My niece who was studying for her masters degree at the time asked me what sin was. Imagine that! I asked my son who was
11yrs old at the time what sin was. After a minute of careful thought he replied, "Disobedience of God's laws and commands."
That! From a learning disabled child. At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. "Even
so, Father, as it seemed good in Your sight." Matt. 11:25-26.
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To tell you what sin is, I want to take you back to the very origin of sin. If you have a Bible go to the book of Genesis
at the very beginning of your Bible. For the benefit of those who do not have a Bible I'll write out the scripture. Genesis
Chapter 2, verse 16 reads: "And the Lord God commanded (there is that word command, pay attention!) the man, saying,
'Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, 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.'" Chapter 3 begins: Now the serpent was more cunning
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. He, the serpent, said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, You
shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of
the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst (middle) of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it,
nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "You shall not surely die. For God
knows that in the day you eat of it your (mind's) eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one
wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate, (I guess he was suffering from brain
drain, or a lapse of memory but he recovered quickly enough to blame the woman before God, and to even blame God for giving
him the woman). We see in Chapter 2, verse 16 that God commanded, the man and woman not to do something. We
see in Chapter 3 that the snake comes along and planted the first seed of doubt, "Has God indeed said?" That question
planted the first seed of doubt about God's character, in the heart and mind of Eve. That question implied that God had lied
to Adam and Eve. That question implied that the Snake was telling the truth. That the snake knew something they, Adam and
Eve didn't know. And to prove it the snake told her you shall be like God to know good and evil. We know now
that that is not the case at all, for both Adam and Eve died, just as God said they would. So who lied God or the snake?
Everyone born after those two are born spiritually dead, because the scripture went on to say that Adam and Eve bore children
in their own image and likeness, not in God's image and likeness. So when Jesus told the Jews who wanted to kill Him that
they were of their father the devil that the devil was a liar and a murder from the beginning, He was referring to what happened
in the beginning, in Eden. "He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John
8:42-44). The devil lied about God's character to Eve and she believed him. He lied to Eve and told her she would not die
he caused their deaths (murder). Jesus also said that murder begins in the heart. The woman also sinned in her
heart, for she chose to believe the serpent instead of believing God and she looked at the fruit of the tree and desired (coveted)
it. That was the first unbelieving (sinful) and selfish thought to enter the heart of a human being. That unbelief and selfish
thought led to her death and the death of her husband. So what is sin? Sin is disobedience of God's laws and commands.
It is motivated by unbelief and selfishness that thing which led to the fall. Anything done out of unbelief and a selfish
desire is sin. Sin begins with a lack of trust in God and it doesn't end there. A lack of trust in God leads to a trust
in oneself, or in someone or something else. And that misplaced trust manifests itself in our response or attitude towards
everyone and everything, including our relationship with God and others. Sin is rooted in unbelief and selfishness.
Now name a person you know who has not been selfish at some point in their life. (No one is born a believer, that's why
we must be born again.) I thought so, you know no one. Now do you understand why Jesus said there is none good except God?
And why the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, "All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God?" All have
sinned. God says that, "As a person thinks in his (her) heart so is he(she)." Yes dear reader we are what we think.
Don't for one moment think that your sexual fantasies won't hurt you or anyone else. Scripture says it does. Are you going
to believe the counsel of your own evil heart or are you going to believe Jesus?
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