Whatever Happened to Sin?

Sermon by Pastor Ed Evans

June 27, 2010

Scripture: Gal. 5:1, 13-25
5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.
5:14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
5:15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
5:16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
5:17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.
5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.
5:19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,
5:21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
5:22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
5:23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Our sermon today opens with the story about an old preacher visiting in a small country church. He was asked what he was going to preach on. He responded, "Sin!" And what, they asked, was he going to say about it" His answer, "I'm ag'in it!" That's what we're going to talk about this morning. But first, some news from this past week.

A New England school district in Massachusetts has approved providing free condoms to elementary school students and they have directed teachers not to comply with parental wishes not to have their children participate. And the policy was approved with no age limit, which means children of any age ask for, and receive, free condoms. Mother and Dad, in New England you don't have a right to prevent your 7-year-old from receiving free condoms. This was approved unanimously by the Provincetown School Committee.

In Milwaukee, children beginning at age 12 have been able to get four-packs of condoms and tubes of liquid lubrication since last December from city clinical and health sites, as well as "partnering" sites such as entertainment/music stores and venues, retail clothing and shoe stores, coffee shops, barber shops and beauty salons and body piercing/tattoo parlors. Just walk in and ask for them, and you get a multi-language set of instructions on how to use them. No consultation, no counseling, no letting their parents know what is going on.

This is the kind of thinking that says if you can't seem to stop burglaries in your neighborhood, just take your valuables and set them out by the street so people don't have to become burglars to take your belongings. But what we miss here is that the results are the same. With the children, we have poisoned the well. We have put them in adult situations they may be physically equipped for, but are emotionally ill-equipped for. The collateral damage is often devastating for a lifetime. As in the case of our burglary example, your precious possessions are still gone, and you won't get them back.

Instead of raising the moral bar, instead of attempting to share the kind of loving information regarding the facts that early sex is not a good idea, and that children are often preyed upon by adults; instead of setting the example of what true, pure love can be between adults, we try to take the sting out doing what is immoral, what is wrong, what is unhealthy. And we can't. So why do we go down that path?

One of the worst things about that period of our history we call the Middle Ages is that children were treated as adults. It was devastating. Why do adults do that? Perhaps because they have not grown up themselves, and they project upon innocent, emotionally immature children the distorted desires and hungers those immature adults feel. But do we not learn from history? What can be our excuse in this day and age?

I believe part of the problem is that we have taken the edge off of sin. We make excuses for doing and permitting activities that are immoral, wrong, and unhealthy. The line, that firm point of departure, between what is right and what is wrong has become blurred. We have allowed it to become blurred.

This past Wednesday on a prime time Australian TV show ABC Q&A panelist Peter Singer talked about the joys of bestiality and wondered aloud why society has taboos on such things. The amazing thing is that no one booed him off the stage.

Christianity Today writer Bill Muehlenberg reporting on this incident, and others, wrote, "We live in very dark times. Indeed, it can be rightly argued that we are descending into a new dark ages. The moral freefall that the West is in is as alarming as it is certain. Everywhere the moral train wreck that is Western culture is gathering pace and becoming more pronounced. The examples of this moral decline are legion......"

There are growing numbers of us who want to deny there is a God. That way we can make our own rules. Rule No. 1, there is no sin. After all, if there is no supreme being who created us, there can be no absolute moral rule, and we are free to do and act as we wish. If there is no God, who has the authority to say there is a moral order at work?

But the fact is -- observed through several thousand years of experience -- that we are alive on this earth for a relatively short period. Then it's over. Or is it? Will we be responsible, after our death, for what we have done during our lifetime? Is there an after life to be determined by our actions during life? Those who refuse to know God, refuse to admit that God is God, will say no. Those who know God will assure you there is. In the first case there is no hope, no future, no reason for life. For those who know God, hope abounds, the future awaits, and the reason for life is that it continues.

However, both those who admit to God and those who deny Him share a blindside about the issue of sin. And there, at the bottom of all our problems, lies either a tragic misunderstanding or a total denial of what sin is.

So, what is sin, really? The top two definitions of sin by any measurement are one, estrangement from God, and two, an act regarded as a transgression of God's will. You can find further elucidation in online and offline dictionaries, but those are the two with which I believe most people can agree. That is, if you believe sin exists.

If you think about it, refusing to be reconciled to the fact of sin, not recognizing it and therefore not dealing with it, produces all the disasters in life. They all come back to these two definitions.

Those who don't want to be fenced in by a moral God will point out all the lofty virtues of human nature, what they term the basic goodness of all human beings. But if you have lived on this earth to the age of responsibility, you must agree that there is a wickedness and selfishness, and something downright wrong and hateful in human beings; in some more than others. And if you don't agree that sin exists in human beings, if you make excuses and fool yourself, then when it attacks your life you will simply compromise with it and give in to it, believing there is no use to fight against it. And evil takes charge of your life.

As the old preacher said, once you allow Satan in the car, he's going to want to drive.

If in your relationships and friendships you don't include the reconciliation to the existence of sin, then at some point, perhaps just around the corner, you will find yourself trapped by sin, and for reasons of your own survival, you will compromise with it. One wrong deed needs another to cover it. One lie needs another lie to cover it. One blind eye to the sanctity of life requires another foul deed to cover it. And it becomes lie upon lie upon lie until we don't know how to get out, and the price of either getting out of it, or staying with it simply gets higher.

On the other hand, if you have recognized the fact of sin, you will realize the danger immediately. You will know the price, you will know the consequences.

Now be careful here, for many new Christians misunderstand their position in the recognition of sin at work. When you see it in the life of others, when it is offered to you, those involved are not the devil's spawn, they are not evil incarnate. Like you and I they have the opportunity to be sinners saved by grace. So recognition need not destroy the basis of the relationship, but there must be a respect for the fact that the basis of a sinful life is disastrous. It would be even better if that were a mutual respect.

Having a respect for the dangers of sin is important in our life, important in our relationships with others. For it is sin that separates us from a loving God. When sin rears it ugly but often seductive head, we need to identify it as such. It is not an alternative perspective, an interesting proposition, or even a mistake to be endured. It is sin, and it is deadly. The bright light of recognition should be shined on it. It should be called what it is, and those involved in it called to repentance, if we value them before God at all.

How did Jesus Christ deal with sin? He brought the Word of God against it. He spoke scripture against it. When Satan tempted Jesus to draw Him off course from what the Father had laid out for Him, Jesus responded with the Word of God, and Satan didn't argue. 1st Corinthians 10:13 tells us, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." Speak scripture to it, and walk away.

If we look at how Jesus dealt with human nature, we see that He never trusted it. He knew sin for what it was, and he knew how vulnerable was our human nature. Still, He was neither cynical nor suspicious because He knew what He could do for human nature. We, too, know what the acceptance of Jesus Christ can do with the sinful heart of human nature. And there we have the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Son of God is that bridge across the chasm of sin that allows us to reunite with a sinless God. The shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross at Golgotha clothes us in his righteousness, since we have none of our own. So when God looks at us, He sees not the sins for which we have been forgiven, but He sees the righteousness of the Son, and we are free. Sin is what it is, but we are free. Praise God, we are free. Amen.