Urban Legends Part 3
“All sin is the same”
Rom 3:10-20, Luke 12:47-48, I Cor 5:6-8, Numbers 15:27-30, Leviticus 4:27-29 & 5, Rev 22:11
Introduction
A. We have been doing a sermon series on Urban legends. It seems with the invention of the internet and emails urban legends get passed around much more quickly. The sad thing is that they are believed and then passed along without being looked into. It makes it hard to know what to believe and what not to believe.
B. One urban legend that I have received a lot of email about over the years has been about what really happened on 9/11 with the Twin Towers. Let’s do a live poll. How many of you think the destruction of the Twin Towers was the result of a conspiracy perpetrated by the US government or some group other than the Moslem terrorist that we have all been told about? Go ahead and send in your text vote. The number to send it to is on the other screen. You can only vote one time, so you can vote now or wait until I am done.
C. There are stories that are being passed around about what really happened on 9/11. There are about 16 different conspiracy theories. Here are a few of them
D. One rumor claims the reason for the collapse of the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York was not the planes crashing into them but a controlled detonation of explosives planted inside the buildings. All sorts of comparisons are made about other high rise building collapsing by controlled explosives. If you are really interested in finding out all you have to do is a Google search on debunking 9/11 conspiracies and you will find clear explanations on the structure of the twin towers and why they collapsed the way they did. How the fire caused by the plane fuel plus the high winds and the severe impact caused by the plane crashing into the building caused the building to eventually collapse. These reports go into incredible detail with blue prints and plenty of scientific explanations that support the collapse caused by the plane crash.
E. The conspiracy to blow up the Twin Towers was supposedly done several different groups.
1. The building owner Larry Silverstein supposedly blew up the buildings because he was losing money with low occupancy rates and was going to have to remove asbestos in the buildings which would cost millions. So he decided it would be best to blow up the building after he took out a big insurance policy. The truth is, very little asbestos was actually only used in WTC #1, none used in WTC #2. As to occupancy rates, September 2001 occupancy rates were 98%, which in the rental industry is considered 100%, can’t really go any higher! He did collect over $4 billion on the policy but that has to be used for the rebuilding of the Twin Towers current estimates right now are running $7 B, so Mr. Silverman is currently raising money to rebuild them, so far not showing much a profit if in fact he blew up the buildings.
2. The other idea that has President Bush and his entire extended family plus VP Chaney, the CIA, the FBI, and the Secret Service were all involved in a conspiracy to blow up these buildings so they could all make millions of dollars. Does anyone see a major flaw in this idea? In order for conspiracies like this to work there would need to be hundreds if not thousands of people involved to pull it off without one person leaking any information to the news media. No one disgruntled because they didn’t get enough money. This would not be a group of people who were loyal to some cause, their only motivation would have been money. There would have been people with access to high security areas in several buildings, plus a large group of people had to work together to purposely destroy all the evidence not just from Twin Towers but also from the plane crash in PA and Pentagon. There would be people planting the bombs, and detonating the bombs at the right time perfect with the building falling in sequence, so no one would know. This would not be a group of people who were loyal to some cause, their only motivation would have been money and no one has leaked this information out. This is borders on insanity.
F. Every time you hear conspiracy theories you will hear references made to ‘they’ as though it was done by two or three people when in fact in order for these conspiracies to really happen you would need hundreds of people involved without anyone leaking info to the media. Not too likely.
G. Then there is a rumor is circulating that says the famous 16th century astrologer Nostradamus prophesied of the 9/11 destruction. His prophecy is said to have referred to the month, year, the location, and a reference that could be interpreted as referring to the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Here is what Nostradamus supposedly said, “In the year of the new century and nine months, From the sky will come a great King of Terror. The sky will burn at forty-five degrees. Fire approaches the great new city. In the city of York there will be a great collapse, 2 twin brothers torn apart by chaos while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb, a third big war will begin when the big city is burning.” The rumor goes on to say New York City is at the 45 degree latitude on the map, and the 2 twin brothers are the Twin Towers and the year of the new century is 2001 and nine months is September. Sounds impressive, but here is the actual prophecy from Nostradamus, “At forty-five degrees the sky will burn, fire to approach the great new city: In an instant a great scattered flame will leap up, when one will want to demand proof of the Normans.” (quatrain 6-97) Nothing mentioned ‘in the year of the new century and nine months” or ‘From the sky will come a great King of Terror.’ There is NO reference ‘In the city of york there will be a great collapse, OR “2 twin brothers torn apart by chaos while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb, third big war will begin when the big city is burning.’ Besides New York City is at 40-41 degree latitude. Did Nostradamus predict the terrorist attack on New York? FALSE. Even Nostradamus experts say this not accurate.
H. The fact is that these buildings were blown up by terrorists from Moslem countries who hate America and our freedoms. They were an organized group willing to kill innocent people to advance their hateful propaganda. That is the only conspiracy that is true but for some reason people will carry this on forever like the conspiracies about who really assassinations of President Lincoln and President Kennedy.
I. Just like there are urban legends that just seem to never die and are passed around and believed by many, there are many urban legends that are believed about God, Jesus and Christianity. They are passed around without looking to find out if they are true or false. They seem to live on even though they are not true. Before passing them along it would be good to check into them to see if they are true. We have already covered two of the most popular spiritual urban legends, “There are many ways to God,” and “The Bible is full of contradictions.” Both of them are false. Today we are going to continue our sermon series called “Urban Legends” as we look into another very popular ‘Urban Legend.’ This one is about sin. There are all sorts of Urban Legends about sin. We have probably heard many of them. “All sin is the same.” Or “I am not really that bad, I’m a pretty good person. Why should I worry about sin now, why not wait until I am old.” Anyone ever hear that or something like it? Yes, pretty popular belief, the question we want to ask today before we pass it around, is this true or false? We are going to start in Romans.
Let’s not talk about sin
A. Let’s do this. If you will, would you look to the person to your right? Everybody look to your right. Everybody now look to left. Look to the person to your left. Very good. Now look at the person behind you, maybe a couple of people behind you. Go ahead and turn around. Look at behind you. Okay, you got them? Now, I want you to point at the one that looks like the biggest sinner. Go ahead and … go ahead and … a lot of people are pointing at each other, so it feels a bit weird to point at a person that you think would be the biggest sinner.
B. In fact, in a lot of churches today don’t like to talk about sin. “We don’t call people sinners. We don’t want to make people feel bad about themselves. We don’t want to talk about sin, and we don’t want to call people sinners. We just want to encourage people. We want to uplift people. We want to make people feel better about themselves.” In some respects this is good news, because we do need encouragement, and there are a lot of people that are discouraged, and a good encouraging message is important. But, if we don’t talk about sin, the reality of our sin nature, and its destructive power and its eternal consequences, then we, as the church, are doing perhaps the most incredible disservice to people that we could ever do with our entire lives. We water this down if we pretend like it is not a big deal. We are preaching a very, very dangerous message.
C. If you look around today what is really, really sad is that, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between people that are believers and people that are not believers just from the outside. You look at the actions and the lifestyles. For example, if you look at studies today, you will find that just as many, if not more, Christians divorce as do non-Christians, and it should not be that way. If you look at generosity and how much people give, studies show that non-Christians are just as generous, and some studies say more generous than those who call themselves believers. You think about it. If you look at my life from the outside, and there is little or no difference about the way I do life than say, someone who doesn’t claim Christ, and there is no difference on the outside, at some point, you are going to have to ask yourself, “Is there a real difference on the inside?” What’s the problem today in the church world? I think part of the problem is that so many people today want to add Christ to their lives, kind of like a little add-on. We want to add Christ without subtracting sin. We want all of the benefits of calling ourselves a believer, but we don’t want anything that Jesus teaches to really affect the way that we do everyday life. We want a revival in our hearts without repentance in our lives. We want to add Christ without subtracting sin. We would actually prefer not to talk about sin because it makes most of us uncomfortable.
D. There are a lot of urban legends about sin. Let’s look at a couple of them.
“I am not that bad” Rom 3:10-20
A. The first urban legend about sin, and I am sure you have all heard it and maybe some of you actually believe it goes something like this: “I’m not a bad person. You know, there are a lot of bad people in the world, but generally, I am a pretty good person.” Or “People by nature, they are pretty good.”
B. Are you ready for this? “You are a very, very bad person. You are a sinner!” I know we don’t like to hear this but it is true. I’m a sinner. You’re a sinner. We are born with a sin nature, separated and bent toward sinfulness. We are, by nature, sinful people.
C. In fact this is what scripture says in Rom 3:10-20. The Bible says that there is no one that does good. We are sinful human beings, and we have to recognize that. If we don’t, we are in great spiritual danger. Unless we see ourselves as sinners, we will not see our need for a Savior. Unless we recognize that we are separated from God by our sinfulness, we will not see our need for a relationship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Savior. So many people like to say, “I’m not that bad of a person,” Usually because we are comparing ourselves with other people. We’ll watch the news and go, “Dude, that guy who just got arrested, he’s bad. She’s a mess. Can you believe what she did? She’s bad. I’m not that bad.”
D. This legend gets spread because all we have to do is compare ourselves to someone who is not as good as us. It is easy to find people who are bad. When we compare ourselves to people, we don’t feel that bad. The problem with this urban legend is that it doesn’t matter if we are not as bad as someone else, what ultimately matters is how we compare to God’s standard of ‘good.” When we compare ourselves to a holy God, all of a sudden we realize this legend is just a legend. It is not true. In fact in Isaiah 64:6, scripture says that, “All of our righteous acts,” everything that we have ever done that is right and holy and pure, all of that added up together is like filthy rags.” Now, how bad is that? This means that your best attempt at righteousness is like a pile of filthy rages In other words, it’s a very polite way of saying, “You’re nasty!” Okay? Our best attempt at righteousness in the eyes of God falls incredibly short. “I’m not a bad person.” No, not true. We are very, very sinful in the eyes of God, and unless we recognize that, we are not going to see our need for Jesus and the saving work He did for us on the cross.
“All sin is the same” Luke 12:47-48
A. Okay since we are all sinners, then why worry about it. That brings up the next UL, “All sin is the same anyway”
B. Sin is missing the mark. It is an archery term. It was used in archery contests. When a person shot his arrow if it did not hit the bull’s eye, the judge would call out, “He sinned!” The bull’s eye represents God’s perfect will. There are different degrees of sin. In an archery contest, the one whose arrow is closer to the bull’s eye wins the contest. Would we say, it does not matter, you both lose or both win? No, the closer to the bull’s eye the better, the further from the bull’s eye the worse. We can miss the mark by one inch or by one foot. If you are in a contest that can make a big difference. If you are in a war that can make a big difference. When you are hunting it makes the difference whether you get your deer or shoot a leaf.
C. All sin is not the same; there are many different kinds of sin and many different consequences of these sins.
1. There are sins of omission, not doing what we should be doing. We may look good on the outside but on the inside we are full of disobedience. Sometimes we kind of obey God, but not fully, that is a sin of omission. Maybe it is not far from the bull’s eye but it is never the less sin.
2. There are sins of the mind. We can think hateful thoughts towards people and Jesus said that is murder. “If we hate a man in our hearts we have murdered him.” If we lust in our minds, Jesus said then we are committing sins of immorality. Even though we don’t act it out, it is still sin and needs to be repented of.
3. There are behavioral sins that we act out. When we say bad things about people, when we do hurtful things towards people. When we steal from our boss by not giving a good days work. When we lie on our income taxes, and take discounts we are not entitled to take, when we borrow stuff and don’t return it, use company supplies, when we gossip about people. These are sins we act out. They usually have their start as sins of the mind and then eventually get acted out.
4. There are sexual sins, immorality, adultery, and fornication. Paul says this is the worst kind of sin. I Cor 6:18. This is a sin against our own bodies and of all sins, this kind of sin needs to be avoided.
5. There is the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This is when a person totally rejects God and begins to call the work of God a work of the devil. When we justify our sins and begin to call evil good and good evil this is close to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This is a sin that Jesus said would not be forgiven.
D. Some people think well since I have thought this way, I might as well give in and act it out. It is all the same. It is NOT THE SAME. It is missing the mark by a greater distance when we act it out. All sin is not the same. There are some sins that are worse than other sins.
“Why worry about small sins” OR “Why should I worry about sin anyway. I can take care of that when I get older.” I Cor 5:6-8 Numbers 15:27-30
A. Okay since we are all sinners, and there are different kinds of sins, that brings up the next UL. Why worry about the small sins, just as long as I don’t commit the BIG ONES.” Or, “Why should I worry about sin anyway, I can take care of that when I get old.
B. The problem with this UL is the fact that sin often starts small and grows. People don’t usually commit big sins first, they commit little sins which grow. The Bible teaches that there are at least 3 levels of sins, implies SIN IS PROGRESSIVE.
C. The Bible refers to sin like yeast in bread dough. Only a small amount can infiltrate the entire loaf. God in the OT said all sacrifices had to be without leaven. On the Passover, the people were to search their house and get rid of any leaven that might be in the house. This was to signify the need to cleanse our houses. Put out any leaven of sin. It is at first only an evil thought that he would shoot across the mind. The thought carries a desire, that desire a look, that look a touch that touch a deed that deed a habit and that habit something worse, until the man from little beginnings shall be swamped and drowned in iniquity. Numbers 15:27-30
D. 1st level, sin, mistake, trying to do good but because not perfect make mistake. Even though it was a mistake it is still a sin. Or it could just be ignorance. Even if you are ignorant that is no excuse. If a person commits a sin ignorantly as soon as he finds out he needs to still repent of it, it is still a sin. This is true even with our laws, you cannot go before a judge and plead ignorance of the law and expect to be excused. You can’t say, “Your honor I didn’t know what the speed limit was. We are expected to know the law, and it is the same with God. People who have not had their consciences awakened by the Holy Spirit often sin in this level. They are just not aware of many of the things they are doing that they are wrong, especially sins of the heart.
E. 2nd level of sin happens when you know you are wrong but do it anyway, actually called a trespass. This is a higher level of offense against God and in the OT required more in the way of repentance, not only did you have to offer an animal sacrifice but you needed to go and make it right with the person you offended. If you stole you needed to not only pay back but pay it back with interest. People who have had their consciences enlightened by the Holy Spirit. People who have been ‘born again’ often sin on this level. We know it is wrong to hold anger at someone or unforgiveness but we do it anyway. We know it is wrong to gossip about someone but we do it anyway. This is why the most miserable people in the world are not non-Christians, but instead, the most miserable people in the world are Christians living in sin. Some of you, right now, you know this. The most miserable people in the room right now are NOT those who are not believers in Christ and doing whatever they want. It is those who ARE followers of Christ who are sinning knowingly, and you are miserable, and you know it, and you ache because everyone else thinks that you are okay, but on the inside, you are dying in your sin.
F. 3rd level is the worst level of sin. If after you commit sin or a trespass knowingly you don’t repent what usually happens? It starts bothering your conscience so much that you have to do something about it. You either repent and make it right or in order to continue to function you decide it is not really sin. You decide that it wasn’t that bad or that it is all right and there is nothing wrong with it. This is called ‘presumptuous sin’ and it is the worst kind of offense against God. It is sinning without shame, publically and openly. Many of the cultural issues we are dealing with today have moved from ‘closet’ sins to ‘public sins. The sin of homosexuality has gone from the 2nd level, knowing it is wrong to now telling people it is fine and normal. The sin of living together before marriage is no longer considered something to be ashamed of but now you are thought of as not to smart if you marry someone you have not lived with first. This is presumptuous sin, public sin, sinning without shame.
G. This is why we need to be quick to repent when we do sin. We need to ask God to forgive us and to give us the strength to TURN AWAY from that sin. If we continue in that sin, it will eventually lead us down the path of presumptuous sin. This is why you can’t wait until you are old to deal with sin, the longer you wait the harder you get, until eventually you get ‘sealed’ in your sin.
Summary Rev 22:11
A. Revelations 22:11 “He who is unjust let him be unjust still; …” Sin is progressive. It just keeps pulling and drawing and taking. It never delivers on its promise of making you feel better now that you gave into it, like anger or lust. It just makes it easier to give in the next time and the next time and the next time until before you know it you are captured by it and then you are beginning to think there is nothing wrong with it. This happens with stealing, lying, unforgiveness and so on. If we don’t repent from them they will destroy our lives. This would be the sin of ‘death’ the Bible speaks about or the sin against the Holy Spirit. When a person no longer feels the conviction of the Holy Spirit he is heading down the path to eternal damnation.
B. Sin may start small, like a mistake, or plain ignorance, but it grows, unless we repent and admit we were wrong, and ask God to forgive us, and give us strength to stop behavior that behavior.
C. Some of you may think you are not as bad as somebody who is really messed up, but we need to remember when we stand before God He judges us on a different standard of righteousness. The only way to measure up to that standard of righteousness is to ask God to cleanse us from our sins because Jesus paid the penalty for them on the cross.
