“I’m not sure that will be enough,” the woman replied. “Don’t you have a bigger one?” The attendant put the chicken back into the compartment, pretended to search through the melting ice for another one, and then brought out the same bird, discreetly applying some finger pressure to the scale. “Ah,” he said with a smile, “this one weighs six pounds.”

“I’m just not sure,” the woman frowned. “I’ll tell you what – wrap them both up for me!”

Numbers 32:23b says, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out.” Ever been caught in deception? What happened?

The report brought mixed reactions, some saying the report tainted the credibility of a respected news source, while others wrote the station to find out how they could order their own spaghetti bushes. This was the first use of television to broadcast an April Fool’s prank.

But its not funny at all that so many fools have rejected the good news of Jesus Christ and swallowed the lie that they can live life to their own ends and never have to be accountability to “a High Power”. Its as foolish as growing our own spaghetti.

The moral of the story is clear to me: Beware of counterfeits. Because I was trusting the real thing to do its job, I innocently was fooled into trusting the counterfeit by mistake. It was like the proverbial worm on the hook. I bit and got bit.

What’s your experience with deception and counterfeits?

Then the crowd came across it,
And never once lost it,
But tossed it and tossed it,
Till it grew long and wide.

This lie brought forth others,
Dark sisters and brothers,
And fathers and mothers –
A terrible crew.

And while headlong they hurried,
The people they flurried,
And troubled and worried,
As lies always do.

And so evil-bodied,
This monster lay goaded,
Till at last it exploded
In smoke and in shame.

Then from mud and from mire,
The pieces flew higher,
And hit the sad victim
And killed a good name.

“Yes,” answered the boy.

“Now tell us,” pursued the lawyer, “what were his instructions?”

“Well,” replied the boy, “Father told me the lawyers would try to tangle me in my testimony; but if I would just be careful and tell the truth, I could say the same thing every time.”

“A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape” (Proverbs 19:5).

Scrupulous attention was devoted to detail. The body had to look as though it had been in an airplane crash and then drowned. After an exhaustive search, the British discovered the perfect corpse: that of a man who had died of pneumonia following exposure. They called him Maj. William Martin.

The British conspirators stuffed the corpse’s pockets with theater ticket stubs, an “overdrawn” notice from his bank, love letters from his fiance, a cranky letter from his father about fuel rationing. And of course, the secret invasion plans. The body was placed strategically where currents would deposit it where desired.

The entire deception worked marvellously and the Germans were caught off guard. Satan is the master deceiver. He knows how to work events around to make us think we’re safe when we’re about to be destroyed.

When was the last time you were deceived?

“FREE! 3 Muffins when you buy 3 at the Regular Half-Dozen price.”

Unless there’s a typo in that, it sounds like you can buy 6 donuts at the price of 6 donuts. But the double-talk makes it seem like another deal altogether.

Its kind of like that with Satan’s deceptions. He makes it sound like its a special deal to do this or that. Then in the end, we pay much more than we thought, and the bargain ceases to become a bargain. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and there is no way around it except to repent.

Why hasn’t the supply of pieces been exhausted long ago? The answer is very simple. Every few months a truckload of marble fragments from a quarry miles away is scattered around the whole Acropolis area. So tourists go home happy with what they think are authentic pieces of ancient history.

There are many ways we can be deceived. Right now the FDA is suing General Mills over false advertizing on a box of Cheerios. Beware of deception because its everywhere. But Jesus is the truth, and you can take it to the bank.

High Troy, a well-known artist, was a smart aleck who spent most of his life perpetrating frauds for the joy of it.

“One winter in the 1920s, while a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, N. Y., Troy got hold of a hideous old wastebasket with a real rhinoceros foot as a base. He filled it with metal weights and tied 30 feet of clothesline to either side. Late one night he and a friend caried it out onto campus, suspended between them. Every few feet they would lower it into the snow, their own footprints so far away as to raise no suspicions.

The next morning someone noticed the prints and summoned learned professors. Excitedly, they followed the rhinoceros tracks. The trail led out onto the ice covering Beebe Lake, which connected to the school’s source of drinking water. There the tracks ended in a gigantic hole.

It is said that half the population of Cornell stopped drinking tap water. Those who continued to drink it swore it tasted like rhinoceros.”

Its easy to be deceived. Keep your eyes on Jesus and not on what is getting all the attention.

An old Arkansas farmer bumped into a friend who asked what was wrong with his hogs, because they looked so poorly. The farmer replied, “When I lost my voice a year ago I could not call them to their feed, so I got a big stick and hammered on the crib and they soon learned that was a call to their corn.

“They were doing well until three weeks ago when some woodpeckers came in here and went to pounding on the old dead trees. My hogs ran in the direction of the noise, thinking it was my call to their feed. When they came running and squealing the frightened woodpeckers would fly to another dead tree and the hogs would run to that part of the woods. They have just about run my hogs to death.”

I think some Christians have about run themselves to death trying to find a new move of God over here or over there. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).