March 29

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. [2] He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

[3] We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. [4] The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. [5] But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: [6] Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Whatever happened to sin? You sometimes hear public figures who have been caught doing something really wrong make an inane “apology” like, “Mistakes were made.” Or, “I regret that I did not live up to people’s expectations.” Or, “My remarks were taken out of context.” Or, “It wasn’t meant personally.” Or, “Yes, I killed my wife, but PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) made me do it.” Or, we rename our sins with euphemisms: we are greedy, but we call it prudent. We are angry but call it righteous indignation. We are rude but call it being straightforward. Whatever happened to sin? There are a lot of things wrong with the shame-based face-saving cultures of the far East, but at least they have a proper sense of sin, and shame for it. When their governmental officials are caught in corruption or immorality, they don’t bluster their way through it with the help of professional spin doctors—they go on public television, confess their sins, take responsibility for them, and resign in disgrace. We could use a healthy dose of that in our culture.

As we look forward to Good Friday, the day when Jesus Christ was crucified, we have to consider this business of sin. And we have to take it seriously, because God did. God took our sin so seriously, He was willing to send His Son to the cross for it.

What would you say sin is? What is the essence of the matter? We all probably think we have a general idea of what it is; go ahead and share that with someone near you. How would you define sin?

As you might guess in a book that has as its major theme the sinfulness of mankind and God’s efforts to save us from that, the Bible uses lots of different words for sin. The most common words for sin in both Hebrew and Greek mean to miss the mark[1], or to deviate from the goal. Another common pair of words[2] means to break a relationship, through rebellion or revolution. In general, we can say that sin is anything that displeases God, anything that is contrary to His nature and His will for us. God Himself and His revealed will are the standard; anything less than that is sin.

You don’t have to read far in the Bible to discover that God hates sin. I mean, He really hates it. It’s not just that He wishes we wouldn’t do it, or it annoys Him. He hates it.

We don’t. We tolerate it. We tolerate it in others—“that’s just they way they are”; “boys will be boys”; we are not surprised or outraged when our top entertainers and athletes are morally and ethically bankrupt. And we tolerate it in ourselves. “It’s not so bad.” “It was only one time.” “Everybody does it.” And of course, the ever-popular, “That’s just the way I am.” We are masters at justifying our sin, making excuses, rationalizing why it was OK.

But worse than that, we not only tolerate sin in our lives; we entertain it. We play with it; we toy with it. We see how far we can go without falling off the cliff. We say, “I’ll just have one drink.” We fantasize about someone else in an unhealthy way, and we tell ourselves it’s OK, because we didn’t do anything. Men, especially, try to convince themselves that it’s OK to, “look but don’t touch”, when the look, Jesus said, is tantamount to adultery. We harbor bitterness and resentment in our souls and keep rehearsing over and over again how much that other person hurt us. 1 John 2:1 says, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.” Period. But we take it to mean, “…that you will not sin very much.”

We don’t take sin seriously because we don’t really think it is all that dangerous. After all, it’s enjoyable. At least at first. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t do it. People don’t lie to others because it hurts; they think it helps them get what they want out of that relationship. People don’t steal because it’s unpleasant; they do it because they enjoy using other people’s money and possessions. We don’t gossip, and slander someone in spite of the personal pain it causes us—we do it because we like hurting their reputation and making ourselves look better in comparison. Men don’t watch X-rated movies and pornographic web sites to punish themselves—it’s pleasurable. Sin is always fun, pleasurable, enjoyable—it gratifies us at some level; it satisfies some desire in us. And we rationalize that it’s not all that bad.

Hebrews 3:13, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” Sin is deceitful, in that it presents itself to us as fun, as pleasure, as satisfying. But underneath the glossy cover is poison to our souls. When you betray a friendship, something bad happens to your character. When you cheat on a test, you fracture your integrity. When you harbor bitterness in your heart, your rob yourself of joy. Sin is like a corrupt mortgage broker assuring you that this house is perfect, and look at all the amenities and upgrades, and why bother about how much it will cost? We’ll start you out on an interest-only Adjustable Rate Mortgage, and you can handle it easily. And you can—for a while. And then the adjustable rate adjusts; when sin really has its hooks in you good, then you discover that it’s not so fun any more. We were deceived; we were sold a bill of goods; we were suckered by sin.

Sin is so destructive to us and the people we love that we should actually fear it. We ought to treat sin like a corrosive acid—would you really want to carry a bottle of that around in your pocket? What if you spill some of it on yourself, or on someone you care about? The label on sin may say, “Hand Lotion”, or “Eye Drops”, or “Liquid Vitamins”, but inside the bottle is sulfuric acid.

God hates sin. His attitude toward sin is so different from ours that it makes us wonder, why is that?

The short answer is, because He loves us so much. He hates sin, because of what it does to us, whom He loves. I am certainly not picking on him, but I think the example of John Snyder can be very instructive for us here. Many of you know that John was a member of our church, and served our congregation well as a part time minister of pastoral care. He visited people in the hospital, and nursing homes, he visited folks who couldn’t get out to church. He genuinely loved older people, and had a very gentle, pastoral way with them. He was a real asset to us.

Now, tragically, John has been charged with multiple counts of sexually abusing children in the day care that his wife Joyce ran in their home. He is in the Larimer County jail now, awaiting a court date. His sin has destroyed his life. It destroyed Joyce’s ability to run a day care center, because the county took her license away. It is destroying their marriage, as Joyce has filed for divorce. It will cause them to lose their home. It has damaged the little girls involved. He may spend years in prison. His sons and their families are devastated. That’s why God hates sin—because of what it does to us!

Well, you say, yes, but not all sin is that serious. That’s true in one sense. Not all sins have the same degree of consequences. But all sin is corrosive to our souls, and all sin damages our relationship with God.

The whole reason God has pursued us so extremely in Jesus Christ is so that He can enjoy sweet fellowship with us. He loves us. As incredible as it sounds, the Creator of the universe wants to be with us. When we put our trust in Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross, our sins are forgiven, we are reconciled with God, and we are united with Him in a bond of love that is just incredible. But then if we sin, that breaks our fellowship with Him. It does not break our relationship with Him—we are still His sons and daughters. Just like when our kids violate the family rules, they are still our kids. But the fellowship, the sense of closeness, the ability to enjoy each other’s company and love—that is destroyed by our disobedience.

The Apostle John put it this way: 1 John 1:5-6 (NLT), “This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. [6] So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth.” That seems pretty clear, doesn’t it? God is light; sin is darkness. If we are living in unconfessed sin, then we are in darkness, and by definition, that means we are not in the light of God’s love and fellowship. We have stepped outside the circle of His light and love.

God hates that. And we should too. One of the things that is so evil about sin is that it desensitizes us to things that ought to matter to us. For example, it makes us not care that we are out of fellowship with God. It deceives us into thinking we’re still OK with Him, that nothing has really changed between us. We’re not OK! And that ought to drive us to distraction until we confess our sin and receive His forgiveness.

I’ve mentioned two reasons why we ought to hate sin and want to live a holy life: because it hurts us, and it breaks our fellowship with God. But there is another reason that seems to me to be even more important why we would want to avoid sin, and that is God’s love.

2 Cor. 5:14-15, “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. [15] And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” When I look at the cross, and see that Jesus died for me, I realize that I am not my own any more. I owe Him my life. I shouldn’t live for myself—I should live for Him, because He sacrificed Himself to save me. If you fell through the ice, and someone saved your live, wouldn’t you feel an enormous debt of gratitude to that person? Wouldn’t you want to do anything you could to serve and please that person? Wouldn’t you want to make them glad they saved you? That’s the way it is with us and Christ. I don’t want to disappoint the One who loves me that much. I want Him to be proud of me. I want to please Him in every way I can. His love for me compels me to serve Him with my whole life and obey Him at every point.

OK, let’s get practical. IF we are motivated to avoid sin and live a holy life, how can we do that?

Jesus taught us to pray, Matthew 6:13, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” We make light of the danger and distort this into a joke: “Lead me not into temptation; I can find it by myself.” But this ought to be our regular prayer—especially when we are heading into a situation where we know we will be tempted. If you are in the grocery store, men, and you tend to walk too slowly through the magazine aisle because of all the skin that is pictured there, pray before you go in, “Lead me not into temptation,” and choose not to walk down that aisle. Be on your guard.

I used to hate to go to pastors’ conferences because I always came back feeling like a failure, because I compared myself with everyone there. So I learned I had to pray that God would lead me not into the temptation to get down on myself, and that He would deliver me from the evil one at those conferences. Then I was on my guard, aware of the danger, and would catch myself each time I started making those negative comparisons with other pastors.

The wisdom of the wise man Solomon was, Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Guard what gets in to your heart. Because that is the wellspring, the source, of everything that comes out of your life. Your words, your attitudes, your tone of voice, the way you handle criticism, the way you evaluate a movie, the kind of relationship you have with your parents or your children, the way you do your work—everything about you comes from your heart. So guard your heart like Fort Knox.

Our eyes and ears are the primary paths into our hearts. The Scripture says, Proverbs 6:27, “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” Neither can you entertain lustful thoughts, or angry thoughts, or selfish thoughts, or greedy thoughts without being affected. You cannot uncritically watch TV and movies that portray immorality in a good light without thinking that maybe sex outside of marriage, or an affair, isn’t so bad. You cannot play violent video games without being nudged a little closer to violence yourself. You cannot rip on somebody at school and not have your conscience seared a little. Don’t kid yourself that you aren’t affected. You cannot scoop a shovel full of burning coals into your lap and not be burned.

Romans 13:13-14, “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. [14] Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Have you never planned ahead to do something sinful? Sure you have; we all have. Don’t do that! Guard yourself; ask God to protect you; cry out to Him when you find yourself planning to sin.

Secondly, if you want to avoid sin and life a life that is pleasing to the one who saved you,

1 Cor. 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” More often than not, the way out that God provides comes through our free will—the ability to say No. We can, and we must resist that temptation, that enticement from the devil. We have a joke: “The devil made me do it.” It’s just one more cop-out, because the devil can’t make us do anything. He tempts us, and we say Yeah, sure, sign me up, I want more of that. We could say no, but we don’t.

1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. [9] Resist him, standing firm in the faith…”[3] Be alert—be on your guard. Life is not a cake walk. This is not a game. It is deadly, all-out spiritual warfare, and the enemy is very cunning and very strong. He is like a mountain lion, stalking the hiker in the mountains, creeping along silently behind you, until just the right moment when you are not paying attention, when your guard is down, when you think you can handle that temptation on your own, when you think it isn’t all that serious. And then he springs!, grabs you by the throat, and drags you off behind the bushes. But we can resist him. We can be on our guard. We can rely on God’s strength. We can say No.

The psalmist wrote, Psalm 119:9-11, “How can a young (or old) man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. [10] I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. [11] I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Somebody said, God can only bring those verses to mind that you have hidden in your heart. That’s true, and the more deeply we have meditated on those passages, and the more thoroughly we have memorized them, the closer to the surface they will be when we need them.

If there is a particular sin that you struggle with a lot, it would be a good idea to find some verses that relate to that, and memorize those passages. For example, I tend to fret about finances too much (is it possible any of you are fretting in this recession also?), so I regularly go over verses like these:

C Lament. 3:22-23, “Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. [23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

C Or Philip. 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. [7] And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

A person who struggles with lust could memorize Matthew 5:28, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Gossip? Proverbs 16:28, “A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.”

You get the idea. And if you need help finding a verse for your particular need, give me a call—I’ll be glad to help you.

But it is a tremendous help in our battle against temptation and sin to be able to remind ourselves of what God has said about that particular behavior. It helps us avoid rationalizing it away and telling ourselves it’s not all that serious. It reminds us that to continue in that pattern is open rebellion against the Lord.

Finally, the greatest aid God has given us to keep our lives holy is our Christian brothers and sisters. He knew we couldn’t live this life without some help, so He puts us in the family of God, surrounds us with others who hold the same values we do, who are striving to become more Christ-like, just as we are. And He expects us to rely on one another in order to live in a way that pleases Him.

Hebrews 3:12-13, “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13, “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 word translated encourage means to beseech, to exhort, to earnestly request. It can be a positive, “attaboy” encouragement, or more of a, “You need to do this (or stop doing that).” Notice that the command is addressed to the body at large, “see to it, brothers”, so that we all, corporately, have a responsibility for each individual: “see to it that none (no one) of you has a sinful unbelieving heart.”

Col. 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom..” Admonish one another. When was the last time you admonished someone other than a family member or a subordinate at work? We don’t like to do this, and as a result, the Body of Christ is often sick, weak, and an embarrassment to Jesus.

There are two specific points that need to be mentioned with regard to this accountability. One is that sometimes, it will require us to bring correction to a brother or sister. Here are two passages to that effect.

James 5:19-20, “My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”

Galatians 6:1-2 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ was to love others as He loved us. He loved His men enough to tell them when they were wrong. He pointed out their lack of faith, and chastised them for not praying with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He even loved the Pharisees enough to tell them where they had missed God’s heart and will. We need to love one another that much. I fear that our love for the people sitting around us this morning is way too anemic; we need a shot of spiritual iron tablets to put a little steel in our backbones.

2. Honesty required James 5:16; Pr 27:17, 6; cf. Lev 5:5; Num 5:7; 1 Sam 7:6; Ezra 10:1; 10:11; Neh. 1:6; Neh. 9:2-3; Pr 28:13; Matt 3:6; Mark 1:5; Acts 19:18

The other side of the coin is that if this accountability relationship is to work, we need to be honest with one another about our own lives. We have to be vulnerable. The reason we are so reluctant to admonish each other is because people tend to get defensive; they’re not open to correction. James 5:16, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed…” And that is very scary. We have developed public confession of sin into a fine art. “God, please forgive me for not being consistent with my Quiet Time.” “Forgive me for losing my temper at the dog.” “I confess I haven’t loved my neighbor as myself.” All very safe; and all very worthless. We don’t dare tell anyone else what we really feel guilty about, because we don’t want to be embarrassed. We’d rather continue in our sin, and suffer all the terrible consequences of that, than be humiliated by telling someone else what we have really been thinking or doing. Certainly John Snyder was like that. And so are we. Is there anyone on earth—anyone at all—who knows what you are most ashamed of in your life right now? If not, how can they help you? As long as we pretend to have it all together, they can’t help us.

On your sermon outline this morning, I have given you the accountability questions that we ask all our staff in their annual performance reviews (or more frequently, if the need arises.) These could be used by anyone who was passionate enough about pleasing Jesus Christ to ask someone to be their accountability partner.

1. Have you been a testimony this period to the greatness of Jesus Christ with both your words and actions?

2. Have you lingered over sexually alluring material, or allowed your mind to entertain inappropriate sexual thoughts about another person this period?

3. Have you lacked integrity in your financial dealings, or coveted something that does not belong to you?

4. Have you been honoring, understanding, and generous in your important relationships this period?

6. Have you damaged another person by your words, either behind their back or face-to-face?

Very often, I find as I try to answer these questions (which I did just this week), the answers are not a simple “yes” or “no”. My life is seldom all black or all white; I’m usually varying shades of gray. But it is so helpful to try to honestly assess where I am on these matters. And to have others around me who love me enough to tell me if I am only deceiving myself. I want to strongly encourage every one of you to have someone in your life who loves you that much, and you have to take the initiative to be open and honest with them about the deeper, and darker, things in your life. Pr 27:6, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” Which do you want in your life—someone who will give you false “kisses”—false assurances that you’re all right? Or someone who loves you enough to tell you the hard truth about yourself?

[1] Hebrew ht’ and Greek hamartia. New Bible Dictionary, (Tyndale: 1962), p.1116f.

[2] Hebrew ps‘ and Greek asebeia. ibid.

[3] The context of this verse is standing firm against the many temptations to sin that are inherent in persecution, but the principle applies to all temptations.