The Seriousness of Sin

Do you truly understand our God?  Do you understand His character?  If you've grown up in church, you've probably heard that God is love (1 John 4:8), God is good (Psalm 136:1), God is gracious and merciful (Psalm 145:8-9), and faithful (Lamentations 3:22-23).  But do you also know that God is righteous (Psalm 71:19), just (Deuteronomy 32:3-4), perfect (Matthew 5:48), and holy (1 Peter 1:16)?  Do you understand that he HATES sin?!  I know hate is a strong word, but this same God who is love and who is madly in love with all of us HATES sin.

Psalm 5:4-6 – For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

Psalm 11:5-7 – The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked. And the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.

Psalm 45:7 – You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of you above Your fellows.

I absolutely cannot stress this enough!!  Sin is such a HUGE deal with God!  If nobody has ever told you this before, please hear me well and really take to heart the words that I am writing in this blog.  Do you realize that because of the sin of Adam and Eve (which was disobedience by eating fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3), all of humanity became sinners?  One act of disobedience caused ALL of humanity to become fallen creatures living in a fallen world?!  That’s how holy and perfect God is...He absolutely cannot tolerate sin and Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden because of it, forced to leave the very presence of God Himself.

Sin leads to death (Romans 6:23).  This is how the serpent tricked Eve, leading her to believe that her disobedience surely wouldn't lead to death.  But God meant exactly what He said by “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).  Although Adam and Eve did not physically die the day that they disobeyed God, they did die spiritually, meaning that their spirits were no longer in perfect communion with God.  Also, physical death entered the world (Genesis 3:19). 

We inherited this sinful nature from Adam and Eve, and because of this we are born spiritually dead.  Yes your body is alive and well when you were born, but your spirit was separated from God’s Spirit because sin has separated us. 

Isaiah 59:1-2 – Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.  But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

If you’re a visual person, picture a field (even if you’re not a visual person, just go with me).  Standing on this field are Adam, Eve, and God.  They are able to spend time with one another, commune, and fellowship with one another.  I mean, it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL because nothing is hindering this perfect flow of communion between the Creator and His creation.  But then one day there is this massive earthquake, and the ground splits.  I don’t mean a little 6 inch split either...I’m talking a humongous divide...like 1 billion miles.  (This is just imagery to explain how sin separates us from God...I do realize that sin is so serious that a numerical value does no justice in explaining the seriousness of the matter).  Now Adam and Eve are on one side of the split, and God is on the other side of the split.  Do you see how that perfect communion has been broken?  The great divide that has separated man from his Creator is sin.

Now go with me a little further in this visual imagery.  Let’s make it personal....place yourself on that field.  You’re standing there trapped because of sin and its death grip on you...I mean you can’t move because you are in chains.  That is what sin does to you.  It appears enticing at first without consequences, but then once you get in, you realize that you are trapped.  You’re helpless.  You are absolutely HELPLESS.  Nothing you can do can bridge the gap between you and God.  Even in the midst of your chains, you try to be a good person and live a moral life, attend every church service possible, do community service, etc.  But do you realize that none of these things can save you?  

When you stand before the Holy and Righteous Judge on Judgment Day, none of those things have to power to save you from His wrath against sin?  How can anyone be saved from the wrath of God?  Do you remember how I just said you can’t save yourself?  But I know someone who can....and His name is Jesus Christ.  Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus, who is 100% God and equal with God, stepped out of heaven and became 100% man.

John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He humbled Himself all the way to the form of an infant, weak and vulnerable.  He walked among sinful men, yet in His lifetime on this earth He did not commit sin.  He lived a perfect life...the perfect life that we ourselves were not capable of living, and came to the earth with the purpose of dying for the sins of the world.  He was mocked, persecuted, slapped, spit at, and beaten, forced to carry the heavy cross, and then hung upon it with nails that were driven in His hands and feet.  He died upon that cross to pay the penalty for sins. 

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 – He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God sees sin just that serious that Jesus had to endure the cross.  It wasn’t enough for Jesus to just live a perfect life and then die a regular death....like pass away in His sleep or from illness.  He had to suffer the wrath of God in order to make the payment for sin...for my sins, for your sins, for the sins of the world.  He was CRUSHED when He drank the full cup of God’s wrath against sin....CRUSHED!!  Does that not bring you to a deeper level of fear and reverence for our Holy God?! 

Isaiah 53:5 – But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

Now let’s go back to that field that you are standing on in which you are in chains and shackles because of sin and separated from the presence of God.  Because of what Jesus Christ has done, you can be reconciled back to God.  You can be freed from the chains and grips of sin and reconciled with the Father.  That great divide in the field between God and You...well He filled that divide through Jesus Christ so that you have access to the Father.  Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and He is the only way to be reconciled to God.

John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

But you have a choice to make.  The payment for your sins has already been made.  You can choose to accept Jesus Christ and accept what He has done on the cross for you, or you can reject Him.  I won’t sugar coat this:  the penalty for rejecting Christ is eternal damnation, meaning you will spend eternity in the lake of fire.  Either we can choose to accept the work that Jesus did on the cross by accepting God’s full wrath against sin, which is God’s ONLY provision for man’s sins, or we can choose to face the wrath of God against sin by suffering eternally away from His presence in the lake of fire.  If you truly believe in the saving power of the Gospel and the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross to defeat sin, then you will repent from sin.  There is no salvation without repentance.  To repent means to turn away from, meaning you must turn away from your sins and turn to Christ.  You can cry, holler, shout, and whatever else in church, but unless you repent before God for your sins and turn away from sin, you are not saved.

Matthew 3:2 – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (John the Baptist speaking)

Matthew 4:17 – From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 10:9-10 - that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

When you accept Christ, your life changes.  He gets into your heart and starts changing you...starts taking out the things that are not like Him and the more time you spend with Him, the more His character begins to shine through You, You hear His voice, and He leads you through life.  The sins that you used to love and indulge in, you flee from it now because you realize that sin is so serious to God and you cannot practice sin and call yourself a Christian, a child of God.  You realize that if you continue in your sin, knowing that it is wrong, then you are of your father the devil (1 John 3:4-10).  You can’t still engage in pre-marital sex, lying, adultery, drunkenness, homosexuality, masturbation, pornography, or whatever else sin that you once loved.  You spend time with God daily, communing with Him through prayer and studying the Bible.  Your entire life begins to change and you’re renewing your mind with the Word.  The fruit in your life is the evidence of your salvation. 

Matthew 3:8 – Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;

Now if there is no fruit in your life, or nothing I have just said sounds familiar at all, please examine your heart to see if you have truly accepted Christ as your Savior and repented from your sins.

2 Corinthians 13:5 – Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!  Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you –unless indeed you fail the test?

Once you come to realize the seriousness of sin, you will flee from it.  Saying yes to Christ, means saying no to everything else.  You say no to that sin that once held you in bondage because Jesus defeated the power of sin, which is death, and out of your love for Him, you don’t want to grieve Him and sin against Him.  Living for Christ means obedience to His will, living a life of righteousness, purity, holiness, exhibiting His character.  You can’t do any of this in your own ability.  It is only because of Christ that I can continue pursuing Him.  It is only because of His power that the sins that once had me in chains, I am now free from!  I realize that without Christ, I am damned!

It is my earnest prayer that you read this blog and realize the seriousness of your sins and that you fall on your face in repentance to God, and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.  I pray that you develop an intimate relationship with God and spend time with Him daily, and also continue in the faith and endure until the end!  Time is running out, so please seek God while there is still time left!

Valentine's Day...Choose to Honor God!

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, I thought that it would be appropriate to post a blog about it.  You can't help but notice that Valentine's Day is approaching because since the day after Christmas, stores have been lining the shelves with teddy bears, other stuffed animals, flowers, candies, cards, gift baskets, etc.  For some, this day can't get here quick enough so that you can spend it with that special someone.  For others, this day can't pass quick enough because it is a sobering reminder that you are single.  For others, it may just be another day and you don't care one way or the other.  

Regardless of your situation, the point I want to make is this:  Do NOT let all this Valentine's Day hype cause you to stumble into sexual sin!!  Dinner, flowers, and candy shouldn't be the access code to your body.  Unless you are married to that man or woman, the only "cookies" you need to be giving up or getting need to be Pillsbury, Oreos, Tollhouse, or whatever your favorite brand is.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 to "Flee immorality.  Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price:  therefore glorify God in your body."  Fornication (pre-marital sex), adultery (sex with someone who isn't your spouse), masturbation, pornographic films and images....all that stuff is immoral!  You can't continue in sexual immorality and call yourself a Christian.  The lifestyle that we lead shows if we are truly following Christ or actually following the devil (1 John 3:4-10).  There are eternal consequences for choosing to continue in a lifestyle of sin!

We all sin (Romans 3:23), and sin is a major problem in God's eyes and it separates us from Him (Isaiah 59:1-2). Sin is what separated Adam and Eve from having perfect fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden.  Man's problem is that God is good (Psalm 136:1) and holy (1 Peter 1:16), and man is evil.  We are born evil and our hearts are naturally evil because of the sinful nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve (Psalm 51:5, Jeremiah 17:9).  Because God is perfect and holy, He hates ALL sin.  There is no degree of sin.  It's either perfection or sin, so there are no levels of sin.  God hates murder as much as he hates lying.  He hates abortion as much as he hates gossip.  Sin is detestable to Him and He absolutely HATES it! (Psalm 5:4-5, Psalm 11:5-7, Psalm 45:7)

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).  Think about it like this:  you go to work everyday and the wages that you receive is your paycheck.  You put in 40 hours and you receive what you earned.  Same concept with sin...just like work earns you your paycheck, sin earns death.  But the second part of Romans 6:23 says that the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Because sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, death also entered the world.  Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned"  

God's standard of perfection was not and WILL NOT be lowered.  Because God is a just and righteous judge, sin must be punished.  A price had to be paid for our sins, so Christ left a perfect heaven and took on flesh, lived the perfect life that we could not, died a criminal's death in perfect humility, all to pay the debt that we ourselves couldn't pay.

John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 Peter 2:24 - and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

2 Corinthians 5:15 - and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

2 Corinthians 5:21 - He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Romans 5:8 - But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

If sin was the origin of the problem in the beginning, can we continue leading a life of sin and call ourselves followers of Christ?  If we continue to choose to sin and do the things that God absolutely hates, willfully knowing that those things separate us from Him, then we are not Christians and are not following Christ, but are following the devil himself.  If a person isn't intentionally following Christ, they are following the devil.  God created us for fellowship with Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him.  However sin separates us from Him, and no sin is allowed in God's presence.  Sin was a problem so serious that Christ DIED for it...so if he died for it, does that make a person think that it is okay for them to live in it?  In order for us to have a relationship with God, we must confess our sins and repent.  Romans 10:9-10 says, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."  1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  (Also check out Psalm 32:1-5)

Repentance means to turn away from, meaning we must turn away from sin in our lives and turn to Christ.  He is our ONLY hope.  Basically, this means that you can't follow Christ and follow sin...that's like trying to go east and west at the same time...it's impossible.  The evidence of your salvation is seen in your lifestyle.  A person can walk down to the altar in church, shed big crocodile tears and sling snot everywhere, shake the preacher's hand, repeat some prayer or whatever, but if they are truly saved, the evidence is seen in the lifestyle they lead afterwards.  The proof is in the pudding!  A person can say they believe in God, God knows my heart, God loves me so He'll forgive me, or even abuse God's grace as an excuse to continue in sin.  But those who are God's children will continue in righteousness.  The evidence of salvation is seen in a changed lifestyle.  If evil is at the core of a person's heart, then sin is evident.  If Christ is at the core of a person's heart, then righteous living is evident.  The fruit in your life will show if you are truly saved or not (Matthew 7:17-20, Matthew 3:8, Matthew 12:33-37, Matthew 3:10).

Now back to Valentine's Day.  Ladies, Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price to redeem you and He purchased you with His life....His LIFE.  So giving up the "goodies" because some man bought you a $20 meal at Chili's, a bear, chocolates, and flowers shows that you don't know your worth.  Jesus bought you with His life and you're selling yourself for cheap just because some man said he "loves" you but won't wait until marriage to sleep with you?  If all it takes for a man to get in your cookie jar is to buy you a few items, then honey that's like prostitution! (Oh, but nobody wants to hear that)  Jesus paid a super high price for me, so what would I look like prostituting my body off to the highest  bidder who isn't my husband?  Fellas, if all it takes for you to give up your goods is for some girl to whisper to you sweet nothings, then you don't know your worth.  We gotta HONOR God with our lives and our bodies.  Sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend is not honoring God.  You're glorifying and honoring satan!  Imagine somebody gave you a 3 million dollar diamond, but then you turned around and sold it for $1...talk about devaluing.  We are more precious than that diamond because Christ died to purchase us, but when we sell ourselves short it's like we're selling ourselves for $1.  Know your worth and don't sell yourselves short!  If you gotta give up some sex to your boyfriend or girlfriend to prove you "love" them, then dump 'em and move on!  It's not worth it people!  Purity, holiness, and righteousness are still in order.  Just because the world tells you it's okay to live anyway, doesn't mean you should.  Go to God's Word and set your standards based off what He says!

New Year's Resolutions? No Thanks!

It’s the time of year once again when many will make resolutions to do this or that, and many of these resolutions won’t make it through the first week of the new year.  For others, this is “their year,” and we hear the popular phrase “New Year, New Me.”  This is the year that all those blessings and breakthroughs will supposedly come, and you’ll finally get that new house, car, or whatever material possession.  So let’s decree and declare all these blessing over our lives, right?  Name it and claim it?  Speak it into the atmosphere?  Well you won’t find one ounce of that nonsense in this blog.

Nothing will change in life just because the calendar year changed.  If a person walked out of 2012 and into 2013 with the same mindset, the same attitude, with the same problems, the same things will manifest in 2013.  The solution that we need isn’t to declare blessings and prosperity.  The resolution we need to make is simple:  Resolve to REPENT!!  You want the blessings of God, but you don’t live for God?  The answer is repentance, but nobody wants to hear about that right?  

How many people were in church last night praising, shouting, and hollering for New Year’s Eve and then left and went to the club to pop bottles?  Or how many left church last night saying “this is the year I get right with God,” but went home and continued in the same sin...sleeping with whomever the wasn’t your husband or wife, shacked up with a man or woman who wasn’t your spouse, got drunk, got high, cursing, acting foolish, or whatever?  Let’s get this one thing clear:  walking into a church building on NYE or every Sunday doesn’t make you saved, just as walking into a grocery store doesn’t make you full.  The evidence of salvation is repentance and a changed lifestyle.  To repent means to turn away from the sin in your life and choose to follow Christ.

Matthew 3:2 – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (NASB)

Imagine John the Baptist saying these very words over 2000 years ago.  Do you hear the urgency in these words?  John the Baptist was telling the people to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and Jesus Christ Himself was walking around on the earth at that time.  Imagine how much more urgency we need  to feel and take heed to this warning as over 2000 years have passed since the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior.  The days are truly evil, and Jesus Christ will return one day.  We all have a choice to make as to where we will spend our eternities.  Heaven and hell are real!  The decisions you make daily will show you where you are headed.

Matthew 7:21-23 – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (NASB)

No one wants to hear these words, but many will.  “I never knew you.”  How can we get to know Christ, if we have yet to forsake our sins, accept Him as our Savior, and truly live for Him daily?  How can we get to know God, but we never spend time with Him, never pray, and never study the Word?  Going to church every Sunday for 1-2 hours isn’t spending time with God.  God desires to spend time with us DAILY.  He wants us to spend time in prayer talking with Him and He wants us to study His Word.  How can we hear God’s voice if we don’t spend time with Him?  How can we know how to live our lives to please Him when we don’t know how, even though the answers are found in His Word?

Don’t waste time with these worthless resolutions, resolving to do this or that, when the only resolution needed is repentance.  Do you know where you will spend all of eternity?  Heaven or hell?  Is your salvation secure?  What are you trusting in for your salvation?  Is it any of the following:  good works, regular church attendance, being raised in the church, having family members who are preachers, b eing a “good” person, the fact that grandmama or mama was a Christian, etc.?  None of these things have the power to save anyone from sin, and none of these things can bring you to God.

The only faith and assurance that I have of my salvation is that Jesus Christ left a perfect heaven  to put on a body of flesh, lived a perfect life, died a criminal’s death, and was resurrected into new life to pay the punishment for all of our sins.  The Gospel isn’t outdated, out of style, or no longer relevant.  God STILL hates sin and loves righteousness, and our sin separates us from Him!!  

Our problem is that we were born sinners and we have a sinful nature (Romans 3:23).  The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)!!  Sin is so serious that the punishment is death!  Sin is such a big deal to God...there is no big sin or little sin.  Sin is sin, and it stinks to Him.  He hates it!  We must come to see sin for what it is...we must see sin the way God sees it.  Because He hates sin and loves righteousness, we must also hate sin and love righteousness.  Because of our sinful natures, we all deserve death and hell.  We all deserve to burn in hell, but Christ loves us all so much that He took on the sins of the world and took the punishment for our sins to pay the price that we couldn’t pay so that we might take on His righteousness and have eternal life (John 3:16, Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 53:6).  Imagine having a debt so large that you would never be able to pay it, even over the course of your lifetime.  But the debt collector was merciful and compassionate and paid the debt for you.  This is what Jesus Christ has done for us all!!

The price has already been paid for your salvation, but every person must decide for themselves if they will accept this gift.  You can’t just say you accept this gift, and then nothing changes in your life.  Remember we must hate sin and pursue righteousness.  So the evidence of salvation is seen in the changed lifestyle.  God hates sex outside of marriage (pre-marital sex which is fornication and extra-marital sex which is adultery), abortion, murder, hate, greed, covetousness, drunkenness, malice, homosexuality, pride, stealing, lying, etc., so don’t continue on in these things.  Forsake these things and pursue righteousness.  Now it is true that you can’t work to earn your salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), but your works afterwards will show if you are truly saved.  Your life will show if you are following God or following the devil (check out 1 John 3:4-10).  Accept the gift of salvation, and continue on, praying to God, begging for Him to change your heart, giving you the desire to please Him and to study His Word, giving you the desire to want Him more than anything else, etc.  The Christian life is a journey, and the goal is to like Christ.  Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life (John 14:6), and all other ways lead to death.  Walk through the narrow gate, and choose Christ daily (Matthew 7:13-14).