Series: The Cure [#2]
CONTAGION
Romans 1:18-32
Introduction:
There are many TV series and movies out right now about the end of the world. In most of these shows, some type of rare contagious disease destroys most of the humans on the earth and just a few, (the stars) survive. In all of these movies, many die or turn into a zombie.
It is amazing to me how popular these shows are. The person watching these usually hope for the star to survive and save the world. The interesting thing is, there is a contagious disease that is killing many and there is a Savior. This contagious disease is a spiritual disease- Sin and the Savior is Jesus.
This morning as we continue in our series, “The Cure”; we are going to take a closer look at this spiritual contagion- Sin.
Roman 1:18-23
Sin is…
1. Punished.
The idea that God lets sin slide is insane. We see here that God’s wrath is being shown in His dealing with sin. He hates sin and cannot look at sinners. Now there are some who say, “Well there are people who just don’t know that they are doing wrong, so it’s ok”. That’s not true. God tells us that even if we have never heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that all we have to do is look around at all of His creation and realize that there is someone much bigger than we are. We are without excuse.
Now, I do realize that this passage is talking about people who are not saved; but I want Christians to understand that God still punishes us when we sin as well. The difference here is, Christians are covered by the blood of Jesus and therefore are seen by God as righteous; but sin does affect our relationship with God. We can’t lose our salvation; but we can definitely lose our peace and joy.
Romans 1:24-31
Sin is…
2. Sin.
This is an important thing to catch. We just read about a list of different sins, ranging from sexual sins to disobeying your parents. All sin is sin. There is a reason that I don’t focus on a particular sin and go on and on about it. The reason is, if I did that I would talk about things that you have problems with, not things that I deal with; and the bottom line is every sin is worthy of death.
It is also important to notice that God allows us to choose whether or not we are going to sin and the longer you sin that particular sin, the less it will bother you. Even for Christians, we can become cold or hardened to sin. To make this even worse, before long we are serving the sin instead of the Savior.
Romans 1:32
Sin is…
3. Contagious.
This verse says it all. They continue to sin although they know how God feels about it; and they also approve of others sinning as well. Be careful. It is easy to condone sin.
Conclusion:
I met a man yesterday at Mardell’s Bookstore who has a seminary degree and has pastored several Churches. Kaitlyn and I was looking at bulletins and I told him we were looking for bulletins for our Romans Series. His comment, “After I preached in Romans, I had to leave”. Kaitlyn looked at me and I said, “That’s because Romans is brutal as it pertains to sin and we don’t want to hear about sin”. Kaitlyn’s comment was, “Well you have never been one to preach things to make others happy”; and honestly that’s a compliment.
Christians, don’t forget- We have the cure for this contagious spiritual disease.
