DO NOT SIN AGAINST THE CHILD
GEN 42:22
Intro: Note the words of the text. “Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child?” The essence of sin lies in being committed against God. When men are fully convinced that they have disobeyed the Lord, and that this is “the head and front of their offending,” then they are brought to a true perception of the character of sin. Hence David’s penitential psalm has for its acutest cry, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” Yet the sword of sin cuts both ways, it not only contends against God but against his creatures too. It is a double evil. Like a bursting shell, it scatters evil on every side. Every relationship which we sustain involves duty, and consequently, may be perverted into an occasion for sin. As children, we sinned against our parents; as members of a family we sin against brothers and sisters; and against playmates and acquaintances. We can sin against a husband or against a wife, against an employee or against an employer, against a buyer or a seller. We can sin in public and sin in private, sin against our poverty and against our wealth. As the sea surrounds all shores, so sin beats with deadly waves upon all connected with our life. Our sin assails both heaven and earth, time and eternity, great and small, old men and children.
The text calls us to consider one particular form of sin, namely, sinning against a child. Every man, by his own conduct is educating the rising generation of the nation. If a man behaves improperly, if his speech is foul, if his conversation is polluted, he helps to educate children in the school of ungodliness. If, on the other hand, his ways are right, and by the grace of God he is brought to act morally and to speak truthfully, he is doing something to train up one for virtue and holiness. Our moral conduct sweetens or defiles the general atmosphere of society, and in children. I would declare that every man giving fuel to the fires of his lustful pleasures, if the presence of the angels and the Holy Ghost is not enough to silence your ungodly voice, at least consider the fair haired girls and the blue eyed boys against whom you sin dreadfully. Do not let the leprosy of your sin pollute your offspring. Were you about to utter a lascivious sentence? Withhold it, for it is not proper that little ears should so soon be desecrated by that which has become common enough to you, but will yet be shocking to them. Were you about to blaspheme? Is it not enough to curse your Maker? Why should you bring a second curse upon that harmless little one? Why teach those lips that will be all too ready to learn to speak hideous words? If you have any feeling left in you, respect the purity of childhood, and let the presence of youth be a reason for restraint in open sin. Charles Spurgeon said, “There are crowds of parents upon whose head the blood of their children will certainly descend, because they have launched them on the sea of life with the rudder set towards the rocks, with a false chart, a deceitful compass, and every other appliance for securing eternal shipwreck.” God, help us not to sin against the children!
*WHO CAN SIN? All of us. Every action impacts. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and certainly we are to love and consider those who can not help themselves- whether it be the children whose heads lean upon our shoulders, or our elders who lean upon a staff.
*WHO SAYS TO US “DO NOT SIN AGAINST THE CHILDREN?” Nature- an animal would not do to his young what many people have done to the children. Experience adds its voice to nature. Conscience adds its voice to experience, and the church adds its voice to the conscience.
*WHAT WILL BECOME OF OUR SINS? Be sure that they will find you out! Joseph’s brethren had lived for years with their sins, but when they thought they had escaped the sin, they were forced to face it. Neglect not the children’s spiritual needs, or you will have to face it. Neglect not the Sunday School, prayers at home, and moral and scriptural training. Never fail to shed tears over them!! (Ill: I heard a woman stand and testify in Taylorsville, North Carolina on Mother’s Day. She said that her mother never lived for God or taught her about God. She felt certain that her mother was in hell! What a sad testimony to offer on Mother’s Day! What an awful pain in one’s memory! What burdened this lady even more, however, was that she had brought up her children the same way, and they were lost and condemned. They would not hear her word of testimony and conversion, and her sinful seeds were turning into a harvest of regret!) (Illustration: Max Jukes lived in New York. He did not believe in Christ or in Christian training. He refused to take his children to church even when they asked to go. He has 1026 descendants; 300 were sent to prison for an average term of 13 years; 190 were public prostitutes; 680 were admitted alcoholics. His family, thus far, has cost the state of New York in excess of $420 million. They made no contribution to society whatsoever. Jonathon Edwards lived in the same state at the same time as Max Jukes. He loved the Lord, and saw that his children were in church every Sunday, as he served the Lord to the best of his ability. He has 929 Descendants; of these 430 were ministers; 86 university professors; 13 university presidents; 75 authored good books; 5 were elected to the US Congress and 2 to the Senate. 1 was vice president of his nation. His family never cost the state one cent, but they have contributed immeasurably to the life of plenty in this land today.)
God help us today. We have sinned against the children with Careless Parenting, Compromising Preaching, and Crowds of Pressure. We have sown to the winds of unrighteousness and we are reaping a whirlwind of judgment. Leviticus 26:21 22 “And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate”. To “rob” our children means to devour them. Our children are being devoured, and we are reaping the judgment of God for sinning against the children. It is seen in the condition of our young people:
• 150,000 children go missing each year in America
• It is expected that this year 1.5 million teens will run away from American homes
• 6 million teens live on the streets of American cities, hooked on drugs, living as prostitutes, and consumed by a life of crime.
• Out of every 200 people under 25 years old, if trends hold:
9 of the girls will be raped in their lifetimes
9 will be killed
@ least 50% will become divorced
16 will be incarcerated with long term prison sentences
21 will be addicts
16 will become mothers out of wedlock
9 will have more than one abortion
20 will live on anti-depressants for the rest of their lives
between 11 and 20 will die before age 40
11 will be turned into the social services as habitual child abusers
more than 20% will seriously consider suicide more than once
7 of 10 come from broken homes
The wild beasts of the world have devoured our children, and our sins against them are to blame! I want to quickly give you some ways that America has sinned against our children that should cause us to get concerned and pray for our children. If I can get one parent, one grandparent, or one church member to say one more prayer for our children as a result of tonight’s message, then it has been worth preaching. We are sinning against the children in:
I. Abortion: 40 million babies murdered before birth! This nation is under the judgment of God for having legalized, funded, normalized, and accepted the violent slaughter of future generations in the name of the gods of convenience and laziness. Christians who will not stand against this moral evil will stand in judgment before God with their hands dripping with the blood of the over 4,000 babies who were killed in abortion clinics since you got up from bed this morning! We set up hunting seasons to avoid killing animals while they carry their young, but we sanction the absolute slaughter of the human unborn! Only two years ago it was determined that the most deadly place to live in the world is in a mother’s womb!
II. Abduction: 150,000 missing children in USA each year! Some are used in child pornography that is sold on the Internet. Some are raped, killed, and left in fields to rot or be eaten by buzzards. Some are sold for their body parts or become the object of a demented individual’s frustrations. In Carroll County a few weeks ago they went looking for a little girl 8 years old, and found her murdered by a 12 year old school mate! It’s happening all over America. We have sinned against our children; we must return to God and pray for the safety of the little ones!
III. Abuse: I certainly believe in spanking a child in disobedience, but many have sinned against their children by making them the object of their anger and frustrations. While in their drunkenness they have sodomized, beaten, and scarred their children. I went to school with a girl that had been adopted after being taken from her birth parents. When she was only a couple of weeks old they put out their cigarettes on her body! She was burned and scarred all over. They sodomized her, broke multiple bones, and allowed her to go without sufficient food for extended periods of time. It was a miracle from God that she ever lived to be rescued from their evil clutches! Just last week a couple were convicted of starving their six month old baby to death! Many people today have no scruples whatsoever, and in vicious anger they exert their frustration against God’s precious little children!
IV. Abandonment: Ezekiel 16 tells of an abandoned baby who was lying in a field. This has become far too common today. Every year the Hospitals send nurses into the rooms of mothers to give them their babies to carry home only to find the mothers gone having left her baby at the Hospital. We’ve found them in trash cans, fields, on railroad tracks. They’ve been left in supermarkets, parking lots, lawn chairs, pawn shops, police stations, public parks, frozen in snow banks, in the Mississippi River, and in 2002 in Los Angeles, they found a new born baby in the tank of a public toilet! The mother had birthed the baby in the bathroom and dumped it in the tank to drown while she ran. We have sinned against the children!
Conclusion: The real shame is that many who would never dream of carrying out such acts of barbarism have in some way committed sins that could such be categorized against our children. We have cut off the Spiritual birthing process while the Holy Ghost is working on their tender hearts by pressing them to repeat prayers before the holy Spirit can have his perfect work in their hearts. We have allowed Hollywood and punk rock to abduct the minds of our children while they live under our very roofs and parents buy for them the DVD’s, CD’s, and replicated clothing. Many have abused their children spiritually by teaching them that there is no God, man came from apes, and there will be no Judgment. Even more have abandoned their children. They have been left at the daycares while mom and dad seek prosperity at the expense of their children. They have been left for the Grandparents to rear while the parents obfuscate their responsibility to their children. They have been abandoned spiritually. They know nothing of church, Jesus dying on the cross for their sins, the joy of being redeemed, or the cost of sin. May I ask you... Have you abandoned your children in your prayer life? Have you abandoned your children in Bible study and teaching? Have you lived before them an example of a Christian life? If your children do exactly as you have done before them, how will it be when they come to judgment? I implore you today to get it right. DO NOT SIN AGAINST THE CHILD!
