"Keep your heart with
all diligence,
for out of it spring the issues
of life."
Prov. 4:23
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Good morning! Let's begin the week with prayer....
"Father, how exciting it is to be able to read more an more about You in Your word. As we study more about sin today, I pray that You will continue to convict us of our sins and bring us to the foot of Your cross for cleansing. It is because of Your sacrifice that we have life.
I pray, Lord, that You will empty me of my sinfulness and self-righteousness. I pray that You will release me from the bondage of sin through Your precious blood shed on the cross for me. I pray that You will fill me with Your Holy Spirit to over-flowing so that it would fill my home and everywhere I go.
I lift up to You the women reading this study that You will be with them this day. Bring them closer to You and speak to them in those quiet times. I pray that as they read Your word today, they will be changed and renewed.
In Jesus' name....amen."
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Sin and the Child of God
Last time we began our look into what sin is and its origins. This lesson we will continue to look at sin and how it affects the Child of God.
1 John 3:1-3
"Behold what, manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
Please read:
James 1:13-15
According to the scriptures, what gives birth to sin?
From where does our desire come from?
In past lessons, we have looked at King David's example of how a Child of God can fall from grace being led away from the Lord by desire. Let's go over this example briefly once again:
2 Sam 11
David, chosen King of God, chose to follow his desire instead of the will of God. He remained home satisfied to have his men fight his battles at a time when "kings go out to battle". David sent Joab, his servants and "all Israel" to battle while David remained in Jerusalem.
Please read:
1 John 2:24-25
David to do the will of God which left him open to the temptations of his desires. What enables me, a born sinner, to practice righteousness rather than sin?
1 John 2: 28-29
To abide in Jesus keeps us away from sin because in Him there is no sin and "if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him."
As I wrote in the last lesson, the only thing that separates me from my former brother-in-law who is now living in a drug induced world is the grace of God. I was set apart long ago by God for His will. He chose me and made me His own. If I abide in Him, I will not practice sin because in Him there is no sin.
Yes, but I still sin daily, don't I?
The Greek translation of sin in First John chapter 3 is on-going sin or continual sin without confession. So, if I abide in Christ, I cannot continue on in sin without reaching that point of confessing it because of the Holy Spirit.
Please read:
Prov 4:23
Jer 17:9-10
Matt 15:18-20
We know that sin began with Satan, but it resides on our hearts. After committing murder to try and cover-up his sin, David realized that his sin was within his heart:
Ps 51: 10-17
David asked for God to create in him a clean heart and he wrote that to God, proper sacrifice is a broken spirit and a "contrite heart."
Ps 34:18
Contrite heart is translated as: "those who are crushed in spirit"
This was something David knew personally as he stood by helplessly and watched his baby boy die because of his own sin. His spirit was crushed as he lay on the floor in his grief begging God to change His mind and spare his son.
2 Sam 12:15-23
What can we do about the condition of our hearts? As non-believers, nothing. But as believers, the Spirit has been given to us by God. This was done in the New Covenant. This Covenant was promised to Israel and Judah and then, graciously, extended to the Gentiles through the death of Jesus. It is called the Covenant of Grace.
When you prayed to receive the Holy Spirit on that fateful day, you entered into the New Covenant, or Covenant of Grace, before the Lord. You became a Child of God.
Matt 26:26-28
Jer 31:33
Jer 32:39-40
Ez 36:26-27
Only God can replace the heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh. King David learned this hard lesson. Perhaps we could learn this lesson before we enter into temptation and suffer the consequences of our sins!
What part does our will play in sin?
Deut 30:19-20
John 5:39-40
John 7:17
After reading all this lesson so far, what is it that keeps a Christian from a life of habitual sin?
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What is sin?
1 John 3:4
The Bible is very clear as to what sin is: lawlesseness.
In this age, we are regularly told that everything is relative. There are no absolutes. "Only the Sith thinks in absolutes..." was a line from one of the Star Wars movies released in 2005.
Moral relativity is a strong philosophy of this world.
But God's word lays down the absolutes of life. Not it becomes our responsibility to know them, to abide in them, to cherish them, and to proclaim them to others.
Because whether man believes in God's absolutes or not, someday man will stand before the Lord and be judged by God's absolutes.
Let's look at a few Hebrew and Greek words of sin in the Old Testament and New Testament:
chata- this word means, "to miss the mark" and "to stumble and fall". It conveys the idea of coming up short morally. In the Old Testament, this word for sin refers to a crime or an offense.
Ex 20:1-20
avon- this Hebrew word for sin means "perverseness or going aside from what is right or good." The root of this word means to make crooked or bent what was straight. It is usually translated as iniquity or guilt.
Joshua 22:20
Ps 89:30-34
Jer 16:10-12
In these passages we learn that God deals with iniquity in His children and that iniquity is passed down from generation to generation.
pasha- this word for sin means "to break away from or to revolt or rebel." It conveys the idea of rebellion against lawful authority. It is often translated as "transgression."
Ps 107: 17
What did the people rebel against?
Ez 33:11-12
What does God say about the transgressions of the righteous and the wicked?
asham- this word means to sin in error or ignorance. It reveals that we sin sometimes without realizing it, but we are still held accountable. This word is often translated as "trespass".
Lev 5:1-5 & 15-19
The people has to offer the "trespass" or "guilt" offerings before the Lord to make the atonement of the sins they did not mean to do.
Prov 14:9
How do fools react to sin?
Is 53:4-6 & 11-12
The above verses summarize all that we have learned about sin. Jesus bore our griefs, sicknesses, illnesses, and pains and He carried them and was reckoned as stricken before God on our behalf. He was struck down and pierced for our sins and by the blows that struck Him down and cut His flesh we are healed because the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Praise God.
According to James 4:17, what is sin?
paraptoma- this Greek word means to side-slip or fall aside when one should have stood upright. It refers to a turning away from truth. It is tranlsated as "transgression" or "trespass".
Eph 2:4-5
Col 2:13-14
Eph 1:7
James 5:16
1 John 1:9
Today you did alot of Bible reading. I pray you found it rewarding to learn the many different words for sin in the Bible and how they are translated. We have looked at the origin of sin. We have read that it began with Satan and because of Adam, it resides in our hearts. If our sin is not dealt with, it costs us our lives.
Satan is the "father of lies" according to John 8:44
He distorted God's word and His character before Eve's weak mind. How has Satan distorted God's word and His character to deceive you?
Adam doubted God's word. He wanted, if only for a moment, to be like God. Have you been there?
Sin's outward manifestations come in many ways: gossip, lies, stealing, cheating, murder, sexual immorality, disobedience, strife, etc. Therefore, we can see the importance of looking past the outward manifestations and look deep into our own hearts for what sin is in us:
running your own life
thinking what you want to think
saying what you want to say
doing what you want to do
going where you want to go
being a "god" unto yourself
I like the analogy of "weeds in a garden" most when thinking of sin. I hate weeds and how they kill my flowers by hogging up all the moisture in the soil. If I let those weeds go, the roots will grow deep into the soil and removing them is near impossible. If I remove them as soon as I see them, it is easy to get rid of them without damaging the flowers around. And my garden stays lovely.
Sin is like a weed in your heart. If not dealt with instantly, the roots grow deep and it causes great damage when you try to remove it. But if dealt with immediately, God removes it and you will see little damage done to those around you.
But sin is sin. And it hurts everyone.
(Some material used by permission from Precept Upon Precept Ministries, 2001)
Next time we will go back to 1 John 3 and look deeper into what John wants us to know about God.
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Life Application
Learning about sin can be difficult as we look deep into our hearts. Perhaps the Lord is dealing with a certain sin that you repeatedly commit even though you take it to the cross daily. I know for me, as I have shared before, that gossip is a sin the Lord convicts me of all the time.
Recently, I was able to talk to some middle school and high school kids I was tutoring about gossip and how it hurts.
I told them about how I got sucked into the world of gossip when I worked as a bailiff. It was easy to do because there so many "dramas" going on in the workplace with all those lawyers and sheriff deputies all around. I began to repeat stories I had heard because I liked it. It is that simple.
But I saw firsthand how I was beginning to set friend against friend by spreading gossip around and I didn't like myself at all. So, I prayed about it and gave it over to the Lord. He helped me work hard at not spreading around the news I would hear.
As I told these kids about how I didn't want to be labled a "gossip" by people, they seemed to understand. I told them I would rather be labled as someone people can trust.
Sin has a way of destroying those around you in many ways. I was fortunate that the Lord stopped me and saved me from destroying those friendships I now cherish.
Please read:
Rom 6:23
Sin earns something: death. Death remains on this earth because we sin.
Yearn to put an end to the sin in your life. Confess before the Lord this sin that you deal with daily and He will remove it from you.
Only then can we be trusted to do the work of the Lord and reap the rewards in heaven!
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Until next time....
"Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself...but salvation means that the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God's personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater the myself, I am caught up into the abandonment of God."
-Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) (My Utmost for His Highest, 1935, March 13 devotion)
Blessings,
Ruth
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