Whatever Became of Sin?

There are ministers, priests, and rabbis who never talk about sin. There was a time when the minister of God's Word preached the whole counsel of God. Today, many pulpits are silent on the sin question. Sin has become fashionable and therefore acceptable. When sin gets its victim into serious difficulty, the psychiatrist and psychologist tell him/her that he/she is "sick." The church needs to face the fact of sin squarely. Many people will admit they are a sinner without knowing how, why, or what makes them a sinner. Well, I think it is about time we dealt with sin head on. It is time for a bit of a rude awakening.

The first commandment says that we are to have no other gods beside the God of the Bible. The second commandment says that we are not to have or make any idols out of anything. Has God always been first in your life? Have you honoured Him with your every breath? Have you thanked Him for everything that you have and are? Or have you simply used His name as a four-letter curse word to express disgust, which is called blasphemy? We are worshipers by nature, but most often we choose to worship anything but the God of the Bible. We may not bow down to and worship a golden calf, but worship is more than just this. Anything that takes up more of your time than the God of the Bible has become your god, and the time spent with that thing is the evidence of your worship. The loss of self-control over one's emotions and the acts of obsessive insanity toward a person (favourite musician) or thing (favourite sports team) is also evidence of your worship. Worship is recognized in many ways. In our culture, even those who do not think that they are religious are worshiping something—usually self. If you always have to be the center of attention, you are worshiping the concept and idea of fame, as well as self.

In our culture, some of our greatest forms of worship are self, sex, and loads of cash. Look around you and you will see that it is true.

1. Self is our god. How many people are self-centered, self-reliant, self-obsessed, and living for self? Culture tells us "It's all about you," but that is a lie. Nobody seems to care about each other any more. They have become unloving and uncaring.
2. Sex is our god. Look at our sex-saturated world and how everyone is chasing after sex, and yet they are still not satisfied. Sex permeates everything around us from the magazines to the advertisements to the television shows to the movies. People are getting more brazen about sex, doing it in public without concern for who sees them and how it will affect those who see (such as children).
3. Money is our god. You know the pursuit of money is a god when people's lives revolve around chasing that almighty dollar. Even though they have enough to be content with, it is never enough. They need more and more and more. Yet, the happiness they are chasing after still eludes them.

Quite often in our sick, perverted and twisted world, the last two go hand-in-hand. Are you aware of just how many women out there willingly sell their body for cash by having sex with a complete stranger who just happens to offer them a couple hundred or thousand dollars (and the majority of the time, without a condom)? Even to the point of cheating on their boyfriend or husband? These women obviously have no dignity or self-respect, nor are they very faithful to the man they are with. Sure, they will say "No" at the start, using him as their defense, but soon they are tossing that defense out and chasing the money. The money is more important to them than their dignity, self-worth, or faithfulness to their man. The men who do this to these women are some of the most pathetic losers in the world, having absolutely no respect for women, using them for their own bragging rights among their loser buddies. Despite a woman's first rejections, they persist by offering her more cash until she eventually gives in (and when you worship money, you eventually do give in). They video tape it and air it publicly on the Internet, humiliating her for the entire world to see. But because she has no dignity or self-respect, she allows this loser to video tape her and does not care who sees her in this video. I know these things for a fact because of my own sinful past with an addiction to viewing pornography. Sadly, the world is worse off than I could have ever imagined; yet as bad as I know it to be, I guarantee it is far worse still.

But those are not the only gods we worship in our culture.

1. Our stomachs are our gods. We constantly have to stuff them with food all day long while others around the globe are lucky if they see three square meals a day. We buy take-out and pre-packaged foods galore and eat all sorts of junk food. It seems we never stop stuffing our mouths. We spend more on food than what we should, and we probably wastefully throw half of it out. Try and tell me that our stomachs are not our gods.
2. Our TVs are our gods (this includes other technological devices such as computers). The whole family gathers around the TV just to worship it, spending more hours in front of it than doing anything else. People, including their children, walk around nearly 24/7 glued to their technological devices without ever giving them a rest. This also includes those individuals who sit day-in and day-out in front of a gaming console playing games and/or things like Facebook and Twitter, wasting the precious hours of their life. People no longer seem to have any one-on-one personal time with anybody. They are too busy becoming one with their technological contraptions.
3. Our sports teams are our gods. We erect multi-million dollar stadiums to house them in and throw a hissy fit when they do not win. Movie stars, musicians, athletes, and other famous individuals, such as the Pope, are also our gods. Imaginary characters such as Santa Claus are even our gods. When we see these people in person, we lose all self-control and act ecstatically, even to the point of shedding tears in their presence. It is as if having met them has given our life some sort of purpose. When millions of people gather together like this, you can be sure that they are indeed worshiping these individuals.

As you can see, our world is greatly guilty of breaking the first and second commandments. They not only worship false gods, but they erect gods in their own image to worship as well. They also put other individuals (musicians, actors, athletes, etc) in the place of godhood and pay homage to them via worship. But these are not the only things that make us sinners, even though they would certainly be enough. So that you can answer the how, why, and what that makes you a sinner, let us look at some other things.

How many lies have you told in your life? This includes any supposed "white" lies that you have told, as well as exaggerations and stretching the truth. What do you call someone who tells lies? They are called a liar. If you only need to kill one person to become a murder, you only need to tell one lie to become a liar.

Have you ever stolen anything? The size and value are irrelevant. If you have ever downloaded any movies, music, computer games, or computer programs from the Internet without paying for them, you have stolen them. If you work at a job and are not doing what you are supposed to do and are wasting company time, you are stealing time from your company for a job you were hired to do. If you have ever left work early and had someone else punch/swipe you out later, you are stealing money for which you have not earned from your company (you are also lying to your company by doing this). If you are using someone else's cable or Internet, having been hooked up to it illegally, you are stealing. What do you call someone who steals? They are called a thief.

Have you ever coveted something that did not belong to you? Coveting is the desire to have something that is not yours. It is wanting to get "stuff" just to show off to others and to try and keep up with the Joneses (even though the Joneses are broke and in debt up to their eyeballs). It is wishing that your life circumstances were different, by not being thankful for what you have and what God has given you. It is having an insatiable desire to get things you want but do not really need. Pack rats, who do nothing but store things they have bought and will never use, are prime examples of covetous individuals. If you attain to a set standard of living, rather than living within your means with what you have, and being content with it and thankful for it, you are a covetous person. Covetousness is also idolatry, the breaking of the first and second commandments, because you have made it your god and are worshiping it by your great desire thereof.

Have you ever committed adultery? Jesus said that "everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). Lusting is having sexual desire for another person, whether of the same or opposite sex. Lust is also desiring sexual fantasies within your life derived from the things you read or look at. Reading so-called "romance" novels is pornographic and you are committing lust. Looking at pornography is lusting. Reading your "teen" magazines and drooling over the "hot" guys is lusting. Gazing wantingly at women in magazines such as Maxim is lusting. You are guilty of committing adultery in your heart. Remember, the Bible declares that re-marriage after divorce is also adultery.

We have just examined 6 of the 10 Commandments. You have been found to be a self-admitted idolater, liar, thief, covetous person, and adulterer. When you stand before God on Judgment Day, do you think you will be found innocent or guilty? Listen to your conscience. You know full well that you will be found guilty. Based on the verdict of your guilt, do you think you will go to heaven or hell? You are just lying to yourself if you think you will go to heaven. You know full well that you deserve hell and that that is where you will find yourself unless you repent of your sins and trust in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and your salvation.

Just because something is popular in our culture does not make it right or proper. Sin is sin regardless of its popularity and acceptance among the world. Necrophelia is popular among the world and Christians are flowing with the stream. They watch, enjoy, and defend such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, and the Twilight series. In these films, regular men and women are having sex with vampires. Vampires are defined as living dead. Necrophelia is the sexual abomination of having sex with dead things. Necrophelia is a sin. Christians should not be watching this garbage! The same is true with regard to homosexuality. It is a sin. Yet how many Christians watch, enjoy, and defend such garbage shows as Lost Girl (and there are many others, too)? No matter how many people are deluded into accepting it, approving of it, and thinking that it is normal, it is a perverted abomination of both our human and sexual natures. Unless these individuals repent of their homosexual sins and put their faith and trust in Christ Jesus, they likewise will also perish in hell.

So now you know how you are a sinner, why you are a sinner, and what makes you a sinner. You no longer have a vain admission of being a sinner. If someone comes up to you and asks you what makes you a sinner, your answer will no longer be, "I do not know." We have unlocked these commands to show you the depth of all they encompass (and there is yet more that could be listed under them). Most people have very narrow views of what things like lying, stealing, and coveting involve. Now you know that they involve much more. What we have dealt with here only scratches the surface of the question of sin.