Sin: I’m not responsible, am I?


“Did GOD Make Me Sinful?

Ezekiel 18: 1-4

Greetings to you friend! I’m Mack Lyon. The program’s a Bible study program, ‘In Search of the Lord’s Way.’ We’re so glad you have joined our study today. Many people think God made them the way they are and they cannot change. Did God make people inherently sinful without the capacity to change? Phil Sanders believes the Bible is the answer to those questions. He believes God’s answers are filled with hope. So, don’t go away. Listen to him!

Thank you, Mack, and God bless you! Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and this is In Search of the Lord’s Way, where we search the Scriptures to find the Lord’s way to be saved and to live the Christian life. Thanks so much for spending this time with us. We really appreciate hearing from you and that you appreciate our Bible study. We want to be a part of your life each week.

Occasionally people struggling with a moral problem ask the question, ‘Did God make me this way?’ Many people are convinced that our DNA makes us the way we are and that we cannot change our behavior. Others believe that man is incapable of change on his own.

Flip Wilson used to say, ‘The devil made me do it’; but some people, instead of blaming the devil, blame God for making them do things they do. They believe that we are all born completely sinners. They say that our sinful nature is utterly incapable of choosing or even desiring God. They go even further by saying some people are predestined to be lost, while others are predestined to be saved. They believe God arbitrarily makes the choice for us, and we have no freewill. They say we can’t change our ways or our eternal destiny.

Well, without a doubt all people struggle with temptation and sin throughout their lives. What tempts you may differ from what tempts me, but we both face the struggle to live righteously. The apostle Peter urged Christians to ‘abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.’ (1 Peter 2 and verse 11) Did God make us sinful? Is that Biblically true? Well, we’ll look into the Scriptures to find out later in this program.

In Search of the Lord’s Way is now in its thirtieth year of preaching the truth in love without hassling people for money. We offer our materials free. And if you’d like a printed copy, a CD or tape of our study, mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you like, call our toll-free telephone number. That number is 1 (800) 321-8633. We also stream this program on our website at http://www.searchtv.org/. Well, the Edmond Church of Christ will now sing a hymn with Ken Helterbrand leading; and then we’ll read from Ezekiel 18, verses 1 through 4.

Our reading today in God’s Word comes from the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 18, verses 1 through 4. ‘The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, ‘What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die.’ And that’s a reading from God’s holy word. Let’s pray together. O Lord, may our love for You grow more and more. And, Father, help us to understand our responsibility before You for the things that we do and think and say. And, Father, help us to be obedient to Your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

The Scriptures teach man is both capable and free to choose between good and evil, and between God and Satan. For instance, in Romans 6, verses 17 and 18 God said, ‘Though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. You have been set free from sin and have become the slaves to righteousness.’ Now, this passage clearly teaches that a lost person obeyed from his heart the gospel teaching and changed from being a slave to sin to being a slave of righteousness.

Now, after preaching to the Jews on the day of Pentecost about their sin of crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ and their need to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins, the apostle Peter, speaking by the power of the Holy Spirit, said in Acts 2 and verse 40, ‘Save yourselves (that is be saved) from this perverse generation.’ Well, what does that mean, ‘Save yourselves’? Now, are we suggesting that a person can earn his way to heaven? No. We’re not saying that. We are saying that a person must respond to God’s gracious gift. God does the saving, but He puts qualifications on who can be saved. We must respond to His gift. One must repent and be baptized out of faith and love to meet God’s conditions.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 1, verses 22 and 23, ‘Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring (or abiding) word of God.’ People purify their souls when they hear and obey the gospel truth. They’re born again not through some miraculous movement of God but by obedience to the preaching of the Word of God. It’s the gospel that saves. (Romans 1 and verse 16)

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21, ‘For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.’ This was God’s choice of how to save people, giving them a gospel and saving them through the message of the Word of God.

That man has freewill either to accept that message or to reject it is also very clear in the Scriptures. Have you thought about that golden passage that you learned as a child? The Lord Jesus said in John 3, verse 16, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ ‘Whosoever’ means anyone, everyone! You see, it’s the people who believe who are saved, while those who refuse to believe shall perish.

Our choices do matter; we do have a freewill. John the Baptist said later in the same chapter (that is John 3 and verse 36) that, ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.’ Faith and obedience matter to our salvation. God expects us to choose to believe and obey in order to have eternal life.

Throughout history people have made choices as to whether they will obey God or not. You remember that Joshua late in his life addressed the people of Israel. And he said in Joshua 24, verses 14 and 15, ‘Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or in the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me (Joshua says) and my house, we will serve the LORD.’ Joshua knew that people had choice as to which god they would serve, whether the God of Heaven or some other imagined god. They had freewill.

The prophet Elijah many years later faced off against 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah on Mount Carmel. And you’ll remember that the prophets of Baal were completely overcome by the God of Heaven when the fire came down and consumed Elijah’s sacrifice. And before the challenge in 1 Kings 18 and verse 21 Elijah went before the people and said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.’ Of course, Baal was just an idol and was never anything but a figment of the people’s imagination. The God of Heaven, however, was real and sent fire down from heaven, which convinced the people to kill the prophets of Baal. When the people saw the evidence, they chose God and rejected Baal.

They had freewill. And so do you. In Revelation 22 and verse 17, ‘the Spirit and the bride say, Come. (that is come to Jesus) And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost let him come.’ God invites us to believe and to obey!

And I want here to ask some questions that I think are important. You remember that Jesus our Lord said in Luke 13 and verse 5, ‘but unless you repent, you too will all perish.’ Now why would Jesus Christ condemn people for their failure to repent if they were incapable of repentance or doing any good toward their salvation? Why wouldn’t that make God a monster?

The Hebrew writer wrote in Hebrews 11 and verse 6, that ‘without faith it is impossible to please him (that is God), for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.’ Why would God demand faith from us human beings, if He knows that people are incapable of believing on their own? Why? We need to know that humans are capable of believing. God will not require something of us that we’re not capable of doing.

The apostle Paul encouraged people in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18 to 20 to ‘be reconciled to God.’ Well, why would God ask men to be reconciled if they were not capable of doing anything by which they could be reconciled? Let’s think together. The word ‘reconcile’ implies there’s a separation and reconciliation is a reunion; it means ‘to bring back into harmony.’ A reconciled husband and wife were once in harmony, and then they separated, and later they were restored together.

Now, if an infant is born in sin, he cannot be reconciled because he was never in harmony with the Lord at the beginning. My friend, the truth is that infants are not born in sin but are born pure; they separate from God when they are old enough and responsible enough to sin on their own. They are reconciled to God by faith and obedience to the gospel. Now, in gospel obedience one is freed from sin and born again into the family of God.

The Bible teaches that God is no respecter of persons. Now the Bible says that in Acts 10, verse 34; Romans 2, verses 11 and 12, and in 1 Peter 1, verse 17. God hasn’t arbitrarily chosen some folks to be saved and arbitrarily chosen others to be lost. Rather the blood of Jesus was shed for all people and the gospel is offered to all people. The apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 4 that God ‘desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.’ God didn’t make people just to condemn them. That’s a false and cruel doctrine. The apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9, that ‘The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.’ That’s what God wants, for you to repent and to be right with Him and live with Him forever.

Now, if you have no choice as to your eternal destiny, why would you need to beware of the devil? The apostle Peter warned in 1 Peter 5 and verse 8, ‘Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.’ Why, such language is absurd if you have no freewill. Temptation tests whether we will choose to do right or give in to what’s wrong. That’s freewill, my friend. You’re not a puppet; you’re not a robot. You are made in God’s image and you’ve been given free moral agency by God.

The Bible says in James 1, verses 13 to 15: ‘Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; now when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.’ God is not the source of our sinful nature. Oh, He tests our faith but He doesn’t lead us into moral failure and sin. How could a holy God lead anyone into behavior that totally contradicts His own nature? It’s totally against the nature of God to create someone for a sinful life.

Now man is often weak to sin, but being weak to sin is not the same thing as being incapable of resisting sin. Many Bible characters said no to sin. You remember that Joseph said no to the continual pressures of Potiphar’s wife. Joshua said no, also, to serving false gods. Daniel as a young man said no to eating the wrong foods at the king’s table. And as an old man, Daniel said no to the law that would not allow him to pray to the God of heaven. When the Sanhedrin told Peter and John not to preach the name of Jesus, they said in Acts 4, verses 19 to 20, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you (that is to the Sanhedrin) rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.’ They said ‘no’ to the Sanhedrin. The apostles chose the moral high ground rather than give into the Council. People can choose what they do.

The Lord Jesus describes the nature of man in Matthew 26 and verse 41. Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane with his three disciples: Peter, James, and John. And He was praying in agony, and He said, ‘Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Now, when Jesus says that man is indeed willing, that shows that man does have some good inclinations within. He’s not all bad. We all face weakness to sin. This is why we must be alert and pray, so that we can overcome the temptation. Jesus did not accept the notion that men must give in to the flesh. No, we can resist temptation, and we can repent of our past sins.

Some people think there is something in their physical makeup that makes their character inherently sinful. Some speak of being born alcoholics or born drug addicts and others think that our sexual orientation is determined and cannot be changed. But thousands, perhaps millions, of alcoholics have given up drinking altogether. Thousands have overcome many kinds of addictions. And thousands have repented of sexual misdeeds to live a godly life. You see, sin is a learned behavior not a foregone conclusion. The hope of the gospel is that men can repent; and Jesus died on the cross to give us that opportunity. The Bible always assumes that people can change their lives.

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that you have no hope of changing your ways or of overcoming sin. God can and will help you. You can repent, if you will. But we have to make up our minds that we want to serve God. Free will is yours, and you must make your choice firm. You have to decide what you love most. You have to give your heart to the Lord. You have to decide that you will follow the Lord whatever the cost. And I hope today that you have that desire in your heart. Follow Jesus and do it today. Let’s pray. O Father, may each one listening make it his firm determination to follow You in everything and to be obedient. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Some ask, ‘What about Psalm 51: 5?’ Psalm 51: 5 says, ‘Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.’ Some say this teaches that we’re born in sin, but does it really say that? David is actually saying that he was born into an evil and sinful world, not that he was born sinful. Sin is an act, a transgression of God’s law according to 1 John 3 and verse 4. Sin is not inherited; it’s a learned behavior. For instance, a person speaks a certain language because he was born into an environment that speaks that language. In Acts 2 the apostles spoke miraculously in tongues to people from many nations. And when they heard the apostles, they marveled and said, ‘How is it that we each hear them in our own language (or tongue) to which we were born?’ (Acts 2, verses 7 and 8) Well, how is one born into a language? Well, one learns a language, by being born into a place that speaks that language. Likewise one learns sin by being born into a world that practices sin.

David was not saying that he was born totally depraved because this contradicts what he said in Psalm 22, verses 9 and 10. He says, ‘Yet you brought me out of the womb; you make me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.’ Well, this is not a baby born in sin but a baby born into a sinful world yet still able to love God.

Now, sin is serious; and unforgiven will cost us our souls. We need the blood of Jesus to be saved. How do we come in contact with that blood? By choosing to believe in Christ, choosing to repent of our sins, and by choosing to be baptized. When we are baptized into the death of Christ, we contact His shed blood (Romans 6 and verse 3). In baptism God applies the blood of Jesus to our souls; and that’s the time our sins are washed away. (Acts 22 and verse 16) My friend, be saved from this corrupt generation.

We hope you’ve been blessed by today’s study. And if you want a free printed copy, a CD, or tape of this message, ‘Did God Make Me Sinful,’ mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or e-mail us; send that e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org.

Or, you can call the Search office toll-free at 1 (800) 321-8633. Now, all of our programs also appear on our website, that’s http://www.searchtv.org/. And you can access them or download them in a printed, audio, or video format. We also now offer free study sheets that go along with our programs; and you can also download them free. They’ll help you study God’s Word.

Please visit one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station or network. The church loves guests, and you’ll be glad that you visited. Well, Mack and I will be back next week, Lord willing. Keep searching the Word of God. God bless you and we love you from all of us at In Search of the Lord’s Way.”