The Insanity Of Sin Romans 3:23 Romans 3:10 Psalms 14:1-4 Romans 1:28-32 Romans 6:14-16 Romans 6:19-22 Romans 6:23 Ephesians 2:1-10 2 Corinthians 9:15 01.11.19

THE INSANITY OF SIN

BREAD

²³ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:23 (NIV)

¹⁰ As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:10 (NIV)

¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. ² The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. ³ All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. ⁴ Will evildoers never learn?”  Psalm 14:1-4 (NIV)

²⁸ Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.  Romans 1:28-32 (NIV)

¹⁴ For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?  Romans 6:14-16 (NIV)

¹⁹ I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  Romans 6:19-22 (NIV)

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:23 (NIV)

¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:1-10 (NIV)

¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!  2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV)

BUTTER

“Satan woos us with pleasantness to seek our bondage (as if self wasn’t enough) and then bites us with guilt and shame.  Indeed, his desire is to entice us towards a conduct that would ruin us.  He is our enemy not our friend.  God, on the other hand, lovingly woos us from “the jaws of distress” - which is every form of sin and captivity holding us tightly, to seek our freedom.  Christ came to set us free.  We are not to be yoked again to slavery.  Make no mistake about it – sin harm’s.  Indeed, it is a death sentence.  Satan wants us to believe that God is holding out on us, that He does not have our best interest at heart while all the while, through the blood of Jesus, all God seeks to hold out on us is death and destruction.”  BHY

“Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.”  John Bunyan

“I remember two things:  that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”  John Newton

“The only fear a Christian should entertain is the fear of sin.  All other fears are from Satan sent to confuse and weaken us.  How often the Lord reiterated to His disciples, ‘Be not afraid!’”  Isobel Kuhn

“An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment.  How monstrous a thing is rebellion!  How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly!  My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself.  It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy – view it with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.”  C.H. Spurgeon

“No sin is small.”   Jeremy Taylor

“Measure your growth in grace by your sensitiveness to sin.”   Oswald Chambers

“Oh that I may be roused out of my slumber, and be watchful and ready against the coming of my Bridegroom...Even the wise virgins fell asleep.  Let this be a warning to me, O Lord.  Set thou a guard before my eyes, ears, and other faculties, lest the world again should enter through these avenues of the heart; if the spark be not speedily extinguished, it will soon break out into a flame:  thus sin is of a progressive nature, and its venom spreads very quickly and very wide, unless it be stopped and opposed in time.  Watch, therefore, over this unsteady heart of mine, O Thou Keeper of Israel; that as soon as it begins to wander from Thee, I may be alarmed to flee from sin as from a serpent.  Give me grace to look upon every hour as my last; so that being ever wisely upon my guard I may meet Thee with joy when my time is run out, whenever it shall please Thee to call me hence.”   K. H. Von Bogatzky

  

“A mouse was caught by its tail in a trap the other day, and the poor creature went on eating the cheese.  Many men are doing the same.  They know that they are guilty, and they dread their punishment, but they go on nibbling at their beloved sins.”  C. H. Spurgeon

“We make our choices and then our choices make us. Our everyday choices reveal what we really desire. The essence of sin is pride. The heart of sin is independence and the core of sin is demanding my own way instead of God’s.”  Pat Singleterry

“Sin is a living, breathing organism with will and intent seeking to destroy us.  It is referred to in the Bible as crouching at our door.  It is a roaring lion infecting and controlling natural man.  It is alive and well.”  Dr. Omar Hamada

“We must be aware of the various ways sin pulls us to wrong thoughts about God, righteousness, grace, ourselves and sin itself. Only the truth of God’s word and meditation in prayer can reveal the deceitfulness of sin.  Sin works against God. Sin will either deceive us into thinking God is a cruel taskmaster, or, if that will not work, will deceive us into thinking He is like a doting grandfather who really does not care what we do. Sin affects every Christian’s view of God and leads us to worship idols, figments of our own imaginations, and not the true God. Sin will deceive us concerning grace. We will either be deceived into thinking it is too good to be true, or we will buy into cheap grace and think that ethics are unimportant.”  Dr. Bob Flayhart

“Sin is a power in our life.  Let us fairly understand that it can only be met by another power.”  Henry Drummond

“Gracious souls cannot help but be grieved to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally [experientially], and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze.”  Charles H. Spurgeon

“Christians are rapidly losing sight of sin as the root of all human woes. And many Christians are explicitly denying that their own sin can be the cause of personal anguish. More and more are attempting to explain the human dilemma in wholly unbiblical terms: temperament, addiction, dysfunctional families, the child within, codependency, and a host of other irresponsible escape mechanisms promoted by secular psychology. The potential impact of such a drift is frightening. Remove the reality of sin, and you take away the possibility of repentance. Abolish the doctrine of human depravity and you void the divine plan of salvation. Erase the notion of personal guilt and you eliminate the need for a Savior.”  John MacArthur

“Pray for a strong and lively sense of sin.  The greater the sense of sin, the less sin.”   Samuel Rutherford

“Just as there are always blessings to obedience, conversely there will always be consequences to sin.  Every sin carries with it a death sentence – death to trust, death to relationship, death to freedom, etc. etc.  We do not sin merely as unto ourselves either, sin’s tentacles are far reaching and devastating – like a ripple in the water when you cast in a stone.  We get to choose to sin or not but God chooses the consequence.  Just read about what happened to King David after his encounter with Bathsheba and how it affected the rest of his life.  God is severe in His judgments because He knows what sin does to a life and the lives of others.  This is not a winking, joking matter with Him.  It cost Him the life of His Son.  He doesn’t want us to go there (to say the least) – He has far greater, pleasing and perfect plans for us than that.  Also, it is all too important to note, that while a believer in Jesus is forgiven for sin that does not mean there will not be consequences.  Just saying….”  BHY

HEART SAVOR

·         Make no mistake about it, sin harms the vessel it is in – every time.

·         Sin cost God the life of His Son.  He never winks at it nor takes it lightly and we certainly should not either.

·         Sin destroys it never builds or is profitable.  Play your actions out to the end to see if you are willing to readily embrace the end results before embarking on the wayward journey.  Wonder if the prodigal enjoyed his time in the pig pen?  Lord keep me on the straight and narrow for your glory for my good.