The Three Ds of Sin

The Three Ds of Sin
December 22, 2024
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Passage: Romans 1:21-32
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The title of our lesson is The Three Ds of Sin. Now I'm sure if you really sat down and thought it out you could add many more things, many more D's to this particular list of things than I did. Obviously, this is not exhaustive by any means. Paul speaks of sin, throughout the book of Romans in various ways, along with the consequences of those and the souls who continue in sin.

We're familiar, with passages like

"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." — Romans 3:23

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ." — Romans 6:23

  • Romans 1:21-25

The first D that we get to, is Sin Dethrones God.

1) Sin Dethrones God

There's some phrases in verses 21, 22 and 23 that I want you to mark in some way, whether it's mentally or physically, some good things for us to mark.

In verse 21,"when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God."

In verse 22, "they changed the glory of the corruptible God into the image made like unto corruptible man, the birds and four footed beasts and creeping things." By not honoring God the way that He was supposed to be honored, they started honoring things they created.

In verse 23, "worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator."

This is the foundation for this particular idea of sin dethroning God. What we need to remember is that both sin and God cannot reign in the life of the person.

Sin and God cannot both be welcomed in a Christian’s life.

Both of them cannot be there at the same time. And we, shouldn't want that.

  • Matthew 6:24
  • Romans 6:20
  • Romans 6:12-18

We don't need to have sin reigning in our bodies, as Paul would say back in verse 12. But we need to be servants of God in obedience and in righteousness.

God Demands First Place in Our Hearts

God demands first place in our hearts. He covets that position. He's jealous over that position. He wants to be the most prominent figure in your life.

  • Matthew 6:33
  • Ecclesiastes 12:13

This is what, what completes mankind. And it starts with having God where He belongs in our life. And that is number one.

  • Deuteronomy 10:12
  • Matthew 22:37
  • Mark 12:30

God has a place and it should be, we should recognize His place as being first in our lives.

Idolatry Stole the Hearts of Many, in the Past, and Still Does Today

But you see, there was a problem at various times in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament, and even for us today. You see, idolatry, at times, stole the hearts of many away from God.  And it can still do the same for us today, if we're not careful.

  • Colossians 3:5

The coveting of goods from this earth, this temporal location that we're in, will keep us out of Heaven.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Many other passages that we could use, but I believe the point has been made very plainly. And that is, sin, if we allow it to live within our physical bodies, controlling the things that we do in this life, controlling the things that we think, sin dethrones God. Something that is not acceptable.

2) Sin Darkens the Mind

  • Romans 1:21

Sin darkens the mind, but it is a wonderful thing for us to know and to pay attention to that God is our greatest source of truth. And knowledge. And if we input God's truth and knowledge into our souls, then we can have light.

God is the Greatest Source of Truth and Knowledge

  • John 17:17

There's a certain place that we can go in order to find the truth. And when we find it, we need to do something with it.

  • John 8:31-32

Free from what? That's what the Pharisees were asking in the next couple of verses. They said, well, wait a minute, we're the children of Abraham. We've never given ourselves in service to anybody. We're not enslaved to anybody. Quite interestingly enough, they were under Roman rule. Maybe they never willingly gave themselves over to be ruled by somebody else. But Jesus says, no, you misunderstand you are the slave to sin and it's through the truth of my word that you are freed from slavery to sin.

  • 2 Peter 1:3

Everything that we need to perfect our lives in this world is found right here in the Word of God. If everything that we need in order to get us to Heaven is not in the Word of God, then by the very definition of a lie, God is a liar, and we could simply throw the Bible in the trash and not have to worry about listening to it anymore. Without the light of the world, there is only darkness.

  • John 1:4-10

Jesus is the light of the world, and if we want our minds to not be darkened by sin, then we need to understand how to stay away from sin, which leads us right back to the Word of God.

Ryejecting God Means Satan Rules in Your Heart

Rejecting God means Satan rules in your heart. You might say, well I didn't say no to God. I just haven't done anything about believing Him yet. Jesus is the one that said, if you're not with me, you're against me. If we haven't given ourselves over to God, then we, by default, have given ourselves over to Satan. Satan rules in our lives if we are actively rejecting God.

  • Hebrews 3:12-13

You see, sin robs us from our vision of reality.

"Sin turns intelligent individuals into base animalistic idolaters that worship a rock or a tree that they have carved with their own hands." — Aaron Cozort

Sin robs us of our vision. It leads us to believe false philosophies like this particular one, naturalism.

What is naturalism?

Naturalism:

“Naturalism is the belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world. Instead of using supernatural or spiritual explanations, naturalism focuses on explanations that come from the laws of nature.” — Vocabulary.com

Very simply, those that believe in the idea of naturalism are atheists because they don't believe in God, they don't believe in the supernatural, they don't believe in miracles of any kind. That's a false philosophy, but it's based on not knowing the truth.

Naturalism, while it may seem intense, is not nearly as bad as, maybe, this one.

Nihilism:

“Complete denial of all established authority and institutions. A revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake.” — Quizlet.com

We have those that are, that are nihilists in our society today. They want to tear down all of the institutions of the world and have anarchy rule.

Those two (Naturalism & Nihilism) lead to this one, existentialism.

Existentialism:

Life has no inherent value, but it is whatever we make it out to be. “a school of thought that claims people are responsible for creating meaning out of life — since the world is meaningless.”

We mentioned a moment ago, without God, anything is fair game. We need to remember that if we remove God from our lives, then we are asking for our minds to be darkened.

3) Sin Damn’s The Soul

  • Romans 1:32

The words there, "worthy of death," is what gives us our text for this particular point. Sin damns the soul for eternity. Obedience is the deciding factor in our eternal destiny.

  • 1 John 3:4

We don't have to have our soul be condemned when this life is over. That's a choice that you and I get to make for ourselves. It is not like some who believe in the Calvinist false doctrine of total hereditary depravity. Who believe we are filthy, guilty, sinners from the time that we're born, and unless God has already chosen us to be saved, there's not a single thing that we can do in order to be saved. They believe that. But it's not found in the pages of our New Testament. It's not found in the Old Testament either. It's not found in the Bible at all. It's completely a man-made concept.

Whosoever commit a sin transgresses the law.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." — Romans 6:23

We understand what a wage is. A wage is something that we've agreed to with an employer. I'm going to trade X amount of time or I'm going to do X amount of things over a certain amount of time for X number of dollars. As a result, we call that a wage.

When sin is in our lives, we are saying, God, I'm going to give you up for this pleasure that's going to last for but a moment. And the result of that is going to be death for the soul.

When we decide to: dethrone God, darken our mind, we damn our soul.

See, when we decide to dethrone God, we darken our minds. We sin against God, and then what happens, we damn our own souls by replacing God.

There was a saying that was somewhat popular not too long ago, it became a saying that people talked about in regards of sin, and it went something like this, sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and cost you more than you ever wanted to pay.

My friends, we should not be those like Jesus had to deal with. In John chapter 8, that, that begged and pleaded for his understanding that they were the children of Abraham. That meant that they were the sons of God and they were doing what was right in the eyes of God. And Jesus had to come back at them and say in verse 44, you are of your father, the devil. 

Let's not have that said about us. Let's turn our lives around. If we are those that are members of the body of Christ, but we've allowed sin to creep back in, we've made the decision to stop actively following after God, let's turn our lives around and live faithfully for God the way that He would have us to live.

If you're not a member of the body of Christ, then it's just as important that you become a child of God and have sin removed from your life, the guilt of sin removed, the stain of sin removed, from your garments, and you become white as snow, spiritually speaking, pure in the mind of God, prepared to live and walk in a relationship with Him that is righteous and it brings satisfaction.

Because of what Jesus did for you and me, and we looked at that in detail this morning. Are you willing to do that this evening? Having heard the word, are you willing to believe it? Are you willing to repent of your sins and confess your faith in Jesus? Are you willing to submit to a watery grave of baptism and have contact with the blood of Jesus that removes your sin and washes them away? Allowing you to rise up out of that water, a babe in Christ.

If we can help you in any way, we encourage you to contact us so that we can assist you.

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