How God Sees Sin — E.A. Johnston

God's Holiness and Humanity's Tolerance of Sin

I believe, friends, we don't see sin as we should. We are colorblind to the blackness of it, numb to the destructiveness of it, senseless to the aggravation of it, to a holy God who hates sin. God views sin much more seriously than man.

God judges sin more severely than man. God will not tolerate sin like man tolerates it. God will send corrective measures to his people in the form of remedial judgments to break us off from our sins.

David, Saul, and God's Corrective Judgment

I repeat, God sees sin differently than we do. And the title of my message today, friends, is How God Sees Sin, and my text can be found in 2 Samuel, in chapter 21. You can turn your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verse 1, and let me read us this striking passage of scripture at this time, and I pray that God's Holy Spirit will attend the reading of his holy word. Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year.

And David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. Notice, friends, our text states that this famine lasted for three years.

It was ongoing, without rain or relief, year after year. All the people and the land were suffering beneath this famine. David inquired of God because he believed it was so severe that God had to be involved.

And it lasted longer than most famines did, so God had to be provoked. So David inquired to God, and David learns that the people are suffering because of the actions of King Saul and his disobedience to God.

God sends a famine in the land as a punishment upon them for Saul's sin. Remember, the Jews wanted a king to rule over them rather than God alone, so he gave the people what they wanted. But he holds them accountable for that king and his sins.

And God will hold us accountable for our sins as well, friends, against him. A believer cannot recklessly sin with impunity against God and get away with it. God will bring corrective measures to his people to break them off from their sins.

Biblical Judgments Demonstrate Sin's Gravity

The Jews were in love with their idols and refused to part with them until God led them away into captivity so long it eventually cured them of the sin of idolatry. God took sin so seriously that he banished Adam and Eve from paradise and laid a curse upon them.

God took sin so seriously in the days of Noah that he sent a judgment of a flood that drowned the entire world save eight souls. And God took the sin of Sodom so seriously that he rained hell from heaven upon them until the Sodomites were heaps of smoke and ash.

And God took the sins of the world so seriously that he sent his only begotten son to die on a cross as a sin substitute to appease his wrath. God kicked Satan out of heaven because of sin, and God has prepared a burning lake of perpetual fire to consume sinners not found written in his book of life.

God takes sin seriously, much more seriously than we do. We as a church, as a nation, have ceased viewing sin as God sees it. The wicked hearted man wants to legalize as much sin as possible so he can indulge himself in those sins as often as he wants to, but our sins grieve the father heart of God.

Let's say you have a teenager who is in rebellion to the authority in the home and their behavior is both harmful and destructive to them, and you bring corrective measures as a preservation from future rebellion, yet they persist to disobey and continue on in their rebellion to the very harm and ultimate ruin.

How would you feel as a parent? Would you feel both wounded and betrayed? Would you not experience sadness and grief over that disobedient child? It would be heartbreak, wouldn't it, friends? That's how God feels over us when we go against his best for us by continuing to sin the same sins against him after he has often brought loving correction to us in order to break us off from those sins which grieve his heart.

And God takes your sin seriously, friend. He takes it much more seriously than you do. God will not tolerate sin in the life of a follower of his, for if you name the name of Christ and call yourself a Christian and still continue in your sins, God will have a controversy with you.

If you repeat the same sin, then you haven't learned the lesson of correction. Oh, Lord, show us how you see sin so we won't sin against you. Instruct us, oh Lord, to avoid and loathe sin. Now, my friends, let us look and see how God sees sin.

Sin as Broken Fellowship with God

He sees sin as fellowship broken with him. Look at Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? So we see sin separated man from the fellowship of God. God bans man from his very presence because of that broken fellowship, because of their sin.

And God sees sin as fellowship broken with him. Have you not experienced this, friend? When you sin, do you hide in the trees from the presence of God like Adam did? Do you stay away from your Bible when you sin?

Sin as a Curse and Inherited Corruption

There's an old saying, sin will keep you from the Bible, and the Bible will keep you from sin. It's true, friends. Broken fellowship with God is the result of sin. Next, God sees sin as a curse. In Genesis we read, Cursed is the ground for thy sake.

And all of mankind lies under this curse because of sin. For death came to all men. We are each born with an inclination towards sin because of Adam's sin. We have a ruined nature because of sin. Listen, friend.

Sin as Rebellion and Sickness

You are not a sinner because you sin. Rather, you sin because you're a big sinner. Sin is a curse indeed, and that's how God sees it. Next, God sees sin as rebellion against him. In Luke 10 and verse 18, we see Jesus speak about the rebellion headed up by Satan and the angels that sided with him against God in the heavens and how God dealt with that rebellion.

Jesus said, I've beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. God sees all sin as rebellion against him. Every person outside of Christ is a guilty rebel because of sin. God sees sin as rebellion against him.

Next, God sees sin as sickness that needs to be healed. In Matthew chapter 15 and verse 30, we read,. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them.

Sin as Denial and Enslavement

Listen, friends. God sees sin as sickness that needs to be healed. Jesus is in the healing business today when it comes to the power of sin in our lives. Next, God sees sin as denial of him. In John chapter 18 and verse 27, we see the sad picture about the sad denial of Jesus by Peter.

We read, Peter then denied again, and immediately the cock crew. When we sin, God sees it as denying him with our lips and with our actions. Every time we willfully sin, we deny the very God who saved us.

Next, God sees sin as a cruel master that enslaves. We see this in the story of the demoniac found in Mark's gospel in chapter 5, beginning in verse 2. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs.

And no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains. Listen, friends. God sees sin as a cruel master that enslaves. It's true, friends. Sin will take you farther than you want to go, leave you there longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you ever realized.

Sin as an Object of Divine Punishment

Sin is a cruel taskmaster indeed. Next, we see that God sees sin as a thing that God must punish. We read in Genesis chapter 19,. Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. Listen to me, friend. God must punish sin. God sees sin as a thing he must punish.

Sin as Provoking a Holy God

God flooded an entire world because of sin. And God sent his only begotten Son into this world to suffer and die because God had to punish sin to reconcile man back to him. Next, God sees sin as the provoking of him.

This is spoken of in Hebrews chapter 3 and in verse 8, which relates how the Jews provoked God in their wilderness wanderings through their unbelief of sin. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

In the day of temptation in the wilderness, God sees sin as a provoking of him. This should startle all who dare to provoke a holy God with sin. Jesus warned in Luke 12 and verse 5,. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear.

Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. O friends, I fear we have lost the fear of God today in the land and in the church and in our own personal lives.

Sin as Pollution and Unfaithfulness

Always remember, God sees sin as provoking him. Next, God sees sin as pollution and evil. In Isaiah 56 and verse 2, God declares,. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

The devil is called the evil one, and evil is all sin. Next, God sees sin as unfaithfulness to him. Look at the book of Hosea, where we see the marriage of the prophet Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer.

God says, The disobedient Jews for their mother hath played the harlot. Every time we sin, we sin against God in unfaithfulness to him. God takes sin seriously, even if we don't. A cheating spouse sees nothing wrong with their unfaithful actions, but the spouse who is cheated against sees their behavior as grievously bad, so God sees sin as unfaithfulness to him.

Sin as Lying and Robbing God

Next, God sees sin as lying to him. Satan is the father of lies, and lying is a grievous sin to God, and God sees it as lying to him. Look at Acts chapter 5, verses 1 -3. But a certain man named Ananias, which Zephriah's wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? God sees sin as lying to him. Next, God sees sin as robbing him. Malachi 3 and verse 8 reads, Will a man rob God?

Sin as Treason Against the Sovereign

Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee, in tithes and offerings? So when we sin, we rob God, and we rob him of his glory. Next, God sees sin as an act of treason against him. Jesus speaks of this in the parable in Luke chapter 19, and verses 13 and 14, which states,.

And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But the citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

Sin as the Cause of Christ's Crucifixion

Listen, friends, God sees all sin as treason against the Sovereign. And lastly, God sees sin as the murderer of his son. Every time we sin, we drive another nail into those quivering hands. Our sins crucified the Lord of glory.

Listen to the Apostle Peter's sermon to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Every time we sin, God sees that sin as the very thing that sent his son to die on a cross. Murder is sin, and in God's eyes, sin is murder of his son. If that doesn't break your heart, friends, I don't know what will.

Repentance and the Grace to Leave Sin

Let us all go to God and confess our sin. Let us ask God to grant us the grace of repentance from sin. Let us always remember, when we are tempted to sin, how God sees sin. Let us pray.