The Battle of the Mind- 4

Matthew 24; Acts 20:28-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

All humans have to deal with a mental battle, but Christians have an understanding and help that others do not.  This is made available to us through Jesus and was God’s intention all along.  Humans were never designed to live life disconnected from their creator.

One of the biggest parts of this battle is the mental battle of deception.  Like Pinocchio being deceived into going to Pleasure Island, the battle is between what is presented as truth versus what actually is the truth.  Thus, the wooden puppet is promised freedom, but Pleasure Island is taking him to a life of slavery in a salt mine, or something similar.

Yet, lies by their very nature dress themselves up as truth.  This is the rub.

We are going to look at several passages in which we are warned as followers of Jesus against deception.  In so doing, we are immunizing our minds against the allure of the lies de jour.

Let’s first hear our Lord Jesus warn us in Matthew 24.

Be watchful against deception (v. 3-5)

Jesus and His disciples had been in Jerusalem.  The rural Galileans were impressed with the temple buildings.  They were in awe and remarked about it to Jesus.  Of course, they were shocked by the response of Jesus.  “I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”  Essentially, the place was going to be demolished.

Later, at the Mount of Olives, they pressed the issue further.  When will this happen?  They also asked what would be the sign of the end of the age and the return of Jesus.  It seems apparent that they do not understand that these three areas are not necessary simultaneous.  Of course, this is not my point today.

Notice that the first thing Jesus does is to warn them against deception (vs. 4).  This word calls for us to look, to watch out, to be vigilant.  “Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the Christ.’”  We see that part of the power of the deception will be centered on the fact that Jesus has gone away and has promised to come back.

Christians have an expectation for Jesus to come back.  In this case, we have the New Testament (and the Old Testament) to help us know what Jesus should be like.  We are hungry for him to come back, but we can know what he is like.  This is better than being hungry for something, someone, without having a concrete idea of what they will be like.  This second situation sets people up for deception.

In the first century, the religious leaders did not recognize Jesus for who he was.  God gave Israel just under 40 years to make up their mind about Jesus, and then, He sent the Romans to destroy the temple (70 AD).  Later, in 135 AD, a man named Simon bar Kochba was promoted as the messiah by a respected rabbi.  Yet, Simon proved not to be Messiah.  The Romans came and destroyed their uprising as well as Jerusalem again.  This does connect to what Jesus was saying.  Here was a false christ, false messiah, of the ilk that Jesus warned about.  However, Jews who do not believe in Jesus are not the only ones who have had false Christs.  Among Christians, there have been many through the years who proclaimed themselves as being Jesus, the Christ, or even finishing what Jesus didn’t finish.  Regardless, Jesus warns that there would be great deception around this area of the coming of Messiah.

(V. 11-14)  In verse 11, Jesus warns again of deception, but this time, he warns that false prophets will come and deceive many.  The false prophets won’t claim to be messiah, but they will claim to speak on behalf of God.  It is more common for people to claim to be a prophet than it is to be the Christ.  Yet, there is one thing that is the same about them all.  They don’t come claiming to be false.  They all claim to be the real thing.

So, how can we know if someone is false or true?  This would be a scary thing for new believers.  Can you imagine someone who was saved while watching an evangelistic TV program.  Such a person isn’t connected to a body of mature believers in Jesus.  Yet, Jesus has warned them in this passage against deception.  They still need to connect with a body of believers and start learning the truth.  This is a dangerous situation.  When we learn to feed upon the Word of Christ, the false will stick out all the more.

Verse 13 tells us that those who endure to the end will be saved.  The word for endure here has the idea of staying underneath of something heavy, sticking in there when it is difficult.  A lie always comes in opposition to the truth.  It doesn’t call itself a lie, but it is opposed to the truth.  So, if you have been following Jesus, you will have some measure of understanding of the truth.  Yet, the lie comes along like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.  “Did God really say…Did Jesus really say….?”  It twists and contradicts what our Lord has said.  This builds a tension between what I thought was right and what is now being offered as that which is right.  That heaviness is tough to remain under.  Many people fall to temptation because they grow weary of holding up under such pressure.

It tells us in verse 11 that many will be deceived.  These then become part and parcel in pressuring those who are not deceived to follow them.  We are not told that this will be easy to face, but we are told to endure the difficulty until the end.  It may feel easier to cast off restraint, but it leads to heavy destruction.

This is the message of Pinocchio in regards to Pleasure Island.  It looks like freedom at first when we cast off restraint, but in the end, we will never be more enslaved than when we go that route.  May God help us to have stick-to-it-iveness in this matter of the truth.

(V. 23-27)  These verses are essentially telling us that the coming of Jesus will be obvious.  No one will have to tell you that he has come back.  Of course, this is different than his first coming.

Now, not all false christs do great signs and wonders.  Many simply employ the art of manipulating others.  Yet, verse 24 tells us that some will do powerful signs and wonders in order to deceive.

This is similar to the opposition of the Egyptian priests against Moses.  They replicated some of the miracles that God was doing through Moses.  Their “miracles” were not as great (the serpent of Moses ate the serpents of the priests), they were not able to reverse or fix the plagues God brought through Moses, and they eventually could not continue doing what Moses was doing.  Their dark arts could only go so far.

In Matthew 24, Jesus warns that people will try and talk you into going with them to a place in the desert, or a room in a building.  “We found the Christ!  Come follow us and see!”  This may sound good, but Jesus is warning us that deception will be great, especially in the last days.  Jesus will not come back and hang out in the desert waiting for people to come to him.  He will not come into town and rent a convention center so people can come and see him.

To help us understand, Jesus uses a metaphor of lightning.  When lightning strikes across the sky, no one has to tell you that it just happened, not to mention the resultant thunder.  It is obvious.  Similarly, the coming of Jesus will be just that kind of event.  These deceivers try to make the coming of Christ something less than it is going to be.  Scripture says that Jesus will come riding the clouds of heaven in great majesty.  We may not know what that will exactly look like, but the charlatans will not be able to duplicate it.

So, this is what Jesus had to say about our need to be careful.  Now, let’s look at what the Apostle Paul had to say about it.

(Acts 20:28-31)  Paul is speaking to the elders of the church of Ephesus.  He knows that he will not have another chance to speak to them so he gives his final encouragements and warnings to them.  Though Paul does not use the terms deceive or deception, he does describe it: “men will rise up speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.”  Perverse things are things that have been twisted.  Like a twisted driveline, to twist the truth is to make it a lie and neutralize any good benefits it could have given.  Paul warns against men who pervert the truth and try to draw disciples away from the Truth and from Jesus who is the Truth.

Paul, therefore, warns them to watch!  This is a similar word to the one used by Jesus, but it adds the idea of bringing something close for an inspection.  We need to watch ourselves by slowing down, taking time to pray, and asking the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom.  We need to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Paul also tells these elders to watch over the flock (believers) in their church.  These shepherds are not to rule over the flock, but to help them not fall into deception.

The ego of man draws many people off course.  Whether a person began following the truth, or they were always a wolf, it is tragic when they get off course.  Of course, you don’t have to be a shepherd to watch out for one another as brothers and sisters.

I want to look at one more passage to finish up this warning about deception in our days.

The truth immunizes us to the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

Something was going on in the church at Thessalonica in Greece.  People were being told that they had missed the Second Coming of Jesus.  Paul even mentions the idea that someone may present a letter as if it was from him (a fake letter).  These other people have disturbed the church, and Paul is reminding them of the truth.

The Day of Christ (vs. 2) is talking about the Day of the Lord that we find in the Old Testament.  It is a time when God judges all of the nations through Jesus, the Christ.  It is not just a 24-hour period.  Rather, it is a brief period and quick, but more than one day.

This day of judgment will be bad for the wicked, but it will be good for those who are caught up in wickedness.  It is similar to a test time in school.  Everyone will take the test, but not everyone will pass.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians that a great falling away must happen first.  This is an apostasy, falling away, from the Truth of Jesus and the faith once and for all handed down to the saints by his apostles.

When I think about the condition of the Church today, I don’t think the problem is in the disagreements over tangential things, and that we have made separate denominations.  I think the real problem is that, more and more, we have churches, pastors, who are promoting something that is clearly contradictory to the commands of Christ and his apostles.  They twist and pervert the Scriptures to their own ends.

This is the warning.  A great falling away from the truth is not just coming, but is happening even as I write this.

Listen, if you are looking for a Bible teacher who promotes what you want to do, then you will find them online.  Someone somewhere is teaching every apostasy that you can imagine.  Guard your heart.

Apostasy has always been with us from the first century to today.  However, it is growing worse.  We must avoid being caught up in the spirit of this age because a “Great” falling away is beginning to happen.

The truth is intended to immunize us to the lies.  I thought about using the word antidote, which is okay.  However, an antidote is given after someone is bitten.  Whereas, immunizations are given before a virus is caught.  Don’t wait for the serpent to bite you with lies.  Pull out your Bible and look for the Truth that will protect you from the toxins of deception.  Read it, pray about it, and live it out!  This is how we steel ourselves against deception.

Yet, Paul reveals that an arch-enemy will be revealed at some point who is against all that is worshiped as God.  This ultimate enemy of Christ is called “The Man of Sin,” and “The Son of Perdition.”  The man of sin is self explanatory, but perdition is destruction.  This means that his nature is that of a destroyer and his destiny is destruction.  To follow him is to follow the path of destruction.  He is not called the Antichrist in this passage, but it does say that he will oppose (anti) and exalt himself against all that is worshiped as God.  In fact, he sits in the temple of God declaring himself to be God.  Could we fall for something like this in the modern age?  Let’s read on.

(V. 5-12)  In verse 8, we are given another title for this man, “The Lawless One.”  This doesn’t mean that he loves to drive 120 on the freeway when the speed limit is 70.  We can set up laws that are against God’s revealed will.  Thus, we would be a lawless society all while pretending to be law-abiding.  However, we only follow the laws of our own making.  This man will be a law unto himself, but extremely lawless towards God.

This passage is important for a greater reason than learning about the Antichrist.  Notice the relationship between truth and lies in it.  The coming forth, revealing, of this man is being restrained.  The mystery of lawlessness has always been working. Yet, the schemes of the devil have a certain level of mystery to them.  People often help his purposes, whether knowingly or unknowingly.  Yet, God has been restraining it.  This man would have come forward centuries ago, but God has not let it happen.  Think of that?  We cannot know how much evil God has kept from happening on our planet.

The power of this evil man will wow people (v. 9-10).  They will quickly move away from all the other religious “solutions” out there, including true Christianity.  They will embrace this deceiver.  But, what is he pushing?  He is definitely not promoting Jesus.  He is promoting himself..

Thus, verse 9 tells us that he will do powerful signs and lying wonders.  These demonstrations of power will lead people to follow him.  They will be deceived.

Why will they fall for it?  Verse 10 tells us that it is because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  Notice, the powerful miracles will help, but they are not the actual reason people fall for deception.  It doesn’t even say they will be deceived because they didn’t have the truth.  It says they did not receive the love of the truth.  In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God is giving a love of the truth to us, not just the truth.  Even right now, God is trying to give each one of us a love of the truth, if we will have it.  Those who love the truth (not just know it) will see this guy and know instantly that he is not even close to Jesus.  He is a lie, and a liar.

It is important that we don’t just read our Bible to gain information.  We need to ask God to change our heart so that we come to love it.  In fact, as I have said above, Jesus is the truth.  The Bible itself is just a facsimile of Him who is Truth, Jesus.  It reveals him to us.  May God help us to fall in love with the character and work of Jesus.  May God help us to fall in love with the way that he tells us the truth, “You are a sinner in need of salvation,” and yet also has loved us so much that he paid the price for our redemption.

Those who do not receive a love of the truth by the grace of God’s Holy Spirit will be hungry for a savior, but they have been refusing what God  has been trying to give them.  It is dangerous to be hungry for anything but what is good for you to eat.  The world will be hungry for anything, but Jesus.

Don’t set yourself up for deception.  Ask God to help you to internalize the truth of the Bible and to be able to break down the harder things that God reveals in it.

In the end, the man of sin will reveal who actually loves Jesus.  Just as Christ was a litmus test for his generation, so the Antichrist will also.  God will send a great delusion in order to expose the hearts of many.  It won’t just be lost people following him that day.  Many who claimed to be Christians will do so as well.  May God help us to warn the lost, but may we also protect ourselves by loving the truth.

Deception audio

Responding to the Holy Spirit- Part 3

1 John 2:18-19; Mark 4:5-6, 16-17; Mark 4:7, 18-19.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 7, 2021.

Last week, we looked at those unbelievers who positively respond to the Holy Spirit.  The image of the chaste, virginal, engaged bride is used of those who keep faithful to him in this life.

Today, we are going to talk about the reality that not everyone who becomes a “Christian” is a believer, or remains a believer.  This is quite evident when you read some of the polls that are put out by the Barna Group.  Many people still like holding on to the label, but they aren’t holding on to the one it points to.  The former is useless without the latter.

Let’s get into our first passage.

Some who appear to believe never did

In 1 John 2:18-19, John is speaking about The Antichrist of the last days, and then transitions to talking about the many antichrists that were in his day.  Notice, though, where these antichrists came from, in verse 19.  “They went out from us…,” says John. In other words, these were people who were apart of the Church, “Christians,” for a time, but then left.  He calls them antichrists because they were leaving Christ behind, or at least the true Christ, and going after the spirit of this world.  John recognizes that such people were never really “of us.”  They can hang around the group for a long time, or they can be exposed and move on rather quickly.  Either way, these are people who were never really saved.  These are sometimes called false converts, or a false conversion.  They say the right words, join a church, and find a niche in it.  However, there heart is not with Jesus and His Spirit.

John knew that the people he was writing to were genuine.  Those who left did so because they weren’t.  In fact, they did so because they were really against all that is Christ, whether they understood that at first or not.  There can be a wide variety of reasons that people would come into the Church and not truly believe.  Some are not told the whole gospel and come in hoping for “there best life now.”  Others are charlatans and see the Church opportunistically. 

This raises a question.  Wasn’t the Apostle John guilty of this same thing when he left the synagogues of Jerusalem?  Of course, we should see that this question only looks at the issues superficially.  It is the same mistake that the false convert makes.  It looks like it is similar (i.e., one person leaving a larger group), but this doesn’t automatically make John an antichrist.

The truth is that the disciples of Christ were pushed out by persecution.  They were following the God that their leaders claimed to be following.  The problem is not a person leaving the group, but whether or not we are following Jesus.

This happens all the time in history.  Martin Luther of Germany was only wanting to see the Roman Catholic Church reformed, but they sought to put him to death.  Yes, he went out from the RCC, but it had become run by antichrists who stood in the way of God’s Spirit.  This is what John and the apostles faced in the first century.  The leaders of Israel had become antichrist (anti-messiah).  Oh, they gave lip service to a figment of their imagination upon which they put the label of “Messiah.”  But, when the true Messiah showed up, they hated him with a passion.  The institution had become antichrist, and true believers not only shouldn’t stay within it, but in fact, they would be put to death or pushed out.  This similar dynamic happened with in the Protestant Churches almost 400 years later with the rise of Pentecostalism.  These people were often run out of Protestant churches who should have known better from their own experience with Rome.

We see here that those who are not truly believers will generally leave a godly church.  However, some will remain, and over time (as they increase), they can come to influence the institution, even take it over.  This is not a problem for those other denominations.  It is a problem for any denomination of believers who are pushed out of antichrist systems.  Whatever they build will come under the same dynamics of the prior institution.  Constant vigilance and repentance are necessary to keep a church or denomination from becoming antichrist.

Of course, I will briefly recognize that some people who leave groups and start new ones are actually antichrist.  Yes, the antichrist spirit has raised up “churches” as well.

Perhaps, Judas was of this group.  It is most likely that he never believed because we see early on that he was already pilfering money out of the ministry fund long before he ever betrayed Jesus.  However, we should not be dogmatic on that point.  Yet, it is good to see that betrayal is exactly what spiritual adultery is.  The things that I have described here are exactly that, spiritual adultery.  We were called to be a faithful engaged bride, but instead, they go after a different christ, a different spirit.

Let’s look at another problem in the Parable of the Soils.

Some who believe fall from faith later

In Mark 4, the Parable of the Soils opens the chapter as Jesus refers to 4 types of soil.  Later in the chapter, he gives his disciples an interpretation of the parable.  I want to look at two of those soil types.  We will look at both the parable and the interpretation for each, one at a time.

I would say that for this group we might not use the term false conversion, though some people do.  However, we should notice that Jesus never questions the sincerity of the response to the Holy Spirit and the implanted word for each of these soils.  The problem is that something causes their early faith to fall short of the goal.  Let’s look at the stony soil in verses 5-6, and then interpreted in 16-17.

Here, we are told about a soil that is filled with many stones.  The Word of God is unable to put down deep roots.  Jesus doesn’t get into what the rocks represent.  What is it in a Christian’s life that would keep the Word from putting down deep roots?  Perhaps, it is a pet sin of which we are avoiding God’s conviction.  It might be unforgiveness and a root of bitterness that we refuse to dig out.  Regardless, we are told that the growth caused by the Word withers during a time of trial, when the heat is turned up on them.  When our faith withers, it is directly connected to the withering effect of God’s Word upon our hearts and lives.

It is important to respond to God’s Word in our lives so that it can put some deep roots into our souls.  This only comes through responding to it in the works of repentance and the works of faith.  I say it that way on purpose because we are often unbalanced on the concept of works.  There are works that are acceptable to God, those done in response to the Spirit by faith in Jesus.

Jesus pictures the hot sun as tribulation and trials.  We all have trials.  In fact, Acts 14:22 tells us that part of Paul’s message was exhorting people to stay in the faith and not walk away.  “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”  God help us to dig up and roll out of the field of our life, those stones that may be preventing the Word of God from growing deep into our life.

The second problem soil is found in verse 7, and then interpreted in verses 18-19.  It is the thorny soil.  If the brute force of trials doesn’t knock out our faith, the seductive pull of the things of this world may work.  Jesus describes the problem thorns, weeds, as: the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things.

The cares of this world, the things that we fret over, can be things that are bad or good.  Jobs, houses, spouses, etc., can be things that we become so consumed with that it chokes God’s word from growing within us.  Notice that it is not just riches, but that the allure of riches is itself a deceit.  How many times do Christians think that the answer will come with more money?  The idea that money can solve your problems is a deceptive idea.  The third category is very general and pretty much covers anything that we desire that is not Jesus and His Kingdom.  Clearly, Jesus is talking about things in the natural that are part of this life.

In 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul refers to Demas forsaking him.  Demas was a companion and helper of Paul who is mentioned in the books of Colossians, and Philippians.  He had been with Paul through many difficult things, but this last situation, where Paul was imprisoned in the dungeons of Rome and did not look to get out, was too much for him.  Demas didn’t just forsake Paul.  Paul saw that his real problem was his “having loved this present world.”  Most likely he was afraid of death for himself.  It might be that he was tired of not having anything because his whole life had been helping Paul and pursuing God’s Kingdom.  Some Christians every day come to a point where God’s Word is so choked out in their life that they fall away from faith in Jesus.  They may grow weary of serving others and choose to “live for myself,” in life.  Regardless, if the Word is choked out, then the Holy Spirit’s conviction is choked out.  He then becomes grieved, until we one day don’t realize that He has left us.  Guard your heart from these things that come between us and our Lord.

Let me close by mentioning that both of these problems may or may not quit being religious, and going to church, even leading a church.  Like I said earlier, over time some churches and whole denominations have come to a place where they are led by a majority of men and women who are no longer true believers in Jesus and his Word.  They are no longer followers of the Holy Spirit.  Don’t get me wrong.  Most of them would be incensed if someone told them that this was the case.  Caiaphas the High Priest of Israel was such a man.  They have loved this world more than Christ, and they co-opt his Church for their own purposes, which they may believe to be Christ’s.  Like the Pharisees and Sadducees before them, they have become dressed up on the outside, but inside they are dead man’s bones.

Oh, friend, guard your heart and beware the things of this life that will choke out God’s Word from growing his righteousness within you.