What Is Sin? Series

THE SUMMER OF SIN, PART 1

“WHAT IS SIN?”

Jer. 2:2-13

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: THE ANSWER IS SIMPLER THAN YOU THINK

1. An engineer, a psychologist, and a theologian were hunting in the wilds of Northern Canada. They came across a isolated cabin, and decided to check it out. Inside was normal except one oddity: a pot-bellied cast ironed stove, but it was suspended in mid-air by wires attached to the ceiling beams.

2. The psychologist said, "It’s obvious this lonely trapper, in isolation, elevated his stove so he can curl up under it and experience a return to the womb." "Nonsense!" Replied the engineer, "The man elevated his stove to distribute the heat more evenly throughout the cabin."

3. Theologian disagreed, "I think it has a religious meaning: Fire lifted up has been a religious symbol for centuries." As the 3 debated, the trapper returned, and they asked him.

4. "Because I had plenty of wire, but not much stove pipe."

[Tom Mullen, Laughing Out Loud and Other Religious Experiences]

B. TEXT & THESIS

1. Does sin still matter? A USA Today article asked, “Is Sin Dead?” The Pope said the world is losing the notion of sin. At the same time, 87% of people still believe there is sin. The Bible portrays it as fatal.

2. Jeremiah was one of the last prophets of the O.T. who kept telling Israel why things were falling apart, why their marriages and families were ending in failure.

3. TEXT 2 “This is what the Lord says: “‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me...5 This is what the Lord says: “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. 6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness...’ 8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’...The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols. 10...See if there has ever been anything like this: 11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?...But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. 12 Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. 13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jer. 2:2,5-6,8,10-13.

4. Today we’re beginning a new series, “The Summer of Sin” in which we look at the nature of sin, the problems it brings, and the only real solution to it.

5. SIN is not just violating the 10 Commandments, or a moral code. There are sins, and then there is SIN. Sin is a mental state, an attitude, a perception.

I. THE NATURE OF SIN

1. Why are things falling apart? Why are they a mess? The media keeps asking, “Why are people so angry? Why are they at each other all the time?” Jeremiah tells us why; ‘The problem isn’t God’s fault; it’s the consequences of us forsaking God and choosing sin. “Consider how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake God and have no awe of Me?”

2. We can’t shove God out of our schools, courts, and abandon morals – and expect people to act better. Faith and God are the underpinnings of civil behavior.

A. FIRST, SIN IS DENIAL

1. It’s not fatal to be a sinner; but it’s fatal to deny you’re a sinner. Same with alcohol. The first step of A.A. is to acknowledge, “I’m an alcoholic.” Our society wants to deny that human nature is essentially sinful and believe that it’s fundamentally good, and just needs a little tweaking.

2. If you could get into a time machine and travel back to the 19th Century, you’d find a great spirit of optimism. Society was getting more organized. Medical science was advancing. Everyone was being educated. The expectation was that ‘we’re going to forward into a utopian society.’ ‘We no longer need religion, now we have science to solve all our problems.’

3. But what happened with our ‘self-improvement?’ We reached the 20th century, and with it, WW1, then WW2, then the atom bomb, then terrorism. We had the bloodiest century of all human history! Why? Sin and denial.

4. There was a famous couple in British society, Sydney & Beatrice Webb*, who held this view of human “progress” (we’re good and just need enlightening). In 1890, Beatrice wrote in her diary, “I have staked everything on the essential goodness of human nature.” In 1935, she revisited that thought, but said, “I realize now how permanent are the evil impulses and instincts in us, that mere social machinery will never change.”