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     Good morning and welcome to the Berean Break.  My name is George A. Sinkie and I am so glad to have you with us today.  On today’s
program we are going to dig into the word of God and examine the deceitfulness of sin.  The deceitfulness of sin played a part in the history of the church of Christ.  As always I encourage you to open your Bible and follow along with the study and check out what is said, by doing this you will not be deceived as easily.  Let’s go to God in prayer:

Great God in heaven, We thank You for the day that You have blessed us with.  May we use it to bring You glory and honor.  Help us to understand Your word and to follow it with our lives.  When we are deceived by sin, help us to recognize it and to repent.  We thank You for Jesus, through Whom we can be saved.  And it’s in His name we pray,  AMEN!!

     The seeker of truth will want to know about sin and especially about the deceitfulness of sin.  In knowing how deceitful sin is, the true seeker of truth will be alert for its effect in their lives.  As we follow the history of the church of Christ, a part of that history was the persecution that the early church endured in part due to the deceitfulness of sin.  Many in the first century were deceived into thinking that one religion was as good as another.  That they could be saved without obeying the will of God.  And a host of other false doctrines.  And this is not that much different than we see in the world today.
     Let’s look at some of the ways that sin is deceitful.  The Hebrews writer warned us of this in Hebrews 3:13 ‘But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,“ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.’
     The context that surrounds this verse is the failure of the generation of Hebrews that were delivered from Egyptian bondage, who failed to enter the Promised Land and whose bodies littered the wilderness.  The Hebrews writer uses the failure of that generation as an example of New Testament Christians, lest they repeat the same mistakes.  Paul, in the First Corinthian letter, presents this same generation as a warning to Christians, and then draws a conclusion in 1 Corinthians 10:11-12, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.  Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
     In this he infers that many of the Israelites thought they were standing on safe ground before God when they sinned.  Sin remains just as dangerous and deceitful to our generation, and, as Paul noted, we need to learn from the past.

     Let’s look at some ideas that show the deceitfulness of sin.  First let’s consider God and the Majority.  A common temptation is the belief that safety is found in numbers, that is, if enough people believe something, then it must be true, or, if enough people do not believe in something, then it must not be important.
     False teachers will sometimes argue that a particular doctrine in the Bible must not be valid, because of the small number of people who embrace it.  For example, many have rejected the Biblical teaching of the one body of Christ, the true church.  Jesus spoke of this church in Matthew 16:18, where He says, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”
     While there may only be a few who follow Jesus and are a part of His church.  He still only has one church.  We need to seriously consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.  For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”

     Quantity is also at the heart of our next deceit of sin.  Some will say, I need more evidence to believe.  The Word tells us that we have the evidence that we need.  We have the testimony of nature, Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
     And we also have the testimony of the written word as John says in John 20:30-31, “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
     It is not for lack of evidence that people reject God, it is their own selfish motives, consider what Jesus says in John 3:19-20, “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

     The deceitfulness of sin is also found in the belief that the Bible is too strict.  Man will often think that God is being too demanding.  But consider what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” ¹
     Jesus doesn’t try to fool us that there is nothing to bear in following Him, because there is a yoke and a load.  John writes of this in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”

     But the deceitfulness of sin doesn’t stop there.  It goes on and carries this idea even further to the point where some will say, “God said, such and such, but I have a better idea.”  This is what Eve did in the garden.  God said, Do NOT eat, but consider what it says in Genesis 3:6, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
     But Eve, you know what God said.  You just told the serpent what God said.  But here you go following your own desire rather than God’s will.  This same attitude is clearly seen today.  There are literally hundreds of denominations in this world.  All of them claim to be following God, they claim they are right, but there is not one verse in the Bible that supports the idea of the division they cause.
     Think about it for a minute, there are six Lutheran churches here in Mitchell.  They represent five various divisions within Lutheranism.  You know why they exist.  It is not God’s will for any of them to exist, they exist because some man had a “better idea.”  And then another man had another “better idea.”  And another man had another “better idea.”  Talk about the deceitfulness of sin.

     Satan also deceives us, by making us believe that, “I deserve to have my needs met right now!”  This is exactly what the Israelites believed.  They could not wait for God to provide, rather they were constantly complaining that God was failing them.  One example of this is found in Exodus 17:2-3, ‘Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.”  And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the Lord?”  But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”’
     This is the attitude that “unless God gives me what I want right now, I will not believe nor will I serve Him.”  Such an attitude is also expressed when people try to justify a sinful response by saying, “God would not want me to be unhappy.”  The truth of the matter is that often God allows us to experience trials and hardships for the express purpose of teaching us that the only one that we can truly rely upon is Him.  Consider what it says in Deuteronomy 8:3, “And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”
     Paul also reinforces this point in 2 Corinthians 1:9, “indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;”
     In his own life Paul strove to understand that lesson, listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
     We need to be thankful that God does not give us whatever we want when we want it, for that is the last thing we need.  We have a far greater need in life than merely momentary pleasure, rather, we have a tremendous need for patience, longsuffering, endurance, maturity, and unselfishness.  The Hebrews writer pointed this out in Hebrews 10:36-39, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.  For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.  But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.  But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”

     I don’t believe that any of us like to be deceived, do you?  When we buy a car, we do not want to be deceived.  When we buy a house, we don’t want to be deceived.  When we go to the doctor, we don’t want to be deceived.
     And yet many people are deceived when it comes to religion.  They follow doctrines, and groups, and leaders, who have no support in the Scriptures.  Sadly, for many, they never realize they have been deceived until it is too late.
     But you are lucky because you have seen some of the deceitful tactics of Satan on this program.  And as you tune in week by week you are shown more and more of the truth.

     This Berean Break is brought to you, in love, by the pre-denominational and non-denominational church of Christ that meets at 1600 East First Avenue in Mitchell SD.  You are welcome to meet with us at 10:00 Sunday mornings for our assembly followed by a time of Bible Study, also on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 for an additional time to study God’s Word.  If you have a comment or a sincere Bible question, please call or text me at 605-770-5555.  We want to remind you of the non-denominational TV program, “KNOW YOUR BIBLE” on KDLT-TV at 9:00 on Sunday mornings.  This is George A. Sinkie for the Lord’s church, here in Mitchell, good-bye for now.  Remember that we care about you and may God bless you as you do His will.

    ¹ EGW editor’s footnote:  “Easy” and “light” in the sense of “doable; most certainly can be done,” NOT in the sense “requires absolutely no effort or attention whatsoever.”  While some of God’s instructions may occasionally require more effort or attention to detail on our part than other of His instructions, they are truthfully still possible to do… God believes we can do what He calls the the right thing and do it completely to His satisfaction.  On one hand, obeying selfish desires and wrongful man-made traditions deceptively leads people to dispair (Isaiah 59:2-15a).  On the other hand, obeying the words of Christ and the good traditions founded upon Christ’s words truthfully leads people to hope (Isaiah 59:1, 15b-21).  It is impossible to gain meaningful satisfaction through disobeying God… and so sin is hard.  It is possible to gain meaningful satisfaction through obeying God… and so Christ’s written word is easy.  The choice is up to us (Acts 5:27-32). (back to place in article)

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