The Deceitfulness of Sin
By Delvin
Arnold
Take care brothers lest
there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you away from the
living God. But, exhort one another everyday as long as it is called today that
none of you may be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin
-Hebrews
3:12-13
The writer of Hebrews is exhorting the believers to remain in
faith and not to be unbelieving as their ancestors were during the time of
Moses in the wilderness wanderings. Their unbelief led to their death, and them
not entering into God’s rest (Psalm 95:7-11).
So, what sins are you engaged in, enjoying that have deceived
your heart, led you astray? What vices have captured you to the point where you
initially felt guilty about the sin, but now since you are practicing it, you
are now enjoying your perversion, justifying and minimizing its wickedness?
That is the deceitfulness of sin.
Your sin is leading you astray.
My brothers and sisters our sins not only affect our lives
negatively, it affects those around us. When we are deceived by our sins, we
become a wrecking ball, a derailed train destroying everything in our path.
Sometimes the collateral damage we cause is irreparable due to our unwise
choices and deviant behavior. A person that does not care who they harm is
dangerous to be around and should be avoided. A person without contrition is a
person with an untamed spirit.
Another problem with the deceitfulness of sin is our attitude
toward it. Do you laugh at sinful situations? Do you mock at sin instead of
feeling sorry for the sin you commit or the sins of others?
Proverbs 14:9 says, “Fools make a mock at sin, but among the
righteous there is favor.”
I understand the struggle we face fighting our sin (provided
you are indeed fighting your sin) but, if we are endeavoring to please God by
living holy, then we MUST engage in the struggle to conquer sin in our lives.
If we do not, we will be continually deceived by our sin. Child of God, we can
not abide in that terrible space. Jesus did not redeem us to live in our sins;
he died and took away our sins. Remember the words of Paul in
Romans 6:1-2, “What
shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no
means!
How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
The answer to that question is we can’t! We must confess it
before God and forsake it (I John 1:9).
The deceitfulness of sin causes backwards thinking. How you
may ask? When we allow our sin to drive our thoughts and deeds, God is an
afterthought or dismissed from our lives altogether. For instance, when people
are living in sin, and someone
lovingly confronts about them about their wicked ways because they love
them, and are concerned about their destructive behavior, the sinner gets
offended, hostile, and curses that person out. They often will use God’s name
in vain, and pile more sin in their lives yelling “DON’T JUDGE ME! ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME!” Instead of acknowledging
their sin and repenting, they commit more sin and love it. Their sin in their eyes is right. Repenting is wrong.
Because after all, everyone sins right; so what’s the big
deal? I’m not as bad as him or her…
The person in this condition does not see their sin as
exceedingly sinful as Romans 7 declares. They have become desensitized by sin
to the degree that their sin does not sting them with shame. Sin’s deceit has morphed into a
pleasure principle instead of the heinous cancerous spiritual disease that it
is. They fall into the category of those described in Romans 1:18-32 and those
in I Corinthians 6:9-10. Those described in those verses are non believers who
will never see the kingdom of God. I pray you are not one of those.
Here are a couple tragic and sobering verses I have
discovered in Isaiah 5:20-21: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitterness. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes.”
As I segue off of those verses, the next thing regarding the
deceitfulness of sin I need to mention is that it breeds ignorance and a lack
of objectivity to scripture. What I mean is when a person is deceived by their
sin, they do not want to accept the word of God because it contradicts their
wayward lifestyle. The last thing someone wants to hear is that they need to
examine their lives to see if they are abiding in the faith (II Corinthians
13:5). Our sin clouds our judgment, and magnifies our ignorance which clearly
screams to our need for a savior and for deliverance. This happens to saint and
the unbeliever alike.
Folks deceived by their sin are usually woefully biblically
illiterate, and only have their own godless reasoning to lean on. When this
occurs people usually respond this way when they hear the word of God, “Well,
that is your opinion!” Sinfully deceived people will not accept objective
truth. Why? Because they can not. The gospel truth is veiled to those who are
perishing (II Corinthians 4:4).
Sin has enslaved you. Sin has become your master (Romans 6:
15-18).
Talk to someone lately who simply refuses to hear the gospel?
The reason why is that they are perishing and they are walking in darkness.
Tragic thing about it is that they love their darkness (John 3:19). We can only
pray that they have a change of heart.
Another problem with the deceitfulness of sin is that it
causes a person to minimize their sins and maximize everyone else’s. This
person is the hypocrite described in Matthew 7:1-5. Take careful examination of
your life. Are you this way?
Are you so jaded by your sins that you dismiss your obvious issues to point the finger at your neighbor’s smaller ones? As the scriptures command, deal with your own problems then you can see clearly to help someone with their problem.
The deceitfulness of sin causes a person to be pretentious
toward God. What I mean is when someone is caught in serious trouble because of
their sin, they will call on God with impure motives for deliverance knowing
within their hearts that they have no desire to repent. They in effect mock God
as if God does not know the evil motives of their heart. Their sin has so
clouded their judgment, they think their false sincerity in approaching God is
honorable. They have no desire for change, they only want to escape the present
pain they righteously deserve for their wickedness. Jesus repeats Isaiah’s
oracle in Matthew 15:8, “These people draw near me with their mouths and honor
me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from me.”[1]
Galatians 6:7 in the amplified Bible reads this way, “Do not be deceived and
deluded and misled. God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (disdained, or mocked by mere
pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside). [He inevitably
deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.”
Summation:
You try to play God, you play yourself; stop the madness![2]
The last area I will mention regarding deceitfulness of sin
is that it prevents godly sorrow. When
we are deceived by sin, godly humility and sorrow is far from us. Are you the
type of person that unashamedly sins and says, “Well God knows my heart!” As if that statement is going to get you off
the hook from the consequences of your sinful behavior? Since we know God knows our hearts, that
should prevent us from committing the evil we do, but sadly it often does not.
We know we are going to sin, but we should not just give in
to temptation without a fight. When we do sin, we must be quick to confess it
to God and forsake it; being mindful that sin breaks God’s heart and incurs His
wrath.
No one in their right mind desires
the wrath of God or desires to break the Lord’s heart.
As I wrap up, I see the sum of the matter like this, the more
we spend time with God and His word, the more we love Him and desire to serve
Him. We must develop an insatiable appetite for the things of God. This reality will determine the success or failure in a Christian’s life. The decision is
ultimately ours. If we vigorously pursue this path, our sin goes from being
something we love at first, to something that should make us uncomfortable, and
guilty when we commit it.[3]
Hopefully to something we are afraid to commit and love to hate. You see the
progression in the decrease of the level of sin in our lives? We should all
desire this pursuit! We have to look at sin through the lens of God’s word.
And how does God view sin? He hates it to the degree that He sent His Son Jesus
to die for it and judicially remove it forever.
When we hate the sin in our own lives, we will hate the sin in others
which should drive us to pray and share the love of God with them in Jesus
Christ. This is thinking with a God consciousness. That type of person is no
longer deceived and blinded by sin. Their view of the Lord is high.
On the unfortunate flip side, those who decrease their
fellowship with God along with prayer and study of the word will have no desire
for the things of God. For they are a spiritual desert. For them corruption
comes easy. They will ruin their witness for truth, and will live like the
devil. Deceit will prevail over them to the degree they will forget the
goodness of God and will lose the assurance[4]
of their salvation (if they ever had it). Sin will become their lover and
bedfellow. God will give their body over to Satan so that hopefully their soul
will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (I Corinthians 5:5). This person is
hastening to a quick death. Why? Because sin prevailed in deceiving them.
Remember, sin always writes death checks
(Romans 6:23).
This person view of God is way too low!
I heard it said to me this way, “Sin keeps you away from the
Bible. The Bible keeps you away from sin.”
C
hild of God, let’s allow the word of God to dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed (italics mine), do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Colossians 3:16-17).
hild of God, let’s allow the word of God to dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed (italics mine), do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Colossians 3:16-17).
Let those who name the name of Christ depart from iniquity (2
Timothy 2:19b).
The apostle John said those who are of God listened to his
words (I John 4:6).
Those that love God will not practice sin as a way of life.
For Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Notice Jesus said
commandments, not suggestions.
Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey
it’s lusts (Romans 6:12).
[1]
Amplified Version
[2]These
delinquent attitudes described here are indicative of Christians behaving
Carnally instead of spiritually
[3]
When we feel guilty and confess and forsake sin, godly sorrow has prevailed.
Godly sorrow
leads to true repentance of
sin.
[4]
Losing one’s assurance of their salvation does not mean they have lost
salvation in the eternal sense.
What the writer means is
that for that sinning believer their confidence in salvation’s assurance has
temporarily
Departed from them due to
the evil they are currently engaged in. A truly born again believer will never
lose salvation for it is eternal, but based on
current behavior assurance for that person becomes lost. Sin will always
Erase any confidence we
have in Christ until we repent.
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