Michael Kalman, a dermatologist issues a word of warning to those in our country who constantly strive for that golden brown suntan, "Today’s deeply tanned beauties are tomorrow’s wrinkled prunes."
In thinking about sin, sin is kind of like getting a suntan. It may look great today, it may be fun or exciting today, but tomorrow’s a different story.
Often we hear people, especially younger people say something like this: "It seems like everything that is fun is sin." And sometimes, sad to say, we convey that. If we have learned anything from the recent John Piper video’s it is that we have set our sights to low in terms of fun and pleasure. We have accepted a much cheaper imitation of fun. Ps 16:11 declares, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.” I don’t about you, but “fullness of joy” sounds pretty good to me. So it is a lie from Satan to believe sin is fun and godliness is boring. The truth about sin as it is revealed in the Bible and in human experience is far different from the bill of goods Satan tries to sells us. The devil is a liar. The truth about sin is that it is deceptive, destructive, and deadly.
A father took his young son swimming. When they jumped into the pool, the little boy began to shiver with cold and cried, "Ohh, daddy, ohh!" His father led him out of the pool, rubbed him down with a towel and dressed him. "Ahh, daddy, ahh!" the little guy cooed as he warmed up. Suddenly a thought occurred to the father.
"Ryan, do you know the difference between taking a cold swim like today & sin? When you 1st jump into the cold water you yell, "Ohh!" and then you say "Ahh!" as you get use to the water and begin to relax and play. But when you sin, you 1st say "Ahh, this is fun!" but you will end up saying, "Ohh!" because sin always brings bad results.
In light of that, let us remind ourselves of these 3 truths about sin:
I. SIN WILL TAKE YOU FURTHER THAN YOU WANT TO GO!
We could use numerous examples from Scripture to illustrate this point:
A. Let’s consider David. David was truly one of the great men of all time. In fact, God declared him so. He was a great man, wise man, a strong man, a godly man and for the most part a pure man. But sin deceived David and it was also destructive and deadly. You remember the sad story of David and Bathsheba.
On one occasion, when David’s army was out fighting battles for him and the country, David, the king was loafing at home. We’re told that he arose from his bed and walked around the roof of the King’s house. As he looked around he saw Bathsheba, who was bathing. The Bible tells us that David sent for Bathsheba. He was told that she was married to one of David’s soldiers, Uriah, but despite that, David sent for her and committed adultery with her.
I am reasonable sure that when David first looked from his roof top and saw Bathsheba that evening, he never planned to commit adultery with her, but he didn’t stop to realize that sin will take you further than you want to go. And instead of immediately turning away, he kept looking and before that night was over, this godly man and king would sin in a way he never thought he would.
It is always true -- sin will take you further than you want to go. This tragic truth is illustrated in many other individuals in the Bible.
B. Jacob - I’m sure Jacob never envisioned the lengths and literally distance sin would take him when he first started harboring wrong feelings toward his brother and trying to get the best of him. I mean, after all, all it was was a little sibling rivalry and a little competition between brothers. But you never escape the truth that sin will take you further than you want to go even when that sin is simply a wrong attitude toward someone.
C. Another example that comes to mind is the children of Israel after they left Egypt as they come to Kadesh in preparation of entering the Promised Land. I’m sure they never realize that their sin of unbelief would end up costing them their lives and that none of them would enter the Promised Land. They didn’t realize that sin always takes you further than you want to go.
Number 13:28ff - Notice the progression of their unbelief. It caused them to focus on the wrong thing - giants vs God. It was contagious - it spread from the 10 spies to the whole camp. It caused them to say some very foolish things - 14:2. It caused them to slam the character of God - 14:3. 14:4 - they wanted to go back to Egypt. 14:5-10 - it caused them to reject all spiritual counsel. God then pronounced His judgment on them and they would die in the wilderness. God was ready to give them the Promised Land, but because of their sin they went in circles in the desert for 40 years until they all died.
D. How about Solomon? He was the wisest man, other than Jesus, who ever lived. Surely if anyone could keep from falling into sin’s trap, it would be Solomon. But Solomon had a love for women so much so that he had 700 wives & 300 concubines.
God gave some instructions for future kings of Israel back in Deuteronomy In 17:17 he said, “Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away.” Now who knows what Solomon thought? But it is possible that he thought something to the effect of, “I’m Solomon, wisest of the wise, blessed with God’s wisdom. I don’t have anything to worry my heart turning away from God. I can handle it. This isn’t going to affect my relationship with God.” How often have we thought a similar type of thing? And young people, I’m not picking on you, but I know at your age you tend to think like this - this won’t have any effect on me. In fact, probably hardly anyone even thought of what Solomon did as a sin. But even the wisest man on earth could not escape the truth that sin will take you further then you want to go.
E. Remember Lot - what was he guilty of? Not much - he just wanted to provide for himself & his family. He wanted to have nice things and be in a place where he could prosper and enjoy some of the things of the world.
Gen.13:12 - he didn’t actually live in wicked Sodom at first because he knew they were "wicked and sinners before the Lord." But he lived near enough to enjoy the advantages but not actually be a part of the lifestyle. This is what so many Christians do today.
But remember, sin will always take you further than you want to go. Watch the progression with Lot:
-13:12 - he pitched his tent toward Sodom
-14:12 - but soon he was living in Sodom
-19:1 - finally he sat in the gate of Sodom as one of their key business leaders.
Lot unfortunately realized that sin takes us further than we want to go years later. He can tell you 1st hand how sin can destroy a family.
F. Remember Ananias and Sapphira in the Book of Acts? What were they guilty of? They just simply wanted to be noticed, to be well thought of, respected. So they thought up a little deception that would draw some attention to themselves, make them look good before other, make them look more spiritual than they really were. They sold a piece of property and pretended to give the whole amount of the church but really kept back part it for themselves. Ah, it was a little thing. Everybody tells a lie now and then, don’t they?
They never realized in the privacy of their home when they first began talking about this little deception that sin will take you further than you want to go.
Not to long ago a huge tree in Colorado fell to the ground with a resounding crash after having stood majestically on a hill for more than 400 years. It would have been a mere sapling when Columbus discovered America. Over the centuries it had been struck by lightning 14 times, braved great windstorms, and even defied an earthquake. In the end, however, it was killed by some little beetles. Boring under the bark, these beetles chewed away its mighty fibers until one day that stately king of the forest came thundering down.
But that’s what sin does. It may seem so small and insignificant at first, but it continues to gnaw away at your spiritual life & grows until, if left unchecked, leads to your downfall.
II. SIN WILL KEEP YOU LONGER THAN YOU WANT TO STAY!
A. David commits adultery. Bathsheba gets pregnant. Then David tries by trickery to have her husband brought from the battle field to spend some time with his wife to make it appear the baby was Uriah’s. You recall that Uriah refused to go home while his fellow soldiers were dying on the battlefield. David then had Uriah put in the front battle line were he is killed. He was then compelled to admit the child by Bathsheba was his and finally married Bathsheba.
David probably meant for his affair with Bathsheba to be a "one-night stand." No doubt he meant to have his "fun" & forget about it, after all he was king. He didn’t understand that sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.
Had David known his adultery would lead him to murder one of his most loyal soldiers and that his sin would be exposed and he would have to marry the Bathsheba and some more things I will mention later, he would have never have invited that woman into his house. That night when he saw Bathsheba on the roof was just one act, but you see sin gets its claws in you and ends up keeping you longer than you want to stay.
B. Jacob probably did not realize when he first started harboring wrong feelings toward his brother and wishing he could have some of the blessings that were Esau’s through being the first born, how that would get a grip on him and gnaw at him over the years - so much so that he would end up doing some pretty despicable things toward his brother and even towards his father. But sin, if it is not dealt with will keep you longer than you want to stay.
C. Go back to the children of Israel. I’m sure they never realized when they first doubted and questioned whether God could lead them victoriously into the Promised Land that for the next 40 years they would be living in the result of their sin of unbelief.
D. How long did sin hang on to Solomon? Only long enough so that he was willing to build an altar to Chemosh and Molech, false gods that people literally sacrificed children to. And you know where he built it? On the Mt. of Olives, right across the valley from the magnificent temple he had built earlier and these are his words, “so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no one else.”
E. For Ananias and Sapphira, sin kept them so that went before the apostles and the church and lied making themselves out to be someone they were not.
You’ve got to understand sin will keep you longer than you want to stay. But there is one other truth about sin & it is this:
III. SIN WILL COST YOU MORE THAN YOU WANT TO PAY!
A. Look at what it cost David? He became an adulterer, a murderer. The baby that was born to him and Bathsheba died. For a year his intimacy with God was broken. He was shamed as his sin became known throughout the kingdom, in fact beyond that. If you ask people today what they know about David, out of the 3 or 4 things they list, his sin with Bathsheba is 1 of them. Matt.1:6b - "...and to David was born Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah." This became a permanent blot on David’s name. God pronounced His discipline that the sword would not depart from David’s house that turmoil would be constantly there. As you read about David’s family you find 1 of David’s sons, Ammon, by 1 wife, seduces his half-sister Tamar. In fact, he rapes his half-sister. One of David’s other sons kills Ammon for what he did. Another of David’s sons, Absalom, the one he loved so much, doubled-crossed his father and tried to take the throne away from him and also publicly disgraced his father in a way I won’t mention. You start adding it up and you will find that David paid a tremendous cost for his 1 night of sin. Sin will cost you more that you want to pay.
B. What did it cost Jacob? 21 years of being separated from his family. 21 years of a break in his relationship with his only brother. When Rebekah originally came up with the scheme to send Jacob to her relatives, she told Jacob to go to them for a few days “until your brother’s anger against you subsides...then I shall send & get you.” But word from Rebekah never came. I wonder what Jacob thought all those years of waiting. I wonder what mental anguish he endured whenever he thought back to what he had done and why no word came from his mother. What else did it cost him? He never saw his beloved mother again. She died before he could get back home.
C. What did it cost the children of Israel? It cost them the very thing they had been looking for, the very thing they had been waiting for, the very thing they had desired for such a long time - the Promised Land. It cost them God’s rich blessing on their lives. It cost them their hopes and dreams. It cost them their lives too. I don’t believe a one of them would have said that they wanted to give all that up, but you see, sin will cost you more than you’re willing to pay.
D. What did it cost Solomon? Judgment from God! God declared that He would tear the kingdom away from Solomon and his descendants. In other words, the splitting of the kingdom into the northern and southern kingdoms was the result of Solomon’s sin. It cost him peace throughout the kingdom as God raised up an adversary to war against him. But most importantly, it cost him the blessing of God on his life & his legacy.
I wondered how many of you have paid much more than you were willing to pay because of a becoming involved in a wrong relationship?
E. Lot - What did his sin cost him? It cost him the respect of his family...
Gen19:14 - "And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, ’Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.’ But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting." They didn’t respect him enough to believe what he said, but laughed at him.
It cost him his wife as she is turned into a pillar of salt, incest with his daughters. In fact, Lot’s sin not only cost him more than he was willing to pay but it ended up costing much, much more as the two nations which came forth from that incestuous relationship were frequently at war with Israel, were constantly a thorn in the nation of Israel’s side.
F. How about Ananias and Sapphira our last example? What did it cost them? Not much - just their very lives as God struck them down for their deception and sin. It cost them their reputation for they did become well known throughout the church but not for the reason they wanted.
Do you think any of these people could envision what they would have to endure because of sin? Don’t be lulled into thinking that somehow you’re an exception.
Sammy’s Big Catch - Sammy was a young boy who lived in the Deep South. His summer days were filled when times of walking through the woods, playing with friends, and fishing in the pond down the road. Fishing was by far his favorite thing to do. Just about every day during his summer vacation, he would dig up some worms and head off, pole in hand, for a day of fishing.
This steamy hot day was like most others during Sammy’s summer break. Waking early, he could hear the pond calling him to come fish. Sammy quietly walked out the front door, grabbed his pitchfork and worm pail and walked into the woods to search for bait. He turned over old stumps and dug under leaves hoping to find worms. Under one old stump he hit the jackpot. The ground was writhing. In 2 minutes he had all the bait he needed, and in 15 minutes he was at the pond.
Reaching into his bait bucket, Sammy pulled out a big worm. He double hooked it and tossed in into the water. He noticed a stinging in his hand, but filled with the excitement of the moment, he paid no attention to it. Within 30 seconds, Sammy had a strike and pulled in a nice catfish. Wow, he thought, a fish in the first minute.
He put the catch on his stringer, hurried to rebait his hook and tried his luck again. Once again he felt a stinging sensation in his hand as he threw his hook into the pond. He didn’t have time to worry about it. Within just a few seconds, he had another huge fish. He fumbled the next time he baited his hook--his hand felt numb and stiff. But Sammy was too excited about catching another fish to give it much thought.
At the end of only an hour, Sammy had caught 8 large fish. This was definitely his best fishing day ever. He was so proud of his accomplishment that, even though there was plenty of day left to fish, he threw the heavy stringer of fish over his shoulder and dashed down the road toward home to show off his catch to his parents.
The local sheriff happened to drive up alongside Sammy and started to congratulate him on his catch of fish. With a smile and a victory whoop, Sammy held up the stringer. The sheriff gasped, parked his car and ran over to Sammy. His eyes hadn’t deceived him--Sammy’s arms really were red and swollen to about twice their normal size. “Exactly where have you been and what bait did you use to catch all those fish?” the sheriff asked Sammy.
“I found some special bait under an old stump,” Sammy boasted. “Thee worms really wiggle good,” handing up the bucket for inspection. After a close look at the worms, the sheriff went into fast-forward. Putting the bucket in the car, he swooped up Sammy made a U-turn on the dirt road and sped off to the hospital, but Sammy was already dead.
What the sheriff had discovered was that Sammy had been fishing with baby rattlesnakes. Sammy’s deadly bait brought him a good morning of fishing but cost him his life. Had Sammy stopped fishing after that first sting, he could have been saved. But Sammy was having to much fun and didn’t bother himself with the small voice of pain in his hand. Then, as the hand grew numb, even that voice was silenced.
Playing around and not dealing with sin is like using baby rattlesnakes for bait. It may seem harmless but it’s putting its venom in you and it will affect you because:
Sin will take you further than you want to go!
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay!
Sin will cost you more that you want to pay!
It’s easy to acknowledge these truths about sin when you’re talking about “big” sins, such as David’s adultery. But take note, these principles are just as true of “lesser” sins such Jacob’s wrong attitudes, and the children of Israel’s unwillingness to simply trust and believe God and Solomon’s belief that because he was so smart he would not be affected and Lot’s desire to be where the action was and Ananias and Sapphira’s desire to simply be well thought of. Baby rattlesnakes and that poisonous venom is being poured into you. I don’t mess around with rattlesnakes. I pray I would be even more concerned about messing around with sin.
Additional notes:
Here is a quote I used one time with this message – He who once leaves the right path little knows how far he may go astray or how great will be his perplexities and perils. Possibly he may never return, certainly he will not return without overcoming immense difficulties and finding out by bitter experience his folly and perversity.
I have also used other biblical examples down through the years:
Samson
I. I’m sure Samson never intended to become an adulterer and finally end his life in suicide when he began to date a Philistine girl named Delilah. But sin carried him from dating a forbidden girl, to committing adultery with her, to toying with the special vow he had between God, to suicide. Had Samson known sin always takes you further than you want to go maybe he would have never started seeing Delilah.
II. I believe this principle was true for Samson. No doubt Samson never planned to go to a harlot’s house or fall in love with a woman who would betray him. Yet he refused to deal with and confess his sin. He kept toying with disobedience to God’s laws. He did not realize sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.
III. What did it cost Samson? It cost him his eyesight as the Philistine plucked out his eyes. He was never used by God to the extent God wanted to use him. Think about the things he did do. Can you imagine what God would have done through him if he had walked with Him in complete obedience? It cost him his dignity and eventually his own life.
Joseph’s brothers
I. I think of Joseph and his brothers. I’m sure the brothers never realized in the beginning when they began harboring hard feelings toward Joseph just where it would all lead. It did not stop with hard feelings – it progressed to jealousy, hatred, a desire to kill, selling him into slavery, and lying to their father. But it all started way back with not dealing with the hurt feelings toward their brother. They did not realize that sin takes you further than you want to go.
II. and the we have Joseph and his brothers. How many years were they enslaved with guilt and fear of what they had done to their brother? Probably every time something bad happened to them they considered it God’s judgment for their sin.
Genesis 42:21-22 – 22 years later and they still were carrying the guilt. Sin will definitely keep us longer than we want to stay.
III. How about Joseph’s brothers? It cost them heartache, pain, years of guilt. And may I suggest it cost them the very thing they desired too - a close relationship with their father. I doubt it was possible for any of them to have a close relationship with their father after they sold Joseph into slavery because every time they were near Jacob, they were reminded of the pain and heartache they had cause their father.
In their story though we can see how God will forgive sin as it is confessed to Him. It appears the brothers had a real and sincere repentance and change of heart and character but not without first costing them more than they were willing to pay.
Here are some illustrations I have used at different times with this message as well.
I felt a suspicious "bump" as I pulled my car into the driveway and came to a stop in our carport. Sure enough, one of the rear tires was flat, exposing the metal cord of the steel-belted radial. The next morning, when I visited the tire dealer, I noticed that the same brand of tire on the other side of the car showed no such wear. I asked why. My friend explained that a nail had stuck in the rubber and transferred rust to the steel belts, weakening the interior of the tire. That in turn caused the belt and the tread to separate. Just a nail and a little rust!
How easily spiritual "bumps" can develop in the life of a Christian! Unconfessed sin in the heart is like rust on the steel belts. At first, nothing appears to be wrong, and we may even consider it of no consequence. But our love for the Lord wanes; interest in God’s Word declines; prayer becomes less important. Soon spiritual progress comes to a bumping halt.
It may be some bad sin you are tempted to do, but it may be what we would call "just a little thing." But that little thing is still sin and if it is sin, it will take you further than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay. Sin must be rejected, whether it is something big or small.
Billy Sunday, the baseball evangelist never spared himself nor those he wanted to help in the vigor of his attacks on sin. He thundered against evil from the Gay Nineties through the Great Depression. He preached Christ as the only answer to man’s needs until his death in 1935. "I’m against sin," he said. "I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long a I’ve got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. When I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition."
He wasn’t going to tolerate it in his life. Maybe cause he understood that:
Sin will take you further than you want to go!
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay!
Sin will cost you more that you want to pay!
