Sin is the greatest obstacle that the believer can place in the way of God. God can do more to advance the kingdom of His exalted Son through one believer whose heart is pure, than through a million others who are wedded to sin.
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Sin is the greatest tragedy that ever befell the Planet Earth.
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God hates sin with a perfect hatred.
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He who sins is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning.
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He who sins does not know God.
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Deliberate sin is an attempt to overthrow of God.
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Every sin, however small, is an act of taking sides with the devil.
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Sin hinders God. The Bible says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).
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“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5: 8). Those whose hearts are impure will not see God.
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The Lord will come for His own. After that, He will come with His own to execute judgment. The Bible says, “Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage” (Jude 14-16). The Lord and His holy ones shall judge the following:-
- grumblers,
- malcontents,
- those who follow their own passions,
- boasters,
- flatterers.
It is obvious that those who are to judge with the Lord will have to be people who have been delivered from these things completely. If these things are in their lives, how will it be possible for them to judge those who have them?
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Those who knowingly practise any sin are lost. They are not lost because they commit a sin. They commit a sin or sins as proof that they have never been truly saved. The Bible says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). The Bible says that anyone who practises any of the following will not inherit the kingdom of God, regardless of what he may claim to be. If any of the following are still present in his life, he has not yet believed. He is lost. He will not inherit the kingdom of God. These people are:-
- the immoral,
- the idolaters,
- the adulterers,
- the sexual perverts, including those who practise masturbation, homosexuality, lesbianism or/and read pornographic literature,
- thieves,
- the greedy,
- drunkards,
- revilers and
- robbers.
If you are one of the above, you are lost unless you do something about it. The Bible says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Those who will inherit the Kingdom might have been that in the past. However, they met Jesus and He did three things for them.
- – He washed them.
- – He sanctified them.
- – He justified them.
If He did these three things, then the people are different. Those things are no longer present in their lives. Their presence in any life is a testimony to the fact that the person’s relationship with the Lord is false. He is not washed, sanctified and justified.
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“Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing (gluttony), and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). Let us spread the list out clearly for everyone to see :
- fornication,
- impurity including masturbation, reading pornographic literature, and all other forbidden sexual relationships like immorality in thoughts, be they it fornication or adultery,
- licentiousness,
- idolatry,
- sorcery,
- enmity,
- strife,
- jealousy,
- anger,
- selfishness,
- dissension,
- party spirit,
- envy,
- drunkenness and
- carousing (gluttony, etc).
If you practise any of these things, the Bible says to you, “I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” If you heed the warning, you will stop that deed of darkness at once. If you do not stop it, it is proof that you have either not believed or you have backslidden. If you do any of these things but do not repent and forsake them, you are deceiving yourself. God has warned you. Those who are His, heed the warning. Those who are not His but have deceived themselves, continue to have false assurance and deceitful manifestations. However, the presence of any of the above things says clearly that the person is lost.
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All liars shall be in the lake of fire. The Bible says, “…and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).
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All who practise falsehood in one way or the other shall not be in the heavenly city. The Bible says, “But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). No one who practises falsehood has his name written in the Lamb’s book of life. His falsehood tells him plainly, “Forget all your claims to a relationship with God. Your name is not in the Lamb’s book of life. If it were there, you would have stopped falsehood, or you would stop it now in a radical and permanent way.” “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and every one who loves and practises falsehood” (Revelation 22:14-15).
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Sins in thoughts are as grievous before God as sins in action. The Lord Jesus said, “But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Adultery or fornication in thought is the same as adultery or fornication in act before God. The Bible says, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). You may outwardly never have committed adultery or fornication, but if you have done so or are doing so in your thoughts, God knows you for what you do in your thoughts. What does He see?
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Some think that some sins are small and others big. Many consider lying a small sin, but Ananias and Sapphira perished because they lied. They were not allowed to lie a second time.
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There is a sin that is unto death now. That sin varies from person to person. For Moses, it was the sin of wrong speech and he was disqualified and died without entering into the Promised Land. For Ananias and his wife it was lying, for Uzzah it was touching the ark, and many other examples. You dare not be foolish to think that you can commit another sin and go free. That sin may undo you.
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Nobody is ever quite the same after he has sinned. Something is ruined in a person’s relationship with God by deliberate sin in a way that it is difficult to be the same afterwards.
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Those who commit sin, repent and commit the same sin again, most probably, did not repent the first time that they sinned.
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Genuine repentance always involves a forsaking of the sin and a hatred of it.
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The Lord Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23).
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“If we deny him, he also will deny us” (2 Timothy 2:12).
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“But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19).
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“So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).
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“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
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“For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:4-6).
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“Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
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“See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled; that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears” (Hebrews 12:15-17).
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“And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12-13).
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“He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels” (Revelation 3:5).
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“To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7).
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“He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation 2:11).
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“He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Revelation 3:21).
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“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
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“Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
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There are many who want to be saved from the consequences of their sin, who want to be delivered from sin’s curse and sin’s wages, but who do not want to be delivered from the love of sin.
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To preach Christ as Saviour without preaching Him as Lord, makes a mockery of the gospel and of the entire Christian life. Mr. Spurgeon warned his students, “If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord’s will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do you imagine that the gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply ‘accepting’ Christ as their Saviour while they are wedded to their idols and their hearts are still in love with sin? If I do so, I tell them a lie, I pervert the gospel, I insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness” (James A. Stewart.). From “Drops from the Honeycombs.” Copied from Herald of His coming Volume 38, N° 2446, February, 1979, P. 1).
