Facing Up to the Truth

Session One:Facing Up To the Truth

Ouch

That’s what I kept thinking as I read the assignment. Three chapters, one session of our new study. It’s not something we enjoy doing is it? Facing the truth, particularly an unpleasant one is something we tend to avoid. Its why the phrase “Denial is not just a river in Egypt” has become a catch phrase between my sister and I. Denial though, is where many of us dwell daily. It means a person, when faced with a fact too uncomfortable to accept, REJECTS it instead, in spite overwhelming evidence, as a defense mechanism.

Sounds Legit.

The truth of the matter is we are all sinners, every breathing being on this planet. The reality is there is not a thing any of us does that pleases God. The good news though, is that He is pleased with His Son, and that is more than enough to make up for what we lack, and trust me we lack plenty, if we are covered in Him, when the Father looks at us He no longer sees our deeds, but Christ’s deed, that DEED that paid for us all, and in THAT atoning deed He is pleased.

So with that being said, let’s get to our questions:


I. WHAT IS SIN?


I John 3:4 tells us that Sin is lawlessness, it’s the breaking and violating of God’s law by transgression or neglect—being unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will. Doesn’t that sting just a little to read those words? When you sin, do you feel like you are neglecting God? Do you feel as though you are behaving unrestrained and unregulated when you have that extra helping at dinner? When you tell your friend how utterly annoying THAT woman is? Yeah…but we should, because here’s what James tells us, if we keep ALL the law and slip up at the tiniest part, we’ve broken ALL of it. We stand accused before God and guilty of ALL of those shattered commandments at the base of Mount Sinai.


1. Why do you think it is important for us to understand what sin is and its impact on our lives and relationships?


It’s important for us to really understand our own sinfulness before God, because we really are no better than the next guy. We really are just as guilty, we really are just as deserving of punishment, which is why I think I love the story in Luke 18 so much, it cuts to right the heart of the matter and reveals how we tend to separate ourselves from what we consider the “worst” sinners, while God makes no such distinctions.

“Two men went up into the temple enclosure] to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men—extortionist (robbers), swindlers [unrighteous in heart and life], adulterers—or even like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain. But the tax collector, [merely] standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying, O God, be favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, the especially wicked sinner that I am! I tell you, this man went down to his home justified (forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God), rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Maybe you can relate, maybe not. I’ve been both the Pharisee and the tax collector and sometimes, usually though, I’m somewhere in the middle. The point is, all of our sin is detestable to God and wherever ours falls on the scales, it leaves us lacking in our relationships with each other and with God. If not for God’s amazing grace, we could be, and would be so much worse. We must be Christians who are learning to remove the beam from our own eyes so that we are able to help remove the speck that is in our brothers; otherwise, we’re both walking around with clouded vision.

2. What do James 1:14-15 and 2:10-11 reveal about the root of our sinful actions? About God’s law and the consequences of breaking it?

James tells us that we are baited, drawn away by our own desires and lusts. That will look differently for each of us. What tempts me may not be a temptation for you. Both are selfish desires of our hearts, of the hidden man. Things we don’t usually tell anyone else. Seriously, how often do you walk up to another believer and ask them to help you with _______ . We don’t because we don’t want to be judged. We should because we need the help. Like Eve in the garden we weigh our sinful actions by those three standards she used, the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things] and if it seems good to us we go for it, forgetting we are performing our sinful acts in the very throne room of God.


3. In Matthew 5:22, 27-28, what did Jesus emphasize concerning the seriousness of sin--of breaking God’s law?

There was a meme going around face book a while back that said something like this:


“Don’t think God can use you? Well, Moses stuttered. David's armor didn't fit. John Mark was rejected by Paul. Hosea's wife was a prostitute. Amos' only training was in the school of fig-tree pruning. Jacob was a liar. David had an affair. Solomon was too rich. Abraham was too old. David was too young. Timothy had ulcers. Peter was afraid of death. Lazarus was dead. John was self-righteous. Naomi was a widow. Paul was a murderer. So was Moses. Jonah ran from God. Miriam was a gossip. Gideon and Thomas both doubted. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Elijah was burned out. John the Baptist was a loudmouth. Martha was a worrywart. Mary was lazy. Samson had long hair. Noah got drunk. Did I mention that Moses had a short fuse? So did Peter, Paul…”


The point was that God can use you regardless of your past, but some friends of mine were hung up on the fact that Paul never ACTUALLY committed murder, though he stood by and approved of Stephen’s murder. Jesus tells us though:


“But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot!] shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire.”


The point He was making is that there is no distinction for when or how the law is being broken, only that it is broken, and broken law requires punishment and judgment. I am grossly unqualified to discuss punishments for specific sins verses others and whether or not there will be levels of hell and which sins are more heinous than others, but I do believe that James brings us up short when he reminds us whoever stumbles at the smallest part of the law has broken all of it and is therefore a lawbreaker with all the punishment that affords him.



II. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORD SIN?


It‘s still around, at least God still calls sin, sin.

Man however has taken to changing the face of sin. People no longer sin they have addictions. Wouldn’t want to make anyone “feel” bad. If they have a disease, then they can.not.help.themselves it is not their fault. Sex addicts, can cheat on their spouses, Kleptomaniacs can steal stuff, and rebellious children? Well, they have oppositional defiant disorder. All perfectly acceptable behaviors by today’s standards, many of them treatable with meds. Anyone want to pick up the oars and row the boat awhile down the river Denial?


1. What evidence do you see that the word sin has virtually disappeared from our culture? That awareness of personal sin has disappeared from many believers’ consciences? Explain your answer.

The way our sinning has been repackaged to look like addictions, is one clue, the way people become completely offended when you mention sin is another. Our society as a whole has come to believe that they are not responsible for their sinning because they have an illness, like cancer or diabetes and as such they can not be held responsible for something that they can not control. The church however, the ones who possess the truth the ones who are to be salt and light to the world are not doing much better. They’ve adopted a “sinning is what they do” mentality which smacks of Pharisee-isim. We need to get back to believing that we are just as sinful, and that God’s mercy and grace literally plucked us from the fire. If you’ve not read Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” I encourage you to do so.


2. What impact do you think the “softening” of language regarding sin is having in our lives? In our churches?

In our lives personally, I think the softening of the language of sin causes us to not view sin for what it really is. Ralph Venning, the author of “The Sinfulness of Sin” called a spade a spade when he said sin is, “VILE, UGLY, ODIOUS, MALIGNANT, PESTILENT, PERNICIOUS, HIDEOUS, SPITEFUL, POISONOUS, VIRULENT, VILLAINOUS, AMONINABLE and DEADLY. Do we really think of it as such though? The problem I think is that we think of certain sins in this way, when we should remember what Jesus was trying to teach us in Matthew that sin starts in our mind. That a lustful look begets adultery, that a hateful heart begets murder. James echo’s this when he says that a mans own inward desires drags him away. Matthew Henry said it like this:

“The sin truly exists, though it be but in embryo. And, when it has grown it its full size in the mind, it is then brought forth in actual execution. Stop the beginnings of sin therefore, or else all the evils it produces must be wholly charged upon us.”


In our churches, when we soften the language of sin we harden the hearts of men.



3. Why is it often easier for believers to focus on the sins of unbelievers than on their own personal sins?


Jerry points out that as a whole we tend to think of God’s Law as individual laws, with their respective penalties, but he reminds us that Gods LAW is seamless. We tend to go through a checklist of sins that are greater in our mind and think, nope, I didn’t “do” that one, whew! But you gossiped, or you hated, or you over ate, or you were angry or you were impatient with someone who really needed grace. These are all grievous to God as well. This is what Jerry wants us to see. This is what Jesus wanted us to see. He told them when they accused him of hanging around with the worst of the worst, “It is not the fit and flourishing who need the doctor, but those who are ill! Suppose you go away and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’. In any case I did not come to invite the ‘righteous’ but the ‘sinners’.” Matthew 9:13


I'll be posting the rest of the session tomorrow, but for now, remember that HE desires mercy. SO be good to each other, and give as good as you get. And trust me, its a lesson I am having to learn every day, because as I said earlier, often I'm in the middle~