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.
