Sermon Central
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Overcoming Sin
Contributed by Mark Roper on Nov 20, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Sin is nothing to play with. It has the strength to defeat you if you get too close to it with excessive confidence in your own strength.
Sin
Sin is more than wrong doing; it is wrong being,
Sin is nothing to play with. It has the strength to defeat you if you get too close to it with excessive confidence in your own strength.
A well-to-do man advertised for a chauffeur. Three applicants came. His first question was, "How close to the edge of a cliff can you drive without going over?" One man said, "A yard." Another said, "A foot." The third said, "I always try to keep as far away as possible." The third man got the job. He who underestimates the strength of an enemy is in danger of defeat.
John 8:34 KJV
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Heb 12:1 KJV
12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Sin is a riddle, a mystery, a reality that eludes total & complete definition and comprehension.
Perhaps we most often think of sin
1. As wrongdoing or transgression of God¡¦s law.
2. Sin includes a failure to do what is right.
3. But sin also offends people; it is violence and lovelessness toward other people
4. Sin ultimately is a rebellion against God.
5. Further, the Bible teaches that sin involves a condition in which the heart is corrupted and inclined toward evil.
Sin has four characteristics:
1. self-sufficiency instead of faith;
2. self-will instead of submission;
3. self-seeking instead of benevolence;
4. self-righteousness instead of humility.
The essence of sin is our claim to be ourselves.
Sin is sin no matter what people call it.
Abraham Lincoln once asked a deputation, "How many legs would a sheep have if it called his tail a leg?" The deputation promptly answered, "five." "No," said Lincoln, "it would not. It would have only four. Calling a tail a leg doesn¡¦t make it one."
Mans and God¡¦s difference over sin
Man calls sin an accident; God calls it an abomination.
Man calls sin a blunder; God calls it blindness.
Man calls sin a chance; God call it a choice.
Man calls sin a defect; God calls it a disease.
Man calls sin an error; God calls it enmity.
Man calls sin fascination; God calls it fatality.
Man calls sin infirmity; God calls it fatality.
Man calls sin infirmity; God calls it iniquity.
Man calls sin luxury; God calls it lawlessness.
Man calls sin a trifle; God calls it tragedy.
Man calls sin a mistake; God calls it madness.
Man calls sin a weakness; God calls it willfulness.
Nip sin in the bud! Otherwise, it will grow! "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit that they may add sin to sin" (Is. 30:1).
Sin is deceitful (Heb. 3:13). Sin¡¦s progression is one of its characteristics it seeks to conceal.
The "blessed man" of Psalm 1
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
(1) walketh not, (2) standeth not, and (3) sitteth not. Observe the progression.
That Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, and did not immediately move there, is illustrative of the progressiveness of sin.
Eve (1) heard the devil¡¦s lie, (2) believed the lie, and (3) obeyed it. Sin is progressive.
The prodigal son gradually went to the far country, which illustrates sin¡¦s progression.
Peter (1) first deserted the Lord, (2) later fraternized with the enemy, (3) then, denied the Lord, (4) afterwards committed perjury, and (5) finally, he cursed and blasphemed. Sin was progressive in his case.
Be not deceived, for sin is still progressive.
Social drinking can easily lead to alcoholism.
Dancing has been the first step in many cases leading to an ultimate destruction of one¡¦s virtue.
Missing the mid-week service can lead to missing the Sunday night service, then Sunday morning Bible school, then the Sunday morning worship service--yea, to complete apostasy.
