THREE CATEGORIES OF SIN – PART II
DR. JIM DIXON
1 JOHN 2:15-17
NOVEMBER 12, 1995
We do not know his name, but we do know that he had a horrible disease. His neurological system was degenerating and he was losing feeling in his hands and in his feet. Dark spots were beginning to form all over his body, on his arms, on his legs, and on his torso, even on his face. These dark spots were beginning to ulcerate and quite literally he was beginning to stink. The tendons in his hands and in his feet were beginning to contract and his hands and feet were beginning to look like claws. He knew where it was all heading, that his hands and his feet would decay and perhaps, eventually, even fall to the ground. He knew that his destiny was coma and death.
He lived perhaps in a cave with others who had his same horrible, incurable disease. Perhaps he had a wife back home where he used to live. Perhaps he had children, little boys and girls. Perhaps his mom and dad were still alive. Surely, he longed to see his loved ones. Surely, he longed to hold them. He longed to hug them, but he knew that it could never be because he was banished, banished from the fellowship of men and women. He was, you see, a leper.
In his time, leprosy carried an even greater stigma than AIDS does in our time. In his time, lepers were feared and leprosy was considered absolutely the most tragic of afflictions. A leper was not allowed to come within 150 feet of a normal human being. But this man was desperate. He was desperate and he had heard of a very special man, a man that some people were calling the Messiah. He heard that this very special man had healing power. We don’t know how this leper did it, but somehow he found his way to Christ. Perhaps he covered himself completely with cloaks and he even covered his face so that nobody could see him at all.
He found his way to the feet of Jesus Christ and he fell at Christ’s feet and he said these words: he said “Master, if You will, You can make me clean.” Our Lord Jesus Christ did what no other person would do. He reached down and he touched this leprous man. And then He did what no other person could do; he healed that leprous man in a great release of power and compassion. Jesus said these words, “I will. Be clean.” In a moment in time, that man was made whole.
For the early church, that leper became a kind of symbol of all the people in the world because the early church firmly believed that every person in this world is diseased. Not physically, but spiritually every person in this world is diseased, that at the level of our soul we are riddled by a disease called sin. The early church firmly believed that it was only when a woman or man came to Jesus Christ and said to Him, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean,” that they could hear those wonderful words “I will. Be clean.”
The reason last week and this week we are focusing on this subject of sin is not simply that you might be vexed at the sin that surrounds you, but that rather we might come to the Lord ourselves and say to Him, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean” and hear Christ say “I will. Be clean.” That we might begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness and that we might begin to seek more the cleansing and forgiving power of Jesus Christ.
Last week, we dealt with the first category of sin listed in John’s gospel, the lust of the flesh. We saw how those sins tended to be hedonistic sins. The abuse of our physical appetites and the abuse of our physical desires. Now we will look at the second category of sin which John calls the lust of the eyes. If the lust of the flesh referred to hedonistic sin, then the lust of the eyes tends to refer to materialistic sins, sins such as greed, sins such as covetousness. Certainly, we live in a world of materialism. We live in a world of greed and we live in a world where the lust of the eyes are as prevalent as the lust of the flesh.
Some of you, in some time past, lived in the city of Cleveland and I know many of you have probably been to Cleveland. Of course, it is true that the city of Cleveland has not always been regarded as a beautiful city. Some people even today refer to the city of Cleveland as the “mistake by the lake.” But, of course, for the people of Cleveland, they are proud of many things and one thing that the people of Cleveland are very proud of is their football team. They have been proud of the Cleveland Browns for many years and, in fact, for fifty years the women and men of Cleveland have filled Cleveland’s stadium to watch the Browns play NFL football. Through the years they have seen the Cleveland Browns compete in nine different NFL championship games and they have seen thirteen of the Browns’ players make their way into the NFL Hall of Fame. Through these fifty years, the people of Cleveland have flooded that stadium; over 70,000 people every time, the fourth largest attendance in the entire NFL. The people of Cleveland love their football team.
But it’s just been announced by the owner of the Cleveland Browns, Art Modell, that the Cleveland team is going to move to Baltimore. The owner of the Cleveland Browns explains that they really need to move to Baltimore because it’s just not financially feasible to stay in Cleveland. Despite the wonderful fans, they are going to have to leave to make ends meet. Now the people of Cleveland are saying “Really, it’s greed. It’s all greed.” Of course, the city of Baltimore has wooed the Cleveland Browns with a whole lot of money. They’re offering the Cleveland Browns a brand-new stadium with more than 70,000 seats and they’re going to let the Cleveland Browns come to Baltimore and use that brand new stadium rent-free. They’re going to give them all the proceeds of all the tickets. They’re going to give them all the proceeds of all the concessions. They’re going to give them all the proceeds of the parking lots and they are going to give them all the proceeds from the stadium advertising. They’re giving them $75 million just to move and another $15 million to build a training facility.
According to this past week’s issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, the Cleveland Browns will make $30 million a year more in the city of Baltimore than they could make in the city of Cleveland. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED also claims that there are eight other NFL teams that are thinking today about leaving their cities and moving to other cities. This past week, in the DENVER POST and in the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, it is claimed that the Denver Broncos may threaten to move to another city in other to encourage the taxpayers of Denver to provide the revenue to build a new stadium for the Denver Broncos.
I don’t know how you feel about all this. I don’t know how you feel about all this, but I think we’d all have to admit this: there’s a lot of greed in professional sports. There’s a lot of greed in the NFL. There’s a lot of greed amongst the players and there’s a lot of greed amongst the owners. Of course, the truth is there’s just a lot of greed in our society. There’s a lot of greed in this world. I know there’s a little greed in my heart, maybe more than a little. The Bible tells us that there’s greed in all of our hearts because we’re all susceptible to this category of sin called the lust of the eyes.
One of the words in the Bible for greed is the word “philargyros.” This Greek word in the Bible literally means “the love of money.” In the Bible, God says to us as Christians, “There is great gain and godliness with contentment. For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of this world, but if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. For those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many and senseless and hurtful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money, “philargyros,” is the root of all evil. It is through this craving that many have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.”
Well, the love of money is sometimes pretty subtle and you really don’t have to be very rich to love money. I mean, you might have a household income under $30,000 a year and yet you might be struggling with greed and you might be struggling with the love of money. It can manifest itself in such subtle ways.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Barb and Drew and I were in the Greenwood Plaza parking lot to see a movie there at the Greenwood Theaters. It was a windy day, kind of like it’s been today. There were great gusts of wind. As we got out on the passenger side of the car, a great gust of wind caught the door as it was opened and it swung into the car, into the door on the car that was just next to us. It hit the car next to us pretty hard with our car door. It left paint on the side of the car next to us. It dented the car a little bit. We left a note on that other car saying we were sorry, giving our phone number and offering to pay for the damage done to the car. We got a phone call that night from the owner of the vehicle. He just wanted to say, first of all, how grateful he was that we left the note. It occurred to me how strange it is that we live in a world where people are kind of surprised when people just do the right thing. That literally surprises people because we live in a world that’s filled with philargyros, the love of money.
Just the very next day, I came home, drove into the garage, and as I came around the car I noticed a new dent in my rear bumper. Somebody had hit the back of my car and they hadn’t left a note. Why is that? I mean why do people not leave notes when they dent your car? The reason they don’t leave notes when they dent your car is philargyros. It’s the love of money and it’s sin. It’s one of the sins that fall into this category called the lust of the eyes. It is subtle and God would caution us today.
When you go to a restaurant and you go with your family and you order a meal and the bill comes, if they charge you too much, if there’s something on the bill you didn’t even order and they charge you too much, what do you do? You probably tell them, don’t you? What happens if they charge you too little? What if they come and they didn’t charge you for some things that you ordered and you received and you ate? What do you do if they charge you too little? Do you just say “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” or do you tell them? Do you tell them that they charged you too little? You see, if you don’t, in the sight of God it’s the lust of the eyes. In the sight of God, it’s philargyros. It’s the love of money.
Of course, the real issue with regard to these sins is worship. Who do you worship? Who are you living for? You know how in the wilderness, as recorded in Matthew, chapter 4, Satan came to Christ and tempted Him. You remember that one temptation where he took Christ up to a high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. All of their wealth, all of their glory. Satan said to Christ, “All of this I will give to you if you but fall down and worship me.” That’s the real issue isn’t it. When it comes to the lust of the eyes, isn’t that really the issue? Who are you worshiping? Who are you serving? Who are you living for?
You know, in Exodus, chapter 20, at the beginning of the decalogue, we have the first commandment where God says “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall have no other gods before Me or no other gods besides Me.” Again, in Matthew, chapter 6, Jesus said “No person can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” The word mammon was a word that referred to wealth. It was a word that referred to money. It was a word that referred to material things “You cannot serve,” Jesus said “God and mammon.”
Of course, I really believe that for us as a church, our worship is going to be tested in these upcoming weeks and months. I really believe that God is going to test our worship. Do we worship God or do we worship mammon? We’re in a real critical time as a church. If ever we needed to worship Christ and serve Christ with our time and talent and treasure, it’s now. I think, as we look to 1996, most of you know that there’s going to be an increase in our operating budget. We can’t help it because, you see, we have the new loan on this new facility that kicks in. We have the cost of running this facility. Our operating budget in the calendar year 1996 is going to increase by approximately $1 million. Where’s that money going to come from?
Well, you see, our giving as a congregation has increased approximately 15% since we’ve moved into this facility and that’s good. Unfortunately, it’s not good enough. As the elders look at the giving of our church and they look at 1996 with faith but also with proper stewardship, they can see us as a congregation giving perhaps $500,000 more next year than we gave this year, but that would still leave us a half million dollars short. It would still leave us $500,000 short. This is the truth. I mean, if we do not increase our giving as we approach year end significantly, we’re going to have to cut about $500,000 out of our ministry budget and $500,000 out of our staff budget. We’re going to have to cut staff. I really believe this is a great test of who we worship.
You know, at the same time, people are coming up to me and they’re saying “How come we don’t have an adult education facility with adult education classes right here on site? How come we don’t have a fellowship hall? How come we don’t have a youth building that’s set aside just for our youth?” Of course, I explain what we have explained in times past, that this facility was built piecemeal. I mean, we have a master plan that includes all of those things but we’ve had to build piecemeal and we’ve had to prioritize the pieces, looking at what pieces are most important. Most churches would agree, you have to start out with a sanctuary and with Sunday School space for the children, then add the pieces. But it’s going to take a lot of faithfulness and really a test of our worship, whether we are serving God or whether we are serving mammon.
I think one of the hard things I know for me, I know for Barb too, and for Bob and Ally, and for all of us on staff, is when people sometimes say “We’re not going to give money to build your kingdom.” I hope you understand we don’t want you to give your money to build our kingdom. This is all about the kingdom of Jesus Christ. I’m sure that Barb and I are very much like all of you. I’m sure you have times in your job and in your work and in your career where you’re tired. You have times where you just would like to bail. I’ve got to confess that Barb and I have times like that too. I mean, we have times when we’re just tired and we have times where we would just love to kind of run away, find a place in the mountains or something like that.
But, you see, in our better times we know that the call of Jesus Christ is upon us. We know that He’s called us here. I must say I believe you’re not here by accident. I believe God has called you here and I believe we’re in this together. The challenges are just beginning. I mean, when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan into the promised land, that’s when the challenges really began, and they’re just beginning for us. Here is a call to faithfulness and a warning regarding the lust of the eyes. Are we worshiping Jesus Christ or are we worshiping mammon?
Well, the third category of sin, a final category of sin that we’re discussing in this series, is a sin that the Apostle John calls the pride of life, “he alazoneia tou biou,” the pride of life. This word “alazoneia” referred to boastful pride. Of course, when Satan came to tempt Christ in Matthew, chapter 4, you remember also that Satan led Christ up to the pinnacle of the temple and he said “Cast yourself down. For is it not written, ‘He will give His angels charge over you to bear you up lest you dash your foot against the stone.’” Just jump off from the pinnacle of the temple in the sight of everybody and let your angels appear and catch you and lift you up. What a scene that would have been. I mean, the people of Israel had never seen anything like that and they would never see anything like that again. What a boastful act that would have been.
Of course, if anyone knows about boasting and pride, it’s Satan, who in the very beginning, in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, said in his heart, “I will ascend above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will make myself like the most high God.” That’s the pride of Satan. The pride of Satan permeates this world. The pride of Satan permeates our society. If the lusts of the flesh tend to be hedonistic sins and the lusts of the eyes tend to be materialistic sins, then the pride of life tends to be sins associated with ego, egotistical sins, sins relating to self-exaltation.
You know, Thomas T. Samaras, according to U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, you may have read this article where Thomas T. Samaras claims that we have a crisis in this world because people are too big. That’s what Samaras says. He says people are just too big and it’s creating environmental, ecological disaster. Human beings are too tall and they weigh too much, particularly here in North America and particularly in the United States of America. People are too tall, too big, and therefore they are consuming too much of our natural resources and they’re literally raping the environment. He says people just have to get smaller. He says that this can be done slowly, incrementally, over generations. If parents will bring their children up on smaller amounts of food and monitor this food. He says ideally we need to get to the point where the average male stands 5 feet in height and weighs 110 for the sake of the environment.
But, of course, the real problem in this world is not that men and women are too big. It’s not that our bodies need to get smaller. The real problem in this world is that our egos are too big and our egos need to get smaller. Of course, this relates to the pride of life. It’s not simply that our egos seek to exalt ourselves, but it’s that our egos seek to bring other people down. You see, these sins are subtle. It’s not just that we seek to exalt ourself in the marketplace or even in our relationships, but it’s that we seek to pull other people down and all of this is the pride of life.
I want to read you a little quote. It’s from a woman named Violet Asquith. She was a young woman when this incident took place. She was at a dinner. This was near the turn of the century. She was at a dinner and seated right next to her was Winston Churchill. He, too, at that time was young. She did not know him at all and had never met him. She wrote these words. “For a long time he remained sunk in abstraction. Then he appeared to become suddenly aware of my existence. He turned on me a lowering gaze. He asked me how old I was. I replied that I was 19. And, I, he said, almost despairingly, am 32 already. On reflection, he added thoughtfully, younger than anyone else who counts though.” Then he said “Curse ruthless time. Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted time span for all we must cram into it.” Then he burst into a diatribe about the brevity of life. He concluded by saying “We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm.”
Well, I must say, Winston Churchill was one of the great leaders of the 20th century western world. But like all people, he was flawed. Like all of us, he was flawed. He had, I am sure, many sins in his life but most would agree that the category of sin that he most struggled with was this category the Apostle John calls the pride of life. He struggled with pride. It didn’t just lead him to seek exaltation. It sometimes led him to put people down. He did this with his tongue and he did this with his pen.
I think you know some of the stories. Perhaps you know that he had an ongoing feud with George Bernard Shaw, the famous playwright. On one occasion, when Shaw had just written his play Saint Joan, which many believe was the greatest play Shaw ever wrote, Shaw sent Winston Churchill two tickets for opening night and a little note. The note said “Winston, one ticket is for you and the other ticket is for a friend, if you have one.” Winston very quickly wrote him back. He said “George, so sorry I can’t make opening night. However, please send two tickets for the second evening’s performance if there is one. Winston.” I mean, you really just couldn’t beat Winston Churchill in a put-down.
You remember the conversation that he had with Lady Astor. Of course, again, just as with George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill had an ongoing feud with Lady Astor, Nancy Astor, the wife of Waldorf Viscount Astor. One evening at a dinner party at Blenheim Palace, they got into a discussion and it soon became heated. They were arguing and finally Lady Astor said “Winston, I do believe if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee.” He said “Ma’am, if you were my wife, I would drink it.”
And you remember, of course, the little incident, you see there’s a certain cleverness in what he said but there’s also a certain pride and sometimes it showed a little more cruelly, as when he was in the elevator in London after a dinner party. A woman came up to him. He was intoxicated. She came up to him. She saw him in the elevator. She said “Winston, you’re drunk.” He said “Yes Ma’am, and you’re ugly, but in the morning I’ll be sober.” Of course, that line is often quoted. It, too, is clever, but in a sense tragic because it manifests, you see, the pride of life.
I think this morning, as I look at my life and as you look at your life and we take an honest inward look, I think Christ wants us to face the sin that is there. If you have a tendency to use put-down humor, Christ wants you to see it for what it is. If you have a tendency to use your tongue to slander people or to gossip about people, Christ wants you to see it for what it is. If you know in your heart that you are seeking to exalt yourself for the sake of ego, Christ wants you to see it for what it is because all of this is the pride of life.
C.S. Lewis once said that he believes the sins relating to pride were the greatest of all sin, greater than the lust of the flesh, more serious than the lust of the eyes, these prideful sins. He said, “These twisted pleasures, the pleasures of hatred, the pleasures of prejudice, the pleasures of power, these are the worst of sins.”
So this morning we have a reminder from Christ that we so desperately need. All of us are in need of His grace and His mercy and His forgiving power. A warning that, as Christians, we are to seek holiness, that Christ wants us to hunger and thirst for righteousness and perhaps, if there are some here who have never come to Christ and said “Lord if you will, You can make me clean;” never dealt with their own sin, never come to Christ and said “Lord if You will, You can make me clean,” today’s the day. If you do, He will touch you and He will say “I will. Be clean.” Let’s close with a word of prayer.