The Devastating Impact of Unrepentant Sin

Unrepentant sin cascades to ultimate destruction

How’s that for a downer theme?

Ultimate destruction.

Sounds like a movie in the Marvel Universe.

But it’s not.

It’s not make believe or a fairy tale or mythology as some liberal theologians have posited.

Sin is real and the consequence of sin is real.

Question 16 of the New City Catechism

This is what we are teaching your 4th and 5th graders on Wednesday evenings at Wednesday Kids.

Question 16 is “What is sin?”

And here is the answer.

“Sin is rejecting or ignoring God in the world He created, rebelling against him by living without reference to Him

“Not being or doing what He requires in His law

“resulting in our death and the disintegration of all creation.”

One of the best visuals of how sin works came from something that was absolutely not sinful.

It was day 7 of my first hike on the Appalachian trail.

We had walked about 70 miles and were ready to get a hot meal in the town of Wesser, N.C.

Somewhere just over the crest of Wesser Bald is a spring where we refilled our water jugs.

From there it was a long way downhill to Wesser.

If you’ve never hiked a mountain trail, let me tell you, you don’t go straight down the hill.

You keep running into switchbacks.

You walk one direction for a while then you switch back the opposite direction.

Back and forth, back and forth down the side of the mountain.

Every other switchback would be right at that spring where we got water

Only, the further down the mountain we went, the bigger that spring got.

Pretty soon it was a streamlet.

The next switchback it was a brook.

Several switchbacks later it was a creek.

At the very bottom of the mountain it was a small river.

And then it crossed the highway and dumped into the Nantahala which is a significant river.

But it all started in a spring so small, we could only fill our canteens one or two at the time.

We’ve been in chapter 32 of Exodus now for a couple of weeks.

Their sin started small with some folks disgruntled because they were having to wait on Moses.

Today we’ll see that little spring of sin cascade to ultimate destruction.

Turn with me to Exodus, chapter 32, we are in verses 15 -29.

Kids, your worship guide has three words you are listening for today - they are Sin, Jesus and People.

Everyone, let’s hear now the Word of the Lord from the book of Exodus 32:15-29

Exodus 32:15–29 ESV

Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s ask the Lord’s help to understand His Word.

Father,

Our world has taken the concept of sin and its tried to make sin right.

We have been tainted by the constant barrage of lies of the evil one.

Oh Holy Spirit, speak truth to our weary, weary hearts.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

It started as a spring of impatience

To get us all up to speed, the Israelites have been camped at the foot of Mt. Horeb for a number of weeks now.

They’ve heard the voice of God delivering the 10 commandments.

And they saw Moses go up the mountain with Joshua by his side so Moses could meet with God.

The top of the mountain is covered in the cloud where the presence of God is.

And Moses goes into the cloud and doesn’t come out for a long time.

In fact, he’s gone over a month.

And ya’ll know, we don’t wait well.

A number of them get impatient and they rebel.

Moses left Aaron in charge and the rebels demand he makes them a god to lead them to the promised land.

And instead of being a strong ruler, he melts in front of them and makes the golden calf.

We know that breaks the second commandment

And if we learned nothing else from the first 14 verses of chapter 32, we have to have learned this:

Sin is a very serious thing to God.

Verse 10 says Exodus 32:10 “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them...

Now follow me here

If Malachi 3:6 is true, and the Lord does not change

Malachi 3:6 ESV

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

When we sin in 2024, how does God feel about that?

You know I’m all into the national political culture - stick your head in the sand all you want - what’s going on in Washington is a threat to God’s Church.

But this time let’s look local.

On your ballots when you go to vote, the very last item is headed “Package Sales Resolution.”

It reads, “Shall the issuance of licenses for the package sale of distilled spirits within the unincorporated limits of Jones County be approved?”

This is a spring.

It’s just a tiny little spring - but I guarantee you, it won’t stay tiny.

A few years back, a similar resolution failed by one vote in the city of Gray.

But you knew it would be back.

Alcohol sales is big money.

Someone will make a killing and our Jones County Commissioners will get more money to do whatever they want to do with that money.

If the city limits of Gray is correct in Google maps, there are lots of places that a package store could be built very close in.

And maybe we’ll get one that looks like the one in Jackson that has the airplane hanging from the ceiling.

Or the one in Locust Grove that looks the same.

You can see them as you drive by - classy looking places.

But what will the one look like just outside the Sawmill Quarter.

Or on the other end of the county, maybe at Jones County Shopping Center.

Last time I drove by, the old Dirty Dingus McGee’s location was empty - guess that could be converted.

Now we all know, or I hope we do, that buying and selling alcohol is not a sin.

Nor is having a drink - Ephesians 5:18 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

I don’t know if there is anyone who drinks that hasn’t gotten somewhat tipsy sometimes - but OK.

But here’s the real point.

While we wait on Jesus return, and we know we don’t wait well, what environment do we want to create in Jones County?

What do we want Jones County to look like?

What is our goal - what is the church’s goal for Jones County?

Is voting in alcohol sales compatible with our stated goal of Making Jesus Known?

Will the pastors of our churches counsel couples to “have a drink” and talk to work out their marital problems?

Will we counsel our school children to be “responsible drinkers” because drinking will enhance their life experiences?

How will we, with a straight face, tell those in our number that fight alcohol addiction every stinking day that we voted to build stores.

Tax money you know - government’s always got to have more.

Do we want in our #Hometown - in #Ourtown to sell the product that has ravaged men’s souls and damaged their lives

Because think of the addiction programs we can fund with that tax revenue.

Brothers and Sisters, the Lord has blessed us with a great place to live.

Will allowing this referendum to pass help keep our Hometown a great place to live?

We need to be very serious in our thinking as we go to the ballot box.

Things that we think are little bitty nothing things can turn into big deals.

I can hear the thinking - why should anyone have to drive half an hour to Bibb County or Baldwin County to buy booze

When buying it here would be so - much - quicker and we’d get the tax revenue.

The people at Mt. Horeb got impatient - too.

Their impatience

It grew to a brooklet of a broken promise

Look at verse 16 Exodus 32:16 “The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.”

Why does verse 16 drive home the point that those tablets were crafted by God - that Moses had nothing to do with them.

It’s because the tablets were a contract.

It is God’s contract.

It is His terms and conditions.

What is the “product” - it was God’s promise

Yahweh will be our God and we will be Yahweh’s people.

Each party gets a copy of the contract - hence two stones.

I know we’ve always seen pictures with 5 commands on one stone and 5 on the other

Yeah, that’s wrong.

Both tablets were identical and God gave Moses God’s copy

So both could be put in the ark they were about to build.

Only, Sin is a serious thing to God.

Verse 19 - Exodus 32:19 “And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.”

Moses didn’t throw a temper tantrum and throw the tablets down.

He didn’t look at them shattered on the ground and went, “Opps, I shouldn’t have done that.”

He did it on purpose because the sin of the people broke the promise they made to God.

It was plainly written by God Himself, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image...”

They knew that - yet, here they were.

It started as spring of impatience.

It grew to a brooklet of a broken covenant.

It increased to a stream of chaos

Look at verse 17 Exodus 32:17 “When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.””

Moses already knew what had happened.

It wasn’t war - it was chaos.

Here’s what we miss about the Lord’s rules.

As the Creator, He knows exactly what works for us and what doesn’t.

Listen, people have blown up their cars because they refused to follow the instructions.

If you never change the oil in your car - how will that turn out?

Or better still, run ethanol gasoline in your 2 stroke motors.

It will work for a while - maybe a long while - but eventually it will blow up on you.

When we remove the Creator’s guardrails, we will eventually blow up.

Life becomes chaos.

Listen, if you’ve watched any news in the last few weeks, your head has to be spinning.

When in the history of your lives have you seen a world in such chaos?

Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Israel, Longshoremen striking, two crazy devastating hurricanes

A government that can give illegal people thousands of dollars without them having any indentification

And American citizens a $750 dollar loan, if they have proper ID.

FEMA is broke.

Whistleblowers going to jail for telling the truth (Peters lady in Arizona)

No bread, no eggs on the shelves at Walmart in Eatonton last week

Ingles spent over a week without taking a credit card

And you’re going to tell me that all of this is normal?

The guardrails are off.

The covenant is broken.

The leaders of our country have endorsed sin - what did you expect would happen?

Chaos - chaos is the result of ignoring the Lord.

It started as spring of impatience.

It grew to a brooklet of a broken covenant.

And then it increased to a stream of chaos.

Until it cascaded to a river of ultimate destruction

Look at verse 27 and 28 Exodus 32:27–28 “And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.”

This is hard for our western minds to wrap ourselves around.

We live in a pluralistic society that values real diversity - not this fake junk being crammed down our throats

But true diversity of thought, beliefs and opinions.

But think smaller than a nation - think of your house.

Some of you have lived this heartache.

Maybe it was a spouse, or a kid, or a relative, or a friend

But whoever it was, they were in your home and they defied ever rule of your house

To the point of looking you in the face and saying they were not, am not and will never follow your rules.

Some of you have had to muster up some really hard tough love

You had to send them away.

It broke your heart and I suspect even now you can get pretty emotional over it.

But you had to

For the sake of your family.

For the sake of the Israelites, God had to eliminate those who refused to follow Him.

Here’s what we think happened.

The descendants of Levi, son of Jacob, will become the priests for the nation of Israel.

When Moses calls for help, the sons of Levi step up.

They go from gate to gate

The gates were the various entrances to the camp and that’s where the wise men would gather.

Think of the gates as town squares.

The sons of Levi would ask the wise men, will you repent from the sin of the golden calf and follow Yahweh?

3,000 said they would not repent.

And their unrepentant sin brought about their ultimate destruction.

So this begs a question, why would a good God execute 3,000 “good” people?

The answer to that has to be another question, “Why would 3000 “good” people, reject God?”

When I became a manager at Bellsouth, the first person I had to fire was a very ill person.

They needed their insurance and I was broken.

I felt like I was going to cost this person their life - they were that ill.

I was talking to my manager about it and he listened very patiently and then he said this:

“Randy, you aren’t firing him.

“He fired himself - you are simply giving him what he asked for.”

And he was right - I had done everything I could to help him but he told me, I’m not doing any more than this.”

He received the due penalty for his sin.

Brothers and sisters,

The theme we are looking at today is repeated over and over from Genesis to Revelation.

The Lord doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed.

And folks ask, “If that’s so, why does He send them to hell?”

But that’s the wrong question.

The right question is, “If He wanted to send them to hell, why did He send them Jesus?”

Listen, this progression of sin from a spring of impatience to a river of destruction is carved in stone.

Every time, every time we play with sin, it never ends in the right place.

As Christians we know better and yet look at us

Aren’t we fortunate that the Lord is merciful

That He is slow to anger and quick to forgive?

Aren’t we fortunate that our sins are forgiven

And our good Father will discipline us to keep us from ultimate destruction?

That’s what God the Father offers us through Jesus

When we trust Jesus, when we make up our minds to follow Jesus through thick and thin

The guardrails are put back in place

And our sin ends in discipline rather than destruction.

Even though the earthly consequences of our sin will remain.

But, God is good

And He will give you what you want.

And if you want hell, He will give it to you.

Every person in this room is begging you, please choose Jesus.

We’re going to pray and then sing.

While we are singing, if you want to follow Jesus, please tell someone.

I promise, we’ll do everything we can to get you to Him.

Let us pray.