Anything that is not birthed out of faith is fatally flawed by sin.
“For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Romans 14:23
According to Isaiah without faith even our righteous deeds are “like a polluted garment”.
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Isaiah 64:6
The reality is that anyone outside the saving faith of Christ are dead people, spiritually dead and therefore only capable of doing wretched, sinful things. From birth this is the reality for us all. We need to be clothed in His righteousness and this can only be done when we repent and put our faith in Jesus, the only one who can make us righteous, and that is by being clothed in His righteousness.
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12
The book of Job teaches us much about faith. Believing that God is good despite the apparent evidence to the contrary, Job rested in faith alone. In the depths of agony he could still proclaim, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 9:25). In the end, God silenced all discussion with the truth that He alone is wise (chs. 38–41). Yet, He vindicated Job’s trust in Him (ch. 42), proving that genuine faith cannot be destroyed.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation for in it the righteousness of God is revealed but it is by faith that we live the Christian life.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith (or beginning and ending in faith), as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17
Those in Christ should never fear death. The love of God continues from temporal life through to eternal life.
“The church is the only society in the world that never loses any of its members, even by death.” John Blanchard
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Psalms 116:15
The death of God’s people is safeguarded, watched over, protected, and secured. Much as we safeguard something highly valuable, so God safeguards His people when they die. As Jesus protected His disciples in life, so God protects them in death.
“While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” John 17:12
“For He delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence He redeems their life, and precious is their blood in His sight.” Psalms 72:12-14
When the wrath of God is poured out on an unrepentant world we are told that the lost will seek death but it will elude them.
“And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.” Revelation 9:6
If you are an unbeliever and you are reading this post I hope you will repent of your rejection of God and His values and seek to know what Jesus Christ has accomplished for you when He died on the Cross over 2000 years ago. He died to pay the penalty for your sins so that you might inherit eternal life and not fear death.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:16-18
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:1-4
What an amazing Scripture. Do you want life, eternal life? There is only one place you will find it – JESUS.
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:5-7
It is only His sacrifice on our behalf, His blood shed for you and me that cleanses us from SIN
What is the matter with the world? War, violence, turmoil, unhappiness ,,, There is only one answer – SIN.
The renowned theologian Martyn Lloyd-Jones reveals addictions provides a picture of all SIN patterns. At first the happiness it causes seems to outweigh the misery. But eventually the periods of misery increase and the periods of happiness fade. This is called the law of diminishing returns. Life is promised; death is delivered. Every drug, alcohol, and pornography addict is living proof the next high is less satisfying than the last.
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, SIN not only leads to insanity – it is insanity. Regardless of your drug of choice, materialism, cocaine, pornography, power, anger, slander – the nature of any SIN is saying. “This time it will be different.” Yet it just keeps killing us – all in the name of happiness.
The only answer to the SIN problem is Jesus. Repent of your SIN problems and ask Him to takeover your life as Saviour and Lord. Find meaning and purpose for your life, knowing you now have eternal life.
Martin Lloyd-Jones share these gems on SIN in his book Life in Christ in 1 John
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available on Amazon as a trade paperback or eBook or trade paperback from me at ron@bakb.com.au and making a donation. of $15.00 AUS or $20.00 USA to cover shipping
The Bible reveals the origin of evil was before the creation of man. The story begins with the dysfunction of a mighty and beautiful angelicbeing referred to in the Latin translation as Lucifer (Morning Star). Also more commonly known as Satan or the Devil. Other names, Abaddon (destroying angel), Revelation 9:11, Apollyon (destroyer), Revelation 9:11, Accuser of the brethren Revelation 12:10, Adversary (opponent), 1Peter 5:8, Angel of light (messenger of light), 2Corinthians 11:14, Antichrist (possessed by Satan), 1John 4:3, Beelzebub (ruler of the devils), Luke 11:15, Dragon, Revelation 12:7, Father of Lies, John 8:44, God of this world (god of this age), 2Corinthians 4:3 – 4, Great fiery red dragon (serpent), Revelation 12:3, Man of sin (man of offense), 2Thessalonians 2:3, Liar (a falsifier), John 8:44, Power of darkness (power of obscurity), Colossians 1:13.
“You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire, you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created,till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.” Ezekiel 28:12-17a
We are told Satan and the angels that followed him (1/3 of the angels) are eventually (God’s appointed time) cast into the Lake of Fire. As are unbelievers after the White Throne Judgement.
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15
“I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.” Ezekiel 28:17b-19
The Bible, in eight of its chapters, records seven fascinating and distinct times Satan the devil has spoken. We learn a great deal about man’s greatest enemy right from his own mouth! The first instance the Bible records of the devil speaking is, of course, his tempting of Eve in the Garden of Eden. His subtle deceptions foreshadow the craftiness he will later display in his effort to get Jesus to sin.
Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden
“Now the serpent (the devil) was more cunning than any creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And he (through an animal who could speak) said to the woman (Eve), “Is it true that God has said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'” And the serpent (the devil) said to the woman (Eve), “In dying, you shall not surely die!For God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God, deciding good and evil” (Genesis 3:1 – 5)
The devil’s perverted thinking and rebellious spirit spread to the human race by enticing the first humans to think as he does. The apostle Paul wrote about how disobedience and suffering entered the world when he stated, “Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and by means of sin came death; and in this way, death passed into all mankind” (Romans 5:12).
God, as the all-powerful Creator, has a right to determine what is right or wrong (good or evil) for the entire universe. He told Adam (Genesis 2:16 – 17) and Eve (Genesis 3:1 – 3) that it was good to eat from the trees in Eden with the exception of just one tree and the consequences of eating from that tree was death. (Genesis 2:17). Adam and Eve’s test was whether they would believe what God had said or reject His instruction and sin by believing Satan, the Deceiver. We are suffering the consequences of their decision.
Thankfully, God knew beforehand the outcome and He already had a plan to redeem mankind from the curse of evil. It is 2020 years since Jesus our Redeemer came and from Biblical prophecy, we know His return to rule and reign for 1000 years is not too distant. During Jesus Millennial reign Satan is bound but when released is still able to deceive a multitude to mount an army to come against Jesus and the Saints.
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while.” Revelation 20:1-3
“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”Revelation 20:7-10
Jen Hatmaker, Christian pastor, speaker and author faced backlash in 2016 when she departed from traditional Christian teachings and declared same-sex marriage to be “holy”.
One of her daughters, Sydney recently revealed she is gay. At the introduction of the lengthy conversation between Hatmaker and her daughter Sydney, the “For the Love” podcast host said the episode was not “an announcement,” because her family has known for quite some time that Sydney is homosexual. It was, though, the first time she’d shared the revelation with her listeners and readers.
Sydney Hatmaker , with the agreement of her mother, said it’s “not enough” for pastors and Christians to just love LGBT people; they need to also fully embrace their lifestyles.
Hatmaker explained that it is “maybe even more cruel” to love LGBT people while also believing homosexuality to be contrary to biblical teaching.
“It is not enough, Christians, to say, ‘Well, we love you, anyway,’” she said. “I don’t want to be ‘loved anyway.’”
All of this comes on the heels of the release of Hatmaker’s newest book, “Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You.” She wrote in the book that she has largely exchanged evangelical theology for “the wild terrain of the wilderness.”
GOD MAKES IT CLEAR HE LOVES SINNERS BUT HATES SIN. JESUS IS THE ANSWER TO THE SIN PROBLEM. HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN PROBLEM ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHERS.
Sydney explained a particular moment, which Hatmaker described as “a terrible day,” when she picked up a book by an unnamed pastor who “didn’t know where he landed [on homosexuality] but knew that he loved the gay people in his life, systematically going through the Bible and, verse by verse, coming to the conclusion that gayness is sin.”
“That was just — destroyed me,” she told her mom, recalling having a “full meltdown” that day. “[I] read the whole thing in one day, just fully feeling in that moment like God didn’t love me.”
Hatmaker argued many pastors preach as if only heterosexual people are in their congregations, when, in reality, “every single church is just filled with gay kids and gay moms and dads.”
“It’s just so irresponsible to break their hearts,” she added.
Wave After Wave of People, Broken Before the Lord’: TN Pastor Tells CBN News of Revival Sweeping His City
“There has been a 50-year history of intense prayer across our region and the last two years we’ve seen God lead cities of churches together to do prayer walks, crusades, and tent revivals,” he told CBN News. “Awaken Tennessee seems it has brought that extra Holy Spirit presence through prayer and fasting that we see exploding in church after church.”
Revival is taking place in Tennessee after churches from various denominations partnered together in prayer and fasting, igniting a move of God’s Spirit that has transformed lives across the region.
CBN News has learned more about the revival that’s underway in Tennessee involving 1,000 churches across the Volunteer State. It’s a part of “Awaken Tennessee”, a 30-day prayer and fasting initiative that launched on Jan. 26 and will run through Feb. 23.
The event is not about any one church or denomination. It’s been described by Pastor John Butler of the East Rogersville Baptist Church in Rogersville as a concentrated prayer effort across the state for true revival in our churches that triggers an awakening in local communities, the state, and the nation. The initiative started last year when Pastor Dave Clayton of Nashville’s Ethos Church was successful in getting 400 churches to come together to pray for every single resident of the city. Awaken Nashville was a huge success, so this year Clayton and other organisers decided to invite churches in the entire state to participate.
Butler said, “Every service for the planned conference was filled with God’s presence. People were getting serious about dealing with personal sin and people were coming to Christ for salvation. Thirty-year feuds were made right, relationships have been restored, and many masks had been removed. People made public confessions of sin, bitterness, and laziness about their involvement in God’s kingdom activity,”
Another great message from Francis Chan on living the Christian life. It’s a continual battle, spiritual warfare. It’s so easy to sew to the flesh, to give in to earthly desires,, but remember the following verse of Scripture – we can fool family and friends but not God when we do so. God is not mocked.
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:7-10
We all sin, even Francis and certainly me, but as Francis Chan points out God is merciful and when we sincerely repent and turn back to Him He forgives and forgets. Giving up is not an option, it is the overcomers that inherit the Kingdom of God.
Nothing you do in this life matters apart from what you do for God.
Atheist evangelist Richard Dawkins is on the crusade again with his latest book Outgrowing God1 to win more converts to his religion of atheism. His book was released in September, published by Random House Books.
CMI has produced an excellent review of this book. I suggest you go to their website http://www.creation.com to see it, in its entirety. The following is an abbreviated version.
As a teenager, Dawkins de-converted from (nominal) Christianity to atheism since he was unsure as to which god was the right god out of hundreds or even thousands of candidates.
Dawkins does not understand that to know God one has to be born again and receive the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can lead you into all truth. He is our counsellor, teacher and comforter. It is the Holy Spirit that produces the fruit of the Spirit in a believers life: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness goodness, gentleness, kindness and self control. He is also the one that gives the gifts of the spirit for ministry.
In the first half of his book Dawkins raises eternal questions about good and evil. Is God really good? Is the Bible really true? Do we need the Bible and God to be good?
Dawkins obviously, like much of the world, does not like what God defines as sin and would much prefer to make up his own rules. Moreover, would like to change those rules as he sees fit.
Sin involves nothing less than flagrant rebellion against the will of Almighty God. Sin cuts us off from the living God entirely. This is no trifling matter. God, as our Creator, would be perfectly righteous in sending every one of us to death for our sins. It is only by God’s grace that He doesn’t do so. In fact, the problem of our eternal, sinful separation was so bad, that God sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins on the cross (see also Dawkins’ dilemma: how God forgives sin).
A key element in Dawkins’ de-conversion experience is his belief in evolution, which convinced him that seemingly designed elements really evolved over long periods of time.
The second half of Dawkins’ book deals with his attempt to undermine the concept of intelligent design, using natural selection and evolution as an alternative explanation. Not wanting to sound trite but as a scientist he should be aware of the Ockham’s Razor approach to science. For even Dawkins himself has previously stated “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose”.14 So, even as an evolutionist, Dawkins is forced to acknowledge how certain structures in the animal kingdom appear to be designed. His examples include the color pigments of the octopus, the tongue of the chameleon, and the legs of the cheetah, or the feathers of birds (p. 36).
Dawkins does not explain how legs can turn into wings or leaves into thorns. Neither does he name a single gene which would be responsible for such mutations as a practical example. In short, Dawkins misrepresents the way natural selection happens in nature. Natural selection is efficient in explaining how anatomically different structures in organisms lead to differential survival. But it does not explain how the structures themselves arise. People readily recognise cases of intelligent design in automobiles, buildings, books, statues, or hieroglyphs. Therefore, DNA serves as a plan for the whole entire body of an organism. DNA is the information that controls all the machinery of the cells to function successfully, to reproduce and adapt to their environment. Information comes only from intelligence and in the case of the information to control living cells, a level of intelligence beyond our understanding..
Dawkins understands that the Earth is fine-tuned for life to exist on its surface. If the Earth were just a little too close to the Sun, then it would be too hot for life to exist. On the other hand, if it was just a little too far, then it would be too cold for life. Furthermore, if the gravitational constant, G were even just a little different, then life could not exist on Earth. This is something called the anthropic principle, namely that Earth, and even the universe seems to have been designed especially for human life.
In response, Dawkins posits the multiverse concept. This concept states there are millions or even billions of universes, parallel with our own, each defined by its own laws and physical constants. Therefore, according to the law of big numbers, even though the great majority of these universes may all be devoid of life, a very small percent of them may still be finely tuned to allow life to appear.
What physical evidence is there for billions of other universes? Is it even possible for us to know of other universes? As such, this is not a scientific concept. Even if there happened to be other universes out there, how do we know that there are billions of them? Also, how do we know that they come into being independently from one another to have differing parameters and physical laws? Nonsense.
Lastly, Dawkins and other evolutionists attack design as unscientific. However, we see intuitively, that design is scientific. For example, if engineers designed sonar systems from bats, what kind of supernatural intelligence created bats? Design can easily be inferred from simple observation of nature. Dawkins needs to use extra, convoluted arguments to explain that biological structures evolved as opposed to being simply designed. By applying the principle of Ockham’s Razor, we can reject Dawkins’ evolutionary arguments and accept the principle of design. Dawkins should not reject intelligent design but acknowledge it as a viable scientific argument for the origin of life.
Simply revealing the love of God to someone is not evangelism. In fact, it can have devastating results. It takes much more than a love revelation to draw someone into a legitimate relationship with Jesus.
A revelation of our sinfulness and hopelessness is the critical starting point when sharing the gospel with someone. We cannot cover up this reality out of fear that someone will get defensive, offended or resistant to the message. Do we even understand anymore in our hyper-modern age that God is holy? If we modify the message of truth in hopes of ensuring a longer, more “successful” audience with a sinner, we are in serious violation.
As was done with the rich young ruler, you must make it hard, not easy, to follow Jesus. You aren’t a salesman, you are a representative of a holy God. Address sin, hell, the fear of the Lord, surrender, the cost of following Jesus and the personal loss that will result.
They will lose friends, leave immorality and selfishness behind, surrender all and sign up as a martyr should God call them to that.
If they eagerly repent after you share all that, you’ll know they are starting their Christian journey the right way. If you only share God’s love with them, they are at great risk of living their entire lives convinced all is well while actually following Jesus in an unsaved condition.
Stop minimizing the cost of following Jesus and hiding offensive truth in the hopes that people will get saved.
“For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgement, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” Hebrews 10:26-27
If they don’t like God as He is or if they get offended when faced with their own wickedness, let them walk. That sounds harsh, but it’s truth. God is who He is, and we can’t attempt to make him more attractive. He truly is a loving and fearful God.
Of course, their decision to walk should rip at our hearts, launching us into tears and intercession for them. True love looks just like this. Refusal to confront with truth is damaging beyond measure, and hell is growing larger because of it.
much of this article was abstracted from Charisma Magazine article by John Burton Prophetic Revivalist Responds to Bethel’s Controversial LGBT Post.
This 11 minute sermon is even more needed to day than when David Wilkerson produced it almost ten years ago. End Times signs are more evident today than back then.
It seems like we are in “fast forward” mode. Last days prophesied “birth pangs” do increase in intensity with time.
David Wilkerson says in the video, that the younger generation has no fear of God, and yet we know the beginning of wisdom is to fear God. No doubt this lack of fear has been brought about by one of Satan’s most effective strategies – evolution, which has destroyed belief in the Bible as God’s inerrant Word. We need to get equipped to share the Gospel effectively with the abundant resources provided by http://www.creation.com.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 