Sermon

The Deceptiveness of Sin - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Hebrews chapter 3. Verse 12 to 13.

    Hebrews 3 chapter mention

  2. Take care Brothers. Lester be in any of you.

  3. An evil unbelieving heart. Leading you to fall away from

  4. the Living God. but exhort one another every day, as long as it

  5. is called today, That none of you may be hardened by the

  6. deceitfulness of sin. Growing up in Canada when we

  7. move to a new house in Middle School.

  8. Part of one of the advantages of that was that we could now walk

  9. to our school. But with that came, a whole new

  10. level of Parental Guidance knowing that we were going to be

  11. walking back and forth. Every single day, my parents

  12. exhorted us. My parents warned us and maybe

  13. you've heard These Warnings to if you've ever walked somewhere,

  14. even if it was just a block son, make sure that before you cross

  15. the street, you look both ways. Sun, even though it's a red

  16. light and you have the right of way to walk, make sure you look

  17. both ways before you walk son, make sure that if there's

  18. anybody even if it's somebody from school, a parent from

  19. school, they see you walking. And they pull over to the side

  20. and say, get in my car and come with me.

  21. You never do it. Maybe you've heard these

  22. exhortations as well. But with those exhortations was

  23. the fact that we heard it almost every single day, it was a

  24. repeated warning and it almost became annoying, but here's the

  25. reality, it worked. It worked.

  26. Now, why would any parent warn their children in such a manner,

  27. why would any parent take it to themselves to warn and to exhort

  28. everyday for the safety of their children?

  29. Very simple. Because love warns.

  30. Love warns. True.

  31. Love warns. And in the same way, the Bible

  32. rather parents warned their children out of love of the

  33. dangers, outside of the Four Walls of the home.

  34. In the same way, our heavenly father through the scriptures

  35. warned his children of the dangers of this very world

  36. because love warns Paul says in Colossians 128 him, we Proclaim

  37. warning everyone and teaching everyone that we may present

  38. everyone mature in Christ. Iced warning and teaching.

  39. Why? Because love warns.

  40. And the Bible itself does not just warn us directly.

  41. The Bible tells us in Hebrews to 3313 that we are to exhort one

  42. another. To exhort means to strongly

  43. urge. Or to strongly encourage someone

  44. to perform a certain action. An exhortation can take a form

  45. of warning or encouragement or Comfort or reproof depending on

  46. what circumstances being addressed.

  47. And so it's saying here that we ought to exhort one another.

  48. Why should we exhort one another?

  49. Well, firstly tells us to do it every single day.

  50. That we are to encourage and exhort one another day by day

  51. night by night. You think that's exhaustive but

  52. it's because of the second part of the verse, that explains why

  53. we are to exhort one another every day because sin attempts

  54. to deceive us every single day, every single day sin is on a

  55. mission to deceive. The people of God sin is on a

  56. mission to bring war against the people of God.

  57. That's why Peter says in First Peter 2:11 beloved, I urge you

    1 Peter 2:11

  58. as sojourners and exiles. To abstain from the passions of

  59. the flesh, which war against your soul. whether you and I

  60. want to believe it or not the passions of the flesh are at war

  61. with us every single day and because of that the author of

  62. Hebrews says exhorted exhort one another every single day lest

  63. sin deceives, you and so one of the remedies of being mastered

  64. over sin, Is walking alongside with Brothers and Sisters in

  65. Christ that are willing to speak into our lives, so that our

  66. hearts can remain soft towards Jesus.

  67. That's why you don't miss church.

  68. It is so important to meet with one.

  69. Another, the Gathering of the Brethren is vital for the

  70. purpose of our sanctification. You hear excuses all the time.

  71. All these people that think they're so spiritual?

  72. Well, I don't need to go to church.

  73. Oh, really? Okay, let's go with that.

  74. Train of logic. You might not want to go to

  75. church. You might not feel like going to

  76. church because you feel like you don't need it because you read

  77. your Bible every single day because you watch so many

  78. YouTube sermons. Okay, that's fine.

  79. But what if somebody in the church needs you It's so selfish

  80. to think that, you know, I don't need to go to church because I

  81. mean, but what if somebody in church needs you?

  82. What if somebody's encouraged by your presence?

  83. What if somebody is encouraged by your words of wisdom?

  84. What if somebody's encouraged by your prayers and your worship to

  85. God? We cannot miss the Gathering of

  86. the brethren for this purpose because it keeps our hearts

  87. soft. And that's the very purpose of

  88. this short message today, to lovingly warn of one specific

  89. thing, the deceitfulness of sin, The purpose of this short

  90. message is this is that if there is any sin creeping in your

  91. life, that through the word of God, it would put it in the

  92. spotlight. To lead us to repentance the

  93. goal of this. Very short text is to bring us

  94. to a place to identify the things that might be.

  95. Seducing us into a certain lifestyle and by the grace of

  96. God, we would cut it off before it leads us away from the Living

  97. God. How does sin deceive us?

  98. If sin had a voice, what would it say to you?

  99. Number one, sin deceives people by convincing them.

  100. That they can keep it in the dark.

  101. Sin deceives people by convincing them that they can

  102. keep it in the dark sin, has this subtle way of trying to

  103. enter into your heart and cinch eyes to Mesmerize you to bring

  104. it in a place where it resides in your heart.

  105. Long enough, where you become hardened Where you're not soft

  106. towards the things of God and where you're not convicted about

  107. the things of God anymore, where you have no urgency for the

  108. things of God anymore sin. Very rarely comes in a very

  109. obvious way. No, no, it comes in a friendly

  110. way, and it tries to convince you that you can actually hide

  111. it from people. It convinces you to say you can

  112. be one way in church and you can be a completely different person

  113. at one in the morning in your bedroom and you could be a

  114. completely different person at work.

  115. And you can keep those different Lifestyles and their respective

  116. circumstances and environments and nobody will know about it,

  117. send deceives you and saying, yeah, you can look at that on

  118. your phone because you can just delete the history.

  119. Yeah, you can look at that on your computer because you have

  120. the ability to just delete off your browser.

  121. Oh yeah. You can talk like that about

  122. somebody because it's just between you and another person

  123. sin deceives, you and convincing you.

  124. That you can keep it in the dark.

  125. But here's the reality. You may be able to fool your

  126. friends. You may be able to fool your

  127. husband, you may be able to fool your wife, you may be able to

  128. fool, even your spiritual leaders, but there's one person

  129. you cannot fool, and his name is Jesus Christ.

  130. Oh, you can't fool him because he sees everything and he hears

  131. everything. You better believe it.

  132. When you're in your car by yourself, you know who's in the

  133. car with you. Jesus Christ, when you're on the

  134. phone with somebody you know who's on the phone with you.

  135. Jesus Christ, when you're talking in that room when nobody

  136. else is in the room, you know, who's in that room?

  137. Jesus Christ. It was Joseph.

  138. Who said in Genesis, 39 9. When Potiphar's wife was

  139. seducing him and he could have probably got away with it for a

  140. long time. This young man had this

  141. Revelation that so many Christians.

  142. Do not have. How can I send?

  143. This is exceedingly. Great wickedness against my God.

  144. Joseph knew that though. There might have not been

  145. anybody else in that house. There was somebody in the house

  146. God almighty. And the Numbers Chapter 12, we

    Numbers 12 chapter mention

  147. see Miriam and Aaron speaking against their brother speaking

  148. against his wife and speaking against his ministry.

  149. And at the end of verse 2, there are these four crucial words

  150. that changed the whole scenario as they're gossiping as they're

  151. speaking against the man of God. It says this and the Lord heard

  152. it, five words. And the Lord heard it.

  153. And so this is a truth that you and I must rehearse every single

  154. day. God sees me and God hears me.

  155. Send deceives by trying to convince even Christians that

  156. they can keep it in the dark. Secondly, sin deceives by

  157. attempting to convince people that it has no consequences.

  158. There's a story of this circus trainer who for years, would

  159. entertain people by bringing a line into a cage and walking

  160. into that cage with it and doing all these tricks and arousing it

  161. and getting it to Roar and to stand up and to move its paws.

  162. He's been doing it for years, it's all.

  163. Although this thing was a lion is as though it was his friend.

  164. It's co-worker. And people would come in by the

  165. droves to watch this man. Perform these tricks with this

  166. lion. And day in and day out.

  167. This is how he made his money day in and day out.

  168. It would perform well. Until one day at the age of 35.

  169. This circus trainer comes in just like any other night.

  170. And he performs these tricks with this lion and all for a

  171. sudden without any warning, this line that he has trained with

  172. for years on end suddenly pounces upon this circus trainer

  173. and grabs him by the neck and dragged him around that cage,

  174. until he lost all his blood. What he thought that he could

  175. tame eventually turned on him. And so many people treat their

  176. sin the same way, they think that if they can just tame it if

  177. they can train it that it won't get out of control and they can

  178. just go on with their life without any consequences.

  179. But you better believe. That the wages of sin is death.

  180. You better understand. That though you might have had

  181. that habit in your life. I'm talking about his habitual,

  182. so we're not talking about stumbling.

  183. So we're talking about habitual sin, you might have kept that

  184. sin in your life for a long time and not have seen any

  185. consequences, but it's coming. Oh, it's coming.

  186. You just give it time and it will bring the price.

  187. So many people who are habitual liars and because they've told

  188. white lies our whole life think that they can continue to lie

  189. without any problem and get away with it.

  190. And I myself have heard stories of people who have brought that

  191. lying habit into their workplace.

  192. And when they brought it to the workplace and attempted to use

  193. it, they've been exposed by high-profile bosses and almost

  194. lost their jobs because they thought they can get away with a

  195. certain responsibility by lying. There are those who gossip even

  196. within the church and they come with their little gossip group

  197. and spread their venom in their poison to one another.

  198. And they think that, as long as it stays within the group, it

  199. doesn't affect the entire Community.

  200. But what they don't realize is, they're only building

  201. themselves, a reputation of others to see how untrustworthy

  202. they are. And here's a just a little side

  203. note. If the people you talk to gossip

  204. with you, they most likely gossip about you.

  205. Just keep that in mind next time.

  206. And there are those. Who are married?

  207. Married man, and married woman. We're entertaining thoughts and

  208. moving towards flirting. And being inappropriate with the

  209. opposite gender, because they want to try to fulfill a little

  210. fantasy in their minds. When they don't realize that

  211. they're being unfaithful. And here's a strong Godly

  212. warning. That little fantasy that you

  213. want to try to see come to pass, will turn into a nightmare

  214. before you know it. Bible says in Hebrews 13:4, let

    Hebrews 13:4

  215. marriage be held in honor among all and the marriage bed be

  216. undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous

  217. Sin has its consequences. But sin tries to deceive you

  218. thinking, there's no consequences in fact.

  219. It tries to convince people that the pleasure it offers its

  220. better and worth the consequences.

  221. No, this people of God, the consequences of sin last way

  222. longer than the pleasure it offers in the moment.

  223. Lastly. Sin deceives people and

  224. convincing them that they cannot have power over it.

  225. There are genuine people with a genuine sin in their life and

  226. they have given up on trying to fight that sin because they feel

  227. and they've been convinced that sin has too much power over them

  228. and people even verbalize this and said, you know what, I think

  229. this is just a part of who I am. This is just something that I'm

  230. just going to have to live with. I'm not going to pursue Purity

  231. anymore as a single young, man. I'm not going to pursue

  232. faithfulness anymore. I'm not.

  233. Pursue pure speech. I'm not going to pursue this.

  234. I'm not going to pursue Holiness because I just feel as though

  235. this is who I am, maybe it's generational, maybe it's

  236. something that I inherited, maybe some of them just have to

  237. live with the rest of my life. That is a Lie from the pit of

  238. Hell. That is a lie straight from the

  239. mouth of Satan himself that you cannot have the power over sin.

  240. The only way that you can not have the power over sin as if

  241. you're not a Christian. But if you truly been born again

  242. of the spirit of God, know this, that Jesus Christ did not just

  243. die for the penalty of your sin. He died for you to have the

  244. power over it. That's the gospel, that's

  245. salvation, not that he just takes care of the consequences

  246. of your sin. He takes care of the fact that

  247. you can have power over it in this life.

  248. And sin says, no, no. You're gonna have to live with

  249. me for the rest of your days. When the Bible says, in First

    1 Peter 2:24

  250. Peter 2:24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree

  251. that we may die to sin and live to righteousness.

  252. By stripes we have been healed It is Romans 8:13 that we must

    Romans 8:13

  253. put this finger on and claim the promise of that those who live

  254. according to the flesh shall die.

  255. But by the spirit, You can put the death, the Deeds of the body

  256. and live. By the spirit, God has given us

  257. every resource possible to ensure consistent victory over

  258. sin. That's a promise.

  259. That's not something we just sing about and wish for it's

  260. something that we can experience, don't believe the

  261. lie of sin. Don't believe the flesh.

  262. That tells you that you can stay the way you are.

  263. You can stay defeated, you can stay depressed.

  264. You can stay with those thoughts.

  265. Believe the word of God. Saturate yourself with the

  266. scriptures call Upon Jesus. To give you the Holy Spirit and

  267. he'll do it. Sin deceives.

  268. By trying to whisper to you, you know, you can keep me in the

  269. dark, nobody needs to know about it.

  270. Send the Seas were saying, you know, you can keep me.

  271. You can tame me, you can train me and nothing will get out of

  272. hand. And sin deceives by saying.

  273. You know what you're stuck with me for the rest of your life.

  274. But know this. That God's word, triumphs over

  275. every lie and we cling to the word of God.

  276. Exhort one, another daily. Lest you be deceived by sin.

  277. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to respond right

  278. now. If there's any area in your

  279. life, the Holy Spirit through his word has pressed his finger

  280. upon. Don't wait till the end of the

  281. service. Right now.

  282. For some of you maybe God has been warning you for a long

  283. time. Or maybe God is warning you for

  284. the first time? Regardless know this you must

  285. respond. This is an extension of Mercy.

  286. The Bible says this in Proverbs 28:13, whoever conceals, whoever

    Proverbs 28:13

  287. conceals his transgression will not prosper.

  288. But he who confesses and forsakes it shall obtain Mercy.

  289. Stop trying to hide it. Stop trying to bury it, it will

  290. come out some way some time, but if you confess it and forsake it

  291. know this, there is Mercy at the end of that God wants to extend

  292. his mercy. God wants to extend forgiveness,

  293. but it requires confession. You cannot conceal it.

  294. You must confess it. If we confess our sin, he is

  295. faithful and just to forgive us. Our trespasses and to cleanse us

  296. from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, it must

  297. be done in confession before God can move in and do something

  298. bow. Your heads with me, please.

  299. And just right now in your own heart, before we even have

  300. communion today, before we even hear the second part of the

  301. message, another message by Pastor Rafiq.

  302. There's no rush here. Ask the Lord to do something in

  303. your heart. Humble yourself before the

  304. mighty hand of God and he will exalt you.

  305. Ask the Lord to remove that sin in your life that you've been

  306. trying to hide conceal. For the next few moments, no

  307. music, no distractions, just between you and God.

  308. I would encourage you to pray what David prayed in Psalms 8611

  309. teach me to know your truth that I may walk in your ways.

  310. O Lord and unite My Heart To Fear your name.

  311. May we ask the Lord for the fear of God, may we ask the Lord for

  312. forgiveness, may we ask the Lord, not just for those things,

  313. but for the power to overcome, any sin and every sin, claim his

  314. promises in the next few moments and seek Him, ask him to change

  315. you before you walk out of these doors.

  316. He's faithful to respond. Father, we pray together.

  317. As a family as a body have you as you've instructed us to

  318. exhort one another every day? Lest we be caught up in the

  319. deception found in sin? Father, we pray that we would

  320. not be deceived. You would keep our hearts soft.

  321. We pray for the fear of the Living God in our hearts.

  322. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, there is no

  323. wisdom apart from the fear of the Lord, as being the beginning

  324. of it. Help us understand the fear of

  325. the Lord is a Fountain of Life help us understand that the fear

  326. of the Lord is the hatred of evil.

  327. Help us understand that, those who fear the lord are to you at

  328. the light. Give us a hatred for sin and

  329. wickedness. Give us the ability.

  330. To exhort one another to encourage one another to run

  331. this race and help us understand that even in your rebukes and in

  332. your warnings just like a loving parent.

  333. Would you do it out of love? Because you care for us and, you

  334. know, the dangers that come with the things that might try to

  335. attract us. You know how we are easily

  336. forgettable? Concerning the dangers that

  337. await us, that there is an adversary of our souls that,

  338. there's this flesh, that tries to convince us.

  339. Otherwise, And so, father, we pray.

  340. That you would have heard the confessions, in the hearts of

  341. the people, and that you would empower the people to live holy

  342. before a holy God. And Lord, let us leave here with

  343. this Revelation that you are a God that sees, you are a God

  344. that hears and we respond to that and reverence.

  345. In your name we pray. Amen.

  346. In your name we pray. Amen.