SINGLE SERMON SERIES
THE GREATEST SIN
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 25
DECEMBER 8, 1991
On January 11th, 1755, a man named Alex was born on the island of Nevis in the West Indies. Alex was born out of wedlock and was called illegitimate. When Alex was 17 years old, He came to North America and attended school at King’s College in New York City. This, of course, was a few years before the United States of America was born. Alex was a great student and by all accounts, he became very prominent in early American society. In the year 1791, Alex was 36 years old and by that time he had a wife and eight children. That same year, there was a knock at the door of Alex’s house. There was a woman there and her name was Maria Reynolds. Alex didn’t know her. She was very poor. She saw this great house that Alex lived in and it looked like the home of a wealthy man. And so she decided to come to the door and beg for money. Alex could see that she was poor. He could also see that she was beautiful. Alex didn’t give her money, but he did ask for her address. A few nights later, Alex told his wife and his eight children that he was going out to work, but he didn’t go to work. He went to the boarding house where Maria Reynolds lived and he went to bed with her. This was the beginning of an adulterous affair for Alex. It wasn’t the first time that Alex had committed adultery because the truth was that Alex was a philanderer and a womanizer.
Now, this time Alex got into trouble because Maria Reynolds was married to a man named James Reynolds. James found out about the affair and came to Alex threatening all kinds of things. It was said that Alex gave James a thousand dollars just to keep him quiet so he wouldn’t disclose publicly what Alex had done and was doing. As the weeks and the months passed, Alex continued to give money to James Reynolds and continued to have an affair with Maria Reynolds. In the year 1795, James Reynolds was arrested and accused of forgery. As he was being interrogated, he said that he had been helped greatly in this criminal act by Alex. Suddenly, Alex was implanted in this crime. This was a big deal in the life of early America because Alex was the Secretary of the Treasury and the founder of the Federalist Party. He would become the great adversary of Thomas Jefferson and ultimately Alex would be killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. This Alex was Alexander Hamilton.
The case of Alexander Hamilton was very important in the life of our country. In conjunction with the actions of Alexander Hamilton, our country began to examine from a new perspective the whole subject of sin and how to value or weigh various sins. Alexander Hamilton said, “I am not guilty, not guilty of fiscal misconduct or political misconduct. I’m only guilty of sexual misconduct,” and what he called a foolish dalliance.
It was investigated whether or not Alexander Hamilton really had participated in fiscal and political misbehavior and misconduct. This was investigated by a government committee under the leadership of James Monroe and all the newspapers of the time wrote about it. The general decision was Alexander Hamilton wasn’t guilty of fiscal misbehavior or political misbehavior. He was only guilty. That was what they said, only guilty of sexual misbehavior. And because he was only guilty of sexual misbehavior. He continued in the office and in prominence. We look at the history of the United States of America and we can see that we live in a society and a government that has given different values to different sins. I think we would all agree this is true. That is why Richard Nixon is greatly hated today. His sin is viewed as great and he is often clothed, painted, in black by modern day historians. And perhaps we should also say that is why John Kennedy is greatly loved. John Kennedy is greatly loved and of course historians tend to paint him in white because our society has deemed his sin to be not so great. He was clearly a philanderer and womanizer, but yet he was only guilty of sexual misconduct and not political. We live in a society where different values are placed on different sins.
If indeed you are a Christian, you must surely know that God does not view things the way society does. I can promise you that sexual misbehavior is just as important to God as fiscal misbehavior or political misconduct. If you’re really concerned with knowing what sin is greatest in God’s sight, take a look at scripture and you shouldn’t have a hard time finding it. You can look at all the commandments and can see them listed. In the New Testament all of these commandments are summed up in this one commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” The Bible says the greatest sin in the sight of God is lovelessness, to live a life where we don’t have love. That’s the greatest sin. All the commandments are summed up in the greatest commandment. I think this is why our Lord Jesus Christ had the greatest conflict with the Pharisees.
The Pharisees had high ethical and moral standards. They avoided sin and yet Jesus was more enraged with them than any other people in the world. Why? They didn’t love God and they didn’t love people. They practiced all these laws and yet ignored the greatest commandment. In Matthew chapter 23 we can read of the way our Lord verbally blasted the Pharisees calling them hypocrites, a brood of vipers, and whitewashed tombs. He said to them, “You travel the world to make one single convert and when you’ve made him a convert, you make him twice the child of hell that you are.” I think it’s safe to say the Pharisees were a little mad at Jesus. The Pharisees made disciples that didn’t know how to love; they were self-righteous and arrogant. We’re all going to stand before our Lord Jesus Christ. He said the father judges no one. He’s given all judgment to the Son that all might honor the Son in the same way as they honor the father.
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of both the bombing of Pearl Harbor that happened December 7th, 1941, and a not so important event is the anniversary of instant replay. December 7th, 1963, instant replay was first used on television at an Army Navy game. Today we take instant replay for granted, don’t we? If you’re watching football on TV and you see John Elway throw a touchdown pass, you expect to immediately see the play again on instant replay. If you see Michael Jordan in the NBA majestically do a slam dunk, you immediately expect to see it again on the television screen by means of instant replay. Perhaps they’ll even slow it down for you. When you see Jose Conseco hit a baseball out of the stadium, you expect to see it again on instant replay. Instant replay is often used by NFL officials to render the final verdict on what really happened.
Now each and every one of you are going to experience final judgment. I’m going to experience final judgment. I don’t know whether Jesus Christ is going to use instant replay, but I do know he’s going to take a look back. He’s going to be able to see everything we’ve ever done, when he looks back over your life and mine, what’s he going to be looking for? I believe with all my heart: he’s going to be looking for those moments when you showed love.
If you don’t believe that at the judgment seat Jesus Christ is going to look for those moments of love in your life, then all you’ve got to do is read Matthew 25. Have you ever read Matthew chapter 25? It’s kind of a scary chapter. Jesus said, “When the son of man comes from heaven and power and great glory and all of his angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne and before him shall be gathered all the nations and he will separate them one from the other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he’ll place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. And to those at his right, he will say, come oh blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and in prison. And you visited me. And they’ll say, when, Lord, when were you hungry or thirsty or stranger or naked or sick or imprisoned? And we did these? And he will say, in as much as you have done it, under the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. And to those on his left hand, he’ll say, depart from me you workers of iniquity into the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me not to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me not to drink. I was naked and you clothed me not. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. I was sick and imprisoned and you did not visit me. And they will say when? And he’ll say, in as much as you have not done it under the least of these my brethren, you have not done it unto me.”
We are not saved by works, not even works of love or by our own works of law. We’re saved by his works and his supreme work of love as he died for us on Calvary’s cross. And we’re saved by grace through faith when we receive him as Lord and savior of life. The Bible is very clear that if you’ve embraced his grace and have come to him in faith, his life is going to begin to shine through you in love. Though we’re saved by grace through faith, when we get to heaven the Bible makes it clear we’re going to receive varying rewards. Some the Bible says, and one Corinthians will be saved, but only through fire. And they will suffer loss of rewards. And the issue is going to be our faithfulness. And one of the greatest tests of faithfulness is whether or not we have chosen to love. It’s really important, chosen to love.
It would be a tragic thing if your loving deeds were only done because you are afraid of judgment. It is far better that our loving deeds are rooted in compassion. Each of you has some measure of compassion. In the Bible there are two words for compassion. There is the word “splanchna.” That literally means bowels. In our culture we often view the heart as the seat of emotion; However, in the Greek world, they viewed the intestinal area as the seat of emotion. The word for compassion is this word “splanchna,” and it refers to somebody who is moved, moved by the needs, pain, suffering and the hurt of others. God is looking for people who are readily moved when they see the hurts and pains of other people.
There’s another Greek word for compassion and it’s the word “sumpatheo.” This word is often translated as compassion in your Bible. But “sumpatheo” is the word from which we get the English word sympathy. It literally means to suffer with and being capable of feeling another person’s pain. All have some measure of compassion and to some extent you can feel another person’s pain, hurt, need and suffering. To some extent, you’re capable of being moved. Compassion alone isn’t enough because compassion is only completed by what the Bible calls agape love. Unless compassion leads you to action, it’s worthless.
This last week I came across Ben Hur on the television. I hadn’t seen Ben Hur since I was a kid. I remember really loving it and that it was a great movie that won many academy awards. I decided to watch it and from the moment I turned it on, it was right at the place where Ben Hur, played by Charlton Heston, was looking for his mom and sister. They had been incarcerated by the Romans for many years, acquired leprosy and were placed in a leper colony. They were living in a cave with other lepers with their bodies ulcerating and degenerating. It was just tragic. Ben Hur hadn’t seen his mom or sister for years. He’d heard that they were alive and were in a leopard colony. He’s going through the cave looking at lepers and in the midst of their tragic afflictions looking for his mom and sister.
When he sees them after all these years and they see him, they hid their faces, so he would not have to look at their pain. He loved them. When I saw that, I started to cry. As the movie went on, there was that beautiful moment at the end of the movie when Jesus is on the cross. He’s on the cross and he’s dying. The heavens unleashed, giving forth rain. Jesus’ blood was flowing down from the cross, mingling with water. The water and the blood poured off that mountain to a world of pain. Ben Hur’s mom and sister are healed and he shares an incredible moment with them as they become whole once again.
When I’m watching that movie and I see the pain and cry, that’s compassion. We are all capable of compassion. I felt what I imagined to be what they felt. I was moved but it was worthless. After the movie was done, I turned off the TV, and I didn’t look for a leper colony to go work at. I watched it. I was moved. I felt touched. I cried, but I did nothing. It’s often that way with movies and television and for some of us it’s that way in life. As we go through life, we might as well be watching television or a movie because when we see life happen, perhaps we’re touched, feel the pain or cry; but we just turn it off and walk away. Compassion is meaningless without love that is active. Even if you don’t have much compassion, even if the loving deeds you do are not rooted in compassion, it’s still better that you do loving deeds rather than not doing them at all.
I have a little story, a true story that I would like to close with. The story concerns a woman, who on Christmas morning, was with her husband in New York City. This woman owned a gift shop, and sold gifts for people of all ages, moms, dads, and children too. The gift shop was closed because it was Christmas day, and the woman was home with her husband. They had just opened their gifts and it was snowing outside. They had a fire in the fireplace when suddenly the woman felt a great burden to go to her gift shop. She didn’t know why; she just felt an overwhelming compulsion to go to her gift shop as quickly as she could. She left the house and began her mile walk to her gift shop.
There were two little boys, one, six years old and the other nine years old, standing in front of her gift shop window. The nine-year-old wanted to buy a gift for his six-year-old brother. He had three dollars crumbled up. The woman could see that they were both very poor as they had no gloves for their hands. Their clothes were soiled and shredded. She opened up the door to her gift shop and the boys went in and began to look around. She could see how much the older boy wanted to get something for his younger boy. They found a pair of skates, the only pair of skates that this woman had left in the shop. The skates just happened to fit the six-year-old boy. Of course they cost more than three dollars. The woman said to the nine-year-old, “You know, just take those skates and give them to your brother and keep the three dollars.”
She couldn’t believe their joy. She felt great all over and thought, “This has got to be the greatest Christmas I’ve ever had.” Before the two boys left the store, she called them and asked, “How did you happen to know that I was going to come down here on Christmas day and open the store?” The nine-year-old turned around, smiled and said, “We knew you were going to come because we prayed and asked Jesus to send you.”
I don’t know how you feel when you hear a story like that or whether you believe that it happened. I personally have no trouble believing it did because I believe the Lord loves people, little children and big people too. He loves and calls us. He can burden us and tug on our hearts. He can call us to go and help somebody who’s hurting, whether it’s a child or an adult. He calls us to acts of love. He wants us to know we don’t only bless the person we love, but we get to be blessed too. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I’m a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and I understand all knowledge and all mysteries, and I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have no love, I’m nothing. But faith, hope and love. These three abide. And the greatest of these is love.” Let’s close with a word of prayer.