Freedom From A Life Of Sin — Emanuel Esh

Amen. You may be seated. Just to have Jesus in our hearts, just to have Jesus to be a friend is life. That means a lot. I was impressed with the song, Be Thou My Vision, this week. I'd like to just begin with a couple of those verses there.

May this be the heart. This is my heart. I want this to be my life. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Not be all else to me, save that thou art. Thou my best thought by day and by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Waking or sleeping, whether I'm awake or whether I'm sleeping, thy presence is my light. Be thou my wisdom, thou my true word. I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord. Thou my great father, I thy true son.

Thou in me dwelling and I with thee one. This speaks of a relationship that we can have with Jesus. And Jesus is my life. High King of heaven, my victory won. May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun.

Heart of my heart, whatever befall, still be my vision, O ruler of all. No matter what happens, no matter where I am, I want Jesus to be my vision, my life in every situation. I was meditating a bit about just the Christian life.

The Christian Life Begins With Freedom From Sin

How that, it's when Jesus comes into our hearts that our hearts are changed and our life is transformed. He takes away our sins. Because God put our sins upon Jesus Christ on the cross for all the sins of the whole world.

But not everyone takes advantage of that. But by God's grace, I found that salvation and I gave my sins to Jesus. And he gave me eternal life. I'd like to just share a little, a short message here this morning.

Repentance and the Freedom of a Clean Heart

Contrasting a life of freedom from sin and what it's like to live under the bondages of sin. Sin came into the world in the beginning through Adam and Eve, disobeying God. And so sin is disobedience to God.

And I remember the freedom that we experienced when we came to Jesus. It's now 33 years ago and how our lives were transformed because of that life that Jesus gives us. We got converted in the beginning of a really spirit-filled revival meetings.

And then there was some, we had meetings like each evening for like three weeks, except for like Monday, Tuesday nights. And we went to those meetings and the preaching of God's word came in such a way that we would repent and repent again.

And we found such freedom as we opened those deep recesses of our heart and allowed God to shine his light in there. Then those things which are done in darkness, light is shed upon them and it comes out.

And we found such freedom. And the preacher would preach on, you know, bitterness one evening and we'd realize we're bitter and we would repent. We would hit the altar. We would confess our bitterness.

And then he would, another night, he would preach on immorality and fornication and adultery. And we would recognize, oh my, I'm such an, you know, I've done so many immoral things. And we would respond to that call.

We would get right with God. We'd confess those sins. And it was such freedom and such joy. And I look back to that today and I still believe that that is one of the most important things that is a very major part of my life as to why I have been able to follow Jesus continually without stumbling and without falling and without doubt and without fear.

It's because my heart was clean. Our hearts were clean and we delighted in that. And that gave us the freedom and the power to live out the life of Jesus in our lives. And I look back to that today and I'm still saying, that is one of the reasons that I am able to walk in freedom today.

Hidden Sin and the Bondage of Concealment

And sometimes we hear of, you know, people who fall into sin and a lot of difficulties come their way. And I just, you know, it's because they have, and for many people they have never had that beautiful advantage of having themselves cleansed thoroughly, you know, in the beginning of their Christian life.

But they continue to hold things in darkness and they continue to walk their life while there's still hidden sin there. Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nothing hidden that shall not be known.

So Jesus says there is nothing that's gonna stay covered. There's nothing that's covered that's not gonna be revealed. Everything that is covered in our lives is someday going to be revealed. I wonder how King David made it.

David's Adultery and the Consequences of Covering Sin

I wonder what happened in his life as he committed adultery with another man's wife, the king, the leader of Israel. And then he wanted to hide that, of course. And that's what sin does. Sin wants us, Satan beguiles us to sin and then when we sin, he beguiles us to hide it because we're ashamed of our sin, right?

And King David was, committed adultery there with a woman and she had a husband. He was out in the war. And then she sends a message to him and says, I'm pregnant. And David's like, whoops, this could get found out.

So he sends a message to the captain of the army and says, send Uriah the Hittite back home here. And so Uriah comes back into Jerusalem there and he meets David and David tells him, you're doing a good job, you know, and why don't you go home to your wife?

And David dismisses him and that soldier goes out and sleeps on the door of David's, of the temple or somewhere. He did not go down to see his wife. He was so committed to serving in the war that he didn't even go home to see his wife.

And David found out about that. David's like, well, I'll try something else. So next evening, David gets him drunk, sends him lots of food and lots of drink and gets him drunk and thinking then he'll kind of loosen up and he'll go down and see his wife.

But he didn't. So David took another step and he wrote a letter to the captain of the army and said, have this man killed. Set up a strategy somehow and that he would be killed. And so Uriah was a very, he was one of David's 30 mighty men and purposely they set him in the front of the battle and then retreated and he was killed.

And afterward, after his wife mourned for a while and the mourning was over, then David went and took her to be his wife. Now, how do you think David was feeling? He was faced with guilt. He was facing his sin or he was in sin and guilt, but he was trying to cover all that.

He worked so hard to cover his sin. And in Proverbs it says, he that covers his sin shall not prosper, but whoso forsakes and confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy. Sometimes you wonder why some people's life just never prospers.

He that covers his sin shall not prosper. You want to have a victory over sin in your life. You want to have victory in your walk with God. Clean up your life. If there's covered sin, it just doesn't work out.

Joseph's Brothers and the Persistence of Guilt

Think of the sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph to the Ishmaelites. He was taken away to Egypt as a slave. And many, many years later, they were still under conviction when they went down to Egypt to buy food and this king treated them so harshly, which was actually Joseph, their brother.

They said to each other, oh, this is because of what we've done to Joseph. This is what's happening to us. This is because of what we did to Joseph. Didn't I, you know, and Reuben said, didn't I tell you not to hurt the child?

Now his blood is required unto us. You could tell those men were still guilty. And your sin will find you out. Be sure your sin will find you out. I think of the story, I'm just going, I don't know when I heard this story, it's a long time ago, but I'll put it in a more of a personal way.

The “Remember the Chicken” Story and Confession

I grew up Amish in a very religious setting. I had an older brother, Levi. So it didn't actually happen to us, but I'll put it in that perspective. So I'm Manny and my older brother, Levi, he's two years older than I am.

These two boys playing one day, practicing with their slings out, they were getting pretty good at like, you know, 10 and 12 years old. Levi dares Manny to, you know, try to shoot one of the chickens.

Manny takes it up and, you know, he fires that shot over at that chicken and hits the thing on the head and it plops over and dies. And this was dad's favorite banty chicken that he was going to take to the fair, you know, to show that fall.

And they kind of ran and hid. Dad comes along, he finds that banty chicken laying there and he approaches the boys and says, you know, boys, what happened? Levi says, I didn't do it. Manny says, I don't know what happened.

That evening, you know, Levi and Manny were after supper, they were there and mom says, Levi, I want you to wash the dishes. Levi doesn't like washing dishes, so he goes over to Manny and says, Manny, I want you to wash the dishes.

He says, mom told you to do it. He says, remember the chicken? And Manny like, oh. And Manny goes and washes the dishes. The next day, dad tells the boys to manure out the hog pen and afterward they can go swimming.

So they go down there and Levi gets the idea and he says, Manny, he says, you're gonna do the work. He says, I'm gonna go swimming a while. Manny says, no, you're not. Dad said we're gonna do it together.

Levi says, remember that chicken? And Manny kind of wilts down, yeah. And so he, he cleans out the hog pen and Levi goes swimming. In this way, Manny became a slave to Levi and whenever Levi didn't want to do something, he would like, you know, roll his eyes and nod at him like, chicken.

And Manny would do what he was told to do. And he went to town one day and they were getting an ice cream cone. Levi says, Manny, you're paying for mine too. Manny says, no, I'm not. Remember the chicken?

And he ends up paying for his ice cream cone. This is, this went on months and it turned into years. And Manny was such a slave to that sin. All that his brother Levi had to do was just roll his eyes and kind of nod his head and he knew what he had to do.

And he would do whatever he was told to do. Remember the chicken? And this thing followed him. This chicken thing followed Manny continually. Well, the boys were getting stronger and growing up three years later and so Levi was 14 now and he was, you know, had some muscles there.

So they were playing baseball one Sunday afternoon and he whacked that ball really hard. A line dragged over towards the neighbor's house, went through the neighbor's front window in the kitchen. Neighbor came out, comes out angry and upset and he's saying, who did that?

And the boys all kind of shuddered, you know, and Levi kind of looks at Manny and rolls his eyes and like all the other boys say, I didn't do it. Manny kind of feels pressured. He says, and the neighbor's really angry and saying, that window's gonna cost $50 to fix.

Manny just, you know, under pressure, he says, well, I'll pay for it. So all Levi had to do was just say chicken and he would do it. That evening, Manny went to bed and he was thinking about this. He's like, $50.

And finally dawned on him, I could just go and confess to my dad about the chicken and then Levi would have no more power over me. So he goes downstairs to his dad and his mom, they're still up and his daddy says, do you remember the chicken?

Dad's like, I have no idea. I don't remember any chicken, what's up? Manny couldn't forget about the chicken for three years. So he confessed. Daddy said, I'm the one that killed that chicken. Three years ago, your special bandy chicken.

And he's crying and dad, please forgive me. He said, I'll pay for the chicken. Dad says, well, the chicken was just worth $5, he said, but it's already been paid. You don't need to pay for that. It's already paid.

I forgive you, son. Manny goes back to bed. Next day, they're out doing something and Levi kind of rolls his eyes and said, chicken? Manny's like, I ain't doing it. Levi's like, well, I'll tell dad about the chicken.

Just go ahead, don't matter. Dad already knows. I confessed it. And from that day going, Levi had no more power over his brother. Remember the chicken. You know, the spirit of God puts a little ding in our hearts and our mind.

Remember what happened back there because he wants us to be clean. He wants us to get everything out. He wants us to bring everything out of our hearts so we can be clean and free and live a life that is honoring to God.

Forgiveness, Consequences, and the Need for Confession

The freedom of a clear conscience, freedom from guilt, freedom from condemnation, now I know that when we come to Jesus, when we simply believe in Jesus, we are covered by the blood. His blood cleanses and the spiritual sin takes away all of our sins and we're forgiven.

But there are some sins in our life that maybe they need to be confessed. Maybe they need to be confessed to specific people. Maybe we've hurt somebody. Maybe we've, you know, and are there some big sins that matter more than others?

There are. I was thinking of one of the refugees there in Greece, a man that came through Oasis there, had been a soldier in the Syrian war and had killed many people. He found Jesus and Jesus' blood covers all those sins that he's done.

And the man walked in forgiveness even though he's done a lot of wickedness. But he did say, he said, whenever I see somebody that's missing a leg or a hand or something here in the refugee camp, he says, I have to wonder, maybe I'm the one that did it to them.

And while he's forgiven, yet those things, you know, still are there. There's not condemnation. There's not necessarily guilt. But there's still a consequence for the sins that we've done in the past.

God has put our sins on Jesus. And when we believe in Jesus, our sins are forgiven. Saul in the New Testament, after Jesus was raised from the dead and went back to heaven and the church began to grow, Saul was a Jewish leader and he was against the Christians and against that way.

And anyone who believed in Jesus, he was out to persecute them. He was out to kill them. He put many people in prison and he killed many people. Yet when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, when Jesus appeared to him in a bright light, his life was changed and his sins were forgiven.

This man had killed people. God is able to forgive us when we kill people. But yes, there are some consequences. Paul talks about that later on. There's also a verse in 1 Timothy 5, 24 that says, some men's sins are open beforehand.

Some men, they open their sin. They open it up their heart and they reveal the sins of their lives. And those sins, it says, some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment. And we have the opportunity to open our heart, open our sins and take them to judgment before the judgment day.

And then it says, some men, they follow after. And people who have hidden sin, people who are hiding something in their lives, that sin just follows them everywhere they go and everything they do, that sin follows them.

And when they die, that sin will follow them. When they go to judgment, that sin will follow them and it will condemn them on judgment day. And so we want to keep ourselves completely clean and clear.

Hidden Sin Among Those Raised in Christian Homes

Now, when I look at this congregation, I see a lot of younger generations. And most of you, including all the children, have had opportunity to be raised in a Christian home. Your parents have probably done the best they knew how to save you from a lot of evil and wickedness.

And that's a great blessing. But you know, even in that situation, even though you've been very protected, you may still have things which you've done that you are ashamed of and are hiding and are covering up.

What would it be like to live your whole life with a big sin hidden somewhere? I'll tell you another story. I don't have all the details. It doesn't really matter that much. But the lesson we can learn, four young men went on a hunting trip many years ago, maybe 80 years ago or so.

They were kind of living it up. On that hunting trip, they got in trouble. And a game warden or a sheriff caught them for what they were doing. I don't know what they did, but they injured the man and left.

A little while later, they decided to go back and see how the man is doing and he was dead. And then they went home. I don't know how far away it was. Might have been several states. But they never got caught by the law.

They never got caught by the law. And those men, young men got married, raised families, never opening that thing up. One of the men in his older years couldn't live with himself anymore, so he took his life.

Two of them were brothers. One of those brothers couldn't live with himself anymore. And his older age took his life. The other brother was a bishop, older man. His son found him hanging in the barn one day.

Three of those four men took their lives. And the fourth one, on his deathbed, confessed what they'd done. Some men, their sins follow after them. Some men's sins are open before him. If I want to live for Jesus, if Jesus is my life and my everything, how can I live for him?

How can I focus, like John said here this morning, what if there's something I'm hiding in my life? And I really want to follow Jesus, but what if there's something so big, something I'm just thinking I can't ever confess it.

I would be too ashamed. Where do you think the focus of that person's life will be? His focus will be on his sin. He cannot get away from that. But all the joy and the blessing of opening up and confessing.

Now, I'm not talking about if you, you know, I'm thinking of major sins. There are smaller sins. There are sins of ignorance, according to what the Bible says. You didn't know it was a sin or you didn't realize it happened, you know.

And when it comes to your memory, then you go and make a sacrifice. But there were sins in the Old Testament that there was no sacrifice for. If you committed that sin, you were worthy of death. And really, we are worthy of death.

Every sin has to be punished. But Jesus took our punishment away. He took that upon himself and we can be free. And so I just want to encourage our hearts here today. In the days we live, how will I stand?

How will I be free? Turn with me to Psalm 64 for a few closing thoughts. I know I've probably mentioned this chapter before, these Psalms. But do you believe that all the things, all your sins get written down in God's book?

Is that right? There's a record being kept of everything that you do, everything you've done. All the records are there. This goes back to every day, every moment of your life. All the records are there.

God knows they're there. You've probably forgotten a lot of them. But Satan also has access to some of your records. If your records are not, if your sin is not covered by the blood, then Satan has access to see those things.

And if he finds those things in your life that have never been confessed, never been repented of, he has an open door into your life to bring devastation to you, your family, your business, your children, your grandchildren, and so forth.

Psalm 64 and Spiritual Warfare Against Accusation

Let's just read Psalm 64, our first couple of verses. This is, again, David praying for deliverance from his enemies. And David's enemies were human beings. Our enemies today are not human beings. Our enemies today are Satan and all his evil spirits.

Listen to what they do. Hear my voice, O God. In my prayer, preserve my life from fear of the evil. Fear of the enemy, fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked. So we see that the wicked, the enemies, they are having counsel.

They talk together from the insurrection, the workers of iniquity, again, the evil ones. And what do they do? Verse three, they sharpen their tongue like a sword. They bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words.

Where do bitter words come from? Bitter words come through people whom Satan is using. And Satan uses those bitter words and he shoots those into the heart of the upright that they may shoot in secret at the perfect.

Suddenly, do they shoot at him and fear not. We know how Satan comes and he attacks, he accuses us and you're this and you're that. But if our sins are covered, then Satan has no right and has no ground, has no power.

And we say, Satan, go away. I'm not listening to you because I already confessed those things. And my father has forgiven me. And my father has already paid for them through the blood of Jesus Christ, his son.

But if we have sin, hiding sin, Satan can come and use that to attack us in our mind, in our heart. They encourage themselves, verse five, in evil matter. They commune of laying snares privately. And they say, who shall see that?

If you could just picture Satan and his evil spirits planning together to set snares and traps for you to fall. This is what they do. They want you to fall. And what else do they do? They search out iniquities.

They accomplish a diligent search. Both the inbred thought of every one of them and the heart is deep. And so Satan takes the record, it seems like he has access to the record of your life. And he searches through diligently and he searches to find out, is there anything in this person's life that is unconfessed sin?

And if he finds that unconfessed sin in your life, then he has access to you and say, remember the chicken type of thing. Remember what you did back there. And you're like, hang your head. But I wanna encourage all of us to consider the freedom that comes when we confess.

And we open up, we say, I'm guilty. I did do wrong. I have sinned against God. I have sinned against this person. Maybe it's my brother in the church. Maybe it's my dad. Maybe it's my mom. Maybe it's my wife or my husband or my children.

And this is where we can walk in the freedom that Jesus gives. And when my heart is clean, then he becomes the vision of my life. And my life is him. My life is Jesus. And that's what I want for each of you.

I want each one of us to be able to have that kind of life in Jesus. And this is the, one of the first steps is to be clean and to give yourself to walk with him, to know him and to follow him. Let's pray.

Prayer for Clean Hearts and Freedom Through Christ

Our Father in heaven, I thank you that you've sent your son Jesus and you put all the sins of the world upon him. He willingly took our sins to the cross where he suffered and where he died to pay with blood the sins of the whole world.

And I believe that and I receive it, Lord. But then Father, you raised him from the dead to prove him to be victory, the victor over sin. Death and hell and over Satan. And today, Father, I can walk in freedom and I can walk with Jesus because of a clean heart.

Father, I pray for clean hearts today. Truly, Lord. Oh, I pray, Father, you would not, if there's anyone listening to this message, I pray that they would allow the Spirit of God to bring to the surface any unconfessed sin, any darkness, anything that's covered, bring them to light.

I thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. And no, you don't need a priest to go confess your sins to. First of all, you confess them to God. But it does say confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.

Confessing Sin to God and to Those We Have Wronged

There's real power. And so if some people, they go to God and they just wanna pray to God because they're ashamed to open their sins up to anyone else. So they just beg God to forgive them, but they never, but oftentimes, they don't have a real sense of forgiveness and peace because it's still covered.

My brother, my sister, my dad, my mom, they still don't know what happened. I'm still hiding it. If I'm still hiding it, then I'm not clear and free. But I would say each one of us needs to go to whatever length it takes to make sure that I'm not covering it.

If I want to get married, I want to have a clean and pure relationship. If I hide anything from my spouse, it will divide and bring darkness. So may God bless each one of you. Be thou my vision. Oh Lord, my life.

Thank you.