Lessons About Sin

Introduction and Review of God's Character

0:06 I would encourage you to follow, as I read again this evening, 1 Kings chapter 21, as we continue our studies in the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah. This is a rather lengthy chapter, but it's one that flows with a very intriguing narrative, and I trust that you will seek to sustain interest as I read, because our thoughts tonight will be drawn from various portions in this particular passage, and it will be necessary that we be familiar with the facts of the passage if we are to catch the weight of the principles drawn therefrom. And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord, and it was a vineyard of the Lord's people, and it was a vineyard of the Lord's people. And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord's people.

1:01 And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord's people. And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord's people.

2:03 And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord's people. And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord's people.

3:04 And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord's people. And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was a vineyard of the Lord's people. For Naboth is not alive, but dead. And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.

4:21 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who dwelleth in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to take possession of it. Thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where the dogs lick the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.

5:00 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee. Because thou hast sold thyself to do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will utterly sweep thee away, and will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him that is shut up, and him that is left at large in Israel.

5:27 And I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Basha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and hast made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying, The dog shall eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dog shall eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the birds of the heavens eat.

6:00 But there was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me?

6:40 Because he is a man of God, and he humbleth himself before me. I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house. Let us pause and ask God to open unto us the truth of this portion of his word.

7:01 Our Father, we acknowledge that every word that you have given is a word of truth, and is given for our profit to teach us doctrine, to reprove us, to correct us, and to instruct us. And we ask that this portion may be used of your Spirit to that end as we study it together.

7:27 Hear us as we plead for this blessing of the Spirit's ministry to our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

7:41 In our last study of this passage, we spent some time trying to set clearly in our minds the fact, of the narrative. I'll not do that again. We looked at it as a five-scene or five-act play. There are these five paragraphs, each one focusing upon some aspect of this very intriguing and at places downright sordid tale of one of the events in the life of the prophet Elijah.

8:15 Having done that, we then went back through the passage asking and seeking to answer, from this passage, one very simple yet basic question. It was this. What does this passage reveal about the character and the ways of God?

8:33 And we came up with four distinct principles, and I will only mention them, and then we shall move on to another question tonight and seek to answer it going through the same passage. This passage reveals, first of all, that the God of the Bible, the God with whom you and I have to do, is a God who sees and knows the details of all the sinful acts of all men. Ahab thought, along with Jezebel, that they had committed the perfect crime until he sees that hairy, rugged prophet, and he's suddenly reminded that God saw the whole sordid intrigue. Second principle.

9:16 This passage tells us that God often permits the triumph of evil for a time. The innocent man Nabon dies beneath the weight of stones and his good name rots beneath the weight of those false accusations, and there's no indication that God raised a finger to vindicate him.

9:41 And unless it's clearly and indelibly inscribed upon our hearts that the God of the Bible often does this,

9:49 when we come into a similar situation, we'll be tempted to curse God and turn away from Him. The third principle. The God of the Bible is the God who will eventually fulfill His promises of judgment upon the wicked. In this passage He said, Ahab, you've had it.

10:07 Ahab, your sons have had it. Jezebel, you've had it. Long periods of time pass before all those prophecies are fulfilled. But we went to those passages in this book, the latter part of 1 Kings.

10:21 It was fulfilled in Ahab and in Jezebel, and then in 2 Kings 9 and 10, where the prophecy was fulfilled concerning his sons. And though many months and years elapsed, every last prophecy of judgment was literally fulfilled. That's the God with whom we have to do, whose judgments may slumber. As one has said, the mill of God grinds slowly, but it grinds surely, and it grinds to powder.

10:50 And the last principle we considered was that the God of the Bible is a God who is Lord, and He is Lord, long-suffering and merciful, never delighting to execute His judgments. An evil man like Ahab shows a little bit of even surface repentance. It wasn't genuine repentance, but God withholds judgment for a period of time, and He says it won't come to pass in your days, but in the days of your sons. God is displaying that judgment is His strange work.

11:22 And though He's bound by His character to bring judgment, He never delights in judgment. He delights in mercy and in showing grace. Now we come to another whole area of study as we go back through the chapter tonight. We read in many portions of Scripture something about the blinding, binding, damning power of sin.

The Nature of Sin: A Consuming Fire and Cruel Taskmaster

11:46 Precepts abound declaring all of these things, but when we see the binding, blinding, deceitful power of sin clothed in the flesh and blood of a passage like this, somehow it comes alive. We can read in Scripture that sin is exceedingly sinful, but when you see it in a chapter like this, somehow it comes alive, and we can feel something of the horrible nature of sin. And so, we're going to go through this passage tonight seeking to discover not what it teaches us about God. That was the focus of our attention two Lord's Day nights ago, but tonight, what does it teach us about sin?

12:29 And we're going to ask three questions under that general heading. First of all, what is sin like, according to this passage? Secondly, what will sin do? And thirdly, how will God deal with it?

12:43 Now, someone says that's a lovely subject to feed the people of God with on a Sunday night, talk about sin. Aren't there more encouraging themes in Scripture? Oh yes, there are. I found that a very heavy experience to go through this chapter asking the question, what does it reveal about sin?

13:02 It was a delight to go through the chapter asking, what does it reveal about God? But as I said this morning, based upon Revelation 10, when God held the roll to John and said, eat the whole of it, and it was sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his tummy, it wasn't up to John to tear some pages out of the roll. And so, it is not up for us to pick and choose our diet, and all of Scripture is given for our profit. And so, this is for our profit, whether we be outside of Christ tonight or the children of God.

13:31 It is for our profit to scour this chapter seeking to discover what does it say about the nature of sin. In the first place then, what is sin like? Go to the modern man and ask him and you'll never get an accurate answer. Go to modern entertainment, to modern advertisement, to modern philosophies of what life is all about and you get a totally distorted, distorted view of what sin is like.

14:00 Come to a passage like this and you confront stark, naked, biblical realism. You see, the thing that supposedly justifies all of the filth that's paraded in the modern theater and in modern literature is, we want to be realist. Now, it isn't realism, for they paint the picture of sin in such a way that people drool and vicariously enjoy it.

14:26 You come to the Bible and you'll face biblicalism. People say, oh, the Bible's a dirty book. It tells terrible things like the intrigue here of Jezebel, the adultery of David and some of the sordid things. But you notice no one ever read his Bible and had his passions inflamed and went out to perform the deed.

14:44 No, sir.

14:47 This book in its realism always has the effect of shriveling and withering the roots of sin, not watering them. Always putting holy fear not on holy desire. And so when we, when we come to the realism of 1 Kings, it is realism. My son said last Sunday night, a week ago Sunday night, he says, Daddy, when you read that part about Jezebel and the dogs licking, he said, I felt sick to my stomach.

15:12 I said, you should, son. God tells us as it is. God is a realist. And because sin is a very real part of the world and it's against the backdrop of real sin that God's grace is displayed, no man regards life as a sin.

15:30 And so he says lightly this question, what is sin like? Like if he takes seriously the truth of God and the salvation of God. Two things that this passage tells us about sin. Number one, it shows us that sin is a consuming fire and an unquenchable thirst within the heart of a man.

15:53 Verses 1 to 4 tell us a story that if it were not so tragic, it would be comical. Suppose you came to my home tomorrow. You saw me sitting on the couch with a long look on my face. And you said to my wife, what's wrong with him?

16:08 I was very noncommunicative. You come through the door and I just grunt out, hello. And I turn away. And I'm obviously pouting and just down in the dumps.

16:16 And so you ask my wife, what's wrong with the pastor? You say, well, when I gave the kids a lollipop, I wouldn't give him one. And he's pouting. You'd say, what a shame.

16:25 A grown man pouting because he can't have a lollipop. Well, that's the picture of Ahab. And you say, what a shame. Here he is, the king, with the whole nation at his disposal.

16:36 All the wealth and the regal splendor of the kingdom is his. And he sees a lollipop, a field that lies adjacent to his, where he'd like to raise some exotic herbs. And when that godly man, Naboth, says, Jehovah forbid it that I should give it to you. It's contrary to the Levitical law.

16:56 I cannot. My conscience is bound by the word of God. He comes into his house, and it's just as ridiculous as if I were pouting over a lollipop I couldn't have. Here he's got all of the wealth of the kingdom, and he pouts because he can't get another little piece of real estate to annex to his already existing pleasures.

17:16 What does this tell us? I'll tell you what it tells us. It tells us that sin is like a consuming fire. His sin here was the sin of covetousness.

17:26 How do you quench a fire? Not by throwing more fuel upon it. A fire that has more fuel thrown at it, increases in its power to consume. Covetousness and sin are like a raging fire.

17:42 And the devil comes and says, Do you want that fire satisfied and quenched? Throw it more fuel. That's the lie of the devil. Hear the sin of covetousness raging within his breast, and he says, Ah, I know how to get that fire out.

17:59 If only I could have that piece of real estate, then I'll be a peaceful man. That's how sin works. Like a consuming fire. A consuming fire within the breast.

18:12 Covetousness. You see it with the matter of lust. David says, Oh, I've got six wives now, but if only I can have Bathsheba, then all my needs will be met. Like a raging fire.

18:28 That's what sin is like. It's a spiritual addiction. The alcoholic does not quench his thirst with alcohol. He simply intensifies his addiction.

18:43 The dope addict doesn't satisfy the craving of his body's need for dope. He intensifies it by partaking of it. And so the heart, full of covetousness, like a raging fire, and like the thirst of the drunkard, and like the cravings of the addict, wants more and more, ever hoping, Once I get this, then satisfaction will come. But it never does.

19:10 It's the lie of sin. And until the grace of God puts out the fire and quenches the thirst, the sinner has a heart that's like a consuming fire and like an unquenchable thirst. That's why Jesus said in John 4, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, that water shall be in him a well of water, bringing up into everlasting life.

19:49 You see, happiness does not rest, nor is it ever found in having, but it's found in being what God wants me to be. Now this is not only true of the unregenerate. And I want to make this point. Everything that's true of sin, as seen in this passage and elsewhere in the Word of God, though its power and influence is basically broken in regeneration, it is not completely driven from the life and the heart.

20:19 And sin will work the same way in a converted man as in the unconverted, the difference being the measure of its working. It cannot reign. It cannot come to the place of being the dominant principle. But sin doesn't get sanctified simply because its reign is conquered.

20:36 It's still sin. And you, child of God, you begin to feed some little brush fire of covetousness and you get your heart set on that new car, that new home, that new dress, and it'll do just for you what it did for Ahab. You'll be restless, disturbed. If only I get that thing, then I'll feel at ease.

20:56 And then it's another thing, and then it's another thing. Lust is the same way. You start using your own body for a playground with yourself or others. Well, this'll just take me over the hill and get rid of some of my bent-up sexual passion.

21:10 And within three months you're a slave. And I have slaves come to me saying, how can I get delivered? Consuming fire. They felt if only I just throw it a little piece of wood, it'll put the fire out.

21:27 Lo and behold, all it did was make the flames leap higher until more wood had to be thrown on. That's what sin's like. And the potential is within every one of us. And no matter how far we've gone along in grace, the little brush fires are yet there within our bosoms and will be until we see Him.

21:52 You start feeding those brush fires and they'll become raging forest fires. What is sin like? It's a consuming fire and an unquenchable thirst. Secondly, this passage reveals in answer to the question, what is sin like?

22:09 It is a lashing, cruel taskmaster. When sin is Lord, it always acts like Pharaoh in Egypt who brought the whip down upon the backs of the people of God in bondage and drove them and made their lives miserable. Here, notice Ahab. Lashed and whipped into a state of emotional and mental imbalance until he's like that man I described, the grown man pouting for a lollipop.

22:43 Why do I use the term a cruel, lashing master? Because God uses the analogy of being sold into slavery or sold to a master. You remember what the accusation of the prophet was in verse 20? And he answered, I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord.

23:06 Verse 25, But there was none like unto Ahab who did sell himself to do that which is evil. Now, he didn't go to an auction block somewhere and say to the devil, now here I am, here's my price. No, this is a figure of speech. This is a figure of speech.

23:22 But there's a reality behind it. Here's a man who gave himself up to be the willful servant and slave of the devil. And he found out, as one man said in the hearing of several of us a few weeks ago, that the devil is no Christian and no gentleman. And when he had sold himself out, hoping that from that master he'd find success and find pleasure and fulfillment, he found that that master was cruel.

23:56 And when he couldn't have this, here he is, mentally distraught, emotionally disturbed, a grown man pouting for a lollipop because the lash of his master is upon his back. Let me ask some very personal questions. Haven't you found this true? Do you know what it is to be lashed into a state of emotional and spiritual disturbance?

24:24 Because some naboth wouldn't give you a vineyard? Hmm? Something you set yourself upon and said, if I get that and I'm willing to get it at any price, then I'll be happy! And lo and behold, all it's brought you is what?

24:42 Misery. Misery. Bondage. Grief.

24:48 Job, car, good looks, whatever it is, you found that sin is a lashing, cruel master, never able to give what it promises, and always giving things that it never mentioned when it asked us to sell out to its lordship. I hope tonight there comes a holy dread in our hearts on the matter of sin. Any man who's learned to write the grace of God learns it in such a way that he fears sin in the process. For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, that's how grace is taught by the Holy Spirit, never comes in such a way that we say, well, since we're saved by grace and kept by grace, we need not fear sin. Listen, you carry around in your breast a terrible, terrible, terrible betrayer. As Rutherford once said, our greatest problem is with the house devil that we carry with us in every place, the remains of our own corruption. And you give yourself over even as a child of God to the mastery of sin in any area of your life

26:13 and you'll find sin a lashing, cruel master. This is what Ahab found. Those of you that want to look up a parallel reference, check Esther 5, verse 9 and following. We don't have time to go into it tonight.

26:28 There's the picture of a man who, recounting all of his blessings, says, but as long as that Jew is at the gate and won't bow to me, nothing is worth anything. Here he is, driven into a state of emotional and spiritual distraction because there's some area of sinful desire that's unfulfilled. Well, so much for what sin is like in this passage. Now the second question, and this will be the bulk of our study tonight, what will sin do to a man, to a woman, to a fellow, to a girl?

What Sin Does: Turns Man into a Scheming Fiend

26:59 In the first place, this passage reveals that sin will turn God's crowning creature into a scheming fiend. God has given to us rational powers, moral judgment, something that He's not given to the beast, to the other areas of His creation. And God gave those powers that they might be used in discerning His ways, in subduing His earth, in thinking His thoughts after Him. And yet this passage reveals how the genius of the human mind becomes the instrument of fiendish activity when it's under the power of sin.

27:42 Notice how quickly Jezebel apparently had no previous time to work out her intriguing plan. She comes into the house, finds her husband pouting because he doesn't have his lollipop. She asks him the question, what's the matter? And it seems by the very conjunction, and, and, and, there's no implication of any space of time.

28:05 She's able to think quickly on her feet and she comes up with a plan that's ingenious. For she weaves into it something of Old Testament religion. She weaves into it something of Naboth's standing in the respect of the people. She weaves into it her knowledge of some of these leaders of the city who apparently were unprincipled men who could be moved to accomplish her own end.

28:29 All of these things like a great administrative genius. She could have been president over the general motors. What does it do? It takes all of those powers that should be subject to God and His revelation to think His thoughts after Him to subdue His world and to accomplish His will and sin takes them and makes that crowning creature a veritable scheming fiend.

28:59 My friend, if you give brain to sin, it'll do exactly that in you. Or maybe not with quite the same finesse. But you young people, you know what it's like. You give yourself up to a lie and then isn't it amazing how your mind can work and you figure out all these beautiful schemes of how you're going to cover up your lies.

29:19 Huh? Sin turns you into a scheming fiend. And all the clever little ways. And you've got something so well covered up it's only when mom and dad make you come to services like this and the pastor looks you in the eye and starts probing that you even remember them.

29:36 But right now some of those lies come back to mind. Some of you husbands, some of you wives, some of you adults. How you've schemed and you've covered up your sin and you've left no footprints, you've left no disturbed earth. It all looks so well, doesn't it, huh?

29:50 How ingenious you are. That's what sin does. That mind, given as that precious gift with which to love Him with the whole mind, Scripture says, has become the instrument of thinking out these thoughts of covering up sin, of perpetrating deceit. And again I remind you, dear child of God, you're not immune to it.

30:17 You read the story of David's fall with Bathsheba and then how David, whose mind was such a wonderful gift to the church in thinking lofty thoughts of God that become the very blessing that we experience every time we read the Psalms. He schemes and plans how he can put that man up to the front of the battle and make it look as though it was just the normal course of the events of war which is no respect. He schemes and schemes and schemes and when one scheme doesn't work he tries another. What turned this man after God's own heart into a scheming fiend?

30:57 I'll tell you what did it. Sin. The power of sin. Even remaining sin in a child of God when he left off to watch.

31:09 To watch and to pray. And my dear Christian friend, it'll do the same to you. It'll turn you into a scheming fiend. Don't play with it.

31:26 Don't be cocksure in self-confidence. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. The second thing sin will do as we see in this passage, it will turn a man into an unprincipled, moral jellyfish. Look at Ahab.

What Sin Does: Turns Man into an Unprincipled, Moral Jellyfish

31:48 No indication that he would ever have perpetrated this deed. He was willing to pout because he couldn't have his lollipop. It was up to Jezebel to come along and hatch the scheme. No indication that Ahab was scheming a way to put Naboth out of the way.

32:07 It was this wicked woman, Jezebel. She did the scheming. But notice when she says I'll get you that land. He knows his wife well enough to know her ways.

32:18 He doesn't have enough principle to step in and say look, if it's at the expense of what's right in Naboth's life or his reputation, no, I don't want it that bad. He stands back and does nothing and in doing nothing he lays the reins upon her neck and says you go ahead and do anything you want to do. No indication when she comes and says look, Naboth's dead. You can have the field that he says how was he killed.

32:41 Here's a man who's unprincipled. It's indicated very clearly we don't need just an influence but notice the clear statement of verse 25. There was none like unto Ahab who did sell himself to do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. In other words, Ahab left to himself was a wicked man but his wickedness would not have gone anywhere near to the extent it went without the stirring up influence of his wife.

33:13 She stirred him up unto evil. And what did sin do then to this man? Think of it. The creature of God.

33:22 You and I made in his image that receiving his revealed will we should from the heart embrace it at any cost. There's beauty in a man whose moral life is held captive by the revealed will of God. A man like Martin Luther who faces the great bastions of that imposing religious rule with its system, with its anathemas, with its armies, with its tortures, with its heresy trials and says, Here I stand so help me God I can do no other. That's a man being a true man.

34:04 Man was made to be the moral captive of the revealed will of God. What does sin do? It makes him a moral jellyfish so that he can stand by and see evil perpetrated and then comfort himself. Oh well, I didn't plan it.

34:18 God accused him of the very deed. When the prophet came he came to him and said notice verse 19 And thou shalt speak unto him saying Thus saith the Lord Hast thou killed and taken possession? He'd like to think he was neutral in all of this but God says you're not neutral. The fact that you stood on the sidelines and did nothing to prevent it.

34:42 You have become accomplice to the crime. The same way the prophet accused David of the murder of Uriah even though it was done by proxy. Sin will make you a moral jellyfish. It does that with unsaved people.

35:01 Always looking for the path of expediency. This is the day of the double standard. It was interesting. There was a Harris poll taken recently and written up in this past week's Time magazine on the morals of the United States in the present hour.

35:18 What a shocking revelation. And if it revealed anything it revealed this. We have spawned a nation of moral jellyfishes. Moving on the basis not of what God has revealed but what is expedient and convenient.

35:38 And listen child of God you give any rain to sin and it will do the same to you. Every time at the job when you see evil being perpetrated and you know you ought to rebuke it and you're silent what has happened? Sin has made you a moral jellyfish. More afraid of your own reputation and your own pocketbook than the honor of God being cast in the dirt when men defy his holy law.

36:07 You fellows and girls at school those times when the teacher asks you point blank why don't you this? And you sneak behind. Well, my parents don't like it. My church, you're a moral jellyfish.

36:20 You know what you ought to say? You ought to plant your feet and say I don't want to do this or I don't believe that because it's contrary to the word of the living God. One of the marks of a man full of the Holy Spirit if I understand anything of what scripture teaches is that God imparts to such a man pure tempered steel in the area of his moral principles and he stands by the grace of God against any opposition when once the path of duty is clear. Sin did this to Peter.

37:01 Great old Peter. And a little servant of God comes along and flashes her eyes and says uh-huh, I think you're one of them. And out pour this torrent of oaths. I have nothing to do with him.

37:17 And he curses and swears to make her really know he's a man who knows what he's talking about. What made him a moral jellyfish? Sin that entered in the moment of weakness. He didn't think that was possible.

37:30 Though all forsake you. Now Lord, if you told me I might do this or that. If you told me I might take my sword out and lop somebody's ear off. Now Lord, I could believe that.

37:37 And if you told me I might get mad and lose my temper at the Sanhedrin and at that crowd that's gonna put you to death. I could believe that. But Lord, when you tell me that I'll end up denying you you've got the wrong fellow, Lord. Though the rest of this crowd might do it.

37:52 I can conceive of them doing it. They're a bunch of immoral jellyfishes. I'm Peter the Rock. Not me.

38:00 Peter, before that little rooster performs his morning duties of being alarm clock three times you'll deny me. Sin made a moral jellyfish of Peter. It'll do the same to you if you give any rain to it. Third thing we see in answer to the question what will sin do?

What Sin Does: Perverts Judgment and Affections

38:26 It will make you look on your best friend as your worst enemy and your worst enemies as your best friends. That's what sin will do. And you see it right here in this passage. When the prophet of God comes he says, have you found me?

38:44 Oh, my enemy. When Jezebel comes in the room starts stroking his head and coochie-cooing him. He listens to her. She's my best friend.

38:58 She understands me. She sympathizes with me. Elijah, all he does is throw terrible darts into my conscience. So he calls Elijah his enemy and he hugs to his bosom this wicked devil incarnate as his best friend.

39:17 You know why he married Jezebel? Because she was daughter of the king of the Sidonians. And for personal reasons and for the stability of his kingdom he thought if he could enter into some kind of league with those nations it would be to his betterment. So he looked upon Jezebel as his friend to accomplish those personal goals.

39:37 Sin will so pervert your judgment and your affections that your worst enemy you'll regard as your best friend. For the scripture says that it was this wicked woman that stirred him up to all the wickedness that meant the frustration of his ambitions the death of his sons and his own ignominious death and defeat. And go down in record so that the very name Ahab drips with the very connotation of evil. I've named my son Joel.

40:07 There's some Johns here some Peters some Andrews. I've never heard of an Ahab. That's not the kind of name you pick up and stick upon your child if you have any acquaintance with the Bible. See what sin did?

40:25 It so perverted his judgment that he looked upon his best his worst enemy as his best friend and his best friend Elijah who was God's instrument to call him to repentance to point out his sin to tear him away from pale worship that he might know the true God. He looks upon him as his enemy. And sin is doing the same thing for some of you here today. Listen to me young people.

40:49 Know who your best friends are? Not those kids at school that'll tell you the latest dirty joke. They're not your best friends. Those perhaps in our own church fellowship that'll snicker under their sleeve with you and say boy we sure got the preacher and our parents fooled.

41:04 Haven't we? We're having a great time. And they encourage you to go on in your sham and hypocrisy. You think boy they're my best friends.

41:13 They really know me and love me. No they aren't. Anyone who by example or word will encourage you to go on one moment longer in a state of impenitence and hypocrisy and sham a state of unregeneracy is your worst enemy. They're cooperating with the devil to damn your soul.

41:35 And you know who your best friend is? It's that godly mum and dad who won't let you go to hell with the reins on your neck loose. God's put the reins in their hands and they've put restraints upon you. They've got the nerve to want to know where you are and say when you have to come home.

41:55 And that as for me and my house certain things will go and certain things won't. And you look upon those godly Christian parents as your worst enemies. All the time know this know that do this do that only I can be free. Yeah free to do what?

42:10 Free to damn yourself. Free to pour more fuel into that raging fire of lust and passion and sin. That's why they say you can only be with certain kinds of people and you have to be in at certain hours and you have to be here at church. They know there's a raging fire in your breast and they're trying to keep the fuel away.

42:33 But sin so twisted you that you welcome those that will pour fuel into your heart and slap and despise the hand of the one that would keep it away. What a foul influence is this matter of sin. Think of it in the realm of the church. Who's your best friend?

42:57 Oh you say those preachers that tell us smooth things. Those preachers that just always tell us God loves us and that the Lord is kind and patient. Well that's certainly in the Bible and when it's there I tried to preach it. I did this morning because it was there in the text.

43:17 But as Robert Murray McShane said your best friend is the man who tells you the most truth about you. Your best friend in ministry is not the man who makes you feel good week after week. It's the man who tells you the truth of God about you and if there's unconfessed sin and he tells you that that sin is like a cancer and he'll eat at the vitals of your soul he's doing so because he loves you and wants to see grace cut the cancer out not spread the vaseline of religious platitudes over that wound and that terrible cancer. But sin will pervert a man a woman, a fellow or girl that he'll look at his best friend as his worst enemy and his worst enemy as his best friend. And then the last thing in answer to the question what will sin do will you notice this? It will make a man use the word of God to his own wicked ends. That's what sin will do.

What Sin Does: Uses God's Word for Wicked Ends

44:18 Here's this woman Jezebel and she thinks now how can I perpetrate this thing that I want to do? I want to get Naboth out of the way so I can get his vineyard. How will I do it? You notice what her scheme was?

44:29 She had enough acquaintance with the Old Testament scriptures that she said well let's bring in a religious principle. Let's hang him up on a charge of blasphemy. What did she care about blaspheming Jehovah? She was a wicked Baal worshipper.

44:41 She didn't have one gram of true love for Jehovah in her heart. But notice how her scheme is perpetrated notice. She says let's send a letter verse 10 and have these false witnesses rise up and bear witness saying thou didst curse God and the king. Let's hang him up on a religious charge.

45:04 And she knew that the Old Testament required that there had to be two or three witnesses to confirm everything. So what did she do? She used the scriptures to her own sinful end. And that's what sin will continually do in the heart of a man.

45:18 It rises to one of its most open, vile, bold expressions when it will take hold of the very words of God and make them plants upon which to walk into a course of sin. That's what sin will do. And that's what it did here. Do you remember anything in the New Testament that says this?

45:42 2 Peter 3 and verse 1. 2 Peter 3 and verse 18. Verse 17. I'm sorry.

45:47 16. 16. He said our beloved brother Paul has written some things hard to be understood and the ignorant and the unstable rest. That is they stretch.

45:57 They put them on a rack and they stretch them out of their natural shape. They rest the scriptures to what? To their own destruction. So the Bible teaches that God loves us in Jesus Christ and that his love has found expression in a death that adequately meets all the demands of divine justice and that believing in Jesus Christ crucified and risen we are fully justified from all sin past, present and future.

46:29 And so what does sin do? It comes along and says now isn't that wonderful? Sure. Go ahead and take that.

46:34 You can have that. And since all sin is forgiven it doesn't make any difference if you sin. And so the grace of God is turned into what? License.

46:45 See? Are we free in Christ? Sure. Free.

46:51 Free in Christ. Free to do what? Free to be God's bondservants for the devil comes along and the power of sin within says look you're free. Free from restraint.

46:59 Free from regulation. Free from law. Free just to feed your flesh. And then you can find scriptures to justify it.

47:07 My friend beware. Beware whenever scriptures are suggested to your mind when you're contemplating some way to excuse sin or cover up sin or avoid repentance. Beware. If the devil could quote verses verbatim to Jesus he can suggest them to your mind and to mine.

47:37 And sin is such a foul influence that it will make a person use the word of God to his own wicked ends. It's a terrible picture isn't it? My friend I hope you've seen such a terrible picture of sin that you'll feel tonight I've got to be somewhere where I'm protected from that awful influence. And there is a place where you and I can be protected.

48:02 For thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Not only from the guilt we've incurred but from these terrible potentials within. If you really believe these things that remaining sin in you as a Christian could break out in any of these ways then it's scarier. It ought to.

48:18 But that fear of sin is the only thing that can break out in you as a Christian. And that fear of sin is the only thing that can break out in you as a Christian. But that fear ought to drive you to one who sits upon a throne as our great high priest ever living to make intercession for us able to preserve us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his own glory. This is what sin will do.

48:50 But there is one more mighty who can check its power who can quench its flame who can stop up its influence who can purge it from our hearts. It should make us indeed watchful. A healthy distrust of ourselves is one of the hallmarks of true piety. I must ask one question then briefly in closing tonight.

How God Deals with Sin: Judgment or Mercy

49:13 And it's in this passage we've looked at what is sin like what will it do the third question how will God deal with sin. And this chapter reveals two aspects of his dealings. He will deal with sin in judgment verses 17 to 23 the announcement of judgment the announcement of judgment the announcement of judgment upon Ahab his sons and upon Jezebel he will deal with it in mercy verses 27 to 29 where even with this surface repentance of Ahab God extends mercy in giving some time before he brings the pronounced judgment upon him. And I submit to you those are the only two ways God deals with sin in judgment or in mercy.

49:57 Now the only reason he can deal with it in mercy in us is because he dealt with it in judgment upon his only begotten son. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He was made a curse for us for his written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree God dealt with his son in judgment that he might now extend mercy to us. But now listen if we will not embrace the offered judgment based upon the judgment of God needed upon his own dear son then we are saying God I will take the consequences of your dealing with my sin in judgment upon me. God's mercy towards sinners comes only on the grounds of the judgment meted out upon sin at Calvary. And if we refuse with a broken heart and with the hand of faith to embrace the mercy that flows down from the judgment of God upon his son at Calvary there is no other way that mercy can be extended from a holy God and God will deal in judgment as he dealt even

51:25 with Ahab. May God grant that if you are here tonight as one in whose heart that fire of sin rages that cruel axe his whip you can't deal with that fire to quench it of yourself you can't depose that master but one who is mightier than the strong man is come and has bound him and he can spoil his goods in your life. The Lord Jesus is the mighty deliverer I plead with you cast yourself upon him tonight hold up before him that raging heart of pride and say Lord Jesus I cannot quench that flame by the blood that flowed from Calvary and by the power of the Spirit Lord thou art able. Dear child of God the same Christ who initiates that work dealing with this awful power within is the one who continues and sustains that work of grace. Remember again the picture in Pilgrim's Progress he goes in the house throwing water upon it and yet the fire burns brightly the interpreter takes him behind the wall where there's a man pouring oil upon the flame and he said that's the influence of the Holy Spirit and where the devil

52:54 would cast water upon it to put it out he ever gives fresh supplies of grace to keep it burning why hasn't that little remains of fire within utterly broken out and consumed and carrying around something far more dangerous than a loaded mine. All that potential within and yet wonder of wonders it hasn't done to you what it did to Jezebel what it did to Ahab what's the explanation the oil the supply of the Spirit of Christ that flows down from his place of ascended glory and power as the fruit of the purchase of his own death and oh child of God let your self-confidence be watchful and prayerful acknowledging our need of fresh supplies of grace that we might by his grace grow in practical godliness in ever increasing ability to see the first risings of sin checked that we might be to the praise of the glory of his grace the Lord willing in our next study we'll see what this chapter teaches us about a true ministry and true godliness illustrated both in the life of Elijah and in the life of Naboth. Let us look to God in prayer.