What's Wrong With Sin?

Let me ask you a question you may not have thought of just this way. What's wrong with sin? I mean, after all, what's wrong with it? It doesn't hurt anybody, right? Well, it's interesting when you begin to try to look around and find out what people think in society about this question. It's amazing what you can find. I'd like to quote a couple of articles that were written on this particular topic to just show you that not everybody shares our viewpoint when it comes to sin. So, sin is an interesting thing. This is quoting from the article, that sin is something you're not supposed to do, according to a given set of religious restrictions. Now, I want you to notice immediately what this person is saying. It's not a matter of what God says. It's a matter that some church has put some restrictions out there and says you shouldn't do certain things. Therefore, it's a sin. Sins are not necessarily illegal, and that could be true in our society. I mean, there are a lot of things that are sins that there is no law in the books, and our society would say, okay, that's a crime. Sins are not necessarily wrong. Now, there's where we would disagree. Sins are wrong. Sin doesn't necessarily harm anyone. So, I want you to notice the attitude that seems to be prevalent today in many specters of society, and that is, you know, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, then what's wrong with it? And so, if you say that sin doesn't harm anybody, then why would anybody be against sin? So, this is the approach. It says, in fact, many sins can be completely, entirely harmless, like the thinking of an impure thought. Now, is that harmless? The thinking of an impure thought? So, what's the problem? Why are sins bad? Well, that ties in with the question I asked. What's wrong with sin? Are they bad? Well, I guess that all depends on your definition of bad. Now, of course, if you don't think bad is bad, and you define it a little differently, then it could be. It says, for example, if you're a Muslim, it's sinful to get urine on yourself. The rest of us follow the commandment pretty strictly, too, but we certainly wouldn't consider the odd dribble to be sinful. Buddhists consider a skeptical doubt to be sinful. Well, if you're a Buddhist, you're skeptical, and that's a sin, though they call it a hindrance. But doubt certainly isn't a problem for Christians or Muslims. Most Christians consider polygamy to be sinful, but it's the rule for most of Africa and the east.

I would say that probably more than you realize, especially in Africa, that many of the men there have more than one wife. In fact, when I worked in Cincinnati, John Elia had contacted me about a problem he was having in Kenya, because there were families coming to be baptized where the man had more than one wife, sometimes two or three wives. So he was writing a letter to explain the Church's position on this, that this was not something that we did. And he ran it by me to get my opinion as to how it was written and how do you handle this. So we all agreed that that was wrong. Now the question isn't wrong, but what do you do if somebody comes into the Church and they've got three wives? Which wife does he keep? Which wife does he not keep? Does he keep all three?

Well, there had to be a decision made that one wife was the primary wife. And actually, in many of the tribes in Africa, that's true. One wife is considered primary, the other are subordinate. And so if he had two or three wives, he still had to take care of those wives. Couldn't just jettison them and leave them out there without any support. He would not interface with them, would not have any relation with them in the sense of a wife. But if they had children, he had to support the children, had to support that household.

So, but he could only live with the one woman. So you think we have problems?

Some of them certainly, you know, did have problems. It goes on to say, so there's no one clear yardstick for determining what's sinful or not.

Now, is that true? Is there no yardstick for determining what's right and wrong? Good and evil? What's sin? It says it depends completely upon the religious context. Outside of a religious context, so leave religion out of it, in other words, the word sin is for all practical purposes meaningless.

Well, sure, throw away the Bible, throw away God, and then you can say, well, there's no meaning. So he's saying that if we did away with all religions, there wouldn't be any such thing as sin. We wouldn't even be worried about it. It's the churches that are causing the problems. When you eliminate the activities that injure others, or are otherwise wrong, there are still items on the list, sin lists. Basically, a long list of victimless crimes. This is where the fun begins for those of us not hampered by religious restrictions. So notice the words, hampered religious restrictions. Not Bible restrictions, not God's restrictions, but religious.

The social relationships, including plural marriages, same-sex marriages, and anyone living together or having sex out of wedlock, doesn't hurt anyone, everyone has a great time, and it's mutually fulfilling for all who participate.

So, you know, this is what he's saying. So what's wrong with it?

But those activities are pretty high on the sin list.

Yeah, I'd say they're right up there on top.

But take it out of its religious context, and suddenly there's nothing wrong with it. Now, this is quite in confession. Idolatry doesn't necessarily relate to graven images or statues of other gods. Idolatry is a practice of loving anything or anyone more than you love God.

Peter, do you love me? You're above all others.

And, in other words, if you love anything more than you love God, in other words, if you love anything more than you love God, he acknowledges that's idolatry.

Well, for me, the brand name Porsche and Jeep are hard to get past.

So he loves his Porsche or his Jeep more than he would love God.

My temple of worship is a rectangle at the beach that measures eight meters by 16 meters and bobs the hitting of a synthetic ball over the net at other worshipers.

He's playing volleyball out on the beach. And since I cannot honestly say that there's any supernatural invisible flying magician whom I love more than my own family, idolatry is definitely a sin. I need to commit every minute of every day as long as I draw breath.

So he's saying he loves his family. And since, you know, he puts God in the category of a invisible magician that you don't see, then sure, he's going to commit idolatry. Hatred and anger are sins. He said, I don't really hate anybody. I don't get angry with people normally. Lying. Now, that's a tough one.

I don't know how anyone can claim that they don't practice that sin every day.

No matter how religious they are.

Have you ever told anyone you can't go in somewhere or can't do something when the truth is simply you didn't want to?

Well, you're a liar.

You ever stop talking about someone when they entered the room to deceive them into thinking that you were not talking about them?

Well, you're a liar. You ever give someone these quick fake smiles as you pass them in the hall and that seems to make everybody happy? Well, you're a liar.

He says, lying is a fundamental, a politeness, and a pillar of good behavior.

So, in order to be polite and have good behavior and not to offend people, you lie. So, to summarize it with this statement, the truth is the concept of sin has no place in the life of intelligent adults in modern society.

We must be a bunch of nitwits, you know, in here, because we believe in such things as sin. But he said, intelligent adults, you would not fall for that. Politeness, honesty, and industry, simply being yourself, will take you a lot further. I say to religious people, keep your arbitrary restrictions. So, notice they're called arbitrary, and your hateful belief that I should go to hell to yourself.

So, you know, I don't want to hear anything about it. Okay, that's one article.

Now, you say, well, this person's off the wall. I wouldn't consider that off the wall. I think that's the way many today in society really look at it. Because you find in the Western world today, Western society, that there are so many who no longer believe in the Bible, in God, in values, and they have their own values.

Another article titled, Analyzing the Usefulness of Sin.

The concept of sin, when considered illogically, turns out to be a convenient standard for a large, powerful organization to impose its will upon people.

So, here's a church. Let's call it the United Church of God, or any church of God. And we want to impose our will on you. So, how do we do it? Well, we tell you, if you do this, it's a sin. If you do that, it's a sin. If you don't keep this day, it's a sin. And on and on and on. So, therefore, we are able to exert a powerful influence over you because you're afraid of sinning. And you don't want to go to hell. And so, therefore, the church then rules. Now, it says you back up the risk of sin with eternal damnation. That's a strong ace to play. And it has been incredibly ineffective in getting the population to do what the churches want. So, again, in his viewpoint, it's only what the churches are doing. It's what's sin. Churches, religious organizations, the world over have, by creating sin, also created scapegoat groups. Homosexuals, sexually active women, witches, adulterous couples, and so on. Keep the population happy and bully while nervously obey. In other words, it gives you somebody to look down on, make fun of, say that they're sinning, whereas you are obedient and you nervously look at them. It's a technique that works well. Told the party line, play the game. Sin creates an ethical pecking order, giving you're up here on top because you're not sinning. You're looking down your nose at everybody else. So, you could go on. Again, I was just shocked looking at some of these articles. What they had to say about is sin bad.

Where does sin stand in society today? This is the summary paragraph here. For a start, the churches are rapidly losing power and becoming increasingly irrelevant in many Western countries. The United States might be an exception, they say.

So, why are churches losing their power? Well, people are getting smart. People are realizing that the churches are using sin as a control technique and mechanism. So, therefore, anybody who's intelligent knows better than this. And therefore, the churches are losing their grip over you. So, if I could summarize what I just covered here in a few sentences, the approach in society today among many is that sin is a controlling mechanism for churches to control the masses. One way to control the masses. Two, if you're intelligent, you won't believe in sin. Three, it does no harm. What's wrong with it? As long as it doesn't harm anybody, nothing wrong with it. Take sin out of the religious context, and there's no wrong. It's only wrong because religion says it's wrong. Different religions have different standards of right and wrong. So, who do you know? Who do you believe? Whose, which religion are you going to go by? There's no one clear yardstick for what is right and what is wrong.

And religions, societies, and cultures all have their different standards. And of course, that's true as we look around the world. The word sin is meaningless outside of the religious context. Now, back to the question. What's wrong with sin?

You know, if I were to ask you to explain very quickly what's wrong with sin, what would you say?

What's wrong with the reasoning in this article that I, or articles I just read to you? As we approach the days of unleavened bread, we realize that the days of unleavened bread picture coming out of sin, coming out of this world, putting sin out of our lives. And especially as we prepare for the days of unleavened bread, and we begin to get the leavening out of our homes, we realize that that's the type of putting sin out of our lives. Now, if there is no such thing as sin, then why are we keeping the days of unleavened bread? Why is there a Passover? Not only does it picture that, but it also, as we know, pictures putting something in, holiness and righteousness and following God in that way. So I'd like for us to answer today, what's wrong with sin? What's basically the problem with it? Now, before we answer that completely, let's get a little background on sin.

Let's turn over to 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9.

2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9.

I want you to notice something. Before God created the physical universe, what we would call matter, He had a plan in mind. He had a purpose.

The two members of the God family at that time sat down and had to think out, how can we bring members and add them to our family? What can we do to, you expand our family so that others might share in the quality of life we have, the joy we have, the excitement we have, the love we have, you know, just the way of life that we experience. So we find here in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9, it says, Who has saved us and called us with the holy calling?

Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose. So God has called us according to His purpose. He has a purpose that He's working out.

According to His purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus, before time began.

So before there was such a thing as we know as time, this purpose was there. That God was going to call people. Some would be called now, others would be called later. We know that God is eventually going to extend salvation, call every human being. So God has purpose in mind. And when He created matter, when He created man, created the earth, created time, there is no such thing as time until you have matter. God didn't exist in time. God existed in eternity. He has always existed in eternity. Time is something that we human beings are subject to. We're on an earth. It rotates a day. We've got a moon going around a month. We go around the sun. That's a year. We count time by that. So before there was ever time, in other words, before there was ever anything known as the physical creation, God already had a purpose and a plan that He was working on.

So somewhere back there in eternity, God thought all of this out. How long did it take Him?

Well, in one sense, there's no such thing as long because eternity is eternity. I mean, we measure long in years. But God Almighty, I don't know how quote-unquote long it took them, but they were just simply plenty. Back up to Ephesians 1 and verse 4.

Ephesians 1 and verse 4 add some details to this.

We read here, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

So you find that God was going to choose some, and it says here before the foundation of the world, I think God decided He was going to choose everyone. It's just a matter of when God chooses us. Notice that we should be holy without blame before Him in love.

Having predestinated us to adoption as sons of Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. So God Almighty knew that we human beings would sin. We were chosen before the foundation of the world. And brethren, do you realize that the forgiveness of sin was part of God's plan when He planned? Revelation 13.8 talks about Jesus Christ slain before the foundation of the world. It wasn't a shock when Adam and Eve went astray. I think you'll find that God realized very possibly that they were going to go in that direction and that there was a provision made for the forgiveness of their sins. So why is there such a thing as sin?

When we talk about sin, why is there sin? Well, it ties in with what we've covered so far, but let's notice also that all relationships are governed by spiritual principles. Now, at one time, there were only two beings in existence. No others. Later on, they created angels, and later on, they created the physical environment and universe that we know. So how did the one that we know as a father and the one we know as a son get along? What were they governed by? Well, they were governed by the very nature of God, the fact that God is love. They were both beings of supreme love. You know, you begin to think about what God is like, His mercy, His love, His compassion, and everything that there is about God. Although that existed before God began to extend it to human beings, that's how they got along with one another. Now, all the universe is governed by laws in some way. In Colossians chapter 1, notice over here in Colossians 1, beginning in verse 16, we get a peek at this. Colossians chapter 1 verse 16, it says, For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth.

The visible and the invisible. The visible would be the physical creation, things that we can see. The invisible would include things that you can't see. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. So God created all things through Christ. Christ stepped out and through the Spirit of God brought it into being. And verse 17 says, He is before all things and in him all things consist.

Or we could say, subsist. Christ and the Father uphold all things and keep them functioning. Now, God created forces to govern matter.

If you ever stop to ask yourself, what keeps an atom together? Man used to think the atom was the smallest unit. And they look at the atom and the atom is like a little universe in itself.

So you've got an atom, what keeps an atom together? How are atoms put together to create matter?

You see, we have matter that differs, don't we? Matter of wood is different from matter of humans.

Matter of humans. In other words, a human body is different than a cow.

Flesh is not the same. And 1 Corinthians 15 says, you know, all flesh is not the same. And the flesh of a fish is different from the flesh of a bird. And you can go on and on. When you look at wood, or you look at steel, or you look at any number of items, rocks, whatever they might be, the atoms are put together in a way that makes that item or that product. And so, what keeps all of that together? Where does energy come from?

So you can blow up an atom and boom, all at once you've got terrific energy. Where does that come from? What power does that originate from? Where do we get gravity? We call it a law. But what is it? What is centrifugal force? What is a law? Anyway, when it comes to the universe, what sustains the law? If God sustains it, upholds it? How? I mean, is he out there, you know, balancing things? How does he uphold it? And in what way? Well, you know, these are questions that we don't have all the answers to. Who created the law? Who created forces? Where does it come from? Okay, this gets back to the question of sin.

From this reason, laws flow from God's character. Laws flow from his very nature, from his love, from his grace, his capacity. Because, you see, they are a reflection of God, of order, of design, of harmony, of peace, and they flow out of love. All laws that have been created are gifts from God to mankind. We don't stop to think about God's laws or even gravity as a gift.

If we did not have the gift of gravity, you and I would have to be wearing big-led shoes and boots around all the time. We'd be floating off into space. And if you, you know, went to sleep and dropped your pencil, you know, there would go. You up to the roof or wherever. All laws that God created, as I said, are gifts. Man, over the centuries, has learned about these forces.

And he pats himself on the back and says, well, you know, I'm pretty smart. Look who I am. We call this science. And man thinks that he's smart because he can discover laws. And as we get into the 20th, 21st century, because of advancements, like with computers, we think that we are absolutely brilliant. But isn't the being who created the law greater than somebody who can just discover that it exists? Isn't the being who sustains the law greater than somebody who wonders how it's sustained, who brought it into being?

You'll find that man in his ego and his pride and his vanity thinks that he knows something. Listen, let's back up here to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 20. And God shows here what man has done, what he thinks of man's wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputor of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through foolishness of the message preached to those who believe.

The Jews require a sign, the Greeks see after wisdom. And so you'll find they reject God. Now God has created laws, many times we refer to them as spiritual laws, that govern human relationship. They are called the Ten Commandments. And they govern our relationship. They are based upon God's attributes of love and his grace. Remember Christ said when he was asked, what are the two great commandments?

He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, or your soul, or your might, and you'll love your neighbors yourself. So he shows that the law is undergirded by love. The first four of the Ten Commandments show you how to love God, the last six, how to love your neighbor. And then the rest of the Bible takes those principles and expands them and expounds upon them and shows you how to apply them, not only in the letter, but also in the spirit, in the mind, and how you think, and your response to them. These are based upon God's attributes of love and grace. These are gifts that God gives to mankind.

You can say, well, how can a law be a gift from God? Well, if a person obeys the laws of God, they have a gift of a good marriage, because the laws that govern marriage are all spiritual principles. How a man is to treat his wife, how she is to respond and treat her husband.

They are a gift about how to have a happy family, how to rear your children. They are a gift of peace. Why don't nations today have peace? Why do we go to war? Why is there fighting? Why is there suffering? Why do we see all of this? Because man's not willing to follow the law of God concerning how to have peace.

There is the gift of God on how to have prosperity, how to be prosperous, laws that govern that. The ultimate gift from God is the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. So the ultimate gift that God gives to us is eternal life. But a lot of times we don't stop to think about the fact that all of these others are gifts from God too, and they arise out of God's very nature.

They show us how to love God, how to love our neighbor. They show us how to treat one another for the ultimate good of each other. So sin, then, is going against God's nature, going against God's attributes of love, His gracious gifts to us, His law.

All of those are certainly a part of it. We need to understand that God has given us all of this, and He's revealed it to mankind. Man hasn't been willing to accept the gift from God. When God created the human race and placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, He also placed two trees there. One was called the Tree of Life. If man had partaken of the Tree of Life, God would have given him his Holy Spirit. He could have gone on and been given Eternal Life at the end of his life.

There was also a tree called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and God said to stay away from that one. Now Adam and Eve had to choose life. There was also the tree that was a mixture, because it's called good and evil.

Under the Tree of Good and Evil, there is no way to know right and wrong.

Because there's some good under that tree. People in society are not totally depraved, are they? People still do good, but it's good and it's evil mixed together. So you have good and evil, and so man doesn't know because there's no standard to evaluate by. Man rejects the revelation of good and evil and decides for himself what he thinks is good and what is evil. This is where all of man's religions come from today. You look around the world, all of the religions, and you ask where did they get their ideas of some things that are right and wrong? Do the Muslims have the same idea about how to treat a wife that we would in the biblical perspective? What about Buddhism? What about reincarnation? What about some of the Oriental religions and some of the philosophies they have? Would we believe that? Where did they get their ideas? Well, you have a mixture of good and evil. The Bible clearly tells us. 1 John 3, 4, sin is the transgression of the law. Sin is breaking the law of God. When you reject the standard that God has given, there's no way to know right from wrong. Throw the Bible out, do away with God, do away with His commandments. Then every man does what seems right in his own eyes, doesn't he? That's where man goes. Back here in Romans chapter 1, we find that this is exactly what man has done. Romans chapter 1, beginning here in verse 20, Romans 1 verse 20 says, "...the sense of creation of the world, his," referring to God's invisible attributes, "...are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." So God says that man can look up into space, see the power, the design, the creation, the harmony, and know that there is a designer. It has to be somebody who brought it into being. Likewise, they can go down and look in at them and see the design and the beauty and all there and be able to know that. So God says, even though man may turn his back on God, they are without excuse, He says, because though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, God says, they became fools. And so what happened then? Well, you find in verse 26, this reason God gave them up the vile passions. And so God allowed man then to go into every type of sexual depravity you can think of. Verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things that are not fitting.

Now, would people call themselves today debased? No, they would shriek in horror if you say, well, you're debased. You know, they would think just the opposite. They would think you're dumb and unenlightened and we are enlightened. But God goes on to show that all of the things that we find being practiced today come from that. So let's come back to the question again, what's wrong with sin? Now that we know what sin is, why there is sin, let's take a look at what's wrong with sin. And we'll start with the biggie. Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. It doesn't get much bigger than that.

If you do not repent of your sins, you will die for all eternity. This isn't talking just about the physical life. Hebrews 9, 27 says it's appointed and all men wants to die. We human beings will die simply because we're physical. God never intended that human beings live forever in the flesh. The flesh is not the body to live forever in. It takes you a spirit body. So the ultimate penalty for sin is death and that's the second death. So the ultimate purpose of life is to give us an opportunity to be in the kingdom of God. Rather than the only reason and I hope all of us understand this. The only reason we're alive today in breathing air is so that we can be a member of God's family. The only reason why there are babies being born and human beings alive is that ultimately everyone have an opportunity for salvation, have their chance to be a part of the divine family of God when God decides to call them.

So the ultimate penalty of sin goes contrary to the ultimate purpose that God has for man, which is to give us eternal life. Okay, that's one big reason why what's wrong with sin.

You don't need too many more, but I mean that's a big reason. Another one is sin is against God.

When you sin, you sin against God. Psalm 51, let's go back to David's prayer of repentance.

Psalm 51 will begin in verse 4. David said, Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.

Now remember, notice the heading up here? This is actually part of the scripture. In the Hebrew Bible, this would be verse 1.

To the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Now when David said, Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil, he had had Uriah killed.

So there's murder. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

He then had taken her to be his wife.

And so he certainly had sinned. Now why does he say, Against you, you only, have I sinned? Did he not sin against Bathsheba? Did he not sin against Uriah?

And the answer is no. He sinned against God. Why? Sin is the transgression of God's law. You know, God's nature, God's way of life.

So when we sin, it's because we break his law. It goes against everything that God stands for. Who he is, his very nature, his approach, his attitude, his outlook, his way of love, all of this.

And secondarily, this is another point, but it ties in with this one. Sin, our sins, my sins, your sins, killed Christ.

Our sins killed Jesus Christ.

We are personally responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.

So, you know, it doesn't matter who you might know who's a big sinner.

We're the biggest. I mean, we're number Uno or Shabbat.

In our own life. But when we look at ourselves, brethren, it doesn't matter about no human being. If we're the only human being alive, Christ had to die so that our sins could be forgiven.

So you'll find our sins personally were responsible for the death of God.

And we, through our sins, killed Christ. Now, how many people who are out here, you know, the article, the fellow that I read to you, about talking about, well, sin doesn't hurt anybody.

How about the discouraging Jesus Christ went through?

How about the beating He took? How about the ridicule, the thorns on His head? How about the crucifixion? You know, how about all of this that took place? Did that hurt? What did it do to the disciples, to His mother? You know, for His friends and those who knew Him? Obviously, it did.

So what we need to realize is sin is wrong because it brings death to us if we don't repent.

It's against God and everything that God stands for, especially if we're trying to please God and obey God, and it killed Jesus Christ. Now, here in Psalm 51 and verse 4 again, it says, Against you you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.

And notice in verse 7, Purge me with hiss up, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And verse 10, Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Sin, dirties, if you want to put it that way, are hearts and are minds, and they need to be clean. When I say dirties, what you find that people don't realize, they say, well, it doesn't do anybody harm.

But when you sin, and you're doing what is wrong, it begins to compromise the conscience. It begins to compromise the outlook on life.

It's just like Romans chapter 1, where we read that God gave people over to a debased mind, to a mind that is devoid of understanding. And so when people begin to just wholesale follow sin, it creates in their minds a point where it's going to be difficult for them to come back.

You see, if you're living a moral life, and God calls you, and you repent, you don't have all of this to undo. But what if you've engaged in every type of sexual sin you can think of, every type of wretched business practice you can think of, and then God calls you, you've got to overcome that. In other words, that's a hurdle you've got to overcome, because that's always going to be in your mind. If you've ever done something really wrong in the past, that even though you've been baptized and you've asked God to forgive you, the memories of that stay with you, and it's just hard to get rid of that.

What if you have a whole trunk full of those type of things, and when God calls you, you have to overcome those? Well, you see, it becomes a little more difficult. Numbers 32-23, you find that there are penalties when we sin.

When we sin or break God's law, there are automatic penalties. You don't have a law without penalties, otherwise there is no law.

Let me illustrate. Gravity.

Are we not thankful for gravity? Yes. It keeps the earth rotating around the sun, the moon rotating around the earth, keeps us where we are, but go up to the top of the Empire State Building and jump off.

All at once, there is a penalty.

You see, as long as you obey that law, that law serves you. It helps you. You disobey it, then it's going to clobber you. And the same is true when it comes to the spiritual laws of God. I mentioned about the laws show God's nature and action. What you find is simply this about sin.

Sin shows how God would live if he were here on the earth. If God were in the flesh today, living here on the earth, how would he treat you, me, everybody else he would come in contact with, and how would he relate to God?

Well, we have an example of that because God did come in the flesh. He's called Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. And he didn't live, and he showed how to live, keep the Ten Commandments without sinning.

So, brethren, we do have that example of Jesus Christ. And Christ came to set that example to show that it is possible to begin to obey God and keep his God.

But let's notice over here in Galatians 6 and verse 7, a scripture that certainly ties in with this. Galatians 6 and verse 7.

Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked.

For whatever a man sows, that shall he reap. Okay, I'm going to grow a garden. So if I plant corn in the garden, what do I expect to grow?

Corn! If I plant potatoes, I expect potatoes. If I plant zucchini squash, I expect a plethora of zucchini squash. They always seem to grow, nothing else will grow. And so what you plant, that's what you're going to reap.

Now, if I don't plant green beans and I go out there looking for green beans, they're not going to be in green beans. I didn't plant them. What you sow, that's what you reap.

What about us in our lives? Verse 8. Notice.

For he who sows to his flesh, will of the flesh reap corruption. For he who sows to the spirit, will of the spirit reap everlasting life.

So if we sow to the spirit, we are going to reap, eventually, eternal life.

If we don't, then we're going to reap corruption.

We will reap death.

So, brethren, what you find is what we sow we reap.

And human beings don't believe that. They don't believe there's a penalty. All you have to do is read Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, the blessing and cursing chapters, and you'll find that there are blessings that come as a result of obeying God, keeping his laws. And if you want good health, you want all of these things, you obey God. And you'll find if you don't, then you end up suffering. Now, let's also notice Proverbs 6 and verse 27 that illustrates this principle. Proverbs 6, beginning in verse 27.

Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared? So is he who goes into his neighbor's wife.

Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.

So, very clearly, if I had a hot fire burning, wood stove, you know, and there's just this big, beautiful fire, and I reached down with my bare hands and I grabbed the coals, and I bring them out and I stick them right here. I got a t-shirt on. What's going to happen?

Well, first of all, I've burnt the skin and flesh off of my hands, and secondarily, I'm going to do the same here, and my clothes are going to catch on fire, and I'm going to be a mess. I don't know if I will ever recover from that. Well, this is the analogy that's being drawn here.

You and I can't play with fire. We can't play with sin without it hurting us, without it coming back on us, and not be burned. You are burned when you sin.

Don't want to be burned, then don't sin. I mean, it's as simple as that.

Another reason why sin is wrong is because we do hurt others when we sin.

Maybe we don't sin against that person, but you certainly do hurt them. We hurt society as a whole. We hurt our families. We can hurt our mates. We can hurt our children. We can hurt the environment. Let's look at a classic example. We've already referred to this, but back here in 2 Samuel 12 and verse 9, we find the example of David. David's example.

David, in chapter 11, if you remember, had Uriah put right up in the front of the battle so he'd be killed. Now, let me ask, did that hurt Uriah? Yeah, he was killed. He suffered death, but it also cut Shorty's life. Did it hurt Bathsheba? Yeah, her husband was killed. It was murdered. Did it hurt Uriah's parents that their son died in war? Did it hurt aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters? I don't know how many brothers, sisters, or relatives he had, how many people knew him who were close friends of his, but obviously that hurt. And especially those who knew that David had done it deliberately. Now, he goes out and he takes Uriah's wife and she becomes his wife. See, the problem was she was pregnant. He had already committed adultery with her. She's pregnant. He brings Uriah back and tries to get him to go in and sleep with her so she could claim it was his child. And he was an honorable man. He said, no, I shouldn't do that when all of my fellow buddies are out there having to fight. I won't do it. So he would not go in. So, you know, David felt I have no other recourse. Notice how you get deeper and deeper into a problem when you try to solve it this way. Instead of David taking Uriah's side and saying, please forgive me, but I committed adultery with your wife. And I know, you know, you're going to dislike me and hate me. I'm sorry. She's pregnant. And I thought you should know. He didn't do that, did he? He went just the opposite. And notice what Nathan says here in verse nine. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord? What commandment? Thou shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery to do evil in his sight. You have killed Uriah, the Hittite, with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife. You have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. So we find that he despised God's commandments. Now, notice the penalty that he reaps as well as his family. Now therefore the sword shall not depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, to be your wife. So you'll find that from that time forward David's house, his descendants, had all kinds of warfare.

You go back and you look through the kings of England and all the intrigue and the warfare and the skull dog, and all of this going on behind the scenes. And there was always fighting and murder and people's heads being cut off and locked up and all of these type of things. So God said this would follow you. That's a tremendous penalty that his descendants were going to have to pay. In verse 11, thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of his son. So all of his concubines and wives that he had were going to be defiled. And then you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the son. And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.

The child also who is born to you shall surely die. Child dies, sword in his family, you know, from that time forward. His wives defiled. You know, that's quite a penalty for him to have to pay.

So his sin had impact on many. It hurt himself, hurt others. Did Bathsheba cry when the child died? Did David cry? You know, were they upset? Were the grandparents upset when all of this occurred? Think of the impact. People say, well, you know, we're out here. We're just having fun, swiping mates, and doing all this thing. It doesn't hurt anybody. But you know what the ultimate result of that is? Is divorce. The ultimate result is that you lose love and respect for your mate. You lose the, you know, the cherishing of that person. That person just becomes a sexual thing and not your soul mate, not somebody that you are bound to and that you love. You see, this is the blessing that God gives one man, one woman, that you become a one flesh, as the Bible says. And there is a bonding and a uniting that goes together. There's somebody who's out here just sort of fooling around, has no idea what he's missing, because all he can think about is a few pleasures that he's enjoying. Now, we do hurt others. We harm others. I would suggest that you go back and read Exodus 20. We don't have time here today. I was going to go through that. But Exodus 20, Ten Commandments. Ask yourself, how does this hurt when somebody breaks his commandment? How does it hurt society, that person, their family, you, whatever?

It's like verse 14 says, Nathan said, you have brought great occasion to the enemies of the Lord. So, when we do something like this, don't we open ourselves up to Satan the devil to accuse us?

We find in Ephesians 4, verse 26 and 27, that we actually give Satan a foothold.

We open the door, a tollhold, an entrance. The word there is actually like a room. We're opening the door so that he can come in and that he can tempt us. Satan is called the accuser of the brethren. So, what you find is that he gives him additional ammunition. What about anyone who might know of that sin? What does it do there? Actually, this ties in with another point that I had. I might as well just mention it here. Sin harms our ability to do the work and preach the gospel to the world.

Look at all the telo evangelists over the last few decades who've gotten up and they have screamed and preached against homosexuality. They preached against adultery. And guess what? You find that this person is a homosexual. You find that this individual is having prostitutes over in a motel room. What does that do to the Christian example? What do people say? What do critics of religion say? Or, you know, of alleged Christianity? Well, they come back and they say, well, you claim to be a Christian. Look, you're just doing what everybody else is. You're just a big hypocrite. We do it plainly. You do it in secret. So what's the difference? And they do imperable harm to the fact that, okay, as Christians, we're not supposed to do that.

If we do the same, then we bring a bad reputation on the church and we hurt the work in that way. Rather than another reason why sin is wrong is that sin separates us from God.

Isaiah 59 and verse 2. Sin will separate us from God. Cut us all from God. It hinders our prayers when it comes to our prayer life before God. Now, I think we could go on all day talking about what's wrong with sin. I would suggest that you might want to study this topic. I would suggest, why don't you this week study this topic and see how many ways can you find that what's wrong with sin? Now, I've given you a few here. So what's wrong with sin? You know, maybe you can come back to church next week and say, I found a hundred things that were wrong with sin. You know, somebody else may say, I found a few dozen. But I think you would find it a very interesting Bible study that would help. Now, why does God hate sin so much, brethren? Because the Bible very clearly says that God does hate sin. Well, because he knows the harm that it does to us personally and to others. Even though you might not sin against a human being when you break God's law, you can hurt that human being. You can injure that person. You can harm that individual. God knows that sin leads to suffering, misery, and ultimately death. And he doesn't want to see us go in that way. Why is it that even when God gives us his Holy Spirit that we still struggle with sin?

Is there anybody in here who is not struggling with something to overcome, to grow, to change, to be more like Christ? Well, in 1 John 3, verse 8, let's take a look at a few scriptures here very quickly that tell us why this is true. In 1 John 3, verse 8, we find this. He who sins is of the devil, or he who practices sin is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of Man was manifest that he might destroy the works of a devil. What we need to realize is that there is a spirit of this world. Satan the devil is out there.

He's made fun of in society. You know, they say he's a little red man running around forked ears, pitchfork, and they don't believe in the devil. And they don't realize that he is a powerful being who has a tremendous amount of power and that he's broadcasting. As we find back in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 12, he's referred to here. Notice, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been given or freely given to us by God.

God's spirit is another one of those gifts that God gives to us. But notice there is a spirit of this world. There's an attitude of this world. Satan the devil broadcasts through his spirit. And all of us are fighting against this world, its influences. Satan's perverted attitude. Sometimes we look around and we say, well, you know, you see somebody murder his whole family or chop somebody up and grind them up and throw them in a river. You ask yourself, how in the world could that happen?

Where do those attitudes come from? Where do those thoughts come from? Where does that type of adversity come from? Well, Satan's out there broadcasting these attitudes, wrong thinking, distorted ideas all the time. And what we have to realize, he hasn't given up on us because he knows that we know the truth. And so he still comes after us. We find here in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 25, well, beginning in verse 24, another reason why people sin and sometimes why it's hard to overcome a sin.

Hebrews 11 verse 24, by faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. The word passing here means the temporary pleasures of sin. Now, sin always brought pain. Who would do it? I mean, if every time you sin was like receiving a strong electrical shock, you would say, boy, I don't want to experience that again.

Or it's like stepping on a nail and you're having that driven through your foot. Well, you wouldn't want to do that again. Note, you find that sin, many sins, have a temporary pleasure. Why? Because they appeal to the desires of the flesh, they appeal to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. I mean, we are human beings, and so you have certain desires, certain drives, and you find that sin will appeal to it temporarily.

So there's temporary pleasure, but eventually there are kickbacks. What about somebody who's out here just loosey-goosey with his morals, and he comes down with a sexually transmitted disease? Our woman is no longer able to have children, because of that. What about the betrayal in the marriage? What about your marriage, your being destroyed? The financial implications. Anytime you separate, you've got to support two households, so that's not always easy.

There are penalties and harm that are done, but because sin, it was the Bible says, because the penalty against sin is not extracted immediately. You find if you smoke, a person can smoke and take a deep puff, and he's boy, you know, this is good. You know, cough, cough, but you get addicted to it. But when you're lying on your deathbed with your lungs eaten out with cancer, or your esophagus eaten away, you wish you hadn't smoked.

So you may have gotten temporary pleasure, but in the long run, there's always a penalty extracted. So where do sins come from, brethren? Well, we find over here in 1 John chapter 2, just what I referred to a while ago, 1 John 2, 15 through 17, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world. The world's passing away with the lusts thereof, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

So brethren, again, you find that we have normal desires and there's nothing wrong. God created us with sexual desires. He created us with desires for food, you know, just certain innate desires. It's when those things are taken and misused, misappropriated, lustful, and you go in the wrong direction, then they become a problem.

Our struggle, your struggle and my struggle right now, takes place where? Right up here, between the two ears. Notice in Matthew 15, Matthew 15, verse 19.

Matthew 15 and verse 19, what Christ told the religious leaders of his day, because they thought a man was defiled because he didn't wash his hands.

He says, we're out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts. Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemes. What are these but breaking God's commandments?

These come out of the heart. See, this is where our struggle is, controlling the mind, controlling the thoughts, then being tempted. James chapter 1, remember James 1 verse 13 tells us how this process works. It says, let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted a God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he's drawn away of his own desires, his own lust, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, and then he's enticed by it. So you see something, you know he shouldn't do it, but it's enticing, it looks good, brings pleasure, you begin to play around with it, and then when that desire, that lust, has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's full grown, ready to have a baby, brings forth death. It will bring death to you. So we are tempted by our own lust and desires.

Hebrews 3.13 says, we are deceived by sin. So some sins are very deceptive.

Sometimes we're deceived by them. You're unaware of it, but you get into it and you begin to realize that you're doing something that's wrong. And then here in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1, just over a page of my Bible, it talks about laying aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us. It seems like sin is something that just is easy to fall into, and you get ensnared by it. It appeals to our senses, our desires, and Satan has organized society in such a way that everything in it appeals to those lusts. So brethren, what we find is simply this, that as we approach the days of Unleavened Breadth, we are to put sin out. The more we realize what's wrong with sin, the more damage we see that it does. We understand the penalty. We understand the implications of it. Hopefully it will come to help us redouble our efforts to overcome it. But there's more to it than that, as you know. You and I are not only to come out of sin, but we are to put holiness and righteousness within us. We give up one way of life, and we are to practice another way of life. Let me ask you a question. What's wrong with holiness?

Well, we're going to address that next Sabbath. What is wrong with holiness? We will find that there's not anything wrong with it, but we want to take a look at that.

If you were to go out in society and ask people what is sin, the average person on the street could tell you what they think is sin. They would have a whole list of things that would be considered bad, and they'd tell you. If you ask the average person, what does it mean to be holy?

I don't think they would have any idea what you're talking about.

Brethren, God has called us to holiness. You and I are to be holy and to be righteous.

What does that mean? What does it mean to be holy? Well, that's what the Days of Unleavened Bread picture, our coming out and becoming holy, becoming like God.

Next Sabbath, we will take a look at that, everything you ever wanted to know about holiness.