Ephesians Lesson 28 of 39 part 2

Ephesians 4:14

"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;"

You have heard us stress this word "deceive" over the last few years, and we are going to keep on stressing it, until it is all over. Because we are being besieged with deception like never before since Paul’s own day, the Lord Himself warned about this.

This morning before I even had this pulled up on my computer my wife wanted me to listen to a passage in the book "Pilgrims Progress" by John Bunyan in which the term "wanton" is used. At first glance we would assume that it simply meant??? I had no idea what. So I did a little study of this word and where it had been used in Scripture and these are its locations; Isaiah 3:16, 1Timothy 5:11 and James 5:5. If you have a Greek Hebrew dictionary the Hebrews number is H8265 and the Greek is G4684 and means to live luxuriously, to live deliciously (to give one's self to pleasure) and then it took me to the following, to the playing in the wind, to live loosely, in licentiously by indulging in the sensuality of the flesh, lewdness of character. These are the characteristics of children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine of man, that is to say Religion as we know it.

Matthew 24:3-4

"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? (remember in 1Corinthians 1:22, Paul tells us, the Jews required a sign) And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you."

That is one of the greatest signs that we are nearing the end times. There is a flood of deception and deceivers out there. For they preach a gospel of wantonness. There is a flood of people deceiving other people. And all are of the anti-Christ and preach another gospel which is no gospel at all. Even the practice of all things Jewish fall into the category. Only lies upon lies which is but shifting sand and hay wood and stubble. Oh my goodness, when we hear of what is out there on the internet, and how it is just full of this deception. People say, "What am I suppose to believe, as it all sounds good?" Well, we ask them if it lines up with the Scripture? And every time they answer No! So if anything does not line up with Scripture, then forget it, and cast it aside, because it is a deception, and we are to be looking for it, and so aware of what the Truth is that we can recognize the deception the minute it comes our way. Peter used the word wrest, form which we get the word wicker, a twisting of branches, that is woven to make wicker chairs and furniture. We are to be spiritually discerning of all things, not blind, fat, dumb or ignorant of Satan's devices, fingers or tools. For they are far reaching even as they are of the powers of the air over head. Mans mind is his playground through vain imaginations, opinions, emotions and intellectualism of all kinds, which are distortions of a lie having the appearance of truth.

So the question remains, what is the Gospel? does it have a title or name. The answer is yes, it has a title and name, it is Grace!!! Not Law, but Grace, for the two do not mix they are different as night (the old cloth and dead dried up old wine skin) and day (the new cloth and new wine). John in his synoptic gospel tells us that in Jesus are found both Grace and Truth which both work through Love (Agape) restored in our hearts by God.

We should be so ingrained in the Living Word and Truth of God, the ontological essence of Christ, which is Grace in operation through Love restored. So that when we hear this garbage coming in from all other directions, we can immediately say, "Hey that is garbage!", there is a lot of it out there. Now we never used that term, "garbage", until we saw a program filmed down in Haiti a few years back, and the fellow that was ministering, had a tremendous ministry down there said that exactly. He said, "Preachers and teachers bring in pure garbage to try to share with these people." But it is no different here in our country. The air waves are full of it. So we just must be aware, and anything you hear or read, just measure it out and then does it line up with the Scriptures. We pray that we are of assistance to this end.

Coming back to Ephesians chapter 4. So we are not to remain as babes in Christ, because if we do remain that way, then the chances are good that as babes in Christ, we will be blown about with false doctrine. We are going to be subjected to deception, and so there is only one remedy, and what is it? Grow up! Know what the Book says. This is the whole idea of the book of Ephesians. We are to get out of the simplistic areas of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and even the books of Acts, 1&2 Corinthians and learn how to use Romans and Galatians. Form them learn of the deeper things (the spiritual Life restored within, the kingdom Life) of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. Because the books of the synoptic gospel are written primarily to the nation of Israel, and what is being taught of the Old Testament of which these books are apart (are but pieces of) and get into the deeper things written to the Church by Paul.

Paul’s letters are written for the Church Age, for believers and are deeper, juicer meat. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, can take us even deeper when we are able. Because the Books of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, and Thessalonians are about the much deeper things than even what Paul’s other epistles are about. So we are to get off the milk, and get into deeper things so that when these deceptions come along, we will not be blown away by them. Now verse 15 of Ephesians 4. Instead of being blown away with every wind of doctrine and the deception of ungodly men, as Jude calls them, and the dogs of Peter, we are to do the following.