March 13, 2008 - "Taking Sin Seriously"

Since March 9^th’s sermon my mind has returned again and again to Matthew 7:1-5 and I’ve been amazed at the Lord’s thorough knowledge of human nature. It is common to all of us—an unwillingness to take logs out of my own eyes and a ready willingness to search for and extract specks from others’ eyes. Why? Is it because the logs are to close to really see? Have we become so used to having eye logs that they don’t irritate us anymore? Is it ego protection and fear to admit our sin and wrong, born out of stubborn pride?

Judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of you eye, when there is the log in your own eye?’ You hypocrite, firs take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5

On March 11, Rynette and I read this in Spurgeon’s Morning by Morning devotional:

Beware of light thoughts of sin. It is sadly true, that even a Christian may grow by degrees so callous, that the sin which once startled him does not alarm him in the least. By degrees men get familiar with sin. The ear in which the cannon has been booming will not notice slight sounds. At first a little sin startles us; but soon we say, "Is it not a little one?" Then there comes another, larger, and then another, until by degrees we begin to regard sin as but a little ill; and then follows an unholy presumption: "We have not fallen into open sin. True, we tripped a little, but we stood upright in the main. We may have uttered one unholy word, but as for the most of our conversation, it has been consistent." So we palliate sin; we throw a cloak over it; we call it by dainty names. Christian, beware how thou thinkest lightly of sin. Take heed lest thou fall by little and little. Sin, a little thing? Is it not a poison? Who knows its deadliness? Sin, a little thing? Do not the little foxes spoil the grapes? Doth not the tiny coral insect build a rock which wrecks a navy? Do not little strokes fell lofty oaks? Will not continual droppings wear away stones? Sin, a little thing? It girded the Redeemer's head with thorns, and pierced His heart! It made Him suffer anguish, bitterness, and woe. Could you weigh the least sin in the scales of eternity, you would fly from it as from a serpent, and abhor the least appearance of evil. Look upon all sin as that which crucified the Saviour, and you will see it to be "exceeding sinful."

As we at RBBC give ourselves to growing in biblical peacemaking and development of a culture of peace as a church family, let us beware ego-defensive pride that leads to destruction (Proverbs 16:18) and invite the Holy Spirit to apply Matthew 7 to our calloused consciences so that we may obey Christ’s command to take logs of sin out of our own eyes. We know that Jesus Christ took our sins seriously; let us take our sin seriously, too.

“Look upon all sin as that which crucified the Saviour, and you will see it to be “exceeding sinful”.