The Process of Overcoming Sin

Arkansas Bible SchoolSeptember, 2012

Romans 7:24-25O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

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What is a Process?

1. A systematic series of actions directed to some end

2. A continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner

A Process will always have a beginning and a series of action steps that lead to an expected

end.

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THE PROCESS OF OVERCOMING SINTHE SIN PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Act on thought

Sin

Eternal Death

OVERCOMING SIN – PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Refusal to act on thought (Thus saith the Lord)

No Sin

Death

Eternal Life

SIN CLEANSING – PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Act on thought

Sin

Recognition of sinConfession of Sin (Prayer)ForgivenessRepentanceDeathEternal Life

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THE PROCESS OF OVERCOMING SINTHE SIN PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Act on thought

Sin

Eternal Death

OVERCOMING SIN – PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Refusal to act on thought (This Saith the Lord)

No Sin

Death

Eternal Life

SIN CLEANSING – PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Act on thought

Sin

Recognition of sinConfession of Sin (Prayer)ForgivenessRepentanceDeathEternal Life

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FAILURE TO OVERCOME SINTHE SIN PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Act on thought

Sin

Eternal Death

SIN CLEANSING – PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Act on thought

Sin

Recognition of sinConfession of SinForgivenessRepentance

Eternal Death

If there is no recognition or sin or confession of sin, then we have no opportunity to repent and Yahweh will not offer forgiveness.

This could lead to Eternal Death unless we change our sinful, wicked and evil ways.

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The Process of Overcoming Sin

Sin Recognition

Confession of Sin

Repentance from Sin

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WHAT IS SIN?Sin – Strong’s Concordance - Hebrew Sin – Strong’s Concordance – Hebrew

•H817 – (46) asham – guilt, a fault, a sin offering, guiltiness, trespass offering•H819 – (19) ashmah – feminine of H817, guiltiness, fault, presentation of sin offering, offend, sin•H2398 – (238) chata – to miss, to forfeit, to bear the blame, to commit sin, to offend, to offer for sin, trespass, make reconciliation, to offer for sin, purge, purify•H2399 – (33) chet – a crime or its penalty, fault, offence, punishment of sin•H2400 – (18) chatta – a criminal or one accounted guilty•H2401 – (8) chataah – feminine form of H2399 – an offence or a sacrifice for it

•H2402 - (1) chattaah – an offence and the penalty or sacrifice for it – sin offering•H2403 – (296) chattath – an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness) and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice or expiation, an offender, punishment of sin, purifying (edification for sin), sin, condition of sin, guilt of sin•H5771 – (230) avon – perversity or moral evil, fault, iniquity, mischief, punishment of iniquity, sin•H7686 – (21) shagah – to stray, mislead, to mistake, to transgress morally, to reel, deceive, err, ravished, sin through ignorance, to wander

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WHAT IS SIN?Sin – Strong’s Concordance – Greek

•G264 – (43) hamartano – to miss the mark (so as not to share in the prize), to err – especially morally, to sin, for your faults, offend, sin, trespass, to wander

•G265 – (4) hamartema – a sin

•G266 – (174) hamartia – an offence, sin(ful) – equivalent to G264 –per one expositor

•G361 – (361) anamartetos – without sin

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Philippians 3:13-14 – “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 6:33-34 - But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

OVERCOMING SIN

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The Two Constitutions of SinThe word sin is used in two principal acceptations in the scripture. It signifies in the first place, “the transgression of the law”; and in the next, it represents that physical principle of the animal nature, which is the cause of all its diseases, death, and resolution unto dust. It is that in the flesh “which has the power of death”; and it is called sin, because the development or fixation, of this evil in the flesh, was the result of transgression. Inasmuch as this evil principle pervades every part of the flesh, the animal nature is styled “sinful flesh,” that is “flesh full of sin”; so that sin, in the sacred style, came to stand for the substance called man. In human flesh “dwells no good thing”, and all the evil a man does is the result of this principle dwelling in him (Romans 7:17-18). Operating upon the brain, it excites the “propensities”, and these set the “intellect” and ”sentiments” to work. The propensities are blind, and so are the intellect and sentiments in a purely natural state; when therefore, the latter operate under the sole impulse of the propensities, “the understanding is darkened through ignorance, because of the blindness of the heart” (Ephesians 4:18).

Bro. John Thomas – Elpis Israel – Rudiments of the World 11

The Constitutional Aspects of SinBro. Thomas continues in the same book and the same chapter:

“Sin, I say, is a synonym for human nature. Hence, the flesh is invariably regarded as unclean. It is therefore written, “How can he be clean who is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4). Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. (Job 14:4)” ….

“Sin in the flesh is hereditary; and entailed upon mankind as the consequence of Adam’s violation of the Eden law. Adam and Eve committed the “original sin”; and their posterity are suffering the consequences of it.”

“Mankind being born of the flesh, and of the will of man, are born into the world under the constitution of sin. By their fleshly birth, they are entitled to all that sin can impart to them. “

“Children are born sinners or unclean, because they are born of sinful flesh; and “that which is born of the flesh is flesh”, or sin. This is a misfortune, not a crime. They do not will to be born sinners, but they have no choice.”

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The Constitutional Aspects of Sin - continued

Bro. Thomas continues in the same book and the same chapter:

“But men are not only made, or constituted sinners by the disobedience of Adam, but they become sinners ever as he, by actual transgression.

Thus men are sinners in a twofold sense; first, by natural birth; and next, by transgression. “

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR US TO UNDERSTAND THESE BASIC AND FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF THE ASPECTS OF SIN?

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What Is The Law of Sin and Death?The simple answer can be found in Romans 6:23 –

The wages of sin is death.

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Brother J. J. Andrew – The Blood of the Covenant

All of the human race are under “the law of sin and death” … “The end” of those who remain under this law is to “perish”…

The “law of sin and death” contains no provision for justification from sin and consequently no element which counteracts the reign of death.

The Law of Sin And DeathIf we are associated with sin, then we are subject to death. Unrepentant sin may lead to eternal death. This law was given to Adam in the Garden. Genesis 2:17 states that Adam would surely die if he disobeyed Yahweh’s commandment to not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When Adam and Eve disobeyed and partook of the fruit of this tree, they became sinners and subject to the sentence of death.

This sentence of death passed upon all of their descendants not because their descendants were guilty of the original sin, but because they inherited the same sin nature as their first parents. Therefore, the condemnation/sentence of death was imputed to Adam’s and Eve’s descendants.

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Imputed Adamic Condemnation

This sentence of death passed upon all of their descendants not because their descendants were guilty of the sin, but they inherited the same sin nature as their first parents.

Therefore, the condemnation/sentence of death was imputed to Adam’s and Eve’s descendants.

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What is Imputation?

Definition – To invest with honor or office, to ascribe honor or virtue to; to attribute, cloth or confer; to bestow on something or somebody as due or appropriate.

A good example is the usage of paper money by the governments of the world. The paper that the money is printed on has no intrinsic value of its own. However, the government imputes (attributes) value to the paper even though it has no value of its own.

The Imputation of Adam’s Sin – Bro. Edward Farrar 17

Spiritual Matters of Imputation• Imputed Adamic Condemnation – Read

Romans 5:12-19.

• Imputed Righteousness – “The righteous of one man can be imputed to another man even though personal righteousness and holiness are lacking in the individual to whom righteousness is imputed or reckoned. It is not a transfer of moral character. It is a matter of constitution, status and reckoning”.

Bro. Ted Farrar – The Imputation of Adam’s Sin.18

Types of Sin• Individual Sins

– Sins of Omission –failure to do something that God requires of us

– Sins of Commission – an act of disobedience in defiance of the Word of God

• National, Communal, Ecclesial Sins– Teaching False Doctrine– Toleration, Supporting, Promoting, Allowing False

Doctrine to be taught– Toleration, Supporting, Promoting, Allowing

Immoral Acts to be committed by members of the Christ Body

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Committed SinsGalatians 5-19-21 Colossians 3:8-9 Ephesians 5:3-5Adultery Anger Fornication

Fornication Wrath All Uncleanness

Uncleanness Malice Covetousness

Lasciviousness Blasphemy Filthiness

Idolatry Filthy communication Foolish talking

Witchcraft Lies Inconvenient jesting

Hatred, Variance

Emulations, Wrath

Strife, Seditions

Heresies, Envyings

Murders, Drunkenness

Revelings20

THE PROCESS OF OVERCOMING SINTHE SIN

PROCESS

Thought

Opportunity to act on thought

Act on thought

Sin

Eternal Death

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STUPIDPRIDEGOSSIPLIESINSULTSMURMERSCOMPLAINTSHYPROCISYFALSE DOCTRINE

Matthew 15:15-20 - Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. 22

Matthew 12:34-37 - O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. 23

HOW MANY TIMES?

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Guidance on Using Social Media• Public writings have always been open to the review of the

public. That is the whole purpose of writing or speaking or teaching in public. So, if you don’t want people to read what you write on a public forum where the primary purpose is to publish information about yourself – then DON’T WRITE IT!

• If you are doing something that you may not want to write about in a public forum – then DON’T DO IT! Others may not be able to see what you don’t want to write about, but God still can.

• If you still feel a need to write about something on a public forum and if and when your writings are publicly scrutinized and criticized then DON’T GET OFFENDED.

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Types of Sin• National, Communal, Ecclesial Sins

– Teaching False Doctrine– Toleration, Supporting, Promoting, Allowing False

Doctrine to be taught by members of the Christ Body

– Toleration, Supporting, Promoting, Allowing Immoral Acts to be committed by members of the Christ Body

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Contamination by Association

Guilt by Association

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WHY?

Scriptural Examples of Imputation• Numbers 16:26• Joshua 7:1-11, Joshua 22:20• I Kings 21:20• II Kings 5:27• II John 10-11• I Corinthians 5:6-7• Revelation 18:4• Revelation 2:12:17• Romans 1:28-32• Deuteronomy 24:16• Proverbs 13:20• I Thessalonians 5:22• Proverbs 14:7

• Proverbs 29:3• Proverbs 28:7• II Thessalonians 3:14• Romans 4:11• Proverbs 24:21• Leviticus 17:4• Psalms 32:2• II Corinthians 5:19• James 2:23• Romans 5:13• Romans 4:22-23• Romans 5:19• I Corinthians 1:30

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Unloving?• Is it unloving to try to help someone see the errors of their ways?

• Is it unloving to be a shepherd over the flock of God and protect the flock from the wolves in sheep’s clothing who we find in some Christadelphian organizations and Ecclesias that harbor individuals who teach false doctrine or continues to distribute and promote things that are in opposition to the Word of God?

• Is it unloving to continue to teach to our Unamended Community that there is and always have been major doctrinal differences between the Unamended and Amended communities?

• Is it unloving to continue to teach that we must associate ourselves with those in whom we are like minded with and disassociate ourselves with those in whom we are not like minded with?

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Are We Sinning?• Are we sinning when we try to provide counsel to a brother or

sister who has strayed from the straight and narrow path?

• Are we sinning when we try to identify and name those who are teaching and promoting and distributing false doctrine or when we identify those who are allowing this to happen?

• Are we sinning when we try to teach our brethren about the correct doctrinal principles of atonement, covenant making, the nature of man, the nature of Christ, or any other first principle of faith that is found in our Statement of Faith?

• Are we sinning when we try to teach individuals about the principles of fellowship?

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Types of Sin• National, Communal, Ecclesial Sins

– Teaching False Doctrine– Toleration, Supporting, Promoting, Allowing False

Doctrine to be taught by members of the Christ Body

– Toleration, Supporting, Promoting, Allowing Immoral Acts to be committed by members of the Christ Body

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WHY?

The Mind of Christ

THE MIND OF CHRIST

THE MIND OF THE FLESH

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Romans 7:24-25O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

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THE MIND OF THE FLESHWhat about ME?I Need!I Want!I Deserve!They made ME so mad!I am really offended by Brother X or Sister Y! Did you hear what they said to ME?

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IN SUMMARY• Love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind and soul.• In the Agape sense of Love, we should love our neighbor as our self.• Study to show thyself approved of God• Control our tongue• Keep the doctrine pure• Stay alert to signs of the times that signal the soon return of our

Master.• Be spiritually strong and courageous at all times• Fight the good fight of faith.• Pray without ceasing.• Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are

honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. – Philippians 4:8

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1 John 5:4 - For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Revelation 2:7 - He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Ecclesias; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:11 - He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Ecclesias; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Revelation 2:17 - He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Ecclesias; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Revelation 2:26 - And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

Revelation 3:5 - He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Revelation 3:12 - Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Revelation 3:21 - To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Revelation 21:7 - He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH