Stay Far From Sin

Thank you, Mr. Smith. Good morning, everyone.

Mr. Schantz and I didn’t collude in advance about the topics of our messages. We spoke just briefly before services began, and he told me about what he was going to discuss, and I think it’s going to dovetail very nicely with what I hope to share with all of you now.

I remember an occasion some years ago where my employer was hosting a lunchtime speakers group. Various speakers from the community would come in and address employees who were gathered together. We had a meeting hall there. And I remember one day a chiropractor with whom I was familiar—I had seen him a time or two, snap, crackle, pop. I don’t know how many of you have experience with chiropractic medicine, but he was a good doctor, he was a good speaker, and I remember early in the discussion that he shared with all of us he talked about an old joke.

How many chiropractors does it take to change a light bulb? Just one. But it takes ten trips.

Well, I hear a giggle or two out there, but not many. So you must be a healthy bunch, and you must not be very familiar with chiropractors. Because for those people who are regular patients of chiropractic medicine, they have often told the same story. The doctor keeps me coming back, again and again and again and again. And that’s kind of true. And this doctor, as he addressed all of us that day, he explained why that is.

He said, “When a patient comes to me and says, ‘Oh, doc, doc, you gotta help me, feels like I got a knife in my back.’” So the doctor says, “Well, so I do. I try to help him. I’ll give him an adjustment. Again, snap, crackle, pop.” And he said the patient says, “I’ve got this knife in my back.” He said, “Well, when I give him the adjustment, I, in effect, pull that knife out of his back.” And he explained, he drew a picture with his hands. He said, “Imagine that this is your back, and imagine that this is the point of a knife.” So the patient comes in and he says, “I’ve got this knife in my back.” Doctor says, “There is a technical medical term to define that, the point where this knife hits the back of the person, the person’s back, where they come together.” He said the technical medical term to describe that is pain. He said it’s pain. And that’s what so many of the patients come to the doctor saying, “Doctor, you gotta help me.” So the doctor says, “I am successful in giving him or her an adjustment, manipulating his body, her body around. And I pull that knife away from his or her back. No more pain.”

He said, “But the rest of the story. I say, ‘Well, I want you to make an appointment for next Thursday, and then again next week. I want to see you on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.’ And the patient then says, ‘Well, I really don’t know that I need to come back, doctor. I’m feeling pretty good. I’m sure you got other things to do. I don’t want to take up all your time.’ I tell them I want to see you at these times.”

And then the doctor explained to all of us the reason why he wanted to see the patient again next Thursday and then next Monday and Wednesday and Friday. He said, “When I have pulled that knife away from that person’s back, so to speak, it’s just a little bit away. That’s all that I’m able to do here in one session. I’ve tried to help your muscles and everything. But the problem is, if you don’t come back for further treatment, and let’s say next week you stumble down the steps”—I know a member this week stumbled down the steps and she said it hurt her back—“he said, if you have that happen again, guess what? That knife is going to be right back in your back, and you’re going to be right back here saying, ‘Oh, doc, doc, you gotta help me again.’ He said, ‘So what I want to do is to move that knife far away from your back. I want to increase that distance.’ And he said, ‘That’s why people that are in good shape, good health’—I’m going to test your memories here. You silver-haired veterans out there will remember names like Jack LaLanne. More recently, Richard Simmons, people that were fitness gurus, they were in good shape—he said one of them takes a tumble, falls down the step, they just jump right back up, brush off their clothes, and say, ‘Oh no, I’m fine, I’m fine.’ He said, ‘That’s because any knife in their back is way back here.’ But the patient who doesn’t have follow-up treatment, it’s so close that bang, he’s right back in the same situation, more pain.”

It was a good example. He held all our attention. He made us laugh because we thought, “Yeah, yeah,” some of us knew about back pain.

But you know, brethren, there is a very, very similar comparison. Mr. Chance, before me here, he used an example, an aviation example. Well, we’re using a chiropractic example here at this point. And there’s a very close example for us spiritually.

We talked about that knife point and pain. Well, there’s another knife that we deal with all the time, and that’s the spiritual knife of sin. And the same is true for us. We are very much benefited if we can keep sin far away from us, just like that example that I gave you here, the theoretical knife in the back of the person who hurts.

So the message that we’re going to discuss now is simply this: stay far from sin. Stay far from sin. We want to increase that distance between ourselves and anything that is sinful. Anything that is evil, we want to be far away from it.

Sometimes we as Christians may push ourselves, or maybe we get a little bit lax, maybe a little lazy, and we allow ourselves to get a little too close to things that are sinful. I can remember mowing the grass, trying to finish up Friday night, sun’s getting pretty low, and I thought, “Well, I can almost make it, I’m sure I can.” But I know the sun’s going to be setting soon, and so maybe I just needed to turn off the mower and say, “I’ll finish up on Sunday and hope that it doesn’t rain.” Sometimes, brethren, we may allow ourselves to get too close to violating God’s laws.

Well, let’s look at some examples from God’s Word to see about this. Let’s start in the book of Job. We’re going to read verse one of chapter one, Job one, verse one.

Now, I think sometimes we have a tendency to give Job a bad review, thinking, “Well, he had a lot of problems with pride and self-righteousness.” But let’s take a look at what God has to say about Job.

Job 1:1

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil.

That’s quite a business card. There’s his name, his location, and his qualities. God described him as being blameless and upright and fearing God. I think we heard last week, last Sabbath in a sermon about the fear of God, that it equates very much with obedience to God’s word. But he also said that Job shunned evil.

Now, I’m reading from the New King James Version. I believe the Old King James Version translates that as he eschewed evil. He avoided it, steered clear, he disdained evil and turned away from it. Wow, what a description from God about Job and his characteristics. Who wouldn’t want God to be able to describe him or her like that? I sure wish that God could say, “There’s my servant Scott,” and describe me that way. I’m afraid He wouldn’t. He’d probably say, “Oh, Scott, yeah, we’ll talk about that later.”

Verse eight.

Job 1:8

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.”

Here God goes so far as to brag about Job and his good standing again.

Now let’s jump ahead here, this time to verse twenty-two. You know the story of Job. He endured some trials and testing. And in verse twenty-two, what do we read?

Job 1:22

In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

That was the way Job conducted his life. He didn’t sin. He sought to stay far away from sin.

Let’s go to the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel fourteen, and we’re going to look at verse fourteen.

Ezekiel 14:14

Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God.

Now here note plainly, God identified Job as being a righteous man. I describe these three men as Ezekiel’s poster boys. These are three men that God described as being very righteous. They stayed far from sin. Well, why is it that God described Job here as being righteous? Because he avoided evil. He stayed far from it.

Job’s approach toward evil and sin was a good thing, and we can learn this lesson very clearly from Job. We too should shun and seek to stay as far away as possible from evil and from sin, from anything that’s contrary to God’s way.

Let’s look back to Deuteronomy chapter eighteen. We want to read verse thirteen.

Deuteronomy 18:13

You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.

We’re told we’re to be blameless before God. Now, the margin may render that as being perfect, avoiding evil and wicked customs.

Let’s turn now to the book of Proverbs. Let’s look at a couple proverbs, what light they can shed on this subject. Proverbs 22, we’ll read verse 3.

Proverbs 22:3

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself.

A prudent man, someone who is wise, someone who is careful and cautious, he’s going to look ahead for evil. He’s going to see it. He’s looking on the horizon, saying, “Is there evil there?” And what happens when he sees it? He avoids it. Mr. Chance was just talking about navigating. Well, he sees evil up ahead and he decides he’s going to go a different way. He’s still going to get where he’s headed, but he’s going to avoid the evil. He’s going to hide himself from it. He’s not going to let himself get drawn into it.

Let’s go back to Proverbs 4 now, towards the front of the book. Proverbs 4, verse 24.

Proverbs 4:24

Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.

Put evil words, perverse words away from our mouth. Don’t even be talking about things like that. Put them far from us. God instructs us to keep such things, things that are perverse, things that are evil, far from us. That shouldn’t be something that is really any part of our life. We should be staying far from it. Easier said than done, I know that. We all do.

Let’s turn now to the New Testament and see what Paul offers us here on this subject. In 2 Timothy chapter two, notice what Paul says in verse twenty-two.

2 Timothy 2:22

Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Here he tells us to flee lusts, evil lusts, but to pursue righteousness. Again, this is that same picture that we discussed here earlier, where there’s something that’s evil here, we want to avoid that, but we want to pursue that which is good. And notice here he said pursue. That means moving quickly in that direction. That should be our goal, our aim. Again, trying to increase the difference between ourselves and sin.

I think that must be one of Mr. Chance’s pilots up there. I’m glad he’s navigating.

Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians chapter six and see some more words from the apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18.

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

But here he says flee. That’s that same connotation that we talked about a moment ago, at a quick pace, hurriedly, flee that which is wrong, sexually. He doesn’t just say to avoid it, he doesn’t just say stay away from it, but he says flee from it, put it far away from ourselves quickly. Why? Why is Paul so strong in his words here?

Well, let’s turn to the book of James, and I believe this is going to be our last scripture. The one that I always say is your favorite, James one verses thirteen to fifteen.

Now, I think our pastor has just concluded a Bible study on the book of James, so it ought to be pretty familiar to a lot of us here, the verses that we’re going to read right now. In James one, in verse thirteen, notice what James tells us about this subject.

James 1:13

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

He clearly didn’t tempt Job. He didn’t. And God is not able to be tempted, but sadly, that’s not all.

James 1:14

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

We can be tempted. We’re human, we’re mortal, we’re carnal. We can be tempted, and in verse fifteen James sums it up, saying,

James 1:15

Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

It starts with evil desire, it leads to sin, and ultimately to death. That’s quite a chain of events, and it all starts when any of us get a little too close to that which is sinful, when we are enticed, when we let down our guard. When we get lazy spiritually, we can get sucked in.

We’re told here that each person is enticed, tempted by his own desires. Notice there, it says each person, brother, and that’s all of us. That’s not just someone who’s new in God’s church, that’s not someone who’s old and thinks he or she hasn’t made. That’s everyone. Each of us, he says, each person is tempted by his own desires. He’s enticed. And then when desire conceives—conceives, brethren, that should be such a plain and clear picture to all of us, because we know that’s the beginning of the birth process, isn’t it?

We are so blessed in this congregation. We have young people, we have very young people, we have babies. How exciting! How exciting! But here James uses that as a comparison, saying, “That’s how sin is. It starts little, just like a little baby, and then it grows.” The end of the birth process that he describes here in his analogy is sin, and the ultimate result is death.

This is why Paul instructs Christians to flee from that which is evil and distance themselves from anything that is. It’s a progression. And brethren, it all starts when we let that little sinful dagger get too close to us. The closer we allow ourselves to get to that which is evil, that which is sinful, it is easier for all of us to be drawn into it. Brethren, we don’t want that. You know that. We all do. I’m not telling us anything that we don’t already know. I’m just reminding us all.

You know, that chiropractor drew a very vivid verbal picture with his story about the knife in his patient’s back. We get the point, literally. We all can agree we feel safer when that knife is moved to a safe distance, far away. Why should we feel any differently when that knife is actually the wicked dagger of sin?

It shouldn’t be our desire to get as close to sin as we can, to get as close to the edge without crossing over the line or falling off the cliff. To say, “I’m just not going to worry, I’ll get close, but I won’t go too far.” Brethren, we all know better. It shouldn’t be our desire to get as close to sin as possible. Rather, we should seek to stay as far away from it as we possibly can.