Sin: An Offense Against God
Scriptures: Revelations 13:3-8; 16-18; 20:12-15; 12:10; 1 Corinthians 5
Introduction:
This morning I want to address the subject of sin, but not necessarily in the traditional sense. This was the message I had planned to deliver three weeks ago but delayed it until today so that I could deliver both parts back to back. I hope you will listen closely or read both parts even though some of it you may or may not like or agree with. As we have spent several weeks on the topic of sin in Bible study, I am not going to walk you through the types of sin that exists today and why certain things are wrong. However in these two messages I want to focus on why we as Christians need to be sensitive to what is happening around us. This is probably a topic that would be best handled in Bible study, but since many of you do not attend Bible study and none of you who only receive my messages by email can attend, this is the best way for me to address this issue. I also want to tell you up front that some of what you may hear/read in these two messages might offend you based on your personal beliefs about sin, but that is between you and God. Jesus said in John 7:18 “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Jesus made this statement when people questioned why He was not seeking to be known publicly. I point this out only because I want you to understand that my desire is to teach and preach the word of God to the best of my ability and not my “own” word to bring recognition to me. In doing so, if you’re offended by something I say, then hopefully you will seek to understand if you’re really offended by me or are you offended by what God’s word says. This is important because sin is an offense against God, first and foremost, and secondarily man in some situations. I will explain more on this shortly. But first let me give you some background into why I feel led to discuss this subject with you. I preached my first sermon in April 1981 and it was titled “Time Is Running Out.” That was thirty-three years ago and I did not know half of what I understand today. That reflection has caused me to me wonder what have I done personally for the kingdom of Christ as I knew back then that time was running out. We are a lot closer to being out of time versus when I preached that message. So that being said, I was to open this message with Revelations chapter thirteen.
Revelations 13:3-8 and 16-18 says “I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?" There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain……And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six."
In these verses we read about a time that is not too far away when two ‘beasts”, who are actually men, will rise up on the earth. One will be a political figure (the antichrist) and one will be a religious figure (who will support the agenda of the antichrist in turning people towards worshipping Satan.) These two will work together to fulfill Satan’s final plans here on earth. The antichrist will work to unite the world systems under him while the religious figure will attempt bring the religious people under one system which supports the agenda of the antichrist. So why is this important for our understanding of sin? Sin is the primary tool that Satan uses to separate us from God. If we are lulled to sleep so that any and all sin is deemed to be “acceptable” it represents the first step towards our willingness to accept the guidance of the Antichrist. Let me give you an example. I have shared with you in the past that the day will come (and already is) when standing in the pulpit and speaking against sin will be considered a hate crime. You might have heard about this situation and if you have, this will serve as a reminder. Rev. Fulks sent me an article a couple of weeks ago about a situation in Houston.
The article explains that the city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. Those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court. The subpoenas are just the latest twist in an ongoing saga over the Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance which among other things would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa. The city council approved the law in June and after opponents of the bathroom bill filed a lawsuit, the city’s attorneys responded by issuing the subpoenas against the pastors. The pastors were not part of the lawsuit but they were part of a coalition of some 400 Houston-area churches that opposed the ordinance. The mayor will not explain why she wants to inspect the sermons. One of the pastors was ordered to produce all speeches and sermons related to the mayor, homosexuality and gender identity. The mega-church pastor was also ordered to hand over “all communications with members of your congregation” regarding the non-discrimination law. This is where we are right now! It’s no longer in our future, it is our today. The ground work is being laid for the rise of the Antichrist and we are just happily trying to survive living from one day to the next. We are ignoring the signs of these times. I am led to deliver these two messages so that once and for all you will know that we have an obligation to help each other rise above our sins with the understanding that only God can forgive sin and only God has a lake of fire to put someone in.
When I was home two weeks ago, I had a couple of conversations with family members about sin and grace. These were in addition to at least a dozen conversations with family members and friends on the subject of sin and our response to it that I had prior to going home. Back in May I talked with several family members about whether a baby born out of wedlock is a blessing or a sin in the eyes of God. I recently talked with a friend who had questions about homosexuality and how a “good person” who practices homosexuality could be sent to hell for this act when they are basically a good person. I have been labelled “homophobic” because I believe what the Bible says these types of relationships are wrong. I do not stand in judgment of any person, but I also cannot separate the person from the lifestyle according to Scripture. I have been asked by family members about the issue around congratulating someone who get pregnant out of wedlock and why I do not do that. It has been suggested that Jesus was about forgiveness and that we (Christians) and me specifically should spend more time on forgiveness than the sin itself because everybody sins and we are not in a position to judge someone else. One family member explained to me that people do not want to hear about their sins or say anything about someone else’s sin when they know what they are doing. So we remain in a circle of non-talked about sin silently proclaiming that I should get into heaven because my sins are not as bad as another person that we are familiar with.
This morning (and next week) I want to address these “issues” and all I ask is that you listen to (or read) the message with an open heart and allow God to speak to you. As of this moment, this is not about my interpretation of Scripture, it’s about yours. You have the right to decide what you believe and don’t believe and only you will stand before God based on your beliefs. But here is my warning to you: while our beliefs are personal, we tend to make them public. We share them with others and thus influence the beliefs of others. When we stand before God on the day of judgment, we will be held accountable for what we did for Him through our actions AND how our actions impacted the lives of others. In other words, if my beliefs contradict the word of God and I influence others according to my beliefs and they begin to believe the way that I do, I will be held accountable for leading them astray and for anyone that they may lead astray based on what they received from me. We are accountable whether we want to accept it or not. So let’s deal with these issues that I mentioned earlier.
I. Judge, Prosecutor, Defendant
I know that most of you currently watch some shows on TV that are courtroom based. In a courtroom there are four main participants: the judge who oversees the trial; the prosecutor who is trying the case seeking a guilty verdict; the defendant, who is accused of a crime; and the defense attorney who is responsible for proving that the defendant is not guilty.
Judge: The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open court. The judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the parties of the case, assesses the credibility and arguments of the parties, and then issues a ruling on the matter at hand based on his or her interpretation of the law and his or her own personal judgment. This last statement is crucial – the judge, after hearing all of the evidence, issues a ruling based on his or her interpretation of the law or personal judgment. Without a jury, the judge has the final say unless an appeal is filed with a higher court. Let’s assume that God is the judge – which is really not an assumption at all because He is, and there is no appeal’s court. His decisions are final. He is the one who interprets the Law because they are His. So His judgments will always be true and fair. Revelations 20:12-15 says “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” This is the final judgment. We will all stand before God and what we are doing right now on this earth will determine the ruling that God gives us. When we stand before God, all the books will be opened which recorded our life here on earth. Once the information of our life is reviewed, the Book of Life is opened. If our name is not found within this book, we will be cast into the lake of fire. Our acceptance of Christ with our hearts gets our name written into the book. It’s not our verbal acceptance, it’s our heart acceptance. Now let’s examine the role of the prosecutor.
Prosecutor: The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against an individual accused of breaking the law. The prosecutor is the one who looks at the crime and determines if there is enough evidence that a crime has been committed and if the accused person is the one who actually committed the crime. Once this determination is made, charges are filed against the accused and the accused goes to trial. Let’s assume that Satan is the prosecutor; the one accusing us of a crime. I need you to see this. While we are down here living our lives and doing whatever we want, Satan can be viewed as keeping track of our crimes and reporting them (accusing us of the crimes) before God. While we are thinking we are getting away with a crime, charges are being filed against us without our knowledge. Revelations 12:10 says “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying. ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.” Who is the accuser mentioned here? Satan. You see, our crimes are being noted even though Christ has provided us with a defense when we repent. Remember what was recorded in Luke 22:31 when Jesus told Peter that Satan had demanded permission to sift him like wheat? We have an accuser who loves to parade our sins before God. Not only does he parade them before God, he ensures that they become public knowledge so that others can be affected by them also. Let’s examine the defense attorney.
Defense Attorney: The defense attorney is a lawyer specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal conduct. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various jurisdictions with criminal courts for appointment to represent indigent persons; the latter are generally called public defenders. The defense attorney job is all about the defendant and doing what is best for the defendant as long as he/she does not break the law themselves. For them it is not about the facts of whether their client is guilty as charged or innocent, but about making sure the prosecutor proves that they are guilty. Remember, here in the U.S. a person is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Defendant: This is the person who has been accused of a crime and is being prosecuted by the prosecutor. Although the prosecutor believes that he/she has enough evidence against the person, the person is stilled presumed innocent until all of the facts are in. We need to remember that even after all of the facts are in there are times when the verdict is wrong. Sometimes a guilty person goes free and sometimes an innocent person is convicted of a crime that they did not commit.
Let’s consider these four individuals as it relates to our being Christians and sinning. The judge in the criminal case must decide based on the facts if a law has been broken. The judge must study the laws in order to understand them fully and apply that understanding correctly. The prosecuting attorney must also understand the laws and have a good understanding of when one has been broken and it can be proven. A prosecuting attorney will generally only file charges when they are pretty sure the person they are filing the charges against is guilty. The defense attorney must then do their best to prove the innocence of the accused while the accused goes through the process. If the accused is actually guilty and is punished, justice has been done. However, if the accused is guilty and is found innocent, justice was not done even though the system/process worked the way it was supposed to. It’s this situation that I want us to consider very briefly this morning.
II. Love Despite The Sin?
From the Scriptures we read earlier, we found that God is the judge; Satan is our accuser/prosecutor and Jesus is our defense attorney as we are the ones being accused (and rightly so) of the crime. When we sin, we know that we did it and oftentimes it stops us from helping another Christian with their “issues.” But is this the right response? Remember when I said that God was the judge and we are the defendants? We will stand before God to be judged. What we are doing now is what we will be judged on. God is the ultimate judge, but we too have the power to judge one another while we are on earth. The purpose is restoration, not condemnation and its only limited to our judging fellow Christians. Let me explain.
At the beginning of the message I told you that sin was an offense against God. By definition “sin” is the “willful breaking of a religious or moral law.” When we sin that sin is primarily against God even though others could be hurt by our actions. It is often said that we should focus on forgiving the sinner versus condemning them. Please understand this point because it is crucial to how we view our responses to sin moving forward. We do not have the authority to forgive anyone for a sin committed against God. That is between God and the person. If someone does something to us individually, that could be both a sin against God as well as an offense against us as a person. While we may forgive the person for what they did against us, we cannot forgive them on behalf of God. That is why the Bible is so clear on how we should respond to a fellow Christian caught up in sin. Consider the following from First Corinthians chapter five.In this chapter Paul calls out an immoral action that he heard about that was happening within the Church. He said this sin did not even exist amongst the Gentiles who were not required to follow God’s rules of morality. In this situation there was a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife. The Church knew about but no one said anything about it. Listen closely to what Paul said should have been done: “For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus. I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” (Vss. 3-7)
In verse two Paul said that he had already judged the man. It is believed that the woman might not have been a Christian which is why she is not being disciplined. It is important to understand that we have the authority to judge another Christian “only” if their actions do not line up with the word of God. But we are also to be judging ourselves at all times too. Paul stated that he had judged the man and that action was needed. He said to “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.” This evidently means that the Church was to discipline this sinning brother by committing him to Satan’s domain (the world) and to Satan chastisement, the destruction/ruin of his flesh. This man was to be removed from the Church so that his actions did not corrupt the rest of the Church. Based on what Paul says here, I believe this man’s life would have been shortened as he went back out into the world in order to save him in the end. It sounds strange, but sometimes it takes difficult circumstances of our own making to bring us back to God. In this situation it appears that this man would ultimately be saved in the end. Let me continue. In verse six Paul speaks of the leaven. In simple terms leaven was something that made the dough rise. For our use this morning, let’s call it yeast. When I make yeast rolls, the dough just sits there doing nothing until the yeast is added and activated. When the yeast is added, the dough begins to bubble and rise. The little yeast affects all of the dough. This is the picture that Paul is painting for the Corinthian Church. Leaven in this sense is a symbol of impurity. Paul references the Passover and the fact that Christ had already been sacrificed. The Passover was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread (during which all leaven was removed from the houses) so the Corinthians, who were already cleansed through the death of Christ, were now to walk in holiness. To do this they had to remove the leaven from their midst.
I know what some of you might be thinking. If we start removing everyone who has sin in their life then the Church will be empty. That may be true, but if we do not take a stand against sin and help each other come out of it the Church is spiritually empty anyway, but with severe consequences. Look at what Paul says in verses nine through thirteen and I think this will clear up some things for you. “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one.” (Vss. 9-11)
Some of you probably do not like this but again, that is between you and God. What Paul said was that he did not mean for the Christians to not associate with unbelieving sinners because the only way to do that was to leave this world. Besides, the only way to convert them to Christianity is to associate with them so that they will listen to the message. Just remember that to associate with them does not mean that you are participating in or condoning their sin. You’re trying to show them a better way. After Paul says this, he explains himself. He says that he meant that we should not associate with “so-called” Christians who are immoral – not to even eat with them. You may ask why it’s okay to associate with one and not the other. The simple answer is “so-called” Christians who are immoral are like the leaven – they can spread their behavior throughout the Church. When people see others getting “away” with immoral behaviors, it lowers the standard and makes their behaviors more acceptable. This is not how we are supposed to live. This is why we are permitted to judge other Christians because they are our brothers/sisters in Christ. It is sort of like when you were growing up in a family. You could talk about your family member from sun up to sun down, but don’t let someone outside the family talk about them. You had the right to do it as a family member, but everyone else had better keep their mouth off your family. Does this make any sense to you? Paul completes the statement with these words: “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the Church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (Vss. 12-13)
The Church was to leave the judgment of unbelievers to God and concentrate on setting its own house in order. God is the final judge. His judgment is true and will last. When someone sins against God and they are a Christian, we have an obligation to love them through the sin so that their relationship with God can be restored. There is a difference between loving someone despite their sin and through their sin. To love someone despite their sin means that you are loving them despite (in spite of, notwithstanding) their sin. You know the sin is there but you say nothing about it. To love someone through their sin means that you love them enough to help them come to the other side. It’s like driving through a dark tunnel. If you stop anywhere in the midst of the tunnel, you never reach the other side. Our jobs as Christians are to help one another reach the other side – to come out of the darkness and into the light. We help each other get things right with God so that when we stand before Him for that last judgment, there will be a good outcome.
We are being lulled to sleep over the power and impact of sin on our lives. This is on purpose as the world is being prepared to receive the antichrist. We are being desensitized to sin to the point that we’re criticized if we say something against it and applauded if we agree with it or being willing to ignore it. The way that we are progressing in our acceptance of anything goes how long do you think it would be that we would be willing to accept the mark of the beast if it would allow us to continue to prosper in this life? If we are willing to accept sin as normal now, how in the world will we be strong enough to choose death versus lining up with the Antichrist’s agenda and policies? I will continue this message next week.
“The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
