REPENT: 2 - Why Sin Is So Bad
Matthew 4:17 (ESV) From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
TRUTH/SIN Is Defined By God
(HB) chata - to miss HIS mark
(GK) hamartia - to miss HIS mark
It Is More Than An Action, It’s Is Our Condition
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.
12 Reasons Why Sin Is So Bad
Sin Is An Attack On God’s Nature
Isaiah 6:3 (ESV) And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
1 Peter 1:15–16 (ESV) but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 John 1:5–7 (ESV) This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Sin Separates You From God - while nothing separates us from the love of God, SIN separates us from intimacy and relationship with God on expanding levels.
Genesis 3:8–10, 24 (ESV) And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Isaiah 59:1–3 (ESV) Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.
Colossians 1:21 (ESV) And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
Sin Kills You
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.”
Romans 6:23 (ESV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
James 1:14–15 (ESV) But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Sin Kills Others
Romans 5:12 (ESV) Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Joshua 7:1, 20–26 — Achan’s sin brought devastating consequences upon his family and Israel.
2 Samuel 12:9–14 — David’s sin with Bathsheba brought consequences that affected his household.
Sin Killed Jesus
Isaiah 53:5 (ESV) But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
1 Corinthians 15:3 (ESV) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Hebrews 6:6 (ESV) and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
Sin Hardens Your Heart — Hebrews 3:13
Hebrews 3:13 (ESV) But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Ephesians 4:17–19 (ESV) Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Sin Deceives You
Genesis 3:13 (ESV) Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
2 Corinthians 11:3 (ESV) But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Sin Surrenders Ground To Satan
Ephesians 4:26–27 (ESV) Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
John 8:34 (ESV) Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Sin Ruins Your Testimony
Romans 2:24 (ESV) For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
1 Corinthians 10:31–32 (ESV) So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,
Sin Grieves The Holy Spirit
Acts 5:3–4 (ESV) But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
Ephesians 4:30 (ESV) And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 (ESV) Do not quench the Spirit.
Sin Robs You Emotionally
Psalm 51:10–12 (ESV) Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Isaiah 57:20–21 (ESV) But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
Sin Leads To Your Judgment
Romans 6:23 (ESV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hebrews 9:27 (ESV) And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
Revelation 20:12–15 (ESV) And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The Solution:
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?
Romans 7:25 (ESV) Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!