(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And so the title of this morning sermon is the inequality of sin the inequality of sin And what i'm preaching against this morning is this idea or this philosophy that's out there That all sin is equal now. How many people have probably heard that in their life that hey, you know You know one sin is the same as another sin. We're all sinners and uh, you know, therefore all sin is equal Well, we're gonna hopefully by the end of the sermon you'll see that that is not true that all sin is in fact not equal And the source of that error where that that idea or that thinking comes from is completely unknown to me I don't understand where people get that and and it's so unbiblical that even most you know compromised watered down lukewarm churches Even they understand this a lot of them will even preach. Hey, no, actually some sins are worse than others that all sin is not equal so Just trying right out of the gate just trying to figure out where does this even come from? Where does this mentality come from, you know, and I can't put my finger on it where exactly uh, you know I first heard this but you know I don't recall ever having heard it preached in any church that i've ever been in You know and I haven't been in a lot of churches But you know before I got in a king james only independent fundamental Fire breathing soul winning baptist church, you know before I got into that i'd been in You know for a very short amount of time in some more liberal churches and I don't recall Ever hearing them preach this or now I never recall them hearing them preach against it either but you know I'm trying i'm scratching my head trying to figure out where do people even come up with this idea that all sin is equal Because when you really start to break that down and really start to think about what you're saying When well all sin is the same, you know, it it's ridiculous It's it's ludicrous to sit there and think that you know stealing, uh, you know Some small item or something that a child might do some sin that a child might commit You know is on par with something that a you know, a full-grown adult is capable of, you know Some sins aren't even available to us in certain stages of our life or certain situations of our life For example, you know the bible warns about those that will be rich For those that will be rich have will pierce themselves with many through with many sorrows And uh, you know talking about the fact that you know written, you know riches, you know for a lot of people will ruin them You know, there's a lot of sins that we're just never going to get involved in because of the fact that we can't afford it Right, and there's a lot of other people out there that can't afford it and they get into some pretty wicked sins So this whole idea of all sin being equal when you start to really think about it Doesn't make any sense and it's hard to even understand where it comes from now where I have heard it is out door knocking You know We go out into the community here in tucson And we knock on doors and we ask people if they're saved if we can show them from the bible what it takes To know to be 100 sure that they're on their way to heaven and a lot of times, you know We'll start to talk to these folks And some of that's where i've heard it the most is in conversation at folks with people at their at their doors of their home They'll say well, you know all sin is equal So, you know, maybe where it comes from is from just this carnal philosophy just this carnal way of thinking Were of people who just kind of want to you know, excuse themselves from having to live to a higher moral standard You know people say well, you know, it's not important how I live because at the end of the day all sins equal, you know It doesn't matter if I go to church or if I if I you know live by the commandments or try to keep god's word You know, none of that matters because at the end of the day all sins equal so it doesn't really matter what I do You know, we're all on a level playing field now again They'll they'll even cite certain examples. A lot of them will even go to the bible, you know They'll even i've even heard people say will say, you know Uh, jesus said that if you even look on a woman to lust after you've committed adultery in her heart So, you know, there you go. It's okay for me to be living in fornication unmarried with my partner and and having that relationship because after all You know, everybody's looked on a woman to lust so we're all guilty But here's the thing. We're not all guilty of that sin. We're not all fornicators. We're not all drunkards We're not all covetous. We're not all extortioners And those are sins that specifically would get you kicked out of church so to sit there and say You know and that's courtnik first corinthians five you can read that and it gives a list of sins that if any of a man That is called a brother is partaking of we are to have no company with him Until he gets it right and then he's to be received back But that's another sermon but that in and of itself goes to show you that not all sin is equal You know, there's some sins that we could be guilty of of in this morning in this in this building And I guarantee you there's not a person from the pulpit to the pew in this building that doesn't have some kind of sin in their life You know because we're all sinners I get that But there's some you know, a lot of those sins aren't going to be sins that are going to get kicked out of church You know or suffer some other punishment So to sit there and say that all sin is equal. It just doesn't make any sense when you just approach it logically But this morning what we're going to do is we're actually going to go through some scripture in the bible And just debunk this carnal philosophy of all sin being equal Now when you look there in james chapter 2 this probably might be One of the verses that somebody could turn to to try to make this case That hey all sin is equal it says there in verse uh verse James chapter 2 verse 10 for whosoever shall keep the whole law yet offended one point. He is guilty of all Now see see there you go. If you just do one sin, it's like you did them all No, that's that's not what it says. It doesn't say if you're guilty of one you've done them all it says you're guilty of all Right you might it's as if you might as well have already done them because you you know you what it's showing us is that We're already condemned, you know that we're already it's already possible for us to commit all of these sins You know, we could we could get all uh, we've all fallen short of the glory of god Right for all have sinned we understand that and people turn to verses like this And in romans and they say well bible says for all have sinned, you know, therefore, you know We're all sinners. It doesn't really matter what we do doesn't matter how we live our life because after all all sin is equal Now james chapter 2 verse 10 and others it does condemn us guilty as sinners and that's the point That's the point of it right there and we've all come short of the glory of god that we are guilty of all right But that doesn't make us all as sinful as one another Does it does that mean that everybody in this room is as equally much as a sinner as the next person? Does that mean you know little corban john up here, you know, he's my spitting image Is he guilty of all the sins that i've committed at four years of age? No And pray, you know pray the lord that he is never guilty Of of some of the sins that you know, his father has committed and so on and so forth You know and for all all of our children, you know, we pray that What does that mean everybody in this room is at the same level of sinfulness? Do some people in this room maybe have a little bit more sin than other people? Certainly possible. Well, one thing is for certain is that not everybody in this room is not equally sinful And everybody in the world is not equally sinful And I don't think that's a real far stretch. I don't know that I really have to You know go to great lengths to convince you of that this morning But we are going to go to the scripture and if you would turn over turn over to first timothy chapter one first timothy chapter one And we're going to start to look at some scriptures that just just completely demolish this false way of thinking This carnal vain philosophy that just wants to excuse itself from having to live a godly life a life of righteous living And by saying well all sins equal we're gonna just smash that this morning, you know, I don't want anybody walking out of this room You know not convinced of the fact that all sin in fact is not equal that there is an inequality of sin It says there in first timothy chapter one verse 15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that christ. Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief So paul here is saying that he is the chiefest of sinners And as he's saying I you know of whom we all are Sinners, you know, we're all hey, we're all equal sinners. You know, we're all all sins equal He's saying no he came to save sinners and i'm the worst of them So that statement right there shows us that jesus or not jesus But paul understood that all sin is not equal that some people are more sinful than others You know and if you know the story of paul before he was called paul he was saul And he was uh, you know of the tribe of benjamin. He was a pharisee of the pharisees Right and he persecuted the church You know, he even brought letters and and hailed some of the church and carried them away in bonds to imprisonment and even death That he was consenting under the death of stephen the first martyr in the book of acts I mean he before his conversion was a wicked man He opposed christ when jesus confronted him on the on damascus grode. He said that he kicked against the pricks So he was a he was a sinful man and he knew it, you know, he did now has everybody in this room persecuted the church Have you ever had a believer hauled away and thrown in prison like paul So to sit there and say well all sins equal, you know, i'm just as sinful as paul is inaccurate Go over, uh, if you would to first john chapter five first john chapter five How about another example where the bible just flat out says that some sin is worse than others, you know one that comes to mind Is genesis chapter 13? Talking about the city of of saddam and gomorrah And it says in genesis chapter 13 verse 13 that the men of saddam Were wicked and sinners before the lord what exceedingly? Exceedingly sinful is what they were. They weren't just your average run-of-the-mill sinner. They were on a whole nother level They were reprobates. They were sodomites so on and so forth That's another sermon, but i'm just going to that scripture to show us that some people are worse sinners than others That not everybody has this equality of sinfulness that there is an equality inequality to sin So some sinners are worse than others just as some sins are worse than others It's not just that some people are worse centers than other people But there's actually sins that you commit that are worse than other sins And when we're getting i'm going to make application here at the end So stay with me because this can't apply to even us in this room that already understand this because there's another danger There's another pitfall That can come with this line of thinking so just stay with me But right now I just want to make the point that you know Some sins are worse than others just as some sinners are worse than others. Look there in first john chapter five verse 16 If any man see his brother sin a sin, which is not unto death He shall ask and he shall give him life For them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it Now people read that and they think well, what's this one sin unto death? No, what he's referring to is the old testament, you know, if you've been with us through the book of deuteronomy Especially these last few weeks where we've been going through a lot of the civil law that god laid out in the old testament God puts the death penalty in a lot of things God puts the death penalty a lot of sins that even today people are guilty of Right and what he's saying here is like look according to the word of god There is a sin that is unto death and it's not just one sin There's multiple sins That you know some sins are punished in god's law by a financial penalty some sins are are punished by an actual physical beating Uh, you know and we're talking, you know within a judicial system, you know, not at like we're not this isn't something we do here Okay But you know and some sins are also punished by death and that right there should show you just the most casual Just you know read through the bible through the old testament It becomes very obvious If you're paying attention That some sins are worse than others that some sins have a sin unto death and there's a sin that is not unto death So just as some sinners are worse than others some sins that people commit are worse than others as well So again the point at the beginning of the sermon is just to debunk this carnal philosophy that all sin is equal This idea that this excuse that people want to have that it's okay for them to have their sin Because you know their their their sin as bad as it might be Is just the same as everybody else's that we're all sinners, but that is not biblical You know, and I I think we could probably just close our bibles and go home right now And hopefully everybody's already convinced. I mean how many more scriptures do we have to look at for you to see the fact that? Some sins are worse than others That some sinners are worse than others Well, we're not going to do that we're going to continue to go through a few more verses here So some sins as we just read in verse john chapter five are worthy of death others have other punishments that are listed there Uh, or or can be found in scripture So if you see that there's less extreme punishments doled out for certain sins, how can they all be equal? Some sins are in fact worse than others if you would go to john chapter 19 john chapter 19 You know, this is this is a great passage to prove this because it's right out of the mouth of jesus christ It's him saying it and of course this is talking about the point of the story where They're bringing jesus to pilot to have him crucified Pilate's kind of on the fence not sure if he wants to carry it go through with it It says in john chapter 19 verse 10 Then saith pilot unto him speakest thou not unto me Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee to have power to release thee Jesus answered thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above Therefore he that delivered me out or excuse me delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin So look it was was pilot off the hook No pilot was guilty. He you know later in the story He he washes his hands and said I am free from the blood of this innocent man Sorry, that doesn't cut it. You know, he still delivered him to be crucified You know pilot still has his sin in this part of the in this story Right, but jesus is saying look the people that delivered me unto you have a greater sin than you pilot and uh So right there showing us that even in god's eyes in the eyes of the lord. Jesus christ Some people are worse sinners than others You know this can be further proven if you go over to matthew chapter 10 verse 5 matthew chapter 10 verse 5 The fact that there are going to be varying degrees of punishment in hell Did you know that that when the people that go to hell are gonna there's not everybody's gonna suffer the same degree Now look there isn't a nice part to hell It's not like well hell won't be that bad for me. I don't want any part to do with it I don't want a toe in hell Okay, and praise god that salvation's free that it's all by belief that it's not of our works of our own righteousness But by his grace, he saved us that nobody has to go there by just simply believing in the lord. Jesus christ But the people that go there there's going to be varying degrees of punishment look here in matthew chapter 10 verse 5 these 12 jesus sent forth and commanded them saying Go not into the way of the gentiles and into any of the city of the samaritans enter ye not But go rather to the lost house of the sheep of israel and as ye go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand So get the context of what's going on. Jesus is sending out his 12 disciples and saying don't go to the gentiles Don't go to the samaritans. He's saying go to the lost house of the sheep of israel Right, so he's going to the jews first. That's who he's sending them to right so jump down to verse 12 And when you come into a house salute it Verse 13 and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it But if it not be not worthy let your peace return to you and whosoever shall not receive receive you Nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you It shall be more tolerable in the land for the land of sodom and gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city So jesus is saying look if I when I send you to the city of the lost house of the tribes of israel When I send you to these people and they if they reject you And you know let your peace come unto you and leave that city shake off the dusty feet He's saying but for those people that reject you it's going to be more tolerable For the lands of the the for sodom and gomorrah in the day of judgment and on the day of judgments was when people are going to be you know, the the resurrection where people are, you know, Brought before the great white throne the books will be opened and they'll be judged according to their works And people will be cast, you know into the lake of fire Is what the bible teaches and he's saying look at that day It would be better to be be a resident of sodom and gomorrah Which if you recall what I read earlier, those people were sinners exceedingly before the lord and we recall the story God rained fire and brimstone out on those cities And god is saying look because they have rejected you they've rejected me they have rejected the gospel Out of hand, you know, it's going to just be worse for them than in the day of judgment So there's going to be a worse punishment doled out unto these people than even for those of sodom and gomorrah folks There are varying degrees of punishment for sin All sin is not equal You know because because of the fact that jesus said, you know, there are some people he said of to pilot Hey, this guy has the worst sin. He has the greater sin He's saying here these people of these cities that reject you it's going to be more tolerable for other people in the day of judgment You know their sin is going to be worse than others And what is it here? You know, it's kind of a side note, but what is it here that makes Uh, you know the day of judgment more tolerable for the others than for the jews here It's because of the fact that these people that jesus is sending him to Are are being held to a greater degree of accountability Right the bible says he came unto his own and his own received him not Right, so he's coming onto his own. He's not sending his 12 disciples to anybody else but them exclusively And right out of the gate he's been amongst them preaching doing miracles. They know who he is They have a greater degree of accountability Given their access to the truth given to the fact that jesus was walking amongst them preaching to them sending his disciples doing the miracles He said if you believe not for my word's sake believe me for the for the for the works that I do You know, they had a greater degree of accountability folks. So when you have a a a greater degree of accountability before god, you know, you're You know, how am I trying to put this when you when you're given more responsibility or more knowledge the more you know About god the more you know about the bible the more you're in church and learning the things of god The more accountable you become to god Even as his child you're born again, you know, even more so you have the holy spirit dwelling in you if you're born again You've been saved You know and he's leading you and guiding you into knowledge and all truth You have the word of god you have someone preaching you to the word of god You know, you're held to a higher degree of accountability than just the guy who's never heard about jesus The guy who's never been in church who doesn't know those things that you know And that was what's going on here in the story he's sending him onto a people That were held to a higher degree of accountability and why was that because of what it says in romans 3 i'll read to you It says what advantage then half the jew paul's saying like what what what profit is it to the jew? What advantage do they have? Or what profit is there of circumcision? You know that's referring to the jews again. What profit do they have? What advantage do they have? He said this much Much every way he's saying look they have a great deal advantage they have a great deal of they profit a great deal being a jew be chiefly because Unto them were committed the oracles of god. They had the scriptures. They had the prophets. They had jesus come to them They were held to a higher degree of accountability if you would turn over to luke chapter 12 luke chapter 12 This is a concept that jesus taught throughout scripture Luke chapter 12 verse 47. We'll see again That some people are held To a higher degree of accountability ability and therefore will suffer a greater degree of punishment for their disobedience It says in verse 47 and that servant which knew his lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will Shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knew not and did commit such And did commit such Things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required To whom men have committed much of him. They will ask them more Look the more you know the more you understand the things of god the more accountable you are And that's what jesus is teaching. Look the guy that you know, they did the same thing He's worthy of stripes, but he didn't know his lord's will you know what he's going to get a lesser punishment So all sins are not equal Okay, and all sinners are not equal now. We're all sinners We all deserve you know, our the wages of sin is death. We all deserve You know the death of this body that you know, the second death being cast in the hell We all deserve that because we've all committed sin. Okay, but not every that doesn't make everybody Uh as sinful as as one another Because of the fact also we could even talk about That some sins are considered an abomination to god You know if you've read through the scripture if you listen to much preaching About it, you know Does god call every sin in the bible an abomination? You know god, but god does call some sins an abomination He even calls some people who commit some sins. He says they are an abomination So if you would turn to revelation chapter two revelation chapter two In fact god's got a list of things that he that he uh that are an abomination unto him in proverbs chapter six You're going to revelation two. I'll read to you from proverbs six. It says These six things doth the lord hate. Oh God hates You know, that's that's that's the lord. That's the bible that god hates some things. Okay You know, that's that's not a very popular idea out there even amongst christians today that you know, god is love we understand that But god is multifaceted. God is not just a you know a One-dimensional personality, you know, god is a person Who has you know all the range of feelings and emotions just like anybody else It says these six things that the lord hate yay seven are an abomination to him unto him. I mean abomination That's another level of hatred. That's to abhor something. I mean it's to be disgusted by it I mean, you know if if you were i'm trying to think of an example of where an instance where you might abhor something You go to a restaurant and they serve you up you're expecting this Dish and they just bring you the the the the one dish you despise the most You know, and it's it's cold and slimy and you just uh, you know, it's it's an abomination I hate it. I can't I don't even want to smell it. I don't want to see it. I don't want to know it's there You know, there's other dishes you might not be your favorite, but you could put up with them, right? I'm we're baptists. So food is the greatest analogy we always use right but you know You get the idea here that abomination is it's not just hating something. It's to be a bored by it to hate it to a severe degree In those things that he calls an abomination a proud look a lying tongue Hands that shed innocent blood a heart that devises wicked imaginations Feet that be swift in running to mischief a false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among the brethren Those are things that god says he hates and he calls an abomination God now that's a very specific list and that should show us That some sins are worse than others And if you're guilty of some sins, you are a worse sinner than others Look there in revelation chapter 2. We'll see more of the same look at verse 4 He says nevertheless. I have someone against thee because thou hast first left thy first love Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly And will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent But this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the nicoleatins Which I also hate so he's rebuking this church here and he's saying look I have someone against thee You know, you've left your first love, you know, your love for me is waxing cold. You're not doing the works You need to repent you need to get right and fix that Otherwise i'm going to remove your candlestick, you know, and that's basically when god just is done with the church You know and he takes takes away the leadership and the church just dies, right? so That's what he's threatening them there with but what I want you to notice here is the contrast Between what they're guilty of and what they hate He says there he says I have somewhat against thee. Is that a scathing rebuke? Hey, i've got somewhat against you If I were to come here and say hey i've got a little bit of a problem is that like me just coming down You know if a brother comes to you and says hey, man, you know, i've got a bone to pick with you I mean we could have disagreements or we could be people can offend us to a certain degree to where You know, it's not this big deal, but we hey, we still got to work this out. You see i'm saying And that's what he's kind of that's what reminds me there. I have somewhat against thee this isn't like, you know, you better get this right I can't believe you know, there this is not a a scathing You know rebuke of these people he's just saying look I do have someone against you But notice that with the deeds of the nickelatians, which I do hate which I also hate So there's right there in that those verses you're seeing there's some people that you know these sinners he has somewhat against them But these nickelatians over here man, he hates them Right. Do you see the contrast there? Again, another great verse that's showing us that not all sins are equal That not all sinners are equal that god hates some things and some things, you know, he just has a bone to pick with you over So You know another fact that or another thing a way we could approach this or look at debunk this this carnal philosophy of all sin being equal Is we could talk about the fact That god even in his in the bible prescribes a code of conduct for people who are guilty of certain sins God you know, he god says look don't do this, but if you're going to do it Do this if you go ahead and do it this happens. This is how I want to handle That's not god putting a stamp of approval on it and we're going to look at deuteronomy chapter 24 if you'd go over there You know, i'm kind of getting my head of myself in tonight's sermon But there's several examples in the old testament of this And if you've been with us on thursday nights, these will sound familiar But what about the fact and we can we can Know and understand that not all sin is equal because of the fact That god prescribes a code of conduct for some sins that people are guilty of Okay, one sin in particular are those that are guilty of divorce now divorce is a sin And the bible is very clear about that But look what he says here to deuteronomy 24 verse 1 When a man hath taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes Because he hath found some uncleanness in her Then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house And when she is debarred of his house, she may go and be another man's wife So he's saying look divorce is a sin, but here's an exception And if you're going to do it, you know, you're going to write a bill of divorcement And i'm going to talk about this more specifically tonight, you know this one exception that god has for divorce Right, but again, we're seeing that god is prescribing a code of conduct And he's and he his will is not for people, you know I don't really don't want to get in myself tonight sermon, but in deuteronomy 24. Jesus even rebukes that and says, you know, moses gave you Allowed you to write a bill of divorcement for the hardness of your hearts Ideally, what would happen in this situation is he would just forgive her and they would move on with their lives But god understands man. He knows that you know some men they just they can't do that that they They have the right to go ahead and expect one thing and if they get another Then in this instance, you know, they're allowed to to divorce and again i'm going to go over that tonight So if you're curious about that come on back, what about the sin of polygamy, right? God does not condone a polygamy Multiplying wives and if you would turn over to keep something in deuteronomy go over to exodus 21 exodus 21 Now did people in the old testament did they have multiple wives? Oh, yeah I mean solomon had a lot, right? David multiplied wives a lot of kings had multiplied multiple wives You know, it was something that happened a lot in the old testament now here's again This is something that cannot be reiterated enough when it comes to your bible reading Just because you read about something happening in the bible Does not mean god is condoning of it God gives us stories in the bible and all he's doing is telling us what happened A lot of times people open up their bible and they read something that just happened a narrative in the bible And they go oh god must approve of that You know, that must be what I should do. Okay. Well, what about when judas went and hung himself? You know, should you go do that? No, it's just telling you that's what happened Right. It's not god approving of it. It's just saying look this is what happened And people multiplied wives they had multiple wives in the bible, but that does not mean god approved of it God in fact specifically said of the kings that they were not to multiply to themselves wives. He said that And he said, you know one man one woman You know and they twain shall be one flesh is what he said, right? Thank you brother so Again, god, he disapproves of multiplying wives, but he understands look it's going to happen That some people are going to be worse sinners than others some of them are going to disregard god's rules god's word and they're going to go ahead and they're going to you know, um Commit that sin of polygamy and he says here in deuteronomy 21 verse 7 if a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant She shall not go out as the men's servants Do excuse me If she please not her master who hath betrothed them to herself Then she then shall he let her be redeemed to to sell her into a strange nation. He shall have no power Seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her and if he hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters If he take him another wife her food Her arraignment and her duty of marriage shall not be diminished Right, so saying look if this this girl that is working on, you know is working off this debt for her family Is ends up being betrothed either to her master or her master's son, you know, she has certain rights as the wife And if that master or the master's son who takes her as her wife then decides to go get another wife Which god does not condone of Because it's multiplying wives. He says look, but if that happens This is what you're going to do You know, you're going to make sure that her arraignment her food does not diminish you're going to still take care of her As as as her as your wife, you know, you're not going to treat her a second class So again, this is a great example of you know, there are things that that sins that take place in the bible That god does not approve of but it's not like but god at the same time is prescribing a code of conduct And the whole point i'm trying to make here is that showing us that look Some sins are worse than others some sins are not as bad as others. Does that mean we should go commit these sins? No But it doesn't but what i'm trying to get us across is we should not have this mentality of thinking all sins equal That it doesn't matter what we do And we're gonna get into it more to More of an application to us this morning here in a minute so There's we could look at another deuteronomy 22. We're just going to move on for the sake of time I feel like everybody's kind of got this concept, okay so If people what they do is they they say no, you know, the bible is clear that hey, you know Some sins are not as bad as others, you know, we're all sinners. It doesn't matter what we do And their misunderstanding You know their their their shallow understanding of scripture And their carnal motivations to justify whatever they're involved in and their and their sin They start to misapply scripture to suit their needs They start to go to passage and say well This is what you know, the bible says this here and they start to twist and rest the scripture If you would go over to romans chapter 6 romans chapter 6 Romans chapter 6, this is one Look at verse 14 This is one that you might hear in a more liberal church You know this this this grace only thing that you know, somehow we're not accountable because we're saved The bible says in verse 14 in romans 6 for sin shall not have the dominion over you for you're not under the law but Under grace now who's ever heard of this philosophy? Hey, man, we're under grace it doesn't matter what we do You know, it doesn't matter, you know, we're saved we can do whatever we want, you know, we're saved it's like we can do whatever we want because You know god we're saved god doesn't even see what we do And they they excuse themselves from a life of holy living that god has called us on to They excuse themselves from a life of holy living They excuse themselves from from adhering to to just the the the commands of scripture Because they're under grace now. Are we under grace? Yeah But we are not without the law that doesn't that doesn't make the law void in our lives these are still there are still standards and Commandments that we have to live up to not to go to heaven but to be pleasing to god God doesn't just save us and then just go do whatever you want Because doing whatever us what we want it is what got us into trouble in the first place So that doesn't make any sense But they'll say hey look, you know, we're we're under grace. We're not under the law So it doesn't matter what we do. We can get away with it that philosophy is out there and they love verse 14 But the irony is it's just sandwiched between these verses that completely completely just demolishes that line of thinking back up to verse 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body He's saying look you need to fight against sin. Don't let it have the dominion over you that you should obey it in the lust thereof So here he is admonishing them to not let sin reign in their body Paul said, you know, I die daily. I keep my body under and bring it into subjection You know, he goes on and says neither yield yourselves as your members as instruments of my life Never yield yourselves as your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin But yield yourselves unto god as those that are alive from the dead and as your members as instruments of righteousness of god Then it gets to verse 14 So they ignore those verses where he's saying don't sin Yield yourself to god, you know, don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies You know mortify the the the flesh and the deeds thereof Right, and then they get to verse 14. Hey, we're under grace You know, we're not under the law So we can do whatever we want. No, you still have you know to get sin out of your life Look at verse 15 right on the other side What then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace god forbid? I mean the next verse just demolishes this line of thinking we're under grace bro. It doesn't matter what we do You know god's not gonna be mad at you do whatever you want feels good. You're saved, right? God doesn't care the next verse Shall we sin because we're not allowed but under grace god forbid? Saying no way No way, we should have that attitude. No way. We should have that mentality that we can just do whatever we want because we're saved He goes on and says in verse 16 knowing not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to to obey His servants you are to whom you obey whether sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness What about romans chapter 8 turn over there romans chapter 8? This is one i've heard out of a liberal church They'll say, you know, there's no condemnation verse one. Look at verse one They want they love these first two verses here in romans 8 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in christ jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit You know in the first time I confronted a guy who was you know You know when I first time I first got saved before, you know before I really got in church. I started going to like this You know this youth bible study and it was like this real ecumenical they had People from all kinds of denominations getting together in these people's house and it was just a bunch of you know, kids, you know Waving their arms and playing, you know As the dear panther, you know these touchy feely songs and and uh, you know then we we have a quick prayer and everybody just basically sat around and Ate junk food and played uno right, you know, it's this christian prayer group or whatever But there was this guy who I knew from high school he showed up and there was this other girl she was going there You know and she's showing up in the the tank tops and the short shorts and eventually they're they're getting together And it comes pretty obvious what's going on there? And I finally confronted him said you can't you're christian. I mean, I didn't know much at that point, but I knew look man The bible condemns fornication. So well, I talked to my pastor about it. He talked to his pastor Okay, and then he said my pastor said romans chapter eight verse one There is now therefore no condemnation to those which are in christ. Jesus and that's where he ended Fools should have kept reading the rest of the verse Let our own rest of romans eight or romans six or any other passage in the bible practically Well, there's no condemnation then which are in christ. Jesus It's okay for me to just be sleeping around out of marriage with this girl and committing fornication and doing whatever else that we're into Because we're not condemned we're in christ It says there's no condemnation which i'm in christ. Jesus who walked not after the flesh Meaning this that if you're in christ, jesus and you're saved and you're walking and you are in the flesh You're condemned not to hell but to punishment God will you know god broke go read hebrews 12 He chasteneth every son whom he receiveth He scourges every son who receive there's not a son whom he chasteneth not And if you be without chastisement then you're bastards and not sons that's what the scripture says That if you can say you could say you're saved that I believe on christ And then you can go out and live a wicked life and have no consequences I question your salvation Whether you really believe If you can just go live a wicked life and god doesn't come down. I mean I look back on my life I wasn't raised in a christian home. I got saved in my early 20s I learned things the hard way and I can look back at my life and go. Oh, yeah When I was you know backslidden and into this and that and I could just see god just whipping me just for years Just like try to get me right just fix yourself son I look back now and say praise god that I have a loving heavenly father. It doesn't just let me walk in the flesh But this is a contrary to this mentality that's out there That we can just do whatever we want as god's children and there's no consequences. That's wrong That's not bible He says right there if you walk after the flesh That there is condemnation right For the law the spirit of life in christ. Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin of death Keep reading the passage look at verse three For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh god sending his own son to the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Yes, he made us free from sin, but he also condemned sin in the flesh in the process He's saying look i'm saving you because you're sinful and wicked and he's condemning us in the process. He's condemning sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh But they that are after the spirit mind the things of the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded is death It's punishment. It's condemnation But to be spiritually minded is life and peace Because the carnal mind is enmity with god Against god for it is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please god You know if you're living in the flesh if you've got sin in your life That you're not taking care of you cannot please god And you are going to be chastened by god That's why this this this philosophy that all sin is equal is so dangerous You know not only to the unsaved but to the saved to the child of god they can let this philosophy creep in You know and they they have other passages I remember talking to a guy once he said no, well, I don't go door to door like you guys and preach the gospel I just go down to the bar And you know, I don't drink, you know, I just go to the bar And I order, you know water and I just shoot some pool And I get to know these guys, you know, I meet the sinners where they're at And you know on the surface that sounds great, doesn't it? You know, but they'll quote they'll quote first corinthians chapter nine They'll say you say, you know, I I made all things to all men that I by all means might save some We've probably all heard that You know, so I make myself like a Like a wine, you know like a drunkard to the drunk I'm, not a drunkard, but you know, i'm going down to the bar and i'm hanging out with them You know just trying to establish a rapport. Do you think people in the bar are there to hear about jesus? They don't want to hear about jesus down there. It's a waste of time, right? And here's the thing the bible says avoid the mere appearance of evil You know, you might be down there with good intentions But you know if the wrong person sees you there and recognizes you and they just they're just gonna If I saw you coming out of a bar What do you think my first assumption is going to be? Oh, he must be down there witnessing for the lord Does he think that's what i'm gonna think if I see you walking out of a casino? Oh, he's just in there trying to you know, you know get with the common man and just you know Which jesus, you know, I don't want to go into that But look no i'm going to think oh he's down there getting drunk oh he's down there gambling away his money You know that that's what i'm going to think And rightly so because that's likely what's going on But did people have this idea that well, we're just going to go down there and you know We're just going to be made all things to all men You know, but they forget verse 21 to them with our that are without the law as without the law Right being not without the law to god Saying look i'm i'm as unto them I'm unto them without the law as unto without the law. Let me just read i'm butchering it He's saying here to them that are without the law as without the law. Look i'm going to be like they are Being not without the law of god. He's saying look i'm like that but I still have the law of god You know, i'm, you know, i'm not going to just go become sinful just so I can win a sinner You know, i'm not going to go just you know, live a life of sin You know, i'm not going to become this undercover agent for christ You know, i'm not going to go into like, you know deep Uh, what do they call it? You know deep cover, you know for jesus Go get involved in the gangs and the in the drugs and everything else and just say well i'm just there for jesus, you know I'm, just trying to work up a rapport and bring these guys around the lord show them a better way by By living like they are it makes a lot of sense So, you know, it's just another stupid arguments out there and where does it all stem from from this idea? That god does not hold people accountable for their sins that all sin is equal That some you know, no one's worse than another person but the bible we've seen thus far shows us very clearly That some sins are worse than others That some sinners are worse than others that not everybody is as sinful as another person Now a very sinful person can become an unsinful person People can clean up their lives and they can start walking in the light They can start living for the lord and get on the straight and narrow and they can become less sinful You know, and if we're in here this morning and we've got sin in our life and you're saying man I you know, I don't like the idea that i'm more sinful than somebody else. Well, then get the sin out of your life You know, but don't expect others to come down. Well, let me get some sin in my life so, you know You can feel better about yourself That's not that that's foolish thinking But to make all sin equal, you know, this philosophy Is foolish it's dangerous And what it does is it downplays the negative impact of sin? You know sin has serious consequences in our life I mean there's sins from my past that i'm dealing with every day You know, there's going to be then probably we'll have to deal with for the rest of my life consequences from sin That we'll have to deal with for the rest of our lives And that's the way it is so we don't want to get caught up or tolerate these philosophies That downplay the impacts of sin in our lives Bible says in proverbs 14 go to psalms chapter 19 psalms 19 19. We're almost done But proverbs 14 says fools make a mock at sin But among the righteous there is favor. It says fools make a mock at sin. Oh sin's no big deal all sins equal God doesn't mind It's not that big a deal. You're a fool. You're making a mock at sin and sin has You know When sin hath when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it's finished the bible says bring it forth death You know, nothing good comes from sin so We all understand that hopefully by now We probably understood this before we even walked through the doors this morning that not all sins are equal But if you didn't hopefully i've made the case this morning You know, we saw we looked at a lot of different scriptures That show us that not all sin is equal that there is an equality in sin And we get that but here's the other here's the danger. Here's I want to apply this tonight or this morning Is don't let your understanding of this become an excuse for your sin I mean some of us could be sitting in here and thinking yeah, I understand not all sin is equal And but the sin that I have is isn't that bad of one? You know, if god called me out for my sin, he would just say I have someone against thee He wouldn't say I hate that You know, we understand that some sinners are worse than others and we go well, you know And my sin is not that bad and maybe your sin and the scale of sin is not that bad But should you hang on to that? Because remember again when we talked about the more, you know, the more accountable you are unto who much is given shall much also be required You know your sin might be a little sin, but you know, you shouldn't be doing it and you're doing it anyway So god's going to hold you more accountable even for that little sin So don't let this philosophy this understanding Of this philosophy rather don't let your understanding that all sin is not equal Excuse you from your little sin because your little sin Is magnified by the fact that you understand this does that make sense? Don't let this understanding become an excuse for sin We should not harbor pet sins because they aren't as bad as other sins Well, my little sin over here isn't that bad therefore i'm going to keep it that's wrong that is the bad attitude That's gonna that's dangerous friend The bible says you're in psalm 19. It says in psalm 66 if I regard iniquity in my heart. The lord will not hear me If I regard iniquity in my heart, the lord will not hear me I'd have to assume if you're in church this morning that you're a person who's concerned about being heard by god A person that wants to pray and know that god is hearing you I'd assume that about everybody But my question is are you regarding iniquity in your heart? Well, i'm not regarding, you know It's not like i'm out on the town, you know last night just living it up and running around Wasn't doing that You know, so this little bit of iniquity that i'm regarding my heart isn't that bad No, he says if you regard iniquity in your heart if you know what you're doing is wrong If you know what sin it is and i'm not here to you know, call out people's sins, you know what it is Right If that if that whatever it is your people if you know I'm not saying everybody has it But if if you do if you're sitting there thinking hey i've got I know exactly what he's talking about boy I don't know that sin right there That's the one i'm talking about That's the one that's going to keep your prayer from being heard. Is that what you want? It's not what I want, you know, and this is something we all have to be on guard for Look at psalm 19 who can understand verse 12 who can understand his errors cleanse thou me from secret faults Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins Presumptuous sins Sins that I know this is wrong. I'm gonna do it anyway And a lot of times we go ahead and we do it. Anyway, why because we say it's not as bad as this sin You know, it's not you know, i'm gonna go ahead and look at this, you know porno because after all It's not me committing adultery You know, i'm just gonna sit stay here at home and drink a six-pack because obviously it's not me down at the bar Drinking hard whiskey and getting into fist fights And we justify our sins in our life But that's that's presumptuous that's sinning presumptuously Okay That's you regarding iniquity in your heart because oh, I have an understanding that my sin isn't as bad as somebody else's But your understanding makes that sin even worse Because you know better And by the way, this preaching right now is making you even more accountable So if you don't like the way it's going you better get out No, stay we're almost done There's still a few more donuts Now look, we understand i'm not i'm not preaching that you know, you need to reach the sinless state of perfection It's never going to happen That's not going to happen You know, we're going to sin every day We're probably going to do things that we don't even realize are sin every day You know, we're flesh, you know, we still have this body of of the flesh. We still fight the flesh But we're not to let it have a dominion over us You know first john says if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us And there are people out there that say i've reached sinlessness in this life. No, you haven't And that right there is a sin in of itself because that's one of the proudest arrogant statements i've ever heard And pride is a sin But we should strive to be so Just because you know say well i'm never going to reach sinlessness. So why bother? Should that be our attitude? Should that be our philosophy? i'm, just going to go on ahead and just keep my little pet sin because I'm going to do something today. I might as well be something I enjoy Just something i'm used to doing Should that be our attitude? No We should strive for sinlessness in our life We should fight against the flesh. We should mortify our members And and want to do better and when god sees you doing that And when you mess up and you commit a sin and you backslide you have your weak moment or whatever And those should become fewer and fewer and farther and farther between as you grow in your christian life But nobody's without sin But when god sees you down and he looks down and he sees one of his children striving against sin Resisting sin resisting the devil praying god, please help me to not do this Coming to him in a moment of weakness rather than just giving in that person's going to get more grace from god That person's going to get more help that person is going to be heard rather. The person just says well, you know My sin isn't that bad? So i'm just going to go ahead and do it anyway That person's going to get punished we should strive to reach That perfection galatians 5 says this I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Did you know it's possible to not fulfill the lust of the flesh? That it's possible if you walk in the spirit That's the key and that's that's not always easy. Is it to walk in the spirit? To because one to get walk with the spirit. You got to get in the spirit, right? You gotta you gotta get in it to walk in it You gotta get up and pray you gotta get up and read your bible you gotta get to church you gotta Get the sin out. You gotta memorize the scripture you gotta You know do the work That takes effort on your part. You're not just gonna wake up one morning and be in the spirit You can be saved you can be sealed by the holy spirit But there's a far it's a far cry from being sealed by the spirit and being filled and being filled with the spirit It's two different things Having the god's stamp of this is mine the seal of the spirit This is my child is not the same as being filled with the spirit And that's what's going to take to walk in the spirit is you have to be filled with him So we should strive to do that, you know to not commit those sins that we're given to What about you know, we're not just talking about the sin the sins that we commit the bad things that we do, right? The sins of commission is what that's called the sins we commit And we haven't even that's just one. You know, that's just one side of the spectrum of sin Then there's also the the sin of not doing the right thing We don't often think about that one When we talk about sin, we often think about the sins of commission the bad things that we do But we don't always think about the good things that we don't do that sin as well the bible says Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not To him it is sin You say well, you know Why you know is it is a sin not to read my bible. Well, should you read your bible? Yeah, you know that should you go to church? Yeah You know that are those good things to do? Yeah Should you tell others about the lord and try to preach them the gospel? Yeah Do you always do that? Nope And to him it is sin So, you know sin has got you know, it's got us pegged on either side folks It's the the bad things that we do the good things that we don't do It's a it's a fight and it's on and and we don't want to be guilty of People that are just getting steamrolled by sin and just letting it have its way in our lives That's no way to live. God's going to not be pleased with that so Understanding that sins and inequality, you know, it makes you more accountable not less Even for smaller sins that are in your life So don't forget the the saying there's a saying you ever heard that saying the devil is in the details right the little things That's where the devil often is. He's in the details. He's in those little things You know, he you know, and don't forget this little sins lean to bigger ones People just don't run out, you know, they don't go from living a godly christian life to just committing adultery the next day Or, you know, whatever, you know, we could sit here and think about the most horrible things that people do The perfect example of that is king david in the old testament I mean king david, you know committed the the sin of adultery with bashiba And then had her husband killed A man of god the bible said that the sweet psalmist of israel the man after god's own heart The bible says committed those sins now as adultery and murder Bad sin that's wicked and god actually puts the death penalty on it And when when the prophet nathan came to to him and said thou art the man He said I have sinned and god said never let me you know, thou shalt not die You know, he gave him a pass Because god will be merciful and he will be merciful But the point i'm trying to make is, you know, david just didn't wake up one day and do that What did it start with? It said he went out on his roof in the evening. He was idle at a time when kings went to war He was at home bored And he just went out for a walk and he saw bathsheba Bathing and he looked where he shouldn't look and then one thing led to another He should he wasn't leaving up to his responsibilities. He was idle. He saw something he shouldn't then he goes and commits adultery Now there's a baby on the way now. I gotta have her husband killed That's how sin goes The devil is in the details. It's in the little things those little sins that we hang on to because they're not as bad as others They're just as dangerous though because of where they lead where they'll take us The bible says in galatians 5 a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump Just a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump so We understand This morning in all likelihood. I'm sure everybody gets it that It's foolish to think that all sin is equal It's a foolish thing to think that it's just not biblical. You can think that if you want but don't tell me that's what the bible teaches And We need to be careful Of of not forgetting the dangers of entertaining the little sins in our life because those are the ones that are going to lead To bigger sins and they're just as dangerous and we're held accountable For our understanding that all sin is not equal. Let's go ahead and pray