Sin.  It’s such a pesky word; we don’t tend to use it much anymore.  Sin makes us think of judgment.  Sin makes us think that there is a right and a wrong in this world.  Sin makes us think that we are not as good as we want to think we are.  Here is what the dictionary says the definition of sin is:  “Sin is a transgression of divine law.”  If that is true, that means that there is a divine God who looks at something that we have done as a transgression.  Sin means I did it on purpose.  Sin means it was my choice.  Sin means that I knew it was wrong, and that doesn’t necessarily make me feel very good about myself.  On one Sunday morning, the pastor stood at the back of the church after preaching a sermon on sin, shaking hands with people as they left.  As one man came by, he looked intently at the pastor and said “Powerful sermon, Pastor.  Thoughtful, well researched.  I see myself in it, and I want you to knock it off!”  That is why we don’t like to use the word “sin.”. 

We prefer this word: mistake.  I made a mistake.  Let me read you the definition of mistake:  “A mistake is an error caused by poor reasoning.”  Like, “Oh, I just wasn’t thinking straight”, or “Oh, I didn’t see that.”, or “Well, I didn’t know any better.”  If you’re in an argument with someone that is getting a little heated, you can always try out something like “Okay – so I made a mistake.  Is that the end of the world?”  Or,  “Okay, I made a mistake.  Nobody’s perfect.”  The assumption is that somebody else can’t be too mad at you because you just made a mistake – you didn’t know any better.  Well, in our first key point today,

THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SIN AND A MISTAKE.

If I make a mistake, I don’t really have to ask you to forgive me.  I can just say, “I’m sorry.  I made a mistake – Can we just move on?”  But a sin?  That is a different thing altogether.  Then I do need to ask forgiveness for what I have done.  If everything I do wrong can be dumbed down to where it is just a mistake that may make me a mistaker, but not a sinner.  If you’re just a mistaker, then all you have to do is do better, try harder.  Mistakers just have to break a nasty habit.  Mistakers just have to be more consistent.  If I am a mistaker and not a sinner, then I don’t have any need for a Savior.  But if I’m a sinner, then simply trying harder isn’t going to get it done.  I have done wrong, and I need to pay a price, or someone needs to pay it for me in order for me to receive forgiveness.  I need to humble myself before God. 

Now you might try to convince me that you are just a mistaker, that you are a really good person who has never committed a sin, never went against God with any of your thoughts, decisions or actions.  But deep down inside, you and I know that that is not true – there are times where you know better.  You know that what you did wrong was intentional.  You did it on purpose – you just didn’t think you would get caught.  Not only did you do it on purpose, you’ve done it before.  Not only did you do it before, you’re hoping you can do it again.  When somebody brought it to your attention, you were able to pass it off.  But you know in your heart that what you did was more than a mistake.  It wasn’t because of poor reasoning.  It wasn’t carelessness.  You knew exactly what you were doing.  It wasn’t just a mistake – it was a sin.  And God hates sin.  The Bible makes it clear ultimately that we all have sinned, for as St. Paul puts it in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 

Now some of us might wonder why God needs to hate sin.  I mean, why does God have to be such a killjoy?  Why can’t God be more live and let live?  Why do we even have to call things sins instead of mistakes?  Well the biblical view of God is that our God is a good, wise and loving God who hates – yes hates, anything that spoils, defaces, distorts or damages His beautiful creation, and in particular anything that does those things to God’s people made in His image.  If God does not hate racial prejudice and see it as a sin, God is neither good nor loving.  If God does not hate child abuse and see it as a sin, God is neither good nor loving.  If God is not utterly determined to root out from his creation, in an act of judgment, the sins that allow people to exploit, bomb, bully and enslave one another, then God is neither loving, good or wise.  That is why God hates sin.

Today we continue my sermon series on great moments in the life of the prophet Elijah, and we will see in our second point how Elijah confronted

KING AHAB COMMITTED A SIN, NOT A MISTAKE.

You see, as we talked about last week, King Ahab had looked over his palace walls one day and decided that he would like to have a vegetable garden, and the vineyard next to his palace would make the perfect spot for it.  So he asked the owner, Naboth if he could buy the vineyard from him, but Naboth said no – that land had been in his family for generations.  So Ahab was pouting and moaning around the palace, refusing to eat, until his wife Jezebel made the helpful suggestion that if they framed Naboth and then killed him and his children, Ahab could have his vineyard and plant his garden.  Ahab did not oppose her idea, so she went ahead, and Naboth was falsely accused, stoned to death along with his children so that there would be no legal heirs, and then Ahab got his land for the vegetable garden.

But Ahab did not take into account his old friend, the prophet Elijah.  Let us say together what God says to Elijah after this happened in I Kings 21:17-19 (NIV):  “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: ‘Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria.  He is now in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it.  Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?  Then say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: in the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood-yes, yours!”  God is making it clear to Elijah that King Ahab did not just make a mistake – he committed a sin against God.  Even though he did not personally kill Naboth or his children, it was done in his name and with his knowledge, and he also personally benefited from it by stealing his land.  It is important to note here that if Ahab had just committed a mistake, Elijah could have said to him “No biggie!  Mistakes happen all the time!”  But because what Ahab did was a sin, Elijah wanted to make it clear to him that he would have to pay a price for what he had done. 

So Elijah goes looking for Ahab, and when he finds him, as a sign of their cheery relationship, Ahab says to him “So you have found me, my enemy!”  He tries to put Elijah on the defensive immediately, probably knowing that he has done wrong before God, but Elijah is going to have none of it.   He goes through with Ahab the evil that he has done, and then he says that your family is going to be wiped out because of your sin, just like the evil kings Jeroboam and Baasha before you.  And then the writer of I Kings adds, that there never was as evil a king of Israel as Ahab, whose desire for a vegetable garden caused him to murder an innocent man.

But then comes one of the most surprising moments in the entire Bible, as we experience, in my third point,

A MOMENT OF GRACE.

Let’s read together what happened in vs. 27-28:  “When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted.  He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly.  Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me?  Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”  What an amazing turnaround!  King Ahab, who our author just told us was the most evil of all of Israel’s kings, actually repented of the sin he had done.  He tore his clothes, he put on sackcloth, which was coarse brown fabric worn around your body to signify mourning, and he fasted.  Now let me tell you that God treasures it when you and I confess to Him that we have done a sin, when we just do that openly and honestly.  And no matter how often we do it, no matter how often we sin against God, God is always ready to forgive us again when we just tell Him the truth, when we do not try to hide our sin from Him.  Imagine how shocked Elijah was when he heard that the Lord was going to not bring disaster on King Ahab.  We are not told in the Bible Elijah’s reaction to this, maybe because he used some words that could not be printed in the Bible!  As far as Elijah was concerned, King Ahab was basically the same as Adolf Hitler, an evil political ruler who had no boundaries for his wrongdoing.  And God is saying to me that because he has humbled himself before God, that he will not have to face disaster?  What are you, crazy Lord! 

You know, sometimes people say that the God of the Old Testament of the Bible and the God of the New Testament are like two different Gods, with the Old testament God being full of wrath and hating sin and the New Testament God being full of forgiveness and love.  Yet this passage reminds us that the God of the Bible does not change.  He does hate sin, and God hates sin in both the Old and New Testaments.  But when someone repents of what they have done, when they humble themselves before God, our God is an incredibly forgiving and loving God who will always give us a second and third and fourth and seventh and seventy times seventh chance.  That is just who He is.  That is what the Bible is talking about when it says that our God is a God of grace.

As we come to celebrate this meal today, we give thanks that our God is a God of amazing grace, that whatever sins we have done in our life, they can be forgiven here.  Grace comes free to charge to people who do not deserve it, as hard as that was for Elijah to accept and for us to believe.  You know, you ask most people what they must do to get to heaven, and they will reply, “Be good.”  But what the Bible really teaches is that all we must do is sincerely cry, “Help!  God have mercy on me, a sinner!”   God will sincerely welcome into His family anyone who does that.  Wherever you are today in your life or in your spiritual walk, Jesus invites you to share in this meal, to eat of this bread and drink of this cup as it is poured out for the forgiveness of your sins, and to come home to Him.  Praise be to God, Amen.