Sin & Happiness

Hebrews 11:25 “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”

This last weekend, I was reading a daily devotion from Impact magazine and after listening to a teaching tape on my long drive up the state, I find it so true that the temporal pleasures of sin provide temptations that drive so many lives. The Kennedy/Newcombe  said, “I believe the greatest deceit Satan has ever perpetrated upon the human race, the most successful lie he has ever used and which impinges upon our consciences from a thousand different directions, is simply this: We shall find happiness and fulfillment through sin and by disregarding the commandments and precepts of God, and it is by throwing off the chains that bind, letting ourselves go, and following our own passions, ignoring Christ and His Word that we find satisfaction and joy in this life. Satan’s most successful lie would have us believed this lie a thousand times or more in our lives.”

James 1:13-16 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”

“Yet, the great truth of the Word of God is that at the right hand of God there is joy forevermore. There is happiness in holiness. It is through submission to the will of Christ (aligning our will with His will) that man will find his true joy and fulfillment. These are two totally and completely antithetical propositions. One is truth, the other a lie.”

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Sin against God is never happiness.