I’ve heard the expression used both ways…where folks either lament over preachers who ‘never preach against sin any more’…or… complain how ’all that guy ever preaches is …‘against sin’.

I’ll be honest with you…I’m not even sure if I know what that means…to ‘preach against sin’. For that matter, I don’t know that I have ever heard, even a ‘lukewarm Christian’ ...make the case that they were ‘for sin’. Now…if all you hear from the pulpit of your choice is the repeated warning…”Y'all better quit sinning unless you wanna bust hell wide open”… then I can see why some might get tired of hearing that; especially…if they have struggled continuously with the same old sins while no one has ever taught them from scripture how to be ‘free indeed’ (John 8:32-36).

On the other hand…churches that have backed away all together from addressing the one thing that is responsible for bringing pain and suffering along with death and destruction into people’s lives…which is what sin does…then ‘woe unto them’ who will answer to God for their neglect. When we are more concerned about ‘offending folks’ regardless of what God wants said…then we are on very shaky ground.

How many of you remember that ‘talking point’ that became pivotal in the 1992 presidential election: “It’s the economy, stupid!” ? It proved to be effective in getting people to focus in on a significant issue that so many were struggling with at the time. It might serve to refashion that phrase for our churches today where it could read: “It’s Sin…you silly sheep!”

How often does a congregation need to be ‘reminded’ of how serious God is about this ‘sin’ issue? Not for me to say, I suppose…but Hebrews 3:12-13 offers a tip, warning the ‘brethren…to exhort one another DAILY, while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Friends…I’m not standing on some soapbox threatening people by heaping condemnation on them because they sin…and ‘better get right!’. We’ve all ‘heard that’ before, and if you didn’t become an emotional wreck after years of being beat down with that message, then you might have just had your heart hardened to hearing such things and perhaps grew calloused towards God, towards sin itself…or maybe both. And for those who have failed to see this yet…’getting right with God’ involves a tad more than just making some public prayer of confession… that you have ‘accepted Christ’.

I cannot stress this enough: Jesus did not come to condemn us nor to destroy us (John 3:17; Luke 9:56). The reason being: We were all already ‘condemned’ and God’s wrath was already on us (John 3:36). This is what Jesus came to ‘save’ us from (Rom. 5:9). He came that we might have ‘life to the fullest’ (John 10:10) and to know a peace and a freedom unlike anything we had ever tasted of or experienced before. (Luke 1:79; 4:18). And He also came that we might ‘know the truth…and that this truth might set us free’ (John 8:32-36). Do you know what this ‘truth’ was? That we could be free of sin…completely.

Here’s a quick ‘assignment’ for you. Stop here for a moment, and go look up 1 Tim. 2:4, 2 Tim. 2:25-26 &  3:7, and then Hebrews 10:26. What is the common phrase/thread in those three passages? Any chance that could tie back to John 8:32-36? Give it a moment.

The ‘knowledge of the truth’…

Why did God say His people were ‘destroyed’…back in Hosea 4:6? Was it not for a ‘lack of knowledge’? Now…consider this:

It wasn’t until the middle to late 19th century…that man began to ‘connect some dots’ in the area of medical practice as they came to understand ‘germ theory’. The simple practice of washing one’s hands, especially among doctors who were performing various surgical procedures, including helping with childbirth…greatly reduced the spread of infection. During the Civil War…the amount of deaths and rapid spread of infection dropped dramatically when war surgeons started sterilizing their medical instruments in-between surgeries on the battle fields. What a novel concept, you might say…given what we know today.

Think about it: people were getting sicker and even dying …simply because they were ignorant of an 'unseen enemy’(germs). And the solution was rather simple: recognize it and take the proper actions to correct it. Amazing, is it not…what a little ‘knowledge’ can do to improve one’s life?

So what’s the ‘spiritual application’ here in this illustration? Well…the ‘unseen enemy’ is spiritual in nature…(Eph. 6:12; 1 Pet. 5:8). The ‘practice’ of sin is the vehicle in which this unwanted enemy is granted access to come in to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’ (John 10:10; Eph. 4:27). And what is the ‘solution’? What do you think Jesus was trying to convey when he told that man: “Go, and sin no more or something worse will happen to you” ?

It’s sin…you silly sheep! Stop sinning…and see how that works out for you!

Oh, but wait…we’ve been taught our whole life…that even ‘Christians’ continue to be ‘sinners saved by grace’…and that we will ‘always sin on this side of heaven’; so that clearly is not the answer. Borrowing a phrase God asked early on: “Who told you that?” (Gen. 3:11)

Has. God. Really. Said? (Gen. 3:1).

If you get bored and have some extra time on your hands, do a quick ‘Google search’ on the history of syphilis, assuming we all know what that is. It wasn’t until the 1940’s that doctors discovered that penicillin was a highly effective ‘cure’ to treat this sexually transmitted disease. Did this bring sexual immorality to a grinding stop? Not really, it just seemed to give folks a ‘license to continue sinning’…providing them a false security that all they needed was a ‘shot’ and they were ‘good to go’. I wonder how many people treat the mercy and grace of God, along with the precious blood of Jesus… in a similar fashion, as so many did with the discovery of penicillin?  "Just give me a shot of grace and mercy..."

I’m not suggesting that we get to some place where we no longer ‘need’ God’s mercy and grace’; far from it. But coming to the ‘knowledge of the truth’ in regards to the freedom Jesus paid for that we no longer be ‘slaves to sin’…would go a long way to bring genuine transformation in people’s lives, especially among so many sincere believers today who simply have suffered for a ‘lack of knowledge’.

It’s sin…silly! And God provided us permanent cure…that works…indeed! (John 8:36).

Jeremiah 4:22...read the Amplified version ;-)