great deception. God warned in Isaiah 5:20-21 “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.” The obvious reason that we are living in such deceiving times, is because we are living in the last days. Jesus warned there would even be deception in the body of Christ. Jesus told His disciples in Luke 21:8-9 “And He spoke. “Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am he,” and “The time has drawn near.” Therefore, do not go after them. But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified, for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately.” Peter warned in 2Peter 2, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time, their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” It is imperative that every believer knows their Bible, in order to have the discernment needed in the age we are living. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” We are warned in Hebrews 13:9 “Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines.” Whether it is something you read in my article, what your pastor preaches., or what a Sunday School teacher teaches, it has to line up with the word of God. Your belief system or doctrine cannot be built on one scripture that is taken out of context. Another way to prove a doctrine is to look for other scriptures that would show the teaching to be contradictory to God’s Word. David understood the importance of knowing God’s word, he wrote in Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” There are many strange doctrines that are being taught in the modern American churches. Some of the false teaching or strange doctrines are not new, they are religious beliefs that have been passed down through main stream denominations. Colossians 2:8 warns, “Beware lest anyone [a] cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”
While it is easy to point fingers at people in the ministry, it is not as easy to take responsibility for your own belief system. Too often we create a false doctrine to explain something God does or does not do. For example, if you prayed for God to heal someone you love and they die, human nature tries to explain the disappointment and a person might try to justify the absence of healing by saying, “God just does not heal anymore, it was only for the New Testament Church.” Too many people try to twist the Bible to fit their narrative, or their experiences. Then they will look for someone who will validate their own misguided views instead of looking deep into God’s word and finding His truth. Paul warned Timothey in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” “ But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, [b] unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” I believe some in the church have gone so far as to “call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” The church has been too careful to not offend anyone who lives in sin and instead, they are allowing them to die in their sin and being in danger of hell. If we think we can live our life anyway we want to live it, and there will be no consequences, we are already deceived. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:19-21” Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery , fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.: John the Revelator was little more blunt when he wrote, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Many in the modern American Church has been deceived into believing God is love, and because of His love, He will tolerate sin in the life of the believers. Hebrews 13:4 clearly contradicts that belief, “pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.”
Another deception that is rampant in the churches is once saved always saved. I agree that when a person says a sinner’s prayer, confessing their sins, and acknowledging Jesus as Lord and Savior, they are saved and a lifetime walk of obedience to God should be embarked on. Jesus affirmed n Mark 12:30we are to: “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, t h is is the first commandment.” If we belong to God, we are to love Him above all else. In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love Me, [a] keep My commandments.” I wonder how many people who go on living in sin after praying a sinner’s prayer and maybe even go to church believing that everything is alright. Sin always separates us from God, and when we allow sin to have a place in our heart, we become a slave to sin instead of a child of God. Yes, we live in the dispensation of grace. Thank God, but grace does not give us a license to sin. Paul addressed this deception in Romans 6. Verses 1-2 start saying “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” He goes on to clarify in verses 15-16 “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” We all know Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death.” Unconfessed sin will lead to death. In Exodus 32:33 God told Moses, “Whoever has sinned against ME, I will blot him out of My book.” His Book is the Book of Life. In Revelation, 14, The angel told John, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” This scripture does not separate the believer and the non believer, but it clearly states all who take the mark of the beast will spend eternity in hell. When was the last time you heard someone love you enough to warn you of the wrath of God if you take the mark. We are living at the end of this age and we are about to witness some of the things John wrote about in Revelations. Think about the COVID vaccine, they were threatening people’s jobs if they did not take the vaccine, we are on the threshold. I do not want you to be caught un aware or unlearned and miss eternity with God because of a decision made under duress. It is too dangerous to eat whatever is on the church buffet, and think that everything taught or preached at church is truth. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Me.”
There is a famine in too many churches and in individual believers. The famine is causing the people to perish. Isaiah 5:13” My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst” People are slave to sin because a famine in the modern American Church. Jesus said “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35. When we do not spend time with God, we will slowly die of spiritual hunger. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Verse 14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We cannot live a victorious Christian life if we are not in God’s Word. We become malnourished and then we are susceptible to deceit. Ephesians 5:26 teaches us that it is the washing of the water of the word that cleanses us. Jesus told the woman at the well that he had living water that she would never thirst again. Not only is time in the Word of God important, we must also be obedient. Jesus said in John 4:34 “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” God does not want us to be deceive, but He said “the Truth shall set them free.”
Cathy Nesmith