Safe Sin – Romans 6:23

 The English Language is lots of fun. There simply are so many things that you can do with it. I suppose that is true of every kind of language, but only one that I can read or speak is English. With language we can fly to, and then describe, other worlds. Science is just now reaching the point of doing that with its robots and probes, but poets and fiction writers have been doing that for years, and even going to places that don’t exist. And then those same writers can take us into the past and describe the world that once was. With language we can make the most down-hearted people laugh. And with the right words, put in the right ways, it is possible even to make people think. With the English language it is possible to let blind people see the face of God – in a sense.

And then, with language it is possible to say some of the most ridiculous things. I have a couple of books which record some absolutely absurd statements. Take for example, a handful of newspaper ads that I have read: “Dinner Special – Turkey $2.35; Chicken or Beef $2.25; children $2.00.” “Earrings on Sale. Now is your chance to have your ears pierced, and get an extra pair to take home.” There was a want ad that read: “Dog for sale, eats anything and is fond of children.” Another want ad: “Three-year-old teacher needed for pre-school. Experience preferred.” You’d think that the editors of these newspapers would rewrite things this bad.

Sometimes we put words together with disastrous, not humorous, effects. What’s more, sometimes we use them so often that we begin to think this is the way that things should be. Things which were once terrible grammar, are accepted without thought today, because of common use. Another thing is illustrated in two very mismatched words: “Safe sex.” The implication is: if precautions are taken, immorality is guaranteed to be safe and harmless. But the truth is that there have been fewer more dangerous lies ever told by man. Yet if we say those words often enough, people will tend to believe them. In our confused society, even if very wrong words are repeated often enough, they become acceptable and even apparently true.

Unfortunately, “Safe sex” is only a very small tip of a very large iceberg. It is just one characteristic of a greater lie, which we might call “Safe sin.” It’s this “Safe sin” that I’d like to address here this afternoon. And why? Because there is not a person here today that doesn’t or hasn’t ascribed to it in some way.

But my first point is this: safe sin is impossible even by definition.Safe sin is like clean dirt, solid liquids, sweet lemons and sour sugar. These are all impossible, except in the wonderful world of the English language. And what is wrong with the idea of “safe sin”?

One is the problem of definition: What is sin? As we said this morning, I John 3:4 says that “sin is the transgression of the law.” Okay, that’s fine, but what law are we talking about? Federal law? State law? Family law? Admiralty law? Which? There is no doubt about the fact that Apostle John was talking about God’s law. By definition, sin is transgressing, or stepping beyond the law of Jehovah – the Judge of heaven and earth. Then in I John 5:14 the Apostle adds: “All unrighteousness is sin.” This means that anything morally wrong is sin. So is there some sort of “safe sin?” Absolutely not! Is it possible to be perfectly safe in the midst of immorality? There are natural laws, biological laws, and societal laws all working to punish immorality. And there are also the laws of the infinitely righteous God. Just as it’s unsafe to break God’s physical laws; it is also unsafe any break any of His moral laws. Step off a bridge and you’ll surely fall; transgress God’s law and you will fall even harder.

Solomon asked, “Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?” The obvious answer is a resounding “No!” No sin, even unto the very smallest, can ever be tethered to the word “safe.” There is no “safe fornication” or “adultery,” “safe murder”, “safe lie,” or “safe theft.” “Be sure your sins will find you out.”

Just outside of Gunnison, Colorado, a few years ago there had been a plague of gophers. The local farmers and ranchers had been beside themselves trying to cope. The big Golden Eagle who lived in the area had been getting fat and lazy. Finally the farmers imported a number of ferrets to keep the gopher population down. One day the now lazy-eyed Eagle swooped down on what he thought was a gopher. Unwittingly he grabbed a ferret; who then twisted and bit the eagle in throat. Only a minute passed before a local rancher saw the eagle fall to his death. No man can take sin in his hands and not come away with its teeth in his throat.

But what are some of the ways people use idea of “safe sin?”That’s just the problem – it is all a matter of human opinion. It is an acknowledged sin to militarily occupy neighboring nations. Even Saddam Hussein might have agreed to that – if Iran had decided to occupy Iraq. But in the case of tiny Kuwait, that was probably considered to be a “safe sin.” The question goes back to an area that we’ve touched upon before – authority. A child might think that something is permissible, but his parents call it “sin.” Mom might think that something is fine, but then Dad overthrows it as sin. Dad might okay something, but the State of Idaho might throw him in jail for it. And then Idaho might pass a law stating that such and such is a sin, but the Supreme Court might say that Idaho’s law is unconstitutional. Who decides what sin is really a true sin, a dangerous sin, or a safe sin? You and I had better not stop until we know the mind of God on the matter. Every man, woman and child shall one day stand before Jehovah, who is the final Judge. We all are accountable before His laws, no matter what other laws people might pass or approve. Yet stopping short of God’s law is exactly what mankind has been doing for 6,000 years.

So we have decided that VICTIMLESS SINS are “safe sins.” Like safe sex – if there are no babies and no disease, then there is no sin. Have you ever noticed that the Bible never speaks of those criteria as evidence in morality cases? Simply put, immorality is sin, and therefore it is prohibited. Forget about consequences, it is sin even without any consequences. Victimless sin is any old sin where is no apparent third party who has been hurt. But there are always at least two parties to every sin; the last being yourself. And in every sin, you are always a victim, whether you know it or not. And you have forgotten another unseen victim – the Lawgiver Himself? In this case He’s not some nameless politician 2,000 miles off.

What are some other victimless sins that some claim are safe and harmless? It might shock us to know how many of our neighbors, or how many drivers and service people, are regularly using alcohol or drugs. They may think that since no one knows or cares, then there is no sin. If their use hasn’t gone to extremes, there is no sin; no blood, no foul, they think. But that use and abuse is not without its victims. Gluttony might be considered a victimless sin, but gluttons are obviously casualties. And how about pride? What harm is there in being a little pompous, stuffy and self-important? Without controversy, that happens be one of most highly condemned sins in Bible. At the top of the list of things which God hates and which are an abomination to Him is: “the proud look.” “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” We might call victimless sins, any sins that are not outwardly negative.

Like them, there are positive sins – good sins – that some people consider to be “safe.” There is that so called “white lie,” which appears to be spoken for a good reason. But “lying lips are an abomination unto the Lord.” And “liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimestone.” A “good sin” might be roaring down the highway at 90 mph in order not to be late to church. A “good sin” might be buying lottery tickets with a mental promise to double or triple-tithe to the Lord. No harm done, and perhaps quite a bit of good, if I rob from the rich to give to the poor. Something tells me that Robin Hood, wasn’t a deacon in fundamental Baptist Church. Brother, if you have to do wrong to stay on the team, then you are on the wrong team.

After victimless sins and good sins we come to the very common community sins. These are the sins that are safe, because everybody says that they are safe. If the latest sports hero says that fighting and killing dogs is a good thing, then good it is. If the Hollywood crowd uses cocaine or some other drug, then cocaine is no longer harmful and sinful. If the U.S. Supreme Court says that murdering unborn babies is not a crime, then it is not sin. The world’s homosexuals, transvestites, lesbians and sex-changed perversions are trying desperately to make society think that their sin is safe. They are trying to use the common idea that if the majority agrees, then sin will no longer be sin. So the more parades they have, the more television shows, and the more who are elected to office, then the quicker the perversion will be accepted as normal, and the sin will somehow become safe. The only problem is that sin is not defined by you and me, or all of us together. Sin is not to be defined by the sinner. Sin can only be defined by God only. And no, mass sins are not safe sins; they only send larger numbers ‘en mass’ to Hell.

Even more foolish than these are the so-called “safe sins” that are merely hidden. Okay, so no one knows, today, that you use marijuana, or that you’ve started drinking. Are you so foolish as to think that the omniscient God, who designed these bodies to His glory, is also ignorant of your acts of self-destruction? Upon the authority of God’s Word, I can tell you that … the Lord is coming, and that “He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness… and that He will make manifest the counsels of (your) heart.” Your inward hatred will be exposed, despite your hypocritical friendliness. Your jealousy, your malice and your wicked prayers will all be judged by God.

In the zoo, there are many exotic animals – sometimes in large buildings. Outside, the problem is not as noticeable as when we both move in-doors. But wild animals smell; they don’t care that they smell, nor that their smell offends their human pests. They are just like ignorant men who have no idea how they stink before God. No one can hide that stench from the Lord.

Sadly, many Christians think that passive or idle sins are safe sins. By these I refer to the sins of the Christian couch potato. The fella who knows his God-given responsibility, but who declines to obey. Know ye not that “he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin?” Shall we say that this is “safe sin?” I think not.

Judges 5:23 says – “Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof. Because they came not to the help of Lord, to the help of Lord against the mighty.” The Word of the Lord speaks of blood on the saints hands because of their lack involvement in the fight for righteousness. “How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you?” Jeremiah 48:10 says, “cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently.” I remind you that we are debtors, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians. God demands the payment of our debts. “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the crying of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not heard.” Who is poorer than a soul starving for spiritual life.

All right, maybe we’ll admit that no sin is safe, but why is that so?Simply and completely put: God, the law-maker and judge has decreed that to be the case. Romans. 6:23 says that the wages of sin is unavoidable death. You can theologically divide and sub-divide the word “death” if you like. But I believe that it applies to physical death, and also to the “second death,” and eternal death. The wages, the guaranteed pay, for even what some call the “safest of sins” – is death. Ezekiel 18:4 says that the soul that sinneth it shall die. Rudyard Kipling once wrote: “The sins ye do by two and two, ye must pay for one by one.” It will be one by one, second by second, year by year, eon after eon, for eternity.

Except in the case of one very special situation – The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth away all sin. If we will learn what repentance for sin is – a complete revulsion of mind and heart against sin. And if we will turn to the Christ of Calvary, trusting His red, shed blood. There and only there is the place and means of complete forgiveness of sin. It matters not what sins you have committed, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive you. “Be it known unto you men and brethren, that through this man, Jesus Christ is preached unto you forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe on him are justified, saved from their sin.”

I repeat the message of Paul: quit your sins, despise them with the hatred of God Himself. But if sinners could in some way never sin again, it would do their souls no good without one other thing: What all sinners need first is the grace of God. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb of God? Christian, have you been sprinkled lately with the blood of the red heifer?