A Fear of Sinning

For our time of study in the word this morning. for those of you that are visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to, 1 Timothy 5 and the very end of verse 20. I have to tell you guys that the message I'm preaching today At 11:59 last night, I had no clue I would be preaching this message, but ended up, I was planning on covering verses 21 to 25, but things developed differently and I want to spend the entire morning at the end of verse 20.

And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be this, a fear of sinning.

A fear of sinning. If you'll notice in verse 19 just to set the stage for what we're going to be talking about, Paul is telling Timothy how to deal with accusations that are against a leader in the church, and he says that if, if an unsubstantiated accusation is brought against an elder in the church, don't formally entertain that accusation. But if there is an accusation brought against an elder in the church and There are 2 or 3 witnesses, then the the right thing for you to do, Timothy, is to formally entertain those accusations.

And if upon formally entertaining those accusations, having the elder present and the accusers present, if it can be determined that the elder is in serious sin, a serious breach of trust, then here's what to do, verse 20.

Those are those elders who are sinning. And it could mean continuing sin in the sense that they won't repent, or even a sin that they have repented of, but it's such a significant breach of trust. That it still needs to be publicly rebuked. Those elders that are found to be or continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all.

That certainly means in the presence of the accusers, in the presence of the other elders, and many would suggest that it also means in the presence of the entire congregation, make this. A public rebuke obviously for the benefit of the elder who is being rebuked, but I'm really intrigued by the last clause of verse 20. Look at Paul's rationale, so that the rest, in other words, the rest of the elders and the rest of the congregation who are present, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.

Paul is anticipating the impact of such a situation, and he sees the impact being that God's people who are present would be left fearful of sinning.

Literally, you might notice in the New American Standard, the words of sinning are in italics, meaning it's not in the Greek text. Literally it just simply reads so that the rest will be having fear. But I think the new American Standard translators and I think some others also capture the idea when they add the words fearful of sinning because I think that's the thing that that Paul is intending for God's people to be fearful of. All right, now I've actually for years pondered.

Paul's rationale here, and especially in recent years, as we, at Cornerstone, we're all about the gospel, and we want to be motivated by the gospel. And, we look at Christ and, and God's gift of Christ to us, and we're, celebrating God's love for us through the person and the work of Jesus Christ, our hearts are ravished by that love. And so God loves us and we love Him and we obey Him. We do what's right and we say no to sin out of love for God.

And it's the gospel that generates that. Well, that's normally what we talk about. But in this passage, Paul is saying, That I want you to do this publicly because something will happen, and that is that there will be fear put into the hearts of those who are present. They will be fearful of sinning.

Just thinking that through, we can infer 4 things about this. Obviously. Number 11 of the reasons Paul wants sinning elders to be publicly rebuked is because It will cause everyone else to fear sinning, right? Is that legitimate?

secondly, if that is true, we can also infer that in the mind of Paul, a fear of sinning must be a good thing, right? we know perfect love cast out fear first, John, but whatever the fear is that we don't have time to get into that does get cast out once we come to know the Lord, fear of sinning, apparently, God doesn't want to get cast out. Fear of sin and of sinning must be a good thing in the life of a believer. A third inference we can make is that a fear of sinning must be a legitimate tool, apparently.

God designed legitimate tool to help us in our sanctification. God wants us to have that resource inside of us called a fear of sin and sinning to help us in our sanctification. It must be useful to Him. This is God speaking through the apostle Paul, giving instruction, and God apparently wants His people to have a healthy biblical fear of sin and of sinning.

And the last thing we can infer from just what Paul says in verse 2 is that apparently it's good for church leaders to think through and to nurture the fear of sin in the church. I think those inferences are fair enough. It's healthy for church leaders to even think about, here's Paul, a church leader talking to Timothy, a church leader, and they Paul is giving instruction to Timothy over how to set this public rebuke up with the intention, one of the intentions being that it would not only help the elder, but also it would cause others to possess a fear of sin.

So that's what we're going to focus on this morning.

guys, what I've observed in my own life and through counseling over the last 18 years and looking at the way things happen in our society, that our problem is not that we have too much fear. Our problem is not that we fear sin too much. Our problem, if anything, is that we don't fear sin enough. We don't fear sinning enough.

We don't think through the fearsomeness of sin in such a way that would make that an antidote to us committing sin. I was reading a few weeks ago. where this guy was writing about why people fall into sin, and in his article he was, talking about a, Christian ministry leader who had fallen into the sin of adultery, and he asked that that leader who had, he had committed adultery but he had repented and he was now walking with the Lord and he was just asking this guy, with hindsight as you look back, Here's the question he asked.

What could have been done to prevent what happened?

Listen to what this guy said. The writer says this. He answered the question by saying, With haunting pain and precision, if only I had really known, really thought through what it would cost me and my family and my lord, I honestly believe I would never have done it. If I would have just seen the fearsomeness of sin and thought it through, I know that I would not have done it.

The sin that we need to fear is sin from without and also sin that is inside of us. There's a place for a healthy fear of sin and of, of sinning. And I'm thinking, this morning, obviously based on this passage, it's good for church leaders to nurture within the people of God a healthy biblical fear of sin and sinning, and verse 20 provides one way of doing that. The problem is I don't have an elder to publicly rebuke in front of you guys, to help nurture that.

so in the absence of that, I do want to take the time that we have this morning. To think just biblically speaking about sin and sinning, and ultimately what I want to do is I want to give you 9 reasons that you should fear sinning, 9 reasons that you should fear sin and sinning. And I would just ask that you open your heart and allow God to grace you with the gift of fear. That's a gift from God, the fear.

Of sin and of sinning. All right, let's try to work through these, and I, I know already we're not going to get to one of them for the sake of time, but we'll get through as much of this as we can. the first reason biblically that comes to my mind as to why we all need to hate sin and fear sin is because sin pains God. It pains the heart of God and understand, guys, with this and with some of the other reasons, it's not like, well, there's gospel motivation over here that motivates us to say no to sin.

And then there's the fear, and they're two separate things. No, it's all tied together. We need to realize that the God who saved us, the God who loves us, the God who sent His Son into the world to die on the cross for our sins, and who loves us. Every day who gives us the gift of His Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of our sins, freedom from the guilt of sin, and so forth, this God who loves us and provides for us each day, spiritually, physically and materially, giving us every breath, every heartbeat, every function of every organ in our body, this God who is so generous and loving towards us, we need to realize when we sin, it pains Him.

In Genesis 6, before the flood, we read that then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and the Lord literally in the Hebrew text was pained to his heart. Imagine the depth of that pain. God's not up in heaven saying, man, I, you're breaking rules. And so I'm unhappy with that.

No, God takes the offense, the sins of mankind very personally. It cuts him. To the core, the pain he feels is in the core of his infinitely awesome being. We see this elsewhere in Scripture of the pain of God in Psalm 78.

The Israelites, it says how often they rebelled against Him and grieved him in the desert again and again they tempted God and pained the Holy One of Israel. God felt repeated pain. In fact, I believe that one of the purposes, one of the many purposes of the cross, is to put the pain of God on vivid display for us to see. The cross was not the first occasion where God felt pain over the sins of men.

There was something special, very definitely about that and of atoning significance, but in part God was saying, I want you to see my pain over sin. This is in the New Testament in Ephesians 4:30. Paul is speaking to believers, and he could have said, Don't sin, but he doesn't word it that way. He couches it in relational terms and says, don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you've been sealed for the day of redemption.

Paul is wording this in a way that alerts us to the fact that when we choose to sin, we are grieving the Holy Spirit of God. And I want you to think about the depth of the Spirit's grief. I don't know that we ponder that. How much time do we really spend pondering the grief of the Holy Spirit over our sins when we choose to rebel against God and sin, and commit sin, is the Spirit.

like, oh, that's a bummer, and he's unhappy about it. Or is the Spirit of God cut to the heart, the way that we see God was in Genesis chapter 6. We know that the Spirit's grief must be profound. Look at this, because he's the Holy Spirit.

Absolutely holy. He's the Spirit of God. And so the Spirit of God is all about glorifying the Father and glorifying the Son. And he is exploring all the depths of the love of God and then pouring that out in our hearts and the Spirit prays for us with groanings that.

cannot even be uttered by us. Who can imagine the depth of the love of the Spirit for us as he mediates the love of the Father towards us and wanting this fullness for us when we do sin, the Spirit of God feels something profoundly emotionally called grief in response to our sins. We don't normally think of sin this way, but we need to. Sin is a personal affront to God.

It's not just breaking a rule. In Romans 8:7, Paul says the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God. It is a hostile act that is directed toward God. Now, many times when we, especially as believers, commit an act of sin, we're not thinking, I am now going to do something hostile toward God.

I hate God, so I will do this act of sin. We don't think that way. But I just want you to know that God views our choices to sin as a personal affront to Him. You think of King David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, her husband.

I am sure David was not saying, what, I hate the Lord and I'm going to do something that's going to be very offensive to him. In fact, I am sure that David did his best to not think about God at all in his season of sin so that he could do whatever he wanted. But when God comes to to David through Nathan the prophet, listen to what God says. He doesn't say to David, How could you do this?

To your wife. How could you do this to Bathsheba? How could you do this to her husband? How could you do this to the nation of Israel?

He could have legitimately said all of those things. Instead, God says, you have despised me. You've hated me. I, I want you to know, David, how I view the choices that you've made.

You've done something very personal against me. I view your actions as despising. Of me as you have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite. To be your wife.

David, I'm sure hearing that was like, I didn't intend it to be that way. But what guys, sin at its core is hostile toward God. And it pains him. Why should we as believers be afraid of sin?

Because we love God. And it pains this one who loves us and this one whom we love. And someone who claims to be a believer and repeatedly pains God over and over and over again without repentance and without remorse is someone who obviously doesn't care about him, and who thus does not love him. So we should be afraid.

We should be fearful of sinning because sin pains God. There's a second reason that we should be fearful of sinning, and that is because deliberate sin, willful sin, is a stunning show of arrogance. we don't have time to really, develop this, but like in Romans 1, Paul talks about, mankind who knew God, but they didn't honor him as God or give thanks, so they became futile in their speculations. Their foolish heart was darkened.

They then think they're following their wisdom, and they think it is wisdom, and so they actually verbalize the claim that they are wise when instead they're fools. Sin is basically God loving us and giving us his wisdom in the form of His law, all the commands and prohibitions. We should have received that wisdom and said, Thank you, Lord, for this amazing wisdom that you've given as a gift of grace to me. But instead, when we sin, what we're doing is we're looking at God's wisdom.

And we're saying, I know better than God. God says, don't do such and such. That's his wisdom. In this moment, my wisdom says to do what I want to do.

What I want to do, contrary to what he says, is better for me than following Him. And in that moment of sin, we are elevating ourselves up to the throne of God, yeah, even above the throne of God. And in that moment we are behaving as if we truly believe we are wiser than God. What an amazing act of arrogance it is and the reason we should be afraid to go there is 1 Peter 5:5, for example, where we learned that God opposes proud people.

God dresses Himself in military array and fights against proud people, and you don't want God to fight. Against you. Moving on, there's a 3rd reason that we should be fearful of sinning, and that is because people get excluded from heaven because of sin. And I want you to listen carefully to what I'm saying and what I'm not saying here.

Sin. is this serious, that you just need to understand, just backing away and looking at the big picture, understand that biblically, it's true that there are people that get excluded from heaven, because of sin, right? That's what the Bible affirms in Galatians 6. Paul says, now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Sin causes people to get excluded from the kingdom of God. That's how serious sin is. Paul says this again, in a different way in Ephesians 5. He says, for this with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Paul is talking to believers saying you should have nothing to do with sin. why? Because God's wrath comes upon the sons of disobedience, because of those sins.

And as you see how deadly and damnable those sins are in the lives of those who are outside of Christ, you should renounce those sins because they damn people to hell. Now, my point in reading this is not to say that if you're a child of God and you commit one of these acts of sin, you have an angry outburst that That you will be excluded from the kingdom of God. James says we all stumble in many ways. That, that's not my point.

My point is just for you to realize that this thing called sin. Does damn people. That's how grave and how serious it is. And this thing is the cause of people going to eternal judgment and into outer darkness.

And so you ought to look at that and, and say, I renounce this. I don't want anything to do with this because this causes people to be excluded from heaven. how I know that we don't really think this through the way that we should. See, if we really believe this, we would not only be fearful, we would hate sin and be fearful of it because we would want nothing to do with it in our own lives, but we would also be fearful out of love for other people.

We would be fearful of sin in other people. We'd be intensely concerned, motivated by love to be concerned. And yet I know we don't think about this to the degree that we should. And one of the ways I know that is that Christian people Christian people often let themselves be entertained by movies and television shows in which performers are doing things that they're going to be damned for if they don't repent.

Do you hear what I'm saying? Christians are often, and they will even pay money to be entertained by movies and television shows where actors and actresses are doing things that they're going to be excluded from heaven for if they don't repent of what they are doing in those programs or in Those movies and often we tend to think of, well, I don't want to see this movie because it might corrupt me and that's totally legitimate. But what, we also need to work it the other way. Are we living by the law of love?

If we're living by the law of love, then we should love those actors and actresses that are doing things that are contributing to their eternal ruin. Therefore, I don't want to be entertained by them doing these things. I don't want to pay my money to support whatever enterprise is paying them to do these things that they're going to be damned for if they don't repent. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying?

think about this. William Wilberforce, who was instrumental in ending the slave trade over in England, was a guy who really tried to live his life being guided by this ethic of love, and they didn't have movies back then, but they had the theater, and And there was a lot of wickedness that was going on in the theater of his day, and there were often Christians that would find entertainment in some of these things where actors and actresses were doing things in the theater that they were going to be judged for if they didn't repent and listen to what William Wilberforce says and listen to his heart here.

He says it is an undeniable fact that the situation of the performers is highly dangerous to their own eternal interests. Might it not then be fairly asked how it is consistent with Christian love merely for the entertainment of an idle hour to encourage the continuance of any of one's fellow creatures in such a way of life?

Just so, just so I can be entertained. Yet Christians appear conscious of no inconsistency in finding their pleasure in spectacles maintained at the risk, if not the ruin of the eternal happiness of those who performed them. Wilberforce not only Looked at it from the angle of will I be corrupted, but he was asking, do I love these performers? If I love these performers, I absolutely will not be entertained by, nor will I pay them money, pay those who are asking them to do these things, money to do things that are contributing to their eternal ruin.

Jonathan Edwards. lays it down pretty hard here. He says, Tis but mockery to God to pretend to mourn the sins that abound in a land and not be humbled for what we ourselves have contributed there too and to bewail our own part. It ought to be a most humbling consideration to us that we have added to the score and ourselves have helped to procure the anger of God against that public society of which we are a part.

We need to think about God's love for all. We need to be fearful of sin in ourselves. We need to be fearful of sin in our children and take all measures to be a help to protect them from sin from without and from within. And we need to love our fellow man.

Enough to not support or find entertainment value in people doing things that they're going to be judged for if they don't repent. There's a 4th reason that we should be fearful of sinning, and that is that sin is deceitful. We need to be afraid of sin because sin deceives, and by the way, sin always deceives, always. There's never a time of the millions of sins we've committed throughout our life where we come to the other end of a sin and we're like, what, sin delivered on its promise.

It told me the truth this time. It always lies, always, and it's lied to us hundreds of thousands of times, but we get up tomorrow morning and we allow ourselves to be deceived again. Sin is deceitful. We need to ponder the deceitfulness of sin.

In Hebrews 3:13, the writer of Hebrews says, but encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today so that none of you will be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin deceives us. It makes promises to us. Do this and you will.

Be happy. Do this and you will be fulfilled. Do this and you won't feel the guilt that you might fear that you are going to feel. Makes all these promises and it doesn't deliver on these promises.

Paul speaks of the deceitfulness of sin in Romans 7. He says in this commandment, the commandment of the law, which was to result in life proved to result in death for me. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment deceived me, and through it killed me. That's what sin does.

It deceives and it stabs, deceives and stabs over and over again and slowly but surely brings death to those that it deceives one layer, one lie at a time. If there was someone in your life that you knew, that always lied, they've, they've lied to you so many times, you don't even know if they've ever told you the truth. Would you trust them? No.

That is sin. That is sin, and it is not to be trusted, tied together with that. In fact, by the way, how, I didn't elaborate on this the way I had intended to, but like going back to the previous point where, when Paul says those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, what he's talking about is those who practice these things as a pattern of their life without repentance. All right, well, someone may say, well, I'm going to commit this sin and then I'll repent afterwards.

And someone who's thinking that way is presuming on the grace of God that God's grace will still be operating in their heart to even cause them to want to repent. I've got a friend back in Indianapolis that was preaching. He's a pastor and he was sharing in a sermon how that he was counseling with a guy who was leaving his wife because of an adulterous relationship and this pastor said, Don't walk out on your wife. Do not do this.

And the pastor was, with tears was pleading with this man and talking to this man about his concern for the man's soul if this man walked off and disregarded. What God's word said and the man looked at this pastor and he said, I'm going to do this, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. But after I've done this, I will repent. This pastor went on to share that this man plunged right into the sin, and years had gone by, and this man is not even interested in repenting.

It's not that he wants to, but he can't. He is so held by the cords of his sin. That he's not even interested in repenting. See, he presumed that God's grace would be there to cause him to want to repent, and he presumed upon the grace of God, sin is deceitful.

Sin will say, Hey man, just go and do this, and then you can repent afterwards. That's part of the deception of sin. Well, moving on, there's a 5th reason to fear sin and sinning, and that is that sin hardens us. This is part of the deception.

The writer of Hebrews says so that none of you will be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. See this man, for example, that went into adultery thinking he might want to repent. It may be that God's grace and that the Spirit of God is still working in his heart, but it is so calloused now because he's been hardened by sin that he doesn't feel in his conscience. What he once felt when the Spirit of God did exactly the same thing by way of seeking to convict him.

Sin hardens us to the working of the Spirit of God. It hardens and calluses our conscience. let me just give you a truism here, guys. You are either on the path to increasing hardness or on a path towards increasing softness before the Lord in your conscience and in your heart.

None of us are static. We're either on a path to becoming increasingly hardened in our conscience before God, or we are growing increasingly softened under the workings and the promptings and the convictions of His spirit sin hardens us. We need to be fearful of sin because it's, it's a deadly thing. It deceives and it hardens.

And not only that, but 1/6 reason to be fearful of sin is that sin enslaves us. It, it takes prisoners, it enslaves. In Proverbs 5:22, Solomon says his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his sin. What that teaches us is that sin is not just some deed that you do.

It comes with chains and, and cords and leashes, and, and when someone wants to walk away from a sin that he has committed, it's not so easy to walk away because sin enslaves. It deceives and then on the other side of that deception, it enslaves. We have this language and Titus 3:3 speaks of those who are enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, people that have lust, within them and desires, they think they're free because they can follow those lusts. Actually, they're in bondage to those lusts that carry them around, lead them around, and there's even nonbelievers that, that know that their desires are destructive.

And it's like I, I can't follow these desires anymore. And so what do they do? They go to therapy. And, disappear and go to therapy and try to get help and I'm sure to a degree they do get help, but it at least pays the Bible the compliment of acknowledging that there are desires inside of us that are destructive and there is slavery to those desires that many times even nonbelievers want to be freed from.

In Romans 6, Paul says, verse 16, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey of sin, resulting in death. Verse 17, you were slaves of sin. Verse 20, you were slaves of sin. Sin and slavery go together.

Here's the way sin works. I've seen this over and over again. Sin deceives you and it pretty much conveys, why don't you, why don't you come and join me, and when you want to walk away, you can walk away and you can just come and go as you please. You want to come look at pornography on the internet, just do that whenever you want, and I'll be happy to see you.

And when you want to walk away, you can walk away anytime. That's the deal that We'll make and so someone starts looking at pornography on the internet and, and after a few days they're feeling bad and guilty and so forth and they're like, Man, I've had enough of this, and they get up and they say I'm gonna walk away from this and, and the sen says, OK, that's fine, we'll see you later and if you ever want to come back, feel free to come back and, and The person makes that journey time after time after time and seems to freely walk away, but then is drawn back and then seems like he can walk away, but a day will come.

And I've seen this happen in the lives of people. It does come when a person plunges back into the sin and then says, I've had my fill of this, I'm going to walk away.

And the sen says not this time. You will not walk away from me. You will not turn your back on me. And the Seine rises up and flexes its muscles and says, You will know the full length of my power.

And there are people in the world who don't know Christ. There are people in the church. that are battling to break the chains, practically speaking, of this bondage. And they were deceived, and they would give anything to have never committed those particular sins for the first time.

But sin seduces us, it deceives us, and then it enslaves us. And then we've just set in motion a whole host of consequences. Sin is a fearsome thing that leads us to the 7th reason to be afraid of sin. I don't know a better way to word this, so indulge me here.

When we sin, we give birth. Biblically speaking, when we sin, we give birth. Look at what James says. This is really fascinating narrative here over what happens in the progression from lust to sin.

He says in verse 14 of James 1, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. So lust, as it were, is the mistress that seduces the person and And romances that person and makes promises and then the person's like, OK, OK, I'll go with you and the person becomes wed, as it were, to that lust and then what happens? Lust conceives. Lust conceives from that union and the lust gives birth to sin.

And then once the sin is given birth to, it doesn't cease to exist. Guys, understand that the Bible teaches that sin is not finished when you're done with it. When you've committed the act of sin, a lot of times we think, OK, good, that's over with. No, no, no, you've just given birth to a sin child, as it were, that is going to continue to live.

No woman goes to the hospital and delivers a child, and when the child is delivered, says, I'm glad that's over with, I'm going home. And never gives the child another thought. No, when a woman gives birth to a child, there's her life is radically changed. She knows I have brought something into the world here, that's going to bring a lot of joy, a lot of blessing, heartache.

It's going to require time and investment. My life is different forever as a result of this birth of this child. We need to realize that when we choose to sin, a birth is taking place, a sin is being born, a sin is being brought into the world, and it's going to continue to live. It's not finished when you're finished.

It will continue to live. And then look at this, the sin grows up. It comes to full term. And when it comes to full term, this is another pregnancy term, it brings forth death.

In other words, it gives birth to a stillborn. It gives birth to death. Death is the grandchild of lust. That we wed ourselves to.

Young people I wish what I'm saying now that someone would have said to me when I was your age, be careful of the choices that you make. Because with the choices that you make to sin, You are birthing sins that you're going to have to reckon with to one degree or another. I talked After the first service with someone in our church that, committed sins over a decade ago, saw things with their eyes over a decade ago. And they are absolutely forgiven and walking in that forgiveness.

But this individual told me, I still frequently wake up in the middle of the night with images that have been burned into my mind that harass me. and the guilt and the shame, those sin children that were given birth to, they still travel with this person, and there are many in our church. In fact, all of us to one degree or another would say the same thing. For some, the struggle is greater than others.

We give birth to sin children, and those sin children, as it were, they, they harass and they harangue, and they impose guilt, they attract us back and we have to deal with that attraction along with that guilt that all has been given birth to, that would have never been given birth to if we would have made the right choice years earlier. Be very careful of the choices that you make because with those choices, a birth occurs. And let me say something about sin. Biblically, sin is not just the act of sin.

biblically, sin is the choice you make. It's the act you perform. It is the guilt that follows, and it's all the other consequences that follow as a result of that act. You can draw a box around all of that and call the whole thing sin.

You guys following me? That's why the Bible says things like die in their sins. OK, they may have committed sins years ago, but they die inside of their sins. Their sins are still there.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 speaks of us that if Christ has not been raised, we are still in our sins. Using biblical terminology, if I committed a crime, That crime would be called sin. If I'm standing before a judge and he pronounces me guilty as a result of that crime, that pronouncement would be called sin. If I'm put in a jail cell as a result of the sentence that's been given to me biblically, that jail cell would be called sin.

I am in my sin. And if I receive the death penalty as a result of the crime that I committed, that imposing of the death penalty would be called sin. Sin is a big word, and it speaks of more than just a thought or the act we perform. It's a big enough word to include everything that follows.

I read just yesterday of a woman who committed an abortion. And the guilt of that was so great that she began to feel that she was not worthy to be a mother. And so guess what, when she got pregnant again, her thought was, I don't deserve to be a mother. So she aborted her second child.

And then her 3rd, and then her 4th, up to 8 children. That whole thing is sin. She committed the first act. Which no doubt was the result of other choices that had been made that were sinful, and then one thing led to another.

She commits that act and she feels terrible for it. She's Reeling from the guilt of it and so she doesn't feel like she's worthy to be a mother and then she gets pregnant again and so one sin begets another and begets another and eventually you have generations of sins and it's all tied together. The whole thing is labeled sin. She's trapped in that sin.

And let me say, if there's any here that have made those choices to abort a child in your womb, I'm telling you the cross is big. The gospel is big. The blood of Jesus goes that deep to bring forgiveness and healing for those that have made the choice to abort a child or any other sinful choice. But for anyone that has made unfortunate choices like that throughout their life and they have to deal with the ongoing consequences of those things.

I'm speaking on their behalf to you as young people, make wise choices. Yes, you can be forgiven at a later point, but those sins live on, and you have to deal with them. You'll have to take them to the cross daily, and that's going to take a lot of energy, energy that you will love to spend on something else, but you have to deal with that. I was talking to someone in our church just recently who over 2.5 decades ago lived a pretty wicked lifestyle and has just been a wonderful godly person, has been growing in the Lord since then.

And I asked them about their past life and how much of an issue is that for them today, and this person said, I'm haunted daily. Not a day goes by that I'm not harassed by the memory, by the guilt, and by the shame. Every day I have to take that mess and carry it to the cross. And this person would be one who would get up here and speak to the young people and say, be careful the choices that you make.

Now those that have made these choices and you have to fight these battles, let me encourage you with the thought that those to whom much is forgiven, they love Jesus much, right? Amen. and, God has saved you. The blood of Jesus is sufficient.

It goes really deep and your sins are great. My sins are great, but God's grace is even greater than our sins. And let all of that shame and the remorse and the regret, take all of that to the blood of Jesus at the cross and experience His grace and His forgiveness and then love Him all the more. And glorify God with that.

But nonetheless, though you do that, I'm sure you would say. To everyone else that you would give everything you have to not have done the things that you have done. When we sin, we give birth, and sin lives on. we're out of time, but let me just say, let me just give you the next two.

Sin affects other people, including those you love. Adam and Eve are all by themselves on planet Earth, and they make a choice. Little did they know thousands of years later, billions of people would be profoundly negatively impacted by their sin. And then the final thing would be this, that Sin, we should be fearful of sin because sin ruins the feast, the gospel feast.

See, we don't just fear sin because sin causes bad things to happen. As Christians, we fear sin because we're feasting daily and sumptuously on all of God's blessing in the gospel, and we're enjoying intimacy with Him. And we don't want, we're we're afraid of sin because sin ruins the meal. It ruins our dinner.

It ruins the feast. It ruins the banquet that we are enjoying in Jesus. It reduces our capacity to take in and enjoy this feast that God wants to give to us. The last slide I want to show you is this.

Paul is talking to the Corinthians. And he says, I gave you milk to drink. But not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. I had a banquet ready for you guys, but you couldn't take the solid food.

Indeed, even now you're not yet able, for you are still fleshly, since there's jealousy and strife among you. Are you not fleshly and walking like mere men? Paul's like, I have a banquet for you, but you can't eat it because there's sin. Sin is ruining the feast.

And so let us be walking each day in the good of the gospel. cherishing Jesus and cherishing being cherished by Him and the forgiveness and the grace that, that brings forgiveness for all of our sins. Let us be transformed by that grace, by that forgiveness, and by that healing. And let us refrain from sin and be very afraid of it because it ruins that banquet.

I want to ask you to bow your heads this morning. If you're right now feeling guilt, and you're feeling bad, I just want to encourage you with the thought that that's actually a good thing. That's a sign of life. That's a sign of love.

If you're feeling nothing right now, then that's, that's actually the scary place to be. But if you're feeling guilt, that means God's spirit is working in you and he loves you enough to cause you to feel that because he's trying to draw you away from that mess to the banquet that he has for you. And he's like, come on over here. Come to me.

I have come so that you will have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus to the Laodicean church says, In one breath I'm ready to spew you out of my mouth because of the way they were living, but in the next breath he says, I'm knocking at the door. If you'll let me come in, we're going to eat together. We'll dine together as intimate friends, and that invitation is being offered to every one of us in this room, every one of us.

He is so full of grace. Whatever we have done, forgiveness is there if we would but look to Christ and repent. And in brokenness call upon Him for His grace and forgiveness. I pray that you will do that.

And may we guard our steps and help each other. To be afraid To be fearful of sending. And may that fear Protect us from much harm. Because that fear is a gift from God.

We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. I would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word and for all that it speaks to us.

Sometimes you say things that lift our hearts to the highest heavens and, and encourage us and other times, Lord, you say things to us that That break us down. Lord, we know that you only break us because you're wanting to create openings for your grace and your love. And I pray that any heart that you're breaking right now that, that they would see the love, faithful are the wounds of a friend and you're being the ultimate friend and working in their hearts. May we be a more pure people, a more holy people who love you.

and who are afraid In a healthy biblical way of sin because it's contrary to you. We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive these offerings and receive our hearts as we give them to you this morning. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.