Aggravated Sins — E.A. Johnston

The Grievous Nature of Sin and the Need for Sanctification

All sin is grievous to a holy God, and as believers, we should daily ask the Holy Spirit to mortify our flesh and to do such a work of sanctifying grace in our hearts that we see sin as God sees it as a deadly evil.

Listen friend, sin costs God his dearly beloved Son, and sin costs the Son of God his precious blood which he poured out on Calvary because of our wretched sins. This evening, I want to spend some time on a subject I believe many in our church today have a great deal of ignorance about, and this particular subject is in regard to sin, and because of this ignorance, many are provoking God in ruining their families and bringing great chastisement upon themselves from an angered God.

Defining Aggravated Sin

I believe there are a great many today who are ignorant of this type of sin, which is called aggravated sin, and I believe, friends, this is the worst kind of sin we can commit against a holy God. I believe aggravated sin is a provoking sin, meaning it provokes God.

The title of my message this evening is Aggravated Sin, and I will first give you the definition of what aggravated sin is, and then I will demonstrate how this sin has ramifications into three areas, number one, individually, number two, corporately, and number three, nationally.

Presumptuous Sin and Deliberate Disobedience

But I first want to make a distinction between presumptuous sin and aggravated sin. David speaks of presumptuous sin in Psalm 19 and verse 13, which reads, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me.

So presumptuous sin is going our way when we know it isn't God's way. It's sinning when we know our behavior is sinful, and God forbids it, but we do it anyway, perhaps because we take pleasure in it and we delight in it.

We are sinning against light, and this is a very grievous sin, friend, indeed. An example of presumptuous sin is found in 2 Samuel 6 and verse 7. You can turn in your Bibles there now. I will read us this example of presumptuous sin.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzziah, and God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God. Now we may wonder at God's seemingly severity here for such a little thing as keeping an ark steady on a cart to keep it from falling.

This sin by Uzziah was a presumptuous sin because he knew better than to touch that ark. The touching of the ark was forbidden to the Levites expressly under the pain of death. I personally believe that Uzziah touched that ark because of his long familiarity with it, and he thought God would be all right with him steadying the ark by touching it, but it was a presumption, friends, to assume that God will ever be all right with direct disobedience.

Our familiarity with God in this modern-day church age is our biggest pain. We do not fear Him like we should, and Uzziah sinned presumptuously by touching the ark, and God punished him by death for the presumption and irreverence of his heart.

So this is a good biblical example, friends, of presumptuous sin. Now the main distinction between presumptuous sin and aggravated sin is this. Aggravated sin is a presumptuous sin that is committed after a season of great favor or blessing by God or great grace given by God.

God views this as a very alarming sin indeed. How careful we must be not to sin against God with aggravated sins. Listen to me carefully, friends. This is maybe one of the most important sermons you might hear.

An example of this can be found in the life of King David. Let us flip back in our Bibles to chapter 5 and 2 Samuel and look first at the many blessings God gave to David, beginning with how God makes David king over Israel.

We see this in verse 10 of chapter 5. Look at the great favor of God upon David. And David went on and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. Now look at the many victories God gave David, for we see in chapter 7 and verse 1.

And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies. We even see David's humility before God in verse 18 of this chapter. Then went King David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?

So we see David in a season in his life where he's no longer hunted by King Saul like a flea, but he's now in a prosperous and powerful position as king over all Israel, and he has peace from all his enemies.

He's under the great favor and blessing of God. God's smile is upon him. But now turn, friends, to chapter 11, and we'll see a description of aggravated sin as we turn to the saddest chapter in 2 Samuel, and the saddest chapter in the life of King David.

David’s Lust, Adultery, and Murder

Let us read 2 Samuel 11 in verses 1 through 5. And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabah.

But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass, in an evening tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself.

And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. Let me pause here briefly for a moment, friends. Here is David, stopped dead in his tracks, while he is spying at a gorgeous naked woman. Had he just turned and walked away in embarrassment, he would have been in the clear, so to speak, before God.

But his lingering turns to lust, and his lust conceives an action. And we see the first step of his downward spiritual spiral in the next verse. And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

And David sent messengers, and took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her. For she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.

There is an old saying, friends, that states, Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you there longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you ever bargained for. And this was the sad case with King David.

His lustful looks conceive an action, and his sinful adultery conceives a child. Now he has a real problem on his hands. But he could have stopped there, in his sinful course. He could have met with Uriah, and confessed his sin, and made amends to their household somehow, under the forgiven grace of God.

But not. He aggravates his sin even more, by getting Uriah drunk, so that he will go home to his wife, and sleep with her, and think the child is his. But Uriah has more integrity than David, so he keeps close to his king.

So David plots a devilish plot to murder him, through the means of a hot battlefield, by placing him on the front line, where the fighting is the fiercest. So adultery turns to murder, and we see a king, who sins not only presumptuously against God, but he sins presumptuously against God, under the season of blessing and favor from God.

And this, friends, is an alarming sin to God. It's an aggravated sin. We see how God views David's aggravated sins in verse 27, which is the last verse of chapter 11. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

The Family Consequences of David’s Sin

Here is a man who had seen remarkable deliverances from God time and time again. His life was spared. He's shown great favor by God. And he receives multiple blessings from the hand of God. Here was a man, whom it was said, whose heart was after God.

And now the same man, through sin, breaks the very heart of God. Oh, friends, how we break the heart of God when we sin. How we place ourselves in great exposure to our enemy, Satan, when we sin. For when we sin, our enemy is given a foothold in our life through sin.

When we sin presumptuously, we're inviting Satan into our home to plant a stake in the ground and set up camp there. If we continue in willful sin, then a nest of devils will be in our home and invade our family.

Now, some of you don't believe that, but it's true, friends. A presumptuous sin is a danger to a family. Look how Uzziah was struck down by God because of his presumptuous sin of touching the ark and see the ramifications of sin in the family of King David after he commenced these aggravated sins.

Even though David turned back to God in repentance after Nathan the prophet pointed a bony finger at him and said,. And although David's sins were forgiven him of God, we see the dread consequences of sin in the family of David thereafter.

Listen to this sad laundry list of sin's consequences. 2 Samuel 12 15. And the Lord struck the child. 2 Samuel 13 14. But being stronger than she, which was Tamar, forced her and lay with her. 2 Samuel 13 28.

So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And lastly, friends, we see the dagger thrust into the heart of King David as he learned of the death of his favorite son Absalom as seen in 2 Samuel 18 33.

Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. So we see, friends, how serious the act of committing aggravated sins can be. I see this time and time again in the life of Christians who fall into this grievous sin. I knew a man at church who had a lovely wife and a beautiful daughter.

He was in my Sunday school class. He worked for a big corporation and he got a big promotion. God was blessing his career with favor after favor. And with that big promotion came a new secretary who was much younger than his wife and very sexy.

This man sinned the sin of adultery with his secretary. And when he did that, he sinned an aggravated sin against God for he sinned under the recent favor and blessing of God. His marriage ended in divorce and it split his home right down the middle.

Oh, friends, how careful and guarded we must be under seasons of God's blessings that the devil doesn't get advantage over us. What a great and grievous sin this is. So we see how aggravated sin can affect us individually.

Achan and the Corporate Consequences of Sin

Now let us see how aggravated sin can affect us corporately. Turn in your Bibles to the story of Achan as seen in Joshua chapter 7. We will look first at the last verse of chapter 6 which reads,. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was noise throughout all the country.

Here the people of God are experiencing great blessings and victory from the Lord through their appointed leader, Joshua. We see the wall of Jericho turn to putty as it collapses and the city is taken by the people of God because of their faith in God and God demonstrates his great power before them.

But right after this incredible season of blessing, we find sin in the camp of the people of God and the sin committed is by one man and his family and it hurts the entire community of God. Achan's aggravated sin of hiding the wedge of gold brings down the disfavor of God upon them corporately.

Look at verse 1 in chapter 7. But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.

This, friends, is a striking passage of scripture how God is angered by the aggravated sin of one man, Achan, and he views it as a corporate sin and the entire community of God suffers from it. Our text says the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel and I believe because of the failure of church discipline today in our churches we are under the disfavor of God corporately both in our churches and in our denominations.

I remember a day when a pastor would confront sin head on in his congregation and deal with it, but we are too wishy-washy today to act like that and because of our great failure to implement church discipline our churches are under the displeasure of God and even our entire denominations are under his hot displeasure as well.

Church Discipline and the Protection of the Body

You better listen to me, friends, for I speak the truth. I remember Adrian Rogers shocking his congregation one Sunday evening. I was sitting in the crowd and I heard this with my own ears. After his message that evening, Dr. Rogers asked his congregation to stick around for he had something important to say before them.

He brought out a staff minister and a woman and he made them stand side by side by him on the platform. Adrian Rogers then turned to his congregation and told us what had happened. This man was a staff minister and he was caught having sex with his church secretary who now stood at the elbow of Adrian Rogers.

They both stood there with their heads down. Adrian Rogers turned to the man and said, look at me. The man looked Dr. Rogers in the face. Then to everyone's amazement, Adrian Rogers pointed his finger in that man's face and said in a loud voice, I rebuke you, Satan.

You are no longer part of this church. And he dismissed him right then and there in front of several thousand people. That was exercise in church discipline, friends. And a man like Adrian Rogers didn't fear anybody.

He even stood against his own convention one year, standing on his Bible, defending it as the authority of God's holy word. And if you didn't agree with that, then you didn't have to stay with him. And some of those Baptists left the convention that year.

But we don't have very many Adrian Rogers today who exercise church discipline like that. And this is the very reason we're not seeing God in our midst, in our church's, friends. We are under his divine chastisement because of our sin and our corporate body.

It's like a fly that spoils a whole ointment. And Joshua 7 -1 applies to us today. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them. So we've seen the ramifications of aggravated sin individually and how it damages a family.

National Judgment and Israel’s Wilderness Provocations

We've seen its impact corporately and how everybody in that corporate body suffers. And now let us look at how aggravated sin has ruinous effects nationally, as it can even impact an entire nation. In Hebrews 3 -8 we read, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation, in the wilderness, in the life of the nation Israel.

There was a number of aggravated sins which provoked God while they were in the wilderness wanderings. They'd just come out of a season of great deliverance by God through the release from Egyptian bondage.

They passed through the Red Sea as on dry ground with Pharaoh's army hot on their trail. They escaped by the providential hand of God and his great mercy toward them. So they were a people greatly favored by God and they'd just experienced a great deliverance from God, seen as mighty miracles.

And what did they do shortly thereafter? They began to murmur and complain, to grumble. They'd commit aggravated sins which provoked the Almighty. Let's look at some of these now. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 14.

I'll be in verse 11. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Now flip over to Exodus chapter 15 and verse 24. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

And look, friends, at their third provocation, found in chapter 16 and verse 3. And the children of Israel said unto them, What to God? We had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the foal.

For ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Gripe and complain, gripe and complain. That's what they did right after a season of great blessings by God. We don't have time this evening, friends, to go over all the provocations that are listed in my Bible by the nation of Israel against their God.

There's about 10 or 11 in all. What is the result of their aggravated sins? It was a double judgment. Their carcasses littered the wilderness as they died before entering the promised land. Secondly, we see the most horrible effect of their aggravated sins found in Judges 2 and verse 10.

And also, all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. Did you hear that, friends?

National Apostasy and the Loss of Godly Heritage

Does that sound familiar to our country today, to our churches today? Is there not now a generation quite unfamiliar with God and the mighty works he's done for this country in past times? America, have you forgotten all the great and mighty spiritual awakenings God brought to this land in former days?

Have you forgotten how it was by his providential hand that America was favored and blessed and raised up in the eyes of other nations? How America was once a Christian nation, but now is a nation that's turned her back on God, and she is forsaken of God.

She's under remedial judgments from an offended God. Her aggravated sins are so numerous that this entire nation is practically filling her cup full of iniquity. O mighty England, how mighty you ruled the seas with your royal navy!

What great forces of missionaries you sent out from your shores! How God favored you with the likes of Wesley and Winfield! What mighty Puritans you were blessed with! But now your churches are empty, your houses of worship are desolate, and your nation's no longer a Christian nation.

Your aggravated sins stand as a witness against you. God has withdrawn his presence from among you. I can say the same, friends, for other nations who were greatly favored by God in past times with seasons of revival and poured out spiritual awakenings.

Why are your churches so dry now? Where is the presence of the Almighty? Your aggravated sins stand as an indictment against you. Listen, friends, how we have sinned with the light that's been given us, our sins of commission and our sins of omission, our presumptuous sins which have trampled the blood of our Savior, our aggravated sins which we have recklessly committed individually, corporately, and nationally.

Repentance and Prayer for Spiritual Awakening

Heaven, help us! God, forgive us! Oh, great God, send us the grace of repentance to turn back to you and fall on our faces in utter humility and to turn from our wicked ways. Great God, forgive us for all our aggravated sins.

I wonder what would happen, friends, if our churches began to exercise church discipline again. I wonder, friends, what would happen if Christians really started living like the Christians in the book of Acts.

I wonder what would happen if our nation turned back to the God of the Bible by forsaking all her wickedness and perverseness and idolatry. Maybe, just maybe, there'd be a God consciousness in our churches once again.

Perhaps God would pour out a mighty spiritual awakening so powerful the entire nation would be gripped with eternity and the God of eternity. Oh, friends, how we need to repent in our day and to turn back to the God of our Bibles and forsake our wicked ways.

Heaven, help us! Let us pray.