Unmasking Sins’ Deception
Introduction: Being deceived.
Transition: Deception is a constant threat to all of us. Tonight I want to talk about how sin deceives us. Next week I am going to talk about what to do when we are tempted.
Of course when we think about the battle with sin we have to go back and visit the story of our first parents—Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis. We read in the first couple of chapters of Genesis and find the beautiful account of God creating the world. We see him eventually creating man. Now it is important to stop here and say that man was not created just to enjoy God’s creation but to enjoy and glorify the Creator. God placed man (Adam) in a beautiful garden called Eden. It was paradise on earth. It had everything Adam needed to survive. It had food, water, perfect scenery. Some of you are frantically reading ahead to see if it had a Foley’s or Dilliards. (The Genesis account is proof that you can survive without a mall and McDonalds!) God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone so he created Eve—a helper suitable for him. Scripture says they became one flesh. Now God told Adam even before he made Eve. You can have anything you want in this garden—but don’t eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. You can have the tree next to it called the Tree of Life but you can’t have the other one. God told them, “for when you eat of it you will die.” The Tree of life and the Tree of Knowledge were representative of the choice between being obedient to God or not. It was a choice between God meant what he said. Wouldn’t it be great for us to read on and find that Adam and Eve lived happily ever after? We don’t find that in Scripture.
As a matter of fact in verse 25 of chapter two we read, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” But in the very next verse in 3:1 the serpent comes on the scene. Of course those of us who are followers of the New Testament are able to read about the serpent and see that this is Satan. Satan takes on the body of a serpent and has this brief conversation with Eve and ends up shaking the world. Since Halloween is coming up there are a lot of folks interested in the history of Halloween. I think we can safely say that the first one to wear a Halloween constume was the devil. He came to the party in a snake outfit! (I’m attempting to be funny here)
What is the serpents approach to deception? How does this sneaky snake deceive Eve?
1). The first thing he does is get her to doubt God’s goodness.
“Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” 3:1 Now you know Eve is a little taken back at this moment. I mean she hears this snake talking to her. That’s enough to make anyone take a double take. Now the serpent is not playing dumb here. He is trying to get her to see that God has created the whole garden of Eden for them to enjoy and he is going to leave out just one little thing. It’s just a tree for goodness sakes. Why would God want to keep that from you? It must be something very good. As a matter of fact the serpent says to her in verse 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” In other words, God is holding out on you!
The very thing happens to us. So many times we are deceived into thinking God is holding out on us. So we push ahead. We strive to get what we want. We look at other people and think wow, God is surely blessing them. I wonder why he is not doing the same for me. So we begin to take our own initiative in life. God’s goodness isn’t just measured in the material. We need to understand God’s goodness to us and for us. Oh God you are immeasurably good. Just the fact that we get to take up space on his universe is a good thing.
Illustration on God’s goodness.
The serpent deceives Eve in another way:
2). By getting her to disbelieve God’s word.
Now, in 2:17 God gives Adam a specific command about the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “But you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Now that is as clear as you can get. I mean there is no room for discussion here.
But the serpent says in 3:4, “You will not surely die!” At that moment she is faced with a dilemma. Do I believe what God said or do I believe the lie. The serpents says the path to knowledge is to bypass God’s word.
You know we all face this all the time. We are put in situations where we have to make a choice. Do I believe what God says about this? Sin’s deception does that to us. God does not give suggestions he gives commandments. God is very upfront about purity. He is very up front about the words we say to one another. God is very upfront about how we are to treat our spouses, our parents and our kids.
So, what does Eve do? She stares at the fruit. (By the way there is no evidence to suggest it was an apple.) She sees that you know what it’s a good looking piece of fruit. It’s harmless. I don’t see a skull and cross bone written on it. She also sees that hey it was desirable for gaining wisdom. She was probably thinking, God wants me to be smart right? So she eats it.
It’s important to realize that sin is packaged very well. You think about it, the best salesman and marketer in the world is the serpent. He makes things look so good and so desirable. It’s not going to be packaged in a “Danger: Do Not Open Box”.
Illustration: IF I WERE THE DEVIL
If I were the prince of darkness, I’d want to engulf the world in darkness, and I’d have a third of its real estate, and I’d have four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree. THEE. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first. I’d begin with a campaign of
whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve. DO AS YOU PLEASE. To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth, I would convince them that man created God, instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is square. And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, "our father, which is in Washington." And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lewd literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could; I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil I’d soon have families that war with themselves,
churches that war with themselves, and nations that war with themselves, until each in its turn was consumed, and with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions, just let them run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every school house door. Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priest and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. And what’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich. I would caution against extremes, in hard work, in patriotism, and in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old fashioned, that swinging is more fun. That what you see on TV is the way to be, and thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, If I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing. - From a Paul Harvey Broadcast
The serpent’s deception is going to look really good. It is going to be tempting and it is going to promise a pay off. Sin will bring with it a payoff but it is a high price to pay!
Let us quickly see what happened when Eve ate the fruit. She gives some to her husband and he eats it too. Soon, their eyes are opened and they realized they were naked and they felt shame. Their innocence was lost.
What did they do? What was their response? It’s the same response we have when we give in to sin’s deceptiveness.
1). They hid from God
2). They played the blame game
“I am not responsible for my actions!”
But they couldn’t hide from the consequences. In Genesis 3:10-19 we see the consequences of their sin. But above all else the consequence that haunted them and haunts us the most is the consequence of being out of fellowship with God.
Even in the midst of the “Fall.” Even while they disobeyed the direct commands of God; God’s loving hand is seen in this story. In 3:21 we read “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” God doesn’t want us to live in the shame that our sin brings. He offers a covering for you and I. A covering that only he can bring. That covering he initiates is the covering of the life of His Son Jesus. Only God can take the shame away. Only God can replace the shame we have for freedom. He longs to be able to cover you and your sin. This doesn’t mean the consequences will be removed but as the Psalmist says in Psalm 30:11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, He’ll do the same for you!
