25 "The Catalyst for Dealing with Sin" Numbers 25:1-18 | Thursday, March 26, 2026

Let's take our Bibles and go to Numbers

25.

Numbers 25.

And uh once you found your place, you

can stand and we'll give honor to

reading God's word together from our

text in Numbers 25:18 verses. We'll read

Numbers 25:18

the entire chapter. or once you've found

your place there, I want to just begin

reading from Numbers 31 because it will

help establish the context of what's

going on here.

So, we'll be in Numbers 25, but let's

look first at Numbers 31.

Just one verse here. Numbers 31:16.

Numbers 31:16

It says, "Behold, these caused the

children of Israel through the council

of Balum to commit trespass against the

Lord in the matter of Peor, and there

was a plague among the congregation

of the Lord." You can lose your place

there. I point that out because Balam is

not mentioned in our text. But what

we've seen these last few weeks is that

Bailac, the king of Moab, hired Balum to

curse Israel. And he was unsuccessful.

Every time he tried, no matter where he

stood, no matter which part of the

congregation he was looking at, he could

not curse Israel because God had

declared them blessed.

So Balum counseledled Bailac and the

Moabites.

There is one way to turn God against

Israel and that is to entice them to

immorality

and idolatry. And so he counsels them

them to do this. And so I want to set

that context because this is going to be

wild coming right off the mountain where

God has declared his blessing on these

people.

and it comes crashing down very quickly.

But there's some context to that. Now,

let's look at Numbers 25:1.

Numbers 25:1

And Israel abodeed in Shidam, and the

people began to commit whoredom with the

daughters of Moab. And they called the

people unto the sacrifices of their

gods. And the people did eat and bow

down to their gods. And Israel joined

himself unto Baal Peor. And the anger of

the Lord was kindled against Israel. And

the Lord said unto Moses, "Take all the

heads of the people, and hang them up

before the Lord against the son, that

the fierce anger of the Lord may be

turned away from Israel." And Moses said

unto the judges of Israel, "Slay ye

everyone his men that were joined unto

Baal Peor. And behold, one of the

children of Israel came and brought unto

his brethren a Midionitish woman in the

sight of Moses and in the sight of all

the congregation of the children of

Israel who were weeping before the door

of the tabernacle of the congregation.

And when Phineas the son of Eleazar the

son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose

up from among the congregation and took

a javelin in his hand and went after the

man of Israel into the tent and thrust

both of them through the man of Israel

and the woman through her belly. So the

plague was stayed from the children of

Israel. And those that died in the

plague were 24,000.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

Phineas the son of Eleazar, the son of

Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath

away from the children of Israel, while

he was zealous for my sake among them,

that I consume not the children of

Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say,

Behold, I give unto him my covenant of

peace, and he shall have it and his seed

after him, even the covenant of an

everlasting priesthood, because he was

zealous for his God, and made an

atonement for the children of Israel.

Now the name of the Israelite that was

slain, even that was slain with the

Midionitish woman, was Zimra, the son of

Salu, a prince of a chief house among

the Simeonites. And the name of the

woman, Midionite woman that was slain

was Cosby, the daughter of Zur. He was

head over a people and a chief house in

Midian. And the Lord spake unto Moses,

saying, "Vx the Midianites, and smite

them, for they vex you with their ws,

wherewith they have beguiled you in the

matter of Peor, and in the matter of

Cosby, the daughter of the prince of

Midian, their sister, which was slain in

the day of the plague, for Peor's sake."

And what we read from verse chapter 31

was that vexing of the Midionites. It

was when God's vengeance was issued out

justly on those who played their role in

deceiving Israel in this matter. So what

you see is this. Israel is deceived yet

they are judged. And the ones who

deceived them are also judged. Therefore

God is just to all who sin. Now, we're

going to focus specifically tonight on

the action that Phineas takes in this

text. And so, the title of our our

sermon tonight is the catalyst for

dealing with sin. The catalyst for

dealing with sin. May God bless his

word. You can be seated. And we'll

consider this text tonight.

When I worked at the Sherno paint

company for 10 years, did a lot of

commercial work with epoxies.

And uh the the epoxies were very a very

hard finish. And so you would use them

on industrial railings or garage floors

and even airport hangers is what we uh

used a lot of epoxy on. and getting that

that hard finish, it requires a

particular chemical reaction that is

caused by a catalyst. And so when we

sold these paints, they would often have

a part A and a part B. And sometimes it

was a gallon to gallon ratio, sometimes

it was a a quart of catalyst to a gallon

of product. And so you have this this

part A and part B. Now, if you take the

part A and you brush it out on the floor

by itself, it's never going to dry.

Never. And so, it'll come off the floor

in sheets. It'll stick to everything

that touches it and it's just a mess.

Did we ever have painters who forgot to

mix the catalyst? Yes, we did. And it

was an absolute disaster for them to try

to get that product off the floor. It

was just a sticky mess. But when you

take the catalyst and you mix it with

it, it causes this chemical reaction

that accelerates the dry time and causes

it to dry ultra hard. Hard enough to

handle even airplane traffic. Catalysts

cause reactions.

And just as catalyst causes a reaction

in epoxy, there is a catalyst that

caused Phineas to react the way he does

in this text. Balam counsels the

Moabites to seduce Israel into gross

immorality and idolatry so that God will

turn against them. And Israel swallows

that bait, hook, line, and sinker. And

what happens is God's wrath comes

against them. And God orders the princes

of Israel to go and slay every person

that has joined themselves to the

Moabitete god Baal Peor. But not just to

kill them, but to then impale them and

hold them up in the air in the sight of

God against the sun is what it says.

What this is is a public display that

those of you who break God's covenant

and sin against him like this, the

sentence for you is death.

And right in the middle as the order is

going out, this man, this prince of the

Simeonites brings a daughter of the

prince of the Midianites

directly by the house of God in Moses's

sight and in the sight of the people.

And he takes her to the tent of his

brethren to do what you could only speak

of

in dark places.

It's wicked.

But while the rest of the congregation

is weeping at the tabernacle door,

something takes place within Phineas

that moves him to rise up and take a

javelin in his hand and to go into the

tent and to kill them both.

And we look at a reaction like this and

we almost feel like it's harsh, like

it's an over reaction. And yet what we

read in the text is that it is a

reaction that God says made atonement

for sin. a reaction after which God

commends Phineas and gives him a

covenant of an everlasting

priesthood.

His action stopped a plague among the

people.

The emphasis of this particular chapter

is really placed on what led Phineas to

take decisive action

against sin.

That's really what it's about. That

there was a particular catalyst that

accelerated his decision in this moment

to take drastic action against this sin.

The reason that matters to you and I

tonight is because as New Testament

believers, we too are called to take

decisive action

against sin. We are called to deal

decisively with it. Now, we all

recognize that just because we are

blessed in Christ, as we've seen over

the last several weeks, it doesn't mean

that none of us will ever sin again. It

doesn't mean that any of us are perfect.

We're simply forgiven. And so that means

that we all know that while we strive to

be like Jesus, we will always fall

short. And so what really matters is how

we deal with sin when it comes.

Do we tolerate it? Do we sweep it under

the rug?

Or do we take decisive action in our

lives personally?

You see what about at church even

in a world where everyone is a sinner?

It's easy for us to sympathize with

sinners because we are one of them.

So, we don't feel qualified

to be a judge or to take action against

anyone's sin, to confront anyone,

because I know I've got holes in my own

life. That's often how we feel. And yet,

what scripture calls us to do is not to

sympathize with sinful man, but to

sympathize with a holy God, a God who

knows no sin, a God who can't identify

with sin because he never has sinned.

Yet he calls us to stand with him and

not with sin.

And so

when sin gets into the camp, we are

called to take decisive action. Now, not

the same way that Phineas did.

That's not what we're talking about.

Taking javelins to church members' homes

because of their sin. That's not what

we're talking about.

uh but we do want to take decisive

action with the same spirit with which

Phineas did.

And so just as there was a catalyst that

caused Phineas's reaction,

there is a catalyst that causes us to

react decisively

towards sin. And that's what I hope to

show you from this text tonight is what

it was that caused this reaction. And

that should cause us not to tolerate sin

in our lives or in our church, but to

deal decisively with it. We clearly see

that God is angry with Israel because of

their sin.

Whordedom with Moab led Israel to commit

spiritual adultery with Baal Peor, the

god of the Moabites. It says in verse

number one, Israel abodeed in Shidam and

the people began to commit whoredom with

the daughters of Moab. This is just the

beginning. That tells us this is going

somewhere. But this is where it started.

They began to take the Midianite women

to themselves, which was strictly

forbidden in the law. They were only to

marry within the nation because and this

is what God said back in Exodus that

their their daughters will turn your

hearts against your God and to their

gods. That was God's warning. And that's

exactly what happens in this text. They

began to commit whoredom with the

daughters of Moab. H whoredom is a word

that carries a wide swath of sexual

immorality. Fornication,

adultery, homosexuality,

prostitution, everything is included in

what this word whoredom means. And now

having joined up with the Moabitete

women, it says in verse two that they

call the people unto the sacrifices of

their gods. So they've married these

women or they've brought these women

into a polygamous relationship with

their wives. There's all kinds of

grossness coming on. And now the

Moabitete women are saying, "Hey, why

don't you come sit with us and check out

our sacrifices?" And so they go, but

then it doesn't stop there. It says

there in verse number two that the

people did eat. The word sacrifices

is that word for the communal covenantal

sacrifices. This means they were sitting

down and eating a meal of communion to

make a covenant with this God. And

therefore it says at the end of verse

two, bowed down to their gods.

This sin has spread widely and it has

escalated quickly and it has profained

God's name because in verse number three

it says Israel joined himself under Baal

Peor. Baal Peor is the God of the

Moabites. This word joined is the idea

of a yoke. The wooden yoke that you put

around two animals necks that the the

plowman you holds on to the res from

that and they work together. That what

this is saying is they took the yoke

covenant they had with God and they cast

it off and they put on a yoke with Bale

Peor. And now they who have been called

and sanctified as a holy people and a

god have profained the name of their god

by joining up with this other god of

evil and wickedness. And thus it says in

verse number three, the anger of the

Lord was kindled against Israel.

God tells Moses, "Send the heads of the

people to go and bring the people and to

kill them because of this and then to

hang their bodies up as a testimony that

if you go this way, that will be your

sentence." And the sentence would be

death. The only thing that can turn away

God's wrath from sin is the sentence of

death.

Why God is fiercely angry with their

sin.

Sin

God still gets angry with it today.

Why? For the same reasons. Sin spreads,

doesn't it? Israel, this I'm sure this

started with just a few people, but it

quickly spread to where over 24,000 died

by a plague.

Sin, if you tolerate it, spreads like a

contagious disease, plaguing everyone

who touches it. Because sin can spread

into your marriage. It can spread down

to your children. It can even spread

throughout a church. Sin spreads, but

also sin escalates.

What we notice is this clear escalation

from whoredom to sacrifice to covenant

to idolatry.

And in our lives personally, sin often

follows the same escalation. Sexual sin

often starts with pornography and it

escalates to fornication, adultery,

homosexuality. And when none of that

satisfies, it escalates further into all

forms of wicked deviance. That's how it

goes.

Addiction can often start with a little

bit of tobacco and then it can you you

go after dabble a little bit in

marijuana and in shrooms and soon enough

that hit is not strong enough and that's

when people make their way to ecstasy

and to opioids and to heroin and cocaine

and meth and fentinol. It it's a buildup

of resistance. Why? Because sin

escalates in our lives.

Often times

a little irritation between you and your

spouse

can escalate into harsher words and

escalate into greater volume and

escalate into abusive language. Sin

spreads and sin escalates. But listen,

sin profains God's name among his

people. When you identify as a Christian

or when you are a pastor or Christian

influencer, your and your sin goes

public. It profains the name of God and

it leaves a nasty taste about God in the

mouths of the lost. just today came

across my news feed on Fox 31 that out

in Fort Lutton there was a man who

served on the nursery ministry there who

is arrested at church for 25 counts of

assault on a child

25

that started somewhere

sin escalates

and when it escalates among God's people

it profains God's name. God takes it

seriously and so must we see. Sin

spreads. It escalates. It profaines

God's name. And therefore, God is justly

angry about it.

Because God is just and holy, sin must

be dealt with.

And the kind of decisive action that God

called for in this text is the kind of

decisive action that Phineas takes.

You get a picture here that Phineas's

heart is after God's heart

because what happens is this this

command has gone forth to kill the

guilty

and no sooner than the the order has

gone out. People are at the tabernacle

and they are weeping because of the

death that is spreading through them.

The plague because of the sin because of

the defilement of God's people and God's

tabernacle. Moses and the and the

congregation that is not guilty in this.

They are drawing near to the tabernacle

of the Lord. And the Bible says in verse

number six, "And behold,

when you see the word behold in the

Bible, it means,

look at this. Can you believe this?

Watch this." And it tells us according

to verses 14 and 15 that this prince

among the Simeonites, one of the tribes

of Israel, that he brings a daughter who

was of a prince in Midian and brings her

right by the tabernacle in the sight of

Moses in the sight of congregation to

the tent of his brethren to do what can

only be interpreted as wicked

immorality.

perversion

and as this I mean think about this

blatantly

unashamedly

openly walks by the house of God where

the glory of God is hovering above it

and the people of God are weeping at its

door and he goes highhandedly right in

front of them all and brings this woman

to the tent of his family and it's at

this point something began to well up

with Infinineas.

And he, it says, he rose up. He rose up

and he took a javelin in his hand and he

went after them into the tent. And in

the act of sin itself, he struck the

javelin through them and through him and

through her through her womb, through

her belly. And it says at the end of

verse number uh eight, the plague was

stayed from the children of Israel.

Nevertheless, those that died in the

plague were 24,000.

See, the fact that the plague was

stopped from going any further tells us

that Phineas's decisive action turned

the Lord's wrath away from Israel.

Why did Phineas take such decisive

action

when everyone else was weeping at the

tabernacle?

What was going on in him that caused him

to rise up javelin in hand and take

action against this sin? In verses 10

through13,

what we find is the Lord commends

Phineas specifically

for his zeal. Would you look at verse

10? And the Lord spake unto Moses.

Chapter 25:10.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of

Aaron the priest, hath turned away my

wrath from the children of Israel. while

he was zealous for my sake among them

that I consumed not the children of

Israel in my jealousy. God has revealed

himself time and time again to be a

jealous God. When we look at jealousy, a

lot of times we're thinking about, you

know, college age kids and this guy gets

jealous over this girl that he wants to

go out with cuz his friend wanted to go

out with. That's not the kind of

jealousy we are talking about. God

rather is like a jealous husband whose

bride has been enticed by another lover

whose bride has been assaulted by

another lover whose whose wife that's

how he refers to Israel he has made this

covenant relationship with them and he

is as their husband and they are as his

bride and he is very jealous for them

that is why God tells them to vex the

Midianites at the end of the chapter

after is because they are a a other

lover who has enticed Israel into a

spiritually adulterous relationship with

their God.

But Phineas

has a burning zeal for God that moved

him to take dramatic and decisive action

that turned God's wrath away from

Israel. And so, you know what God does?

He makes a covenant with Phineas. It

says in verse number 12, "Wherefore say,

behold, I give unto him my covenant of

peace, and he shall have it and his seed

after him, even a the covenant of an

everlasting priesthood." And so God is

now promising to this man who turned

away God's wrath by making this

atonement. He is promising that his seed

being a a grandson of Aaron will forever

have the high priesthood.

That's a tremendous honor among the

nation of Israel. Why does God bestow

such honor upon him? It says because he

was zealous for his God and made an

atonement for the children of Israel.

Made an atonement for the children of

Israel.

See, the catalyst that led to Phineas's

decisive action

was a burning zeal for God.

See, Phineas's zeal for God led him then

to deal with sin.

And and God's wrath can only be turned

away by dealing with sin because God is

holy and God is just. So, he can't just

overlook sin. He can't just let it go

because then he would not be just. He

would not be holy. Sin must be dealt

with. And the punishment for sin is

death and then eternal judgment in hell.

Unless

unless there is a priest who is zealous

for God who rises up to make atonement

for sin. And just as Phineas's zeal led

him to decisively deal with sin, there

was another priest whose zeal led him to

deal decisively with sin. And that is

the Lord Jesus Christ. Because you'll

remember that after his triumphal entry

into Jerusalem, Jesus goes to the temple

and he sees the money changers extorting

the people, turning the father's house

into a house of merchandise. And

something welled up within the son of

God that caused him then to take a whip

in his hand and to go into the temple

and to flip over the money tables and to

crack that whip and to chase those

religious leaders out of the Lord's

house. And it's at that point that the

disciples remember that it was said of

the Messiah in Psalm 69:9, "The zeal of

Psalms 69:9

thine house hath eaten me up."

It was the zeal for God that led Jesus

to cleanse the temple to take decisive

action. But listen, the same zeal that

consumed Jesus in the temple then

carried him to the cross because it was

his zeal for the father's glory that led

him to suffer and bleed and die on that

cross to deal with all of our sin once

and for all so that the gospel might go

to all the nations and that all people

everywhere might be forgiven of their

sin and redeemed and then give their

worship to God alone. It was the zeal

for his father that consumed him in the

temple and carried him to the cross to

make an atonement for our sin. He dealt

with it once and for all on that cross.

The zeal for his father's glory led him

to deal with our sin on the cross. And

so I want to say to you that before you

and I can ever deal with sin in our own

lives, they must be dealt with once and

for all on the cross. When you believe

Jesus died for your sin and rose again

and you confess your faith in Jesus

Christ, God then considers your death

sentence to be served by Jesus. That's

his grace. And when you trust in him, he

credits you with righteousness. And he

no longer sees your sin because your sin

was dealt with once and for all at the

cross. Jesus made atonement. But listen

very carefully. For that atonement to be

applied to you. You must believe on him.

You must accept his payment for your sin

by faith.

Once you have done that, once you have

trusted Christ, once your sin has been

dealt with on the cross, Jesus then

frees you not only from sin's penalty,

but from sin's power in your life. That

is why the apostle Paul said in Romans

Romans 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, "Let not therefore sin reign

in your mortal body." That you are no

longer the servants of sin. Christ broke

the chains of sin to free you to live

righteously before him. He made you a

new creature. Therefore, old things are

passed away. All things are become new.

He took out your heart of stone and put

in a heart of flesh. He gave you his

Holy Spirit who causes you to walk in

God's ways, to keep God's commandments,

and to live for God's glory. Friends,

that is the power that Christ has given

you through faith in him. He dealt with

sin's penalty and he freed you from

sin's power. And now if you walk in sin,

it is only because you choose to.

It's no longer your master.

And so the catalyst then

to deal with sin

is a burning zeal for God's glory. The

same thing that was true for Phineas is

true for us. that it is a zeal for God

that will lead you to deal with sin.

It's a zeal for God. That zeal that

consumed Jesus in the temple and the

zeal that carried Jesus to the cross is

the same zeal that he calls for among

his people. In Revelation chapter 3,

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Jesus writes to the indifferent,

apathetic,

lukewarm church from Leodysia

and he corrects them and he calls them

to buy from him to seek from him to look

to him and they finishes with this

command. Be zealous therefore and

repent.

He calls them not to let sin be

tolerated, not to let it fester beneath

the surface of their church, but he

called them to rise up like Phineas did

with this great zeal and to repent of

it, to do away with it, and to turn back

to Jesus Christ.

That's what he calls the church to do.

And so I want to say that if a church,

if a Christian or if a church ever

becomes tolerant of sin, it is because

it lacks a zeal for God.

And that's true for me and it's true for

you. If we ever grow comfortable with

tolerating sin, we must check our zeal

because we know that our zeal is not

there.

What we need to understand is because

Jesus's zeal for God led him to deal

with our sin that we should have a

burning zeal for God's glory that leads

us to deal zealously and decisively with

our own sin. It should lead you to take

drastic action when drunkenness has

overtaken your life. that yes, it starts

with getting on your knees before God in

repentance to acknowledge that that

alcohol has been my master for far too

long. But don't be content to weep at

the tabernacle's door. It's time to rise

up and take action, to pour the bottle

down the drain, to seek some counseling,

to get involved with a group, to try to

get victory over that. You got to take

drastic action and deal decisively with

it. Friend, if you have struggled with

pornography or sexual sin, you need to

come clean first before God, but you

need to take drastic action in your

life. You need to you need to get some

accountability in your life. You need to

come clean, whether it's before your

spouse or before a close godly influence

in your life or even if it's before your

pastor, and seek counsel to get through

that. God's plan for your life is not to

indulge yourself and apologize and do it

again the next day. God's plan for your

life is to free you completely from it.

But I wonder how many who are enslaved

to sexual sin are willing to take

drastic action in their lives. How many

are willing to take the javelin to their

phone or to their computer? How many are

willing to to uh move out, to uh to to

come clean, to uh get help, to get an

accountability app on your phone or

something of that nature, but to deal

decisively with it, to not be content

living in this in this life of of of

saying, "God, I'm sorry. Please forgive

me." And then doing it again, and God,

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. And doing

it again. know to take drastic action

that will help free you completely from

it. If you have anger issues that you

know profains God's name at work or at

school or at home where people look at

your life and you identify as a

Christian and yet you're extremely

judgmental, you're extremely shortfused

and can snap like that.

It's time to take drastic action.

You need to acknowledge it's not just

how you've always been. It's not just

how you were brought up. No. No. When

Christ saved your soul, he freed you

from that.

But sometimes

we want what we want. Sometimes we're

more zealous about our sin than we are

about God's glory. And that's when we

know something isn't right.

when I'm content

to just tolerate it.

I've lost my zeal for God.

If we're ever tolerant of sin, if we're

ever unwilling to deal decisively with

it, we need to check our zeal. Let me

say that I am zealous and jealous for my

wife.

If a man tries to entice her, allure

her, assault her, or harm her, how do

you think I'm going to respond to that?

I'm going to rise up and I'm probably

going to take something like a javelin

in my hand and I'm going to go after

them with everything that I have. Why?

Because I love her. Because I'm zealous

for her. Listen, God is jealous over you

with a great jealousy. Why? His only son

gave his life to redeem your soul from

the very sins that have bound you for so

long. And God loves you and brought you

to himself. And he made this new

covenant with you. And he's promised you

eternal life. And he wants to fellowship

with you. He wants you to experience

closeness with him. And what he sees in

your life is that something,

another lover,

another sin is enticing you, alluring

you, harassing you, and assaulting you.

And God is jealous over you. And that's

why he sent his son Jesus. But I wonder

how many of us are zealous

for him. How many of us have such a

burning zeal for God that leads us to

decisive action in our lives?

What about in our church as well?

Well, a burning zeal for God's glory

should lead us to deal decisively with

sin in the congregation as well.

I'm concerned that in our day and time,

too many churches are too content to

tolerate sin,

to never confront it among its people.

And the reason why is because we have

this tendency to sympathize with sinners

because we are among them. But God calls

us to be zealous for his glory. He calls

us to align ourselves and to sympathize

with the violation of his holiness. How

crude would it be when somebody has

harmed a child that we would do

everything that we can to try to defend

their rights

instead of the child. And yet, how many

times when God is so harmed and offended

by our sin that we don't care about him?

And yet, that's what many churches do.

But what the scripture calls us to do is

to align with God.

It goes without saying that we will not

deal with sin just as Phineas does.

Again, we're not calling for vigilante

Christians to hunt down members at their

homes with javelins and torches in hand.

That's not what we're talking about. But

it's called church discipline. See, we

as a church, people have a hard time

delineating between this. You see, in

the Old Testament covenant, all of this

like cutting off and putting to death

and all that, the law establishes that

the wages of sin is death.

But the New Testament reveals to us that

the gift of God is eternal life through

Jesus Christ our Lord. Why? Because

Jesus served the death sentence for us.

Therefore, we do not have the right in

and of ourselves to take justice into

our own hands. He's given us a justice

system to do that. But when it comes

within the congregation of God's people,

we are called to be zealous for God and

to confront sin for the sake of his

church's purity.

What Jesus teaches first is one-on-one.

That that church discipline is not just

bringing people before the church,

embarrassing them, shaming them, and

kicking them out of the church. That is

not what it's about. As well, when one

brother over here comes to one brother

over here and says, "Look, I love you,

man, but I saw the way that you went off

at your wife, and that was just wrong. I

realize how frustrating it gets, but you

got to understand she's a daughter of

God. That's not how you talk to her.

Nobody likes to be confronted, right? We

we like to, especially here in America,

we demand our rights. We demand our

freedoms. Don't judge me. You know, we

got all that going on. But yet Jesus

told us that if a brother offends, you

go directly to them and you say, "Hey,

that's wrong." It's it's when a sister

sees another sister coming out of a bar

in a drunken stouper and you call her up

and you go and visit with her and say,

"Hey, I I I know you're going through

some hard stuff, but I saw you come out

of the bar. Were you drunk?"

Because God calls us to sobriety.

And that's wrong. And when that person

repents in that moment, you have helped

them and you have helped maintain the

purity of the church.

If they don't repent, Jesus says to

bring one or two others and get involved

in that. And and if they still don't

repent, then you bring it before the

church. And if they refuse and they do

not repent, then you put them out of the

membership. You you cut them off. Why?

Because you're treating them as if they

are spiritually dead because they're not

living as if they're spiritually alive

in Christ.

If they repent,

you welcome them back. That's what the

Bible teaches. Church discipline is

about restoration. It shows believers

the way you're living is not okay with

God. He's still angry about sin. You're

not going to lose your salvation, but

you're sure acting like you don't have

it. So, how should we treat you like you

do have it? You need to get right. And

it helps that person to be accountable

to God to come and get right. And it

keeps the church pure.

Jesus called the church of Leo Leodysia.

Be zealous therefore and repent.

He calls us to that zeal. Zeal is the

catalyst that leads us to deal with sin.

But let me say to you that zeal can't be

mustered up on your own. You don't just

wake up one morning and say, "I'm gonna

be zealous for God today. My life's

gonna be completely changed. I'm never

going back to that sin. I'm gonna take

decisive action." You don't just wake up

one morning and have that zeal. You

can't fake zeal. Zeal must be

cultivated.

How do I cultivate zeal?

Phineas.

Why was he zealous?

This zeal did not come impulsively in

this moment. Who is Phineas?

He is the son of Eleazar who is the son

of Aaron the high priest. Now Aaron has

already died in the wilderness. His son

Eleazar

has become the high priest which means

Phineas is the son of the high priest.

And what that means is that Phineas as a

grandson of Aaron and a son of Eleazar,

he has spent the vast majority of the

last 40 years, I don't know how old he

is, but at least the last 40 years in

close proximity to the glory of God.

He has spent his days in the tabernacle

with the cloud right there.

He has spent his days going inside to

the holy place and preparing showbread

and mixing incense and burning it on

that altar and tending to the

candlestick. He has spent his time

blood splattered all over him because of

the sacrifices for sin. Phineas has been

in close contact with God and therefore

he has understood the cost of sin and

the magnitude of God's holiness.

And it was this day after day after day

cultivation

of this zeal for God. There's close

proximity to God.

And so I want to say to you today

that you cultivate zeal only through

close proximity to God.

It's when you spend daily consistent

time in prayer, in fellowship, in

worship, in reading his word, learning

about him, discovering more of him. It's

when you spend consistent time

confessing before him on your knees even

the littlest of sins in your life.

It is that kind of closeness to God that

cultivates a zeal for God that leads you

to deal with sin.

And so as a church, because God, because

the Lord Jesus zealously dealt with our

sin at the cross, may we zealously deal

with sin in our lives and in our church.

But that will only come

as we together

cultivate a closer relationship with

God. Let's pray. Father,

we're humbled by your grace to us in

spite of our sin, in spite of our

fallenness.

That you are jealous for us,

seeking to save us, deliver us from the

enticement and allurement of sin.

And we all are going to struggle with

it. And this is not a message that says

we can pick ourselves up by our own

bootstraps

and get it done and rid our lives of

sin. This is a power that is only

realized through the gospel.

We need the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse

us and to purify us from sin. And we

need to draw closer to you. That's the

best news about this is that if we are

in Christ,

we can cultivate this close relationship

with you if we will but draw near. And

so I pray for our church family tonight

that we would all recognize that we are

fallen, but our fallen nature doesn't

mean we should tolerate sin.

We need this zeal to deal decisively

with it. You know what your people need

tonight and I pray that we would humbly

respond in faith and obedience to you.

In Jesus name I pray. Hey.