36 Sermon Illustrations on Sinful Nature

Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of an angry man. Plurarch.

Socrates in his time wondered, when he observed statuaries, how careful they were, and how industrious, to make stones like men, and men in the mean time turning themselves into very blocks and stones. The case is ours: men walk not as men that have souls to be saved. Many walk as if they had nothing but bellies to fill, and backs to clothe, fancies to be tickled with vanity, eyes and ears to look after pleasure, brains to entertain empty notions, and tongues to utter them: as for their souls, they serve them to little other purpose than as salt to keep their bodies from stinking. Spencer.

No man is born wise; but wisdom and virtue require a tutor, though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master. Seneca.

The poets imagined that Envy dwelt in a dark cave; being pale and lean, looking asquint, abounding with gall, her teeth black, never rejoicing but in the misfortune of others, ever unquiet and careful, and continually tormenting herself.

— Wit

A drink was brought to Gotthold, which tasted of the vessel in which it had been contained; and this led him to observe, "We have here an emblem of our thoughts, words, and works. Our heart is defiled by sin, and hence a taint of sinfulness cleaves unfortunately to every thing we take in hand; and although, from the force of habit, this may be imperceptible to us, it does not escape the eye of the omniscient, holy, and righteous God."

"Care not" would have it.—English.—I don't want it; I don't want it; but drop it into my hood.—Spanish Friar.—He who finds fault would feign buy. Under white ashes there is a glowing coal.—Italian.—"Sour grapes," said the fox, when he could not reach them.

— English

As I was sitting with some senators of Bruges, before the gate of the senate-house, a certain beggar presented himself to us, who, with sighs and tears and lamentable gestures, expressed to us his miserable poverty; saying, withal, that he had about him a private disorder, which shame prevented him from discovering to the eyes of men. We all, pitying the case of the poor man, gave him, each of us something; and he departed. One amongst us, sent his servant after him, with command to inquire of him what his private infirmity might be, which he was so loath to discover. The servant over took him, and desired of him that satisfaction and having diligently viewed his face, breast arms, &c., and finding all his limbs in good plight, "I see nothing," said he, "whereof you have any such reason to complain." — "Alas!" said the beggar, "the disease that afflicts me is far different from what you conceive of, and is such as you cannot see: it is an evil that hath crept over my whole body; it is passed through the very veins and marrow of me in such a manner, that there is no one member of my body that is able to do any work; this is by some called idleness, or cloth." Camerarius

Napoleon, beneath whose leaden foot-tread whole continents trembled, was conquered by his passions. Wellington, England's Iron Duke, was not his only master. Alexander the Great, with his march of triumphs over the nations, was often almost martyred by fits of demon passion. Samson, the great victor of the Philistines, became the helpless victim of his own base lust. Hercules, boasting of his strength, is said to have sought highway robbers to combat with, and to have challenged monsters to battle, that he might show how easily he could vanquish them; but impurity thoroughly mastered him.

— R. Roberts

The true Christian finds it infinitely more difficult to beat down one sinful thought from rising up in him than to keep down a thousand sinful thoughts from breaking out into open action. Here lies the chief labor, — to fight a phantasm or airy apparition, such as thoughts are. He sets himself chiefly against these heart-sins, because he knows that these are sins that are, most of all, contrary to grace, and do, most of all, weaken and waste grace. Outward sins are like the many caterpillars, that devour the verdure and flourishing of grace; but heart-sins are like so many worms, that gnaw the very roots of grace. Hopkins.

Pres. Lincoln used to tell this story of himself. He was riding one day on the stage-coach in Illinois, when the driver asked him to treat. "I never use liquor," was Mr. Lincoln's reply, "and cannot induce others to do so."—"Don't chew neither?"—"No, sir."—"Nor smoke?"—"No, sir: I never use tobacco in any form."—"Well," replied the disgusted Jehu, "I hain't much opinion of you fellers with no small vices. I allers noticed they make it up in big ones."

It is a fact well known in husbandry, that the earth will bring forth briers, thorns, and thistles spontaneously; but a valuable crop has to be planted, cultivated, and protected. The natural heart is like the soil. It produces no good wheat spontaneously; and it is by untiring effort that the tares and weeds are kept down. Deep and constant spiritual culture is required to uproot the plants of sin, and make our hearts like fruitful gardens.

"I happened once," says Dr. Cotton Mather, "to be present in the room where a dying man could not leave the world until he lamented to a minister (whom he had sent for on his account), the unjust calumnies and injuries which he had often cast upon him. The minister asked the poor penitent what was the occasion of this abusive conduct; whether he had been imposed upon by any false report. The man made this answer, 'No, sir, it was merely this; I thought you were a good man, and that you did much good in the world, and therefore I hated you. Is it possible, is it possible,' he added, 'for such a wretch to find pardon?'"

Cartoon series on Calvin's turmoil over having to be good for Christmas:

1) "Calvin & Hobbes" cartoon on Thursday, December 17, 1992:

CALVIN: I'm having a lot of holiday stress.

HOBBES: Why? You don't shop for anyone.

You've got two weeks off from school.

And your parents do all the cooking, cleaning and

decorating.

How could you have holiday stress?

CALVIN: Deep down, I doubt my greed for presents can overcome my

desire to misbehave.

2) "Calvin & Hobbes" cartoon on Friday, December 18, 1992:

CALVIN: OK, Hobbes, I've got a plan.

HOBBES: Yeah?

CALVIN: If I do ten spontaneous acts of good will a day

from now until Christmas, Santa will have to be

lenient in judging the rest of this last year!

I can claim I've turned a new leaf!

HOBBES: Ten spontaneous acts of good will a day?

That's pretty many.

CALVIN: Don't remind me.

HOBBES: Well, here's your chance. Susie's coming this way.

CALVIN: (making a snowball)

Maybe I'll start tomorrow and do TWENTY a day.

3) "Calvin & Hobbes" cartoon on Wednesday, December 9, 1992:

CALVIN: (writing letter)

Dear Santa, Why is your operation located at the

north pole?

I'm guessing cheap elf labor, lower environmental

standards, and tax breaks.

Is this really the example you want to set for us

impressionable kids?

HOBBES: (reads letter)

CALVIN: My plan is to put him on the DEFENSIVE before he

considers how good I've been.

This is a transcript from an actual trial. It helps to illuminate the tension between trust and a realistic assessment of our sinful nature.

A defense attorney was cross-examining a police officer during a felony trial - it went like this:

Q. Officer, did you see my client fleeing the scene?

A. No sir, but I subsequently observed a person matching the description of

the offender running several blocks away.

Q. Officer, who provided this description?

A. The officer who responded to the scene.

Q. A fellow officer provided the description of this so-called offender. Do

you trust your fellow officers?

A. Yes sir, with my life.

Q. With your life? Let me ask you this then officer - do you have a locker

room in the police station - a room where you change your clothes in

preparation for you daily duties?

A. Yes sir, we do.

Q. And do you have a locker in that room?

A. Yes sir, I do.

Q. And do you have a lock on your locker?

A. Yes sir.

Q. Now why is it, officer, if you trust your fellow officers with your life,

that you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with

those same officers?

A. You see sir, we share the building with a court complex, and sometimes

lawyers have been known to walk through that room.

With that, the courtroom erupted in laughter, and a prompt recess was called. The officer on the stand has been nominated for this year's "Best come-back" line.

*

I read the NEW YORK TIMES every day. But I can't remember the last time I found profound theological wisdom in its columns — that is until recently.

Lauren Winner, an insightful new voice among Christian writers, graced the NEW YORK TIMES op-ed pages with a straight-talking explanation of Harvard's recent studies showing that abstinence pledges have proven ineffectual among teenagers. According to Winner, we shouldn't be surprised.

Now before getting defensive, listen to her well-grounded theological explanation: “Pledgers promise to control intense bodily desires simply by exercising their wills. But Christian ethics recognizes that the broken, twisted will can do nothing without rehabilitation by God's grace.”

This is no less than the apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 7. Winner further proposes, “Perhaps the centrality of grace is recognized best not in a pledge but in a prayer that names chastity as a gift and beseeches God for the grace to receive it.” She also rightly draws our attention to the brash individualism of such pledges. Quoting Methodist bishop William Willimon, she writes, “Decisions are fine. But decisions that are not reinforced and reformed by the community tend to be short-lived.”

To that I say, “Amen!” Winner re-affirms something that the Church has known but all too often forgotten: true transformation requires God's enabling grace. And because of the way God created us to reflect the inherent relational nature of the Trinity, transformation happens best within the context of community. I applaud Winner's nudging reminder that the community of believers must be indeed just that, a community, supporting and enabling that counter-cultural commitment to God's ways.

Unwittingly, Winner's argument also point to the lessons we've discovered in working in some of the most difficult trenches of transformation — the prisons. Simply more education or a pledge before the parole board won't help prisoners stay out of prison. True change of will requires God's enabling grace and power.

And for that change to seep down deep, prisoners need a community of support. They need volunteers who will open up the Word of God and show them how to live, mentors who will come alongside and share their lives, and most of all, they need the open arms of a church community to embrace them and support them when they return.

And this is perhaps what grieves me most about the recent decision from a judge in Iowa, ruling against the faith-based prison program, the InnerChange Freedom Initiative. Shutting down programs like IFI will only succeed in hurting the community, by standing in the way of the only transformation that really works.

The IFI program works because it does exactly what Winner and I've talked about. It provides a way for grace-filled transformation to occur in the context of community. In so doing, it is a witness to the Church of what it has too often forgotten, and a witness to the community of the only true power to change.

________

Copyright (c) 2006 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Life is a continuous series of choices. Big ones are obvious. Go to this college. Marry this woman. Break off the engagement. Take that job. Start a business.

Buy that company. Have children. Move to this city. Have the operation. Buy that house. Make this investment. Retire now. Retire here. These and other major decisions alter outcomes in ways hard to see at the time.

What if you’d married your high school girlfriend? Chosen to start in another city? Gone to a different college? Majored in something else? Stayed with your first company? Remained single? Questions. Roads not taken.

The possibilities are inexhaustible. If only we’d known the thousands of outcomes available to us when we were laying out the blueprint of our lives and making our choices.

Where do good choices come from? Experience plays a big part. Healthy people want more of the good and less of the bad. We learn at an early age that choosing bad behavior has consequences. That it’s better to be praised and hugged than scolded and punished. Our choices influence the quality of our life and the lives of those around us.

While growing up, I saw plenty of good choices and plenty of bad. My father could be tender and pleasant to be with -- until something snapped and he turned dark. We never knew when Mr. Hyde would show up and all hell would break loose.

I figured that was just the way it was and navigated around his tantrums. My mother’s reaction was to lock us in the basement or pack us up in the car for a quick getaway until the storm blew through and Good Dad returned.

My mother was the main target of his vitriol. He hated and loved her, but with an infantile love. Like a child with a temper railing against his parents, he enjoyed being the “enfant terrible.” We were led to believe he was mentally ill, with a split personality.

While a reasonable explanation at the time, it confused me because I also observed him at work and out in public. Mr. Hyde never showed up in those places. The safety and security of our home was his private stomping ground. There, he frequently gave in to his lower nature. He possessed the ability to behave otherwise, but allowed self-centered, sinful urges to take charge. Bad choices.

It wasn’t until I was married, and saw milder versions of the same patterns in my behavior toward Sandy, that I got it. I saw in myself some of the urges my father must have seen. The choices with which he was likely confronted, and the lower road he took.

Fortunately, with the help of my wife, I learned to see the wisdom of a different path. She’s gentle and loving in every respect and hates conflict of all sorts. She let me know in no uncertain terms, however, that disrespectful, rude and childish behavior had no place in her life and our home.

This was announced early in our third year of marriage, while we sat with my mother on our screened side porch with a spread of corned beef, Swiss cheese, mustard, rye, full-sour pickles, potato salad and mixed fruit salad -- courtesy of my mother.

I’d just made up my sandwich and plate. It was on my lap. I gave thanks to God for the food, but not to my mother. Sandy prompted me to thank her too. Simple enough, wouldn’t you say? Not for me. Not back then. It made me feel like a child being scolded, rather than a husband being reminded.

My Old Man pride and caveman defenses kicked in, coming out as, “I’ll thank her in my time and on my terms. But thank you (sarcastically) for the lesson in manners.”

Bad choice! As soon as the words were out of my mouth, my life flashed in front of me. I knew I’d crossed into the dangerous territory I later came to know and refer to as “Sandy’s Red Line.” This is a place you don’t want to go. One reserved for those rare instances in which she’s provoked to a point of no return. And there I was. I knew it. She knew it. My mother sensed it.

After a few seconds, which seemed like minutes, Sandy calmly got up, walked over, tipped my well-prepared plate all over me, and walked into the house.

I was speechless. My mother was dumbfounded. I’m sure she was also privately pleased, wishing she’d done the tipping.

I just sat there. Food dripping. Mustard staining. Lunch lost. Utter absurdity. Foolish behavior met by an appropriate response. I knew I had met my match.

That incident stood out as a declaration of war. It might as well have read, “WARNING: From this time forward, all nasty behavior will be met with a proper response.” Like a defiant child, I crossed that line all too often in our early years and was justifiably smacked down. Sandy showed me the consequences of my bad behavior, of choosing to indulge my Old Man.

I’ve wised up over the years as my New Man has occupied more real estate in my life. I’ve discovered that living with love and harmony is sweeter than snarling from the doghouse. That enjoying a good sandwich with my wife is better than cleaning up a tossed one.

This has been more than a Pavlovian response to punishment avoidance. It’s been a conscious preference to live out of my New Man, to choose and continue to choose, day by day, sometimes minute by minute, my higher nature.

I. "Train up your child in the way he should go." Proverbs 22:6

A. Popular verse is often misunderstood.

Usual interpretation:

Get your kids in church and Sunday School at a young age.

Teach him or her a lot of Bible verses and hymns.

Make sure they learn the Ten Commandments, a few prayers to be

used at mealtimes and bedtime, and in case of emergency.

Send them to summer camp [at Camp Lebanon] and hope something

sticks.

No matter what you do, your kid is going to grow up and rebel.

Drinking, partying, generally carousing.

But when they are middle-aged they will return to the Lord.

You can count on it.

Or can you?

This may be a popular interpretation, but I don't think this

verse really teaches it.

B. Train your child in the manner befitting a child.

1) Literally, "in accordance with his way."

a) Use words, concepts and illustrations a child can

understand.

b) Not so much the way YOU think it should be done, as

the way that would be effective for them.

2) Each child is a little different.

a) They have traits or "bents."

b) You have to understand your child's uniqueness.

II. Children have bents. #47,p26.

A. Grooming the good bents. Psalm 103:13-15

1) Each child has been put together in a unique way.

2) Cultivate the skills and abilities they have.

b) Acknowledge these traits, enourage them, invest in them.

3) Don't force them to fulfill what you couldn't.

B. Oppose the bad.

1) Some of a child's bents are of the warped variety. Ps 51:5

2) We are born with a sinful nature.

a) They don't have to be taught to do wrong.

3) Counteract them.

a) Lead your child to a knowledge of Jesus as Lord.

1> Their salvation should be your highest priority.

b) Deal with wrong as it occurs.

1> They should know wrong won't be permitted.

2> Permissiveness is dangerous. Prov 29:15

3> Leonardo Da Vinci wrote:

"He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done."

III. Practical suggestions.

A. Determine your priorities.

B. Record your observations.

C. Share your feelings.

[main basis for 5/12/96 sermon]

#3742

*

As yon will some, times see a sere and yellow leaf hang upon the tree all through winter, tenacious of its hold, whirling in the wind, out of beauty, out of grace, out of season! so you sometimes may see some wornout, godless old sinners clinging to this world.