Sin

As humans, we tend to take the truth of God and wrap it around what we are comfortable with, thereby ending up with a comfortable untruth. There was a little boy explaining things to his younger sister.

He said, “Jesus’ job was to die for us because we sin. Our job is to sin to make His death all worthwhile.”

Now, we see the stupidity of such a statement, but we miss the stupidity in other statements, such as the virgin birth is only a symbol – that it never really happened. We miss the fact that there really is a hell of such fearful proportions that we cannot begin to understand it. There are many so-called Christians out there today who teach that there is no hell, that it, too, is a symbol.

Today, I want to talk to you about something that many American churches today like to avoid. I want to talk to you about the truth of your sin and the consequences of that sin.

How would it make you feel if I said that you were a sinner? As your friend, I would hope that doesn’t upset you, but as your pastor, I hope it does. Let me explain.

There is an old saying that says, “Friends don’t let friends go to hell.” That is a true statement. There is another saying: “A loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell.” That is also a true statement. But what we always seem to forget is that God doesn’t send anyone to hell; we send ourselves!

But for us to acknowledge that, we would have to acknowledge that we are the ones who are doing something wrong - that we are the ones who are sinning, and humans don’t like to look at ourselves and see bad things, do we?

PSALM 5:4-5

‘You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with You the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all who do wrong.’

PSALM 34:15-16

‘The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the Lord is against those who do evil – to cut off the memory of them from the earth.’

These verses and many others remind us that God passionately loves those who love Him, but no matter how much He loves His creation, He still hates sin. I think we, as God’s people, need to be reminded often about something most churches don’t want to talk about today. That is the seriousness of sin.

· Man calls sin an accident; God calls it an abomination.

· Man calls sin a defect; God calls it a disease

· Man calls sin a chance; God calls it choice.

· Man calls sin fascination; God calls it fatality.

· Man calls sin a luxury; God calls it leprosy.

· Man calls sin no big deal; God calls it the biggest of deals.

Let us consider …

1. THE PENALTY FOR SIN

GENESIS 3:14

‘So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and the wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.’

God cursed Satan, and for him there is no remedy; he is doomed, defeated and damned. His eternal fate is sealed because of the hatred he has for the Most High God. And there will be a day when that sentence will be carried out in full.

Have you noticed how today’s churches have softened hell down to where it is almost a good place to go? That is because we have softened God’s word down to where it is almost meaningless to us. In reality, there is an end time for each of us, and there is a hell that those who do not follow Jesus Christ will go to.

REVELATION 20:10

‘And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulpher, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.’

But the devil was not the only one full of evil that day in the Garden. Man’s heart was also full of evil. And because of that, God also cursed man for his sin.

GENESIS 3:16-17

‘To the woman, God said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.” To Adam, He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you not to eat, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.’