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OUR RIGHTEOUS HERITAGE OF PREACHING AGAINST SINS The words sin, sins, sinned, sinner, sinners, sinneth, transgression, transgressions, wicked, wickedness and trespass are found over 1,800 times in the Bible. That’s about one occurrence for every seventeen verses or nearly twice per chapter. God is clearly concerned about sin! God does not side step sin issues; he deals with them all through his word. Take the first sin in the Bible, that of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three. Immediately after the couple had sinned, God was right on the scene dealing with the problem. Would it be fun to confront two sinners? No, it would not be fun. Would this cause some embarrassment to the sinners? Yes, it would cause some embarrassment to them, but God is HOLY, and he hates sin, so his holiness demanded that he deal with the sin issue. It is our lack of holiness that allows us to ignore sin. God, being a holy God, never ignores it. In the very next chapter, Genesis chapter four, we find God tracking down a sinner and speaking to him about his sinful conduct. Cain killed righteous Abel, so God dealt with Cain. Two chapters later we find the earth so corrupt that God must take action again. He destroys life from the earth because of the sins of men. In Genesis chapter nine we have a “preacher of righteousness” (II Pet. 2:5) coming onto the scene. When faced with a sin issue, Noah dealt with the sinner (Gen. 9:24-25) because he was a preacher of righteousness, not a preacher of compromise. In Exodus chapter thirty-two we find Moses coming down mount Sinai to discover that God’s people had begun worshiping a golden calf. Did he side step the matter and pray for them to mature in the Lord? No, he destroyed the false god and had 3,000 men killed.Leviticus 19:17 is a good one: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” This modern crowd has it all backwards, thinking that one is being hateful when speaking out against sin. In the Bible it is just the opposite: you “hate” someone when you don’t rebuke them for their sin! What did Joshua do when the sinful act of Achan came to a head? Being a holy man of God who understood his role as God’s representative, Joshua dealt with the sin, and he did so publicly, and this was the will of God (Jsh. 7). Nathan was a fine preacher who knew the importance of preaching against sin. In the first thirteen verses of II Samuel chapter twelve, we find Nathan going straight to David the king and saying “thou art the man.” Was this an easy message to preach? I doubt it. Was it a needed message, and did God honor it? Yes, it was a very needed message, and God honored it by granting David repentance and continuing his blessings on David’s life. But such blessings could only come after the preacher had delivered his message, a negative message to a sinning saint. Someone says, “Well, I think it’s best to just pray about such matters and let God work it out.” Well, you are wrong because that’s not what we are finding in God’s word. In the Bible, over and over again, we find God calling men to preach against sins and sinners. Have you read I Kings chapter eighteen lately? Do you not recall God’s preacher standing up against the false prophets of Baal on mount Carmel? He didn’t ignore them and hope that God would work it out. He PREACHED AGAINST SIN! That same preacher (Elijah) shows up in chapter twenty-one and pronounces God’s judgment with one of the most negative messages any preacher has ever had to preach, and he speaks to the king of Israel when he says it: “Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.” (I Kgs. 21:17-22) I doubt that Elijah enjoyed this task, but it was his duty. Too many Christians today are driven by desire and too few are driven by duty. How would you like to have Nehemiah for a pastor? He didn’t tolerate sin either. He marched straight to the transgressors and took care of God’s business (Neh. 13:15-28). Nehemiah, like any good preacher, took God’s side against the transgressors. Those who refuse to do so are siding with the transgressors against God. It’s just that simple. Isaiah 58:1 is also a dandy. It says to, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” How can we show God’s people “their transgressions” if we don’t mention the transgressions by name? Isaiah isn’t being commanded to go around saying, “Folks, I want to say that sin quenches God’s Spirit! Sin causes God to withhold his blessings from us! Sin deceives us and wrecks our lives!” Any preacher can preach like that every Sunday and never upset anyone or get anyone under conviction. To show someone their transgressions is to point out specifically the transgressions by name so that everyone present, especially the transgressors, can clearly identify the sin. Jeremiah preached against sins. He didn’t speak in generalities. He got real specific and told the people what they should be doing and what they should not be doing (Jer. 25:2-7). Let’s move on over to the New Testament and see what Jesus preached. Our Lord is baptized in Matthew chapter three, and he then begins his public ministry in the very next chapter. What do you suppose he said when he began preaching? He actually said something that we don’t hear much of these days. When the Lord Jesus Christ began his public preaching ministry, he used a word that is found many times in the Bible, but very few times in most pulpits: the word REPENT. Matthew 4:17 says, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John had preached this same message before Jesus (Mat. 3:2). In fact, John lost his head because of it (which is probably why most preachers refuse to follow his example!). Jesus, of couse, demanded repentance and dealt with the sin issue throughout His ministry. In Matthew 15:3-9 we find Jesus preaching about sin and naming the sins. In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus said, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7) Jesus said in Mark 2:17 that he had come to call “sinners to repentance.” In John chapter four Jesus speaks with the woman at the well about the water of life. When she expressed an interest in having this water (salvation) Jesus brought up a particular sin in her life (John 4:13-19)! He spoke to her about her sin, yet many personal workers today wouldn’t think of such a thing. In the four gospels alone the word “sins” is found thirty-one times. The word “sin” occurs eighteen times, “repent” is found nine times, and “repentance” is used ten times. Jesus didn’t ignore the sin issue, so whose example are we following when we ignore it?What did Peter do when he learned that Ananias and Sapphira had sinned by lying about their gift to the ministry? Peter knew that Satan was the father of lies and that Satan would be glorified if this sin went uncovered, so he uncovered it by confronting the deceivers and preaching against their sin (Acts 5:1-5). Did God judge Peter for this? No, God judged the sinners and continued to use and bless Peter. What about the sinful Christian at Corinth who had been “immorally involved” (to put it nicely) with his father’s wife? Did Paul advise the Corinthian Christians to pray for the man in hopes that things might improve? No, he told them to “deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (I Cor. 5:5) In other words, DEAL WITH IT! In I Timothy 5:20 Paul tells the young preacher Timothy to REBUKE those who sin BEFORE ALL. That’s public preaching against sin, not secret meetings in the pastor’s office. He tells Titus much the same thing in Titus 1:10-13: “For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.” Those who were sinning by teaching false doctrine were to be rebuked sharply. This was to make them ashamed of themselves and bring them to repentance. Part of a Christian’s duty is to make people ashamed of themselves (II Ths. 3:14-15). This is especially true of a preacher in his pulpit. As far as we know, all of the disciples except one were put to death because of their preaching. Their preaching would often upset people. Yes, salvation through Christ was preached, but sin was also preached against. Idolatry was condemned. Immorality was condemned. Sins of commission and sins of omission were condemned. God’s people were challenged to be a holy people (I Pet. 1:16), not just people who believe in Jesus. Our Lord said that people would know us by our FRUIT (Mat. 7:20), not by our profession. Paul said that this essential Christian fruit will not appear until the works of the flesh have disappeared (Gal. 5:19-23), so it is impossible to have a spiritual body of believers without preaching against sins. It was practiced by the prophets, by the Lord Jesus, and by his followers. If it is God whom we seek to please, and not man, then we must preach against the thing that God hates. We MUST preach against sins, and, if we truly love God, we will.