Hate Sin, Love God

If you take your Bibles and turn to Romans five and then first Corinthians six. Romans five and then just following Romans is Corinthians and then we'll go from there to first Corinthians six. At verse again says, for thee all the follies of sin, I resign. That's what our message is about today and probably next week. Is sin really all that bad?

Is it? Well, that's what we're going to answer this morning. Romans five verse 12, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men. For that all have sinned. Each one of us in this room today, if the Lord should tarry, we'll face physical death.

And why? Because of sin. God did not create Adam and Eve to die. Not even physically. But on that day that they sinned against God, they also died spiritually.

Separated from God. By their sin. And if we are to remain in that condition apart from the grace of Christ and the forgiveness that is only found in Jesus. Then, we will meet what the Bible calls the second death. Which is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire.

Now, I ask again, is sin really that bad? Turn if you would to first Corinthians chapter six. First Corinthians chapter six. And let's look at verses nine through 11. First Corinthians six nine through 11.

Paul is writing to Christians. He's writing to Christians in Corinth at the church there and this is among the things that he writes in this letter beginning in verse nine. Know ye not that the unrighteous, that is the unsaved, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.

But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified. In the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. Paul writes the church there and he says, know you not that the unsaved, the unrighteous, those whose lives are defined by the things that follow before God will not inherit the kingdom of God because they have not been justified which means declared righteous before God through faith in his son. They have not been sanctified which means set apart unto God through Christ Jesus and in Christ Jesus. Their sins have not been washed away.

They remain on their account. And he says, you were these things. This is was your standing and your condition before God but that's changed. That's changed in Christ Jesus. You've been forgiven.

You've been justified. You've been sanctified and he goes on in the book of Corinthians to say this, now that you've been sanctified and justified and your sins have been cleansed and washed away, don't go back there. Don't practice these things. They are things that condemn people to eternity in hell and they are things that no longer belong in your life. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you Lord for your word. We pray Lord as we look into it further today upon the subject that you would impress on upon our hearts. How bad sin really is and how desperately our loving heavenly father wants us who are his children to get victory over sin in our life. Sin that we have been forgiven of, sin that you died for on the cross.

Not only to save us from its penalty but to save us from its bondage. Lord, give us victory and Lord, give us a burden today to become more like Christ our savior and to deal with that which in our life, which is in our life, which is displeasing to you. And Lord, we pray most of all, if there's one here today that's never received Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their lives by faith. I pray today that you would help them to see their need of repentance and that they would come to Christ for salvation in him. In Jesus name, we do pray.

Isn't it sad to have to ask that question? Is sin really that bad? The wretchedness of sin is a fundamental of our faith, a pillar or landmark which we cannot ignore. Why did Christ come two thousand years ago? He came to die for sinners.

Romans five eight, but God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If it weren't for sin, Christ would not have had to have come. He wouldn't have had to die and suffer as he did in our place. Why do we need to be saved? Well, because we are sinners.

This is a fundamental which many Christians and Christian leaders would rather forget or rather in many cases seem to have forgotten. Is humanity good at in heart? Or is humanity bad? At heart. Many preachers today would tell us that humanity is really good at heart.

That our our heart is a a wonderful thing full of love and and and and good things towards everybody else and that if we just would listen to our heart. But the Bible says the heart is what? Desperately wicked. Bible says, our heart leads us astray. It doesn't lead us to God.

Our heart naturally leads us away from God because in heart, we are sinners who desperately need a savior to change our heart. And to change our mind, to change our ways, to change who we are, and forgive us for what we've done. Romans three ten says, there is none righteous. No, not one. You don't hear as much preaching on that today particularly among the TV evangelist as in days of old.

The entire reason for Christ coming was to redeem and to save us. That is fallen man from the terrible state and condition that we put ourselves into. We have no one to blame but ourselves. You said, but pastor, if I were in the Garden of Eden and if it were me, I wouldn't have sinned. I beg to differ.

You're made of the same stuff. And in Adam, the Bible says, we all sinned but in Christ, we can all be made alive and forgiven. Paul writes in first Timothy one fifteen, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Paul says, I praise God that he sent his son. For he came to save sinners.

And I'm I'm the leader of the pack. That's what Paul says And indeed, God did save Paul and God did change Paul and God did make of him a great light and a testimony for Jesus Christ. It is your sin that caused Christ his life, Not just Paul's, not just the people in the prison cells today. It is your sin and mine. That crossed Christ, his life.

We read about that earlier in Isaiah 53. For he was wounded for our transgressions. All we, like sheep, have gone astray, the Lord hath laid on him that is Jesus, the iniquity or sin of us all. Preaching on sin especially our sin makes us uncomfortable. So, in many churches, it's only a passing comment.

We have become comfortable in our sins and we would like to stay that way. The world has become comfortable in its sin and it would certainly like to stay that way. They don't want to hear the truth of the gospel, the good news because part of the good news is first accepting the bad news and the bad news is, I'm a sinner. But sad to say even sometimes as Christians, we become comfortable in our sins and insensitive to it. Why are there many Christians that aren't in church today?

Well, there's many reasons. But one of the reasons is that they become comfortable in their sin and they know if they go to church, they just might be reminded. Of what God really wants and expects of them and they would be uncomfortable. I lived in Macon, Georgia for several years in Macon, Georgia. There is a paper mill.

When I first moved there, it bothered me every day. I got up. Oh, it stung. After about six months, guess what? Didn't really smell it anymore.

Didn't bother me anymore. You got used to it. Five years later, people would drive into Macon and say it stinks. I go, what? It does?

I had become desensitized to the smell of the paper mill. Same thing happens sometimes with sin in our lives. We do it again and again and again. We don't confess it. That is we don't acknowledge it before the Lord like we should and therefore, we become desensitized to it and we become comfortable and we don't like it when the doctor starts poking and prodding on those weak and sensitive areas in our life.

When God and the holy spirit, the word of God or the preacher, whoever starts poking around because it hurts. It hurts but it's necessary because sin is bad. Why does sin not seem so bad anymore? Well, the world in which we live makes it look so good. It does.

The world makes sin look good. The devil's no dummy. He's been working at this now for thousands of years. Making sin look good. Dressing it up.

It looks appealing. It seems exciting and fun and yes, often times, seemingly harmless. You ever watched what's that Andy Griffith Show? Ever watched the Andy Griffith? Most of you have seen the Andy Griffith Show somewhere along the line.

I know there's many, my parents included, that watch Andy Griffith Show on a regular basis. But I've watched a few, more than a few episodes, and I particularly am fond of Barney Fife. I like Don Knotts. I think he's a cute actor. He's really funny.

But on that show, if you'll notice, when you watch it, Andy Taylor has a habit of lying. Matter of fact, he lies all the time. Supposedly, he lies for good reasons but he lies and in the end, it all eventually what? It all works out. It's harmless fun and nobody gets hurt.

And that's the way the world wraps up sin in a package today to make it look pretty, to make it look appealing, and to make it seem harmless. Well, it's just a little white lie, nobody gets hurt. Many of us are surrounded at work by people whose lifestyles and open conversations are filled with sin. And with little or no remorse. They talk about it all the time.

They think it's funny. They think it's fun. They encourage each other with it. And we're surrounded by that. But if that is not enough, we come home, we turn on our TV sets, or we turn on our stereos or our iPods or whatever it is you listen to, and oftentimes, even Christians fill their minds with the same stuff in their music and on their TV set.

We go to amusement parks, we go to the beach, we go to concerts, go to movies, and other places of entertainment where it is often on display and where the music of the world is pounding in our ears. And the world makes it seem like so much fun. Our young people in particularly in particular are drawn to It is part of our responsibility as more mature Christians to help them to see that what looks like fun really isn't. Their sin appears to be harmless. They're not hurting anyone.

We have had this mind cell drilled in drilled into us now for years. What does the world tell us? It says, be what? Be tolerant. You ever heard that?

Be tolerant. We're supposed to be tolerant. We're told to be to. We're preached at it. It is a it is the one of the first laws of the world in which we live today that you must not break.

You must be tolerant and if you break that rule, well, then you are really really a problem. Be tolerant. Is that what the Bible tells us to do? Does the Bible ever command us to be tolerant of sin? No, it doesn't.

Turn if you would to Psalm one. Turn if you would to Psalm one. Look if you would there. What does the Bible say? Psalm one verse one.

Blessed is the man. Now blessed, the word blessed means happy, but it means more than that. Nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The world tells us to tolerate sin.

God says, blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the council of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but who delights the law of God. You see, it goes this way. First, you tolerate it and then you excuse it. First, you tolerate and say, okay, yeah, it's not, it's not good but hey, it's no big deal and then, you begin to excuse. Well, you know, is it really, is it really that bad?

I mean, is it really sin? No, I I'm not sure about it now and then, you try it. You tolerate it, you excuse it, and then maybe you try it. Well, you know, if it isn't so bad, maybe it's okay to do. So, then, you try it and then after you try it, you encourage other people to join you in it.

That's that's the insidiousness of sin. Romans chapter one, we read, I could read you the last half of the chapter for it. It's all about this downward spiral of tolerating it, excusing it, trying it, and encouraging it. It says in the last verse of Romans one, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. And that's where it leads.

It all starts with this, be tolerant. Be tolerant of sin. Don't call it sin. Just say, well, we believe differently. Just say, well, that's not for me.

Don't call it what it is. Sin. And when we start calling it something else, a mistake, a misjudgement. That's when the devil creeps in the door. That's when he starts.

To destroy our testimony. And ruin our lives. What must we do? Well, rather than looking at the world or being infected or influenced by the world, we must do what David says in Psalm one and be infected and influenced instead by the attitude of our holy God and his word. Rather be an infected and influenced by the attitude of the world towards sin, we need to look at sin as God.

Looks at sin. We need to be infected and influenced by God's word and by God's perspective, we call ourselves what? Christians. Which means Christ like. And too many times, we have allowed our thinking to be twisted by the world rather than renewed by the holy spirit and the word of God.

We need to look at sin as God looks at sin. We need to light ourselves in the law of God and hide it in our hearts and listen to what it has to say because the word of God is our friend. Sin is your enemy. That that song we sang, the last hymn, sound the battle cry. See, the foe is nigh.

Raise the standard high for the Lord. Who is our foe? Our foe is Satan. Our foe is sin. It is not our friend.

It is our enemy. We must recognize what the enemy is. The Bible says, our enemy is not flesh and blood. The principalities and powers. What kind of principalities and powers?

The kind that will tempt you to what? To sin. What does the word have to say? It says, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's what we've been studying the last few weeks.

What does it mean to fulfill the lust of the flesh? It means to sin. Walk in the spirit because you don't want to what? You don't want to sin. We're to hate and to shun that which is evil.

We are instead to cleave to or embrace that which is good. That's Romans chapter 12 verse nine. God doesn't tell us to tolerate sin. He tells us to flee it. He doesn't tell us to tolerate sin.

He says, to depart from it. He doesn't tell us to to tolerate sin. He tells us to abhor it which means to detest it. To hate it. To hate it because it destroys everything it touches.

Turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. Look if you would in verses three through five. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become a saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks.

For this you know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. We read a passage in Corinthians a minute ago where Paul said something very similar here to the church at Ephesus. He repeats it. He says, these things are not fitting in the life of a Christian who has been saved, who has been washed, who has been sanctified, who has been justified in Christ Jesus. The should not have a place in our lives.

They should not once, he said, be named among you because they don't belong in your life. They don't belong in your church. They should not be tolerated in your life. They need to be eradicated from our life. God wants it out of our lives, not in our lives.

One of the reasons he died was not only to save us to take us from heaven that we might escape from hell but he saved us to make us more like Jesus Christ which means to free us from the bondage of sin and to get sin out of our lives. Amen. It doesn't belong there. It's a foreign agent It has no place. Why is sin so bad?

Well, number one, it cost Christ his life and a great deal of suffering. To redeem us from it. It cost him more suffering than you can ever imagine. As he was separated from his father because of the sin that was placed upon him. As he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Therefore, sin is a terrible thing and you should flee it. Why should you flee it? Why is it terrible thing? Because the Bible simply says it is. And if you believe the Bible, believe this.

Sin is a bad thing. It is really that bad. And it's something that should be seen in that light. And that we should flee. Number three, as the Bible says, sin is bad because this, God hates it.

God hates sin and as God's children, we should love what he loves and hate what he hates. As God's children, we should be learning from our father day by day. To love more the things that he loves and to love less the things that he does not. And he clearly does not love sin. As I look through scripture and thought about Adam and Eve's failure in the garden, I was reminded of the first reason.

That is that God hates sin. Leviticus twenty six thirty, in Leviticus twenty twenty three, give us little indication of how much he hates sin. Did God love his children, his people, Israel? Did God love them? Yes, he loved them.

He loved them. He chose them. They were special to him but he said this to them in Leviticus twenty six thirty, he says, I will destroy your high places, cut down your images, cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. Now, that's God speaking of his own people. If they should turn to idolatry, which is a what?

A sin. Leviticus twenty twenty three and you shall not walk in the manners of nations which I cast out before you for they committed all these things. Therefore, I abhorred them. God says, I abhorred them because of their sin. Now, God clearly loves people.

They are his creation. He made, he he doesn't desire that any should perish but that all should come to what? Repentance but our God cannot look upon what? Sin. And cannot allow it.

To continue. Not allow it to go unpunished because he is a just and a holy God and he hates it. He abhors it. It is revolting, disgusting. To God.

Think of something that is revolting and disgusting to you. Liver is revolting and disgusting to me. I can't understand why anybody likes liver. That there are things that are even more revolting and disgusting. In Proverbs six sixteen says, not only does God hate certain sins listed there but they are abomination unto him.

The word abomination means something morally putrid. That is garbage. That means something that is only fit for destruction. There are things that we cast into our garbage disposal that we put in our trash can. When I was a kid, we took it to a barrel on the back part of the property.

We put it in a barrel and we burned it. I allowed to do that here in Pinellas County. I don't think anymore. Because those things were only fit for what? Destruction.

They were garbage. We're fit for anything else. This past week, we had so much rain that in a few places around the area, the water got into the sewer system and the sewage water started spewing out of manhole covers here in Clearwater and Largo. Some place you want to go visit? Play in the water?

Don't think so. Disgusting, putrid, and abomination. Something we want to get rid of, destroy. That is how God sees what? That's how God sees sin.

Why does he see it that way? Why does he hate it so? Well, it is breaking his law. First John three four, sin is the transgression of the law. It is the very antithesis of his nature.

The very antithesis of what he desires for his creation. He didn't create us. To be sinners. He didn't create us to be filled with the sewage of sin and unfit for his kingdom. He created us that he might love us, fellowship with with us, spend eternity with us, but sin, sin, that detestable infection which came into the lives of his creation.

It's something that must be rooted out. Something that must be changed or else we will have no opportunity to be what he created us to be. Thus, the reason his son had to come and die to take upon himself that garbage himself to relieve it from us that we might be fit. For heaven. It is flat out rebellion towards God.

We like to call sin mistakes because it doesn't make it sound so bad. But most of the time, our sin is just flat out rebellion against God. We know what's right and we know what's wrong and we do what's wrong anyway. You say, but the world doesn't know any different. I beg to differ.

The Bible says, Christ is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world and if Bible says they are without excuse because it's written where? On their conscience in their heart. Man desensitizes himself to that conscience but that conscience God put there to tell him. Something wrong. But yet man continues to rebel and sometimes as Christians, we do too.

It is tantamount to a slap in God's face. It makes a mockery of God. And his goodness to us. You would never spit in the face of your boss or mock him to his face or slap him in the face, but yet the human race has been treating their God, their king, their creator in this manner for at least six thousand years. No wonder God hates sin.

Wouldn't you hate it if someone treated you that way? And God is the only one who truly has the right to make that judgment because he is the only one who is without sin. He is the only one who is holy. He is the only one who is worthy. Of honor and worship and praise and service and love humanity rarely gives him and his children sometimes don't show him as they should.

Let's go back to the Garden Of Eden for a minute. God said to Adam and Eve, he said, you can have every tree of the garden, every tree, all the fruit, anything, yeah, it's all there for you. Except except you just can't eat of this one wine. This one tree. Just just one thing.

Just just one thing you can't do. You got everything else, everything your heart desires, it's there for you without remorse, without guilt, without shame, it's all there. Just don't eat off this one tree and what did Adam and Eve have to do? They had to do the one thing they were told not to do. The one thing.

It wasn't. Well, I wonder if God said this. Did God really say this? No, they knew what God said but the devil put their thought in their mind that God wasn't trustworthy. That God just didn't want them to have any fun.

That God was holding back on them And they believed him or at least Eve did and Adam followed. Knowing exactly what he was doing. Willfully sinning against God. Sin most of the time is a willful act. God was extremely and incredibly lenient.

He didn't end it all right there, did he? He gave them a second He promised to send the seed of the woman who is Jesus Christ, the redeemer, to defeat the plan of the servant, to rob God of his treasure, humanity, and to restore in us. Sin is a rebellion that brought death to our savior. Yet after what he did, what sad is men still refuse his love rather than to serve and enjoy the pleasure of sin. And they choose rather to serve and enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.

People ask me, how could a loving God ever send anybody to hell? Well, God really isn't God's choice, it's ours. That's true when you break a law. You say, well, how could they sentence me to ten years in prison? Well, you stole a car.

Whose fault was that? Not theirs. God's clearly laid out in his word his law, what he expects what sin is and what his punishment is and he's clearly laid out in his word the way of escape that he sent in Jesus Christ, his son to redeem us and yet the world won't take it. Though it cost his son his life. I can understand why God hates sin so much.

Can't you? I used to listen to a song in high school. It was entitled, Does He Still Feel the Nails? Does he still feel the nails every time I fail? Does the crowd cry out, crucify again?

Am I causing him pain? Then I know it's time to change. Does he still feel the nails? I am inclined to think that he doesn't. But I know this, he did.

He did. And it was very real and it was our sin that put him there, not the nails and it was his love for us that held him there as he was punished in our behalf. Yet, we have become accustomed to it. Maybe we need to step back and take another look at how we are living our lives. You say, but pastor, I've been saved by what?

By grace. I'm not under the law. So, it doesn't matter. Well, Paul begs to differ. In several places, particularly in Romans six.

He said, well, because grace is greater than sin and the law, therefore, it doesn't matter. Just sin all the more. That's not what that means. I've had people that believe they could lose their salvation if they sin. Come to me and say, how can you baptist believe in eternal security?

You mean, you can get saved and go do whatever you want? The answer to that is no. I don't believe that. Not for one minute. I believe that God saved me to change my life and my heart that I might not do those things anymore.

Praise God. I'm saved and kept by the power of Christ and not by me because I could never keep my salvation. But he didn't save me to sin. He saved me to bring glory to his name And though I don't know if he still feels the nails, I tell you this, he desires something better in the lives of his children than what he sometimes gets. And he deserves better than what he sometimes gets.

And we need to start looking at sin more from God's perspective. And less from the perspective of the world. There are many commands in scripture, things we should or we shouldn't do. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Well, that's not you.

You're here this morning. Be baptized. Do this in remembrance of me. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Be not drunk with wine.

Don't bear false witness. Flee fornication. Don't gossip, murmur, or complain. It's just a few. James four seventeen says this, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him and his wife.

Sin. You say, well, pastor, I'm not involved in fornication and I'm not a liar. I don't even gossip. But when's the last time you told somebody about the love of Jesus Christ? You're commanded to do that.

Are you doing it? To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him and his what? Sin. Sin. Say, well, pastor, I don't smoke and those kind of things.

I don't I don't do dope and I don't hurt people. Yeah, do you go to church? Again, I'm preaching the choir here this morning but how many Christians are there there sitting in their home this morning thinking, hey, I'm good with God. I'm I'm I'm I'm fine. But they're sinning if they're not assembling themselves together with other Christians.

It's a sin. Maybe today, there's a sin in your life and you've whitewashed it. I know there's been times in my life when I did the same. You convinced yourself, hey, it isn't so bad. But it is and you know it.

What does the Bible say? Confess it. What does that mean? It mean acknowledge it before God. Repent of it.

Acknowledge what it is. It's sin. It's disgusting. It's revolting. It is destructive.

God hates it. And confess it to him as what it is. So that he can begin to give you victory over it. To cleanse you of it. In your life.

Maybe you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as savior. As the Bible says, you are yet in your sins. The Bible calls you unrighteous not just because you're a sinner but because you have not accepted the righteousness of Christ. That he died on the cross to give you. The Bible says in second Corinthians five twenty one, he hath made him.

That's God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. If you will accept his offer of salvation today, you can be saved. You can be forgiven. You can be washed, sanctified, and justified before God in heaven and Jesus is the only way. If you pass by, the only way of escape, there remains no sacrifice, no other option apart from Christ Jesus to be redeemed from your sin.

John three eighteen, he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word and how it spells out so clearly today. The terribleness, the wretchedness of sin and Lord, I pray we who are saved and know Christ as savior would first of all be eternally and increasingly grateful for what you did for us on Calvary when you took our sin upon yourself. A holy God on the cross, suffering not for his sins but for mine.

Lord, that we would see how much you love us how much you love others that they need to hear about. Lord, that we would also see the terribleness of our sin. Lord, that we would see it as you see it, that we might get it out of our lives, that we might put off the works of the flesh, and put on the righteousness of Christ Jesus in our lives. I pray Lord today if there's one here that's never trusted you as savior, that they might this day come as we give this hymn of invitation and receive you as Lord and savior of their life, That their sins might be washed away, forgiven under the blood of Christ, that they might be sanctified and set apart as your children and justified, declared, guiltless before you in heaven forever. In Jesus name, we do pray.

Amen.