Sermon: you won't get away with it

YOU CAN'T GO BACK It's hard for dishonest people to get rid of things these days. My brother-in-law used to work for a security company and his job was to try to catch employees who were stealing. They will place hidden cameras where they think an employee might be stealing and will catch them in the act. Have you ever gotten away with anything? Maybe when you were a kid you took cookies and your mom didn't know. Maybe as an adult you drive too fast and don't chase after you. Perhaps you are gossiping about someone and you are not being called out on it. If we believe in God, even if we seem to have gotten rid of these things, in fact we have not. Numbers 32:23 says, "...you can be sure that your sins will catch up with you." If that is true, then we should be aware of sin and its presence in our lives. I. How does God view sin? ADVERTISEMENT The main reason we don't get away with sin is because God is Holy, God knows everything and hates sin. Luke 8:17 reminds us, "For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing secret that will not be known and will be revealed" so that we will not be guilty of sin. Not only does God see, but because He is holy and hates sin, He will deal with it. Isaiah 6 tells about the holiness of God. When Isaiah saw God and knew who He was, he was completely torn by the contrast between God's holiness and unholiness. Proverbs 15:9 reminds us that, "The Lord hates the way of the wicked..." But what does it mean that God hates sin? Is it just that God doesn't like it when we break the rules or do we need to look deeper than that? Of course God hates it when we break His rules. James 2:10, 11 says, "For whoever keeps all the law, but stumbles in one, is guilty of breaking them all." But when we read in Romans 14:23, "... everything that does not come from faith is sin" and when we read in James 4:17, "Whoever knows what he should do, but does not do it, sin…” we realize that there is more to it than just breaking a list of rules. I believe that if we think of sin as just breaking a list of rules, we don't know God yet and we don't know what sin is either. we see sin as just breaking a list of rules, we don't yet understand that God is not someone with a clipboard and a pencil to mark when we fail. list and I have transgressed and we failed to understand what God really wants. We begin to see how God treats sin in Proverbs 6:16-19, "There are six things that God hates, seven things that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood. , a heart that devises evil plans, a foot that is quick to do evil, a false witness, and a slanderer among the brothers." Here we see that sin is an inward evil that begins in our hearts. In fact, Matthew 15:19 This is very clear when he says, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, fornication, adultery, theft, false witness, slander". starts from the heart and bad actions. II. The suffering of sin Do you deliberately commit sin and say, "Isn't it serious?" It is very tempting for us not to see sin as dangerous, but if God is holy and sin is a deep fault in our hearts, then we can't ignore it. Sin is serious because of what, what we do and what will happen. A. Because What It Is Sin is very serious because of what it is. If it is not only a violation of the list of rules, but it is very broken in at i, so it should be taken seriously. The first story in the Bible that describes where sin begins shows that the root of sin is disobedience to God. God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They also chose to do so and did so in opposition. As soon as they do so, it is clear that they are not only breaking the rules, but also rebelling against God. The deviation is described in Exodus 34:7 as "... iniquity, rebellion and sin" so it further indicates that acting against the heart and will of God that violates the covenant with Him. In John 16:9, we read about the work of the Holy Spirit who will judge the world, "in regard to sin, because people do not believe in me..." We see in this verse there is a connection between sin and unbelief.