Strive for
peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one
will see the Lord Hebrews 12:14 (ESV)
How did I get to this place in which my very actions are at
odds with the will and love, and plan of God? I never decide that I hated God;
on the contrary, I’ve always, to my knowledge, tried to live within the
expectations of God. But I am constantly in a struggle. I know the good that I am supposed to do, but
somehow no matter how hard I try I find myself doing the very thing that I know
was wrong. This was the very same
problem that the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:21 Paul struggled with
sin, just I struggle with sin, just like we all struggle with sin. Yet, we have
a God that hates sin. And because He is
just, He will hold us accountable for the sin we commit.
But I’m a good person what sin am I held accountable too? Haven’t
I gone to church and paid my tithes? Don’t I pray each day and continually read
my Bible? I am really good person why should I worry?
The cure to sin is not found in the hands of man. We can’t
do good to counter balance our evil. Sin is a big problem and we will look at just
small area of this big problem with sin today
Man’s Big Problem is sin.
Man’s Big Problem is sin, its origin is in Adam, Romans 5:12 , and
the result of sin is death ( Romans
6:23 ). Sin is completely universal in that every one of us
are infected by it ( Romans
3:23 ). Sin taste good and is at the root of all our desires ( James
1:14 ) It separates us from God and cause him not to hear our
prayers. ( Isaiah
59:2 ) Because all sin whether we want to admit it or not is
directed ultimately at God.
- · In Exodus 10:16 Pharaoh realizing that he had been defeated by the God of Moses cries out “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.”
- When Achan who stole the forbidden spoils of Jericho realized that God had revealed his action to Joshua his response to Joshua was “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel” ( Joshua 7:20 )
- When Joseph was tempted by Pontiphar’s wife his response was “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he (Pontiphar) has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”( Genesis 39:9 )
- King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, than privly conspired to have Uriah the Hittite killed while he fought to possess the ark of covenant stolen by the Philistines. And when king David was confronted by Nathan the prophet for his atrocities The Bible tells us he repented and cried out to God “against you and against you only have I sinned” ( Psalm 51:4 )
Sin may be directed at an individual, but when we sin we
break God’s law not the law of the individual. Our sinning against and individual
be it a lie, or stealing, or even murder are all direct actions of disobedience
against God. When we sin we make our situation, or circumstance, our anger,
even our hate, more important than our God who has warned us against these
things. And to those that argue “I’m no longer under the law” my response to
this statement is, “which of the laws that
we who are saved by grace, has Jesus allowed us to break?” Even those that
are saved by grace must still obey the law. The only difference is we who are His
elect, obey the law not under the hope of justification in the law, but because
of the love we have for Him who kept all the law. For the elect obeying the law
is evidence of our salvation not the means of our salvation. ( 1
John 2:3 ),
So Why Then is All Sin Against God?
- · We defile the image of who, and what we are, and what God has created us for when we sin
o
The Bible tells us we are created for good works,
(Ephesians 2:10) when
we fail to do those good works we deny God
o
The Bible tells us we are His workmanship create
to walk with Him (Ephesians
4:24 ) no one in sin can walk with God (Isaiah
59:2)
- · Though everyone is not a child of God, everyone is created in the image of God, so when we sin against that image, when we sin and mar that image, we are directly denyning the God by whom that image was created. This is why Jesus says "that which you do to even the least of them you did it to me" (Matthew 25:20)
Let’s not be fooled, sin is everything that falls short of
God’s plan, so whether it is directed at us or directed at someone else by us,
every sin is ultimately against our Holy God.
