Post by arete on Feb 3, 2014 18:36:59 GMT
Introduction:
The Church is in danger. The Church has been so inundated by the cares, concerns, and the values of this world, she is in danger of denying the sinfulness of sin. Yet, Paul spends considerable time on this topic, not written to the lost, but written to the saints of Rome. He is also writing to the saints in America and throughout the world. The church is in danger of neglecting to proclaim the inevitable result of sin – death – a life of death on earth & eternal death after. Sin is not just the problem of the lost, but is the problem of the churches and the saints. None can claim to be free from it – for any such claim is itself a sin and a declaration that God’s love is not in them (according to the Apostle John.) The pastor, John Owen, teaching in Romans declared the seriousness of the Christian’s response to sin, "...the choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify [put sin to death]; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. Your being dead with Christ virtually, your being quickened [eternally alive] with him, will not excuse you from this work."
Context:
Last section, we saw the dismal reality of mankind. God has brought an indictment against man that he suppresses the truth & knowledge of God. The evidence is plain: man prefers to bow in worship to anything so as to avoid worshipping and being accountable to God. Finally, a verdict was passed. God gave man up – he gave mankind what mankind thought it wanted, to live as if God wasn’t there and to receive all the depravity & debauchery that such leads to. We come this morning to a further development of mankind’s predicament…
Body – Romans 1:26-2:1 – ESV
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
God’s Righteous Judgment
2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
The Situation vv. 26-28
Continuing from the verdict decreed last week where man was given up to sin, this section further develops the situation. Paul mentions God giving man up 3 times to drive home the point. Hell is primarily about the absence of God and less about fire. God has given sinful man up to a life devoid of his presence. Yes he is still ruling the universe and is in authority over every creature, yet he withholds all but general grace & revelation from sinful man
Specifically, God gave man up to dishonorable passion. Some versions say “shameful” however dishonorable is preferred. This is because it is a response to man not honoring God and so becoming in himself dishonorable. Where man does not revere God, man also dishonors himself and those around him. When we deny the image of God on every man, we also deny that any man has worth or value
Paul picks one particular sin to focus on as an example of such dishonor among mankind. He chooses homosexuality. This was common in his world and unfortunately has become common in ours. The rebellion of this sin is seen in how it attempts to overthrow God’s order. God intended for a family to be comprised of a husband and wife, joined as one flesh and to produce children – to produce other image-bearers. God’s role as a creator is displayed in us when we pro-create.
While some may try to twist Paul’s words to further a sexual agenda, the reality is that Paul is clear. When women give up sexual relations with men and burn with sexual passion for one another – it is sin. Likewise with men burning for men. These acts are shameless – they further bring dishonor to those who practice them & those same have no shame in their rebellion against God.
Receiving the due penalty – what Paul is saying is that homosexuality is both sin & punishment. Delving into sexual sin only depraves man further and leads him further from the truth of God. As one pastor remarked, “one could say that the expansion…of homosexuality in a culture is …a reflection of a demeaning of man in general and an expression of the wrath of God upon that society.”
Paul continues that God gave man up – he gave man up to a debased mind. A debased mind is one that calls truth a lie or calls lies truth. A debased mind is one that cannot come to truth on its own. Our minds are as fallen as our hearts and bodies. Man revels in not only committing sin but in crafting arguments that sin is not sin or even that sin is a virtue. Perhaps this sounds familiar. We are flooded with such arguments today.
One of the reasons listed for God giving man up is that man did not see fit to acknowledge God. The way Paul wrote that sentence carries the idea that man could know enough about God from general revelation, but did not care to come to a full knowledge of God. That is not to say that man could fully know everything about the infinite God, but is more about how man approaches learning about God.
Illustration:
There is a saying that I remember, but can’t remember where I heard it, that “We used to be tolerant of people, but intolerant of certain ideas.”
Application:
We are called to be tolerant of people – in that we are called to love them and share with them the good news that Jesus saves us from all sin. Yet, we must remain intolerant of sin and be intolerant of anyone trying to call sin a virtue. We live in a time when speaking the truth is often called hate speech. How sad that sharing the truth of salvation in love is called hate, but it shouldn’t surprise us that those who call sin a virtue can call love hate.
Further, the charge here is on those who do not pursue knowledge of God. The buzz word might be “theology.” How do we approach theology? That word means knowledge of God. Do we casually approach learning about God? Are we passionate & driven to learn more about God & his word? If we treat coming together to learn about God as something we can take or leave, then we are sinning. Or if we leave theology to the academics we are sinning. The knowledge of God was not revealed from heaven for the benefit of a few academics. It was revealed for all of God’s people & all of God’s people must learn about him.
A Shopping List of Sin vv. 29-31
Paul does not stop at one example of sinfulness. While we might be tempted to categorize sin into levels of how bad it is – Paul wants to show us that mankind being given up has impacted mankind in every way. God does not view sin according to how bad we think a particular sin is – he views sin as something so terrible it took the blood of Jesus to wash us clean.
Covetousness: selfish & greedy – When God is taken out of the mind, there is nothing to restrain the human heart & spirit from its lust for power & greediness
Malice: depraved – sin infects our hearts, minds, & will. Man is a slave to his sinfulness
Full of envy: lust for another’s property, status or position – this leads to attempts at undermining one another to feel better & even to take what we envy for ourselves
Murder: this naturally flows from disrespect for God. The reason murder is forbidden is that everyone bears God’s image. Without God, there is no moral reason to not murder
Strife: contentiousness, be argumentative to sow discord & the enjoyment of conflict
Deceit: any form of dishonesty & lying – even so called white lies are forbidden
Maliciousness: a lack of regard & love for the things of God, including his creatures; we cannot love God & hat our neighbor, but when we hate God, more hatred flows
Gossips: spreading truth or lies to hurt or feel superior – this can occur even in prayer requests
Slanderers: speaking ill of another to cause harm – the opposite of building another up
Haters of God: somewhat self-explanatory; yet biblically, hate is seen any time someone chooses against another. When man prefers anything to God, he is hating God
Insolent: overbearing & violent
Haughty: arrogant – thinking more highly of oneself over another
Boastful: bragging about one’s own achievements – not giving thanks to God for working in us, but taking the credit
Inventors of evil: man is not satisfied with the evil of yesterday, but prefers to come up with ways to sin. This is seen in how quickly any technology is harnessed to spread filth
Disobedient to parents: refusing or neglecting to obey; even forgetting to obey
Foolish: in the biblical sense – lacking spiritual & moral wisdom based on God & truth
Faithless: treacherous, disloyal, untrustworthy, reneging on one’s word, not following through
Heartless: lacking good feeling toward others; acting without regard to others
Ruthless: lacking mercy or withholding the mercy we have enjoyed from another (I could never forgive them)
Illustration:
Some groups distinguish between mortal and venial sins. A mortal sin removes your justification, and if you die with unconfessed mortal sin on your soul, you will be sent to hell. Venial sins do not destroy your justification, and only reduce your rewards or add to your time in purgatory. The Reformation rejected this system because of its works- orientation, but did not reject the idea of degrees of sin. John Calvin said that all sin is mortal in the sense that it deserves death, but no sin is so severe that it can destroy the grace of justification.
Application:
The sins listed by Paul move from what mankind might call the worst to the least. Yet, that is not the case. They are all the worst. Even more, the list includes more that actions as sin, but also disposition. There are sins of commission – doing what we shouldn’t do. There are sins of omission – not doing what we should do. There are sins of disposition – feeling in ways that are not godly. Because of this – none of us are without guilt and no one is. Mankind is in a terrible and hopeless state before God – except that God himself provides hope. We must come to terms with the terrible sinfulness of man – so we can appreciate our salvation (and not just the former drug abusers, etc, but also those who were always in church stood condemned before God for their awful sinfulness apart from the salvation they found in Christ.) We must also come to terms so that we appreciate the horrible situation the people around us are in if they do not have Christ as their savior. They are in dire danger of hellfire and rightly so – but the same Jesus who saved us, can save them too.
A Stout Warning vv. 1:32-2:1
Mankind knows that sin rightfully requires death as its sentence. This is part of the reason mankind tries so hard to prove the Bible wrong and even all concepts of God as wrong. To face up to the reality of God means accepting that he has standards and must respond to mankind’s sinfulness.
Mankind responds to this situation by pretending it isn’t so and lying to themselves. Instead of admitting to God’s righteous standard, mankind wallows in sin. Misery loves company and so man applauds the sin of others, perhaps hoping that if another person appears worse then God will excuse them
We might be tempted at this point to applaud ourselves. All those dirty, smelly sinners out there are going to get what’s coming to them. They will get what they deserve. Such an attitude is sinful. We should be moved to pity, not contempt. But don’t stop there…
Paul brings the conversation back to Christians. That’s who his audience is. He isn’t writing to unbelievers. He thrusts a reality right in our faces – if the lost have no excuse, we have even less of an excuse.
This passage doesn’t condemn rightly judging sin as sin according to God’s standards. Instead it condemns the hypocrisy of indulging our own pet sins while condemning others for the same thing. All sin is equal before God and we must judge our own hearts.
Illustration:
'Tis not God’s design that men should obtain assurance in any other way, than by mortifying corruption, and increasing in grace, and obtaining the lively exercises of it. And although self-examination be a duty of great use and importance, and by no means to be neglected; yet it is not the principal means, by which the saints do get satisfaction of their good estate. Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination, as by action.” – Jonathan Edwards
Application:
This is not contradicting our need to self-examine, but stands against leaving it there. Our self-examination should lead to right action. This is seen by us repenting and putting to death our sin. It is also seen in our actions toward one another. We should not put ourselves in God’s role as judge. We can stand firm on what he has condemned, but we should not withhold grace and mercy from another. We should not look at a person & withhold telling them that God’s grace and mercy saves. This requires a humble heart – knowing that we are undeserving of God’s favor and yet rejoicing in it while striving against sin. Such a humble heart also looks at the lost and sees their need and feels empathy and compassion for a fellow sinner in need of the grace we have received.
So What? – This passage speaks to the condition of man today…
Current world situation & gay rights. One cannot both hold that the Bible is true and homosexuality is acceptable before God. That is intellectual dishonesty – this is one of the worst kinds of lying because it is you lying to yourself. If someone wants to embrace homosexuality, they must deny the truth of the Bible. Those that do are in a better position to be evangelized. They know they stand against God. The people who embrace sin & try to convince themselves they are right before God are harder to reach.
Yet, we cannot treat homosexuality as the pinnacle of sinfulness. All sin. Sexual sins often have more grievous immediate consequences, but all sin leads to death. And it’s not only the homosexual that commits sexual sin.
In addition to homosexuality, we saw a lengthy list of sins. We saw that there is no order of sin as more acceptable and least acceptable. All sin condemns! The terror that should grip our hearts concerning sin can only be relieved by the grace of God.
There is a pressing need for all men to know God. To understand theology – because knowing more about God and what he requires helps us understand how we should live. When we take the time to study and learn as best we can, God honors our honest efforts and empowers our minds to understand and our ability to live right by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not a spectator sport where the average man in the pew gets to passively observe the pastors, missionaries, academics. To neglect the study of God’s word when we have so many opportunities to learn is a sin.
There are times when I want you to finish reading this and feeling bad. This is one of those times. We all need to critically evaluate our lives. We are condemning others for what we do. Sin is sin! There is no list of bad versus not so bad sin. Every sin no matter how little in our eyes cannot be washed away without the life’s blood of Jesus Christ. It is time for the church to return to proclaiming the terrible sinfulness of sin and the amazing grace of God. While we are not responsible for every church, we are responsible for our church. Let us purpose to evaluate our own lives and take drastic measures to put our pet sins to death! Let us purpose to proclaim both the consequence of sin and sin’s cure. Let there be no safe haven in Nenana where Jesus Christ the Son of God, Savior of men, and Lord of Lords is not publicly pronounced.
Benediction – Romans 6:9-14 – ESV
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
The Church is in danger. The Church has been so inundated by the cares, concerns, and the values of this world, she is in danger of denying the sinfulness of sin. Yet, Paul spends considerable time on this topic, not written to the lost, but written to the saints of Rome. He is also writing to the saints in America and throughout the world. The church is in danger of neglecting to proclaim the inevitable result of sin – death – a life of death on earth & eternal death after. Sin is not just the problem of the lost, but is the problem of the churches and the saints. None can claim to be free from it – for any such claim is itself a sin and a declaration that God’s love is not in them (according to the Apostle John.) The pastor, John Owen, teaching in Romans declared the seriousness of the Christian’s response to sin, "...the choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify [put sin to death]; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. Your being dead with Christ virtually, your being quickened [eternally alive] with him, will not excuse you from this work."
Context:
Last section, we saw the dismal reality of mankind. God has brought an indictment against man that he suppresses the truth & knowledge of God. The evidence is plain: man prefers to bow in worship to anything so as to avoid worshipping and being accountable to God. Finally, a verdict was passed. God gave man up – he gave mankind what mankind thought it wanted, to live as if God wasn’t there and to receive all the depravity & debauchery that such leads to. We come this morning to a further development of mankind’s predicament…
Body – Romans 1:26-2:1 – ESV
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
God’s Righteous Judgment
2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
The Situation vv. 26-28
Continuing from the verdict decreed last week where man was given up to sin, this section further develops the situation. Paul mentions God giving man up 3 times to drive home the point. Hell is primarily about the absence of God and less about fire. God has given sinful man up to a life devoid of his presence. Yes he is still ruling the universe and is in authority over every creature, yet he withholds all but general grace & revelation from sinful man
Specifically, God gave man up to dishonorable passion. Some versions say “shameful” however dishonorable is preferred. This is because it is a response to man not honoring God and so becoming in himself dishonorable. Where man does not revere God, man also dishonors himself and those around him. When we deny the image of God on every man, we also deny that any man has worth or value
Paul picks one particular sin to focus on as an example of such dishonor among mankind. He chooses homosexuality. This was common in his world and unfortunately has become common in ours. The rebellion of this sin is seen in how it attempts to overthrow God’s order. God intended for a family to be comprised of a husband and wife, joined as one flesh and to produce children – to produce other image-bearers. God’s role as a creator is displayed in us when we pro-create.
While some may try to twist Paul’s words to further a sexual agenda, the reality is that Paul is clear. When women give up sexual relations with men and burn with sexual passion for one another – it is sin. Likewise with men burning for men. These acts are shameless – they further bring dishonor to those who practice them & those same have no shame in their rebellion against God.
Receiving the due penalty – what Paul is saying is that homosexuality is both sin & punishment. Delving into sexual sin only depraves man further and leads him further from the truth of God. As one pastor remarked, “one could say that the expansion…of homosexuality in a culture is …a reflection of a demeaning of man in general and an expression of the wrath of God upon that society.”
Paul continues that God gave man up – he gave man up to a debased mind. A debased mind is one that calls truth a lie or calls lies truth. A debased mind is one that cannot come to truth on its own. Our minds are as fallen as our hearts and bodies. Man revels in not only committing sin but in crafting arguments that sin is not sin or even that sin is a virtue. Perhaps this sounds familiar. We are flooded with such arguments today.
One of the reasons listed for God giving man up is that man did not see fit to acknowledge God. The way Paul wrote that sentence carries the idea that man could know enough about God from general revelation, but did not care to come to a full knowledge of God. That is not to say that man could fully know everything about the infinite God, but is more about how man approaches learning about God.
Illustration:
There is a saying that I remember, but can’t remember where I heard it, that “We used to be tolerant of people, but intolerant of certain ideas.”
Application:
We are called to be tolerant of people – in that we are called to love them and share with them the good news that Jesus saves us from all sin. Yet, we must remain intolerant of sin and be intolerant of anyone trying to call sin a virtue. We live in a time when speaking the truth is often called hate speech. How sad that sharing the truth of salvation in love is called hate, but it shouldn’t surprise us that those who call sin a virtue can call love hate.
Further, the charge here is on those who do not pursue knowledge of God. The buzz word might be “theology.” How do we approach theology? That word means knowledge of God. Do we casually approach learning about God? Are we passionate & driven to learn more about God & his word? If we treat coming together to learn about God as something we can take or leave, then we are sinning. Or if we leave theology to the academics we are sinning. The knowledge of God was not revealed from heaven for the benefit of a few academics. It was revealed for all of God’s people & all of God’s people must learn about him.
A Shopping List of Sin vv. 29-31
Paul does not stop at one example of sinfulness. While we might be tempted to categorize sin into levels of how bad it is – Paul wants to show us that mankind being given up has impacted mankind in every way. God does not view sin according to how bad we think a particular sin is – he views sin as something so terrible it took the blood of Jesus to wash us clean.
Covetousness: selfish & greedy – When God is taken out of the mind, there is nothing to restrain the human heart & spirit from its lust for power & greediness
Malice: depraved – sin infects our hearts, minds, & will. Man is a slave to his sinfulness
Full of envy: lust for another’s property, status or position – this leads to attempts at undermining one another to feel better & even to take what we envy for ourselves
Murder: this naturally flows from disrespect for God. The reason murder is forbidden is that everyone bears God’s image. Without God, there is no moral reason to not murder
Strife: contentiousness, be argumentative to sow discord & the enjoyment of conflict
Deceit: any form of dishonesty & lying – even so called white lies are forbidden
Maliciousness: a lack of regard & love for the things of God, including his creatures; we cannot love God & hat our neighbor, but when we hate God, more hatred flows
Gossips: spreading truth or lies to hurt or feel superior – this can occur even in prayer requests
Slanderers: speaking ill of another to cause harm – the opposite of building another up
Haters of God: somewhat self-explanatory; yet biblically, hate is seen any time someone chooses against another. When man prefers anything to God, he is hating God
Insolent: overbearing & violent
Haughty: arrogant – thinking more highly of oneself over another
Boastful: bragging about one’s own achievements – not giving thanks to God for working in us, but taking the credit
Inventors of evil: man is not satisfied with the evil of yesterday, but prefers to come up with ways to sin. This is seen in how quickly any technology is harnessed to spread filth
Disobedient to parents: refusing or neglecting to obey; even forgetting to obey
Foolish: in the biblical sense – lacking spiritual & moral wisdom based on God & truth
Faithless: treacherous, disloyal, untrustworthy, reneging on one’s word, not following through
Heartless: lacking good feeling toward others; acting without regard to others
Ruthless: lacking mercy or withholding the mercy we have enjoyed from another (I could never forgive them)
Illustration:
Some groups distinguish between mortal and venial sins. A mortal sin removes your justification, and if you die with unconfessed mortal sin on your soul, you will be sent to hell. Venial sins do not destroy your justification, and only reduce your rewards or add to your time in purgatory. The Reformation rejected this system because of its works- orientation, but did not reject the idea of degrees of sin. John Calvin said that all sin is mortal in the sense that it deserves death, but no sin is so severe that it can destroy the grace of justification.
Application:
The sins listed by Paul move from what mankind might call the worst to the least. Yet, that is not the case. They are all the worst. Even more, the list includes more that actions as sin, but also disposition. There are sins of commission – doing what we shouldn’t do. There are sins of omission – not doing what we should do. There are sins of disposition – feeling in ways that are not godly. Because of this – none of us are without guilt and no one is. Mankind is in a terrible and hopeless state before God – except that God himself provides hope. We must come to terms with the terrible sinfulness of man – so we can appreciate our salvation (and not just the former drug abusers, etc, but also those who were always in church stood condemned before God for their awful sinfulness apart from the salvation they found in Christ.) We must also come to terms so that we appreciate the horrible situation the people around us are in if they do not have Christ as their savior. They are in dire danger of hellfire and rightly so – but the same Jesus who saved us, can save them too.
A Stout Warning vv. 1:32-2:1
Mankind knows that sin rightfully requires death as its sentence. This is part of the reason mankind tries so hard to prove the Bible wrong and even all concepts of God as wrong. To face up to the reality of God means accepting that he has standards and must respond to mankind’s sinfulness.
Mankind responds to this situation by pretending it isn’t so and lying to themselves. Instead of admitting to God’s righteous standard, mankind wallows in sin. Misery loves company and so man applauds the sin of others, perhaps hoping that if another person appears worse then God will excuse them
We might be tempted at this point to applaud ourselves. All those dirty, smelly sinners out there are going to get what’s coming to them. They will get what they deserve. Such an attitude is sinful. We should be moved to pity, not contempt. But don’t stop there…
Paul brings the conversation back to Christians. That’s who his audience is. He isn’t writing to unbelievers. He thrusts a reality right in our faces – if the lost have no excuse, we have even less of an excuse.
This passage doesn’t condemn rightly judging sin as sin according to God’s standards. Instead it condemns the hypocrisy of indulging our own pet sins while condemning others for the same thing. All sin is equal before God and we must judge our own hearts.
Illustration:
'Tis not God’s design that men should obtain assurance in any other way, than by mortifying corruption, and increasing in grace, and obtaining the lively exercises of it. And although self-examination be a duty of great use and importance, and by no means to be neglected; yet it is not the principal means, by which the saints do get satisfaction of their good estate. Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination, as by action.” – Jonathan Edwards
Application:
This is not contradicting our need to self-examine, but stands against leaving it there. Our self-examination should lead to right action. This is seen by us repenting and putting to death our sin. It is also seen in our actions toward one another. We should not put ourselves in God’s role as judge. We can stand firm on what he has condemned, but we should not withhold grace and mercy from another. We should not look at a person & withhold telling them that God’s grace and mercy saves. This requires a humble heart – knowing that we are undeserving of God’s favor and yet rejoicing in it while striving against sin. Such a humble heart also looks at the lost and sees their need and feels empathy and compassion for a fellow sinner in need of the grace we have received.
So What? – This passage speaks to the condition of man today…
Current world situation & gay rights. One cannot both hold that the Bible is true and homosexuality is acceptable before God. That is intellectual dishonesty – this is one of the worst kinds of lying because it is you lying to yourself. If someone wants to embrace homosexuality, they must deny the truth of the Bible. Those that do are in a better position to be evangelized. They know they stand against God. The people who embrace sin & try to convince themselves they are right before God are harder to reach.
Yet, we cannot treat homosexuality as the pinnacle of sinfulness. All sin. Sexual sins often have more grievous immediate consequences, but all sin leads to death. And it’s not only the homosexual that commits sexual sin.
In addition to homosexuality, we saw a lengthy list of sins. We saw that there is no order of sin as more acceptable and least acceptable. All sin condemns! The terror that should grip our hearts concerning sin can only be relieved by the grace of God.
There is a pressing need for all men to know God. To understand theology – because knowing more about God and what he requires helps us understand how we should live. When we take the time to study and learn as best we can, God honors our honest efforts and empowers our minds to understand and our ability to live right by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not a spectator sport where the average man in the pew gets to passively observe the pastors, missionaries, academics. To neglect the study of God’s word when we have so many opportunities to learn is a sin.
There are times when I want you to finish reading this and feeling bad. This is one of those times. We all need to critically evaluate our lives. We are condemning others for what we do. Sin is sin! There is no list of bad versus not so bad sin. Every sin no matter how little in our eyes cannot be washed away without the life’s blood of Jesus Christ. It is time for the church to return to proclaiming the terrible sinfulness of sin and the amazing grace of God. While we are not responsible for every church, we are responsible for our church. Let us purpose to evaluate our own lives and take drastic measures to put our pet sins to death! Let us purpose to proclaim both the consequence of sin and sin’s cure. Let there be no safe haven in Nenana where Jesus Christ the Son of God, Savior of men, and Lord of Lords is not publicly pronounced.
Benediction – Romans 6:9-14 – ESV
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
