No Wiggle Room Here

Psalms 40:1-3 ESV

 

“I waited patiently for the Lord;

    he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

    out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

    making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

    a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

    and put their trust in the Lord.”

 

Our salvation from sin is not just forgiveness of sins, the escape from the punishment for our sin, and the hope of eternal life with God in heaven. Our salvation from sin is deliverance out of the pit of destruction, i.e., it is deliverance from our slavery (bondage, addiction) to sin. It is Jesus rescuing us from the control and the power of sin over our lives.

 

But it isn’t just that. It is the Lord Jesus delivering us out of our bondage to sin so that we can now be slaves of God and of his righteousness, so that we can now walk (in practice, in conduct) according to the Spirit of God and no longer according to our sinful flesh. It is him delivering us out of our old lives of living in sin to now living lives of holiness, godliness, and moral purity.

 

But this is not what is largely being taught in the institutional market-driven church of today. What is being taught there, largely, is the opposite of that, for what they are teaching is seducing people and luring them to continue living in their sin, only now without guilt, and without the fear of punishment, and with a false hope of heaven as their eternal destiny.

 

People are being lied to in many of these institutional churches, and they are accepting the lies by the droves, and so they are following pied pipers to their deaths. They like the idea that they can be saved from their sins and go to heaven when they die, but that they don’t have to change how they live. They can continue living in their sin, only now without guilt.

 

For, this “cheap grace gospel,” which is permeating the institutional church, is spreading like wildfire. For, it appeals to the sensual indulgences of the flesh and to self-pleasure. So, it does not put sin to death, but it gives it permission to live and to thrive. It does not alter the “follower’s” lifestyle, but it puts a stamp of approval on it, which they call “forgiveness.”

 

But this was all by design. This was the intention, the plan, the purpose of the creation of this cheap grace gospel to keep people still in bondage, in addiction to sin, while promising them forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God. So, this is a lie from hell, and many people have fallen into its trap and are being seduced by a lie to keep on in their sin.

 

But this is not by God’s design. It is not according to God’s will and purpose for our lives. And it is not focused on God but on self and on the flesh. It is all about pleasing the flesh and what we want and what we desire and not about pleasing the Lord and doing what he wants. The cheap grace gospel is all about pleasing the flesh and not about pleasing God at all.

 

Psalms 40:4-5 ESV

 

“Blessed is the man who makes

    the Lord his trust,

who does not turn to the proud,

    to those who go astray after a lie!

You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;

    none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

    yet they are more than can be told.”

 

So many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ are not putting their trust in the Lord Jesus but in the flesh of man. So the head over their lives is not Jesus Christ but the flesh and sin. They are not living under the control of God’s Spirit but under the control of a different spirit, which is of the devil, so they are still living under the control of sin.

 

The “spirit” they are following is giving them permission to keep living in their sin by calling it something else which lessens the offense. They “lighten” the offense of the sin by saying “I messed up,” as though all they did was spill milk or something, when, in fact, they habitually and deliberately and premeditatedly continue in their sinful practices.

 

They profess that Jesus is their Lord while they refuse to bow to him as Lord and while they continue to operate their own lives still according to the flesh, in their own power and strength. They may or may not be trying to stop their sinful habits, but they are not relying on the Lord for the power to be delivered from the darkness, for they are still “playing” in the darkness.

 

And this is because they are not lovers of God but they are lovers of intoxication to sin and of self-indulgence and self-gratification, i.e., they are lovers of self. Self is still on the throne of their lives for they have not yielded control of their lives over to the Lord, and this is because they love the darkness and so they refuse to come into the light.

 

The only “light” they recognize is the “lightening” of their evil, i.e., the minimizing of their sin to where they don’t feel guilty for their sin. For, although they claim to be Christians, they are not on the side of righteousness but they are on the side of evil, which is where they take their stand. And since they don’t want others to know of their evil practices, they generally will keep these hidden, while they make fake righteousness.

 

But while they may make a show of righteousness, i.e., while they may profess faith in Jesus Christ, they are living in moral filth, in sexual immorality, in addiction to the lusts of the flesh, and they are living according to a false gospel which grants them permission to do so. And some people have been living like this for a very long time.

 

But blessed is the one who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn aside to a course of evil, who does not turn to the proud, who does not go astray after a lie. Blessed is the one who surrenders his life to Jesus Christ to follow the Lord according to his ways and according to his truth and then who shares that truth with others for their edification.

 

Psalms 40:6-8 ESV

 

“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

    but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering

    you have not required.

Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come;

    in the scroll of the book it is written of me:

I delight to do your will, O my God;

    your law is within my heart.’”

 

Our Lord is not interested in what we may be willing to sacrifice, supposedly for him, if our lives are not surrendered to him, and if we are still living in sin, making the lusts of the flesh our god instead of making God our only Lord. He is not interested in our giving or our church attendance or our good deeds done in our own flesh. He wants our all on the altar.

 

What our Lord wants is for us to present our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, which is our reasonable and acceptable worship of him. He wants us to no longer be conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but he wants to transform our hearts and minds away from living for sin and for the flesh to now living for God and for his holiness.

 

He doesn’t want what we are willing to do for him. He wants our obedience. He wants people who delight to do his will, who do not try to find wiggle room to squirm their way out of obedience. He wants people who love his word and who desire to obey his teachings (his instructions to us). For, to love God is to obey him. If we don’t obey him, we don’t love him.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:9; Matt 5:13-16; Rom 12:1-2]

 

A love song to the Lord Jesus:

 

You're still the one I run to

The one that I belong to

You're still the one I want for life

You're still the one that I love

The only one I dream of…

Ain't nothin' better

 

[Taken from the lyrics to a secular song called, “You’re Still the One,” by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain]