If you watch the news at all, you will see that these days are filled with lies and those lies are spread as truth. People will stand in front of a camera, look you in the eye, through the lens, and lie as if they were speaking the truth. Someone like Donald Trump has amassed a massive following all based on lies. His followers believe everything that comes out of his mouth is truth, when it is obviously a lie. They continue to believe him even when the facts clearly say he is lying. Even when those lies are fact checked, people don’t care and believe his word as if he were telling the truth. It is not just him who is telling lies as if their lies were truth. I think most people have come to expect lying at some level in politics, but during this Trumpian era, lies spread like wildfire. The whole election process was brought into question and now the judicial system is also being questioned. While in every election there are some minute discrepancies and in the judicial system there are some bad players but to say that both processes are completely corrupt is the lie that is being spread. The whole thing is ridiculous, as it was only the states that Trump lost that had the supposed fraud take place and of course Trump does not want to be held accountable for his crimes, so there must be a problem with the judicial system.
That is the secular world, though many Christians have fallen for the lies of Trump. We have already talked about the spirit of antichrist present with Trump. Lying goes back to the very beginning. Jesus said, John 8:44 “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” satan lied to Adam and Eve and they believed him. Genesis 3:4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.” They would die as would all the people that followed. satan’s main purpose is to deceive you just as he deceived Adam and Eve. Revelation 12:9 “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or satan, who leads the whole world astray.” Since the time of Adam and Eve till the present, there has been an ongoing battle between truth and lies. Proverbs 12:17 “An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies.” For those who lie, Psalm 5:9 “Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies.” For those who Zephaniah 3:12 “trust in the name of the Lord. 13 They will do no wrong; they will tell no lies. A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths.” It has been an ongoing battle between God’s words of truth and satan’s words of lies. It is a battle that should have been won long ago but the church stopped trusting in the name of the Lord.
Scripture tells us Hebrews 6:18 “it is impossible for God to lie,” and as we read satan “is a liar and the father of lies.” Throughout scripture there has been prophets of truth and prophets of lies. Jeremiah was a prophet of truth who was constantly battling the lies of the false prophets. God said, Jeremiah 1:9 “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah was told Jeremiah 9:3 “They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the Lord. 4 “Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. 5 Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. 6 You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 14:13 “But I said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! The prophets keep telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’ 14 Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. 15 Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. 16 And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them, their wives, their sons and their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve.” Jeremiah would say to King Zedekiah Jeremiah 37:19 “Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, ‘The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land’?” When Jeremiah prophesied freedom from Babylon, the false prophets said something different than what Jeremiah said. Jeremiah 28:15 “Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. 16 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’ 17 In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.” These false prophets are then described. Jeremiah 23:16 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ 18 But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? 19 See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. 20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand it clearly. 21 I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.”
Truth was hard to find just as truth is hard to find today. Jeremiah was told Jeremiah 5:1 “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city. 2 Although they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ still they are swearing falsely.” 3 Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.” Jeremiah 7:23 “I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. 26 But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors.’ 27 “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. 28 Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.” When Jeremiah spoke, the people hated to hear the words of truth from his mouth, so much so that they wanted to kill him because of the words he spoke. Jeremiah 26:15 “Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.” The people would find out that Jeremiah only spoke words of truth. Jeremiah 44:28 “Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.” “26 As surely as the Sovereign Lord lives.” 27 For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed.”
Isaiah also described the lack of truth. Isaiah 59:15 “Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.” Daniel saw that this battle for truth would continue into the church. Daniel said Daniel 8:12 “Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.” The rebellion of the church was going to have devastating results as God would allow satan to decimate the church. Jesus said Matthew 24:22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” Today the church still has false teachers and prophets distorting the truth of God’s word. 1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” Just as the people wanted to kill Jeremiah, the Jews wanted to kill Jesus for speaking the truth. Jesus said John 8:31 “To the Jews who had believed him, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” He then said 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
Paul said in Romans 1:25 “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” Even though Paul is talking about the creation and all people being accountable just by looking at it, he says that they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” Men and women love to worship what their hands have created. Jeremiah 10:1 “Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. 2 This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. 3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold; t they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. 5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.” Today the church does not worship these kinds of things like the Egyptians did but the church definitely worships what their hands have made. The church also worships flesh and blood, the gurus of the church. The church rebelled against God’s word and built with their own hands and in their own power went after other gospels and followed a different Jesus. They built buildings and had visions of what they wanted the church to be. The developed doctrines and theology that would confirm their own plans but at the same time ignored God’s word and rebelled against Him. They denied the available power and relied upon the strength of their own hands.
The church set aside God’s word and depended on traditions, experience and their own reasoning. The exchanged the truth of God’s word for a lie and made the lies their own truth. Isaiah 28:15 “we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” The last blog talked about the lies of the charismatics and how far from the truth they have fallen. Even though the intention was to see more of God’s power, they did not test the spirits and were deceived by the power of satan and his lies. Therefore the truth of God’s word was set aside. The charismatic movement is relatively young in comparison to the church as a whole. The Catholic church led people away from the truth of God’s word and then the Reformation continued leading away from the truth, basically an explosion of lies. Jesus said He was the way and the truth so there can only be one way not many ways as we see in the church. The deception and the delusion of the church is massive. False teachers and prophets and their doctrines are everywhere, and we were warned but the church seems to love the whitewash. Ezekiel 13:8 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. 9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. 10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, 11 therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. 12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?” 13 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. 14 I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord. 15 So I will pour out my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, “The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, 16 those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign Lord.”’ Jeremiah 5:30 “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: 31 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?” Deuteronomy 32:28 “They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. 29 If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!”
Both the charismatic and the non-charismatic have rebelled against God by not adhering to His word. When comparing, both are rebellious but the deception of non-charismatic is just as severe as the charismatic. We talked about the charismatics in the last blog. The non-charismatics are quite happy to have the church free of the supernatural. Some even go as far as to say that God does not do what He did at the beginning of the church. Just step back for a moment and think about that. Jesus died and the mighty power of God raised Him from the dead. Paul said Ephesians 1:18 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” Jesus gave that same power to his disciples. Matthew 10:1 “He gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” The sick are still sick, people are still dying and there are worse diseases than leprosy today and people are still bound by demons yet the church says God doesn’t do that anymore and millions have believed the lie. I will give you one guess as to where that teaching came from. You would be right in saying satan, so why is the church allowing satan to say it from the pulpits of the church. For example, one of the biggest advocates of cessationism is John MacArthur. He has a video where he explains cessationism and if you listen, you can hear satan deceiving the church. His lips are moving but it is satan speaking. We know it is satan because nowhere does the bible say the same power the disciples had would not be available to the church. Paul said in Galatians 3:3 “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” It appears that the church has been foolish for a couple of thousand years and still refuses to repent and turn from wicked ways.
As we read earlier, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” Cessationism is a doctrine of demons. satan does not even need to perform signs and wonders to deceive; he just gets them to believe the church is supposed to be powerless. Once people accept the powerless church as normal, his work is done. The sick will continue to be sick and the possessed will remain in captivity. If God allowed the church to see its destruction, most would be on their knees pleading for salvation from our enemies. Nehemiah 1:3 “The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” Even those who do not say they believe in cessationism really don’t believe the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to the church today. Say to most that we, the disciples of Jesus could raise the dead, heal some of the worst disease known to man and cast out demons; they will think you have gone mad. If they actually believed what the bible said, they would be desperately be seeking God because they would understand the power satan has been allowed to have over the church and would no longer want to remain in captivity.
The church’s main focus is supposed to be truth. Malachi 2:5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. 7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 4:23 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 3:21 “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” 1 Corinthians 13:6 “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” Psalm 101:7 “No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.” Acts 20:30 “Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” Galatians 5:7 “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” Don’t be like those who are 2 Timothy 3:7 “always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Hebrews 5:12 "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!”
Stand firm and don’t follow them but be a true worshiper of truth. Ephesians 6:14 “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” and pray that God will turn His face back to the church and return His Spirit to us so that once again truth will prevail. John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” That is how it was supposed to be. John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
