WHO DO WE BLAME WHEN WE SIN?

By Jeremy Burkes

Genesis 3:12-13 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. (13) And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

It wasn't my fault. I didn't mean to do it. He or she made me do it. We've all heard them before. We've all made excuses when we get caught in our sins.
Like Adam we blame family or friends. We even try to convince ourselves, if it weren't for him or her, I would not have done that.Sometimes we do like Eve and say, "The devil made me do it."
Who is to blame when I sin? The answer is me. I am the reason I sin and I have a will and can decide not to sin as easy as I decide to sin. If I sin it is ultimately because I want to more than I want not to.
Jesus came to pay our sin debt. In Him we have forgiveness of sins. Satan is constantly accusing us before God. Sometimes he even cast doubts on our salvation.
Our sins are covered in the blood of Jesus once we are saved. It is important to our fellowship to confess those sins to God. We can never excuse our sins. Jesus suffered for our sins which means that none of them are small. Take responsibility for your sins and confess them to God. The blood of Jesus will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

THE BEGINNING OF SIN

1st Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

Sin usually begins in the back of our thoughts. Wild fires and thoughts are a lot alike. They both start with a spark and quickly get out of control. Just like the wild fires in National forests that are started by man, Satan will try to spark your thoughts out of control.
When you go to buy a new car and walk on the lot the salesman shows you around to get you interested. Soon he tries to get our attention on one particular car and then he starts to push for us to make a commitment.
Satan will do something similar with sin. First he just kind of shows you around to spark your interest. He will then begin to tempt you with what you are already interested in and finally he will try to push you into getting caught up in the sin.
Isaiah tells us that we don't look at things (including sin) the same way that God looks at them. We do not see the destructiveness of sin that God knows is there. Satan tries to get us to sin to destroy our testimony. He then renders us ineffective for God's service.
Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit to help protect us against the attacks of the devil. The Spirit will convince and convict us of sin if we will let Him.
We need to look at sin from God's point of view and be ready when Satan attacks us through our thoughts.

BEWARE OF ENTICING MEN

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Through the ages many have been spoiled by weird teachings of one philosopher or another. They are usually mean who know nothing of scripture and reject it without having applied it to their lives.
Most of the times those whose vain deceit lead them astray are not satisfied to go alone. They need to spread their confusion and gain followers to validate themselves.
Paul tells us to beware of these. They follow after the things of the world. The way to be on the safe side is to make sure any teaching is one that will lead you to a closer walk with the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
He can offer eternal life, peace that passes understanding, joy unspeakable and full of glory to those who love him. There is no other religion, philosophy or teaching in the world that can offer this and back it up with their own death, burial, and resurrection.