Sin and Grace

Since the Christmas season is almost here. I was thinking this week, on a weird family tradition we do as a family. Every year on Christmas Eve we hide this small fake green pickle somewhere on the Christmas tree. And the first kid to find the pickle, either got a little extra gift or the bragging rights that they found the pickle. I’m not sure where this tradition came from. It was something that Alicia brought into our marriage and now we do it every year during Christmas.

I did a little research on this tradition and it comes to find out, that, hiding the pickle was a tradition from Germany. So, I am assuming this tradition was passed down from her grandparents to her parents and then it became a tradition to our family through my wife. And the story of this tradition is really interesting because no one knows where the tradition originated. There’s a lot of stories from Santa But the truth is, it’s good to have traditions.

Tradition are good because they can contribute a sense of comfort and belonging. But traditions are also good because many times it tells a story. Think about this… many times what we don’t realize is that choices of our previous family members have determined many details of our lives, even before we’ve begun deciding anything. We think we are the masters of our own lives, but in reality we have been shaped and molded by other peoples choices.

And what’s true of our physical family is also true of our spiritual family. I’m not sure where and when this tradition of hiding the pickle began in Alicia’s family. And it’s kind of fun to talk about. But there is one tradition that we do not like to talk about. And it is a tradition that we all have a part of our life. And it’s the tradition of sin.

Sin isn’t a fun topic because that means there is a need to reveal what doesn’t want to be revealed. Unlike the pickle where there is joy, and excitement and unity, and possibilities and perhaps, even a great prize at the end of the search. Sin is the opposite. It brings anxiety, and Sadness, and no purpose and the great prize at the end of sin is death. Paul reminds us: “For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23 Sin does not want to be revealed, and the only way to really uproot sin, or to find it and for it to be revealed is by having a deep relational love in Christ.

It’s kind of like the relationship we have with our spouses. If I do something wrong against my marriage. Because I love Alicia, and I have this deep relationship with her, I want to tell her the truth and be honest with her because I can not bear knowing that I am hiding secretes from her. I deeply love her… Did you know true intimate and deep Love hides nothing from others.

Did you know that one attribute of love is honesty? Paul tells the corinthians, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:6 When our love for Christ outweighs our desire to sin and to keep hold of sin and even hide sin, then and only then is the issue of sin brought to light and eradicated from our hearts. That’s a part of sanctification. Sanctification is the truth that sin can be eradicated from the heart and we can be relatively perfected to be who God desires for us to be.

And that’s to love him with our whole being, and to love others the same. But when we foster and cater to and hid sin in our lives. We totally miss the mark on loving God. So let’s ask the question then… what is sin? To begin to answer that question, we need to begin with one truth. And it’s a hard one to swallow. Every person here and listening online is a sinner.

Paul is very clear on this in Romans chapter 1-3. In Romans 3:9 Paul writes:, “All people are under the power of sin.” And then shortly after that verse we find in verse 23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Now, that’s everyone. You, me, the person sitting next to you. Yes, they have sinned. You’re a sinner, sitting next to a sinner, listening to a sinner preaching on sin in a room full of sinners.

Let that brain buster settle in your mind. What we realize in Scripture, is that all people sin, and we all fall short of the glory of God, that immediately should remind us of this…. Sin is a great equalizer. If there was one thing we all have in common is that we all have sin in our lives. That puts every person on the same level. We all have it!

No matter how rich, how poor, how spiritual, how nice you dress! Or even how good you think you are. We all have sin in our lives. Now how can we define it then if we all have it. Well, let’s begin to peel apart the onion of sin to get to the root of it. To begin to find out how we can define sin and find the root of sin.

Let’s read romans 1:18: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So the first layer is this: the unrighteousness of man will suppress truth. Sin repels the light of truth and runs to the darkness of falsehood. I posted on Facebook earlier this week. Darkness can not reveal darkness. You can’t do dark things and expect God’s light to shine into it.

Think of what Jesus tells us in John “Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.” John 3:19 So, Remember, we are defining the relationship. “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with (What)… the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:6 Jesus said that we are guilty sinners not because we are victims of the darkness but because we are lovers of the darkness. Not lovers of truth.

Not lovers of Him. We don’t delight in him. If we loved Him, we would be honest with him. But by our sinful nature, we cover up truth. What kind of truth does sin try to cover up? Well, look with me at verse 19 in Romans 1 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. We cover up the knowledge of GOd.

People suppress the truth because Knowledge of God is repulsive to sin. Sin tried to cover up the knowledge of GOd. What Paul is saying is that God has revealed truth to the world. But sin is disgusted with that truth. The world is a lover of darkness. Do you ever think this is why so may people associate with being a Christian but they do not read their bibles? A study showed that in 2021 only 11% of people read their bibles.

The highest number on that chart was 29% who claim to be christian doesn’t read it at all. Listen, no one can love the Lord and not love the word. So, Sin suppress the truth, and it repels the knowledge of God. But there is a third onion peel to sin’s core. Look with me in Romans 1 verse 23. “…and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Now, let me put this verse in some context.

Romans 1:23 talks about “exchanging the glory of God” for idols. Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 1:21 with some pastor Matthew’s commentary They knew God, but they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile, (Futile means they were fruitless in their thinking, they were ineffectual), Right? They were suppressing the truth and repelling God’s knowledge, we just learned that. They knew about God, but they didn’t love Him.

They came to church, but they weren’t engaged in worship, they read the Bible every now and then, but they never read it for relationship. And since there was no real relationship, they became futile, foolish in hearts, and their hearts were darkened and eventually, their hearts become hardened to grace. And then Paul says, God gave them over to their desires. But the main text I am focusing on is this one…The Bible tells us that people around the early church, they would exchange the glory of God for idols.

Now let me ask this important question… what do you, as a modern day christian think is your most treasured idol? Let me help you if you’re wondering.. Let’s define Idol, “Anything in the world that successfully competes with our love for God is an idol.” So what is your idol. Is it your Work? Is it the money you have or want to have? Is it more Recreational time? Is it, you’re Family?

Your wife or husband or kids. Now watch this.. because this is going to be a mind blowing moment for us… If you were to bring together all the idols that you can think of in your life and place them into this great big melting pot, and you stirred the pot, and stirred them together, and then leaned over to see what was in this pot… what we would find is the most purist idol of all, ……

it’s ourselves. We prefer created glory over of God’s glory. And a lot of times this is what many people do with faith. They come to the altar, they give GOd some idols that are holding them back, but they never give God the greatest idol and that’s themselves. We prefer the creation over God, and let’s be honest.. what is the pinnacle of God’s creation… it’s us, it’s humanity. Nothing else in this world has the image of God, but us.

Nothing else in this world has the breath of life, but us. We have been created, bone and marrow, soul and Spirit and given life with a purpose to worship and adore God. With our whole hearts… but sin doesn’t allow that. Sin hates the truth of God, suppresses it, and exchanges it for what sin loves and worships most. Sin loves to worship and serve the creature not the Creator.

That’s the root of sinning. It’s to self glorify and sin rejects God’s truth and is repulsive to the knowledge of God. And the hard truth is the fact that we are naturally born to love ourselves and our sin. That’s what we call original sin. Original sin is the tendency to sin and it is innate in all human beings. Meaning we’re born in Sin inherited from Adam and is the consequence of the fall.

Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden? What happened? They chose themselves over God and put a crack in creation. And in this crack poured death. Remember Romans 6 earlier… the wages of sin is death. So, Sin doesn’t want to be revealed and when left unchecked and uncovered, it leads to spiritual eternal death. One part of ministry that I do not like. I hate it and wish it wasn’t true…

but one aspect of ministry that I mourn over is the fact that I have a front row seat as a pastor, to watch people love their sin and think they are walking with God. Every person in this room inherited death because of sin. It permeates throughout all of creation. Original sin is the sin inherited from the fall of mankind with Adam. The second is Personal sin. Personal sin is the intentional violation of a known law of God.

So what is a known law? Well let’s just look at the first one… you shall not have no other gods but me. Where do we put our affection and attention and adoration when we are in sin? We put those attributes on ourselves. We want to be self glorified. We glory the creation more than the creator. You might be thinking… well pastor. I’m not that bad of a person.

I tithe to the church. I help others. I’m modest and kind and good. Have you ever drove down the road and saw a panhandler and then all of a sudden, an urge popped into your heart that you should help that person. What did you do? Did you talk yourself out of it? Awe man… what. I feel like I should buy them some food but they need to get a job.

Or, man, if I give them my last $20 they’re just going to go buy drugs or beer with it. And Im against those things… so I am better off not giving them anything so I can make sure they stay clean. How did you know that, that prompting wasn’t the Holy Spirit asking you to be Jesus at that crossroads of previenent grace to them? That’s a known sin. You can be modest, and kind and a good model citizen of the world, and still reject say no to the Holy Spirit in your life.

God always speaks to our heart.. the problem we have is that many times our minds will talk our hearts out of anything because it doesn’t make sense to us. And think of this… Does it ever amaze you that God speaks to the heart? He speaks to the heart, the seat of our affection. He speaks directly to the king of our hearts… And he gives truth and light…. what do we do most times?…

we analyze it and talk ourselves out of it , we reject the truth, and reject the knowledge of God because we lack faith.. We lack faith because we lack real authentic trusting relationship with the creator of all things. Sin is a battle of the mind, at war with our heart, and played out through our flesh. Played out through our relating to anything or anyone else. It’s played out through our desire to be above all creation and even above God himself.

And guess what… we all have it… Sin is the great equalizer. But do you know what the greater equalizer than sin is???…. it’s God’s grace. I promise I’m almost done, but if we all have sin, we need a way to get rid of it. Let’s go back into another Scripture found in Romans chapter 3… and read a little more starting back in verse 23. . 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (We are equal in our sin) but how does grace make things better?

Look in verse 24. 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Grace is given as a gift because of the shedding of the blood of Christ and it’s to be received by faith. Church, listen… to have a right relationship with God, one that does not reject truth, one that does not suppress the truth, and one that does not exchange the glory of God,…….

It begins at the cross. It’s at the cross where we find grace. When we come to the altar we come as equals. Equal sinners, but equal in receiving grace. We all can receive grace today, if only you don’t reject the truth for what it stands for. Paul writes tot he Ephesians, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” Jesus’s gift was presented at the cross.

His gift was the blood that covers all sins, original and personal sin. His gift to us is His redeeming grace, but his blood is to be received by faith. *