Fashions change but God does not

Carrying on from my last entry, I am going to end my series on sin tonight though I have not said all that could be said. Since starting on this series I have come across an excellent book called The Sinfulness of Sin by Ralph Venning (a Puritan Paperback). I am half-way through and recommend it highly – the author is a far better writer than what I am.

I want to end by reminding you that though some sins become so common that they become acceptable in a society but that does not make them any less sinful. In Australia there is a man – an ex-Roman Catholic priest, I understand, who is a homosexual. He calls himself Pope Alice. Pope Alice is organising a kind of protest to coincide with the Pope’s visit to Sydney for World Youth Day. Pope Alice says he wants to bring it to the attention of the church that they need to shed aspects of a medieval religion and update their thinking.

Well, guess what, Sodom and Gomorra were destroyed for the “medieval” sins Pope Alice has embraced. If you care to read one of my earliest posts on sin, I showed that sin is not so much the things that we do but sin is rebellion against God. The things we do are the outworking of that rebellion. Homosexuality has always been sinful and will always be sinful. But so is adultery – so you live with your partner and you are not married. How fashionable is that!? God still calls it adultery and it is still wrong. Young man, young lady, you’re disrespectful to your parents and to your elders – it seems to be the way it is today. But I read in my Bible that God says, honour your parents, and elsewhere, respect the elderly. Listen to the swearing and blasphemy on television – even on the cooking programs – and no one is ashamed. In fact this kind of behaviour is laughed at and even encouraged.

This is what God says, Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! This is what our new morality is – we are not enlightened, we are simply calling evil things “good” but they’re still evil.

Jesus came to deal with sin: to pay the price for all the sin you’ve committed; to forgive you if you ask Him; to cleanse you from your sin so that in God’s sight it’s just as if you never sinned; and to help you become strong in the battle against sin by helping you to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness. All you have to do is mention all these things in this paragraph to God.

Until next time, so long.

Enemies of God

Continuing on from my last post.

What sin has done is to make us enemies of God. God’s creation – angels, man and the whole universe – was created in perfection – it was holy as God is holy. The moment we sin we declare war on God and the moment we declare war on God we have become His enemy.

Many people convince themselves they are not so bad (see a previous post) and therefore do not deserve the kind of judgement described in the Bible. But the Bible also tells us that if you break even the least law you are guilty of breaking the whole. Like a strong chain used to life a massive weight, if one link breaks the weight falls. In that case we say that the chain broke even if only one link failed.

Brave sinner who sins in the face of God. You have total freedom now but there will come a day when God will say of you, “enough” and you will find yourself at death’s door and when you pass through that door, God’s messengers will be there to greet you. There will be no bravado there, no freedom, no doing as you please. You will be taken and imprisoned to await God’s judgement.

The only hope is here, in this life. Jesus came to break down the wall of hostility between God and man. Because of Christ, God will forgive man’s sin and deal with sin in the sinner’s life. The Christian continues to sin but as he follows Christ as one of His disciples, God helps us to deal with the sinful nature.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes (trusts) in Him shall have eternal life (life from God).

Sin’s deceitfulness

Carrying on from my previous post.

Adam and Eve had so much from God and there was only one thing they were not allowed and that was to eat the fruit from one tree. Instead of obeying God, they chose to disobey. This is how the Bible describes it: And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Sin has always appeared to man this way – like something pleasant and with personal benefits. And the idea in the back of Eve’s mind was that God was withholding something valuable. But think for a minute what the result of her disobedience was remembering that Adam’s offspring came under the curse (in fact the whole of creation is under the curse). War, violence, dissatisfaction, greed, poverty, sickness, family break-up, distrust, lack of self-esteem, natural disasters, fatigue, and death. Of course this is just a little list and as you know, the full list would take up the whole internet.

Sin seems pleasing but it is, as I wrote in my last post, disobedience against God that carries terrible consequence. God says, the soul that sins will definitely die. I hear people boast of their sin almost on a daily basis (especially on Monday morning).  There is coming a day of accountability!

Now, this is all negative. Jesus came to die for sin. He shed His blood and God requires that blood be sacrificially shed before He would forgive. Jesus shed his blood and we receive God’s forgiveness. But this is a gift that God offers. A gift remains with the one who offers it until the one to whom it is offered receives it. You are not forgiven until you receive God’s gift.

More on this subject in future posts. Until then, so long.

Sorrowful – greatly so – but wasted

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

In Australia this week there was a massive child porn crackdown with dozens of people all over the country charged. Some of those charged included a teacher, a top cop and others. 

I’m not judging them but already one person has committed suicide and about 5 others have attempted suicide. (Exactly the same thing happened a couple of years back with 2 people committing suicide.)

What shame they feel and what distress at the pain they’ve caused themselves and their families. This is what the Bible calls “worldly sorrow”. What they are mainly sorry about is that they were caught. That kind of sorrow is worthless even if the person feels it deeply enough to take their life.

The Bible says that sorrow which leads to repentance – that causes a person to admit their guilt to God and to plead for mercy and to turn away from sin – is the kind of sorrow that leads to life.

We are all guilty of sin – that’s why I do not judge these people. But if we do not find Godly sorrow now, we will definitely gnash our teeth in sorrow when we stand before God in judgement.

If you’ve never experienced Godly sorrow – if you do not believe you’ve done anything bad enough, why not ask God to show you how He sees you in your unrepentant state.

Until next time, so long.