Bibleline Radio Show – 2017-09-14 – Deceptions Of The Heart Pt.2
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.
So being deceived, you will it’ll cost you wisdom because you won’t look to the Lord, you won’t study God’s Word, You all learn from your lessons, you’re not going to have the wisdom that you need. God wants us to have wisdom. Now it also, number seven in your notes there, it causes a lack of stability. This is why verse six through eight he says, but let us ask in faith nothing wavering for he that waver is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.
For not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. So it produces instability. You see, then deceived, not understanding the value of things, making the wrong decisions. All these things are the result of your instability. God wants you to be stabilized. There’s another way in the first Peter chapter 5, when he talks about cash and all your cares about the Lord and all that. And he says, in the devil, resist, and so forth, like a lion, a roaring lion, and whom resist steadfast in the faith, steadfast.
So you’re stable and you can handle a lot more pressure and problems you go through life. While you’re young, you’ll struggle a lot more. But when you get a little bit older, we’re supposed to get into little wisdom that when we don’t have all the answers, we know just slow down, take a days. I don’t have to be smart enough to understand everything. And well, I don’t I know that, I just trust the Lord with that. And sometimes we worry about everything.
But notice these things are important. Look at number eight. Number eight, look in verse 12. Verse 12 says, blessed is the man that endure temptation. So when you’re deceived, you’re not gonna endure the things you’re supposed to endure because you’re looking for a way out, not a way through. You’re not looking to learn something from what God has brought into your life. You’re looking for a cop-out. You don’t want to go through it and you’re driving complain. Or you can face things the way God wants you to face things.
When Jesus Christ was here, do you think He worried? I mean, He probably had some anxiety, don’t you think it times? You know, He just, you know, fell apart times. He probably lost it at times. Now He got angry a couple times, but that was a righteous anger. Because of what they were doing in the father’s house and so there’s nothing wrong with some righteous anger We call it righteous indignation but He does say here blessed is the man that endures temptation Because when he’s tried see it’s not if you’re gonna be tried you will be tried It’s going to take place.
It’s going to happen. So look at number nine It causes a loss of rewards See, there’s rewards that you could have had. But you see, if you don’t think right and keep your mind from being so deceived, then you’re not going to serve the Lord the way you should. And if you don’t serve the Lord the way you should, you’re not going to endure the temptations and you’re not going to reap the rewards that God wants to give you.
So the reward is here. And when he is trite, he shall receive the crown of life. But this man that he mentions here in verse 7, for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. Do you think this double-minded man is going to receive the crown of life? No. God’s Word says no. So is talking about you receiving something. But look at the things that can keep you from receiving that which God has for you.
He says, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Now. The NDC can also cause you not to love the Lord the way you should. So you have to be careful. It’s a battle you’re gonna have all the days of your life, but you understand it. You know, there’s values to all of this stuff. A lot of hardship that God brings into your590 life and allows to come. Look at the next statement. Number 10 causes you to heal to temptation.
You’re going to be tempted. But God doesn’t tempt any man to sin. God is not the author of sin. God never does anything to lead to sin. you into unholyness. See the Holy Spirit is a Holy Spirit, not an unholy spirit. The Holy Spirit can never lead you to do anything that’s unholy. The Holy Spirit of God never can cause you to do anything that’s not like God. Sogdala Holy Spirit always leads you to do right. So if you’re doing wrong, don’t say, well, the Lord led me.
No, he didn’t. Lord never leads a child of God to do what’s wrong. Now the devil will, but remember the desire for sin comes from within. And Satan knows that and tries to trap us. So you learn a little patience and you don’t have to experience what everybody else has done before you and watching traps and realizing I don’t have to have that happen to me. You watch the things that happens to people who rebel against the Lord and you don’t have to repeat it.
learn and you’ll be surprised, you’ll be blessed, but he will help you. But verse 13, let no man say when he is tempted, because he’s going to be. I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. So that shows you that every child of God has an ocean for nature that’s still within him and it can draw you away.
And so you begin to listen to the deceptions of that old man thinking that the lust of the flesh is going to be worth whatever it’s going to cost you in the spirit. It is not going to be worth it. He’ll lie to you and deceive you and you’ll think it’s not going to be that bad. No, it’ll be a lot worse. There’s a song they used to sing at door sight. Sin will cost you more than you want to pay and take you further than you want to go.
Something like you, I don’t forget the words of it, but it’s along that line. Then He says here in verse 15, for when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, because you’ve got the sinful desire, then there’s nothing wrong in having that sinful desire, because that’s part of your flesh. It’s when you fulfill that desire. And that’s why he says, when it brings forth sin, then it finishes it bringing forth death. It will separate you, death will separate you from everything God wants to have for you.
It’s going to cost you so much. It destroys your Christian life, all because you allow yourself to be deceived. Looking for 16, look at those first three words. Do not err and we talk of the lost men or we talk of the saved people. Do not err. This is to the Christian. So can the Christian sin evidently look there in chapter 2. Look in chapter 2. Now we know we’re talking to the brethren because you see there in verse 1 my brethren, verse 1, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus tries with the respective persons.
That means treating people differently for advantages or for some gain. Treat people the same regardless of what goes on. But he’s come down here and he makes his statement. In verse 9, but if you have respect to persons, you commit sin. Is it possible for Christians then to commit sin? That’s what he says. And then he relates it to, I guess you could say the Old Testament, the law, and he says, for who’s swever shall keep the whole law and the fendant one point he’s guilty of all.
So if you send it doesn’t make any difference which one the penalty is still the same. So here you are he says well if you say don’t do this and you don’t do this but you did this he still broke the law and there’s still a penalty to be said because you have a flesh nature and so he says in the last part of verse 10 guilty about guilty. Is it possible for a child of God to still do things that bring and produce guilt in his life?
See, the guilt in your life is why you need first John 1-9. It’s not because God is guilty. God doesn’t need forgiveness. He hadn’t done anything wrong, but you did. Now, the payment has already been made. The sin has been forgiven, but you have the guilt. You didn’t have that guilt before because you hadn’t done the sin, but he’s paid the penalty for all sin. But if you want peace of mind you enjoy better you find what get rid of the guilt and it’s not by the nine the guilt If I confessing only enough to a call unto what it is, this was wrong and this was sinful.
So you can face your sins so that you can forgive yourself. Otherwise, that sin will destroy you and you’ll be under such a burden. This wife has been interested in some time and talk to people and they trust Christ as their Savior. And they’ll tell me, it’s like a load has been lifted off my shoulders. Well, as a Christian, and when you sin against the Lord, you’re just like putting a load back on your shoulders as a Christian. You still need to get those off of you.
And that’s why 1 John 1 9 is so important. But as you go down through here, there’s many things that God tells us and gives us in here. Notice what he says in note number 11, causes the wrath of man, the wrath of man, like in verse 19. Wherefore might be loved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. But now if you’re deceived, you’re not going to be able to fulfill this. This is why you will lose your cool.
This is why you will be able to speak with wrath, and it’s not going to be with love, and it’s going to be, you know, everything that you’re not supposed to do. It’s just the opposite of what God wants. And so He makes a statement here in verse 20. verse 3, the wrath of man work if not the righteousness of God. So, being deceived, not thinking right, not being clear causes you not to produce the righteousness of God. You’ll produce the wickedness or the wrath of man.
Because you have that central nature. And if you don’t think right, you can’t control the old nature. and this is why you need to do that. Now you’ll notice in James chapter 1 verse 22, verse 22 it causes self-deception. See there in verse 22? But be doers of the word and not hears only and hears those words underline this. Deceiving your own self you will deceive yourself and the devil can take these college kids and lie to you and tell you you’re wasting your life.
You don’t need that finished. How are you going to pay your school bill? You don’t know how you’re going to do this. You don’t know how you’re going to do that. You’re never amount to anything anyway. And you’d be surprised. You’d get to thinking. And then you’ll think, I quit. I’m out of here. And there’s thousands that have done just that. I didn’t come from my Bible college that there had been probably 10,000 people that attended. Often wonder where all those people are today.
But a lot of them probably fell along on the inside. Some of them have probably died and gone on to heaven. I saw a picture the other day that I didn’t even know existed. And it was a picture of me and Hank Lindstrom and Ray Dukes at the camp over here. Greg Bisser had him and he gave him to me and I thought, my stars, I didn’t even know these things existed. So anyway, I’m glad you got them. But I thought there’s three of us, two of them were gone.
Uh oh. So you wonder, okay, well, why did God take this one or this one? And why did God leave you? Maybe he don’t want me yet. And so he wants a little piece of quiet of her for a while and he’ll come and get me. But he does make the statement here, deceiving your own self. And how do you know you’re deceived? When you read the Bible and you think, well, I had my morning devotion, I had my quiet time with the Lord.
Then you get up and you live your life and pay no attention to what it said. Deception. Knowing to do right and do with it not to him it is where’s that verse found somewhere in the Bible isn’t it? Or maybe I just made it up. Maybe it’s so struggle and just turn to your right just a little bit to chapter 4. We can chapter 4. We can verse 17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and do it that not to him it is sin.
Well if he knows what to do that is right then why don’t he do it? Something is deceived in about the value of it. You see there is the God of this world and there’s the God of heaven and they’re both battling for the souls of man. And so if the devil can’t get my soul but He does want to destroy my life and yours. So go back there to James chapter one. Notice in verse 24, this is on what it causes.
It causes disobedience. Verse 24, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way. See those three words? Goeth his way, not God’s way. He goes his way. I’ve had people tell me, so well, Yankee, You serve God your way and I’ll serve God my way. I didn’t know I had a choice. I thought I had to have to serve God his way and I’m served God at all. We all had to serve God God’s way according to his work. So if you serve God the way God wants you to and I serve God the way God wants me to, we ought to get along, shouldn’t we?
Unless one of us is in the flesh. Right? Now get it what else he says here. In the number 14 that I have down there, causes a lack of remembrance. You’ve heard a phrase called, if you don’t use it, you lose it. What was what he says here? Look in verse 24. For he beholdeth himself and go with his way and immediately your straight away, forget it. See that word, forget it. In the words you don’t remember the things you’re supposed to do because you have no intention of doing them anyway This is why you can come to church and even come to college But if you have no intentions of obeying the truth that you’ve learned you’ll forget the truth that you learned You forget you see when you get deceived you cannot keep your mind clear and you can’t keep it sharp There’s a price to pay your memory is not going to be as good
It’s amazing those who want to serve the Lord find it a little easier to memorize scripture But if you really don’t want it to make a difference or changing life It’s so hard. I know it’s hard But with the Holy Spirit can the Holy Spirit help you or not? I mean it’s his word When I got saved I did not know one verse in the Bible not even Jesus wet. I I didn’t even know that verse. I didn’t know it was end of my book.
I didn’t know any verses. Ask me if I know any verses today. I know a few verses now, but there was a time when I didn’t. Well, what made the difference? I had to apply myself. God didn’t cut a hole in my head and pour all the scripture in it. Then the cap, and the yah. Well, that would have been neat. And I’m still learning the scriptures. But the more you use, the more you remember. Ray used to say, he says, it’s like putting a delo mark in your brain up there and he tells that when he tells a joke, tell a joke three or four times, a lot of weight, because it kind of gets in there deeper and even you can remember it.
If you’ve ever heard a good joke and you can’t wait to get with somebody, you want to tell them and you can’t remember it. It’s gone. And so it’s like some birds flew over and took the seed away. That happens with this word of God too. Number 15 causes a lack of blessings. Nobody would have said, you see, if you don’t do what God says to do because you’re deceived in the value of it, what’s it going to cost you?
I don’t know what he says. In verse 25, but who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue with therein. He be not a forgetful here. He remembers, but a doer of the work. This man shall be blessed. So there’s a blessing upon those that will yield to what God says, do, but you’re not going to yield if you deceive yourself and think it is not that important, but it is important. All these things are important. I noticed one word that I was wondering.
I wonder how I can explain that one word, unspotted. See, it’s mentioned there in verse 27. Unspotted from the world. Keep himself unspotted from the world. All right, let me just give you a little simple definition. I put down on my paper, causes the flesh to show. In other words, don’t let your flesh show. As a child of God, you have two births, right? Spirit, flesh. When I say, don’t let your flesh show, I’m not talking about walking around as a spirit.
I’m talking about letting that old simple man be magnified. We’re looking at the book of Philippians. In the book of Philippians, because of the not allowing or wanting or desiring the flesh to show, we have a responsibility to to serve the Lord, put in him first and all these things. But notice what he says in verse one, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows and mercies, fulfill you my joy, that you be like minded, having the same love, been of one accord, one mind, and let nothing be done through strife or vane glory, but in loathiness of mine, that each esteem other better than themselves.
Look, not every man on his own thing, but every man also on the things of others. Because all these things, if you allow yourself to be the sake, it means you’re not gonna be able to help a brother. In the Lord, because you see you have a tendency of pulling people down to your level or bringing people up to your level. But if God wants you to go further, what kind of an influence are you going to have on other people?
And so we’re supposed to love one another, forgive one another, blah blah blah. You see, when you become deceived, you won’t forgive like you’re supposed to forgive. You won’t walk like you’re supposed to walk. You won’t talk like you’re supposed to talk. You’re not going to influence other people the way you’re supposed to influence other people. I had the Quentin Road Bible Baptist Church. They sent me a link to a, I guess you could say, a ceremonial graduation for Dr.
Scudder, you know, because he’s no longer going to be in the ministry up there and place him in the leadership. So they did a great big celebration for him. It was awesome. I mean, awesome. So they had people coming from everywhere. And it was very moving. And it took it all the way back to when he was born and got started and was his dad and, trust the Lord, University of Kentucky and going to Baba College. And then him and his wife said not to go to Chicago.
And it’s tremendous. And then there’s a girl that came on and she sung a song. Let me see this world, dear Lord, through your eyes. And that’s the song that Mike Otto had wrote years ago. When he was, I don’t know, 18 years old, 19 years old, living in our dorm and didn’t think much about it at the time because he wrote a bunch of songs. He wrote some good songs. But no song did he have a right like this song.
It was just a beautiful song. And he would write a line or two and he’d come out and he’d play it on the guitar. Because it has that sound, that sound great. I go back in, I go back to studying. I didn’t know that he was writing a classic. I don’t think he did either. I don’t think he knew how many people were gonna be influenced by that song that he wrote that day. Because it wasn’t something big and grandeur, non-latin’ it, he just was in there picking on his guitar and writing and coming out and playing it for me.
I got to hear it for him, like, but you know, I never heard him do the whole song thing. just doing parts of it and then they sung the song and when people heard that song looking close eyes, if I could see this world the way you see I just know I’d serve God more faithfully and it’s hard not to get teary-eyed just watching that and so over the years I’ve had times when I’m kind of like I lose a little bit of a vision you know wonder whether or not is all this worth it you know the devil’s working on my mind to kind of deceive me.
And of course, he always wants you to get you to quit, become so down and discouraged and so on. Wonder whether or not all the sacrifice and everything that you make is worth it. Does anybody really care? You know. And so I hear that song and I keep looking at this world through his eyes and realize I got to keep looking this way. And so show they had this girl that sung the song out there for this special meeting.
And she has one of the prettiest voices I think I’ve ever heard. And they had an orchestra do this special music. And I mean it was all the instruments, it was everything, it was just gorgeous. And then she, they had the choir, a full choir, probably must have been the ADO, people in the choir I guess. And they were singing parts of it as a long. And she sung that song, looking through his eyes. And I could not watch that without tears in my eyes.
And I listened to it and I cried a little bit and I watched it again and I didn’t watch it three times. That’s just today. He probably never had a clue that 40-something years ago, sitting in a little old dorm room, and they’re writing a song, it would ever have made the impact that it’s made. And you could see people all over the audience, the people in the choir, the impact that song is made over the years. And Mike was just a young kid, just wrote him a song.
And now it is one awesome song. You can’t help but just love it. But you don’t know down the road what you can have or do if you just stay faithful Just don’t quit too soon We shall reap In due season, we shall reap if we…is we what? If we faint not. It means you don’t quit. Now, is the devil real? Is he after you? Does he interject thoughts into your mind? Nobody loves you, nobody appreciates you. Get real down and get real low so you feel sorry for yourself.
And that’s what the devil wants you to do because he wants you to quit. But you’re going to rise up. up. You’re not going to let that happen to you. You’re going to let the devil in the face. Your child of the king. Look who you are. Look who you serve. And you’re going to do something about it. You’re going to keep your eyes focused and stay looking at the Lord. Don’t let the devil deceive you. Look at the Word.
Relieve the Word. God will bless you for it. And in case we have somebody watching tonight, let this hand represent you and me. And this This is what I represent sin. We all have sin upon us. God loves us. He hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in our literal fire burning hell. But God loves us. He wants us to go to heaven and go to heaven. We have to be perfect as righteous as God in none of us are perfect.
So God says you cannot save yourself. There’s only one way to be saved. This hand represents Jesus Christ. God’s son came into the world because he loves us. hates our sin because our sin separates us from it. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, but because he loved us, he’d rather die than live without us because they’re in all the way. He has to die. So he died, paid for the sins and came back from the dead and says, whosoever will believe that I did that for them.
He’ll put this payment to your account. You get to go to heaven on what he did. The reason I’m going to heaven is because I don’t have any sins to pay for it. He paid for all of my sins. That’s the best news in the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head down, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re watching by internet, right on the screen, he says, yes, I will trust Christ as my savior. If you’ve never done so, would you do it right now?
And if you trust Christ right now as your savior, he’ll give you right now eternal life as a freak yet. And I pray that you’ll do that. The rest of you in the room, I know most of you. I think I know all of you. The devil is going to do everything he can to deceive youraged. And even you have within yourself the ability to deceive yourself. And you can also deceive other people. So you know that you can be influenced by someone else.
Keep yourself dedicated to the Lord. Keep yourself close to the Lord. Love the Word of God. believe what you believe because the Word of God is powerful in your life. Father, we thank again for all you’ve done for us. Help each one of us to seek to be faithful because we know you love us. You want the best for us. Father, we want a good, clear mind. We want to be stabilized. We want to have joy. We want to have patience.
We want to have wisdom. We want to endure and we want to mature. Bless each one of us in Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones.
This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of The Gospel Driven Man. A mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you, and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline.
If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.
