Was It The Devil
Sunday Morning, 07-14-13
Intro:
I’m going to test either your memory or your youth with the question I am about to ask. Some of you are definitely old enough to remember and some of you were not even born yet. Have you ever heard the expression “The Devil made me do it” and if you have, do you know who made it well known?
It was from an act that comedian “Flip” Wilson made famous from his character “Geraldine Jones” who was always saying the devil made her do all manner of things.
Now while that was a funny show that phrase began to be used quite a bit to “blame” the devil for all of our short comings, and even if we don’t say it today he really gets credit or blame for everything bad in our lives.
The real question this morning is “Was it the Devil?” or are we deceiving ourselves so that he can be a convenient scapegoat?
The Word of God does speak to us in various places about the different types of “Self – Deception” we use and comes from us.
Self-Esteem
Psalm 36:2 tells us…
For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be
hateful.
The Psalmist is speaking of evil men who do not know God here in this passage, but make no mistake those who know God can deceive them selves into thinking they are more than they are.
Things like…
Praying in the market place “God I’m glad I’m not like that sinner”
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.(Luke 18:11)
Did you notice Jesus said he “prayed thus with himself”, he did not pray to God, he prayed with Himself!
When we do things like that close on the heels of our flattery comes …
(1)
Conceit
Galatians 6:3 says…
For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Paul tells us in Romans 12:3…
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
If we get too big for our britches we end up fodder for that lake of fire we talked about last Sunday night!
Another form of Self-Deception is…
Spiritual Bondage
Isa 44:20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside, so
that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
In the verses preceding this Isaiah is speaking of how man can so deceive himself. He cuts down the tree in the forest (that he did not plant or water)
Uses it to make a fire to warm him and to cook his food and then what is left makes a graven image in the shape of a man and worships it! It’s no wonder God says he is feeding on ashes, there is no nourishment, nothing but empty promises.
We must come to God for spiritual nourishment, anything less will not suffice. Jesus is clear in…
Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Joh 6:48 I am that bread of life.
Joh 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Joh 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Joh 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
(2)
Careless Hearing
Jas 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves.
What James is saying here is we must not be content to only be “hearers of the Word” we must put action to the Word. We can get real comfy with ourselves by telling “ole self” “I go to church every Sunday…that’s enough” or “I’m getting to old for this, let the younger people do it” do I need to go on or do you get the idea?
Paul tells us in…
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And James says…
Jas 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me
thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
Jas 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man
shall be blessed in his deed.
The Word of God has to get past our ears and into our hearts and our deeds will be blessed!!
An Unbridled Tongue
Jas 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.
Oh, Brother James is being hard on us. First he is on us about not just hearing the Word, now we have to keep our mouths shut too!
The mouth and the heart act and react to each other. Jesus gives an example in Matthew 15:18-19
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the
heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
(3)
Jas 3:2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Our speech should not be offensive in any way to another.
Spiritual Poverty
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
If we allow ourselves to follow our puffed up idea of ourselves we will end up as these Jesus is speaking of in the Laodicean church the ultimate self-decievers. So blinded to the facts we do not even know we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked!
We can not go our “own” way. The writer of Proverbs tells us twice…
Pro 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death.
Pro 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death.
Let us be careful where we lay blame, and let’s not help the Devil with his
job because it may be self-deception that is at work keeping us from the
Lord.
I leave you with these passages to meditate on…
Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not
in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Jer 10:24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger,
lest thou bring me to nothing.
Lam 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
Mat 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
2Co 13:6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
