The Effects Of Sin (What Makes Sin So Bad)
22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The problem I earnestly believe is that we do not know how powerful sin is. We do not know, we have no idea, it’s a term we toss around and we talk about it in a gleeful tone. But let me say something to you, we have under estimated its power, its grip, and its hold on us. I submit to you, that we have been bamboozled, fool, brain washed, beguiled, and the little chain is still holding us.
The New Testament talks about sin, the Greek word for sin is( harmartia), in classical Greek it simply means, missing the mark, it is an archers term, that an archer use to describe when he missed his target. In the New Testament however, it is more than really missing the mark. It is not basically an act, but it is a condition, that produces the act. IAM simply saying that it is not the act of doing something wrong, it is a state or a condition that the individual is in that produces many, many acts. Let me just tell you why we are still brain washed by sin, first of all, the bible points out to us (harmartia) that sin basically number one is universal.
I. SIN IS UNIVERSAL
There is no one who can escape sin, this is not a disease that affects some people. It is a condition that effects every person in the human race. And that’s why you can’t point fingers at people, because all of us are infected. That’s why the bible says as it is written, there is none righteous. And one of the problems we have is that, you see we like to compare ourselves with somebody else, and use them as a standard to make ourselves feel good, but the other person is not the standard, the standard is God. And all of us by our mere nature, have fallen short of God’s Glory. Sin is so universal that :
it affects the criminal as well as the policeman,
it affects the doctor and the patience,
it effects the lawyer and his client,
it affects, it bother the educated and uneducated, both rich and the poor, have and have not, and it also effects the clergy and the sinners, it effects all of us.
B.B. King sings a song, that “Everybody Lies A Little”. He even says Lucille lies a little, and that’s his guitar. And he says that because he plays Lucille. IAM saying to you, first of all, that sin is universal, so none of us have a right earnestly to feel superior to anybody else, because if it were not for the grace of God, all of us would still be where we are.
II. WE ARE UNDER SIN
The second thing I want to say about sin and what makes it so bad. Is that the bible talks about in Gal. 3:23 that we are under sin. 23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Now the word under (hupo) (hupo harmartia) is in the accusative case in the Greek, and it
suggest that it has the dominance over us, that it exercises authority over us, that it has dominion over us, and we are subject to its power. The ideal is simply this, a child is under the authority of its parents, an army is under the authority of its commanding officer, you and I are under the authority of the laws of Texas. Because we live in Texas, we are subject to the laws of this state. Sin is so powerful we are under sin, our condition was that we were under the dominance, under the control, under the authority of sin, and everything sin told us to do we had to do it because we lived in a state of sin.
Now in the state of sin everything you do as a sinner is sinful. You see if you have not accepted Christ, it simply mean this, if you come to church and sing , you sing tho as a sinner, even if you lift your hands up in praise, you lift your hands up in praise as a sinner, until you move from the sin state. What IAM saying is that everything you do now, you do it in Texas because you live in the state of Texas. As a person who has not received Jesus Christ you live in the state of sin.
III. SIN RULES OVER US
Thirdly in Romans 5:21 sin is said to rule over us. 21That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sin is like a king, and we are like his subjects, he tell us what to do. You see, in slavery
whether you wanted to do something or not, didn’t matter because the master ruled over you, and whatever the master said, that’s what you did because he ruled over you.
And that’s what Paul says, he says its something about sin in Romans 7:14 14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. He said, every time I desire to do good, its not that I don’t want to do good, but every time I desire to do good, evil is always present. And the things I want to do, I don’t do them. And the things I don’t want to do, I find myself doing them. Now why is that, because sin rules over us with an iron fist. Now check this out, you were born in sin. You see, if you were born in slavery and all you know is slavery, the longer you live in slavery, I don’t care what they sign on paper, talking about you are free, it was still a thing of the mind where you had to be free in your mind.
Not only did it rule over us, but Romans 6:4 says (4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.) it lord over us, and that means that it had complete possession of, that is to own it out right, that is that sin owned us. We were sins play toy, what ever sin wanted done, we found ourselves doing it. You see when you say lord over, you are saying that someone has complete authority .
Romans 7:23 (23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members). Paul is saying that sin took us captive. That is that we were prisoners of war, if you talk to any Vietnam veteran, they will tell you that the enemy could do what ever they wanted to do to you and you couldn’t do anything about it.
In the book of Mark, if you notice the man in the tomb, the text says that he cut himself, screened all night long, did unusually cruel things to himself, because he was a prisoner of war that Satan lorded over, ruled over, and caused him to mess up himself. That’s why people throw their babies away, because they are being lorded over by the devil.
Another thing the says that sin dwelt in us. That word dwelt (oikos)(house) to live in to set up resident, a house guest.
You see sin is not some external power, it has penetrate the fabric of our being, it lives, its at home in us.
Take the heart, if the heart valves are clogged up, because the heart sends the blood, the food and all the nutrients, through the blood to the difference parts of our body. Sin dwelt in us, now if it is in us, it has messed up my heart. Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. If the heart is messed up then sin flows everywhere, and everywhere that sin flows it messes me up. It messes my eyes up so I don’t see right, it messes my hands up so I do right, it messes my feet up so I don’t walk right, it messes with my head so I don’t thing right. It contaminate the hold person. That why the bible says that my mouth is an open seplchre( 9For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.). I don’t want to talk about people but I do it anyway.
Sin has an hardness effect, then it causes death, because it separate you from God. It blinds
your mind, dulls your intellect.
Everything Satan has done, Christ has alleviated it, every poison that sin has inflicted me with, I’ve got to know that Christ has moved.
First of all, Christ has forgiven me, (aphiemi) sent my sins away, and the ideal is that of the day of atonement.
Secondly, He imputed righteous on my account, and now it reads in good and regular standing with GOD.
Thirdly, He covered my sin ( door post with blood), Jesus Christ has covered my sins.
Fourthly, I have been saved (rescued) and He canceled hell’s contract.