Well, there is one matter that makes me question whether it is someone other than Paul that wrote this letter to the Hebrews that we're looking at. It is that the great catching up is not mentioned in this book when it talks about the Lord, and I'm still pondering and puzzling about this. So I look forward to what I might learn in this book with regard to this because, to me, it seems like he focuses in on the millennium and doesn't mention the rapture and so on. Well, the book of Hebrews is a book of warning. There's always a section of teaching and then a warning that follows. I didn't know how much warning was in this book until I began to study it. Chapter 1 was 14 verses of teaching and then 18 verses of dealing with a warning. Now we have 6 verses of teaching and 29 verses of warning. This warning begins, the second warning begins in verse seven, and verses seven through 11 are a quote from Psalm 95. The warning begins like this. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. The writer then shows that all those who came out of Egypt could not enter the land of rest. There were a few exceptions, by the way. So I have viewed the land of Canaan not as picturing heaven, but picturing the millennium. The Hebrews had started their faith in Christ on fire for the Lord. They had suffered the plundering of their goods and persecution. They were looking for deliverance, just like the children of Israel were longing for rest. But Israel of old failed through disobedience. You know what disobedience is? Unbelief. It's unbelief. A lack of faith. Now, the writer warns these Hebrews that they too may fail to enter the kingdom that they were waiting for. They longed for deliverance from the dominion of Rome. They were under a tyranny. But the writer is warning that if they go back to Judaism, they will not enter that coming kingdom either. So he said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. And because of their rebellion, God ended up saying, you will not enter my rest. So having given this example from the Old Testament, the writer now gives this warning to Israel. In the first warning, the writer said this in chapter two, verses one through three, therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The warning is this, we must not drift away because the word spoken through angels to the Old Testament people had proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And the answer is, if they did not get away with it, neither will we, the New Testament believer. And now the writer has given an example from the Old Testament of Israel, of the Israelis who failed God in the wilderness. Here is another Old Testament example which serves as a warning to the New Testament believer. And so we go now to verse 12, chapter 3. And before we do that, let's read verses 12 through... Oh, I don't have the verses down. I'll just read verse 12. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." We begin with the words, beware brethren. The word translated beware is among the first words I learned in the Greek language. You know what it is? To see, to see, just to see, blepo, to see. It has the idea of being aware, seeing where one is going. If one doesn't, one soon might stumble. Then note this is addressed to brethren. Now who's that? You tell me, who are brethren? Okay, thank you. Christians, of course, but if one holds to this one saved, always saved, or Calvinism, this cannot refer to Christians. Because then an evil heart of unbelief can grow up in Christians, and that can't be possible. So how is this handled by these Bible teachers? Well, John MacArthur deals with it by saying this, or saying the book is addressed to three groups of people. By the way, you look for them. You see if you can find three groups. I only find one. There were first weak believers. Then there were two groups that were not saved at all. The first of these were those who were intellectually convinced of the gospel, but they never really believed. They believed the truth, but only intellectually. That is, they gave mental assent to the gospel, but they never really became Christians. Then there were those who had not been convinced at all. And he says, he's writing to all three of these groups. You see if you find them. Now, you can check when you read the book whether you find three groups. I do not find three groups. I find one group, and they are discouraged believers. MacArthur gives three groups to keep his Calvinism intact by making room for the warnings in the book. So if Calvinism is true, why warn believers? Why warn them? So the brethren mentioned in verse 12, according to these teachers, are for those who were not true believers. How does he explain this? Like this, he says, many people claim the entire book of Hebrews is addressed to believers, since the author uses the word brethren. However, brethren is sometimes used in the New Testament to refer to unsaved Jews. That's correct. When the writer of the Hebrews wished to make clear he was speaking to believers, he used the term holy brethren, end quote. So when it says holy brethren, then it refers to true believers. Only believers are holy brethren, since they are Christ's brethren, Hebrews chapter 2, verse 11. Therefore, this passage is addressed to Christians. That is, when it talks to holy brethren. When we come to verse 12, they are just called brethren. So what is the explanation that they could be addressed as brethren if they are not truly Christians? The answer is that these were brethren because they were Jews. not because they were Christians. But my question is this. If they were not Christians, how could they be beware, lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief? If they were not Christians, they already had an evil heart of unbelief. How are you going to depart from it? There's no use giving a warning like this to those people. Let me make this note here. The writer addresses his audience as brethren eight times in the book, and only once he calls them holy brethren. So is only Hebrews 3.1 written to believers? In 2.11, the writer says this, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, not holy brethren, but surely they are believers. Since it does not say holy brethren, does that then mean that they were Jesus' Jewish brethren? When one has, listen, when one has a wrong teaching, one must do many fancy twistings and turnings in the scriptures. The clear warning here is that believers can let an evil heart of unbelief grow within them. These Hebrew Christians had once been on fire for the Lord. How could they grow an evil heart of unbelief? How do you grow an evil heart of unbelief? Do you know how? Disobedience. Just disobey God's word. They were setting aside Jesus Christ and giving in to Jewish teachings about angels bringing in the kingdom. They were giving up on Jesus Christ and wanting to go back to Judaism. They were backsliding, and here they received warning after warning. Since a true believer will never depart from the faith, in MacArthur's view, he says this, people always say to me, and we preach this so many times, but it's all over the Bible. People say to me, but what about so-and-so? He used to come to church, he used to say he believes, and now he's gone. I say to you, that's proof-putting that he never was saved to begin with, because the Bible says that if you're for real, you stay there. If you keep my commandments, then you are my disciples for real. No, I'll keep quoting. And when somebody departs from the faith, when somebody backs away from the faith, I quote you what the Bible says in reference to them. 1 John 2, 19, it says, they went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us. Now, as an end quote, this is a most interesting verse. How many remember me preaching on it? So you go back to sermon audio. Here's the title of the message. They went out from us. 1 John 2.19. It is a most misunderstood verse in my understanding. There are some very crucial verbs and verb tenses in the verse that explain what is meant there, and it's not even talking about what most people think it talks about. Then consider further that these Hebrews were warned not to grow an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Now, if this is spoken to those who have never truly believed, how could they depart? They could not depart from the faith because they never had been in the faith. And furthermore, if they were unbelievers and did not depart, would they then be safe? The truth of the matter is that it is the believer that is warned here. By the way, you know what? This is a warning to me and to you. lest there grows in us an evil heart of unbelief. When unbelief sets in in the mind, then one begins to depart from the Lord. As soon as we are living in sin, we are departing. Now note that this departure is from the living God. There is only one living God. All other gods of the imagination are not alive, they're dead. Here's an important attribute of God. Here it is. He is alive. He lives. Turn to Psalm 114. We need to take a look at these dead gods. They are not alive. There is no life in them. Psalm 114. We begin in verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory, because of your mercy, because of your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, so where is their God? But our God is in heaven, he does whatever he pleases. Let me just add here that since God is always entirely good, therefore only that which is good and just and right is that which pleases him. Verse four, their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Why not? They are not alive. They're dead. Eyes they have, but they do not see. Why not? They have ears, but they do not hear. Why not? Noses they have, but they do not swell. Why not? They have hands, but they do not handle. Feet they have, but they do not walk, nor do they mutter through their throats. Those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them. How is it? How are they? Dumb. Dumb. Let me quote here from my notes on the doctrine of God. It's a lengthy quote, but I'm talking about the living God. I gave you an attribute of the living God, and here's some of what I said. So now we want to consider that our God, the God of the Bible, is a living God. I should say He is the living God. You see, He does not only exist as the earth and the universe exist, He is alive. So before we go on, we must consider the word life. Since God Almighty is a living God and all other gods do not have life, we need to explore the meaning of life. Augustus Strong, in his Comprehensive Systematic Theology, says life is a simple idea and is incapable of real definition. Try it sometime. If you want to tax your brain, as I said years ago, try to define the word life. For years, I have used Funk and Wagnalls College Dictionary. Let me give you their first definition of life. Life is the form of existence that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic substance and dead organisms characterized by the properties and functions of protoplasms as manifested in metabolism, growth, reproduction, irritability, and internally initiated adaptations of individual organisms to the environment. So you are really enlightened, right? You got it now, right? This is life. Well, that's a bit hard to digest, so let me reduce that definition to English. Life is the opposite of death and is characterized by such things as reproduction and growth. That is about as useful as saying darkness is the absence of light. After some years of pondering this topic, I would define life like this, and I admit it is tremendously difficult. Life is the continual, successive, active, productive, and energetic existence. Can't have that in anything that's lifeless. Now such lifeless things as rocks have continual successive existence, but it stops there. Their existence is not active, it's not productive, it's not energetic. Even, and by the way, an accurate definition I don't think is possible. Even an unconscious person's body is active and productive. If it were to cease to be actively productive, the body would immediately set about dying. Let me just add here, before I continue the quote, that there are two kinds of life mentioned in the New Testament, and it helps to understand them. So I continue the quote now. Now the New Testament speaks of two kinds of life. There is physical life, for which the word bios is used. Biology, all these words come from this word. So we get these words from that. Then there is spiritual life. It is zoe. You've maybe heard the name zoe that comes from this Greek word for life. And whether rightly or wrongly, we get our word zoology from it. When we say God is the living God, it is the word zoe, not bios. Now let me explain bios and zoe life briefly. Let us start with bios life. We find it in first Peter chapter four, verse two, which says that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the desire of God. The verb is the word bio, of which the noun form is bios. In Acts chapter 26, verse 4, Paul says, my manner of life from my youth, my bios life. He's talking about his physical life. So I define physical bios life as the continual, successive, active, and productive physical existence. But God does not have bios life. He does not have a body. He has zowei life. Listen to John 5.26. For as the father has life, zowei, in himself, so he has granted the son to have life, zowei, in himself. Now that life is not bias life, it is spiritual life. Listen, if you are listening to this message, whether here or online or sometime later, and you do not have ZOE life, you are going to go to hell. And if you are not saved, you don't have zoe life. It's just that simple. Maybe you have wondered about verses, oh no, I should conclude this. It is spiritual life. It is the kind of life when we get saved and we use the phrase eternal life. This is the kind of life we get. Maybe you've wondered about verses like John 11, 26, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Now that's not by us life. It's the way of life. It's spiritual life, the kind of life God has. So I would define spiritual life as continual, successive, active, and productive spiritual existence. Now let me make a few points from these two kinds of life. We all know that we must maintain our physical life or we die physically. It is maintained by the intake of the right mixture of air, food, and water, and so on. It is also maintained by remaining in an atmosphere conducive to physical life. For example, if one should not be dressed for minus 40 weather, such as we have around here, our life would stop in a short time if we had to be outside like that. So physical life is continual, successive, active, productive bodily existence. The body consumes things and produces things, thus maintaining the unity of body and soul and spirit, and thus physical life. Now, the very moment we get saved, we are given, by grace, through faith, ionios zoe. This life is not bias life, but Zoe life, and must be maintained as well. And how is this spiritual life maintained? Well, this spiritual life is both gained and it is maintained by faith. It is maintained by continuing to believe present continuous sense in him. So John 5.26 means, whoever continues to live in and continues to believe in me shall never die. You see, eternal life, or aionios, is gained by faith and maintained by faith. Now that's the end of my quote on life from the messages on the attributes of God. It is a great consolation to us that our God is a living God. Think of how great the sin of departing from the living God is when once we've known him. If one departs, that means one has been with him. We only begin to be with him when we get saved. Think of having known the living God and then departing from him. How does this happen? I had a note from a pastor one time that said, give me one example of a person in the New Testament that became lost. And I wrote back, Judas. And I never heard further. Let one sin go, and it will lead to another. You know what? He kept reaching into the money bag until he was lost. You reach the point of no return. And when one makes the wrong decision there, there is then no turning back. So Hebrews 6, 4 to 6, in brief, says this. It is impossible for those who have once experienced salvation, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance. It can't be done. We're not talking about backsliding. We're talking about leaving God. How serious is it to depart from the living God? Listen to Hebrews 10, 26 through 31. For if we sin willfully, that's willful living in sin, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace? For we know him who has said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and again the Lord will judge his people. So in light of our topic of the living God, consider verse 31 in that same passage. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Why is this book so very serious for all believers? Because in every believer is the potential to depart from the living God. And when we do that, it is forever too late. There is no coming back. So verse 13 in our text says, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. The verse begins with the word but. It introduces a contrast. Instead of an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God, believers are rather to exhort one another. Could I ask you a question? How long since you have exhorted someone, some believer? How long? Have you seen someone drifting? The word translated exhort can mean to exhort, or admonish, or beseech, or to console, or to comfort. And in the context here, it means to exhort. And exhortation is to strongly encourage to do something where one sees another going astray. In the context, we have the warning not to let an evil heart of unbelief grow within us. The exhortation then would mean that when we see another becoming weary, we ought to exhort them, and they in turn ought to exhort us when they see us slipping away. The instruction is to do this daily. It was said to the Hebrews because they were at the point of dropping off. As a matter of fact, there's a hint later on that some of them may already have dropped off. so it needed to happen daily. So believers are exhorted to exhort one another while it is called today. May I ask you, how long is today? How long is today? It is either, in my understanding, it is either until we have sinned away the day of grace, which can happen, or as long as we are alive. The day called today was for all those who lived from Adam until today, for as long as they were alive. Today will be for all of those who live in the tribulation until they die. Today will be for all those who will be born in the millennium until they die, if they die. When that time has passed, there will never, ever be another today. It is, everything is forever settled. Now, we might think, well, that is a long time. But for everyone who is alive, it is never a long time. Nobody ever lives long. Ask somebody my age. 70 years is this long. We are given how many years? What does the Bible say? Three score years and 70 years. I'm two years past this. If you are 35, you're over halfway done. For those of you who are over 35, how long did it seem? Short, thank you. We are to respond the day we hear God speak to us. And the last part of the verse says, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. When we do not respond, when we hear God's voice, we become hardened. And when hardening begins, our danger of dropping God altogether becomes more and more possible. The Old Testament uses many metaphors. Listen to this one, a hardened heart. Can you picture a hardened heart? Now, we know the heart is, what is it? Yes, and it is, what is it in us? What's that? Desperately wicked, and it is, what is that, is that so? The mind, it's desperately wicked, it's deceitful, it's our mind. What is a hardened mind? The word for hardened is keruno. When the mind is hardened, it becomes obstinate, and it grows hard. So what's the difference between a hard mind and a soft mind? Listen to James 3, 13 through 18. Who is a wise man and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. There's a picture of a hard heart or mind. Bitter envy and self-seeking pictures a hard heart. All our thinking, our wisdom that comes out of a mind like that does not come from above and does not produce good fruit. It can't. It is earthly, sensual, and demonic. And what happens from this kind of mind Verse 16, what happens from this kind of mind, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. So how does a soft heart differ? Well, verses 17 through 18. But the wisdom that is from above is first. Anybody know what is first? What is it first? Pure, pure. Then peaceable. then gentle, then willing to yield, full of mercy and full of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. A mind filled with wisdom is first pure. It is uncontaminated. It is clear. It does not hide things. Then it is peaceable. Peaceable, there is no sharpness. There are no hidden agendas. Then it is gentle. Oh, to have a soft heart. Then it is willing to yield. A hard mind does not want to yield. It is right, so it thinks. But a soft mind is so very different. Oh, I think of my life. How many times have I had a hard heart? It is full of good fruits. It is impartial. It is without hypocrisy. It bears fruits of righteousness. Now our text says, exhort one another while it is called today. How often do we exhort one another? When I have sinned and I am miserable, I tend to blame others. If I am out of fellowship with God and life is miserable, I blame others. When that happens, I have been led by the deceitfulness of sin into a place I cannot come out of until I discover that I am in the wrong. That does not mean someone else has not done wrong, but their wrong cannot take me out of fellowship with God. We think sometimes unbelievers must be the most miserable people on earth. I know that's not true. I have been there. When I have sinned and I have to go to somebody and clean up, which I have done, had to do, that is the most miserable state there is. When an unbeliever comes under conviction, there is misery too, but a believer needing to clean something up, that is hard. So the deceitfulness of sin. Note carefully the words of our passage, these words. This is the only time this phrase occurs in the Bible. It means sin deceives. And what is deception? Here is what is the most dangerous thing about deception. There is nothing more dangerous. I am led to think I am right when I am wrong. That's deception. I am led to think I'm going in the right direction. I remember some folk that were at Lacrete here, and they were driving and making good time, a really good time. And they thought everything was really going well. And they looked at the map, and they're going the wrong way. When I am deceived, I will adamantly think I am right. Let me ask you, how deceitful is sin? The deceitfulness of sin is twofold. First, sin lures me in. It lures me to do something that it tells me will be fulfilling. It's gonna be great. Let me give you an example of King David and Bathsheba. This is gonna be great. He was lured in until all resistance was gone. Sin works in myriads of situations. Let us say I resent someone. It may be almost impossible to keep from drawing attention to that person's weaknesses in order to get others to think bad things about them. Do you know why preachers know why these kind of things exist? Do you know why they know? Because they've been there too. And there is something satisfying when I can get others to think bad things about these other people. So consider David. He sinned. Sin had deceived him. It had promised so much, but now sin's deceitfulness had only begun. Now he got news from Bathsheba that his sin would be discovered. Now what does sin do? It says, you've got to cover this thing up. You've got to cover this thing up. You all know about it, right? You must cover your tribe. Nobody but nobody must know what you have done. Listen to, oh, I missed something here. This is the voice of sin. And we very willingly submit to the voice of sin. We must cover our sin. But what does the Lord say? Listen to him in Proverbs 28, 13. He who covers his sins, who can tell me? Will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Will have mercy. When I have sinned, what is the last thing I will naturally do? The last, the very last thing I will do is confess it. He who covers his sin will have misery. He who confesses and forsakes his sin will have mercy. God becomes brass to those who cover their sin. Oh, how I know this. I've been in times when I knew my prayer didn't go past the ceiling, just bounced back at me. God becomes brass to those who cover their sin. He opens like a flower to the sun when one confesses one's sin. Well, David, he did what we all naturally do. Sin deceived him into doing wrong, and when he had done wrong, it deceived him into thinking he had to cover his tracks. He could not be exposed. He was the king of Israel. How's a king going to confess something like this? and now sin deceived him into covering his tracks. What is better at covering our tracks when we are wrong than our own deceitful mind? What is better? Our mind will lead us into a maze in the wilderness we cannot find our way out of. Nothing will deliver us until we are brought to admit our own sin. And oh, how hard we come to that point. That is what revival does. It brings us to see not someone else's sins, but our own. And we will dig in our heels and skid along over a very bumpy trail until we bend and say, I have sinned. Consider David. He had sinned. Now he had to cover for himself. How will he cover for himself? As long as his heart can deceive him. That's how long. Here is the deceitfulness of sin. Oh, David, you could bring Bathsheba, husband, home from the war under some pretense. He will come home and go to his wife, and you're going to be okay. He'll be okay. There is the deceitfulness of sin. First, he was deceived into sin by the promise of pleasures. Now he is caught, and he is led by the deceitfulness of sin to cover his sin. Someone has said, if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to stop doing is stop digging. Well, David kept digging. What did he do? He brought Uriah home from the forefront. Now I want you to note who Bathsheba's husband is. Listen, it's 12 o'clock. Is it okay to go over? We got fast food coming here, we got lunch coming, and the people over there, they got a whole hour till 12 o'clock. You see, Bathsheba's husband is not Uriah the Jew. He is Uriah the Hittite. He is a convert, a convert from false gods that we looked at before. And now he has the true God, and he changed his name. I don't know what his name was before, but I know it wasn't Uriah. Do you know why? Do you know what Uriah means? Jehovah is my light. That is not Hittite. It's not Mennonite either. Now he's called home from the war, but he does not go to his wife. He can't. Why? Jehovah is his light. He's going to live in the pleasures of life when his comrades are out there fighting in the war, not Uriah. Do you know how desperate David now is? Sin said, David, David, get him drunk. Rob his mind, rob his sensibilities, and then he'll go home. There is the deceitfulness of sin. But the Bible says he who covers his sin will not prosper. Do you know how sin deceived David even further? When he saw he could not cover his sin by using Uriah, he gave Uriah a letter for his commander. And in the letter, Uriah carried his own death warrant to the battlefield. He never opened it. Now, if I had been Uriah, I would have said, there is something wrong with David. I'd say, there's a guy trying to get me drunk. There is something wrong. I wonder what is in this letter. Would you not have wondered that? Well, he didn't open it. Joab got the letter. He put Uriah where he knew he shouldn't go in war and drove him to the forefront, and he died. Do you know what the Lord did? He uncovered David's sin to a man of God. And the prophet went to David, and he took all the covering over David's sin off, and he showed David the ugliness of his sin. And now David is exposed. If we do not break here, we will never break. Oh, how we fight against being exposed. I don't have to look at anybody. We will do anything to come out of such a mess smelling like a rose. But sin stinks to high heaven. And only when we break and confess do we find freedom. And if there is no exposure, there will never be true freedom. The devil has a big toolbox. He can use anything, deception and evil. But I think the most common tool is deception. Lies are deception. He is the father of lies. And lies and deception work as well today as they have at any time in the past. It is the very first sin mankind was led to. It happened to Eve. And she told the Lord later, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So our text says today, if you hear the Lord's voice. Don't harden your hearts. Listen to this little poem. It's easy to procrastinate and leave good deeds undone. But such a course will bring regrets when life's short race is run. Why does our text say today? Tomorrow, today will be yesterday. Tomorrow, Today will be gone forever. So we conclude with this word. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. The living God is the only true God by nature there is. The others are all imagined. I have to read you a few things. I know I'm going over time. R.A. Torrey, there is not a more solemn warning in the Bible than this. There is not a more timely warning in the Bible than this. All around us, we see men and women who are being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Three times in this one chapter, God pleads with men, harden not your hearts. Thomas Watson, a hard heart is a dwelling place for Satan. As God has two places, he dwells in heaven and a humble heart, so the devil has two places, he dwells in hell and a hard heart. Warren Wiersbe, you can't convince unsaved people that they are in bondage because they think they are free. This is part of the deceitfulness of sin. Sin promises freedom, but always brings slavery. Sin promises joy, and ultimately brings pain. Sin promises success, but ultimately it brings failure. The prodigal son wanted to be free. He wanted to get away from his big brother, get away from his big brother and his father, so he went out into a far country. He thought he was free, but he discovered his freedom soon turned into bondage. Not only did he become a slave of a Gentile taskmaster, but he became a servant of the pigs. It's impossible to sin without being bound. One of the deceitful things about sin is that it promises freedom but only brings slavery. Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is the slave of sin, John 8, 34. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? The cords of sin get stronger the more we sin, yet sin deceives us into thinking we're free. That's the worst state to be in. We're thinking we're free and can quit sinning whenever we please. I remember talking to a man who said, I can quit smoking anytime I want. Still, he tried. As the invisible chains of habit are forged, we discover to our horror that we don't have the strength to break them. Millions of people in our world today are in one kind of bondage or another and are seeking for deliverance, but the only one who can set them free is Jesus Christ. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Even in bondage that sin creates is deceitful. I think I misread that. Even the bondage that sin creates is deceitful, for the people who are bound actually think they are free. Too late, they discover that they are prisoners of their own appetites and habits. I have to quit.