Sermon Tone Analysis

The nature of sin

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*PSALM 36:1   NIV*

*1**     An oracle is within my heart *

*concerning the sinfulness of the wicked:*

*There is no fear of God *

*before his eyes.

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*2**     For in his own eyes he flatters himself *

*too much to detect or hate his sin.

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*3**     The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; *

*he has ceased to be wise and to do good.

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*4**     Even on his bed he plots evil; *

*he commits himself to a sinful course *

*and does not reject what is wrong.

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*PSALM 36:1   NASB*

*1     Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; *

*There is no fear of God before his eyes.

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*     2     For it flatters him in his /own /eyes *

*Concerning the discovery of his iniquity /and /the hatred /of it./

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*     3     The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; *

*He has ceased to be wise /and /to do good.

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*     4     He  plans wickedness upon his bed; *

*He sets himself on a path that is not good; *

*He does not despise evil.**

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*Prayer*

 

 

*A disgruntled schoolteacher handed in her resignation with the following comment:” In our public schools today, the teachers are afraid of the principals, the principals are afraid of the superintendents, the superintendents are afraid of the board, the board members are afraid of the parents, the parents are afraid of the children, and the children are afraid of nobody.”*

* \\ Wow, If that is not the most heartbreaking statement I have ever read.

But every word is true like in verse 1 we just read “THERE IS NO FEAR” especially of God!!!!!!!!!!!!*

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* Many kids today sin like it is 2nd nature.

The problem is they do not even know what sin is, they have no fear of the consequences of their sin.

So today I want us to learn about the very nature of sin.

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* So I have titled this sermon the nature of sin.

And we are going to answer together 2 questions*

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*1.   **Why is it so difficult for people in today’s culture to even discuss the very concept of sin?*

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*2.   **With all the other doctrines out there today, why is the biblical approach to the study of sin the best one to use?    *

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*But 1st let’s look at how sin started and what sin really is,*

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*History:** ** Now all the way back in the very beginning in Genesis ch2 it says God created Good and out of good came evil, but how?*

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*Genesis 2:9*

*9        **Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.**

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*Of all things God planted trees with food to eat and made it pleasing to the eye.

And this is not written but I bet the smell or the aroma was heavenly.

Have you ever smelled honeysuckle?.

So you see God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed and said in v 16-17*

*16     The Lord God  commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; *

*17**but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”**

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*Their needs were met but just like us today they wanted what they couldn’t have, all of a sudden the food on that tree looked like it wanted to just jump into your mouth, and it probably smelled so good it made your mouth water uncontrollably.

You understand  the food probably didn’t look any different but the fact that they could not have it made it so.

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* **Definition of sin: **    *

*  I’m talking sin, simply put sin is the failure to let God be God and placing something or someone in Gods rightful place of supremacy!!!!!*

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*   In their case they put their wants and pride before God.

Just imagine every time they walked past that tree how it ate at them until.

Yeah you guessed it Satan slithers into the picture.

See he was there watching and knew it was driving them nuts, so he does what he does best and made the temptation even greater than it was.

By working on their pride and telling them that God is wrong and that there really is no consequences for disobeying God.  *

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* Satan knows that one of the biggest keys to the nature of sin is Selfishness : the choice of self over God, or turning away from the truth of God  So you see sin in what ever form is selfishness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

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* We all know that selfishness holds a firm grip on all of our lives and entices us to commit a long list of sins.

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* So preacher it sounds hopeless and very serious.

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*  Well yes it does but even though our sin condition is very serious, God knows we cannot live sinless, All He wants from us is to try with all we have to live for Him everyday.

When we chose to live for Him we will strive to live a sinless life.*

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*   (**We are not to be judged by comparison with other human beings, but by the way we try to live our lives from a Godly standard.**)*

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* So let’s look at the*

* 1st question.*

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*1.   **Why is it so difficult for people in today’s culture to even discuss the concept of sin?*

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*A.

1st we must understand that we can no longer assume that your regular church listeners subscribe or believe to a Christian worldview.

We live in a postmodern world and postmodern type thinking creeps into our lives every day with out us even knowing it.

We are bombarded with movies, magazines, songs, music, media, and TV etc.*

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*B.

We are accepting today what was considered sin 20 to 30 years ago.*

*    It is hard to talk about sin with a nonbeliever because they were never taught that sin is wrong.

Everyone knows what we are against, abortion, and homosexuality etc. but never ask what we are for.

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*C.

Postmodernity teaches to do what’s right in your own eyes.

To be completely open to any and all possibilities.

With saying such as “if it’s going to be it’s up to me”.

We can solve all our own problems.*

*  Instead of trying to unlock the secrets of God, we want to unlock the secrets to the universe.

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*   So I have outlined some differences between now and then or Modernity vs postmodernity.*

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*Modernity                                      Postmodernity*

*1.romantic view of life               1.

absurd view of life*

*2.   **purpose                                 2.

play    *

*3.   **design                                   3.

chance*

*4.   **hierarchy                              4.

anarchy *

*5.   **word                                    5.

silence*

*6.   **a completed work                6.

process *

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*Remember when former President Bill Clinton was asked in an interview about his Christian Faith and his acceptance of homosexuality?

He responded and said: I openly accepted the authority of the Bible, but disagree with that the Bible condemns homosexuality as immoral*

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*  So we can go on and on, but you know people in today’s culture that can not talk about sin because they do not understand what sin is.

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* So now we know that most people do not understand what sin is so now lets find out how people can learn what sin is.*

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*Question 2: *

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*Why is the biblical approach to study sin the best way to learn as to the many other doctrines?*

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*A.  **1st it is important to know that sin is not caused by God.

James very quickly disposes that idea.*

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* **James 1:13-16 *

*13     Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.