SIN

( I bet this is the shortest sermon heading you have ever seen)

(But you preachers know that even though the word is short, it is a word that really lathers when you begin to preach on it)

( A lot of times brethren will ask: "What are you going to preach on today?' I will usually say, I am going to preach on sin and by the way, I'm against it!).

INTRO:

1. Sin is a very vast subect. Too vast to be fully discussed in so short a time.

2. Definition: The word "sin" comes from the Greek word "amartion" and means "to miss the mark": To deviate from the path of virtue, to be wrong or in error.

3. In referring to sin as meaning "to miss the mark", notice the Greek name for the devil.

a. The Greek name given to the devil is "diabolon" meaning to "throw across the path of".

4. By this we can see that it is Satan that helps us toe "miss the mark" by "throwing something across our path" Mt. 16:22,23; 1 Pet. 2:;8.

5. The New Testament is our path and heaven is our destination. So, let us not allow Satan to throw sin across our path and cause us to turn aside from the strait and narrow way.

I. SIN IS LAWLESSNESS. 1 Jno. 3:4.

A. All unrighteousness is sin. 1 Jno. 5:17.

B. The wages or payment received from sin is death. Rom. 6:23.

C. Does the presence of a policeman cause us to drive more carefully? Thereby preventing us from breaking the law?

D. God is always present. Does His presence in your life keep you from breaking His law? Lay His Word up in your heart that you might not sin against God.

II. SIN GOES FROM ONE STAGE TO ANOTHER.

A. Drawn away, lured away, enticed. Jas. 1:13-15.

B. Green watermelon vines might draw our mind away to thoughts of watermelons.

C. But when we thump a watermelon and find that it is ripe, we are enticed to take it.

(How many of you young people that are reading this, can even imagine the longing for a juicy red watermelon as you watch the green vines grow from day to day? Have you ever lived out in the country where farmers have large watermelon patches and you just can't wait until the watermelons get ripe? Have you experienced to joy of hearing the farmer say: "Son, those melons are ripe now, why don't you go out there and pick you one out?" I remember when I was about 10 or 12 years old and my cousins and I stopped by one of our uncle's houses one hot, July day or maybe it was August, most likely August, because he said: "Boys, I am fixing to turn my hogs in on the watermelon patch so if you want any you better go out there and get them now." I remember that we would burst them open and just get the heart out of them. I ate 18 watermelon hearts that afternoon. Precious memories how they linger. Boy, am I rambling, let's try to get back on course).

D. Were you ever drawn away by the sound of the thump on a ripe watermelon, in someone else's patch, to consider taking one without asking?

E. The desire that might draw me to steal a farmer's watermelon might not effect you at all.

(Of course, I can't imagine anyone not wanting some luscious, red, sweet watermelon).

F. Notice that sin is first conceived, then born, then fullgrown, then it brings about death. Separation from God. Isa. 59: 1,2.

G. To lust after, in some cases, is referred to as the sin itself or as bad. Mt. 5:27,28.

III. ALL HAVE SINNED. Rom. 3:23.

A. That which cannot be found in the one faith is sin. Jude 3; Rom. 14:23.

B. To him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. Jas. 4:17.

IV. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF SIN.

A. Sin is deceptive. Heb. 3:12,13.

B. Sin will harden us if not soon removed. We become calloused. Heb. 3:13;1 Tim. 4:1,2.

1. Cement must be worked while it is pliable, it cannot be worked and finished after it gets hard.

2. A child must be trained while he is soft and pliable.

3. As the twig is bent so grows the tree.

C. Sin is progressive in a person.

1. First he is GOOD. Then he is WEAK. Next he is EVIL. and last he is BRANDED. 2 Tim. 3:13; Eccl. 7:29.

2. A person cannot take fire into his bosom without being burned, Prov. 6:27.

a. Neither can a person take sin into his life without being marked or scarred by it.

3. A girl, on a school class trip to a coal mine, desired to wear a white dress. She asked the mine foreman if she could wear the white dress into the mine, he told her she could wear it into the mine but he would not promise that she would wear a white one out of the mine.

a. A young boy found his father's hammer and some nails. He wanted to try out his ability to drive the nails into some wood. The only thing that he could find to drive the nails into was a beautiful white gate post at the entrance into the yard of the home. He drove several nails into the post. When his father came home he made the boy pull the nails out of the post. After the boy pulled the nails out he said "Dad I have pulled all the nails out and they are no longer in the post and everything is alright." The father took him to the gate and showed him the front side of the post which had no nails driven into it. Then he showed him the back side of the post where the nails had been driven. He asked his son to look at both sides of the gate post and tell him what he saw and if he saw any difference in the two sides. The boy told his Dad, "Yes, I see some difference in the two sides, the front side is smooth and white but the back side is scarred and has holes left it it". So, it is with sin, regardless of what we do many times after we have sinned, the scars are still there.

4. Sin is referred to as being full of vain deceit. Col. 2:8; Rev. 12:9.

V. SIN IS PLEASANT TO THE FLESH.

A. Note the following scriptures: Heb. 11:24,25; Lk. 8:14; Gen. 3:6; 1 Tim. 5:6; 1 Jno. 2:15-17.

B. Where is your heart? That is where your treasure is. Mt. 6:19-21.

1. Is it on TV, your car, your house, your boat, or on God?

VI. SIN IS UNIVERSAL. Rom. 3:23

A. It is not isolated. Physical sickness can be isolated, but not sin.

B. Man, of himself, has not inherent power to overcome sin. Jer. 10:23.

1. The controlling power to over come sin has been made possible through Christ and His Word.

VII. SIN IS CONTAGIOUS. 2 Tim. 2:16-18; 1 Cor. 5:6.

A. Do you drink out of the community cup?

B. One of the main reasons for using more containers in the Lord's Supper is to keep from spreading disease.

C. After using these precautions in the worship, do we turn right around and drink out of the community cup of sin? 1 Cor. 15:33.

D. Or do you put up the quarantine sign by making certain places and people "off limits" to you?

E. Many homes are breeding places for sin.

1. By the effects of Associations, Trashy literature, immoral entertainment, HBO, VCR's , etc.

2. Children are exposed to such filth every day without any thought of tomorrow.

F. And then parents come crying to the preacher to come and talk to their Suzy or Johnny when he or she goes astray.

VIII. SIN IS SECRETIVE. EVIL LOVES DARKNESS.

A. Just try to look into a baroom through a window and see how dark it is inside.

1. Sometimes there is only a small peep hole in the door and the windows are covered with shades. Jno. 3: 19-21; Eph. 5:1-12.

IX. SOME CAUSES OF SIN.

A. Sin provokes sin. "You are chicken if you don't do this."

B. Deferred payment. We will eat, drink and be merry, God is not coming for a long time yet, we have plenty of time.

1. Everyone should take time to sow a few wild oats. Ecc. 12:1; 2 Pet. 3:3-12.

C. Self-will, we are going to have our way or bust.

D. Lust and pride of life.

X. CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.

A. Misery.

B. Chaos and confusion. Separation from God.

C. Eternal destruction.

D. There was a song that said: "Where you gonna hide on that great day?"

CONCLUSION.

Sin just does not pay. In sin no one can be saved. Baptism washes away past sins. Obedience saves. Just trust and obey for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

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