Consequences of Sin

I want to talk about sin and its consequences!

I want to start with this, sin never builds up it always tears down.

Let me start with these two sins: lying and deceiving.

I have noticed that many people that claim to be Christians have no problem committing these sins. I don’t know how many times I have been told by someone that they were going to do something and they never did it. I don’t make a claim of perfection in this area either I am also guilty at times, to my shame. My purpose here is not to condemn anyone but to make us all aware of these sins because that is what lying is ~ sin.

How many times have we tried to encourage people with lies? For instance, how many times have we said to someone you look great or said about something they were wearing that it was beautiful or something close to that and we really didn’t think that at all. That is the sin of lying and deceiving. Because you not only lied but you deceived that person as well.

How many times has someone asked you how you are doing and you respond with great and you knew that you weren’t doing well at all. That is also lying and deceiving. To be honest I have had so many people tell me things over the years that didn’t happen that I only believe it when it happens. I am talking about people in and out of the church. I hate to say this but it is true in many circumstances and situations you can’t tell the difference between the church and the world. Oh how we need the Lord to pour out his Spirit and cause a great revival to take place in the universal church and I pray it will start in me.
What happens when we lie and deceive people?


When we lie about people we not only hurt ourselves, but we encourage the people we lie to, to look at the people we lie about in a different way.

Lying and deceiving, gossiping and backbiting are all basically in the same category.
Why? Because they can all destroy the person’s reputation that does it and the other people’s reputation they involve in it.

Let’s read 2 Kings 5: 25 – 27.

How do you think Elisha knew where Gehazi went?
Because God told him and he also told him what he did.
Back in the days of the prophets, God spoke to His people about different
things.

How do you think Gehazi felt when Elisha confronted him and told him about
where he went and what he did?

What about Elisha, how do you think he felt when Gehazi lied to him?

Now, what do you think about the consequences?
I want you to know when we sin there will be some kind of consequence or punishment. Sometimes the punishment can be very severe such as the case of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5. Their sin was that they lied to Peter and also to the Holy Spirit and they both died because of it. The Bible says, "that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." When they were confronted by Peter they could have repented and confessed but they choose not to. The consequence was very harsh and swift but I see something good that came out of this and it was that the fear of the Lord came over the whole church and all who heard about these events. I think when the fear of the Lord comes to the church, the church is much healthier and I think we desperately need the fear of the Lord in our churches today. Without this kind of fear, God’s people will always try to take advantage of him. Remember the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

In Hebrews 12: 6 it says, "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." We rejoice in many things that God does but how many rejoice in his discipline? We all should, it proves we are God’s sons and we know "that all things work together for good to those who love God to those that are the called according to his purpose." Praise God!

God doesn’t punish us because He doesn’t love us, He punishes us because He
loves us beyond what we can comprehend.

God will always forgive us if we truly repent and ask for forgiveness.
Discipline will help us have a healthy fear of God and keep our feet on the
straight and narrow path that leads to God’s kingdom.

It would be good to memorize these two verses: Hebrew 12: 5 - 6 and in the future if you are tempted in the areas we just talked about maybe knowing these verses will help you to resist the temptation. When Jesus was tempted he came back with scripture; doing so he set the example for us to follow, let’s walk in it! Praise God!