THE LIES OF SIN – PART ONE

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

Hebrews 3:12-14 (NASB)

I recently was speaking with someone who was responding to a message our pastor gave on the importance of daily Bible reading. He said he did not need to be condemned that he did not do so. I replied, “No you don’t need to be condemned but you will go spiritually hungry. Reading the Bible is like eating food. If you want to turn down a banquet you can do so. You need not feel ashamed, guilty or condemned -- you just won’t get the blessing of the meal.” 

In that conversation we see a problematic way of thinking about the things God asks us to do and not do.

It is true we have a place where we can live without condemnation.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 (NASB)

But It seems that today’s generation is obsessed with not being condemned and not obsessed with living the abundant life Jesus promised to those who would listen to Him and do and not do what he says.

"Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? 47 "Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 "But the one who has heard and has not acted {accordingly,} is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great."

Luke 6:46 (NASB)

We miss the reality of the consequences of our not listening and doing what Jesus commands us to do and not do in favor of an emotional response like guilt, shame, regret, hardness of heart, bitterness or pride.

In this response we miss the key to living the abundant life God promises us if we will follow Jesus’ commands.

In this series of teachings I want to focus on what the Bible calls sin. We can call it wrong doing, evil acts, purposeful intention to do wrong, willful mistakes or any number of similar words. The Bible has several words it uses for the concept as well. Sin would be the one that encompasses them all.

Simply put sin is an act that God does not want us to do because it harms us, harms others, harms our relationship with God or harms other’s relationship with God.

SIN IS DECEITFUL

The scripture verse we saw at the first tells us one of the most important things about sin we can know. Sin is deceitful.

¹³ 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. 

Hebrews 3:13 (NASB)

Here is what the dictionary says about the word deceitful:

DECEITFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

intended to deceive

Synonyms:

deceitful; fraudulent; fallacious

Context examples:

deceitful advertising / fallacious testimony / smooth, shining, and deceitful as thin ice / a fraudulent scheme to escape paying taxes

Similar:

dishonest; dishonorable (deceptive or fraudulent; disposed to cheat or defraud or deceive)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another

Synonyms:

duplicitous; two-faced; double-dealing; double-tongued; Janus-faced; ambidextrous; double-faced; deceitful

Context examples:

she was a deceitful scheming little thing / a double-dealing double agent / a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer

Similar:

dishonest; dishonorable (deceptive or fraudulent; disposed to cheat or defraud or deceive)

 

All of these meanings apply to sin. It disguises its harm under a deceitful image.

 

In doing so it makes itself smell, taste, sound,  look and feel good. But it is not.

 

Not only does it deceive us about its harm it deceives us about the warnings given not to do it.

 

When we were younger Carie and I lived in a home with a pot belly woodstove. During the cold Ontario winters we kept it so hot that it sometimes took on a faint red glow.

 

One of my sons continually struggled with boundary issues. Virtually anything that was told him became a challenge to his autonomy. The very things I would say to him not to do were what he had to do. He was about four the first winter we lived in the house. I tried every way to help him understand he was not to touch the woodstove when it was hot. I even let him feel the heat coming off of it by holding his hand close enough to the stove to not hurt him but let him get the idea that it would be extremely painful for him to touch it.

 

It was only a few days into the heating season when I heard a cry from him downstairs like I had never heard before. He was screaming with everything in him. What had happened? I knew before I ever made it downstairs to find out. He had to touch that stove. It was an irresistible temptation. Why? He, like all of us, had an acute vulnerability to be deceived.

I say this not only from my observation of others who have fallen under deception -- I have my own tragic history with sin and its lies.

Next Part - The Lies of Sin Part Two

http://leonardterry.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-lies-of-sin-part-two.html

 

 

THE LIES OF SIN – PART TWO

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

Hebrews 3:12-14 (NASB)

SIN MAKES RIGHT LOOK WRONG AND WRONG LOOK RIGHT

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 5:20 (NASB)

I have found that the first way sin deceives is to make right actions look wrong and wrong actions look right.

We see this in the first act of sin in human history.

⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁵ Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. ¹⁶ The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

3:1 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’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; ³ but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” ⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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.

Genesis 2 & 3 selected

God had warned Adam and Adam had warned Eve of the harm that would come from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said they would die if they did so.

The serpent in his desire to harm the couple even repeated the warning -- And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Eve responded with God’s warning -- The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; ³ but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

God did not say they could not touch it but did tell them not to eat it. This is a part of the problem of human response to God’s warnings, we tend to add to them.

Up to this point Eve is okay. But then the deceitfulness of sin begins to work its lies.

It starts with making good look bad and bad look good.

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Eve believed the lie.

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;

She not only went there herself but also took her husband along.

“and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

This is the primary way sin brings us to death. What should be repulsive and horrible to us becomes gloriously beautiful. Then we also promote the lie to others that what will actually kill us will give us life.
 
Next Part - The Lies of Sin Part Three
 
http://leonardterry.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-lies-of-sin-part-three.html

THE LIES OF SIN – PART THREE

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

Hebrews 3:12-14 (NASB)

SIN DECEIVES US TO BELIEVE THAT IT IS NOT HARMFUL

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have {it} abundantly.

John 10:10

A great deception of sin is that it is really good but a bad god messes things up by not approving us doing it. We need to really understand what sin is. Sin is participation in death giving practices. It is never good. It always steals from, kills and destroys us and others.

If we are ever going to win the victory over sin’s lies we must begin here. We must unmask sin for what it is. No act of sin is without harm to us, harm to our relationship with God and most likely others and their relationship with God.

But how do we know the harm unless we experience it? My son has never put his hand on a hot stove again. He knows better. He has experience the consequences of doing so.

Some people say that this is how we deal with wrongdoing in every case. They would say we need to let ourselves and others only learn through natural consequences.

Experiencing natural consequences is certainly a wonderful way to help ourselves and others learn about the dangers of life.

As His children God often supervises our experience of natural consequences for our good. We as parents can do this with our children as well.

My father in law had a son not unlike my son. He did not respond to verbal warnings. They lived in Holland on a farm surrounded with deep canals that drained the water from the land. These canals were deadly to anyone who could not swim. The more he told his son not to go near the canals the more the son felt he must do it. One day when he took his eyes off him and finding him almost in the canal he decided he needed to administer reality therapy. He tied a rope around the little guy and let him go. As expected the irresistible temptation to throw himself in the deadly canal was followed.  Pa was wise enough to let him feel the full fear of what he had done before he pulled him out with the rope. He never went near the canal again.

Learning by natural consequences may be an excellent way to teach a little boy to not put his hand on a hot woodstove or go into a canal but some actions have consequences so severe that we cannot just let the natural consequences teach us their harm. There is a place to learn from others and especially God.

I have a friend who runs a Cabinet making shop. His father taught him the proper way to work with tools that were dangerous. He is usually very careful with his saws but one day he ran his fingers over the blade. I met him in the hospital. Gratefully he lost only a little of the fingers and could return to work. Only a few weeks later he was in the hospital again for a worse cut.  It seemed that even with all the training and proper care he was still needing to be safer.

His familiarity with the tools was leading him to be less careful. As I was pondering his situation I realized that sin was exactly like what was happening to him. If we truly understand the reality and the consequences of sin we would see it like he did the saw that tore into his flesh that day.

I realized that sin was like the saw and my friend’s hand. When I sinned, even unintentionally, it was terribly destructive to me.

When I sin intentionally it would be just like me going into my friend’s shop turning on a saw and putting my hand squarely on to the blade. Only a psychotic person would do anything like this. Yet it is precisely what we are doing when we sin.

Even the word sin has taken on a meaning other than what it really is. It is often seen as desirable, forbidden, harmless and very tasty fruit. 

In reality sin is any death giving action we do. Sin is when we harm ourselves or others by what we do. It is when we harm our or other’s relationship with God by what we do. This was what the first sin did. This is what every sin since did.

Next Part - The Lies of Sin Part Four

http://leonardterry.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-lies-of-sin-part-four.html

THE LIES OF SIN – PART FOUR

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

Hebrews 3:12-14 (NASB)

SIN DECEIVES US ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP AND OUR VIEW OF OTHERS – ESPECIALLY GOD.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

Isaiah 59:2 (NASB)

One evening after I had made dinner for our nightly guests – many homeless people off the streets of Oklahoma City -- in the home we called God’s Crash Pad I had an encounter which I have never forgotten.

I was always one to defend what I believe the Bible said. As I was walking out the door of the house I was in back of another man. He turned around and looked at me and said, “God helps those who help themselves.” I said to him with equal firmness, “No, he helps those who cannot help themselves.” At this the man started screaming at me, shaking his fists in my face and saying he was going to kill me. Several of the others grabbed him and forcibly held him back. As he finally calmed down enough to let him go he took off swearing that he would find me and kill me.

I wondered what I had said until his friend told me just before the encounter the man had opened the fridge in our kitchen and stolen food. I then realized what had actually happened. He thought I had seen him. His statement, “God helps them who helps themselves” was his way of dealing with thinking he had been caught. When I innocently replied as I did he thought I was condemning him. This angered him greatly which accounted for his violent outburst. Had he simply said to me, “So you caught me taking the food” I would have most likely said, “if you need it it’s yours.” That was what we usually did in such cases. However sin had deceived him about our relationship and about me. He saw me as a condemning person even though I was not.

My wife saw this clearly in the scriptures one day. The part she read was about Joseph’s brother’s selling him into slavery. It struck her that when they came to report the lie that Joseph had been killed, Jacob had not only lost Joseph, he lost his ten other sons as well. The act they did and the lie they told to cover their act meant their relationship with their father changed forever. The separation that happened was a true death. They could never again be in sweet fellowship with their father until their act had been confessed and the lie renounced.

Jacob’s heart towards his sons had not changed. It was not him who drove them out of his life. He knew nothing of what had happened. His son’s hearts were separated from him because they knew what they had done. This relational separation is a universal, unchangeable outcome of all sin. It always happens between us as humans when we sin. Most of all it happens between us and God. It is not something that only happens in the person we sin against or who finds out our sin. It happens in us. And when it happens it changes our view of our relationship with the other.

Let’s read that scripture again.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

Isaiah 59:2 (NASB)

It is not God’s heart to separate Himself from us.

The separation happens first in us, then between us and God. Separation, alienation and isolation are unchangeable outcomes of sin. But sin deceives us that it is the other person who brings about the destruction of the relationship – not the sin.

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. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. ⁸ They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:6-10 (NASB)

We see this clearly in the first sin humans committed. It was not God who was condemning, pushing them away or even isolating Himself from the couple. In fact He was searching for them as he does for everyone who has been deceived by sin. It was their thoughts about God that drove them from Him not His thoughts about them.

I am convinced that had they sought Him to confess what they had done, sought his forgiveness and to submitted to his discipline they would have found forgiveness. It is God’s very nature to forgive. It is His heart to be reconciled to we who are alienated from Him in our response to our own sin. Even if I cannot prove it for the first couple, I certainly can for those of us who live after Jesus’ final and absolute triumph over sin.  

 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:8-10 (NASB)

But in sin’s extreme ability to deceive us it seeks to first get us to embrace its lie of being good and then lock us into its addictive grip by lying to us about God and other’s response to us in that sin. The means by which it does so is guilt, shame and perceived condemnation.

It tells us that it is not sin that causes the problems it does. It says it is something else. It is the other person….. it is God…… it is the law…... it is always something else than what we did. In this deception we continue to practice what is killing us.

Returning to the picture of my friend’s saw, we put our hands into the blade then say it was our father who taught us not to do it that is the problem. If he had never told us not to do it we now would not feel condemned for having done it.

We might say it was the saw manufacturer. If they had never created the saw we would not have harmed ourselves by putting our hand into it. This in spite of the warnings all over it about the danger involved in using it and the proper safety measures we need to employ.

Or in an almost insane way we say that it’s really okay to put our hands into the saw blade. We then can go on a crusade against the hateful proclamation of others who try to restrict saw blade plunging. We could proclaim they are condemning or making themselves to be better than others because they do not practice saw blade plunging.

We might tell others about how deeply we were wounded by their trying to stop us from putting our hands in the saw blade. We might go into therapy to get rid of the guilt, shame or regret we feel from others. We might tell those who try to show us the damage that we are doing to ourselves, “Who are you to tell me what I can do or not do with my body?”

But even if we are able to reduce everyone to silence we still have a bloodied mess of a hand and every time we go back to putting it again in the saw it gets worse.

Next Part - The Lies of Sin Part Five

http://leonardterry.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-lies-of-sin-part-five.html

THE LIES OF SIN – PART FIVE

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

Hebrews 3:12-14 (NASB)

SIN DECEIVES US THAT WE ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS WHO SIN WORSE THAN WE DO (IN OUR OWN MINDS)

The scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center {of the court,} 4 they *said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him {be the} first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they {began} to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center {of the court.} 10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more."]

John 8:3-11

One of the most deceitful messages of sin is that we are better than others on the basis of our sin. Imagine how I felt as I heard my son’s cry when he touched the woodstove. I did not think how bad he was. I did not think how much better I was than him. I did not shame him. I wished he had listened to me but as I held him and cried for him what mattered was that he was not hurt worse.

When I came to the hospital to visit my friend who had cut his hand I did not lecture him on safe practices in using a saw. I was praying for him. I was so grateful he was not dealing with a whole hand cut off.

But sadly I have not always had this attitude. Often I have believed the lie that some sins are worse than others. I thought I was better than those who sinned in worse ways than I did. I had an elitist perspective of sin.

Like those who stood around a young woman caught in a sin that seemed the epitome of sin. But as Jesus began to write in the sand the reality of their sin began to take hold. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

These words forever silenced her accusers.  But sadly it had not silenced me. What did silence me was the realization that even though I had all kinds of very good reasons that I was not judging….. not condemning…. not wanting to cast a stone….. which was all true….  but I held within my heart an uncompassionate attitude towards others who sinned in a way I thought worse than my own.

I know that if the father of that woman – if he was a good one -- had seen the commotion and joined the group that was condemning her, even though it broke his heart to see what she had done, would have certainly not thrown the first or any stone. Like Jesus he would have sought some way to help her move away from her sin while expressing his love for her.

If we think of everyone as one of our children we would have a better heart about their sin. That is the reality of God’s heart. We would not think it a light thing and just overlook it – which is the trend today. We would not condemn them. We would not think of ourselves as superior. If we are good parents we would do everything we could to help them out of the death in which their sin binds them.

Next Part - The Lies of Sin Part Six

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