When Do We Sin? Series

"I Want The Truth!” January 17, 2010

This morning I am continuing with the sermon series “I want the truth!” I got some response to my request and hope to get many more as we go along.

For those who were not here last week I will explain what I am doing and I hope you will participate.

This series will be to answer spiritual questions that you may have concerning right from wrong, good or bad, should we or shouldn’t we, and we will consult God’s Word to find the answers.

Now you will determine the length of the series because as long as you submit questions to me the series will continue.

So if you have a question that you would like for me to preach on please submit it. You can submit as many questions as you want, you don’t have to put your name on it, your question will be confidential no one else will know you submitted it.

Joke: Preacher is against it.

This week’s message came from questions regarding sin.

How may of you committed sin this past week? I would say if you conducted a survey and asked people the question, what is sin, the majority would say, to break one of the Ten Commandments.

Well that would qualify but we can still sin without breaking one of the top ten. So what exactly qualifies as a sin?

I attended the Pathfinders Sunday school class last Sunday that was taught very well by Cal and I found it ironic that the main question this week was a topic that was discussed in that class.

When does the thought of sin actually become a sin?

Now the reason this question came up is because of what Jesus said in the book of Matthew during His sermon on the mount.

Jesus actually took some of the Laws of the Old Testament and elaborated on them but before He did He gave this explanation.

Matthew 5:17-18

Now Jesus is saying here that the Law was still in effect, it just needed a little tweaking.

Illustration: Sports rules get changed.

Why did Jesus need to tweak the Law? Because we are judged by not only what we do but also what is in our heart.

Illustration: I can show my wife love and I can tell her how much I love her but she doesn’t know exactly what I feel in my heart for her.

God knows therefore Jesus elaborated so we could be aware of this.

Matthew 5:21-22

So Thou shall not kill we know is a sin against God but Jesus takes it a step further and says if you’re angry, your sinning.

Now the question is when does your thoughts actually become a sin?

Paul says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death so if a thought comes into my head that, he makes me so angry, that is worth dying. That is pretty severe isn’t it?

Look what Jesus says in verse 22, if you call someone a fool you are in danger of Hell’s fire.

Now a fool is simply someone who lacks wisdom or the Greek meaning for empty headed.

Now we all know people who would fit that description. Think about it, did you ever think or tell some one; oh that person’s a fool?

So when does your thoughts actually become a sin?

According to Jesus, the moment you think it.

Now I must admit I have changed my way of thinking on this issue because I used to believe that it became a sin if you dwelled on it.

A couple weeks ago I ended a sermon with the statement, never put a question where God puts a period.

So if Jesus says here that by just thinking it in your mind you commit it in your heart why should we even question it.

There is a special message here that Jesus is giving by saying these words and it was to let people know that the LAW CAN’T SAVE ANYONE.

That is why we need Jesus.

In other words it is virtually impossible for a human being, other than Jesus Himself, to go without sin.

See we sin all the time with our minds but just because we don’t commit the act we don’t give it a second thought.

Did you ever do something and then think to yourself, OK if someone asks me about this what am I going to tell them?

Then your mind starts to churn to come up with what to say or the best way to say it. Now if your come up with ideas that aren’t the truth, isn’t that the same thing Jesus is talking about?

There is another way we sin and we don’t even have to do anything to commit it.