Catechism Questions # 19 and 20
Notes
Transcript
Sin, Wrath and Forgiveness
Sin, Wrath and Forgiveness
Question #19: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
Answer: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.
Question #20: Did all mankind fall from Adam’s first transgression?
Answer: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself but for his posterity, all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression.
Main Points:
Pride is the root of sin
Unbelievers are willfully conquered by sin
Only through Christ can we repay our debt and restore our relationship with God The Father
Main Proposition:
Statement of Doctrine or Application:
“Sin, Wrath and Forgiveness”
Intro:
Statement of proposition
As we read these questions this topic starts with sin which leads to God’s wrath and ends up with Christ paying the cost of our sin on the cross ultimately forgiving us for our sin.
Over the last few weeks we have really dug deep on the topic of sin, we have talked about the fall of Adam and Eve, How it affects us today, but today I want to get to the root of the sin issue, I want to get to the root of our participation of sin and I want to get to the root of forgiveness.
In Romans we have seen if led up to us what our sin would lead to and I think we would all agree that it is NOT pretty. Only through Christ can our sins be forgiven.
Other texts that support
Whey Christ came is crystal clear and we see that in:
Mark 2:17
17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The heart of an unbeliever:
Mark 7:20–23
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
The power of faith
James 4:6-7
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Why does this matter?
This matters because God didn’t just send his son down here to be killed for no reason. The purpose was because nobody could defeat death without him. Christ came down because he saw the immorality in our lives, the sickness that no amount of medicine, therapy, money, status, power could solve. He came because we couldn’t save ourselves. Through his mercy, grace, love and goodness that he shows towards his elect he saves us.
Main Point #1: “Pride is the root of sin”
Statement:
Lets lay the groundwork for what we are about to talk about:
When we sin, pride is the cause. We are putting ourselves over God every single time.
We are defying God’s law because we want something that is outside of it that we think will make us happier.
The definition of pride is: a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements,
Why did Eve sin? What was the serpent saying to her? What is the potential gain from that moment?
Prove
In Genesis 3:1-5
“In the day that you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
If Eve eats from the tree what does she gain? She gains a level of pleasure and satisfaction that puts her on the same playing field as God.
The focus on this is I (x3). Her deep desire for this completely numbed the feeling of what are the potential consequences of my actions.
We saw the Pride of self in Romans 1 and Romans 2 over the past few weeks.
I want control over myself, I know what makes me happy now,
It goes against what God’s will is, but I want what I want.
In 2 Samuel we see pride take control with David and Bathsheba. David wanted to have this woman and did whatever he needed to to make it happen. He put his sinful desires over God’s will for adultery, sexual immorality, etc.
David’s sinful desires and his pride numbed his love and his desire to glorify God.
If there is one example talking about how a slave of Christ should act it is Paul.
His humility (Opposite of Pride)
His patience (Opposite of Pride)
His commitment (Opposite of Pride)
Paul starts off Romans: “Slave of Christ” (Romans 1:1)
How many people today are going to proudly say I am a slave to someone other than myself?
This is literally the definition of humility, meekness
Paul wants to go visit Rome, but doesn’t because God had not opened that door for him to be successful there so he waits and prays.
How many of you would put off a trip like this? I’d have a hard time. To have the discernment to do something like that.
Today, on social media everybody wants to have the blue checkmark, or put founder, CEO or whatever in their social media bio because their pride is telling them you need to have the appearance of somebody that has power, authority, and success.
Flowers in texts
Proverbs 8:13
13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Proverbs 16:18
18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
323 PRIDE (see also SELF-ESTEEM)
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.P
ROVERBS 16:18
1 All man’s troubles emanate from his pride.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The Cross (1986)
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Matthew 23:12
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
God does not need us, we are all image bearers and each have special gifts given by God, but he does not need us. For us to act the way we do at times to not even nonbelievers, but believers. Is unacceptable. Nobody here is better than the next. If you have give your ife to Christ he loves you and you are one of his, but he does not need you.
Illustrations
It’s funny because as I am growing more and more in Christ I can feel the level of pridefulness drop. Before I was saved and even as a new believer I was a prideful person. I wanted to be successful my way and I wanted to let people know that. I wanted to get credit for the success that was happening to me. It was me, me, me, but by God’s grace and mercy I can honestly say that is not the case nearly as much anymore. People’s sanctification looks different from person to person. One’s sanctification can be more on the outside: Not drinking, sexual immorality or whatever else and some is more internal. A lot of success that I had as a young adult were in things that I did by “myself” I won that race becasue I was willing to do 1000km weeks on the bike in the mountains in Georgia during spring break while friends were in Florida enjoying the sun and beach, but now as I have grown in Christ that has completely switched. Were I am at and what is happening in my heart, my life, has nothing to do with me because I couldn’t have picked for this to happen. All the good is God’s doing.
Apply or Confront
We are to live in this world, but not be part of this world. The Lord has called his elect to not submit to the worldly norms that tear us away from Him. We are to be strong in our faith, but also humble to know that without God the Father and Christ the son we would not have a future. Out pride, ego and self righteousness is a wedge in our relationship with the Lord.
Main Point #2: “We are willfully conquered by sin”
Statement
We do not sin because we are forced to do so. We aren’t being forced to listen, watch or take part in activities that we know that break God’s law. Activities that we know don’t glorify God, but what we learned in the last main point: There is a part of us that doesn’t care. We willfully sin. We are willfully conquered by our sin and sin nature. The heart does what the heart wants to do. What the heart says the mouth follows, BUT believer’s have a regenerated heart that changed everything about us.
Prove
For me it is hard to think of a sin that I am forcing myself to commit.
Like how does that happen?
Example: Ben cutting tires in the parking lot
We sin because we want to sin.
We have a dark heart as an unbeliever
One truth about that is without faith in Christ we will always be willfully conquered by sin.
It is only because of Christ that we have the strength to fight that temptation of putting something between us and God.
That is what sin is. It is something that we put between us and God
BUT…
Because I am saved I have the strength to turn from myself and look towards Christ becasue I have a regenerated heart.
We see in:
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
What we once enjoyed, delighted in and got excited about is not the same.
Conversations with friends and family for me is huge because I want to talk about God and Christ to them. I want to be a witness to them, but they do not understand because they do not have a regenerated heart.
We are no longer a slave to ourselves anymore.
We don’t enjoy the same activities as we once did. I am sure Tim, Liz and Sarah can attest to this.
We need to realize that we can’t flirt with sin and temptation
We will lose the battle
It’s like a gambling addict walking through a casino
It’s like an alcholic going to a bar
It is not smart to put yourself in a situation where there is a heightened chance of sin and temptation.
Flowers in texts
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
We can see very clearly the Eve wasn’t forced against her will to eat the forbidden tree. The serpent wasn’t threatening her, Adam wasn’t pressuring her to eat from the fruit and vice versa. She did it willfully and same with Adam. He ate from the tree willfully.
We need to understand that. As we look at sin in todays world it sounds like it is sin is something that we are interanlly forced to do and that is not the case.
The heart wants what the heart wants.
Lets look at Judas in John 13:21–30
After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
Here are a number of things that we are talking about today: Pride and willfulness to sin
Judas wanted to have authority in this world, he thought that Christ’s reign was going to come righ then and there and he was going to be a seat with him on the throne. The second he realized that wasn’t the case he decided to say: “you know what I think I can get something out of this for myself if I betray Christ. He wasn’t forced to do it. His heart said “you can get ahead right now if you do this” and he said “Okay”.
God knows the heart of every man. He knows if given the opportunity to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior or deny him what every person that has ever existed would do.
Illustrations
Apply or Confront
How can we combat this? Willfully sin,
1. Pray, Pray that God softens your heart and gives you the strength to fight the temptation
2. Don’t put yourself in those spots to be tempted. It is funny how Satan works and once he finds a trend where you sin he will abuse that and continue to pursue that weakness. Whether that is being home by yourself with a computer, on your phone at night, whatever and wherever it may be. If you find yourself constantly being tempted and falling into sin in a certain scenario or circumstance take yourself out of the equation.
Main Point #3: “Only through Christ can we restore our relationship with God The Father”
Statement
There is nothing that we can do that can bring us any kind of salvation. We have taught this exhaustively, but it is so important to a believer and that is we are totally depraved. It is only through the faith in Christ that, given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit that salvation is possible.
Prove
We talked about this for the last couple of weeks. When Adam and Eve sinned what happened? We fell…. from the top all the way down to the bottom. We lost everything and becasue we lost everything we endure:
1. Spiritual death:
Before our conversion, we lived in rebellion against God, transgressing his law and sinning against him.
Living death: We walk around in our sin
Lived to the standards of a world in rebellion against God.
“You were” dead in your transgressions
We live in a general chaos created by sin.
Before we believed the gospel, we experienced a living death in the way of the life that we pursued
The focus on these verses is to emphasize the sinfulness of the readers’ condition prior to their conversion.
“Walked” in their transgressions
2. Physical death:
A result of sin that we don’t really talk about is our physical death. When God created Adam he was not supposed to experience a physical death. That is the result of sin and the fallen world. Yes, in Genesis 2:17 God says: “you will surely die” and taking it at face value what do we get from it? Physical death,but also spiritual and eternal death is implied. It is not immediate physical death, but it is immediate spiritual and eternal death.
3. Eternal death:
What is the quality of our eternal life. Is it in Heaven with God or in Hell with Satan.
Forgiveness is a cancellation of a debt
What is the debt that we owe? A perfect, obedient life and it is not possible for anybody to repay that debt except for Christ. Who for God’s true elect that debt was paid once we comem to faith in Christ.
We would not deny ourselves if it weren’t for Christ.
Jesus said in Luke 9:23: “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Self Denial is a common message in Christ’s teaching to His disciples.
This is not a reclusive denial, but one of willingness to obey His commandments, serve one another, and suffer (perhaps even die).
As we see today, there are very few that want to deny their wants, deny what will give them that fast satisfaction. The world is full of people that talk a big game, but when pressed like the parable of the sower will falter and walk away from God.
Luke 5:24 (ESV)
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We have to turn to Christ and trust in him with the entirety of our hearts. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and we will receive the forgiveness of sin
The debt that we owe to God is paid off.
How great of a feeling is that? Knowing that at that moment you are free from sin.
Free from the debt that is owed by us to God.
Have the strength to fight that sin in your life.
***(Illustration on the board about coming to saving faith)***
Flowers in texts
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
Illustrations:
When I was 25,26 years old I felt this pull to Christ. I knew I wanted to know him more, but the only way I thought and knew was going to the Catholic Church…
Apply to their lives:
You are not alone
Take yourself out of the equation in scenarios that lead to temptation and sin
——