FCG Church Sermon: Sin is Not Exercising Forethought, Genesis 2:15-17; 3:6,17; Luke 16:19-31; 1 John 1:9-10; John 8:39-44 - Sunday, July 25, 2021
Why does Christ place primary stress in His commandment to REPENT not on mere thought but on AFTERTHOUGHT? The reality is that men rejected FORETHOUGHT in Father Adam.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:15-17)
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then to Adam HE said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:6,17)
When GOD created Adam and Eve, He commanded them to exercise FORETHOUGHT--to avoid sin by obeying Him. But they deliberately disobeyed GOD in their desire to elevate themselves in knowledge and power beyond the limits prescribed by Him, choosing rather to believe Satan's lie.
One sad result of not exercising FORETHOUGHT is the classic case of Father Abraham. The ongoing bitter conflict between Israel (Isaac) and Arabs (Ishmael) in the Middle-East today and elsewhere are manifested in the wars, killings, and suicide bombings between brothers. If Father Abraham had exercised FORETHOUGHT to see what is happening today, he would not have agreed to go in with Hagar and the outcome of a son, Ishmael, the father of the Arabs. Would anyone have thought that two brothers would be killing each other today? Let us take these unsettling events as a warning to exercise FORETHOUGHT in our everyday Christian lives.
GOD meant for Father Adam to take FORETHOUGHT of the consequences of sin. But having failed to do that, man now needs to exercise “AFTERTHOUGHT.” Man in his fallen state cannot avoid sin, he cannot foresee sin, but he is called upon “to preview as in a recorded video,” to “after-see,” to “recollect,” and to “reflect” on sin.
In commanding man to REPENT, Christ calls upon you and me to look back and think. Then we shall see what we once were in Father Adam, children of GOD--meant to live in eternal fellowship with our Heavenly Father--without sin and its consequences. As we reflect upon what we were, we are made conscious of the difference between that condition and what we are now. And we see that the greatest loss man has ever suffered is the disfigurement of GOD’s image in him. From being the children of GOD we became the children of the devil. That is why the LORD Jesus told the unbelieving people of His day the truth about their real father:
They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:39-44) Amen!
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GOD's spiritual and physical blessings to you IN Christ Jesus! Amen!