Our Secret Sins And What They Cause
1 Kings 11:1-13
Prayer
Introduction
Two theological students were walking along a street in the White chapel district of London, a section where old and used clothing is sold. "What a fitting illustration all this makes!" said one of the students as he pointed to a suit of clothes hanging on a rack by a window. A sign on it read: SLIGHTLY SOILED -- GREATLY REDUCED IN PRICE.
"That’s it exactly," he continued. "We get soiled by gazing at a vulgar picture, reading a course book, or allowing ourselves a little indulgence in dishonest or lustful thoughts; and so when the time comes for our character to be appraised, we are greatly reduced in value. Our purity, our strength is gone. We are just part and parcel of the general, shopworn stock of the world." Yes, continual slight deviations from the path of right may greatly reduce our usefulness to God and to our fellowman. In fact, these little secret sins can weaken our character so that when we face a moral crisis, we cannot stand the test. As a result, we go down in spiritual defeat because we have been careless about little sins.
That is so very true. But it is not only us that go down in spiritual defeat because of our un-confessed sin in our life but it is also our nation. But how can my sin affect my nation. We are part of this nation and our morals, values, and ethics that we pass on to our children and they to their children spread out to encompass the nation as a whole. When the nation as a whole rejects God’s word and thereby God Himself the nation comes under Judgment just as the individual does. The moral downfall of the United States did not start out overnight but by one individual at a time. And if it is to reverse it must start with one individual at a time. This morning lets us examine what sin is and what it causes.
I. What is Sin?
a. Sin is the violation of God’s commandment.
i. Many people today don’t think that we live under the Law of Moses and we don’t. But I want to point out to us this morning that Jesus Himself. 1) Observed the law as did His apostles. 2) That He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it 3) that not one dot or line would disappear from the law 4) that all scripture was useful for instruction and correction. No we don’t live under the law we have a harder law to fulfill than the ancient Israelites. WE ARE TO LOVE GOD AND ONE ANOTHER. Which means that we are to serve Him and the law can be used as a guide to instruct us in where we are wrong?
ii. Sin can be big or small. From stealing a paper clip at work to murder in God’s eyes it is all the same.
1. Not paying taxes that we legally owe. Jesus said that were to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.
2. speeding
3. lying
4. cheating
5. Stealing- be it money, time from work, time from family, time from God.
b. Sin is doing anything outside of God’s will.
i. We are commanded to study God’s word, not to occupy our time or to say that we have read it, but so we can know what we are to do as Christians.
ii. Under the New Covenant we have a harder law to follow than the Law of Moses.
1. our two great laws are to love God with all our hearts
2. Love one another. We are to love and pray for those who hurt and hate us.
a. Which is harder to do? To bring the appropriate lamb at the right time to sacrifice or to love our enemies.
c. When we refuse to do what God has called us to do in His Word we are sinning and we cut off that close personal relationship to God by our very own actions.
i. Sin blocks communication with our Heavenly Father.
ii. Without that relationship we are wondering blindly in this dark world.
iii. Our spiritual growth stops and may ever reverse because we are no longer depending on Him.
II. Why are we not to sin?
a. Sin will cause us to be hurt and as a church sins it becomes apostate and when the church in a nation becomes apostate the nation will be hurt, physically as well as spiritually.
i. As we individually and nationally become more worldly we choose more and more to disregard God’s word.
1. Our laws begin to go against God’s word.
2. Our morals and values will reverse into what is good is wrong and what is wrong is good.
3. The nation as a whole begins to get caught up in the sin of political correctness. We can’t say anything against this or that or protest against something because it would make someone mad.
b. As we ignore God’s commands, negative consequences result.
c. It is not enough to know God’s word or even believe it; we must follow it and apply it to life daily activities.
d. We must take God’s commands seriously.
e. We all have weak spots and it is here where we face temptation. We are to avoid those temptation and face them in the strength of the Lord.
i. If we don’t give our temptations over to Christ we will give in to them in our own strength.
ii. We can’t overcome our temptations in our own power. We may resist for a while but eventually our strength will wear our.
iii. We will begin to rationalize that the weakness or sin is okay, it is not as bad as somebody else’s sin.
iv. In our nation today we have rationalized many reasons why our national sins are okay.
1. abortion- mothers right to decide
2. Pre-martial sex- lets live together and see if it will work our. It is hurting no one. It is my body I can do with it what I want.
3. Homosexuality- God made me this way (wrong answer God makes no mistakes. He did not make you that way. He made man and woman and put them together as man and wife. He did not create homosexuality man did. Sin and your own sin nature makes you want to go against God’s natural order. Sin enters and you become so depraved that you will want to go against God’s divine plan)
4. Taking God out of our nation.
f. Sin affects our spiritual growth. When we lose that personal relationship with God then we stop growing until we confess that sin and regain that close personal relationship with Him again. The Word of God is the wisdom we must seek in our life. We are to use it at all times.
i. We may know the right way to live but sin will try to prevent us from living that right way.
ii. Many people know right from wrong but they don’t always do right.
iii. We need to develop not only the wisdom to do right but the will to do it.
g. Sin causes us to run away from God.
i. Not an abrupt but a gradual process.
ii. Over time little sins grow until we fall.
iii. We make excuses for sins and that causes us troubles. We must never let any sin go unchallenged.
iv. Unchallenged sin is like a cancer and it will spread through us to those around us to our nation.
III. How are we to deal with Sin?
a. We are to confess that Sin to God
b. We are to ask for the strength to resist temptation
c. We are to have faith that through Him you can overcome.
Our sins can and do affect our nation. We must confess our sins as an individual and as a nation and Ask God to lead our nation once again.
IV. conclusion
a. Pastor Lee Strobel shares this account:
We were doing a baptism service. We told people before they came up to the platform to be baptized to take a piece of paper, write down a few of the sins they’ve committed, and fold the paper. When they come up to the platform, there was a large wooden cross on the stage. Take that piece of paper, take a pin, and pin it to the cross, because the Bible says our sins are nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ, and fully paid for by his death. Then turn and come to the pastor to be baptized.
I want to read you a letter a woman wrote who was baptized in one of those services. She said:
I remember my fear. In fact, it was the most fear I remember in my life. I wrote as tiny as I could on that piece of paper the word abortion. I was so scared someone would open the paper and read it and find out it was me. I wanted to get up and walk out of the auditorium during the service, the guilt and fear were that strong.
When my turn came, I walked toward the cross, and I pinned the paper there. I was directed to a pastor to be baptized. He looked me straight in the eyes, and I thought for sure that he was going to read this terrible secret I kept from everybody for so long. But instead, I felt like God was telling me, I love you. It’s okay. You’ve been forgiven. I felt so much love for me, a terrible sinner. It’s the first time I ever really felt forgiveness and unconditional love. It was unbelievable, indescribable.
Do you have inside of you a secret sin that you wouldn’t even want to write down on a piece of paper out of fear somebody might open it up and find out? Let me tell you something about the Jesus I know. Not only does he want to adopt you as his child, he wants to lift the weight of guilt off your shoulders.
b. That is what God wants to do today He wants to lift your guilt from your shoulders. Come and be free today.
