The Formation of SIN

What happens to a person when he or she neglects to consider the Lord

Jesus Christ in their life?

That person brings judgment on their life as they fail to give Jesus

Christ priority in their life.

When God is banished from a person’s life, his life fits the

description of the life given here in the Scriptures.

A most terrible description of a most terrible person.

Look at the dreadful things which enter a life without Jesus Christ:

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; Romans 1: 28-31

EVIL: living an evil life robs both God and man of their rights. Evil

comes from worshipping self – excluding any care for God or fellowman.

WICKEDNESS: in the original language of the New Testament (Greek)

wickedness means – the desire to do harm.

The active, deliberate will to corrupt and to inflict injury.

One of the most common names for Satan is “the evil one” --- the one

who deliberately attacks and aims to destroy the goodness of men. It

divides not only the man who is bad but also wants to make everyone as

evil as himself. Wickedness is a destructive evil.

Then there is GREED: the lust to get even. In the original language of

the New Testament, greed = the love of having something or having

control over things or other people.

Greed creates a spirit that will pursue its own interests with

complete disregard for the rights of others.

Greed’s keynote is extortion – or unreasonable taking what is not

rightfully his.

One Christian writer from long ago describes greed as the spirit which

aims at more, the spirit which grasps at things which it has no right

to take.

What he takes may be money or goods. It could be trampling on others

to gain something for self; it could be taking pleasure where he has

no right to take it. It is a desire without restraint.

Another, perhaps more common name for greed is covetousness – which,

of course, is a desire to have what belongs to another person.

Now, let’s look at DEPRAVITY

Depravity describes someone who is destitute of every quality which

would make him or her to be considered “good”.

This person takes pleasure in giving others personal injury.

It is an evil that includes all vice and is the forerunner of all

sins. The degeneracy from which all sins grow, and in which all sins

flourish.

Now we come to ENVY. Envy is essentially a grudging attitude. It is

resentment toward others. Envy actually is the most warped and twisted

of all our human emotions.

Now we come to another tool of Satan to deter us from life in Christ.

And that is MURDER.

Jesus widened the meaning of this work. He said that not only the

actual physical act of violence is murder, but also the practice of

anger and hatred toward another person is considered murdering that

person. So, in the life of a Christian, a spirit of anger and hatred

toward another person must be eliminated.

Let’s look at STRIFE. Strife can be described as “struggling,

conflict, seeking to irritate another person.

Strife is born from envy, ambition, the desire for prestige, a higher

place or prominence.

Strife comes from the heart, in which there is jealousy.

The only real step toward ridding self of contention and strife is to

ride self of contention.

It is a God-given gift to be able to take as much pleasure in the

successes of others as in one’s own success.

Let’s look now at DECEIT. Deceit describes the quality of one who has

a tortuous and twisted mind. Someone who is deceitful is one who

cannot act in a straightforward manner – one who stoops to underhanded

methods to have his or her own way; that person is who never does

anything without an ulterior motive – one who is crafty and cunning –

a child of Satan.

MALICE – the ancient philosopher Aristotle said: that malice is: “the

spirit which always supposes the worst about other people.”

This may, in fact, be the most common of all sin. If there is the

possibility of two opinions to be applied to the actions of anyone,

human nature will choose the worst opinion.

Reputations are destroyed in gossip by a casual conversation – people

wrongly interpreting the actions and words of others.

When we are tempted to do so, we must remember that God hears and

remembers every work we speak.

Another extremely common name for greed is SLANDEROUS GOSSIP.

This is the open and public gossip that openly and often publicly

destroys another person’s character one story at a time. It is also

known as back-biting, telling tales and numerous other character

assination remarks.

The whispers often cause the most harm. The accused person cannot

defend himself against the secret whispers as well as he can when he

is openly accused. The secret whisperer delights in destroying another

person’s reputation.

And then, there are the God haters – someone who hates God because he

knows he is defying Him. God is a barrier between him and his sins of

pleasure. He would gladly eliminate God if he could, so that he would

have license to do as he pleased.

Many people who are at odds with God and with the Savior are insolent

persons. There are two ways to describe an insolent person.

1. It is a person who is so proud that he defies God. The

Scriptures speak of an insolent – that is a prideful person – will

fall – because pride goes before a fall.

He is forgetting that man is the created one, and God is the Creator.

He is the one who is so confident in his wealth, or his power, and his

abilities that he thinks he can handle his life on his own power.

2. An insolent person is also described as one who is wantonly and

sadistically cruel and insulting.

The philosopher Aristotle said “the spirit which harms/grieves someone

else – simply for the sheer pleasure of hurting another person for

revenge or for an advantage to be gained.

Insolence is also akin to delighting in hurting others.

Arrogance – 1 Peter 5:5 – “You younger men, likewise, be subject to

your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward

one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but give grace to the

humble.”

One Greek writer called arrogance the summit of all sins.

Another described arrogant ones as those who “have a certain contempt

for everyone except themselves.”

An arrogant person’s life is surrounded with an atmosphere

of contempt as he enjoys making others feel or appear to be small.

Boastful – literally means “one who wanders about”. Boasting became

the stock word for quacks who boast of their own accomplishments.

The Greeks described it as the spirit which pretends to have what it

does not have – a pretentious man who we might call a “snob” who is

out to impress others with his superiority.

Then there are the Inventors of Evil Ways. This is the man who is not

content with ordinary ways to commit sin. He seeks a new thrill in a

new dastardly sin.

There are those who blatantly disobey their parents. Once the bonds of

the family are loosened, wholesale degeneracy will always follow.

Those who banish God from their lives have reached a high level of

sinning and begin to encourage others to join them in their sinful

participations.

Paul was speaking in Rome to Romans – telling them what happens when

people abandon God from their plans.

In due time Rome perished.

Disaster and degeneracy went hand in hand.

This could be ( and will be) the result of us giving up God.

What about the church?

Some of these sins we have just listed are seen today in the world’s churches.

Does that mean that we, as a nation, have already banished God from

our lives and are headed for destruction – like that which came to

Rome, and all who have turned away from God?

That is why it is vitally important that we – as Christians only –

must remain true to Scripture. We may stand alone in a sea of

denominational choices, but we must continue to stand on Scripture

alone as we seek to bring others into a right relationship with Jesus

Christ our Savior.