Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out!

by David J. Stewart
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"But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out" (Num. 32:23).

       Most people have a misunderstanding as to what this Scripture really means.  Most people think it means, “Your sin will someday be found out” or “You won't get away with sin.” Of course, these statements are true; but, that is NOT what this particular Bible passage is referring to. We read in Luke 12:2, “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”

Nothing is hid from the presence of God. Proverb 15:3 proclaims, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Las Vegas is guilty of false advertising! They guarantee you that the sins you commit in Vegas will STAY IN VEGAS. Well, I have news for you, God is video-taping everything you do in Vegas! What HAPPENS in Vegas IS RECORDED in Heaven!!! God is NOT a pacifist, teddy-bear God, that looks the other way when we sin. No sir, God has promised to hold each and every one of us accountable for our selves (Romans 14:12; Ecclesiastes 14:12; Colossians 3:25). 

Whether saved or unsaved, we will all have our day in God's court. The difference is it will be as a criminal court for the unsaved, verses civil court for the saved. In criminal court you go to prison (the Lake of Fire); but in civil court you suffer monetary (reward) losses, reproach and God's anger. The unsaved will stand trial at The Great White Throne of Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15), and the saved will stand trial at The Judgment Seat of Christ (2nd Corinthians 5:9-11). 

So what does Numbers 32:23 mean? The Israelites were about to enter into the Promised Land. However, the tribes of Reuben and Gad didn't want to live in Canaan, and they informed Moses of this (Numbers 32:2). They had large herds of cattle, and saw that there was plenty of land on the east side of the Jordan River (Canaan, the Promised Land, was on the West side of the Jordan River). Moses was upset, and said that the rest of the tribes would be discouraged by their unwillingness to enter into the Promised Land. 

Moses also pointed out that they needed all the manpower in battle they could get, and couldn't afford not to have the tribes of Reuben and Gad fight in Canaan. So they asked Moses if they could remain on the East side of Jordan if they promised to help fight with the rest of the tribes for the Promised Land. Moses reluctantly agreed; but told them that if they didn't keep their promise... Their sin would find them out!

Notice carefully that Moses said in Numbers 32:23, “YOUR sin will find YOU out.” It is the sin we commit that will one day haunt us. This is what the verse means. Sin always leads to misery and regret. No mother who aborts her own precious baby can honestly say when she is old that she is glad she murdered her child. Sin always brings regret, bitterness, guilt, and resentment down the road. Mother's Day is a time of guilt for many would-have-been parents. Instead they are mothers of dead babies. I have spoken with countless people throughout my life, who have shared with me their regrets over sins committed when they were younger. 

One man confided to me that he was a drug-addict when he was younger, before he found the Lord. He said he remembered meeting a poor woman, who had little children, and needed money. He had never met the woman before. He propositioned her for prostitution. He told me that he was having sex with her shortly thereafter, on the couch, right in front of the woman's small children. He said that he had been so cold-hearted that he could have cared less. He told me how he used to get high on cocaine, and how each drug "high" was less spectacular than the previous. He began to weep as he told me how he regretted his life of sin, the people he had hurt, and the wasted years of his life he couldn't relive. 

I could share many such stories with you, and I'm sure you could likewise with me. The world is a sinful place. Certainly, all men and women are sinners. In fact, the most heinous and worst crimes being committed today are by children and young teens. Oh the consequences of sin! What price are you willing to pay for sin my friend? Sin will always take us further than we planned to go, cost us more than we intended to pay, and keep us longer than we wanted to stay! The Devil is a liar, thief and murderer—and he's the father of all liars, thieves and murderers the Bible says (John 8:44; 10:10). There are many liars, thieves and murderers in the world today whose father is Satan.
 

I Am The Biggest Sinner I Know (And So Are You If You're Right With God)

If you truly grow in the grace of God as a Christian and abide in the Scriptures, you will come to the place eventually where you'll think that you're the biggest sinner in town. The reason why is because as you draw nearer to our holy God, you will begin to see yourself more and more as a dirty sinner. Hebrews 12:29, “For our God is a consuming fire.” God's holiness exposes the awfulness of our sins. It is quite normal to feel nervousness for no apparent reason as you draw near to God's presence, for He is a holy God.

Here are some of the mightiest holy men of old in the Bible expressing the awfulness of their sinfulness...

James 2:10 teaches that to break even one of God's Commandments is equivalent to breaking ALL of them in God's sight. In other words, even one sin is enough to send a person to Hell for all eternity. That's why we need a Savior. His precious name is Jesus—Who died, was buried and rose again—to pay for our many sins. This is the Gospel (i.e., the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, 1st Corinthians 15:1-4). If you receive what Christ did as payment for your sins, then you'll be saved and spend eternity with the Lord in happiness and plenty.
 

Forgiveness For All Is Available Through The Blood Of Jesus Christ, The Lamb Of God

Here are some of my favorite Scriptures in the whole Bible, which I love and cherish...

Romans 8:32-24, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

He told me that he often wonders if he has any unknown children, because he had been a whoremonger for so long. He said that he often wonders if he has HIV, and is afraid to be tested. He said he felt guilt because he had taken advantage of the poor, when God had given him a good job. His life was so tragic! Years later, he became a Christian and knew that the blood of Jesus had cleansed all his sins away; but he still felt guilt over the people he had hurt. His sins found him out.

Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

Amen! We are reconciled and brought near to God BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST!!!
 

What Price Are You Willing To Pay For Sin?

Thankfully Jesus paid a debt that He did not owe, because we owed a debt of sin that we could not pay. But my friend, if you do not receive Christ's payment of the Gospel for your sins, then you must go to Hell for all eternity to pay for your own sins. The price is everlasting fire and damnation, separated from God and all the joys and splendors of Heaven.

Oh the consequences of sin! There are children all across the world who don't even know who their real fathers are, because the mother doesn't even know. Most people have never experienced young children, having the same mother, fighting with each other over who's daddy is the best. It is tragic! Satan always shows young people the neon lights, the glamour, the fame, the money, the fun, the good times... but the Devil wouldn't dare show you the TRUTH! The Devil won't take you into local emergency rooms all across the world, where people are dying because of sin. Satan shows people the gambling casinos, the beautiful woman, the booze, the money, and the thrills. 

What Satan doesn't show you is the little room in back of each gambling casino where your house, assets, and life are squandered away. The Devil is behind the neon lights of Las Vegas and New Orleans. The Devil shows us the beer-drinking man with a beautiful woman at his side. What the Devil won't show you is the battered wife, who's drunkard husband beats her. Oh the lie of sin. Be sure your sin will find you out!!! Sin will ALWAYS cost you more than you bargained, take you farther than you intended, and ruin your life faster than you could have ever imagined. 

The Word of God says that YOUR sin will find YOU out. There will come that time when the chickens come home to roost. What does that mean... “When the chickens come home to roost?” Remember Peter? Peter vowed that he would never deny Christ. Jesus told Peter that before the cock (adult male chicken) crowed 3-times that Peter would in fact deny Him (Matthew 26:34). Peter said, No way!  Peter did deny Jesus, and even cursed Christ's holy name. Peter hadn't given it a second thought until he heard those chicken's crowing the next morning. King David in the Old Testament killed a man, to hide an adulterous affair with the man's wife, that led to an unwanted pregnancy. 

David didn't think twice about the great evil he had done, until Nathan the prophet confronted him several months later.  The chickens came home to roost, and David's sins found him out. Oh the misery, defeat, and guilt David experienced. The “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).  There is a popular saying, “What goes around, comes around.” I don’t care who you are, or where you are, how you are, or when you are, your sins will find you out. The sins you commit will come back to haunt you one day. In the way that you sin, that is the way it is going to come home to you sometime. That is the meaning of this statement, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”

Job 15:16, “How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?”