{"id":8196,"date":"2020-08-06T15:35:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T15:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8196"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:26:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T17:26:37","slug":"sin-the-great-deceiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8196","title":{"rendered":"Sin\u2014The Great Deceiver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note<\/strong><strong>:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 2<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The writer of Hebrews warned: \u201cTake heed&#8230;lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin\u201d (3:12\u201313). <em>Deceit <\/em>is the act of giving a false impression, by appearance, direct statement, or influence. John described Satan as \u201cthe deceiver of the whole world\u201d (Rev. 12:9). Sin is his principal means of deceiving us and separating us from God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Sin always hides its true self, pretending to be something it is not. It is the all-time champion hypocrite. Note the ways sin deceives:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>It pretends to serve us while seeking our mastery. <\/strong>Those enslaved by alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs all thought these toxic agents would be their servants to bring them pleasure, popularity, or prestige. Likewise, people become involved in pornography, gambling, fornication, lying, shoplifting, fraud, and other sins, only to find to their horror that these have become their cruel taskmasters rather than their pleasure-giving, submissive servants. Paul warned against letting sin \u201creign\u201d in us (Rom. 6:12), which is what it ever seeks to do\u2014and <strong>will <\/strong>do if we let it. Whatever sin appears to promise, it will not be our servant if allowed to hang around. It demands mastery of our lives.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Sin makes itself attractive and desirable, but behind the mask, it is horribly ugly. <\/strong>Satan tempts us by making sin desirable. He tempted Eve by promising a great reward; the forbidden fruit then became beautiful to behold. David so desired Bathsheba that he excused the sins of adultery and eventually murder, to have her. Satan knows nothing of \u201ctruth in advertising.\u201d The liquor industry wants us to associate with it only the \u201cgood life\u201d and the \u201cgood times.\u201d It is silent about the misery of its millions of slaves, its victims on our highways, and its part in countless broken homes and lives. Sin deceives by presenting itself as a lovely, desirable maiden, but it turns into a filthy, toothless hag when embraced. Satan cleverly hides sin\u2019s awful ugliness and terrible consequences, in both time and eternity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Sin pretends to be right even though it is utterly wrong. <\/strong>Perhaps Satan\u2019s greatest deception is to convince people that there is no such thing as sin. He erases the line between good and evil, right and wrong. He reclassifies sin as mere \u201cillness.\u201d He convinces us that any behavior that brings pleasure or happiness is justified. He sings to us, \u201cIt can\u2019t be wrong when it feels so right.\u201d Sin is still sin, however \u201cright\u201d it may feel for the moment. If persisted in, it will pay the wages of eternal spiritual death (Rom. 6:23).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>[Note: <\/strong>I wrote this article and it was published in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>March 20, 2009.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Attribution<\/strong>: From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2\u00a0 page.] The writer of Hebrews warned: \u201cTake heed&#8230;lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin\u201d (3:12\u201313). Deceit is the act of giving a false impression, by appearance,&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8196\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Sin\u2014The Great Deceiver<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[475,473,474,77,478,188,193,214,94,476,439,469,216,51,477,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol","category-deceit","category-drugs","category-fornication","category-fraud","category-gambling","category-god-2","category-hypocrisy","category-influence","category-lying","category-pornography","category-separation","category-serving","category-sin","category-stealing","category-temptation","wpcat-475-id","wpcat-473-id","wpcat-474-id","wpcat-77-id","wpcat-478-id","wpcat-188-id","wpcat-193-id","wpcat-214-id","wpcat-94-id","wpcat-476-id","wpcat-439-id","wpcat-469-id","wpcat-216-id","wpcat-51-id","wpcat-477-id","wpcat-57-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8196"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17478,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions\/17478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}