Sin
“What Happened to Sin?
I John 7: 7-10
Hello, friend! I’m Mack Lyon. The program’s a nationwide Bible study program ‘In Search of the Lord’s Way.’ We’re presented here by some churches of Christ in the broadcast area of this station. Did you know that more people believe it’s wrong to wear animal fur than believe it’s wrong for a couple to conceive a child out of wedlock? Yep, that’s true! People have a lot of funny ideas about sin, don’t they? Phil Sanders has a very positive lesson about that today. Stay tuned.
Thank you Mack, and the Lord bless you! Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and this is In Search of the Lord’s Way, where we search the Scriptures to find the Lord’s way to be saved and to please God. It’s a special delight to spend this time with you and we really appreciate hearing from you. We want to be a part of your life each week.
According to a recent Ellison Research study, thirteen percent of Americans say that there is no such thing as sin. It seems ‘sin’ is a topic that even many preachers won’t discuss. One famous clergyman says evangelists must never say that someone is a sinner. He believes it’s a crude thing and keeps people from following Jesus. He said Jesus never called anyone a sinner.
Well, there’s no doubt that Jesus demonstrated amazing patience with sinful people and He loved everyone, but to suggest that He never spoke of sin ignores what is written in the Scripture. The Bible says in Luke 5, verses 30 to 32 that: ‘The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, (that is the disciples of Jesus) saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’ And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’
Paul said that Jesus came to earth to save sinners (1Timothy 1 and verse 15). The fact that Jesus loved and received sinners does not mean that he condoned sin. Oh! Oh, no not that! Jesus knew sin was an enemy and caused people to be separated from God. And with great love Jesus died so people could leave their old sinful ways and live a new and better life. If sin were not real, Jesus wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to free people from it.
Each week we make it our aim to bring God’s truth to you in love. We never hassle you for money but offer this information free. And if you would like a free printed copy or a CD of our study, mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or you can e-mail us; that’s searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you like, call our toll-free telephone number. That number is 1 (800) 321-8633. We also stream this program on our website at http://www.searchtv.org/.
Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as we sing. And then we’ll read from 1 John 3: 7 to 10.
Our Scripture reading today comes from the little letter of 1 John chapter 3, verses 7 to 10. ‘Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.’ That’s from God’s Holy Word. Let’s pray together. O Lord, help us to refuse to sin and to always practice righteousness that we may be closer to You. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
From the very beginning people have always downplayed sin. People don’t think sin is all that bad. They want to blame someone else for it. Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Bible says in Genesis 3, verses 8 to 13: ‘And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’
And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’
People tend to rationalize away their responsibility for sin. You’ve probably heard many excuses that people use to justify themselves. Perhaps you’ve used some of those excuses yourselves. I’ve heard people give the excuse, ‘Well, everyone does it.’ But right and wrong is not determined by numbers. Right and wrong are determined by the Word of God.
During the days of Noah, the Bible says in Genesis 6, verses 5 and 6 that, ‘The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.’
Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the Lord; and everyone on earth except Noah and his family perished in that flood. God will punish everyone who sins, even if that number includes a large group of people. Sin is still sin. It’s still offensive to our righteous and holy God.
The Bible says in the book of Romans chapter 2, verses 6 to 11, that God ‘will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.’
I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, God made me this way.’ And they are suggesting that God made them where they cannot help but sin. But sin is not a characteristic; sin is a behavior. The Bible explains in James 1, verses 13 to 15: ‘Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.’
Someone says, ‘Well, I can’t see any harm in it,’ that is whatever sin that they are committing. But the question of what is right or wrong is not determined by what we think is or is not harmful. God sees things that we cannot see and He knows things that we cannot know. We must trust in His judgment and not our own. Our thinking about sin may be warped by what we want to do rather than by what we ought to do. God says in Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, ‘For My thoughts (that is God’s thoughts) are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways.’
We might easily be swayed by what is common or popular among people, but, you know what, those people will not judge us in the last day. It’s common to hear, ‘millions of people can’t be wrong!’ But millions of people can be wrong. They can easily be misled by their desires. And the Bible warns us in 1 John 2, verses 15 to 17, ‘Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.’
Some people excuse their sins by saying, ‘Well, we’re just not supposed to judge anybody.’ But this is an impossible view. We all judge and we all make judgments. The Lord Jesus said in John 7, verse 24, ‘Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.’ You see Jesus realized that people make unfair judgments based on human standards; and the Lord is opposed to that kind of judging. But this doesn’t mean that people must never make any kind of moral judgment. That would be terribly foolish.
The immature or naïve person is the one who doesn’t make a judgment. In all of college-level academics, one of the goals of education is for the student to demonstrate critical thinking skills—that is making judgments! And it’s amazing to me that the many colleges around in our country want students to demonstrate the ability to reason about most things in life except morals and spiritual matters.
Hebrews 5, verses 12 to 14 speaks of those who haven’t grown spiritually as they should. The Bible says, ‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.’
You see, spiritual maturity includes the ability to use God’s Word to distinguish what is right from what is wrong. I’m always disappointed by the kind of literature and movies that people call ‘adult.’ It really isn’t adult at all. It’s evil, and people who see that kind of literature are childish and become enslaved by it. It doesn’t show a person who has grown spiritually enough to discern good from evil. Proverbs 22 and verse 3 says that, ‘The prudent sees the evil and he hides himself, but the naive go on, and are punished for it.’
Others excuse their sins by saying, ‘Well, God wants me to be happy and to feel good.’ And this is a very popular saying, and especially of people who cheat on their spouses and want to find somebody new. They reason their old spouse doesn’t make them happy anymore, and since God wants them to be happy, they feel justified in divorcing the old and finding somebody new that is more to their liking. But the Lord Jesus said in Mark 10, verses 11 and 12 that, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.’
People may find some pleasure in sin, but it won’t last. Pleasure and happiness are not the same as joy that comes from God. Joy is the product of righteousness. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 6 says that love ‘does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.’ God wants us to live righteously with joy, not be happy with sin.
We must understand that sin leads to spiritual death. The Bible says in Ezekiel 18 and verse 4, ‘Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. And the soul who sins will die.’ Again, Romans 6 and verse 23 says that, ‘The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
First Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10 says, ‘Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.’ The Bible says in Revelation 21, verse 8, ‘But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’
Sin takes place when someone transgresses God’s law (1 John 3 and verse 4). You sin when you fail to hear what God says and you do what you want to do. And that’s offensive to Him. Sin also takes place when people fail to do what is right. James 4 and verse 17 says, ‘So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.’ When we fail to take God into account in our lives; when we fail to follow Jesus, and fail to be obedient to His will, we sin against God. We can’t say no to God and think that we have a right relationship with Him.
My friend, sin is serious business. God did not send Jesus to the earth to die on a cross for trivial reasons. He sent his Son to die for our sins. And no matter how we feel about sin, God takes sin seriously. The death of Jesus that was so painful and shameful was not for ‘inappropriate actions’ or for ‘mistakes’ but for evil sin. And the Bible says in Galatians 1 and verse 4 that Jesus ‘gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.’
Jesus took our sins personally. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2 and verse 24 that, ‘He himself (that is Jesus himself) bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.’ Now the last part of this verse, ‘By his wounds you have been healed,’ is a quotation from Isaiah 53 and verse 5. Isaiah says in verses 5 and 6, ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; and we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’
Because of His love for each of us, He was willing to take the punishment that you and I deserved. God punished Jesus with the death that we should have received. We were the sinners, and He was innocent. His died in our stead and in our place, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
God doesn’t simply want to forgive you of sin. He wants you to change your life. He wants sin out of your life and righteousness in your life. Remember what we read from God’s Word in 1 John 3, verses 7 to 9, ‘Little children, let no one deceive you. But whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. And whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. And the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.’
God also wants a relationship with you. Sin creates a barrier between people and God. And God is holy and righteous. He cannot approve of sin. If you have unresolved sin in your life, you separate yourself from God. You can’t draw close to Him in that condition. He will not accept you. It is only when the blood of Christ cleanses you from that sin that you have an open way to have a relationship. Let’s pray together. O Lord, may our love for You grow more and more. And may our love for You help us to bring ourselves to leave sin behind and follow You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
The devil tries to convince us that sin is a harmless plaything and doesn’t hurt anyone. We don’t like to think of our sins as offensive. We would rather fool ourselves into thinking that nothing is wrong, that everything is okay; while sin works inside our soul as a cancer. We must take our sins seriously.
If we would be right with God, we must first admit that we’ve sinned. Romans 3 and verse 23 says that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ It’s absurd to speak of forgiveness or salvation until we come to grips with our own sin. Second, if we would be right with God, we must hear the Word of God, and take it to heart, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Third, out of faith and love, we must repent of our sins. The Bible says in Acts 17, verses 30 and 31 that, ‘The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’ Repentance is turning from sin to Christ. Romans 12 and verse 9 says that we are to abhor what is evil; and to cling to what is good. Repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change of life.
And last, if we would be right with God, we must be baptized. The messenger Ananias told the sinner Saul of Tarsus in Acts 22 and verse 16, ‘And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’ Baptism is the time that God washes away all our sins with the blood of Christ. Baptism is an immersion in water in the name of Jesus Christ so that our sins might be forgiven. (Acts 2 and verse 38) Today would be a great day for you to be baptized into Christ.
We hope that you’ve been blessed by today’s study. And if you want a free printed copy, a CD, or tape of this message, ‘What Happened to Sin,’ mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or e-mail us: searchtv@searchtv.org.
Or, you can call the Search office toll-free at 1 (800) 321-8633. Our programs also appear on our website; that’s http://www.searchtv.org/. Or you can view or download them in a printed, audio, or video format. We also offer free study sheets to go along with our programs. You can download them free or call us. They will help you study God’s Word.
Please visit one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station or network. The church of Christ loves visitors, and you’ll be glad that you went. Mack and I will be back next week, Lord willing; and so keep searching God’s Word with us and tell a friend. God bless you and we love you from all of us at In Search of the Lord’s Way.”
“What Happened to Sin?
I John 7: 7-10
Hello, friend! I’m Mack Lyon. The program’s a nationwide Bible study program ‘In Search of the Lord’s Way.’ We’re presented here by some churches of Christ in the broadcast area of this station. Did you know that more people believe it’s wrong to wear animal fur than believe it’s wrong for a couple to conceive a child out of wedlock? Yep, that’s true! People have a lot of funny ideas about sin, don’t they? Phil Sanders has a very positive lesson about that today. Stay tuned.
Thank you Mack, and the Lord bless you! Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and this is In Search of the Lord’s Way, where we search the Scriptures to find the Lord’s way to be saved and to please God. It’s a special delight to spend this time with you and we really appreciate hearing from you. We want to be a part of your life each week.
According to a recent Ellison Research study, thirteen percent of Americans say that there is no such thing as sin. It seems ‘sin’ is a topic that even many preachers won’t discuss. One famous clergyman says evangelists must never say that someone is a sinner. He believes it’s a crude thing and keeps people from following Jesus. He said Jesus never called anyone a sinner.
Well, there’s no doubt that Jesus demonstrated amazing patience with sinful people and He loved everyone, but to suggest that He never spoke of sin ignores what is written in the Scripture. The Bible says in Luke 5, verses 30 to 32 that: ‘The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, (that is the disciples of Jesus) saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’ And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’
Paul said that Jesus came to earth to save sinners (1Timothy 1 and verse 15). The fact that Jesus loved and received sinners does not mean that he condoned sin. Oh! Oh, no not that! Jesus knew sin was an enemy and caused people to be separated from God. And with great love Jesus died so people could leave their old sinful ways and live a new and better life. If sin were not real, Jesus wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to free people from it.
Each week we make it our aim to bring God’s truth to you in love. We never hassle you for money but offer this information free. And if you would like a free printed copy or a CD of our study, mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or you can e-mail us; that’s searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you like, call our toll-free telephone number. That number is 1 (800) 321-8633. We also stream this program on our website at http://www.searchtv.org/.
Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as we sing. And then we’ll read from 1 John 3: 7 to 10.
Our Scripture reading today comes from the little letter of 1 John chapter 3, verses 7 to 10. ‘Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.’ That’s from God’s Holy Word. Let’s pray together. O Lord, help us to refuse to sin and to always practice righteousness that we may be closer to You. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
From the very beginning people have always downplayed sin. People don’t think sin is all that bad. They want to blame someone else for it. Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Bible says in Genesis 3, verses 8 to 13: ‘And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’
And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’
People tend to rationalize away their responsibility for sin. You’ve probably heard many excuses that people use to justify themselves. Perhaps you’ve used some of those excuses yourselves. I’ve heard people give the excuse, ‘Well, everyone does it.’ But right and wrong is not determined by numbers. Right and wrong are determined by the Word of God.
During the days of Noah, the Bible says in Genesis 6, verses 5 and 6 that, ‘The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.’
Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the Lord; and everyone on earth except Noah and his family perished in that flood. God will punish everyone who sins, even if that number includes a large group of people. Sin is still sin. It’s still offensive to our righteous and holy God.
The Bible says in the book of Romans chapter 2, verses 6 to 11, that God ‘will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.’
I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, God made me this way.’ And they are suggesting that God made them where they cannot help but sin. But sin is not a characteristic; sin is a behavior. The Bible explains in James 1, verses 13 to 15: ‘Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.’
Someone says, ‘Well, I can’t see any harm in it,’ that is whatever sin that they are committing. But the question of what is right or wrong is not determined by what we think is or is not harmful. God sees things that we cannot see and He knows things that we cannot know. We must trust in His judgment and not our own. Our thinking about sin may be warped by what we want to do rather than by what we ought to do. God says in Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, ‘For My thoughts (that is God’s thoughts) are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways.’
We might easily be swayed by what is common or popular among people, but, you know what, those people will not judge us in the last day. It’s common to hear, ‘millions of people can’t be wrong!’ But millions of people can be wrong. They can easily be misled by their desires. And the Bible warns us in 1 John 2, verses 15 to 17, ‘Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.’
Some people excuse their sins by saying, ‘Well, we’re just not supposed to judge anybody.’ But this is an impossible view. We all judge and we all make judgments. The Lord Jesus said in John 7, verse 24, ‘Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.’ You see Jesus realized that people make unfair judgments based on human standards; and the Lord is opposed to that kind of judging. But this doesn’t mean that people must never make any kind of moral judgment. That would be terribly foolish.
The immature or naïve person is the one who doesn’t make a judgment. In all of college-level academics, one of the goals of education is for the student to demonstrate critical thinking skills—that is making judgments! And it’s amazing to me that the many colleges around in our country want students to demonstrate the ability to reason about most things in life except morals and spiritual matters.
Hebrews 5, verses 12 to 14 speaks of those who haven’t grown spiritually as they should. The Bible says, ‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.’
You see, spiritual maturity includes the ability to use God’s Word to distinguish what is right from what is wrong. I’m always disappointed by the kind of literature and movies that people call ‘adult.’ It really isn’t adult at all. It’s evil, and people who see that kind of literature are childish and become enslaved by it. It doesn’t show a person who has grown spiritually enough to discern good from evil. Proverbs 22 and verse 3 says that, ‘The prudent sees the evil and he hides himself, but the naive go on, and are punished for it.’
Others excuse their sins by saying, ‘Well, God wants me to be happy and to feel good.’ And this is a very popular saying, and especially of people who cheat on their spouses and want to find somebody new. They reason their old spouse doesn’t make them happy anymore, and since God wants them to be happy, they feel justified in divorcing the old and finding somebody new that is more to their liking. But the Lord Jesus said in Mark 10, verses 11 and 12 that, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.’
People may find some pleasure in sin, but it won’t last. Pleasure and happiness are not the same as joy that comes from God. Joy is the product of righteousness. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 6 says that love ‘does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.’ God wants us to live righteously with joy, not be happy with sin.
We must understand that sin leads to spiritual death. The Bible says in Ezekiel 18 and verse 4, ‘Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. And the soul who sins will die.’ Again, Romans 6 and verse 23 says that, ‘The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
First Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10 says, ‘Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.’ The Bible says in Revelation 21, verse 8, ‘But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’
Sin takes place when someone transgresses God’s law (1 John 3 and verse 4). You sin when you fail to hear what God says and you do what you want to do. And that’s offensive to Him. Sin also takes place when people fail to do what is right. James 4 and verse 17 says, ‘So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.’ When we fail to take God into account in our lives; when we fail to follow Jesus, and fail to be obedient to His will, we sin against God. We can’t say no to God and think that we have a right relationship with Him.
My friend, sin is serious business. God did not send Jesus to the earth to die on a cross for trivial reasons. He sent his Son to die for our sins. And no matter how we feel about sin, God takes sin seriously. The death of Jesus that was so painful and shameful was not for ‘inappropriate actions’ or for ‘mistakes’ but for evil sin. And the Bible says in Galatians 1 and verse 4 that Jesus ‘gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.’
Jesus took our sins personally. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2 and verse 24 that, ‘He himself (that is Jesus himself) bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.’ Now the last part of this verse, ‘By his wounds you have been healed,’ is a quotation from Isaiah 53 and verse 5. Isaiah says in verses 5 and 6, ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; and we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’
Because of His love for each of us, He was willing to take the punishment that you and I deserved. God punished Jesus with the death that we should have received. We were the sinners, and He was innocent. His died in our stead and in our place, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
God doesn’t simply want to forgive you of sin. He wants you to change your life. He wants sin out of your life and righteousness in your life. Remember what we read from God’s Word in 1 John 3, verses 7 to 9, ‘Little children, let no one deceive you. But whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. And whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. And the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.’
God also wants a relationship with you. Sin creates a barrier between people and God. And God is holy and righteous. He cannot approve of sin. If you have unresolved sin in your life, you separate yourself from God. You can’t draw close to Him in that condition. He will not accept you. It is only when the blood of Christ cleanses you from that sin that you have an open way to have a relationship. Let’s pray together. O Lord, may our love for You grow more and more. And may our love for You help us to bring ourselves to leave sin behind and follow You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
The devil tries to convince us that sin is a harmless plaything and doesn’t hurt anyone. We don’t like to think of our sins as offensive. We would rather fool ourselves into thinking that nothing is wrong, that everything is okay; while sin works inside our soul as a cancer. We must take our sins seriously.
If we would be right with God, we must first admit that we’ve sinned. Romans 3 and verse 23 says that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ It’s absurd to speak of forgiveness or salvation until we come to grips with our own sin. Second, if we would be right with God, we must hear the Word of God, and take it to heart, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Third, out of faith and love, we must repent of our sins. The Bible says in Acts 17, verses 30 and 31 that, ‘The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’ Repentance is turning from sin to Christ. Romans 12 and verse 9 says that we are to abhor what is evil; and to cling to what is good. Repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change of life.
And last, if we would be right with God, we must be baptized. The messenger Ananias told the sinner Saul of Tarsus in Acts 22 and verse 16, ‘And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’ Baptism is the time that God washes away all our sins with the blood of Christ. Baptism is an immersion in water in the name of Jesus Christ so that our sins might be forgiven. (Acts 2 and verse 38) Today would be a great day for you to be baptized into Christ.
We hope that you’ve been blessed by today’s study. And if you want a free printed copy, a CD, or tape of this message, ‘What Happened to Sin,’ mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or e-mail us: searchtv@searchtv.org.
Or, you can call the Search office toll-free at 1 (800) 321-8633. Our programs also appear on our website; that’s http://www.searchtv.org/. Or you can view or download them in a printed, audio, or video format. We also offer free study sheets to go along with our programs. You can download them free or call us. They will help you study God’s Word.
Please visit one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station or network. The church of Christ loves visitors, and you’ll be glad that you went. Mack and I will be back next week, Lord willing; and so keep searching God’s Word with us and tell a friend. God bless you and we love you from all of us at In Search of the Lord’s Way.”
posted by Christian Gunslinger at 5:24 AM
<< Home