Most of us know the story about David and Bathsheba. King David saw a woman that was obviously pleasing to his eyes and he desired her. After inquiring about her and finding out she was married to Uriah, one of his soldiers, he slept with her. Then he had Uriah killed and took Bathsheba as his wife. David had many wives already and Uriah only had the one. Nathan the prophet came to David and told him a story.
2Samuel 12:1 ¶ And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
12:2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
12:3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
12:4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
12:5 And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
12:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
12:7 And Nathan said to David, THOU ART THE MAN.
Nathan points his finger at David and says,"You are the man! You had many wives and this poor man had only one, and you took her and killed him. You're the man". GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY! By David's own admission he is guilty. Nathan's story brought out emotions in David that said that the guilty man must pay. It brought out feelings of righteous anger and justice that the guilty man is deserving of death. This is the same method that the apostle Paul uses in Romans to convict the whole world of sin. Paul uses half of chapter 1 describing the heathen sinner and then in chapter 2, he points his finger at us and says...
Romans 2:3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Paul's method inspired by the Holy Spirit is pure genius. He first describes the ungodly sinner and we look on them in judgment. We look at all the horrible sins they have committed with feelings of "that horrible person must pay"...
Romans 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
1:30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
We look on people that do those things and feelings of justice rise up in us and we condemn them. We know that doing those things are not right. Yet we have all done things in that list! Paul points his finger at us and says, "You're the man! You just looked on those heathen and judged them and you've done the same thing! How do you think you'll escape the righteous judgment of God?" Do you still think you are a good person? You think of all the times you've judged someone and then gone on and done the same things. Do you think you're above God's judgment? Are you ignorant of the fact that you are a guilty sinner worthy of death? Are you ignoring the longsuffering and goodness of God in that he has allowed you to live as long as He has? Are you ignoring the fact that you are breathing His good clean air and He hasn't damned your soul to hell? Do you not know that you are storing up the wrath of Almighty God because of your sin and like a dam it will one day burst and come pouring out on you?
So by our own judgment we have condemned ourselves. We stand guilty, with our mouths shut before God without a shred of an excuse. We deserve death and eternal punishment in the lake of fire. The whole world stands guilty and condemned deserving of death. No religion, no belief system can save us. No amount of effort and "church going" can save us. No pope, no priest, no pastor, no denomination can save us. Our only hope is Jesus. Thank God he died in our place. Thank God that He took our punishment so we wouldn't have to. He is the truth and the life.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Resident Judges and Guilt
We all have a judge residing inside us. We usually call it a conscience. He is beyond our control, a bit like our emotions... Just like we don't control what we feel, only how we react to that feeling, the same it is with our conscience. For example, when something bad happens, we can't decide to feel good about it. That would be insanity. If I had a dog and someone killed that dog, I couldn't decide to feel happy or glad that my dog was dead. So we see that emotions are beyond are control and separate from our will. We call that physical law. The same it is with our resident judge. Every time we act in opposition to that inner judge or the law of our mind (our standard of right and wrong, or the truth that we hold), that resident judge screams, "Guilty!" He constantly accuses us and we try to drown out his voice or to soften it, but we cannot.
When we were little children, we were alive without that judge once, because our knowledge of right and wrong and our knowledge of God, was extremely limited. We didn't feel guilt like we do now. We were innocent. As we grew older, the truth that we held also grew. We developed the knowledge that we should always do what is right, we should never be selfish, and we should always care for our fellow man before our own needs. There was and is always a struggle though... To obey that knowledge that we held, or to disobey it and follow after the natural desires of our bodies. Our bodies do have a desire to eat, sleep, copulate etc. There is nothing wrong with those natural drives, except when we follow those drives past their natural course and go against the law of our minds.
James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
As you see, the lust wasn't the sin. The "drawing away of his own lust" and "when lust has concieved" is the sin. For instance, we know that sex is for marriage and between a man and a woman. It is when we go against that knowledge and against better judgment, that we sin.
So what am I getting at? The end product of our life of continuously going against this truth that we hold, is guilt. All our lives we have been storing up guilt, and trying to hide it. The problem is, nothing we do, can permanently remove this constant feeling of guilt. We go through our lives attempting to bury it, and try to justify ourselves through many different means. One of the means would be, comparing ourselves against those around us and trying to ignore that resident judge, through temporal pleasures.
Another would be religion. Religion temporarily brings relief from guilt through some ordinance or activity. All the "man made" means of diminishing that feeling of guilt, are empty and vain. They may make a person feel better for a short while, but they don't work in the long run. They are nothing but shallow attempts at removing that feeling of guilt that just won't go away. They are nothing but a progression of an empty, meaningless life of holding truth, aggressively going against that truth by following after selfish and carnal desires, all the while trying in vain to justify oneself. You know where this leads besides eternal punishment?... Depression, loneliness, in some cases mental illness, and always a life of misery.
There is only one way to remove this feeling of guilt permanently. No religion can do it. No church, no denomination, no pastor, no priest can do it. Why? The sin issue must be dealt with. Someone must pay! Only then can we be free from this guilt and condemnation!
As our sin grows, so does God's wrath. God has emotions just like we do and he is angry, he hates and his wrath burns not only against sin, but against sinners. The wrath of God is revealed from the supreme court of the universe (in Heaven) against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth and deliberately chose to disobey it. God's wrath had to fall and it did. On His own Son Jesus, who took the wrath of God for us. It actually pleased the Father to bruise His Son and make His soul an offering for sin, because He placed all our sin on Jesus. He made Jesus to be sin for us... He who had never sinned. The flood gates of God's wrath, that was kindled because of our transgression, fell on His only begotten Son and He died on a cruel cross, where his blood was shed, and He went to hell for us! The perfect righteous blood of God was shed so that He could justly forgive sinners freely without any effort! That's not all though. God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand to signify that Jesus was who he said he was and that the payment had been made in full. That's not all though... God now calls all who believe this gospel, perfectly righteous and justifies them as a free gift! This way, God gets all the glory. Jesus did all the work, and all He now requires from us is that our faith not be in ourselves but in Him, in order to be saved and have our sins forgiven. This belief that I speak of is not with the head but with the whole heart.
When a person turns to God and believes this message, he knows his sins are forgiven and his eternity is assured. The guilt is gone because the sin has been paid for and God remembers them no more. Not only that, all future sin is also paid for. The wonderful thing is, this message when it is truly believed from the heart also produces an obedience and a righteousness that far supersedes anything that religion ever could. This gospel produces a new creature out of that miserable, sinful, lonely old creature that then was and transforms a him to a person filled with love, joy and peace. All this through a relationship and a salvation that is entered into by faith. Not faith in oneself but in the Son of God who died and rose again. It's a beautiful thing.
When we were little children, we were alive without that judge once, because our knowledge of right and wrong and our knowledge of God, was extremely limited. We didn't feel guilt like we do now. We were innocent. As we grew older, the truth that we held also grew. We developed the knowledge that we should always do what is right, we should never be selfish, and we should always care for our fellow man before our own needs. There was and is always a struggle though... To obey that knowledge that we held, or to disobey it and follow after the natural desires of our bodies. Our bodies do have a desire to eat, sleep, copulate etc. There is nothing wrong with those natural drives, except when we follow those drives past their natural course and go against the law of our minds.
James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
As you see, the lust wasn't the sin. The "drawing away of his own lust" and "when lust has concieved" is the sin. For instance, we know that sex is for marriage and between a man and a woman. It is when we go against that knowledge and against better judgment, that we sin.
So what am I getting at? The end product of our life of continuously going against this truth that we hold, is guilt. All our lives we have been storing up guilt, and trying to hide it. The problem is, nothing we do, can permanently remove this constant feeling of guilt. We go through our lives attempting to bury it, and try to justify ourselves through many different means. One of the means would be, comparing ourselves against those around us and trying to ignore that resident judge, through temporal pleasures.
Another would be religion. Religion temporarily brings relief from guilt through some ordinance or activity. All the "man made" means of diminishing that feeling of guilt, are empty and vain. They may make a person feel better for a short while, but they don't work in the long run. They are nothing but shallow attempts at removing that feeling of guilt that just won't go away. They are nothing but a progression of an empty, meaningless life of holding truth, aggressively going against that truth by following after selfish and carnal desires, all the while trying in vain to justify oneself. You know where this leads besides eternal punishment?... Depression, loneliness, in some cases mental illness, and always a life of misery.
There is only one way to remove this feeling of guilt permanently. No religion can do it. No church, no denomination, no pastor, no priest can do it. Why? The sin issue must be dealt with. Someone must pay! Only then can we be free from this guilt and condemnation!
As our sin grows, so does God's wrath. God has emotions just like we do and he is angry, he hates and his wrath burns not only against sin, but against sinners. The wrath of God is revealed from the supreme court of the universe (in Heaven) against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth and deliberately chose to disobey it. God's wrath had to fall and it did. On His own Son Jesus, who took the wrath of God for us. It actually pleased the Father to bruise His Son and make His soul an offering for sin, because He placed all our sin on Jesus. He made Jesus to be sin for us... He who had never sinned. The flood gates of God's wrath, that was kindled because of our transgression, fell on His only begotten Son and He died on a cruel cross, where his blood was shed, and He went to hell for us! The perfect righteous blood of God was shed so that He could justly forgive sinners freely without any effort! That's not all though. God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand to signify that Jesus was who he said he was and that the payment had been made in full. That's not all though... God now calls all who believe this gospel, perfectly righteous and justifies them as a free gift! This way, God gets all the glory. Jesus did all the work, and all He now requires from us is that our faith not be in ourselves but in Him, in order to be saved and have our sins forgiven. This belief that I speak of is not with the head but with the whole heart.
When a person turns to God and believes this message, he knows his sins are forgiven and his eternity is assured. The guilt is gone because the sin has been paid for and God remembers them no more. Not only that, all future sin is also paid for. The wonderful thing is, this message when it is truly believed from the heart also produces an obedience and a righteousness that far supersedes anything that religion ever could. This gospel produces a new creature out of that miserable, sinful, lonely old creature that then was and transforms a him to a person filled with love, joy and peace. All this through a relationship and a salvation that is entered into by faith. Not faith in oneself but in the Son of God who died and rose again. It's a beautiful thing.
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