Whatever Happened To Sin?
Session #1 • 7.15.08 • Men’s Summer Study
Intro.
- If you have had the chance to read the first couple of chapters in "Respectable Sins," you will have noticed the theme of the disappearing consciousness of sin.
- Sin has become an archaic, irrelevant word in our national language. Sin is no longer a sin; it’s a mistake, a lapse in judgement or a character defect.
- A few years ago, when a rape was reported in Colorado, an NBA superstar plead to a much lesser charge, that of having made the “mistake of adultery.” This is the perfect microcosmic example.
- Truly, it was and is much more than that, and even the very act is more a symptom of a greater hidden evil that has plagued every man, woman and child that has ever lived.
- While sin is marginalized in our minds, in our vocabulary and culture and thought to only effect those outside our circles, we must recognize and remember that God’s thinks differently.
˚ “The result, then, is that for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. But it has not disappeared from the sight of God. Rather, all sin, both the so-called respectable sins of the saints, which we too often tolerate, and the flagrant sins of society, which we are quick to condemn are a disregard for the law of God and are reprehensible in His sight.”
- Thankfully, by the blood of Jesus, we are redeemed and set free from the penalty of sin’s curse and forgiven.
- In the course of this study today, I want to set a broad context for our study on the topic of sin.
- Today, we’ll look at 3 things about sin that will serve as the broad brush underpinning of the rest of the course of our study.
Text
- But to actually define it might be a source of difficulty. You would not be alone.
˚ “Any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.”
˚ “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or nature. Sin includes not only individual acts such as stealing or lying or committing murder, but also attitudes that are contrary to the attitudes that God requires of us.”
- To fully discuss sin, we need to understand that sin happens in three general ways. First, we sin when we do what we are not supposed to do and we know it, the sin of commission.
- We will all be reminded that God had created a tree that was placed in the center of the garden of Eden, where man and God would have fellowship, literally walking with one another.
- The only prohibition was that the man abstain from eating of this very specific tree. The tree represented the choice of love.
- When we see Adam and Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we see that there was a deep sense of temptation already present within them.
- The serpent affirmed their thoughts and deceitfully convinced them to partake of the fruit.
• Genesis 3:6 : “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
- What we see here is a willful transgression, a deliberate violation. The second area that people fall into sin is when we don’t do what we are supposed to do and know it, the sin of ommission.
- An example of this is seen in the life of Judah, whose daughter-in-law was in dire straits because Judah’s son had died.
- Judah’s responsibility to her was to care for her and give, according to the law, a replacement son. After his other sons died, he refused to give her his final son, even though he knew the law. - The story continues and Tamar dresses as a prostitute and seduces Judah into a sexual encounter and becomes pregnant, but does not disclose herself.
- As she begins to show, it becomes obvious and the thought is that she has involved herself in harlotry, a crime punishable by death. On his way to commence with judgement, Tamar reveals her lover to be Judah.
• Genesis 38:25,26 : “When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, ‘By the man to whom these belong, I am with child.’ And she said, ‘Please determine whose these are--the signet and cord, and staff.’ So Judah acknowledged them and said, ‘She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.’ And he never knew her again.”
- The Apostle James speaks to Judah's sin clearly in his epistle.
• James 4:17 : “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
- Now, here is the third way in which we sin. We do what we think we should do, but don’t know that we shouldn’t have! In the first instance, we see a spirit of insolence. In the second, we see indifference. Here in this last instance, we see independence.
- Speaking or acting without God’s approval can lead to sinful situations.
- Prime example would be Nathan speaking out of turn and rubber stamping David’s plan to construct the temple. Nathan said, on his own authority, “go for it!”
- You can find the story in II Samuel 7. That night, God came to Nathan and said, “Hold everything!”
- In any of these ways, we can easily be trapped and brought into sin, a place where we fail to conform to the image of Christ.
• Isaiah 14:10-12 : “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.”
- Ezekiel, in his report of God’s indictment against the King of Tyre, breaks into a teaching on the person of Satan.
• Ezekiel 28:14-17 : “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.”
- Now, as we come to Revelation chapter 12, we will see figurative language describing the war that ensued between Satan and God.
• Revelation 12:3,4a : “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.”
- In Luke 10:18, Jesus says that he saw Satan fall to the earth like lightning. Satan brought his rebellion, his pride, his wickedness to the Earth.
- But then, once his influence was disseminated to Adam and Eve, death and the origins of sin was brought into humanity. Romans 5 describes that we were infected from that beginning.
- David writes that he was conceived in sin in Psalm 51. It’s our nature.
- Today, while sin originated with Satan, we cannot say that he is responsible, directly, for our sinful actions or attitudes. Those originate in Satan, but today, are generated by you and I.
• James 1:13-15 : “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.”
- Sin comes from our own desires, from within us. The next time you are tempted to blame Satan, it might be true foundationally, but not practically. Most of the time, you are your own enemy.
• Genesis 3:7-10 : "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?' So he said, 'I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.'"
- The serpent, Satan had promised illumination, and they enjoyed illumination. However, what they discovered was very disturbing.
- Adam and Eve knew that they were naked, a picture of shame. Notice also the immediate instinct: Fear. Fear of the sound of God's footsteps, a sound that had previously delighted them.
• Genesis 3:23 : "Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken."
- The final effect of sin for the man and his wife will be alienation. They were sent out and such is the case today with every occasion of sin.
- I will feel, even though it's impossible spiritually, separated from the Lord on an emotional level. This puts a tremendous amount of physical stress on a person's life.
- When we covered David's life, we read his description of what it was like to live in sin. His bones were weary. He suffered in a physical way. But there is mental anguish as well.
- Remember Judas, who betrayed Jesus and ultimately took his own life because of the remorse. On the same night, Peter wept bitterly outside of the city, after he denied Jesus three times.
- Sin causes mental and physical torment because of the shame and fear that are natural consequences of sinful activity. Given these realities, it's a wonder that anyone ever sins!
- But just like Adam, we tend to value the momentary temporal pleasure over the eternal, lasting treasure that is promised to the righteous.
Conclusion
- Sin is a serious foe. Thankfully we have an equally serious Savior!
- Thankfully, we can rejoice in His presence in our lives, but we must rejoice as men who have been given grace, not as those who have won alone.
- We are still to be wary and wise as the battle for holiness continues. There are no days off. There are no shortcuts. Therefore, take heed to yourselves.
Session #1 • 7.15.08 • Men’s Summer Study
Intro.
- If you have had the chance to read the first couple of chapters in "Respectable Sins," you will have noticed the theme of the disappearing consciousness of sin.
- Sin has become an archaic, irrelevant word in our national language. Sin is no longer a sin; it’s a mistake, a lapse in judgement or a character defect.
- A few years ago, when a rape was reported in Colorado, an NBA superstar plead to a much lesser charge, that of having made the “mistake of adultery.” This is the perfect microcosmic example.
- Truly, it was and is much more than that, and even the very act is more a symptom of a greater hidden evil that has plagued every man, woman and child that has ever lived.
- While sin is marginalized in our minds, in our vocabulary and culture and thought to only effect those outside our circles, we must recognize and remember that God’s thinks differently.
˚ “The result, then, is that for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. But it has not disappeared from the sight of God. Rather, all sin, both the so-called respectable sins of the saints, which we too often tolerate, and the flagrant sins of society, which we are quick to condemn are a disregard for the law of God and are reprehensible in His sight.”
pg. 22
- If we saw our sin the way that God sees it, we would be mortified. I like the way that Jerry Bridges talks of sin as a cancer, which has the potential to spread throughout our entire being and corrupt us entirely. The truth is we have a spiritual cancer that has spread throughout our beings. - Thankfully, by the blood of Jesus, we are redeemed and set free from the penalty of sin’s curse and forgiven.
- In the course of this study today, I want to set a broad context for our study on the topic of sin.
- Today, we’ll look at 3 things about sin that will serve as the broad brush underpinning of the rest of the course of our study.
I. What Is Sin?
II. Where Does Sin Come From?
III. What Will Be Sin’s Effect?
II. Where Does Sin Come From?
III. What Will Be Sin’s Effect?
Text
I. What Is Sin?
- You might believe that you know the definition. Perhaps you have been in the church for most of your life. Perhaps you know because of how much experience you have in it! - But to actually define it might be a source of difficulty. You would not be alone.
˚ “Any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.”
Dictionary.com
- I felt that we might receive a more thorough definition from a theological source. ˚ “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or nature. Sin includes not only individual acts such as stealing or lying or committing murder, but also attitudes that are contrary to the attitudes that God requires of us.”
Wayne Grudem
- The first clear sinful activity is seen quite early in the story of man, in fact by the 2nd full chapter devoted to him.- To fully discuss sin, we need to understand that sin happens in three general ways. First, we sin when we do what we are not supposed to do and we know it, the sin of commission.
- We will all be reminded that God had created a tree that was placed in the center of the garden of Eden, where man and God would have fellowship, literally walking with one another.
- The only prohibition was that the man abstain from eating of this very specific tree. The tree represented the choice of love.
- When we see Adam and Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we see that there was a deep sense of temptation already present within them.
- The serpent affirmed their thoughts and deceitfully convinced them to partake of the fruit.
• Genesis 3:6 : “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
- What we see here is a willful transgression, a deliberate violation. The second area that people fall into sin is when we don’t do what we are supposed to do and know it, the sin of ommission.
- An example of this is seen in the life of Judah, whose daughter-in-law was in dire straits because Judah’s son had died.
- Judah’s responsibility to her was to care for her and give, according to the law, a replacement son. After his other sons died, he refused to give her his final son, even though he knew the law. - The story continues and Tamar dresses as a prostitute and seduces Judah into a sexual encounter and becomes pregnant, but does not disclose herself.
- As she begins to show, it becomes obvious and the thought is that she has involved herself in harlotry, a crime punishable by death. On his way to commence with judgement, Tamar reveals her lover to be Judah.
• Genesis 38:25,26 : “When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, ‘By the man to whom these belong, I am with child.’ And she said, ‘Please determine whose these are--the signet and cord, and staff.’ So Judah acknowledged them and said, ‘She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.’ And he never knew her again.”
- The Apostle James speaks to Judah's sin clearly in his epistle.
• James 4:17 : “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
- Now, here is the third way in which we sin. We do what we think we should do, but don’t know that we shouldn’t have! In the first instance, we see a spirit of insolence. In the second, we see indifference. Here in this last instance, we see independence.
- Speaking or acting without God’s approval can lead to sinful situations.
- Prime example would be Nathan speaking out of turn and rubber stamping David’s plan to construct the temple. Nathan said, on his own authority, “go for it!”
- You can find the story in II Samuel 7. That night, God came to Nathan and said, “Hold everything!”
- In any of these ways, we can easily be trapped and brought into sin, a place where we fail to conform to the image of Christ.
II. Where Does Sin Come From?
- Sin originates in one source in the universe. All sin is rooted in Satan. The Bible affords us with some valuable information about Satan's resume. Let’s begin in Isaiah. • Isaiah 14:10-12 : “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.”
- Ezekiel, in his report of God’s indictment against the King of Tyre, breaks into a teaching on the person of Satan.
• Ezekiel 28:14-17 : “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.”
- Now, as we come to Revelation chapter 12, we will see figurative language describing the war that ensued between Satan and God.
• Revelation 12:3,4a : “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.”
- In Luke 10:18, Jesus says that he saw Satan fall to the earth like lightning. Satan brought his rebellion, his pride, his wickedness to the Earth.
- But then, once his influence was disseminated to Adam and Eve, death and the origins of sin was brought into humanity. Romans 5 describes that we were infected from that beginning.
- David writes that he was conceived in sin in Psalm 51. It’s our nature.
- Today, while sin originated with Satan, we cannot say that he is responsible, directly, for our sinful actions or attitudes. Those originate in Satan, but today, are generated by you and I.
• James 1:13-15 : “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.”
- Sin comes from our own desires, from within us. The next time you are tempted to blame Satan, it might be true foundationally, but not practically. Most of the time, you are your own enemy.
III. What Will Be Sin’s Effect?
- To consider sin's effects, we need first to reset ourselves in the Garden where the first sin took place. Notice the immediate effects. • Genesis 3:7-10 : "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?' So he said, 'I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.'"
- The serpent, Satan had promised illumination, and they enjoyed illumination. However, what they discovered was very disturbing.
- Adam and Eve knew that they were naked, a picture of shame. Notice also the immediate instinct: Fear. Fear of the sound of God's footsteps, a sound that had previously delighted them.
• Genesis 3:23 : "Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken."
- The final effect of sin for the man and his wife will be alienation. They were sent out and such is the case today with every occasion of sin.
- I will feel, even though it's impossible spiritually, separated from the Lord on an emotional level. This puts a tremendous amount of physical stress on a person's life.
- When we covered David's life, we read his description of what it was like to live in sin. His bones were weary. He suffered in a physical way. But there is mental anguish as well.
- Remember Judas, who betrayed Jesus and ultimately took his own life because of the remorse. On the same night, Peter wept bitterly outside of the city, after he denied Jesus three times.
- Sin causes mental and physical torment because of the shame and fear that are natural consequences of sinful activity. Given these realities, it's a wonder that anyone ever sins!
- But just like Adam, we tend to value the momentary temporal pleasure over the eternal, lasting treasure that is promised to the righteous.
Conclusion
- Sin is a serious foe. Thankfully we have an equally serious Savior!
- Thankfully, we can rejoice in His presence in our lives, but we must rejoice as men who have been given grace, not as those who have won alone.
- We are still to be wary and wise as the battle for holiness continues. There are no days off. There are no shortcuts. Therefore, take heed to yourselves.
1 comment:
1. | We can commit sin in a heart of rebellion, omit righteousness or ignorantly discover that we moved ahead of God. Which have you seen as the most prevalent mode in your life?
2. | Our sinful actions or attitudes come from Satan in terms of origin, but from our own hearts in terms of practice. How would this reality effect the way we deal with our personal sin?
3. | The effects of sin are devastating emotionally and physically. Do you believe that considering consequences of sin would be an effective deterrant to future sinful situations?
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