Today we are going to look at what has been called one of the most important theological ideas in all of Scripture. A definite KEY to understanding the gospel.
The heart of the argument to explain our need of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
1) Establish the FACT that ALL ARE SINNERS: by nature and by actions.
We are all infected with the SAME DISEASE. Some infections are worse than others and sin is
the worst infection of all.
Woman took her husband to the doctor’s office. After his checkup the doctor said, ‘Your husband is suffering from a very serious illness’.
The husband was hard of hearing and said, ‘What did he say?’ ‘He says you are sick’.
The doctored continued, ‘But there is hope. You just need to reduce his stress. Each morning, give him a full breakfast. Always be pleasant and nice and kind. For lunch and dinner make him his favorite meals. Never argue with him and always keep yourself looking as perfect as possible. Basically cater to his every whim or he won’t make it’.
The hard of hearing husband again said, ‘What did he say?’ HE SAYS YOU ARE GONNA DIE
Only thing worse than being so sick is not having any hope of a cure.
2) Established that FAITH is the only solution. Works is not an option.
Justification(right standing) is only possible through faith placed upon the finished work of Jesus
Christ.
Today we are going to see that sin is a problem for every person that has ever lived.
It was a part of who we were before we were ever born.
1) Ps 51: David said, ‘In sin my mother conceived me’ OUR DNA is Sin
Term we understand as ORIGINAL SIN.
Make everyone think of same geometrical shape with a simple nursery rhyme.
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the kings men could not put Humpty back together again.
No egg is mentioned. Most don’t know where the rhyme came from.
NEW ENGLAND PRIMER – used to compare the letters A & X and teach original sin.
In Adam’s fall we sinned all, Xeres the great did dies and so must you and I
Taught two letters but also theology. We all were affected by Adam’s sin, the penalty which is death. WHO IS GOING TO PUT US BACK TOGETHER AGAIN AFTER OUR GREAT FALL?
Very important point in the Gospel message: We come into this world as part of a polluted stream that began all the way back to Adam.
1) Extremely important to know that our condition is rooted in Adam’s sin.
That it is a BLESSING and not CURSE.
(12) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-
(13) for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is not law.
(14) Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him Who was to come.
Paul in 1 Corinthians discusses the First Adam and the Last Adam.
Jesus Christ is described as the Second Adam
1) When God looks at the billions of people on this earth and all those that have ever lived He sees
them in one of two places. In ADAM or In CHRIST..
2) We are born in the First Adam but we are Born Again into the Second Adam.
3) When in Adam you are identified with His sin but when in Christ the second Adam you are
identified with His righteousness.
A man was trying to convince an acquaintance that one individual can make a lasting impression on others. After a rather heated discussion his friend continued to doubt.
To prove his point, the first man declared that he would introduce a new word into the English language. The night he chalked on walls and pavements throughout Dublin, Ireland four letters which he had chosen from random from the alphabet.
The next morning people saw this unusual word and were baffled at it. They were asking one another what it meant.
It was not long until the newspapers began writing about it and the strange sounding word was only the lips of everyone.
Thus the term/word QUIZ was incorporated into the English language as a synonym for ‘questioning’.
He won his argument and left a lasting impression.
Adam’s lasting impression on us was twofold: Condemnation and Consequence
1) Condemnation: Sin effects all 2) Consequence: Sin costs all
Sin effected everybody and the evidence of that is death. We are all born with the disease of sin and the symptom of death.
1) You may not have died but you are dying: Grayer, softer, slower, more wrinkles, stairs get
steeper, sidewalks get longer, eyeglasses get thicker, mirror get more brutally honest
2) Football Team Driving: 50 yard line, 40, 25, 25, 7, 1 touchdown.
Death is creeping closer and closer and closer to it’s goal line…reigning more and more over us
each day until one day it becomes the complete monarch of our lives.
THE ORIGIN OF SIN – What can I know about sin? 3 Questions Paul Answers.
Minnesota Crime Commission: Years ago did a study on children and the result was a published paragraph. Regardless of social or economic circumstances this secular organization found…
‘Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it. His bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toy, his uncle’s watch. Deny him these things and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous if he were not so helpless. He is dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no skills. This means that all children, not just certain children are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up to be a criminal’.
Any parent can recognize this to be true and some even learn to utilize this fact to get the child to do what they want. Child might refuse to eat something: ‘Don’t eat that….I forbid you to eat those vegetables’! Put their sin nature in operation
TODAY: I forbid you to sit on this front row! Some are considering moving right this moment.
To understand this statement is to simply agree with biblical truth that says that every person comes into the world with a Sin Nature. It is self-centered, me first, want what I want, call my own shots, order my own life, reject any authority over my life attitude.
GOTHARD: Age 21…find God’s authorities in your life and get under them. Parent, teacher, pastor
3 QUESTIONS:
WHERE DID SIN ORIGINATE: (12) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world,.. One man: Adam
• Challenges some evolutionistic thinking or other ideas that we are remnants of space creatures. God created one man from which we all descended and were affected concerning the sin issue.
I am a physical descendent of people with the names McGraw, Myrick, Akins, Randall…I carry the physical characteristics to prove that dependency: Skin color, eye and hair color…DNA.
You can look at my brothers and sisters and see the family resemblance or my distant cousin Dr. Phil and see how he got the short end of the family stick.
I am also a soulish descendent: Some attitudes or tendancies we bring. My mom is very competitive, very driven. Took up tennis at age 45 and ended up being Arizona Senior Singles champion for a number of years. Junior college coach asked her to join their team cause she kept beating his team members in tournaments. Values, morals, temperaments
I am a spiritual descendent: My mom/dad/grandparents…all the way back to Adam made me a descendent of their sin problem. I inherited my sin nature through them. All of us here today….
Original Sin is the desire to do that which you know you should not do or a tendency to justify that which is wrong. Where did it originate? One man: Adam
WHAT DID SIN EFFECT: through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned
One of the largest plagues ever was the Spanish Flu. It was first identified in 1918 on and army base; in Fort Riley Kansas. It quickly spread to France, Africa, Spain, and other parts of the world.
It was especially bad because it attacked younger people with healthy immune systems, not just older folks or infants. It’s estimated that between 50-100 million people died of this flu. More than died of the black death, and more than died in WW1. Some estimate that 20% of the world’s population suffered from the illness, and as much as 5% of the world’s population died.
The single greatest epidemic the world has ever faced started small, with just one man, but the effects and the reach are felt far and wide.
• Adam is described as the FEDERAL HEAD of the Human Race:
Governments central point of origin from which the entire nation is effected.
• There was a point in time that the world was free of sin. God did not create the world with sin as a part of it.
1) The only world we have seen and know is a sin tainted world.
That is not how it has always been nor is it where God is taking this world.
a. Through Jesus we are kept from the penalty of sin(step 1)
b. Through the Holy Spirit we are strengthened from the power of sin(step 2)
c. One day we will stand before God the Father delivered from the presence of sin.(final
step) Salvation – Sanctification – Glorification.
WHAT IS THE COST OF SIN? through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned
• Death: Wherever you have sin you have death at work. Many think that wherever you have sin your have freedom and pleasure but sin always leads to a separation from that which life is truly all about.
Takes us in a direction away from God’s best and His plan for our lives.
No matter what mask sin wears it always leads to death.
1) Sometimes physical death but always spiritual death and separation from God.
a. Adam and Eve: In the day that you sin you shall die…
b. Leads to disfellowship and distance from God.
• NEWBORN: Look at them and say, ‘they have just begun to live’
Actually they have just begun to die. Everybody comes into the world and every day they
grow 24 hours closer to an appointment with death.
1) Age 24: Noticed the change: Chili dogs that used to melt away now presented a
Challenge because of the speeded up effects of aging.
2) Undertaker who signed his letters “EVENTUALLY YOURS’.
Every person will have to come to his door someday. Feet first!
• Would be nice if the end of our time on this earth were like Enoch or Elijah. God takes us away in a fiery chariot with the bumper sticker ‘Honk of you love Jesus’ that only a flock of flying geese would read on our way out of this world.
1) Death has spread to all men and has infected each one of us.
An entire forest in Oregon is infected by a fungus which started as a single microscopic spore but has now been weaving its way through the entire forest for about 2400 years.
This fungus, which is essentially a giant mushroom you can’t see from the ground, has infected 2,200 acres of national forest and killed hundreds of thousands of trees. All from a single spore.
Adam’s sin opened the door for sin and death to spread like this unseen fungus through the entire human race.
• Death has spread because we all sinned: Kind of a chicken/egg argument. Which came first?
1) We all do sin, have sinned and will sin today, this week, next month, next year but the
point made here is different. WE ALL SINNED WHEN ADAM SINNED!
2) Sin infected the entire human race at the point of Adam’s sin
What is the difference between Adam’s sin and Eve’s sin? Didn’t she sin first? Positionally Adam was the first human being created out which all others, including Eve came. He was the beginning and root of all others to follow. Her sin was first in time but his was first in position.
TONIGHT: Want to try and emphasize why your being condemned by the sin Adam committed is a good thing for you.
If I am saved then just as I am positionally IN JESUS right now, enjoying the benefits of His righteousness so I was born positionally in Adam cursed by the effect of his rebellion.
The fact that God condemned you in the single act of sin by one man opens the door so that He can save you through the sacrificial act of another man
Several years ago, Eugene F. Suter, Jr. was a student at Yale University. His father passed away and left him an inheritance of $400,000.
Amazingly Suter refused the inheritance. The trustees of the estate insisted he take it, and even took him to court to force him to accept the inheritance.
Judge William T. Collins reluctantly ruled that the young man had a legal right to reject the $400,000. The judges order legally cut off the 22 year old student from any future interest in the family fortune.
Conclusion: You have the legal right to reject what God has done for you. You can live in your lostness and one day be confronted with the eternal consequences.
You can also live a worldly and self-centered existence and miss out on all that God would want to d o for you and through you as a Christian.
In both cases death effects you: Separation from God
Lost means eternal separation and worldly/self centered life means a daily separation from God presence in your life.
Atheistic French philosopher, Voltaire, declared, ’Christianity win be non-existent 100 years after my death.’ But exactly 100 years after his death, the European Bible Society bought his house and turned it into the continents largest printing press for Bibles. Sounds like his house got saved but too late for him
