United Church of God

Sin of Omission

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Sin of Omission

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Sin of Omission

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If we don't break God's Law are we sinless? Jesus shows that many had taken this view in His day and yet sinned greatly as hypocrites. We must take action to show love toward God and love toward others. Only then will we fulfill the spirit of the law.

Sermon Notes

These are the notes taken live during services as captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing. This is not a word for word transcript. For the exact wording, please consult the audio recording.

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There is a fish that lives at the bottom of the ocean. Unique looking. Swims in complete darkness. Light doesn’t penetrate to those depths. It has an arm that comes over the back of its head and dangles a light in front of it. That light is a great contrast to the darkness around. Other fish are attracted to the light. In the ocean depth of blackness, there is a beam of light. When the little fish get near, the bigger fish has dinner. That fish has action. It does something to get its food. I’ve been on 3 safaris in East Africa. The lions don’t lounge around all day ever day and expect the gazelles to lie down and say, “Eat me!” When they are hungry, they take action to get dinner. Little children learning to walk have lots of action. They fall, but they don’t give up. Finally, they get it and learn to walk. As a continuation from our sermon from last Sabbath, consider this: 1 John 3:4 When was the last time you sinned? Did you mull over the concepts we discussed last week? Sin is the transgression of God’s law. Let’s take it further: What is God’s law? Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are certainly God’s law. What about Leviticus 23? That speaks about the Sabbath; we are doing that today. It also talks about the holy days.

Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. The clean and unclean meats law. Those chapters give us the clues. Does it chew the cud? Does it divide the hoof? You may think of God’s laws as a bunch of don’ts. If we don’t break God’s laws are we sinless? Will we be accepted into the kingdom? Will we hear, “Good job! Great job, servant!”? The Pharisees were very good at not breaking God’s laws. Christ had stern things to say to them. Matthew 23:1-3, 13-15, 17, 19, 24, 26, 29, 33 We will spot read this chapter. Vs. 1 – These seats were considered seats of honor. This is where the doctors of the law sat. These were before the Ark of the Covenant. They were eagerly sought because they showed what they were and what they knew. Vs. 3 – On one hand, if the Pharisees tell you not to break a law, do that. But don’t do according to their works. Go to Vs. 13. Vs. 13 – Here we break down the question. Here is a group of individuals that if they tell you not to break a law, do it. But He totally slams them. Vs. 14 – Hypocrites! Vs. 15 – Same. Vs. 17 – Same. Vs. 19 – Fools and blind. This is what He says about those that don’t break God’s law. Vs. 24 – They were very good at not breaking God’s law. Vs. 26 – Vs 29 – Hypocrites! Vs. 33 – Christ is putting the screws to this group that was very good at not breaking God’s law. So, if we don’t break God’s law, are we sinless? What do you think? They were intent on keeping the law so much they built fences around God’s law.

Christ healed on the Sabbath, and they went after Him for working. God’s law says honor the Sabbath. They put a fence around it. You can only walk so many feet on the Sabbath. If you walked further, you were breaking the Sabbath. If you put food out at that maximum distance, you could walk there, eat, and then return on the Sabbath. They put in exceptions. James 4:17 If we know to do good and don’t do it, that is a sin. Back to the question. If we don’t break God’s laws, are we sinning? According to James, absolutely. If we know to do good and don’t do it, it is sin. UCG booklet: Transforming your Life. Some transgressions involve sins of omission. If we recognize the need to do some things, and fail to do them, we miss the mark. We sin. Last week, we talked about sins of transgression and missing the mark. Today we will expand that. We must exceed the minimum. Not breaking God’s law is not good enough. We must do something with what we believe. Matthew 5:17 Christ’s own words: He did not come to abolish the law. You know those crazy OT laws; you don’t need to do them anymore. That is not what He is saying. Society has Christ nailing all the laws and morals to the cross. That boundaries are not important. That is not true. He didn’t come to destroy them.

“Destroy” means to abolish. G2647 καταλύω kataluō kat-al-oo'-o From G2596 and G3089; to loosen down (disintegrate), that is, (by implication) to demolish (literally or figuratively); specifically (compare G2646) to halt for the night: - destroy, dissolve, be guest, lodge, come to nought, overthrow, throw down. Thayer Definition: 1) to dissolve, disunite 1a) (what has been joined together), to destroy, demolish 1b) metaphorically to overthrow, i.e. render vain, deprive of success, bring to naught 1b1) to subvert, overthrow 1b1a) of institutions, forms of government, laws, etc., to deprive of force, annul, abrogate, discard 1c) of travellers, to halt on a journey, to put up, lodge (the figurative expression originating in the circumstance that, to put up for the night, the straps and packs of the beasts of burden are unbound and taken off; or, more correctly from the fact that the traveller’s garments, tied up when he is on the journey, are unloosed at it end) Part of Speech: verb A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G2596 and G3089 Citing in TDNT: 4:338, 543 “Fulfill” means to magnify. G4137 πληρόω plēroō play-ro'-o From G4134; to make replete, that is, (literally) to cram (a net), level up (a hollow), or (figuratively) to furnish (or imbue, diffuse, influence), satisfy, execute (an office), finish (a period or task), verify (or coincide with a prediction), etc.: - accomplish, X after, (be) complete, end, expire, fill (up), fulfil, (be, make) full (come), fully preach, perfect, supply.

Thayer Definition: 1) to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full 1a) to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally 1a1) I abound, I am liberally supplied 2) to render full, i.e. to complete 2a) to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure, fill to the brim 2b) to consummate: a number 2b1) to make complete in every particular, to render perfect 2b2) to carry through to the end, to accomplish, carry out, (some undertaking) 2c) to carry into effect, bring to realization, realize 2c1) of matters of duty: to perform, execute 2c2) of sayings, promises, prophecies, to bring to pass, ratify, accomplish 2c3) to fulfil, i.e. to cause God’s will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God’s promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfillment Part of Speech: verb A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G4134 Citing in TDNT: 6:286, 867 How many remember your science classes and looking under a microscope? You put the sample under it and focused, and it was gigantic. It was life size. When you used it to look at little bugs and flies, you could see all the detail God put into their wings and antennae. Christ did not come to destroy the requirements, but to magnify them. Think of taking God’s laws and slipping it under a spiritual microscope. Christ came to magnify. Matthew 22:36-40 Now these two commandments are very difficult to do. It is difficult to love each other like God wants. This is not brotherly love like we have for family members. This means that regardless of what they can do for you, I’m going to show compassion. Our human nature wants something in return. We have to pray to God and ask Him to help us with this task. We have to ask Him to help us show His kind of love to others.

1 Timothy 1:5 Vs. 5 – The goal, the purpose of keeping the commandments is to show agape godly love. That should come from clean thoughts and moral convictions and faith. Faith is belief plus action. We can have belief, but if we don’t take action, what good is the belief? In Toronto, you can go up the CN Tower. You can walk out on a piece of glass. Hundreds of feet below you is the city. It is a gigantic piece of glass. They have tested that it will hold with 12 elephants. But it takes faith to walk out on the glass. The tower shakes in the wind. It takes faith to step out. You have to have faith in the plaque that says it will hold 12 elephants. If you put some action behind that belief, you take one step forward. You look down and there is nothing below you. Until you take that step and step out on that glass, you are not exercising your faith. The goal of the commandments comes from these things. I like the Amplified Bible on this. The object and purpose of our charge is love that springs from a clear heart and a clean conscience and the sincere faith. You have to have the faith that the guy that wrote the plaque wasn’t joking – that it really will hold 12 elephants. Luke 18:10-14 The Pharisees were very good at not breaking the law. Two men went to pray. One never broke a law. The other was a tax collector. Vs. 11 – I’m not unjust. I haven’t slept with anyone else’s wife. I haven’t stolen. I fast twice a week. I’m not stealing Your tithes. I’m tithing the smallest grain.

Vs. 14 – It is not just about not breaking God’s law. We have to do something more. WE have to have a humble spirit. We may not break a law, but what action do we have? Are we like the lion? Are we like the fish that does something? Or are we just sitting back trying not to break a law. Transforming Your Life: Sometimes we lose sight of our purpose: Showing love to and concern for other people. Christ wasn’t on them because they were breaking God’s laws. He was on them because they failed to understand the principles involved. We must be careful to actively apply the principles of the law. They were good and not breaking God’s law, but bad at keeping the law. They didn’t keep the two great commandments. I want to read one law and put it under the microscope and see how Christ fulfilled this law. We will slip it under the microscope. Exodus 20:13 You shall not murder. I hope that no one here has ever shot and killed anyone. I am new in the area. (Laughter.) On the surface, the Pharisee would get rid of all the guns and knives. Christ came to magnify the laws. What is the principle here? What should we be doing? It is easy not to kill someone. It is easy not to break this law. But how do we keep it? From our booklet, “Ten Commandments”, Christ amplified the meaning of murder to include hateful hostility to others. Harboring hate violates the sixth commandments. Why? This is mental warfare. The desire to see someone else suffer. This goes to our feelings. Do we despise someone? Do we cut through the aisles so we don’t have to see them? Using words and speech to emotionally attack others is equally wrong. With words we damage their reputation.

The Pharisees didn’t break the command, but they failed to keep the principle. Christ called them a brood of vipers. They were intent on not breaking the law but failed to keep the law. Homework. Go through the laws of God. There are a lot of them. The Ten Commandments. The holy days. Study them. It is more than a list of 10 don’ts. What is the underlying principle? Study them. If all we do is concentrate on not breaking these laws, we won’t be in the kingdom. Guaranteed. God expects more. God expects us not to break these laws, and to keep them. Matthew 25:14-30 Parable of the talents. The man gives a measure of money to each of his servants. He expects them to do something with the small investment. The first two have action. They do something with it. The servant with 5 brought back 10. The servant with 2 brought back a profit too. Matthew 25:24-28 Vs. 26 – This servant was intent on not breaking God’s law. He hid it. He failed to apply the principles. The other two had action. They did something. Luke 12:16-20 Vs. 18 – I’ll pull this down and build a bigger empire. What did he do with those things? Nothing. God said he was a fool. Vs. 20 – He didn’t take what he had and share it. He didn’t say my barns are too full; I’ll give whatever is left to others. I’m going to practice agape love. He said sit in the Lazy Boy chair and relax. You have done well. Relax. God says he did not break His law, but failed at keeping it. We can’t sit back and take care of ourselves. That is not the expectation of God. James 2:18-20 We can’t just believe; we must have action. Vs. 18 – Seems like a tongue twister. Let’s replace “works” with “action”. God expects us to do something. He doesn’t expect us to sit back and take our ease.

Vs. 19 – We can’t just believe. That is not good enough. Vs. 20 – Faith without action is useless is not faith at all. We can’t concentrate on not breaking God’s law and neglect the love aspect. We have to do something. WE have to be like that little fish that God designed to have a light bulb. We have to be like the lions and cheetahs. We must take action. Let’s read about some that had action. That did something with what God gave them. Hebrews 11:7-8, 23, 31 What kind of action do you think Noah had? He hired people. He had to cut down trees. It was a gigantic boat. It was huge. What kind of action do you think he had? He could have said he believed in the flood and then waited. But that is not what he did. He did something about it. Vs. 8 – What kind of action did Abraham have? When he was told to offer his son, did he tell God that he believed it could happen? No, he exercised his faith. Vs. 23 – Moses had action. He stood up and told Pharaoh what he was doing was wrong. Vs. 31 – Rahab had action. She did something with her beliefs. Here are some actions for us. It is difficult to sacrifice our time. We lead busy lives. But to be in God’s kingdom, we must keep God’s laws, not just not break them. Practice showing God’s love. This next week, sacrifice your time for someone. Practice that outgoing concern. Be a contributor. Give something back. Don’t just be a sucker that takes. Start with families and close friends. But don’t stop there. It is easy and nice to do nice things for them. But it is more difficult when we get out from our close friends and family. James has strong words about being two faced. Acting one way to your friends and family, but differently to others. They are weird; they don’t shower often… Let’s be sure we aren’t hypocritical when it comes to showing godly love. Don’t claim to be a follower of Christ and fail to show godly love. Don’t be a Pharisee.

Romans 12:9-21 In my Bible, there is a heading here: "Behave Like a Christian". Vs. 15 – Can you extract the actions that are in there? Our Christian life should encompass these things. Vs. 21 – This is a section of scripture that is full of action. Things that we should be keeping. Read Matthew 25. There is a parable where Christ separates people into two groups. One group He says He doesn’t know. They say they didn’t break His commands. He says, yes, but you didn’t keep my commands. Don’t be like that first group where Christ says I don’t know you. Put action into our lives. Show it by the things we do and say for people. Matthew 25:31-40 Vs. 36 – Where does Christ say, well done, you didn’t covet. You didn’t lust. You didn’t commit adultery. VS. 37 – If Christ came in the door, how many of us would give him our coat if He was cold? We should be doing that for others as well. Pray and ask God to reveal our sins. Ask to recognize sins of omission. We know we should be showing compassion. By not thinking it through, we are sinning. We are missing the mark. Ask God to help us show godly love. By doing that, we can have action behind our belief.