Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: sin

  • The Mirror of Church Hypocrisy – 3

    The Mirror of Church Hypocrisy – 3

    Therefore you have no excuse, O christian…

    Do you suppose, O christian… —that you will escape the judgment of God?

    Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

    But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

    He will render to each one according to his works:

    Dear unfaithful sister in the Lord — dear unrepentant brother in the Lord:

    Do these verses from Romans 2 look vaguely familiar? (I only changed one word: ‘man‘ to ‘christian,’ meaning apostate, former worshiper of Jesus Christ.

    Will YOU be convicted by the letter to the church at Rome? (Yes, we know that these words were written for unbelievers.)

    The world cannot differentiate our hypocrisy from their sins.

    REPENT!

    Romans 1

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    “The righteous shall live by faith.”

    God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness

    18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

    O, dear christian, how we suppress the truth of our sin: HYPOCRISY!

    19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

    So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

    Do YOU honor God? and thank the Lord?

    OR is your worldly witness worthless to Christ?

    22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

    24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

    26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

    • For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
    • 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another,
    • men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

    28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

    29 They were filled with all manner of

    • unrighteousness,
    • evil,
    • covetousness,
    • malice.
    • They are full of envy,
    • murder,
    • strife,
    • deceit,
    • maliciousness.
    • They are gossips,
    • 30 slanderers,
    • haters of God,
    • insolent,
    • haughty,
    • boastful,
    • inventors of evil,
    • disobedient to parents,
    • 31 foolish,
    • faithless,
    • heartless,
    • ruthless.

    32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,

    they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

    Can you tell the truth (even to your self before God)?

    HOW MANY of these SINS invade the lives of your ‘christian’ household and ‘christian family’ EVERY DAY?

    None of these in any way describe Jesus Christ.

    None of these of our sins describe the fruit of our witness before the world that our returning Bridegroom expects of His spotless bride, His Holy Church.

    The earlier quotes from Romans 2 (a mirror on christians for us) are followed by more conviction:

    11 For God shows no partiality.

    22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

    Romans 3:

    Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

    “That you may be justified in your words,
    and prevail when you are judged.”

    “None is righteous, no, not one;
    11     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
    12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
    13 “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”

    18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

    23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

    Romans 6

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Dead to Sin, Alive to God

    6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means!

    How can we who died to sin still live in it?

    This is the QUESTION for the mirror of EVERY soul claiming Christ Jesus?

    3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

    4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

    Let us confess our sin and bury it.

    Let us not confess a righteousness not yet worked out by the fruit of grace.

    Let us no more judge the sin we have not buried in Christ and cleansed for our returning Savior and Bridegroom of the Church.

     

  • And they knew that they were naked

    And they knew that they were naked

    Genesis 3:7  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

    SIN – Original Sin. Let’s talk about the relationship of man and woman. Let’s talk about the relationship of a husband and wife to God.

    The question is always: Good or Evil?

    Righteousness or Lawlessness? Obedience or Disobedience? God or Satan?

    We are free to choose in each circumstance of life.

    What will it be: Life? Or will we choose sin and death?

    Let us look back to the creation of mankind before sin and the consequence beyond.

    The Creation of Man and Woman

    7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (soul).

    15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

    One Commandment. Do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    Why would you want to know that? God will tell you what is good. You have no need to know of evil. (Surely the angel Satan plots evil against God. Satan has already fallen from heaven as far as the earth, though this is yet paradise before sin.) “You will know good from evil, like God. Choose whatever you want. You do not have to obey God.”

    18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

    It is NOT good that a man should be alone, nor is it good that a woman should be alone. God creates a special intimate relationship. The KJV states: ‘ I will make him an help meet for him.’  That is: one who helps the man.

    21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

    “This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
    she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

    24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

    The woman is NOT made from the dust of the earth, but from part of the man. She is near to him – part of him. And she is his helper.

    Note now that the Bible calls the woman his wife. They were naked and were not ashamed. (It was not evil to be naked.) They were naked before God, in whose image they were made.

    Enter Satan and evil (of which Adam and Eve had no knowledge). One commandment from God: Do NOT eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Simple. No other rules. Paradise! Obey God’s one rule and that’s it. The man and his wife had complete blessing from God and they knew nothing else.

    The Fall

    3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

    He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

    Obedience does not require knowledge, only discernment to obey.

    The tempter will always question God. “Did God really say…?” The tempter will always seek your disobedience to God’s will by causing you to question God’s motives.

    Thy will be done? Yes but, MY will be done first! The sin of disobedience.

    6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

    The tree looked to be good for food. The fruit was a delight to the eyes. No, Eve was not blind prior to this, nor was Adam. They beheld the glory and beauty of each other. They beheld the glory of paradise, of all of the garden of God’s creation which they tended as gardeners or caretakers – God’s garden, with man the caretaker. Yet the only commandment of their Lord they willingly disobeyed: original sin.

    And now, consequence.

    Adam and Eve now know that their disobedience is evil. In fact, they see and know all good and all evil. They were naked and ashamed (perhaps not of the desirable site of each other, but certainly of being looked on by God their Lord and Maker).

    They make excuses to God for their sin. (Sound familiar?) Then God pronounces judgment.

    16 To the woman he said,

    “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
    Your desire

    (We are talking ‘sexual desire here.)

    shall be for your husband,

    (Perfectly natural: a woman for her husband and a man for his wife.)

    But now, more than being his ‘help mate,’ the punishment of authority (since she did not accept God’s authority).

    and he shall rule over you.”

    17 And to Adam he said,

    “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

    (rather than obeyed the voice of God)

    and have eaten of the tree
    of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
    cursed is the ground because of you…

    This is the first use of cursed in the Bible in relation to man. The very first use was in the condemnation of the serpent. Good and evil; blessing and curse. We must hear much more of these in the Law, now that we have knowledge of good and evil. We must discern what is good to obey God and discern what is evil to avoid further sin.

    Adam and Eve knew that they had sinned. Now mankind would learn the consequences of knowing good and knowing evil.

    To be continued…

     

  • Redeeming the Time

    Redeeming the Time

    See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. –Ephesians 5:15-16 NKJV

    Are your sunday-christian sensibilities shocked by the everyday images of the world in these last days?

    Oh, the subtleties of Satan engineering constant bombardment of entertainment vulgarities as desirable mentoring of women and children and young men. Oh, the subtleties of Satan to suggest special rights for perversions abhorrent to God. Oh, the subtleties of Satan renaming life given to the growing seed of a man in the womb of a woman to the purpose of calling a child a choice. Oh, the subtleties of Satan for the greed of intrusion of corporate performance-improving pharmaceuticals within the hearing of our children with a medical disclaimer for physiology once not mentioned to toddlers or young teens.

    The imagery of combat and sex in video and print and talk invades the minds and conquers the heart and soul by every intrusion into the lives of our growing children and the workplaces and shopping places of every adult. Philandering weak sunday-christians wander six-days and twenty-three hours in the filth of the world without the purity of Christ. Oh, the subtlety of Satan to have christians accept evil as normal and reject Christ’s righteousness as abhorrent witness to a fallen world.

    Satan’s advances through cellphones , i-pods, cartoons; by television and radio into every place of work and business; and the filtering of Christ and God from every tolerance of the world goes well beyond what was considered proper and acceptable to any man or woman or child, let alone a Christian struggling to mute the evil messages and cover the obscene sights of our everyday life in the world of these last days.

    The temple prostitutes of Ephesus had nothing on those of this day who live for the moment of their next hook-up and share in the desires of the flesh against which the letter cautions Christians so vehemently. Some of these now do even claim Christ on an occasional Sunday, while the world knows they covet the buzz of the moment and relationship of the night.

    Walk in Love

    Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

    3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.

    Walk in Light

    8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:

    “Awake, you who sleep,
    Arise from the dead,
    And Christ will give you light.”

    Walk in Wisdom

    15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

    17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

    Marriage—Christ and the Church

    22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

    25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

    Is marriage not under attack?

    By women divorcing their Christian husbands? By adultery of husbands who claim Christ? By re-definition of twenties and teens “in a relationship,” before never being in a commitment by their words and their true acts of true love?

    Why not re-define marriage in the courts to conform to the sinful desires of sinful man?

    Oh, ‘single mom’ and lustful man: it is not the husband or wife of your vows you witness against. Your sin and witness is against Christ Jesus by claiming His Name, while living the subtle lies of the life of your flesh!

    When David sinned and was finally convicted after a year, he repented and did all he could to get right before God once more.

     Psalm 51:

    4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
    And done this evil in Your sight—

    Therefore, forgive the sinner

    And repent you fellow sinner

    For the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ

    And for the redemption of your sinking soul. 

    Godlessness in the Last Days

    3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

    2 For people will be:

    • lovers of self, 
    • lovers of money, 
    • proud, 
    • arrogant,
    • abusive,
    • disobedient to their parents,
    • ungrateful, unholy,
    • heartless,
    • unappeasable (impossible to satisfy),
    • slanderous,
    • without self-control,
    • brutal, 
    • not loving good,
    • treacherous,
    • reckless, 
    • swollen with conceit, 

    (And occasional sunday-christians unrepentant, take note of these:)

    • lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 
    • having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. 

    AND the advice of the letter to the Church?

    Avoid such people.

    Redeem your time spent so foolishly with non-Christians and unbelievers; but AVOID those who CLAIM Christ Jesus, while living a pagan and unbelieving life of witness against Christ and His bride, the Church.

    6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth…

    12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

    Remove your shades of the blind man,

    O you christian distracted by the world.

    Remove Satan’s loud ear buds

    From pounding the evil in your ears.

    Hear once more the Gospel.

    Receive the love of our Redeemer.

    Turn again and follow once more

    Christ Jesus, our Lord;

    Redeeming your time,

    For the days are evil.