Hating the Sin and Loving the Sinner

Jonah  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  58:52
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God uses Jonah's story to show us why it's so hard to simply "love the sinner and hate the sin."

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 Welcome! It’s so good that you have come today. 😊 (If we have guests) If this is your first or second time with us, welcome! We are so glad you are here with us today. My name is Brian and I am the Senior Pastor here at CBC. If I did not already get the chance to meet you this morning, I hope you will have time to drop by our connection tables after the service this morning. I will be there with Gloria, my wife, and we’d love the chance to meet you. And maybe answer some questions you may have about us. Or if you won’t have time to stop and chat, you can use the connection card that is inside the trifold bulletin you should have received as you entered the building. Just take a few seconds during the service and jot down your contact information, and we will be happy to reach back out to you sometime this week. Let me just encourage everyone here today to use the connection card. You can list prayer request, or request information about our ministries. It’s simple to fill it out and drop it at the connection table on your way out. << show announcement slide>> • Small Groups Begin August 19th • Discipleship Groups are forming now. • Pray for the Teen Mission Trip to Costa Rica- June 25 - July 2 • Small Groups Begin August 19th • Discipleship Groups are forming now. • Kids Beach Club- Training Meeting July 19, 3:00PM, Church office Jerry Connell needs heart surgery Baker’s Son-in-Law- Lane Flack If you’re not connected with any of our groups, let me encourage you to stop by our connection table. You can request information on any of the groups that meet. Ladies’ Group, Teens, Men’s Group, even Small Group Bible Studies. Let me just remind you that our usual Sunday Night Bible Study will begin Tonight. We will be continuing our Discussion Panel Format, where we encourage feedback from the pew. Whether you are a guest, a member, or somewhere in between, we are here to worship our Great and Awesome God. <<No Responsive Reading Today>> Lets all stand and lift our voices in worship ((We Believe)) Public Prayer Look in Bulletin for names of Mission Team Mission Team lease come and stand in front here I lead the church in prayer for them Congregational 1- “You are My King” Congregational 2- “Revelation Song” Jonah slide is up- But introduce video. Sunday AM advertisement for Now Concerning @ 6PM Shortly before I begin to suspect that God was calling me in to full-time Christian ministry, I had developed an insatiable desire for God’s Word. For the first time in my life, I read the Bible every day. I studied it with a passion equal to that of my college studies. When I discovered that you could buy an audio version of the Bible, I purchased a copy of the New Testament on cassette. While I drove around, or worked at my job, I was listening to the Bible, over and over again. This lead to a zeal for telling people about the Lord, and eventually a realization of God’s calling to Bible College for preparation for vocational Gospel Ministry. There I learned the official statement on the reliability of the Bible, handed down for hundreds of years. I read statements like this. “The Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscript, written under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.” I had no problem with such absolute statements, as I already had experienced the power of God’s Word in the way it converted me and drew me close to God. I had so much confidence in the inspiration of God’s Word that I committed my life to the teaching and preaching of it. I committed my wealth and family’s financial security to the Gospel ministry and the teaching of God’s Word. My love for the Gospel and desire to share it only increased the more I read and studied God’s Word. Eventually, I would take the Gospel to China, and learn to read and teach and preach from a Chinese Bible. When I came back to the states, I went back to school and taught and preached on a volunteer basis in a local Chinese Church. All the while, my love for God’s Word and belief in it never faltered. I learned how to share the Gospel on the streets of LA and then Orlando. Then on the college campuses. All of that exposure to unbelievers, cause me to realize that I needed to study more about the Word of God. People were asking me questions that I did not have answers to. Like, “The Bible is written by man, why do think it is “God’s Word””, and “The Bible text is too old, and has gone through so many changes over time.” “There are just too man errors. It’s like the telephone game, you see” “The Christians didn’t decide what should be in the Bible until the 4th or 10th century AD.” “Why are there so many different English translations?” I had to go back and study how we got our Bible. I had to learn the whole story to answer the critics. After all that study, I learned that there were a lot of questions that I wasn’t even asking, that I should’ve been, and when I found the answers. It affected my faith in the reliability of the Scriptures. Tonight, in our Now Concerning Study, we are going to address the question: With over 400,000 variations in the over 6,000 Greek Texts that provide the basis for all Translations of the Bible, how can we still have confidence that we have God’s Inspirited, infallible Word? Why is okay to have so many different English translations of the Bible? That’s tonight at 6- if these things are of concern to you, I hope you can make it out. For now- Turn to the Book of Jonah. You’ve hear the expression- “Love the sinner, hate the sin” That’s a great phrase, but it turns out, it’s really hard to do. At least that’s what the Prophet Jonah discovered. The Book of Jonah is a very short Book. It’s a book of prophecy- but only barely! It’s written by Jonah for the Jews, but it’s not about the Jews. Jonah lived about 100 years before the destruction of the 10 northern Tribes of Israel. But, his people felt like they were in a relatively safe place. Not, that they didn’t have enemies- They had plenty. In fact their biggest enemy, the one who would come and take them away captive, were horrible people- The Assyrians (show the “relief” image) Not only were they terrible, but Israel saw them as a real threat. Any patriotic Jew, didn’t care much for the Assyrians- and with good reason. But, it was to these very people, that God send the Prophet Jonah- It was here, were Jonah learned that He could not very easily separate His hatred for the sin, from his hatred for the sinner. As we will see, God was not satisfied with Jonah’s attitude toward the Assyrians. What we can learn from Jonah, should be obvious by now. If God expected Jonah to hate the sin, and love the sinner, how much more should we who have received Atonement by the Blood of Christ? So, we have a saying, Hate the sin, Love the Sinner. But, it’s not as simple as just repeating the mantra. The real test of our love for the sinner, is our willingness to obey God’s command to bring the Gospel to them.   In fact, we usually end up hating the sin of others more than we love God.   This was Jonah's condition. If we are going to avoid the prophet's mistake we need to be aware of three dangers that lead us to hate the sin of the pagan more than we love the mercy of God.     1. Recognize our Ability to Hate the Sin And the Sinner. a. (vv 1-3)Tell the reason Jonah hated the Ninevites. b. Point out that God knew better than Jonah what evil the Ninevites were capable of, yet He wanted to give them another chance to repent and be saved. c. Common Grace Insights? i. 1965 New York Times Article tells of an interview with the Late Rev. Bill Graham. They were discussing Rev. Graham's conversation with General Douglas MacArthur following the defeat of Japan's Emperor Hirohito. General MacArthur apparently told Rev. Graham, how the now defeated Emperor of Japan requested that America come and establish Christianity as the national religion of Japan. After some deliberation the MacArthur refused saying that no one should be forced to accept a religion but it must be a personal choice. Instead, MacArthur "asked the American people to send 10,000 Christian Missionaries to Japan." Rev Graham was quoted as saying, "we responded with only a handful of missionaries." ii. We encountered A WWII Vet who had obvious prejudice towards anyone who looked Japanese while we were on deputation. iii. I asked my Mission directors, Dr. Les Frazier, and Ed Gibson went to Japan as missionaries following WWII. They told me that many in the churches had a very hard time with the idea of sending the Gospel to Japanese after all the atrocities they had committed around the world- especially the attack on Pearl Harbour. iv. It seems every generation has an enemy that they are tempted to justify as being the exception to the Great Commission. v. Our current generation is no different. vi. Muslims may top the list for some people- it's understandable, but not excusable- God wants to save them, too. vii. Political enemies, are also very high on our list. 1. Sometimes I fear Christians have sold the soul of the church to the Republican Party. At least we are far too eager to let our "hatred" for their political agenda pre-empt our call to carry the Gospel to all people. 2. The LGBTQ community is another one we love to 'hate.' I saw a Facebook page of a Baptist pastor who openly espouses his hatred for the LGBTQ community and even found a Bible verse to justify his hatred- 3. Psalm 139:19-22 (22), "I hate them with a perfect hatred, I count them as mine enemy" ii. Matt 5:43-45- Love your enemies. iii. Then read Psalm 139:23-24 iv. How do obey the call to take the Gospel to all people? v. First, we stop justifying our hatred of them as a reason to not take the Gospel to them. vi. We cannot share the Gospel without being living witness to its power. We are not a living witness of its power if we do not obey Jesus command to love our enemies, to bless them, and to do good to them, even if they hate us. vii. If we truly love the mercy of God more than we hate the sin of the pagan we will stop justifying our hatred of them. 2. <<show slide with map>> Jonah's hatred for the people God called Him to go to, led him to run as far as he can in the opposite direction of where God told him to go. His mistake was thinking that God's commandment was only a suggestion.   2. Recognize Ability to Treat the Great Commission as a Suggestion (verse3- 4)   THE Sovereignty of God is a major element in Jonah's story- God created this storm, prepared a big fish to swallow Jonah, later he prepares a big plant to shelter Jonah, and then takes the plant away to teach Jonah a lesson.   The text literally says, "God hurled" (compare verses 5, 12, 15). At great storm at Jonah!   You ever felt like God has hurled something at you?!? And that maybe, all of this uneasiness and turmoil is God trying to get your attention?   Hebrews 12: 5-11 reminds us that God chastens His children whom He loves. His goal is always to produce holiness in us. Holiness means to be singled out for God's purpose. God's purpose for the church is for the church to make disciples of all peoples. If a church is not doing that, that church should expect God to chasten them- if indeed they are His children.   This is why I am urging us to create discipleship groups here at CBC- It is absolutely imperative that we obey the commands to make disciples. We have to learn how to do this. Then we have to be sure that we are actively taking the Gospel to anyone God sends us to, no matter their politics, or world view.   3. Recognize our Ability to Mask Rebellion with Religion   Read Jonah 2:5-8, Pause at 9 to point out Jonah's hypocrisy Read 2:10-16 to point out how willing the pagan's were to repent and fear the Lord.   As you finish the story of Jonah, you realize that Jonah never really did fully repent of his rebellion. YET, IT DIDN'T STOP HIM FROM BOASTING OF HIS RELATIONSHIP TO GOD.   That fact that he wrote down his story and gave it to the Jews, shows that he eventually did. But, all the while God was dealing with the Ninevites, Jonah held firm to his rebellion.   In Philippians 1:15-18, Paul mentions that the message of the Gospel is still powerful even if the messenger is not fully onboard . But, the messenger is not blessed as much as are the ones who are saved by it.   So, what God wanted to show us, was that He will use our half-hearted obedience to share the Gospel, but until we fully repent of our hatred towards our enemies, we will never be at rest.   What keeps us from fully repenting of our hatred toward the lost, is our pride in our religious activity.   I would venture to say, that until we fully repent of our hatred to our "enemies" will not give the great commission the place of priority it deserves in our life.     Imploration:   Next week, we will see just how low God is willing to bring His servants to convince them to love the salvation of the lost more than their hatred of sinners.   But, today- Just consider if we need to own some of Jonah's issues?   Have We allowed our hatred of the sin of the lost to overshadow our love for God's Kingdom? Have we, like Jonah, imagined that the command to make disciples was merely a suggestion for our life? Are we guilty of justifying our lack of disciple making by pointing to our religious activity?   Let's be honest with God, and ask for His mercy and grace to repent.
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