1 Kings 14

Discussion Questions

1. What are some of the lies we tell ourselves in order to justify our sin?
2. Sin convinces me that it only affects me. How is this false? Even if I indulge in what I think is a “secret sin,” how does that sin affect the people around me?
3. After Shishak stole the shields of gold the Solomon made (v.26), Rehoboam makes shields of bronze to keep up appearances. What are some ways we ”keep up appearances” when being faced with the consequences of our sin?
4. 1 Kings 14 is a dark chapter. How can we keep from slipping into despair as we read such things? How does the truth of the gospel renew our hope and restore our “shalom?”

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel and this morning is no different. So, if you would like a hardback black copy, go ahead and raise your hand and someone will come around to hand that out to you. We’re going to be continuing our series in the Book of 1 Kings, and today we’ll be in Chapter 14 and the title of my sermon is “The Lies We Tell Ourselves.”

Now, during my sophomore year of college, I had the really cool opportunity to go on a mission trip to Tucson, Arizona for spring break. So I, along with 15 other college students, flew across the country to serve a small little church, no bigger than 30 people that was doing really great work for the residents in their small little town.

When we arrived at the church building, we were greeted by the pastor, his family and a few of the members of the church. When I was greeting these people, there was this guy there and we were told his name was Barry. Barry didn’t talk much, and he had this pretty serious look on his face. And I reached out my hand to shake his hand to greet him and he just stared at me. He didn’t make any attempt to shake my hand—to reciprocate the greeting at all—and I’m a people pleaser, so that wounded me. I still think about that, but I never really got to know him.

Throughout the week we were working on projects around the church and getting to know the locals a little better, and though attempting a few more times I never really had the chance to learn more about Barry. I was pretty bummed because he seemed like a guy who had a story to tell, and I wanted to know that story. Well, one day, as I was working outside with my friend, we were doing some chores outside of the church by ourselves, Barry pulled up in this large SUV and he told us to get in the car. And you could tell by the tone of his voice, he was more telling us that we were getting in the car rather than asking if we wanted to go on a trip.

So, my friend and I jumped in the car, and we began to drive around the streets of Arizona and we didn’t know where we were going. Barry still wasn’t talking to us, and nobody knew that we had left the church. And so, it’s the beautiful trifecta, right? And something interesting began to happen. As we were pulling onto different streets, we started to realize something really strange. When we pulled onto a road and people saw Barry’s car, they would quickly stop what they were doing and rush inside. Like, families with kids would say to each other, “Hey, hurry up, get in. Leave it. We’ll get it later.” And this happened on the first road and then this happened on the second and we thought, “Man, what is going on?”

So, as you can imagine, our curiosity was getting pretty excited and we began to really press in on Barry, “Barry, who are you? What do you do for a living?” And after being persistent, Barry finally told us what he did and the answer that he gave us changed the entire atmosphere of the story. Barry told us—this is a real story—that he was the leader of the Mexican mafia in the state of Arizona—like the largest mafia organization in the state of Arizona. And not like he was the leader of the Mexican mafia and he threw away that part of his life and now he just took on a stable job and he’s living with his wife and kids at home trying to lead a quiet life; he is currently the active leader.

And here I am, this 5’7″ white kid from Western Pennsylvania, riding shotgun with the most scary dude in the state of Arizona. The most that I knew about the mafia is from the movie The Godfather, and here is this guy living out the plot in real life. And the moral of the story is, if you and I are in Arizona, don’t mess with me. I’m serious. I know people. I know the right people.

In all seriousness, I bring up this moment because I remember as I was sitting there processing for the information, and question was ringing through my head: “How on earth did I get here?” It made no sense to me, someone like me does typically not end up in a situation like this where, like I said, I’m running shotgun with a very scary dude, right?

And I bring this up, because as I was reading 1 Kings 14 this week, the question that was ringing through my head was, “How did we get here?” If you have been with us throughout the entire study of 1 Kings 1-10, it’s awesome. Solomon takes over the throne of David and the nation of Israel is in the golden age. They are wealthy, united under a wise king. They have peace amongst the surrounding nations, and now the floor has dropped out on the nation in a few short years. The kingdom goes through a civil war and the 10 tribes of the north are ruled by Jeroboam, while Judah, the southern kingdom, is ruled by Rehoboam. And today, we are going to get a glimpse of these two kingdoms and ask ourselves this question, “How did they get here? How did the nations become so dark, so full of hopelessness? What happened that led them to this moment?”

But before we dive into the text, allow me to pray briefly:

Jesus, thank You for an opportunity to come together as Your church this morning, God, and study Your Word. And Jesus, our simple prayer this morning is help us. Father, help us to understand Your Word. Spirit, do the work of helping us to recognize and convict us of our sin. God, help us to be a people who hate our sin, who want to kill it, who want to bring it to You. God, I pray today more than anything that Your mercy would be evident as we read through 1 Kings 14. We ask all this in Your name. Amen.

Starting in verse 1 of Chapter 14, it goes like this, “At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became sick. Jeroboam said to his wife, ‘Go, disguise yourself, so they won’t know that your Jeroboam’s wife and go to Shiloh. The prophet of Ahijah is there. It was he who told me about becoming king over these people. Take with you 10 loaves of bread, some cakes and a jar of honey and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.’ Jeroboam’s wife did that. She went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Ahijah could not see. He was blind due to his age, but the Lord had said to Ahijah, ‘Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask about her son, for he’s sick. You are to say such and such to her when she arrives. She will be disguised.'” We’re going to pause right there.

The text starts with three words, “At that time,” which refers to what we have learned so far about Jeroboam’s reign as king. Here’s what we’re told. First, Jeroboam has created a rival religion to the God of Israel and he creates this rival religion to prevent the hearts of his people from going back to Rehoboam in the southern kingdom. And adding to that, he has created two golden calves for the people to worship, get this, that he credits with rescuing the people out of Egypt. And then he has established many priests for his false religion. And the last time we met, we read and saw that Jeroboam did not turn from his evil ways even after having a miraculous experience with God, where both his power and his mercy was on display in front of him.

So, it is during all of this that we get a sneak peek of a conversation that is happening between Jeroboam and his wife, and we learn that their son has fallen ill. And this seems to be more than just a common cold because it appears that the parents are extremely concerned about the health of their son and want to figure out what his fate will be. For Jeroboam and his wife to lose their son would’ve been a tragedy for two distinct reasons. First, and perhaps the most obvious one, is that Jeroboam most likely loved his son. Though we have seen really nothing good in Jeroboam up to this point, even the most wretched heart often finds a tender spot for his child. And the second reason that this would’ve been a tragedy is that the son of the king bore the weight of the royal dynasty. To lose his son would be to lose out on the hope of leaving a legacy in the kingdom that he’s currently reigning over, right? It was the ultimate way to leave your mark on this earth, and now it is all up in jeopardy.

In his desperation, Jeroboam devises a plan to seek out a prophecy from Ahijah, who was the prophet who delivered a word from God to Jeroboam back in Chapter 12 where Jeroboam was told that he would reign over the northern kingdom after its split from the southern kingdom.

I find it interesting that Jeroboam does not turn to the false gods of his false religion. It’s as if he knows that only the God of Israel has true power in times of real crisis. However, the plan isn’t as simple as visiting the prophet because Jeroboam feels the need to send his wife in disguise on his behalf. Now, why all the secrecy? Well, it’s most likely because Ahijah told Jeroboam that God would bless his rule as king if he would follow in the way of David. That was the rule, right? ‘I will bless your nation if you follow in the way of my servant, David’ (1 Kings 11:38).

But as we know, Jeroboam he has radically missed the mark, right? Rather than modeling his leadership after David, he has used his position of power and authority to turn people’s hearts away from God rather than towards God. Rather than using his kingship to serve people, he uses the people as props for his vanity project in ego. In other words, Jeroboam has quite literally lived in the exact opposite way that Ahijah told him he should live. So it’s probably not crazy to think that he wouldn’t be expecting a good prophecy from Ahijah. So in order to try and trick the prophet, not only do they disguise his wife’s appearance, but they send her with gifts that include bread, cake and honey—my kind of bribe, right?

It’s like when you were younger and you went to ask your mom for a favor, but before you did that, you’d do some chores around the house—maybe wash the dishes, take out the trash—then walk up to her and say, “Whoa, wow, mom, you look beautiful today. Did you get a haircut? I don’t know, it’s just working today. You just look really good. And by the way, I don’t say this enough, you serve our family so well. You’re the best mom in the whole world. We just don’t tell you that enough. By the way, unrelated to everything I just said, can I get some money to hang out with my friends tonight?”

The goal of Jeroboam is to manipulate the prophet, to manipulate God, in order to get what he wants, and his wife goes along with his plan to disguise her identity—which probably seemed like a foolproof plan considering we are told that the prophet is blind due to his old age, which begs the question why they felt the need to disguise her! But I digress, that’s for another time. Though the prophet is blind, there is one thing that Jeroboam and his wife didn’t account for, one thing that they didn’t see coming: God came to the prophet and told him all that was going to happen, so he would be ready when she arrived.

Let’s keep reading to see what the prophet is going to do when confronting the queen. We’re going to read verses 6 through 20.

“When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, ‘Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you disguised? I have bad news for you. Go tell Jeroboam, this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over My people Israel, tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you are not like My servant David, who kept My commands and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what is right in my sight. You have behaved more wickedly than all who were before you. In order to anger Me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images, but you have flung Me behind your back.

Because of all of this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will wipe out all of Jeroboam’s males, both slave and free in Israel. I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone. Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, the dogs will eat. And anyone who dies in the field, the birds will eat, for the Lord has spoken. As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be given a proper burial because out of the house of Jeroboam, something favorable to the Lord, God of Israel, was found in him. The Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will wipe out the house of Jeroboam.’

This is the day, yes, even today for the Lord will strike Israel so that they will shake as reed shakes and water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates because they made their Asherah poles, angering the Lord. He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit.’ Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. And as she was crossing the threshold of the house, the boy died. He was buried and all Israel mourned for him according to the word of the Lord he had spoken through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reigns, how he waged war and how he reigned, note that they’re written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings (Chronicles). The length of Jeroboam’s reign was 22 years. He rested with his ancestors and his son Nadab became king in his place.”

We’re going to pause there. When the queen arrived at the place of the prophet, I don’t think there was anything that could have prepared her for what was about to take place. Instead of tricking the prophet and catching him off guard, she was the one who got caught as Ahijah began to pronounce judgment from God on the house of Jeroboam. Though the king and his wife were doing whatever they could to receive good news, Ahijah tells her that he has nothing but unbearable news for her and her husband. Because of Jeroboam’s wicked ways, blatant idolatry and disregard for the God who installed him as king of Israel, God is going to pronounce the different events of judgment that are going to happen to Jeroboam, his family and the whole kingdom. And all of these judgments are pronounced in light of all that Jeroboam could have had if he followed the way of the Lord. Instead of obedience that leads to blessing, Jeroboam decided to live a life of wickedness and disregard for the Lord, which led to God’s wrath.

So here’s what God is going to do because of Jeroboam’s sin. First, he’s going to destroy all of the male descendants in the line of Jeroboam. Once again, Jeroboam had the opportunity to have a kingdom that would last for generations, but instead, he abused his power and it is his family who will take on the punishment with him. And not only will they die, but it says that they will not receive a proper burial, which would have been one of the worst ways to punish someone during the times of this writing. To die without any honor would have kept you up at night. It would’ve been one of your greatest fears, and that fear has now become a reality for the line of Jeroboam.

But the judgment doesn’t stop there because we are told that as soon as Jeroboam’s wife returns back home, the son who is sick will die, but the son’s death will be distinctly different from that of his other male descendants. Because unlike his father, Jeroboam’s son had something in him that pleased the Lord. His son is the only boy in the whole family, the youngest one that had something that was honorable in him. And though this doesn’t mean he would be spared from death, he would be honored and grieved over by receiving a proper burial.

Let’s pause here, because if you’re like me and you’re reading this text for the first time, you might feel really uncomfortable right now. There might be a tension going on in your heart, a struggle: “How could it be that a part of God’s judgment would include the child dying from his sickness and all of the male descendants in the line of Jeroboam dying? What happened to the picture of Jesus holding a baby lamb? This seems wildly different.” In fact, maybe you are here today and don’t know if you believe any of this stuff because of stories like this in the Bible.

I think we can all agree that though there are many tragic things that happen in this life, there aren’t many that rival the death of a child and the death of a family line. And I’m going to be honest with you from the jump, I don’t always know the exact reason why God does what He does. I can’t answer that for you. And I’m going to be honest with you again, that in the same way that you wrestle with these questions, I wrestle with these questions. But what I want to do is offer you a story from my own life where I deeply struggled with this tension and what the Lord did to bring a little comfort to my heart. And maybe He will bring a little comfort to your heart as well.

During my college career, I had the incredible privilege of being a Young Life leader at a local high school near the college I attended. And if you don’t know what Young Life is, it is an incredible ministry that aims to introduce high school students who would never step foot in a church to Jesus. And during my senior year, Young Life was thriving at the high school I was at and we had a group of 40 to 50 students who were all in on the mission of getting their non-believing friends to Jesus. So at the beginning of my final semester, we were holding a Young Life event, and as I was getting ready, I received a call from a friend who told me to drop everything I was doing and get to the event of the location as fast as I possibly could. And you can tell there was an urgency in his voice.

So, I hurried down there and I found a few of the high school guys that I was discipling had already arrived, but they had this blank stare on this face, this disbelief about them and you could tell that something horrible had happened. I found out that a car of four high school girls who were driving to the Young Life event got into a car accident and they weren’t sure if any of the girls were going to survive the wreck. Two of the guys who were at the event that I was personally close to happened to be brothers of two girls that were in the car. So, I took them and rushed them to the hospital and I sat with them as we waited for the news of their sister’s condition.

And to painfully summarize the details, two girls in the car lived and two girls in the car died. One of the brothers’ sisters lived and the other one’s sister had gone home to be with the Lord. Now I remember embracing both of them shortly after they found out the news and wrestling with this uncomfortable tension in the room. One was crying tears of joy that his sister was still breathing while the other one was crying because his reality had changed as he knew it and his sister was no longer a part of it. In the days and months that followed, me, a 21-year-old kid, began to seriously question my own faith in the Lord, “How could this happen? How could God who is sovereign over all things allow something this painful and tragic to occur? Why would He do this?”

And in the dark night of my soul, as I was praying, I had this thought, because I was reading the story of Lazarus at the time and I have this thought of an illustration—and if you know me, I really think in terms of illustrations—that brought a little comfort to my heart and mind. And here is the illustration.

Death is like a knife. A knife is the sharpest of objects and has potential to cause a great amount of harm no matter if it’s minor, severe, by accident, on purpose or just dumb luck. To be cut by a blade will always sting, leave a mark and draw blood. There is nothing in this life that wounds, stings and guts our souls more deeply than death. It is the sharpest of objects in regards to things that causes grief and pain in this world. And I know many of you this morning are feeling the sharpness of that pain in your chest.

A knife is something that we do not play around with. This is why we get anxious at the thought of a child holding a knife or really any sharp object for that matter, right? They have no idea just how much damage they can cause to themselves or others. However, if you put a sharp blade in the hands of a surgeon, the situation and the feelings change. Now, to be perfectly frank, I have no clue how surgery works. The surgeon can patiently sit me down, explain to me all that he’s going to do and I will gladly sit there with a dumb look on my face and nod and pretend like, “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about, right?” but I have no idea what’s going on. When I’m on the table, I have to trust that the surgeon knows what he’s doing. Though he is cutting into me, I know that he’s purposeful and precise with the blade. He’s not using the blade to hurt me. He’s using the blade for a reason. Now why would I willingly and gratefully allow another human to cut into my skin even when I don’t understand the plan of how he’s going to do it? Because I trust the one who holds the knife. I don’t find comfort in understanding the plan, I find comfort in the competence and character of the one who does know the plan.

I don’t always understand why and how God does what He does, but I trust the One who holds life and death in His hands. I don’t find comfort in having a perfect answer to every question, I find comfort that in the mystery of all of the hard questions we have in life, we have a God who is trustworthy behind all of it. Eugene Peterson says it like this:

“Mystery is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can comprehend.”

— Eugene Peterson

The God we read about in this story is the same God who wept at the death of Lazarus, the same God who stands in solidarity with Steven as he’s being martyred for his faith and He’s the same God who even knows the bitter loss of the death of His own Son. In fact, our God hates death so much that He would send His Son to this earth to kill death once and for all through His death and resurrection on the cross.

When we read a story like this in the Old Testament, we must read it in light of all we know to be true about God. And though we are not given an exact reason why His sovereign plans included the death of Jeroboam’s son and his family, we can trust that God did not do it because He’s cruel. We can trust the character of God and the ways of God even in death and judgment. When we are unsure of God’s plans or God’s goodness, we look to the cross as the greatest assurance that God is for us, not against us.

So, the judgment on Jeroboam’s sin is the death of his line, the death of his son, and lastly, God is going to send someone to take the throne of Israel away from Jeroboam and his line. And this will result in hard times for the whole nation because not only has Jeroboam turned his back on God, but the whole nation has also turned their back too.

Does it get any worse than this? The northern kingdom is in complete shambles and there is nothing but death, darkness and hopelessness all around him. And now the text is going to shift the camera angle and begin to focus on what’s going on with Rehoboam in the southern kingdom. So, let’s keep reading the text. We’re going to read verses 21 through 31 and see what’s happening down south.

“Now Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king. He reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name. Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah, the Ammonite. Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s side. They provoked him to jealous anger more than all that their ancestors had done with the sins they committed. They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. There were even male cult prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem. He sees the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and committed them into the care of the captains of the guards who protected the entrance to the king’s palace. Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards would carry the shields. Then they would take them back to the armory. The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written about in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns. Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David,” and ends with this little factoid again, “His mother’s name was Naamah, the Ammonite. His son Abijam became king in his place.”

We are told at the beginning of this new section that Rehoboam was 41 when he reigned over Judah and that this was the city—this is a really important detail—out of the 12 tribes of Israel that God had put his name on, meaning that God had a unique purpose for this tribe that separated it from the other 11 tribes of Israel. And I think what the author is doing here is setting up this idea that even though the northern kingdom was in ruins and out of control, surely the southern kingdom, the one chosen by God, will continue to follow the way of the Lord. It will be an example to the 10 tribes of the north under Jeroboam, but that is a short-lived idea because we read that Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Just like their buddies up north, Judah had completely turned their back on God.

It says that they committed more sins than their fathers before them. So, the problem’s not getting better as they go along, it’s getting worse. It says that they built altars for Asherah on every high hill and under every green tree and that they followed the sexual immorality of the day that was normalized by the foreign nations and religions surrounding them. And as a result of Rehoboam and the nation’s sins, God uses Shishak, king of Egypt, as an instrument to judge the southern kingdom. The text tells us that the king took all of the treasure that was stored in the house of the Lord. And not only that, but that they took 300 golden shields made by Solomon that we read about in Chapter 10.

And then we see what I believe to be one of the most pathetic parts of the whole story. It says Rehoboam makes 300 bronze shields to replace the former golden shields. In the midst of all of the sin and judgment, Egypt coming and pillaging their land taking all of their treasure, you know what Rehoboam was worried about? Appearances. Not the people or their relation to God. Rather than admit their wrongs and repent, Judah tries to hold up a thin veil hoping that they fool everyone into thinking that they are just as put together as they were under the reign of Solomon. They have replaced the true value of gold with the cheap appearance of bronze and thought nobody would notice.

And then the chapter ends with the death of the southern king and the detail again that his mother was an ammonite and why this detail is talked about twice. Well, this is probably the author telling the reader that a lot of the pagan influence of the king was a result of his father Solomon marrying foreign wives who would shove his and his kingdom’s heart away from following God. And it’s there that the chapter ends. Aren’t you glad you came to church? Yeah? And we rightfully ask, “What the heck can we learn from a story like 1 Kings 14?”

Well, as I mentioned earlier, we have to ask ourselves as we read this text, “How did we get here? How did we get to a place where there is nothing but misery and despair all around when a few short years ago there was nothing but prosperity and unity?”

I think 1 Kings 14 is showing us the results of a life that is committed to the sinful patterns of this world. Though it’s not the most fun topic of conversation, we need to understand just how bad, insidious and deceptive sin can be. Because if we don’t understand that, if we don’t understand how bad the curse is, then we are in danger of allowing sin to lead us right off the cliff in our own lives.

Now we live in a time where everything that claims to be true is being held under the microscope. And though we have taken this to great lengths, I think that this can actually be somewhat of a good thing because lies can have a devastating effect on us. But the most dangerous lies, the ones that can cause the most harm, are the lies we tell ourselves, the things that we believe to be true but are patently false. And here are four ways in 1 Kings 14 that we see how sin can deceive us.

1. First, sin convinces us that we can hide. Jeroboam and his wife believed the lie that they could hide their wickedness from the Lord. Though they had been living in a way that was completely opposed to the kingdom of God in their time of need, they thought all they had to do was look the part in order to receive God’s favor.

Rather than coming to God and asking for mercy, Jeroboam attempted to grab the reigns by trying to trick God and manipulate God into doing what he wanted. You see, Jeroboam never really turned to God at all. He turned to his own need to grasp for control and he dressed it up in religious language. But as we found out in this story, hiding our sin from God in the hopes of fooling Him is never really an option that’s on the table. Yet, how much time, money and energy do we waste in our lives trying to project a version of ourselves that is put together when in reality there is a life of hidden sin that lies in the shadows of our daily lives?

We hoist up our bronze shields and we pray that other people think it’s gold. And we not only do this with other people, but even when we pray to God we may feel tempted to dress our speech up in fancy words and false worship when in reality all we want to do is scream at God in anger. Or maybe you just avoid prayer altogether because maybe you’re afraid of what God would think of you if you approached Him, “Surely He’s disappointed in me. Surely, he’s done with me.” And without knowing it, we have adopted the ways of Adam and Eve who when they sinned, tried to remain hidden from God in the garden.

Now listen, you may have us fooled, you may have your family fooled, you may have your friends fooled, but you have not fooled the King. Numbers 32:23 says:

“You may be sure that your sin will find you out.“

— Numbers 32:23

I need you all to hear this and to believe it in your bones: there is no such thing as hidden sin in the Christian life. No matter how hard we try, we cannot hide our sins from God. But I also want you to hear this: I don’t say this to make you feel guilt, shame or condemnation, but so that you may experience the life-altering grace of when you come to God in your sin and receive forgiveness from Him.

You see, folks, you don’t have to hide from God. You don’t have to pretend with God. 1 John 1:9 says this:

“When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

— 1 John 1:9

Church, do you hear what this verse is saying? When we come to God in confession, we don’t ever have to wonder how he will respond. When you come to Him in your brokenness, in your shame, in your disgustingness, He will tenderly meet you with love and mercy in that place. Why would we run from that? Why would we hide from that?

But not only can you freely confess your sins to God, but you can confess your sins to brothers and sisters in the church and invite them to walk alongside you, as you, empowered by the Holy Spirit, begin to uproot and kill sin in your life. James 5:16 says:

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.”

— James 5:16

When sin remains in the darkness, it is like a plant fully watered in a greenhouse. All conditions are right for it to grow larger and plant deeper roots. The way that we kill sin in the Christian life is not by pretending we are put together, but by confessing our sins to God and one another. And we don’t just do this one time, we make a practice of it. Cornelius Plantinga in his book, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, says it like this:

“Recalling and confessing our sin is like taking out the garbage. Once is not enough.”

— Cornelius Plantinga, Not The Way It’s Supposed To Be

Bring your sin and shame to God and receive His mercy that is new for you every morning. It is far better to come to Him as you are rather than what you think you should be. Do not let sin linger in the darkness of your life. Drag it out into the light. Kill it.

2. Second, sin convinces us that it only affects us. Because of the sin of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, not only will they suffer the consequences, but their family line and the whole kingdom will suffer too. But it didn’t start with them. It started with the wickedness of Solomon who passed down his sinful habits to the kings to come. And now there is going to be a span of 180 years of wicked kings in the north, in the south that all start with Jeroboam and Rehoboam. Now this aspect of sin is hard for us to understand because we live in a hyper-individualistic culture that has very little awareness for how our actions affect others around us. We also live in the age of moral relativism where we hold to the truth that, “As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, then who am I to tell you that what you are doing is wrong?”

But laced into that ideology is the belief that sin just affects the one who is committing the sin and that is a lie from the enemy. This is a dangerous lie because we may know that the sin we are committing is wrong, but we may rationalize keeping the behavior because we think, “Well, if it only hurts me, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay,” but what if we knew that our sin not only hurt us, but everyone around us? What if you knew that your sin affected your wife, your kids, your friends, your community? Proverbs 10:17 says,

“Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life,” but listen to this, “But he who rejects reproof leads others astray.”

— Proverbs 10:17

Whether it’s anger, pornography, gossip, slander, greed, or any other sin that typically happens behind closed doors, your sin affects, influences, and harms others around you more than you know. It’s no coincidence that the sins Rehoboam struggles with are the same sins that his father, Solomon, struggled with. In verse 16, if you look at that verse, we are told that Israel was led into sin. How? Through the sinning of Jeroboam. All of our sins have a negative outward effect whether we realize it or not and we must come to terms with the fact that our sin affects more than just the individual. It affects the community.

3. Third, sin convinces us that we should look like the world. We see this in verse 24. Though Jeroboam and Rehoboam had idolatry issues, we are told in verse 24 that the kingdom of Judah looked exactly like the pagan cultures that surrounded it. Judah was supposed to be the bright shining star in the midst of the wicked culture because it was the very place that God had put His name on. God had set Judah apart. Yet rather than allowing their identity to be shaped by their relationship with God, they conformed to the sinful habits of the culture around them. They began to ignore the word of God. And whenever the culture defined as good and beautiful, they just went right along with it. Rehoboam was supposed to lead the people in righteousness, but instead he abdicated his responsibilities as a leader and was merely a puppet that acted in accord with the general consensus.

What does this lie look like in our own day and age? Well, there is a lie that has creeped into many Christians’ minds in the West, that in order to reach the world, we must do our best to look like the world. In order to reach the world, we’ve got to look like the world. But this is not how Jesus calls us to live out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). He says that we are to be a city on a hill, a light in the darkness, salt that preserves God’s truth and adds flavor and goodness to life.

Listen, church, God doesn’t need us to be His PR team. We don’t need to present what we think to be the good fun stuff while doing our best to keep the hard stuff hidden. Rather than trying to make Christianity fit in with the world, what if we allowed Christianity to make us stand out in the world? We must be a people who are being conformed by the word of God, not the times in which we live. And it’s no secret that there is an ever-growing tension in what the world values and what we as Christians value.

And what are we to do as the morals of our society continue to seemingly get darker by the day? Should we run and hide and isolate ourselves? Should we compromise the truth just a little bit so people will be way more happy with us? No, we should live as the people of God standing flatfooted on the word of God, willing to act as a light in this world, even if our cultural influence is on the decline. Trevin Wax says it like this:

“If we give up our essential truths of the Christian faith in order to be culturally relevant, we make ourselves eternally irrelevant.”

— Trevin Wax

We are to be distinct, set apart for the Lord, not because we are better than others, but because we have been redeemed by Christ. We are new creations, and we live in a new way that is contrary to our former life apart from Him.

4. Lastly, sin convinces us that the problem isn’t as bad as it seems. Because many of us have grown up in the church, there is a real danger that we have become desensitized to the nature and consequences of sin. We’ve heard about the severity of rebelling against God, but we don’t really believe in our heart of hearts that our disobedience is truly that bad.

We read about God’s judgment in the Old Testament when He’s judging sin and we are prone to think that God is being harsh, dramatic and over the top, but a Holy God must be wholly opposed to sin. Our problem is not our understanding of God. Our problem is our understanding of just how bad sin is. Cornelius Plantinga, to quote him again, says it like this:

“God hates sin, not just because it violates His law, but more substantively because it violates shalom, because it breaks the peace, because it interferes with the way things are supposed to be.”

—Cornelius Plantinga, Not The Way Its Supposed To Be

What we see in this text is that the consequences of our sin is the just wrath of God placed on us. The verdict is in and we are guilty. We have been caught red-handed and there’s nothing we can do to justify ourselves as innocent. The first half of Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death.” A wage isn’t something you stumble upon. A wage is something you rightfully earn. And we are told that, because of our sin, what we have rightfully earned is death. Not just physical death, but eternal separation from God who is life Himself. And the worst part is that there is nothing we can do ourselves to fix the problem. No matter how much we minimize, self-justify, or hide, we are guilty and deserving of the judgment coming our way.

So, what do we do? Are we completely lost of all hope? Is there anyone who can save us from ourselves? Brothers and sisters, this is really bad news. This is awful news. This is the worst news you could ever receive. But now that we have laid out just how bad the bad news is, we can begin to understand just how good the good news is. Because the good news isn’t just good. It’s the best news. It’s one-of-a-kind news. It’s news we could have never expected, news we could have never seen coming. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:23).

The good news of the gospel is that God is merciful to those who are guilty and have sinned against Him. He forgives idolaters and liars. He offers everlasting life to dying people. The King who saw us in our rebellion didn’t leave us for dead, but Jesus, through the messy family line of Rehoboam, put on flesh and became one of us. And not only that, but He paid the full price for the wages of our sin at the cross, rose from the dead and opened the way of salvation for all who will call out to God for grace and mercy and rescue.

We don’t need to continue in our sinful ways anymore. We can repent and turn to the Lord, looking to Jesus as our sin-bearing substitute who relieves us of our greatest burden. And we can now embrace the fullness of life and truth that God has on offer. No longer do we pass along sin to those around us. We now spread life because of the hope we have in the gospel. If you have embraced Jesus as your Savior and King, then rejoice in Him today. Realize that your King has come and has rescued you from the domain of darkness.

Because of the work of Christ, you have been saved from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and one day, you will be freed from the presence of sin. That is really good news. Live this day in light of that day as a citizen of Jesus’s kingdom.

If you are here and you haven’t put your faith in Jesus, what’s stopping you from doing that today? If you feel the stirring of the Spirit in your heart, come talk to me, one of our pastors, or the friend who invited you to come to church today. We have a prayer team in the back that you can go to during the song. Talk to somebody. Don’t leave. Don’t miss this moment. Talk to somebody about this. You don’t need to bear your sin any longer. Turn to Christ and be forgiven today. Church, let me pray.

Jesus, Father, You’re so good. And Jesus, sin is so bad. Father, help us all to be aware today, God, through the working of the Spirit, convicting the hearts of those who love You, God. Convict us, Jesus. Help us to see the ugly nature of our sin. God, if there is anybody here who does not know You, Father, let them turn to You today. And if there are anyone who is here, God, who does know You and is allowing sin to creep into their life, Father, help them to confess it. Father, help them to bring their sin to You and to brothers and sisters who can pray for them. Jesus, we need You. And Father, You have come to rescue us. This is great news. In Your name, I pray. Amen.