Originally Aired On: Thursday, June 23, 2005
HOW QUESTIONING GOD'S GOODNESS LEADS TO QUESTIONING HIS COMMANDS
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OUTLINE
IDEA: Our sinfulness deceives us about God's Law.
TEXT: "For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me" (Romans 7:11).
PURPOSE: To help listeners realize how their thinking may be guided by evil and not good.
In Romans 7:11, Paul talks about sin "deceiving" us. He reflects what we have in the first temptation, found in Genesis 3.
I. How does the serpent deceive the woman?
He distorts and misrepresents God's command.
In the command itself, the positive is put first, and then the negative.
The serpent points out only the negative and ignores the positive.
He uses the command itself to seduce the woman and deceive her.
He insinuates doubts about God's character.
He suggests the desirableness of Adam and Eve asserting themselves against God.
He leads her to believe that God would not punish her by death for what she did.
The only consequences Adam and Eve would have are positive.
II. What was true of the woman in the garden is true for us today.
Our sinful natures deceive us concerning the Law.
We feel that God's Law is designed to tie us down instead of setting us free. And we resent it.
We are deceived when we look at the Law.
We believe that we can fulfill it ourselves, and that we don't need God.
We can go our own way and do our own thing and there are no consequences.