Lies Women Believe About Sin, Part 1

Series: Lies Women Believe About Sin

Leslie Basham: It may appear to be free of consequences, but all sin comes with a hefty price tag. This is Monday, April 29; and you're listening to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss.

Does dipping garbage in chocolate make it any more appetizing? No? Well, neither does masking our sin make it any more acceptable to God. Today on Revive Our Hearts, Nancy will talk about one of Satan's lies--that we can sin and get away with it. Let's join Nancy now as she takes us back to the Garden of Eden and to the first woman to believe this lie.

Nancy DeMoss: When the Romero family first got Sally as a family pet, she was only one foot long. But eight years later, this pet had grown to eleven and one-half feet and weighed 80 pounds. And then, on July 20, 1993, Sally, who was a Burmese python, attacked 15-year-old Derek, strangling the teenager until he suffocated to death.

In one fatal moment, the creature that had seemed so harmless was exposed as a deadly beast. This unsuspecting family had brought what they thought was a nice little pet into their home. And all of a sudden, it turned on them. And it proved to be a destroyer.

And really, in a sense, no one should have been surprised at how that story turned out because, in the end, the python merely did what it was its nature to do.

We're talking this week about lies that we believe about sin. Sin has a way of being able to entertain us. We can play with it. Sometimes we sleep with it. We amuse ourselves with it. But the fact is its nature never changes. Inevitably sin, like that python, rises up to bite and to devour those who have befriended it.

Now all of Satan's lies are destructive, but I think the most deadly lies that Satan tells us are the ones about God and about sin. You see Satan works to diminish the God-likeness of God and to diminish the sinfulness of sin. He wants us to think that God is not quite as godly as He really is and that sin is not quite as evil as it really is. You've perhaps seen some digitally-enhanced photographs. If you didn't know you were seeing them, (you undoubtedly have seen them) computers have a way, I don't understand how this works, but they can take a hideous picture and with digital, electronic enhancements, they can turn it actually into something very beautiful.

And that to me is a picture of what Satan does with this matter of sin. Sin is hideous. It's deformed. But Satan has a way of enhancing it to make it look like it's something really attractive. But we need to constantly remind ourselves that dressing up sin cannot change its essential nature. Like that deadly snake, the true deadly nature of sin will one day, inevitably, invariably be exposed in our lives.

The first use of the word "sin" in the Bible occurs in Genesis, chapter 4, where God is speaking to Cain. And He describes sin as a crouching animal that is waiting to pounce on its victim. That's a word picture we need to keep in mind when we think of sin. Now Satan tells us a number of lies about sin. And I think one of the most frequent lies he tells is the one we're going to look at today and over the next couple of days.

Satan tells us you can sin and get away with it. And we go back to the very first sin. God had said to Adam and Eve, "Don't eat from the fruit of that tree. In the day that you do . . ." what will happen? God said the consequence will be what? You will die. He said, "You will surely die."

Satan comes along, the serpent comes along; and he says to Eve, "You will not die." He challenges God; and he says that the consequences that God threatened, if you eat of this tree, they're not true. You can sin and get away with it. You can have it your way and not reap the consequences.

You see Satan says to us, "You can have it your way, you can do your thing, you can sign your declaration of independence against God. And you can get away with it." So he causes us to believe that there will be no judgment on my sin. I won't reap what I sow. The choices I make today will not have consequences.

When we sin, it's usually because we think we can get away with it or we don't stop to count the cost. [We don't] realize what's going to happen to that deadly snake if we nurture it and befriend it and play with it and let it into my home thinking that it's so harmless and docile, not realizing that one day that python is going to grow up into a deadly, destructive force not only in my life, but in the lives of those that I love.

When Eve took the first bite of that fruit, I really believe she did not stop to think about the consequences--consequences in her own life, the consequences in her marriage, the consequences in her children and her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren and her great-great-grandchildren and in women and men and marriage and culture and history and all of life forever. She didn't stop to think, to count the cost.

I think Eve is a lot like us in the sense that she didn't make a quick enough connection between her choice and the consequences that would be inevitable. God had warned her. There will be consequences. In the day that you eat, something will happen to cut you off from life. You will die. You will be separated from life in God, from spiritual life and ultimately physical life will come to an end. You will die physically, spiritually, emotionally, morally in every area of your life when you make the choice to disobey God.

You know I talk to so many women today who are living with difficult and stressful and painful life situations, some of which are beyond their control. Some of them are just experiencing the suffering for righteousness sake, sometimes living in a marriage to a nonbeliever who persecutes them for their faith. There are some painful circumstances in life that have nothing to do with our own sin directly.

But so many of the circumstances in our lives are ones that are, more or less, of our own making. And we don't make the connection, so often, between our choices and the consequences. So I talk with women who are in miserable marriages. And one of the things I want to ask is, "When you got married, did you have your parent's blessing? Or did you marry out of rebellion against your parents' authority?"

You see when that young person thought they were so in love and they just had to have this person and they couldn't live without this person, God gave them parents for counsel and for protection. But in many cases they just rejected that counsel and would not listen and now 20, 30, 40 years later, they're living with the consequences of an ungodly choice--of a choice that could not be fully blessed by God without repentance because they violated the Word of God.

I think of women who have dated and then ultimately married a nonbeliever. This is contrary to the Word of God. I find women in some cases, maybe a single mom who's trying to raise four kids on her own. Now there can be a lot of different reasons that this happened. My own mother was widowed at the age of 40 with seven children ages 8 to 21.

And where those circumstances are beyond our own control, there's the grace of God that gives all that you need in those circumstances. But I find some moms who are dealing with the very difficult issues as a single mom. And, in some cases, it's the fruit of some wrong choices: A woman who lived a sexually-promiscuous life; had children out of wedlock perhaps. And now [she] finds herself in that tough position having to meet the role for those children that God intended for a husband to meet.

Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that every difficult marriage or every stressful family situation is the result of immorality or disobedience. But in many cases that is so. I find people who are "head over heels" in debt. And they're struggling. And they're trying to deal with the symptoms of that issue without going back to some of the roots that may have caused that issue. They made unwise spending choices. In some cases, they had temporal values. And now they're living with consequences of their choices.

In some cases, there are women today who are not able to have children. Now sometimes God just closes the womb. And that's His perfect will, and then there's grace to receive that infertility. But in some cases, the infertility in women today is rooted in immoral, sexual choices--in abortions. And we're so prone to want to deal with and counsel and provide therapy and solutions for the consequences without realizing that in order to deal with the consequences, we've got to go back and see what the roots were. There are connections between our choices and the lives that we end up having.

The enemy says to us, "You can sin and get away with it." Is there some issue in your life that you have been, perhaps, believing that lie, thinking, I can make these choices. I can be undisciplined in this area of my life, and I can get away with it? Maybe you're not even consciously thinking, I can get away with it. But maybe you're not stopping to count the cost, to think about the consequences. And as you reflect on some of the issues that you face in your life today, is it possible that you're reaping the consequences, the harvest of seeds that were planted years ago?

Listen, the answer to dealing with that negative harvest is not just to keep trying to cut it down. It just keeps growing back. The answer is to go back and say, "What were the seeds that I planted that were not godly seeds?" And then to repent of those choices. Now that doesn't mean that all the consequences will go away. Those consequences may remain as reminders of the costliness of sin. But there will be and there is grace through repentance if we'll go back and identify what are those choices and say, "Lord, forgive me. I realize that I have not gotten away with my sin. And I realize that the choices I am making today are ones that will have consequences for years to come."

Leslie Basham: That's Nancy DeMoss reminding us to count the cost before we disobey God. Nancy will join us in a moment to close us in prayer. If this broadcast made you hungry to know more about Satan's deception, then you'll want to read Nancy's book, Lies Women Believe. In it Nancy not only covers the lies women believe about sin but the lies women believe about themselves, God, marriage, children and emotions. To get this book, just call our Resource Center at 1-800-569-5959. The book is available for a $17 suggested donation.  Or visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

Our goal here at Revive Our Hearts is to point as many women as we can to the Giver of all Truth, Jesus Christ. To see that accomplished, we hope you'll support us by lifting us up in prayer. We'd also like you to consider making a financial contribution to the ministry. It's your thoughtful giving that keeps Nancy's teaching on the air. Won't you help us continue reaching women for Christ? You can send your donation to Revive Our Hearts.

Well, just as winter follows fall, dire consequences follow sin. We'll talk more about that tomorrow. But for now, here's Nancy to close us in prayer.

Nancy DeMoss: Father, help us to see the truth that every time we choose our way over your way, there's a cost. There's a price tag. Help us to stop and count the cost. Would you open our eyes to see the costliness of living with a pet snake. Remind us that those snakes grow up and become deadly. Help us to put them away before it's too late. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

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