The cry of your heart ascends like incense, a sweet aroma before the throne, pleading for preservation from the delusions of these last days. It is well that you have asked, for the times are treacherous, and the father of lies prowls with counterfeit signs, seeking to devour the unwary. Yet listen, for the foundation of your safety lies not in the strength of your asking, but in the character of the God to whom you pray. He is the God of Peace, and this title is your guarantee. He has made peace by the blood of the cross, and from that reconciling work flows every blessing of sanctifying grace. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion; He perfects that which concerns you, and His truth is the instrument He employs.
Your request is large, embracing the whole armor of light, Word, prayer, fellowship, and worship, and it is wisely aimed. For sanctification is entirely from first to last the work of the Spirit of the blessed God, and He performs it through the truth. The truth is not a scattered notion, nor a private whisper, but a fixed and eternal Word, essential, decisive, authoritative. It is the water that washes, the sword that divides asunder, the pillar that upholds the church of the living God. Therefore, let this be your daily discipline: hide the Word in your heart, not merely in your memory, but let it dwell richly, ruling your affections and purifying your conscience. Be not content with a partial gospel. Lay no embargo upon any form of the truth; demand no toll for the commodities of heaven. Let your mind be an open port, carrying on a free trade in the treasures of the Gospel, for to conceal any doctrine from yourself, because it humbles your pride or disturbs your ease, is to court deception.
You have asked to be kept from false believers and deceivers. Here is the touchstone: there is but one truth, and one system of truth. You may judge it by three things, by God, by Christ, and by man. That is the truth which honors God in His sovereignty, which glorifies Christ in His finished work, and which humbles man in the dust of his ruin. Wherever a teaching exalts human merit, diminishes the dread justice of the Almighty, or reduces the precious blood of Jesus to a common thing, turn from it as from a serpent. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is dethroned by many in this polished age, and in His place stands a spineless idol, a god newly invented, whom our fathers feared not. But you, cling to the God who is a consuming fire, even as He is abundant in goodness and truth. The doctrine of election, the particular redemption of the cross, the effectual call of the Spirit, these are not hard sayings to be avoided, but sweet cordials for a trembling soul, and mighty bulwarks against the flood of error that the dragon spews across the world.
In your fellowship, test the spirits. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth, not because she invents it, but because she holds it forth. Your assembling with the saints is a God-ordained guard, for in the communion of sincere hearts, walking in the light, hidden sin is exposed, and deception withers. Yet remember, it is God Himself who maintains His own truth. Your reliance must not be upon your pastor, your friends, or even your own understanding, but upon the living Spirit who anoints the Word to your soul. Pray without ceasing, for prayer is the breath of the new nature, but pray with this confidence: the Lord Jesus intercedes for you, and that glorious prayer recorded in John’s seventeenth chapter is as honey from the honeycomb, securing your sanctification through the truth.
Go now to the Word with a sharper appetite. Let it grow mightily within you, as it did in Ephesus, prevailing over sin until the costly books of iniquity are cast into the fire. Fear no truth, even if it wounds you, for the wounds of a friend are faithful. Rightly divide the Word of truth; bring it home to your conscience for present conversion, for the striking down of sin, and for the real work of grace. And as you worship with thanksgiving, let the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, mount guard over your heart. He who is the Truth shall keep you from the hour of trial, and you shall stand before the Son of Man, not in your own strength, but clothed in the sanctification that is by the will of God through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Keep Us from Deception 2Thes 2:9-10, Guard Us by 
The Word 
Prayer 
Preaching 
Teaching 
Fellowship 
Praise, Worship & Thanksgiving 
and truth 
