The Seven Levels of Judgment - Part 2 — Dan Biser

Confessing That We Have Sinned Against the Lord

Now, as it has been said, for you have sinned, we've seen this now in two passages of scripture for Jeremiah, and we see a pronouncement from God's servants normally to the people of God that you need to be recognizing that you have sinned against the Lord, and then for them to respond appropriately, which we'll get to here in a moment.

Now, the last of our pronouns that we're looking at here is that we've seen I have sinned, you have sinned, and then we come into this third one of the four is we have sinned. And so I wanna look at a couple of these verses because, again, in prayer, against the sin of the people, there is a recognition of this that must take place.

We not only can see that who is doing the sinning, and to name that, but we are to say, what is our sin in this? We say, we have sinned, and this is how it was responded to in scripture. So let's look at a few of these passages that covers this.

We have sinned against the Lord. So I wanna go back to the book of Jeremiah because there's several verses here, and then we'll move throughout some of the other scriptures. But while we're in Jeremiah, let's just stay there.

And so one of the first ones is, is in Jeremiah chapter three, verse 25. Now, I want us to understand is that in all these verses, there's four of them in Jeremiah that we're gonna come to, and each one of these that happens on this is that it announces that the people have been judged, but it gives the explanation of that.

You have been judged because we have sinned against the Lord. And now here's Jeremiah saying. Now, Jeremiah is saying it. He's not separating himself to say, it's just my sin. And he's not saying it's just your sin.

We're in this together. And that's what I want you to get out of this passage of scripture. It's not for the position of the church today to say they have sinned or I sin, which we confess our own personal sins, or to cast blame as to say it's all your fault, but we're in this together.

And we can't separate ourselves simply in the church from the heathen that are out there in this world today or this nation to say it's their fault. But it's, we are in this together. So in Jeremiah chapter three, verse 25, we read this, we lie down in our shame and our confusion covers us.

Why? Because we have sinned against the Lord, our God, we and our fathers, generational, we and our fathers from our youth, even up to this day. So that's decades from our youth on up to middle age or to senior adult age, talking about anywhere from 20 to 40 years, four decades of being covered here in this one verse.

And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, our God. Who has sinned? We have sinned. What's the sin? We have not obeyed the word of the Lord. Jumping over to Jeremiah chapter eight, another parallel scripture, matches pretty much this that we just read, but I just want you to have these.

Chapter eight, verse 14. Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves. Let us enter into the defense cities. Let us be silent there. For the Lord, our God has put us to silence. Not the world, not any man, but the Lord has done this.

The judgment comes from the Lord. For the Lord, our God has done this, have put us to silence, given us water of gall to drink. And again, the Testament. Why? Why have we had to drink this? Why are we in a city sitting in silence?

Because we have sinned against the Lord. Now quickly, two other verses in Jeremiah chapter 14. First one is in verse seven. Oh Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake.

For our backslidings are many. We have sinned against you. Now there is a personal confession in this. We have sinned against you. Our backslidings is the testimony of that. Now, Jeremiah same chapter, chapter 14, verse 20.

We acknowledge, oh Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers. For we have sinned against you. Testimony. Now, going back a couple other chapters, a couple other verses here we'll look at real quick that I want you to have is the first one is in Numbers chapter 14 of this testimony.

Corporate Confession and Judgment in Jeremiah

We have sinned. Now in this chapter 14 is when Moses selected 12 spies. He sent the 12 spies up into the promised land. We know that the spies went up 40 days. They come back and they brought a bad report against the land.

Joshua and Caleb gave a good report saying, let us go up and we can take the land. But the other 10 spies said, there's giants up there. The cities are barred with gates, high walls. We'll never be able to take this.

And so they brought it back an evil report to the people against the land. But Joshua and Caleb tried to get them to do that, which was right. But in this, because of that disobedience, unbelief that God said, because you have not believed me or trusted in me, then for every day that they was spying the land, that's how many years you're gonna spend in the wilderness.

And all those of you from 20 years old and upward that I brought up out of Egypt, you will die in the promised land and you will not enter into that new land. The only ones that was allowed to enter in, we know was Joshua and Caleb.

Even Moses himself died because of his disobedience. And so over 600 ,000 men died in the wilderness during those 40 years, because they did not believe in the word of the Lord nor trusted in the word of the Lord.

And so God brought judgment on them, death, cataclysmic death, death, destruction, that after 40 years, 600 ,000 people, an entire generation was wiped out in this. But when God pronounced this evil against them, because they listened to the 10 spies and didn't trust the Lord, then they got all motivated.

And they said, let's go up, we'll take this land now. We've made a mistake. We don't wanna be in the wilderness. We wanna go to the promised land. And Moses told them, don't go up. God is not with you and you're going to be destroyed.

But they made that testimony. We have sinned against the Lord in Numbers chapter 14, verse 40, we have sinned against the Lord, but we're still gonna go up against them even though the Lord says, don't go up.

So as we've seen, confession does not necessarily mean repentance in this act of recognizing who's at fault here. Now, the next one is in Judges chapter 10. We see two verses in this particular chapter that brings to light children of Israel after Moses died, after Joshua died, is that we read very quickly in the book of Judges is that the children of Israel sinned against the Lord.

The Lord sent them into captivity. The children of Israel would cry out to God for mercy. God would raise up a judge who would deliver them. And it's unclear that in Judges chapter 10, verse 10 and 15, that we have this testimony, the children of Israel, we have sinned against the Lord.

That's why we're in captivity. That's why we're under judgment. And God would say, then go pray to your false gods or just leave me alone because you wouldn't listen to me. But the children of Israel humbled themselves and God would bring them out.

And then they would be quick enough to turn right back and do the same sin again. But we have that in Judges that when they was in captivity, they recognized it and they identified it. We have sinned against the Lord.

Our problem today is that the church doesn't recognize it. We don't even know that the power of God is removed from us. We've been continuing on in our church fashion and we don't even have an acknowledgement.

We've sinned against you, oh Lord. And our nation definitely is not at a place that they're saying we have sinned against you. Entire families are living in sin and disobedience and unbelief and fighting among themselves.

And you don't hear from them, we have sinned. They always cast the blame on somebody else. And we see the consistency in scripture and in present day. And that's what I want you to see in this. Where does the judgments begin?

When men sin against a holy God. The next one is over in 1 Samuel chapter seven. God had pronounced in the writings of Moses in the law, you will never ask for a king, I am your king, the Lord God said.

Moses gave them that edict in the book of Deuteronomy. But in 1 Samuel, we have Eli who was a very perverse man that allowing his sons to be perverse, never corrected them. And so the sin multiplied in the days of Eli.

Samuel was raised up as a prophet for that particular time. And he led the children of Israel. But as he was getting older, his sons did not serve the Lord as he did and the people responded to that. And they said, we would not have your sons reign over us because they're not like you, holy and right.

We want a king. And so they asked for the very thing that God said, don't ever ask for a king. And God, through Samuel, spoke a word against them saying, because you have asked a king and rejected me for being your king, then I'm going to bring judgment on you.

And it was not the cataclysmic judgment that we so much see, but it was on that particular day that thunder and hail fell and destroyed the crops and the people feared. And immediately when that storm was going on, the very words out of their mouth was, we have sinned against you, oh God.

Recognition. In the midst of judgment, they saw it and they responded to it. And oh, that there was such a response today. Now it is, three other verses here I want to give you. Two of the best prayers in all the Bible on this participation of we have sinned against the Lord is found in Nehemiah chapter one.

Nehemiah hears about the destruction of Jerusalem. He hears about the temple being burned and destroyed. He hears about the people being wiped out. And so he laments and groans in this. And he cries out to God in his great prayer of confession there in Nehemiah chapter one, verse six.

And he says, we have sinned against you, oh Lord. We have trespassed your way. It was an anguish that come up out of him. And I don't know too many people that have a right spirit with God and a spirit of prayer that cannot look on the condition of the church, cannot look on the condition of the nation and not cry out, we have sinned.

It is ownership in this. Daniel chapter nine, same prayer, same petition there. When he saw and understood the 70 years that was gonna be upon captivity for Judah and Israel because they had disobeyed the word of the Lord.

They had been removed from the promised land. They had been destroyed before their enemies. They had been annihilated by scores of tens of thousands. Daniel seeing this, knowing this, weighing this in the scriptures.

And he says, we have sinned against the Lord. Great prayer of confession in Daniel. And that verse is chapter nine, verse five and verse 11. And I'll give you this last one of the we. I have sinned, you have sinned, we have sinned.

And the last one is most personal to us that we ought to be learning. It's in Lamentations chapter five, verse 16. Woe unto us, for we have sinned against the Lord. You know, that is a understanding in the mind and the heart of that which is getting ready to happen because sin, we sin, God responds.

What is God's response? It's these different levels of judgment. And the more we continue to sin and rebel, the greater the judgment gets. So these verses, more widespread throughout scripture that we hear that testimony, we have sinned against the Lord.

“They Have Sinned”: Corporate Guilt and the Judgment of God

Now, the last one of the pronouns, I have sinned, you have sinned, we have sinned, is they have sinned. And I wanna go quickly down through these as we conclude here on this. First one is in Joshua chapter seven, verse 11.

It was, was that they had been given the command by Joshua how they was going to overthrow Jericho. And they marched around the walls. And the command from God was, do not take anything from the city.

And for those of you that know scripture, you know that there was one man who did. And Achan was the man who took personal garments. He took personal gold and silver and he hid it in his camp. And then the next time that the children of Israel went out against the enemy, against the city of Ai, they was, they was beat by a lesser army because God was not among them.

Well, Joshua throws himself down before the Lord and says, you know, why have you done this? Why have you brought us in here to be consumed? And God says, get up, they're sinning the camp. Israel has sinned against the Lord.

And that's found in Joshua chapter seven, verse 11. And that was because one man sinned, but a whole lot of people paid the price. Now again, the church is easily able to sit in our pews, in our comfort zone and say, Washington has sinned.

Hollywood has sinned. New York city has sinned. Las Vegas has sinned. And we cast the blame out on them. But the ownership is, is that they could sit out there and say to the church, and they will say it at judgment day, they sinned against you.

They didn't tell us the truth. They didn't pray for us like they should have. They didn't come after us like they were supposed to. They didn't weep. They didn't fast. They didn't lay upon the Lord. The world's gonna bring accusations against us in this back and forth, they have sinned.

Another preference of scripture, which is Solomon's prayer after he had built the temple. And there's several of these verses that Solomon sets up the occasion. If the children of Israel sin, if they sin by rejecting you Lord, if they sin by idols, if they sin by unfaithfulness, whatever the sin might be.

And he goes through a list of these and you can find that in first Kings, first Kings chapter eight prayer of Solomon, in verse 33, verse 35, verse 47. And it's also found over in second Chronicles chapter six, which are mirror pictures of that prayer of Solomon.

And you'll find in that prayer, if they sin. Now it is always the hope that men do not sin. It is our hope that tonight, that as we come to an invitation to having a conclusion on this study of the beginning of the levels of judgment at the first original sin, the beginning of sin, that Adam and Eve brought into this world, the sin that we allowed, that we chose, that we made a part of our life.

And it's the sin after our conversion that it is that we begin to look at this. If we sin, it is God's intent that we not sin. But if we sin, we have an advocate with the father who is Jesus Christ, the righteous.

And oh, may men, women, and children know who Jesus Christ is for the saving of souls. And he shall save his people from their sins, that Christ may save us from the sins that they have sinned and provoking the Lord God.

In the book of Jeremiah chapter 33, verse eight, a small verse here, but I wanted to give it to you. 33, verse eight, and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me.

Now, there is God's promise of restoration. Not that when men sin, God provides a response, which we'll look at next time. But here, this is the response of God's faithfulness that they shall commit iniquity, they shall sin against me, but I will pardon them and cleanse them.

Grievous Sin and the Blindness Produced by Judgment

In the book of Lamentations, chapter one, verse eight, Jerusalem sinned grievously. It is a hard word there, sinned grievously. Therefore, she is removed. Now, no sadder picture in the Bible than Lamentations about Jeremiah writing about the destruction that he saw with his own eyes of the temple of Jerusalem, of the walls of the people.

And when he writes in that, because Jerusalem had grievously sinned, and we are fast approaching that place in America, grievously sinned. There's one in Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 23, Ezekiel 37, 23, I won't take time to read that, and I'll just come to the last one of the study of they have sinned, and it's found in the book of Zephaniah chapter one, Zephaniah chapter one, verse 17.

So you mark that and look it up, and I'll just read it to you quickly. And I will bring distress, I will bring distress upon men that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against me.

God's pronouncing judgment. I will bring distress, and men will walk as blind men, not able to see. Now, how many times is that in the scripture, having eyes to see and cannot see? It's in the Old Testament, it's in the New Testament, it's consistent back here in the scriptures, it's consistent today.

We ought to know why blindness happens, because men sin against the Lord, and God responds to that sin. And that's what all these verses are a testimony of confession, but confession is not sufficient without repentance.

And it is the two that go hand together, is that when God's people, and they begin to see, they begin to understand, man, we have done this, and the four pronouns, I have sinned, you have sinned, we have sinned, they have sinned, it is this confession going up before God, and knowing that we are under this judgment because, directly due to, we chose to sin.

Sin After Conversion and the First Level of Judgment

Now, the last part of this aspect of what we've been looking at, the first level of judgment is the first initial sin, and then we looked at Adam and Eve in Genesis, that first sin that entered into the world that make us to be born in sin, our flesh contaminated, corrupted, but we looked at personal sins, where we men choose to sin in the pronouns that goes with that.

Now, I want to come to this because I feel that this is something that is necessary for us to address in the judgments, and it's also something necessary to deal with today because there is this false lie, deception doctrine that's out there today, is that somewhere along the line, Satan gets into people's minds and theology, and it corrupts people from seeing right, responding right, and sin is allowed to remain because people don't respond appropriately.

And the last one is, is that I'd like to take you back to the day, for those of you that are Christians, born-again Christians, and you can bear a testimony right now is to stand up one by one and be able to say, is to say, this was the day that I met the Lord.

This was the day that I found Christ. This was the day that I was truly saved and born again. I love to hear people's testimonies. I love to share testimony. There's nothing greater or grander than to know how a merciful God reached into a lost sinner's heart and saved them.

But you know, when you talk to people and you get real with people and you get honest with people, you ask personal questions to learn about them, don't you? And so you ask this question, do you remember your first sin?

Your first sin in life. Now, people go back to their childhood and they'll say, oh, I remember when I first, my first cuss word that I said. I remember the first dirty movie that I've watched. I remember the first act of stealing.

I remember that first drink I took. I remember that first time I sampled drugs. I remember the first time I sexually sinned against my body and against the Lord. And people go back and they remember these things before they were saved.

And in time of being born again in true repentance, these sins come flushing out and they realize that judgment is upon them, the wrath of God is upon them because they've not responded appropriately to the invitation of God's love and mercy and forgiveness.

And they confess these sins. I remember when I was over in Ukraine, I was over there with Josh McDowell and we was in the Ukrainian Baptist Church. And this was after that transition in the late 90s after the wall had come down and churches were flourishing over there because they had been underground for so long and persecuted for so long.

And it was a Wednesday night service. It's standing room only. They was clear throughout the back of the foyer. Windows were open and people standing outside and listening. And they went on for over two hours of church service.

And they gave an invitation and we was up in the choir loft in the back there. And I remember this, our interpreter trying to keep us up to date with what was going on. And this man come forward and he was crying and weeping and they just took one of the microphones and gave it to him.

And he was crying and speaking. And I finally nudged our interpreter. I said, what's he saying? And she said, oh, he's confessing. I said, what do you mean he's confessing? Oh, he's naming sins. I was like, naming sins?

He was, oh, I've cheated on my wife. I've stole this. I've been drunk. I've taken the Lord's name. I mean, he was naming sins. Now, growing up at a North American church that doesn't practice this, I was shocked.

And I share this story with people. Other countries, they don't have a problem with this because they're doing it. They're doing it scripturally, but not North America. They're naming their sins. They're confessing their sins.

They're removing the judgment because they're doing it right. But now I wanna ask you a question that once you name your sins of your past before Christ, before you was born again, before you got saved, I'd like to ask you, do you remember your first sin after you became a Christian?

Continuing in Sin Versus Abiding in Christ

I've watched people in their salvation experience. If those of you that remember listening to Ravenhill, and one of his faults was that he said, we see young people walk the aisles today and before they ever get out of the church, they're being frivolous and vain like conversation or they go to a hotdog stand and they have worldly conversation.

And there's no time for them to be absorbed into the spirit of God or let the spirit convict them about their present way of life. You remember the first sin that you did after you became a Christian?

Do you remember that time that you went and you blatantly disobeyed what you knew to be right? Now, we come to that scripture in James chapter five. To him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him, it is sin.

First initial act after conversion, after being born again, enters into a Christian's heart and they are grieved because they have now brought back that thing that they had been saved from, delivered from, sin.

One of the reasons is, is because people don't know that they have to abide in Christ. They think one and done. Oh, I've been born again, all my sins are taken care of. And this false doctrine is spread throughout the church is that all I need to do is come to church and ask for forgiveness and I go right back to my sin.

I know people living in adultery. I know couples that are in fornication living together. I know old drunks that they come and they confess their sin and they go right back to it. They continue in sin.

Now for those, again, of you that are biblical knowledgeable, you know that one of the books in the New Testament, 1 John, writes specifically about this. Christians will not continue in sin. Yet what we have today in North America is Christians that come to an invitation time, they come to an altar call, they come to a time of being dealt with, they come into a prayer meeting and they confess the same sin that they've been confessing for years.

And there's been no stoppage, there's been no deliverance, there's been no breaking free from this sin because they've continued in it. Now again, if we understand this principle, when men sin, God responds.

How does God respond? In wrath, in judgment. Christians who ought to know better have not done better. North America, we continue in sin and the church is the ones that are guilty because they're the ones that ought to know what it is to do that which is pleasing in sight and to avoid that which is not pleasing in sight.

We need to learn the little epitaph that Joseph used when the captain of the guard's wife came after him to seduce him and cause him to commit adultery with her and he said, how can I sin against God and do this great evil?

That's the heart of the believer. What would I ever do to grieve my savior? What would I ever do to curse him if I am afresh? What would I ever do to cause sorrow or accusation or anguish towards my Lord and my blessed savior?

But you don't see or hear that in a lot of Christians' lives today. They are at ease with their sin. They are content with their sin and not realizing that they are provoking the same God that they say loves them and will forgive them and care for them.

Wouldn't it be an awful thing for those that are Christians today to come and to confess the same sin that's been hounding them for years and for God to say, no, I won't forgive you because you're not serious.

You're not truly brokenhearted. You're not humble. You spurn the blood of Christ. You take it for granted. All the while the invitations and confessions are going on and we saw that in those IU, we and they, men confessed but they still died and Ananias and Sapphira died.

Children of Israel died. There are a lot of people, Balaam died because they did not forsake their sin. Where we need to be tonight, examining this first level of judgment is that we are guilty in the church of a continued state of sin.

Holiness, Separation, and Freedom From Sin

When in first John, God tells us, avoid being in sin. Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, in the book of Leviticus, how many times does it say, be holy for I am holy. Peter comes along in first Peter and he says, be holy for I am holy.

It is a command, it is an edict for us that we are to be followers of that because holiness is without sin. God knows no sin, his name is holy. And he says, you are my holy people, church. Blood washed, blood bought, now get out of the sin, come out from among them and be separate.

Set your affections on things above, not on things of this earth. We're not to act like them, talk like them, look like them, smell like them, think like them. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Confession, we have sinned against the Lord by continuing in sin. I have sinned against the Lord, I am worthy of death, but Christ paid the price. Serious about that understanding, knowing that simply because we're baptized or simply because you accepted the Lord and made a decision for him does not constitute for you to be in sin or continue in sin.

You are to hate sin like God hates sin. We are to be separated from this world and their thought process of religionists who say, it's okay, we'll compromise. There is no compromising with sin. Sin brings death.

The wages of sin is death. Judgment immediately follows the act when men, women, and children sin against the Lord, especially in his own people. Let judgment begin in the house of the Lord. So, having studied this, having looked at this principle, this first level of judgment, judgment begins with men's actions that they first sin.

Redemption Through Christ and the Call to Examine Ourselves

Adam and Eve brought it into the world. You was given life. Somewhere along the line, you began to sin. You consciously made choices that were in direct conflict with God's will and way. And because of that, his wrath was on you.

But all praise is in that glory to a merciful God that does not allow for us to continue in sin, but he made a way through the cross. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my sin.

Now, it is in that process God delivers us because Christ took the sin. Christ delivers us from sin, sets us free, cleanses us, takes our sins and casts them far as the East is from the West. No more to remember them.

Micah chapter seven, he takes our sin and he drops them in the depths of the sea. No more to remember them. But oh, the tragedy. When a church, a people, a person, a family, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, it's okay for me to sin.

It is never okay for us to sin. The church in North America is blinded by that false deception, that lie out of hell. God will wink at our sin because we're Christians. We must have the same heart, mind and life that Christ had.

Christ knew no sin. We are to be Christians, Christ-like in all of our ways. Now, let us examine ourselves. Let us look at all these verses that I've given to you. And I didn't count how many verses I had laid out to give, but multiple verses of scripture tonight on this first level of judgment that begins when men sin against God.

We sin as individuals, we sin as families, we sin as a church and we sin as a nation. And each level must be dealt with before the throne of God for what God is willing to do and wanting to do, which is to set us free, to cleanse us and to make us one of his own.

The Urgency of Repentance and the Wrath That Abides

Now, I want to ask of you, having given all these things to you tonight, and I know it is, for some, you're used to milk and you're choking on this because it's too much. Others of you are processing this and your mind is racing a thousand miles an hour to think of people and circumstances and conditions in your life and family, your church, our nation.

It's time to deal with it. It's time to respond to it because judgments are falling because we won't deal with the first level that starts it all. The only reason we're on level six in judgments out of seven levels, and the only reason we're going to see a cataclysmic event is because God's people will not see what God has declared from the very beginning.

I hate sin. I hate the sinner because they sin. But I am loved and I am willing to deliver you from sin. That's why I sent my only begotten son. So we look at John 3 .36 as a closing here for us to pray and consider.

If you believe on my son, if you believe on Jesus Christ and who he is and what he's done, you shall have everlasting life. Glory for redemption. But if you will not believe, if you will not follow, if you will continue in sin and not address the sin, not confess it and repent it, forsake it, then the wrath of God abides upon you.

And with those words, which are just now right where you're at, just bow your heads and close your eyes. We're not gonna sing, we're not gonna altar call, nothing. I just want you to process what the Spirit's saying.

The Spirit is speaking through these words. What's he saying about your sin? What's he saying about our sin? What's he saying about their sin?