WHAT IS SIN?

Video Clip transcript extracted from the talk: What Causes Anxiety? (Romans 5:8) by Rev. Ernest
O’Neill

I’ll tell you what brings the sense of angst. It’s in Romans 6:23. Because of course, we’re pretty
selfish creatures and — big deal, we may not be right with God, but well, you can’t have
everything, and so we’re concerned about it but that would not bring the sense of fear or the sense
of angst or the sense of anxiety into us. What does bring us the sense of fear is this: Romans
6:23.

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death”. That’s what brings the fear into us. Because this dear
book says sin — in fact it might be good to look at what sin is– because a lot of us have strange
ideas.

James 4:17. “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” So that’s
what sin is. You see it’s not a complex thing and it’s not, “Oh sin is just drinking or sin is just
being a prostitute”, that’s stupid. Sin is knowing what is right to do and failing to do it. I mean
if you know you shouldn’t tell a lie and you tell it, that’s sin. If God actually tells you to speak
to somebody and you don’t do it, that’s sin. Sin is independence of God, it’s doing your own will in
your own power, that’s what sin is and this Bible says, the wages of sin is death and the
conscience, our conscience mirrors that within us.

Full Sermon: What Causes Anxiety? (Romans 5:8) by Rev. Ernest O’Neill