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Birth of Sin I
John 2:16 ~ James 1:15
Looking at our text we
will be going back in time to around 90 A.D. it is believed this letter
of John’s was written from a town called Ephesus. Morality in Ephesus
was low. The magnificent temple of Diana with its 127 columns 60 ft.
high surrounding an area 425 by 220 ft., was like a magnet drawing
people to the Ephesians cesspool of sin. It was a house of prostitution in the
name of religion. Yet in spite of the iniquitous ideality of that places
it was a Rome of religious worship, and the people delighted to call
themselves temple-keepers of the great Diana.
(Acts 19:35).
Gnosticism
was a philosophy in John days that was making its ways into the early
church. Their thoughts were, that deity couldn’t unite itself with
anything material These false teachings of the era surrounding the
first church and made it very hard for people to stand firm against
sinful lust. The morality in those days were much like they are today. The
surroundings of the early church is the kind of surroundings Satan like
to work in. Satan always attack us at our weakest point or attack our
natural desires. Satan will attack us in these areas if we allow Him to.
John’s principal answer to these Gnostic's errors is to emphasize the
Incarnation and the ethical power of the example of the life of Christ.
I said all this to let you know where people were coming from with their
thought pattern in those days, people let their surroundings dictate
their life style instead of their life style-changing their surrounding,
much like Christian do today. Well everybody else is doing it so I guess
it is OK. Let’s take a look at out text to see if we can determine how
Satan uses us, ( Our natural desires)
to blind our eyes and cause us to
fall into the bonds of sin ”For all that is in the world, the lust of
the Flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the
father, but is of the world.
There are three things I want to look at in this passages. 1) Lust of the flesh First lets look at what Lust means in the Greek The Strong’s concordance says – A longing-(especially for things that are forbidden): to set thy heart upon, covet, desire. This thought is of physical pleasure. A.
Samson- was saved but had a lust for women God
told him to stay away from them, this was forbidden. All Satan had to do was put
Delilah there and Samson's lust lead him into sin. Satan know the lust of
man and will always provide a way to fulfill it. Friends
we know, no man can warm a house with a block of ice, build a
house on a nest of eggs, tunnel through a mountain with a toothpick, or
put out a fire with a bucket of gas. I cannot with words set forth to you the tragic
the decade of sin. No more than Delilah could bind Samson with a piece of
thread. Friends Sin is worse to the human heart that rust to steel, and
more destructive to a human’s life than moth to silk. Yes this sin
that is brought on by yourself can also destroy you Just like in the
days of John in Ephesus now here in our own city people have a growing disregard
for sin. It is easier for men to over look lustful sins, because they begin with their own desire. These false conceptions to sin are as fatal to human life as for a fly to mistake a spider’s web for a full set of whickers. Yes this lust of the flesh has a price, Samson paid with his life. Oh what we people do to ourselves. Judas – lust was for money, his lust was so strong that he also paid the price but he paid both physical and spiritual death you see Judas wasn’t saved. Jo 12:5 . C.
The rich
young ruler was lost because of his fleshly lust, Luke 18:22. Jesus
warns us about what can happen to us when He ask us, "what will it profit a man to lose
his soul and gains the whole world". God tells us for the love of money is the root of all evil,
which means a longing and lust for it. Let's stand against this lust. 2).
The Lust of the eyes- This thought is of mental or physical pleasures
this part of man lust is fixed on beauty or taste. This is a part of
lust that Satan find’s to be common ground for most Christians. Most
people has a hard time denying themselves of beautiful thing it don’t
make any difference whether it is good for them or not. The lust of the
eyes is a dreadful enemy of Christian and lost people. This seems to
be one of Satan strong hold over all of us. A.
King David had lived his life for God. God said he was a man
after His own heart. We are told in II Sam 11:2 that David saw something
beautiful, and it was at this point that lust begins in David's life.
There is an old
saying “An idols mind is the devils work shop". Well, in David’s
case this turned out to be true. David was not doing what he was suppose
to be doing. The Bible says it was the time that kings went off to war,
but David stayed at home. B.
In the 73rd Ps.
we find ASAP being filled with lust of
the eyes, but this man realized how lust of the eyes almost caused him
to backslide. ASAP did one thing all Christians should do, he put his
eyes back on God instead of looking at things to satisfy. If we could
only learn this, then we would not be so easily over come by Satan. As
we look at these two men we see one was blinded by lustful sin and the
other almost blinded. Friends Lust in every case is sinful, Satan tempts
us with our natural desires but lust is not natural,
when these natural desires turns into
lust, you fall into sin. Now
we have learnt how to stand against the lust of the Flesh and the lust
of the eye now let us look at our third point.
3). The pride of life – Strong’s put it this way
self –
confidence, boasting – Webster’s says this about pride inordinate
self – steam: a reasonable self – respect based on a consciousness
of worth. A Commentary put it this way – not seeing the real emptiness
of the things of the world. A.
A man told me once that the trouble with Americans is,
prosperity, kills them. As I look back through the years I can see a lot
of people who fit into this mold. Men who was serving God until they
gain money. There were men in my church.. B. This Pride of life stopped Ananias and Sapphira from serving God.
Friends Prov.6 tells us about 6 things God hates and one
of them is, pride, and
in Prov 16:18,19 we are told that pride will
cause us to fall, just like it did
Ananias and Sapphira. C.
You think pride won’t cause a man troubles just look at what
happen to Nebuchadnezzar. Dan 4:30 Yes friends pride causes hurt to
everyone. A lot of people are in Hell today because of pride. Pride
kept a Pharisee from drawing close to God in Matt
23.
Because of pride Naman almost missed his change to be healed of
leprosy.
4). James 1:15 says
“when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin,
and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” A. Jesus is trying to tell us that lust brings us into sin and
millions of people know that nobody wins who play with sin. Friends we
need to remove pride from our lives, if we want to stand strong for
God. Our Heavenly Father hate pride and so should we . Though
we cannot write or speak fully of sin’s wreck lives, it writes about itself in all
our social disorders. The newspapers drip red with it, and are stained
with the dirt of it. Sin is the most frightful fact in our world, it’s
ruin lives in a thousand different ways. Sin in the awful tragedy of the universe and
only fools make mock of it. God cannot and will not overlook sin. God
will not let sin mock Him, because it is still an internal law of life
that, “ the wages of sin is death”
Friends the object of education is t rid the world of ignorance.
The object of medicine is to rid the world of disease. The object of law
is to rid the world of lawlessness. The object of Christianity is to rid
the world of sin.
Most people who know this seem blind Yes, blind as a fools heart.
Blind, Blind as a one day old pup. Blind, as blind people are on a burning
stairway, when they say there is no fire because they cannot see it burning. B. Yes friends, this lust brings forth sin, against a Holy God. My sins, your sins, sins of lust from the beginning are sins against light and knowledge. Sins against Devine love and kindness. Sins against grace and goodness. Sins before conversion and sins since conversion. Sins against God. Sins against man, Sins against truth. Sins against purity, Sins against the law. Sins against the Gospel. Sins against the name of God. Sins against the heart of Christ. Sins against the kingdom of God, and Sins against the Church. All kinds of sins begin with lust of some kind. We have taken a good look at where sin starts and we have also learned how to stand against it. Like ASAP the only way to stand, is first to look to God when we are tempted. Stand on God’s word. And let us remember that sin begins, out of our own lust. Let us always remember our hope is in Christ not sin.
He who know no sin took on the sins of the world, “past”
“present” and “future”. He died for our sins that we might die
to our sins. He took our load of guilt – that we might deny
ungodliness and world lusts. He left Heaven for an earthly life that we
might be enable to live a heavenly life on earth. He died for us that we
might live for Him.
Christ our sin bearer was bruised for our iniquities --- wounded
for our transgressions. (Isa 53:5) Don’t forget that is was ours
lustful sins. That beat Him, our sins that put a crown of thorns on Him, our sins that that nailed Him to the cross. Because the wages of
sin was death and Jesus knew no sin. “ Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us”: for it is written
“Cursed is every one that hanged on a tree”, (Gal 3:13). Paul says
Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, “ I Tim
1:15
Believe in Jesus and the curse of sin is gone. If you haven’t
trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, certainly this message has stirred
your heart with the desire to have your sins forgiven and to know Jesus
Christ as your Savior. When the great apostle Paul was asked by the Philippians jailer, “Sir what must I do to be saved?” Paul’s reply was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. |
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