Thank you for joining me today! There has been an astounding increase in changes of morality and sexual/gender issues in our nation. I feel the Lord desires that I spend some time looking at them for the next few weeks. As always, I appreciate your heart in desiring to grow and mature in the things of the Lord. May the Holy Spirit give you revelation, understanding, and a new awareness of the tactics and strategies of our enemy as we face him and withstand his attempts to draw us away from our relationship with the Lord. In His Name, Eric

The truth I am going to share with you today is unequivocally denied by the world, or those who are not walking in the righteousness of Christ. Sadly though, the people who have no understanding or relationship with the Lord are not the only ones who are involved in becoming deceived. Many in the church have been deceived also into embracing the new morality of the worldly ungodly deceivers of our time. It has crept in gradually like a slow working poison that has corrupted the minds of those who would rather do what they desire to do or to do what they are tempted to do.

I can assure you that what I share comes straight from God Himself, as I teach us what He says in His Word.

The first Scripture we will look at is James 1:13 -17 (NLT), “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, "God is tempting me." God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.” In verse 13, the Greek word peirazo, which has been translated as ‘tempted’ means to solicit, entice, or tempt to sin. The phrase ‘drag away’ in the Greek is the word exelko. It is a metaphor that is taken from hunting and fishing. As game allured from it’s covert; so man, by lust, is allured from the safety of self-restraint to sin. (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon) To paraphrase verses 14 and 15 from the Greek meanings they could be read in this way: ‘Enticement to sin comes from our own lusts or desires for what is forbidden. Those desires beguile or allure us to leave the safety of self-restraint to sin. The desire for what is forbidden seizes us, and causes us to violate divine law, or to sin. When that sin is finished or mature, the result is the loss of life or death.’

2 Timothy 2:21 and 22 (NLT) reads, “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. 22 Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.”

Something we must understand is that our loving God has made provision to help us stay away from those temptations that are destructive to us. In 1 Corinthians the Lord assures us that we can withstand! 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT) reveals, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

It is easy to be corrupted by those who live their lives with a lack of knowledge of God and His truth.

America was founded on Christian principles. However, the society in which we live has fallen away from Truth and has embraced the lie that whatever we choose to do is okay or acceptable. Today, many, including our youth, have chosen to do what is right in their own eyes.

The Book of Deuteronomy, which was written in approximately 1400 BC reveals that this is not a ‘new’ issue. Deuteronomy 12: 8 states, “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes.”

The Scripture reveals that in the last days, the earth will be as it was in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:36-39). The people were totally corrupt and immoral. We see this as we read Genesis 6: 11 and 12, “Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”

That time has once again crept upon us as the human race. Man wants to and has thrown off the authority of God, and become their own authority.

Romans 1:18-32 describes how the deceived live their life apart from the knowledge of God, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

We see examples of the corruption of the human race and the wiles of the devil in the following information I am sharing.

Since 2004, Great Britian allows certain individuals to receive a ‘Gender Recognition Certificate’ that allows them to change the sex on their government documents. (Even though the person’s material bodily sex has not changed.) As a result, males have been put in women’s prisons resulting in physical abuse and rape. (Deseret.com)

Cambridge University Press has redefined woman to include not only an adult female human being, but also an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth. (Desert.com)

In Harvard Health Publishing (Harvard Medical School) is an article discussing the existence today of sexual fluidity and the diversity of sexual orientation. ‘Sexual fluidity’ and ‘diversity of sexual orientation’ are intelligent sounding words for those involved in those lifestyles, however, those words describe one who is deceived and chosen to rebel and ignore God’s Word and creative design for the world He created.

Today, we hear terms like ’cisgender’ - a woman “assigned” as females at birth and who identifies as a woman. ‘Non binary’ is for those assigned either male or female at birth and identifies as neither a woman nor a man.

Elementary aged children are being exposed to the ‘correctness’ of choosing their sexual gender, telling boys it’s okay to be a girl and vice versa.

Then the term ‘swingers’ today describes a couple inviting a stranger to come over to have drinks and sex with both of them.

In the deception being forced upon us and our children, we are told that if we do not accept this new evil morality, then we are intolerant haters of those who choose sin over righteousness.

In all honesty, I do not hate those who have believed the lie and have been deceived by the enemy of their soul. I have shared the previous statements to show you how the devil’s tactics and strategies of deception have been presenting “sin” to the world through intellectual sources as normal and right.

The church, believers in Christ who are His body, have become weakened by their lack of vigilance regarding the Word of God. In many churches, the Word of God is not preached from our pulpits. Our leaders fear they may offend someone or lose their position for sharing a message that isn’t popular. Honestly I believe, that is a ploy of the devil to keep God’s Truth from being preached.

The gospel is offensive to those who refuse to believe, as we will see in the following Scriptures. John 3: 18-20, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

1 Peter 2:7 and 8, “So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," 8 and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”

1 Corinthians 1:18 (NLT), “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.”

I realize this has been a hard message. However, we must be willing to hear the hard messages so that we are assured of knowing the truth that is presented in the gospel. It is a matter of life or death.

The next portions of Scriptures I will be sharing next week, will be offensive to those who have been deceived by satan’s lies. I did not write or fabricate the Scripture - I am simply choosing to be God’s messenger to warn of the dangers of not choosing God’s ways. Why is that so important to me?

Remember, we are created in the image of God and therefore are eternal beings. After death, our physical bodies may be buried in a grave but, our spirit man will live forever. Our spirit will be in God’s presence or where His presence is not known, in a place of eternal torment.

In order for you to be able to live eternally with God, you must choose Him and His way of salvation. You cannot live in ignorance of the Word of God and make correct decisions or recognize the ploys, wiles, or strategies of the enemy. His deception will be so widespread and acceptable to people that if possible, even the elect of God will be deceived. We have this sobering truth revealed to us in Matthew 24:24 (NKJV), “ For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

My desire for you is that you be aware of the work of the devil in trying to destroy you by drawing you away from God by his lies and deceptions. Satan’s goal is to destroy all who love and worship the Lord.

As I conclude this part one of my teaching concerning deception that leads to immorality, I want you to be encouraged by the knowledge that God wins! If you are walking with Him and are His child, you win!

I encourage you to daily spend time in the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the revelation that God desires you to have of His truth.

Keep on keeping on with God.

Romans 8:37 (NKJV) is for you! “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Hallelujah!

Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are taken from the English Standard Version.

NLT New Living Translation

NKJV New King James Version