What Happens When a Christian Sins?

Have you ever wandered …

What Happens When a Christian Sins?

Have you ever wondered about that?

The devil will tempt us to sin, and he will say, “It’s all right. You can get away with it.” He is the tempter. Then when you sin, he says, “I can’t believe you did that. You will never get away with it.” He wants to get you off balance, out of the will of God and make you feel like you can never come back to the Lord again.

So today, a subtitle would be, How to Come Back When You are Down.

David is one of my favorite characters in the Bible because he was a man after God’s Heart, but he was flawed. Psalm 51 is the story of David’s repentance after his sin with Bathsheba. If you remember, David committed adultery with Bathsheba, then when trying to hide what he had done, he murdered her husband. This Psalm is the psalm of a penitent David.

Not only was David a great sinner, he was a great Repenter.

So we will look at three basic things from this Psalm we want to think about today.

1. Everyone of us has the capability of sinning.

We all sin. When we are saved, it doesn’t mean that we lose our capacity to sin. Too many time, an unexpected opportunity and an undetected weakness combine and we fall into sin. John said this in 1 John 1:8

1 John 1:8 NLT

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

He said this to Christians. Just because we commit a sin, doesn’t mean we lose our salvation, but it doesn’t mean that we can sin without consequences.

Just as surely as you put your hand on a hot stove, you get burned, if you are bound to sin, you are bound to suffer.

I heard a story a while back about a former prizefighter. He had been converted, and he thought God had called him to preach. The only problem was, while he thought he had the gift of preaching, nobody else had the gift of listening, so he couldn’t get a church. He got a little pulpit, found a street corner, and preached to passersby in Chicago. He had two or three hangers-on, friends that liked him; he had two or three that hated him; and he had one man, a professed atheist, who said, “I don’t believe any of the Bible.” These two, the ex-prizefighter and the so-called atheist, who was a pseudo intellectual, would get into arguments.

One day the former prizefighter was ready for him. He said to the atheist, “Listen, if I can prove to you just one verse in the Bible is true, will you apologize to me?” And this so-called atheist said, “Yes, indeed I would.” With that the former prizefighter reached out and took this man by the nose and twisted it so severely that the blood ran down both nostrils; and then with a smile on his face, he opened the Bible and read Proverbs 30:33: “The churning of milk produces butter, and wringing the nose produces blood.” Then he said, “I want you to apologize to me because I proved to you at least one verse in the Bible is true.”

Just as surely as the churning of milk brings forth butter, and just as surely as the wringing of the nose brings forth blood, if you are bound to sin, you are bound to suffer—whether you are saved or whether you are lost.

so let’s look at some consequences of a lifestyle of sin.

2. When we sin, we will experience consequences.

Someone said you can choose to do anything that you want, but you cannot choose the consequences. That’s true. So, what happens when a Christian sins? Psalm 51 gives us a list. Look at Psalm 51:1-2

Psalm 51:1–2 NLT

1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

Sin dirties the Soul

The first thing sin does to a Christian when they sin is that it dirties our souls. Look what David said, “Wash me clean…” Why would David say that? After all, he had a lavish tub I’m sure and the finest clothes… Why did he ask God to wash him? Because he fet dirty… grimy… filthy.

Did you know that’s one way you can tell if you are saved? Not whether or not you can sin, but does your sin make you feel dirty? Listen, there is a difference between a child of God and a child of the devil. The child of the devil sins and it doesn’t bother him/her.

They curse… gossip… live immorally… maybe even take the Lord’s name in vain, and if you rebuke them, they will go what? what did I do?

A child of the devil has no difficulty with sin.

It’s kind of like a pig. A pig loves to wallow around in the mud. It’s natural for him. A sheep might fall in the mud but wants to get our as fast as he can. The pig doesn’t feel dirty.

The difference between a child of God and a child of the devil is that the child of God may lapse into sin and he hates it. The child of the devil leaps into sin and he loves it.

David had sinned and he felt dirty, grimy and nasty so he said “wash me clean from my guilt.”

Let me tell you something… listen close.

If you can sin, and that sin doesn’t make you feel dirty, I doubt you have ever been saved. I doubt you have the Holy Spirit living in you.

Sin dominates our minds.

Sin will saturate and dominate our minds. Look what David said in Psalm 51:3

Psalm 51:3 NLT

3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.

It haunts him day and night. He can’t get away from it. David thought about the sin he committed all the time. He can’t get rid of it. His sin dominated his thoughts. If you can sin, and easily forget about that sin, you may not be saved because the Holy Spirit of God is there to remind each of us who are saved of our sin. David said his sin haunted him day and night.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you are consciously thinking about your sin 24/7, but it’s in the back of your mind. It may show up as a migraine headache… or the inability to focus… or an inability to pray… or a volatile temper. It can show up in all sorts of ways. This doesn’t mean you are a backslider.

There are two kinds of wounds to our human psyche: Guilt and Sorrow.

Sorrow is when we lose a loved one and we are wounded by sorrow. It’s a clean wound… a deep and raw wound, but a clean one that will heal. Guilt on the other hand is a dirty wound that will only fester and not heal until it is cleansed.

Sin stings our conscience

Psalm 51:4 NLT

4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.

David is not crying out against God, his punisher here. He is crying out against his sin. You might say, well, David sinned against his family… against the kingdom… against his body… against his children… and all of that is true, but that’s not what was bothering David. What bothered David was that he sinned against God. David saw sin for what it was, an affront to God.

An unsaved person sometimes feels bad about what his sin does to him. A saved person feels bad about what sin does to God.

When a slave disobeyed his master, he is afraid of the whip. But when a child disobeys their father, they are hurt because of the father’s disappointment.

When you love the Lord, you know you love the Lord because it’s not the punishment but the sin that stings your conscience. That’s why David said in Psalm 51:4 “Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight….”

Sin depresses our hearts

Psalm 51:8 NLT

8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice.

Psalm 51:12 NLT

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

He is not asking to have his salvation restored. You can me saved and miserable. The most miserable person in the world is not someone who is not saved. Unsaved people may be having a ball. Sin is fun… for a while. Hebrews 11:25 says that sin is pleasurable for a while.

The most miserable person in the world is a saved person out of fellowship with God.

When God saves you, he doesn’t fix it to where you can’t sin anymore. He fixes it to where you cannot sin and enjoy it anymore.

So here is David pleading with God to restore the JOY of his salvation.

Joy test.

Do you have joy in your heart? 1 Peter 1:8 “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.”

Paul said in Philippians 4:4 “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!”

These passages do not say to be happy, but to have joy in the Lord. Happiness is dependent on your circumstances… on what happens to you. Joy depends on Jesus.

Jesus wasn’t happy all the time. The Bible describes him as a man of sorrows. He wept when Laz died. I am not so sure that he was happy when he was heading to the cross. But he had joy. John 15:11 “11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”

Happiness is like a thermometer that registers conditions. Joy is like a thermostat that controls conditions.

It’s the joy of the Lord that is our strength.

There is only one thing that can take away your joy and that is your sin.

It’s not circumstances… not what someone else does… not an unfaithful spouse… not a wild kid… not the loss of a job… not an ungodly government… the only thing that can take our joy away is our sin. That’s why David cried out Psa 51:12

Psalm 51:12 NLT

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

So, if you don’t have joy, not happiness, but joy in your life, it’s because you are not abiding in the Lord.

Sin sickens our body

Sin in your life without repentance will make you sick. Look at Psa 51:8

Psalm 51:8 NLT

8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice.

God doesn’t get rid of us when we sin. He actually presses in and he will allow the natural consequences of our sin to impact us and sickness is one of them.

A lady was blind and had been to doctor after doctor seeking treatment. It was finally determined that she held bitterness toward someone and she needed to forgive that person. When she forgave them, her sight returned.

In 1 Corinthians 11:30 “That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.” Paul said that the sin in their lives caused their sickness.

When you are right with God, you smile more, you sleep better, you digest food better… A merry heart is the best medicine there is.

But you cannot have this joy if you are walking away from God. David was a man after God’s heart, but here he is… miserable.

Sin Sours the Spirit.

Psalm 51:10 NLT

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

David had picked up the wrong spirit. Listen to me. I would rather be with some good old fashion unsaved heathens than to be around backslidden Christians. The most miserable people… the most cantankerous people you can be around are Christians that have drifted away from the Lord. They are usually the most critical people you will meet because they are trying to push their misery off onto everyone else but themselves. Their problem is that they are backslidden or out of fellowship with the Lord. They know what they need to be doing but they chose not to do what God told them.

David had committed adultery and then had the woman’s husband killed in an attempt to cover it up. Nathan the prophet came to speak with him about it. He told this story.

He told David a story about a man who had a little pet lamb that was like his own daughter, ate from his table—a poor man. Then he lived next door to a very rich man. This rich man had thousands of flocks and herds. And then the rich man had a stranger to stop by. And the rich man took the poor man’s lamb, killed it, cooked it, and fed it to the stranger.

Then Nathan said, now David, you are the king, tell us what ought to be done to the man who did this? David was full of rage and jumped up, as he clinched his teeth and says, that man will pay back 4 fold. The Nathan the prophet said, You are the man. David. You just sentenced yourself. The lamb was Bathsheba, the one David stole.

David was quick to judge a man that had stolen a lamb when had stolen a man’s life. David was quick to judge a man who had killed an animal, but he had killed a human being. But he was quick to judge someone else.

You will always find that those with un-repented sin or those who are backslidden, are quick to judge other people for far less sin than they have in their own lives. They are the ones trying to pick the speck out of someone else’s eyes while they have a log in in their own.

If you are one of those people, you will feel much better when you get back right with God.

Sin Seals our Lips

Why does it seal our lips, Sin destroys your testimony. Look at Psa 51:12-15

Psalm 51:12–15 NLT

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. 13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. 14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. 15 Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you.

Sin will close the mouths of Christians to share their faith. I mean if you are not living it, don’t mention Jesus.

PK and I love to pray for our waitresses. But when we do that, we leave huge tips. Why? I want to them to realize that God loves them and I don’t want to shame the Gospel.

David is saying that when he gets right with God again, then he will be a soul winner… a singer… then he will praise the Lord. Usually, when a person has backslidden, they stop worshipping…. stop attending church… The devil will come along and say, how can you sing when you did… or who do you think you are to tell them about Jesus when you… and you are such a miserable example of a Christian.

The devil messes with so many people because there is sin in their lives.

Now these are all things that happen when a Christian sins. You make into heaven, but oh what a loss of rewards there will be for some.

so,

3. How do we come back?

How can we come back when we find ourselves in these situations? Let’s look at 4 simple but wonderful steps.

The very first thing is

1. Confidence

Psalm 51:1 NLT

1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.

David had confidence in God. David knew that God had much mercy and much love for him. He said not because of me, but because you your great compassion. David knew that he was a sinner, but he also knew that God was full of loving-kindness.

Don’t ever tell a child that if they do something wrong that God will not love them anymore. That’s not true. David knew God’s kindness and mercy.

When you sin, the devil will tell you that God is finished with you… that there is no hope for you. That’s a lie. There is nothing that you can do that will cause God to stop loving you. You need to remember that. Don’t listen to the dirty devil. David has confidence in the Lord, and so can we.

I don’t care what you have done nor how many times… you probably have not been as bad as David was. When there is a lot of sin, there is a lot of GRACE.

That’s confidence.

2. Confession

Psalm 51:3–4 NLT

3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.

This is a confession. He is saying to God that he had sinned against him. Look at 1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 NLT

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

And that word confess as used in the New Testament is made up of two words: homos and lego, which means “to say the same thing.” To admit your sin is not to confess your sin in the Bible sense. You may admit your sin in a courtroom, but a confession of sin means to say the same as God says. God says, “This is wrong, Robert.

People have always wanted to make excuses for their sin. It began in the Garden of Eden; do you remember? “Adam, where are you? Have you done this?” “Well, Lord, it really wasn’t my fault. It was the woman you gave me; it was her fault.” And God spoke to Eve, and Eve said, “Well, Lord, you know the serpent beguiled me.” Of course the snake didn’t have a leg to stand on!

Human nature wants to say, “It’s not me; it’s somebody else.”

David could have said, well God it wasn’t my fault. My wife wasn’t showing me the kind of love I deserved… or It isn’t my fault that Bathsheba was outside bathing where I could see her. Or, I just had a weak moment. He could have tried to weasel out, but

God will not accept an alibi for sin.

Confession is not just an admission of sin. It’s agreeing with God that he is right and I am wrong. That it’s my fault.

As a matter of fact, Pro 28:13 says

Proverbs 28:13 NLT

13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.

There is a difference between Accusation and Holy Spirit Conviction.

The devil is the accuser of the brethren… us.

The Devil will accuse you of sin that you have already confessed.

Then the devil will try to make you feel guilty for no reason.

You will pray something like, If I have ever sinned, please forgive me. The Bible says to confess our sins… name it to God and he is faithful to forgive it.

What is conviction? Conviction is the Holy Spirit saying, “This and this and this you have done,” and like a good doctor, He’ll put his finger right on the sore spot, and He will push. He will call it by name and want you to confess it and be cleansed. And that’s so wonderful.

Don’t let the devil come and accuse you of stuff that God has already forgiven or accuse you of something you haven’t done.

The Holy Spirit of God will convict you specifically, and then you confess it, and you can be clean.

3. Cleansing

Jesus forgives and he cleanses. So… first we have confidence in the Lord. 2nd, we confess our sin to God and he forgives us. 3rd He cleanses us.

Psalm 51:2 NLT

2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

David said to wash him clean from his guild and purify him from his sin. Then he said, Psa 51:7

Psalm 51:7 NLT

7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

So what does this forgiveness and cleansing mean?

Jesus blots out sin and removes it’s penalty.

David said… wash me… purify me.

When God blots out sin, he erases it. It’s gone and there is no record of it anymore.

Jesus washes our sin and removes it’s pollution.

He gets that dirty feeling off of you and me. He says that you are clean as snow is white. God has forgotten your sin. It’s gone.

1 John 1:9 NLT

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

The blood of Jesus washes us clean from our sin… all of it.

Jesus purges us from sin and removes it’s power.

David said … wash me… purify me.

This deals with the power of sin in our lives. Not only does he forgive our sin… not only does he cleanse us from the pollution of our sin… He cleanses us on the inside.

You do not need to walk around with a bunch of guilt anymore. You can be clean.

4. Consecration

Psalm 51:12–15 NLT

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. 13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. 14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. 15 Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you.

David is saying, Lord put my feet back on the right path, and Lord, I am going to get back to serving you. God doesn’t cleanse us so that we can sit around and be clean. He puts us back in the game… back into His service.

Do you know how David got into trouble in the first place? He was not doing what he should have been doing. The Bible said it was a time when Kings went out to war. But David didn’t’ go. So at the crack of supper time, David rolls out of bed and walks around on the roof of the palace and that’s when he saw Bathsheba taking a bath.

Did you know that when we are doing what we ought to be doing, we cannot be doing what we should not be doing.

Once you sin, get your heart right with God. Then get back into the God’s service.

Wrap up

So remember these 4 steps of Restoration. Confidence… confession… cleansing… and consecration.

Don’t think that because you are saved, forgiven and saved that you can behave anyway you want to. Remember, as surely as putting your hand on a hot stove will burn you, sin in your life will also cause you to suffer.

But thank God for his wonderful, marvelous, matchless grace that forgives and restores us when we sin.