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Transcript
For better or worse, cell phones have completely changed our lives in the last 30 years. Now we all walk around with computers in our pockets that have access to the world’s library of information, both invaluable and useless. Relying on a cell phone nets us many great experiences, such as dropped calls. Has everyone had the privilege of dropping calls? Out here in Western Oklahoma there are many dead zones where you don’t get reception at all and dropping calls is expected.
Verizon Wireless used to have commercials about a guy that was walking around saying, “Can you hear me now?” as he was trying to get good signal. I always hated those commercials because they were too real! They would bring up all sorts of memories of walking around the room, holding my phone in the air, and saying, “Can you hear me? Are you there?”
I remember having to find a pay phone to call home, and as convenient as cell phones are I would almost prefer the days of the pay phone again. The point is this: when you have a connection with someone on a call, often times you are mid-sentence in an important, meaningful conversation, and it isn’t good to have that connection disrupted and cut off.
As bad as cell phone dead zones are, they don’t even compare to the worst kind of dead zone a person can experience. The spiritual dead zone. Sin is the ultimate dead zone because it caused us to lose the most important connection. The connection with our Creator. Thankfully, God restored our connection through Jesus…
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Last time we met we kicked off a new series called “Life in 6 Words.” God. Our. Sins. Paying. Everyone. Life. These words form an acrostic that spell out the “GOSPEL”, and each week we will be unpacking a powerful statement built on each of these words. We started with “G” - “God created us to be with Him.” We were created in the image of God, for the glory of God, and designed to have a complete, uninterrupted connection with Him. Then, like a cell phone dead zone, the dead zone of sin disrupted our connection. We were cut off. There was now a separation.
This week we are talking about the bad news, that “Our sins separate us from God.” Today we will be looking at a lot of scripture, so have your pens warmed up, your phone’s camera open, or download today’s bulletin. However you prefer to take notes, there will be plenty today. Let’s jump right in with the first truth about sin. The first thought is the same as today’s message subtitle…
Our sins separate us from God.
Our sins separate us from God.
Everything begins in Genesis. The Garden of Eden represented the personal presence of God. According to verse 8 of chapter 2, God Himself planted this garden. It was His patch of Paradise in a perfect world, until the humans He created sinned. When they sinned, He kicked them out and they were cut off from His presence…
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Why does sin separate us from God? First, and at it’s most basic level…
Sin breaks God’s commands
When Adam and Eve sinned, there was only one command. They had total freedom to enjoy everything around them, but the one tree was off limits…
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
When they partook of the forbidden tree they broke God’s command. Throughout scripture we see true love for God being tested. Jesus’ love was tested in the wilderness three times by Satan, and His love did NOT fail the test. Adam and Eve’s love was tested ONCE in the garden and that’s all that it took for them to fail the test. The purpose of the 10 commandments is to test humanity, which we will talk more about next week, but listen to how Paul sums up the law to the Romans…
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Jesus sums up the ten commandments with what has been nicknamed “The Great Commandment”… Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and might and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Romans shows us that, just like Adam and Eve, we fail the “love God/love others” test. Sin breaks God’s commands. Sin also…
Sin attacks God’s character
The serpent tempted Eve by questioning God’s Word and creating doubt in her mind. Satan lied by distorting God’s Word…
1 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’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 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.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The serpent told her a half-truth, twisting God’s Word. They would become like God in that they would know the difference between good and evil, but all of mankind would suffer the consequences of being separated from God. A spiritual death. He used this lie to attack God’s character by implying that God was holding something back from Adam and Eve that they needed.
They bought into Satan’s lie and shared in the attack on God’s character. How often to we fall for the enemy’s lies? When we do we participate in the attack on God’s character. Sin is not passive, it is active rebellion. It is telling God that our way is better than His. Joseph understood this in Genesis 39:9, when tempted by Potiphar’s wife he responded, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”
When David was confronted about his sin with Bathsheba he understood this and in Psalm 51:3-4 he said…
3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
Sin breaks God’s commands, it attacks God’s character, and it…
Sin misses God’s mark
God’s mark is perfection, and we all miss it. Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin is actually an archer term that means “to miss the mark.” In the ancient Greek culture when archers would shoot and miss the bull’s eye the spotters would call out “Hamartia!” which means the archer missed the bull’s eye!
God’s mark is the dead center of the bull’s eye. Each arrow splitting the last. There is no room in our lives to miss the mark even once by the tiniest millimeter. God demands complete perfection because He is COMPLETELY PERFECT! That is why Isaiah freaked out when he was standing before the presence of God who is “holy, holy, holy.” In terror he cried, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
What is true of Isaiah is true of everyone. Apart from Christ we would come apart at the seams in the presence of this holy, holy, holy God! Adam and Eve broke God’s command, attacked God’s character, and missed God’s mark. Here’s how…
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
The enemy tempted her flesh and she saw that the tree was good for food. He tempted her eyes and she saw that it was beautiful. He tempted her pride and she desired the wisdom she could have. He uses the same methods to tempt us today. In fact, John gives us this warning about temptation from the world…
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
What are some of the temptations that you face today? The enemy wants you to break God’s commands, attack God’s character, and miss God’s mark. He will tempt your eyes, your flesh, and your pride. Ironically, I believe that one of his most powerful tools is the cell phone. Have you ever noticed how disconnected from life people are when they are staring at their phones? If you are connected to your phone you are more likely to disconnect from God.
Things like online porn used to be a big problem for young men, can you imagine the struggle young men face today with a computer in their pocket, always connected to the internet? Maybe it’s gossip or pride on social media. Maybe it isn’t even related to the phone, but it’s anger or bitterness. Whatever sin the enemy tempts you with, it is a direct assault on God, violating His character and missing the mark.
Our sin separates us from God. The second truth about our sin is that it…
Our sins separate us from who we were created to be.
Our sins separate us from who we were created to be.
As we already discussed, God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowing good and bad because they would “surely die.” That is exactly what happened. Humanity encountered death in three ways. There was an immediate spiritual death, a future physical death, and an impending eternal death.
Sin kills us spiritually.
They suffered an immediate spiritual death
Ephesians 2:1-2
They would suffer a future physical death
Genesis 5:5
Without God’s intervention, they would have suffered an impending eternal death
Revelation 14:10-11
We don’t become sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. We all have a sinful nature, which means spiritual death. Let’s take a look at the referenced verse in Ephesians…
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Born into the world, following the course of the world, and dead in the failure to hit the mark. Sin kills us spiritually. Adam and Eve died spiritually on the spot as a result of sin. They would also suffer a future physical death…
5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Without God’s intervention, the ultimate death consequence of sin is eternal. We can’t simply avoid sin and earn our way back into God’s presence. That is essentially the same thing Adam and Eve did when they decided to do things their way instead of the way God laid out for them. God is the only one capable of hitting His mark, therefore He sent Jesus to intervene for us. Without Jesus we would be completely dead in our sin.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Sin kills us spiritually.
It also destroys our innocence.
When Adam and Eve missed the mark, they lost their innocence. This is when humanity became self-aware and self-obsessed…
Genesis 3:7 (ESV)
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…
It impacts how we view ourselves.
Genesis 3:7 (ESV)
7 … And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Shame entered the world because of sin and caused Adam and Eve to hide. Today we don’t hide behind fig leaves, but we still hide behind images we construct of ourselves. Social media, accomplishments, hobbies, friendships, religion, a good name, or whatever.
In an article entitled, “Shame: A Concealed, Contagious, and Dangerous Emotion” in Psychology Today, Dr. Mary C. Lamia wrote this about shame…
“As a self-conscious emotion, shame informs us of an internal state of inadequacy, unworthiness, dishonor, regret, or disconnection… Given that shame can lead us to feel as though our whole self is flawed, bad, or subject to exclusion, it motivates us to hide or to do something to save face. So it is no wonder that shame avoidance can lead to withdrawal or to addictions that attempt to mask its impact.”
-“Shame: A Concealed, Contagious, and Dangerous Emotion” by Dr. Mary C. Lamia
Ultimately, Sin forces us to hide from our source of joy.
We were not made to be out of sync with our Creator, but sin gets us out of sync with Him. Now, instead of finding joy in God and in His presence, we hide and avoid Him…
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
Mankind’s first attempt at works salvation. The attempt to cover one’s own sin. God knew all along and it broke His heart. It breaks His heart when we sin because our sin separates us from God and from who we were made to be. The third thing our sin does is separate us from each other…
Our sins separate us from each other.
Our sins separate us from each other.
We can be like Adam and Eve and play the blame game. In fact, we often do blame Adam and Eve. Especially Eve. Why not? Adam did! Eve blamed the serpent, Adam blamed Eve. Adam even blamed God! But it doesn’t change the fact that Adam and Eve were held responsible for their own sins and we are held responsible for our own sins as well.
It wasn’t just Adam and Eve. In the next chapter, Cain kills Abel out of jealousy. Look at all of this crazy family drama sin has created. Marriages that are a mess, families that are filled with strife, relationships that become more centered on conflict than communication. It is all a result of how sin separates us from each other.
But thank God for the cross! Before sin entered the equation, God had a plan to deal with it and allow us to have true love for Him by choosing Him through our own free will. In verse 15, He tells the serpent…
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
And then in verse 21 He says…
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
These verses are speaking of Jesus who would crush the enemy and cover over our sins. Jesus made a way. Adam and Eve couldn’t cover their own sins and we can’t cover ours. God made “garments of skin” to clothe Adam and Eve, implying that an animal had to be sacrificed to cover them. Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the sacrifice for OUR sins when He died on the cross for us.
As believers, even though we have been saved from the penalty of sin, we must still deal properly with sin here on this earth and rely on the presence of Christ to overcome the power of sin. The main problem with sin is that it broke our relationship with God. Although that relationship has been restored in Christ, it can still daily affect our relationship with the Father.
John says that instead of following Adam and Eve’s example of trying to hide their sin from God, we should confess and allow God to cleanse us…
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It’s a matter of a child approaching a loving Father and saying “I’m sorry.” It is a relationship like a husband and wife. When Amy and I got married, a union was formed that is never meant to be broken, but it takes daily commitment and communion to grow in that relationship, and to love each other in the way we should. It’s not a perfect relationship, but a progressing relationship.
Is the Holy Spirit dealing with you about sin in your life right now? Don’t follow Adam and Eve’s lead by deceiving yourself into thinking you have no sin or the sin in your life doesn’t matter. Instead, reach out to God and let Him take away your shame. Let Him bring peace and joy into your life.
pray
