Missing the Mark Series: The Sin of Despising Accountability

Missing the Mark Series: The Sin of Despising Accountability

We'll turn there, third chapter of Luke. I'd like to look there in verse number 19. Luke chapter 3, verse number 19. The Herod, the Tetrarch, being reproved by him, that is John the Baptist, for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he shut up John. This morning, what do we say to man's sinful nature, his sinful flesh? We tend to be lazy, right? It's awful. In any number, in any variety of ways, that's the natural bent. You know, you don't see when that flesh comes out and that sinful desire comes forth. It's usually, I want to take everything I can get. I want the freebies. I want it easy. I don't want the hard way. I want the easy way. I want to cut corners. I want to drag my feet. You know, why do what somebody else will do for you? We see all of those things. Why do today what you can put off to tomorrow? Procrastination. That's the tendency, isn't it?

But it's also true, and we're going to see this this evening, is we talk about sin and missing the mark. What is another aspect that we see here in this passage tonight about sinful flesh? And that is that we don't… We do not like accountability. We do not like, naturally speaking, we don't want to be held accountable to any standard of truth. In fact, this is why we hear so much about, it's my way, my truth, my this, that, and the other. It's not about, you know, nobody's going to tell me what to do. That is the thinking, isn't it? Sinful flesh. I want to do what I want to do, and I don't want to answer to anybody. And God, maybe, not everybody would say that, but that's what's implied.

Now, the Bible is full of examples of sinful men trying, doing their best to, how can I put this, to eliminate sources of accountability, or individuals that would hold them accountable, or things that remind them of the fact that they are accountable. Let's just get rid of that. That reminds me of my sin. That reminds me of my need to, I'm going to give an account for what I've done. I don't want that reminder in my life. And that's what we see here with Herod tonight. You see, Herod did not like to be reminded of the fact that he was living in sin. He didn't like to be reminded of the fact that it was a sin for him to take his brother… Philip's wife, which was not his. It was a sin. And we can also see that Herodias did not like the fact either, did she?

Now, she went further even than what Herod went, because Herod put John in prison, but she waited for the opportunity to take his head off, to remove the head of John the Baptist. And we see that she was glad for that occasion when it did come. I think you know the story pretty well by the purpose that I am not to recount every aspect of that story. But go back to the beginning with me in your mind, and think about Cain and Abel. Now, Abel, I am no 100% for sure that he said, that he ever came up to Cain and said, Cain, you know, you really ought to offer the kind of offering that God expects. He may have never said anything to him specifically, but just the fact that he did what was right in God's sight, and Cain knew that he was not doing things God's way, became a… Through that, Abel became a conscience to him. He became a conviction to him. Every time he looked at Abel. It was that reminder. He brought the land that God wanted, and I didn't. And he tried his best to justify his choices. And yet, his conscience, in his conscience, he knew that he had not done what was pleasing to God.

And as a result, ultimately, of that, in the process of time, Cain attacked the messenger. Cain attacked the one person. He reminded him of his accountability to God. And he killed him. Even after God spoke to him and said it. And give you an opportunity to do the right thing here, Cain. I know you're thinking about doing the wrong thing. But you don't have to follow through with it. You don't have… You don't have to act upon those sins or faults that you're having. You can get right. And yet, we know we didn't. He did not submit himself to God.

But then, we read this in Hebrews 11, verse 4. It's real terrible here. Hebrews 11, verse 4. It says of Abel, By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testified, testifying of his gifts. And by it, he being dead, yet, you know, even though Cain killed the messenger, that did not remove his accountability to God. And even the memory, the very blood his brother cried out from the ground as a witness against him. And the very memory of Abel's life, still speaks. Still speaks.

You might be able to get rid of the messenger, but you can't get rid of the message. You can't get rid of the message because, well, the Lord's going to raise somebody else up to carry that message, isn't he? The truth never dies. And we, each one of us, are, whether we like it or not, are accountable to the truth. The truth… The truth… The truth… The truth… Our conscience will bear witness to the fact that if we are not obeying the truth, it's going to say, hey, you're not doing the right thing. I know Cain's conscience was screaming at him. Hey, look, you're not doing the right… You know that's not right. But he justified. He tried to justify his own actions. He tried to justify his own choices, even though he didn't do what God wanted him to do.

Like we said, the Bible's full of those examples. We have the prophet Elijah. And here he is. He's prophesying to the house of Ahab and saying, you know, you're worshiping Baal. You're serving false gods. You buried this, you know, Phoenician woman, Jezebel. And she's brought in. And you've allowed all these false, God's Baal worship to come in and Ashtoreth worship. You've allowed all of this to come in and for it, God is going to judge you unless you repent and get right. And even Elijah prayed and the Lord, he caused it to stop raining, didn't he? It stopped raining. And then, instead of Ahab humbling himself and saying, I've sinned against God, I have, my conscience convinced me, I know I'm going to get a count on God for what I've done, but I plead, I cast myself on him and ask for his forgiveness and restoration of you. You don't really believe that, do you?

Instead, what did he do when he confronted, when he met Elijah in 1 Kings 18, look over there with me, 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse number 17, 1 Kings chapter 18, verse number 17. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, what a question, art thou he that troubleth Israel? Well, Elijah answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou in thy father's house and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and the Son of Man. And thou hast followed Balaam. Balaam. Balaam. Now it's like Balaam. Balaam. We notice here, this is the plural form of Baal. This is the plural form. You worship all these false gods. Baal worship. And we notice that he says, you're the one that has troubled Israel. Not me. You have, by your refusal, to see it to God. To be accountable to him, you're the one who has troubled Israel.

Later on, we see that Jezebel threatens Elijah's life because he had confronted Baal worship. Remember, he confronted those prophets and slew them, those payroll prophets that were yes men and they said, whatever the king, he wanted them to say, they were not going to hold him accountable. They were not there to remind him of truth. They were not there to be any kind of a conscience to him. They were there to give their wallet padded, so to speak. That's all they were there for. They were payroll prophets. But, when Elijah met them and showed who the true God was, Jezebel was infuriated and sought to take his life and be on the run.

But, later on, we see Ahab saw Naboth's vineyard and wanted it because Naboth would give it to him. He pounded and his wife asked him why he was pounding and she says, you just let me take care of this and she took care of it by raising up false accusations, false witnesses against Naboth and killed the messenger once again. Killed the messenger.

instead of instead of repenting of sin and getting the matter right they eliminated they eliminated the one who became a conscience to them about you know if we take this property but we don't get rid of the person that owned the property rightfully that's going to be reminded to us every time he says something or every time we see him it's going to be reminded to us that's why she wanted to get rid of of Elijah same thing with Micaiah remember the prophet Micaiah came along it was the same thing again there's payroll prophets and Micaiah and Ahab said about Micaiah when he was in the presence wasn't a Jehoshaphat he said he never prophesized good concerning me or something to that effect he never says what I wanted to say and of course that was because he was only beholden to the truth not to fear or the favor of a man and he was accountable to God for the message that he gave and Elijah I'm sorry and Ahab did not like the fact that he held him accountable to the truth and so he tried to kill him tried to get rid of him we noticed that the same thing was the case with Jeremiah he was beaten he was put in the stocks he was imprisoned he was thrown into a cistern many different things happened to him his writings were penknifed by King Jehoiakim because the things that Jeremiah had to say that were written down were not they were not well accepted by the kings they did not want to hear the truth and so the answer of sinful flesh is always get rid of the message get rid of the messenger never can destroy God's word but try their very best to kill the messenger what does that hymn we sing say the body they may kill God's truth abided still so that is that has always been the case it's always been the case and it will always be the case remember the Sanhedrin how they how , Stephen spoke out in the truth against what they were doing and their rejection of Messiah and they did what they stoned him they stoned him

we have we have a good resolve in the matter with David I believe this is why we read that one of the reasons why we read this is the man after God's own heart not that he was without any sin but that his response to truth we see that he you know he was a sinner you know he was a sinner he sinned by not going to war when kings should go to war and that he was he was in so many words lazing around and then he committed that sin of adultery and then he committed the sin of lying and trying to cover up his sin and then it just went all downhill and ended up with him indirectly murder and Uriah because how can we how can we have this man alive because he's going to be the one that will end up holding me accountable for what I have done and I can't I can't bear to face the truth and so I must eliminate the potential messenger that we have here that's going to hold me accountable for my sin I'm trying to cover it up I'm trying to cover it up and yet we notice that God in his mercy sent a messenger by the name of Nathan to David.

And the messenger, the prophet Nathan, said, let's read those words again. 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12, verse 1. It's there in verse 1 we read, And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him and said unto him, There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up and grew up together with him and his children.

3 Yet did he eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. And there came a traveler unto the rich man and his spirit to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was coming to him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was coming to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. Isn't that a picture of how we, how we don't like it when we do, we don't like sin in others. We can recognize it in someone else. Now that's something that we're, even in the flesh, the flesh is good at doing, right? Look into that sin in someone else. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. You know, he deserves the full way of the law. And he shall restore the lamb for hold. Because he did this thing and because he had no king. But it's devoted to him. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the lamb. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have wondered thee, king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. He goes on, talks about all that he had done for David. And David, verse 13, said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the, the Lord and made me sin against David. The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not.

You see the difference in his response? When the messenger came, he didn't shoot the messenger, did he? He humbled himself when he was convicted by the truth of this matter. Even with his own lips, he condemned himself, didn't he? He condemned his own self by the things that he had to say about the poor man, or the rich man, or the one that took the poor man to land with him. So the sinful flesh wants to, when it sins, wants to, and is exposed for what it's done, refuses to repent. It attempts to silence the witness, the messenger, and then oftentimes persecutes, and even may kill the messenger. Kill the messenger. Yet there's two reactions. We can have to the truth, or responses to the truth. We can get angry with the truth, or we can acknowledge the truth. We read passages in the scripture about granting that the Lord would grant individuals repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

That he would grant to us that we would acknowledge the truth and humble ourselves when we receive that truth. Now, John, John 3, if you'll turn there with me in John 3, verse 20. It says over there, John 3, verse 20, for everyone that doeth evil, practices evil, hated the light. Well, we've seen a number of those kinds of people that light up too. We've seen those who do evil, and then they don't want to be called out for it, right? Everyone that doeth evil hated the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought, they are wrought in, scripture says, we ought to judge ourselves when we do not judge, right? And we're talking about the Lord's Supper. When we come to the Lord's Supper, we're, let a man sort of examine himself, right? And he is his bread and bread.

And we partake of the Lord's Supper, we're saying, by saying that, we're saying, I have a clean conscience. I'm not shooting you, that's a new sign. I've gotten, I've confessed my sin, I've made it right before you, and I'm ready to move forward with the Lord. We need to admit the truth, be the one who convicts us, and exposes something in our lives. Because why? Because the ultimate end is we want to be sure that what we're doing is approved by God, right? We want His blessing. Forgetting nothing, His blessing to see. That should be the characteristic of us as believers. I want the Lord to be able to bless this thing, not for what I do to be something I have to hide from the Lord, because I can't really hide it from anyone. I can't really hide it from anyone. Sugar, cinnamon, I want the Lord to be pleased with what I am doing and thinking and saying. Sinful thinking will lead us to want to eliminate, want to suppress any kind of accountability.

The flesh doesn't want to be held accountable. It does not want to be held accountable. It wants to hold others accountable, but it doesn't want to be held accountable. But David, David actually invited accountability. We notice, I'm not saying in every moment of his life he was always inviting accountability, but we see that when Nathan came to him, he humbled himself and confessed. And we see in Psalm 141, remember there it was, Psalm 141, verse number 5. Psalm 141, verse number 5. He said there, in verse number 5, he said, let those who are not faithful, let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head. For yet my prayer also shall be a very kindness. And we turn back to Stephen at the Wicked. But he says that it shall not break my head. It will be an excellent oil to me. Let the righteous smite and reprove me. Well, what is he saying here?

He's saying that it's good for me when the righteous wound me, or smite me. It will actually be, this is regenerated thought here, thinking. This is spiritual thinking. It's actually going to be like a healing oil to me. It will help me. It will, it may be, it may sting, but we do a lot of things physically that sting for a moment that help us, you know, help us moving forward. It might be painful medicine, but it will be helpful to our physical health moving forward. Proverbs 27, verse number 6. We read something there as well. Proverbs 27, verse number 6. It says, There the faithful are the wounds of, of a friend. But the kisses of an enemy are a deceit. I thought about a little way, another way to say that. Not that I'm approving on what's being said in Scripture, but I'm just thinking about this little phrase. Not all favor is good, and not all crowns are bad. Not all favor is good. Sometimes favor might be flattery, right?

But it's not, it's not really true. It's true love. It could be, you know, suffering sin upon our brother when we need to tell him, hey, look, there's something here that you need to do. The wounds, the wounds are metaphorical here. The wounds, this is not speaking of physically hitting somebody and wounding them, but they're speaking of, I guess, plain, plain talk, plain speech that is, it may even be painful. You know, we say the truth hurts, right? Paul talked about that, didn't he? When he broke the Galatians in chapter 4, verse 6, he said, am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? The truth may have hurt, but it was necessary. It was helpful, actually, if they could receive it, right? Instead of shooting the messenger. Remember that time when some of those Israelites looked at Jeremiah and said, should we go down to Egypt or should we not? He said, no, you shouldn't go down to Egypt.

He said, thanks, we can go anywhere. They didn't listen. They didn't listen. They went ahead and did the very thing that they asked him for. He said, well, you know, if you go down to Egypt, you're going to die there. You're not going to make it. Well, they didn't listen. They did not hear the fateful wounds of a friend. But the truth spoken in love, and it must be spoken in love, it must not be spoken in ill will, it must not be spoken in any other form, but, but the truth when spoken in love, if we will embrace that, right? What is the scripture we read tonight? John 3. What was it? Verses 20 and 21 where it said, everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, he that cometh to the light. And then in verse 21 it said, he that doeth the truth cometh to the light. He keeps on coming to the light. Well, this word is the lamp for our feet. It's the light for our path. The word, the entrance, the thy words give light, don't they?

The entrance of thy word. They give light. If we're, if we are honest with the word of God, good and honest heart, good ground, we have heard the word, now we, we keep it. Whatever that may be. I mean, that word may say, you know, we may be toward it, the commandment of the word, do something. We may be, we may be, as we read the word, convicted of something. But we, we keep that. We take it to, we keep it to heart. And we don't, we don't say, I don't want to be reminded of, I don't want to be made aware of any sin in my life. I, I just want to remain blissfully ignorant of any sin in my life. No. I want, I want the word to, I want the Holy Spirit to speak to me. I want him to, you know, that's the way we can be guided. In the way that God would have us to go. We need to hear both the, the, the encouragement of his word, as well as the, as well as the admonitions and the warnings and the reviews.

But we notice that Herod chose to get upset with the truth. He chose to put John in prison. And because he loves, because he loved himself and his choices and his life that he made for himself, rather than God, what God wanted for him, he ultimately even came into, even though he wouldn't have chosen it with, probably without the external pressures that were being placed upon him by Herodias and everybody else who's watching. What am I going to do? Because I've already given my word to her daughter, but I'll give her half the kingdom, you know, because of the fact that he didn't. Truth. Truth was not that which he, he, he, he was willing to be accountable to. He ultimately went further than he even thought he would go. He went further because of the pressures, because of the pressures to maintain an image, because of the pressures to save that same image, save things. And the question comes to us.

I mean, as I think about, I think about the principle that's at play here is that, will, will I, will I submit my heart to be accountable to the truth, no matter what that truth tells me? Even if it tells me something that I don't like, it doesn't feel good. It's, it's, it may be even, I may have to walk back something I said. I may have to ask for forgiveness. I may have to go and make something right. I may have to, um, you know, like, there's no progress. I'm, I'm not on the narrow way. I'm over here in this bypass meadow somewhere. Well, I'm going to have to go back and go back, but nonetheless, God has given us this truth. We should be grateful for that. Even though it's not natural to us, even though it's not natural for us in the sinful flesh to want to, to, to be accountable, may we, as we read here in John chapter three, if we are doing this, we are doing the truth. May we come to the light.

May we keep coming to the light and our deeds may be made manifest that they are lost in God. We come to the word of God. If you come to the light of this word and what we say, Lord, I want to please you. I want to please you. I want to do what's in your sight. If Cain had said that, you know, if Cain, when the Lord had come to him and said, send light at the door, you don't have to keep on down this path. He could have said, Lord, you're right. I've been jealous of my brother. I actually hate my brother. But Lord, forgive me of this. It could have all been his life. You know, I think about these children, little sin, little sin that, that we might say is little at this time in our life. Well, we need to nip it in the bud. We need to, any lie, or any, uh, anger or any retaliation against our parents or our siblings, or anyone else who that matter. When we see those things in us, we just need to say, Lord, forgive me.

I confess this sin instead of just making excuses. I want to, I want to make this right with you, Lord. I don't want to be, I don't want to become proud and hardened in my heart against you, Lord, because I want to do my way though. And I don't want to get angry with the truth. I want to humble myself and acknowledge that. And then I want to be sure that I'm doing what's right, because I'm what's good in your sight. Let's take these examples, these negative examples of these, mainly these kings and how they responded. Horrible. How they responded in just a typical fashion for the sinful flesh that does not want to be, does not want to be normal. I'm talking about the flesh being lazy, but the flesh does not want to be held accountable. Let's, let's humble God. God intends to humble all and any of our pride, doesn't he? We might, we might have to let him have his way with us.

Father, thank you for these moments of having your word tonight. Thank you for the fact that you told us we ought to, if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. You told us that we should even in grace, you know, friends said something to us that may be painful to hear at times, but it will be better for us than the deceitful kisses of an enemy. Even the devil comes to us as an angel of light sometimes, and it will encourage us in doing the wrong thing, make us feel good about it. We can't depend on feelings. We must be accountable to truth. We must give an answer for what we've done with the truth that you've given us.

And so help us Lord, even if we have to be smitten by that truth and reproved, help us to realize that it is an excellent oil. It's, it's helped through our spirit. It will not break our head. It will not, it will not harm us, but it will, it will heal us. If we will, even as the scripture in Hebrew would read where it says when the chasing, it doesn't seem to be joyous, but, but instead, instead if we will let it, let that which is turned out of the way be healed, what a blessing it will be to our lives. And then we can, the result of that be to others as we live forward.

What, how different would it have been if these people we read about tonight, like Cain, like King Ahab, like Jezebel, different ones that we read about today, had truly troubled themselves. How great we could have used them in the morning. May we, may we take heed of these things. Be sure, be sure of our, our sinful flesh, that we would not depend upon it, and, and lean to the arm of the flesh, but instead to the arm of thy word. We pray and ask these things.