SIN DOES NOT PAY

“Crime does not pay” we were told when we were young, learning how to be men and women in this great nation.  However, this election year it seems that the old aphorism is ridiculously out of date.

While crime might be overlooked or downplayed in the world of men, it does not escape the notice of God.  Man’s crime against God is called sin.  It is a three letter word with eternal significance.

It began millennia ago when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by adding to what He told them and listening to a created being and not the Creator.  Since then it has only been exacerbated by further turning our back on God.

And when we have a mass shooting in our nation we are appalled and attempt to blame the tragedy on anyone and anything except the true cause of the crime.  The bottom line is that sin caused the mass shooting or the bombing or the stabbing in any place in the world.

The lightning quick proliferation of transgender bathrooms and that twisted and sinful lifestyle is what the culture here in the west is saying is the new normal.  Now there are articles telling about how men are entering Target dressing rooms and bathrooms to take photos and videos of females changing.  What did they expect would happen?  Why should this surprise us?

What we are seeing and experiencing today is the same as in the day of Paul the apostle when we he quoted the Old Testament at the end of Acts: “Go to this people, and say, ‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never see but never perceive.’  For this people’s heart has drown dull and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Acts 20:26-27; Isaiah 9:9-10).

Do these words not speak to us as a nation, as a people, as a church?  What has happened this past month in Orlando, Turkey, Baghdad and other areas of the world is truly gruesome and evil and yet is not unexpected.  Why should this surprise us when we have taken God out of our public life and replaced Him with our own “superior” ideals?

Isaiah 5:18-23 clearly tells us this about what happens when we think that going against God, sin, will pay off.  “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, who say: ‘Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!’  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!  Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!”

In this passage you ought to see the United States of today.  When people say that the Bible is out of date, they either have never read it or they are not Christians.  Because the Bible is beyond our day and we have not caught up to it even though it was written long before any of us were born.

Sin, at its root, is devastating in its consequences and God will judge it, no matter how we define it.  Those in the church must face sin head on and call it what it is and yet give the hope in the person of Jesus Christ to whom they come in contact.

Is God judging the U. S. with all that is going on?  Is God judging the world?  Romans chapter eight addresses this as the earth groaning for the return of its Maker.  Just as 9/11 was a shot across the bow of the great ship called the U. S. so these latest incidents are more shots meant to wake us up from a great slumber.

As the United States was awakened after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 194,1 the Church of God in Christ Jesus must be awakened by all that has happened.  We cannot remain silent on issues that confront us nor ignore that it is happening.  Ignorance is no excuse.

What we see going on around us all over the world is not a result of lax gun control or mental issues or misguided and unemployed men going on a last resort rampage; it is sin!

What we are seeing is the true heart of man, not only in Islam but in man without God.  What should we expect when we expel God from our public lives from politics to schools?  We should expect exactly what we are getting right now.  Why should all of this evil surprise us?

This really gets back to Romans chapter one and what happens when man insists on going his own way even though he knows what God expects and requires.  Men, in their unrighteousness have suppressed the truth of God; they have held it back, they have ignored everything that God has made plain to them in nature and in their conscience.  Men like Richard Dawkins who denies the very existence of God and Stephen Hawking, in all his God-given gift of intelligence denies the very One that gave him that gift.

And far too many Christians yawn at this type of tragedy or think to themselves, “that’s what they deserve” or run right alongside the sin and confirm by their association with it that the sin of killing others from an ideology is okay and so is homosexuality.  Neither one of them are okay and this is the type of sin that Jesus came to die for.

What will it take for the sleeping giant, called the western church, to awaken and move against this type of sin?  We have a great responsibility from the Great Commission and many other commands of Christ that we have not taken seriously enough.

Islam is not okay.  Homosexuality is not okay.  Gossip is not okay.  Adultery is not okay.  Stealing is not okay.  Lying is not okay.  Worry is not okay.  Bitterness is not okay.  The anger of man is not okay.  Pornography is not okay.  Changing God’s laws for the sake of your whims and sinful pleasures is not okay, nor is enabling or encouraging others to do any of the above.

What we are seeing today in our day and age are shots across the bow of our ship called the U. S; that was founded on Scriptural principles, but have strayed far from our roots. If we do not repent as a church and as a nation, our nation will not long exist.  As a wise man told me once; “We need revival in the church and an awakening in our society.”

It ought to be clear to Christians that sin does not pay.  We must as Christ followers, repent of our sin and ignorance of what is going around us.  Get informed about what the Bible says and what is going on and then begin to pray a lot and see how the Lord could use you in this great day and age.

Sin does not pay, but following and obeying Jesus is a great reward in itself.