Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/bbcsylmar/sermons/12444/a-deceived-heart/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] world system and all their deception and delusion, your heart, some of you don't get it yet. You don't agree with it. You're not sure that that's you. You're not sure that that's true about you, your wife, your child, your mother, your grandmother.

[0:17] Your heart is deceitful above all things. You might think, I don't try to deceive people like the devil does. I'm not like that.

[0:28] That's not the statement. Your heart deceives you. Your heart deceives you by calling evil good and good evil by saying you're pure when you're not washed from your filthiness.

[0:42] The heart is deceitful. So number one, there's nothing more deceitful than your heart, than your heart. Secondly, in that verse, notice it says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

[0:57] Your heart's not just deceitful. The scripture, God says your heart is desperately wicked. Desperately wicked.

[1:08] What does God think of me? He thinks me on my own? I've got a lot of problems. You know what that means to me?

[1:19] My heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. That tells me that there is nothing that I am exempt from doing. No sin that I'm exempt from committing.

[1:30] I know we're all dressed up for Sunday church and living Christian clean lives. But don't you know that there's thoughts that come through your mind and things that come out of your heart, according to Matthew 15, that are just as filthy and as vile and as impure as anything that's out there in the world?

[1:54] Won't you admit that, even at least to yourself, that there are things that come in here that are very unclean? Very unclean. Don't sit in church and just put on the smile and pretend.

[2:08] Let's just get real for this moment. What the scripture says about you is true. About your heart. It's true. I know this is ugly. I know this is negative. And nobody's going to walk out here just feeling good right now.

[2:20] But let's get this part right. Your heart's deceitful. Nothing more deceitful than your heart. Your heart's desperately wicked, according to the scripture. And if you get away from God, and if you get away from the word of God, you'll find out how quickly you can fall into sin.

[2:37] You'll find out how far you can go, farther than you think you can go. And I've got testimony of that in my own life, and I don't want any more of it. But each time that I get away from God, I would go farther and go farther.

[2:50] And if you asked me as a young teenager, will you ever do this, this, and this? I'd say, no way. That's for the, you know, that's for him that's ready to perish. That's for the lost.

[3:01] That's for the deceived. The people that think there's no limit. You know, I know better. But just get away from God. Get away from the truth. Get away from God's people. And get out to the world.

[3:11] And just let them influence you. And just start to drop your standards. Start to drop your convictions. And just walk away. And find out how desperately wicked your heart is and wants to be.

[3:25] You'll find out. You might already be deceived about your heart. You may think I'm not so bad. But deep down inside your sweet little innocent heart is a rebel.

[3:39] And he's bent against defying God. Or he's bent on turning away from God. And he wants to have what he wants to have. And there's covetousness. And there's carnal thoughts and desires.

[3:52] And your heart will deceive your mind. You know why? Your heart will do that. Because it wants to preserve itself. It wants to hang on to what's wrong. It wants to go that way.

[4:03] It's desperately wicked. And to get to that what feeds it and what satisfies it, it has to trick you. It has to deceive your mind to say there's nothing wrong with that.

[4:14] It's not going to hurt you. I can tell you what. If you be honest about certain things in your life, it's not helping you. It's not feeding you. It's not pointing you to the Lord Jesus Christ or helping anybody in your home or family or circle of influence.

[4:30] It's not doing anything for you. You'll find out that your heart is just deceiving you little bits at a time to take you somewhere if you don't put it in check, if you don't get in the book, if you don't turn it over to God and say, Search me.

[4:44] Oh God, know my heart. Try me. The heart's nothing more deceitful than your heart. The heart's desperately wicked. And third, from this passage, this one-liner from Jeremiah, Who can know it?

[4:59] That implies you cannot even know even your own heart. You can't know it on your own. You ever hear a testimony or a statement from some derelict of society that says, I never thought that I would ever get here, would ever do this, would ever be in this position.

[5:22] I never thought. Why? Because I thought more about myself. I thought I had more to me than to find out what I really am or what's really in me if I let it go. You better guard your heart.

[5:35] The Bible says, Keep thy heart with all diligence. Jesus Christ knows your heart. I have some scriptures I'll not turn to this morning, but in John 2, Lord Jesus Christ said he knows what's in man.

[5:51] In Mark, they looked on him and thought some things in their heart and they reasoned in their hearts, it says, and Jesus knew their thoughts, called them out on it.

[6:01] He knows your heart. He knows your thoughts. He knows what goes on on the inside. A deceived heart. Understand there's nothing more deceitful than your heart.

[6:12] Your heart's desperately wicked and you can't even know it. You won't believe. You'll never believe on a human level what you're capable of unless you expose yourself to it and allow yourself to go.

[6:30] You could go. And that could be scary, and that's good. Be scared. And stay with God and stay with the truth. Come to Jeremiah 49. I want to show you another verse about your heart and about being deceived and having a deceived heart.

[6:44] We read this verse a little while back when we were studying the Assyrian attitude in Isaiah. And we saw how this, the Assyrian was lifted up in pride.

[6:58] And notice this here of your heart. In Jeremiah 49, he's describing a nation that thinks they're badder than anybody else and nobody can mess with them.

[7:11] And so God has to teach them a lesson. Verse number 16, Thy terribleness hath deceived thee and the pride of thine heart.

[7:24] O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock that holdest the height of the hill, though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord.

[7:35] So God's going to, He's going to lower somebody and abase a kingdom that lifted themselves up and looked around and said, Nobody can mess with me. They were lifted up with pride when they saw how much better and stronger they were than everybody else.

[7:50] And God said, Thy terribleness, your strength, your military might, hath deceived thee. You're comparing yourselves to these other nations around you.

[8:01] That's a mistake from God's perspective. So I'm going to have to drop you down low. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. The Bible says, Paul says this, comparing themselves among themselves.

[8:17] He says, Christians, you're not wise. You're not wise to look at one another and think, Oh, I'm okay. I'm okay. I come to church more than they do, so I must be okay.

[8:29] I know that, they probably don't even read their Bible, they can't even find the books. So I'm alright. I'm definitely better than them. You're comparing yourself to the wrong person, brother. There's a holy one to compare yourself to and how short you fall from the glory of God.

[8:47] Even the Apostle Paul described that he knew that he had not already attained. And I'm not even close to that man. I'm not going to look around at you and think, Yeah, God called me.

[8:59] Not them. Must be something in me. No. If there's anything in me, it's the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of God in my heart that's changed me from the wicked, filthy, sinner, and deceptive one I am.

[9:13] I know me. I know my heart a little bit. Maybe not all of it, but I know enough to know I'm a snake. That's what I've seen myself do it too many times. Lie, be deceitful, try to take advantage of somebody or a situation.

[9:27] In Jeremiah 49, he warned them of their pride, warning them that they've deceived their self, the pride of their heart, their terribleness, they're lifted up, they're deceived.

[9:46] What are we to compare ourselves? You know what God said to compare ourselves to? He said, Be ye holy. Why? For I am holy.

[9:57] Look at me. That's what you're attaining to or trying to. That's the comparison to himself. So folks are deceived about who they are because they compare like a boxer.

[10:10] All he has to do is beat the champ and then he's the champ, right? But he's just looking at, well, we're not talking about a boxing. We're talking about our sin and our righteousness. We can't compare ourselves to somebody else and say, I'm better than them.

[10:23] I've done more than them. Don't be deceived in your heart. You might be deceived about your own personal sin before God. There's a man that was shopping and he saw this, there was some skins, sheep skins and deer hides and such and he went through and he wanted to get a, he decided, I'm going to buy a sheep skin but I want to get the best looking one.

[10:47] And he went through and he saw all these sheep skins, so many of them were speckled and so many were browned and there was just different styles of sheep and species, I guess it was, and he found one that was, that didn't have any brown on it.

[11:01] He found one that was better than all the rest around and he said, I'm buying this one. Look at this thing. It's so pure. It's so clean. There's no brown on it. And as he walked away purchasing this sheep skin, he walked past another level, you might say, of sheep skins and realized, I bought this from the second rack.

[11:26] When he came across the pure sheep skins with the white ones, his was yellow. His was almost brown as it appeared against the white ones. He was comparing his sheep skin to something that was drastically different.

[11:41] How unwise. How impure. Why it looked pure when he compared himself to that one. And could it be Christian that you've deceived yourself because you look at yourself as clean and good and pure.

[11:54] And while the world and the church just falls further from the standard of truth and falls further into the worldliness and allows more things and falls further away into apostasy, you might say, I'm not as bad as them.

[12:08] I still got a King James Bible or I still come to a Bible-believing church and you can put a list together of who you are and it might be just that. It might be deceiving you.

[12:19] You might be deceived by your deceitful heart. Come one more place now to Isaiah and chapter 44. You might deceive yourself by comparing yourself to another sinner who also has a desperately wicked heart instead of comparing yourselves to the source of purity and the source of truth.

[12:49] Isaiah 44 and here's one last passage to look at in this light and this is a little longer. I want to read this section and just bear with me as I read from verse 9 over to verse 20 and just follow the thinking and what's happening and how God sees these fools and what they're doing and they actually believe what they're doing is right.

[13:14] in verse 9 it says, They that make a graven image are all of them vanity and their delectable things shall not profit and they are their own witnesses.

[13:26] They see not nor know that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a God or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed and the workmen they are of men.

[13:39] So men make these things sinners and then they're going to bow down to them. He describes different ones here. Verse 12 it says, The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals and fashioneth it with hammers and worketh it with the strength of his arms.

[13:56] Yea, he's hungry and his strength faileth. He, the man, drinketh no water and is faint. So he's the creator if you will of this God. Verse 13 The carpenter stretcheth out his rule and maketh it with line and fitteth it with planes.

[14:11] He marketh it out with the compass and maketh it after the figure of a man according to the beauty of a man that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars and taketh the cypress and the oak which he strengtheth for himself among the trees of the forest.

[14:24] He planteth in ash and the rain does nourish it. So, I mean, this tree that he's going to, this description, he created it. He started it from a seed. The rain nourished it. Then shall it be for a man to burn for he will take thereof and warm himself.

[14:39] Yea, he kindleth it and baketh bread. Yea, he maketh a god and worshipeth it. He maketh it a graven image and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire.

[14:50] With part thereof he eateth flesh and roasteth roast and is satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself and saith, Aha, I've warm. I've seen a fire. And the residue thereof, that is, the leftovers of this tree, the residue thereof he maketh a god.

[15:05] Even his graven image, he falleth down unto it and worshipeth it and prayeth unto it and saith, Deliver me for thou art my God. They have not known nor understood for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand and none considereth in his heart neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire.

[15:30] Yea, I have also baked bread upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh and eaten it and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? Finally, verse 20, He feedeth on ashes.

[15:43] A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? How foolish.

[15:56] How, no, how insane. Can you imagine me taking this piece of paper and folding it up in some, what is that called, origami?

[16:07] Folding up into a swan and setting it there and say, Church, this swan be thy God. And walking around and having all of you worship it, kiss it maybe.

[16:22] And you can't touch it. This is holy. It's too holy. How foolish. Seriously. I mean, what's the difference between what's going on here? They plant a tree, they cut it down, they make firewood out of it, they cook their bread on the fire, the flame.

[16:38] Here's a leftover stump. I'll fashion something and then bow down and pray to it. A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he would do something like that.

[16:51] You'd say, I lost my marbles, I'm nuts if I would make something and actually start praying to it. A piece of paper, a piece of, of a stone. You'd say, that guy's crazy.

[17:05] How could you get that far? How could you get that turned aside, the Bible says? A deceived heart. To have your heart deceived. Maybe you don't understand how bad this is.

[17:17] A deceived heart has no knowledge. A deceived heart has no understanding of what it's doing and how it's affecting and how wrong it truly is. A deceived heart will cause someone's eyes to be blinded to what is truth, to what is reality.

[17:35] A deceived heart will cause your perspective to be all wrong and you won't even know it. You can't discern between what's true and what's false, between what's right and what's wrong, between what's good and what's evil, between what's pure and what's filthy.

[17:51] A deceived heart will blind you. Imagine somebody that's lost in the woods and they're lost but when they realize I'm lost, they stop and they start looking for a remedy.

[18:05] I'm going to seek help. I'm going to send up a flare. I'm going to do something to get found, to get rescued. But what about that one that's deceived about being lost and says, no, I'm going the right way.

[18:19] No, it's fine. They're going further and further and further away from help, from a remedy, never admitting their problem. Why?

[18:29] Because they're deceived. You know, it's a bad thing to be wrong but it is far worse to think that you're right when you're wrong. You're deceived.

[18:40] When you're dead wrong but no, I'm fine. Better be careful. Why? Because your heart's deceitful. A deceived heart. Your heart's desperately wicked.

[18:52] Christians say it all the time. There's nothing wrong with that because they're blind and they don't see what God sees and they don't care what God says and sometimes they're blinded by their own lusts and sometimes, many times, they just justify their sins as if it's fine.

[19:10] There's nothing wrong with that. Well, yeah, but I've done this all these years but I could do that again but that's not a big deal. It didn't hurt anybody. It actually, and they twist it to make it sound positive and pure and good when it's evil and in their heart they know it.

[19:30] Making allowances in areas they know is wrong. Push the line a little bit. Push it a little bit further and know it's wrong.

[19:41] Look, we'll close in 1 Timothy if I could take you there. This will be the last passage in this thought. I wasn't lying to you earlier. Just didn't say it right.

[19:53] 1 Timothy chapter 1. It says that a deceived heart turned him aside. A deceived heart notice this thought about being turned aside in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5.

[20:22] The Bible says now the end of a commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. It's not fake like Isaiah was talking about complaining about.

[20:35] It's real. They have a pure conscience pure heart a good conscience pure heart but if you can have those things that's for real. But look at verse 6. From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor where have they affirm.

[20:58] We just read twice that's the result of a deceived heart. They don't have understanding. They've turned aside. A deceived heart. You know what that deceived heart has done?

[21:10] It's not a pure heart anymore. It doesn't have a good conscience anymore. It's faith is not unfeigned and it wants to be a teacher. It wants to tell you what's okay.

[21:23] It wants to tell you what's acceptable what's right. Be careful of Christians that have deceived hearts that have turned aside and have wanted to tell you there's nothing wrong with that.

[21:34] There's nothing wrong with me doing it when you have better light in your mind and eyes and think you better be careful. You're taking a step in the wrong direction or you're allowing something you shouldn't have done.

[21:46] That's okay. It's okay. They've turned aside because of their deceived heart. One more verse in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 15.

[21:59] And look at this. 1 Timothy 5, 15. And we'll be done. The Bible says, For some are already turned aside after Satan.

[22:16] Boy, it really didn't take much to connect him to all of this, did it? to a deceived heart, to desperately wicked heart.

[22:28] He'll cause you to turn aside and he'll convince you that it's fine. And if that's what you want in your heart, if that's what you want is just an excuse, a way to justify what you want, he'll give you one.

[22:44] He'll help you turn aside and tell you that you're pure. When God says, you're filthy, be ye holy. You know what I want from you in your life.

[22:57] In the day-to-day, in the week-by-week, in months and years, you know what I want from you. Why are you allowing so much other stuff? Why are you calling this good?

[23:09] When if you'd ask me, I'd call it evil. To close, how can you remedy a deceived heart? And beyond that, are you willing to remedy to humble yourself before God and confess to Him where you've made some choices that are not, you did not seek His permission for?

[23:30] How can you remedy this? Jesus Christ said it in the Gospels. He said, the priority is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength.

[23:45] When you put God first, when you put Him up there in everything, you'll have a lot less trouble with being deceived and calling something good or calling something evil good.

[23:59] When you put Him first and love Him first and say, God, I'll make my choices and decisions based on what you say to me first. I'll come to you before I make this choice, before I decide it's okay.

[24:12] He'll steer you right every time. He won't steer you wrong. And then secondly, if you'll love Him with all your heart, then secondly, like that verse I quoted of David, search me.

[24:25] Ask Him to search you. Search me, know God and know my heart. Psalm 139, 23. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me.

[24:39] Can you as a, are you, do you have the, the bravery, the courage to bow before God and say, God, please search me. Search my heart.

[24:51] Please reveal to me if there's something or some way that I'm allowing or taking that is not according to truth. Something that I have allowed that you say is evil, but I said it was good.

[25:03] Do you have the courage to get on your knees and pray that prayer? Because God will not lead you wrong. He will not lie to you. He'll reveal it to you if your heart's pure.

[25:15] He'll reveal your sin. He'll reveal and open your eyes to the deception. He'll give you that discernment that you need. A deceived heart. This is one of Jeremiah's most popular verses.

[25:30] A one-liner from the prophet that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That little line comes out of my mouth or it makes me think when I hear of somebody doing things, just like, heart's deceitful above all things.

[25:43] That's a one-liner. It's one that you should know and you could use and can relate to so many things in this life that you see and understand why people do what they do. but it's about you this morning.

[25:56] Internalizing that statement, that one-liner and looking at your own heart and understanding and seeking to understand am I deceived? Am I justifying sin?

[26:08] Am I calling evil good and good evil? Let's bow our heads together and we'll be dismissed in a short moment here. I didn't pick on anybody this morning.

[26:25] I didn't try to call out a sin or something, a decision that I think is no good. Just let the Scripture speak this morning and please allow God by His Spirit to have access to your heart and your mind.

[26:39] Are you willing to pray, God, search me? Are you willing to bow before Him and say, God, I want to love you with all my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me.

[26:52] I acknowledge that I am very, very prone to deception and I acknowledge that my heart is desperately wicked. I've probably made some choices that are wrong.

[27:02] I've probably allowed some things. If the Holy Spirit of God is today illuminating you to something, do not, do not neglect it.

[27:15] Do not just wait for it to go away. He's trying to help you. He's trying to clean you up. He's trying to save you from a mess down the road. Don't ignore Him.

[27:30] He's not demanding, you better love me. He loves you. He wants to help you get it right. If He's dealing with you, there's nothing more important right now than that you just acknowledge and deal with it back and meet Him.

[27:45] I invite you to come. We're going to sing. We're going to sing number 166 in the hymnal. There's no shame in praying and dealing with something before God. Would you stand with me? 166 in the hymnal.

[27:57] Allow the Lord to deal with your heart. 256 in the hymnal. 256 in the hymnal. 266 in the hymnal I've been asking for many controversial things about God that he engaging through the church and being asitzer to heal.

[28:08] Just trying to help you see the church who's dealing with妳 in anあぁ. Do not even know that He's living in His message in himself or the church called His name or She's living in together Him and God is trying to help you to find He's re- in my mind.