Is Sin A Non-Issue for Christians?

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Exodus 20:18-21

You are invited to join us Sunday mornings at 9:30 for worship. Accept our invitation and you will be glad you came! The answer to the title would seem to be “yes” for many Christians today. Jot down three adjectives you would use to describe God to someone who doesn’t have a spiritual background. Did adjectives like terrible, awful, fearsome, angry, consuming, earthshaking, and blazing fire come to mind? Or did you write down loving, gracious, merciful, forgiving, even gentle? Someone might say “all those first ones are OT characteristics of God, but we live in the age of grace where God is not like that!” That thought is exactly why Satan is so effective in making Christians weak, ineffective, and powerless as disciples and ambassadors for Christ. All those “OT” words for God also appear in The Gospels, Acts, Hebrews and The Revelation – NT books! Let’s notice from our passage

• 1. THE TERROR IN THE PRESENCE OF A HOLY GOD! Read Exodus 19:16-19 and 20:18. In general the sad truth is that as 21^st Century Christians we have lost that terror of God. We have distorted the grace of God that brings salvations so it hides the wrath of God that hates all that’s sin and sinful! As I read and understand Scripture, The God of the NT is exactly as the same God as the One described here! Want to see that in the NT? Read Matt. 27:50-54. In America today vicious and heinous crimes fill the new reports and are the very topics of many TV shows. Dysfunctional families, role reversals in marriage, and sin are so common place that we have become a nation desensitized to sin, no matter what sin it is. That problem is even more serious because it has anesthetized Christians to the sinfulness of sin to the point the only difference between many so-called Christians and the unsaved is the unsaved don’t try to hide their sin. What fools we are to think we can hide our sin in the first place. Read Heb. 4:13. All this is reality in the Universal Church because we have lost the terror of THE ALMIGHTY! Notice also
  2. THE TEST FOR THE PURITY OF THE HOLY NATION! Read Exodus 19:20-22. Even though the people crowded around the mountain to see God, when He confronted them as God Himself, they were so terrified they fled from the mountain! The important thing is to see what God is doing and teaching here. It is the presence of the fear of God that keeps sin at bay. Heb. 10:19-39 teaches this same principle Moses is teaching here. There is a fear that brings terror, confusion to the soul. It is a dread fear that renders us helpless and causes us to act irrationally, carelessly, and dangerously! Moses is focusing on a different fear that is borne out of deep reverence; inspired by filial love toward God as Maker, Sovereign, and Ruler. Such fear loves so sincerely, so deeply, so completely it is repulsed by and shrinks from any thought of causing hurt or sadness to the heart of our Heavenly Father. A Christian’s love for God is to so supersede all other things in life that even the thought of sin is fearsome! It is the very grace and mercy of God that cleansed us from the eternal damnation of our sins that should strike such fear of hurting or disappointing God’s heart that any thought of sin should drive us as far from it as fear of God drove Israel from Sinai! May our hearts be stirred to immediately dismiss any thought of sin, because the idea of bringing sadness to the heart of our Great God and Savior is unthinkable to us as His redeemed children.

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