The Doctrine of Sin

Genesis 5:28-6:22 The Doctrine of Sin Introduction: Genesis chapter 3 records for us the fall of humanity into sin. Yet it does not reveal to us how far man has fallen. The rest of the Bible goes on to show that Mankind in it’s fallen sinful nature does not seek after God but by nature wanders from God, and suppresses the truth of God. We see this very clearly as we move on into Genesis chapter 4-6 where mankind (depicted by Cain and his descendants) move further into autonomy, setting themselves up as their own god and clearly disregarding and defying Yahweh and his will for humanity.The awful development of sin in human history is seen very clearly in the line of Cain. As we saw last week that the first murder is committed and perhaps the first death of a human being. Also in Genesis 4 we have recorded for us the first departure from God's plan and ideal for marriage. Polygamy is introduced to us by Cain’s descendant Lamech. Also in chapter 4 we see the spread of violence through revenge. Lamech boasts for killing a young man (a youth) for striking him. As man increases in knowledge and develop's as a human socially and economically, He also grows in his knowledge of evil, we also see that man grows in his autonomy, he does not want God and he does not need God. Genesis 6 continues to develop for us the theme of the spread of sin and violence. Man's wickedness is seen in these terms: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." - every, only, continually - a more emphatic statement of the wickedness of the human heart is hardly conceivable. The term imagination is closer to action than the english suggests: it is derived from the potter's verb 'to form', and implies design or purpose. God formed man from the ground, and man imitates God in that he also forms (creates), yet everything he forms is only evil continually. 1. The Doctrine of Sin. a. Although we were introduced to sin in chapter 3 of Genesis it isn’t really until later in Genesis that we see the devastating corruption of sin upon humanity. b. I think it’s very easy for us to see through the Biblical account or by simply looking at the world around us that Adam’s sin affected all of humanity. c. Definition: Sin is anything (whether in thoughts, actions or attitudes) that does not express or conform to the holy character of God as expressed in his moral law. 2. Sin is moral evil. a. Sin is moral evil (murder, theft, etc) as opposed to natural evil like cancer or sickness. b. Moral evil is rebellion against God, and Moral evil is what brought natural evil into the world. 3. Sin is always and ultimately related to God. a. Sin has devastating societal, relational, and physical ramifications, and yet the the central problem of sin is that it incurs the Holy wrath of God. i. David and Bathsheeba ii. Psalm 51 David declares, “Against you and you alone have I sinned.” iii. It does not diminish David's sin against, Bathsheeba, Uriah, or the people of Israel, but rather that it is God that David has ultimately offended and it is God alone that he must finally answer to. 1. Therefore all sin is a personal attack on the character and ordinances of God. 4. Sin is breaking God's law. a. Sins of omission (not doing what we should) b. Sins of commission (doing what we should not do) 5. Sin is rooted deep in our very nature. a. "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. - Eph 2:1-3 b. The biblical teaching on sin is that it is a part of our nature and was passed on to us through our ancestor Adam. Adam represented the whole of humanity before God and when he sinned he brought all of us with him into sin and iniquity. i. David said, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” ii. The biblical teaching isn’t that we are sinners because we sin and do bad things, but that we sin and do evil things because we are sinners, from the very beginning. 1. Sinful actions simply reveal the condition of our depraved heart. a. “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” - Matt 15:19 c. Does this mean that nothing we do whether acts of charity, self sacrifice, kindness, the love of a mother or a father is good? i. The Bible affirms that man has done and is capable of doing good even great good. ii. The biblical teaching of man being unable to produce any good refers to the fact that no righteous deed done by man can give him a righteous standing before God. Therefore there is no saving righteous act that mankind can perform to receive pardon from God. 1. Not only that but God demands not only outward conformity to his law but inward conformity as well. The heart must be pure. 6. Sin has brought about a guilty standing before God and a corrupted condition in all humans. a. Romans 3:9-18 "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” i. This means that every one of us must give an account before God the righteous judge, and as we stand before his judgment we find that we are found guilty of falling short of the standard that he set. 1. Our sin invites/ invokes the wrath of God. 7. Man’s diagnosis of sinful humanity: "When Lamech (the descendant of Seth not Cain) had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” a. Lamech sees the need for relief, he sees the need for restoration concerning the curse, but he does not realize how radical the need is. b. "Man wants relief from the pain and suffering of sin, God wants the removal of sin.” Man longs for temporal relief, God must have full redemption, things must be set right. c. This is what we were talking about last week, Sin is crouching intellectually. We think things like, I’m not a sinner, or it’s not a sin issue, it’s a character flaw or a chemical imbalance. That’s because sin is seeking to hide itself so that we don’t see how desperate our need is for salvation. 8. God’s diagnosis of sinful humanity: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” Genesis 6:5-7 a. Man deals with sin only topically. Man thinks that sin is simply a defect caused by his surrounding, or upbringing, or family gene. b. The Bible sees sin as something much deeper, much more serious and much more destructive. c. "The Hopes that Lamech set on his son (Noah) were realized in a manner far different from that which he had imagined." d. Our need for healing, forgiveness, repairing, cleansing, is far greater than we realize. We must have a total removal of all our filth and sin and we find this in baptism. (not water baptism) i. Baptism is exactly what we find in the flood account. It is nothing less than a washing and cleansing away of the filth and dirt of the earth. In chapter 8-9 when the waters of the flood have been removed we see a new beginning has begun. ii. Just as the sin of the world before the flood called for the righteous judgment of God and a complete cleansing, so also our own sin calls for the same. iii. God must judge our sin, and he must remove it, he must cleanse us if we are to have a relationship with him. iv. This judgment, and cleansing is provided and offered to us in the work of Jesus Christ. 1. The Bible says that God has laid on Christ the judgment for our sin, and that through believing in his work of salvation on the cross, we are baptized into his death, we are washed, we are cleansed by him, and raised to a new life. a. Therefore, If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away (removed in the flood of judgment); behold the new has come. Conclusion: 1. Let’s walk in the new life that God has given us through Jesus Christ. a. Romans 6:3-4;12-14 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. - “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” 2. Let’s not be like Lamech who has a light view of sin and a shallow remedy for it. Whether in our own lives or in the lives of others. a. This is done by simply managing our sin, shifting it around, and not repenting of it. Let’s see sin biblically. If there is a sin issue in our lives it’s because the heart is not right before God, therefore we need God to cleanse our hearts and bring about new life in us - continual baptism. When the heart is made pure then purity will flow from our lives, rather than sin.