Reading: How Serious is Sin? (Video Slides)

How Serious is Sin?
by David Feddes

How serious is sin?

1.  Disobedience
2.  Disease
3.  Depravity
4.  Division
5.  Disaster
6.  Devilry
7.  Darkness
8.  Damnation
9.  Despair
10.  Debt   
11.  Distance
12.  Deadness

 
1. Disobedience

· Sin is failure to obey God’s law in our actions, attitude, or nature.

· “We have not obeyed his voice.” (Dan 9:14)

· Humanity’s head, Adam, disobeyed God.

Sin came into the world through one man… by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. (Rom 5:12-19)

Original sin (inherited sin):  we all inherit Adam’s guilty status and corrupt character.

· “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2, 5:6)

2. Disease

· Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers… The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. (Isaiah 1:4-5)

· How sick is your heart! (Ezekiel 16:30)

· It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. (Matt 9:12)

· Detecting disease

Feeling bad: conscience or trouble

Doctor’s diagnosis: God’s law in Scripture


3. Depravity

. The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. (Genesis 8:21)

• For we ourselves were once foolish,
disobedient, led astray, slaves to various
passions and pleasures, passing our days
in malice and envy, hated by others and
hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
• Total depravity: every part of me is tainted
and twisted by sin; no part is pure.

4. Division

• Division within a person: Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)
• Division among people:
* Blame game (Genesis 3:12-13)
* Racism: wall of hostility (Eph 2:14)

5. Disaster
• Cursed is the ground because of you.
(Genesis 3:17)
• The creation was subjected to futility…
bondage to corruption. (Romans 8:21)
• Disaster comes upon disaster (Ezekiel
7:26)

6. Devilry
• You are of your father the devil, and your will
is to do your father's desires. (John 8:44)
• Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of
the devil. (1 John 3:8)
• The whole world lies in the power of the evil
one. (1 John 5:19)
• … following the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons
of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:2)

7. Darkness
• The god of this world has blinded the minds of
the unbelievers. (2 Cor 4:4)
• the domain of darkness (Col 1:13)
• At one time you were darkness (Eph 5:8)
• People loved the darkness rather than the light
because their works were evil. (John 3:19)
• The natural person does not accept the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and
he is not able to understand them. (1 Cor 2:14)
• We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope
like those who have no eyes. (Isaiah 59:10)

8. Damnation
• Depart from me, you cursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. (Matthew 25:41)
• They will suffer the punishment of eternal
destruction, away from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of his might.
(2 Thess 1:9)
• If anyone's name was not found written
in the book of life, he was thrown into the
lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

9. Despair
• When the wicked dies, his hope will
perish. (Proverbs 11:7)
• Weak… ungodly… sinners… wrath…
enemies (Romans 5:6-10)
• having no hope and without God in the
world (Ephesians 2:11)
• who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13)

10. Debt
• When somebody sins, somebody pays.
• Truly no man can ransom another, or give to
God the price of his life, for the ransom of
their life is costly and can never suffice, that
he should live on forever and never see the
pit. (Psalm 49:7-9)
• Without the shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22)
• Debt of 10,000 talents (100 million days’
wages = about 3,500 lifetimes) plus interest
and additional debts (Matthew 18:24)

11. Distance
• Your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God. (Isaiah 59:2)
• There is no difference, for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans
3:23).
• Sin separates us from God by a distance far
greater than any ocean. We don’t need
swimming lessons; we need a ship.
• There’s no use comparing ourselves to
others or trying to save ourselves.

12. Deadness
• “dead in your transgressions and sins…
dead in our trespasses” (Eph 2:1,5).
• “dead in your trespasses” (Col. 2:13)
• A person “who lives for pleasure is dead
even while she lives.” (1 Timothy 5:6)
• Not everyone is equally decayed, but all are
equally dead in sin, apart from rebirth.

How serious is sin?
1. Disobedience
2. Disease
3. Depravity
4. Division
5. Disaster
6. Devilry
7. Darkness
8. Damnation
9. Despair
10. Debt
11. Distance
12. Deadness


Undoing the damage
1. Disobedience                                 Justification
2. Disease                                          Healing
3. Depravity                                       Sanctification
4. Division                                          Unity
5. Disaster                                          Re-creation
6. Devilry                                            Deliverance

Undoing the damage
7. Darkness                                       Illumination
8. Damnation                                     Salvation
9. Despair                                          Hope
10. Debt                                             Redemption
11. Distance                                       Reconciliation
12. Deadness                                     Regeneration