Lies Women Believe About Sin, Part 4

Series: Lies Women Believe About Sin

Leslie Basham: What we often call a bad attitude or personality trait, God often calls sin. It's Thursday, May 2; and you are listening to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss. It's not usually lions and tigers that endanger a person's life in the wilds of Africa, more often it's the pesky mosquitoes carrying malaria bringing a person close to the edge of death. In the same way, it's often the less offending sins like envy and gossip that cause us problems rather than the obvious sins like adultery or murder.

Here's Nancy now to answer the question "Well what's the big deal about sin?"

Nancy DeMoss: We've all read and heard stories about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912: a 900-foot long cruise ship that sank and took 1,500 passengers to their death. It was the worst maritime disaster of that day. For years, people assumed that the ship had hit an iceberg which had opened up a huge gash in the side of the ship.

But in more recent years, a team of divers and scientists went two-and-a-half miles deep into the water to explore the ruins of that boat. They discovered something that was surprising. That is that the damage was not a huge gash. In fact, it was rather a series of six small slits in watertight holds, small damage invisible to most people. This is all it took to destroy that huge ship.

We are looking this week at lies that women believe. Lies we believe about sin. I want us to turn our attention now to this lie that--my sin isn't really that bad. You know the people in Jesus' day, particularly, the religious people were kind of proud of the fact that they had not committed sins of murder or adultery.

But when Jesus came on the scene, He gave them a different perspective on sin. He said to them, "Yes, you may not have been guilty of these external huge gashes in your life; but that's really not the essence of sin." Jesus wanted them to see that the essence of sin is a matter of the heart. So He began to point the finger at these self-righteous, religious people who thought their sin wasn't all that bad--to show them that if they were guilty of anger or of lust in their hearts, even if they hadn't lived it out--if it had just been kind of invisible under the surface, that was still deadly sin.

Those of us in this room come from many different backgrounds. Some of us had the privilege of being raised in the church and in Christian homes and would not think of committing certain kinds of sins ourselves. We wouldn't think of being a prostitute or having an abortion or living a homosexual lifestyle. We wouldn't consider using profanity. Growing up in my home, this was not an option.

Some of us wouldn't think about embezzling money from an employer or divorcing our mate. So it's easy for those of us with that kind of background to pride ourselves on the fact that our sin isn't really all that bad. Now this is not a lie we would consciously believe. Because in our hearts we know sin is sin, and God hates all sin. But when it comes down to it, we really think that we are better off than certain other kinds of sinners who have done certain other kinds of sins.

But interestingly enough ,those of us who might not participate in some of those obviously sinful choices, might think nothing of certain other kinds of sins. Sins like wasting time, like talking too much, like having a sharp or critical tongue, fear, worry, the whole issue of pride, my motives, my heart, my values. Many of us may not even think of some of those things as sins.

I mean, I don't like to think of whining as a sin. But I do a lot of whining. Why does my whining not hit me the same way that I would think about someone else's sin, in particular, sin of the flesh? Careless words; I think of how many times in the course of an average day that I say things that either are not true, not kind or not necessary. But do I think of those as some great big sin? Subconsciously, I really feel my sin isn't all that bad.

In fact, it's easy to justify some of those types of sins as not being sins at all. We think of them more as weaknesses or as struggles or as personality traits. That's just the way that I am. I think Eve could have viewed her sin in this way. She could have been deceived by this lie: "My sin isn't really that bad." After all, she didn't leave her husband, she didn't curse God, she didn't deny God's existence--all she did was take one bite of something that God told her not to eat. What's the big deal? I'll tell you what's the big deal. God said, "Don't."

And Eve said, "I will." That's the big deal. This was really a battle of the wills. This was a battle for control. That puts taking a bite of something I'm not supposed to eat into a little different perspective when I see it that way. That one simple, single act produced enormous consequences--like a rock thrown into a pond. There was a ripple effect. It just went on and on into the lives of many to follow. All of us really are reaping, in a sense, the consequences of her one single sin. Through the scripture, you see the seriousness with which God views what we might consider just a single, simple sin.

I think of how Moses struck the rock when God said, "Speak to the rock." How many times, in my wrath, my anger do I take a matter further than it needs to be taken--further than I know God wants me to take it--and I've just got to get my extra word in. I've got to get my barb in to wound the person who wounded me with their word. God said, "Speak." Moses struck the rock; and, as a result, he missed out on the Promised Land.

I think of Uzza reaching out to steady the Ark of the Covenant as it was on the ox cart. God had said, "Don't touch the ark."

And Uzza, for reasons that apparently he thought were okay or he didn't stop to think, perhaps at all, reached out to steady the Ark. And God was angered; struck him dead on the spot.

John Bunyan said, "One leak will sink a ship. And one sin will destroy a sinner." Jeremy Taylor was a contemporary of Bunyan's; and he said it this way, "No sin is small, no grain of sand is small in the mechanism of a watch." Just that little grain of sand will get the watch mechanism all out of order. And ultimately you have a broken watch.

You go out on the beach as I do sometimes at Lake Michigan not too far from my home. And in a storm where the wind is blowing the sand, you get a little grain of sand in your eye. And a grain of sand seems so small, so insignificant; but in your eye, if you can't get it out, ultimately, I'm told, it can actually blind you.

The consequences of a single, simple sin can truly be disastrous. If you and I could only see that every single sin is a big deal. My sin isn't really that bad? Yes it is. Every sin is a big deal. And why? Because it is a battle for control. Every time I sin against the Word of God or against my conscience, I am committing cosmic rebellion against the God of the universe. I'm really saying, "Move over, God. I'd like to sit on your throne for a while. I'd like to be in control here." Every time I choose my way over God's way, I am really mounting an insurrection, a revolt against the God and King of the universe.

Now that puts my sin in a whole different perspective. It makes me realize that every single one of my sins is serious to God and ought to be serious to me.

How do you view your sin?

Let me ask you that, particularly, if you have grown up in something of the environment I did, where you have never known anything for years but to know God and to know His Word and to walk with Him. How do you view your sin? How do you view those inner sins of the spirit? Do you see them as God sees them? Or have you fallen into thinking, My sins aren't really all that great? Have you found yourself perhaps justifying some sins of the spirit, some little thing, some little compromises, some carelessness with your tongue, some attitudes that you know in God's Word are not right?

You know they are not holy; but you find yourself justifying them, excusing them, maybe even blaming others and not thinking it's really that big a deal. What comes to mind when I talk about those kinds of issues? Would you do what I have been asking God to do in my own heart in recent days? That is to say, "Lord, would You show me how You see my sin? Let me see my sin in the light of Your holiness. Show me Your view of my sin."

It was not the great big gash that took the Titanic down. In many of our lives, there may not be any great big gash that takes us down. But you know, ships can sink with just a small series of slits in the side--that we let go, we don't intend to or maybe don't even notice; and ultimately that can be our downfall and our destruction.

Leslie Basham: When we come face to face with our sin, we shouldn't try to justify our actions. We just need to repent. Nancy DeMoss has been helping us see our sin the way God does. She'll be right back to lead us in prayer. Maybe today's program has helped you recognize that you have been listening to lies about sin.

We've created a tool to help you identify the lies of the enemy and to combat them with the truth. It's a video called Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free. With this video, you can review Nancy's teaching on the subject at your own pace and follow along with study questions that are included. It might be the perfect study to embark on alone or with a group of women. The video Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free is available for a suggested donation of $15. To order you can visit our Web site ReviveOurHearts.com or give us a call at 1-800-569-5959.

Has God convicted you today of a particular sin or attitude in your life? Have you repented and asked Him to forgive you? If so, why don't you write and tell us about it. We want to rejoice with you.

Well, why do we sin even when we know we are not supposed to? We'll find out tomorrow. Now again here's Nancy.

Nancy DeMoss: Father, would you open our eyes to see the slits. We're so tuned to looking for the gashes in other people's lives. A lot of times we miss, I know a lot of times I miss, those grains of sand, those things in my own eye that are destroying my vision and helping me not to see you correctly. Lord, help us to view sin as You do and to take it as seriously as You do and to realize our great need for repentance every time we choose our way against Your way. Give us the gift of repentance, I pray, that we might grieve and mourn with all our hearts over that which breaks Your heart. Thank You that when we mourn over our sins, we will be comforted and we will receive mercy. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

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