"I Want The Truth!” January 17, 2010
This morning I am continuing with the sermon series “I want the truth!” I got some response to my request and hope to get many more as we go along.
For those who were not here last week I will explain what I am doing and I hope you will participate.
This series will be to answer spiritual questions that you may have concerning right from wrong, good or bad, should we or shouldn’t we, and we will consult God’s Word to find the answers.
Now you will determine the length of the series because as long as you submit questions to me the series will continue.
So if you have a question that you would like for me to preach on please submit it. You can submit as many questions as you want, you don’t have to put your name on it, your question will be confidential no one else will know you submitted it.
Joke: Preacher is against it.
This week’s message came from questions regarding sin.
How may of you committed sin this past week? I would say if you conducted a survey and asked people the question, what is sin, the majority would say, to break one of the Ten Commandments.
Well that would qualify but we can still sin without breaking one of the top ten. So what exactly qualifies as a sin?
I attended the Pathfinders Sunday school class last Sunday that was taught very well by Cal and I found it ironic that the main question this week was a topic that was discussed in that class.
When does the thought of sin actually become a sin?
Now the reason this question came up is because of what Jesus said in the book of Matthew during His sermon on the mount.
Jesus actually took some of the Laws of the Old Testament and elaborated on them but before He did He gave this explanation.
Matthew 5:17-18
Now Jesus is saying here that the Law was still in effect, it just needed a little tweaking.
Illustration: Sports rules get changed.
Why did Jesus need to tweak the Law? Because we are judged by not only what we do but also what is in our heart.
Illustration: I can show my wife love and I can tell her how much I love her but she doesn’t know exactly what I feel in my heart for her.
God knows therefore Jesus elaborated so we could be aware of this.
Matthew 5:21-22
So Thou shall not kill we know is a sin against God but Jesus takes it a step further and says if you’re angry, your sinning.
Now the question is when does your thoughts actually become a sin?
Paul says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death so if a thought comes into my head that, he makes me so angry, that is worth dying. That is pretty severe isn’t it?
Look what Jesus says in verse 22, if you call someone a fool you are in danger of Hell’s fire.
Now a fool is simply someone who lacks wisdom or the Greek meaning for empty headed.
Now we all know people who would fit that description. Think about it, did you ever think or tell some one; oh that person’s a fool?
So when does your thoughts actually become a sin?
According to Jesus, the moment you think it.
Now I must admit I have changed my way of thinking on this issue because I used to believe that it became a sin if you dwelled on it.
A couple weeks ago I ended a sermon with the statement, never put a question where God puts a period.
So if Jesus says here that by just thinking it in your mind you commit it in your heart why should we even question it.
There is a special message here that Jesus is giving by saying these words and it was to let people know that the LAW CAN’T SAVE ANYONE.
That is why we need Jesus.
In other words it is virtually impossible for a human being, other than Jesus Himself, to go without sin.
See we sin all the time with our minds but just because we don’t commit the act we don’t give it a second thought.
Did you ever do something and then think to yourself, OK if someone asks me about this what am I going to tell them?
Then your mind starts to churn to come up with what to say or the best way to say it. Now if your come up with ideas that aren’t the truth, isn’t that the same thing Jesus is talking about?
There is another way we sin and we don’t even have to do anything to commit it.
See the Lord’s commands to us are not just the don’ts but they also include the dos.
James 4:17
James, a brother of Jesus, reminds us here that if we fail to do what Jesus told us to do we are just as wrong as if we were doing something He told us not to do.
I use an illustration with young people and I may have used it in a message before but I will use it again here.
Illustration: Let’s say you and your spouse are going away for a couple of days and you leave your teenager at home by their self. Now before you go you give instructions that you don’t want any parties, they are not to drive dad’s sports car, and they are not to be out after midnight the nights you are gone. These are the don’ts. Also while you are gone you want tem to clean the garage, mow the grass, and take out the garbage. Upon arriving back home your neighbor tells you how responsible your teenager was while you were away. They never had anyone over, dad’s sports car never left the garage, and they were home every evening by 9:30. Your teenager didn’t do the things you forbid them. But you notice the grass wasn’t mowed, the garage was a mess, and the garbage that was piled up is not starting the smell up the house. So your teenager also didn’t do the things you told them to do. They were wrong, they still didn’t fully obey you so wouldn’t they still be punished?
You see when we abstain from doing bad things it pleases God but when we don’t do what He wants us to it displeased Him.
Even the original Ten Commandments were not all don’ts.
Through Adam, sin entered the human race, and human beings became sinners by nature, which was inherited sin.
The one good thing about our sins, and when I say ours I am referring to those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, is that they are imputed sins.
When Adam sinned it brought spiritual death to him which would be passed on to all who came after him.
We are sinners not just because we sin; but also, we sin because we are sinners. This became inherited sin, not Adam and Eve’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit, but the characteristics of being a human and having sin in our genes.
Just as we inherit physical characteristics from our parents, we inherit our sinful natures from Adam.
King David lamented this condition of fallen human nature in Psalm 51:5: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
Now our sins became imputed sins.
The Greek word translated “imputed” means “to take something that belongs to someone and credit it to another’s account.”
Before the Law of Moses was given, sin was not imputed to man, although men were still sinners because of inherited sin.
After the Law was given, sins committed in violation of the Law were imputed (accounted) to them.
Romans 5:13&14
Even before transgressions of the law were imputed to men, the ultimate penalty for sin (death) continued to reign.
All humans, from Adam to Moses, were subject to death, not because of their sinful acts against the Mosaic Law (which they did not have), but because of their own inherited sinful nature.
After Moses, humans were subject to death both because of inherited sin from Adam and imputed sin from violating the laws of God.
The good news for those who accept Jesus Christ is that our sins were imputed to Him when He went to the cross.
Can we go without sinning? A simple answer is No. Can we be forgiven? Simply Yes.
