INTRO.- Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. I believe that some people do want to deceive others for one reason or another. It could be for money, a vote or something else.
ILL.- A politician was running for re-election and was talking at a campaign stop to his constituents.
"My opponent has called me a liar. I want you to know that I have never lied to you. The only problem I have is that the facts don’t always match up with what I believe or say."
Not all politicians are guilty of lying or deception but some are. Or else they make a lot of promises that they can’t keep. We do know, however, that the world is full of people who try to deceive others.
II Tim. 3:13 "Evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."
ILL.- Michael Jackson is being sued by Arab sheikh in UK court. The son of an Arab monarch took the King of Pop to court, charging that Jackson took $7 million as an advance on an album and an autobiography that he never produced.
Lawyers for Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa say their client paid Jackson expenses as an advance on the book and joint recording project with the sheikh, who is an amateur songwriter. Jackson claims the money was a gift. IT SURE SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE DECEIVED SOMEONE ELSE!
ILL.- This story is told about a blind man. The poor guy, with dark glasses and his little tin cup was standing on the street corner, patiently waiting for a small contribution. A kindly man passed by and generously dropped a dime in the poor old fellow’s cup. Then for some reason he turned around, and to his surprise saw the blind man’s glasses pushed up on his forehead, looking at his recent gift.
“I thought you were a blind man,” said the disgruntled donor. “Oh, no,” was the answer, “I am only substituting for the regular blind man today. I’m not really blind at all.”
“Well, where is the regular blind man?” asked the other. “Oh, he’s gone to the movies; it’s his afternoon off.”
Brothers and sisters, there’s a lot of deception going on in this world of ours and perhaps mostly for money. There is always some kind of scam on the internet and other places in order to get people’s money. Some people want to sell others a bunch of no-good goods!
The world is deceptive. The world promises much but doesn’t deliver.
Matt. 10:16 "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
The Lord does not want us to be deceived in any form. He always tells us the truth about Himself and about life.
PROP.- In our text, I see several thoughts about God, which the world distorts or tries to deceive us.
1- Good is from God - praise Him!
2- Truth is from God - praise Him!
3- Life is from God - praise Him!
I. GOOD IS FROM GOD - PRAISE HIM!
16Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above..."
ILL.- A Mother had decided to trim her household budget wherever possible, so instead of having a dress dry-cleaned she washed it by hand.
Proud of her savings, she boasted to her husband, "Just think, Fred, we are five dollars richer because I washed this dress by hand."
"Good," Fred quickly replied. "Wash it again!"
All Americans would be better off if they were more budget-minded and would cut a few corners occasionally to save some money. I wouldn’t recommend, however, washing out clothes by hand though.
We do live in a spendthrift society. Plastic credit is too easy to spend and gets a person into trouble. We must not be deceived about spending money. If you spend more than you make you’ll be in trouble. Been there and done that. Don’t want to do it again.
ILL.- A young man was having some money problems, and needed $200 to get his car fixed and road-worthy again. But had run out of people to borrow from. So, he called his parents via the operator, and reversed the charge and said to his dad, "I need to borrow two hundred dollars."
At the other end, his father said, "Sorry, I can’t hear you, son, I think there may be a bad line."
The boy shouted, "Two hundred. I need two hundred dollars!"
"Sorry, I still can’t hear you clearly," said his father.
The operator cut in, "Sorry to butt in, but I can hear him perfectly." The father said, "Oh, good. YOU send him the $200."
Brothers and sisters, it may be that everyone experiences money problems. This is a real problem when raising children. Children often want everything that everybody else and that puts a strain on mom and dad’s budget, if there is one. There is a point where mom and dad need to say "no" to themselves and to their kids.
ILL.- Donald Trump is worth about 3 billion dollars. Where did he get all of his money? Donald was the fourth of five children of Fred Trump, a wealthy real estate developer based in New York City. Donald was strongly influenced by his father in his eventual goals to make a career in real estate development.
I suspect that Trump’s daddy probably gave him quite a chunk of money to get started in his real estate business. His daddy funded his operation. And whether you realize it or not your daddy funded your operation as well!
Your earthly father may have helped you quite a bit. We fathers tend to do that kind of thing. However, it’s your Father in heaven who is funding your whole life and operation. DON’T BE DECEIVED! You wouldn’t have anything good were it not for Him!
Some people (and even some Christian people) have the mistaken idea that they’ve made their own way in life and nobody helped them with anything. WRONG! Wrong attitude and wrong answer. God has given us everything that is good in life. If it’s good, it’s from Him! PRAISE HIM! Don’t be deceived. All good is from God.
II. TRUTH IS FROM GOD - PRAISE HIM!
17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Eph. 5:8-9 "8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)." The fruit of light consists in all truth. Or we could say that light is truth. And God is light. Therefore, He is the very essence of truth. He is truth and He always tells us the truth in His Word.
ILL.- The kindly judge said to the witness on the stand: "You seem to be in some distress. Is anything wrong?" "Well, your Honor," said the witness, "I swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but every time I try, some lawyer objects."
That sounds like the world. Whenever we try to tell the truth about God, Christ and the Bible, somebody objects!
The world will always object to the truth of Christ and the truth of the Bible. Any time you go around quoting scripture or the truth of scripture there will be somebody who will object or oppose you. Some may even get mean about it.
Do you know why? Because basically, the world and it’s ideas or ideologies are opposed to Christ.
I John 2:15-17 "15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."
The world is in opposition to God. The three world goals are: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life or fame. And you see these goals being presented in the world almost everywhere: TV, the movies, magazines, by Hollywood, etc.
ILL.- Someone made this interesting statement or quote: “What you perceive, your observations, feelings, interpretations, are all your truth. Your truth is important. Yet it is not THE Truth.”
Powerful. Most people believe that what they believe is the truth whether it’s the truth or not.
ILL.- It’s just like the gay movement. Many gay are absolutely convinced that it’s ok to be gay and that God condones that kind of lifestyle. However, according to the truth of God’s Word it’s a perversion and unnatural.
Rom. 1:24-27 "24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."
AGAIN: “What you perceive, your observations, feelings, interpretations, are all your truth. Your truth is important. Yet it is not THE Truth.”
ILL.- It’s like that cute little story about the boy who told his mother that he was 7 ft. tall. She said, "How could you be 7 ft. tall? You’re not 7 ft. all." He replied, "I am 7 ft. tall because I just measured myself with this little ruler I made."
Most people in the world prefer to measure themselves by their own little rulers or by their own "made up" truths. If it’s true to them then it must be true regardless of what anybody else thinks, including God. WRONG AGAIN!
John 8:44 "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
The devil is a liar and a deceiver and he has convinced people that they can believe anything they want and it is truth, EVEN THOUGH IN GOD’S EYES IT ISN’T THE TRUTH.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." This is the truth of all truths! It’s the ultimate truth that people need to know and believe and accept!
Titus 1:1-3 "1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior..."
Did you notice what Titus said? GOD, WHO DOES NOT LIE! Don’t be deceived. Truth, eternal truth, the real truth is from God. PRAISE HIM!
III. LIFE IS FROM GOD - PRAISE HIM!
18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
ILL.- One lady said: When I was a mother’s helper, the mom of the family I worked for sat with her three oldest children and watched a PBS special showing the birth of a baby. The mom thought it would be a good starting point for answering questions about the facts of life.
As her five-year-old studied the baby coming out of the birth canal, he asked, "Mom, does that hurt?"
"Oh, yes, it does," she said, remembering her difficult deliveries.
"Wow," he continued in awe, "does it hurt the mother too?"
I think we all know the answer to that question. Giving birth is not an easy thing but it is entirely miraculous and amazing! And mothers know this better than anybody else.
Psalm 22:8-10 "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God."
Psalm 139:13-14 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
ILL.- It’s been said that at birth a baby’s brain contains 100 billion neurons, roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way. God gives us birth. God gives us life. And it’s utterly amazing. Have you watched a baby lately?
God also gives us the new birth or the second birth.
18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
I Peter 1:22-23 "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."
God not only give us physical life but also spiritual life. He not only gives physical birth but also spiritual birth! And it starts with the truth of God’s word. If a person isn’t listening to God’s word and obeying God’s word then there will be no new birth!
Just as there has to be life-giving seed in physical birth so there is the life-giving seed of God’s word that causes people to experience the new birth. No seed, no birth.
ILL.- There is a TV show called Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Drew said, "Are the rich and famous of Hollywood more likely to fall prey to the demon of addiction than average Americans?" The rich and famous may well be more likely to fall into addiction. But what’s the cure? Rehab may help but REBIRTH is the real answer to overcoming any addiction to sin.
If a person is truly born again by believing and obeying the Word of God: believing in Christ, trusting Christ, repenting, and surrendering in the obedience of baptism then a new life is possible. DON’T BE DECEIVED. God gives new life! PRAISE HIM!
CONCLUSION-------------------------
God give us good stuff in life. He gives us the truth. He gives us new life in Christ. If all these are from God, what must we do? GIVE HIM PRAISE! Thank Him daily and not just on Thanksgiving. Praise Him continually and never, never stop!
Psalm 7:17 "I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High."
Psalm 9:1 "I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders."
Praise Him, Praise Him!
