Sin within the camp...

The writer of Hebrews asks us to pay careful attention to those who were saved out of Egypt so many years ago; in chapter 1 we have insight into the script of salvation for those who would repent and believed. We are informed on how God chose to save and the writer uses “in type” the saving of the children of Israel out of slavery from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and then into the wilderness. But with many of them God was unhappy with their grumblings and their unbelief. They were disobedient! Our carnal natures naturally gravitate toward sin and wickedness, many hate acknowledging this truth to their lives. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:18-19)  - if we accommodate any form of wickedness, no matter how trivial we may want to believe it may be, we must all fall into a category, a class of people correctly classified as sinners. And yet we often hear people say, “I am a good person”. But that couldn’t be further from the truth when we examine ourselves in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ; God commends His Son for this exact reason; “But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." (Hebrews 1:8-9) – This lesson can only be truly learnt over time, as we learn to examine ourselves in light of our great Saviour.

As we move further on into the Israelites plight we understand that none of the original adults made it into the Promised Land save Joshua and Caleb. The reason for this is that they had a different spirit, they believed God and where not amongst the complainers.  As they began to conquer city after city just as God had promised, we get an insight as God begins to further reveal His own character and we see how He chose to deal with sin, his enemy, our enemy! Sin within the camp needed to be totally eradicated. Even when they captured new cities that was rife with sin, God’s command was kill all, spare no one, that meant even the children were slaughtered. “So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.” (Numbers 21:35)   

As I view that harsh reality in relation to my life with my struggles against sin I now understand my Fathers reason for such apparent brutality. Sin needs to be rooted from the core; it cannot be allowed to even lie dormant as it is a savage beast waiting to pounce. How often have you heard someone say, “You can see that he is his father’s child”! In other words if God let His enemies live even the children they would eventually become adults and fierce rivals. In like manner we must learn to appropriate the same measure of brutality against any sin in our own lives. It is the “little foxes that soil the vine”, O how we need to make this truth apparent to our existence, it will help us alleviate so much of the hardships in our lives. God help us to understand this reality! We must all learn to genuinely love righteousness and begin to HATE any form of wickedness that clings to our life as it is nothing more than a destructive disease, with one objective to keep all who ignore it opposed to the will of God!

Here are some bullet points that may help to jolt our minds into achieving this…

• ·         Endurance to endure unto the end with loyalty to Christ
• ·         If one has fallen we must get up, regardless of the our scarred knees
• ·         Endure  criticism from both within and without 
• ·         Through it all to find grace not to veer back off into sin…
• ·         Grace is the medicine used to cure all disease!

1.     Although we as Christians have Christ’s blood covering us through His sacrifice for our sins, nevertheless the instruction is very clear; “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4)

 

2.    I had let sin creep back into my life and I was not living like I once was did, it is time for a radical pruning that only God can help me with but it is imperative to find grace to appropriate it, it is what is required!

3.    Although a bad tree can never produce good fruit or good tree bad fruit, because of this wonderful God we serve, we have a storeroom full of grace that all who belong to Him have been afforded the opportunity to approach it with confidence and correct our wrongs, I have learnt that there is no disease greater than the healing power of the finished work of Calvary. Christ has conquered all! He alone has the power and the keys to eternal life; remember that while we have breath we have hope.

4.    With that said it may well be time for an audit to our lives… God help us to be honest with Him and ourselves.

Signing off

Tyrone