Living In Our Little World

LIVING IN OUR LITTLE WORLD

1 John 1:8

To read about the Garden of Eden, it seemed everything was wonderful and beautiful. Adam and Eve were living in their little world. I like to think the garden was like this time of the year, spring time. It was a time when all the birds were singing; a time when the trees were sprouting their ,new leaves. Everything was going their way, until sin entered into the scene by the serpent. Into their own little world sin had entered in. God came to walk with as He usually did in the cool of the evening. But this time there was no Adam and no Eve. Adam where art thou. Was it that God did not know Adam and Eve were? Of course He knew where they were. He did this to let them realize what their relationship was to Him at this time. This was also to let them think on what they had done. Notice what Adam said when ask about his sin. The woman thou gavest me give to me and I did eat. Then Eve said the serpent tricked me and I did eat. By the way God you put the serpent in the garden. This was the first instance of passing the buck. You see their problem was they could not face up to their sin was by choice not by chance. The trouble is as old as the garden itself that man does not want to face up to he has a sinful nature. People don’t want to face the fact that he is unable to please God in human nature. Now if you have trouble believing this, our text will explain it better.

In the first part of verse 8 we see the FALLACY “If we say that we have no sin.” I hadn’t been a Christian very long when I was talking to a fellow worker with telephone company. He was a Christian as well and had been for a long time. During our conversation, he made the statement he hadn’t sinned in some 15 years. I thought man I must have missed it because it hadn’t been but just a few minutes since I did not demonstrate a Christian like conduct. I was suppose to work on this peace of cable that crossed interstate 220. I had a 32 foot ladder that I had wrestled off the truck and finally had gotten it straight in the air. I knew it would take about all this ladder could stretch out to reach the cable. I ran the ladder all way out. Then I slowly began to let it lean toward the cable. Folks I don’t know whether you have ever used one of these ladders or not; but if you have you know once that heavy thing got started there was no stopping it. You guessed it. When it got to the cable it just brushed it a little and fell across that busy highway. Then when it finally hit the road it reared up the end that was next to me and hit me on my pretty leg down here where there was no meat. cars sliding and calling me bad names. I grabbed that ladder and jerked it across that road with a great deal of pain and much more anger. You could say at that time I didn’t practice sinless perfection.

Folks we don’t want to admit our sinful human nature. We are sinners by nature and by choice. If you give me a choice between right and wrong; I will choose the wrong in my human nature. It is the spiritual nature in me that leads me to choose the right. When a person thinks he does not have a sinful nature, that brings me to the next thing I want to talk about, he lives in a FANTACY; “We deceive ourselves.” You want to know I found out about my friend? He was only deceiving himself and that was most unfortunate. He was living in a fantasy.

The men who by the leadership of the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible realized their sinful nature. Isaiah cried out woe is me for I am undone and unclean lips. Let us not think for a moment we live a sinless perfect life. To do so means we are living in a fantasy. If we think that leads me to my next point, and that is we are a FAILURE. “And the truth is not in us.” Christ and the Gospel do not dwell in a person who says I have no sin.

Folks, it is the human nature who says I am better than my neighbor. It is the human nature that says my wife needs the church, I don’t It is the human nature that says I will take my chances for heaven. It is the smart person that realizes he is a sinner by nature and in need of a Saviour.