Skip to content Why Sin Matters Oct 14 · 40 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
665K followers
Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
665K followers
0:00 When you go to the store to purchase a device, whether it's a tool or an electrical device, you do so0:12 because you want that device to improve some aspect of your life or your home or your vehicle. It is purchased to0:24 make something better or easier for you. But when you purchase an electronic device or a tool or an appliance,0:38 you will see something on the box or a sticker on the item. It will simply say, warning. Read before using.0:50 Warning. Read before using. Now the company that's created the device1:02 and giving you the warning is not seeking to be mean. They're seeking for you to get the best use of the device. And they know, based on what they made,1:14 that if you don't read the warning or you ignore the warning that you do read, that the maximum benefit of the device, you'll lose out on.1:27 I'm sure there are many of us who have messed up a device and had to repurchase it or send it in for repairs because we didn't do with it what the manufacturer required1:40 or we handled in a way that he had warned us not to. And so we get these warnings in order to maximize1:53 the device that we have purchased. There is a device called life. You and I get to live it.2:07 But I wanna talk to you about a warning that comes with the device called life. It is a warning often unread2:19 or when read, unused, creating a breakdown in the device called life. It is with that2:31 understanding that we begin at the beginning. When God first creates man, he gives man2:43 kind life. I'm I'm using the word device, but but I'm referring to life. You are alive. You possess life. But2:55 I'm sure there are plenty in this room who could testify this device is tore up from the flow up. It's broke down because it3:06 was misused or a warning was not heeded. Let me show you 2 verses in chapter 2.3:20 The Lord, verse 16, commanded the man saying, from every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat it for in the3:32 day you eat from it, will surely die. That was the warning on the package called life.3:45 Now stay with me here. While this is the beginning of mankind, it was not written in the beginning.3:56 Moses is the author of Genesis. Moses is living many generations after Genesis occurs because that's the first man. Adam with the4:08 first woman, Eve. Moses is many generations later. He's in the book of Exodus. But he's the 1 who wrote Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and4:20 Deuteronomy called the Pentateuch. The first 5 books of the bible was written by Moses. So Moses is recounting God's history4:31 and the history of mankind up until the point he's writing it in order to deliver it to the4:43 Israelites who he's the leader of. He's the leader of the Israelite nation. He wants that group to know the history4:55 of God with man so that they would have the information necessary to move forward as a nation and as a people to5:06 live a victorious life. So to teach them how to live a victorious life, he reaches all the way back to the beginning5:18 to show them how history, God's story unfolds with mankind, and how this principle I'm going to share with you today and beyond works itself5:30 out in order to get them to move into their future differently. So I am doing with you and with us what5:42 Moses was doing with them in his day going all the way back to the beginning so that moving forward,5:55 we can get life right and not continue to repeat the generational cycle that has gotten so many of6:06 us messed up. The point that Moses is making to Israel that he picks up from what God told6:17 Adam was a very simple principle, and it is this. Sin brings consequences.6:29 To simply simple as I can state it, and most of us already know it, sin brings6:41 consequences, and that's why it matters. Now you and I live in a day when the word sin has been dumbed down. We call it6:52 mistakes, bad habits. In fact, when we wanna be cool about it, we just simply say, my bad. But what the Bible7:04 means when it refers to sin, it is referring to disobedience and departure from the divine standard.7:16 Sin in God's definition is disobedience and departure from the divine standard. God sets a standard. Men depart from7:28 it. The bible calls that sin. From God's standpoint, sin is weighty. From our standpoint,7:40 sin is inconvenient. From God's standpoint, sin is serious. From our standpoint, sin may or may not be.7:53 So when God creates man who has not yet sinned, he wants to give him how the device called life works8:05 with a warning label on it. He says in Genesis 2 16,8:18 I have a commandment for you, not a suggestion. So what I'm about to go over with you is not a request from God.8:32 Moses told Israel, I'm sharing with me and with us something God says I command. You need to pay attention to this 1 because this is8:44 your life. From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat. Let me start with that. That's good news.8:56 Freedom was not created by man, and it wasn't created by America. The first use of the word freedom came from God. From every tree9:08 of the garden, you may freely eat. So God not only created Adam, he created Adam's homestead called the Garden of Eden. That was his house. And he9:19 says, I am going to provide what you need to sustain your life. I'm going to I got your back. I'm gonna give you what you need to live, and I'm going to make9:31 it available to you anytime you want it. From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat. The translation9:43 is, eat as much of it that you want whenever you want it because you're free to go. You want a midnight snack? Go. You want breakfast? Go. You want lunch? Go. You want an9:55 afternoon snack? Go. Because you can get what I give anytime you desire it. But you10:06 see, the word freedom is a meaningless word unless it is accompanied by choice. See, freedom assumes you have a choice.10:19 And so God says you're free. So if you're free to eat, you're free not to eat. Yeah. You don't have to eat. But you can eat because you're free to10:31 eat. The word freedom is a meaningless term without a boundary. In order for freedom10:43 to occur, a boundary must exist so that you are free to do whatever you're seeking to get done. For example, you can't play football without sidelines and a10:55 goal line because if the running back can run off the field and onto the stands and out to the concession area and to the parking lot in order to avoid being tackled, he11:07 may think he's free, but he's brought chaos to the game. In tennis, you need a baseline in order to be free to play tennis. In baseball, you need a foul line in order to be free to play11:18 baseball. In other words, you're only free to do what you're supposed to do if you've got the right boundaries restricting you. The moment you remove boundaries,11:30 freedom becomes chaos. So freedom is a meaningless principle without choice and without boundaries. That is11:42 restrictions. And so he says, I've got your back. I've got you covered, and you are free. And you are free to enjoy what I11:54 have provided. Every tree in the garden you may freely eat except Enter boundary. Enter12:07 a warning on the package called life. So God gives us this life, and he says, and you're free to max it. You're free to enjoy it and to live it12:18 maximally. But here is the warning label. You see that tree in the middle of your house so you can't miss it?12:31 Because I didn't put it in the middle of your home. The tree in the middle of the garden is the tree of the knowledge12:43 of good and evil. That tree, you do not eat from it because that tree will kill you.12:57 You shall surely die. Sure enough die. That that's a that's the killing tree. You eat that tree, and you're gonna die.13:10 Every other tree, freedom, is available to you, but there is a warning. If you introduce that tree to your life, that tree is gonna mess up your13:22 accessibility to every other tree because that tree's gonna kill you. So we've got this warning label given by God about our life. And this warning label13:34 says, don't mess with that tree, but I'm gonna put that tree there. Why? Why would you give me a tree, put it in the middle of my house so I can't miss it in any13:45 direction I go into and tell me don't touch it? That seems like cruel and unusual punishment, especially if the fruit is looking good on that tree.13:59 The reason why God gives you a visible warning is so that you and I no longer14:11 ever view ourselves as autonomous. In other words, you, Adam and Eve, and everybody who follows you, you are14:22 not to look at any part of your life as independent from me and to remind you that you're not all that and a14:34 bag of chips, to remind you that you've got limitations, to remind you you're not just answerable to you. I am14:46 going to put this tree in the middle of your house so that when you wake up in the morning, when you go to the living room, the den, when you go to the attic, all the parts of this garden, you14:58 got to pass through this middle spot, call the garden, and you'll be reminded, oops, I have somebody else I need to answer to. Any of you have any kids who15:10 don't feel like they have to answer to you anymore? Maybe your tree is not in the middle of the house yet. See, he he puts the tree in the middle of the garden. Well, let's find out about this tree.15:22 This is a Google tree. It's a Google tree. It's an Internet tree. Because it's the tree15:34 of the knowledge of good and evil. So we're discussing an information tree. That's this tree has got roaming data.15:48 I don't even know what that is, but it sounds right. So this tree this tree has information on it.16:00 You can get all kind of data about all kind of things on this tree. It's in the middle of your house. All this other stuff is free whenever you want it.16:14 But what I don't want you to do is go to that tree for your information. I do not want you looking to that16:26 tree to decide what's right and what's wrong. I don't want you looking to that tree to determine what's good and what's bad. I don't want you to look to that tree16:37 to let you know what's up or what's down. That tree is off limits. What's the point? I do not want you to live your life by human reason.16:49 I want you to live your life by divine revelation. I want you to live your life by what I tell you, not by what you discover independently of me.17:01 And so I'm gonna put that tree there because you have a choice. And I want to know, will you choose me or will you choose that tree?17:12 Will you choose divine revelation or will you go to everybody else that you know who has an opinion and give you human speculation? So I'm gonna put it17:24 there. And there's gonna be educators. There gonna be scientists, botanists, biologists. They they're gonna be politicians. There gonna be all these folk with all this data. And I wanna17:36 know who you're gonna look to for the information that will govern the device called your life. From every other tree,17:50 shop till you drop. From every other tree, the question on the floor is, what will be the source of your knowledge? What will be the18:01 source of your information? Do you have people in your life who who you're responsible for, who bring information to you from other people that they think18:13 know something and you know they don't? What do you think the God of the universe thinks18:25 when you choose human opinion over divine revelation asserting to him that your friends,18:37 your mama, your daddy, your cousins, your posse, your homeboys, your homegirls know more than he does. He18:49 says to us what we say to I could don't bring that mess in this house. So the issue on the floor would be19:01 to maximize life. He calls it being free in order in order to live.19:12 Moses is telling that to all of Israel, but he's reaching all the way back to Genesis because he wants their future to be better than the chaos that they've experienced along the19:24 way. Many of us have lived our lives eating from the wrong tree, and we wonder why chaos19:37 rules. So I'm saying to me and to us what Moses is saying to Israel and reaching all the way back, and you'll see,19:49 he said that to Israel in a moment, do not eat from the tree of independence, information apart from me. I wanna be your source20:00 of data, and all other data must be consistent with my data. So I don't want you getting information independently of me.20:15 And then he summarizes the warning. Now this is the kicker. From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat.20:27 But if that tree in the middle of your house, do not eat it for you shall surely die.20:39 The tree will kill you. Now when I read to you Genesis 3, what did the devil tell Eve? In20:52 verse 4 of chapter 3, the serpent said to the woman, you surely will not die. Translation, there will be no consequences.21:05 I know God said there would be consequences, but I'm telling you, says slick, if you listen21:17 to me now I don't have time to go into slick too much today, but slick, because the bible says he was more crafty. He's slick.21:29 Slick says, if you eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, don't worry about it. God's talking smack. Yeah.21:41 He talking noise. You're not gonna die. Not gonna die. This tree not gonna kill you. See that fruit on that tree? That's some good looking fruit. That tree is not gonna kill21:52 you. God says, it will surely kill you. Satan says, it surely will not kill you. So we back to a choice.22:04 So now we gotta talk about die. Die. Let's talk about die. When you22:16 think about the word die, you're thinking about a casket with a body in it of a deceased person. That's what we think about when we think about death.22:30 In the Bible, the word die does not mean cessation of existence. We look at it that way, nor does it mean annihilation of22:42 existence. That's not the biblical understanding of the word death. The synonym for the word death in the Bible is separation.22:54 K? So for where I am now, I want you to think the word not cessation or annihilation. I want you to think separation when you think of death.23:06 Death occurs when something that should be connected is illegitimately separated. When you see a body lying in a coffin,23:20 the only reason the body is lying in a coffin is that the soul has separated from it. The soul has left the body, and since23:31 the soul is the core and essence of life, life has left the body, leaving the body on the ground in the coffin, and the soul marches on to23:43 eternity. There has been a separation that has occurred. So by death, you shall surely die. Stay with me. You23:56 are going to experience an illegitimate separation. Watch this. God24:08 said, the day you eat of it, you will surely die. Not next week, not next month, not next year. On24:20 that day, there will be an illegitimate separation that should not be that will occur.24:31 And here's where it gets nasty. They didn't die that day. They didn't keel over that day. There were no heart attacks that day. In fact,24:43 Adam lived for hundreds of years after that. So was God uninformed about what he meant by that day? Well, does 1 day equal some24:55 long period of time, or did he mean what he said? Separation is death. On that25:06 day, a whole series of separations took place. That is a whole series of deaths took place. Death number 1 was25:18 spiritual death. They used to walk with God. The bible says in the cool of the day, we find them running from God, not walking with God. It was an25:30 illegitimate separation. Turned out of a spiritual death. The first family fight between a man and a woman took place where the bible says,25:42 and you will be at odds with 1 another. So there was a relational death that did occur. The reason why people talk about my25:53 marriage is dead is because there's a separation that has occurred. They created a scenario where their26:05 siblings became separated, and Cain kills Abel. So there is a separation that occurs. You know 1 of the worst separations that26:17 occur? You you know the worst kind of separation you can have is when you separated from you.26:29 People commit suicide when they can't live with them anymore. When they are so out of sorts with their own humanity. And the bible says that26:40 shame took over and fear took over, and their emotional well-being were collapsed, and they were dissatisfied with themselves. So they're dissatisfied with26:52 themselves. They're separated. They're dissatisfied with each other. The relationship is separated. And then we find in chapter 3, there is an environmental separation. The environment goes crazy27:04 so that no longer is their order in the environment in which they live. So there was death. A lot of people today under the27:16 sound of my voice are dead. Well They're not physically dead like Adam and Eve, but your circumstances are dead. Your well-being is dead. Your27:28 relationships are dead. And like people often say, I'm just dying. Because there is an illegitimate27:40 separation that has occurred as a consequence of biting the wrong tree. The day you eat from it,27:51 you will surely die. The day you go for information independently of me, you don't know it, and it may28:03 taste good, but you just bit death. Let me just mention this 1 right now. Verse 6 of chapter 3. I'll just throw this 128:15 out for you. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food. When28:27 the woman saw that the tree was good for food. Okay. Now I won't go too fast on this When the woman saw, so she's looking at this28:39 tree, that the tree was good for food. Now okay. What's the problem with that? There are a couple problems here. Problem28:51 number 1, when she saw the tree was good for food, but this is not the first time she's seen this tree. She she's seen this tree because she just told the devil what God said about the tree. She29:03 knows about this tree. She's seen the tree. What the devil did was give her a different picture of the tree. She was now looking at the tree through his eyes, not through God's eyes, and29:15 he painted a different look. He made that thing look a little different. Oh, but there's something worse. There's something worse. When29:27 the woman, verse 6, saw that the tree was good for food. Let me say that again. When the woman saw that the tree was good for29:38 food. I don't know if you caught it yet because I've said it 3 times. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food. What's the problem?29:50 The problem is that the tree is not only good, it's also evil. All the devil pointed out was the good part of the tree. He never told her30:02 about the evil part of the tree. Even though she knew about the evil part of the tree, he made the good part look so good, she lost sight of the evil. How many of us have been flim30:14 flam by something that looked good because the evil was hidden, but all of a sudden, it showed up with a vengeance.30:30 When you and I live our lives independently of divine revelation, a separation occurs. Even though it looks good on the30:42 outside and may be good in terms of its look and its taste and all of that, a separation occurs first from God, and then it spins over to everything else.30:57 And so they would have to bear the brunt of the departure. The Bible says in James chapter 1 verse 15,31:10 that when sin is conceived, it brings forth death. Now he's not doesn't mean everybody who sins has a heart attack, everybody who sins falls over, because he's not using death only in that manner. He's31:22 using death in the sense that the life of God is separated, and therefore, it fleshes out to your circumstances. It says when sin is conceived, something dies.31:37 So many of us are dead men walking because sin has claimed control over us. And what we do is we go31:48 to saccharin solutions to make us feel alive. Because I'm walking dead, but I wanna feel alive, I need drugs. I need this situation,32:00 a relationship. I need this circumstance. I need this opportunity. I need this job. I need this money. I need something to help me forget how dead I am.32:14 Let me ask you a question. How many people here? How many people here? Tell it you shame the devil. How many people here are still reeling from a consequence of a sin that took place years ago?32:25 It could be a financial debt. Your grandchildren can't even pay off your debts because you you spent based on what the world said, not based on divine revelation. So it could be32:37 anything, but you're still reeling from that. And we're gonna have good news as we go through this series because God has a recovery program. But what he's trying to say is Moses is saying to his people, as32:49 you move forward, I don't want you carrying the wrong tree into the future. You can't change biting the wrong fruit in the past, but you33:00 can change what you're eating in the present and what you're gonna eat in the future. And I'm not trying to hurt you. What I'm trying to do is let you enjoy all that33:12 I have created for you. That's what the warnings are. But otherwise, you shall surely die. And everybody in here on some level has33:24 experienced this separation. This separation with yourself, with the relationship, with resources, and with God because of his nature. And he can't he will not33:36 adjust who he is, but he's been loving enough to tell us. Let me show you why the bible says he's not just talking about physical death. Moses talks to Israel.33:48 And in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 15, this is what Moses says to Israel. See, verse 15, I have set before you today33:59 life and prosperity, death and adversity. So death equals adversity. Then go down, and he says, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, verse 19,34:11 that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So by life and death, he means the blessing and the curse. That is God's34:23 presence or God's absence. So you can live under the blessing, God's presence, or you can live under the curse, but guess what? You choose. He says, now you choose. God34:35 has given you the freedom of choice with a warning label. Did you know when you get a device and it gives the warning label and it says, don't do this, you still have the ability to do it. You34:47 have the ability to do it. You ever been with a child around wet paint and it says, don't touch? Or maybe you were the child around wet paint and it said, don't touch. And34:59 how tempting that was to touch it? Well, the reason why is because you had a choice.35:11 God wants to give you the right to choose him, but he has it with a warning sticker. If you don't, I just want you to know it'll kill you.35:23 It'll separate you illegitimately from something. And so by way of introduction, because that's all we've done today, I want you to avoid, me to35:35 avoid, us to avoid in the future unnecessary consequences because we were impressed with the wrong tree.35:48 With the wrong people in our lives giving us information independently of God. The wrong influences in our lives giving us information independently of the revelation of God. And because it looked good, sounded35:59 good, and they were impressive, we bought it. And then went, oops. A mouse 1 day was36:11 looking through the hole in the farmer's house. A package was delivered to the farmer. The mouse, curious about what was in the package, stared36:23 as the farmer and his wife opened the package. The farmer and his wife opened the package, and when they opened the package, it was a mousetrap.36:35 Obviously, this is not a happy day for the mouse having had the farmer and his wife just36:46 order a mousetrap. The mouse carries out side of the house and comes to the chicken. The mouse36:57 says, chicken, I want you to know that the farmer and his wife just got a mousetrap. Chicken said, oh, I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for you37:09 mousetrap. That's not good news for you. I'm I'm just sad for you. The mouse then went over to the pig and said, piggy, farmer and his wife just ordered a37:21 mousetrap. Pig said, I'm praying for you. All I can do is pray. Mouse went over to the cow, told37:33 the cow the farmer and his wife just ordered a mousetrap. Cow said, that's more of concern to me. I I don't have any reason to be concerned about a mousetrap.37:44 That night, the farmer's wife heard the trap go off. She hopped out of bed and went over to the trap only to37:56 discover that the trap had caught the tail of a snake. So the snake's tail is caught in the trap. The problem was that the wife38:07 got too close to the trap, and the snake bit the wife. Poison worked up in the wife's body, so the farmer took38:19 the wife to the doctor. When the farmer took the wife to the doctor, they tried to give her an antidote and said, well, now you take her back home. Let's see how this antidote works, and you give her some chicken soup.38:37 So the farmer went and found the chicken, cut off the chicken's head, plucked the chicken's feather, boiled the chicken so his wife could have chicken38:48 soup. The farmer still had to work while his wife was trying to recover. So the farmer invited over some of his friends to watch the wife while39:00 he had to work. But he had to feed him. So he went out and got the pig. Cut the pig up. They had bacon for breakfast, pork chops39:12 for lunch, and chitlins for dinner. They they ate well while watching the wife. The sad news is that the farmer's wife died.39:25 When the farmer's wife died, they had a funeral. But the farmer had to feed all the folk that came from the funeral. So the farmer went over to the cow,39:38 cut the cow up, and they had steaks and all kind of great meals from the cow for the folks who attended the funeral.39:51 After all of this was done, the mouse said, I told them that farmer had a mousetrap. I I tried to tell him that farmer had a mousetrap.40:07 It may not look like the devil's up to march. But if you ignore him, he's got a way to pull you40:19 in so that you bear the consequence of eating from the wrong tree.
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.