Shall We Continue In Sin?
Pastor Scott D. Snyder
Romans 6:1-7
Introduction: The world today—High School shootings, sexual assault, hate crimes, homosexuality, alcoholism, pornography, domestic violence, drug addictions, child abuse. [Expound]
And in the midst of this Paul ask in Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin…?”
WHAT IS SIN?
1. Sin is the willful transgression or neglect of God’s holy law…His Word.
2. Sin is selfishness in attitude and action. It is loving self more than you love God and others.
3. It is saying, “My will…not Thine…be done.”
4. Sin is falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
5. Sin is brought to life in greed, deceit, covetousness, lust, hatred, and idolatry.
6. It is your deadliest, most poisonous, most untrustworthy enemy.
7. It waits like a hidden sniper waiting to ambush and destroy you.
8. It will wreck your life, break up your marriage, and tear your home apart.
Most all the trouble in the world can be blamed directly or indirectly to sin. Most of the taxes that we pay today have been levied because of somebody’s sin. Think of the cost of crime. The cost of maintaining our police forces. The cost associated with our criminal law courts. Our jails and penitentiaries, hospitals, and asylums. Think of the thousands of welfare cases where poverty is due to alcohol, gambling, or other sinful vices. Sin packs the divorce courts—the sin of adultery, the sin of selfishness, the sin of anger, the sin of drunkenness and ungodly living. The sin of apathy, the sin of ignorance, and the sin of self-righteousness.
Oddly enough, at the time they were committing their crime, almost every criminal thought they were enjoying themselves. Hatred made murder a satisfying pleasure…at least for a few minutes. Robbery brought temporary satisfaction because of the material gain. Victory over a personal enemy in an assault probably caused the victor to say, “I guess I showed him!” Rape brought temporary satisfaction as lust took its fearful toll. Lying brought temporary relief as blame was shifted. And drunkenness and drug use blotted out reality…for a time.
STORIES
In January of 1951 a little story appeared in the newspapers reporting an incident which took place in Glendale, California. A small boy had evidently been reading “Superman” comics. The article read: “I really did fly, Mother, until I landed. Then it hurt.” Richard Bohnam, six years old, gasped these words to his mother yesterday just before he died. His mother told police that Richard had been reading comic books about birdmen and the like. She said Richard ‘tried to fly’ yesterday off a twenty-foot cliff after fashioning a ‘flying cape’ from a bath towel. “I really did fly, Mother, until I landed, then it hurt.”
In January of 1977, while I was stationed at Memphis, Tenn., a young man living in the dorm next to mine, felt has though he could fly while he was high on PCP. He leaped from a third story window and might of felt as if he was really flying—until he landed—then he hurt as he laid there still alive with nearly every bone in his body broken.
SIN IS JUST LIKE THAT!
It is like flying with a magic cape made of a bath towel. It seems like a great deal of fun until you land—but, remember, you always land. Sin plunges marriages into trouble, homes into difficulty. It makes trouble at your work, in our schools, and in our government.
It seems a bit silly for Paul to ask, “Shall we continue in sin?” I mean, why would any one continue in sin given that the Word of God plainly tells us that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)? We have been warned about this in advanced…haven’t we? The Bible also clearly states…and many of us have heard this… “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).
If you keep on in sin, somewhere down the road your heart is going to be broken, your life is going to be torn apart. Somewhere down the road your sins will catch up with you, “be sure your sin will find you out,” “…for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).
SIN WILL SEPARATE YOU!
And now placing all of that aside…this is the most important aspect and I pray that you have embraced this one truth concerning sin, and that is, that sin always has and always will separate you from God!
Isaiah 59:1-2 tells us, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” The separation caused by sin leads to spiritual death. Ezekiel 18:4, “…the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” It shuts heaven against those who sin. John 8:21, “Then said Jesus…I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.” Sin brings you into bondage. John 8:34, “Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” [Also Romans 6:16-21] “Shall we continue in sin?” Paul answered his own question, “God forbid!” [Romans 6:2-7, 11-15]
CONCLUSION
Final end of the saved: Matthew 25:31-34
Final end of the sinner: Matthew 25:41, 46
