Confronting Sin
The New Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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How and when do we confront sin?
Do you avoid confrontation within the church?
Would you prefer to be a part of a Church that does not confront sin?
1 On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.
Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah (Renewal of Separation (Nehemiah 13:1–3))
The Ammonites and Moabites to be excluded were those who did not repent of idolatry. In response to the reading of Scripture, the returnees in Nehemiah’s day “separated all those of mixed descent from Israel.” We’ve already seen them do this in Ezra 9–10, after Ezra returned to the land in 458 BC. Then Nehemiah returned to the land in 445 BC and they separated themselves again in Nehemiah 9:2, before noting those who had separated in 10:28 and committing not to intermarry in 10:30.
Balak and Balaam
the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab. The reputation of Israel and their God had followed them to Moab. Balak the king of Moab had heard all that the Israelites had done to the Amorites the people were afraid because the Israelites were many.
This horde will lick up all around us like a cow licks up the grass.
King Balak calls for Balaam to come and curse the nation of Israel so that he can defeat them. God comes to Balaam and does not allow him to go with Balak and curse Israel.
2nd time Balaam sent even more powerful people to persuade Balaam to go out and curse the armies of God. Balaam was on his way to follow Balak and his wishes when God placed angels with their swords drawn in the road. The donkey that Balaam was riding saw the angels and stopped in the road. Balaam began to berate and beat the donkey to move. God opened the donkeys mouth to talk back to Balak. Then God allowed Balaam to see the angels in the road.
Now Addressing the same problem they had experienced 30 years earlier. (bringing foreign Gods and people into the fold)
The struggle with Persistent Sin
We all have those nagging sins that seem to hang around like a stinky dirty sock. The more we try to put it away it rears its head again and again.
The persistent sin of the Israelites could either be a case for discouragement or encouragement.
Perhaps the discouragement is how many times you will be confronting and calling out people on the same sins, over and over again.
Perhaps the encouragement is, that if you are continually struggling with the sin means that God has not given you over to the sin. God continues to convict you, by leading you to repentance just as He did the Israelites.
4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, 5 prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. 6 While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king 7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. 8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 9 Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
“Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think… It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving… Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use.
Heart must be set to heart and back to back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.”- John Bunyan
Saul’s conversion is one of the most amazing event in the Bible, as he is literally confronted by the evidence of his sin and gutted by it. In the same moment, he sees Jesus offering salvation to him in spite of his past. He is broken and made whole by grace
We Must Be Decisive Against Persistent Sin.
We Must Be Decisive Against Persistent Sin.
Nehemiah Cleanses The Temple
Do you see how decisive Nehemiah was?
He returned to Jerusalem and within 52 days they had finished the wall. Some time had passed and now he finds this Ammonite desecrating the temple and he throws him and his things out the door.
Foreshadowing / Jesus Cleansing
Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah (Nehemiah Cleanses the Temple (Nehemiah 13:4–14))
Nehemiah here foreshadowed One who would come to the temple and find that, rather than the worship of God being upheld there, it had been turned into a place for traders. (Traders or merchants in the Bible are sometimes literally “Canaanites,” e.g., Job 41:6.)
On that occasion the man who was righteously indignant about what was happening in the temple made a whip. He started overturning tables and dumping out bags of money and driving people out of that place. So what Nehemiah does here is Christlike.
Tobiah and Eliashib Move In
Eliashib was a relative of Tobiah. They did some redecorating in the temple. They moved out the things used for the worship of God and moved in their own stuff.
Eliashib prepared a room that once held the grain for the
10 I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 11 So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. 12 Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. 13 And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. 14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.
*Persistent Sin inhibits our Worship.
*Persistent Sin inhibits our Worship.
Note: The worship of God had stopped. And the people were all taking care of their own interests.
In chapter 10 there had been a firm covenant made that they would not neglect the house of the Lord.
If you see bad behavior in the lives of those with whom you are in covenant in your church, you should confront them.
If you see ways that people are not living out and upholding the covenant that they signed, you should confront them.
You don’t have to do what Nehemiah does, but you can be a channel of God’s love for His people. Be a conduit of God’s kindness.
(Nehemiah 13:4–14))
Nehemiah exercised righteous indignation. It was good and right for him to respond this way.
James 4:7-10 gives us an excellent step by step prescription for conquering sin.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
First, determine to submit to God.
First, determine to submit to God.
We submit to Him in respect particularly to worldly things. We submit to his way and method of doing things particularly in regards to righteousness and Christ. We are completely dependent on him for all graces.
Second, resist, and the devil will flee.
Second, resist, and the devil will flee.
Satan is to be looked upon as an enemy, and to be opposed as such, and to be watched and guarded against; the whole armour of God should be taken and made use of, particularly the weapon of prayer, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and the shield of faith; and also the grace of humility.
The spirit of this world endeavours to swell men with pride of themselves; and when he has worked them up to such a pitch, he is then master of them, and can manage them as he pleases.
But a poor humble believer, with whom God dwells, to whom he gives more grace, and who comes forward not in his own strength, but in the strength of the Lord God.
Just as David did against Goliath, who owns his vileness and sinfulness, and flies to the grace of God, and the blood of Christ, Satan knows not what to do with him, he is puzzled, baffled, and confounded. This is such a person from whom he flees.
Third, replace the draw of sin by drawing near to God.
Third, replace the draw of sin by drawing near to God.
Note: If you are not currently growing in your faith or seem to feel that God is far away from you. The people had stopped worshiping God and moved Him out of the temple for their own desires. Our bodies are God’s temple today. What happens when we desecrate our bodies today and use them for dishonorable passions?
Sexual Immorality
The more I read scripture the more it seems that the sin of sexual immorality holds a greater opportunity to build a rift between us drawing near to God. We have heard, “My Body, My Choice.” Look what Paul writes about your body.
16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Fourth, clean yourself up!
Fourth, clean yourself up!
“Clean your hands and purify your Hearts, you double minded.”
Double-minded' is one of the key-words of the Epistle (1:8, 4:8). “It implies half-hearted allegiance — an attempt to combine the service of God with the service of self and the world.” We're beginning to have a double-mind when our faith begins to waver, when we begin to doubt God, (1:6).
NOTE: We get our hands dirty when we play in the sandbox of the world. We cleanse our hands by removing them from sinful pursuits and moral compromises and then seeking God’s forgiveness.
Fifth, mourn over the sins you do commit.
Fifth, mourn over the sins you do commit.
Few people have ever truly learned to mourn over the sins in their lives.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep
Not in a bare external way; not by afflicting the body with fastings and scourgings, by renting of garments, and clothing with sackcloth, and putting ashes on the head, and other such outward methods of humiliation; but afflicting the soul is meant, an inward mourning and weeping over the plague of the heart, the impurity of nature, and the various sins of life.
Sixth, humble yourself before God.
Sixth, humble yourself before God.
This is an expression of our complete and total unworthiness before Him, and also our vileness and sinfulness compared to His perfect goodness and righteousness. When we walk humbly with God, we acknowledge that we can do nothing without Him, we owe our complete dependence on Him.
Language Study
Hesed - this is the Hebrew word for Love, Loyalty and goodness and kindness.
Nehemiah twice asks that the Lord does not forget the good deeds he has done for the house of the Lord. Neh. 13:14 and 13:22.
I think we all want to be remembered for the good things we have done. Why would someone pray such a prayer? I think he wanted these things remembered because He was looking forward to the final evaluation of God. There is hope that goes beyond this world.
15 In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. 16 Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! 17 Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
19 As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. 21 But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. 22 Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.
*Persistent Sin Leads to Forgetfulness
*Persistent Sin Leads to Forgetfulness
Sin leads to Forgetfulness
Sometimes the forgetfulness is not so much that we do not know what God said, it may be more that the continual results of sin in our lives leads to a distorted view of the depth of our sinfulness.
Sometimes forgetfulness can lead to our compromising with sin.
Notice that in verse 17 Nehemiah confronted the nobles of Judah reminding them that this was the very thing that their fathers had done that not end well for them, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem. Profaning and disregarding the Sabbath could lead to the same result.
We know what insanity is right, It’s doing the same thing expecting a different result.
What is the Significance of the Sabbath?
1st God Ordained it: Genesis 2:2-3 and on the 7th day God rested from all of his work. So, God blessed the 7th day and made it holy.
2nd God Commanded it: Exodus 16:8-11 remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The rest is not to be aimless rest, but God-centered rest. Attention is to be directed to God in a way that is more concentrated and steady than on ordinary days. Keep the day holy by keeping the focus on the holy God.
3rd You need the Sabbath: Mark 2:27 the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. It helps us not lead into forgetfulness as the Israelites had done, keeps us on track from forgetting all that He has done for us. Reminds us of our desperate need for Him.
GODS PURPOSE FOR US ON SABBATH
Cultural Problem
That we wold experience the greatest and highest and most intense joy that can be experienced, namely, that we “take delight in the Lord.”
However, what we find time and time again is that professing Christians prefer little Human-sized pleasures from things that cannot even compare to human pleasure.
If you worked seven days a week in the hot sun to keep life and limb together, with scarcely any time for leisure and reflection, would you consider it burdensome if your God came to you with omnipotent authority and said,
"I don't want you to have to work so much. I want you to have a day a week to rest and enjoy what really counts in life. I promise to meet your needs with just six days of work"? That is not a cruel command. It is a gracious gift.
Coming together to worship on Sunday should not be a burden. It should not be a have to go and worship today.
Why do so many people think of Sabbath as a Burden?
One reason is that many people already have so many other leisure activities the idea of Sabbath rest is just another leisure activity. I think the greater reason is that people do not enjoy what God intended us to enjoy on the Sabbath, namely, himself. Many professing Christians enjoy so many other things more than they find joy in spending time with God.
Those whose minds and hearts are set on the pleasures of the world instead of the absolute pleasures of God will always see Sabbath as a burden not a blessing.
This is what John was saying in 1 John 5:3
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
Note: Jesus did not come to Abolish the Sabbath
He came to dig it out from underneath the legalistic pile of burdens that the Pharisees were piling on the people.
It is a day for showing Mercy and doing Good!
Remember in Matthew 12 as Jesus and His disciples were going through the grain fields, they were hungry so they plucked some of the grain an date it. The Pharisees saw it, and called Jesus out on allowing His disciples to do what they interpreted as work.
Jesus reminded them of their own greatest king David who came into the temple while fleeing Saul. He and his men were hungry, so, they ate some of the bread of the presence from the table. Jesus said, “what I desire is mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus goes on to ask if one of them has a sheep in His flock that falls into a pit, would you not go lift him out of the pit?
23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
28 And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. 29 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
*Persistent Sin Requires Tough Love
*Persistent Sin Requires Tough Love
“Tough Love” is an expression that is generally thought of as disciplinary measure where someone is treated rather harshly with the intention of helping him or her in the long run. Tough love may be the refusal to give assistance to a friend asking for help when to do so would simply allow him to continue along a dangerous path.
However, with tough love in a biblical sense, the chastening is always controlled by a loving heart. As the wise King Solomon said, “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24). The Bible has much to say about tough love, particularly in Proverbs and Hebrews.
Here we again have the problem that Nehemiah is confronting of those who have intermarried with other pagan cultures. The Jews had married with these other pagan cultures and could not even speak the Hebrew language.
Now, the problem with this was way deeper than just nationalistic pride. What is at stake is the Bible. The Holy Scriptures are in the language of Judah. They needed to be able to speak Hebrew so that they can read the Scriptures. That is why this matters.
A single generations compromise could undo the work of centuries, because they could lose access to the Scriptures. A loss of the Hebrew language could mean a slow steady erosion of their Israelite identity.
To fully understand the measure of tough love we must first understand the magnitude of the fight we are currently in today.
Satan and his host of demons will made every attempt to knock us off the path of our Spiritual journey, continually tempting Christians to give in to their sinful nature. 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober minded, be watchful, your adversary the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for those he may devour.
Jesus also warns us in Matthew 7:13 that broad is the road that leads to destruction and many will be on that road. A strong dose of tough love may be the most appropriate recourse to help one get off the road to destruction, especially if he had been on it for some time.
Tough love is often necessary because, as fallen humans, we have a tendency not to respond to gentle taps on the shoulder. Our heavenly Father will do whatever is necessary to conform His children to His likeness as He predestined us for this reason.
This is what His discipline is all about. God will administer whatever amount of tough love that He deems necessary to bring our behavior in line with His will. This should be the same motivation for the parent and the child.
CONCLUSION
In The Human Heart
Night Shyamalan’s 2004 movie, The Village, described the struggle to create a “perfect” community in a fallen world (The Village, directed by M. Night Shyamalan [Burbank, CA: Touchstone Pictures, 2004], DVD).The movie described a puritanical-like village set during the eighteenth century. There are clear moral boundaries, respect, no crime, and an Amish-like innocence to life.
However, we eventually learn that the village is not an eighteenth-century community, but an isolated social experiment set in contemporary society.
The elders of this community each carry a story of how evil in the world has changed their life. They eventually created this community as a society better than the one that hurt them. For them sin/evil could be controlled and forgotten through constructing a community not corrupted by the modern world.
The younger generation of the village did not know about the outside world, and that helped maintain their “innocence”—or so they thought. Even though the village grew and there was little doubt of its peaceful nature, one of their young men would try to kill another man. Because of this character’s jealousy, an assault is committed in what seems to be a “perfect” community.
One can only imagine the shock for the village. They thought they had rid themselves of the evils of society and created a peaceful community, but in the end, the village never managed to escape evil and violence.
Where is sin located? In the human heart. The Book of James says that evil and sin comes from our internal desires and thoughts (James 1:14).
Sin is not something that is out there in the fallen world, but something that is in me.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
How is your Heart?
Persistent sin takes root in the heart.
Sin begets more sin, because our hearts are desperately wicked. We will justify the temptations in our hearts unless we combat them.
Rationalization is part of the self-deception of sin. How easily we think, This is not that bad, then soon, Not bad at all. Eventually, we are saying, It is a good thing that I desire. My friend, learn to hate your sin”
There is no such thing as a secret sin. No sin is small, and no sin is secret. God knows all about it. And if we are having to hide something, we shouldn’t be doing it.
Sin still creeps its way in, even for those who love God faithfully. If you are playing that exhausting game of hiding and secrecy, give it up today. Expose it. Bring it to light. Turn back to God with an honest heart, and he will forgive you and still use you for his glory.
No matter how good we have been for however long, none of us can meet God’s standard of perfection. God fulfilled his requirement for perfection by sending his own Son to be our perfect sacrifice. Jesus is the only perfect man because he is the only God-man.
Jesus’s blameless and sinless status as the Son of God made him the perfect Lamb of God, the final sacrifice, who died for the sins of the world. Because of his right standing with God, Jesus’s death and resurrection allow access into that same relationship and standing with God for all who believe.
HOW IS YOUR HEART?
You must confront Sin in your life and others who are falling every day.