This is a two-part sermon on things that deceive you and people that deceive you.  Today we are going to study four things that deceive you.  

Sin deceives you – Rom 7:11, Heb 3:13 – sin is a vicious deceiver.  Sin is deadly, Rom 6:23.  But sin doesn’t kill you the first time you try it.  Instead, sin gives you pleasure when you first get into it.  And the fact that you know it’s wrong seems to add to the desire for it.  The foolish woman in Prov 9:16-17 allures her guests by reminding them that “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”  But what she doesn’t tell them is what you read in Prov 9:18, “But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.”  He has no clue.

Sin deceives you by promising you pleasure and it hardens you into believing that you will not suffer any consequence for sinning.  You think that whatever you suffer from your sin is a price worth paying for the pleasure you derive from it.  Then it hooks you, and then it brings death on you.  It allures you into death by making you believe that your sin won’t kill you.  The fact that you don’t die right away is part of the ruse.  

You are careless when you give in to sin.  You’re like a soldier who has traveled down a cleared path so many times, without incident, that he forgets to check whether an IED has been placed there.  He loses his life because he’s been deceived into believing that since no IED had been there in the past, there certainly isn’t one there now.

Alcohol deceives you – Prov 20:1 – consider the marketing.  Advertisements only show you the fun side of drinking, the party.  They never show you life after the party.  You never get to see the vomiting, the hangovers, the fights, the depression, the DUI’s, the heartbroken children, and the deaths.  Consider the statistics.  There are 88,000 alcohol related deaths each year, the third leading preventable cause of death in the country, behind tobacco and over eating.  Those deaths represent 2.5 million years of potential life lost, or about 30 years per death.  And people still believe the old slogan “drink responsibly.”  There have been hundreds of thousands of men and women who have been deceived into believing that they can.  

One of the saddest memories of alcohol related deaths is the one of a mother and her child who were killed on Hwy 181 north of Beeville.  The impact of her crash was so violent, it dislodged her baby’s car seat from the seat belt and ejected the baby out of the car.  The baby was found dead still in the car seat.  On the floor between the front seats, next to the dead mother, was a nearly empty fifth of Bacardi Rum.  That mother was deceived into believing that she could handle her liquor and take care of her child.  She was dead wrong.

Sex deceives you – Job 31:9 – this is a sensual thing.  Men and women are often deceived by their sexual desires.  Men are deceived by women they see and think about, Job 31:1.  Women are, likewise, deceived by their desires.  Their imaginations coupled with their strong desires lead them into relations in which they should have never been involved in the first place.  Lasting relations can’t be built on momentary pleasures.  But two people who are drawn to each other physically don’t think past the immediate objective of laying with each other.  They often don’t even consider the possibility of conception, 2 Sam 11:5.  And they surely don’t think about the long-term consequences, Prov 5:3-5; Prov 7:22-27. 

Sorcery deceives you – Rev 18:23 – Babylon uses sorcery to deceive the nations.  Sorcery includes the use of drugs and evil spirits.  The Greek word for sorcery is pharmakeia from which we get the word pharmacy.  So, you can easily see the connection between sorcery and drugs.  Sorcery is also the use of power gained from the assistance or control of evil spirits.  Thus, I believe that some of the mind altering and behavior altering prescription drugs are contributing to demon possession in some people.  One preacher I know spent many years street preaching. He encountered numerous people who testified of seeing evil spirits while they were high.  The number of heinous crimes committed by people on these drugs leads me to believe that evil spirits are involved.  Drugs and evil spirits get control of you and they destroy you.

Conclusion: You must realize that there is no way to sin without consequence from it, Gal 6:7.  Don’t let sin deceive you into believing otherwise.  Also, remember how easily you can be deceived by alcohol and how horrible the consequences are.  Sexual relations are to be reserved for marriage and preserved in marriage.  Anything else is a deception with bad outcomes.  Sorcery, whether from evil spirits or drugs or both, is Satanic.  Stay away from these.  Take heed, don’t be deceived!