Sin – It Matters

SIN

 

1) In 30 seconds, write down as many sins in God’s eyes that you can think of.

2) In 30 seconds, write down people that you know and their sins.

3) In 30 seconds, write down your sins.

 

How many sins are on paper #1?  #2?  #3?

 

Name some of the sins on the 3 papers.

 

Who are those sins AGAINST?

 

Who is affected by that sin?

 

How are they affected?

 

Do you sit around thinking about your sins and how you have fallen short of what God expects of you?

 

Why?

 

Sin is not a popular subject. Nobody wants to think about their own sin, because it makes them feel bad about themselves, less or worse than other people. Maybe it makes us afraid that it will mean that the bad things people have said about us might be true, and that we are not good, or even worse, worthless.

 

What is sin?  Anything that is not of faith. –

Rom 14:23 – But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

 

What is faith?  Trusting that God will provide for us the things that we need in His timing.  (All the sinful acts we name on our lists are simply outward expressions of the underlying sin of not trusting in God.)

 

What does faith result in? If we have faith in Him, what will we do?  We will act as though we trust in Him and believe that what He says is right, and obey Him even when we don’t like it or it seems strange to us. Basically, faith results in obedience.

 

And what does sin result in?  Disobedience to God, doing our own thing.

 

How do we know what acts of obedience to do and what acts to avoid?

First, we have to know what He wants us to do (or not to do) before we can trust and obey Him.

Do you know what He wants you to do or not to do?

Where do you get your information about what God wants you to do?

Romans 10:17 – Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

 

Where does the word about Christ come from?

1) The bible

Do you believe in the Bible and what it says?  I know a man who talks about “the good Lord”, but He doesn’t believe in the bible. I asked him, “how do you know He is a good Lord if you don’t believe in the bible? Where are you getting your information about Him?  How do you know Jesus is God if not from the Bible? And if you get that part from the Bible, how do you pick and choose which parts to believe and which not to believe?

 

I know a woman who just makes stuff up about God because it is how she would like to think He is and what He wants and what He offers her. But just because that is how she wants it to be doesn’t mean it is how things really are.

 

What is your standard or source for what you believe?  Is it what you were taught from your family, or from Sunday School at church?  How do you know that what you believe is true?

 

Do you think it is antiquated and out of date and not applicable to our current lives? Someone told me it is 2000 years old and can’t possibly be accurate. But over 40 authors from different walks of life over 6000 years wrote the same things about God, his personality, his actions and covenants.  The prophecies from the Old Testament alone that have come to pass are statistically impressive. What really impresses me, though, is that writings from 2000 years ago described me perfectly, explained to me the struggle I was having within, and showed me the way out of it. Is that just coincidence?

 

If you believe the bible, then you have to take seriously what God the Father and the Son have said in it.  And God the Father and Jesus the Son have been very clear about what they expect from us. They expect us to live a self-sacrificial life, obeying God’s commands first, and then pouring ourselves out on behalf of others. Serving others without obeying God first is useless, it is a wash.  You can’t pick and choose which of the commands you will obey and which you will ignore.

 

2) The Holy Spirit (who will never tell you to do something that goes against the bible).

John 14: 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 15: 26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

John 16:

Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

So you have the Bible to know what Christ has said and requires from you, and the Holy Spirit within you will tell you what to do. The question is whether or not you will pick up your cross, crucify your own flesh, be willing to give up whatever He asks of you, and follow Him.  Or will you continue to just do whatever you feel like doing?

 

I know that we have a lot of new (or newly returned) Christians in the house who are just discovering God’s plan for them, and His power for their lives. They are getting over addictions, and God is peeling one layer of the onion at a time, overlooking some sins at the moment because He has bigger fish to fry with more dangerous and destructive sins. But DO NOT MISTAKE HIS NOT PUNISHING YOU FOR YOUR KNOWN SINS as Him thinking it is ok for you to keep doing what you are doing. IT IS NOT.

 

GOD HATES SIN. He loves the sinner, but He hates the sin. And make no mistake, SIN SEPARATES YOU FROM GOD. You can’t hear the Holy Spirit when you are in disobedience, and you lose the power of the Holy Spirit as well. You become weak and impotent and useless when you remain in sin. And worst of all, you take the cross of Christ and spit on it by continuing to sin, saying that the agony of the cross, and the beatings and the whippings He endured really don’t mean much to you.

 

John 14 – 15 has a lot to say about sin:

 

John 14:

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth.

 

21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

 

23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me,31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

 

John 15:

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

 

We don’t have to fear facing our sins if we are ready to admit our sins and ask for forgiveness for our sins as well as the grace to overcome our sins. God will even initiate the conversation and restore you to Himself.    If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

John 13:37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

 

John 21:15-17New King James Version (NKJV)

Jesus Restores Peter

15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah,[a] do you love Me more than these?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah,[b] do you love Me?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah,[c] do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”

And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.

 

As soon as they had finished breakfast (cf. 21:12–13), Jesus initiated the restoration by confronting Peter. That He addressed him as “Simon, son of John” suggests that what followed was a rebuke. Jesus had given Simon the nickname “Peter” (John 1:42), but sometimes referred to him as “Simon” when Peter did something that needed rebuke or correction (e.g., Matt. 17:25;Mark 14:37Luke 22:31). It was as if our Lord called him by his former name when he was acting like his former self. The Lord’s pointed question, “Do you love Me more than these (i.e., the boat, nets, and other fishing paraphernalia)?” went right to the heart of the issue. As noted in the previous chapter of this volume, Peter, impatient at Jesus’ delay in meeting the disciples and beleaguered by his own failures, had impulsively decided to return to being a fisherman (21:3). That he was sure he could do well—or so he had thought. But Jesus confronted Peter and called him to follow Him and be the fisher of men he was first called to be (Matt. 4:19).

 

For the third time Jesus accepted the apostle’s recognized failure and imperfection

Daily sin does not disqualify you from His service forever, nor permanently separate you from God the Father. But it can temporarily disqualify you and separate you from God. If you will not choose to remain in Him, and fight to obey His commands out of love for Him, then you will not bear fruit, and barren branches are cast into the fire. They are useless.

James 1: 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Genesis 4:7

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

 

James 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

 

Proverbs 5: 21 For your ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all your paths.

22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast.

 

Mark 7:20-23

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

James 4:7 ESV / 141 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Galatians 5:16 ESV / 132 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

1 John 3:4 ESV / 100 helpful votes

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV / 71 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

 

Col 3:5-6 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.

 

Proverbs 28:13 Whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

 

1 John 1:7-9:

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness.