[0:15]Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by it is written. Glad you're joining us today. We are looking at how we can grow in a relationship with God. And this week in lesson number nine of 13, we are looking at sin, the gospel, and the law. A fascinating subject. Let's begin with prayer. Father, we ask that you'll continue to be with us as we study more about how we can grow in our relationship with you. Please bless our time together today, we ask, and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. We're grateful also to have the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson with us. That's Nina Acheson. She is a curriculum specialist and an author. Nina, welcome back. Thank you so much. So we're, we're on a 13 week journey here. We're now on week number nine, so we're kind of getting into the the final bits and pieces where we're going to pull it all together. But this week is a very important one. Sin, the gospel and the law. So let's begin by talking about sin. Why is sin so significant when it comes to having a growing, vibrant, healthy relationship with God? Without a doubt, sin is the greatest obstructer in having a close relationship with God. So of course, sin is that anything which separates us from having a close connection with God. And really, we talked about pride a few weeks ago, selfishness. You know, this is really where a lot of sin originates. Um, and Satan's goal is for us to be so completely sin-filled, sinful, sin-filled, that will be separated from God forever. And sin is really serious. I, I wonder if we perhaps don't talk about it enough. It's a serious topic. It's a heavy topic. Without Jesus and the gospel and and Jesus saving grace, uh, having sin in our lives means that we will be separated from God forever. So it's a very significant, uh, topic when it comes to have having a relationship with God. Um, sin will have, it hurts us, it deceives us, it destroys us, and as I said, it will eventually keep us from the God of of the universe forever. So our battle against sin and self is perhaps the greatest battle that that all of us ever face, and it has eternal implications. If we read, um, Isaiah 59 verses one and two, uh, we read about this very point. It says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. So for me, this is encouraging because it says, even though we are, we, we sin, God still reaches out, he still hears us when we cry out to him. He reaches out and wants to save us. But in verse two, it says, but your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. So I, I think what this is saying is that if we choose to remain in our sin, uh, if we choose not to accept the grace of Christ, uh, God cannot help us. It's, it's a serious, it's a serious matter. We can't get rid of sin by ourselves. It makes me think of people throughout history such as Martin Luther who, um, tried to chastise himself or do certain things to climb upstairs on his knees or do certain things to try to purge himself of sin. And others have gone to extreme measures to try to rid their bodies and their minds and their souls of sin. Some people even try to remove themselves from society so there'll be no temptations. Of course, we know that we cannot do that. We cannot of our own efforts ever remove sin from our lives. Um, every person every day sins. We sin every day through our thoughts, our motives, our actions. Um, and our words, we, we hurt people, we hurt God. And so the enemy of souls tries to weaken us. He knows the areas that are the buttons to push to to make us surrender and given to sin, sinful habits and choices. And yet, we know that through Jesus' example that when we are tempted, we can use the word of God to fight the enemy. And we should remember too, that temptation is not sin. Jesus was tempted, but he didn't sin. Yeah, big difference there. And sometimes, uh, if we feel we've been tempted, we've already, you know, fallen. No, there's, there's a difference. You know, if the temptation comes and we simply give it to God and let it go by, uh, then by the grace of God, we're fine. It's when we, it's when we pause and and think about it and and dwell on it and so forth. That's where we get ourselves in trouble. You know, this passage in Isaiah 59 is very, it's very profound. It says your, your iniquities or your sins have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear. It makes a whole lot of sense because God is the source of life. Yes. And so if we are harboring sin, and sin separates us from God, it's not just that sin separates us from God, it's that sin separates us from the source of life. Exactly. And so how can we continue? How can we have eternal life if we're choosing to separate ourselves from the very source of that, of that life? So we live in a world today that doesn't talk too much about sin. In fact, it talks very little about sin. Uh, it's a very heavy topic, it's a very significant topic, but society today tries increasingly, I think, to avoid this topic and kind of adopts this idea that anything is really permissible, as long as you're not hurting anyone is kind of the, the mantra that I often hear. Um, but that's not so much the case. How does the Bible describe sin and why is it so serious for us? In Romans 3 verse 20, the Bible describes sin in this way. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So it's actually the law of God that we understand what sin is. Uh, and of course, the Bible in various passages, we'll look at a few in a moment, describe in more detail what sin is. We also see in first John 3 verse 4, that the Bible describes sin as being a transgression of God's law. So it's the law, the law is in some ways like us putting on a pair of glasses and helping us to see our lives for what they are, to see sin clearly. What's around us, or, or it's like looking in a mirror. You know, sometimes, I guess an analogy could be if I eat a big chocolate cake. I think, quick, no one's looking and I eat it, and it's all over my face. If, if the chocolate cake represents sin, and I look in a mirror, uh, and then I see, I see the sin all over me. So the mirror is like, so, so the law is, it, it helps us to recognize the sin in our lives. It brings clarity and it brings conviction, uh, about our lives and our characters. Um, of course, we have the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, written by God's own finger. And we also have Jesus who affirmed the greatest commandment in Mark 12 verse 30 and 31 says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. So Jesus of course, affirmed that the law was not done away with. And that the entire Bible, uh, cohesively affirms that the law of God is forever. It's steadfast, it's, it's continuing. The law is all about relationships, our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. And it really, God gave us the law to safeguard our relationship with him. And we're talking about growing in a relationship with God. So the law safeguards how can we grow in that relationship with God? It sheds light on our own characters and on the sin in our lives. Of course, Satan has tried to distort the law. And I, you know, I think we probably all know some Christians even that disdain the law. They, they think that it's legalistic to keep the law. Um, and yet we know that in first John 5 verse 3, the Bible tells us, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. So it really depends, I think, how we understand God's character. The law is a reflection of his character. We, when we understand God's character, we'll see the law is a beautiful reflection of what's important to God and it won't be burdensome to us. I think you hit on something really important right there as we look at the the description, the Bible description of God and the Bible's description of his law. The same adjectives are used to describe both. It is, some have said, it's a transcript of his character. It shows us who he is. If you want to know what God is like, look at his law. It tells you what he holds dear. It tells you the things that he appreciates, the things that he doesn't appreciate. It gives you a clear picture of who he is and what he's ultimately trying to do is to to give us opportunities to reflect his character in our own lives. Yes. So if we find ourselves in opposition to his law or in other words, first John 3, 4, sin is the transgression of the law or the breaking of the law. If we find ourselves constantly doing that, our reflection of his character is being marred and that's being being seen by others in the world. And so their view of God is being distorted as a result of of our choices to to live our lives contrary to his law, contrary to his character. Now, of course, you and I both know we can't do that ourselves. We don't have the ability to to grit our teeth and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and and live right. That doesn't work. Uh, but by God's grace, he can give us the strength and the power if we let Jesus sit on the throne of our, of our hearts to do that. Yes.
[11:18]Absolutely. And we are called to be a holy people, his chosen people. And I, and I do agree wholeheartedly that it's, it's really just about, uh, loving his character because when we love him, we will want to love the things that he loves. It will be a natural response to want to obey his law and want to reflect his character to, to those around us. Absolutely. Nina, I want to go to Monday's lesson for a moment. You talk about some, some different strongholds, some barriers to us growing in Christ. Uh, I don't know that we're going to have time to unpack everything before we go to break, but what are some of these strongholds and how can we overcome them in Jesus? Maybe we'll touch on this, then we'll go to break, then we'll come back and unpack it a little bit more. Talk with me a little bit about some of these strongholds. There are certain passages in the Bible that list some strongholds, and we will look at one of them after the break. But on Monday's lesson, I speak about a few areas that I, I think are quite natural for us to just fall into these, uh, sinful tendencies such as self-reliance, uh, and that's the first point like Samson. Um, being proud, which we've already talked about in a previous week. Uh, having lust in our hearts. Of course, that's something that others don't see, but it can eventually play out in our actions and that really is a, a substantial barrier, um, that can bring a lot of guilt to, to a lot of people. Um, being critical and judgmental of others. I, I wonder how often we think about that. Our critical spirits, uh, whether it might be just through looking at something we see online, on social media, even, and thinking, oh, look at that person. Even just those little thoughts that come into our minds, being judgmental of leadership, um, hating our enemies. Do we harbor those feelings of hatred and resentment? And Jesus speaks to all of these and I've, I've have Bible verses listed on Monday's lesson that that address this. Uh, and the final one I included was anger. Uh, do we feel angry? Do we allow anger, uh, to, to kind of build up in our, in our souls and do we respond aggressively? I mean, all of these, the Bible says that all of these are sins. And of course, there are, there are other sins. We'll look at some other lists when we come back, but but I think these more subtle, potentially subtle sins that that others don't see, uh, they really do erode our relationship with God in quite substantial ways. So I think it's helpful for us all to pause and say, Lord, these ungodly traits that am I allowing them to creep into my heart and to take harbor? And and how are they affecting the relationships with others and with with my God? This is something that we need to unpack even a little bit more when we come back from the break, but before we go to the break, uh, if somebody wants to dig more deeply into this subject, there's a companion book that they can pick up. Share with us a little bit about that companion book. There is indeed. The companion book is Growing in a Relationship with God. It's on the same, same title as the quarterly, written by Heather Quintana. Uh, the chapters in the book mirror the chapters in the quarterly and they go into more details and I know this will be a blessing to any of our viewers who would like to read more on these topics. To pick that book up, just go to it is written.shop. Again, it is written.shop. You'll find the companion book to this quarter Sabbath School lesson right there and it will be a blessing to you. We're going to come back in just a moment as we continue looking at sin, the gospel and the law. We'll be right back.
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[16:21]Welcome back to Sabbath School. We're looking at sin, the gospel and the law as it relates to our growing relationship with God. Nina, before we went to break, we were talking a little bit about them some of the strongholds that often prevent us from growing in our relationship with God. ways that sin works its way into our lives. Uh, unpack that a little bit more for us. In the Bible, there are various, um, passages that actually unpack this issue a little more with some specific lists, I guess, we could, we could say. Um, that describe these the sins in our lives that we so can so easily ignore. Uh, one of these lists is in Galatians 5:19 to 21. Let's read that one first. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's a pretty exhaustive list there. Yeah, it is. There's another list that is similar. It has a few extra, um, extra sins that that Paul lists in Romans 1:29 and we don't have time to read that list today as well, but it is, it really does cause us, I think, to read this slowly and to consider which of these areas do I naturally gravitate to or fall into? What are the temptations in my life? There's another passage in Proverbs 6 verses 16 through 19. And let me read this to us. It says, these six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. And so we do see the Bible outlines in multiple places really, uh, examples of what it means to break the law, the Ten Commandments, and and really what it means to not love the Lord and not love our neighbors. Uh, Jesus also warns that when we do fall into these sins, in Mark nine, he actually gives us some advice. He says, it's better to cut off your hand than to keep doing these, or cut off your leg, or pluck out your eye. That's how serious Jesus sees sin. Uh, it's better to do those things than not to inherit eternal life. And so I think we just, it's important for us to pause to realize the seriousness of sin. Uh, and I guess we could consider, have I, have you, have our viewers, um, asked God to remove sins from our lives because we realize that they are putting a barrier in our relationship with him? Um, and have we thought about the devastating consequences of of sins in our lives? Uh, it is an important, it's a, it's a serious, important question to grapple with. And I'm glad we're spending some time this week delving into it and by God's grace, this won't be the end of your delving into it. Uh, this subject just as each of the subjects that we're covering this quarter, uh, one that certainly, uh, should call us to deeper and further study. Nina, we're also talking about, we're talking about sin, we're talking about the gospel. We're also talking a little bit about the law. The topic of the law, even in Christian circles today, is often misunderstood. What is it about this subject that gets Christians, what's the right word I want to use here? Enthusiastic on, on one direction or the other on the law. Some say, yes, we need to keep the law absolutely. And others say, the law's been done away with. It's been nailed to the cross. Don't worry about it so much anymore. Don't be legalistic. Why is the law misunderstood? Well, we've already mentioned that love is at the very center of the law. God's character is reflected through the law. And I think people sometimes don't connect the law to the gospel. I think that's a common mistake that people make. We also need to remember that the law does not save us. The law does not forgive us. The law does not justify us. But what the law should do is to point us to Christ who does those things. point us to the fact that we need a savior. And so the gospel should always be connected to the law. And when it's not, I think that's when people misunderstand it. That's when they, they, you know, they don't want to think about it or they, they feel as though it's legalistic. But when we connect the gospel and we know that the law really is just a way of pointing us, pointing out why we need Jesus. It becomes so helpful and so, such a blessing to us. Um, so yeah, I think really, Jesus does the work, but he gives us the law as a gift to, um, to point us to, to realize that we need his gift of grace. The the old song comes to mind, What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Amen. So the the law just shows us that we need Jesus. It sends us to him so that he can indeed wash away our sin. So let's say there's somebody watching who needs a little bit of encouragement, who perhaps they have some sin in their lives, which I think every single human being falls into that category. Yes. And they need a little bit of encouragement. What would you give? What kind of encouragement, hope would you give to someone who, who, who knows that sin is separating them from, from God, uh, from having that relationship that they want. What kind of hope can you offer? I think the thing we need to remember is that we all sin. You sin, I sin. We sin every day. We cannot live a sinless life, and we need Jesus to help us. Uh, I really love what Romans 3 verse 23 says. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But then it goes on to say in verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I mean, this is just great news because we can't do anything other than say, Jesus, I accept your gift of grace. I can't get rid of the sin in my life. I need your help, and reach out our hands, accept that gift and allow him to to do his work. But really, we do need to repent. So repentance is the first step and really genuine repentance, which we are actually talking about in next week's lesson. It's the focus, repentance and forgiveness. Uh, we know that sin separates, but repentance restores because of the grace that Jesus offers us. I think we all need to remember that grace is greater than sin. Grace is stronger than sin. Uh, in Romans 5 verse 20, we read, um, another beautiful passage. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So we can claim this promise. When we feel tempted, we all feel tempted. When we feel tempted, we can say, Lord, I know your grace is stronger than sin. It's stronger than temptation. We can claim scripture, we can claim the promises. We know the devil will flee. And so I think often times it is about recognizing, oh, I'm feeling tempted. I'm, I'm going back to this familiar sin that I, that so easily tries to ensnare me. The enemy is attacking me. We can pause. We can remove ourself from that temptation and flee to the arms of our savior. Um, so no matter our sin, we need to remember that God offers grace to you, to me, to you, Eric. And what a gift that is. It's, it's just a profound, the most extraordinary gift that Jesus could give us. And I, I really just want to appeal to our viewers today to accept that gift of grace. It's, Jesus is offering it to all of us today. And we can choose this gift of grace and this will help us in our growing relationship with him. We need his grace. We need that robe of righteousness to be placed around us. So sin unquestionably separates us from God, from the source of life. Maybe, probably, you have felt that discomfort. When you choose to go the wrong direction, you sense that something is wrong. When that happens, just remember this. The devil is stronger than you are. And if you try to fight that yourself, you're going to lose. Sooner or later, the truth is, he's just stronger than you are. In order to combat that, in order to end up victorious, in order to end up on the right side of things in the end, you need to enlist someone on your side who is stronger than the devil is. That person is not you. That person is Jesus. If you call out to him, he will help you. He will give you strength. He will give you forgiveness. He will give you life. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not just some, but all unrighteousness. If you want to experience that cleansing, if you want to experience that victory, if you want to experience that peace that passes all understanding, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. He wants to give you that peace. He wants to give you that strength. He wants to give you that victory. He wants to give you ultimately that glory that comes from being with him. So this week we've been looking at sin, the gospel and the law. If by any chance you happen to have missed previous presentations, previous lessons, make sure you go back and view them.
