The Power of Sin
Missio Dei • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsThe curse of sin and death came through Adam and plagues the world today
Notes
Transcript
Announcements
Gospel for everyday life
If you want to be a part of this study please let me know
I have five copies and I can order more
If you are going to join us, you have to read and come to the meetings on Wednesdays
We are starting a new series today titled: “The Mission of God”
And what I want us to see over the next six weeks is God’s Mission unfolding from Genesis to Revelation.
God has a plan and a purpose in everything that He does and He also has a plan for the church and for the individual believer.
The purpose of this series is so that we can see God’s mission, His unfolding plan, and get on board with it.
God is missional (meaning He has a mission He is accomplishing
Our mission must be God’s mission
And we must have a mission or are not a church
“The Church exists by mission, just as fire exists by burning. Where there is no mission, there is no Church; and where there is neither Church nor mission, there is no faith”
- Emil Brunner
What would you think the mission of God is?
Answer: His mission is to save all those who will believe in Him
God’s mission is to reconcile the world to Himself
Why does God need to reconcile the world to Him?
Answer: Because if man dies in his sin he will spend eternity in hell
Today is going to be different. If it doesn’t work out then we will change it. But I don’t us to get routine. I want our church services to be effective. And I think getting people more engaged will make our coming together more effective.
This is what I need from you today:
TO TALK
Share your experiences
Share you knowledge and beliefs
Ask questions
What we are going to focus on this morning is the power of sin. How sin came into the world, what sin does to the world, and what God is doing about this problem.
GOD’S PERFECT CREATION
Gen 1:31 “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
This was life after God created it
Good means pleasing. Creation was pleasing to God
ABSOLUTELY PERFECT
This is where our world is headed is headed back to. Genesis 1-2 paints us a picture of a perfect world. Revelation 21-22 (the last two chapters in the Bible paints us a picture of a perfect world. Everything in between is about God’s mission to get the world back to its perfect state.
GOD GAVE FREEDOM TO MANKIND
Gen 2:15-17 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
God gave Adam a choice
Question: Why do you think God gave Adam a choice?
Because without choice there can be no true love.
Without a choice Adam would have been a robot.
God does not want to have a relationship with robots. He wants genuine relationships with people who choose to follow Him, not because they have to, but because they want to.
Application
Adam’s choice is the same choice given to us today. It’s a choice to obey the commands of God out of our love for God. It’s the freedom to obey or disobey. And it is a personal choice that each one of us must choose. There is no middle ground, we either choose to obey His commands or we choose to ignore them. And the consequences are greater than we could ever fathom.
THE FALL OF MANKIND
Gen 3:1-8 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
This is what we call, “The fall”
From this point forward the human race is tainted
And we cannot understand everything that happened in this event, but Paul gives us the theological implications and much greater understanding
TURN TO ROM 5
Rom 5:12-14 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
What do you see in verse 12 that is significant?
sin entered the world
death came through sin
death spread to all men
because all sinned
2. When Adam disobeyed God in the garden, a powerful force entered into the world. And it dominated
the entire human race from that point forward.
By dominating the human race meaning it controls the human race.
Paul says that every human being is a slave to sin (v 6)
Sin is a power that has enslaved the human race
Application
What do you think it means to be a slave to sin? (Think about a salve/master relationship)
A slave must obey his master
A slave must serve His master
A slaves future is determined by his master
We are either slaves to sin or we are slaves to Christ
Rom 6:18 “and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
There is no in between
To not serve sin means we serve Christ, and to not serve Christ means we still serve sin
Everyone who is enslaved to sin is in bondage. They are in a prison that they cannot free themselves. They do not know the way out, nor are they even aware that they are living as slaves in this world.
When I witness to people many of them say they are Christians
I often ask them if they are serving God
I get all kinds of answers such as:
“I’m nice to people”
“I serve people food”
“I serve people”
“I’m a good person”
What would you say being a slave to Christ looks like?
Doing God’s will in your life
It means also being a witness for Him
Contributing to the church body with your spiritual gifts, time, and resources
When Adam disobeyed God, sin entered the world His disobedience to God imputed a sinful nature to the entire human race.
What do you think it means to have a sinful nature or be a slave to sin
People choose to sin
And people live their lives characterized by disobedience to God’s commands.
Even God’s chosen race, who were given the Old Testament law, were unable to obey the commandments because of this controlling influence of sin.
How is that manifested in our world today?
People live sinfully
With their mouths, with their hands and feet, and with their eyes
People do not follow God
Sin is the enemy of the human race
Sin is responsible for death (Rom. 5:12),
Sin is responsible for man’s hostility towards God (8:7),
And sin is man’s biggest problem
Mankind has done amazing things over the past 6,000 years
We can grow and provide food for years ahead of time
We can travel around the world in hours (we’ve even been to the moon)
We can do heart transplants and even revive people who are clinically dead
But we cannot do anything for our sin
We cannot remove it
We cannot over power it
We cannot free ourselves from it
This begins the mission of God
It is freeing mankind from the power of sin
It is breaking the curse of sin that was brought into this world through Adam
What Paul does is compare Adam to Jesus
What Adam did to what Jesus did
Adam’s results to Jesus’ results
Read verses 15-19 and from these verses see if you tell me exactly how Jesus breaks the power of sin
Rom 5:15-19 “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (v 18-19) So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”
The only hope for this lost and dying world is to receive the life-giving power of Jesus Christ
It was the disobedience of Adam that introduced the power of sin AND IT IS the obedience of Jesus that reverses the curse and brings freedom to all men (5:19).
The power of sin was broken when God sent his Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin” (8:3).
To break the power of sin, Jesus had to be incarnated into human flesh and become an offering for sin, therefore condemning sin in human flesh, and providing a way for believers to be reconciled to God and freed from the reign of sin.
The only way to break the curse of sin was through a sinless sacrifice in human flesh who would be obedient to death and provide the blood atonement for all those who place their faith in him (Rom. 3:25).
This one act of obedience that opened the era to a new reigning power in Christ where sin and death are defeated completely by the grace of God.
Turn back to Gen 3:15
Gen 3:14-15 “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Does anyone know what these verses are referring to?
Who is the serpent?
Who is the woman?
This is God’s curse upon the serpent
And notice that God’s curse to the serpent is final destruction. (He will crush his head)
Verse 15 is the first time the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented in the Scriptures
It is a promise that the Seed of the woman will defeat the enemy
It is a promise of restoration for Creation
It is the hope for man to break free from the power of sin and be saved from its consequences
Review
We have seen God’s perfect world in Creation
We have seen Adam’s transgression
We read Paul’s commentary on how this one transgression impacted the entire world
And here we see God’s promise of redemption
What would you say God’s mission is at this point?
It is bringing His Son into the world to die for sin
It is reconciling man to Himself through Jesus Christ
Some take aways
2 Cor 4:4 “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
What do you think these verses mean?
There is a spiritual war for the soul
This world is under Satan’s dominion
The enemy blinds the mind of the unbelieving
People must understand the gospel to accept it
Matt 13:14-15 “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.”
We must pray that God will open minds and hearts to understand the gospel
Only God can open people’s hearts
Prayer is essential to fulfilling God’s mission
There are only two kinds of people in this world
There are either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ
No one falls in the middle, nor is there even a middle area
To not be a slave to Christ is to be salve to sin
To not be slave to sin means we are slaves to Christ
We have the freedom to choose
God gave us the freedom of choice
No one makes us choose God…we must willingly choose Him and serve Him
This is part of God’s Mission…to allow men a way to be freed from the curse of sin and death