WHERE THERE IS SIN #2

GOD IS OFFENDED

Last week we learned that where there is sin redefined.

Today, Where There is Sin God is Offended.

Psa. 51:4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight: that You might be justified when You speak, and be clear when You judge.

(While David’s sins were against Bath-sheba, her husband Uriah, and all of Israel, still, the ultimate direction of sin, perfected by Satan, is always against God.

All sin is a departure from God’s Ways to man’s ways.

David is saying that God is always “justified” in any action that He takes, and His “judgment” is always perfect.).[1]

Therefore sin is an offense to God.

Jeremiah 42:1–6 (ESV)

42 Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— 3 that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” 4 Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you.” 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

Jeremiah 42:19–22 (ESV)

19 The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day 20 that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. 22 Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

I. GOD IS OFFENDED WITH SIN BECAUSE IT IS THE

OPPOSITE OF HIS NATURE.

1Pe. 1:16….. “You shall be holy, for I am holy”.

Because He is holy it is…..

A. HIS NATURE IS TO HATE SIN

Psalm 97:10 (ESV)

10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil!

Proverbs 8:13 (ESV)

13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

B. HIS NATURE IS TO BE ANGRY TOWARD SIN

In the O.T. the “anger of the Lord” is mentioned 36 times.

C. HIS NATURE IS TO EXPOSE SIN. –v20

NKJV says in verse 20 “For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord…..”

NLT, v-20 “For you were not being honest when you sent me…”

The Lord reveals to the leaders of Israel that they have not been honest. They had lied.

God will reveal hidden and unrepented sin. Sin is like a dead body it will always be discovered.

II. GOD IS OFFENDED WITH SIN BECAUSE IT

SEPARATES US FROM HIM.

Isa. 59 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ESV

1John 1 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ESV

2Ki. 24 20 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. ESV

Pro. 1 24 Because I have called and you refused to listen,

have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, 25 because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when terror strikes you, 27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. 28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.

These verses make it clear that if we entertain sin God puts his fingers in His ears, turns his face from us, and will not speak to us!

III. GOD IS OFFENDED BECAUSE SIN IS DISOBEDIENCE

TO HIS WORD.

A. GOD IS OFFENDED BECAUSE WE IGNORE HIS

WORD.

21 ……. but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything …..

B. GOD IS OFFENDED BECAUSE WE IGNORE HIS

PROPHETS.

Jeremiah 42 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. (ESV)

Sin is acting in opposition to God’s revealed truth. America has been blessed with some of the greatest preachers that have ever lived yet America no longer wants to be accountable to God.

IV. GOD IS OFFENDED WITH SIN THEREFORE MUST

JUDGE IT.

22 Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

It's terribly painful to admit that the problem is our sinfulness. It's not circumstances, nor temperament, nor personality, not even the sinful thing we have done, but us - our sinfulness. Painful? Yes. But it is also good to have called it by its rightful name - sin - because having fearlessly owned our own sinfulness; we can now be forgiven and transformed. Richard Exley

[1]Swaggart, J. (2005). The Expositor's Study Bible (922). Baton Rouge, LA: World Evangelism Press.