“The Problem of Sin” - Pt 2
Notes
Transcript
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; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.
13 Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips.
14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
17 and the path of peace they have not known.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.
20 For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
This morning, we continue our study of the problem of sin—namely, the devastation sin has caused and continues to cause both unbelievers and believers in Jesus Christ.
REVIEW:
I. THE NATURE OF SIN: “WHAT IS SIN?”
I. THE NATURE OF SIN: “WHAT IS SIN?”
Scripture gives a fourfold description: disobedience to the Law of God;
4 Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
…failure to do the right thing
17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
…violating your conscience;
23 But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.
…and failing to glorify God!
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
II. THE ORIGIN OF SIN: "WHERE DOES SIN COME FROM?"
II. THE ORIGIN OF SIN: "WHERE DOES SIN COME FROM?"
Satan was the first sinner!
14 You were an anointed guardian cherub, for I had appointed you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones.
15 From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you.
16 Through the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I expelled you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and banished you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
Satan is also the chief tempter to sin.
5 For this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing.
However, according to (Romans 5:12), through Adam’s willful disobedience, sin entered the human race!
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
LESSON:
III. THE RESULTS OF SIN: “WHAT DOES SIN DO?”
III. THE RESULTS OF SIN: “WHAT DOES SIN DO?”
The results of sin are two-fold: Depravity and Death!
A. SIN CAUSES DEPRAVITY!
A. SIN CAUSES DEPRAVITY!
One reason believers do not have victory over sin is they do not understand the corruptness of sin!
Until you acknowledge what sin does in your life, you will not even want the victory God has for you!
If you continue to assume you can handle things by yourself—that if you just try hard enough, you'll make it on your own, then you will NEVER experience victory.
Even if you are a Christian, my friend, you are still depraved. You have a sin nature that is rotten to its core and that nature will defeat you if you don't deal with it as the God says!
So, the path to victory must start with an understanding of what God says about depravity!
“How depraved am I?” – There are two results of humanity’s depravity:
1. MENTAL DARKNESS!
1. MENTAL DARKNESS!
17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.
19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.
There are three areas of your life have been affected:
a. Your THOUGHT LIFE.
a. Your THOUGHT LIFE.
According to the Bible, sin has caused such devastation that our thoughts are always wicked!
5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time,
21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
That's God's evaluation of our heart!
Personally, I find this evaluation true of my sinful heart, but I’m reluctant to believe this about others!
14 What is a mere human, that he should be pure, or one born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 If God puts no trust in his holy ones and the heavens are not pure in his sight,
16 how much less one who is revolting and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live; after that they go to the dead.
21 For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders,
10 “When you tell these people all these things, they will say to you, ‘Why has the Lord declared all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’
11 Then you will answer them, ‘Because your ancestors abandoned me—this is the Lord’s declaration—and followed other gods, served them, and bowed in worship to them. Indeed, they abandoned me and did not keep my instruction.
12 You did more evil than your ancestors. Look, each one of you was following the stubbornness of his evil heart, not obeying me.
13 So I will hurl you from this land into a land that you and your ancestors have not known. There you will worship other gods both day and night, for I will not grant you grace.’
9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?
Q: “Are you willing to agree with God about what He says about your thoughts?”
If you are, then you've taken the first step in conquering sin!
26 The one who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.
KEY LIFE LESSON: THE IMPORTANCE OF ACKNOWLEDGING SIN (and SINFULNESS)!
(1 John 1:7-10) – “confess” – ‘to say the same thing.’ If we refuse to admit our sinfulness (v.8), we may be deceiving ourselves about our salvation (v.10).
b. Your MOTIVES! – (Isaiah 64:6)
b. Your MOTIVES! – (Isaiah 64:6)
Our motives are so corrupted that we think their good when they're not! Even our very best acts fall short of the glory of God! You can disagree all you want, it doesn't change God's Word!
c. Your SPEECH! – (Proverbs 10:32)
c. Your SPEECH! – (Proverbs 10:32)
Apart from the grace of Christ nothing comes out of our mouth except what is perverted!
5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient,
7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them.
8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
A part of that “…old self” was and is corrupted speech!
Depravity is not just MENTAL DARKNESS...It is also:
2. MORAL HELPLESSNESS!
2. MORAL HELPLESSNESS!
I choose those words carefully, because I believe that we sometimes think that we are capable!
The Bible teaches that we are NOT capable! Part of our problem is that we don't recognize that fact and therefore, fail to see our need for the Lord!
We are morally helpless in at least three ways:
a. In our inability to do any good!
a. In our inability to do any good!
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; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.
13 Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips.
14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
17 and the path of peace they have not known.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
b. In our Inability to control sinful desires!
b. In our Inability to control sinful desires!
15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.
18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.
19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
c. In our Inability to respond to God and His Word!
c. In our Inability to respond to God and His Word!
19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.
21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
45 It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me—
It’s difficult to grasp, but even the ability to follow Christ is a gift from God!
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
B. SIN CAUSES DEATH!
B. SIN CAUSES DEATH!
There are three kinds of death sin causes:
1. PHYSICAL DEATH - Separation of body and spirit.
1. PHYSICAL DEATH - Separation of body and spirit.
2. SPIRITUAL DEATH - Separation from God.
2. SPIRITUAL DEATH - Separation from God.
2 But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.
Adam and Eve died spiritually the moment they ate of that fruit--even though they did not die physically for many more years!
If a person dies physically while they are still dead spiritually, they will experience the third kind of death, which is...
3. ETERNAL/SECOND DEATH - Eternal separation from God!
3. ETERNAL/SECOND DEATH - Eternal separation from God!
CONCLUSION: THE DELIVERANCE FROM SIN!
CONCLUSION: THE DELIVERANCE FROM SIN!
A. THE PENALTY OF SIN!
A. THE PENALTY OF SIN!
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“What is the remedy or answer?”
14 Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—
15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.
16 For it is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring.
17 Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
Christ paid the penalty!
B. THE PRACTICE OF SIN!
B. THE PRACTICE OF SIN!
1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
"How do I get victory over the sin in my life?"
There's only one answer: OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S WORD!
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word.
There is a war going on in our minds, and we have a choice to either renew our minds according to the Word or allow the world to continue to corrupt our thoughts!
C. THE PRESENCE OF SIN!
C. THE PRESENCE OF SIN!
20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
“Do you have this hope?”
