United Church of God

The Weight of Sin

You are here

The Weight of Sin

Downloads
MP3 Audio (11.99 MB)

Downloads

The Weight of Sin

MP3 Audio (11.99 MB)
×

Why is it when we sin, why is it so heavy? When we find ourselves in the grips of sin, something we're struggling with, what do we do?

Transcript

[Rudy Rangel] The history of Israel started with a man named Abram. At least that's how we count it as one of the forefathers. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The father of the faithful. God, Himself, made a promise to Abraham. God Himself. God called him His friend. He made a promise to Abraham and said He would multiply his descendants. God wanted to start working with a family. Abraham's family. He wanted to start working with Abraham's family. And He wanted to show His power and His love through that family. And you know what? He was going to do it in the most epic way. A way that we couldn't even imagine. Abraham couldn't even imagine what God had in store. He was going to show Abraham, and the world, and the descendants of Abraham in the most epic way that He was the sovereign God. So Abraham was going to work with his family.

In the book of Acts, let's go ahead and go into the book of Acts, because at this point Stephen is sort of giving a summary of the history of Israel. And let's just see what Stephen, and this is the history that all the Pharisees knew at this time, in Acts 7. Right now I'm just sort of building  the background of the story. The question that I have for today's message. So, Acts 7. Let's put some of these background pieces together. Acts 7:17. But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose who did not know Joseph. This man dealt treacherously with our people. So, Stephen is talking to people of his kin. They dealt with our people, and oppressed our people. They oppressed our forefathers making them even expose their babies so they should not live. When the time of the promise drew near. God had made a promise to Abraham, but he didn't necessarily see it fulfilled.

So, the Israelite's at this time, they recognized a time was coming. Something was coming. Something was about to change for their lives while they were in Egypt. What's interesting here, they felt the oppression of slavery. They felt the oppression of slavery. Here they were, the Israelites, knowing who they were, knowing their forefathers. They carried around the promises of God in their hearts. Yet they didn't really see it happening. They were in Egypt. They were in bondage. And these people had so much power over them that they even, at one point, disposed of their babies. There was just a recent realization that I was thinking of was when Moses went back he was the only one his age. All of the Israelites his age weren't around. The bondage of oppression that Pharaoh had was very powerful over the Israelites. So here we have the descendants of Abraham carrying around the promises of God in their heart, feeling the burden of not just enslavement but the power of Pharaoh who committed child genocide. And here the parents had to tell their kids, Abraham is our forefather, God is going to take care of us. They were promised by God Himself. And they knew deliverance was coming. They knew it.

Let's go back to Genesis. Genesis 15:13. Then God said to Abram; know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. And will serve them, they will serve the people of that land, and they will afflict them for four hundred years. And also the nation whom they will serve; I will judge after they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, Abram, you shall note to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age. So here Abraham wasn't going to see everything that God promised him. He said, you know what? For four hundred years your relatives will be in bondage. And they knew that. The Israelites knew that. They knew what God had promised. So they knew, they had in their hearts, God's going to rescue us. He's going to deliver us. So now we know the story, we know the history of how they got into Egypt, Joseph went to Egypt and became a prominent leader in the Egyptian government, brought his family there, so let's move forward beyond that. So let's move forward beyond his reign in Egypt, let's go beyond the plagues, let's go beyond even the forty years in the wilderness.

Let's go to Joshua 5. This is what I'm trying to build to today. Joshua 5. Joshua is one of my favorite books, actually. So at this point in the book of Joshua, we have a people who know their forefathers made a covenant with God. For forty years they had been free from Egypt and wandered the wilderness. And chapter three, this is also the second generation that's grown up in the wilderness. The first generation we know they died off in the wilderness because of their complaining. Chapter 3, this group also miraculously passes through the Jordan River, just like their fathers did at the Red Sea. It's actually pretty descriptive in Joshua 3 because it says: when they touched the water, the water stopped and began to rise up on a heap. They could actually see the water building up from upriver, building up, and they too passed through on dry land. Joshua 5:2. At that time the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives. When it says make flint knives it doesn't usually end in a happy occasion because look what happens: And circumcise the sons of Israel again a second time. Now this is the second time that these people are being circumcised you'll see as we go down, Joshua 5:4 and this is the reason that Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised.  Joshua 5:8. So it was when they had finished circumcising all the people that they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed. Okay, good call. Then the Lord said to Joshua, this day, this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. This day. Hmm? Let's consider the miracles that God had already shown this group of people. They had their fathers telling them about the plagues that had happened in Egypt. Their bondage. Four hundred years they were in slavery. Pharaoh released them. They got the great possessions. Fulfilled prophecy happened. God said your people will be in slavery for four hundred years. Four hundred years they were there then they came out. 

In Joshua 5 it says, this day I have rolled away the approach of Egypt. But what changed? What is this? What does that mean? They had been out of Egypt for forty years. This day I have rolled away the approach of Egypt. That's what I'd like to talk about today. Why this? Why now? What happened?

Now, these are physical actions that happened and we're all on the same page, we're going to be talking for our sake about spiritual implications throughout the message. Egypt is a type of sin that they came out of. They came out of a physical land where people did not fear God. The parallels for you and I on our spiritual journey are pretty clear. So as we look at the modern day implications we can see what is being lifted exactly. But let's go ahead and move on from this right here. Reproach is not really a word that we use today. Does anybody say “I reproach” something every day? No. I looked it up and reproach: address someone in such a way as to express disapproval or disappointment. Shame. Shame. As physical Israel came out of Egypt. Now let's talk about the weight of the enslavement that they had. Four hundred years. Who do you know in your family four hundred years ago? Two hundred? If Mr. Stiver was here I could say one hundred and he would probably know, maybe even go to two hundred. That's the only life that they knew. Bondage. Enslavement. As soon as a pharaoh didn't recognize Joseph and his family, he dealt harshly with them. God foretold this because He was going to do something epic in only the way that God can. So here they were, hard labor forced on by another nation, and you know what? That is oppressive and wearing. That hard labor that they had to go through and knowing that they weren't free. Sin does the same thing for us. It's oppressive. It's hard. It's heavy.

Let's go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks about sin a little bit. Very descriptive language he uses. Jeremiah is further down the line from the Israelites of the exodus. In Jeremiah 3:25 he says this: We lie down in our shame and our reproach covers us for we have sinned against the Lord, our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. Jeremiah felt it. He felt the weight of that oppression as he saw his nation sinking lower and lower in decay. Have you ever committed a sin and it was shameful to you? Almost so shameful and you find yourself you couldn't even talk to God about it. How does that feel? It's heavy, isn't it? It's heavy. When you carry unrepented sin you're in bondage. It's not easy. It's oppressive. Have you ever seen a child , they break something and you know it. But they don't know that you know. And you see them sort of shuffling their feet, and they're carrying this inside them. They know that they need to tell the truth. There is a broken dish on the floor and they're sort of: “Dad, I broke that.” But you can see the weight that they are carrying. You can see it.

Why is it when we sin, why is it so heavy? When we sin, we're now in debt. We're now in debt, and that's hard. That's hard to be in that area. I had a friend one time who got in some pretty serious financial debt. And when you are struggling with financial debt it's difficult because everywhere you look there's reminders of decisions that were made. Sure it started off with an emergency, had to fix something. But then, there's a new TV that we had to get, and there's reminders of that debt. And it was tough. It was tough for him. He agonized over it. And then the reminders really become tough when they started getting phone calls about his debt. He couldn't sleep. It was difficult. Every turn there was a reminder. And it just weighs on you. The Proverbs talk about it. It's very clear. You're in debt to your lender. Sins also, they weigh on us. They weigh on us. They don't go away.

There's a song that I like by a band called the Avette Brothers, and the chorus says this: “The weight of lies will bring you down, and follow you to every town. Nothing happens here that doesn't happen there. So when you run, make sure you run to something and not away from. Because lies don't need an airplane to chase you anywhere.” A lie is a sin. I felt like it was a little cliché to read song lyrics but I felt like they got it. It doesn't go anywhere. It's always with you. If you're carrying that—especially a lie—because not only do you have to remember the truth but you have to remember the lie you told, who you told it to, just logistically it's difficult to carry. And it doesn't need an airplane to chase you because it's with you. It's with you.

A lie is a sin. Sin holds us captive as humans. It holds us captive until we can be delivered. Let's go to Romans 5:8. But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then having now been justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His son. Much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Now, just as Israel was lead out of Egypt, God made the first move. God made the first move. And we can rejoice in that. We can be grateful, we can be thankful, we can be happy about that. Because He loves us. And just as He wanted to show Israel His power and His love, He wants to do that for us as well. He wanted to work with a people. He wanted to work with a nation, and He reached out to them.

Let's go over to 1 John 2:1. My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He, Himself, is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.

I think I'd be remiss to not mention we're having a long weekend this weekend. Dr. Martin Luther King Day is on Monday. We have an example of modern-day oppression in our most recent history. I went back and I watched his “I Have a Dream” speech again and it just gives you chills because America was in infancy understanding racial inequality, and that social injustice was heavy. Was heavy to carry. And he risked his life seeking freedom and it's oppression that we see in our history, our recent history here in America. As Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves we ought to have no partiality and in this scripture we see that God has a plan for the entire world. It's not just us. We are the beginning. He wants us to have a sin-free life from here on out and He wants to raise the burden of sin for the entire world.

So what do we do? What's our step? When we find ourselves in the grips of sin, something we're struggling with, what do we do? Where do we go from here? We have to ever be self critical, analyzing, who am I? What am I doing? What decisions am I making?

2 Corinthians 13. Let's go there. A scripture we're all familiar with. We're here in January and the sun is out a little bit longer each day, it's never too early to start self-examining before the Passover. We have to be analytical of the choices we make and why we make them. 2 Corinthians 13:5. Examine yourselves as to whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? I think it's hard for us today in this day and age because we live in a world that you can be whoever and you're pretty much accepted. It's fine. It's fine. It's difficult. It's easy to get into the mentality of: oh, you know, it was just a little sin. I just looked at a little porn. It's okay. I just took a small amount of things from my work, that's okay. Because everybody does it, right? It's easy in this day and age when acceptance is, you hate somebody if you're not accepting. This is the world we live in.

Let's go to Jeremiah 6. This is what it says. It's difficult to be self analytical today because you don't have to be. Right? Jeremiah 6:15. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall among those who fall and at the time I shall punish them they shall be cast down says the Lord. Is this the world we live in? Not ashamed of anything? They don't feel the burden of sin. Oh, you shouldn't beat yourself up. You've heard that? Oh, don't beat yourself up, it's fine. You'll do better next time. It's easy to get into that mentality. I think it's super easy to fall into that trap of just being content with who I am. That's not what God has in plan for us. He set the bar pretty high that we're trying to achieve. We have to examine ourselves when we fall into the traps of sin. We have to see where they came from, how do I root that out, why did I make that decision, so that we can move on.

A second thing that we do when we find ourselves in the traps of sin is stop ignoring God. Because many times when we're struggling with a sin, that's where it began. It began with ignoring God. Letting our relationship slip. And it's at that point, because He's the only person that we can go to stop and ask for help. This is beyond my power. I need Your help. I can't do it on my own. He's the only place to turn. Ask for direction.

Isaiah 55, just a few pages back. Isaiah 55:6. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God He will abundantly pardon. He's ready to forgive us when it's in our heart to ask for that forgiveness. We have to stop and ask Him. I need direction, this is beyond my power.

The last thing we need to do when we find ourselves in the grips of sin. Recognize the promise that you made to God at baptism and make the changes necessary. Because it's not okay. It's not. He wants us to grow. He wants us to grow. Let's go to Romans once again. I'm going to read this in the New International Version, Romans 6:15. What then, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? God's forgiven us, should we just go ahead and keep sinning? By no means. Or, certainly not, as it says in the King James. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one whom you obey. Whether you are slaves to sin-which leads to death; or to obedience-which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart. The pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from the bondage of sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

We made an agreement with God at baptism. We made an agreement with God and Jesus Christ and said, you know what? You paid my debt and I'll follow you. We need to take control of that sin by taking action and making the necessary changes.

So, back to Joshua, when God said  that He would roll away the reproach of Egypt. What did you imagine? Because he uses very beautiful language there. What did you imagine? A heavy stone? That's what I imagined. It's interesting because the wording there—I rolled away the reproach of you--and you almost feel like this easing off. Like, aah, this burden is finally being rolled away from me. That's what being forgiven is like. Aah, I just don't have that on me anymore, it just rolled away.

Our Bible reading program, on this verse, Tom Robinson quotes the King James Study Bible. And it says this about Joshua 5:9. A play on words occurs here. Gilgal, that's the town they were in, rolling away, marks the place where God rolled away the reproach of Egypt. Israel's era of shameful captivity and rejection now came officially to an end. The inheritance of Canaan lay ahead. They were right there. The same verbal root marks the New Testament site of Golgotha, the place where mankind's captivity by sin was ended. That is for those who have repented, obtained forgiveness, nary a man says roll away and rolled onto the person Jesus Christ, so believers might enter the spiritual inheritance.

So, why did God say this day I roll away the reproach of Egypt? God had a plan from the very beginning. What happened at that very moment, what changed? Let's go back to Genesis. Genesis 17. They were out of the wilderness, or out of Egypt for forty years, and God says it was this day that I rolled away the reproach of Egypt. Genesis 17:9. And God said to Abraham: As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. This new generation that had come out of the land or come out of the wilderness. They obeyed God. They were circumcised. They were ready to take up their end of the bargain that God made with their forefathers. They followed the covenant and they were circumcised. And it was expected of them to continue on following God. They were a new generation and they agreed, they reached out and took their step that God required of them. God could now lift the weight of Egypt and be their God.

In Joshua 5:10, The very next verse. They kept the Passover. They  kept the Passover on the plains of Jericho where God was about to show them in the most epic way that He was their God.

Israel's enslavement was physical and ended in physical death. Eventually our captivity to sin can end in a far worse fate if we live with unrepented sin, everlasting death, with no hope for the future. Spiritual slavery can be eternal if we're not careful. God was referring to something more than a physical release. Because they had already been released from Egypt. He was talking about something deeper. He already freed them. God was now going to build a relationship with Him and He was going to show them that He was willing to be their God. They were free to worship Him and you and I are in the same position as the Israelites. By the sacrifice of His son we are no longer living in the bondage and the weight of sin. We don't carry it with us. And it's good because we are on a journey and we can't have that baggage with us. For us to grow we have to release that and let God release it from us. The debt has been paid and we're not being held back by our past mistakes. We have a loving God to look to and He's not ashamed to call us His people. Through repentance and then obedience to God, we are free to grow, we're free to share the message of hope that we have and share the feeling of freedom that we have by not having our past sins on us anymore.

God doesn't want us to be a slave to our past mistakes. He wants us to go and sin no more. It seems that once repentance happens, He's concerned about the present and the future, not what was behind us. He has plans for the future of His family. As Jesus said in His own words because He had the authority to do so, “Go and sin no more.” Because when you follow God in obedience and at heart, He's the one who rolls away the reproach of Egypt.