Who Pays When I Sin? Text: Isaiah 53:3-9 Introduction: A. Luke 14:28; Matt. 18:23-26 B. We often consider "counting the cost" from the perspective of serving the Lord. 1. Do we count the cost of sin? 2. What is the cost of sin? When I sin, who pays for my sin? 3. If prior to committing the sin, we sat down to tally the price we would pay, we would not engage in the sin. I. ME A. When I sin, I pay dearly 1. Sin will enslave me - John 8:34 2. Sin will prevent me from inheriting the kingdom of God - 1Cor. 6:9 3. Sin will bring spiritual separation, death: a. Isa. 59:1-2; Rom. 6:23 4. Sin will cause me to reap eternal suffering in Hell a. Gal. 6:7-8; Rev. 21:8 B. But the cost of sin is far greater than simply to myself 1. We do not live in a vacuum. Our lives affect other people, "for none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself" - Rom. 14:7. 2. There have been times in the life of each one of us when other people had to suffer the consequences of our sins. 3. I submit unto you that there are many others who will suffer for my sinful actions. a. Likewise with you 4. Sin is like throwing a rock into a still pond. The effect causes ripples which reach to the farthest edges of the pond and back again. II. FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS A. "Whose cause this evil is upon us?" 1. God commanded Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh. 2. Instead, Jonah rebelled and fled from the presence of the Lord in a ship traveling to Tarshish as far away from Nineveh as he could get. 3. Jonah 1:4-10 a. The men in the ship wanted to know who was the cause of the terror and the threat to their lives. b. One man's sin had brought terror upon all who were with him. c. Jonah's rebellion almost cost a ship full of men their lives. B. When I sin, my friends and neighbors pay for my sin. 1. The cost of drinking alcohol a. One half of all traffic accidents are alcohol related. b. 28,000 people a year are killed by the drinking driver. c. 50% of all crime is related to alcohol. d. In 1975, the cost to the nation was estimated at 43 billion dollars in lost production, health care, auto accidents, criminal justice, social services. The cost is six times that amount today. e. These costs come in the form of higher taxes, higher insurance and greater pain and suffering. f. The cost of only one kind of sin; there are others. 2. Every sin I commit brings harm upon friends and neighbors. a. Phil. 2:15-16 b. When I cover my light with sin, I bring darkness, not just on me, but also on all those around me, furthering their stumbling in darkness, sin and death. c. Matt. 5:12-16 III. THE CONGREGATION A. Sin in the Camp 1. Joshua 7:5, 10-12, 6:19 2. Relate story of Achan 3. "Sin in the church often affects others than the sinner, and may even cause those who have not been guilty, to stumble and fall. There were thirty-six men who died as a result of the sin of Achan. That is one of the grievous results of sin. It has an influence over others who may not even have been involved. (W. Carl Ketcherside, A Clean Church, pp. 9-11). B. When one sins, the entire congregation suffers for that sin. 1. When there is a member unrepentent, the entire church is harmed a. 1Cor. 5:6-7 2. Because the entire church suffers and is affected by the sin of one member, The Lord commands swift and decisive action a. 1Cor. 5:13 IV. FAMILY MEMBERS A. A Father's Grief 1. The brothers of Joseph were extremely jealous of him. a. After discussing whether to kill Joseph, they decided to sell him 1) Gen. 37:28 b. The brothers concocted a story and that Joseph had been devoured by a wild beast 1) Gen. 37:31-33 2. Who payed the price for their sin? a. Who sinned on this occasion? The brothers of Joseph b. Who had to pay the price for their sin? 1) It was Joseph who had to work as a slave in Egypt 2) It was Joseph who had spend his life in a foreign country c. His father, Jacob, had to pay a terrible price as well. 1) Gen. 37:35, 45:26 B. Sometimes parents have to pray a price for the sins of their children. 1. The Bible reminds us how the sins of a child will affect his parents a. Prov. 10:1, 17:25, 19:13 2. Children sometimes commit public sins which cause shame and disgrace to their parents and ruin the good name of the family. If the child's parents are good and righteous, then the sins of their children if not ruin them, will bring them tremendous pain and tears. a. Absalom and David V. SPOUSE A. Sometimes one's spouse has to pay the price for the sin of the mate. 1. Husbands and wives are to treat one another with honor and respect. a. 1Peter 3:7 2. If you truly love your husband or wife, then you should want to do everything within your power to live and act so as to help them gain eternal life. 3. When you sin, your sin not only hinders you, but it deeply affects and hinders your mate 4. This is especially true in cases of adultery. The innocent party not only has to live with the betrayal, but also with the shame of the partner's sin VI. CHILDREN A. Achan's Greed Killed His Children 1. Joshua 7:23-25 a. The problem is that most people do not think of the consequences of their actions. B. His Lust Destroyed His Child 1. 2Sam. 11:2-27 - tell story of David and Bathsheba 2. The consequences a. Who paid the price for David's sin? 1) Who sinned? David 2) Who paid the price? a) Uriah and some of David's other servants died needlessly in battle b) The baby c) David's children d) The entire nation was disgraced by the immoral conduct of the king and his attempt to cover up his adulterous affair C. Young children have to pay a price for the neglect of their parents. 1. God wants us never to forget the awful price of sin - Deut. 5:9 2. Children who see physical violence between their parents are six times more likely to abuse their own spouses after they marry. If those children were also hit by their parents as teenagers, they are 12 times more likely to abuse their spouses ("Bottom Line," in Homemade,11/85) 3. In cases of divorce, it is always the children who suffer the most. a. "There is a mountain of scientific evidence showing that when families disintegrate, children often end up with intellectual, physical, and emotional scars that persist for life. We talk about the drug crisis, the education crisis, and the problems of teen pregnancy and juvenile crime. But all of these ills trace back predominately to one source - broken families" (Karl Zinsmeister, The American Enterprise, March/April 1990). b. "The child is a composite, a whole created by the coming together of his two parts, his parents. He is a whole distinct being only by virtue of being one part his father and one part his mother. It takes time, though, for the halves to fuse, to grow to be a whole, a little like way the parts of a grafted tree will fuse and become one strong mature tree. "If one parent, one-half of the child's self, is prematurely lost to divorce, before the two immature parts become a mature whole, it is as if the growing child himself is ripped apart, violently torn in two. An injured tree will usually live but will grow scars, as will a child. This tree may grow sickly, more susceptible to pollutants, disease, further injury, and so may the child. If the tree matures, it will likely in some way be deformed; it will certainly be changed - never be the same tree it was created to be. And so the child" (Ann Latimer in Michael McManus's book, Marriage Savers, p. 33). c. Children feel intensely rejected and intensely angry. Boys tend to grow up unhappy and lonely and have few, if any lasting relationships with young women. Girls have trouble entering adulthood not trusting men, fearing betrayal and abandonment, taking many lovers or seeking out older men. One third of all boys and one tenth of all girls of divorce are delinquent. 4. When Christians forsake the assembling of the saints, not only do they suffer, but their children grow up ignorant of the gospel also. a. Prov. 22:6 b. A study once disclosed that if both Mom and Dad attend church regularly, 72% of their children remain faithful. If only Dad, 55% remain faithful. If only Mom, 15%. If neither attended regularly, only 6% remain faithful. The statistics speak for themselves - the example of parents and adults is more important than all the efforts of the church and Sunday School (Warren Mueller in Homemade, May, 1990). 5. Let us all be careful in our actions and remember that our sins have consequences not only for us, but also for those we love most. VII. JESUS CHRIST A. One of the most humbling thoughts in the world is that the innocent Son of God had to die for my sins. 1. Rom. 5:8; 2Cor. 5:21; Isaiah 53 VIII. GOD A. John 3:16 B. Matt. 27:46 - What did it cost God to hear that? 1. I did that; and you did that! (Based upon David Padfield's article, "Who Pays When I Sin?" Reflections on Truth, Vol. 11, No. 9, March 1999)