The Sin Cycle

I remember when I was in college and I had gotten away from the Lord and sin brought me low. Do you know, friends, that sin can bring you low? And it was during the season of rebellion in my life that I first realized that my repeated problems were from the corrective hand of God. In fact, I was brought low with a physical injury that no doctor could help me with.

I had a back injury that no doctor could fix and it went on for nearly seven months. I went to chiropractors and osteopaths and all kinds of specialists, but like the woman with the issue of blood, they just emptied my pockets and I found no relief. And I remember at the time I got so desperate that I got out my Bible and I turned to the book of Job, and my eyes fell on these words.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the chastising of the Almighty, for he maketh sore and bindeth up, he woundeth and his hands make whole. Well, I got out a piece of paper and I copied down those words from Job and I took some scotch tape and I taped it to my bedroom wall so I could look at it every day.

I believe God was trying to get my attention by bringing me low because of my disobedience and sin. Has God ever done that to you, friend? Do you know what I'm talking about? My message today is found in the book of Judges. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter six. Let me read us the first verse of Judges chapter six because it speaks of the theme of my message today. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

The title of my message today, friends, is The Sin Cycle and it is in the book of Judges that recounts the sad events of Israel's apostasy. It was a time in Israel when every man was doing that which was right in his own eyes. Kind of like the age we are living in now where God is put on the back burner and man redefines sin so he can sin all he wants to.

The people of Israel had fallen into a sin cycle where God had to remind them again and again that he was the one true God because they repeatedly indulged in the idolatry and immorality of the Canaanites among whom they lived. It's kind of like today where a sinful society influences the church rather than the church influencing a sinful society. And because of their grievous sins and rebellion against God, we find the people of Israel in a cycle, a sin cycle from which they seemed unable to escape.

And this sin cycle looked like this. Israel falls into apostasy. God sends an oppressor.

Israel repents. God sends a deliverer. And then there is peace and prosperity for a time until Israel falls away again.

And this sin cycle repeats itself over and over again. And that's where we pick up our text in chapter six and in verse one. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Kind of like me with my back injury that lasted seven months while God was trying to get my attention. When our text says that Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, well, what does that mean? Well, these Canaanites had deities, Baal and Ashtaroth. And these idolatrous gods remained a problem for Judah until the Babylonian exile.

And it was only the 70 years in captivity that finally cured Israel of its idolatrous ways. The Canaanites had a complex system of polytheism, and they had community gods whose names differed from region to region. For instance, Baal was called Baal-Pior, Baal-Bareth, and Baal-Zebub.

It is for this reason that scripture describes Israel as serving Baal or Balaam. But the evil here mentioned in Judges 6-1 is a lot worse than you would suppose. The religion of the Canaanites was extremely corrupt.

That's why God didn't want his people mixing in with them. The evil practices talked about here involved the practice of human sacrifice, ritual, prostitution, homo, sexuality, and self-mutilation, similar to America today. And these religions in Canaan taught these perverted practices, which were prevalent among their gods as well.

So it's not surprising that the people became equally debased. And this happened to the Jews. This evil behavior brought them low, as sin always does.

So Israel fell into apostasy, much like many of our religious denominations today. So God sent an oppressor to them. Here in our text, it is the enemy of Israel, the Midianites, we see in Judges 6-6.

And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. We see this sin cycle elevate, and we continue to read in the following verse. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel.

I will stop there. In this case, God sends them Gideon, whose exploits of faith make them end up in Hebrews chapter 11 in the Hall of Faith. But nevertheless, Israel kept falling into apostasy time and time again, and they continued to repeat this cycle of sin.

Let me ask you, are you presently on a cycle of sin? Do you keep confessing the same sin over and over again, without ever making a clean break from it? When you fall into presumptuous sin, does God bring you low beneath his chastising hand? Do you cry out to him and he delivers you, only for you to fall away from him again? You can't break this cycle of sin on your own, friend, because the Christian life is impossible to live in the flesh. Only the enabling grace of the Spirit of God, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, can empower you so you can live above the world in sin. You must come to the Lord in heartfelt repentance, and throw down your idols and crush them there at his nail-pierced feet.

For when sin is exposed and self is executed, then the Holy Spirit can fill the overflowing and anoint with power. Listen, friend, ask God to give you the grace by his Spirit to live moment by moment beneath the cloudless sky in intimate fellowship with him. God says in Malachi, return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.

When we return to God and when we turn everything over to God, that's when a recurring sin cycle can be finally broken before Almighty God. Let us pray.