Deceitfulness of Sin

Daniel 5:20 But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. NIV

• Unrepentant sin will always produce arrogance and pride. In addition sin will always harden the heart making it unresponsive to God and others.

Romans 7:11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. NIV

• Sin is always looking for a way in which to seize the individual. The idea is more than just taking advantage of the opportunity, but has the idea of violently seizing the opportunity.

• Sin is deceptive in its very nature. There is no truth in sin.

Ephesians 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; NIV

• Deceitful desires are corrupting. Even having in our hearts deceitful desires corrupts the

  individual.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 ...and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. NIV

• All evil deceives. It can do nothing else. Its nature is to deceive.

Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. NIV

•  Sin’s deceitfulness creates a hardness of heart.

James 1:14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. NIV

• The evil desires we have are our own. By not properly dealing with these desires, they will eventually become our demise.

Hebrews 11:25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. NIV

• Enjoying the pleasures of sin – the original language has the idea of “full enjoyment”. Sin

  allows and even desires that we take full enjoyment in the sin. By doing so, we are distracted by the actual work that sin is doing in our lives.

• Season – the enjoyment is only for a short time, for the occasion only, i.e. temporary.

All and every sin has two faces. Unfortunately, sin will only ever present the beautiful face or side of itself, but it must be remembered that this beautiful side is only an illusion. While we are enjoying the pleasure of the sin our unnoticed reality is quite different.

Below the surface and in nearly all instances completely unnoticed another dynamic is working (i.e. the short-term and long-term effects of sin). The reason as to why this dynamic is effective is because the “pleasure of sin” is the anesthesia to the “pain of sin”. The enjoyment of sin, acts as a mask to cover the destruction that sin is actually doing. The inability to feel pain is a deadly compromise of what should be an effective defense mechanism (i.e. pain).

The pleasure of sin acts in a similar manner as an individual going into an operation. The person receives the anesthesia falls asleep and feels nothing as the doctor cuts, feels around inside, removes whatever needs to be removed, and then sews the individual back up. It is not until later that the person begins to feel the pain of what happened. But now it is too late. What has happened has happened and now the person is left to figure out how to best cope with the pain that has been left behind.

The desire to rid oneself of pain creates a desire to experience the pleasure of sin again. When experiencing the pleasure of sin, at least I no longer feel the pain of the sin. However, as soon as the season of enjoyment has ended the pain will be even greater. The shame, the guilt and the misery increase with each experience.

The ironic aspect of this dilemma is that long-term and permanent damage created by the sinning process, creates through deception a now stronger desire that compels one to return back to the pleasure of sin. Thus, the process is repeated time and again. In some instances the cycle becomes habitual and eventually addictive. The pleasure of and for sin, slowly and eventually begins to overwhelms the built-in safety mechanism of pain introduced by God after Adam and Eve sinned. The pain is meant to draw us to the only One who can truly heal us; but all too often we run the opposite direction away from God the Father due to our own shame and guilt.

1. The pleasure of sin creates an anesthesia where one does not feel or experience the ill effects and consequences of sin until the pleasure wears off (which is literally almost immediately). 

   
   

2. Once the anesthesia of sin wears off, then guilt and shame are overwhelming. No one is able to live with the weight of guilt and shame along with the pain, misery and destruction that has taken place. 

   
   

3. By improperly processing through the guilt and shame it exacerbate the degree of pain and misery due to the destruction, which then causes one to return back to the pleasure of sin. This is because the pleasure of sin functions as an anesthesia to cover the guilt, shame, pain, misery and destruction. 

   
   

4. In the background however, a more insidious work is being accomplished unbeknown to the participant. There is a deception, hardening, deadening and corrupting of the heart. As this dynamic continues and the effects increase; and slowly with greater ease a habitual pattern develops, which eventually forms an addiction. This pattern if not arrested will continue to repeat itself until there is utter destruction and little hope or restoration.