Speaking the Truth in Love
Speaking the Truth in Love
Sermons on The Tragedy of Sin
We don’t like to take responsibility for our own mistakes. It’s more satisfying to blame our genes, our circumstances, other people, the devil, or even God.
The devil is a murderer, and his murder weapon is deceit (John 8:44). Have we listened to the lies the serpent told Eve?
Why do some churches baptize infants? Underlying this practice is a belief in “original sin.” Adam’s sin is thought to be inherited at conception. Does the Bible really teach that?
Are all sins created equal? Do some sins cause more harm than others or spring from worse motives? Is there perhaps a chief sin, a wicked thing at the root of every wrong ever done? The humiliation of King Nebuchadnezzar may point to some answers.
Paul makes the strong statement that gossips deserve to die (Rom. 1:28-32). Why would he say such a stern thing? Why is gossip so tempting? And how can a church family stop it?
Ecclesiastes is the strangest book in the Bible. Solomon’s perspective is negative and sometimes even cynical, but his insights are piercing. One of these is that pursuing selfish pleasure is nothing other than chasing the wind.
It’s easy to see that our failures hurt others. People hurt us, and we hurt them. But why does the Bible say that our failings offend God (Rom. 3:23)?
The best-known parable of Jesus tells of a foolish Jewish boy who wastes his father’s wealth and suffers the degradation of tending hogs on a Gentile’s farm (Luke 15:11-20). This story conveys important truths about sin – and how to find forgiveness.
The Hebrew slaves in Egypt were suffering miserably. They cried out to God, and he rescued them (Exod. 15:2-3). We are in slavery too, slavery to sin.