Saturday, August 28, 2021

We ARE so Easily Deceived

We ARE so Easily Deceived 

Let no one deceive you. EPHESIANS 5:6 

A well-known defense attorney named Charles A. Peruto Jr. was asked about the admission by Pete Rose, after fourteen years of denial, that he bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds. Peruto replied dryly, “So now 100 percent of the population knows he bet on baseball. The only person who didn’t know before he confessed was him.” It’s odd how easy it is to deceive ourselves. Is it possible that your husband, your wife, or your best friend has a better grasp of your strengths and weaknesses than you do? Is it possible that you’re in denial about a particular weakness, insisting you don’t have a problem, though it’s perfectly obvious to everyone else that you do? Those who work with addictions say that denial and self-deception are our greatest enemies. We insist we don’t have a problem when it’s readily apparent to everyone else that we’re in deep trouble. It isn’t just addictive disorders, of course. All sin is self-deceiving. Ask God to show you if there is an area in your life that needs correction. Pray in these words from an old hymn: “Search me, O God, and know my heart today! Try me, O Father, and know my thoughts, I pray.”   - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening 

Self-deception is an infection that everyone born has contracted. As the play on words goes, we live in the land of denile. 

I deceive me all the time. So do you. As a popular movie quote goes: we can't handle the truth!

We make off the cuff choices and decisions without considering the ramifications. 

We allow things in our lives if for no other reason than those things make us feel good. 
We allow and wrap our arms around things that clearly are contrary to God’s Word and then wonder why our world is crumbling down. 

We create special rooms in our homes either dedicated to something like a sports team or even the room of a loved one who passed away...a shrine as it were. The reality is something or someone has been elevated to a position or place higher than God in our lives.

Throughout my life I have heard over and over the phrase that says something about "if (insert name) was alive, they would say..." or even that they wouldn't approve...

We can so easily put stock in what opinions the dead might or might not say or not say but don't listen to God’s Word when it comes to being self deceived?  That we don’t listen when God’s Word clearly teaches about how to identify idolatry?  That it clearly shows how all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? 

What's terrible and horrific is exactly what is found in the story of the Rich man and Lazarus. 

The dead Rich man wanted someone to go back to the land of the living to warn his family and friends about the reality of Hell. 

The horrific and terrible thing is even in today’s world coming back from the dead wouldn't change people's minds on the reality of Heaven and Hell. 

A very popular book "Heaven is for Real".  It didn't change the world nor did it cause a Revival of Biblical proportions. It was popularized for a while. 

Goes to prove how deeply we can be deceived. We can spend our lives in intensive self-evaluation. We are not honestly qualified for that. We will never find fault with our way of living or in our determination of right and wrong. 

Simply put we cannot create a standard we must rely on a set standard. The only one qualified to do that is our Creator. To deny having a Creator doesn’t nullify the reality that He is really real. 

Lies have been conceived about God since Adam and Eve. Deception started in a perfect world.   Read that again. 

Lies about Heaven, lies about Hell have been passed down throughout generations. 

People are pouring into Hell every second. Only those found to be in Christ Jesus enter into Heaven.  That's the set standard of God, not on any basis of good and evil we come up with. 

Everyone who stands before a judge claims innocence. Lawyers are paid to do whatever to get people off the charges against them. 

In Christ's court, He allows no lawyers. 
In Christ's court, truth is revealed, not asked for nor is it based upon interpretation. 
In Christ's court, you are shown the truth in every aspect that words cannot speak alone. 

The Bible is clear that those who come to Christ for salvation are "sealed in the Spirit".

Once salvation is real in a person's life the Spirit testifies to the truth of that person being a Child of God. As Paul spoke of in Romans, once the Spirit testifies concerning the truth that a person is indeed saved, then its no longer based on what works we do.  A saved person may backslide but they cannot lose their salvation in Christ Jesus. 

We are honestly never careful enough about our thoughts and desires. We unknowingly introduce things in our lives based on the wrong things and cause ourselves no end of trouble. 

When God’s insisting on a change in us we whine about it trying to convince Him that we know better. We also decide to believe what we can’t do.

We deceive ourselves. 

We don’t like confrontation. Nobody really does. Confronting ourselves least of all. 

We embrace aspects of this world that are, in comparison, a cleaned up kid ready for Church to worshipGod, wallowing in a pig sty. 

It's been very hard coming to terms with God’s truth about me.  I am only seeing a small part of what He sees that still needs done in me to make me more like Christ. It's not really different than you only being superficially aware of what's happening within your body. 

You and I cannot trust ourselves to live life. Adam and Eve had perfect bodies, a whole, 100 percent capacity brain...and they still sinned. Being intelligent or an intellectual person will not save you in Christ's court. Faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation alone saves.

I can be one of the most loving, brilliant, giving, honest people and if I don't have salvation in Christ Jesus I will find myself entering Hell at the end of my life. 

Hell is not under the rule of Satan. 
Hell does not have a party going on. 
Hell isn't where the beer flows freely nor is it where you finally get to live life unhindered. 

Hell is under the rule and authority of Jesus Christ. It is a holding place of people who rejected Christ Jesus for salvation. People are finding out that everything they denied about Jesus and God is really real.  They wake up down there to find exactly what the Rich man found. Nothing more, nothing less. 

The choice is before this world to come to Christ is only found in the land of the living. 

I can guarantee you that by the Word of God, there's nobody in Hell who doesn’t completely understand the reality of God’s Word concerning sin. They either are weeping in torment or they are enraged in torment at being there but their reality is they are there and cannot go back for a second chance. They are told the same as the Rich man, that even should someone come back from the dead, those they want to warn wouldn't believe. 

Ask God to open your eyes to the truth about sin, death and the cross of Christ. 
Ask God to show you just how much you've let yourself be deceived. 
Ask God to show you the truth. 

Your only chance at a second chance is right now in the land of the living. 





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