The depth of sin - don not follow your heart
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted
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· 22 viewsWickedness and sin lives in our hearts and we need new hearts
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The depth of sin - do not follow your heart
The depth of sin - do not follow your heart
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Today we are faced with more stories from Genesis that shows us the depth of sin, and where sin really is found the most. Sin is not found in the city or in the field. It is not in a geographic location, nor is it just something we do externally. Sin is the nature of mankind and it resides in our hearts.
God says this about the unregenerate (unbelieving) heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). This passage makes clear two reasons why no one should bind himself to following his heart when making decisions.
First, there is nothing more deceitful in all of creation than the heart of man because of his inherited sin nature. If we follow our heart, we follow an untrustworthy guide. We are, in fact, blinded to our own heart’s deceitful nature. As the prophet asks, “Who can understand it?” When we rely on ourselves for wisdom, we end up unable to tell right from wrong. Determining right from wrong based on “feelings” is a dangerous (and unbiblical) way to live.
Second, Jeremiah 17:9 teaches that the heart is desperately sick. There is no way to fix the heart. Rather, man needs a new heart.
As God is writing a revelation of himself in scripture, he is also showing us the utter depth of sin and our need for him. The way he does this is by showing us the ugliness of sin. Today we have a story before us in scripture that some Biblical scholars have said is not appropriate to preach in church. It will show us the gross ugly sinful hearts of people as a difficult picture to see.
This is difficult to preach because we need to name and teach what certain sin is, and there are those we have in the room that are young. But parents hear me on this one, if we do not let the bible teach our children about sin, would we have the world teach them about it? Should we not hear the sinful stories and then have intentional conversations with our families about sin?
A few weeks ago we talked about circumcision, last week we talked about homosexuality, and this week we will see incest. It is ugly, and uncomfortable to address because it requires maturity and a sober handling. Yet, we cannot simply skip over it because it is ugly and hard to talk about. And here is why…
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
All scripture, every part of it is profitable… Even the ugly stories that embarrass us to read because it can be so gross. These stories show us the total depth of our sinful hearts and our desperate need fo a savior.
Let’s look at this story in Genesis 19 today and remember that Moses is the human author under the divine guidance from God, his audience is the children of Israel who have been delievered from Egypt, and what they hear today will be as hard for them as it is for us but there will be somethings that they would have better understanding of than us, so we will need to break it down a little. Let’s see the last place Lot is mentioned in the OT.
30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
Last week we saw that when Lot was escaping with the angels, he asked to go to this small city called Zoar. And they told him he could go there and they wouldn’t let destruction come on that city. I made the point that Lot had been so infected by the lifestyle of the city he was in that he wanted to go to another one. And yet, the first thing we see here is that Lot went out of Zoar up to the hills, the place the angels told him to go. Why the change of heart?
It is thought that once Lot saw the destruction of the cities he was having a moment where he was truly wanting to turn from his sinful desires himself.
It is as if he said, “I don’t want to have anything to do with any of these sinful places anymore.” It says he was actually afraid to live there. He knew what happened to Sodom an d now that he is in Zoar, he doesn’t want to be there, even though he asked to go there.
Lot goes from lingering in Sodom, taking his time to leave, and asking for another city to go too, to being someone who goes to the hills and hides in a cave with his daughters.
It is as if Lot wants nothing to do with the place where sin is. And this is where the irony in mankind trying to rid himself of sin in his own way comes in. Sin does not just reside in the cities. He has lived amongst an evil people and he has even picked up some of their ways. His family has been affected by the customs and his wife couldn’t help but to look back even though she was told not to. It is here that Lot is making a stand, and it is here that he will find out that sin isn’t just in other around him but it is found within them.
This is one of those places where the Genesis story continues to show to affects of the fall on humanity, and how no matter how hard they try, they can’t run from what is within them. they will need a new heart.
And so this story takes a turn for the worse.
31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.
Now, there will be a couple things to take notice of before we get to the really bad part of this story. One thing I want you to to look out for is what the names of Lots daughters are. We will come back to that.
The next thing I would point out to you, is how they are talking… What is their attention on? It is on the fact that they are not going to be like everyone else because of their circumstances. There are no husbands there in that cave and that means they can’t have what everyone else on all the earth can have.
What is the condition of their hearts? Longing to be like everyone else. Their hearts are not rejoicing that they have been delievered, their hearts are not satisfied with what little they have… No, their hearts are desiring to be like everyone else.
And when your hearts wants something you can’t have it will advise you on how to get what you want. Notice the desires of their hearts, then look at their plan.
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”
Where does such a wicked plan come from? They are talking about incest. When family members sleep together. But it is worse than just that, because they are planning on doing this to their father, but first getting him so drunk that he will not know what is happening.
Where do you think this idea comes from? Well yes their wicked sinful hearts that have been so infected by sin because of the fall of man. But I would submit to you that this is something they would’ve seen or heard about in the city they just came from. Sodom was a place os sexual perversion, and they lived in the midst of that city. It was there that they would find out you can get someone so drunk that they will not remember what happened to themselves.
Beyond that, this is actually rape. And suddenly the sins of the father are echoing back through his children, as it was just a few verses before that we saw Lot offer his daughter to horde of men that wanted to rape the angels, to have their way with them, and here these girls devise a wicked scheme to have their way with him.
Could it be that they we hurt by what they heard their father say of them, and when it was time for them to honor him they instead decide to use and abuse him for their own evil desires?
Sin always affects others
Sin always affects others
We sometimes like to think that our sin is just a personal thing that doesn’t impact others. But the truth is that it always affect others.
Not only is sin, what R.C. Sproul called, “Cosmic treason against God”, but it has humans that it actually hurts too. And if you r hearts hasn’t been made new in Christ, then the sins done to you will become the reasons why you will do wrong things unto others.
Your sin is never totally private. It is always meant to be used against you and against others by the enemy. Lots own desires to live near and eventually in Sodom had a dramatic impact on him and his family. And his daughters own desires now will have a harmful affect on him. This is a picture of humanity in a vicious cycle that will never get better in and of themselves.
This was deplorable in the ancient near east cultures they lived in and it is just as bad today. And we need to see that sin always has bad effects on others, because we will see how the first audience would’ve known this as a reason for their current struggles. They would heard this story and seen how this sinful thing would still be a problem form them thousands of years later. but hold that thought and let’s get back to the story.
33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
Now just as I am pointing out how sinful these girls are acting, I would quickly stop and mention that Lot isn’t being right either. It does day that they made their dad drink wine, but how much do you have to drink to get blackout drunk?
He goes way beyond his limits, he exercises no self control. There is no doubt that they in this cave are despairing together, and it took some seducing for these girls to convince him to keep drinking, but he could’ve stopped, and he didn’t.
This also begs the question, where did they get the wine from? Caves are not known for having natural springs of fermented grape juice called wine in them.
The reality is that they either brought some with them, and that doesn’t seem likely or that they went to the city and got some, and that happens only with Lots blessing.
The point is that Lot isn’t off the hook here at all. And yet these girls have done an awful thing.
34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
Remember I asked you what the daughters of Lot were named? Did you pick up there names? Because we know that names are seemingly important in the Bible… So what is there names? How will they be memorialized forever in scripture?
The older and the younger one… Thats is… See when people were thought of as shameful and wicked they would often not even name them. This thing that they have done is evil and wicked and wrong. But for the original audience it gets even worse...
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
So we read this story and say, “Ok, so they did a gross thing and it worked… Why is this here in scripture?”
The conclusion of this story shows the beginning of a long standing bitter animosity between the Moabites and Ammonites with Israel.
The original audience is now hearing how the people that they are constantly fighting with in the land God promised them as Abrahams children are actually ancestors who in their sin came to be and this is somehow by the grace of God that saved Lot and his family.
If we were to read this story without know ing anything else in all of scripture we would wonder why this gross story is here. But for those of us who have read the Bible, we know that these people become the enemies of Israel, and further more, under strict orders from God not to intermingle with them, we will see God’s own people fall into sexual sin with them as their descendants will intermarry with them in Numbers 25.
Some of the horrible battles and difficult decisions God makes about his own people who disobey him come from stories of interacting with these people groups. This story is in scripture to show two things.
1 - That sin has penetrated to the very heart of humanity and there is no hiding from it, even in a desolate cave. Sin will still come out and cause many issues.
2 - The enemies of God’s people have heritage from among them but they disobeyed and this should serve as a warning to the rest of his people forever.
And if we left this story here today, there would be an ominous dark cloud left over us all as we acknowledge how sin lurks in the hearts of men and we have no hope to be righteous in ourselves. But this is where we have the distinct pleasure of turning our attention to Christ and hearing the gospel.
It is precisely because of sin that mankind needs not just to obey and be warned but they need a new heart. Again remember where we started this morning...
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
The bible goes on from Genesis to tell of story after story of God’s glory and kindness and holiness and wrath and perfection and majesty, etc… and also his children's sinfulness. The OT begins to sound like a broken record of all the times God works miraculously and his people end up going back to sin and disobedience. What is God’s word showing us?
We need a new heart
We need a new heart
As the glory of God is shown, the depth of sin is shown and the greatest need of man is a savior. It could be said that the OT goes in to great detail to show us we need a new heart.
Everything we read here in Genesis shows us how since the fall man has been plagued by sin and need a new heart. And God doesn’t just hint at this. He isn’t just telling us stories hoping we get it. He will tells us this point blank.
And so God speaks through his prophets and tells his people.
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
God tells them that the very thing his people need is a new heart. But why? To simply not sin any more? Does a new heart cause his people to be perfect? Well the prophet Ezekiel goes on to tell them why the Lord would give them a new heart...
20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
God declares to his people that it is impossible for his people to walk in his ways and obey him unless they have a new heart.
The Bible becomes a story of how deep sin has run and how hopeless God’s creation is without him intervening and saving them. And he says he will do this by giving them a new heart… one that will desire to obey him.
He is saying that those who now desire to obey him, because they have a new heart, they are his people and he is their God.
The question today, is for you… Do you desire to obey him or do you still want to follow your heart?
Do your desires for the things of this life outweigh a deep desire to walk in his ways? if they do, you have reason to question the genuineness of your faith in Christ.
There should have come a moment when old desires passed away and new ones came. Desire of worshipping the Lord and serving him joyfully. this is how salvation is described for believer in Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
That means there should be some sort of distinct ways we see ourselves now in Christ. In fact Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that unless one is born again he will not see the kingdom of God. We need a savior because we need a new heart. We need to be born again by the Spirit of God.
When we are born again, God performs a heart transplant, as it were. He gives us a new heart. The power of the Holy Spirit changes our hearts from sin-focused to God-focused.
We do not become perfect…
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
We still have our sinful flesh but we can now choose whether or not to obey it. I like to say it this way, before Christ iIhad no choice but to sin my will was bound because my heart was hard and so I always sinned. But now in Christ I am free to Not sin, because I have a new heart.
So, when Jesus died for us on the cross, He broke the power of sin that controls us.
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Receiving Him as our Savior, gives us access to God and His power— which is a power to transform our hearts from sin-hardened to Christ-softened.
When we were separated from God with hardened hearts, we found it impossible to please Him. We were in our flesh...
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
We tended toward selfishness, rebellion, and sin. But now, with new hearts we are declared righteous before God because Christ did something for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Holy Spirit gives us a desire to please God that was foreign to us in our hardened state. Now God by his Spirit works with us over time and transforms us by his word, which renews our mind, Romans 12 and…
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
We “are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
God is constantly working on our hearts and his word and Spirit do a work that our best human efforts would simply fail to do.
What I am saying is that this is not a matter of simple human will but is has to be a Spirit led work.
God’s desire is for his children to become like His Son, Jesus.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Notice the word “be CONFORMED” to the image of his Son...
We can become like Jesus, only when we allow God to rid us of our old, hardened hearts and give us new hearts.
These stories in the OT point out to us the depth of Sin and our need for a new heart. Today if you need a new heart, then acknowledge your sin before God. Repent of your sin, ask God to save you, call out to Jesus to be your Lord and savior, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and give you a new heart, and Immediately come find one of our pastors that we may start helping you understand what this life will now mean. Do not wait for another day, for tomorrow is not promised to anyone.
And for those of us who are saved already, let us look back at the scriptures and see the ugliness of our sinful hearts and not fall for the lies of this world when they tell us to Follow our Hearts, instead let us look to the word of God which declares...
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
You may have heard this differently as in Guard your heart. But he question is…
Have we this week not done our part in keeping or guarding our heart? Have we allowed the spirit of the age to make us anxious and cause us to hate others we disagree with?
Let us be honest with the Lord and repent from sin as we would approach the table and receive the Lords supper. Let us respond to his word with thanks for saving us and asking him to keep us and empower us to guard our hearts, so we never forget what he has saved us from.