Why are Christians easily deceived in the end times?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. OK, good to have everybody in today, and we appreciate your putting forth the effort. And we even have four, two couples from Indiana with us today, and we'd like to give them a special welcome. And we've got another couple over here that hadn't been here before. But for the rest of you, we just appreciate your always coming in and being a part. Now you know that wherever we go, you folks in our television audience, you're just as well-known as I am, because we've had people go with us to some of these places, and they say, well, I've seen you on television, so you just rest assured that you're just as much a part of this as I am. And as we'll probably be using the verse after a while in our study, we all labor together. We're all members of the body. We are part of what Paul calls the building in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Now again, we like to routinely let people know that we're just an informal Bible study. We aren't associated with any one group, and we don't claim to have all the answers. But what we do like to tell people is, check it out, get into the book, and if you can prove me wrong, why, you know, that's your privilege. And other than that, look at these things with an open mind, and don't get hung up on tradition, but search the Scriptures. See if these things are really true. Now of course, we always like to let folks know that all the past programs are available on videotape, audiotapes, as well as the printed page, and we'll be glad to give you the information. We don't push it. We don't try to sell them to you. But if you're interested, you let us know, and we will send a list of the Table of Contents and so forth. Okay, I think that's all the announcements, isn't it honey? And we're ready to get back into Ephesians chapter 4, where we left off in our last program, and that'll be at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 12. Now, remember that in these preceding verses, especially verse 11, and this is a jump up, remember, from Paul's earlier writings, and so now what he really leaves the church with is evangelists, pastors, and teachers. In other words, these are specially gifted men that God is going to provide for the Christian community, and I think also it ties in, in fact here we go again before we even start Ephesians. I'm going to take you back someplace else. Go back to 1 Corinthians 13. I don't intend to do this, I really don't, but 1 Corinthians 13, and you come down to the last verse, verse 13. It's almost the same kind of a scenario, only we shake out all the superfluous things, and we end up with the things that will abide. And what is it? Verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 13, and now abideth, in other words, will remain, faith, hope, and charity, or love. Those are the three that remain. Everything else has been kind of shook off and has fallen by the wayside, but these three, faith, hope, and love, are with us even yet today. And as I mentioned when we taught this, that all through Paul's epistles these three words just keep popping up. They may not all three be together every time, but he'll either refer to faith, or faith and hope, or hope and love, but those three words just constantly keep coming up. Now if you'll flip back then to where we were in Ephesians chapter 4, we have much the same thing. So much of the various gifts and so forth that people make so much ado over even today, they've more or less just fallen by the wayside, but three of them remain, and they are as absolute as anything can be even today. And what is it? Evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Those are the three main criterias for a local group of believers. All right, now then verse 12, what's the purpose? For the perfecting or the maturing of the lost world. Now watch what I'm saying. No, that's not what it says, see? It's not talking about lost people. But what's the purpose? To reach and to edify believers. Now you know I'm always stressing that I think too much of the church activity is geared in the wrong direction. Not that it's all that bad, but so much church activity is supposedly directed to lost people. Oh, we've got to save the lost. Yes, I'm concerned about the lost, but the best way to reach lost people is not wait for that poor preacher to do it all, not for that poor Sunday school teacher, but every ordinary believer should be in a position to open the Scriptures to lost people. And that's what I think is what he's referring to here. Now look at it. All of these gifted men, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, are given for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints, see? Not a word about lost people. For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of not the lost world, but who? The Body of Christ. This is where all of Paul's effort is being directed, is to the believer, to edify him. Verse 13, "...to bring us all to a place of unity in the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God." Now those of you who hear me teach over a period of time here in Oklahoma, you know I'm always stressing, there's no use trying to go out and witness to people if you don't know what you're witnessing about. You have to know the subject, and you've heard me give the illustration over and over. If you ask an auto mechanic something about an automobile, he's going to just open up and tell you everything he knows, because he knows his subject. But if you were to ask that poor auto mechanic something about a meticulous surgery, naturally he's going to clam up, because he doesn't know what to tell you. Well it's just about that is ridiculous when we try to send people out to witness when they know nothing of the Word of God. And so the whole purpose in Paul's writings is to edify the believer, and then now let's look and see what the believer is to do. II Corinthians chapter 5, and let's drop in at verse 18. II Corinthians 5, and all things are of God, who hath past tense reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us, not just Paul, but to every believer, the ministry of reconciliation. That's for everybody, but now don't stop. To wit, that is to say, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses or their sins unto them. In other words, they're forgiven, they've been done away with, and at the same time He has committed unto us the Word of reconciliation. In other words, we're to tell a lost world that because of Christ's death, burial and resurrection, He has already reconciled them, but they have to believe it. And how are they going to believe it, Paul says in Romans, unless they have someone to tell them, and how can they tell them unless the Word has been revealed. Now look at the next verse. Now this is for every believer. Now then, verse 20, we as ordinary everyday believers, we are ambassadors for Christ. Now what's an ambassador? Well he's a representative of his home country, but he's living where? In foreign territory, and everything he does is being viewed by the foreigners. Everything he says is being analyzed by the people in the country in which he serves. Oh, now that's where you and I are. We are in foreign territory, whether we know it or not, and every day we live, we see it more and more. I mean the opposition is rising, we're in foreign territory. Our homeland is in heaven, our citizenship, Paul says in Philippians, is already in heaven. But while we're here in foreign territory, we're to be what, ambassadors. Now let me ask you something. Would any president in his right mind, send somebody to Japan to be an ambassador from my background? Would you just send an ordinary dirt farmer like myself to Japan to be an ambassador? Well I wouldn't know how to even begin a conversation. So before we send an ambassador to a foreign nation by the appointment usually of the president, and the congress has to okay it, what do you expect that man to have in his background? Everything that prepared him to be an ambassador. You don't send somebody over there who's had no education and no background. But isn't that exactly what we do with most Christians? We send them out into that world of wolves with no background, they have no knowledge of the Scripture, and as soon as the scoffer hits them with something, they melt. They don't know what to say. And so this is why we have to teach the Word. This is why God has left evangelists, pastors, and teachers, is to prepare the believing community to go out into the world and yes, win the loss. We are to have a heart for lost people, of course we are. God has a heart for lost people. But you see, it's too often we've put the card up in front of the horse and we wonder why it doesn't work. Now then, come back to Ephesians. Verse 14, next verse, now remember what the theme here is. These gifted men of evangelists, pastors, and teachers have been given to the local Christian community, whether it's a local church or whether it's a Bible study group, and of course as we come closer and closer to the end, I'm going to agree with a great Bible teacher of the 30's. When he saw then already the apostasy that was coming in to some of, at that time, the more liberal denominations, and he made a prediction in about 1937, if I remember correctly, that with the apostasy that was coming in to the organized church, he could see the day that if the Lord Terry were the only true biblical study and teaching would be in small Bible studies. And we're seeing it. We're seeing it. I know there are still some good churches. I know there are still some good pastors. But if you could hear my phone calls and you could read our letters, you would be aghast at what's coming over some of the pulps of America. It's unbelievable. And people are up against, well, where can we go? Where can we go and hear the Word? We can't find it. Well this is to be expected. And so when I say then that the pastors and evangelists and teachers are left for the Christian community, I'm not putting aside the local church, but if we get to the place where the organized church, like it did in China—you know, China went through it before the Communists took over. Watchman Nee was one of the great Bible study teachers in China, and not that I agree with 100 percent of his theology, but Watchman Nee had a tremendous ministry establishing small Bible study groups in the great apartment complexes of China's huge cities, like Shanghai and so forth. Well, when the Communists took over China, the first thing they did was lock the door on the organized church. And the only thing left then and kept the Christian community, if I may use that word, alive were those little cells of home Bible study, see? So when I use that terminology, I don't want somebody out there on TV to say, Well, why are you putting down the local church? No, I don't ever put down the local church if they are true to the Word. But oh my goodness, when I hear some of the stuff that's coming in, a lot of these are not true to the Word. All right, now then if you'll come back in here, verse 14, that we henceforth, in other words, from the time that God has given us these gifted men who have now been teaching us that from henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro. Now you know, whenever I see a word in Scripture, I always think of four or five verses that fit. I can't help it. Let's look at one of them. Go back to, I think it's 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2. You know, I told my wife this morning when I got up, I said, I lay awake half the night wondering if I can keep people interested for 30 minutes, but boy, just as soon as I get up here, I wish I had 30 more. First Peter chapter 2, and this is almost the same kind of language that we're going to see in Ephesians in a minute or two. Verse 1, 1 Peter chapter 2, starting at verse 1, but I want to especially look at verse 2. "...Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word." Now you see, that's exactly how every new believer has to begin. Whether we're 90 or whether we're 9, that's beside the point. The moment we're saved, we are a babe in Christ, and we have to start with the milk of the Word. That's a given. But you see, Peter doesn't say that that's where they're to stay. They're to desire the milk of the Word with the idea of what? Growing and getting beyond it. Alright, now then, the other verse that comes to mind is go all the way back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and again we're going to see babes mentioned, but in a different light. Peter is speaking in the idea that desire these simple things because you are a new believer. You're a babe in Christ. You've got a lot of growing to do. But now Paul is going to deal with Corinthians who should have long since been off the milk bottle, and they should have been partaking of the deeper things of Scripture. But they weren't. Alright, you've got 1 Corinthians 3, starting at verse 1, "...and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." Now here's where we always have to be careful on how we use the word carnal. Sometimes it may mean the unbeliever. He's carnal. He's still in the flesh. But here it's referring to the believer who is just simply immature, and so he's still carnal. Alright, and so he says, "...I can't speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as even unto..." What's the word? Babes. See? Babes in Christ, because they had never gone beyond the infancy in their Christian experience. Verse 2, "...and bless Paul's heart." You can always tell this book is inspired by the same God, can't you? Here we have two totally different men, and they use the same word. And Paul says, too, "...I have fed you with..." What? "...milk." See? The same commodity that Peter referred to. "...I have fed you with milk, and not with meat. For hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able for your carnal. For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and division, so..." Now he doesn't say they weren't believers. They were saved, but they didn't grow. Now Paul, of course, was the master teacher, but nevertheless the problem was that these Corinthian believers did not grow up. They stayed on the carnal level, and they could never get to the place of partaking of the meat of the Word, or the strong things. Now then, if you'll come back to Ephesians, "...that were not to be henceforth like babes, or mere children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight or the underhanded work of men, cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to..." What's the word? "...deceit." Now you've heard me stress this word, deceive, over the last year or two, and I'm going to keep on until it's all over. Because we are being besieged with deception like never before, I don't think since Paul's own day, and the Lord Himself. Now again, let's go back to Matthew 24, and see how the Lord Jesus Himself in His earthly ministry used the same word. Matthew 24, and we have to start at verse 3, Matthew 24, verse 3, I've got it? Matthew 24, verse 3, I have to wait until you find it, because otherwise those people in television haven't found it either. Okay, 24, verse 3, "...and as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately." In other words, there was no press of the multitudes, it's just Jesus and the 12, "...and they came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming in the end of the world?" Now you know, Paul even tells us in Corinthians, the Jews seek a what? A sign. And all the way through Christ's earthly ministry, they'd be asking, well, give us a sign. Well, here's another one. What's going to be the sign that we can look for? All right, verse 4, "...and Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed, that no man..." What? "...deceive you." In other words, that's one of the greatest signs that we're nearing the end time, is a flood of deception, a flood of people deceiving other people, and we're seeing it. Oh, my goodness, when I hear of what's up there on the Internet, and I'm up there too, but I hope I'm not a deceiver, but the Internet is just full of this stuff, and people write and they call and they say, well, what am I supposed to believe? It sounds good. Well, does it line up with the Scripture? No, not really. Well then, forget it. Cast it aside. It's a deception. And we're to be looking for it, and we're to be so aware of what the truth is that we can recognize a deception the minute it comes our way. You know, I've used the illustration on the program over and over, and I guess I must be right because nobody has refuted me, and that is that when the people in the government come in and they're going to especially be assigned to counterfeit money, the best way to train them is to teach them and teach them and teach them what our true bills look like. What do our true treasury bills or our currency, what does it look like? And if they study it and study it and study it day in and day out for months on end, and they get out into the workaday world, the minute they see a counterfeit, they can recognize it, because they have been so ingrained with what the true bills look like. All right, now that's the way we have to be with the Word of God. We've got to be so ingrained in the truth of it that when we hear this garbage coming in from the other direction, we can immediately say, hey, that's garbage, and there's a lot of it out there. And I never used the term until out down in Haiti, and the fellow that we were ministering with down there had a tremendous ministry, and that's what he called a lot of this stuff. He said, it's pure garbage. Well I'll have to admit, he was right. And again when I hear what comes in from our listening audience, there's a lot of garbage out there. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff that people call in and say they've been hearing. Well anyway, we come back then to Ephesians chapter 4, we're to be careful that we don't remain as babes in Christ, because if we remain as babes, we are going to get blown about with every false wind of doctrine. We are going to be subject to deception, and so there's only one remedy, and what is it? Grow up. See, and this is the whole idea of Ephesians. Get out of the simplistic area. All Scripture is profitable, I'll never forget that. All Scripture is profitable, but you also have to progress along with Scripture and get into the deeper things, and that's where Ephesians is. Ephesians is higher ground. It's deeper water, as I always put it, however you want to look at it. And so this is the admonition, is to get off the milk and get into the deep things so that when these deceptions come along, you won't be blown away by them. Oh, I've got some more verses I could look at, could take you back to Jude and so forth, but we won't take time. Verse 15, but instead of being blown away with every wind of doctrine and the deception of ungodly men, as Jude calls them, we are to be speaking the truth in love. Now I hope I've taught you well. Whenever you see the word truth, what is another word that you can put in place of it? Okay, Christ Himself, He's the truth, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Another word for the truth is the gospel, the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4, and you know I'm beginning to see more and more people use that, have you noticed it? I'm finally beginning to see people use 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4 when they want to express the gospel. Well, those three words are almost synonymous, see? Truth, Christ, and the gospel. They all three are absolute truth. All right, so look at it in the text. We are to be speaking the truth, not in antagonism, not with the idea of causing a controversy or argument, but in the spirit of what? Love. In the spirit of love, we are to be presenting the gospel to the lost world, because they're the ones that need the gospel. See, once you're saved, you don't have to hear that over and over and over again, you know that, but you have to grow into what the gospel has done for you, and you become skilled in the Scriptures, and then when you get out in the workaday world, in fact I just had a gentleman call from Mississippi just before we left, in fact I had to hurry him off the phone, because I got to hit the road. He was in the pharmacy, and he was picking up a prescription for his own high blood pressure, but there was a mother and a young lad who was hyper-hyperactive, and she had just gotten a whole big bottle full of pills for his hyperactivity and so forth. But then the mother complained, and after he takes some of those, then the kid goes into depression. And oh, he said, I was at a loss of words, I wanted to be able to share something with him, and yet there I stood with a prescription in my own hand, and so I couldn't just tell him, well turn it over to God, because I wasn't. Well I said, no, God doesn't expect you to. But I said, did you share with her your knowledge of the Word and the power of prayer, and tell her that you would be passing out the prayer needs of that little fellow? Because I said, I know it works, Jerry you know it, we've made prayer requests across our classes here in Oklahoma, and I don't believe in healers, you know that, but I believe in the power of prayer. And so this is what we have to learn to do, is be able to share with people, how that God can meet our needs by simply making it an item of prayer, and we know that God can do it. Now He may not always answer the way we think He should, but He's still a prayer answering God. Alright, now these are all the things that Paul is referring to here, that we're to be speaking the truth of the Word of God in the spirit of love. Not to be causing controversy, not to be argumentative, but in that spirit of love, letting people know that Christ loved them, that He died for them, and that He defeated all the powers of Satan and death when He arose from the dead. So always keep those things in mind as you study. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick, is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.