Sin and the effect that it has on our lives?
Sunday February 25, 2001
I want to use as a text this morning 1st John 3:6
1 John 3:6
6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Now I want to read that same verse in the New Living Translation.
1 John 3:6
6 So if we continue to live in him, we won’t sin either. But those who keep on sinning have never known him or understood who he is.
So now we need to ask the question, can a saved person commit sin?
The answer of course being yes, but the good news is that you can be forgiven.
There are people out there that seem to think that if they are born again and commit sin they will be automatically forgiven if they commit sin.
Then on the other hand there are people out there that feel that if they are born again and commit a sin they are doomed forever.
What I would like to look at this morning is both of these problems.
There are some religions that lead people to believe that once they are born again, they now have a license to sin!
This could not be further from the truth!
Sin is sin whether you have been born again or not there is not one place in the bible where you can find that it tells you if you are born again you can go out and commit sin!
When you sin you are no longer saved!
There is a difference between making a mistake and outright committing sin or doing something that you know that you shouldn’t do!
But never the less we still need to confess our sins not only to God but to others and ask for forgiveness!
Now I know that people are going to make mistakes because like David said in, Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
You can see by those verses that there are going to be times that we will commit sin.
But we need to know that we need to ask God for forgiveness and to help us not to do it again, that’s what David is talking about here!
Now don’t go to feeling all uptight and being sad and thinking that God no longer loves you because that is not true either.
Just like you and I love our children when they make mistakes God still loves us!
Even though God still loves us it still upsets Him when He sees us do something that we shouldn’t.
It should also upset us when we see that we have done something that we shouldn’t.
And just like we correct our children when they do something that we don’t like.
God is going to be there to correct us as well.
God will appear silent in our lives until we tell Him that we are sorry and ask for forgiveness and ask Him to help us that we don’t do that again.
When we are born again we are fully adopted into the family of God.
When we sin God does not disinherit His children.
Now, we are not immune to chastisement, discipline, or correction.
On the contrary, the Spirit will correct the Father’s children whenever necessary to help us stay in line with God’s best for us!
But we are not subject to abandonment either.
Let’s read what Paul wrote in, Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Knowing that you can never be separated from the love of Christ, however, is no license to sin!
It should be rather a thing that will spur us forward to live a more righteous life.
We should more than ever take the words of this scripture and want to go forward giving furthurence to God’s Kingdom here on earth!
If you are looking for an out to justify your sin perhaps you should question whether you have ever really received Christ into your life in the first place!
You know that is what I have been talking about Sunday after Sunday, you attitude and what you want to make of yourself!
Don’t think that just because you can fool me or a loved one or a co-worker, that you can fool God!
You know that God knows what you are going to do before you even think about it.
God calls us to holy, righteous, obedient living.
Once we truly understand forgiveness, and the deadly penalty of being in an unpardoned state of sin, we won’t want to breach our relationship with God.
Our sins will be grievous to us, not enjoyable.
We will no longer in all good conscious be able to hold sin in our hearts!
Once we fully understand the power of God we will only want to please Him and live for Him and in no way will we want to do anything for the devil!
You will know by the way that you feel on the inside where you are standing with the Lord Jesus Christ!
You will want to please the Lord, you will want to do things for God!
You will find that you are happier when you are doing things for God!
You will start having thoughts that line up with the Will of God!
Your thoughts will become higher!
You will be standing on a higher plane!
God will be in you and you will have His power!
Let’s stop with all of this playing around and lacks a daisy way of living!
Let’s stop with all of this trying to use the scripture in a way to please you and start pleasing God!
Amen!
As we look on further we find that people sometimes misuse this next verse.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
People like to assume, “Well I can sin and run right to God and ask Him to forgive me, and He will.”
You know that is a very casual attitude to have about something as serious as sin!
Yes, god will forgive you of your sins when you confess them, but perhaps you should reconsider what confession really means.
I can assure you that you can’t use God as a fire escape!
That is not the meaning of that scripture!
We need to read the scripture Psalm 139:23-24 again,
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Lead me in the way everlasting!
Keep me in the straight and narrow!
Help me to live the way that You want me to live!
That way of thinking and only that way of thinking will keep you right with God!
We cannot continue to live in sin and expect to go anywhere with God!
Confession means that you admit to God that you have erred!
You are genuinely sorry for what you have done!
And you have no desire to commit the sin in the future!
It needs to be the goal of each and everyone of us this morning to live for God because we truly love Him and not just because we are afraid that if we die tonight we will go to hell!
The confession should include a request that God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, will help you to never commit such a sin again.
You see, when we ask God to forgive us we have to mean it.
It would be like if every time I walked by you I would step on your foot and then say,
Oh, I am very sorry, and then I would turn around and walk back the other way and step on your foot and again say I am sorry and just keep on doing it.
You know after a few times of doing that you would begin to have trouble believing that I was really sorry.
So now you know how God must feel!
He still loves you but He doesn’t really feel that you are sorry for the sins that you are committing.
Do not try to make a fool out of God!
It will not work!
You will be the loser I can assure you of that!
Let’s look at what it says in,
1 John 2:1-6
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
So you can see that if we really have been born again and have the power of God working in our lives we are not intentionally going to sin!
And you are going to find that if you are truly born again you will not have these little mistakes always happening in your life!
This slipping out of God’s name in vain!
And a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
You see what it says in these scriptures if you truly know God then you will keep His commandants!
And then let’s look at,
Romans 7:13-25
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
So you can see that as long as we try to do things our way, which is in the flesh we will continue going nowhere.
For us to go forward in our Christian experience we must be filled with the Holy Spirit and with His help we will be able to push forward!
Prior to receiving Jesus Christ as your savior, you had the natural tendency to sin.
Sin was automatic for you.
You lived by the flesh!
Once you received Jesus Christ in your heart it was not any longer natural for you to sin.
You can use that as a test to see if you are really saved.
If you are truly saved and full of the Holy Spirit you will become a new creature, you will want to have that close relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will become as it says in,
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Old things are passed away, your sinful nature is gone and you have within you a new nature a nature that comes only from God!
That doesn’t mean that you won’t occasionally yield to temptation and commit sin against God or your fellow human beings, but the Holy Spirit will quickly convict you about that sin.
If the Holy Spirit is not quick to convict you when you do commit a sin, then one of two things are happing to you.
One, you are not taking time to listen to Him when He try’s to speak to you or.
Two, you have long since gotten away from Him and it is time that you go to an altar of prayer and ask for forgiveness again!
Your sin will seem unnatural to you!
It should be odious and undesirable to you!
When you are truly living for God you will know the very instant that you mess up!
You sure won’t have to think about it for a while!
You will want to receive God’s forgiveness and be reconciled to your heavenly Father.
The only thing that tends to stand in the way of forgiveness for the Christian who sins is your own questioning whether God will forgive you.
Let me assure you, He will, if you turn to Him in genuine humility to confess and repent of your sin.
How do I know this to be true?
The most famous parable of Jesus tells me so.
The parable of the prodigal son should in my opinion, be called the parable of the forgiving father.
The message of this story is of love and forgiveness from start to finish.
We need to recognize the image of God, as a loving Father is not a new thing introduced by Jesus!
It is a message throughout the Old Testament as well.
Moses knew the gracious love of God when God told him that His “Presence” would go with him and He would give him rest, even after the children of Israel had turned from God in making a golden calf as an idol to worship.
Let’s read what it says in,
Exodus 33:14-23
14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven with the full expectation that God would hear his confession on behalf of the children of Israel!
That He would forgive their sin, and restore His people to Jerusalem!
Let’s read that in,
Nehemiah 1:11
11 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.
And again we can read in, Psalm 51:1-19
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
The list go’s on and on throughout out the bible where you can read of the loving kindness of God.
One of the most vital truths you can ever learn about God is that He loves you unconditionally, infinitely, and tenderly.
His love never changes!
It is His nature!
God’s desire to forgive, and have us to come back into the fold are inseparable!
It needs to be our goal to ever work towards fully becoming like God.
Just like the scripture tells us in, Matthew 5:48
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
I know that a lot of the scriptures that I use, you hear over and over, but friends, I need to tell you this.
God is laying these thoughts on my mind for some reason.
I don’t know what the reason is.
But I do know, that it is my duty as a messenger of God to do and say what He tells me to do and say when I am speaking from this pulpit!
I do know that as long as I do and say what God wants me to do and say, that there won’t be any sugar coating going on!
Some people might not be happy but they will hear the truth and I will be happy that I have done what God has asked me to do!
As we go on let’s look at what the word says in,
1 John 4:9
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Now for you who see this love, that God can give, it is impossible to measure.
Not a one of us setting here this morning would be able to give up our only son, for sinners!
I don’t think that anyone would be able to give up any person in their family for another sinner!
So you see that this is the kind of love that God is willing to give.
All that He is asking us to do is to put Him first in our lives and to love one another.
That’s a far cry from giving up your son or daughter or your wife!
You see God looks at our actions!
Not just what we say!
We need to show by what we do!
A lot of us fail to understand that God is not the only one looking at our actions!
The world is watching us closer that we may know!
You can see that God showed by His actions what He did with His only son!
There was no guess work there!
His action was very clear and definite!
That is how we nee to be with our actions, clear and definite!
That’s all that God is asking for us to do.
And you will begin to see a lot of other changes take place in the hearts of the sinners when they finally see that we are really taking a stand in our Christian life!
Just to live according to His Will and to keep ourselves Holy before one another.
God will be by our side as long as we allow Him to be there.
We have got to spend more time in prayer and more time in Bible study to as it says in 1st Timothy to find ourselves approved!
You know that God has already done what He said He would do!
The rest is up to us!
