Confession of Sin
July 28, 2016
Greetings,
I have worked the confession of sin numerous times in teaching, Scripture study and reference and use in my personal prayer notebook. The following is covering some of that information I have already shared, but it may be your first time in reading that from me. IN recent times of sharing I have come across again to those in the church that have been there for a long time, but seemingly unknowing of Scriptures in light of the prayer of confession. I desire to write it out for the church to have and use in corporate and personal prayer times of confession.
There are two main focuses for us in confession:
1. the pronouns used are very important; personal confession, as in David's Psalm 51 is filled with "I", and "me"; while other prayed for a people/nation and it was plural, "we", or "us';
2. a very detailed knowledge of what God has said is sin and how we should acknowledge and know our high offence.
I do not know how many sins there are that are found in Scriptures, but we should know wherein our high offence is before the Lord. these are the specific things that the Lord has spoken and said 'this is sin'. Should we not be concerned with what costs us our relationship/walk with the LOrd? should we not be concerned with what hinders our prayers? (psalm 66:18, 'If I regard iniquity within my heart, the Lord will not hear me') Should we not upset with what costs us the closeness, nearness and power of the Holy Ghost? (ephesians, "Quench not the Holy Spirit")
Teaching, learning and understanding what is offensive to the Lord should keep us from it and cause us to stay true to Him and in Him. We know how much our sin has costs our Lord when we view His crucifixion. We know how much sin has cost the church, our families and our nation when we understand our sins have forced Him to withdraw from us. Therefore, we should be resolved not to sin and in order to know what not to sin in, we have to know what sin is specifically.
Here we begin to search the Scripture for what is pronounced as sin in the eyes of the Lord. WE see sins pronounced by the Lord as general in our choices as unbelief, forsaking Him and disobedient. WE see the specifics of these as to what we have not believed; how have we forsaken Him and wherein have we been disobedient. So we look at the Scripture for the two measures of sins pronounced generally speaking and specificially speaking. (It is not my desire to differentiate between the two but simply list them before us.)
Galatians 5: 19 - 21; Revelation 22:15; Mark 7:21-23;
This is the longest lists of sins of the flesh. Many of these are repeated throughout Scripure but some are referenced specifically for the first time.
--Adultery - definition - illicit sexual behavior by husband/wife, breaking their marriage vows; identified as the works of the flesh in Galatians 5; Jesus declared in Mark 7 out of an evil heart comes this sin; the 7th commandment in Exodus 20, Deut. 5, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' Jesus declared in Matthew 5 in the SErmon on the Mount, if a man looks on a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery. Many will justify themselves that they have not actually committed adultery, but they will never confess that they have lusted, thought, been tempted in this and their hearts have gone out after this sin.
--fornication - definition - illicit sexual behavior outside of marriage, by those that are unmarried;
identified as the works of the flesh; Jesus declared in Mark 7 out of an evil heart comes this sin; the first church in Acts met and declared that this sexual immoral behavior was rampant among the heathen and that Christians in the church should keep themselves pure and from this sin - Acts 15:20, abstain from idols and fornication; also in I Thess. 4:3, 'For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication." In Ephesians 5:3, 'But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints'
Herein we see the defilement of the flesh is a cancer to the soul. How much more should we pronounce this sin, in a generation that is bent on sexual immorality in the church and out of the church and never confessed in corporate settings it seems.
--uncleanness -the opposite of purity; unnatural practices; We see throughout the Old Testament God's standards of unclean through touch. 'Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing' is issued byPaul to the Corinthians. For not only touch, but contact, influence and persusation goes a long way in making them unclean in the sight of God. If being without sin, makes one clean; by the blood of Christ. Then unclean is with sin, and void of Christ. The things of this world in sight, lust, flesh makes us unclean and we are constant to separate from the things of this world and draw nigh to Him WHo makes us clean in Him. Confession should be of all that has tainted us in practice, habits, seeing, hearing, influence, impact, and choices.
--lasciviousness - contrary to chastity; all lewdness of the flesh; The perversions of the flesh in this society mirrors that which was practiced by Sodom, by Babylon, by Rome; and all the other heathen, pagan nations that had no restraint on acting out in the flesh. This is a huge sin in our midst of wickedness as a nation. All the practices in our society that men do openly and secretly to pervert what God intended leads us to greater and greater sin. Lasciviousness comes from tempetation, which leads to lusts, which leads to acting out, which leads to greater perversions. It is the pinnacle of perversion and wickedness of men acting out on what lusts has opened to them. Confession of this sin in practice, in mind, in heart that has led many to the perversion of our famlies, our society, the church, etc.
--idolatry - worship of false gods; false religions, cults, rebellion against the Good and Right Way of Christ and His Word;
Romans 1:29 -31;
Here in Romans God uses the phrase, 'And God gave them up' due to their great iniquity and sins. This is a listed of 23 specific sins and again, we have the assurance that those that practice such shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Because, in all good reasoning, if God gives you up, what hope is there? There is none.
Many of these are repeat sins mentioned, and I will not take time to go over them again that has already been covered.
'Being filled with all. . . '
--unrighteousness - righteousness of God is defined as being right with God and in God; therefore unrighteousness is as not right with God and that actions and choices are not for God's glory but man's; not of the Spirit but of self;
--fornication - previously dealt with;
--wickedness - morally very bad; causes harm, distress, and trouble;
Colossians 3:5 - 6
Paul write that they are to 'mortify' - kill your members which are upon the earth; for it is these memebers of our flesh that commit such sins. The membwers are the eyes, the heart, the mind, the body that falls prey to yielding to temptation and sin. Then he goes on to lists 6 sins, all of which we have covered before.
Sins: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry;
I Timothy 1:9 - 10
Paul writing to Timothy explaining the lawless and unrighteous and what they are guilty of. he titles them 'lawless and idobedient, ungodly, sinners, unholy nad profane, of which they are guilty of the following sins:
--murderers of father and mothers, manslayers;
Started: July 28, 2016
Continued: 7/30;8/5; 8/6;8/12;
Finished:
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
GOD'S RESPONSE TO OUR RESPONSE
July 11, 2016
God's Response to our Response
God has spoken consistently throughout His Word and revealed to us Who He is and why He does what He does. Our study, taken consideration and knowledge of Him is imperative to know these truths revealed in the Bible.
The following is a listing of the Scriptures that gives us these Biblical truth of how God will respond in blessing or cursing based upon our responses as a nation, His church, and our own private lives and hearts.
may you glean and grow in these Biblical truths:
Leviticus 26:23, 24 "And if ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary unto Me; v. 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins."
Also the same phrase used in : Leviticus 26:27, 28; 26:40, 41;
Three times in this chapter we have God telling them that He will judge them if they walk contrary unto Him in obeying His commands. He tells them that the next round of judgments would be 7x times greater against them, unless they repented and restored their way with Him. And God's response directly meets their response in judgment; 'If you walk contrary unto Me, I will walk contrary unto you.'
Deuteronomy 31:16 & 17, ". . .this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither the go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them. v. 17 Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. . . ."
This is a constant response mentioned in the Bible, men forsake God, therefore Gods' response is to forsake them.
Deuteronomy 32:21, "They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation."
There are 2 responses from God to the responses of Israel in this one verse.
1. They have moved Me to jealousy, therefore I will move them to jealousy. The Lord is using this song of Moses to tell them what shall come after Moses is dead and they enter into the promised land. They will fill their bellies become content and then turn away from the Lord to serve false gods. This will provoke the Lord to jealousy over His people. The Scripture declares the Lord is a jealous God; Exodus 34, "for the Lord, Whose Name is Jealous". And because they make Him jealous for turning away from Him, His response will be to make them jealous.
He will move them to jealousy by those which are not a people. He will use those things that make them so much desire that they wish they had never turned away from the Lord. Is it not a prophetic look at the Gentiles coming to Christ? They will have that relationship God intended for the Jews, but they would not. And so as they provoked Him to jealousy in forsaking Him and turning to false gods; so they will be jealousy that a people, not Jews, will have the love and attention of the Lord. Ultimately in hell they will be jealous and say, 'that all could have been ours, if only. . .'
2. They provoked Him to anger with their vanities, their lusts and their sins; He will provoke them to anger with another nation. And as God was moved to anger against them, for forsaking and replacing Him. They took their love, affection, attention and time and put it on vanities, He was moved to provocation against them.
He will have them to be provoked to anger by another nation that will aggravate, be a thorn in their side, and afflict them openly for their provoking the Lord to anger.
II Chronicles 30:6 - 9, "So the posts went with the letters from the king, and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. v. 8, . . .that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. v. 9 For if ye turn again unto the Lord, . . .and He will not turn away His face from you, if ye return unto Him."
Turn and return. There are multiple facets of this action and reaction implied.
1. There is the simple instruction 'if you turn to the Lord, He will turn to you'. The same action of returning unto Him, for they had turned away from Him, He will return to them. there is the promise at the end of verse 9, If they turn to Him, He will not turn away His face from them.
2. The reciprocal of this truth is also found as a warning to them. If they do not turn back to Him and serve Him, then the Lord will not turn away His wrath from them. This is the side of punishment due to their sin.
We are faced with this reality today. The Lord is immutable, He changes not. and if He was this way to His own children of Israel and Judah and their leadership, the sons of David. Then why would we expect any thing less upon His bride, His sons and daughters, His church. Just as they was in covenant, the old covenant of Abraham and the covenant of David; so we are under covenant with Christ.
Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."
There are 2 found in this verse:
1. because we reject knowledge of the Word of God, He rejects us;
2. because we forget the Law of God, He forgets our children;
Zechariah 1:3, "Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto Me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts."
Again we see the truth, God is waiting for us. He is more than willing to turn unto us for favor and restoring of this soured, broken relationship. we must understand our responsibility; we must turn unto Him and He will turn unto us. It is not just good enough to say, " I have turned or turned back to the Lord", but as the Lord said to turn unto Him. "Turn not unto Me feignedly but with all your heart"; David said it countless times, 'With the whole heart'. Turn unto Him so that there is nothing left to turn back to sin, self or Satan.
Zechariah 7:13 "Therefore it is come to pass, that as He cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts."
Throughout all of Scripture is found this truth, 'he that hath ears to hear, let him hear'. And we find in this verse God's response to a people that have ears to hear and will not hear. And so the time comes when they finally turn to the Lord, but it is too late. Therefore God responds as they responded, 'He will not hear them'. Oh, what shall we do when God refuses to hear us.
First, let us confess that we are the guilty party, and that God's response is to directly to the failure of a nation and His church and our own hearts, we failed to obey His voice. HE commanded and we rebelled; He spoke and we turned a deaf ear to Him; He gave the Word and removed it.
Malachi 3:7, "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from Mine ordiances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, But ye said, Wherein shall we return?"
It is very clear here that God has declared that due to Israel's continued rebellion and disobedience, He has left them. And once again His mercy is extended to show us that if they would return to Him, He would return to them.
Yet the people in asking the question, 'wherein shall we return?' show their continued defiance that they would not return. Are we not in the same place? Our fathers of this nation have departed from Him, our church fathers have departed from Him and we have not kept the ways of the Lord to please, but only to provoke Him.
Now how shall we return? It is the same directive, 'with all your heart, mind and soul'. It is not a partial return to what is convenient, but it is a full hearted surrender to love Him, to obey Him and to follow after Him. How long can one last without God? The need to return is great.
Luke 12:8, "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:"
We begin with this verse, but it is a two-fold response of God to man in verse 8 and 9. Confession and denial of Christ is found here to demonstrate that God responds to man's response.
If you confess Christ as the Son of God and your Lord and Savior, then He will confess you before the angels of God and His heavenly Father. But if you do not confess Him as Lord, then He will not confess you.
How do we confess Him? WE confess with our mouths that He is God, and that we are His and He is ours. Confession is a profession of faith about what our hearts believe. Many a mouth has confessed only to find out that their heart was not in agreement.
Luke 12:9, "But he that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God."
AS God responded to the confession of man to confess them in right relationship; so God denies the one that denies Him.
II Timothy 2:12, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us."
This is coupled with Christ command that if we profess Him, He will profess us before the Heavenly Father. And the truth of the opposite that if we are not professing Him as Lord and Savior then we are denying Him.
But herein of this verse is God's response to our response, 'if we deny Him, He denies us.'
How do we deny Him? We deny through a life that is lived in exact opposite of His life. He was holy, we cannot live in sin; He was perfect, we cannot live in defiance and willful rebellion of His ways; He was pure, we cannot be defiled; He was righteous, we cannot live in self-righteousness or unrightesouness. Let our life so meet our content of Who we follow. We cannot deny Him with opposite living practices, routines and patterns.
We can deny Him simply by a profession of not beiong a follower of Christ. Many Christians did this when Romans and other evil entities put Chrisitans in the place of deny Christ or die; they denied Him. the church wrestled with whether you could be forgiven and renewed after openly denying Him to safe oneself or family.
We can deny Him in our heart. Although one may live in public and open profession of being a Christian by being good and religious, secretly in their heart they are guilty of 'professing with the mouth, but the heart is far from Him'.
And when we bow before Him at the judgment seat of eternity, if we are found guilty of any of these things, He will deny us. He will say, 'I never knew you. Take this unprofitable servant and cast them into eternal hell.' There will be no bartering, no reasoning, no arguing, what God pronounces is a done deal.
The FAther will have last say, 'You denied Me, you denied My Son, and now we deny you as one of our own.'
James 4:8, "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."
One of the positive responses that many in the church love to hold and pray. And it is a Divine promise from the Lord that He is more than willing to draw nigh to us. As in other verses, we see the problem of God's distance, absence and void is not on His unwillingness, but on our own failure to respond.
Our response dictates God's. He has given us the permission to do this, to draw near to Him. Is there any place we would rather be?
And you should note that as sinful man draws near to a holy God, the next phrase is that we must deal with our sins. It is the great joy and rejoicing that we are allowed through Christ to 'drawn near'. He has made a way for us to 'come boldly before the throne of grace'. And therefore as God the Father accepts His beloved children in the faith through the atonement, blood and righteousness of Christ in our sinful behalf, we are granted entrance into the Holy of Holy.
But let not any self-righteous, arrogant attitude that we come on our own be our thought or motto. Or that we simply make up our mind to draw near to Him. WE come not of our own; yea, I don't believe any man or woman comes on their own. 'No man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My FAther' - John 6:65. IT is the grace and mercy of God that quickens us, draws us and we reciprocate by drawing near unto Him. So in a way it is not us drawing near unto Him so His response is to draw near unto us; but He draws near, then we draw near and He draws near again.
How is this? The HOly Spirit draws near to bring forth the Truth, the Word that quickens us, stirs us. This is all the beginning of the work of salvation; wherein this verse of promise is more about after salvation and our continued relationship with Him.
Started: July 11, 2016
Continued: 7/13; 7/14; 7/15; 7:16; 7/17; 7/18; 7/23; 7/26; 7/30; 8/5; 8/6;10/31;
Finished:
God's Response to our Response
God has spoken consistently throughout His Word and revealed to us Who He is and why He does what He does. Our study, taken consideration and knowledge of Him is imperative to know these truths revealed in the Bible.
The following is a listing of the Scriptures that gives us these Biblical truth of how God will respond in blessing or cursing based upon our responses as a nation, His church, and our own private lives and hearts.
may you glean and grow in these Biblical truths:
Leviticus 26:23, 24 "And if ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary unto Me; v. 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins."
Also the same phrase used in : Leviticus 26:27, 28; 26:40, 41;
Three times in this chapter we have God telling them that He will judge them if they walk contrary unto Him in obeying His commands. He tells them that the next round of judgments would be 7x times greater against them, unless they repented and restored their way with Him. And God's response directly meets their response in judgment; 'If you walk contrary unto Me, I will walk contrary unto you.'
Deuteronomy 31:16 & 17, ". . .this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither the go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them. v. 17 Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. . . ."
This is a constant response mentioned in the Bible, men forsake God, therefore Gods' response is to forsake them.
Deuteronomy 32:21, "They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation."
There are 2 responses from God to the responses of Israel in this one verse.
1. They have moved Me to jealousy, therefore I will move them to jealousy. The Lord is using this song of Moses to tell them what shall come after Moses is dead and they enter into the promised land. They will fill their bellies become content and then turn away from the Lord to serve false gods. This will provoke the Lord to jealousy over His people. The Scripture declares the Lord is a jealous God; Exodus 34, "for the Lord, Whose Name is Jealous". And because they make Him jealous for turning away from Him, His response will be to make them jealous.
He will move them to jealousy by those which are not a people. He will use those things that make them so much desire that they wish they had never turned away from the Lord. Is it not a prophetic look at the Gentiles coming to Christ? They will have that relationship God intended for the Jews, but they would not. And so as they provoked Him to jealousy in forsaking Him and turning to false gods; so they will be jealousy that a people, not Jews, will have the love and attention of the Lord. Ultimately in hell they will be jealous and say, 'that all could have been ours, if only. . .'
2. They provoked Him to anger with their vanities, their lusts and their sins; He will provoke them to anger with another nation. And as God was moved to anger against them, for forsaking and replacing Him. They took their love, affection, attention and time and put it on vanities, He was moved to provocation against them.
He will have them to be provoked to anger by another nation that will aggravate, be a thorn in their side, and afflict them openly for their provoking the Lord to anger.
II Chronicles 30:6 - 9, "So the posts went with the letters from the king, and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. v. 8, . . .that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. v. 9 For if ye turn again unto the Lord, . . .and He will not turn away His face from you, if ye return unto Him."
Turn and return. There are multiple facets of this action and reaction implied.
1. There is the simple instruction 'if you turn to the Lord, He will turn to you'. The same action of returning unto Him, for they had turned away from Him, He will return to them. there is the promise at the end of verse 9, If they turn to Him, He will not turn away His face from them.
2. The reciprocal of this truth is also found as a warning to them. If they do not turn back to Him and serve Him, then the Lord will not turn away His wrath from them. This is the side of punishment due to their sin.
We are faced with this reality today. The Lord is immutable, He changes not. and if He was this way to His own children of Israel and Judah and their leadership, the sons of David. Then why would we expect any thing less upon His bride, His sons and daughters, His church. Just as they was in covenant, the old covenant of Abraham and the covenant of David; so we are under covenant with Christ.
Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."
There are 2 found in this verse:
1. because we reject knowledge of the Word of God, He rejects us;
2. because we forget the Law of God, He forgets our children;
Zechariah 1:3, "Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto Me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts."
Again we see the truth, God is waiting for us. He is more than willing to turn unto us for favor and restoring of this soured, broken relationship. we must understand our responsibility; we must turn unto Him and He will turn unto us. It is not just good enough to say, " I have turned or turned back to the Lord", but as the Lord said to turn unto Him. "Turn not unto Me feignedly but with all your heart"; David said it countless times, 'With the whole heart'. Turn unto Him so that there is nothing left to turn back to sin, self or Satan.
Zechariah 7:13 "Therefore it is come to pass, that as He cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts."
Throughout all of Scripture is found this truth, 'he that hath ears to hear, let him hear'. And we find in this verse God's response to a people that have ears to hear and will not hear. And so the time comes when they finally turn to the Lord, but it is too late. Therefore God responds as they responded, 'He will not hear them'. Oh, what shall we do when God refuses to hear us.
First, let us confess that we are the guilty party, and that God's response is to directly to the failure of a nation and His church and our own hearts, we failed to obey His voice. HE commanded and we rebelled; He spoke and we turned a deaf ear to Him; He gave the Word and removed it.
Malachi 3:7, "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from Mine ordiances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, But ye said, Wherein shall we return?"
It is very clear here that God has declared that due to Israel's continued rebellion and disobedience, He has left them. And once again His mercy is extended to show us that if they would return to Him, He would return to them.
Yet the people in asking the question, 'wherein shall we return?' show their continued defiance that they would not return. Are we not in the same place? Our fathers of this nation have departed from Him, our church fathers have departed from Him and we have not kept the ways of the Lord to please, but only to provoke Him.
Now how shall we return? It is the same directive, 'with all your heart, mind and soul'. It is not a partial return to what is convenient, but it is a full hearted surrender to love Him, to obey Him and to follow after Him. How long can one last without God? The need to return is great.
Luke 12:8, "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:"
We begin with this verse, but it is a two-fold response of God to man in verse 8 and 9. Confession and denial of Christ is found here to demonstrate that God responds to man's response.
If you confess Christ as the Son of God and your Lord and Savior, then He will confess you before the angels of God and His heavenly Father. But if you do not confess Him as Lord, then He will not confess you.
How do we confess Him? WE confess with our mouths that He is God, and that we are His and He is ours. Confession is a profession of faith about what our hearts believe. Many a mouth has confessed only to find out that their heart was not in agreement.
Luke 12:9, "But he that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God."
AS God responded to the confession of man to confess them in right relationship; so God denies the one that denies Him.
II Timothy 2:12, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us."
This is coupled with Christ command that if we profess Him, He will profess us before the Heavenly Father. And the truth of the opposite that if we are not professing Him as Lord and Savior then we are denying Him.
But herein of this verse is God's response to our response, 'if we deny Him, He denies us.'
How do we deny Him? We deny through a life that is lived in exact opposite of His life. He was holy, we cannot live in sin; He was perfect, we cannot live in defiance and willful rebellion of His ways; He was pure, we cannot be defiled; He was righteous, we cannot live in self-righteousness or unrightesouness. Let our life so meet our content of Who we follow. We cannot deny Him with opposite living practices, routines and patterns.
We can deny Him simply by a profession of not beiong a follower of Christ. Many Christians did this when Romans and other evil entities put Chrisitans in the place of deny Christ or die; they denied Him. the church wrestled with whether you could be forgiven and renewed after openly denying Him to safe oneself or family.
We can deny Him in our heart. Although one may live in public and open profession of being a Christian by being good and religious, secretly in their heart they are guilty of 'professing with the mouth, but the heart is far from Him'.
And when we bow before Him at the judgment seat of eternity, if we are found guilty of any of these things, He will deny us. He will say, 'I never knew you. Take this unprofitable servant and cast them into eternal hell.' There will be no bartering, no reasoning, no arguing, what God pronounces is a done deal.
The FAther will have last say, 'You denied Me, you denied My Son, and now we deny you as one of our own.'
James 4:8, "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."
One of the positive responses that many in the church love to hold and pray. And it is a Divine promise from the Lord that He is more than willing to draw nigh to us. As in other verses, we see the problem of God's distance, absence and void is not on His unwillingness, but on our own failure to respond.
Our response dictates God's. He has given us the permission to do this, to draw near to Him. Is there any place we would rather be?
And you should note that as sinful man draws near to a holy God, the next phrase is that we must deal with our sins. It is the great joy and rejoicing that we are allowed through Christ to 'drawn near'. He has made a way for us to 'come boldly before the throne of grace'. And therefore as God the Father accepts His beloved children in the faith through the atonement, blood and righteousness of Christ in our sinful behalf, we are granted entrance into the Holy of Holy.
But let not any self-righteous, arrogant attitude that we come on our own be our thought or motto. Or that we simply make up our mind to draw near to Him. WE come not of our own; yea, I don't believe any man or woman comes on their own. 'No man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My FAther' - John 6:65. IT is the grace and mercy of God that quickens us, draws us and we reciprocate by drawing near unto Him. So in a way it is not us drawing near unto Him so His response is to draw near unto us; but He draws near, then we draw near and He draws near again.
How is this? The HOly Spirit draws near to bring forth the Truth, the Word that quickens us, stirs us. This is all the beginning of the work of salvation; wherein this verse of promise is more about after salvation and our continued relationship with Him.
Started: July 11, 2016
Continued: 7/13; 7/14; 7/15; 7:16; 7/17; 7/18; 7/23; 7/26; 7/30; 8/5; 8/6;10/31;
Finished:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)