The Burning Need to Confess, The Burning Truth About Sin
A deep sense and clear view of sin, of its shocking evil and the punishment it deserves, should make us bow very low before God’s throne. We have sinned, even as Christians. Oh, that should not be. We have been favored, yet we have been ungrateful; privileged beyond most, we have not produced fruit in proportion. Who among us, though we may have been long engaged in Christian warfare, will not be embarrassed when he looks on his past? As for the days before we were converted, they can be forgiven and forgotten. But since that time, even though we haven’t sinned like before, we have still sinned against light and love—the light that has really penetrated our minds and the love in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of sin in a pardoned soul! An unpardoned person sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God’s elect, the person who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head on Jesus’s breast. Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I urge you to see his repentance. Hear his broken bones as each one moans out its sad confession (see Psalm 51:8). Mark his tears as they fall to the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the soft music of his harp. We have done wrong, so let us seek the spirit of repentance. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter denying his Master. Remember that it is written, though, he “wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). Do we have no denial of our Lord to be mourned with tears? These sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to eternal hell if it were not for the sovereign mercy that snatched us like sticks from a fire. My soul, bow down under the sense of your natural sinfulness, and worship your God. Admire the grace that saves you—the mercy that spares you—the love that pardons you! - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
Sin has the ability to desensitize the unbeliever to its effects. Sin also can convince believers that things aren't that bad.
Sin has a way of deadening the emotions of all. To open the door to more of the world's enticing wiles and wares.
Sin wants to live though through what Jesus did at the cross He signed its death warrant.
Like most every bad guy in a television show or movie, not to mention real life, they want to come out on top. They want to win the day. Evil does what evil thinks it must in order to survive.
Yet Jesus went through everything He did in order to free us from it. To learn that there is life possible without it.
We will not know what it was like for Adam and Eve before they sinned until Christ returns and our glorified body's we receive. They walked with God in Spirit and in truth before they sinned.
Our world has had philosophies throughout the ages that amount to the American idiom of having your cake and eating it too. Throughout the ages, throughout the world, humanity has been striving with God in trying to find more imaginative ways to seek God on their own terms and to continue to enjoy Sin. God's Word says that can't be done. Jesus came, lived a sinless life, was abused and nailed to a cross, to die a horrible death, to make a way, to be THE way back to God.
Sin has no place in Heaven.
Our personal best is never going to be enough to tip the scales that the Father requires for entry into Heaven.
Anyone who tries to enter in any other way is called a thief and a robber.
That means everyone who's knowledgeable about right and wrong up to the supposed sweet little old lady or extremely generous philanthropist who don't know Christ as Savior...they will be heading for Hell. To be as succinct, if Mother Theresa was not looking at Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord, she wouldn't be in Heaven either. If a person spends their whole life trying to enrich humanity by always giving and never hurting anyone, they too would not see Heaven.
You could succeed at everything in life and still end up in Hell because of no relationship with Christ.
Sin is why. Sin is what we are born with. Sin twists the truth of God. Sin tries to disguise itself as truth. The truth is those claiming to be homosexuals could never have been born without the truth of God in that relations had to happen between one man and one woman.
The truth of God says that true love and happiness comes only in the context of a right relationship with Jesus. Not in going places or calling what people do together apart from God, defining that as love. Twisted and perverted is the mind of man in regards to right and wrong. Scripture says that too.
Scripture was and is entirely correct about Jesus Christ. Who He is, who He was, and what He will be and is doing right now.
We are to love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and spirit. Then to love our neighbor as ourselves. Learn the first and you cannot twist and pervert the second as millions do.
As yourself why are people weeping and gnashing their teeth in Hell?
They have been definitively shown by Christ that their efforts to rewrite His truth failed.
Their efforts of living for self to reach Heaven failed.
Their love for the things that are an abomination to God contributed to their being there.
Their twisted sense of right and wrong brought them there.
Their rejection of Christ Jesus as the Way sealed their doom.
Sin is a horrific seductive force in how it works. You cannot trust yourself with it. Yet you are born with it. You need a right relationship with Christ to survive it until your time on Earth is through or the Rapture of the Church happens.
Believers have the right and privilege to come to the Throne of God to ask for the forgiveness of their sins. To repent and turn away from them and be restored to God.
Unbelievers need first to come to Jesus Christ for salvation to receive that. In coming they join those sealed in the Spirit of God, who have the sign on them that they are welcomed into Heaven.
Don't dismiss the effects of Sin in your life. Get real about your life and where you stand with Jesus. You have no guarantee that you won't be face to face with Him today, being told only then either that you are welcomed into Heaven or consigned to Hell. Know today, even right here and now whether or not you are saved. Look at the post from the other day on how to be saved. Don't wait. Jesus said He is coming at an hour we do not know.
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