REPENT: What Is Sin?


OT Message: Live Right, Blessing, Live Wrong, Cursing

NT Message: Everyone Is Sin Infested, REPENT!


Scripture: 

  • Matthew 3:1–2 (ESV) In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

  • Matthew 4:17 (ESV) From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Today’s Goals: 

  • Understand what sin is, its deadly impact on your life and the world around you, and see repentance as only way out 


When TRUTH Depends On Who You Ask…

There is “My truth” &  “Your truth” - “We Are God”

  • Judges 17:6 (ESV) In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

    • The Problem with that is truth works that way in no other sphere of living:

      • Science - Law of Conservation of Mass (or Conservation of Matter) matter cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system—it can only change forms or rearrange Example - When wood burns in a fire, it doesn't vanish. The mass of the wood and oxygen consumed equals the exact total mass of the ashes, smoke, and gases produced.

      • Physics - “every action has an equal and opposite reaction (Newton’s Third Law of Motion) “

      • Biology - Cell Theory (specifically, that all living organisms are composed of cells, and all cells come from pre-existing cells). The cell is the fundamental unit of structure, function, and organization in all living organisms. Life does not spontaneously generate; every new cell arises from the division of an existing cell.

      • Math - Commutative Law of Addition (3 + 5 or 5 + 3, the result is always $8)

THEY/WE Are God!


When It’s HIS Truth, HE IS GOD!

  • Romans 1:19–20 (ESV) For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. 

  • The same God who established science, physics, biology and math established the laws of sin and righteousness

    • Romans 3:4 (NIV) Let God be true, and every human being a liar. 

    • Psalm 119:160 (ESV) The sum of your word is truth

    • John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.


TRUTH/SIN Is Defined By God

  • (HB) chata - to miss HIS mark

  • (GK) hamartia - to miss HIS mark

Genesis 2:16–17 (ESV) And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

  • There is enormity in what we are allowed, invited and encouraged to do, which brings life, and a small sliver of what we are told not to do because it invites death

Genesis 3:1–3 (ESV) Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,  but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Genesis 3:4–5 (ESV) But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”



SIN Is More Than A List Of Right/Wrong Actions - It’s Is Our Condition


Sin’s was welcomed and received by Adam & Eve

  • It impacted them in every way, body, soul and spirit, at a level that could not be undone.

  • It impacted their world at a level that could not be undone

  • It caused them to 

    • Forever be attracted to other “marks”

    • Aim at other “marks” and call it a bullseye

      • Isaiah 5:20 (ESV) Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

    • Despise God’s “mark”

    • Aim at God’s “mark” for completely wrong motives

  • Sin has impacted you!

    • Psalm 51:5 (ESV) Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

    • Romans 3:23 (ESV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

    • Isaiah 64:6 (ESV) We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

    • 1 John 1:10 (ESV) If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

  • Sin’s residue is transferred from us into the world around us

  • It cannot be removed

    • If we try to stop, we still have the nature

    • If we are able to stop, we still have the balance

    • We are trapped in our sin.



Romans 7:15–24 (ESV) For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,  but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

omans 7:25 (ESV) Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 









Steve ParrishComment