WHERE THERE IS SIN #1
….GOD IS REDEFINED
I. Our concept of God determines our behavior
There may be two attitudes toward God.
A. Fear of God
Mat. 10 28And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Ecc. 12 13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. KJV
B. God doesn’t care- God is permissive
Ezek. 8 12 Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’”
ESV
Psa. 36 1 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. ESV
Psa. 94 6 They kill he widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; 7 and they say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
II. The theology of the human spirit will pervert the
nature of God.
Human nature, with the help of the powers of darkness, completely denies or challenges the virtues of God.
A. God is like a man
Rom 1 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 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. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. ESV
B. God’s grace will make allowances for my sin.
Rom . 5 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ESV
The emphasis of this verse is that grace wins out over the accusations of the law.
Two times in Rom. 6 Paul asked the same question:
Rom. 6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! …ESV
Rom. 6 15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ESV
Grace is not permission to live the self willed life.
C. God is responsible for my sin.
Adam blamed God indirectly when he said, “The woman you gave me….”.
There is a doctrine that teaches that God causes us to sin.
D. God understands my needs for sex because he made me, thus he understands my humanness.
The thoughts that bring a person down are:
“I am divorced. God understands my need. He will forgive me”.
“I don’t have the privilege of marriage thus I will indulge. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
The homosexual believes the lie that he/she was born so.
The pornographer doesn’t think he is hurting anyone but himself.
The fornicator and adulterous are in love and that is what you do when you are in love!
E. God can be subverted.- overcome
Isa. 28 15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us,
for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; ESV
F. A loving God could not send anyone to hell.
To summarize what has been stated they believe the following:
1. I can avoid accountability for sin if I can bring God down
to my level by making him human.
Joan Osborne stated it in her lyrics to a song. “What if God was one of us? What if God was a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home……
2. Grace is greater than God’s holiness.
3. God himself is a sinner because he is responsible for my
sin.
4. God is permissive about by sexuality
5. God’s judgment can be we avoided or escaped.
III. The true nature of God as it relates to our sin.
A. God is not a man.
Num. 23 19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? ESV
Isa. 40 25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. ESV
Isa. 40 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. ESV
Jesus was fully God and fully man; Living the sinless life and resurrected from the dead.
B. God is holy and just, therefore will judge sin.
God is so holy that after He give the revelation of Himself and the call to Moses that before Moses can get to Egypt the Bible says the God desired to slay Moses for not circumcising his sons.
Rev. 16 5 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,
“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” 7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” ESV
C. God is not responsible for my sin.
James 1 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ESV
D. God demands sexual purity.
Heb. 13 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. ESV
E. God cannot be subverted.- He keeps his word.
Rev. 20 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. ESV
Heb. 9 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, ESV
F. God’s love does not do away with his justice.
God does not send anyone to hell. A person goes to hell because of rejecting Christ.
John 3 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. ESV