DECEIVING OURSELVES

JEREMIAH 37:1-10                                        

Pastor Rick Jackson

 

 Most of us realize the Devil is a deceiver and the world is often right in line with him but the closest deceiver to each and every one of us is … ourselves! We like to think we never deceive ourselves but if you think that you have just deceived yourself! God warned the Israelites in this passage of that very danger. They wouldn’t obey God’s Word [v.2] and yet they still wanted God’s help [v. 3] but God told them they were in danger of deceiving themselves [v. 9]. Let us see some very real ways we can deceive ourselves and, in so doing, avoid it!

 

I. We deceive ourselves when we: THINK THE HEART WON’T LIE [Jer. 17:9]

- The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

 

II. We deceive ourselves when we: THINK THE WRONG CROWD WON’T AFFECT US [1 Cor. 15:33]

-Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.  [Homilia=companionship]

 

III. We deceive ourselves when we: THINK WE ARE “SOMETHING” WITHOUT HIM [Gal. 6:3]

-For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

IV. We deceive ourselves when we: THINK WE CAN BEAT THE LAW OF SOWING & REAPING [Gal. 6:7]

-Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

 

V. We deceive ourselves when we: THINK HEARING GOD’S WORD WITHOUT DOING IT IS ENOUGH [James 1:19-23]

- Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

 

VI. We deceive ourselves when we: THINK WE ARE PIOUS WITH AN UNBRIDLED TONGUE [James 1:26]

-If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

 

VII. We deceive ourselves when we: THINK WE HAVE NO SIN NATURE [1 John 1:8]

-If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.