SIN, A LITTLE THING?
ROMANS 7:1-13
Key verse: v. 13, “Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”
Introduction:
The Apostle Paul has successfully shown that peace was not in the law; that justification is by faith in Jesus Christ. The Jews had taught that following the Law promoted peace, but Paul maintained that the Law was to excite the mind to conflict, and anxiety, and distress. He shows that the tendency of the law, as a practical matter, was everywhere the same. It was not to produce peace, but agitation, conflict, distress, v. 7, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”
I. AT THE TIME OF CONVERSION…
A. The young believer has a holy timidity, a godly fear, Hebrews 12:28, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:”
1. He wants to do everything according to God’s pattern, Hebrews 8:5, “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”
2. He DOES NOT want a guilty conscience toward God, Hebrews 10:2, “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.”
B. To the young believer the slightest sin is “exceeding sinful,” v.11, “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.”
1. God allows sin to “beguile” [make me lose my way] him that he might learn to rely on the Lord, Hebrews 3:13, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
2. Sin can drive one to despair, Job 7:6, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.”
II. GIVEN TIME AND EXPERIENCE IN THIS WORLD…
A. The tender, sensitive bloom of salvation becomes like a willow that is pliant, too easily yielding, Romans 6:16, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
B. The sin that once startled us does NOT ALARM us in the least, v. 15, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”
1. The believer does NOT RECOGNIZE its true nature, Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
2. Our spiritual PERCEPTIONS are DULLED, blinded by sin, 2 Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
a. The believe can fall into this same blindness and he begins to palliate [cover up or gloss over] sin, 1 Samuel 15:20-21, “And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.”
b. The believer gets familiar with sin by degrees, Psalm 19:13, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.”
III. SIN, A LITTLE THING?
A. It is DEADLY poison, Psalm 58:3-4, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;”
1. It is deceitful (deliberately misleading), Romans 3:13, “Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:”
2. The tongue of a sinner is out of control, James 3:8, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”
B. Sin appears to be a LITTLE thing, however,..
1. It is like little foxes, Song of Solomon 2:15, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.”
2. It is like the SMALL things of earth.
a. It is like a TINY CORAL INSECT that builds a rock that WRECKS A NAVY.
b. It is like the little STROKE OF AN AXE that brings down a mighty oak.
c. It is like the CONTINUAL DROPPING of water that wears away a huge stone.
d. It is like a LITTLE LEAVEN in bread, 1 Corinthians 5:6, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”
3. It destroys kingdoms, 1 Samuel 15:23, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
CONCLUSION
Let us go back to time when we first received Christ as our Savior and have the same attitude toward sin that we had then. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:14, “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” And 1 Thessalonians 5:22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
Remember that sin caused our Savior to suffer and die on Calvary’s Tree. Sin put the scars in His hands and a lance in His side. SIN IS A TERRIBLE THING!!!
SIN IS “EXCEEDING SINFUL.”