Sin has a cost. It will cost you everything. It has a personal cost, yet it also cost those around you. Sin is infectious. It can spread like cancer amongst an unknowing host. Sin is progressive. It never stays at a current level if left unchecked. It will grow in your life until it steals your joy, robs you of your peace and leaves only pain, angst and hurt. Sin has a great cost indeed.
Today we encounter one of the most sordid, ugly looks at sin in God’s Word. You might ask yourself, “how bad can sin get?” Here in chapter 19 we will see what happens if sin is left unmanaged. What happens if sin is not only allowed to exist, but it is encouraged, tolerated, embraced and nurtured? We see in chapter 19 the difference of living with sin versus living in sin. And the difference between the two is life and death.
Now you might say, “what’s the difference?” It’s just two words right, with sin or in sin, aren’t they the same? Not by a long shot. How we deal with sin in our lives can bring us to living in Sodom or we can live an abundant life. One we are promised from Christ himself. (John 10:10) Let’s take a hard look at how we deal with sin in our lives.
Let’s face it, sin is a fact of life. You can accept it, or you can deny it, but that doesn’t change it. We are all sinners, every one. (Rom 3:23) When Eve and Adam took that forbidden bite in Genesis 3 it all changed. For you, for me, for all mankind, for all eternity. So, we’re forced to deal with sin from the day we are born, but who teaches us how to deal with sin? Who teaches us how to deal with its sometimes irresistible temptations? Who trains us to handle the horrible effects of submission to it? Well, in our world today sometimes no one. Our parents might try, our friends might try but folks it’s the blind leading the blind. It’s like someone with an incurable disease treating someone else with the same disease. They are ultimately both doomed. So where is the help?
Well, the help has to come from a source that knows no sin, that has conquered sin. A source that not only understands sin but controls sin. That person would be Jesus Christ. The only person that has ever walked this Earth and never succumbed to the evils of sin. We look to the example of Christ and we study what God's Word tells us about dealing with sin. It’s the only way.
The key to dealing with sin is just that, you have to deal with it. If honest, most of us just live in denial with our sin. We hide it deep within and even though it’s within us we treat it like a stranger, never looking it in the face to see it and deal with it. Step one, admit. We must recognize that sin is real, it has a cost and it will destroy if not dealt with. So, we first admit that sin is present, and it is damaging and hurtful to us and others.
Step two, we repent. That is the basis of the pure evil displayed in our chapter today. What happens when you commit an egregious wrong in your life but instead of stopping, you just keep doing it. I’ve heard stories of people who have gotten over 10 DWI’s. Why? After one or possibly even two why didn’t they admit they had a problem and stop drinking and driving? You see there was no admittance of the problem and there was no repentance. By the way, repentance simply means to turn around. If you’re heading West, repenting would mean you’re now heading East. It means to stop going in the direction you’re heading and make a 180 degree turn and go in the complete opposite direction. Folks, if you have sin in your life (you do), God commands you to look it square in the face, admit it and then stop and turn from it. To stop whatever is damaging your relationship with Christ and go in the other direction. Head in the direction towards Christ, not away from Him.
The crux of our chapter today is just this. What happens when we no longer see our sin as evil but merely normal. What happens when we become so dulled to God’s voice that we not only tolerate our sin, but we embrace it. We revel in it. We enjoy it. It’s just how we live. I think almost everybody knows a little about Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible. Unfortunately, like most today, a lot of it is probably not true. It’s sad but most people know so little about the Bible when all they have to do is open it up and read it! Well, believe it or not, there’s actually not a lot said about these towns. We get a little bit in chapter 18 and some here in 19 and then they’re gone. Literally and physically. You see most would probably say that God destroyed Sodom because of their sin and that would be partly true. But if God’s righteousness caused Him to destroy every city because it had sin, He would have to destroy every city that has ever existed! So, what is different in Sodom? It was their lack of willingness to admit and repent. They had grown prideful and arrogant in their sin. They had come to a place where they loved their sin and they recklessly embraced it, walked in it and even promoted it. And the sin of Sodom? It’s the only sin that is described about Sodom in God’s Word. Homosexuality.
Sin can take as many shapes and forms as you can imagine. I’ve heard sin defined as “anything that you think, say or do, that displeases God.” The men of Sodom have become so proud and arrogant in their homosexuality that they have become and angry, unruly mob simply looking to satisfy their fleshly lusts. In what I deem the absolute ugliest scene of prideful sin in God’s Word, all the men of Sodom assemble outside of Lot’s house and demand that the two new men to the town be brought out so that they can rape them. Folks, when I said that sin was progressive, I wasn’t kidding. Unchecked sin has produced a scene that is hard to even imagine. A group of men that are so embroiled in their sin that they are only concerned with their carnal desires, even at the cost of anyone they encounter. This approach to sin is what caused God’s righteous judgement on Sodom. The men had moved from living with sin to fully living in sin. What a horrid picture of the human condition and what it’s capable of when sin controls us.
So, we first had admittance of our sin, we then had repentance, turning away and stopping the act. What’s next? Well, when we sin, it affects our relationship with God and His precious Holy Spirit. If you greatly wrong and hurt someone in your life what do you do? Well, if you want to salvage the relationship, eventually you will have to apologize and ask their forgiveness. Friends, it is not different with God. After you admit to God and confess what you have done, you stop doing it and then you fall on your face before Him and you apologize for your actions and you ask for His forgiveness. In the South we would simply call this “good manners,” but it’s amazing how many people miss the good manners when it comes to God.
So, if you wrong a friend, maybe you tell a bitter lie about them that does great damage, what happens? Well, until it is fixed the relationship is damaged. You probably have an argument and it results in the relationship being severed. It can stay that way indefinitely until the one that committed the sin admits, confesses and apologizes. When this last step stalls it breaks my heart. I have personally seen others allow this step to smolder unresolved in their lives for over 15 years. Relationships that once were alive and vibrant now exist as broken shards upon the hard ground. All because people would not admit, repent and apologize. Folks, it is no different with God. As sin conquers our lives and we live with it in open acceptance, it hurts God deeply. It breaks the communion you have with His Holy Spirit and it will remain until you take action. In order to protect the blessed fellowship with the Holy Spirit you must quickly and honestly work this process. He wants to have communion with you, but just like that friend mentioned earlier, if you have wronged Him you must apologize to restore.
I hope that in today’s study you can fully grasp the tremendous impact of our topic. Jesus Christ hung and died on a Cross for every single person that was and ever will be born. He died to cover our sins so that we can have an eternal home in Heaven with Him. But as we walk this Earth until then, sin still has to be dealt with. And it still has great power in our lives. Sin can no longer affect your eternity, but it can greatly affect your present.
Today you have a choice, live with sin or live in sin. You can live with sin and battle it, fight it, resist it and deal with it God’s way, OR you can do something else. You can live in sin. You can surrender and submit to your flesh and no longer fight. You can simply give in to sin in your life. Even though you know it’s wrong, you can still act upon it, relenting to the temptation. You can even be prideful in your sin, openly waiving it for all the world to see. You see, every single person on the planet will deal with the temptation of sin today, but not all will relent. The difference in how you deal with your sin today will be the difference in how you deal with God today. You can resist or you can embrace, it’s ultimately your choice. But your choice will come with a cost. For the men of Sodom, it cost them everything, their earthly lives and being cast into Hell for eternity in the absolute absence of God. You have a choice today, live with sin or live in sin.
I’ll be praying for your choice.
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