God s word to the first people He created, Adam and Eve was essentially this: If you disregard my instructions, you will die.

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Anabel Reeves
5 years ago
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1 Series: Sin Kills Message 3: What damage does sin do? Here on the table, I have five objects: a batter, a tennis ball, an extension cord, a cigarette butt, and 1890 Pennsylvania land title. What do all of these items have in common? Take a moment to think about it. Any ideas? They are all dead. A dead battery(no longer working), dead cigarette (extinguished), dead tennis ball (no bounce), a dead document (no longer in effect), dead extension cord (no connection to electrical source). We use the word dead a lot more than you probably realize. When you are looking for a job, you don t want to hear that your chances of getting it are dead in the water (inactive or inoperable). A business owner does not want a dead business day, meaning no one is buying. A dead ball in sports is outof-play. If you are dead to the needs of others, you are insensitive. We refer to a dead issue (no longer current), dead air (no circulation), being dead tired (exhausted), dead silence (complete), a dead stop (abrupt), and a dead wall (no resonance). And no one wants to hang around at a dead party. About the only positive use of the adjective dead would be falling into a dead sleep and someone s aim being dead on, unless they are aiming at you! Dead is almost always a bad thing. As we use the term, it doesn t always mean something is deceased, but it almost always means something or someone is not doing well. You really do not want the adjective, dead, connected with you, your car engine, your business, or your Christmas party. Dead is not good. So, it should be sobering to see how often the word sin in the Bible is connected with the word dead or death. God s word to the first people He created, Adam and Eve was essentially this: If you disregard my instructions, you will die. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (The Bible, James 1:15 NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (The Bible, Romans 6:23 NIV) What is this death that sin produces? It s not like we commit a sin and our heart stops beating. Well, the word death has a broader meaning than simply ceasing to breathe. Death is in some ways a comprehensive term for the broad range of devastation that sin creates. The Bible opens our eyes to just how much damage sin does, and it s very important that we see that this morning. So, here goes. Sin condemns us. When we choose to sin, we not only fall short of the character of God, we violate the laws that flow from His character. Lying, for instance, falls short of God s integrity, but it also breaks his laws. Sin is law-breaking. Now, what is the consequence of breaking laws? Some kind of punishment. In a just society, those

2 who break the law face punishment for doing so. If someone steals your car, you expect that person will be judged, that he/she will face a penalty. To ignore wrong would violate justice. A just and loving God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. Sin has to be judged. Understand, then, that your sins and mine place us under the judgment of God. Our sins condemn us. In the Bible God s wrath is a reference to His judgment. When we sin, we bring on ourselves the wrath, or judgment, of God. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. (The Bible, Colossians 3:5-6 NIV) But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. (The Bible, Romans 2:8 NIV) So, when the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, one piece of that is the judgment of God. God s love and justice demand that He punish sin. In fact, the Bible frames it this way. Because we are all sinners, all lawbreakers, we are all under the wrath or judgment of God, unless we have submitted to God and turned to him for a pardon. Eric and Debbie Coleman lived a simple life in a small North Georgia trailer park not too very far from where my parents live. Neither had a driver s license. They both worked odd jobs for cash that provided just enough for them to survive on. They raised a 25-year old daughter. They lived a reasonably peaceful life until this week. On Wednesday of this last week, FBI agents staked out their home and arrested them. It turns out that Eric Coleman was actually Paul Boucher, who was convicted of robbery in the early 1980 s and was sent to prison in Virginia. In October of 1982, he overpowered a guard, and escaped to a waiting car reportedly driven by his wife, Debbie. They drove their car to North Carolina, where they sold it and walked, literally, into the woods and disappeared. They hiked and slept in the woods until they eventually made their way to North Georgia, where they settled in to the small rural community of Eton. For 27 years, then, Paul and Debbie lived under the wrath or judgment of the government. They weren t in prison, but they were living under the day when it would come. They did everything they could to avoid it. They couldn t get driver s licenses, nor could they get regular jobs. They couldn t do anything that would expose their true identities. They lived looking over their shoulders, always aware that they could be found out. And this week, they were. Their story is the story of all of us, really. We have broken the law, and a day of judgment is coming. We live under that. It is one of the consequences of sin, but it is not the only one.

3 Sin distances us from others. Sin has relational consequences. I ve found this to be true. When I hurt or wrong someone, it s not good for our relationship. It s almost as if an unseen barrier is created. I need to push through that barrier and admit my wrong, but I find that very hard to do. And even when I do admit my wrong, it can be hard for the person I hurt to move back toward me. Sin creates distance between me and others. It also creates distance between me and God. Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (The Bible, Isaiah 59:1-2 NIV) What is this separation? It is not God being so mad at you that He won t talk to you for days. It is you and I unwilling to admit our wrong and blocking us from the grace that could be ours. God wants reconciliation, but we have to make a move in that direction. When we sin, it is not that God hides His face from us as much as we hide our face from His. We avoid Him. Sin brings a kind of death and loss into relationships, but the damage doesn t stop there. Sin enslaves us. One sinful choice tends to lead to more wrong choices. When you give in to sin once, it s a bit easier the next time. One lie leads to another and another. Stealing might be really nerve-wracking the first time, but it s a tad easier the second time. With sin, it s not uncommon to think: I ll just do it this one time, just once. Once you ve started, it s hard to stop. Sin often has a kind of addictive nature to it. I expect that every single person in this room finds that certain sins have a very strong pull, a pull that, at times, feels unmanageable. This was the experience of a guy in the Bible, Paul. He writes: I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (The Bible, Romans 7:18-20 NIV) I keep doing stuff I want to stop doing. Mark it down. There are going to be points with sin where you feel powerless to stop. You feel like you are trapped. Jesus Himself said: Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (The Bible, John 8:34 NIV) Sin has an enslaving or dominating force to it. Sin demoralizes; discourages Earlier I mentioned Eric and Debbie Coleman, the couple who were hiding from their wrong choices, afraid of being found out. The Bible has similar stories, like

4 the story of the Jewish King, David, who ended up committing adultery with the wife of one of his enlisted men. To complicate matters, he arranged to have that same enlisted man exposed on the battleground, where he was killed. So, he had this devastating secret that he lived with for days and days. He writes about that time: Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. (The Bible, Psalm 32:2-4 NIV) Hidden sin wears on you. The truth is, that all sin takes a toll, whether we recognize it or not. There is the guilt of having hurt someone. There is the discouragement of another failure or the sense of being out-of-control. There is the dull ache that you are not the person you want to be, the person you were made to be. Sin is disheartening. It undercuts your motivation to even try. Under the weight of the guilt or sense of failure, we are even more likely to fail again, creating this downward spiral. Such discouragement can undercut your very passion to live. If sin is so destructive and demoralizing, why do we repeatedly make sinful choices? It s a good question. Recently, some friends took us out to dinner and a show. We go to the restaurant, and I m scanning the menu. There are some great menu items, and after a couple of hours, I decide on one. But then our friends say that the clam chowder there is outstanding, and I love clam chowder. Now, I know that the meal is going to fill me up. Heck, we are already snacking, but I just have to order the clam chowder. Did I order the small cup of chowder? NO! I ordered the family-sized drum. The clam chowder was delicious, but I was hardly even hungry when the main meal came, but I ate every bit of it because I hate to waste food. At the end of the meal, I was full. On the drive to the show, I got fuller. You know how that sense of full increases after the meal? So, by the time I got to the show, I was fairly comatose. Frankly, I was pretty lethargic during the whole show. So, why did I order the chowder in the first place? Because it was really good, and the cost came far later. Sin is the same way. There is an immediate rush or advantage that sin seems to create. It will be very pleasurable. It s an easy solution to a problem. I m in control. The gain is immediate; the cost is almost always delayed. So, we re fooled. We go for the immediate gain. Sadly, the long-term cost always exceeds the gain, meaning that sin is never in our best interest. We always lose more than we gain. The Bible puts it this way. Sin deceives us. We do things that feel good or beneficial even though they will cost us dearly. What is particularly insidious about sin s deception is this: What we hope to gain through our sin is often the exact thing we lose. We lie to help protect a

5 relationship, and the lie ends up threatening the relationship. A one-night stand promises fun but ends up producing long-term emptiness. We want to be free to live out our sexuality any way we wish, but find that we are addicted in the process. In our desire to be under no one s control, we find ourselves controlled by our own desires. Ultimately, sin seems to be life-giving when in fact it leads to death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. (The Bible, Romans 7:11 NIV) I finish this morning with what I believe may be the most devastating consequence of sin. You did not hear that wrong. I have shared some awful consequences of sin, but I have not shared what I believe is the worst. Sin hardens our hearts against God. Listen to this sobering warning from the Bible: See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. (The Bible, Hebrews 3:12-13 NIV) Ignoring God grows on you. It is the scariest part of sin s deception. The more you move away from God, the less likely you are to ever turn to Him. The more independently you live from God, the less you think you need Him. The more you choose to resist and ignore God, the more it hardens your heart against God. Your desire to move toward God is gradually diminished. Pride and arrogance become more firmly entrenched. This reality, I think, blows up one of the most widely-held misconceptions about God s judgment at the end of time. I think most of us assume that people who have persisted in resisting God and have hardened their hearts against Him will suddenly change after they die. We see no connection between the person they have become at their life s end and the person who stands before God at the day of judgment. I think we assume (or picture in our minds) that everyone standing before God with the choice to enjoy Him forever or resist Him forever, will certainly choose to be with Him forever. Virtually every single person, we assume, will choose to humble himself before God, repent of his broken choices, and turn to God. That is a deadly assumption. Think very carefully about what I am going to say next. It is nearly impossible to separate God s judgment against sin from the natural consequences of our sin; They are closely related. Alienation from God is both God s appointed judgment and the natural consequence of a life lived apart from God. In other words, people who decide to live independently of God end up spending eternity in that condition. It is the natural progression of their choices. In one sense, God s judgment against sin is God allowing the effects of sin to become permanent. We are choosing our destiny.

6 I finish, then, with one of the most powerful themes in the Bible. Choose God today. Call out to Him while you can. Stop trying to be good on your own. Stop running your own life. The time is now. Consider these direct words form the Bible: Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. (The Bible, Hebrews 4:7 NIV) If you have any inclination whatsoever to humble yourself and cry out to God today, don t hesitate. If you are hearing God s whisper in your heart, don t ignore it. You don t know how long you ll hear the whisper. You don t know how long it will be before you have no desire to turn toward God whatsoever. Don t let sin fool you. Today, God extends a pardon for your sin. He offers the possibility of freedom and peace and hope and reconciliation, but you have to decide. His face is toward you. Will you turn your face toward Him? Hope Church

5/8/2016 Forgiving Yourself 1

5/8/2016 Forgiving Yourself 1 "Forgiving Yourself" Many Christians feel the nagging sting of shame and guilt. They still worry over sins that were long forgiven by God, but they don t know how to forgive themselves of their transgression.