Sin Is Deceitful

Introduction

I appreciate so much the fine crowd that’s out this evening.

There are many other things, I’m sure, that you could be doing on a Sunday afternoon, and yet you chose to come here and to worship God. And of all the choices that you possibly could have made, this was the best one. And it’s encouraging to me to see so many of you come back out this evening to worship God, to sing praises to his name, and to study from his word yet again. And you may have got a little bit of a break this morning from flipping pages in your Bible, but I’m going to give your fingers a work out tonight as we turn to the Word of God and we study together from it. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to open your Bibles to Hebrews, the third chapter.

Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 12, the Hebrew writer says, Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The Hebrew writer here is encouraging the brethren to encourage one another to remain steadfast. To not be hardened, as he says, by the deceitfulness of sin, to not be desensitized to it. He indicates that if one does become desensitized, does become hardened. The inevitable road that’s going to lead down is not a good place. But it’s away from God, causing us to fall away from Him, to be separated from Him in our relationship with Him.

I think about deceit. And again, as we talked about edification this morning, that’s not a typical word that I use in my everyday language. Well, that was so deceitful. I don’t talk that way. But the reality is sin is deceitful. And again, we’ll turn to look at what Webster says. And he says that deceit is the act or practice of deceiving, concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading, fraud, or cheating. An act or device intended to deceive, or the last one is what I how I talk, to trick. It tricks us. The reality is that sin lies to us. Sin promises us one thing, pleasure, and yet it always delivers something else, pain. And sometimes we may think that you can sin and get away with it.

1. Sin Deceives Us, It Tricks Us

And we’ll talk about that here a little bit in a moment. The reality is that even if you don’t suffer some negative consequence of your sin right now here in this life, I guarantee that there is going to come a time when you will have to suffer the negative consequence of eternal separation from God in hell. And let me tell you something, I don’t care how much pleasure you may get out of it, that is not worth it. But this is what sin does. It deceives us, it tricks us. Tries to get us to do something that fundamentally we know we should not do by promising these great things. Is that not what happened to Eve in the garden of Eden? Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden. Of course, you go back to chapter 2 and you realize God didn’t say anything like that. God didn’t say they couldn’t eat from any tree in the garden. God gave them a ton of trees that they could eat from. He said, There’s one tree that you can’t eat from. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But even here, as the serpent is beginning to talk with Eve, beginning his trickery and his deception, he’s muddying the waters, clouding what it is that God really said.

And Eve at first catches on and she gets it. And she says in verse 2, the woman said to the serpent, From the truth from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. That was the truth. That’s what God said. This is what will happen. And notice the serpent. Verse 4. The serpent said to the woman, You will surely not die. The serpent just out and out lied to Eve, contradicting what God said. And tricked her. In fact, he goes on in verse 5 and says, For God knows that in the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Ooh. That’s appealing. I’m kind of a dummy sometimes. I don’t always know everything. I oftentimes do the wrong thing and make stupid choices. Boy, to be like God, to have the wisdom and understanding of him. Whew, that’d be nice. To be like God. When the devil’s using his trickery, he’s making it seem like something great and grand. And the actuality is the punishment is going to be death. And notice in verse 6, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that looks good to eat. It looks delightful to the eyes. And 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.

Notice what Eve says down in verse 13. The Lord said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me. And I ate.

2. The Devil Is the Father of Lies

It’s no wonder then, when we turn to our New Testaments that Jesus describes the devil as the father of lies in John chapter 8 and verse 44. As Jesus is talking to some Jews here, he makes this observation with them. John chapter 8 and verse 44. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Even way back in the beginning, he was lying to people about sin, saying, it’s going to be great. It’s going to be nice.

You’re going to enjoy it. But he was keeping the truth from them, that it would cause death and pain, suffering. But notice in this context here in John chapter 8, who Jesus is talking to. He said in verse 34, if you jump back in the text, Jesus answered them, truly, I say to you that everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin, and you are of your father the devil. Those who are involved in sin, those who have been duped by its trickery and deceived into doing things that are contrary to the will of God, we are slaves of sin when we behave that way. And we are acting like the devil. How are we acting like the devil? The devil is a liar, a deceiver.

First, let me say this if you jump back to verse 31. He’s not just talking to some random people. Verse 31, so Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him. These people that Jesus is talking to in this context are Jews who believe that he was the Messiah. That believed in him. And so it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or not. It doesn’t matter whether you go to church every week or not. It doesn’t matter whether you’re you’re a super Christian or not. It doesn’t matter. You are susceptible to the deception of sin. And if you are not on guard, if you are not careful, it will trick you and you will become like the devil. You’ll become a liar. The reality is, I believe, that whenever I sin, someone is deceived.

3. I'm the One Who Deceives Myself

Sometimes I’m the one who’s deceived. Sometimes I might be like Eve and say, the serpent deceived me. The devil deceived me. The devil tricked me into doing it. But I think far more often, I’m the one who deceives myself. I begin to lie to myself about my sin. Because I don’t want to admit it. Because I don’t want to change. Sometimes I even carry that over and I start lying to other people. I try to deceive others about my sin. And sometimes I think we do the most foolish thing of all. We try to deceive God about our sin. That’s why I spent a few minutes talking about this evening. That when we get involved in sin, we end up becoming liars ourselves. This idea of being self deceived.

If you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. This is how Paul describes those who are lost in their sins. Jesus said that they were of their father, the devil. Paul will say in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, that you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the heir of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. When we were living in our sin, folks, when we were just doing whatever felt good to us, whatever we liked, whatever we thought was a good idea.

Do you realize that you were working for Satan? You’re living your life in accordance with the way that he wants you to live your life. He is, I believe, the prince of the power of the air of the Spirit, working in the sons of disobedience. He was the one who we were receiving our direction from. And though I believe that sometimes, I believe most of the time, we don’t realize that when we’re involved in sin, we’re actually working for the devil. I think sometimes we’re deceived about that. And though I would like to be like Eve and always blame it on the serpent, well, he tricked me. Many times, oftentimes, I’m the one who has tricked myself into thinking that I’m not a servant of the devil.

Consider what the Proverb writer writes. In Proverbs chapter 1, I love the book of Proverbs. He gives the Proverb writer gives here, speaking as a mother and a father to their son, giving some instruction and encouragement. In Proverbs chapter 1, beginning in verse 10, the mother and the father say, My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, Come with us, let us lie and wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cost, let us swallow them alive like sheol, even whole, as those who go down to the pit. We will find all kinds of precious wealth. We will fill our houses with spoil. Throw in your lot with us, and we shall have one purse. He says in verse 15, My son, do not walk in the way with them, but keep your feet from their paths.

It is inevitable that those who are involved in sin will try to get others roped into that. Tempt them. Talk about peer pressure all the time. Being influenced by those around you to do the wrong thing. And we think, Well, what terrible people. They’re just out to get us. But I want you to notice something about these ones, these sinners that the parents warn their son about. Certainly, the thing that they wanted to do was a wicked action. They’re talking about murdering somebody, robbing them, and getting rid of all the evidence so that nobody will ever find out. Swallowing them whole like sheol.

Did you notice that in verse thirteen? We will find all kinds of precious wealth, and we will fill our houses with spoil. Yeah, we gotta do this bad thing, but look at all the riches we’re gonna get out of it. This is great. And they’re blinded by the immediate pleasure, the immediate thing that they’re gonna get from it. And they fail to recognize wait a minute, this involves killing someone. A terrible thing. But they’re short-sighted. They just see the immediate benefit. I’m not sure what I did there. There we go. But the reality is that they’re laying a trap for themselves. If you continue on, verse 16. For their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed blood. Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net in the sight of any bird, but they lie in wait for their own blood.

They ambush their own lives. They dupe themselves into thinking that what they’re doing isn’t that bad of a thing. But these wise parents say they’re destroying themselves. And we might stop and say, Well, they’ve been deceived by Satan. They’ve been deceived by the devil. That’s why he tricked them. Verse 20. Wisdom shouts in the streets. She lifts her voice in the square. At the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. At the entrance of the gates of the city, she utters her sayings. How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge. Turn to my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. Because I called and you refused.

I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention. And you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof. I will also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your dread comes. When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel. They spurn all my reproof. So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated in their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, and the complacency of the fool will destroy them.

Whose fault was it that they were so short-sighted? That they lacked wisdom to see what was really happening?

It was by their own willful actions that they were foolish. They chose not to see.

Be good. Or, well, yeah, I know I really shouldn’t have this kind of a relationship with this woman who’s not my wife. But it’s kind of fun. My wife won’t know it won’t hurt her. We end up lying to ourselves. And it’s not because we don’t have the information. It’s because we choose to leave it at home. We choose not to look at it. We choose not to make it a part of our lives. We choose to lie to ourselves about it.

4. We Try to Deceive Others

Oftentimes, though, our deception is not just contained to ourselves. Oftentimes we try to deceive others as well regarding our sin. We might do this for a number of reasons. One, maybe it’s because we are still trying to deceive ourselves about our sin. I’m not willing to admit that what I’m doing is wrong. So I don’t want to be around other people and let them know what I’m really doing because they’ll probably point it out to me. So we don’t want to be found out. We don’t want other people to say, you know, you really shouldn’t be doing that. Because we like it, we enjoy it. Because we’re short-sighted. We’re lying to ourselves. But sometimes, and I think you have to admit this. I know I’ve been there.

That there are times when I have been presented with a choice to sin. And I knew that it was wrong. And I said, I’m going to do it anyway. I wasn’t deceived about it. But I still lied to others about it. Because I had a reputation to uphold. So I think the second reason why we try to deceive others is because we want them to think good of us. We don’t want our good image to be tarnished by letting others know that we’re involved in some type of a sin. And so we become secretive, we become withdrawn. We don’t answer questions when people ask us what’s going on. Let me tell you something. Those are red flags to other people that really care about you.

Not only that, when we do this, when we try to hide who we really are, you know what that’s called? That’s called hypocrisy. The word hypocrite really means to be a stage actor. and it was not uncommon for Greek and Roman actors not only to wear masks to disguise who they really were, but they had these masks that would, when they’d speak into them, augment or change their voices. So not only do you not look like who you really are, you don’t sound like you really are. the idea of pretending to be what you’re not by changing not just your appearance, I think, but even the way you sound. in Rockford, we own a house in Rockford. I don’t know if many of you know that, and Stephanie and I still do, and we’re renting it out right now because we can’t sell it at this point.

I think a lot of people are in that situation. But we just had some new tenants move in there at the beginning of this month. And by all appearances, they seem like nice folks. They talk about church all the time when I was interviewing them and talking on the phone with them, and oh, yeah, we go to church all the time, and oh, we got a great church family and all this stuff. And I thought, oh, these are nice people. Well, after they moved in, we had a little hiccup with the water heater, and I had to call my father-in-law, who’s really great, going over there. He still lives in Rockford. He’ll go over there and check on the house for me.

And he said he was in the utility closet working on the water heater, and he said, they acted like I wasn’t even there. It was weird. And the daughter came in and started talking to her mom pretty disrespectfully. And they started swearing at each other, cursing, using all kinds of profanity. And Carl was thinking, my father-in-law was singing. I thought these people went to church. I thought they were religious. They said, as he continued to work, pretty soon they changed their tone, and now they’re talking, oh, see ya, see you on Sunday. See it. Wait a minute. That seems to be a conflict there. They’re good church going folks on Sunday, but then when they go home, apparently there’s something different. Are we that way? Do we behave the same way at home as we do here in this building?

Or are we just playing a part while we’re here? Trying to keep up our image and our reputation so that people won’t point the finger at us and say, you need to change. You need to do what’s right. There’s something that we need to think about. You know, Webster, I like Webster. Webster will define a hypocrite as one who affects virtues or qualities that he does not have. But what I like about Webster is the synonyms that he sometimes lists for these words. And he lists deceiver, there’s our word, deceitfulness, dissembler, pretender, or Pharisee. Why does Webster put Pharisee as a synonym for a hypocrite? Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 23. Jesus will call the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, believe seven times in this chapter, scolding them, reprimanding them for their behavior.

But notice specifically what he says in verse 27. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

No, not really. It was to draw attention to the tombs. If you turn to Numbers 19 and verse 16, we find out the reason why.

In Numbers 19 and verse 16, we’re told also anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave shall be unclean for seven days. Well, of course, if you were unclean, you couldn’t be a part of the Passover feast. You were excluded from that. And so to help people avoid accidentally bumping into a tomb and becoming unclean, they paint them white. Now you know, stay away from that. And we think, oh, a white whitewash fence looks nice. A whitewashed tomb is not really a nice thing at all. It may appear to be nice, but everybody knew what it contained. It contained death. It contained decay and rot and stink.

Like a whitewashed tomb. You may have the superficial appearance of looking righteous. But everybody knows what you really are. And so I ask myself sometimes when we’re trying to deceive others, when we’re trying to play the hypocrite, are we really as successful as we think? You start withdrawing yourself. You start holding yourself back from the rest of the group, avoiding questions. You’re doing that because you want to avoid conflict. You don’t want them to find out what you’re involved in. But that’s red flags to everybody else. They see that. And the reality is you’re not deceiving anybody. You’re not tricking anyone. Hypocrisy is very oftentimes evident. But I think we sometimes even go a step further, and this is the most foolish of all. And that is we try to deceive God about our sin.

5. We Try to Deceive God About Our Sin

I remember when I was younger, when I was growing up, that I was, I was, I don’t know, mom and dad may disagree with me. I thought I was pretty crafty. I thought I was pretty sneaky. And I had tried to do some things, tried to do a lot of things, that I knew mom and dad weren’t going to approve of. I’m going to stand over here a little bit. And I’m telling you, I would go to great lengths to cover my trail. Cover my tracks. I didn’t want to be found out. And yet it seemed like, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much effort I put into trying to cover up whatever it was that I was doing, sooner or later, mom and dad always found out about it.

When we lived in Rockford when I was still living at home, my bedroom was down in the basement. Mom and dad lived up in the converted attic. And we had an intercom system between the basement and the upstairs. And I can’t tell you how many nights I laid in bed and I would hear that phone ring. And I’d think, here we go. And sure enough, a few minutes later, beep, Josh, come up here. And I think, great. What have they found out this time? And even in that, I was thought I was crafty and tricky. And what’s going on, guys? Try to act like I didn’t know what was happening. And they always seem to find out about everything. I don’t know why mom and dads had that capability.

I’m hoping that it’s genetic and I will get that as well. But I think we can all relate to that. That when we were younger, it didn’t matter if we told a lie. We knew in the back of our minds we’re going to get caught. We knew that if we broke the rules, mom and dad were going to find out about it and we were going to be punished. That’s kind of the universal truth for kids.

Many of us became arrogant. And somehow that changed. Or at least we thought it did. And we thought, just because we’re not under the watchful eye of mom and dad anymore, just because they can’t see, now I can do whatever I want, and I don’t have to answer to anyone. Now we’re lying to ourselves again. You may not have to answer to Mom and dad. But you will answer to God. God is always watching. He himself will say through Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah chapter 23.

Verse 23. He’s kind of speaking a little bit rhetorically here. But he says, Am I a God who is near, declares the Lord, and not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places? So I do not see him, declares the Lord. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? declares the Lord. Am I not everywhere? God says. Yes, he is. And there is not a place we can go or a thing that we can do that our God does not see, that he does not know about, and when you think that you’re deceiving him, you are the most foolish person in the world because he knows.

But you know what? God doesn’t just watch our paths and see what we do after the fact. Turning your Bibles to Psalm 139, just back a few pages in your Bible. Psalm 139, beginning in verse 1, and David writes, O Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. He sees my paths. But you understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all of my ways. How intimately acquainted is God with our ways? Notice verse 4. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all. Before you say anything, God already knows what you’re going to say. Before you think anything, God already knows what you’re going to think.

And how foolish are we to think that we can then do something and pull one over on God? It cannot happen. Because God sees everything, he sees both the good and the bad, Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good. Every place. Even if I go into my secret chamber, even if I do it under the cover of night, will God still see me? Job chapter 34. One of Job’s friends speaking to him here. Trying to give Job some advice. And though a lot of the advice that Job’s friends was oftentimes way off base. I think that Elihu was right about this. Job chapter 34, verse 21, for his eyes are upon the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.

Listen to this. There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves. There is no darkness dark enough to cover up your sin from God. There is no place deep down enough in the earth that you can go to hide from his presence. When you commit that sin, think about this.

And he saw it all. As the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13, there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

And he met Jesse and his family. And Jesse kind of parades all of his sons before Samuel. And every son, Samuel looks at him and he says, Woo! Look at this guy. This has got to be the king. Look at how impressive he looks. And God would say, No, I’ve rejected him. And do you remember the reason? Because God looks not as man looks on the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. The idea of being laid open and bare. Not just of when I think of being bare, I think of being without clothing, without covering. God sees deeper than that. He sees into my heart. And I cannot trick him. In Numbers chapter 23, or sorry, Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23. I like this phrase that Moses uses.

You remember that they wanted to settle on the east side of the Jordan because they thought that land was good enough for them. And Moses said, Well, you still got to go across the Jordan and help your brethren take the land. Because that was the land that God promised to you. And they said, okay, we’ll do it. We’ll go over. We’ll leave our wives here. We’ll leave our kids here. We’ll leave our flocks here. And we’ll go over. We will not come back until after we have helped them conquer the land. 32. I was in 34. I didn’t think that looked right. Numbers 32, verse 23. Moses said, but if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord. And be sure your sin will find you out.

Anytime that you sin, brethren, you can rest assured knowing that you’re going to have to answer for that one day. And it may not be now. It may not be today, this week, this month, this year, this lifetime. But you will answer for it. We’re told in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 12 that the eye of the Lord is towards the righteous, but it is against those who practice wickedness.

Conclusion

I don’t know. If that was all that I told you tonight, which side of the fence would you want to be on? The right side or the wicked side. If you’re still trying to hide your sin from yourself, from others, from God, you’re on the wrong side of the fence. You’re in danger. Your soul is in jeopardy. And you’ll answer for that. But you know the wonderful thing about our God is that though we can’t pull one over on him, though he knows everything, though he sees it all and will call us into judgment for everything, we can be forgiven.

Just one verse.

First John chapter 1 and verse 9, John says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But please note that God will only do that if you confess your sins. So the admonition for this evening: don’t be overcome by the deceitfulness of sin. Don’t become a liar yourself. Don’t lie about your sin anymore. Confess it and be cleansed. If we can help you do that, why don’t you let us know by coming while together we stand and sing with Scott?