These are notes for my Bible study class on Sunday mornings at 9:45, a book called Downpour by James MacDonald. Last time the lesson was on holiness, and it was significant to point out that we need to know what holiness is, because God expects us to be holy (1 Peter 1:16).
Drop the umbrella:
We have an umbrella that keeps the showers of God’s blessings from reaching us, it is called sin. Sin is not in the neighborhood, or in the newspaper; it’s in the mirror. If you have ever asked the question of why you don’t feel as close to God as you used to, the answer is sin. You can study the Bible all day and serve faithfully in the church, but the bottom line is that you have to deal with sin; and deal with it God’s way.
We must take sin seriously because it brings God’s wrath (Romans 1:18). We fail to conform to God’s Word and His standard. Hamartia is the word for missing the mark or target. And missing it brings death (Romans 3:23).
The origin of sin goes back to the Garden of Eden; they chose their own way and did the one thing God told them not to do (Genesis 3:6-7). From then on we have passed on a sin nature to all mankind, like a genetic disease. This makes every unbeliever an enemy of God.
The extent of our sin:
We all are sinners, to claim anything else would be self-deceit. When we acknowledge it, we forget it is a slippery slope that leads to ruin. Sin intends to do much harm:
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Sin will pursue you (Genesis 4:7, 11, 12) by crouching at the door and desiring us.
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Sin will disappoint you (Hebrews 11:25) by bringing pleasure for only a short time.
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Sin will trip you up (Hebrews 12:1) by spotting your weakness and catching you off-guard.
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Sin will enslave you (Romans 6:16) by making you obey through addiction.
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Sin will expose you (Proverbs 28:13, Number 32:23) by bringing your secret sin into the open.
Sin is my choice:
There are no excuses like, everybody’s doing it, or it’s not that bad, or I haven’t hurt anyone. Sin suppresses the fact of God’s existence (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Theologians call this our God-consciousness. You’ve got to work hard to suppress the sense that somebody’s out there. He sees me and is keeping track. Sin is the attempt to push this sense down.
Your conscience accuses you; that internal alarm that knows right from wrong. No one can plead ignorance, God has made himself clearly seen (Romans 1:19), and He has written it on our hearts (Romans 2:14-15). Can you let your conscience be your guide? Nope!
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Your conscience is conditioned by what you know. The more you get into God’s Word, the more tender your conscience gets.
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Your conscience is conditioned by what you do. It is made tender by doing right and becomes calloused when you do wrong. It is possible to sear your conscience, and actually lose the capacity to feel pain (1 Timothy 4:2).
Creation shouts the existence of God (Psalm 14:1) so it is foolish to say there is no God. We are without excuse, and have no defense.
Sin is destroying your mind, causing you to think foolishly (Romans 1:21 – meaning pointless or in futility). Thinking becomes soft or logically unsound. When sin drives decisions, a lot of foolish thinking will follow. (See questions on p. 119 in the book). Sin so distorts our thinking that we begin to invent a god that will actually agree with us (Romans 1:22-23).
A slippery slope:
We often do not fully consider the consequences of lingering in sin; but must see the slippery slope that will cause us to tumble. The author mentions three broad categories of sin: pride, pleasure and priorities.
Pride is self-centered thinking, made up of three elements: position, prestige and power.
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Position – it focuses on thoughts of superiority in relation to others because of the role you have attained.
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Prestige – it has a consuming need for recognition, being watched by others and a desire for others to pat you on the back. It is dropping names and listing accomplishments.
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Power – it is an inappropriate use of influence, to force people to do something not in their best interest. Then taking pride in the ability to affect others this way.
Pleasure is not sinful, since God supplies things for us to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17). It becomes sin when we seek to pursue it at the wrong time, with the wrong person or in the wrong amount.
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Sex – it is out of control in our world today and has made serious headway in the church. It can seriously hurt and degrade like a bad cavity when out of the boundaries God has set.
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Substance abuse – it dulls the need to rely upon God, and it used to take off the edge or dull the pain of life. It keeps you from seeing how much you really need God. God wants you under His power and nothing else (1 Corinthians 6:12).
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Stuff – it is not wrong to have things; it is wrong when things have us (Psalm 62:10). Pursuing stuff in the wrong amount, at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons is sin.
Priorities describe the good that is left undone (James 4:17).
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Priority of personal care – it is not taking care of yourself. Since we belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) we are to care for ourselves. Overeating, failure to exercise, refusal to rest, etc. sound familiar?
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Priority of others – it is making relationships a priority, rather than closing up or withholding yourself from others, failure to forgive others (Ephesians 4:32) and failure to love.
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Priority of relationship with God – Only you can answer this: are you loving Christ with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Are you walking with God?
Heartwork:
Cultivate the discipline of calling your behavior that fails to keep God’s law what it really is, sin. We need to give God unlimited access and ful permission to shine His light into every dark corner of our souls. I will bring the handout on page 125 to class on Sunday.
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