Why Does God Take Certain Sins So Seriously?

Guest (Male): Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.
Pastor Mike Fabarez: You cannot understand the love of God if you do not understand the holiness of God. You cannot get grace unless you understand the guilt of sin. This is a distinction, unfortunately, that is completely ignored today. But here is the deal: if you do not preach the law, if you do not present the problem, you cannot have the gospel.
Dave Drewy: Do you ever question the commands given in God’s Word? Some of the things we’re told to do or not to do can often seem a bit unreasonable in our current culture, perhaps even a little outdated. Today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez suggests we adjust our perspective and learn to see sin through the eyes of the only perfect one who ever lived. We’re continuing a series in Hebrews about our fight with sin, which you can always catch up on by going to focalpointradio.org. Pastor Mike has titled today’s message, "Motivated by Heaven’s Perspective."
Pastor Mike Fabarez: Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. As we near the end of this chapter, we have a section of scripture here that I hope will be, as I anticipate it will be, the fuel for your spiritual tanks this week. I know that the scripture is analogized that way, not in terms of fuel, but in terms of food. It is meat, and it is milk. This ingesting of spiritual perspective changes our lives and it fuels us for another week. I hope that this week, and I know this passage is poised for this very purpose, that it would be like high-octane fuel. It may seem like a parenthetical statement, but it is really not. We have to remember the context in Hebrews 12. It is all about taking the sin that so easily entangles us and getting it out of our lives. It is all about holiness and sanctification. The author has not lost that perspective, but what he is doing here is giving us heaven’s perspective, which is so helpful. If you want to think about heaven’s perspective, no one had it better than Christ. If anybody knew what it was to have heaven’s perspective, it was God incarnate who walked among us. When you think about the topic at hand, no one preached about this topic like Jesus did. Think about it. When it comes to saying no to temptation and sin, Jesus said it would be better for you to gouge out parts of your body and lop off your arm than to continue in a pattern of falling into temptation. He said it would be better if your friends were drowned in the Lake of Gennesaret than for them to be the avenue through which sin comes into your life. Jesus was drastic and dramatic about the topic of temptation and sin. I postulate the reason I think Jesus was the most drastic in this teaching about sin and temptation is because no one had a better perspective on sin than Christ. As the God-man, as the incarnate God, he certainly knew without any kind of long-distance view. He knew it up close: the problem with sin. When it came to being the Lamb of God, no one knew the cost of sin more than Christ. He knew it would cost, and sin was no small matter. It was a big deal. So Jesus, with that heavenly perspective, taught about sin in a way that is big. It is dramatic and it should motivate us. But I think more than just hearing him preach, we need to adopt his perspective. Nothing does that better in Hebrews chapter 12 than verses 18 through 24. It is a passage that, if you are not careful, you will think, "Where is he going off on this? What is this all about?" It is all about where we started: saying no to sin, taking the sin that so easily trips you up, and getting it out of your life. It is about growing in sanctification, but it is all about perspective. Look at what he says in verse 18 as he takes us back to the Old Testament for the ultimate foundation of perspective. He talks about the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. He says, "You have not come in this new covenant relationship. You have not come to a mountain that can be touched, that mountain that is burning with fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm." Do you remember the story? When God came down on that mountain, this was a really dark experience. This was not pleasant. This was not like friendly and inviting. This was a dramatic, dark picture. The Bible says you have not come to that. This new covenant thing, this transformation in your life, is not like that one. That, verse 19, was like a trumpet blast. It was literally a trumpet blast and a voice that spoke from the mountain. Those who heard the voice did not say, "Hey, give us more of that." No, they begged that no further word would be spoken to them. That is why they put Moses at the front of the parade and said, "You go talk to him. We do not want to talk to God anymore. This is not a good experience." They could not bear what was commanded. When it came down to it, they knew that even if their animal went out and touched the mountain, the Bible says even if an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. You cannot go here and hang out. You cannot even touch the mountain. The sight was so terrifying that Moses even testified later in the book of Deuteronomy that he was trembling with fear. This was frightening. This was not an inviting experience. But he says, as you think back to Sinai, that is not what you have come to in this new covenant relationship with God. This is not the old covenant. This is a new covenant. For the present time, that is an important phrase. For the present time, it is like we have come to, verse 22, Mount Zion. Mount Zion. You have heard that before? There are five hills on which geographically the city of Jerusalem was founded. One of the five hills south of the Kidron Valley is called Mount Zion. Now, when the word Mount Zion is used, rarely is it used to describe a hill on the south part of Jerusalem. It is usually used by the poets of the Old Testament, by the songwriters, to talk about some kind of idealized relationship that God has with his people. Whenever the word Zion comes up, the majority of times that it comes up, they are looking forward to some perfect, idealized relationship that the people of God will have with God. He says in the new covenant relationship, we have come to that kind of thing. We have come to Mount Zion. Not to the new Jerusalem and not to the old Jerusalem. We have come to a heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly. You have come to the firstborn, the church of the firstborn, which remember is what Esau was. We saw in verse 17, Esau was the firstborn apparently, but he did not act like the firstborn, and he did not get the blessing and inheritance of the firstborn. But we have come to the church of the firstborn. We are not talking about Christ here. We are talking about us, the people that will receive the inheritance, whose names, plural, that is why it is not Christ, are written in heaven. We have heard that before. Bottom of verse 23, you have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. It is not the old one. You have come to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Now, that is a big contrast. The contrast is clear. Two mountains. You have got Mount Sinai. Oh, that was dark. That was scary. And Mount Zion. It is heavenly. It is not real clear. We see through a glass dimly. I cannot quite get a handle on all of it, but it is like angels and spirits of righteous men, but it is joyful, positive, and welcoming. It is the place where God lives, and I am kind of a citizen there now. I realize there is something better coming. Our eschatology says one day the dwelling of God will be among men, and out of heaven will come the new Jerusalem. But for now, it is way better than the old one. The old one was Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai, you do not want to live there. Before we come to Mount Zion, just to get poetic about this, before you have a relationship with God and you relationally connect with God, you have got to walk by Mount Sinai. You cannot understand, to put it in terms you might be familiar with, you cannot understand the gospel unless you understand the law. Was not Sinai all about the giving of the law? You cannot have gospel without law. You cannot have grace without what the law reveals, and that is sin. This juxtaposition of Sinai and Zion is so helpful because I have got to understand both of them to get heaven’s perspective. Heaven’s perspective includes a perspective from Zion and a perspective from Sinai. Let's start with Sinai. Sinai is going to reveal to us this picture of the gravity of sin. That is not a fun picture. Look at it again in verse number 18. It is a mountain. You may be able to touch it. That may be one advantage. It is real, it is corporal, it is right in front of you, but it is burning with fire. That is not a great place to hang out. It is dark and gloomy and there is a storm on it. There is a trumpet blast and a voice that is not like, "Oh, I want to curl up next to that voice." It is a voice where you go, "I do not want to hear anymore. Can you go speak to him for us because we do not want to talk to God because I cannot even let my pooch, my little doggy, run up and touch the mountain. If he does, you have got to kill him." There is yellow caution tape around this place where God is. That is not very friendly. Number one on your outline, when it comes to getting heaven’s perspective: we have to remember the gravity of sin. That is what Mount Sinai is all about. It is to show you how serious sin is. What is the point of Mount Sinai? Sinai is the giving of the law. God comes down when they have just come out of Egypt, and God dwells on Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula there, just south of Israel. He is going to reveal to them the standard: the divine standard. "Here is the standard to live by." It starts with the Ten Commandments. Exodus chapter 19 sets it up, and this is what the writer of Hebrews is summarizing. Let's look at the original text. Exodus chapter 19. This is just before we get the rules, and the rules are going to start with the big ten, the Decalogue. The Decalogue is going to be nine ethical rules and one ceremonial rule, and they are all about the way we are supposed to live. The rules, unfortunately, are going to reveal a problem. The problem is illustrated as it is set up on Mount Sinai. It is set up with an uninviting, very "get away, you cannot deal with God" kind of feel. It creates a barrier here. It is the revelation that you people that want to have fellowship with God cannot. That is what Sinai is all about. The reason is, "Here are the rules. You do not measure up." That is what Sinai is all about. It is like your kid who gets his math test graded. The kid may take the test thinking he did fine, but one day the answer sheet is going to be laid next to your kid’s test. That is the giving of the law. Mount Sinai. It says things like this: "Do not covet. When you see your neighbor’s Hummer, black, shiny, driving into his driveway, you be fine with your little Toyota Corolla. Do not covet that: your neighbor’s wife, your neighbor’s stuff, your neighbor’s home." Oh, and by the way, let's start with the big one. "Number one: let's not have anybody be God in your life except for God. Let's make sure he is the center of your life." "Oh, and do not ever bear false witness." I know sometimes you will want to say something that is not true. Do not ever say anything that is not true. Tell the truth. Remember some of these rules? We memorized them as kids. These are all pretty big rules. "Obey your parents. Honor them. Make sure you take care of them in their old age. Make sure you obey them in your youth." We are not doing great at either one of those. Here comes the answer key on Mount Sinai. It is like, "Ugh." Well, he sets it up that way. Chapter 19, third day. Let's just jump into the third day here in verse number 16. They had already been there. There was already a lot of gloom, but it gets worse on day three. Exodus 19:16. "On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, and everyone in the camp trembled." Do you think God was just kind of showing off? No. God was coming down and showing them they cannot really hang out here. You cannot have fellowship with me. As a matter of fact, when I show up, you ought to tremble. So here come all the accoutrements of my holiness, and I am going to show you that I am not like you. Verse 17: "Moses led the people outside the camp to meet with God." This is almost hilarious. That was the intention, but guess what? It was not really happening. We already learned in our passage that summarized chapter 19: they said, "We do not want to talk to God." God was making a point. You are right. Come out to meet with me, but you cannot meet with me. The whole point was to illustrate a problem, and it was typified by a list of commandments. Here are the commands. The bottom line is you look at those commands and say, "I do not measure up." That is the point of this whole thing. Anyway, let's get a little more to the feel. They are going to meet with God, middle of verse 17. They stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, verse 18 says, because Yahweh descended on it in fire, and the smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. If it were not bad enough, now there is an earthquake. That is a little unsettling when the earth moves under your feet. Verse 19: "And the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder." The whole thing is uncomfortable. The whole thing is just awful. Earthquakes, billowing smoke, darkness, gloom, loud trumpet louder and louder. It is not comfortable. Then Moses spoke, and the voice of God answered him. Verse 20: "And Yahweh descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up." "And Yahweh said to him, 'Go down and warn the people so that they do not force their way through to see Yahweh and many of them perish.'" Wait a minute. We are coming out to meet you now. We have left Egypt. We want to go hang out and worship our God. That was the whole point of telling Pharaoh we are leaving. We are going into the desert to worship. Now you show up and you are telling me to tell everybody not to come because they will die? Yes. What about the holy guys? The holy guys will be okay, right? The priests. We pay some guys to be really holy. Verse 22: "Even the priests who approach Yahweh must consecrate themselves." They have got to go through all the ablutions and the ceremonies because if they do not, Yahweh will break out against them. Now, that was surprising. They are the really holy guys. Verse 23: "Moses said to Yahweh, 'The people cannot come up Mount Sinai because you yourself warned us, Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.'" Holy, by the way, has two meanings in scripture. Both of them are connected. Holy here means set it apart. Do not let anybody come. It is a spatial division. It is the caution tape: the yellow caution tape. This mountain: cannot hang out here. Caution. Division. Holy. Set it apart as holy. Holy also has another meaning and they are related. That is when you say, "Holy. That guy is holy," or "God is holy." We mean some ethical standard of purity. God is ethically up here and we are down here. They both are related because here is the deal. A bunch of sinful people have just come out of Egypt to go to meet with their God. God is holy. He is ethically pure. He is perfect. He comes down and reveals his law code to people. Now he says, "Now you cannot come touch the mountain. I am ethically pure; therefore, we have to be distant from one another." You see that? That is the picture of Mount Sinai. You cannot come and hang out on Mount Sinai. But I thought God was there. I thought he was a loving God. He is, but he is holy first. You cannot understand the love of God if you do not understand the holiness of God. You cannot embrace the gospel unless you embrace and understand the law. You cannot get grace and really grapple with grace unless you grapple with the guilt of sin. This is a distinction, unfortunately, that is completely ignored today because we look at this God and we say, "What is wrong with you? Why don’t you just chill out? Why is the God of the Old Testament so angry and just always so distant? I do not like that. I like the God of the New Testament." Newsflash: same God. Has not changed. Same exact God. The difference is in the old covenant, he is revealing his standard which puts distance between him and people. It is a barrier. It would not be a barrier if we lived according to his standard, but we don't. That is what the law did. It showed that God was holy and we do not measure up. When we grapple with that truth, now we are ready for Mount Zion. Now we are ready for grace. Now we are ready for the gospel. I know this might not sound as scandalous as last week’s message, but here is the deal: if you do not preach the law, if you do not preach Mount Sinai, if you do not preach the problem, the gospel answer is not the gospel. You cannot have the gospel without this. You see when we take the law out of the gospel, we all of a sudden have a gospel where we are groping for some point of origin. We try to present it to people with, "Well, okay, do not want to be negative. Do not want to talk about hell. Do not want to talk about sin. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Let's start there." That is not the gospel. You do understand that, don't you? The gospel starts with the law. The gospel starts with the fact that the God that created you is so holy you cannot have fellowship with him. If he were to come down on a mountain, you could not go and hang out. You could not even touch the mountain. If your dog touched the mountain, the mountain would die. That is the God we are dealing with here. That does not make for a good gospel tract. You do not want to put the rose petal on the cover of that tract. That is why we say, "Can we just ignore the Old Testament God?" Answer: no, you cannot. It is the same God of the New Testament. You do understand that the New Testament is predicated on the Old Testament. You do understand that the New Testament message is given assuming that you know the Old Testament. When it comes to Mount Sinai, we do not ignore it. Hopefully, in the New Testament, we say, "Been there, done that." We have got to do that. That is what the book of Romans is all about, by the way. The book of Romans is to show you that when it comes to the law, you should be able to say, "Been there, done that. I have looked at the commands of God and I have recognized I do not measure up." Let me show it to you. Romans chapter 7. Great statement of this truth. If we do not get the law, we cannot embrace the gospel. If we do not understand the point of Sinai, we cannot have fellowship with God on Mount Zion. Romans chapter 7. We got that feel from Exodus 19. We did not finish reading the passage. You can read it on your own, but it is a dark situation. Then come the rules. Now here are the rules. Before you impugn God’s character—"I wish he could be more loving"—can we deal with that for just a second? Why is it that God just cannot lighten up in the Old Testament? Why can’t he just kind of say, "Well, it is okay. I understand you are just weak and frail and made of dust. I get it." Why does he have to be so "caution tape, do not come here, you come here you die"? Why all that? Talk about scandal. Here comes some scandal. Are you ready? Because as a holy God, he is naturally or ontologically repulsed by sin. There is a statement for you. There is a bumper sticker. God is ontologically repulsed by sin. Put that on there, see what they say. God is naturally by nature repulsed by sin. I know we think the guys that are sinners are the guys in the 11:00 news tonight. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The problem is all of us are repulsed ontologically, naturally, by God. There is one again you do not hear much of. You and I are repulsive to God in our sinful state. We are. That is the truth. That is what Sinai was all about. You cannot hang out with me. You cannot have fellowship with me. Here are my rules. You do not measure up. I am repulsed by that. If you say, "See, that is the part of God I do not like," that is like me saying to you, "Why don’t you just love the fish a little bit more? Why don’t you hang out this afternoon? Just go dive off the end of the pier and have lunch with Flipper. Just go under the ocean and spend the afternoon there with him because you love Flipper, don't you? You love those dolphins. They are so smart and intelligent and lovely. Love those fish. Go hang out with them for a while." "Well, I cannot." And then somebody says, "Well, I can. I have got a scuba certification." Great. To hang out with Flipper this afternoon, you are going to have to bring some artificial apparatus to do it, right? You want to hang out at the bottom of the ocean with Flipper and pet Flipper and have a conversation about the hotels they are building under the ocean, whatever they do because they are so much smarter than we are. Sorry. I reveal way too much when I preach, don't I? You want to hang out with Flipper, your little pet dolphin. You are going to have to put on some artificial apparatus. Now, if I say, "Well, if you love him, take all that off. Forget that. Just have face-to-face fellowship. He does not want to see bubbles. Hang out with Flipper." You cannot do it. Why? Because you are ontologically repulsed by his environment. You do realize that, don't you? Your lungs, if you breathe in—just go try this. Just go breathe with water. Get underwater, take all that salt water, and just breathe it into your lungs. You know what your body will naturally do? Why? "Come on. Don't you love Flipper? Don't you love those dolphins?" Well, you do it because you are ontologically repulsed by their environment. You are not designed to breathe in that salt water or any other water. Your lungs are made for something else. You do realize God is not just being mean here. God is not being rude. God is not uptight. God sees sin—something that falls short of his standard—and he just cannot have fellowship with you. He just can't. It is like you just having rocks for lunch today. It does not work. You are not made for that. And God is not made for sin. He cannot have fellowship with sin. That is the problem. Sinai revealed that and he graded the test and showed it to us.
Dave Drewy: You’re listening to Pastor Mike Fabarez on Focal Point and a message titled, "Motivated by Heaven’s Perspective." It’s part of our current series, "Our Fight with Sin," which you can revisit or share anytime at focalpointradio.org. Or download the free Focal Point app and get access to these teachings and more content anywhere, anytime. Think about what it actually costs to put a Bible teaching program on the air every single day in city after city for years running. It isn’t cheap and it isn’t automatic. It happens one listener at a time, one gift at a time. If Pastor Mike’s teaching has ever caught you off guard, sharpened something you believed, or given you a verse you now can’t stop thinking about, that’s the return on someone else’s generosity before you ever tuned in. Now we invite you to be that someone for the next listener. Becoming a Focal Point partner is the simplest way to do it: a steady monthly gift that keeps this teaching moving forward without interruption. Call 888-320-5885 or set it up online at focalpointradio.org. To thank you for stepping in this month, we want to put a copy of *Making a Difference: Impacting Culture and Society as a Christian* in your hands by theologian R.C. Sproul. Sproul takes aim at a question so many of us try to avoid: Does our faith actually change anything outside of church, or does it stay parked at the door on Monday morning? He doesn’t let readers off easy and he doesn’t leave them without an answer either. Just a clear, workable picture of what it means to let conviction show up in ordinary places. So when you make a generous gift to Focal Point today, ask for your copy of *Making a Difference*. To give and claim your copy, call 888-320-5885. That’s 888-320-5885. Or give online at focalpointradio.org. You can also send your donation by mail. Just write to us at Focal Point, P.O. Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. And one more thing. Reach out to us for the first time and we’ll send along a free copy of Pastor Mike’s booklet, *Battling Sin*. Call today: 888-320-5885 or connect with us online at focalpointradio.org. I’m Dave Drewy inviting you back again tomorrow when Pastor Mike Fabarez continues his lesson titled, "Motivated by Heaven’s Perspective." That’s Thursday here on Focal Point.
Pastor Mike Fabarez: Hi, Pastor Mike here. God’s Word promises it’ll never return void. So I wonder how is God’s Word moving in your heart right now? Drop us a line. Let us know. We’d love to hear from you. We’d love to be praying for you here. Just go to focalpointradio.org and then be sure to join us again tomorrow right here as we continue to explore the depths of scripture. We’ll see you then.
Guest (Male): Today’s program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.