Not a popular subject this one, but if I wanted to be popular in this present evil world I'd just write about Britney's latest fling or how Michael Jackson lost his glove. That's what the world is interested in. The world is more interested in the latest tips on how to pick up your husband's best friend, then on the things of God and doing right. The world is more interested in the latest Hollywood puppet coming out of the sodomite closet, then of sin and the imminent flood of God's wrath and judgment. Therefore we tend to minimize sin in our modern culture because it is out of control and rampant. Being bad is now considered good and being good is totally not cool. The bible predicted this would happen by the way. What is sin and why is it sin?
The bible says that sin is the transgression of the law. By what law though? The ten commandments? What law governs us individually and what about those that have never been told what the bible or religion considers as sin? What about those lost native tribes that have never had any contact with the known world? What law are they under?
According to the bible, we are all under known law. In other words we are under jurisdiction not of some outside law that we have no knowledge of but, the law of our minds or our conscience if you will.
Romans 2:14 For when the Gentiles (that's us), which have not the law (Mosaic Law), do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law (Mosaic law), are a law unto themselves:
Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
Here is what that means. We all have a knowledge or a standard of right and wrong. That is proven every day when we judge our own thoughts and actions, as well as the actions of others. All day long our thoughts are accusing or else excusing us and we feel good when we do right and guilt when we do wrong.
We can't get away from knowing right and wrong. The only way we could not know right from wrong is to get brain damage to such an extent that we lose all sense of reality. The older we get, the more knowledge we retain of what we ought and ought not do. The more knowledge we hold, the more we use that knowledge to judge ourselves and those around us. It might be conscious and vocal, or a mere thought, but we can't escape it. So what it boils down to, is that the Judge (God) will one day judge every person by the amount and severity of the times he broke his own personal standard or knowledge of right or wrong.
Mt 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
There will be no excuse in that day. Those that are still in their sins will stand before God with their mouths shut, fully knowing that they are guilty. There will be no "but...", only, "I knew I should have, I blew it".
Nowadays we see sin as not a big deal. That is because we have been blinded by our own sin so that we don't see the holiness of God. We can get a glimpse of the righteousness of God from the old testament and from the teachings of Jesus. For instance, if a young man was consistently rebellious toward his parents, he was to be taken outside of the city and stoned to death. That's pretty harsh for our day. The punishment for adultery was death. All transgression had a punishment and had to be paid for. Eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth. Payment had to be made for sin, and this was done by sacrificing animals and shedding it's blood to cover the sin so that God's judgment and wrath wouldn't fall. Whole unrepentant nations were destroyed because the continual transgressing of God's commandments. God killed 23000 of His own people Israel, in one day for worshiping other gods. We could go on all day and give more examples of how severely God views and judges sin. So severely that He had to send His Son to die on a cross and shed His blood to satisfy the justice of the law so that He could justly forgive sinners.
What the world tends to do is to look at others and judge their own selves compared to those around them. They think that if their in the top 10% of "good people", they'll be alright and everyone else will go be punished.
The thing is the law says that the soul that sins shall die. Here you have been thinking you might be alright but you have been in a condemned state since the first time you understood that you had a duty to do the right thing and you didn't. It doesn't matter how good a murder is after he has committed the act. The penalty for breaking the law still has to be payed. Being a good person won't satisfy the punishment for the crime. In fact, even the murderer asking for forgiveness from the judge or the family of the victim, won't make things right. Justice must still be served. The punishment for sin is eternal death in the lake of fire. Forever in a state of dying but never quite getting there. The soul never dies. Constant pain and torment with no relief, ever. You say you don't believe in a literal hell? Jesus spoke of it more then heaven. He spoke of it more then any other person in the bible. Either Jesus is a liar or else there are literal fires of a literal hell. If you reject the message of Jesus, you reject Him.
So what is the sum of these things? The whole world is guilty before God and in a condemned state. That's a fact. There is no person on the face of the earth who feels confident at the thought of standing before Almighty God and being judged. Our conscience bears witness that we are all guilty. We are hell deserving sinners with no hope in our selves of doing enough good to make peace between us and God. What are our options? Keep heading down the path of destruction and hope for the best? Continue to feed our lusts and ignore the impending doom? Just like the people in Noah's time, we could just continue eating, drinking and marrying until the flood comes. The flood of God's wrath is coming and there is only one Ark of safety! As in Noah's time, only the people in the ark were saved. All others were destroyed by the flood. They died! The flood of God's wrath is coming again and the only Ark of safety is Jesus Christ. Only by getting into Christ, can anyone be saved. He is the only one with the righteousness to get into heaven. Jesus is the only one who paid the price for us to have peace with God. Jesus is the only one that God ever raised from the dead to eternal life. Everyone else falls short. On one side we have everyone that has ever lived... Lost and condemned sinners, but on the other there is One righteous Man who never sinned. If we can join ourselves to Him, we'll be saved. If some how we can have peace with God through what He did, we'll be saved. If we can enter into a oneness with Jesus, we'll make it in. God says we can do this freely by simply by believing that Jesus payed the price. God says if we believe in Jesus, He will forgive our sins and we'll be saved from the judgment to come.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Why I Hate Religion
I want to explain my extreme dislike of religion. Hate would be a more accurate term. So what do I mean when I say religion? What I speak of is a system of rules, ordinances, ceremonies, traditions that are to be obeyed in order to obtain favour with God and eventually eternal life. It is a process that covers the length of your life in which you obey the laws of God and do what you ought to do. "Well that sounds pretty good, there can't be anything wrong with that", you might say. Just go to church and do the best you can. As long as the good is more then that bad, you'll be alright. That's religion. It leaves a man striving, grasping one commandment after another, as a knot in a rope, trying to pull himself up to God. It's a fruitless task. You never get where you want to be. You never get peace in your soul. The thought process in religion is that if I keep striving to be better, then God will love me and let me into heaven. What it ignores is our sin problem. Our sin has to be dealt with. God can't be just in forgiving someone, without someone paying the penalty for the crime. Religion completely ignores this. We have a huge mountain of sin that must be dealt with so we can have peace with God! In our natural state we are enemies of God! Religion can't bring peace with God. Over and over people try religion and become disgusted with it because it fails to satisfy the soul.
Religion won't get you peace with God. It falsely claims that by doing the law, you can justify yourself before God and have peace, but the bible says it can't.
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his (God's) sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh (person) be justified.
Religion is a false blanket of security. Why I hate religion and why Jesus had such harsh words for the religious, is that religion gets in between a sinner who is convicted of his sin, and the forgiveness and peace he is looking for. Sin convicts a person's conscience, and then religion steps in offers a cheap substitute for Jesus. Religion says, "Just do this list of rules and you'll have peace with God and forgiveness." It's a lie. Religion says if you wear these clothes and meet with this group of people, you'll have peace. It's a lie. Religion says finger these prayer beads and chant this chant you'll justify yourself before God, and it's a lie. Religion says if you pray this prayer and become a member of this church, you'll have peace. It's a lying, despicable lowdown substitute for the Lord Jesus Christ. The bible says...
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
That says that all people that live their life by doing the law (here is religion... just follow this law) are under a curse because they have not kept the law they so value. The law has been broken and the penalty for breaking the law is death. Eternal death. What a dastardly thought, that us keeping some rules will cause a just God to overlook the thousands of times we sinned. So it is futile to keep living under the curse of doing the law in order to please God and justify yourself. But this is exactly what religion does.
A minister or priest might get you to confess your sins to him and that might make you more comfortable around him, but it won't satisfy the wrath of a holy God. Continuing to do religious activities to buy favour with God might ease your guilty conscience, but at the end of the day it won't bring peace with God. Praying toward Mecca might make you feel better, but it won't remove the mountain of your sin or bring peace with God. We have a huge sin debt that religion can never remove.
Man and God are enemies. We are at war. The best man can do is a brief cessation of hostilities. God cannot over look our sin and forgive us. He can't justly do that, or He would be unjust like we are. You see the predicament. We need an intercessor! We need someone to step in and satisfy justice, because we can't.
In steps Jesus, and dies on the cross and sheds His blood to pay God, for our sins. OUR DEBT THAT RELIGION COULD NEVER PAY, JESUS PAYED. Man could now have peace with God, at the cross by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through faith in a person, not religion that justifies us before Almighty God. Where religion had always failed to satisfy the wrath and justice of a holy God, Jesus succeeded! Jesus obtained peace for us at the cross! His blood was shed to pay the penalty that our sin had incurred. God and man can now meet together in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and have eternal peace! There is no other way. You want peace with God and satisfaction in the depth of your soul? You need Jesus. No other substitute will do. Cast aside religion! Put your faith in Jesus.
The grand thing about this is, you can know today that you have peace with God. With religion you never know. When you believe that Jesus paid the price for you and made peace with God, you know that you know. The satisfaction from that knowledge is the grandest thing in this world. To know that your salvation and eternal destination are SURE, is a wonderful thing. Nothing can compare to the joy and peace and love, this new relationship with God, brings to a person.
Religion won't get you peace with God. It falsely claims that by doing the law, you can justify yourself before God and have peace, but the bible says it can't.
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his (God's) sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh (person) be justified.
Religion is a false blanket of security. Why I hate religion and why Jesus had such harsh words for the religious, is that religion gets in between a sinner who is convicted of his sin, and the forgiveness and peace he is looking for. Sin convicts a person's conscience, and then religion steps in offers a cheap substitute for Jesus. Religion says, "Just do this list of rules and you'll have peace with God and forgiveness." It's a lie. Religion says if you wear these clothes and meet with this group of people, you'll have peace. It's a lie. Religion says finger these prayer beads and chant this chant you'll justify yourself before God, and it's a lie. Religion says if you pray this prayer and become a member of this church, you'll have peace. It's a lying, despicable lowdown substitute for the Lord Jesus Christ. The bible says...
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
That says that all people that live their life by doing the law (here is religion... just follow this law) are under a curse because they have not kept the law they so value. The law has been broken and the penalty for breaking the law is death. Eternal death. What a dastardly thought, that us keeping some rules will cause a just God to overlook the thousands of times we sinned. So it is futile to keep living under the curse of doing the law in order to please God and justify yourself. But this is exactly what religion does.
A minister or priest might get you to confess your sins to him and that might make you more comfortable around him, but it won't satisfy the wrath of a holy God. Continuing to do religious activities to buy favour with God might ease your guilty conscience, but at the end of the day it won't bring peace with God. Praying toward Mecca might make you feel better, but it won't remove the mountain of your sin or bring peace with God. We have a huge sin debt that religion can never remove.
Man and God are enemies. We are at war. The best man can do is a brief cessation of hostilities. God cannot over look our sin and forgive us. He can't justly do that, or He would be unjust like we are. You see the predicament. We need an intercessor! We need someone to step in and satisfy justice, because we can't.
In steps Jesus, and dies on the cross and sheds His blood to pay God, for our sins. OUR DEBT THAT RELIGION COULD NEVER PAY, JESUS PAYED. Man could now have peace with God, at the cross by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through faith in a person, not religion that justifies us before Almighty God. Where religion had always failed to satisfy the wrath and justice of a holy God, Jesus succeeded! Jesus obtained peace for us at the cross! His blood was shed to pay the penalty that our sin had incurred. God and man can now meet together in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and have eternal peace! There is no other way. You want peace with God and satisfaction in the depth of your soul? You need Jesus. No other substitute will do. Cast aside religion! Put your faith in Jesus.
The grand thing about this is, you can know today that you have peace with God. With religion you never know. When you believe that Jesus paid the price for you and made peace with God, you know that you know. The satisfaction from that knowledge is the grandest thing in this world. To know that your salvation and eternal destination are SURE, is a wonderful thing. Nothing can compare to the joy and peace and love, this new relationship with God, brings to a person.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Peace With God
Peace is defined by Websters dictionary as freedom from disturbance. All over the world, people seek peace for their soul. The problem is that natural man has a disturbance and an unrest in his soul that is caused by a war that exists between him and God. This war is a result of rebellion on our part, not God. God did not chose to be our enemy, rather we chose to be His enemies when we consciously turned our back on Him and contemptuously, went our own way.
Our conscience accuses us continuously, and this causes an uneasiness in our soul. This uneasiness also comes from the knowledge that if there is a coming judgment after death, we don't know how we will fare. In fact, we are down right uneasy about the idea of standing before a righteous and holy God. This knowledge causes us no end of grief. The best we can do to dull this soul disturbance, is to try and drown it out with the many distractions of the world. We ignorantly have a hope that in the future, that one self indulging pleasure will bring us peace. But when the day is done and we rest our heads on our pillows and everything is quiet, the questions and uneasiness arise again. Trying not to think about it only lasts so long.
Thoughts arise... If there is a God, what does He require of me to have peace with Him? Thoughts immediately turn to the experience you had at church. The prayer you prayed, the aisle you walked down... it just didn't bring the peace that you hoped for. Still you lay there night after night, month after month thinking what to do?! No peace!
When we consciously made a decision to ignore God's demand to do right and chose instead to do evil, we openly declared our independence from God and showed our disdain for His law, his glory, and His very person. The only path then to peace is for someone to surrender and it must be on God's terms. You see, God's peace can't be bought. You can't earn it, you can't buy it. The only place you can find it is God. No one else has it. Apart from God there is no peace. You can seek it in pleasure or religion, no peace. Brief feelings of peace will not suffice. All us humans can bring about is a brief cessation from hostilities.
God cannot justly make peace with man and man cannot make peace with God. No religious act can satisfy God's demands. You could finger your prayer beads or pray to a rock, and it might make you feel better, but it won't bring peace with God. Praying a prayer and walking an aisle won't bring peace with God. Joining a church and getting baptized won't satisfy the wrath and justice of God. It might make you more comfortable with that group of people, but it won't bring peace with God. Religion won't satisfy the wrath of God. It might ease your conscience and make your family life run smoother but it won't satisfy the demands of a Holy God. The only way to end the hostilities that have brought about our enmity with God, is that God must pour His wrath and punishment on hell deserving sinners. Or else, someone has to come and pay a price sufficient to satisfy God demand for justice. Sin cannot go unpunished.
God sent His Son to do just that. Jesus died on a cross and shed His blood to pay the penalty that the law demanded. God was satisfied with the sacrifice, and proved it by raising Him from the dead. The payment has been made and all God demands from us in order to be saved, is to believe that. That is the question... are you satisfied that the payment has been made? Do you believe in the depths of your soul that the war is over between you and God? God made peace with us through Jesus Christ. We need to stop fighting with God. We need to cease hostilities and surrender to Him. We need to surrender and turn from ourselves, our life of independence, our own righteousness, and turn to God and acknowledge that the sacrifice and payment was made in full. Jesus made peace for us. God demands blood to be shed for sin and our blood is too polluted. We need perfect righteous blood, and Jesus provided that. His blood is sinless. It is perfect. It is so precious that it is able to pay for the sins of the whole world! There is no peace outside of Jesus. There is no forgiveness outside of Him. We need to believe that! The war is over! That's awesome!
Our conscience accuses us continuously, and this causes an uneasiness in our soul. This uneasiness also comes from the knowledge that if there is a coming judgment after death, we don't know how we will fare. In fact, we are down right uneasy about the idea of standing before a righteous and holy God. This knowledge causes us no end of grief. The best we can do to dull this soul disturbance, is to try and drown it out with the many distractions of the world. We ignorantly have a hope that in the future, that one self indulging pleasure will bring us peace. But when the day is done and we rest our heads on our pillows and everything is quiet, the questions and uneasiness arise again. Trying not to think about it only lasts so long.
Thoughts arise... If there is a God, what does He require of me to have peace with Him? Thoughts immediately turn to the experience you had at church. The prayer you prayed, the aisle you walked down... it just didn't bring the peace that you hoped for. Still you lay there night after night, month after month thinking what to do?! No peace!
When we consciously made a decision to ignore God's demand to do right and chose instead to do evil, we openly declared our independence from God and showed our disdain for His law, his glory, and His very person. The only path then to peace is for someone to surrender and it must be on God's terms. You see, God's peace can't be bought. You can't earn it, you can't buy it. The only place you can find it is God. No one else has it. Apart from God there is no peace. You can seek it in pleasure or religion, no peace. Brief feelings of peace will not suffice. All us humans can bring about is a brief cessation from hostilities.
God cannot justly make peace with man and man cannot make peace with God. No religious act can satisfy God's demands. You could finger your prayer beads or pray to a rock, and it might make you feel better, but it won't bring peace with God. Praying a prayer and walking an aisle won't bring peace with God. Joining a church and getting baptized won't satisfy the wrath and justice of God. It might make you more comfortable with that group of people, but it won't bring peace with God. Religion won't satisfy the wrath of God. It might ease your conscience and make your family life run smoother but it won't satisfy the demands of a Holy God. The only way to end the hostilities that have brought about our enmity with God, is that God must pour His wrath and punishment on hell deserving sinners. Or else, someone has to come and pay a price sufficient to satisfy God demand for justice. Sin cannot go unpunished.
God sent His Son to do just that. Jesus died on a cross and shed His blood to pay the penalty that the law demanded. God was satisfied with the sacrifice, and proved it by raising Him from the dead. The payment has been made and all God demands from us in order to be saved, is to believe that. That is the question... are you satisfied that the payment has been made? Do you believe in the depths of your soul that the war is over between you and God? God made peace with us through Jesus Christ. We need to stop fighting with God. We need to cease hostilities and surrender to Him. We need to surrender and turn from ourselves, our life of independence, our own righteousness, and turn to God and acknowledge that the sacrifice and payment was made in full. Jesus made peace for us. God demands blood to be shed for sin and our blood is too polluted. We need perfect righteous blood, and Jesus provided that. His blood is sinless. It is perfect. It is so precious that it is able to pay for the sins of the whole world! There is no peace outside of Jesus. There is no forgiveness outside of Him. We need to believe that! The war is over! That's awesome!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Why Love?
Love is the most powerful, controlling influence in any one's life. Love is the only thing that will ensure faithfulness, and this is true in all relationships. The relationship that I will focus on today, is our relationship to God.
A knowledge of scripture, or of the laws of God will never motivate an individual to complete faithfulness. There is no motivational factor behind them, except condemnation and death, when we don't keep them. Does that make them a bad thing? Absolutely not. But they are insufficient to consistently motivate us to do what we know we ought to do. That is why all religion is doomed from the start, in claiming what does... That it gets us in such a position with God, so that we can have eternal life. Religion is simply living by a set of laws and rules in order to obtain position with God, and we have seen throughout history that it is an abject failure. What it breeds, is self righteous people who have obtained an outward form of righteousness that is designed to please men and not God. This goes for all religions, not just one.
So what does true Christianity offer, that is different from all religion? It offers real love. A love of God that the natural person can't begin to understand. A love that says, "Lord, if every person in the whole world turns against me... I will still love and serve you".
This love I speak of, actually induces a person to a state of obedience and a faithfulness to God, that far supersedes anything rules, laws and principles (religion) can produce. This love that I speak of cares more of what God thinks, then other people. Living your life trying to please other men, brings only failure. It is meaningless because in the end, mankind won't be the judge... God will. So on a scale of importance, what God thinks far outweighs what other people perception of you is.
So, how is this love brought on? How do we attain this love? How do we get into this love? Through something we do perhaps? Absolutely not. How could something we do produce the love of God in us? No, it must be something God did. You see, God did something wonderful. God sent His only begotten Son Jesus down to this earth to die on a cross for our sins. God saw our sin, and He directed all His HATRED... All His ANGER and burning WRATH... His VENGEANCE... and He poured it out on His only Son who had never done anything wrong. God saw the travail of the soul of Jesus, and saw the blood that was shed, and was satisfied. His wrath was satisfied. Justice was satisfied. This was proven when God on the third day raised Him from the dead and seated Jesus at His right hand. We could now have peace with God, because of what Jesus did for us. We could have peace with God because justice was served for Somebody took our place. Jesus died in our place and took our punishment. This is the love of God. This is God's doings. It is through faith in this good news, that God's love is shed abroad in our hearts. It is when we perceive this love, that we come under the subjection of the ONE AND ONLY TRUE POTENTATE... THE KING OF KING AND THE LORD OF LORDS.
1John 4:10 HEREIN IS LOVE, NO THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US, AND SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.
The love that we are speaking of is not that we loved God, but rather that He loved us, and His love was manifested in that act of sending His Son to appease His wrath and justice that should fall on us. We are the ones that sinned, not Jesus.
The moment we believe this, we start caring what God thinks of us, rather then what others think of us. This is when we start obeying and truly doing what we ought to do, out of love and not guilt. When we have this love, the result is that we keep His commandments. We don't keep His commandments in order to gain our position or to show God that we love Him. We love Him, therefore we keep His commandments. We believe, therefore we love God, therefore we obey.
A knowledge of scripture, or of the laws of God will never motivate an individual to complete faithfulness. There is no motivational factor behind them, except condemnation and death, when we don't keep them. Does that make them a bad thing? Absolutely not. But they are insufficient to consistently motivate us to do what we know we ought to do. That is why all religion is doomed from the start, in claiming what does... That it gets us in such a position with God, so that we can have eternal life. Religion is simply living by a set of laws and rules in order to obtain position with God, and we have seen throughout history that it is an abject failure. What it breeds, is self righteous people who have obtained an outward form of righteousness that is designed to please men and not God. This goes for all religions, not just one.
So what does true Christianity offer, that is different from all religion? It offers real love. A love of God that the natural person can't begin to understand. A love that says, "Lord, if every person in the whole world turns against me... I will still love and serve you".
This love I speak of, actually induces a person to a state of obedience and a faithfulness to God, that far supersedes anything rules, laws and principles (religion) can produce. This love that I speak of cares more of what God thinks, then other people. Living your life trying to please other men, brings only failure. It is meaningless because in the end, mankind won't be the judge... God will. So on a scale of importance, what God thinks far outweighs what other people perception of you is.
So, how is this love brought on? How do we attain this love? How do we get into this love? Through something we do perhaps? Absolutely not. How could something we do produce the love of God in us? No, it must be something God did. You see, God did something wonderful. God sent His only begotten Son Jesus down to this earth to die on a cross for our sins. God saw our sin, and He directed all His HATRED... All His ANGER and burning WRATH... His VENGEANCE... and He poured it out on His only Son who had never done anything wrong. God saw the travail of the soul of Jesus, and saw the blood that was shed, and was satisfied. His wrath was satisfied. Justice was satisfied. This was proven when God on the third day raised Him from the dead and seated Jesus at His right hand. We could now have peace with God, because of what Jesus did for us. We could have peace with God because justice was served for Somebody took our place. Jesus died in our place and took our punishment. This is the love of God. This is God's doings. It is through faith in this good news, that God's love is shed abroad in our hearts. It is when we perceive this love, that we come under the subjection of the ONE AND ONLY TRUE POTENTATE... THE KING OF KING AND THE LORD OF LORDS.
1John 4:10 HEREIN IS LOVE, NO THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US, AND SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.
The love that we are speaking of is not that we loved God, but rather that He loved us, and His love was manifested in that act of sending His Son to appease His wrath and justice that should fall on us. We are the ones that sinned, not Jesus.
The moment we believe this, we start caring what God thinks of us, rather then what others think of us. This is when we start obeying and truly doing what we ought to do, out of love and not guilt. When we have this love, the result is that we keep His commandments. We don't keep His commandments in order to gain our position or to show God that we love Him. We love Him, therefore we keep His commandments. We believe, therefore we love God, therefore we obey.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Sinning Christian?
Is there such a thing as a sinning Christian? Is there such a thing, as someone who is in bondage to sin, can't get free from it and is still saved? Most denominations seem to think so. They think that Romans chapter seven is the nominal experience for a Christian. This heresy has permeated modern Christianity to such an extent, that there is little difference between the "average church- going Christian" and the average ungodly heathen. The mentality is that as long as you are a member of a "church" and have faithful "church attendance" and tithe regularly, that you are right with God. The deception runs so deep that I feel that many people living in sin, actually believe that they are saved and right with God, when in fact the bible teaches something totally opposite.
The apostle Paul seemed to think that this gospel actually had the power to change someone into a new creature. He said that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it was the power of God. He believed that something happened to a person when they believed this gospel. He believed that some supernatural work of God happened to the person the moment they believed and the Spirit of God entered into them. Modern Christianity doesn't believe that. Paul seems to believe that ungodly, unrighteous people won't inherit the kingdom of God. Seemingly, he taught that people who live in sin, are not born again.
1Cor 6:9 ¶ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Cor 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
According to Paul, no unrighteous person is born again. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian. People who habitually dabble in sin are not saved. Men who habitually watch porn are not saved. People who can't stop having sex outside of marriage, are not saved. People who lie regularly or steal, or get drunk are not saved.
If what Paul taught was taught at church meetings, it sure would weed out the wolves. The gospel of Jesus Christ so effects the believer, that they could never become addicted to a sin again. Sin is as foreign to a believer as righteousness is to an unbeliever.
God speaking in the book of Revelations seems to be of the same mind set . He adds fearful and unbelieving to the list...
Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Even the fearful and the unbelieving will have their part in the lake of fire. Why? Because in order to be born again, one must believe. A person that believes is not fearful. We have nothing to fear. We don't fear God's judgment or wrath anymore then Jesus does. Jesus died and paid the price that we owed. He already paid and when we are born again, we enter into a oneness with Him. We can't pay for the same crime twice. We already paid through Jesus. All God asks us to do is to believe the Gospel and we'll be saved escape His wrath. Just believe that Jesus did everything that needed to be done to make us right with God and get us to heaven. Very simple. When a person believes that, something happens and he is motivated by love and his strongest desire is to do the right thing and no longer live for himself, but for God who died for Him.
If this is not your experience... If there was never one point in your life that everything changed... If there was never one moment in your life that you became sure that you were saved... If there was never a moment in your life when you stopped your life of sin, and started living for God... If there was never a point in your life when you truly believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then you were never born again and your still dead in trespasses and sins. Joining a church won't save you. Saying a prayer won't save you. You must believe the gospel with all your heart.
The apostle Paul seemed to think that this gospel actually had the power to change someone into a new creature. He said that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it was the power of God. He believed that something happened to a person when they believed this gospel. He believed that some supernatural work of God happened to the person the moment they believed and the Spirit of God entered into them. Modern Christianity doesn't believe that. Paul seems to believe that ungodly, unrighteous people won't inherit the kingdom of God. Seemingly, he taught that people who live in sin, are not born again.
1Cor 6:9 ¶ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Cor 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
According to Paul, no unrighteous person is born again. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian. People who habitually dabble in sin are not saved. Men who habitually watch porn are not saved. People who can't stop having sex outside of marriage, are not saved. People who lie regularly or steal, or get drunk are not saved.
If what Paul taught was taught at church meetings, it sure would weed out the wolves. The gospel of Jesus Christ so effects the believer, that they could never become addicted to a sin again. Sin is as foreign to a believer as righteousness is to an unbeliever.
God speaking in the book of Revelations seems to be of the same mind set . He adds fearful and unbelieving to the list...
Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Even the fearful and the unbelieving will have their part in the lake of fire. Why? Because in order to be born again, one must believe. A person that believes is not fearful. We have nothing to fear. We don't fear God's judgment or wrath anymore then Jesus does. Jesus died and paid the price that we owed. He already paid and when we are born again, we enter into a oneness with Him. We can't pay for the same crime twice. We already paid through Jesus. All God asks us to do is to believe the Gospel and we'll be saved escape His wrath. Just believe that Jesus did everything that needed to be done to make us right with God and get us to heaven. Very simple. When a person believes that, something happens and he is motivated by love and his strongest desire is to do the right thing and no longer live for himself, but for God who died for Him.
If this is not your experience... If there was never one point in your life that everything changed... If there was never one moment in your life that you became sure that you were saved... If there was never a moment in your life when you stopped your life of sin, and started living for God... If there was never a point in your life when you truly believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then you were never born again and your still dead in trespasses and sins. Joining a church won't save you. Saying a prayer won't save you. You must believe the gospel with all your heart.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Redemption Through The Blood!
REDEMP'TION, n. L. redemptio. See Redeem. Websters Dictionary
1. Repurchase of captured goods or prisoners; the act of procuring the deliverance of persons or things from the possession and power of captors by the payment of an equivalent; ransom; release; as the redemption of prisoners taken in war; the redemption of a ship and cargo.
6. In theology, the purchase of God's favor by the death and sufferings of Christ; THE RANSOM OR DELIVERANCE OF SINNERS FROM THE BONDAGE OF SIN AND THE PENALTIES OF GOD'S VIOLATED LAW BY THE (BLOOD) ATONEMENT OF CHRIST.
Many people might not know what redemption is, and might be ignorant of the importance of blood, so I thought I might write on this subject. We humans, are squeamish at the sight of blood. Many people faint at the mere sight of blood. It is vile and disgusting to many of us, but it is quite the opposite to God. God sees it as extremely important. God does not faint at blood. It is very precious to Him. God says to Israel in the old testament...
Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Atonement in this case means to appease the wrath and justice of God. When we sin, we incur a debt with God. We tend to view sin as no big deal, because it is so common, but to God it is a very big deal. God cannot allow sin in His sight. We have a very big problem. We have sinned possibly hundreds of thousands of times. We thought we were getting away with it, but we are not. God is keeping track of every thing. Even our own conscience tells us that we ought to do right, and when we don't we feel guilt. Not only that, we all have a sense of justice and judgment. When we see someone do something wrong, we feel that they deserve punishment. We have incurred a huge debt with God... Let's say a trillion spiritual dollars. We have no way of paying it. All our righteousness only works out to about one dollar. God looks through the record books and sees that He will have to eternally damn us to hell's debtor prison because we are morally bankrupt. We have incurred such a debt, that we could never in a million years pay it off. That means that if we were to never sin again, and do only good things, we would still fall short. We have sinned against God and we deserve the fires of hell for eternity. God requires perfection. He expects it. That is God's standard and we have have fallen way short. There needs to be a ransom paid to save us from the wrath and judgment to come, and it must be in paid in blood.
The moral law of the universe requires blood as payment for sin.
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission (of sin).
The life of the person or animal is in the blood. When the blood runs out, the body dies. Blood is the most precious thing there is, and the law requires it as grounds to forgive sin. WE NEED BLOOD OR WE ARE DAMNED! Do we see the seriousness of the situation?! Without righteous blood, our sins cannot be justly forgiven. Our right doing will forever be insufficient! No amount of righteousness can make us right with God.
John 1:29 ¶ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!
God supplied His own spotless Lamb, His own Son, whose name is Jesus! He came and shed His perfect righteous blood to appease the wrath and justice of God! God's own Son died on a cross and paid the ransom we owed. He died in our place! His blood paid the debt that we owed!
Eph 1:7 In whom (In Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Heb 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
What a marvelous verse! Christ entered into the holy place with His own blood, having (stating in is past tense) obtained eternal redemption for us. Awesome!
That is wonderful news indeed! "But", you ask, "Where does religion fit into all of this?"
Better news! It doesn't! Its completely free with no strings attached. Believe it and be saved!
1. Repurchase of captured goods or prisoners; the act of procuring the deliverance of persons or things from the possession and power of captors by the payment of an equivalent; ransom; release; as the redemption of prisoners taken in war; the redemption of a ship and cargo.
6. In theology, the purchase of God's favor by the death and sufferings of Christ; THE RANSOM OR DELIVERANCE OF SINNERS FROM THE BONDAGE OF SIN AND THE PENALTIES OF GOD'S VIOLATED LAW BY THE (BLOOD) ATONEMENT OF CHRIST.
Many people might not know what redemption is, and might be ignorant of the importance of blood, so I thought I might write on this subject. We humans, are squeamish at the sight of blood. Many people faint at the mere sight of blood. It is vile and disgusting to many of us, but it is quite the opposite to God. God sees it as extremely important. God does not faint at blood. It is very precious to Him. God says to Israel in the old testament...
Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Atonement in this case means to appease the wrath and justice of God. When we sin, we incur a debt with God. We tend to view sin as no big deal, because it is so common, but to God it is a very big deal. God cannot allow sin in His sight. We have a very big problem. We have sinned possibly hundreds of thousands of times. We thought we were getting away with it, but we are not. God is keeping track of every thing. Even our own conscience tells us that we ought to do right, and when we don't we feel guilt. Not only that, we all have a sense of justice and judgment. When we see someone do something wrong, we feel that they deserve punishment. We have incurred a huge debt with God... Let's say a trillion spiritual dollars. We have no way of paying it. All our righteousness only works out to about one dollar. God looks through the record books and sees that He will have to eternally damn us to hell's debtor prison because we are morally bankrupt. We have incurred such a debt, that we could never in a million years pay it off. That means that if we were to never sin again, and do only good things, we would still fall short. We have sinned against God and we deserve the fires of hell for eternity. God requires perfection. He expects it. That is God's standard and we have have fallen way short. There needs to be a ransom paid to save us from the wrath and judgment to come, and it must be in paid in blood.
The moral law of the universe requires blood as payment for sin.
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission (of sin).
The life of the person or animal is in the blood. When the blood runs out, the body dies. Blood is the most precious thing there is, and the law requires it as grounds to forgive sin. WE NEED BLOOD OR WE ARE DAMNED! Do we see the seriousness of the situation?! Without righteous blood, our sins cannot be justly forgiven. Our right doing will forever be insufficient! No amount of righteousness can make us right with God.
John 1:29 ¶ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!
God supplied His own spotless Lamb, His own Son, whose name is Jesus! He came and shed His perfect righteous blood to appease the wrath and justice of God! God's own Son died on a cross and paid the ransom we owed. He died in our place! His blood paid the debt that we owed!
Eph 1:7 In whom (In Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Heb 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
What a marvelous verse! Christ entered into the holy place with His own blood, having (stating in is past tense) obtained eternal redemption for us. Awesome!
That is wonderful news indeed! "But", you ask, "Where does religion fit into all of this?"
Better news! It doesn't! Its completely free with no strings attached. Believe it and be saved!
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