Just to recap ‘Sin (Part 2)’…

Sin is anything that goes against God’s written Word and God’s spoken Word.  If we are a truly, born again, Spirit filled believers we have a new Master – Jesus.  Sin is no longer our master.  The power of sin is broken in our lives and we are called to a life of obedience in Jesus.  Jesus has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to live this life of power and victory over sin.

Sin (Part 3) – Displaying God’s Power and Glory!

Now I am thinking to myself, how could I have such a title?  I mean, am I suggesting that we should sin more so that God’s grace can be displayed more?  No! – this is a nonsense (Paul deals with this type of thinking in Romans 6).  What I am suggesting is, whether we like it or not, our lives are on display to God and to others.  Each one of us is a light on a hill [Matt 5:14-15].  Now if we are truly born of the Holy Spirit and Jesus is our Master then we will have the power and the victory to display God’s glory through our lives by the choices that we make.

To sin or not to sin? – this is the question

In Genesis chapter 4 for have the story of Cain and Abel.  If you remember, Abel’s offering was acceptable to the Lord but Cain’s offering was not.  Instead of Cain examining himself he became angry and bitter towards Abel (and killed him).  This is what the Lord said to Cain as he sat in his temptation…

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” [Gen 4:6-7]

Let me make this clear,

Sin is crouching at OUR door but we must master it

Listen to what James says about sin…

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. [James 1:13-15]

Are we tempted by God?  No way!  Are we tempted by Satan?  Ah – what an interesting point!  Yes, we can be tempted by Satan but Satan is a single being and is not omnipresent so normally we would be tempted by the Satanic influences of this world.  But consider the verses above in James “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed”. These influences tap into our own evil desires.  We cannot say if we sin that “the Devil made me do it” or, if we remember the story of Adam and Eve’s sin, blame shift.

“The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”  13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” [Gen 3:12-13]

Each of us are responsible for the attitudes of our hearts and the ‘birth of sin’ in our lives

Just before Adam and Eve made their excuses to God I want to bring up something interesting in the story.  Let’s read Genesis 3:6-7…

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Sin appeals to our senses and our self centred sinful nature

For Eve the fruit looked good for food and was pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom.  Eve was also justifying her actions.

Looks good, feels good, tastes good

Many people try to justify their sin by their senses.  Take adultery for example, looks good, feels good, tastes good.  Take homosexuality, looks good, feels good, tastes good.  Take drugs and alcohol, looks good, feel good, tastes good.  Take the sin of revenge, looks good, feels good, tastes good.  Take the sin of gossipping, looks good, feels good, tastes good.  And on and on.

There is a certain amount of evil, sensual pleasure otherwise the battle against sin would be a no brainer.  Sin appears enjoyable and the sinner justifies the sin.

Let me state something…

God is not going to change the taste of sin!

Rom 7:5-6 says:

5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature,  the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

If you are waiting for God to change the taste of sin you will be waiting a hell of a long time.  But, if on the other hand, you submit your heart and life to Him, throwing yourself at the mercy of God in repentance, there is hope for you.

Say to yourself…

Today, am I going to display God’s power and glory in my life?

or am I going to

‘Glorify’ the power of sin and the fruit of death in my life today

THIS CHOICE IS UP TO US!

If you are a born again believer,

You have the power to choose the fruit of death or the fruit of life!

Now if you don’t believe you have the power to choose you have believed a lie of the enemy and you make a mockery of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I believe your Word.  I submit my life to your power and authority achieved for me through the cross.  I no longer want to sow into the fruit of death and sin in my life.  Forgive me Lord that I have allowed the power of the enemy into my life.  I renounce my evil ways and I am truly sorry for my sin.  Come live in me Lord and transform me from the inside out.  I want to display your power and your glory in my life.  Holy Spirit, I receive you.  Come live in me and give me a new heart.  Lord I want to live for your glory and your Kingdom, transform me, I never want to serve sin and death again, in Jesus name, Amen

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I am thinking (again) this morning about sin and…

Why don’t we hear more preaching about sin?

Well, as I look back over my blog ‘hits’, I think I have answered my own question.  You see, my blog hits went from 70 down to 2 yesterday for the subject of sin.  I think I am onto something here.  I don’t think sin is a very popular subject.  Perhaps it is no longer ‘politically correct’ to tell people they are sinners deserving of Hell and to repent of their evil ways (he said sarcastically).  I mean who has the right to do that anyway?  Surely I have not reached perfection and I have no right highlighting other people’s sin.  Who has the right to preach this message except Jesus himself.  And there is the point, would the genuinely anoited preacher who preaches the uncompomised Word of God in power please stand up?  Could 2 Tim 4:3-4 be coming true before our very eyes?.

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

So, getting back to the subject, what is sin?
For a while there I used to define sin as something that hurts you and/or hurts someone else. But, although this is a reasonable definition, it has holes.  A better definition is that…

Sin is anything that goes against the Word of God

The Word of God being defined as God’s written Word (the Bible) but also the Word of God that directly speaks to us.  These are called the Logos (written Word) and the Rhema (spoken Word – God directly speaking to us).  So, to put it simply…

If God says ‘don’t do it’, ‘DON’T DO IT!”

There is no discussion or debate.  God and I aren’t equal debators.  My wisdom is nothing compared to God’s wisdom.  It is not necessary for me to have full understanding of ‘why’ before I obey Eg: “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” [Gen 2:17] .  The Word of God commands my full attention and obedience so that…

Whatever God says, goes!

Further Examples:
If I go out and steal my neighbour’s whipper snipper and punch him in the nose when he tries to stop me I am guilty of a number of sins as defined in the written Word of God.

Also, if God is speaking to me about going to visit my neighbour to bless him and I continually and deliberately ignore Him then I am guilty of the sin of disobedience for not obeying the spoken Word of God that is in my heart.

BOTH are disobedience against the Word of God

Now the former appears a more severe sin than the later but who can judge?  Perhaps the later has more severe eternal consequences.

Who is your Master?

Now here is a very important question.  Let’s look at some Words of Jesus.  Jesus, speaking to the ‘Jews who believed’ and the Pharisees, replied,

“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” [John 8:34-36]

Free from what?  Sinning ?  No!  We are not yet perfect.  Then, free from what?

Free from the power of sin!

For the true, born again believer sin no longer has a hold on them/us.

Sin is no longer our master!

Have a listen to these verses from Romans 6:5-14:

5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,  that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

The truth is, IF we are truly born again

we have a new Master

who has conquered sin and conquered death

JESUS!

and as disciples of Jesus we are to fully obey Him.

Jesus said in John 15:14:

“You are my friends IF you do what I command”

We cling onto Jesus with all of our strength knowing that we…

9 are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, IF the Spirit of God lives in you. And IF anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But IF Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And IF the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For IF you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but IF by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. [Rom 8:9-14]

Prayer:
Father, forgive me for not obeying you fully.  Forgive me for not making you my Master fully.  You are more important to me than any sin in my life.  I believe your Word that sin no longer has a hold on my life.  Forgive me of my sin, I don’t want to do that again.  May your power fully manifest in my life as I fully submit to you.  In Jesus name, Amen.

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We don’t hear a lot of preaching about sin these days and yet…

It is because of OUR sin that Jesus died on that cross

I  believe, we need to hear a lot more preaching about sin so that we hear a lot more preaching about the God’s solution to sin.

It is because of OUR sin that we needed a Saviour

You see, having an understanding of the seriousness and foulness of our sin is basic and essential to having an understanding of the graciousness of the cross and a true and correct understanding of salvation.  Sin and God’s solution to sin go together.

It is because of OUR sin that we have the cross

The offensiveness of the cross makes no sense unless we understand the offensiveness of our sin.

The horror and offense of the cross highlights…

How extremely foul and offensive OUR sin is in the sight of a Holy God

God hates sin and his anger and wrath are poured out against those who sin.

My friend…

We are in desperate need of a Saviour

The penalty for OUR sin is death but the good news is, by the grace of God…

Jesus bore the penalty for OUR sin on that cross!

Now I’m not sure why we don’t hear a lot more preaching about sin.   Maybe telling people they are sinners is a little offensive nowadays and we don’t want to offend anyone do we? (he said sarcastically)  But…

How is anyone going to understand the cross if they don’t understand the foulness and offense of their sin?

The truth be known…

The message of the gospel has always been offensive

It is offensive to those who don’t want to hear it (ie: those who are perishing) but very, very sweet to those who accept it.

The Bible tells us…

All of us are guilty of sin

“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Rom 3:23]

and all of us need to come humbly towards our gracious Heavenly Father in…

REPENTANCE

Turning away from the stench of sin and turning towards a Holy and Righteous God.

In the light of a Holy God we see the stench and the wickedness of our sin

In the light of a Holy God we see our desperate need for the saviour

In the light of a Holy God we understand the truth of the cross

In the light of a Holy God we repent and turn away from our sin and turn towards Him

In the light of a Holy God we give our life to the One who saved us from the penalty of our sins

Thank you Jesus!

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