warrSIN (HARMATIA)
1. Television producers have created a wide range of “reality” shows.
2. From finding a mate to survivor, there are programs that allow people to compete.
3. As is the case with most contests, there are winners and there are losers.
4. The Greeks had a special word for failure (harmatia).
5. Their word described a warrior who cast his spear but missed the target.
6. Harmatia was used when someone missed their way.
7. In today’s terms we would say, “I missed the road/forgot to turn.”
8. This word applied to poets who chose subjects that could not be treated poetically.
9. It was even used of artists who tried to achieve results beyond their artistic limits.
10. In basic terms, harmatia meant “to miss the mark.”
11. Archers used it when their arrows failed to hit a target.
12. When writers of the New Testament began to write, they often used this word.
13. In fact, harmatia is the most common term for sin in the entire New Testament.
14. In addition to being the most common, it is also the most comprehensive.
15. Passages that use this term generally render it with the simple English word “sin.”
16. Sin means failure—we have missed the target.
17. Last week I said there are several words for sin in the New Testament.
18. Harmatia has been called the “umbrella” word for sin in the New Testament.
19. This particular word incorporates a wide range of ideas into its meaning.
IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST PREACHERS HAVE OFTEN TALKED ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT.
a) There are significant differences in both testaments, and one difference involves sin.
b) In the Old Testament, sin was usually seen in terms of violating the Law of Moses.
c) In the New Testament the concept of sin is expanded.
2) The word being discussed today goes beyond violating God’s law.
3) It means “missing the goals conformable to God’s will or goals fixed by God” (Wuest, 3:95).
a) How many of us have failed to achieve at least one goal during our lifetime?
b) By a single goal, I do not necessarily mean a big goal.
c) Goals can come in all shapes and sizes.
d) We may have a goal of being home by 11:40 this afternoon.
e) Someone else may be planning to retire by the age of 25.
4) All of us have failed to achieve at least one objective in our lifetime.
5) Today’s word for sin means that we have missed at least one of God’s goals in/for our lives.
6) This piece of information becomes especially significant when we look at the Bible.
a) Most everyone here is aware of Rom. 3:23 — quote.
b) The word “sinned” is harmatia.
c) God has a goal, but all have “sinned” (each has failed to reach heaven’s goal).
d) Each one is therefore guilty of sin.
7) I don’t know why, but shows like Fear Factor have never been on my top ten list.
8) The other night I flipped through the channels and I finally saw a few minutes of this program.
9) People had to stand on top of a moving semi and grab as many small flags as they could.
10) Those who competed in that stunt had some goals.
a) They didn’t want to fall—this was the first goal.
b) Their intention was to grab as many flags as they could.
c) The aspirations were clear, but each person I saw struggled with a certain amount of failure.
d) No one was able to snatch every flag.
e) We can relate this to the spiritual realm.
11) Quite often people look at God and think to themselves, “I am not a bad person.”
12) “I have never committed a felony; never been in prison; never assaulted anyone.”
13) “My home in heaven is secure because I am a law abiding and good natured individual.”
14) We may not have committed crimes against the state, but these are not the right points to consider.
15) God has created and established certain goals that are expressed in the Bible.
16) If we fail to meet just one of these goals, we have been affected by the problem called sin.
17) In the New Testament, the word rendered sin goes beyond the breaking of God’s laws.
18) It is more like a personal attack on God because we have failed to live up to His standards.
19) According to Rom. 6:23 (where this word is a noun), the price for our failure is death.
20) Not confirming to God’s goals is a crime with a capital punishment.
21) At times people tell us they have some news that is very serious.
22) This past week I saw a wife with two young children interviewed.
23) Her husband is a Marine in Iraq, and she is on edge all the time.
a) She is watching the street to see if any unusual vehicles pull into the driveway.
b) When the phone rings she is uneasy.
c) This woman realizes that she may receive bad news at any time.
d) The word we are looking at today is of this same nature—it is bad news.
e) It is a message of death and eternal destruction to every person accountable for their actions.
SINCE AN EXTENSIVE INTRODUCTION HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THIS WORD, LET’S NOW NARROW OUR STUDY TO SOME SPECIFIC POINTS ABOUT THIS WORD TRANSLATED “SIN.”
a) The first two points have already been alluded too.
b) Sin is missing a God given goal, and this problem affects all people, Rom. 3:23.
c) It is not like a disease that affects some but not others.
d) Other verses that make this point (and have this word) are 1 Jn. 1:8 and Gal. 3:22.
2) God tells us that harmatia has some far reaching consequences.
a) Rom. 5:21 says “sin” (same word) has “ruled” over mankind.
b) The word “rule” has the sense of being king (in the KJV and ASV it is translated “reign”).
c) Sin has a controlling and domineering power in the lives of people.
3) Not only does the Bible refer to it as being “king,” it is referred to as a “Lord” in Rom. 6:14.
4) Translators of the KJV and ASV use the word “dominion.”
5) Sin has the power to possess mankind.
a) In our day to day lives we may not be too worried if we miss some goals.
b) In many instances we get another opportunity—perhaps a better opportunity.
c) Missing just one of God’s goals is extremely serious.
d) God says just one slip puts us into the grip of a power which will be king of our life.
6) Sin is so overwhelming Paul said people “serve it” (Rom. 6:17, 20).
7) Sin has such a death grip that New Testament writers made some bold statements about it.
a) Consider what is said in Heb. 3:13.
b) The writer warned about the “deceitfulness of sin.”
c) He also said his readers could be “hardened” by sin (same word).
d) Harden is from a word that masons used.
e) These workers found that certain stones were hard to manipulate.
f) People who were citizens in earthly kingdoms also used this word to describe their kings.
g) Rulers could be “hardened” against their subjects (cruel and inhumane).
8) When Heb. 3:13 is studied, we see that sin dulls the senses and blinds people.
9) It is therefore no wonder why Paul joined it with words like “reign, slave, and rule” in Rom. 5 & 6.
10) A brilliant author and writer who wrote about New Testament words made a great comment.
a) He said, “If you want to know the meaning of the word, see what kind of company it keeps.”
b) We may never know a single fact about the original languages of the Bible.
c) Yet, we can read the words in scripture and see what kind of company key words keep.
d) In the case of the word translated sin, it rubs shoulders with words like death.
e) It is joined with terms like “our master, we serve it, and it is Lord of the life.”
f) Heb. 3:13 speaks of sin in conjunction with “deceit.”
g) Jas. 1:15 has it along side “evil desires.”
h) John in 1 Jn. 3:4 joins it with “lawlessness.”
11) A little later in this book (1 Jn. 5:17) it occurs next to the word unrighteousness.
12) James tied it in with respecting persons in Jas. 2:9.
IF THIS WORD IS THIS BAD, AND ALL ARE AFFECTED, WHAT COMES TO MIND IS THIS QUESTION: IS THERE ANY CURE?
a) Yes.
b) After the Old Testament period several years passed.
c) Then events recorded in books like Matthew began to occur.
d) In Mt. 1:21 the Bible says Jesus came to SAVE people from something.
e) What did the Lord come to help with? The word being studied today: sin.
f) Sin it is so awful it brought a member of the Godhead to our planet to die on a cross.
g) Sin is so powerful it could only be overcome by God becoming flesh and dying on our behalf.
h) This magnificent act was the remedy for sin, and it works.
i) Acts 3:19 uses this word to say sins can be “wiped out.”
j) Sin results in death, destruction and eternal misery but it can be fully healed by God.
k) How does this happen? How do people find healing?
i) Listen to Acts 22:16 – READ.
ii) Sins are “washed away” when we are properly baptized.
iii) In our day and time many have made fun about the essentiality of baptism.
iv) The man in Acts 22:16 believed. He was sorry for his sins. He had been praying for 3 days.
v) After 3 days of praying, he still had all his sins.
vi) To be released from his sins he was told to arise, be baptized, and call on God’s name.
2) When we look at the word which is usually translated “sin”, we find two great truths:
3) First, missing just one of God’s goals is the greatest horror and threat mankind has ever faced.
4) Today we hear about problems.
5) The economy is an issue; terrorism is another; health care is a third.
6) All of these items as well as any other we might wish to name are nothing when compared to sin.
7) The number 1 problem in our city, state, nation and world is sin.
8) Sin cuts (severs) our relationship with God.
9) The bad news is that all of us miss the mark, but the good news is that there is hope.
10) Thanks be to God that He has not left us to wrestle with the sin problem on our own.
11) There is a cure: the blood of Jesus that was shed on a cross many years ago.
12) If we believe and want to live in the right way, God will cleanse us of our sins if we do what He has said.
13) We need to believe, be willing to repent of our sins, confess as the man did in Acts 22 and be baptized.