THREE LITTLE LETTERS
S-I-N. Those
three little letters appear together in any place or life where
glorifying God is not the supreme motive. One of the most neglected
biblical doctrines of our contemporary generation is the universal
sinfulness of man. We are all sold under sin. Pick up a newspaper this
morning and it won't take you too long to see the sick state in which
our world is submerged: murder, fraud, gang rape, adultery and a host of
other evils.
Modern society has done away with the term
'sin' and calls it 'crime.' But sin is not crime and crime is not sin.
This is just a trick to con us into believing that we are all good
people. You can go to jail for crimes that are not sinful (i.e.
preaching the Gospel, speaking out against the onslaught of moral
decadence, protecting the poor, weak, needy and vulnerable), just as you
can spead all of your life in liberty- never having committed a single
crime- but having lived in an abundance of sin (i.e. a loose and
venomous tongue, sleeping around outside of marriage, gossip, looking
down your nose at people you don't esteem to be worthy of your company).
Sin is sin. God is not blind. The West may no longer condemn
godlessness and sensual pleasure, but God still does. His standard has
not lowered one bit. That, for many, will come as a big shock.
But
our streets are not the only place where sin is radically downplayed
today; the same reality applies to the church. Godly prophets have been
replaced by spokesmen from Sodom who turn the grace of God into a
license for sin. "Do as you like, live howsoever you wish, sin 'til
you're as sick as a pig! After all, God will forgive it all! You're the
centre of the universe. All else revolves around you!"
If
we don't speak of sin, we cannot understand the glory of the Gospel.
When sin goes out of your sermons, then you are no longer going to
preach of the biblical Christ who came to this world due to the sin
problem. Had we not been vicious enemies of the goodness of El Shaddai,
Christ would not have had to die on the cross. Our sins nailed Him
there. Spurgeon commented that preaching against sin has never been in
fashion and never will be. One question must be settled before entering
the pulpit: do we exist to get applause from the multitude or do we live
for the glory of God?
Sin shows the reality of
condemnation stamped upon the forehead of every man and woman birthed
into this world. However, as we contemplate our own depravity and
apostate state, the enlightening work of the Holy Ghost can turn this
morbid truth into a springboard that projects us towards the light of
the Gospel. It throws us into the arena where the mercy and grace of a
sovereign God stun us with their blinding glory. Jesus could have left
us to perish in our beastly iniquities. He didn't have to save us. Who
obliged God? Who counselled the Almighty?
Those three
little letters S-I-N are struck the death blow by another three letters
G-O-D. If you haven't seen the awfulness and wretchedness of your sinful
heart, then you know nothing of the glory due to Christ in saving a
damned soul. Heavenly messengers aren't going to get many thanks for
their straight biblical preaching; but God will honour the man who
stands upon His Word and tells things the way they are.
Sin
is the curse of all curses. It hurts the Christian. Nothing has damaged
this world more than sin. But thanks be to God that through the
substitutionary sacrifice of Christ, God can make us more than
overcomers over against the power and wages of transgression. And if we
have sinned, we can confess our faults to Him; His blood will cleanse us
and He will make us whole again (1 John 1:9).
If you have
seen and understood your wretched condition, then thank God incessantly
for showing it to you. How much worse would it be if the Holy Ghost
were to allow you to go on living comfortably in sin without so much as a
word of reproof? That would surely be the greatest horror of all. When a
man's conscience no longer smites him of sin, he is in the scariest
place that a person can know.
When S-I-N comes knocking, be sure to flee and find refuge in the arms of our great G-O-D and Saviour.
