The Seriousness of Sin
Mark 9: 43-48
Evangelist Billy Sunday used to say, “One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.” We tend to treat our sin lightly calling it shortcomings, errs, mistakes. We catalogue them into big sins (e.g. murder) and little sins (e.g. lies). - In Mark 9, Jesus gives a series of warnings to His disciples: in verses 43-48, He warns of the seriousness of sin and its dire consequences.
I. Sin is not a trivial Matter.
A. In Mark 9:43-47 Jesus used a hyperbole, an intentional exaggeration to make a point. His point is the absolute, complete seriousness of sin. (copied)
B. The body parts represent any sin that can be committed with them. The “hand” represents whatever we may do that offends God. The “foot” represents wherever we may go that may offend God. The “eye” represents the things we see, desire and hold dear that are not the things of God.
C. It’s better to go through life maimed than to face the fiery eternal judgment that is meted out for sin.
D. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman tells of a distinguished Methodist minister of Australia who preached on sin. One of his church officers afterward came to see and talk with him in his study. He said to the minister: "Dr. Howard, we don't want you to talk so plainly as you do about sin, because if our boys and girls hear you talking so much about sin they will more easily become sinners. Call it a mistake if you will, but do not speak so plainly about sin." The minister took down a small bottle and showed it to the visitor. It was a bottle of strychnine and was marked, "Poison." He said: "I see what you want me to do. You want me to change the label. Suppose I take off this label of 'Poison' and put on some mild label, such as 'Essence of Peppermint,' don't you see what happens? The milder you make the label the more dangerous you make the poison."—W. S. Bowden
E. Sin is a serious matter.
II. Sin’s Definition
A. Sin is a Crime against God
1. Crime - An act or omission that violates the law and is punishable by a sentence of imprisonment or internment
2. Sin is the violation of the law of God
3. 1 John 3:4 (WEY) “Everyone who is guilty of sin is also guilty of violating Law; for sin is the violation of Law.”
4. Romans 3:20 (ESV) “...through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
5. The law exposes our sin.
6. Greg Nichols, “God’s law is the great spotlight which shines upon our sin and shows us what our sin is.”
7. All sin is sin against God and therefore infinitely serious.
B. Sin is an Unpaid Debt
1. Matthew 6:12 “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
2. We owe God obedience!
3. Genesis 2:15-17 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
4. Romans 5:19 “….by one man's disobedience many were made sinners”
5. “God made man that he might live to his glory, and gave him a law to walk by; and if, when he does anything that tends not to glorify God, he contracts a debt with Divine Justice, how much more is he debtor when he breaks the law by actual transgression!” – Clarke
6. Psalm 29:2 “Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
7. Sin is the debt created by withholding from God what is justly due Him – obedience, honor, love, and glory.
8. “The most insignificant sin that has ever been committed would ruin the entire cosmos, for it would mar the perfection that God created to reflect His glory. We steal God’s glory by every sin. We do not grasp the weight of our sin. Until we can bring home the ugliness of sin, Satan has another weapon in his locker.” (Duncan)
9. Sin is a debt we cannot pay. Sin is a debt we cannot diminish. Sin is a debt that will be exacted.
C. Sin is Defiance and Hostility –
1. Romans 8:7 “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
2. Enmity speaks of our relationship to God. Sin is hostility toward God and conducts itself in defiance of God.
3. Sin is hostility towards God, His presence, and His will in our lives.
4. Sin is a refusal to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus as we do what we want with a careless disregard for what He wants. As such sin is self-centeredness.
5. Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way;
6. Jesus as Lord means He wants and deserves to have control of your life, He wants to drive. Sin is you driving.
7. Someone has said “At the heart of every act of our sin is defiance, arrogance, and the desire to do just what Satan did – to be equal with God.”
D. Sin is more than an act
1. A.W. Pink said, “Sin is more than an act or a series of acts; it is a man's make-up.” – AW Pink, God’s Sovereignty and Human Will
2. Romans 3:10-12, 23 “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.’... For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”
3. Come short - Greek, "Are deficient in regard to;" are lacking, failed to obtain, destitute of.
4. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
5. Many people have trouble with the concept of total depravity. While not denying they are sinners, many people feel that their sin isn’t bad enough to condemn them. What they don’t understand is that any sin is wholly unacceptable to God. Let’s suppose I invite you over to my house this Saturday morning for omelets. The day comes, you knock at my door, I let you in, and go to the kitchen to prepare the meal. There on my counter are several mounds of chopped onions, green peppers, ham and sliced mushrooms. Nearby is a bowl of grated cheese. While you wait in the dining room I reach into the refrigerator for the eggs. To my shock, I discover that I have only six eggs. That’s okay, except that one of the eggs is rotten. There isn’t time to go get fresh eggs, so I say to myself, “I’ll just mix this rotten one in with the good ones and they’ll never know the difference.” In a few minutes when I serve the omelets, you begin sniffing the air. “What’s that funny smell?” “Oh, don’t worry about that. One of the eggs was rotten, but I just mixed it in with all the rest.” Would you accept that omelet? No, you wouldn’t. And neither will God. (Ray Prichard Message on Romans)
E. An Insult to God
1. Sin is an affront to God’s holiness. God hates sin. Sin is an insult to God. Sin demeans God’s holiness and His authority.
2. In John Piper’s book The Passion of Jesus Christ, he writes: “Sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love Him is not trivial – it is treason. It defames God and destroys human happiness.”
III. Sin’s has serious Consequences
A. Sin Degrades
1. Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
2. Charles Haddon Spurgeon proclaimed, “If we could see sin as it appears to the all discerning eye of God, we should be more shocked at the sight of sin than by a vision of hell. In sin itself there is abomination, and only abomination. Sin is a something out of joint with the whole system of the universe. Sin is a plague, a pest full of dangers to everything that breathes! Sin degrades and debases us.” – “The Universal Remedy”
B. Sin brings Death
1. The Bible says that sin is a crime against God, and the payment required for that debt is death:
2. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
3. Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul who sins shall die.”
4. Death spread to all men by Adam’s sin.
5. Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
6. Both physical and spiritual death – separation of life from the body and the soul from God.
C. Sin brings Eternal Damnation
1. Nahum 1:3 “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.”
2. Sin brings about damnation, that is, eternal separation from God and suffering in hell, from which there is no escape.
3. How deeply has the tendency to deny hell penetrated evangelicalism? One survey of evangelical seminary students revealed that nearly half, 46 percent, felt preaching about hell to unbelievers is in “poor taste.” Worse, three out of every ten evangelical Christians surveyed believe “good” people will go to heaven when they die, even if they’ve never trusted Christ. One in every ten evangelicals says they believe the concept of sin is outmoded. (Ashamed of the Gospel, John F. MacArthur, Jr., 1993, Crossway Books, p. 65).
4. Mark 9:43 says, "And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire." The word "unquenchable" is asbestos in the Greek. According to the enhanced Strong's lexicon, it means "unquenchable, the eternal hell fire to punish the damned."
5. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
IV. Sin Forgiveness
A. Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
B. Found in Repentance
1. Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out”
2. "Repentance is not basically a religious word. It comes from a culture where people were essentially nomadic and lived in a world with no maps or street signs. It’s easy to get lost walking through the desert. You become aware that the country side is strange. You finally say to yourself, I’m going in the wrong direction. That’s the first act of repentance. The second act of repentance is to go in an alternate direction. It implies that you not only do this but you admit it to your companions.” (Gordon MacDonald).
3. Proverbs 28:13 “Whoever conceals his sins will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
4. Man is born with his back toward God. When he truly repents, he turns right around and faces God. Repentance is a change of mind. Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith. (D.L. Moody)
5. Luke 13:3 “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
C. Found in the person of Christ
1. Romans 5:6, 8 “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
3. Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
4. “The work has been done on the cross. The blood has been shed. The price has been paid. The only thing left is for the forgiveness to be received by you. I could offer to give you a hundred dollar bill by holding it out with my hand. But until you reach out and take it from me, it will never be yours. The same is true with God's forgiveness. Until you receive it, it's not yours.” - (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers)
5. Romans 10:9-10 “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
