We are to believe the word of God. That’s what God expects us to do. He wants us to believe what he said.
What the Bible says about sin we are to believe. What the Bible says about righteousness and salvation, we are to believe. Believe the word. Believe what God said about life and death. Believe what he said about heaven and hell. We are to believe the word.
When the Bible calls sexual perversion vile affection, believe it. When the Bible tells you that you will reap what you sow, believe it. Our country should believe the word of God which says “righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people”. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God”. Believe it.
When the Bible corrects your religion, believe it. Believe the word of God rather than religious tradition. The Bible says, “Call no man your father upon earth”, believe it. “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” are “doctrines of devils”. Believe it. The second commandment forbids images. Believe it.
Believe the word and love the truth.
The truth will save you from the working of Satan. v.9. When Satan is incarnate in the son of perdition he will come with all power, signs, and lying wonders. In the meantime, he uses these three things to turn people away from the truth.
When Moses used signs to convince Pharaoh that God is the Lord, his magicians imitated the signs to harden Pharaoh’s heart against the truth. They gave up with the lice. They said this is the finger of God. When people speak in tongues today, they are falsifying a sign and disobeying the Holy Spirit’s commands in 1 Cor 14:27-34. These signs draw pentecostals away from the truth.
Satan is a liar and he cannot tell the truth. When he utilizes the words of truth, he uses half verses and verses out of context. He changes verses and adds to and subtracts from them. Or he lies about them altogether.
The truth will save you from the deceivableness of unrighteousness. v.10, 12. Unrighteousness is deceiving because it is pleasurable. In these perilous times, men are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. They have pleasure in unrighteousness, Rom 1. The rainbow, for example, is God’s promise not to destroy the earth with a flood. The world has stolen this token and flaunts it as if God will not destroy the earth after it has been defiled with their sin. See 2 Peter 3.
The truth will save you from strong delusion. v.11. In Is 66:1-4, God said, “I will choose their delusions”. Imagine that. When men choose not to believe the word, God sends them delusion and they end up believing a lie. Evolution and world peace are examples of delusion. The antichrist is not the Lord Jesus Christ. But the world, in delusion, will worship him.
The truth will save you from damnation. v.12. “That they all might be damned who believed not the truth”. Hell and the lake of fire are horrible damnation. “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever”, Rev 14:11. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”, Rev 21:8.
Conclusion: Ex 9:20-21 you are left with one of two options. You will believe what he said or you won’t. In Acts 28:24, some believed and some believed not. Those who believe him are saved. Those who don’t believe him are damned. Believe the word.