Marbaniang, Domenic

Paris Reidhead , "Temptation and Sin" (Audio Teaching) Temptation is the proposition presented to the mind or the intellect to gratify a good appetite in a forbidden way. Temptation isn't sin. It is an idea presented to the intellect. Our Lord Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Temptation isn't sin. Sin is the decision of the will to gratify a good appetite in a bad way. It's not the gratification of it; it's the decision to do it. The decision to do it before the act is complete gives to the act the character of transgression. The decision constitutes the essence of sin. When a child of God sins, 1. Fellowship with God is interrupted. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with one another.” If we walk in darkness, that fellowship is broken. If we never had the witness of the Spirit, and joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit, we would not ever know whether the fellowship...

The Book of Genesis records the historically vital account of the Fall of man. Now, there are those who are skeptical of this account. It seems to them very unlikely that a race can be condemned to eternal damnation just because its progenitors took a secret bite of the forbidden fruit. Firstly, the fruit-nature correlation itself seems to them incongruous. Then, there is the issue of justness of such damnation. However, there is something about this account that is unignorable; and, that is that it stands out as the most legitimate explanation of the root of human devolution. Genesis 3 records the first lie of Scripture, the demonic lie that man would not surely die if he ate the forbidden fruit but would rather become like God knowing good and evil. The first part of it was blatantly false; the effect of the fruit was instantly fatal on both Adam and Eve, for the moment they sinned they died spiritually. The opening of their eyes meant their spiritual death in the same manner that th...

Forthcoming in ChristianTrends The answer, obviously, is “No!” God is not the author of sin. However, it is not an answer as easily agreed upon as stated. Answering the Calvinist The extreme Calvinists that are committed to the once-saved-forever-saved doctrine of eternal security, for instance, maintain that it was God Himself who ordained the sin and fall of Adam. In his The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932), Loraine Boettner wrote: “Even the fall of Adam, and through him the fall of the race, was not by chance or accident, but was so ordained in the secret counsels of God.” And again, “we hold that God fore-planned and fore-saw the fall; that it in no sense came as a surprise to Him.” Likewise, Edwin H. Palmer, in his The Five Points of Calvinism, argued: “Even sin - the fall of the devil from heaven, the fall of Adam, and every evil thought, word, and deed in all of history, including the worst sin of all, Judas’ betrayal of Christ - is included in the eternal decree of...

 Excerpted from Hamartiology (2006) Sin can only be sin if it has an eternal dimension. Sin can only have an eternal dimension if there are eternal beings. Sin can be said to have an eternal dimension only if there is an eternal order that it violates so as to have eternal repercussions. In this sense, then, sin is the violation of an eternal order. ‘Where there is no law, there is no transgression.’ Sin exists as a disruptive factor among eternal beings. The eternal order is founded upon the nature of the Source (of all being): God the eternal Spirit. Consequentially, the eternal order is an order of love. Truth is the consistent characteristic of this eternal order; therefore, justice is the necessary antidote to the violation of the order. Therefore, sin is essentially the distortion of love and truth with eternal repercussions. In other words, it is a violation of the eternal order (definitive) of love and truth. A violation of the eternal order is directed against the Source &...

Greed is Sin (Exo.20:17) The greedy desire to have more (Gk. pleonexia ). Desire for unjust gain (Hb. betsa ) Desire, craving, longing for what is forbidden (Gk. epithumia ) To give one's self up to the love of money (Gk. oregomai , 1Tim.6:10) Eagerness for base gain (Gk. aischrokerdes , 1Tim.3:3) To be without greed means to be without love for money or be content with such things as one has (Gk. aphilarguros ) Love of Money (or Possessions) Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1Tim.6:6) Love of money leads one astray from faith (1Tim.6:10) Love of money makes one unfit for the Kingdom of God (Lk.18:22,23) Love of money makes one unfit for ministry (1Tim.3:3,8; Tit.1:7; 1Pet.5:2) Love of money ensnares one into piercings of many sorrows (1Tim.6:10) Love of money causes trouble to one's house (Prov.15:27) Love of money leads to violence, wars, and oppression (Mic.2:2; James 4:1-3) One who is greedy Will never have enough (Isaiah 56:11) Can never serve God (Luke 16:13...

The third of the Ten Commandments is: "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain." (Exo 20:7) To take the name of the Lord in vain means to use it unnecessarily, wrongfully, falsely, disrespectfully, incautiously, and irreverently. Examples are: 1. Using phrases such as "Oh my God!" and "Jesus" as an interjection (or worse, as an expletive, along with words such as "shit"). Usually, it is part of a person's language, but it must be consciously removed from speech (Matt.12:35-37; Eph.5:4) 2. Saying that God had said something when He had not said it. This applies to even wrong and twisted interpretation of God's word (Eze.13:6; 22:28; Matt.15:9) 3. Swearing by God's name falsely (Lev.19:12; Matt.5:33-37) 4. Saying that they are being led by God, when actually they are being led by their own lust (James 1:13,14). For example, one may say that God was lea...

Lust is intense craving coupled with an insatiable appetite (Num.11:4; Eze.16:28; Phil.3:19). It leads to sin (James 1:14,15) Characteristics of Lust Various (2 Tim.3:6) Harmful (1 Tim. 6:9) Foolish (1 Tim.6:9) Deceitful (Eph.4:22) Fleshly (1Pet.2:11) Worldly (Tit.2:12) Ungodly (Jude 1:18) Thrust of Lust Lusts of Flesh (Eph.2:3) Lust of Heart (Rom.1:24) Lust of Eyes (1John 2:16) Historiography of Lust Lusts of Men (1Pet.4:2) Lusts of your Fathers (John 8:44) Former Lusts (1Pet.1:14) Youthful Lusts (2Tim.2:22) Experience of Lust Temptation of Lust (James 1:14) Drawn away by Lust (James 1:14) Enticed by Lust (James 1:14) Conception of Lust (James 1:15) Looking in order to Lust – Active (Matt.5:28) Burning in Lust (Rom.1:27) Corruption of Lust (2Pet.1:4) Consequence of Lust Blindness (2Pet.1:9) Bondage (2Pet.2:19,20) Blasphemy (2Pet. 2:2) Sin (James 1:15) Death (James 1:15; Rom.8:13) Deliverance from Lust Flesh crucified with lusts – The Fact (Gal.5:24) Partakers of Divine (Sinless) Natur...

To tempt the Lord means to try to seduce or provoke Him to fulfill the tempter's wishes, which is impossible (Exo.17:2). God can neither contradict Himself (2Tim.2:13) nor can He be tempted to sin (James 1:13). The consequence is that it only invites God's wrath on the tempter who has actually sinned by contradicting God (Deut.6:16). God said that the Israelites in the wilderness tempted God 10 times (Num.14:22). People can tempt the Lord by 1. Contending and complaining instead of trusting God in difficult situations (Exo.17:1,2,3). This questions God's goodwill for their lives. 2. Creating provocative situations and challenging God to act on their behalf  (Matt.4:5,6,7).  This questions God's centrality in their lives. 3. Misquoting, misrepresenting, and wrongly applying God's word (Matt.4:5,6,7). This questions the faithfulness of God. 4. Not paying attention to and disobeying the voice of God (Num.14:22). This undermines the seriousness of divine communication. ...

Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." (Acts 5:8-9) Trying to tempt God is a serious crime in the Scripture. When the devil came to Jesus and told Him to throw Himself off the pinnacle of a temple so that God would be bound to release His angels to bear Him up, Jesus replied: "It is written again, "You shall not tempt the LORD your God." (Matthew 4:7) The Bible makes it very clear that God is not tempted; "for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone" (James 1:13). In fact, the Bible is very stringent against those who try to tempt anyone: Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person thro...

Esau sold his birthright for a pot of pottage. The devil seems to have been in the pottage industry ever since then.

One paradoxical condition of the sinful mind is that it doesn't know itself as sinful -- except for the grace of God, mankind would be bereft of the consciousness of sin, judgment, and repentance (Tit.2:11,12; 2Tim.2:25,26). The Spirit shakes us to our senses and brings life through the soul-rifting word of the Cross.

Text: Micah 3 1.  Hatred of Good and Love of Evil (Mic 3:2) A. Values that are Self-Centered, Not Christ-Centered B. Values that are Self-Defined, Not Spirit-Defined C. Values that are Self-Glorifying, Not God-Glorifying A confused value-system that honors culture, man, and the world rather than the Law of God Luke16:15 And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. 2. Exploitation of the Sheep (Mic 3:2) A. Manipulating People Like Things and Not Treating Them as Persons B. Over-Demanding C. Not Caring for the Well-being of Sheep Mat 20:25-28 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let hi...

Lectures in Hamartiology The Sinful Nature 'Nature' here must not be understood as similar to that in 'human nature' or 'feline nature'. It is the principle of sin, which Romans 7 talks about, the law of sin. In essence, it is selfishness, covetousness, the end by which 'good' or 'evil' is defined. When Adam sinned, the choice broke him off from the Life of God and mankind became autonomous. Man could decide what was right or wrong by reference to himself. [Even philosophers have referred to happiness as the desired end]. That is the principle of lawlessness that is internal, intense, and universal. Therefore, the condemnation hangs over the head. Man is not compelled by the sin principle, he chooses to walk according to it in his condemned state of separation from God, in his state of Spiritless carnality, and thus subservience and enslavement to sin. He is now flesh (in the sense of not having the dominance of the law of the Spirit, Rom 8:2) an...

Text: Luke 15:12-32 I. What Sin Is A. Sin is Selfish Desire (Luke 15:12) - "My" "mine" - "I" elongated - A desire for independence from the authority and rule of God - A desire to enjoy life in one's own way B. Sin is Going Far Away From God (Luke 15:13) - You become separated from Him - You are away from His protection, love, counsel, provision - You are away from His discipline and control C. Sin is Wastage and Wrong Use of God's Gifts  (Luke 15:13) - It is using God's gifts to displease Him /or in a way that displeases Him - It is using God's gifts in a way that doesn't glorify Him - It is using God's gifts in a way that would defame Him - It is using God's gifts for impermanent goals/pleasures II. What Sin Does Famine Reveals Your Condition; Hope, Severity A. Sin Sucks Out the Sap of Your Life (Like Madagascar Tree, Octopus) - It robs you of your physical health - It confuses your intellect and debases your reasoning ability...