Be Ye Therefore of Sound Mind, and Be Sober unto Prayer!

We who are living at the end of all things, that is, in the last days, must truly be of sound mind. This is because many deceivers have gone forth into the world. [Deception: being led astray so that one cannot come to one’s senses.]

2 John 1:7-8 “7 For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that ye lose not the things which we have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward.”

Just as the old serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, the very nature of the devil (Revelation 20:10, Revelation 12:9) is to deceive us today also.

2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.”

Therefore, even among those who believe in Jesus, there will be some who are deceived by the devil and depart from the faith.

1 Timothy 4:1 “But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.”

The devil seeks to deceive us in many ways in order to make us depart from the truth. But especially in the last days, because people will become lovers of self and lovers of money (2 Timothy 3:1-2), he often deceives people through these things and causes them to depart from the faith.

James 1:14-15 “14 But each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death.”

1 Timothy 6:9-10 “9 But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Therefore, in these last days, we must all the more be of sound mind, grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and abide only in Jesus.

2 Peter 3:17-18 “17 Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and for ever. Amen.”

1 John 2:26-28 “26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that would lead you astray. 27 And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him. 28 And now, my little children, abide in him; that, if he shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

Also, the reason we must abide in Jesus is that only Jesus and His words can make our minds sound and guard our thoughts and hearts.

Luke 8:26-35 “26 And they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is over against Galilee. 27 And when he was come forth upon the land, there met him a certain man out of the city, who had demons; and for a long time he had worn no clothes, and abode not in any house, but in the tombs... 29 For he was commanding the unclean spirit to come out from the man... 35 And they went out to see what had come to pass; and they came to Jesus, and found the man, from whom the demons were gone out, sitting, clothed and in his right mind, at the feet of Jesus: and they were afraid.”

Philippians 4:6-7 “6 In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”

Amen. Therefore, we must now set our hearts and minds rightly “in Jesus,” build rightly the temple of our hearts which He has chosen for the name of Jesus (Acts 9:15), and obey the words of Jesus by faith (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

1 Chronicles 22:19 “Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Jehovah your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of Jehovah God, to bring the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of Jehovah.”

Hebrews 3:7-13 “7 Wherefore, even as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye shall hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, Like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tried me by proving me, And saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was displeased with this generation, And said, They do always err in their heart: But they did not know my ways; 11 As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. 12 Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: 13 but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Thus, so long as it is called Today, when we do not harden our hearts through the deceitfulness of sin, but humbly believe and obey the words of Jesus, we can enter, in Jesus and through Jesus (Matthew 12:8), into the rest of God which still remains for us (Hebrews 4:4-11). Therefore, at this time when the end of all things is at hand, we must be of sound mind and be sober—being careful in our speech and conduct, and paying close attention to the word—and pray; in other words, we must believe in and rely on Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:5-9 “5 for ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness; 6 so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Acts 2:17-21 “17 And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh... 21 And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Amen.