The problem of sin
[Nehemiah 9:1-5]
Pastor Dong-won Lee said in his book ‘Acts of Repentance’: ‘As a layman, C.S. Professor Lewis diagnosed the era we live in as an era in which the spirit of seeking has been lost’ (Lee). One of the proofs is that modern people no longer have a serious approach to sin. It means that there are not that many people who are troubled and in pain because of their sins, and who shed tears to try to overcome their sins. That is why there are so many believers who do not experience the thrill of being saved from sin or the joy of overcoming sin.
What do you think of this word? Are we worried about our sins? Are we struggling to overcome our sins? Now fewer and fewer believers are humbly listening to sermons pointing out sin. Now the word “sin” may be in danger of disappearing. As 2 Timothy 4:3 says, “the time will come.” That time is none other than the time when people do not receive sound teaching, and their ears have itching, so they have many teachers to follow their own desires. We are closer to sin than to the Lord. Now we live a life that is more closely related to sin than to the word of the Lord. If we look at the annotation “Be Determined”, it says: “Separation without devotion to the Lord becomes isolation, but devotion without separation is hypocrisy” (Wiersbe). How many Christians live in isolation? They struggle to keep their faith separate from the world and sin, but in the end, this separation without devotion to the Lord puts them in a state of isolation. So, it seems that there are many Christians who have cut off fellowship with their neighbors and live a lonely life alone. But more than these isolated Christians are probably Christians who live a hypocritical life. There are countless Christians who profess with their lips that they have dedicated themselves to the Lord, but live in harmony with the world and enjoy the things of the world. Aren't we such Christians? Too many of us Christians live without enjoying true freedom of heart. Because of the problem of sin, we cannot enjoy the peace that God gives, and our hearts are bound by the chains of “guilt.” That is why I personally hold onto the words of Psalms 119:32 more and more. The Bible says that when we run toward the Lord's word (commandment), the Lord sets our hearts free. I would like to think about how to solve the problem of sin in two ways, focusing on the words of Nehemiah 9:1-5.
First, we must separate ourselves from the world in order to solve the problem of sin.
Look at Nehemiah 9:2a – “Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. ….” Separation in heterosexual relationships, is it possible? When I was ministering in Korea, some sisters in Christ had a conversation about heterosexual relationships with non-believers. It was possible to get a glimpse of what everyone was worrying about in the conversation. When one of the three sisters asked what to do with men who do not believe in Jesus, I advised them to break off heterosexual relationships based on 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked with unbelievers.” At that time, what I usually hear is, 'Pastor, my boyfriend doesn't believe in Jesus right now, but after we get married, can’t I bring him to church and make him believe in Jesus?' In other words, she was asking if it would be okay to evangelize her boyfriend after getting married. What do you think?
The problem in the days of Ezra-Nehemiah was the mixed life with the Gentiles. So, Ezra said to the Israelites: “Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives” (Ezra 10:11). Among the mixed life with the Gentiles, the one that was particularly problematic was the marriage to the Gentile woman, or, in today's words, the marriage to an unbeliever. In the end, King Solomon also sinned against God by marrying foreign women and serving their foreign gods. Paul's logic is clear. Look at 2 Corinthians 7:14b-16a: “… For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? ….” What do believers and non-believers have in common? How can we be in harmony with God and idols? Are we trying to achieve harmony in serving God and money together? How can light and darkness be friends? This is pointless! When God created the heavens and the earth, He divided the light from the darkness (Gen. 1:4). Children of light and children of darkness cannot mix. As children of light, we must not engage in the works of darkness, but rather rebuke them (Eph. 5:7).
Do you know why water and oil don't mix? This is because the properties of the two materials are different. ‘Water molecules have a very weak electric charge. This electricity is not an intensity that we can feel, but it is an intensity that cannot be ignored in the world of molecules. Therefore, water molecules mix well with molecules that are similar to them, that is, molecules that are charged with electricity. This is because electrically charged molecules attract each other well, just like small bar magnets lined up. On the other hand, oil molecules do not carry electricity. Therefore, the water molecules do not mix with each other. On the other hand, oil molecules mix well with molecules that are similar to them, that is, molecules that do not carry electricity. This is because non-electric molecules mix well with non-electric molecules. However, sometimes water and oil mix. This happens when a substance that mixes well with water and mixes well with oil is sandwiched between them. That substance is soap. Soap molecules are elongated, with one end slightly electrically charged and the other part uncharged. Therefore, soap molecules are miscible with water and with oil. For this reason, if you use soap, you can dissolve oil stains in water and wash them’ (Internet). The main component of soap is a surfactant. Surfactants have a structure like a match, with a lipophilic hydrocarbon part that is highly soluble in oil at the head and a hydrophilic carboxyl group that is soluble in water at the tail. Surfactants are characterized by removing surface tension, which is the force that attracts water molecules to each other to minimize the surface. According to the container of oil and water, you can see that the oil is in the upper layer and the water is in the lower layer without mixing. The water and oil separate into two layers because surface tension minimizes the area where they touch each other. If you add soap solution here and stir well, the oleophobic part dissolves in oil and the hydrophilic part dissolves in water, removing the surface tension of water, so water and oil mix (Internet). The world we live in is like this “soap.” Just as soap removes the surface tension of water to mix water and oil, this world keeps tempting to remove the 'surface tension of light' and eventually mixes it with 'molecules of darkness'.
How should we live in this world? In this world that is like “soap,” we must live separately like water and oil.
- We must have a clear sense of belonging.
We must remember that we are not of this world. Look at John 17:16 – “They are not of the world, even as I (Jesus) am not of it.”
- We must pray not to fall into evil.
Look at John 17:15 – “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”
- We must strive to become holy through the truth.
Look at John 17:17 – “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
Second, we must confess our sins in order to solve the problem of sin.
Look at Nehemiah 9:2-3: “Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.” On July 24, three weeks after the Feast of Tabernacles, all the children of Israel gathered together and stood for about three hours to read the Law of Moses, and for another three hours they fasted, clothed in sackcloth, and covered in dust, and confessed their sins and the transgressions of their ancestors (vv. 1-3). Here, clothed in sackcloth and covered in dust is a sign of mourning, and it is said that ancient Israel expressed sorrow externally like this (Gen.37:34; 1Sam. 4:12; 2Sam. 1:2, 3:31, 21:10) (Park). This fact is rather interesting. The reason is, in Nehemiah 8:9, on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Israelites, who had heard and understood the Law of Moses through Ezra, wept at the Water Gate Square for about six hours. We may be a bit puzzled why the Israelites, who had kept it with joy, externally expressed sorrow because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors in today's text again after about three weeks. It is probably because after the Israelites enjoyed the Feast of Tabernacles, they naturally remembered their sins and wickedness (Fensham). So, the Israelites confessed their sins.
So, what does it mean to “confess” your sin here? Pastor Kwang-Hyun Park's interpretation of the original language says the meaning of “confession” in today's text (Internet): ‘Confession longs for God’s hand of love, acknowledges and confesses one’s sins and transgressions that deviate from God’s will, mourns, shakes off one’s sins, stretches out one’s hands with the conviction of forgiveness, praise and worship God.’ Here, we can apply 5 things to the fact that the Israelites confessed their sins: (1) It is to admit that we deviated from God's will. (2) It is to confess our deviation from God's will. (3) It is to grieve for our sins and transgressions that deviated from God's will. (4) It is to cast off our sins. (5) It is to praise and worship God with the assurance of forgiveness. Of these five application principles, I would like to think more about the last three. What do you think of the third principle, tears of repentance? Dr. Park Yun-sun said: ‘It is good for modern people to control their sad emotions, but this is a bad thing that paralyzes the emotional aspect of personality. Modern people often laugh at things that should be sad. The hearts of those who express no sorrow are liable to harden’ (Park). I think it makes sense. We modern people seem to be getting used to our hearts being hardened because we do not express our sorrow when we should be sad. Next, the fourth principle is that we must cast off our sins. We all know this, but we cannot cast our sins, but rather seem to be close to it. The psalmist was close to the word of the Lord (Ps. 119:31), but it seems that there are many times when we live a life that is rather close to sin. What could be the cause? I am reminded of the second half of Genesis 6:5 – “… every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” One last thing I want to think about is praising and worshiping God with the conviction of forgiveness. Looking at Nehemiah 9:3b, the Bible says that the Israelites worshiped the Lord their God. In particular, in verses 4 and 5, the names of the Levites are listed. At that time, their job was to lead public worship, mainly crying out to God in prayer (v. 4). What is interesting is that all of these names are related to the name of Jehovah (Park): “Jeshua” - Yahweh saved, “Kadmiel” - God is first, “Bani” - Yahweh created, “Shebaniah” - Jehovah has restored me, “Sherebiah” - Jehovah has opened. These Levites said to the Israelites: “… Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. " "Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise” (v. 5).
I had a conversation with my mother-in-law this week. Thursday morning, while I was sleeping, her wife suddenly entered the room and said with tears in her eyes that the lump on her mother's body was malignant. In other words, breast cancer. Seeing her wife kneeling in front of me, unable to send her first son, Dillon, to school, I closed my eyes and tried to pray. I called my mother-in-law when I saw that my wife was dropping off our son, Dillon, at school. Thankfully, my mother-in-law's voice was clear and she also said that cancer was a "great gift" from God. My mother-in-law told me that she wanted God to take out all the 'sinful things' in her heart through this "great gift." So, I told my mother-in-law that I wanted to pray with her, even over the phone, and then prayed to God. Based on Genesis 7:23 preached during the Wednesday Prayer Meeting, I declare with faith that God, who wiped out everything except people and animals in Noah's ark with water, has already wiped out all our sins through the blood of Jesus on the cross. And I prayed to God so that we could come before Heavenly Father's throne of grace. God wants to solve the problem of sin in the soul even in the midst of physical pain. Just like cutting off cancerous cells, God cuts off our sins, but makes us confess them so that in the end, we will praise and worship the Lord our God.