1 John 3:4-10 ESV
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
Fooling Oneself
This teaching “flies in the face of” the adulterated gospel
message which is presently permeating the bulk of what is called “church” here
in America. For the popular “gospel” message which is being taught today
teaches that we can believe in Jesus Christ, be guaranteed forgiveness of sins,
and be guaranteed heaven as our eternal destiny, but that it does not have to
alter our lifestyles. For it teaches that Jesus does it all and that we do
nothing.
Thus, when people profess faith in Jesus Christ, but they don’t
repent of their sins, and they don’t walk in obedience to the Lord, and they
refuse to submit to Christ as Lord, they are only fooling themselves if they
think that they are saved from their sins and that heaven is their eternal
destiny. They are fooling themselves, too, if they think that their sins no
longer matter to God, or that he can’t even see when they sin, or that he will
not punish them for their sins. His word definitely says that he will judge
them.
And then there are those who were brought up under the true
gospel but who have secretly adopted the cheap grace gospel into their lives.
So, while they will make a pretense of righteousness or righteous living, they
are secretly engaged in all manner of evil when they feel they have privacy and
that no one can see what they are doing. For they don’t really take God and his
word seriously, for they have convinced themselves that God will not judge
them, and that heaven is still their eternal destiny.
Then there are those who have confessed their sinful
addictions and who have made many attempts and confessions at true repentance,
but even though they make many confessions of change and of leaving their
sinful lifestyles behind them, they never ever truly let go of their “other
love.” They may try to convince themselves they have, but they are just fooling
themselves when they try to pretend that their “ship’s not sinking.”
Emotionally there may be a part of them that wants to let go
of the sin, but emotionally there is another part of them that is just fooling
themselves that they are sincere about truly giving up their sinful habits.
For, although there may be a part that desires to be free or has fooled
themselves that they want to be free, the other part wants to hold on to the
sin and so only pretends to desire true freedom. For they are emotionally
attached to the sin as though the sin is their “other love.”
Everyone Who Practices
Now, the Scriptures give us a clear dividing line between
what constitutes true abiding faith in Jesus Christ and what does not. The
Scriptures do not teach that we will never sin again (1 Jn 2:1-2) but that sin
should no longer have mastery over our lives. We should no longer be enslaved
to sin. We should no longer make sin our practice, our habit. We should no
longer walk (conduct our lives) in sin deliberately and premeditatedly.
But now we are to walk (in conduct, in practice) according
to the Spirit, in holiness and righteousness, in obedient walks of faith in our
Lord Jesus. We are to live our lives in a manner worthy of Christ and of his
gospel. We are to obey our Lord’s commands. We are not to be engaged in sinful
practices, for we died to sin, so how can we live in it any longer? So daily by
the Spirit we are to be putting sin to death and walking in obedience to our
Lord.
And righteousness is not just something that is given to us
by God when we believe in Jesus Christ, but we must be those who practice
righteousness, for whoever practices (habitually) righteousness is righteous,
as God is righteous. And salvation from sin is also not a one-time deal that
takes place in our lives, but we must not make sin our practice, our habit, or
we don’t really know the Lord, and we will not inherit eternal life with God.
So, we are not cut off from our Lord every time we commit a
singular sin. But we also don’t know the Lord and we are not saved from our
sins if we are still habitually and deliberately sinning in the same ways. So,
if you premeditatedly and/or deliberately engage in the same sinful practices
over and over again, even though you know better, and even though there may be
people asking you to stop, then sin is your practice.
And if sin is what we practice, and if righteousness is not
what we practice, and if we are not walking in obedience to our Lord and to his
commands, in practice, then the Scriptures teach that we don’t know God and he
doesn’t know us and we are liars if we say that we do. They also say that we
are not born of God, we are not genuinely believing in Jesus, and thus we are
not the children of God, but we are children of the devil.
But many people are professing faith in Jesus Christ who are
denying this teaching by their practices, for they don’t believe this. They
believe they are saved and that heaven is their destiny, and that they do have
a relationship with God, and that he does listen to them, and that they are
listening to him, even though the Scriptures teach the opposite of that. And
that is because they are fooling themselves into believing the lie and not the
truth.
So, please take this to heart. If sin is what you practice,
you don’t know the Lord, he doesn’t know you, and heaven is not your eternal
destiny, no matter what you try to convince yourselves of. But if righteousness
is what you practice, by God’s Spirit, and if you are walking in obedience to
the Lord’s commands, and if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of
the flesh, then you have the hope of eternal life with God.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; 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; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]
Broken
Cord
An
Original Work / August 29, 2018
Your bond is broken
With your Lord and Savior
And, your testimony is
Separate from Him.
Your words not matching
Your actions today.
Repent of your sin and
Bow down and pray.
Live what you testify
In truth always.
Purity’s lacking in
Your life and witness,
For you profess one thing,
But other you do.
Not moral, spiritual.
Still of the flesh.
Not living in truth to
What you confess.
Lying about it
Puts you in a mess.
Living a lie is your practice,
‘tis true of you.
Masquerade righteousness –
None of it true.
Your heart is not given
To your Lord God.
Because of how you live,
You are a fraud.
Turn from your sin and
Give your life to God.
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