Jump Start # 3983
Hebrews 3:13 “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.”
There are two opposite forces built within our verse today. The first that we meet is encouragement. Building up faith. Shoring up courage. Strengthening your resolve. Worship is a huge encouragement factor. Our fellowship and spiritual ties are huge encourage factors. Diving deeply into the word of God is a huge encouragement factor. Believing the promises of God will strengthen your soul and get you through the tough storms of life.
The opposite force within this verse is sin. Two things are attached to sin. First it hardens you. No longer soft, pliable, able to be molded by the word of God, one becomes hard. Their face looks hard. Their heart is hard. Consequences no longer bring guilt. Shame and embarrassment no longer bother them. The other word attached to sin is deceitfulness. Sin deceives. Sin lies. It promises but never delivers.
Sin deceives. It tricks. It fools. It pretends. Sin never walks up and introduces itself as “error,” or “wrong.” “Hello, let me introduce myself to you. My name is sin. I’m trouble and I will destroy your soul.” It never happens that way. Sin hides behind things that look right. Sin blinds us to the captive reality of what it really is. This is why sin is so dangerous. Most don’t realize that they are doing wrong. They have been deceived.
Here are a few of the ways sin deceives the unsuspecting:
First, it appears to be respectable and decent when actually it is just the opposite. Isaiah warned about those who call “evil good and good evil.” They switched the price tags and labels. Wrong appears as right and right is portrayed as wrong. And, what drives this deception further is when the leading names in our culture defend, practice and participate in this deception. Many follow, like dancing to the song of a pied piper, thinking this is fun, exciting and right. They have been deceived. They are fooled.
Second, it is presented as freedom, when actually it is slavery. The deceived are convinced that they are doing what they want to do and that at any moment they could do the opposite if they wanted. Yet, they never do. And, what they do not realize is that they are doing exactly what the devil wants them to do. The sin becomes addictive and constant and many, many times progressing deeper and deeper into the wilderness of wrong. Slaves to sin is how the Romans were told about the deceitfulness of sin. Free is actually a cover for being trapped by sin.
Third, it is packaged as right when actually it is wrong. Sin is wrong because God says so. Sin is not wrong because I don’t like it or because the church says something. What is wrong is defined by God. He declares what is acceptable and right. Theologians writing books spouting all kinds of theories, speculations and ideas are viewed as the greatest thing next to Scripture. Yet, when what they say is opposite of Scripture, it is pure junk. Deceived. Fooled. When one closes his eyes to the creative nature of God he quickly swallows atheistic evolutionary ideology of modern science. It is proven, the college biology professor claims about evolution. Yet, it is not proven and it cannot be proven because it is not right. It cannot be right. Sin is pictured as something beautiful, when it is actually very ugly. There is no way a wrong can be right. It doesn’t matter how many believe it. It doesn’t matter how long the idea has been around. It doesn’t matter what good it accomplishes. Wrong is wrong.
And, the lies of sin can blind us to the pure truth of God’s grace and gospel. Deception, fraud, fooled, conned, lied to, tricked—no matter what we call it, the outcome is the same. Our eyes become opened when we look deeply into the word of God. Our eyes see through the fog of lies when we understand the nature of God.
Slick salesmen will talk a person into buying something that they didn’t want to buy. The smooth talk, picturesque promises and grand expectations is all it takes for someone to walk out of a car showroom with a handful of signed papers when all they wanted to do was look.
Sin will do much more than that. It will take your soul, your future and your eternity.
None of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Roger