446 Sermon Illustrations on Sin

When a man is known to suffer from a sadly contagious disease, none of his friends will come near the house. There is little need to warn them off, they are all too alarmed to come near. Why is it men are not as much afraid of the contagion of vice? How dare they run risks for themselves and children by allowing evil companions to frequent their house? Sin is as infectious and far more deadly than the small-pox or fever. Flee, then, from every one who might lead you into it.

See JUVENILE COURT EXPERIENCE.

GAMBLING AS RELIGIOUS DUTY

One of the three great annual Hindu festivals is in memory of the occasion when three of the Hindu gods sat down to gamble. Krishna, the guileful god, won. This festival is celebrated by universal gambling. Indeed, the people believe that unless they gamble at this time, they will be born as rats, or take some other undesirable form in the next life.

After the festival is over, thousands of families have to start life again from the very bottom without a stick of furniture, as all has been lost at gambling.

Our scientists, by the aid of powerful lenses, intense lights, exquisite adjustments, have succeeded in rendering visible the germs of several terrible maladies which decimate us, and these ardent naturalists hope ultimately to discover germs still more minute and obscure. But can any one believe that a bacteria of immorality will ever be revealed by the microscope as the germs of disease have been? Fever and cholera germs, germs of consumption, hydrophobia, erysipelas, have been disclosed by the fierce light of modern research; but no one will suppose that the germs of intemperance, impurity, anger, covetousness, deceit, pride, murder, foolishness, will ever be thrown on the screen, and an antidote be found for them in the pharmacopoeia. If it were thus possible to exhibit the secret of our sins, how we should shudder at the sight of the naked human heart, and shrink from the ghastly things which nestle there! But such a spectacle is not possible, and we are sure that it never will be. The germs of moral disease are in the soul itself; no glass of science may make them visible, no physician may deal with them, no medicine may purge them.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

In Egypt, travelers tell us about the destruction of palaces by vandals and Huns. The greatest architects and artists the world has ever known toiled upon the palace, and made it as perfect as a red rose; then came along these vandals--they ripped out carvings of angels and seraphs, that held a beauty that would pierce an artist’s heart, and with these carvings boiled their kettles. They pulled down the statues of Phidias and burned them into lime. They took the very stones of a palace and built them into hundreds of mean and squalid hovels. Soon where had been a structure for the gods, there stood hovels unfit for beasts.

In the same way many men treat the precious things of life and religion.

Sin from the perspective of the New Testament, and psychologists like Skinner, Menninger, and Mowrer. Society converts sin to crime, sickness and societal maladjustment. Stott says sin is rebellion against God's absolute standards. It is a reality.

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A wise old eagle was killing a Revolutionary farmer's stock. The farmer built a trap board by board so the eagle would get used to it. Finally the farmer placed a steel trap in it and baited it with a slain lamb.

Sin enslaves and destroys, one sin at a time, resulting in "judgment without mercy."

Accounts of bear attacks on people. Prime motivation - garbage-habituated bears lose fear of people, prey on them (or attack when surprised).

Application: Satan is also attracted by garbage in our lives, can then prey on us.

Give specific accounts: ........

Movie "The Last Temptation of Christ." Directed by Martin Scorsese. Comment by Rev. Paul Moore, Episcopal bishop of New York:

"The scene that's going to upset everybody is His delirium on the Cross when He makes love to Mary Magdalene on screen."

Bees are not native to America. They were brought by European settlers, called "white man's flies" by Indians. Brought to Ohio by hurricane in 1740's.

Killer bees will reach Texas by 1990. They have killed at least 350 people in Central and South America. Twenty to thirty swarms of Africanized bees accidentally released in Brazil in 1956. More defensive around hives and tend to attack more aggressively and pursue people. Inspired 1978 horror film, "The Swarm."

Scientists had assumed the Africanized bees would become Europeanized by mating the gentler variety, and thus lose their tendency to sting in potentially deadly swarms. But in a surprising finding, researchers report that the dilution of Africanized genes appears only to be temporary and the bees' genetic makeup eventually becomes almost purely Africanized again in the wild swarms that have spread up through Central America and Mexico.

Compare with sin, which cannot be diluted by goodness. Sin will win out and monopolize a person.

Sermon on Jesus washing the disciples' feet, and Peter objecting.

1. Who needs it?

2. How do you get it?

3. What is the purpose of cleansing?

4. How often do you need it?

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After conquering a sin, be careful not to condemn it in others. Author watched a Donahue program with women who had successfully dieted arguing with a fat women. One thin lady concluded: "I was right to lose the weight, and I give all of the credit to the Lord." It was said in an arrogant way.

Reasons we do it:

1. Sin nature.

2. Pride.

3. Insecurity.

4. Ignorance.

5. Fear.

After the Fall:

1. We risk judgment from others.

Sam tried to save his marriage and condemned Christians who got

divorces. When he found a beautiful Christian woman and dumped his

wife, they turned and criticized him.

2. We could stumble backward.

3. We might repel needy people.

The Good News: The Holy Spirit can work these qualities into your character:

1. Compassion.

2. Humility.

3. Watchfulness.

4. Joy.

5. Ministry.

Many Christians are defeated because they cannot get rid of guilt or feel forgiven. C.S. Lewis says Satan's strategy is to get Christians preoccupied with their failures; from then on, the battle is won.

1. Christ's death on the cross was a sacrifice for all sins, past, present

and future.

(Even Hitler could be forgiven. Billy Graham was asked this.)

2. The punishment for our sins has been laid on Christ. We cannot be

punished for them.

3. God does not become weary in hearing our confessions of sin.

Christian pastors who fall should be restored to fellowship upon repentance, but not allowed to be leaders again. Gordon MacDonald's case is brought up, though he is not named. The traits in 1 Timothy 3 are expounded, then other Scriptures. In 1 Timothy 5:9, widows are required to have been faithful to their spouses; how much more pastors.

Bumper sticker: "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself." Temptations are often a misdirected desire for security. God does not want us to be anxious.

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

1. God has set a limit on the intensity of every temptation.

2. Alongside every temptation, God has designed a way out.

3. God provides us with the power to overcome.

Eph 6:11 is analyzed. "Temptation may be a private thing, but sin rarely is."

How to deal with failure. (Seven principles from Psalm 51):

1. Repent.

2. Accept God's forgiveness.

3. Restitution.

4. Accept God's discipline.

5. Identify the lesson(s) God is teaching us.

6. Consult a qualified counselor.

7. Be ready to share what you have learned with others.

[Condensed from Stanley's book, TEMPTATION.]

"Sow a thought, reap an action.

Sow an action, reap a habit.

Sow a habit, reap a character.

Sow a character, reap a destiny."

Quote from Talmadge.

Modern theology is leaving the foundation of Scripture and turning to an

economic-social basis. Repentance has been sidestepped. Instead, Scripture

must be supreme. The theology of the book of Romans is compared.

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Barney Frank's struggles as a homosexual politician and his relationship with a male hooker. Attached article deals with our expectation of ethics in politicians.

Anthony Thornton put a new mark in the Guinness Book of World Records for walking backwards 95.7 miles in 23 hours and 45 minutes. Shucks, we know a lot of Christians who can backslide farther and faster than that! Thornton, like his counterpart out-of-sorts saints, really didn't make any progress going backward. His entire feat consisted of going back and forth across the Washington Avenue bridge at the University of Minnesota! Like a merry-go-round rider, he got off right where he got on.

Articles on 1 John 1:8-9, focusing on the self-deception of sin. World leaders after WWI deceived themselves about the Nazis. We can't really know the heart of others, but we can examine ourselves. "God will never tolerate sin, but he will forgive it."

Sermon on 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.

1. Modern examples of excommunication. (RCC and abortion)

2. Situation in 1 Cor 5.

a. Pride of the Corinthians.

3. Proper reaction.

a. Grieve over sin.

b. Deal with sinner.

c. Goal is restoration.

4. Sin in church compared to leaven in bread.

a. Purge sin in church.

b. Purge sin in personal life.

5. Application to modern day.

a. Sin is not just a private matter.

b. Our goal should always be restoration.

6. Prepare hearts for communion.

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In Jules Verne’s novel The Mysterious Island he tells of five men who escape a Civil War prison camp by hijacking a hot-air balloon. As they rise into the air, they realize the wind is carrying them over the ocean. Watching their homeland disappear on the horizon, they wonder how much longer the balloon can stay aloft.

As the hours pass and the surface of the ocean draws closer, the men decide they must cast overboard some of the weight, for they had no way to heat the air in the balloon. Shoes, overcoats and weapons are reluctantly discarded, and the uncomfortable aviators feel their balloon rise. But only temporarily. Soon they find themselves dangerously close to the waves again, so they toss their food. Better to be high and hungry than drown on a full belly!

Unfortunately, this, too, is only a temporary solution, and the craft again threatens to lower the men into the sea. One man has an idea: they can tie the ropes that hold the passenger car and sit on those ropes. Then they can cut away the basket beneath them, As they sever the very thing they had been standing on, it drops into the ocean, and the balloon rises.

Not a minute too soon, they spot land. Eager to stand on terra firma again, the five jump into the water and swim to the island. They live, spared because they were able to discern the difference between what really was needed and what was not. The “necessities” they once thought they couldn’t live without were the very weights that almost cost them their lives.

The writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles."

The following item appeared on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, Aug. 27, 1998, written by Franklin Graham.

“CLINTON’S SINS AREN’T PRIVATE”

Few people have lived a more public life over the past 50 years than has my father, Billy Graham. I can assure you that the Billy Graham you see in public is the same one we children have seen at home. He has spent a lifetime making sure that his public ministry in confirmed in his private behavior.

The topic of private vs. public behavior has emerged as perhaps the central moral issue raised by Bill Clinton’s “improper relationship” with Monica Lewinsky. Much of America seems to have succumbed to the notion that what a person does in private has little bearing on his public actions or job performance, even if he is the president of the United States.

Last week Mr Clinton told 70 million Americans that his adulterous actions with Ms. Lewinsky were a “private” matter “between me, the two people I love the most — my wife and our daughter — and our God.”

But the God of the Bible says that what one does in private does matter. Mr. Clinton’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior in the Oval Office now concerns him and the rest of the world, not just his immediate family. If he will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, and those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?

Private conduct does have public consequences. Some of Mr. Clinton’s defenders present King David of the Bible, one of history’s great leaders, as an example as they call on us to forgive and forget the president’s moral failings. Since God pardoned David’s adulterous act with Bathsheba, the reasoning goes, we should similarly forgive Mr. Clinton.

But forgiveness is not the end of David’s story. Huge consequences followed immediately. The prophet Nathan confronted David with the news that while his life would be spared, the life of his child would be extinguished after just seven days on earth. Bathsheba’s husband and others were killed in an attempt to cover up the illicit affair. David, who confessed his sin when confronted by Nathan (perhaps God’s special prosecutor), also witnessed a bloody coup attempted by his own son, Absalom. He was never the same king.

The private acts of any person are never done in secret. God sees and judges all sin, and while He seeks to restore the offender with love and grace, He does not necessarily remove all the consequences of sin. As a boy I remember my mother telling me of the consequences of sin. Like a boat, whose wake can capsize other boats, sin leaves a wake. Just look at how many have already been pulled under the wake of the president’s sin: Mr. Clinton’s wife and daughter, Ms. Lewinsky, her parents, White House staff members, friends and supporters, public officials and an unwitting American public.

Mr. Clinton’s sin can be forgiven, but he must start by admitting to it and refraining from legalistic double speak. According to Scripture, the president did not have an “inappropriate relationship” with Monica Lewinsky – - he committed adultery. He didn’t “mislead” his wife and us — he lied.

Acknowledgment must be coupled with genuine remorse. A repentant spirit that says, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. I won’t do it again. I ask for your forgiveness,” would go a long way toward personal and national healing.

The scandal of Mr. Clinton and Ms. Lewinski has forced us to examine morality of public and private behavior with new intellectual and spiritual vigor. There needs to be no clash between personal conduct and public appearance. Throughout my life, I have seen consistency of two in the Graham house. I pray this will also be in the White House.

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Mr. Graham is president of Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief agency, and first vice chairman of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

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Mike Yaconelli wrote in The Wittenburg Door: "I live in a small, rural community. There are lots of cattle ranches around here, and, every once in a while, a cow wanders off and gets lost... Ask a rancher how a cow gets lost, and chances are he will reply, 'Well, the cow starts nibbling on that one, and then it nibbles on a tuft of green grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it nibbles on a tuft of grass right next to a hole in the fence. It then sees another tuft of green grass on the other side of the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next tuft. The next thing you know, the cow has nibbled itself into being lost.'

"Americans are in the process of nibbling their way to lostness... We keep moving from one tuft of activity to another, never noticing how far we have gone from home or how far away from the truth we have managed to end up."

No one wants to crash and burn.

On September 8, 1992, Air Force master pilot Don Snelgrove was flying over Turkey in an F-16 fighter. He was on a four-hour mission to patrol the no-fly zone established over northern Iraq to protect the Kurds.

Nature calls even for master pilots. He pulled out a plastic container, set his F-16 on autopilot, and undid his lap belt. As he adjusted his seat upward, the bucklet on that lap belt wedged between the seat and the control stick, pushing the stick to the right and sending the plane into a spin.

As he struggled to regain control, the plane plunged 33,000 feet. Finally at 2,000 feet altitude, he ejected from the plane. Moments later the F-16 struck a barren hillside and burst into flames. Neither the pilot nor anyone on the ground was injured. But I'll tell you what: there was one very embarrassed master pilot. That F-16 burning on a hillside in Turkey cost U.S. taxpayers $18 million.

Even inadvertent mistakes are terribly embarrassing. How much worse are the mistakes and failures that result from our weaknesses, flaws, and sins. But we don't have to crash and burn morally. We can develop godly character, and James 1:2-4 shows us how.

Brother Dallas relates the following experience: One day my little

sister and I were playing in the yard. Mother had some little ducks

and I would put one of them in a tub of water to see him swim. Also, I

would put him under the water and hold him there. One time I held him

too long. He was a drowned duck. When I saw that I had drowned him I

was horrified, for I knew that sister would tell Mother. But, as I was

thus perplexed, my little sister said, "I will tell you what I will

do; if you will do everything I ask you to do I will not tell Mother."

This was a happy solution and I said, "Anything you want in this world

let me know and I will do it." We had a little wagon and soon sister

appeared, seated herself in the wagon and said, "Pull me." Well I did

till I was tired. Then she looked at me, with a kind of a tyrannical

look, and said, "Pull me some more." Well days went by and I woke up

to the fact that I was a slave. I could not endure it and made up my

mind to go to Mother and have it fixed up regardless. So I went into

the room crying pitifully and Mother took me in her arms and said,

"Son, what is the matter?" And finally I sobbed out, "Mother I've

drowned one of your ducks." "Well," she said, "you did not mean to do

it and you are so sorry, I will forgive you this time, go on and

play." I never felt so light and good in all my life. Finally, little

sister appeared and made some drastic demands on me, and I looked in

her face and said, "I will not do it." Then she said, with her finger

in my face, "Do you remember that duck?" Then I looked her in the eyes

and said, "Duck? I want to tell you that duck business is all fixed

up." It may be expensive to get matters fixed up but surely pays in

many ways.

By William Moses Tidwell, "Effective Illustrations."