The Sin That Binds

Psalms 51:2-10 "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. [3]  For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. [4] Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. [5] Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. [6] Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. [7] Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. [8]  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. [9]  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. [10] Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."

In this day and age (and perhaps since the beginning of time) sin is usually regarded as a funny little three letter word that has no reality in our lives. Sin is only a religious concept, something without substance defined by some religious book. At Columbine High School the government brought in psychological counselors to help the students overcome their grief, grief brought on by sin and sinners who were running amok. Think on this, dear friends.

The world would have us believe that sin is only a religious concept, something to be considered in Church but not in the "Real World". But I want you to notice what David said about sin:

Psalm 51:3-4  "For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. [4] Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight .."

If I were to ask you today to define sin, many of you would recite a list of evils found in your Bible: adultery, fornication (there is a difference between the two), murder, untruthfulness, cursing, and so on. Yes, these are specific sins, but sin's best definition is "Anything that is contrary to the Will of God in your life". Sin enters your life anytime you subvert God's Will to your own.

2 Samuel 11:1-5 "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. [2]  And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. [3]  And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? [4]  And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. [5]  And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child."

Sin creeps into your life on sneakered feet, but once you allow it to enter it drags you into deeper and more complex acts. King David was supposed to be out leading his armies in battle against Israel's enemies. This was God's Will for his life. This was the Father's Plan and purpose for David. Instead, David decided to "take a little time off to relax", subverted God's Will to his own, and gave sin a toehold in his life. While David was sitting and relaxing in his rooftop garden (which was as common in Israel as the front porch is to us Southerners) he looked out and saw a beautiful woman bathing in her own garden. David should have looked away, got off of his rooftop and onto his horse and rode away. Yet he had already allowed one small sin to enter his life. This small sin, seemingly innocent, stood between him and God, the Source of his power. This small sin started to snowball, so that David looked, then he desired, then he took. The small sin created a chain reaction that eventually led to David murdering Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, and to the death of his illegitimate son.

When we justify the little sin in our lives, the unconfessed secrets, the pleasures that we seek contrary to God's Will, we forget the most basic of things. Little sins are pebbles that lead to greater sins. The ocean, huge as it is, is composed of little drops of water. Every boulder is composed of small grains of mineral, all bound together to form this immovable rock. A little cloud can block out the sun and darken our walk with God.

We convince ourselves that our sin only hurts us, no one else, for it is a secret thing, is it not? Yet, as David eventually recognized, Psalm 51:4 "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned". When we move outside of God's Will in our lives by sinning, we commit an act that offends our Creator. We place a barrier between ourselves and our Power for Living. We also scar our souls.

Not too long ago I was at work, and as I reached down to grab something off a tabletop I got a small splinter in my finger. When I say small, I mean it was so small I couldn't see it, but I could feel it in there. Since it didn't seem to be painful, just annoying, I decided to forget it and go about my business. When I got home from work I had forgotten all about this little splinter. It meant nothing to me ... until I woke up the next morning. For as I slept my body, sensing a foreign object in it, started rejecting that object. The offended finger began to swell and stiffen as my body tried to push this thing out. When I woke up I was brutally reminded by the throbbing in my hand that this thing had to go, and now it was ten times harder to remove that splinter than it would have been had I just nipped it out the night before.

Ezekiel 3:18-21 "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. [19] Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. [20] Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. [21] Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul."

Do not be deceived - though God loves the sinner with an undying love, He despises sin in His house or in our society. A generation of ministers have risen up in our day, ministers who no longer regard sin as an aberration before God. In some assemblies homosexuality is regarded as an "alternate lifestyle", homosexual marriages are not only tolerated but condoned, homosexual ministers are ordained. The Biblical truths of hell and punishment are not preached, for these truths make people uncomfortable and, after all, are not reflective of God's Love.

When God reached down into the dust of the ground to form man, He created us to fellowship with Him. God despises sin in our lives for it stands as a barrier between us and Him. God hates sin, for it corrupts the quality of our lives and leads to our deaths.  Sin is poison, and God wants us to realize it.
 

Sin is poison in your life, for it pollutes the relationship you should be having with your Heavenly Father. Sin leads to psychotic behavior and scars your soul. Sin corrupts an assembly of believers, and leads us to internal squabbles instead of external evangelism and growth. God hates sin because He fully comprehends its destructive power, and wants us to chase it out of this Church and out of our lives.

You do not rectify sin in your life by ignoring it, nor by justifying it. The world rectifies sin by putting a bandage on it to cover it, make it invisible so it can be ignored, rename it so it seems to be an acceptable way of life. Blame the act on someone else, not on yourself.

If you would rectify sin in your life, do not justify its existence. Again in Psalms, notice David's remarks:

Psalms 51:2 "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."

David said, "Lord, this is my sin. It is something that I, in my own free will, did. Please, Lord, take this out of my life.". David did not look up to God and say, as our society has so often said, "I am a sinner because of my environment. My parents made me what I am today. Society has treated me cruelly, and life is so unfair, this is why I did what I did.".

Had I ignored the splinter in my hand it would have infected, sickened me, turned my hand gangrenous. Had I said, "Let's cover this thing with a bandage and ignore it", there is the very real possibility that I could have lost a finger. But by focusing on the problem, by removing the splinter, the hand healed. It was my splinter in my hand, and I needed to recognize that it needed to be forcefully removed from my life if the quality of my life was to improve.

For you must understand, dear friends, that sin in your life is not some theological concept gleaned from the Scriptures. It is an action or thought of action that forms a wedge between you and your Maker. If you leave this sin untreated, it will scar your soul and lead you into deeper and deeper acts of sin. You must:

Recognize your sin. It is something I did, not something I was caused to do by some outside force or the environment around me. The drug addict who blames the pusher never walks away from his habit. Recognize that the sin is yours, then..

Repent of that sin. "Father, forgive me. I know I shouldn't have done it, and I know I was wrong.". The Bible uses a word, METANOIA, to describe repentance. METANOIA means to turn from one thing and turn to another. If you have been trying to live your life in your own power, if you have been relying on your own works to get to Heaven, you are deceiving yourselves. We cannot save ourselves, we cannot work our way into God's Grace, but we can recognize our failure in righteousness and ask forgiveness of Whom we have offended.

Proverbs 20:9  "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?"

Ask forgiveness for the sin. "Father, I ask your forgiveness in the name of Jesus. Please cleanse this sin from my life - make me a whole servant again. I cannot make myself better on my own, I cannot eradicate the sin from my life by my own works." The Scribes and Pharisees who followed Jesus throughout His earthly ministry thought that, by their own works, they were without sin. Yet steeped in self righteousness they were the worse sinners of all. Because they relied on their own power they died in their sins, unrepentant and unsaved. Dear friends, you do not have the power to make yourself better in the eyes of God. You must confess your sin to Him and ask that He forgive you that sin and, as David said,

Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."
 

God has offered each and every one of us a way out of the sin that weighs us down. We cannot get better on our own. We cannot work our way to Heaven. We are not good enough to save ourselves. When you, dear believer, recognize and confess your hidden sin to God, He forgives us and renews a right spirit within me. If you are not a Christian, have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, but have been relying on psychology, good works, or clean living to get to Heaven, then I am obligated to tell you that you are on the wrong pathway to Glory. As humans we like to view all things in shades of gray, but our Creator views all things in black and white. Have you accepted Jesus Christ to be your Saviour? The Bible tells us:

John 3:17-21 "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. [18]  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [19]  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. [20]  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. [21]  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

No one in this Church today is worthy, of themselves, to inherit eternal life. But if we have confessed our helplessness to God and drawn Jesus Christ to ourselves, clinging to Him as a drowning man clings to a life preserver, we will inherit eternal life. The Way of salvation is through faith in Christ alone. Will you accept Him today?

Return to the Main Menu/ Bible Studies!