The Source of Sadness – Part Two

James 1:14-15 “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.”

Continuing Pastor Kennedy’s message, he asks: “What does sin bring forth?” This is the source of sadness. Grief has but one primary root, and tears have but one primary source, and that root, that source, is sin.

Lucifer, the mightiest angel ever created by God, rose up in rebellion. He lusted after power and said. “I’ will be like the Most High.” In that instant, by that one thought, he was transformed into Satan and led the wicked rebellion wherein a third of the angels were cast down out of Heaven into perdition. The word “Satan” literally means “adversary, one who plots against another, to show enmity to, oppose, obstructs”. He set his in implacable opposition to that of the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. He determined to thwart the purposes of God. No heartache was ever known until the devil, the serpent in the Garden of Eden, made conquest of the human will by deceiving Adam and Eve to doubt and disobey God.

 Romans 6:23a “For the wages of sin is death.”

Kennedy explains that until the devil is restrained, until that sin is banished, this generation of grief will not become extinct in the earth. Where there is no sin, there is no sadness or sorrow pr grief, but this word teems with sin. Sin has robbed mankind of such honor and dignity. The wages of sin against God is sorrowful death - sorrow; sadness; grief; and finally death. So it was at the beginning in the fall of man; so it has always been through sin. Sin is the great deceiver. It first blinds its victims before it binds and leads then unto destruction. Sin is a very slippery slope. When we take one step in that slope, God withdraws the restraining power of the Holy Spirit. We slide farther down. What a terrible, dangerous, deceitful, slippery thing is sin!

John 8:44 “He (the devil) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

The devil (Greek “diabolos”) means "accuser, slanderer." Have you believed Satan’s lie? When you were told that sin will bring you happiness, you didn’t see your life destroyed, your family ruined, your job lost, your body wracked with the results of sin. You didn’t see what the future really held. You have been told that sins are sweet. You have been enticed into impurity and you haven’t seen the terrible exactions that nature extracts from those who break the moral law. Hebrews 9:22 proclaims the truth that “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” There is a price to pay for our wicked sins. There is inevitable sadness connected with sin and it can happen to anyone. Is there no cure for this sadness, for this world of woe in which we find ourselves? One.

Let's continue Pastor Kennedy's message on the source of sadness and hear the only true cure in the next post.

In Christ, Brian