Chaplain’s Corner – July 24, 2007
Rev.
Rich Hines
What Sin Really Is
This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ
as their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain or a gospel
minister in a jail, prison or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission –
in the
All Scripture quotes are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of
the Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a text, any
deviation from the NKJV text is placed within parenthesis signs (). These usually occur as direct translations
from the original languages, or as notes from the
original setting to help apply the text to today’s culture.
ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or
to make a comment about a biblical text, or emphasize a statement.
Last month I stressed
how we mustn’t get soft and man-centered in our gospel presentations and why
you must make SIN the issue of why your listeners need Jesus. I said, “Sin is an important issue to
God.”
This month I want to
go a bit further and give you a biblical way of defining and describing sin to
the inmates and residents, and even to the correctional staff you are there to
help.
If you’re upholding
the biblical gospel, someone should be asking you, “What is sin?”
The New Testament
word translated “SIN” actually means “missing the mark.” It pictures falling short of what we should
be. Further, God defines this word in 1
John 3:4, where He says:
4 Whoever commits sin
also commits lawlessness, and SIN IS LAWLESSNESS.
So Sin is a breaking of God’s law.
But sin is not only
an outward action, it is also an
attitude.
This is true because
the decision to do what we want in direct knowledgeable disobedience of God’s
law, or else against our once sensitive conscience, is rebellion against
God. A good example of this is found in
Psalm 2:2,3 -
2 The kings of the
earth set themselves (as if in battle array), and the rulers take counsel
together, AGAINST the LORD and AGAINST His Anointed (lit. His Messiah-Christ)
saying,
3 “Let us BREAK THEIR
BONDS IN PIECES, AND CAST AWAY THEIR CORDS (i.e. control) FROM US.”
So, SIN IS AN ATTITUDE OF REBELLION that expresses itself in
rebellious acts AGAINST GOD.
Lucifer, who became
Satan (the Adversary) was the first rebel sinner – and
it was his pride that was
manifested in his rebellion. Note it in
Isaiah 14:12-14,
12 “How
you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground,
you who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I WILL ascend into heaven, I WILL exalt
my throne ABOVE the stars of God; I WILL also sit on the mount of the
congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
14 I
WILL ascend above the heights of the clouds, I WILL be like the Most High.’ ”
Those five “I WILL”
statements show Lucifer’s – Satan’s pride.
Further we see it was Satan’s pride that kept on encouraging this
angelic rebellion in Ezekiel 28:2, 12-15, 17
2 …Thus
says the Lord GOD: “Because your (Satan’s) heart is lifted up, and you say ‘I am
a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the midst of the seas,' …”
12 …Thus
says the Lord GOD: “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect
in beauty.
13 "You were in
Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering; the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, turquoise and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was
prepared for you on the day you were created.
14 “You were the
anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy
15
"You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, TILL
INIQUITY WAS FOUND IN YOU."
…
17 “Your
heart was lifted up because of your
beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast
you to the ground,…”
A good Bible teacher
I know has observed, “In one way or another PRIDE is connected to every
act of sin.” When you really stop and
think about that, you have to agree it’s true.
Whether we realize it or not, when we sin, we put ourselves above God in
our life. We are in effect saying to
God, “You’re not the boss of me!” or, "You're not Lord in MY LIFE, I
am!"
So Sin really is
an attempt on our part to dethrone God and make ourselves our own god. Therefore all sin is, in one sense, IDOLATRY.
Another way to say
this is that SIN is COMMITMENT TO SELF, rather than to God. This is
explicitly spelled out in Isaiah 53:6, where it says:
6 All we like sheep have GONE ASTRAY; WE HAVE TURNED, EVERY ONE, TO HIS OWN
WAY; …
One of the most
important things to realize from Scripture and, in turn, to teach inmates and
residents about sin is that IT IS AN INTERNAL, HEART ISSUE.
This is important to
teach because so much man-made religion only deals with the outward appearance
of moral failures or sins. Cleaning up
the outside never really gets to the source of the infection. Jesus taught on the worthlessness of
self-reformation. Notice what He said in
Matthew 12:43-45,
43 “When an unclean
spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds
none.
44 Then he says, ‘I
will return to my house (the body of the formerly possessed man) from which I
came.’ And when he comes, he finds it
empty, swept, and put in order. (In other words, he finds the man has cleaned
up his act externally)
45 Then he goes and
takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and
dwell there; AND THE LAST STATE OF THAT MAN IS WORSE THAN THE FIRST. …”
So self-reformation
never gets to the root of the sin problem – which is in the heart. Listen to, and, in turn, teach your flock
Genesis 6:5 – where the word “wickedness” is used as a synonym for sinfulness.
5 Then the LORD saw
that the wickedness (or evil, from the idea of rottenness) of man was
great in the earth and that EVERY INTENT OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART
WAS ONLY EVIL (the same basic word as “wickedness”) CONTINUALLY.
Further, Jesus taught
His disciples in Matthew 15:17-20,
17 “Do
you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and
is eliminated?
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth COME FROM THE HEART, and they defile a man.
19 FOR OUT OF THE
HEART PROCEED EVIL THOUGHTS, MURDERS, ADULTERIES, FORNICATIONS, THEFTS,
FALSE WITNESS, BLASPHEMIES.
20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does
not defile a man.”
Again, SIN IS AN
INTERNAL PROBLEM.
Sin is often brazen because, in time, the sinner truly comes to
believe the lie that what they are doing is not wrong! Note this in Proverbs 30:20,
20 This is the way of
an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, (which is to say poetically,
she commits the act and covers it up) and says: “I have done no wickedness.”
Here in this verse
the adulteress knows she has committed an act that at least some people would
say was bad or wrong. The very fact that
she "wipes her mouth" shows she is trying to cover up what she
did. This has to mean she knows she did
it, but her statement "I have done no wickedness," shows where sin
has taken her - it has totally numbed her conscience.
For many inmates,
especially repeat offenders, this is a
very real issue. Scripture speaks
of a lessening conscience as sin is pursued.
Note this in 1 Timothy 4:2 –
2 … speaking lies in
hypocrisy, HAVING THEIR OWN CONSCIENCE SEARED WITH A HOT IRON.
The context of that
verse is dangerous false teachers, bringing to believers what really is satanic
teaching. The point of verse 2 is that
they do this PRETENDING TO BE BRINGING MESSAGES FROM GOD, instead in hypocrisy
they are bringing deceiving doctrines from demons! THEY HAVE NO SENSE THAT THIS
IS WRONG, because their naturally sensitive conscience has long been rendered
insensitive.
Many repeat offenders
can easily lie about their illegal actions without even a tinge of guilt that
they’re lying – because they’ve done it for so long.
This leads to another
thing about sin I want to bring out.
Unattended to, sin always increases and blinds as it continues. 1 John 2:9-11
brings this out. In this text, the
commandment of God to love our brothers is the issue.
9 He who says he is
in the light, (which is to claim he’s walking in a right relationship with God
through Christ) AND HATES (literally - regularly, continuously hates) HIS
BROTHER, IS IN DARKNESS UNTIL NOW.
10 He who loves his
brother abides (remains and continues) in the light, and there is no cause of
stumbling in him.
11 But he who
(literally, continually) hates his brother IS IN DARKNESS AND (literally -
continually) WALKS IN DARKNESS, AND DOES NOT KNOW WHERE HE IS GOING, because
the darkness HAS (once and for all) BLINDED HIS EYES.
That’s a powerful
statement. One of the tests of true
discipleship and salvation is whether or not the professing Christian REALLY
LOVES their brothers. The pattern of the
actual life is being looked at.
Anyone continually
sinning by not loving proves they are a fake.
Such a one yet needs God’s true salvation to change them. They still need to truly come to Christ and
be united to Him, by faith. If they had
been truly born of God, they would as a result regularly love their
brethren.
This text is not
talking about an angry hateful expression or a specific time of a lack of love
that is here or there. It’s talking
about continual sin. To do this is to
continually walk in darkness, and the text says that darkness gets TO A POINT
WHERE IT FINALLY, ONCE AND FOR ALL, BLINDS THE SINNER!
Sin’s promises are
all lies. Temptation to sin appears to
say “Do this and you will have fun, or fulfillment, or satisfaction.” In the end, sin really only brings sorrow,
confusion and death. Death is separation
from God or from the physical body
Teach all these
things from the Bible to the inmates and residents:
Sin is a breaking of
God’s law.
Sin is an attitude of
rebellion against God.
Sin is linked to
pride and seeks to un-god God and deify man.
Sin is commitment to
self and is therefore a form of idolatry.
Sin is an internal
heart issue.
Sin can become brazen
and be committed guiltlessly.
Sin renders the
conscience ineffective.
Sin blinds and kills
as it continues unabated.
As you explain these
things about sin, you should always plan to end with God’s solution to our
personal sin. It’s always and ONLY in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:1,2 – written to believers, Literally, “born ones.”
1 My little children,
these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous (One).
2 And He himself is the propitiation for our sins, …
Explain “Advocate”
and “Propitiation” to your inmates and residents.
The word translated
advocate literally is “one called alongside to help.” It was also a technical term for an attorney
for the defense. But Jesus is not like a
slick high paid lying attorney that finds some loophole in the law to get his
client off. There are no loopholes in
God’s law. He gets the true believer
“off” because He served their sentence FOR THEM, IN THEIR PLACE.
In doing so, He and
He alone PROPITIATED God. To propitiate
is to appease and satisfy the wrath of the offended party so that the offended
one is soothed. God’s holy righteous
wrath against sin is fully satisfied by the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He and He alone is the Propitiator. Since God’s wrath against the believing
sinner is thus appeased, He then can show righteous mercy and forgive the
guilty sinner WHO BELIEVES.
In human terms there
is no way to reconcile the fairness of Jesus, the Sinless One, bearing the sins
of guilty, wicked, sinful rebels and thereby propitiating God’s righteous
wrath. The only explanation God ever gives
is that it was due to His love for sinners.
1 John 4:9,10
9 In this the love of
God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for
our sins.
1 John 3:5,8,16
5 And you know that
He (Jesus Christ) was manifested (appeared) to take away our sins, and in Him
there is no sin.
8 … For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the
devil. (the
works of the devil - Satan, are connected to our sinning)
16 By this we know love, because He (Jesus Christ)
laid down His life for us.
As you explain it was
the love of God that caused Christ to become the believing sinner’s propitiation,
also stress His SUBSTITUTIONARY death.
It’s the heart of the Gospel.
Rich Hines