COURSE: BASIC MINISTERIAL COURSE

SUBJECT: BASIC CHRISTIANITY

THE UGLY
TRUTH

By:

Bishop Paul M. Maglaya, Ph.D.

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 THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT SIN

KEY VERSE

“Just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread
to all men because all sinned.”

(Romans 5:12)

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever asked yourself: Why can’t I put my finger on the thing in life that will
make me happy? The answer from the bible is a three-letter word and the word is, SIN!

The truth about sin is ugly. It produces restlessness. Complete satisfaction never occurs.
Although some sinners may have a relative stability for a time, sin eventually loses its ability to
satisfy.

It is alleged that in answer to the question, “How much money does it take to satisfy a
man? John D. Rockefeller responded, just a little bit more.” Like a restless, tossing sea, the
wicked never really come to peace.

In a real sense, it is sin that has affected a DIVORCE between man and God. The
Scripture explanation of that sin is given in Genesis chapter 3. Let’s touch on it expository and
not controversially. Let’s accept the Scripture explanation; and there are three things which
make up the account:

1. The Tempting
2. The Yielding
3. The Results

THE TEMPTING (Gen. 3:1-6)

As for the tempting, we note first that temptation was permitted. The real tragedy is
that there was a tempter. The fact that man was under the simple probation mentioned in
chapter 2:17 made him liable to temptation. Note that the temptation was introduced to Eve
in solitariness. This is Satan’s common method. And again, the temptation was connected with
the beautiful. And a gradual growth in the strength of the temptation is FIRST: God’s word is

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merely questioned (v.1); SECOND: God’s word is contradicted (v.4); and THIRDLY: God’s word
is maligned. (v.5).

THE YIELDING (v.6)

As for the yielding, we see that Satan first captured the ear, then the eye, then the
inward desire and finally the will. Eve allowed her ear to listen to the tempter. Then she
allowed her eye to feed on the object of temptation. Then she allowed desire to run away with
the will. Let’s compare verse 6 with 1 John 2:16: “When the woman saw that the tree good for
food” – The lust of the flesh – “and that it was pleasant to the eyes ” – The lust of the eyes –
“and the tree to be desired to make one wise” – The pride of life.

THE RESULTS (v. 7-24)

As for the results, note the following points. Satan had said that their eyes would be
opened and that they should know good and evil. (v.5)

FIRST RESULT: There was Innocence no longer – there eyes were “opened” and they “knew”!
The eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked.

SECOND RESULT: The First Appearance of Shame - they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves apron. Thank God for the sense of shame which He has put in human nature! It
has saved mankind from many evils.

THIRD RESULTS: The Glory of God departed – they knew that they were naked. Before fall,
there was a radiant glory about the bodies of Adam and Eve which was itself their covering,
but immediately upon the fall that Glory departed.

FOURTH RESULT: There came the Terror of a newly awakened faculty of Conscience – they fled
from God and tried to hide from Him!

When the original couple, Adam and eve sinned in the garden, God evicted man from
His presence: “He drove out the man” (Gen. 3:24). The Hebrew word for “drove” is also used
in the Old Testament on five occasions for divorce. The first temptation in Eden and all the
myriad temptations by which men and women have been lured into sin ever since, are
fundamentally identical. And the tempter’s great purpose is ever to divorce the will of man

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more and more from the will of God. For this reason, intimacy, fellowship and purpose were
separated by sin. Man suffers from the emotional and spiritual wreckage of life apart from
God. Yet amid judgment, God remembers mercy, and the first great promise of the coming
Saviour is given in Genesis 3:15.

What an ugly truth about sin! There is something awful, something deadly, about the
word or deed. It is not merely a piece of folly, a mistake, a sin against himself or his neighbor,
it is a denial of the whole meaning of the world. It is a sin against our God. Now, let’s consider
the three things in the study of THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT SIN. The First s the:

I. SUPPRESSION OF THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD (Rom. 1:18)

“For the warth of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in righteousness.”

The word translated “hold” in this verse can also be translated “suppress”. Man
knew the truth about God, but they did not allow this truth or work in their lives. They
suppressed it in order that they might live their own lives and be convicted by God’s
truth. The result of course, was refusing the truth (Rom. 1:21-22) and then turning from
the truth into a lie (Rom. 1:25). Finally, man so abandoned the truth that he became like
a beast in his thinking and in his living.

The theme of Romans is the righteousness of God, but Paul had to begin with the
unrighteousness of man. Until man knows he is a sinner, he cannot appreciate the
gracious salvation God offers in Jesus Christ. The picture Paul paints here is an ugly one.
God’s description of sinners is not a pretty one, but we cannot avoid it. Man started high
and because of sin, sank lower than the beasts.

A. REFUSING THE TRUTH (Rom. 1:21-22)

“… when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Man knew God. But man did not want to know God to honor Him as God. Instead
of being thankful for all that God had given him, man refused to thank God or give
Him the glory He deserves. Man was willing to use God’s gift, but he was not willing

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 to worship and praise God for his gifts. The result was an empty mind and a darkened
heart. Man the worshipper became the philosopher, but his empty wisdom only
revealed his foolishness. Paul summarized all of the Greek history in one dramatic
statement: “the times of this ignorance” (Acts 17:30). 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 is worth
reading at this point.

Having suppressed God’s truth and refusing to acknowledge God’s glory, man was
left without a god. And man is so constituted that He must worship something. If he
will not worship the true God, he will worship a false god, even if he has to
manufacture it himself. Man exchanged the gory of the true God for substitute gods
that he himself made. He exchanged glory for shame, in corruption for corruption,
truth for lies.

Note that first on the list of false gods is man. This fulfilled Satan’s purpose when
he told Eve, “Ye shall be as God” (Gen. 3:5) “Glory to man in the highest!” Satan
encouraged man to say. Instead of man being made in God’s image, man made gods
in his own image and then descended so low as to worship birds and beasts.

B. ABANDONED THE TRUTH (Rom. 1:25)

“who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature
more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

If man is his own god, then he can do whatever he pleases and fulfill his desires
without fear and judgment. We reach the climax of man’s battle with God’s truth
when men exchanges the truth of God for “the lie” and abandons the truth
completely. “The lie” is that man in his own god, and he should worship and serve
himself and not the Creator. It was “the lie” Satan used in the garden to lead Eve into
sin: “Ye shall be as God”. Satan has always wanted the worship that belongs only to
God (Isa. 14:12-15; Matt. 4:8-10) and an idolatry, he receives that worship (1 Cor.
10:19-21).

C. DEPERATE NEED FOR THE GOSPEL

The worst is yet to come. Men not only committed these sins but encouraged
others and applauded them when they sinned. How far man fell! He began glorifying
God but ended exchanging glory for idols. He began knowing God but ended refusing
to keep the knowledge of God in his mind and heart. He began as the highest of

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 God’s creatures, made in the image of God; but he ended lower than the beasts and
insects, because he worshipped them as his gods.

Why is God angry at sinful people? Because they have substituted the truth
about him with a fantasy of their own imagination (Rom. 1:25). They have stifled the
truth God naturally reveals to all people in order to believe anything that supports
their own self- centered life-styles. God cannot ignore or condone such willful
rebellion. He wants to remove the sin and restore the sinner – if the sinner does not
distort or reject the truth. But his anger erupts against those persist in sinning. The
verdict? “They are without excuse” (Rom. 1:21).

This portion of Scripture in Romans 1:20 gives ample proof that te heathen are
lost. A British Missionary to Africa said, “The heathen are sinning against the flood of
light”. There is a desperate need for us to carry the gospel to all men, for this is the
only way they can be saved. Paul had a passion for the lost soul when he said:

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth ……” (Rom. 1:16). The second ugly truth about
sin is:

II. STANDING IN OPPOSITIN TO GOD (Gal. 5:1)

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be
entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

In Galatians 5, Paul used the term “FLESH” to describe the part of our lives that
stand in opposition to God. The part of man that is called the flesh can surface at any
time, in many ways. We call flesh because it has to do with our fallen nature, which is
in direct opposition to the things of God.

A. THE FLESH
There is something termed “the flesh” which strongly influenced what we do.
Apostle Paul speaks of it in numerous passages, for example, Romans 7:18; “For I
know that in me (that is in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present in
me; but to perform that which is good I find not.” Galatians 5:16-24, he speaks vividly
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 of the opposition between the flesh and the Spirit and of the works of the flesh
which constitute a whole catalog of evils. By “Flesh” Paul does not mean the physical
nature of human being. Rather, the term designates the self-centered life, denial or
rejection of God. This is something that has become a part of human nature – a bent,
a tendency, a bias toward sin and away from doing God’s will. Accordingly, man is
now less able to choose the right than originally was.

B. THE GOAL OF THE FLESH

The goal of the flesh is to elevate self. Its primary focus is self-will, self-
assertion, self-love, self-indulgence, self-pity, self-reliance, self-consciousness, and
self—glorification. The flesh is revealed in our attitudes, desires, and lifestyles. They
always prompt us to seek to be heard first and noticed above those around us. Never
think that just because you serve God, you won’t caught up in the trappings of the
flesh. A person can and still be living in the flesh.

 SAMSON HAD GIVEN TO THE FLESH (Judg. 13-15)

He would not yield himself to God, but preferred to yield to the lusts of the
flesh, and the result was death (Jude 16). If the believer refuses to surrender his
body to the Lord, but uses its members for sinful purposes, then is in danger of
being disciplined by the Father and this could mean death. (Heb. 12:5-12)

1. SAMSON’S SUNRISE
Samson was dedicated to God from birth as a Nazarite. Nazarite is a person
who took a vow to be set apart for God’s service. It was a vow for life. As a
Nazarite, Samson could not cut his hair, touch a dead body or drink
anything containing alcohol.

2. SAMSON’S SUNSHINE
Samson had tremendous potential. The Spirit of the Lord empowered Him
to perform extraordinary deeds. He began to stir Samson (Judg. 13:25) and
the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him on several occasions. Samson
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 tore a lion apart with his hands (Judg. 14:6). At one time he killed thirty
Philistines (14:18) and at another time he freed himself from ropes that
bounds his hands and then killed thousands of Philistines with a jawbone of
a donkey (15:14-15).

3. SAMSON’S SUNSET
Because Samson wasted his strength on practical jokes and getting out
scrapes and because he eventually gave it up all together to satisfy the
woman he loved, we tend to see him as a failure. We remember him as the
judge in Israel who spent his last days grinding grain in an enemy prison,
and we say, “What a wasted potential!” In the end, Samson recognized his
dependence on God. When he died, God turned his failures and defeats
into victory. He was listed on the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. Samson‘s story
teaches us that it is never late to start over. However badly which may failed
in the past, today is not too late for us to put our complete trust in God.

C. JESUS HAS OVERCOME THE POWER OF FLESHLY ACTIONS

We do not have to serve the desires of the flesh. As children of God, we
have been given the power to say not to our old way of living and thinking. The
flesh cannot improved, disciplined, changed, or redeemed. It is a part of man that
represents the fallen state of Adam. Only God can deal successfully with the flesh
and He has done this by eliminating its power.

Jesus has overcome the power of every fleshly action that we struggle
against. When we pray and abide with us through the power of the Holy Spirit, we
are no longer under the rule of the flesh.

Finally, the third ugly truth about sin is:

III. SHORT-TERM PLEASURE BUT LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES (Num. 32:23)

“But if you do not so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord and be sure
you sin will find you out.”

The fundamental law of physics is this: for every action, there is an opposite equal
reaction. Just as universally applicable is this unchanging spiritual principle: for every
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 sin, there are corresponding, continuing consequences. In other words, we reap what
we sow.

Sin most blinding deception is that we can avoid any ramification. We think we
can get away with it without paying the consequences.

 KING DAVID’S GREAT SIN (2 Sam. 11)

David’s great sin, recorded in chapter 11 of 2 Samuel marks a sorrowful

turning point. This has been a shameful fall of David with the Bible statement that
God Himself declared David to be “a man after mine own heart” (1 Sa. 13:14; Acts
13:22)

“… the Lord hath sought him A MAN AFTER HIS OWN HEART, and the Lord hath
commanded him to be captain over his people…..”

“And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king to
whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, A
MAN AFTER MINE OWN HEART, which shall fulfill all my will.”

David, by nature a man of strong passions had indulged the flesh. 2 Samuel
5:13 pinpointed the reason that it was I accumulating many wives, David had
given way to the Sin of Adultery, a thing expressly forbidden to Israel’s kings.
(Deut. 17:17)

A. STRIKING LESSONS CONNECTED WITH DAVID’S SIN

The sin of adultery of David noted the honesty and faithfulness of the
Scripture in recording such a dark incident. David’s guilt is here exposed with the
slightest effort to excuse it.

There is a sever truthfulness about the way in which the Bible deals with
human characters. This is an account of the sins of Biblical heroes to prove the
authenticity and credibility of the Scriptures.

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 There is a sorry harvest sin brings! David’s wrong was forgiven, but its
consequences were not thereby cancelled: and the divine sentence upon David, in
chapter 12:2.

“Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine house.”

Note that David’s sin resulted in years of suffering. Incest, fratricide,

rebellion, civil war, intrigue revolt- all these are traceable o David’s sin.

B. THERE IS NO SINNIG WITHOUT SUFFERING

2nd Samuel emphasizes that all sin, whether in King or commoner, whether
in high or low, whether in the godly or the godless, certainly brings its bitter
fruitage. Sin is the destroyer of prosperity.

The sense of sin must come to us. It means that we know that there is
something awful, something deadly, about the word or deed. It is not merely
apiece of folly, a mistake, a sin against himself or his neighbor, it is a sin against
God.

With the full facts before us, we gladly subscribe to the verdict that in David,
we have one of the godliest man of all the pre- Christian era. As AGGUSTINE said;

“David’s fall should put upon their guard all who have no fallen and save from
despair all those who have fallen.”

O! What an ugly chain that one sin can forge! If we do fall, the one safe measure is
confession and restitution.

C. EFFECTS ON THE SINNER

Sin has consequences for the person who commits it. These effects are
varied and complex… one of the effects of sin is its enslaving power. Sin becomes
a habit or even an addiction. ONE SIN LEADS TO ANOTHER SIN. For example:

1. After killing Abel, Cain felt constrained to lie when God asked him where his
brother was. (Genesis. 4:8-9)

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 2. Having committed adultery, David found it necessary to commit murder to
conceal what he had done. (2 Samuel 11:12-15). Sometimes a larger sin is
required to cover a smaller one.
3. In Egypt, Abraham lied about Sarah, saying that she was his sister rather than
his wife, with the result that Pharaoh took her as his wife (Genesis. 12:10-20 )
Later Abraham repeated the same lie to Abimelech (Genesis. 20)

In the case of Abraham, sometimes the pattern becomes fixed so that

the same act is repeated on virtually the same way. It appears that he
had not learned anything from the first incident.

4. Abraham’s son, Isaac later repeated the same lie with regard to his wife,
Rebekah (Genesis. 26:6-11)

What some people consider freedom to sin, freedom from the restriction of
obedience to the will of God is actually the enslavement which sin produces. In
some cases sis gains so much control and power over a person that he cannot
escape it. Paul recalls that the Roman Christians “were once slaves of sin”
(Romans. 6:17) But sin’s grips on the individual is loosed by the work of Christ:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of
sin and death” (Romans. 8:2)

Because our Loving God understands the inevitable results of sin, He

persistently seeks our holiness. Sin has a price. If you are thinking of violating
the law of God, think of these sobering truths.

Grace does not cancel sin’s consequences. God will forgive us when we sin.
He will love us and use us, but the damage will not always erased. A one night
stand can yield to a lifetime of regret. Sin’s consequences affects others as well.
Even the next generation can be adversely impacted by our unwise choices.

If you are tempted to disobey, consider the consequences. If you sinned

and you are suffering the after effects, turn to God with a repentant heart.
Leave no sin unconfessed or undealt with and He will restore you.

CONCLUSION:
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 Sin presents a constant struggle with which we must deal or risk downfall. When we
resist sin, we often feel the battle is over only to be tempted by the same sin again and again.
Sin never goes away, and so we must constantly be on guard against it. However, even when
we are overcome with sin, we have hope, God always gives another chance to turn from sin
and back to Him.

It is notable how the bible characterizes God’s relationship to sin and the sinner. In two
instances in the Old Testament, God is said to hate sinful Israel. In Hosea 9:15; God says:
“Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal, there I began to hate them.” This is a very strong expression,
for God actually says that He has begun to hate Israel and will love them no more. A similar
sentiment is expressed in Jeremiah 12:8. On two other occasion God is said to hate the wicked
(Psalms 5:5; 11:5)

His reaction to our every deed is determined by his unchanging nature. God has
indicated quite clearly that He cannot and does not tolerate certain things. It is part of His Holy
nature to be categorically opposed to sinful actions; when we engage in such actions, we have
moved into the territory of God’s disfavor.

“GOD CANNOT AND DOES NOT TOLERATE SIN”

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