p. 371 | BE NOT DECEIVED by M. Wood

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, June 10, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 24

BE NOT DECEIVED.

By M. Wood

BY M. WOOD.

Jesus says, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” Paul, writing by inspiration, adds, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Gal 6:7. Before revealing to his disciples the destruction of the temple, and the nature and extent of the calamities that should precede that event, together with the signs of his coming to Judgment and of the end of the world, the Saviour says, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” He looks down the stream of time with an omniscient eye, and beholds the world filled with the deceptions of Satan; and he charges his people to beware, lest they also be deceived and finally lost.

The Bible is a book of warnings, admonitions, and exhortations; but of all the warnings handed down to the people of God, none are more important than this: “Be not deceived.” This is peculiarly applicable to the present generation; for Satan, knowing that his time is limited, and that his career draws rapidly to a close, is working with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. His work of deception commenced with those pure, holy, and sinless beings that sang praises before the throne of the great Jehovah. They were deceived into the belief that with Satan at their head they could possess the very citadel of Jehovah’s empire. A rebellion broke out, and they were thrust out of Heaven.

No sooner were Adam and Eve placed in the garden in all their innocency, perfect and pure, than Satan came to tempt and to deceive them. Thus all the sin and iniquity, crime, misery, woe, poverty, distress, sickness, and death, and final destruction from the presence of the Almighty, are the result of man’s being deluded by the arch-deceiver. He commenced his career upon the earth by deceiving the representatives of the human family. His last work, just prior to his being cast into the lake of fire, is to deceive the nations (after the thousand years), which are in the four quarters of the earth. See Rev. 20:7–10.

“Be not deceived,” says Paul. “Take heed that no man deceive you,” says Jesus. Had the prophet whom God anciently sent from Judah to Bethel, where Jeroboam, king of Israel, was offering sacrifice to Baal, followed the instructions which God gave him, he would not have forfeited his life. But the man of God was deceived by one representing himself to be a prophet. God had told his servant to eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that he came; but the persuasive argument used by the false prophet, added to his own natural hunger and thirst, induced him to believe a lie. As the result, he lost his life. Now the man of God ought to have known that God would not give a commandment by one, and then nullify it by another. So to-day, men ought not to be wise above that which is written.

Take, also, the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. They were famous in the congregation, men of renown, leaders in Israel; and yet they were deceived in themselves, and deceived those who looked to them for instruction in righteousness. And for choosing darkness rather than light,—for murmuring against God and those whom he had placed at the head of his people,—the earth opened and swallowed them up, with their wives and their children, and all that pertained to them. See Num. 16.

Take the case of Lot’s family. Angels were sent from Heaven to rescue them from the destruction of Sodom; but some had become so contaminated with the Sodomites, that they had no pleasure in the truth, but preferred to believe a lie; and when the Lord rained fire upon unrighteous Sodom, those members of Lot’s family who were deceived, perished in the flames. Jesus says, “Remember Lot’s wife.” She left Sodom in company with her husband and two daughters, their flight being hastened by angels. Evidently she intended to pursue the journey in obedience to the command of the angels; but she ran well only for a season. When well out of the doomed city, she had time for mature deliberation; and reasoning the matter with herself, doubtless much after the manner that people now reason upon unpopular points of doctrine as taught in God’s word, she ignored the divine instruction just given, and turned and cast a wishful eye toward Sodom. For this act of disobedience she became a monument of God’s displeasure.

To-day there are scores of individuals who profess to have left the world, and to be journeying toward that “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God;” but their faces, like that of Lot’s wife, are turned toward Sodom, and instead of following the leadings of the Spirit, like ancient Israel, they are sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. They possess the form without the power. Many even in the ranks of those who are looking for the speedy advent of Christ, feel perfectly at ease in Zion. They have a theoretical knowledge of the truth, and profess to love the Lord; but in works they deny him. They have feasted so long upon doctrinal themes, that they have lost all relish for the practical and experimental part of the religion of the Bible. They settle back upon the truth, feeling that they are rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; they are utterly deceived in themselves, knowing not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. To all such the testimony of the faithful and true Witness is, “Buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.”

If we would stand the test of the refining process, we must possess those rare virtues and graces which ever characterized the life of Christ. By being hearers of the word, and not doers, we deceive ourselves. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” It is a fearful thing, dear reader, to fall into the hands of the living God.

We are in the midst of the perils of the last days. The time of trouble is just before us; and it behooves every child of God to seek righteousness, to seek meekness. “It may be [it is barely possible],” says the prophet, “ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Many are asleep in sin; they are deceived in regard to their spiritual condition. Our eternal interests are at stake; our lives are in jeopardy. “It is high time to awake out of sleep. . . . The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”

There are sinners in the church. The voice of the watchman should be heard at all times, preaching the word, reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine. It is no time to handle the word of God deceitfully, nor the soul-stirring truths for these last days with the tips of our fingers; for Jesus is coming. Our days of probation are closing up with fearful rapidity. The sands of time are about run out, and God’s people must be aroused from their lukewarmness. What shall be done? Let the prophet answer: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”

Many deep-thinking men and women are kept from espousing the cause of Christ by the inconsistent course of some professed disciples of Jesus. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” “Be not deceived;” the stumbling-blocks shall be consumed with the wicked (Zeph. 1:3), therefore, let “no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother’s way,” lest in the Judgment he be weighed in the balance and found wanting.

God says to the watchman upon the walls of Zion, “Show my people their transgression.” This does not mean that he who professes to be the servant of the blessed Master, should mislead the flock, and cause them to stumble and fall over his own preconceived notions of right. It does not mean that he should both do and teach those things which are displeasing to God, and contrary to the rules and regulations of our highest earthly authority. The present is no time to trifle with God’s work, and deceive the people, by catering to their taste, feeding them with milk and honey, when they need that which, to the sinner, is as unpalatable as gall and wormwood. If we have a present truth, let the people hear it. Saints and sinners, ministers and people, need to be sanctified through the truth. They need to have line upon line, precept upon precept, until they become fully established in the principles and doctrines of Christ as taught in the Bible, and advocated by the remnant of Israel.

Honest souls are starving for the whole truth; and in order to become strong, healthy men and women in Christ, they must be fed with meat in due season. “Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing;” but “woe unto them that . . . put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” They are represented as blind leaders of the blind; “and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Paul says, “From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.” And he further tells us that his speech and his preaching “was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

May God give us all, ministers and people, a spirit of self-examination, that we may not be deceived in ourselves.