Sin in a Three-Piece Suit - Part A

It certainly sounds counterproductive to study sin after all. Common wisdom would say forget the past and just move on with your life. However, I contend that she could never understand our great salvation so you understand how much we needed.

Once you need that and you are aware that the Savior that you have ductwork hamartia knowledge he comes in. It explains the problem added points to the solution seems dangerous and it can't be brushed off you have a Savior who can break the chains of every single sin today on connect with Skip right, Skip begins a series called percent sharing. Hopefully this allows you to live a truly fulfilled life in Christ. Here's a great resource that encourages you to live with bold faith as you explore the inspiring stories of women in the Bible you know. Proverbs 31 the go to passage that describes the ideal Christian woman in life. To be honest that I deal can be as intimidating as it is inspiring.

Here's get high-tech with more can I just tell you it's exhausting to just read that letter law. However, women could you ever do that. Let me say first of all, you can't do that in a day is not giving the 24 hour description of the virtuous wife. This is a woman over time to know some of the most incredible women in the Bible and in history to inspiring resources, six message CD collection from pastors and prominent women in Scripture. The book 7 women by best-selling author Erica Texas.

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A real ugly person that I wore that hardware like driving on the freeway put this mask on board with double take hardware on my bicycle to work on my porch. I even wore actual wedding once and this mask had a frown, so it look like there were some scratches on his face and the use really gotten really really ugly and underneath. I could be smiling that usually I was laughing but the mass canceled out what was going on underneath.

Let's suppose that I want to have a serious conversation with somebody while I was having this mask were in this mess really would be impossible to do so because they couldn't get past that mask would just be weird because of what they were seeing versus what they were hearing while in ancient Greek times in the theater people wore masks, actors Laura comedic basket that funny lines that were a tragic frowning mask if they had sad lines and typically in Greek theater was a comedy they would get an oversized grin place that mask up to their face recite their lines and people would laugh when it was time for a serious part they would get the frowning mask. Hold it up to their face. Quote their lines say them and often times people would mourn. They would weep pending on the nature of the lines, the Greeks in their theater had a Greek term for an after was the word who Buckley Chase, a hypocrite. It simply means somebody who wears a mask and we know the word to mean somebody who lives not being real not being authentic wearing, as it were a mask this series that were doing white-collar sense is a borrowed term to borrow the phrase from the world of criminology.

The phrase white-collar crime white-collar crime was a phrase coined by an American criminologist by the name of Edwin Sutherland.

He wanted to distinguish what he called blue-collar versus white-collar crimes, white-collar crime is a crime committed typically for financial gain crimes like embezzlement, corporate fraud, money laundering, white-collar crime is defined as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his or her occupation. So it's a nonviolent crime. It is crime in a three-piece suit committed by those in the business world, or even law enforcement world and perhaps the most well-known white-collar crime of late happened in 2009 with Bernie made off Bernard made off. You've heard his name is a household name by now. He was convicted of massive fraud in a Ponzi scheme that cost investors $65 billion. Bernie made off is serving up 150 year prison sentence in a federal facility so all white-collar crime can actually incur as much or more punishment than some blue-collar crimes were going to do today and throughout the series is in effect give you a short theology of sin out of you know this or not but in the world of theology.

There is a branch of theological study called hamartia allergy which means the study of sin comes from two words hamartia which is the Greek word for sin and the other word login which means to study so it's the study of sin. Most people when they hear the echo.

Why on earth would you ever want to study that that is like the most depressing subject. You could ever come up with.

It certainly sounds counterproductive to study sin after all. Common wisdom would say forget the past and just move on with your life. However, I contend that you can never understand our great salvation until you understand how much we needed. It's what you need that and you are aware of that that you appreciate the Savior that you have.

That's where hamartia knowledge he comes in. It explains the problem and it points to the solution and I can well ask when somebody said why on earth would you ever want to study said I would ask, why would you ever want to get an x-ray or why would you ever want to go get a blood test or an EKG or an electroencephalogram answer because I want answers. I want to find out what the true condition and the nature of what I'm feeling and going through is all about and hopes to point to a solution to know in this series of white-collar sends. Let me just tell you my aim. My purpose it is not to condemn it is not to make people feel bad about themselves as dots so that you can leave church defeated like let's go to church and get depressed. Yet the idea is not all great, just what I thought it was fun to come to church Oedipal this series of my purpose is to simply make us feel less comfortable wearing the mask to to aim for mask less living.

To be honest about who we are and what God is done has done and is doing with us and saving us from our condition and and in turn to be much more gracious with other people around us when they falter and they feel were in Matthew 23. I've asked you to turn there this morning and let me just give you background this is a time when Jesus confronts the religious elite of Israel thought the first time. This is passion week.

It's the last week of his life.

He has had several run-ins with the religious elite describes the Pharisees and Sadducees, and he's never had like a great relationship with them in the past is always the simmering going on underneath a confrontation going on here.

The simmering is at a boiling point and here's what's interesting about chapter 23 of Matthew.

Matthew 23 is the last public sermon. Jesus ever preach that is recorded at least that in and of itself is intriguing because you might think. Will the last sermon Jesus would preach would be a sermon on salvation or a sermon on resurrection or a sermon or how to get along with each other but he doesn't preach any of those subjects. The last sermon he preaches publicly that is recorded is a confrontation is a polemic. He pulls their masks off. He shines the bright light on them. He unmasks their hypocrisy when I can look at all of this chapter, but looking a look at some verses were going to make note of it and I what I want to do in looking at Matthew 23 is is to look at five characteristics of sin.

Five of number one sin is detectable. God always can detect God always knows who we are. We never pull one over off on God. He knows our hearts. From the beginning he can detect it and here Jesus confronts so we have in this chapter. Jesus, the perfect standing next to the pretenders, the perfect one in the pretending ones, verse one. Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say, and they do not do we always have to understand that sin is detectable to a holy God. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

John wrote, if we say we have no sin, we live, we are liars. We do not practice the truth, we deceive ourselves of the most common word in the New Testament for that word sin in English is that word I just told you not harm IT and harmonic TI use over 200×200 and let's say 40×220 to 40 times means to miss the mark or to fall short so it implies there is a divine standard in place that we have missed so let me give you a working definition of sin. In general, a short one. Sin can be defined as any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act attitude or nature.

Once again it's any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act in attitude or nature.

Now, I mentioned just one word from the Greek language translated into English are about to but if you're just look at your English Bible. Forget the original languages look in English all the different words translated for that one English word sin, you would discover that the word sin in your English Bible appears 446 times in Scripture, the plural form sends another 187 times for all of the different forms together sinful sending, etc. it shows up over 700 times in Scripture.

What that means is you can virtually look anywhere in your Bible and you are confronted with the idea. The problem of sin.

What time DL Moody Dwight Lyman Moody.I started Moody Bible church that evangelists in Chicago. He was a guest speaker at a church that asked him become so he he got there he is ready to give this message and the leadership. One of the elders came up to him and said Mr. Moody. We just want to warn you that this church may be very different from the church that you're at Moody church is that in this church. It's not uncommon to have members of the congregation get up and leave before the sermons done so I said thank you. Fair enough.

Fair warning. So he gets up to the pulpit and Mr. Moody said ladies and gentlemen, today I want to address two different groups of people. I first want to speak to sinners that I want to speak to saints. So we spoke a while then he said now I'm done speaking to sinners, so if you want the citizen get up and leave, now speak to the saints. They said for the first time in a church is memorable history. No one got up early and left serve the reason everyone status. Most know that sin is real, but it's sort of hard to admit their part of the problem. Sin is not a popular concept and that is because in our culture. Mankind is viewed not morally not spiritually but just mechanistically you are just you exist. Biological there may or may not be a God but is not a big deal so it's a purely mechanistic view of our culture. So sin is explained away.

It's explained away like God is explained away sin is explained away as a psychological conditioning or social conditioning years ago. John Lennon sang that song God is a concept by which we measure our pain so people feel about sin.

Sin is just a concept, by which we measure guilt and have to deal with guilt, and so we call it sanity feel good when you think I've appeased the God up there somewhere. That's all they look at it is explained away. Unfortunately, it's not only in the secular world, but in the religious world, many religions and I sin, Hinduism, for example, teaches the good and evil are relative terms that we all stumble on our way. Our journey to finding ourselves and if we fail in this life you'll always be reincarnated into another form and perhaps then or in another life or another life or another life you get it right. No thank you. The Unitarian church oddly called the church believes that man is basically good. There's no such thing as sin's ridiculous belief system that you don't need saving from anything they will tell you you save yourself by improving yourself. Life is about self-improvement. That's what salvation means just get better, be better be nice, then Christian science which is neither Christian nor science denies sin, denies death and denies evil they do not exist in that ideology. All of those things they say are just a result of faulty beliefs but is not just in other religions, and in Colts but one eminent pastor who was very popular on radio and on television for years. Around this country said and I quote, I do not think that anything is been done in the name of Christ are under the banner of Christianity that is proven more destructive to the human personality and hence counterproductive to evangelism than the often crude, uncouth and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition." In other words, your you have a pastor in the pulpit of a mainline church saying the worst thing you could ever tell someone is that they are sinners in need of a Savior and I listen to that, then they'll never go to the Savior because I'll never know the need that they have a say so sin is detectable. Jesus could smell it a mile away, and though he doesn't name it as sin. In this chapter, he names the sin that they were committing. And that is the sin of the mask hypothesis. So sin is detectable. Jesus detected it, and he nailed it a second characteristic I'd like you to notice is that sin is dangerous. It's dangerous. Verse will look at a few verse.

Look at verse 13 but woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites verse 14 woe to you. Verse 15 woe to you. Verse 16 woe to you blind guides eight times in this chapter he says well trust me, I counted you may going on with me, okay, whatever, eight times he says well it's it's a word of denunciation condemnation is an exclamation of grief.

You could translated this way. How terrible first for you or man are you in trouble or look out you know what the word is in the original language both Greek as well as Hebrew in the Old Testament the term well both the same word essentially all way sound so Jewish right by all way. Why oh why, ouch.

Verse 13 for a moment, but woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go if you hear what he saying he saying you religious leaders are not going to heaven and anybody who gets close enough to want to enter the door you slammed the door so they can get in verse 15 gets even more scathing.

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte stop right there.

Proselyte is a convert and in those days there were two types of converts what you might call 1/2 convert and in which Michael a full convert.

One was called the proselyte of the gate. That's 1/2 convert proselyte of the Gaeta somebody believe in the God of the Jews, who would go to the synagogue was not allowed to go sacrifice in the temple because they had not been circumcised. But then there was the full proselyte.

That's called the proselyte of righteousness.

That's what they were after.

So listen to what he says what you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is one you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourself.

All I ouch.

So here's the principle we glean from just those two verses sin in its undetected for minutes. Unrepentant form bars a person from heaven. Sin is detectable to God. It is dangerous for people. How bad is it you ask.

It's so bad that it brings separation from God, and it brings the judgment of God on an eternal basis.

That's how bad how bad is it. It's so bad that God's activity on the earth. All of his activity on the earth could be focus on ensuring this problem. That's what redemptive history is all about curing the sin problem if you want to see how bad sin is just look at the cross.

That's what sin did it put the perfect one, the holy one, the righteous one, the sinless one in that kind of agony and pain and bloodshed as he took sin, our sin upon himself. But this disease is so bad that often those who are most infected do not realize how sick they are, as Billy Graham once said, the most devastating effect of sin is that we are blinded to it. But here's where the blindness gets really dangerous, it gets dangerous because typically you and I are really good at spotting somebody else's sin and really bad at smelling our own. It's it's like were like a guy with Limburger cheese on his mustache was going wrong on this world stinks.

The problem is right here. Martin Luther put it this way, the recognition of sin is the beginning of salvation. Let's suppose you have a new car say well from your lips to God… Suppose you have a brand-new car uses illustration to illustrate how people handle guilt in their lives.

See you get a new car.

This karate has all the bells and whistles all the fancy screen gadgets that tells you the weather in Dubai or the planets aligned all that stuff as you're driving on the street you hear a noise, a pleasant sound perhaps maybe even a voice as is the air pressure in your left front tire is low might have an icon of Viking being a British accent the FSU in your left front tire is now all how nice or check coolant or my wife and her car has as little pleasant being goes off.

If you go too fast. Now we it's said there's a factory setting and then you can you can change it. You can move that setting up what is too fast. We have changed it since we got it and I can say what we changed it to sun-dried lessee were driving on the street being and let's say that means you gotta check the coolant soon, which is critical or the air in your tire needs to be filled up so there's a couple ways you can handle those notifications number one, you can go and get fixed but earn your tire for coolant in don't go so fast OR there's another way you could handle it.

You could carry in the glove box of your car, nice little hammer the chrome on top and maybe the leather handle matches the leather season is really nice and so when that light goes off without warning, like Ozaki does reach into the glove box. Take the little hammer and smash the thing that's telling you you got a problem that Skip message for you from the series like colors you skipped until you for your support helps keep these messages coming your way and connects more people to Jesus. God knows all of our failures. All of our mistakes all of our weakness, but that doesn't stop him from pursuing us with a steadfast love. Our goal is to help friends like you connect with that loving God by sharing these encouraging messages and when you give a gift, you ensure this biblical teaching can keep coming your way. So please consider giving now to help connect you and others to the life changing the love of God. Here's how we should connectwithskip.com/donate to give your gift today that's connectwithskip.com/donate or call 800-922-1880 892 to 18 coming up tomorrow. Skip shines a light on the deceptive nature of sin and the freedom from sin you have in Christ. What of all of those claim to believe, but in their daily life they live as though God does not exist. This is why we need to see God intention Jesus said seek first the kingdom of God and his life.

Charles Spurgeon put it, you're not seeking the Lord of the devil.

So Skip presentation of connection communications changing truth ever-changing time