- Confession. Admit that you are a sinner who has fallen short of God’s standard. Confess your sin to Him and ask for forgiveness. He is faithful and just to forgive you.
- Prevention. Evaluate where you are most prone to give into temptation. Being tempted is not sin, but it can easily lead to sin. Draft some safeguards to help you avoid temptation in the first place.
- Accountability. Reach out to one or two believers (of the same gender) in whom you can confide. Talk through areas in which you are weak and ask them to hold you accountable and walk with you so that you will not fall.
Beyond Meat, the
plant-based meat alternative company, has announced a three-year partnership
with McDonald’s to become the “preferred supplier for the patty in the
McPlant.” Bill Gates is also bringing attention to plant-based meat
alternatives, suggesting that “all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic
beef” as part of the fight against climate change. Gates added, “You can get
used to the taste difference.”
We can “get used to”
many things when we forgo the original. A McPlant may taste a lot like a
hamburger, but once you take a bite of an all-beef McDonald’s Quarter Pounder,
the difference becomes clear. Whether you agree that giving up beef for the
sake of climate change is a reasonable decision, it is hard to deny that beef
is the taste-standard for hamburgers.
What does this have to
do with SIN?
We often measure our
actions and decisions against others, whom we think are setting the standard
for behavior. Our mistakes and poor decisions don’t seem that bad when we
compare them to the scandals in the news. However, politicians, celebrities,
and our neighbors aren’t the standard for our behavior; God is. When we stop
looking to God, we can “get used to” a lot of sins. But once we turn our focus
back to God, the difference becomes clear, and we fail to measure up.
The Point: We
are sinners, and on our own, we can do nothing about it.
The Passage: Isaiah
59:1-13
Isaiah 59:1-5
1 Indeed, the Lord’s
arm is not too weak to save, and his ear is not too deaf to hear. 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. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers,
with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongues mutter injustice. 4
No one makes claims justly; no one pleads honestly. They trust in empty and
worthless words; they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity. 5 They hatch
viper’s eggs and weave spider’s webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack
one open, and a viper is hatched.
What exactly is sin?
·
Sin is described in the Bible as transgression
of the law of God and rebellion against God. Sin had its beginning with Lucifer,
probably the most beautiful and powerful of the angels. Not content with his
position, he desired to be higher than God, and that was his downfall, the
beginning of sin. Renamed Satan, he brought sin to the human race in the Garden
of Eden, where he tempted Adam and Eve with the same enticement, “you shall be
like God.” Genesis 3 describes Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God and against
His command. Since that time, sin has been passed down through all the
generations of mankind and we, Adam’s descendants, have inherited sin from him.
Romans 5:12 tells us that through Adam sin entered the world, and so death was
passed on to all men because “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23).
·
Let’s not confuse sin simply with “bad things
we do.” Sin is so much deeper than that. Sin is what we do when we place our
desires and our agendas above God. It’s not “just a piece of fruit.” By eating
what God said not to eat, we are placing our small choice ahead of God, and to
place anything ahead of God is rebellion and mutiny. Sin puts everyone on a
level playing field. Since all rebellion is rebellion, we are all seen as
sinful people. No one can justify his or her sin by saying, “At least I’m not
as bad as that person.” Each of us has a sick heart set on rebellion against a
holy and perfect God.
1.
Our sin separates us from God
It’s as if there is a
huge chasm between where we are standing and where God is standing. There is
absolutely no way to be in God’s presence because of our sin. God is holy and
cannot allow sin into His presence.
How have you
experienced separation from God because of sin?
Isaiah 59:6-8
6 Their webs cannot
become clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their works
are sinful works, and violent acts are in their hands. 7 Their feet run after
evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts;
ruin and wretchedness are in their paths. 8 They have not known the path of
peace, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made their roads
crooked; no one who walks on them will know peace.
2.
Our sin can’t be covered up.
When we recognize our
sinful condition, and realize that God cannot allow sin into His presence, we
try to rationalize our actions. We try to cover up our sin— bury our sin—by
doing a bunch of good works. Our thinking is that if we do enough good works, volunteer
enough hours at a non-profit organization, or give enough money to charities
that all the good will outweigh all the bad. The problem is that God doesn’t
see things that way. Because of our sinful condition,
any works that we do are, by nature, sinful works. And God can see right
through our attempts to cover up our sin. He sees, and knows, that our hearts
are still sinful and bent toward sinful activity.
What are some common ways people try to cover over their sinfulness?
Isaiah 59:9-13
9 Therefore justice is
far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there
is darkness; for brightness, but we live in the night. 10 We grope along a wall
like the blind; we grope like those without eyes. We stumble at noon as though
it were twilight; we are like the dead among those who are healthy. 11 We all
growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions have multiplied
before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with
us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgression and
deception against the Lord, turning away from following our God, speaking
oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.
Isaiah was
writing to people who were spiritually dead, given over completely to
their addiction to sin. He described them as people who “grope like those
without eyes . . . stumble at noon as though it were twilight” (v. 10) and “growl
like bears and moan like doves.” Isaiah also told us why they were like this:
“our transgressions have multiplied before you” (v. 12). Instead of improving themselves
(as many people think they can do), the people’s sins were only growing and
multiplying. They couldn’t hide who they were. They were sinners and their sins
testified against them.
3.
Our sin needs a Savior
These
verses describe the despair that comes from a realization of our sin. That realization
leads us to groan aloud and mourn over our sinful condition. Verses 12 and 13
identify how our sin has multiplied before God. He sees it. We know it. Without God’s intervention, we are completely separated from
God and hopeless in our inability to resolve our sin issue on our own.
- The first step in deliverance from sin is
confession.
- As long as we are separated from God, salvation
is far off from us.
- God knows our sin; thus, it is useless to deny
it.
- No matter how it is expressed, our sin is
against the Lord; therefore, salvation comes only by returning in faith to Him
who has come to redeem us.
What do you do when you
feel overwhelmed by your sin nature?
Conclusion: The
bottom line is this: We are sinners, and on our own, we can do nothing about
it. That sounds like awful news—and it is. But look back at verse 1. The Lord
is not so weak that He cannot save us; He is not so deaf that He can’t hear our
cry of repentance. The good news is that God is always ready to welcome and
forgive the sinner who earnestly desires to change his or her ways. Redemption
is possible—but there is nothing we can do to earn it on our own.
READ: From
the very beginning, God told man what was right and wrong. To Adam in the
Garden, God said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you
must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat
of it you will surely die”. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, God
established His Law with them at Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments were not the
whole law, but a summary of all that God had to tell them. The entire books of
Leviticus and Deuteronomy are devoted to revealing to the Israelites God’s
laws. Jewish rabbis say that there are 613 laws in the Torah (Books of Moses).
Of those, 365 are in the “thou shalt not...” category.
What are some examples
of these sins? From the Ten Commandments we have false worship, idolatry,
misusing God’s name, violating the Sabbath, dishonoring parents, murder,
adultery, stealing, lying/libel, and coveting. In the Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew 5–7), Jesus took some of these same sins to a new level. Regarding
murder, Jesus said, “Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to
judgment.... But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of
hell” (Matthew 5:22). Regarding adultery, Jesus said, “Anyone who looks at a
woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew
5:28). In Galatians 5:19-21, we are told, “The acts of the sinful nature are
obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft;
hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,
factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did
before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Just these brief lists will give most people plenty of things to work on for a
lifetime. In addition to the various lists that can be found in Scripture, we
are told in 1 John 5:17 that “all wrongdoing is sin.” Not only does the Bible
tell us the things not to do, but in James 4:17, we are informed that anyone
“who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
When we try to compile
a list of sins, we find ourselves buried under the guilt of our own failures
because we discover that we have sinned far more than we realized. The
Scriptures inform us, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for
it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything
written in the Book of the Law’” (Galatians 3:10). While that statement might
seem self-defeating, it is actually the best news possible. Since we can never
fully keep God’s Law, there must be another answer, and it is found a few
verses later: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse
for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ He
redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the
Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of
the Spirit” (Galatians 3:13-14). The Law of God, or the lists of sins that we
find in the Bible, serve as a tutor to “lead us to Christ that we might be
justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).
