5 Ways to Hate Sin

"Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good"  Romans 12:9

Sermon Notes, Iowa Falls Evangelical Free Church, May 27, 2012

 

Introduction

There’s a delightful scene in the movie "Princess Bride" in which an old woman confronts Buttercup for betraying true love. Buttercup had supposedly given up on her farm boy Westley and married the evil Prince Humperdick.  Remember the scene? 

It's actually a dream sequence. In the dream, the lovely Buttercup stands before the crowd dressed in white, a crown upon her head, when the old scold steps forward to accuse her of betraying true love. The woman concludes her rant with these biting words:

That's what she is, the Queen of Refuse.  So bow down to her if you want, bow to her.  Bow to the Queen of Slime, the Queen of Filth, the Queen of Putrescence. Boo. Boo. Rubbish. Filth. Slime. Muck. Boo. Boo. Boo.

I’d like to play the part of the old woman and see if I can stir you up to revile something--something truly deserving of our scorn.  It’s not anything sweet and lovely and innocent like Buttercup, although it may pretend to be so.  And it’s not a dream sequence either, but a daily reality for every person.  I am speaking of course about sin.

Sin is the real Queen of Slime and Filth and Putrescence. Sin is the real betrayer of True Love.

The Puritan John Owens reminds us of the ceaseless seductions of sin:

Sin is always conceiving, always seducing and tempting….Sin doth not only still abide in us, but is still acting, still laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone.

 

How Can We Learn to Hate Sin?

Romans 12:9 says, “Abhor (despise, hate bitterly) what is evil; hold fast (be glued, cemented) to what is good.”  I Thessalonians 5:21-22 says much the same: “Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

How do we abhor evil—I’m thinking especially of personal sin?  The Bible speaks of the “fleeting pleasures of sin” (Heb 11:25), and there certainly are pleasures to be found.  Sin tastes sweet, at first anyway.  Sin gratifies our urges, for a while at least.  So how do we learn to disengage from sin and turn our backs on the fleeting pleasures?

As we begin, I think it will help us to recall a few basic truths concerning sanctification. 

Sanctification

The theologian Wayne Grudem in the book Bible Doctrine defines sanctification as “a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.”

Unlike justification which happens all at once, sanctification happens by degrees over time. And again unlike justification, which is entirely the work of God without any contribution on our part, both God and man play an active role in sanctification.  

The progressive aspect of sanctification is described 2 Corinthians 3:18:  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. Now this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”  The result of sanctification is a life which increasingly reflects the beauty of the indwelling Christ to the glory of God.  And that includes clinging to the good and hating the evil. Hebrews 1:9 says of Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

Two Sides of Sanctification

There are two sides to sanctification, two ongoing processes.  Paul speaks about both in Colossians 3:5-12:

Put to death [mortify-KJ] therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry….But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator…..Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (see Colossians 3:5-12)

Ephesians 4:22-24 also addresses the two sides of sanctification.

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Put to death what is earthly, put away, put off the old self—that is disengagement from old patterns of sin, and it is one process at work in sanctification.  The other process is engagement with what is good—put on the new self, put on compassion, kindness, humility and other godly traits.

Did you notice the word “mortify” in the King James version of Colossians 3:5.  They sound a little strange, the words mortify and mortification. It's where we get the word mortician. The Greek word means simply “to kill.”  We are to kill, to put to death what is earthly in us.  The Puritan John Owen urged, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

Mortification

 

John Stott defines mortification as:

a ruthless rejection of all practices we know to be wrong; a daily repentance, turning from all known sins of habit, practice, association or thought; a plucking out of the eye, a cutting off of the hand or foot, if temptation comes to us through what we see or do or where we go. The only attitude to adopt towards the flesh is to kill it.

Spiritual-Mindedness

The other side of sanctification is spiritual mindedness, or what theologians call “aspiration.” John Stott says this side of sanctification involves:

a whole-hearted giving of ourselves, in thought and energy and ambition, to ‘whatever is true and honorable, just and pure, lovely and gracious’ (see Phil. 4:8). It will include a diligent use of the ‘means of grace,’ such as prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, worship, the Lord’s Supper, and so on.

Hating sin and loving righteousness go together.  If we cling to the good, we necessarily will hate the evil.  If we genuinely hate evil, we will show it by devoting ourselves to what is good. If you’ve ever tried quitting a longstanding sinful habit, you know it doesn’t work just to focus on not doing it. You must also do the opposite things, the positive things.  We must cultivate godly habits—prayer, meditation, and other spiritual disciplines or we won’t get very far in disengaging from sin.

Rely on the Holy Spirit

We should also recognize as we begin the all-important work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to be spiritually minded; we must rely on him and not our own efforts. Paul said in Romans 8:5, “Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Likewise, it is the Spirit who enables our efforts to mortify sin.  “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [mortify-KJ] the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). 

These basic truths concerning sanctification establish the foundation for considering what we want to consider now.

Five Ways to Hate Sin

 

1.  Claim your freedom in Christ.

The place to begin is with claiming our freedom in Christ. Most Christians understand that Christ came to free them from the penalty of sin and, someday in heaven, from the presence of sin. But many have not heard or grasped the truth that Christ came to set them from the controlling power of sin here and now in this life.

The key passage on freedom in Christ from the reign of sin is Romans 6. Let me give you a taste of what this very important section of Scripture says...

How can we who died to sin still live in it?....We know that our old self was crucified with him…so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin….For one who has died has been set free from sin….So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus…For sin will have no dominion over you…and having been set free from sin…For when you were slaves of sin….But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God…”  (see Romans 6:1-23)

In Christ’s death on the cross we died to sin.  In Christ’s resurrection from the grave we rose to new life.  That’s where sin-hating and sin-refusing begins:  with the truth that in Christ we have died to sin.  Sin is no longer our master.  The sinful tendencies remain and, yes, we will sin sometimes, but we are under no obligation to do so because of our union with Christ.

Many Christians are trapped in feeling helpless and hopeless in the battle with sin.  Here’s how Neil Anderson explains the problem:

Before we received Christ, we were slaves to sin.  Now because of Christ’s work on the cross, sin’s power over us has been broken.  Satan has no right of ownership or authority over us.  He is a defeated foe, but he is committed to keeping us from realizing that....The father of lies can block your effectiveness as a Christian if he can deceive you into believing that you are nothing but a product of your past—subject to sin, prone to failure, and controlled by your habits.

Paul said, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 54:1).  You are free in Christ, but you will be defeated if the devil can deceive you into believing you are nothing more than a sin-sick product of your past.  Nor can Satan do anything about your position in Christ, but if he can deceive you into believing what the Scripture says isn’t true, you will live as though it isn’t.

2.  Meditate on the perfections of God’s character.

Second, we will learn to hate sin by meditating on the perfections of God’s character—how holy and pure he is, how righteous and wise and good and just and kind and loving. David said, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Ps 16:8). 

 

Thoughts of God will satisfy our deepest needs and crowd out sinful thoughts. Psalm 63, “My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat and my mouth praises thee with joyful lips when I think of thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the watches of the night.”

The more our soul feasts on God, the less appetite we will have for sin. The more we know God, the more we’ll realize how offensive sin is to him and so despise it ourselves. "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil" (Prov 8:13). The more we know God, the more we will want to please him, imitate him, glorify him, and avoid doing or thinking anything that will grieve his Spirit.

3.  When sin looks sweet, picture its bitterness.

Here’s a third way of hating sin:  When sin looks sweet, picture its bitterness.  The Bible gives us many vivid images to impress upon our minds the corruption and destructiveness of sin.

Sin is pollution.  “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Is 64:6).  “Cleanse your hands from every defilement of body and spirit” (2 Cor 7:1).

Sin is a stalking beast.  God warned Cain when it began thinking about killing his brother Able, “If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7).

Sin is a slave master.  “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34).

Sin is a killer.  “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).  “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Rom 7:11). It is because of sin that the unsaved—including perhaps many of our loved ones and friends—will be cast forever into a hell of unending torment and anguish.

Sin is adultery.  “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:4).  Sin is unfaithfulness to God and like a jealous spouse his heart is grieved by the straying of his loved one (see Eph 4:30).

Sin is a leaven which infiltrates, multiplies and harms others.  “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.”  Paul was referring in I Corinthians 5 to the harm that is done to the body of Christ when gross sin is tolerated in the church.  It doesn’t stop with one person; it spreads and causes more and more damage.

4.  Reflect on the opportunities and rewards lost because of sin.

Fourth, we will learn to hate sin by reflecting on the opportunities and rewards lost because of it.  Because of sin:

• Adam and Eve lost Paradise.
• Moses was barred from entering the Promised Land.
• Israel lost it temple, its land, and its privileged status with God.

How about ourselves?  Because of sin:

• We lose the pleasures of God's fellowship. "In thy presence there is fullness of joy; in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore (Ps 16:11). Could there be a greater opportunity lost?
• We lose opportunities to impact lives for the Kingdom of God when we are too busy with sinful pursuits.
• We lose eternal rewards for faithful service (2 Cor 5:10).

Because of sin our spiritual vitality decays, our faith weakens, our conscience is spoiled, our sense of calling and mission evaporates.  For the sake of the fleeting pleasures of sin, we forfeit peace and joy and other fruit of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I come that they might have life and have it abundantly”--but we only experience abundant life when we repent and renounce our sins.

5.  Reflect on the sacrifice required to atone for sin.

Fifth, and very importantly, we will hate sin more if we reflect on the sacrifice required to atone for it.  Isaiah 53:4-5 says:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).

How bad is sin? Sin is so bad the only perfect man to walk on the earth had to suffer and die for it. If we are mindful of the sufferings of Christ, how can we go on loving the sin that killed him?

Charles Spurgeon, the great 19^th century preacher, said:

Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it?  Sin pierced the heart of the incarnate God; can you love it?  Oh, that there was an abyss as deep as Christ’s misery, that I might at once hurl this dagger of sin into its depths, whence it might never be brought to light again. Begone, O sin!  You are banished from the heart where Jesus reigns!  Begone, for you have crucified my Lord and made Him cry, “Why hast thou forsaken me.?”

Conclusion

 

So there it is: five ways of hating. First, claim your freedom in Christ. Second, meditate on God’s character. Third, when sin appears sweet, remember its bitterness. Fourth, reflect on the opportunities and rewards lost because of sin.  And fifth, reflect on the sacrifice required to atone for sin.

I’ve been talking with those who already know Jesus Christ personally. But maybe you don't know him, not yet. But you have sensed the Spirit of God tugging at your heart recently. Well, I want to assure you the arms of the Heavenly Father are open wide to you. He gave Christ to die for your sins, so you might be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life. And so that you live free from enslavement to sin in this life. 

God wants you just as you are, with your problems and your sins. I made the mistake when I began turning toward God of thinking it was my job to change myself. I thought I had to quit this and do that and then God would accept me.  But I was wrong. God takes us as we are, with all our sins and shortcomings. "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Repentance from sin and faith in Christ to save you is all that is needed. "Repent and believe," Jesus said (Mark 1:15). "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).