(*) How Sin Destroys Us

IN THE BEGINNING… HOW SIN CAME INTO THE WORLD.  (Satan still use the same strategy on us today!)

1.      God wants to be with us.  GOD WALKING AMONG US IS THE FIRST KEY.

a.      Genesis 3: God strolled in the Garden of Eden and called out to Man, “where are you?”  He was intimately present with Man and Woman, married and united; and God was in face-to-face relationship with them. 

b.      Leviticus 26:11-12: I will live among you, I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.

c.      John 14:23: All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.

2.      Nature of Man = Genesis 2: God formed man from dirt before any grass or shrubs started growing on the ground.  The whole earth was fed by underground springs and a river, not rain.  After that, God planted a garden in Eden toward the East, and put Man in it to work and manage it.  Man also named all the living things.  After that, God started growing trees for man to look at and eat.  God commanded man not to disobey Him and sin.  All the animals eat grass at this point.

3.      Nature of Woman = Genesis 2: God said it is not good for man to be alone.  He created a ‘helper or companion.’  He first formed animals and birds from dirt, but nothing satisfied Man.  So, He put the man to sleep and took his rib and made Woman and presented her to the Man.  Woman was made from Man.

4.      The fall of Man and Woman= Genesis 3: Satan’s victory

a.      First, the set-up: he rephrased God’s commands to the Woman, “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”

b.      Second, the human engagement: the Woman responded exactly as God had told the Man.

c.      Third, the temptation: the serpent directly contradicts God by saying, “You won’t die.  God knows that he moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on.  You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”

d.      Fourth, the disobedience and introduction of sin: She ate and gave to the husband and he ate.

e.      Fifth, the divorce: they now blame each other and blamed the serpent for their own disobedience and are now out of worship and fellowship with God.  They can no longer have perfect face-to-face communion with God.  Man now has to labor for food and survive in the wilderness in which God created him.  Woman now has to labor with pain in child birth and she will be under her husband’s rule.  Man was punished for listening to his wife and not the LORD.

5.      God still provide for Man and Woman after their sin.  Out of love, God killed (first time animal was killed) animal and made leather clothing for them.  And, He locked them out of the Garden of Eden, so they cannot eat from the Tree of Life and “be like God” and be out of fellowship with God forever.

WHAT DOES SIN MEAN IN TODAY’S WORLD?

1.      WE ARE ALL CAPABLE OF GREAT EVIL.  Aren’t  you disgusted when learning about the Nazis, Saddam Hussein, drug cartels, Pol Pot of Khmer Rough, Manchurian massacre of Chinese by the Japanese, wrongful encampment of Japanese US citizens during WWII in America, Maoists terrorist groups, tribal incest and cannibalism, various religious terrorist groups, religious extremists “homicide bombing”…   What about sex slavery of children and women? What about sick man who imprison young girls to physically and sexually abuse them?  What about terrorists bombing buses full of girls/women pursuing education in Pakistan?  What about people kidnapping and dismembering them so they can mail them back in pieces in Northern Africa?  What about the rampant violence against women in all continents?  What about the killing of millions of unborn children?  Haven’t you been the subject of racial/ethnic or religious persecution?

a.      Well, the truth is that we are all capable of those things!  You said how?!  Well, look at the research.  Students can continue to give painful electric shocking when they were commanded to do so.  In a study experiment, 2 groups of students were studied.  One group was to be prisoners and the other prison guards.  Student prison guards become absolutely brutal and started to torture their student prisoners.

2.      What are Signs and Symptoms of Sin?

a.      Extreme dissatisfaction and boredom.  Nothing is ever good enough.  We complain about everything.  This ‘extreme thirst’ causes us to desperately seek ‘solutions’ to quench it.  We are preoccupied with ‘solving our problems’ that we stopped looking to God for solutions.  We started to think that God is no longer helping us, that is why we are in this terrible situation.   This causes us to question and to not trust God.

b.      We become disillusioned: Character Assassination of God: We start to think, “God doesn’t really have our best intentions in mind.”  Which leads to, “We cannot trust God to come through, so we have to trust ourselves.”  “I have to be in control.”  “I determine my own destiny.”

c.      Disobedience: we start to do things even though we know they contradict God.  That’s what happens when we are left to our own devices.  Even if we have best intentions in mind, our warring sinful nature wins most of the time and we end up struggling a lot with trying to do the right thing until we just completely succumb to just floating with the random ocean waves and committing evil without a righteous fight.

d.      We become devoured by sin.  The evil one is like a beast, seeking, and hunting to devour our soul for dessert.  The devil is very hungry for our souls.  Satan doesn’t want to spend eternity alone in the burning thirst.  He has already been defeated.  He is now focusing on bringing as many people to hell with him as possible.

3.      What is Hell?

a.      Hell is eternity without God.  It is an eternal unquenchable thirst for God.  Just like the Seraphim bite causes extreme fever and unquenchable thirst and result in a ‘burning death,’ hell is an eternal state of ‘burning and unquenchable thirst.’  This thirst is a thirst for God’s presence… yet there is no God to relieve it.  A place full of extreme dissatisfaction, extreme boredom, and extreme disillusionment.

4.      What is Heaven?

a.      Heaven is a place filled with God’s glory.  He is the light of the world. 

b.      Heaven is described in the book of Revelation to be a place built by precious gem stones and metals.  Gates of giant pearl.  Streets of gold.

c.      However, think about this…  God is so full of glory and might and love, that even the most precious things on this earth is like dirt in heaven!!! 

5.      God’s Remedy

a.      First, God knows that our natures are mostly too strong for us to control.  We cannot make good decisions all the time.  So, His Holy Spirit continues to prompt us to make the right decisions, all the time, regardless if we listen or not.  He never gives up on us.  He is not like us, He never forgets.  He continues to orchestrate our lives, our every step, and all the situations around us to help us overcome.  He utilizes all the suffering from our disobedience to remind us to trust him again and He strengthens us in our needs and to encourage us to repent.

b.      Second, God shows us His provision for healing and restoration.  Just like Moses lifted up the serpent, Christ is lifted up.  When we fix our eye to Christ lifted up and repent, we are saved from eternal death.  Jesus said to the prostitute at the well in John 4:14, if you drink of the water I give you, you will never thirst again.  It becomes a refreshing bubbling spring from within to give eternal life.  He is the living water that ends all thirst.  CHRIST’S REDEMPTION IS THE SECOND KEY.

c.      Third, God awaits on us to fix our eyes on Him again and to repent with our hearts and to make a change in our life.

d.      Fourth, once we repent, He completely restores us.