Everyone Is A Theologian: Sin & Mankind

Everyone Is A Theologian: Sin & Mankind John Weathersby Sunday October 28, 2018 Each week for the next 7 weeks we’ll be moving through a theology that is, convicted from scripture, directly matters to our lives and understanding of God and His Will, and prayerfully whet your appetitive to want to know more. We start this week with Sin and Mankind; we look at what humanity is - and what sin is, from scripture. These realities are a necessary basis as we move through the remaining weeks. In week 2 we’ll introduce and discuss the concept of the trinity. The concept of the trinity is an important foundation to week 3’s topic, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. In week 3 we’ll discuss the persons of the conceptual trinity introduced in week 2. Week 4 is Salvation. With Jesus introduced along with the persons of the trinity we’re ready to take on the topic of salvation. We’ve established the need with mankind and sin, we’ve established the means in the God Head, now we’ll circle the wagons and draw the cords of salvation together through what we’ve learned leading up to this 4th week. In week 5 we discuss the Church. There is MUCH confusion here - what is the church to be, is it a social organization, and food distribution point, a political strategy organization, what IS the church? Week 6 is The Future - there are many futures in addition to the End Times. We’ve said that the Kingdom of God is both Here and Now as much as there and then. We’ll discuss the future in the here and now and there and then. Finally, we capped the entire study with “scripture”. It may have seemed counter intuitive to end off with scripture, but a guiding principle of our study is that each topic IS convicted from scripture - and so we’ll finish of understanding what scripture is, why we leverage it, and look to the concept of infallibility and how it informs our worldview. Clear Conviction from Scripture: What is sin? I heard a story one time that went like this. A gentleman came in with some chest pain - he’d been kicked by a horse. So pain pills were the doctor’s suggestion, then check back in with me on how you’re feeling. What he didn’t know was that yes the man was kicked in the chest but he ALSO he had angina and a massive heart attack that killed him. There was a symptom of chest pain, what a perfect storm, I mean who would dig further into chest pain when someone was just kicked in the chest, but the answer was deeper than the surface - and with sin and personhood, so too is the answer here. It’s deeper than the surface. The word heart is mentioned 150 times in the New Testament using the Greek word Kardia with the sense of inner self, or mind. For example: Matthew 6:21 (ESV) 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 12:34 (ESV) 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 15:19 (ESV) 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. Much of ourselves flows from our Kardia, inner self and our minds. What we treasure is where our heart are. The abundance of our mouths exposes our hearts - the heart flows evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness and slander. Not such a great picture, is it? Pictures don't like though - you look like that, the shutter went off, you were in between faces, but that’s what you look like. At the same time, scripture paints this picture of our hearts as sources of sin - flowing evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. Now - that’s true doesn’t that make MUCH more since out of the need for a salvation? The diagnosis, sinful, is important we want to know the root issue, the heart issue not the symptom. We want to know we’ve God dear angina not superficial; chest pain from an injury. Scripture plunges down to that heart level. Jesus dealt with this in Matthew 15. When he told them, it’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; it’s what comes out of you. It’s not hands you can wash or the right/wrong kind of food (Matthew 15:19-20) it’s not things you can avoid or do or wash with soap, the human condition is a heart that yearns for things that aren’t of God. Matthew 15:19-20 (ESV) 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone." The diagnosis is important - it’s depravity, we humans are depraved. And we’re missing the diagnosis, we don’t believe it. Genesis 3:6 shows that all parts of humanity are impacted by the fall. IN the fall we stepped outside of God’s immediate care into a world where Satan desires to destroy and humanity doesn’t seek for good, and looks for its our own understanding and sinful desires flow from us naturally. Our mind, will, emotions, and flesh are corrupted by sin. Even our righteous acts are like filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6). We see scripturally in Jeremiah 17:9 that we’re desperately wicked, we see that humankind desired darkness not the light that Jesus brings (John 3:17-19), we see that we’re born dead in sin Ephesians 2:1-15, and we see that we’re even unable to submit to God’s law: Romans 8:7, in a natural state. Genesis 3:6 (ESV) 6 So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Isaiah 64:6 (ESV) 6 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. Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? John 3:17-19 (ESV) 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. Ephesians 2:1-15 (ESV) Made Alive in Christ 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 flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving 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 is 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 handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ 11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, Romans 8:7 (ESV) 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. The diagnosis is that we’re sin sick - and we need something. We see that we’re unable to fix, right we can’t wash our hands we cannot change our nature. That is sin; it’s the condition we live in as people. Luther famously once said; “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals”. What is Humanity? Sin/Depravity are an element of humanity. Another element of our humanity is this; humans are made in God’s image. You may have heard of this concept, it’s called Imago Dei image of God and comes from Man is unlike any of the other creatures God made Genesis 1:26 (ESV) 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So when people’s theology says, humans are just like the animals - Scripture says not true, in fact we have dominion over the animals. We’re over all creation, but we’re to be good stewards Genesis 2:4-25 makes that clear. Every living thing was made according to their “kind” except for humanity - humanity is made after God’s kind, or his image. In Genesis 2:18, we see that God formed man from the dust of the ground and later paraded all the animals of the world in front of man why? To make the point, humans aren’t of the animal kind - there needs to be another created one after God’s kind and in God’s image in 2:28 so that they could be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Genesis 2:4-25 (ESV) The Creation of Man and Woman 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground-- 7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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." 18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." 19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:18 (ESV) 8 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” We see that Genesis 9:6 shows that the image of God in Humans is still there: Genesis 9:6 (ESV) 6  “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Since people are made in God’s image murder contradicts our purpose in life (multiplication and glorification of God). The person, who walks into the synagogue and kills people, is sinning whether they be Jew, or Muslim or whomever - murder is sin. But further - the anger in our hearts towards another is sin. Does This Matter: Does it matter how we know sin? How we understand humanity? Yes, this theological construct maters - to be sinful and to be human are intermingled facts. Because of the fall outlined in Genesis 3:1-7 our parents (Adam and Eve) in the garden of Eden doubted God’s word, and fell away from trusting God and taking God’s word as authoritative - and this continues to be our problem. Genesis 3:1-7 (ESV) The Fall 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Sin is a violation of God’s standard, moral standard based on His character. The problem we have is that increasingly, we don’t believe the standard for knowing God is the Bible and is scripture. And so, where there is no standard, we take an opinion pole, and everyone’s good ideas make up the standard. What does it mean to be male or female, lets just ask everyone how they feel and that’s the new standard. And then so, sinful people who are bent from God’s good character and standard, who aren’t even simply unaware of God’s law, get further and further from it - and so our definition of humanity and sin needs to be firmly planted in scripture. For the good of God’s glory and so that people can know truth, we must increasingly point to scripture because the world is lost and dying around us and cannot know God. Listen to how the book of Romans outlines it: Romans 3:10–19 (ESV) 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11  no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13  “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14  “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15  “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16  in their paths are ruin and misery, 17  and the way of peace they have not known.” 18  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Sounds like today to me. And Romans 12 earlier identified the issue: Romans 5:12–14 (ESV) Death in Adam, Life in Christ 12 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— Corrupted nature was spread to us from birth, we’re born into this sinful world and sinful condition loving darkness - but God by His grace interrupts our wallowing and brings to us salvation. Because humanity in the world today is to be stuck in this position between glory in eternity and life in a sin-sick world. Sin is described Biblically in Ezekiel 20:43 as loathing. Because it’s to loathe God’s character when we sin, and when we see our selves accurately as sinners we loathe ourselves, we feel guilt and corruption. Sin is rebellion we see it described as walking contrary to God in Leviticus 26:27 sin is doing whatever makes since to us - and guys look at the world today - there is some pretty weird stuff that makes since to us, that’s what was going down in Jeremiah. Ezekiel 20:43 (ESV) 43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. Leviticus 26:27 (ESV) 27 "But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, Jeremiah 44:17 (ESV) 17 But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. Our humanity is twisted up in sin, but maintained an inkling of that Image of God in us, the Imago Dei - we have the “heart” to consider things, and we’re convicted in our hearts with guilt - today we’d be told to ignore guilt, it’s a negative feeling we must conquer, but I’d argue that we need the accurate deeper diagnosis of sin so that our guilt has a real remedy - being rejoined to God, meaningfully. The doctrine of depravity is helpful, in that it’s an accurate diagnosis. The State of Theology report provides helps to know what people believe about theological concepts. I’ve filtered this out for Evangelicals in the North East. Statement 7. Jesus Christ is the Only person who never sinned: Statement 12 - Even the Smallest Sin Deserves Eternal Damnation Statement 31. The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe Why is this important, because we need true diagnosis. We live in a time colored by what the “smart” people around us have determined to be true - but they don’t have all the facts. God is the all knowing, all present, creator of the heavens and the earth. He gave us Scripture, 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, We need to look to it and understand live from it’s truth - it’s profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and righteousness. Maybe you’ve felt guilty. Maybe you’ve violated God’s law and moral character and thusly sinned against Him. Maybe you’ve defiled yourself, maybe you wish you could just avoid a behavior or wash yourself up and be close to God. You cannot - you cannot do something to change you’re moral corruption given to you genetically through Adam and Eve. You have a genetic condition - sin. However, Jesus lied the uncorrupted life we could not - coming not from Adam, but directly of God, into this life lived uncorrupted tempted to sin like you in every single possible way, but without any sin in Him - God punished sin on His son Jesus and that payment is extended to us. When our guilt of accurately knowing God’s character and seeing our distance from it results in seeing how great and wonderful He is we’re freed from the guilt of the law as we repent and turn from trusting ourselves and wholly trust Jesus as our Lord. We trust Jesus finished work for our sins, past present and.. what? future. With a judicial (God as judge) forgiveness of our sins we still live in a broken corrupted world, with our sins covered and learning righteousness in Christ - in Christ God is our father and as we are still tempted and fall into is, we as God for forgiveness in life. Though Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those in Christ we still know that sin has impact on us, and we draw near to God - with eyes on Jesus Hebrews 12:5-11 taught us that he chastens those he loves. Romans 8:1 (ESV) Life in the Spirit 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 12:5-11 (ESV) 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. With accurate diagnosis of sin living genetically deep in our hearts, impacting the image of God in us we’ll regularly and continually go back to God, the source of the image in us, and ask Him God grow me, make me more whole, give me the strength to resist sin, and father God, forgive me. Whetting of the Appetite for More