The Impact Of Sin

The Gospel – Part 2

Sins Separate us from God

March 7, 2021

Have you ever been using your phone and your call suddenly drops. The line goes dead. The person you’re talking to is no longer there. You’ve hit the dreaded “DEAD ZONE.”

What also happens is that you’re talking to someone and their voice keeps going in and out. You’re really not sure what they’re saying, but you don’t ask ‘what’ you just give an appropriately timed “un-huh!” Am I the only one who does that to my wife? No, never would I do that!

It doesn’t matter who you’re talking to or what you’re talking about. It just happens. It doesn’t matter what provider you have --- it can be very frustrating.

There was actually a commercial about that during the super bowl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jlTAhOFlXc

You may not be a fan, but it’s a great commercial, with a great message that we’ve all experienced.

The point is this -- when you have a connection with someone on a call, often times you are mid-sentence in an important, meaningful conversation, and it isn’t good to have that connection disrupted and cut off.

Hold that thought. Last week we began a new series looking at what we were created for and how to build on our purpose in the world. Last week we looked at the fact that we are created in God’s image and created to be with Him.

We were created to have an uninterrupted connection with God. No dead zones, no times of disconnection, we’re to have an everyday . . . constant communion with Him.

But then sin entered the picture and just like those cell phone dead zones, the connection was disrupted – cut off. Now, there’s separation. And that’s what we’re going to talk about this week. . . it’s the bad news of the fact that “Our sins separate us from God.”

So, let’s go back and see what happened. The word sin comes from the Greek word “HAMARTIA.” Literally it means to miss the mark. Imagine shooting an arrow at a target and you miss the target. You’ve missed the mark. Imagine God is that target and everytime you sin, you miss that mark.

Our sin separates us from God. Sin is breaking God’s commands as we in essence violate God’s character, because we miss the mark. In Genesis 2:16-17, we read -

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” - Genesis 2:16, 17

When you think about all of the rules and restrictions for Adam and Eve, it was a much simpler time. In essence, there was only one command, one rule. Follow this and you have the freedom to enjoy everything else. I think I’d like to try that. Just one rule.

Now, let’s jump to Genesis 3:1-5 ---

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” - Genesis 3:1-5

You see, the serpent tempted Eve by questioning God’s Word and creating doubt in her mind. satan lied by distorting God’s Word - declaring that they wouldn’t die and even declared to Eve that they would “become like God.” The crazy part of this is the fact that they were created in God’s image. So there already was a likeness to God. But, they would never be God. That wasn’t possible.

We now suffer because of the lie, as they would be kicked out of the garden - - out of the presence of God. And that has had consequences from that day forward. I believe the garden is where our heart and soul longs to be. And because we’ve been banished --- there’s always a longing, always the sense that something is missing. That’s partly why heaven is so attractive to us. That’s our return to the garden.

We end up living life between two trees. Have you ever thought of that? The tree of Genesis 3, the tree of good and evil --- on the one side ---- and the tree of life that we find in Revelation 21 and 22. Revelation 21 and 22 mark our return to the garden. The seals are broken, the trumpets have sounded, the bowls are emptied - - - and satan, the 2 beasts and Babylon have been judged and done away with. Then comes the booming voice of the Lord proclaiming - - -