The Pervasive Impact of Sin and God's Grace

The Bible says you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked now being dead in our sins means that by Nature we were unresponsive to God even if we heard the truth even if we had good Christian friends even if we were deep deeply Loved By Nature we were unresponsive to God and clearly being dead affects everything and the Bible makes it clear that every part of our being has been corrupted by sin. [00:02:36]

Sin has affected the function of our minds our affections our Wills our consciences our memories and even our bodies first the mind is darkened the Apostle Paul says they are darkened in their understanding alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their Hardness of Heart and then to the Corinthians he says the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. [00:03:32]

Sin makes us blind to the truth by Nature Sinners don't see the glory of Christ by Nature the things of the spirit they're Folly to us we just don't understand them and then not only is the Mind darkened but the affections are distorted see what we do arises from what we love and sin distorts our affections by making us love the wrong things Jesus said this is the verdict light has come into the world but men loved Darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. [00:04:47]

Sin has disabled the will and the human will is disabled in this sense that it doesn't have the full range of function a person for example with a frozen shoulder can only lift their arm to a limited degree and sin has limited the ability of the will and that is why Jesus said everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin it's only if the Son of God sets you free that you will be free indeed sin makes us both unable and unwilling to seek after God. [00:05:48]

Conscience is a wonderful gift of God it Spurs us to do what is right and it holds us back from doing what is wrong and it helps us to tell the difference but conscience is not always a reliable guide that's why Paul warns Timothy about hypocritical Liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron you see that's why a man of violence can commit terrible crimes and have no sense of remorse or responsibility at all. [00:07:53]

Sin has even had an effect on our memory and made it defective God's people were once slaves in Egypt they were oppressed they were forced to make bricks without straw but God wonderfully delivered them set them free brought them out of Egypt and fed them in the desert but God's people were not happy and we read in the book of numbers that they complained to Moses they said you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to describe Egypt where God's people were slaves as a land flowing with milk and honey well that is a distortion memory to say the very least. [00:08:42]

Grasping the doctrine of sin will expand your understanding of Salvation you know some Christians have the idea that Jesus simply opened a way of salvation and now it's up to us to decide if we're going to walk through the door that Jesus has opened but if Jesus had only made salvation possible if he'd only opened a door how many people who are dead in trespasses and sins do you think would go through it well the answer of course is none of us dead people don't go through open doors. [00:12:13]

God Saves he saves through the gospel and the gospel has been trusted to us and since God Saves through the gospel we have every reason to share the gospel with others we must share the Gospel wherever we have opportunity because God Saves through the gospel I expect that you have someone in your life who you love and you long for them to come to Christ but they show absolutely no interest in Jesus Christ whatsoever and maybe it's been like this for years. [00:15:57]

We've seen that sin is much more than wrong things that we do and wrong choices that we make sin is a power it's a presence within us as well as an offense and that that is why in Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 Paul describes the gospel as the power of God for the Salvation of everyone who believes see the spiritual condition of every person born into the world is that we are blind and bound and dead so we need more than forgiveness we need an infusion of life we need a spiritual restoration. [00:18:30]

Christians are sinners in the process of recovery sin has debilitating effects on the soul and they're not put right instantly we're all sinners in the process of recovery and we're at different stages in that process and only in heaven will our recovery be complete so expect that you will experience disappointments from other Christians in your journey there will be things that make you say how's that possible he's a Christian she's a Christian I can't make any sense of this contradictions in the lives of Christian Believers are genuinely distressing. [00:20:26]

Imagine the scene hundreds of cars are all backed up people are standing on the back of pickup trucks and they're shouting others are blaring their horns everyone is angry but you have compassion because you know the problem one person is blind one person is bound and one person is dead now that is the effect of sin in human nature by Nature we are blind and bound and dead now there's a certain kind of Christianity that is always angry with the world it's always shouting but when you understand that by Nature Sinners are blind and bound and dead you will have compassion. [00:23:52]

Having looked at how we were ruined by sin we're going to look in our next three sessions at how we are Redeemed by Christ regenerated by the spirit and justified by faith. [00:24:27]