The Psychology of Sin

REFLECTION QUOTES

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning…and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption…For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was…liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

~Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World (1894-1963)


“Despite the frequent claim that we are living in a secular age defined by the death of God, many citizens in rich Western democracies have merely switched one notion of God for another — abandoning their singular, omnipotent (Christian or Judaic or whatever) deity reigning over all humankind and replacing it with a weak but all-pervasive idea of spirituality tied to a personal ethic of authenticity and a liturgy of inwardness….At the heart of the ethic of authenticity is a profound selfishness and callous disregard of others.”

~Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster in The NY Times, June 29, 2013

“We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.”

~Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), English author and literary critic

“Voyager upon life’s sea,
To yourself be true,
And, whate’er your lot may be,
Paddle your own canoe.” ~Exact authorship is disputed

“Those who are contemptuous of everyone are more than anyone terrified of contempt.”

~Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946), American-born essayist and critic

“A man who loves you the most is the man who tells you the most truth about yourself.”

~ Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843) Scottish clergyman

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 36 (NASB)

1 Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart;
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For it flatters him in his own eyes
Concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.
3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 He plans wickedness upon his bed;
He sets himself on a path that is not good;
He does not despise evil.

5 Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are like a great deep.
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
9 For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.

10 O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride come upon me,
And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
12 There the doers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been thrust down and cannot rise.