I will show through the Scriptures and through experience how wickedness is deceptive; for it makes itself appear good, but is bad; it is sweet at the start, but bitter in the end.
Example 1: “Though evil is sweet in his mouth And he hides it under his tongue, Though he desires it and will not let it go, But holds it in his mouth, Yet his food in his stomach is changed To the venom of cobras within him.” (Job 20:12-14)
As it says, “Evil is sweet in his mouth And he desires it and will not let it go, But holds it in his mouth.” Even though, “His food in his stomach is changed To the venom of cobras within him.” But if he had the end in mind, he wouldn’t desire it in his mouth; for then he would know the sweet taste is fleeting, although it is a good taste, a good feeling — fleeting. But because it “is sweet in his mouth” he holds onto it “And he hides it under his tongue.” Likewise, does not wine go down so smoothly and sparkle in the cup? Yet “At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink." (Proverbs 23:32-35) Wine’s beginning is quite pleasant, and its sight is like a star in the sky which sparkles. Can something that goes down so smoothly and tastes so good be so evil?
Example 2: “For the lips of an adulteress drip honey And smoother than oil is her speech; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol.” (Proverbs 5:3-5)
For the adulteress speaks pleasant words and looks nice; she is “Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. She is boisterous and rebellious, Her feet do not remain at home; She is now in the streets, now in the squares, And lurks by every corner.” Yes she looks nice; and she takes hold of a passerby, “So she seizes him and kisses him And with a brazen face she says to him: "I was due to offer peace offerings; Today I have paid my vows. Therefore I have come out to meet you, To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings, With colored linens of Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with caresses. For my husband is not at home, He has gone on a long journey; He has taken a bag of money with him, At the full moon he will come home." (Proverbs 7:10-20) For colored linens of Egypt are pleasant to the eyes, and myrrh, aloes and cinnamon smell quite well. Like a flower her bed lies, She looks like a lily of the valley; Yet she is a fierce lioness, She drinks the blood of the slain like a lion. And she says, “I was due to offer peace offerings; Today I have paid my vows,” so she lures with religion and makes it “feel” even more right. Is not religion well? But he who commits adultery slays himself. The “One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.” (Ecclesiastes 7:26)
Example 3: "Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant." (Proverbs 9:17)
Although it’s “sweet” and “pleasant”, nevertheless it is “stolen” and “secret”. It may feel good in the mouth and taste good to the taste buds, but is it good? It may be secret to man, but “There is no darkness or deep shadow Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” (Job 34:22) A man in the dark cannot see; he needs to use his hands to “feel” his way around. So everyone who is darkened by folly must trust in their feelings, for they do not have the light within them. The woman Folly, she may sound good and she may appear good through her religion, but is she virtuous? And although evil tastes sweet in the mouth, it is not sweet. If it is sweet, it is sweet only for a moment; for “the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25) are deceptive. Sin is pleasurable for a moment in time, but its happiness is not forever — it feels good for a little while, but “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) The same way it comes, the same way it goes: its pleasure comes instantly and flees just as quick! And leaves you chasing it for another bite.
Thus, how sin starts isn’t consistent with how it ends — the only consistency is that it comes quickly and vanishes quickly! Its inception is sweet and pleasurable, but its end is bitter poison. As it says, “The lips of an adulteress drip honey,” and “Smoother than oil is her speech;” then it says, “In the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.” Then in the other case, “Yet his food is changed To the venom of cobras within him.” And again it says, “At last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper.” So evil is deceptive in that way: it appears one way, but is truly something else; it feels good at the start, but bitter in the end. So how it makes us feel is very much enjoyable for a moment; but the beginning isn’t the same as the end — how it appears isn’t how it actually is. A fish isn’t lured by bait on a hook unless it’s desired; a bird isn’t caught in a cage without food. So if we’re led by our own sight and our own feelings, we are endanger of being ensnared into a trap.
For this reason we shouldn’t do what is right in our own sight: for our own sight leads us astray. As Israel was led astray; they did what was good in their own sight during the time of the judges. As it says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) And they resembled Sodom; and they looked like Gomorrah (Judges 19-20). But when Job maintained his own righteousness before God, he spoke and said, "If my step has turned from the way, Or my heart followed my eyes,” (Job 31:7) or, "If my heart has been enticed by a woman,” (Job 31:9) or, “If (…) my heart became secretly enticed;” (Job 31:27) he said these things because he did not trust what his eyes seen nor what he felt, but what was right in God’s sight. He walked by faith, not by his own sight; he lived by the Spirit, not the flesh; his joy was in the Word, not his own thoughts. If we live in the flesh, we will live by what we feel in the flesh; but if we live by the Spirit, we’ll live by every word that comes from the mouth of God — the Truth.
Jeremiah seeing this said, “I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23) For salvation does not come from within a man, that is to say, within the flesh, but through the death of the flesh; which the apostle writes saying, “If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13) For true circumcision is “in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” (Colossians 2:11) So Christ puts off our flesh, so we may live by the Spirit. And since the flesh is removed as our covering, we “worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3) For if we live by the flesh, we will walk according to the sensual desires of the flesh, but if we live by the Spirit, we have no obligation to the flesh, to satisfy its lust.
Furthermore, the way of salvation does not start in a wide open place, but its start is a narrow gate; as Christ says, "Enter through the narrow gate.” (Matthew 7:13) Without question there is pressure and affliction when passing through a narrow place; yet how it begins isn’t how it ends — it begins narrow but leads to a wide open place. For the bitter comes before the sweet. As Christ says, "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9) Now the one who comes in by Christ, although He is the narrow Gate, will “find pasture” which is the wide place, the place of freedom.
And contrarily, "The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.” (Matthew 7:13) For the ones who take the broad way take the freedom and the comfort and the ease now; but “While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) For what feels good now is bad later, and what feels bad now is good later. As it says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 16:25) So his way is pleasing to himself, but the end is death. Only through Jesus Christ is there escape, for He is the Narrow Way; as He said, ”I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)
And for these reasons we don’t follow our own heart, for "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Will it not even flatter ourselves in our own eyes? For don’t we bias ourselves? As it says, “For it flatters him in his own eyes Concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.” (Psalms 36:2) Does not the heart make mighty boasts, even in something as unknown as the future? This is why it says, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.” (James 4:14-15) And regarding the thoughts of the heart, it says, “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know;” (1 Corinthians 8:2) for what do we truly know? But wisdom says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) And, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)
Did not Eve sin because she “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6)? If she lived by the Spirit, she would not have sinned; instead she lived by what she saw and what was a delight to the flesh; for the fruit was desirable and a delight to the eyes and good for food; yet, “sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) And this is the bitter end we live with today — is not death a bitter end? What about David who sinned with Bathsheba? He saw the woman bathing and “the woman was very beautiful in appearance.” (2 Samuel 11:2) Yet he brought a great sin upon himself and gave reason for the enemies of God to reproach. And since his conscience smote him, he tried to cover his fault and killed Uriah; but as a man of God, he later confessed his sins to God and received forgiveness (Psalm 51).
Is this not what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21) For the one who seeks fleeting pleasure now will have everlasting disgrace then. As He says again, "Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:25) As the prophet says, “Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants?” (2 Kings 5:26) So the one who mourns now, and is grieved for his sins, will have joy at the Lord’s coming; but the one who stifles conviction, which momentarily cuts the heart, will not be happy at the end of the age; for already they “have their reward in full.” (Matthew 6:5)
Speaking further about the sorrow of sin and contrition of the heart, Solomon says, “Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.” (Ecclesiastes 7:3-4) And regarding painful rebukes and discipline, it says, “It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man Than for one to listen to the song of fools.” (Ecclesiastes 7:5) For “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11) For “The end of a matter is better than its beginning.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8) As the law also says, "In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.” (Deuteronomy 8:16) For hunger does not feel good in the moment, but to be proved in the end is a lasting reward; as the LORD says further, “‘I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Among the examples of such men who followed the Spirit were the apostles; for although they were in prison and their feet were in stocks, they “were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;” (Acts 16:25) For although in the flesh their bodies were imprisoned, they had freedom in the Spirit. And they received the blessing which Christ spoke about: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.” (Luke 6:22) For although they were opposed, hated, and insulted, their refuge was in God; for although they walked in the flesh, they lived in the Spirit. So thus, the flesh is momentary pleasure, but the Spirit is everlasting life; the flesh can be had now, but eternal life is at the end of the age; the end is better than the beginning, for the end is replaced by nothing. The latter is greater than the former; for the new covenant comes with far more glory than the old.
For this reason it is good to discipline your child; for “Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol.” (Proverbs 23:13-14) Although he is struck with a rod, which feels quite bad, but in the end, he will be saved from Sheol. The unwise do not understand this, that is why it says, “Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, Yet his foolishness will not depart from him.” (Proverbs 27:22) Nevertheless, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.” (Proverbs 22:15)
Now for the final example: “Desire realized is sweet to the soul, But it is an abomination to fools to turn away from evil.” (Proverbs 13:19)
If it is abominable for a fool to turn away from evil, then he loves what is evil and hates what is good; as it says of the fool, “You love evil more than good, Falsehood more than speaking what is right.” (Psalms 52:3-4) For our feelings and desires have been corrupted within us. What then should we do? How can our desires be made right within us? “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19-20) But its in overcoming ones fears and coming to the Light that a man finds favor with God. If a man never comes to the Light, he will never have salvation from his sins and be made right with God. But this is what Christ came to do: to be Light in the world, that everyone who comes to Him may be saved.
And this salvation is salvaging: making the corrupt good, the LORD God straitening what is crooked, so that our emotions can be helpers unto us. For this reason Jesus, “The author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) For Christ endured such hardship for a moment, so that we may share in His glory and sonship in the end; as it says, “The LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:10-11) As it says, “He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days,” for Jesus was raised from the grave and made many sons of God. He lived by the Spirit and disregarded His own flesh, even to death, and received a crown of eternal glory. He put on momentary affliction and received a glory everlasting.
Speaking further about the work of Christ: Jonathan, the son of Saul, was cursed by his father because he ate a little bit of honey with the edge of his staff; although his eating was sweet and brightened his eyes, it was sin because his father made an oath: “Cursed be the man who eats food today.” (1 Samuel 14:28) So his eating was sweet, yet it resulted in being bitterly cursed. Then when lots were cast to determine who sinned, the people were spared, although they ate meat with blood which is forbidden by the law. And again, when the lot was cast between Saul and his son Jonathan, Jonathan was taken, even though Saul sinned previously on multiple occasions. So Jonathan was determined to have sinned for only tasting a little bit of honey. So the people had sinned, but innocent Jonathan was determined sin by God — for the lot is determined by God. So because of his father’s oath, he was determined to be sin.
Now, speaking of this allegorically: we are the people who have sinned; yet God determined Jesus sin instead of us, although He never sinned. He was innocent, for He is the good Word, and from Him men “taste and see that the LORD is good.” (Psalms 34:8) But the curse was laid upon Him because of His Father’s oath: as it is written, “He who is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deuteronomy 21:23) But by the grace of God, He tasted the bitterness of death for us; and through Him, we are delivered. As it is written, “One lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.” (Leviticus 16:8) And to this purpose: that we would live for the LORD as His beloved sons, through the Spirit of His Son, for Christ did not remain in the grave (just as Jonathan did not die, but was spared by the people’s oath), but He was raised to life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So Christ’s death has become sweetness unto us — as it was also told allegorically through the judge, Samson. For Samson tore a lion with his bare hands and he came back and behold! Bees had made honey in the carcass of the lion. And Samson ate and gave some to his parents. Then he told of this in a riddle: "Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of the strong came something sweet." (Judges 14:14) So, taking this allegorically, through the bitterness of Christ’s death came the sweetness of life. And the Eater of sacrifices is God, for men offer sacrifices to God as food on the altar. But through God came a sacrifice for us to eat: Christ Jesus. As it says, “Out of the Eater came something to Eat”. And Jesus is the Rock prophesied about — and who is stronger than the Rock? And He was struck and out came sweet water for us to drink: as it says, “Out of the strong came something sweet.” From the sweet came the bitter, and from the bitter came the sweet. For we were once deceived by sin whose wages is death, but Christ died for us to rescue us from sin and death, to bring sweet tidings of the Good News of grace and peace, to make atonement for our sins through His own blood, and to justify us before God by His resurrection from the dead.
So then, since we have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, we ought to yield our members as servants of righteousness to God. And yield our bowels, which formerly craved evil, ought now to move with compassion for our brethren, withholding not bread from them who are in need. And our hearts, having been filled with the love of God, ought now to move us to do good works which are profitable to all men. And our consciences, which were formerly dead and devoid of conviction, now ought to affirm to the truth and testify to the truth with a spirit of gentleness. For our hearts have been made flesh by the circumcision made without human hands: the circumcision of Jesus Christ. Through the knowledge of the truth, He has sanctified us unto Himself as a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. And having seen Him with the eye of our understanding, we have trusted in Him and yielded ourselves to Him for the saving of our souls; for He who is trustworthy said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die." (John 11:25-26)
So therefore, looking forward to the coming of the day of the Lord, we patiently endure hardship and persecution and affliction; for in that day, God will wipe every tear from our eyes. Speaking of that day, it says, “The virgin will rejoice in the dance, And the young men and the old, together, For I will turn their mourning into joy And will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people will be satisfied with My goodness, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:13-14) So Christ’s coming will change our momentary affliction into everlasting joy. As Christ likewise spoke before His crucifixion: "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.” (John 16:20) And as an example, dear brethren, in the days of Mordecai, remember the affliction the Jews underwent; yet God changed for them the day of mourning into rejoicing and joy, a day of slaughter into a day of retribution; as it says, “Those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.” (Esther 9:22) As the apostle Paul also writes about this: “After all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8)