fLThe Secret of Sinning
JCC 21.03.10 am
John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.”
Ps 19:9-14The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting
Watching ‘unseen worlds’ with Richard Hammond reminded me about the way we look at things around us
There are millions of things that the human eye cannot see
But that doesn’t mean they are not there
Around us are ‘other worlds’ which we may or may not be aware of
Eg. Angels, demons, bacteria, underground, under the ocean, in space etc
Sin can be the same: seen or unseen
But whether seen or not, there is One who sees All
Nothing is hidden from the sight of God
Matt 10:26 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known
Georges Braque said, Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented.
We can all wear a cloak of deception
Illustration: During the 1960’s, fear came upon the town of Walsall and the West Midlands
Something happened that we hadn’t experienced before
For 3 years a man called Raymond Morris was getting away with murder
Cannock Chase killer Raymond Leslie Morris was jailed for life at Stafford for the brutal murder of seven-year-old Christine Darby some 18 months earlier.
Morris, who is frequently referred to as being responsible for the A34 murders, was only ever convicted of Christine’s murder; she had been enticed from her home in Walsall.
He was also responsible for killing two other little girls, Diane Tift and Margaret Reynolds, but was never tried for them.
It was the biggest murder hunt in the region, sparked off by the discovery of the bodies of these two girls in a ditch at Mansty Gully on Cannock Chase more than three years earlier
It took 15 months for the police to arrest Morris, an engineer who was living at the time opposite Walsall police station
He thought he could get away with it
Even if he had, there is God who he will one day stand before
He was a local man who many acknowledged
My mum and dad knew him and he would often stand chatting to them and speaking to my brother in his pram
It really does not matter what we may clothe ourselves in religious piety, if there is sin in the heart it is only a matter of time before it will come to light and ruin you
It is only when Jesus Christ steps into your life, whether by invitation or by accident, that His law and actions expose your sin
Sin is always disguised when it tries to enter our lives
It comes in covered in the finest of clothing, and it masquerades itself into our lives as normal behaviour
This is because sin is normal to us, we are born with it
When sin enters our lives, it never comes as a monster, but it comes as a wooing friend who has the ability to fool even the best of people
James 1:13-16 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren
He was talking to the church, not the world
Absalom: He never understood that his rebellion was actually sin
Balaam: He never understood that his associations with Balak was a sin
Ananias: He never understood that his deception with the Apostles would lead to his death
Sin is a smell from the Pit
It is a loathsome disease, a deterioration of the inner man
Like a cancer spreading through the whole body
It is something that requires the full attention of a Spirit-led person
Jesus affirmed that to hide sin would be like wearing a cloak when it enters into our lives
And sin always brings death
It will humiliate you, it will embarrass you, it will destroy you
There is only one remedy for sin, regretful repentance, with a existing sense of brokenness
Repentance does not understand half-measures
It is not a small adjustment of your life
It is not patch-work quilt that you can sew a new piece in when one piece is ruined
It is restoration of the whole state, and the whole nature, and the whole personality
Bishop Wilson said, “There is no repentance where there is no change of heart.”
Martin Luther said, “Repentance is a real bettering and change of the entire life.”
This is what Paul meant when he was referring to the “new creature” transformed by God
The Lord emphasized “change your mind”, not merely change your actions or your habits
Change your mind, your thoughts, your aims, your inner attitude, your very self
If we had eyes like God’s, we would think very differently of ourselves
Because we would see clearly our human state
The sins that we see and confess are like a small sample given on a tasting booth in a supermarket
We have only a very few sins which we can observe and detect, compared with those which are hidden to ourselves and unseen by our fellow men
Some of you break God's covenants in the dark and wear a mask of goodness in the light
Some of you shut the doors at home and commit sin in secret
You are a fool to think of harbouring a secret sin; and you are a fool for this reason, your sin is not a secret sin after all
It is known, and shall one day be revealed; perhaps sooner than you think
Your sin is not a secret; the eye of God has seen it
You have sinned before his face
You have shut the door, and drawn the curtains, and kept out the light of the sun, but God's eyes pierce through the darkness
Though brick walls surround you, you are as transparent as glass to the eye of the Lord
Knowest thou not, O man, that "all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do?"
There is no hiding from God
Your sin is photographed in heaven
When the deed was done it was photographed upon the sky, and there it shall remain, and you will see yourself one day revealed to the gazing eyes of all men
Will you be identified a hypocrite, a pretender
You may boast that your sins are already forgiven through Christ
Yes, the ones do before you knew Him
What of the ones now?
What fools people are, to think they can do anything in secret and get away with it
They are written in God's book
He keeps a diary of all our acts; and what will you think on that day when a crowd is assembled
God shall read out the story of thy secret life, and men and angels shall hear it
I’m sure there are none of us who would like to have all our secrets read out, especially our secret thoughts
If I should select the most ‘holy’ from you all, and bring you forward and say, “I know all your thoughts, and am about to tell everyone," I am sure you would offer me the largest bribe that you could to conceal at least some of your sin
Your shame over private lusts, the careless words and harsh gossip, your secret crimes shall all be published from God's throne, spoken by his own mouth, with a voice louder than a thousand thunders and preached in the ears of an assembled world
You may manage to conceal and gloss over your sin; but the next day something else comes, and you live in constant fear, telling lie after lie, to make the last lie appear truthful, adding deception to deception, in order that you may not be discovered
If we must sin, let us not act like a hypocrite and a coward
Let us not profess to be God's, and spend our life for the devil
The one thing which paralyses the church is sin
People who see hypocrisy will never enter over the door
I can put up with a person who sins openly and repents before all, but one who tries to hide their sin is like a sickness in the stomach
I cannot bear to be in the same room as them
I hate the deception and most of all the Lord Himself loathes them too
"Be sure your sin will find you out;"
Some think more of the eye of man than of the eye of God; and they think it is worse to be condemned by man than to be condemned by God
Richard Baxter (A Puritan Pastor) said, “Look to thy repentance that it be deep and absolute, and free from hypocritical exceptions and reserves.”
The First Cloak sin wears is:
• An Official Role in the Church
One of the first cloaks that sin will wear is that of position
When men and women become settled into serving God for a period of time, because of spiritual maturity, then they should become leaders in the church
These may be Sunday School Teachers, youth-pastors, elders, church council or those who play in worship for the Lord
They are looked upon as those who are diligent about their relationship with God
But a position will not make us immune from the attack of temptation and sin
In the judgment, kings, presidents, and judges will stand with farmers, factory workers, and fishermen
Nebuchadnezzar’s position did not remove the sin from his life
He still threw the three Hebrews into the fiery furnace
Ahab’s position did not remove the sin from his life
He still had Naboth murdered
Herod’s position did not remove the sin from his life
He still had John the Baptist murdered
Sin is much more loathsome at a level of power than it is at the common levels of our world
And the sad thing about it is, that it is only a matter of time before sin accomplishes destruction in your life
Position in the world or in the church does not make sin any more pleasant, but worse
God’s justice does not pay attention to the thrones of men no matter how elaborate they may be
That is why David seems to be pleading with God:
Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:” “And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
• When we lose the cloak that life has given to us, what will be found within my heart or yours
Is it a spirit of Absalom’s rebellion?
Is it the unsubmissive spirit that Balaam hoarded away?
Is it the markings of Achan’s secret sin?
Is it the recklessness about the altar that Adonijah had?
To every church council member in the church: What within your own heart that remains, when all of the garments are pulled away from you?
• The Second Cloak: The Christian Walk
The second coat is even more disturbing than the first
The second is that of the Christian walk
Could it be that we have worn the “Pentecostal” coat so long that we have learned how to do it?
We know exactly how to worship without it really meaning anything
We know how to sing without really feeling what we’re singing
We know how to listen to the preaching without really responding to it
We know how to make the right moves at the altar yet leave unchanged
We know participation without consecration
God looks deeper than just the surface
He probes the depths of the soul
Matthew 23:25-28 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness
Never let me get to the place that I talk hot and walk cold
Never let me get to the place that I talk about revival but refuse to pay the price for revival
People often go to great lengths to appear to be pure, than be pure
Outward purity must be preceded by inward purity
A cleansed heart is a genuine and permanent purity of life
It can be achieved
God estimates character by the state of the heart
If we have a corrupt heart, it is terrible in the sight of God
For us to have God’s favour we must be cleansed and for that cleansing to be effective, it must begin in the heart
We have to throw aside the cloaks and the masks that we wear
There is a place where the heart is cleansed and acceptable in the sight of God
And for you who lack commitment and often find yourselves on the fringes of the Church
How cheaply you are bargaining with Satan over the matter of your soul?
For you may say, “I go to church at the Christian centre,” and expect that to save you, how low your price has been
If there is a spiritual complacency in your life, if there are no signs of spiritual growth, if there is no evidence of the fruit of the Spirit within the heart, Satan has encouraged you into building upon a rotten foundation
What really matters is the actions that you involve yourself with in the Kingdom of God
Again, hear the cry of the Psalmist:
Psalm 19:12-13 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Secret faults will split and crack open when the pressure rises
We do not know the day or the hour that our greatest temptation will come into our lives
There are things that lie undetected in every one of our hearts and it is only a matter of time until we fall unless there is that constant hunger for God
We must be cleansed from secret faults
There must be a Guiding Hand in our life
We must have a Spirit-filled life that maintains our walk with Him
There is danger in presumptuous sin
We live in a generation that believes a number of lies about God
One of the lies that this generation is believing is, that God is more tolerant than He used to be
But there are some things that you and I must understand
The greater the grace, the greater the judgment for refusing it
The more that God does for us, the greater our responsibility to accept it
Too often we look and see that those who are involved in sin appear to be getting away scot-free and there is no retribution for sin
Never forget that we face a certain judgement after this life
There are some who will be judged for sin here but the vast majority of sin will be judged at the White Throne of Judgement
Don’t fix your eyes of those who are apparently getting away with their sin, but focus your attention on God and His Kingdom
In the end, all penalties will be exacted; retribution will be demanded; nothing will be overlooked
The unbelievers of all ages will be called into account and thoroughly judged
David’s cry in Psalm 19,
Psalm 19:13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
A presumptuous sin is one that is done out of arrogant self-confidence
It is committed out of a one’s own feeling of superiority and importance
It is rude and disrespectful
The presumptuous sin is illustrated best in l Kings 13 when the king Jereboam began to violate the purposes of the altar
An idolatrous altar was solemnly dedicated
The people’s eyes were dazzled by the outgrowth of spiritual rebellion and there was Jeroboam standing by the altar to offer incense
Ready with the flame in his grasp, he was frozen in time by the cry of a man of God
His arm outstretched in eager, wrathful command to arrest the man of God who was violating his conscience, watched that arm wither in the presence of God
There must be an extreme caution about how we conduct ourselves in this life
Our hearts must be right
We must be cleansed in the sight of God
Genesis 18 records that great prayer of Abraham
In that confounding prayer, he offered to God, you find that he stopped just short of saving a city
Perhaps if there is fifty, will You save it?
Perhaps if there is forty-five, will You save it?
Perhaps if there is forty, will You save it?
Perhaps if there is thirty, will You save it?
Perhaps if there is twenty, will You save it?
Perhaps if there is ten, will You save it?
To each of his requests, God informed Abraham that He would save Sodom and Gomorrah
But there were not fifty righteous men in Sodom and Gomorrah, nor was there forty-five, or forty, or thirty, or twenty, or ten. . . . . . there was only six
But had Abraham prayed that God save Sodom and Gomorrah for six, He would have done so.
For revival and church growth to take place, a pure heart is going to be a necessity
There is going to have to be a unity of purpose and desire
It is with that thought that I ask you to examine your heart
With that in mind, can God bring revival if one heart is pure?
Can God remove all the things from our soul and create a sense of holiness?
Can the design of God make its imprint on my soul?
Romans 7:21-25 “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:” “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Cleanse me from my secret faults
Save me from my presumptuous sins
Bring revival to this church
Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:” “And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
What happens when we hear the voice of God?
We draw near to Him and our hearts and lives are cleansed from all unrighteousness and sin
Have you a renewed nature that you need to have new senses
Have you, with these senses, discerned the Lord?
We may not see our sin, but it doesn’t mean there is no sin in our heart
Like the unseen world around us, sin is ever present with us
He alone can save us
And now in finishing, I plead with all my might with some of you whom God has pricked your conscience
I have come to plead with you, if it be possible, even to tears that you will give up your secret sins
1 Peter 4:17-18 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
It is your day to put things right
I know there are those here who mask sin and wear a cloak of deception
God has been showing me the reason that this church is not moving forward
Those of you on Church council are in greater responsibility
But me, I’m in a far graver place than you all for I bear the responsibility of leading this church to its highest potential in God
See your pride for what it is
See your stubbornness, your critical tongue and be cleansed today and every day in the precious blood of Christ
(Appeal to those who may not be Christians)
