Introduction
Reading Book: The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller.
It answers many questions we ask about God/faith.
How can a loving God send people to hell?
How can one religion be right- others wrong?
Author- presents- rational case for belief in God.
He provides answers to the reasons people use for not believing in God- confronts doubt/unbelief.
Men who claim that …
God is dead,
creation is a random collection of atoms,
… still want to believe it is wrong for the strong to oppress/kill the weak.
If violence is a natural result of this random creation-who can say it is wrong for?
There is no moral obligation unless there is some standard beyond nature that defines normal.
It is only if you believe that the world was made by a God of peace/justice/love, that you can conclude
that violence, oppression, and hate are wrong.
According to Christianity, our biggest problem is sin.
The concept of sin is ridiculous/offensive to many.
And yet sin is foundational to the Christian faith.
When God created the world- He said- it is good!
Sin entered- when- serpent tempted Adam and Eve …
Gen 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." NASU
Promise the serpent made- do what you want to do, eat the fruit, and you will find happiness.
Man struggles with the same problem today.
If I could only do this or do that, throw off these restraints, I would suddenly be happier.
Young people often think that once they turn 18 they will leave their parents house, no longer be under parents their rules, and suddenly they will be much happier.
Lack of restraint does not always produce happiness.
Pr 29:18 A nation without God’s guidance is a nation without order. Happy are those who keep God’s law! GNT
A certain amount of restraint- necessary for order.
Part of the Good News is that we are sinners
Why is that fact that we are sinners good news?
If we understand that we are sinners, then we are not helpless victims of …
Our own psychological problems, or
social systems of the world in which we live.
In other words, there is a reason we are caught in this cycle of sin- we can repent and find freedom.
Recognizing we are sinners, brings a sense of hope.
Popular today to see our problems as the result of ...
what others have done to us or
what our environment has forced on us.
Our only hope- to come to- place where we recognize- we are flawed human beings who need help.
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, NASU
We all have sinned and fall short of God’s standard.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NASU
Here we see the …
problem, sin,
result of our sin, death, and
solution to our problem, Jesus Christ.
What is sin?
What does the Bible mean when it talks about sin?
(ask question of church, roving microphone)
Sin is the refusal to find our deepest level of significance in our relationship/service to God.
Sin-trying to find-identity for our self apart from God.
1 Jn 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
Lawlessness is trying to live our lives apart from God.
That is not to say you are doing something bad/evil.
There is something in man that drives him to find a sense of identity and self-worth.
Every man will find it in something or someone.
However, man was created to …
center his life on God above everything, and
to build his identity or self-worth on God.
Too many times we understand sin as breaking rules.
But what is the first commandment …
Ex 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me. NASU
Sin is not just doing bad things, it is making good things into the most important things in our life.
It is making something other than God as central to our sense of significance, purpose, and happiness.
Our need for self-worth is so powerful- whatever we base it on we tend to make like a god in our lives.
Whether it be …
work, relationship, recreation, computer games, TV, sports, self-discipline, human approval, etc-
becomes central to who we are/what we live for
i.e. I have heard teenage girls say …
I cannot live without a boy friend.
Their sense of worth is in having a boy friend.
Without a boyfriend they feel less of a person.
If we do not build our identity on God- we will build it on something else.
Sin has Consequences
Ro 5:12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. NLT
What are the consequences of sin …
1. Instability
When we build our sense of purpose/self-worth on anything other than God …
…building our lives on an unstable foundation
Matt 7:26-27
If I build my identity on …
another person and they fail me in some way, my foundation is shaken, broken,
being a good parent and something goes wrong with my child, my foundation is shattered.
If your identity is built on God then regardless of what happens, you will not be shaken.
2. Addiction
If our identity is based on anything other than God, it leads to addictions.
When we take good things- make them the ultimate things in our lives, we become enslaved to them.
Just like people who have substance addictions- we are in self-denial as to the degree …
these things control our lives, and
have become god-substitutes.
There are only two choices we can make in life …
God or idolatry- this is the essence of sin.
3. Fragmentation
Society becomes fragmented when God is not their highest priority.
When the highest goal of society is …
the good is our nation, tribe, race, we tend to be nationalistic or racist,
individual personal happiness, we put our interests above others- become selfish.
Issues like racism/sexism- not matters of ignorance- matters of putting something first above God.
Only as we put God first will we find it in our heart to love and care for others the way we should.
4. Corruption of creation
In most ancient accounts of creation, creation is the by-product of some kind of violent act.
Even- secular view - involves violence- big bang.
The Biblical view of creation is the picture of a Creator intimately involved with His creation …
Gen 2:7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. NASU
There is the sense of order and not chaos, of God weaving the various forms of life together.
In the Bible this idea of harmony is called shalom.
Shalom- translate as peace, absence of trouble.
The word actually means wholeness, fullness, harmony, joyfulness, filled with life.
The loss of shalom through sin has affected the entirety of creation.
Disease, genetic disorder, famine, natural disasters, aging, and death itself are as much the result of sin as are oppression, war, crime, and violence. We have lost God’s shalom- physically, spiritually, socially, psychologically, culturally. Timothy Keller
Look at what Paul says …
Rom 8:19-23
Entire world- affected by man’s decision to live for himself- will not be put right until we are put right.
What is the solution to Sin?
Every person realizes- he is not- person he could be.
For most people, our response is almost always to …
try harder, to do better, turn over new leaf.
The common thinking is- if we can do better and meet all the demands placed on us by …
family, society, culture, religion-
then we take what is left of our lives and do what we want with it.
The Bible gives us a much different picture.
God says, I do not want a portion of your …
time/money/work- I want you- all of you.
I am not interested in what you can give me …
I want you,
the whole you,
the you that I created to fellowship with Me.
I want all of your desires, the good ones and the wicked ones- in its place I will give you a new self.
And in Gal 2:20 …
our old life is dead and it is the life of Christ that lives in us and though us.
Conclusion
Sin is not just doing bad, it is putting good things in the place of God.
The solution is not changing our behavior, but centering our entire heart and life on God.
If I am a grass field- all the cutting will keep the grass less but won’t produce wheat. If I want wheat … it must be plowed up and re-sown.
CS Lewis
God wants to plow up our natural life and replace it with His.
If we do not live our lives fully for Jesus, we will live them for something else.
Whatever that something is becomes-Lord of your life
Jesus is the only Lord who will fulfill you completely and, if you fail Him, He will forgive you eternally.
There is nothing else that we can serve that will forgive us and give us eternal life.
(Ideas for this sermon come from the book: The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller)
