Community Spice

							3,155 –
ESSENTIALS:




Perhaps you remember this folk song by Anna Russell, the Crown
Princess of Musical Parody.




Her song characterizes the age in which we live:

     I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed
     To find out why I killed the cat and blacked my husband’s eyes.
     He laid me down on a downy couch to see what he could find,
     And here is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind:

     When I was one, my mommie hid my dolly in a trunk,
     And so it follows naturally that I am always drunk.
     When I was two, I saw my father kiss the made one day,
     And that is why I suffer now from kleptomania.

     At three, I had the feeling of ambivalence toward my brothers,
     And so it follows naturally I poison all my lovers.
     But I am happy; now I’ve learned the lesson this has taught,
     That everything I do that’s wrong is someone else’s fault.

Yet the scriptures teach a contrasting view: “Each of us will give an
account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12 HCSB).
                                                                         2
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 NIV).
That speaks of two aspects:




All have sinned – Sin is disobeying the law of God; it is breaking the
rules. We call them “sins of commission” – doing something wrong. Run
down the Ten Commandments and ask if you have worshipped something
other than God, lied, committed sex sins, stolen, dishonored father or
mother, etc.




And come short of God’s glory – Sin is failing to do what God wants
done, just walking on by. We call these “sins of omission” – not doing
something right. “For the person who knows to do good and doesn't do
it, it is a sin” (James 4:17 CEV).

I don’t know that Anna Russell in her song affected our culture but she
accurately took its pulse.

There was a time, at least in the rural areas where I preached, when
people realized they were sinners, even if they would not repent and
accept Christ.
                                                                           3




Today, there is a cavalier attitude that says, “If that really is wrong,
then it’s my sin. What’s yours?” The concern is dismissed. What
happened?




Charles Colson in his latest book, The Faith, said, “Most Christians
don’t know what they believe, why they believe it and what difference
it makes.” That statement led me to begin a series called “Essentials of
the Faith.”

These sermons may be a revelation to some, a review for others and
hopefully a reinforcement of discipleship for all of us. Today the topic
is “Sin.”

      I. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SIN?

        A. The Vanishing Conscience.
                                                                            4
The Menninger Clinic at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston is
the international psychiatric center of excellence. Their vision is to be
the world leader in psychiatric treatment, research and education.




Way back in 1973 Dr. Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled Whatever
Became of Sin? in which he said, “In all the laments made by our seers,
one misses any mention of ‘sin,’ once a word in everyone’s mind, but now
rarely if ever heard. Is no one any longer guilty of anything? Guilty
perhaps of a sin that could be repented and repaired or atoned for?

“Wrong things are being done, we know. But is no one responsible, no
one answerable for these acts? Where, indeed, did sin go? What
became of it?”




Dr. John McArthur followed in the same vein in 1994 with a book
named The Vanishing Conscience – Drawing the Line in a No-fault, Guilt-
free World. McArthur is pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church,
Sun Valley California. He is a prolific author with his own section on
Amazon – 196 books! He also has a teaching ministry on radio. Listen to
him instead of those frothy teachers who can take one sentence and
talk about it for five minutes.
                                                                        5




John McArthur said, “We live in a culture that has elevated pride to
the status of a virtue. Self-esteem, positive feelings, and personal
dignity are what our society encourages people to seek.

“At the same time, moral responsibility is being replaced by victimism,
which teaches people to blame someone else for their personal failures
and iniquities. Frankly, the biblical teachings about human depravity,
sin, guilt, repentance, and humility are not compatible with any of those
ideas.” The idea of conscience has vanished. In addition, we have moved
from:

        B. The Moral Model vs. the Medical Model.




Farther back, in 1970, before Menninger and MacArthur and their
works, Dr. Jay Adams, a professor at Westminster Presbyterian Theo.
Seminary, wrote the best book on counseling I ever read.
                                                                           6
It was called Competent To Counsel and took a direct approach to
counseling (vs. non-direct). He advocated counseling from a Biblical
standpoint. The idea is to listen to a person’s story until you detect
some violation of a Biblical principles, then sharing that principle in love
and leaving the results to the Holy Spirit.

I really should get that sermon out and preach it again, but for now
here is his summation. Our culture today lives by a medical model.

OH - Medical Model - People who do wrong things are “sick.”




Whether Jeffrey Dahmer (indicted on seventeen murder counts), BTK,
or the students at Columbine High School, this approach says they are
no more responsible for their condition that a person who contracts
the flu. Search into their past and find parents, church, society to
blame.

ADD - Moral Model – People who do wrong things are sinners.

ADD – Sin is pride, rebellion, self-will, independence.

They are themselves their own worst enemies.
OH - – The Medical Model removes responsibility from the “sick”
person.

ADD – The Moral Model assigns responsibility to the sinful person.


OH – The Medical Model says a person suffers from guilt feelings.

ADD – The Moral Model says he is actually guilty.
                                                                         7
OH – The Medical Model says the basic problem is emotional.

ADD – The Moral Model says the basic problem is behavioral.


OH – The Medical Model says the person is a victim of his conscience.

ADD – The Moral Model says the person is a violator of his conscience.



OH – The Medical Model says problems may be solved by ventilation of
feelings.

ADD – The Moral model says problems may be solved by confession of
sin and repentance.

The therapy industry, the multi-billion-dollar counseling industry, is
thriving. These ailments are diseases from which no one is ever
expected to recover. People are taught to think of themselves as
“recovering,” never “recovered.” Those who dare to think of
themselves as delivered from their affliction are told they are living in
denial.




There was one woman who had been in therapy for years. During her
counselor’s three-week vacation in Europe she had no access to
therapy. She got saved by the grace of Christ during that period and
went on to live a renewed life.
                                                                          8
The only true remedy for sin is confession, humble repentance,
restitution, and spiritual growth – Bible study, prayer, communion with
God, fellowship with other believers and dependence on Christ.

The disease-model treatment casts the sinner in the role of a victim.
It ignores or minimizes personal guilt. “I am sick” is much easier to say
than “I have sinned.”

OH – The National Anthem has become The Whine.

When did all of the blame shifting start, anyway? It seems to me at
about the 3rd chapter of Genesis.




Do you remember this: “God asked, ‘Did you eat any fruit from that
tree in the middle of the garden?’ ‘It was the woman you put here with
me,’ the man said. ‘She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it’” (Gen.
3:11-12 CEV).

“The LORD God then asked the woman, ‘What have you done?’ ‘The
snake tricked me,’ she answered. ‘And I ate some of that fruit’" (Gen.
3:13 CEV). When God began that conversation, He said, “Adam, where
are you?” Adam and Eve were hiding. God knew where Adam was. He
wanted Adam to know where he was – in rebellion, in sin.

      II. SIN IS ALIVE AND ACTIVE.

        A. Our Society Denies Sin.
                                                                          9




Katherine Power was a fugitive for more than 23 years. In 1970 she
participated in a Boston bank robbery in which a city policeman, the
father of nine children, was shot in the back and killed. For 14 years
she was one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted. In 1993 she surrendered.

What motivated her? “I know that I must answer this accusation from
the past, in order to live with full authenticity in the present.” Power’s
husband explained further, “She did not return out of guilt. She
wanted her life back. She wants to be whole.”

An admission of guilt today clearly is considered incompatible with the
popular notion of “wholeness” and the need to protect the fantasy of a
good self. Whatever happened to sin?




Columnist Charles Krauthammer commented, “In an age where the word
sin has become quaint, surrendering to the authorities for armed
robbery and manslaughter is not an act of repentance but of personal
growth.”

Our culture has declared war on guilt. The very concept is considered
medieval, obsolete, unproductive. People who trouble themselves with
feelings of personal guilt are usually referred to therapists, whose
task is to boost their self-image.
                                                                         10




Magazine articles: “How to Stop Being So Tough on Yourself,” “Guilt
Can Drive You Crazy,” and “Stop Pleading Guilty.”

That kind of thinking has all but driven words like sin, repentance,
contrition, atonement, restitution and redemption out of public
discourse. If no one is supposed to feel guilty, how could anyone be a
sinner? Modern culture has the answer: people are victims.

However God says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a
reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34 NKJV).

“Doing right brings honor to a nation, but sin brings disgrace” (Prov.
14:34 CEV).

        B. Sound Thinkers Confess Sin.




Look at these steps from the AA list of twelve:

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs. That is an admission of guilt, of responsibility, of
offense.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
                                                                          11
character (less than what God expects).

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.




This from the Associated Press, 4-29-96: Human nature in the raw is
not nice at all. When surveyors promised not to tell, 31 percent of the
people questioned confessed infidelity,

     91 percent regularly tell lies,

          36 percent regularly tell dark lies -- the kind that hurt
     people.

                Half of all workers confess to calling in sick when
           they're not,

                      and only thirteen percent of all Americans
                      believe in all ten commandments.

“If you don't confess your sins, you will be a failure. But God will be
merciful if you confess your sins and give them up” (Prov. 28:13 CEV).

“You can't whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by
admitting and leaving them” (Prov. 28:13 Msg).

Now that everyone is a victim, people think they have every right to
demand society’s benevolence without giving anything in return. If
everyone is a victim, no one needs to accept personal responsibility for
wrong behavior or toxic attitudes.
                                                                        12
But that approach doesn’t deal with the fact that one’s transgression
is a serious offense against a holy, all-wise, all-powerful God. Personal
guilt is at the heart of what must be confronted when dealing with
one’s sin.




FLUNKING KINDERGARTEN by Joel Belz, World magazine, Nov. 13,
2004.

One Saturday morning I was eating my breakfast in a motel restaurant.
Backed up to my booth was a table occupied by two couples and four
children. We were so close it was impossible not to overhear their
conversation.




What I heard both shocked and troubled me. One of the fellows was
telling, altogether too triumphantly, about a visit he and his teenage
daughter had made to the Target department store. "You wouldn't
believe it!" he exclaimed. "The checkout clerk must have been terribly
new or terribly dumb.
                                                                        13




“We had eight pairs of slacks, six shirts, and a few other items—and
even though she ran them all by the scanner, almost none of them
registered. She didn't even notice, and ended up charging us something
like $17 for the whole cartful, when it probably should have been at
least 10 times that amount." Everyone's laughter seemed to be taken
as approval.




The second fellow changed the subject, reporting on his summer of
coaching a little-league team. What started off as a miserable season
turned around, he said, when his team was able to recruit an
outstanding young shortstop whose family had moved into the area
from Costa Rica. There was a problem at first, he said, because the
boy was 12 years old, and rules for that team set the maximum age at
11.
                                                                         14
No matter. He had a lawyer friend who knew just what needed to be
done to produce some appropriate paperwork, and the over-age
shortstop had made their season. "Wow!" I heard one of the children
respond, "that's pretty cool."




One of the wives then launched into a tale about her teenage daughter,
who had not been able to get into the dorm she most wanted at the
university. "But Amanda," she reported with a bit of pride in her voice,
"is not one to give up.




Her boyfriend already has a room in that same dorm—which is why she
wanted to be there, of course—and since there was some mix-up about
his roommate's coming back this fall, Amanda has just moved in with
him. Technically it was against the rules, but nobody seems to care."

About a third of all evangelicals say that premarital sex is okay. And
about 15% say that adultery is okay.

Materialism continues to be an incredible scandal. The average church
members across the denominations gives about 2.6 % of his/her income
– a quarter of a tithe – to the church.

      III. SIN IS NOT BENIGN BUT DEADLY.
                                                                          15
“The person who sins is the one who will die” (Eze. 18:20 HCSB).

That refers to a spiritual death, which is separation from God for
eternity in a real place called hell. It is the opposite of heaven, where
God’s living presence abides.

“Sin pays off with death. But God's gift is eternal life given by Jesus
Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23 CEV).

Without human responsibility there is no need for a Savior. These
issues are critical to understanding life and reality.




Charles Colson spoke to 300-400 people in the chapel of the California
Rehabilitation Center in Orange County. It is the state’s primary
correctional drug rehab facility. He wondered how in the richest, most
powerful nation on earth we have to pack so many human beings into
such dreadful places – over two million inhabitants today.

Five minutes into his talk he asked them the question that had struck
him.
                                                                     16
“Okay, now, you fellows that are in here, you are the experts. Why is
it that we as a nation are filling so many prisons?” Dozens among the
guys sitting there began shouting out, “Sin!” The word became a ringing
chorus. “Sin!”

Colson was stunned. He could not imagine any other audience where he
would get that answer. Those men had lived it, though. They knew the
truth. But so many of those outside prison never admit the truth.




When G. K. Chesterton, a delightful British writer, as answered the
same question – “What’s wrong with the world?” – he answered, “I am.”
Can we, will we say that – The problem is sin! My sin. The biblical
account is true. The evils we do – theft, murder, adultery, greed,
arrogance, folly – all these evils come from inside.

The problem of sin is not what goes into us but what comes out of us.
All these things, Jesus said, come from inside and make a man unclean.




Retailers' losses or shrinkage from theft and other problems is a
difficult situation. Employee theft is 42% of the total,
      shoplifting is 31%,
            poor paperwork is 23%, and
                  vendor theft is 4%.
                                                                        17




So the person who shoplifts accounts for only one third. Through poor
work and stealing, the employee accounts for 75% of the loss.
(National Mass Retailing Institute)

One year a United Methodist lesbian “minister” was defrocked. The
local church hired her back. There was no remorse or sense of guilt.
Her statement: “This is a teaching moment for the Methodist Church.”

Any tampering with the Biblical concept of sin makes chaos of the
Christian faith. “The LORD blesses each nation that worships only him.
He blesses his chosen ones” (Ps. 33:12 CEV).

WHY DO THINGS DRIFT LEFT INSTEAD OF RIGHT? By JOEL
BELZ, AUGUST 9 (or 16), 2003 – WORLD magazine.




Why is there regularly a drift from faithfulness to unfaithfulness,
from discipline to permissiveness, from truth to error, from morality
to sin? The pattern is unmistakable. You see it everywhere from
individuals to schools to governments.
                                                                         18
Some point to the Second Law of Thermodynamics—the idea that
everything in the created order tends to scatter rather than to come
together.




One pop scientist illustrates the Second Law by pointing to a hot frying
pan that cools down when it is taken off the kitchen stove. Its thermal
energy flows out to the cooler room air.

But the opposite never ever happens.

OH - Apart from a focused, conscious effort, the pan will never get
hot.

ADD - Energy simply doesn't gather on its own.

And just as that's true in the world of physics, it's also true in the
moral world. The fall of mankind makes predictable where our
intellectual and spiritual preferences will take us. Disobedience and
unfaithfulness have become the natural direction.
                                                                            19




“Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold
hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God's holy Temple?
But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives”
(II Cor. 6:15-16 Msg).

“God himself put it this way: ‘I'll live in them, move into them; I'll be
their God and they'll be my people. So leave the corruption and
compromise; leave it for good,’ says God.      ‘Don't link up with those
who will pollute you. I want you all for myself’” (II Cor. 6:15-17 Msg).

CONC.:

OH - Whatever happened to sin?

OH – That which, upon first exposure, provokes revulsion will, upon
continued exposure, come to be tolerated and finally embraced.


OH - When what was once a crime becomes a debate, that debate
usually ushers the act into common practice – Chuck Colson.

Consider free love, homosexuality, gambling, abortion.

OH - I've never witnessed up-the-hill erosion.

ADD - I've never watched attics get flooded while basements remain
dry.
Yet the Bible asks, “What harmony can there be between Christ and
the Devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And
                                                                           20
what union can there be between God's temple and idols? For we are
the temple of the living God. As God said:

"’I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they
will be my people. Therefore, come out from them and separate
yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don't touch their filthy things,
and I will welcome you” (II Cor. 6:15-17 NLT).

OH - Whatever happened to sin?

God’s counsel - “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever
confesses and forsakes them will have mercy” (Prov. 28:13 NKJV).

“You can't whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by
admitting and leaving them” (Prov. 28:13 Msg).




Nowhere has the damage registered more than in the way professing
Christians deal with their own sin. The potential impact of such a drift
is frightening.




Remove the reality of sin, and you take away the possibility of
repentance.
                                                                           21
Abolish the doctrine of depravity and you void the divine plan of
salvation.




Erase the notion of personal guilt and you eliminate the need for a
Savior.
     Wipe out the human conscience, and you will raise an immoral and
     unredeemable generation.

OH - There is ultimately no help for those who deny responsibility for
their own behavior.

Only as the church becomes holy can it begin to have a true, powerful
effect on the outside world. And it won’t be an external effect, but a
changing of hearts.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for
light, and light for darkness” (Isa. 5:20 NKJV).
“
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is
not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:8-9
NKJV).
                                                                      22
“If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A
claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our
sins--make a clean breast of them--he won't let us down; he'll be true
to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing” (I
John 1:8-9 Msg).




That is God’s message to us. It is God’s message we must deliver to
others.

Written Feb. 17, 2009.

Sources: The Faith by Charles Colson, editorials by Joel Belz in
“World” magazine, The Vanishing Conscience by John MacArthur,
Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams, and sermons “Whatever Happened
to Sin – Parts 1 & 2.”



      I. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SIN?
          A. The Vanishing Conscience.
          B. The Moral Model vs. the Medical Model.
      II. SIN IS ALIVE AND ACTIVE.
          A. Our Society Denies Sin.
          B. Sound Thinkers Confess Sin.
      III. SIN IS NOT BENIGN BUT DEADLY.
      CONCLUSION