SIN!
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Recently, in he interactive part of Bible Study, the discussion turned to a member of this church who has recently made a “lifestyle choice.” The member who started the discussion made it clear that she was thoroughly disgusted by what the other member is doing. My response was to take us to two passages in the New Testament.
The first passage was in John 8:1-9, where the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in adultery – expecting Him to condemn the woman. Naturally I chose this passage because the woman who brought up the discussion was intent on getting me to condemn the member she was talking about.
I then turned to Luke 7:38-50, and we read the story of the woman – known to be a sinner – who showed up at the house of a wealthy Pharisee, when she learned that Jesus was dining there. The Bible says the woman began to weep, wiped His feet with her tears, and then rubbed them with an expensive ointment she’d brought with her. The owner of the house became very indignant, and said, “This man is a phony! Otherwise He’d have known [that this woman touching Him is a tramp!] (I used brackets here to indicate that I paraphrased the verse)
In other words, how could somebody who calls Himself a Holy Man, or a Prophet, or a Pastor, let Himself get entangled with a woman like that?
WHAT I SAID
Now let me tell you what I said – at the conclusion of the matter – because some conversations that have taken place since then suggest that folks might have got it twisted. I said Sister One is caught up in a Lesbian lifestyle, and I don’t condone that. But I have two members sitting here today (referring to the woman who brought the accusation) who are living with men they are not married to, and I don’t condone that, either!
It has been reported that I openly condemned the two women living with men they are not married to; but the truth is I did not. I simply refused to condemn the other woman – Sister One. Why?
In the first place as the Senior Shepherd of this house I don’t have the luxury of taking sides with one member against another – I am the shepherd to both women, and my role is to help both of them bring their lives into harmony with the will of God.
Secondly, my role as Pastor is not to condemn the people that I have been given to shepherd. My role is to teach against the SIN – but in doing that I must also point out that there are no ‘big sins’ and ‘little sins.’ In the eyes of God all sin is Sin.
SIN!
And so it was incumbent on me to say unequivocally to this precious lady that the fact is,
GOD DOES NOT HATE LESBIANS!
God hates SIN. And there is no point trying to categorize it, sin is SIN, and all of us have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23)
I found myself immediately thinking about how God’s love comes to the forefront in a conversation like this – and the Spirit dropped in my spirit what a wonderful Valentine’s message this would be. I want to be quiet for the most part and let the Scriptures speak for themselves, but to interject at certain places to tie it all together to this week’s theme.
So our lesson is very simple. GOD HATES SIN, but God does NOT hate the sinner. In fact the Bible says God LOVED the world so much that He gave His only Son, that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life. (John 3:16) This is a very common memory verse – one that many or you learned as a child, in Sunday school. When I started preaching I found myself struck by the fact that we typically stop at John 3:16 – and in the process completely miss the point of the very next verse:
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:17 When God got through giving me the revelation about John 3:17, I made Him a promise, that,
“Lord, from this day forward, I’m not preaching another soul into hell! Anoint my message, Lord, so that I’ll be able to preach the Hell outa them!”
He said, “OK, but you’ve gotta promise that you’ll still tell them the truth about Sin!”
So I said I was gonna leave it to the Bible to teach this lesson: I want to make sure, this time when I finish, that you will understand that whatever I say didn’t come from me, it came from God.
How we got into this mess!
Our Articles of Faith say,
"It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of His eternal power, wisdom, goodness, and glory – in the Beginning – to create (make out of nothing) the world and all things in the world, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days and all VERY GOOD.
"After God had made all other creations He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, WITHOUT SIN, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. He made man after His own image and likeness, having the law of God written on their hearts, and the power to fulfill it; and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liability of their own will, which was subject to change.
"Beside the law written in their hearts they received a command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, planted in the midst of the Garden. (Genesis 2:16) While they kept this command they were happy in their communication with God, and had dominion over the creatures. However, they allowed themselves to be seduced by satan’s subtlety, therefore our first parents fell away from God by a willful act of disobedience; fell from their original righteousness and communion with God; and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul, body, and spirit."
Man’s sin was an act of defiance against the sovereignty of God. For as long as man was obedient to God’s command regarding the Tree he was acting in submission to God’s sovereignty. Therefore, his obedience was an affirmation of his respect for God’s right to control man’s destiny. In this state of submission man enjoyed a healthy, perfect, holy, and sinless relationship with God.
Adam was given a simple command from God: to leave the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil alone! There were plenty of other trees for man to eat from; so obeying the command did not present man with any risk of starving to death – or with any other special hardship. Adam made a choice, which – in an instant – destroyed his perfect relationship with God. In short, this simple act of disobedience caused him "to err, or miss the mark." The biblical word that means, "to miss the mark" is SIN. So then, by eating from this tree, Adam and Eve sinned.
From the moment that the original man and woman committed sin they were LOST – and all future generations of their offspring, as well.
[Illustrations: They broke God’s heart]
LOST
The Bible says that all who are not Saved are Lost! In the Hebrew language – the language of the Old Testament – the word that means, "lost" is "abad," which also means to "destroy" or "be destroyed," and/or "to perish."
The Bible says that we are like "lost sheep." Listen to some of the scriptures that speak to this circumstance:
Psalms 119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant; for I do not forget Your Commandments. LITV
Jeremiah 50:6 My people are lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they turned them away on the mountains, they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. LITV
Eze 34:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe [be] to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: [but] ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up [that which was] broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. KJV
Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd seeks his flock in the day that he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out My sheep and will deliver them from all the places where they were scattered in a day of cloud, and thick cloud. LITV
Ezekiel 34:16 I will seek the lost, and I will return the banished. And I will bind up the broken, and I will make the weak strong. But I will destroy the fat and the strong, I will feed them with judgment. LITV
The Greek language – the language of the New Testament – also has a word for "lost," which is "appolumi." This word has an identical meaning to the Hebrew word, "abad."
There is also a second Greek word – "zemioo" – which means "to forfeit," or "to be cast away."
There is a whole lot more that I could say on the subject of Sin, but for the purpose of today’s message, I just wanted to give you a little background information to help me emphasize the gravity of what in means for us to be “in Sin.”
Returning to the original point that God does not distinguish between sins – that in His view sin is Sin – a very complete lesson on this subject can be found in 1 Corinthians chapters 5-7. Corinth was a ‘progressive’ city, and they were so permissive that they had begun to get a reputation, and Paul found it necessary to write them to give them spiritual correction. Consider this incident, for example:
I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you, something so evil that even the pagans don’t do it. I am told that you have a man in your church who is living in sin with his father’s wife. 2 And you are so proud of yourselves! Why aren’t you mourning in sorrow and shame? And why haven’t you removed this man from your fellowship? 1 Cor 5:1-2
These people had prominent social status but their church was devoid of any moral standards. And Paul chastises them for being so laissez faire about the matter. In the sixth chapter he gets to the ‘meat’ of his letter. Look how the King James Version reads in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
1 Cor. 6:9 KJV Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Just so there’s no misunderstanding who Paul is talking about, let me show you how this passage reads in the New Living Translation
1 Cor 6:9 NLT Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers – none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God.
Curious, isn’t it, that this passage talks about homosexuals AND fornicators in the same sentence?
Kinda makes it look like God does not make a distinction between a so-called ‘BIG SIN’ and a so-called ‘little one’ You know those ‘little white lies?’ Guess what? They’re LIES! (Read 2 Cor 12:20-21, also)
Run away from sexual sin! [KJV: Flee fornication.] No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. [KJV: he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.] Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Cor 6:18-19
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:19-21
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry. God’s terrible anger will come upon those who do such things. You used to do them when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds. Col. 3:5-9 NLT
Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You are doing this already, and we encourage you to do so more and more. For you remember what we taught you in the name of the Lord Jesus. God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor – not in lustful passion as the pagans do, in their ignorance of God and his ways. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5 NLT
LOVE!
I hope as you read this section it will be obvious that this lesson has two parts. SIN is the first part; LOVE is the second.
I want to show you at least five examples where Jesus dealt with the question of Sin – and I want to show you where in each case His reaction to the question was radically different from what I expect ours would have been.
God’s Dilemma
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Ge. 3:16-17
Man’s sin left God with only three alternatives: (1) God could totally overlook the sin; (2) God could immediately and unequivocally annihilate man; or (3) God could forgive man. God is Holy, and He is just. For both of these reasons overlooking the sin was not an option. To overlook the sin would be to retreat from the warning that followed His command not to eat from the tree, that "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:17) God’s Word does not return to Him void (Isaiah 53:11), so He certainly could not threaten man’s life without carrying out that threat.
Inasmuch as God is Holy, it is impossible for Him to have any fellowship with anything un-holy. Therefore any un-holy thing that approached the Presence of God would be annihilated. Man’s sin made him un-holy; and for this reason, Divine Justice would demand that God annihilate man.
Consider also that Lucifer told Eve that God had lied to her – that she would not die from eating the fruit, but would rather become like God, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:4-5) If God had ignored this sin, He would have given the impression that what the serpent said was true. Yet, if God had done what Divine Justice demanded and annihilated man, the angels would never have had an opportunity to see God’s infinite Mercy.
What He chose to do would balance Divine Justice with Divine Mercy and Love. What was left for Him to do was to devise some means to forgive man, while at the same time satisfying the demands of Divine Justice. God’s Plan provided that man would be spared from total annihilation, if someone else would pay the death penalty – demanded by Divine Justice – for him.
Paradox: Man was now sinful, and – since his sin had been done before man ever had an opportunity to produce any sinless offspring – all of his children would be sinful, too. But, since a once-sinless hu-man had sinned, then the only One who could pay the penalty for man would have to be another sinless hu-man. These were Divine Justice’s terms, plain and simple!
GOD GOT BUSY!
God’s Plan was that at a certain time in the future, He would bring another perfect and sinless human into the world, to Ransom mankind out from under the death penalty. In the meantime He made promises to several important men that He would allow man to have a temporary relationship with him – including a temporary atonement from – or "covering for" – his sin, provided that man meet certain conditions. Since only BLOOD would satisfy Divine Justice, man had to bring some blood into an appointed place – called the "Tabernacle" – once a year, every year, until such time as the perfect sinless human Ransom came into the world, and shed His own blood, once for all time. (Hebrews 9:10-11, 28; 10:10-17)
Now that, my dear friends, is what I call LOVE!
I remember a few weeks ago when I was studying for the message about the ‘thirsty place,’ how God sent the prophet Gad to David, to confront him about his sin. The first thing that struck me is that God told David he was going to have to face some sort of judgment; but then He turns around and lets David choose his punishment.
The second thing that struck me is David’s response: “David answered Gad, "I have great anxiety. Please, let us fall into the Lord’s hands because His mercies are great, but don’t let me fall into human hands."
I have always said I am glad that God didn’t leave it up to man to judge me, because man would have nailed me to the cross without a trial! Let me give you an example:
THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE
Then Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else: "Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ’I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ "But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ’O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored." Luke 18:9-14 NLT
In the course of almost thirty years I have seen people who wanted to use the Church as their personal “I’m better than you” club. They are a lot like this Pharisee. They think somehow they have the right to look down their noses at other people in ‘righteous indignation.’
And that is where these sibling rivalries arise like the one I talked about in the beginning of this lesson. Even Jesus had to deal with rivalries. Remember James and John? How their mother asked this big favor of Jesus:
"In your Kingdom, will you let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one at your right and the other at your left?" Matthew 20:21 NLT
But Jesus wasn’t having any part of it. Jesus didn’t play favorites!
Furthermore, God doesn’t love any of us more or less than He loves the other. Don’t be so hard on yourself: Jesus loves you! Let’s take a look at this love in action.
WOMAN AT THE WELL OF SYCHAR
"Go and get your husband," Jesus told her. "I don’t have a husband," the woman replied. Jesus said, "You’re right! You don’t have a husband – for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now." John 4:1-42 NLT
On his way to his homeland in Galilee, Jesus made a detour through Samaria. Now the Bible says “He must needs go through Samaria,” suggesting that the only way for Jesus to get to Galilee would have been to pass through Samaria. Truth is the Jews hated the Samaritans so much that they would walk all the way around it in going from Judea to Galilee.
But I digress …
The real reason that Jesus needed to go through Samaria was He was on a mission – a mission to impart the Gospel to the people of Samaria. And God had arranged it for a certain woman to be at a particular well in the city of Sychar just about the same time as Jesus was arriving there. This story is an intriguing story – and we will explore it in some depth on some future occasion. What I want you to take away from this story is the fact that this woman undoubtedly slept around.
Any woman who was married as many times as this one – and then was ‘shacked up’ with a man who wasn’t even her husband – undoubtedly had a sordid reputation, back then. Come to think of it, you can’t find too many women today with this woman’s track record.
The important thing is that Jesus never condemned her. Just like the women in the verses I mentioned at the beginning, Jesus met these women on their level – and dealt with them on His. He didn’t bring hem down, but in each case He did whatever He needed to do to bring them up to His level.
And it wasn’t just with women, in fact there were more men with tarnished reputations in His camp than women. Don’t believe me you should do a character study of the disciples, someday!
And [Jesus] entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, [there was] a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that [way]. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw [it], they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. Luke 19:1-7
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw [it], they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard [that], he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what [that] meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew 9:10-13; 11:9; Mark 2:15-16; Luke 5:30
The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! Luke 7:34
Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Luke 15:1-2
So to the people who criticize me for trying to be the light of Christ shining in the lives of the people YOU don’t think deserve the Gospel, please understand that the Word of God compels me to reach out to them with compassion, just the same as I am compelled to reach ut to you.
And please understand that I am not condemning you, when I try to teach you on the basis of what is said in the Word of God – that is my JOB!
"As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. If I say to the wicked: Wicked one, you will surely die, but you do not speak out to warn him about his way, that wicked person will die for his iniquity, yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. But if you warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he doesn’t turn from it, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life. Ezekiel 33:7-9 Holman CSB
