SIN, ITS OWN DETECTIVE

NUMBERS 32:2

A. AN APPALLING FACT ABOUT MAN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SIN
  1. He seeks to hide it: Look into the daily life of most anyone and you will soon learn that it seems our second nature to hide sins and shortcomings.
  2. The guilty imagine that they have it in their power to keep others from knowing their shortcomings:
B. "BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT"
  1. Its ultimate detection is as certain as its act:
    1. The law of reproduction - Gal. 6:7, 8
    2. Even Moses experienced the effects of sin - Ex. 2:12-14
    3. Wicked Ahab learned in time that he would be found out - 1 Ki. 21:20
    4. King David, too, learned a lesson on the utter impossibility of hiding sin - 2 Sam. 12:1-7
  2. It is only a matter of time in most cases:
    1. A shout toward the high mountains will, in due time, echo your voice.
    2. God does not pay at every turn, but in due time He will pay in full - 2 Pet. 2:9; 2 Cor. 5:10
  3. Sin is its own detective:
    1. At times it works through a guilty conscience - John 8:1-9; Dan. 5:1-9
    2. The Spirit of God will convict the sinner - Luke 15:11-18; John 16:7, 8
    3. Circumstances are other means used by sin to expose the guilty - Matt. 27:1-5
    4. Dreams have been used to expose the guilty. The boy that had killed his grandfather had a bad dream, woke up and confessed.
  4. "Be sure your sin will find you out"
    1. God has a faithful record of them - Jer. 2:22; 17:1
    2. Angels keep books - Dan. 7:9-11; Rev. 20:11, 12
    3. Often the deed itself leaves a visible mark in our life, showing the sin we have attempted to hide.
C. OUR ONLY ESCAPE FROM THE EFFECTS OF SIN
  1. When we humbly confess them and cast ourselves upon God's mercy:
    1. That is what David did - 2 Sam. 12:13
    2. That is what the tax collector did - Luke 18:13; 19:1-12
    3. John gives us full assurance that if we confess our sins, God is just and willing to forgive us our sins - 1 John 1:7- 9
  2. This is, sad to say, true that the effects of sin cannot always remove the scars it has left in our life:
  3. You see many such marks when you go to "hospitals" or to the "old peoples' homes":
    1. You may not know anything about their private life, but there are marks in their lives which tell the story.
    2. If people will consider the fact that sin is its own detective, they will not yield to it so readily.
  4. Our blessed Saviour is our only hope:
    1. He has a way to silence sin and make it powerless - Rom. 8:1, 31-33
    2. He has promised that He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea - Mi. 7:18, 19
    3. But He cannot remove our lives from the power of sin, unless we let Him do it for us.
    4. Let us make the blood of Christ the hiding place against sin.


Design © John Bryant 2011