To Win Against Sin
And other things to do before it’s too late.
5 Small Points
1.) How Can Christians Spread Their Faith? Knowledge
2.) How Can Christians Spread Their Faith?  Action
3.) Questions: Morality and Atheism
4.) Questions: Time, Free Will, and the Fighting Spirit (May save for next week)
5.) Can God Make a Stone So Large That He Can’t Lift It?
How can Christians spread their faith?
This is brainstorming. Raise your hands and throw out some answers.
Part I & II: How can Christians spread their
faith?
This brainstorming. Raise your hands and throw out some answers.
Knowledge
Action
Key Thought
Key point: inquire not necessarily for your own knowledge, but so that you
can give an answer to others. We should have an intentional purpose for
why we are dealing with doubts. The goal of dealing with doubts is to
remove them insofar as they stand between a person’s interactive
relationship with God and His authority in their life.
Point IV: Time, Free Will, & the Fighting Spirit
—“Laplace’s Demon.”
—How many futures are there?
—A-Theory (time is real) of time vs B Theory (not real)
—What is a “fighting spirit?”
Free Will, Christianity, and Atheism
• Laplace’s Demon.
• How many futures are there?
• A-Theory (time is real) of time vs B Theory (not real)
• What is a “fighting spirit?”
Free Will, Christianity, and Atheism
• Calvinism
God ordained every future event before creation. God selected only certain individuals for
salvation, based on nothing good or bad within the person. God changes the pre-selected
people's hearts to love God. God's saving grace is irresistible. Jesus only died for the ones
who had been pre-selected for salvation.
• Armenianism
God sees the future. He knows who will respond to the Gospel and be saved. God enlightens
sinners first, thus granting them the same freedom of choice that Adam had in the
beginning. People can either accept or reject Jesus. Jesus died for all people, but it only
applies to those who respond in faith.
Molinism
God knows every possibility of every circumstance and every different choice a human might
make. God chooses to allow only one of these potential choices to occur. Or He knows which
one is more likely to occur. God maneuvers people's circumstances to cause or allow for
people to make certain choices.
Point V: Stone So Big
Can God make a rock so heavy that He can't move it?
Point 6: Morality and Atheism
"Do objective moral values exist if God does not exist?"
Morality and Atheism
On morality in a universe without God, the question is not,
—Must we believe in God in order to live moral lives? There is no reason to think
that atheists and theists alike may not live what we normally characterize as good
and decent lives.
—Can we formulate a system of ethics without reference to God? If the non-theist
grants that human beings do have objective value, then there is no reason to think
that he cannot work out a system of ethics with which the theist would also largely
agree.
—Can we recognize the existence of objective moral values without reference to
God? The theist will typically maintain that a person need not believe in God in
order to recognize, say, that we should love our children.
SIN, and not the math type.
• How can we describe sin? Homogeneity:
– “But your iniquities have separated you from your
God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so
that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2; see also Isaiah
13:11; Jeremiah 5:25).
How can we describe sin? Homogeneity:
• “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the
detestable, as for murderers, the sexually
immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their
portion will be in the lake that burns with fire
and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Rev
21:8)
How can we describe sin? Variation:
– All sins are evil
– But some sins are worse than others
– This variation exists in good, too
– No one has greater love than this, that
someone would lay down his life for his
friends. (John 15:13)
How can we describe sin? Variation:
– Matthew 23:23
– “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and
cumin, and have neglected the weightier
matters of the law: justice and mercy and
faithfulness. These you ought to have
done, without neglecting the others.”
How can we describe sin? Variation:
– All sins are evil
– But some sins are worse than others
– Killing an entire race of people is
intuitively worse than stealing a candy bar;
raping your neighbor's child is far worse
than fibbing and telling a coworker that
you like her new hair.
How can we describe sin? Variation:
– “What did this people do to you, that you
have brought such great sin upon them?”
(Exodus 32:21)
– "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah
is so great and their sin so grievous." (Gen
18:21)
Sin: found in congregations
• If some sins are more heinous than others, that has
implications for the practice of church discipline,
i.e., for how the leaders of local churches deal with
the sins of church members. See 1 Cor 5:
• It is actually reported that there is immorality among
you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist
even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s
wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned
instead, so that the one who had done this deed would
be removed from your midst…
Sin: found in congregations SIN
• …I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral
people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of
this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or
with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the
world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with
any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or
covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a
swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what
have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge
those who are within the church? But those who are
outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG
YOURSELVES.
Freebie sidebar:
For a Christian, there are basically three types of judging:
1.) Observation, which is impartial and disinterested.
(1+1=2)
2.) Judgement unto condemnation. (You're going to hell for
that!)
3.) Judgement unto salvation. (Brother, I've been down that
dark road, but I found my way back. Let me help you! We'll
beat this as a team.)
Freebie sidebar:
• "My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth
and one turns him back, let him know that he who
turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his
soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
(James 5)
Freebie sidebar:
• Do not rush into judgement unto condemnation, "because
judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no
mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment." (James 2:13)
• "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor
to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands," the answer
was, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus
said to him, “Go and do the same.” (Luke 10:37)
• Exodus 26:34,"You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of
the testimony in the holy of holies."
How can we describe sin? Variation:
– Imagine if our society had a justice system
sans degrees
– In this life, sin can have practical effects
which make some more insidious than
others.
– In the next life, God will judge.
Works: because we have moral obligations
and duties
• Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will
not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be
deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male
prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit
God’s Kingdom. Such were some of you, but
you were washed. (1 Cor 6)
Works: because we have moral obligations
and duties
• Practically, sin hurts our ability to live
for Christ
– Example: murdering, stealing; lying
Can we overcome sin?
• But we have the moral duty to clean up our
act
• So we need to ask, “Is there a sin so big that
I can’t stop it?”
• Is Christ in me less powerful than Satan?
Can we overcome sin?
• Perhaps oddly, the big sins are the easiest
to stop.
– It’s quite easy to not murder people, or to stop
basically having them murdered so that you
have a shot with their admittedly gorgeous
wife.
– It’s even relatively easy to stop the “big”
physiologic ones, like mainlining horse
SIN
• The more difficult things to stop are the
ones that OTHERS don’t know that you’re
doing.
– For example, lying, sleeping around, or porn
So is sin worth trying to overcome?
– God seems to think so!
– Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
(Colossians 3:5)
– God undoubtedly challenges us, and He does it in the best way: having
us aim for perfection. Every military in the world has its soldiers shoot
not for "just ok," but instead for 100% accuracy and excellence, and
that's why the motto for the Air Force used to be, "The difficult we do
immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.“
– God throws down the gauntlet with Matthew 5:48, saying, "Therefore
you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
How do we overcome? Practical
considerations
– Gambling fallacy. Or flipping a coin 5 times.
– Sin can be similar. Feels as if you can’t stop.
– Dale once noted, "I've found that, when people are
having troubles with personal problems, often the
best solution is to start serving others." When sin
wants to overcome you, remember say to yourself, "I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me," then act on it. Find
someone to help, and in doing so, help yourself.
How do we overcome? Practical
considerations
• Sinning is an “if,” not a “when,” and
certainly not a lifestyle
– My little children, I am writing these things to
you so that you may not sin. And if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father…No
one who is born of God practices sin! (1 John
2:1; 3:9)
How do we overcome? Practical
considerations
• If AA can do it, so can we!
– But just as it’s a practice of sin, it needs to be a
practice of righteousness.
– Until it becomes a habit.
How do we overcome? Practical
considerations
• Nature abhors a vacuum
– Unclean spirits (Matthew 12)
How do we overcome sin?
•1.) DESIRE to overcome
•2.) Admit it when present.
–Too often we overlook or rationalize.
•3.) Study and replace the sin
•4.) Meditate and pray (in all steps)
How do we overcome? Desire
• This one is on you.
How do we overcome? Admit it
• Psalm 34, David did not admit sin:
• For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through
my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of
summer.
• Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one
another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous
person has great power as it is working. (James 5:16)
• Can’t overcome what we don’t admit.
• It’s not a struggle with sin if you don’t fight it.
How do we overcome? Admit it
• One of the worst places we can get as a Christian is where
we're doing nasty stuff and trying to keep it on the downlow; making sure that it stays secret. Eph 5:11-12 says,
• "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even
to speak of those things which are done by them in
secret."
How do we overcome? Study and replace
• "Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with
wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let
me not eat of their delicacies!" (Psalm 141:4)
• "For you brothers were called to freedom, but not the
freedom for an opportunity to the flesh. Rather, serve one
another through love." (2 Cor 5:17)
• If you’re out feeding the hungry, you won’t be getting an STD
from someone you met at a bar.
• If you’re baptizing someone in a hot tub, you won’t be getting
a DUI.
How do we overcome? Prayer &
omnipresence
• This is for ALL steps!
• God is always “watching,” in a GOOD way!
• “Present.” “Here!”
• “God, be with Lucas as he goes through brain surgery.”
• Practice the PRESENCE of God.
• So if we are in a situation where we are tempted to sin, we need to
remember that God is there with us. We are not hiding from him.
How do we overcome? Prayer &
omnipresence
• Finally, this involves realizing that we are never alone no matter
what we go through. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus says, “Lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the world.”
• No matter what we go through, we are never alone. Therefore, we
can depend upon him as we go through our daily lives. Psalm 23:4:
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear
no evil, for thou art with me.”
• That is the promise that we have of God’s presence.