A Reason Corporate Prayers Go Unanswered: Un-Confessed Sin

“Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin [is] a reproach to [any] people.” (Proverbs 14:34 NKJV)

Shall God’s church fly the flag of sin and expect anything from the Lord? What hypocrisy exists within the body that calls lost sinners to repentance and then ignores its own gangrenous sores? An infected limb would be severed from the body to sustain life, but open sin threatens to kill the church; and still men say, “It is a small thing.”

My friends, God does not think it is a small thing.

“Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, And sin as if with a cart rope; That say, "Let Him make speed [and] hasten His work, That we may see [it]; And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, That we may know [it]." Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:18-20 NKJV)

God forbid that His church would draw iniquity with vain cords until loaded down with such sin that a massive rope is needed to pull the wicked thing. Shall such things be true of God’s church? Oh! God forbid this evil. Smite the wicked heart that would allow this.

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. Again, when a righteous [man] turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous [man] that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.” (Ezekiel 3:17-21 NKJV)

God has said the watchman [the church by application] that does not sound the warning will have blood on his hands. Oh, friends, let us sound the horn. Sin is a reproach to any people. How dare we give reasons for the enemies of God to blaspheme the name of Christ!

Oh, pray that our churches will stand against sin lest we draw near some morning and find the word “Ichabod,” written on the wall to tell us the glory of God has departed (1 Samuel 4:21).

Let us draw near to God that He might draw near to us. Let us denounce sin, and lovingly seek to restore those snared thereby. To do otherwise is neither right nor safe.