“WARNING: Sin is Dangerous”
Intro: There are many warning signs that give us something to take heed too before proceeding forward or opening a package. How many of us have watched some of the infomercials that give us great promises of a product but do not give you the warning of what could or could not happen. (READ SOME OF THE WARNING LABELS.) What Jesus is giving us is not one of those silly warnings that we all laugh at, but He is giving us a serious warning to be heeded by all of us. Jesus will follow up the warning with an assessment to be made and a fate to be avoided.
Text: Matthew 7:15-20
As we are choosing which path we are going to follow, we do not want anyone to lead us down the wrong path. Jesus is telling us that we have to be careful not to follow the false teachers. A false teacher teaches incorrect doctrine.
- - - - - - - Matthew 7:15-20 - - - - - -
It is hard to tell just by a quick glance. Jim Jones and most all false teachers do some things that look good on the out-side. Jesus says that we will know them by their fruits. Fruit are usually a word used to represent what a person does.
Matthew 7:20 “Therefore by their fruits you shall know them.”
We have to be careful to understand that our works do not give us a ticket to heaven. If we let sin get into our life it will start controlling the way that we walk, the way we talk. It will control our function and our motion and our body. We cannot worship or serve God freely.
WARNINGS GIVEN TO US IN THE WORD OF GOD:
I. KNOWS TO DO GOOD AND DOETH NOT TO HIM IT IS SIN
A. We have to be warned about what SIN can do to our life. We must understand that sin will change a Christian’s life. It will change the way you look at things and it will also change the places you go. When we let sin in and let it corrupt and control us then all of a sudden sin will start to change us.
James 4:17 Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
B. There are many in the church that know what sin looks like but we allow the influence of our flesh or mind to convince us that what we want to do is okay we think that it is Okay. But if we know to do good and do it not we are voiding the warning sign of sin.
ILLUSTRATION: Sin Separates us from God.
C. Most people have the idea if they don’t do certain things they are good Christians. If that were true then my dog is the best Christian I know. He doesn’t steal, he doesn’t drink liquor or any of the things we would consider bad. Priest and Levite passed by wounded
II. BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT
A. There is a lot of people in society today that really feel that they are getting by with their sin. Just because we have not been caught in the action of sin, does not mean that sin will not have its consequences in our life.
Num 32:23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against Jehovah. And be sure your sin will find you out.
B. Cain thought that by hiding Abel that God would never know about him getting angry and killing his brother. But God ask Cain where He was and then said that the blood of your brother is crying to me from the ground.
Gen 4:10 And He said, What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to Me from the ground.
C. David tried covering up His sin with committing other sins. But when it came down to it, David’s sin could not be hid and was automatically revealed unto God and all
ILLUSTRATION: TWO WOMEN, STOP PREACHIN, went Meddlin
III. WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH
A. No matter the rate of inflation, the wages of sin will always be death. Sin has, does, and always will cause death. What is death? Spiritual Death - Relationship to God. No alternative. Sin’s conse-quence is as sure as the the law of gravity. Sin has it consequence.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”
B. Sow Disobedience, Reap Destruction. Just remember that sin will take you farther than you want to go and cost you more than you want to pay and keep you longer than you want to stay.
SIN SEPARATES US FROM GOD
ILLUSTRATION: "Man discovered weapons, invented hunting. Woman discovered hunting, invented furs. Man discovered colors, invented painting. Woman discovered painting, invented make-up. Man discovered agriculture, invented food. Woman discovered food, invented diet..."
I won’t go on, because you get the idea. We choose what we do with what we know. And this morning, we know that the sin in us separates us from God, and unless we deal with the sin effectively, we will be separated from God in this life and for all of eternity....
BAD EMAIL VIRUS
ILLUSTRATION: On 11 May 2000 a lady found a new e-mail message on her computer, which simply said, "I love you". It looked innocent enough, perhaps even romantic. Like most of us would, she clicked to open the message, and the so-called "Love Bug" was born. With lightning speed it raced around the world, bringing politics and business to a halt. It was a deadly computer virus that caused millions of computer software programs to crash. It was only a one little, but it caused so much contamination. But it’s not the first time that a single virus has caused so much grief to mankind. In fact, it’s a kind of replay of a deadlier virus that hit Planet Earth more than six thousand years ago polluting the first human couple, Adam and Eve. Despite God’s warning not to click on to Satan’s message, they did so with appalling consequences for them and through them to all mankind. That virus is called "Sin".
STOP PREACHING, STARTED MEDDLING
Two elderly, excited Southern women were sitting together in the front pew of church listening to a fiery preacher.
When this preacher condemned the sin of stealing, these two ladies cried out at the tops of their lungs, "AMEN, BROTHER!"When the preacher condemned the sin of lust, they yelled again, "PREACH IT, REVEREND!"
And when the preacher condemned the sin of lying, they jumped to their feet and screamed, "RIGHT ON, BROTHER! TELL IT LIKE IT IS... AMEN!"
But when the preacher condemned the sin of gossip, the two got very quiet. One turned to the other and said, "He’s quit preaching and now he’s meddlin’."
