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Consequences of Sin

Romans 6:23-233

By Robert D. Pace

There are consequences to every action in life. Some actions produce positive results while others produce negative results.  I'm talking about that inexorable law of sowing and reaping that Paul articulated in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  (8) The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

God couldn't have been clearer.  This passage distinctly discloses the dichotomy of reaping. Good actions reward us positively and evil actions reward us punitively.  It's that's simple.  I take no delight in saying some of the things I'm prepared to say but I'm preaching this message to caution you of the deadly repercussions of "sowing to please the sinful nature." Nothing good ever comes from practicing sin.  It's wholly destructive. It's vengeful, venomous, and vilifying.  Charles Spurgeon said this about sin: "When faced with the lesser of two evils, choose neither!"

(Transition)  Let's first discuss, Sin's mastery.

I.       Sin's Mastery

The Garden of Eden evidences sin's mastery over man more clearly than anywhere inScripture.  Adam's only requirement was to refrain from the forbidden tree.  But his contempt for God's warning incurred a backlash that punished the entire human race.  Consider the mastery sin sentenced upon humanity:

Sin severed our unhindered fellowship with God.

It brought immediate spiritual death.

It incurred physical retribution.  Sickness, pain, and disease constantly plague us.

Sin also brought nature's cursing.  Originally the fertile terrain yielded bountiful harvests, but rebellion gnarled the ground and demanded exhausting labor for its cultivation.

And finally, everyone rejecting God's saving grace,will be mastered by sin's most punitive consequences—hell's eternal flames.

Our every action elicits a corresponding reaction. Hosea 8:7 says, those who "sow the wind, reap the whirlwind." There's a backlash to sin and nobody can elude it. Nobody can escape its consequences. It can't be outrun, outsmarted, outlasted, or outmaneuvered.  James said, "When sin is finished, it bringsforth death" (James 1:15).  The sowing of sin always produces death and destruction.

(Example)  Think about something:  Had anyone been capable of outmaneuvering sin it would have been Adam, but he couldn't. Adam was created perfect and holy. God breathed His very life into Adam's nostrils.  But sin overpowered him the very day of his rebellion.  He was completely overcome,and mankind has paid the penalty since.

Revelation describes this horror in no uncertain terms. It's described as tormenting, dark, and completely disassociated from God.  I hear people joke and make light of hell, but hell is no joke.  Everyone banished to that horrible place go with a one-way ticket—it's a place of no escape and no return.  It's God's climaxing and consummate judgment against sin.  Hell is the everlasting home of the ungodly.  Nobody has mastered sin but Jesus Christ.  And we must wholly turn to His amazing grace to find restoration and redeeming favor with God.

(Transition)  Another of Scripture's clearest disclosures of sin's consequences is the eternal judgment that follows those that repent and turn to Christ as their Savior.  As we look at the judgment of sin let's rehearse the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

II.      Sin's Judgment

The narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah is a grim reminder of sin's impending doom.  Jude 1:7 says: "In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.  They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire."

I know this account evokes as much worldly ridicule as any story in Scripture.  People mock the notion of fire and brimstone destroying these cities, just as they mock the Bible's picture of hell eternally tormenting unbelievers.  But there are plenty of instances where people have scoffed at God's dealings with men. Noah was ridiculed for years as he constructed the Ark!

In my research I've discovered some interesting information that geological science has uncovered about Sodom and Gomorrah. Would you believe secular science helps substantiate Scripture's claims of their destruction?  It does!

(Illustration)  Back in the eighteen hundreds a geologist,known as Lieutenant Lynch, explored the southern region of the Dead sea, the place the Bible indicates Sodom and Gomorrah were located.  Lynch made a remarkable discovery.  When Lynch lowered his fathom line to the ocean floor he pulled up masses of sulfur—the very remnant of the tempest that swept Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin.  Since the time Lynch made his discovery other geologists, using modern equipment, have dug beneath the waters and they, too, have uncovered layer upon layer of sulfur and brimstone.

But there's more.  Genesis 14 notes a unique sediment that existed in this region before the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.  Lot, the nephew of Abraham,lived in that region when it came under siege. As Scripture reports this battle there's a curious, almost parenthetical verse that's inserted.  Genesis 14:10says: "Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills."

Why did God insert this seemingly irrelevant notation?  And what were these tar pits?  This tar was actually an asphalt-like material that contained a petroleum base.  And the region literally abounded with these pits.  It's almost undeniable that the engineers and builders of Sodom and Gomorrah used this substance in the fabrication of their cities.  Their very infrastructure was bonded with this highly combustible material.  How ironic! Their doom was actually sealed into their architecture.

I mentioned at the outset of this message that nobody can outrun, outsmart,outlast, or outmaneuver sin.  And you see that here.  God foresaw the reprehensible sins of these twin cities and allowed them manufacture a city that would explode like an incinerator.  Here they were, conspicuously perched on a ridge of hills, unrepentant and proud of themselves.  But one day the cup of God's wrath overflowed.  I'm not certain how the burning sulfur fell, but my guess is a nearby volcano erupted and ignited the tar pits from its spewing lava.  And instantly the cities were incinerated. Don't doubt the Bible's warnings:

If God says He rained burning sulfur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, believe it!

If God says the Red Sea parted and swallowed Pharaoh's army, believe it!

If God says Jericho's walls collapsed after seven days of circling, believe it!

And if God announces there's a burning hell,believe it!

God's warnings are too consequential to scorn or ignore.

But there's another interesting notation about this geographical region.  Near the south end of the Dead Sea there's a five mile mountain range made up largely of crystalline salt—the identical substance that encrusted Lot's wife! Time has a way of vindicating the veracity of Scripture.

I want you to notice one more thing about this story.  It occurred 3000 years after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and it came from the lips of Jesus in Luke 17:32.  Jesus said: "Remember Lot's wife."  Whenyou think about it, if you believe Jesus was God's Son who's every Word was infallible then these three words, "Remember Lot's wife," validate this entire narrative—no scientific proof is necessary!

So what was Christ's point when He told us to "remember Lot's wife"?  Why would Jesus ask us to contemplate something as gruesome as this?  God's charge to Lot and his family was to hurry from that region and not look back on its destruction.  But Mrs. Lot ignored God's command and treated it as a suggestion.  In their hurried departure the deception of her heart caused her to stop and gaze back at the desolation.  She looked, longed, and lusted for that old way and God gave her the recompense of her longings—instantaneous judgment.  And Jesus said:

"Remember Lot's wife," because it shows the consequences of ignoring God's command!

"Remember Lot's wife," because it shows: "God is not mocked, whatever a man sows that shall he reap"

"Remember Lot's wife," because the judgment of sin is certain and eternal.

"Remember Lot's wife," because sometimes obeying God the first time is the only opportunity for doing the right thing.

The Bible says a day of God's wrath is prepared for all that have ignored His warnings and standard of righteousness.  Look to Christ today.  Forsake the world and live.

(Transition)  But third, Why does God judge sin?  And why did God judge Sodom and Gomorrah so harshly?

III.     Why God Judges Sin

Jude says Sodom and Gomorrah "gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion."  History reveals that no nation tha thas permitted wholesale sexual perversion has ever escaped God's judgment.  You can check Scripture's record, God reserves fierce judgment for sexually perverted nations.  That means America and other modern nations should take heed because they will not go unpunished.

Let me define what Scripture means by sexual immorality: It ranges from pre-marital intercourse to extra-marital intercourse. It includes homosexuality and bestiality.  Listen to the Bible's warnings:

1 Corinthians 6:18 says: "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body."

Romans 1:26 says: "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.  (27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women andwere inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."

Severe judgment is reserved for the sexually perverted. I believe the proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases is a natural judgmental consequence of those that practice such things.

(Statistics)  The national Center for Disease and Control reports that the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) is still alarmingly high.  Estimates for new cases of gonorrhea soar into the hundreds of thousands annually.  Millions of Americans suffer from genital warts.  According to 2003 statistics hundreds of thousands of Americans are infected with Chlamydia annually.  Even the CDC informs us that there are consequences to our actions!

And these aren't the only sins reaping reprisal. All sins, great and small, will face judgment.  God's fixed law of retribution will see that every transgression is punished, every evil is smitten, and every injustice is punished.  Isaiah 27:1 says: "In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword."

God's justice cannot permit even the least transgression, no matter how innocent it may appear, to pass without facing His wrathful, consummate judgment. Sin is such that it demands God's unyielding, unrestrained wrath.  You mean man is recompensed even for the least of his sins?  Absolutely!  God will not permit any sin to sneak out of this world.  No offense will be allowed to simply resign, but every transgression will be arrested, arraigned, and justly punished.

What compels God to deal with sin this way?  His holiness.  God's very nature is holy--His thoughts, actions, words, and works—and Adam's sin impinged upon His holiness.  I understand today's progressive-minded thinker disdains a theology of "righteous indignation." Society is taught to be broad-minded and indulge all lifestyles and convictions.  The fact is, the only unacceptable convictions are Christian convictions.

The reason contemporary man has such difficultly comprehending truth is because he's so thoroughly unacquainted with God.  If the Lord appeared to many Americans He would be as much unrecognized as He was when He appeared to those of Sodom in Genesis 19. He would not only be unrecognized I'm convinced He would be as rejected just as He was 2000 years ago.  When our nation was founded God was welcomed in government, education, and society.  But today, our country isn't simply shoving God into the shadows we're excommunicating Him.

The sad reality is there are thousands of Christians, not secularists, unfamiliar with God! And unfortunately it's some professors of religion that deny Christ's deity, ridicule His miracles, scoff His imminent return, and scorn the suggestion of an eternal lake of fire reserved for transgressors.  These religious professors wouldn't recognize the sovereign God if they saw Him walking on water with the Himalayas in one hand and the Alpines in the other. 

You don't have to listen to skeptical, irreverent, interpreters of Scripture like this.  If you'll get thoroughly acquainted with God you'll understand His ways, especially regarding His treatment of sin.  In my biographical studies of the great spiritual forefathers I found the greater their devotion to God the more conscious, and guarded they became of sin's invading presence.  Men of Scripture experienced the same:

Before Paul's conversion he was arrogant,obstinate, and self-righteous.  After his conversion and glimpse of Christ's holiness he lamented, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of sin?"

When Isaiah perceived God's glory and heard the seraphs crying, "holy, holy, holy," he expected to die.  God's presence shook the Temple supports and rattled the structure to its foundation.

God is perfectly holy and our sinful flesh can't stand in His presence.  Even our purest righteousness is as filthy rags before God.  Internally, our spirit's are purified by Christ's Blood, but externally, our body's groan for that transforming redemption at Christ's return. That's why nobody can stand in the day of His appearing.

But that's where the Good News comes into focus. While sin deserves punishment the Bible says Jesus took sin's complete penalty upon Himself.  He suffered its consequences, and His Blood restores our favor and right-standing with God.

That same holiness demanding sin's judgment issues loving, cleansing, forgiving,redeeming, amazing grace.  Our righteous requirement involves confessing our sins and asking Christ to forgive us.

Conclusion

Psalm53:3 declares that "Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt;  there is no one who does good,not even one." The book of Romans says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Are you sure your sins are forgiven?  Are you certain His Blood has removed every transgression?  You can have that assurance.  God's requirement for you is simply confess your sins, believe on Christ, and turn from your sins.