DEAL WITH SIN OR GOD WILL DEAL WITH
YOU
Unwilling to Deal with your Sin
Judges 20
Jerry A Collins
SCC
v
What do we do
instead of dealing with sin?
v
How should we
plan to war with sin?
v
How far should
we go as we battle sin?
I
do not think we comprehend how central sin is in our daily lives and the lives
of those around us. We just do not think about life from God’s point of view.
We live in a world that is obsessed with removing the consequences of sin so
that we can live our lives any way we please. No limits, no boundaries, but
freedom to live the way you want. Our weste3rn society is working hard at
eliminating the consequences of sin. For example legalized abortion, legalized
homosexual marriage, and AIDS research is an attempt to allow us to have sexual
relations with whoever we wish without the consequences or stigma of our sin
(Rom 1:18ff). Pragmatism says you can identify sin by its consequences and then
can try to eliminate those. God says you can identify sin by my commandments
and we should obey those. We have a case in Judges 20 of refusing to
acknowledge sin and the harsh outcome that resulted from that attempt.
EXPECT NONCOOPERATION WHENEVER YOU
TAKE A STAND AGAINST SIN, EVEN YOUR OWN.
The Gathering 1-3 After
the body parts were received by all of the tribes (19:29-30), all the chiefs
gathered from Dan to Beersheba, that is, from the northern to southern boundaries
of Israel, and from the land of Gilead—referring to the transjordanian
tribes—with 400,000 soldiers strong. Word had gotten out to the Benjamites and apparently the author wants us to know that
they know something is up. These chiefs wanted to hear the story directly from
the Levite who was at the center of it.
The Story 4-7 So the gruesome
story is recounted for them.A group of worthless
fellows, from the tribe of Benjamin,
wanted to rape the Levite but instead were given his concubine and the ravished
and raped her all night long until they killed the concubine. So what should we
do vs 7? In other words, what is the verdict?
The Decision 8-11 No
one will go home until they take care of this thing. They draw lots to choose
10% of them to go against Gibeah. They are absolutely
united in containing this debauchery and executing justice against these
worthless fellows of the tribe of Benjamin. They send a message to give these
wicked men up and execute them removing this wickedness from
The Response 13-17 The Benjamites refused to
give these men up for justice. Instead they muster 26000 warriors some who are
elite vs 16, against the 400,000 who were all men of
war vs 17. These are battle hardened and readied
soldiers.
NB:
Now why is it thousands of people are about to die in this conflict? The Banjamites:
1.
Instead of dealing with this as a spiritual problem, they dealt with it as a
physical one. 2. Instead of dealing with their sin, they tried to destroy the
ones pointing out their sin. 3. Instead of dealing with it internally, they
dealt with it externally. 4. Instead of dealing with it individually—the
specific men who committed the act—they dealt with it corporately—with the
whole tribe. Community can lead you astray. It is not community we should seek
but individual responsibility from which we can judge the community. 5. Instead
of realizing they were spiritually and morally weak, they believed they were
physically strong, they thought they could win. They believed they had better
warriors. Most people most of the time will be like the Benjamites.
They will not admit, agree, or cooperate with your opposing sinful activity
like say, premarital sex, abortions, homosexuality, divorce/remarriage,
financial debt. They may agree it is wrong for some reason but usually back off
or object to doing anything about it. They will often support the sinners—the Benjamites supported the bisexual rapists—and condemn those
attempting discipline of confronting. Doing the correct thing is never easy. So
expect noncooperation whenever you take a stand
against sin—even your own!We would rather go to war
to protect the sinner or continue our own sin than to confront it, call it what
it is, and stop it.
CAREFULLY PLAN YOUR STRATEGY IN WAR
AGAINST SIN
Do
this with you sin or another’s. Do not think that just because you prayed for
it God will make it easy. This battle was fought in three day timeframe.
Day #1 18-21 The Israelites go
to
Day #2 22-25 The next day they weep vs 23
before the Lord. Shall we do battle again? they ask.
God says to go. That day they lost 18000 men in battle.
Day #3 26-47 This
time they offer offerings, weep, fast, and pray before the Ark of the covenant vs 26-27. Shall we do battle again or stopvs
28? God said go for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand. Notice that
all this time the Benjamites have not shown any
remorse and willingness to consider the sin of their people. They had the
chance. This time the Benjamites were routed by a new
strategy. The men of
1.
There was no sin, which caused them to lose as with Jericho/Ai.
2.
They did correct thing according to law—Benjamin protected evil that brought
the death penalty.
3.
The action all days had approval of God.
4.
They called upon God the right way with a Levite priest and
5.
Their prayers increased in intensity from day 1-3.
PT:
The third day there is a major change in their philosophy of war. Instead of
just praying about it and going out to battle, they developed a strategy and
most of the chapter is devoted to explaining it. So be strategic in your battle
against sin even your own. Do not think just praying about your relationship
with your spouse or children or boss or relatives to improve just because
you prayed about it, and it is the right thing to pray for, if you also do not
change yourself and your strategy toward the problem!
WHEN YOU GET VICTORY OVER A SIN COMMIT TO DESTROY IT
The Israelites did not stop with
capturing Gibeah. They continued pursuing until they
had completely defeated Benjamin vs 48. So when you
get a victory over some type of sin, don’t stop there. Press on to totally
destroy the sin, it’s context, where it operates, and it’s source of
temptation, like a boyfriend, or your peer group, or your pleasure activities,
or your position in the company, or your drinking. Jesus says, ‘If your right
hand offends you, cut it off…’ Mt 5:30.
1. Spiritual/moral victory is
often accompanied by physical material earthly loss. You may or may not be
better off on earth, or happier of notin the long run
for going to war with sin, but the war itself will probably be accompanied by
physically painful losses here on earth.
2. Victory over sin is usually
not instantaneous. It is usually a path of many defeats, weeping along the way,
fighting here and there, losing some, fighting and weeping some more and coming
to the brink of giving up vs 28. All this does not
mean God has given up on you or your out of His will.
That is determined by Scripture not the difficulties of the battle or your
success/failure ration in your battle with sin. PT: We often hear testimonies
of people who had a significant problem, prayed about it, or got saved, and it
immediately went away—like an addiction, an affair, debt, pornography, gossip. Such testimonies are not good for wisdom. Certainly
God may remove sin and temptation instantly. But He usually does not. It is
usually removed the way the Israelites removed the wicked men of Gibeah—with great difficulty.