Joshua 24:14-15 NIV
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
This message here is not much different at all from what
Jesus and his New Testament apostles taught about sin and righteousness. For
Jesus said that if we want to come after him that we must deny self and take up
our cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we
hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self we will lose them for
eternity. But if for the sake of Christ, by the grace of God, we die with
Christ to sin that we might live to him and to his righteousness, then we have
eternal life.
And Jesus also taught that not everyone who says to him, “Lord,
Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one DOING the will of God
the Father who is in heaven. For many people are going to stand before God on
the day of judgment and they are going to proclaim Jesus as Lord, and they are
going to present to Jesus all the things they did in his name, and he is going
to say to them, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness”
(Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).
For, you see, we cannot just make a one-time in our lives
profession of faith in Jesus Christ and then go about our lives “business as
usual” and then expect God to let us into his heaven. For the Scriptures teach
that faith in Jesus Christ involves death to sin and living to righteousness,
by the grace of God. It involves us forsaking our lives of living in sin and
for self to follow Jesus Christ in obedience to his commands. It doesn’t mean
we are perfect people (1 John 2:1-2), but lack of perfection is no excuse at
all for continued and deliberate and habitual (addictive) sin against the Lord
Jesus.
[Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24; Rom 8:1-14; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Pet
2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15,21; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Fearing the Lord is, thus, not just Old Testament teaching. For
it means to honor God with our lives and to take him and his word seriously and
to do what it teaches us under the New Covenant. For we are taught under the
New Covenant that we must obey our Lord and that if we do not obey him that we
do not love him, and we do not know him, and thus we do not have salvation in
him. And we will not inherit eternal life with God.
[Jn 8:51; Jn 14:23-24; Ac 5:32; Rom 6:16; Heb 5:9; 1 Pet
1:2; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10,24; 1 Jn 5:2-4; 2 Jn 1:6; Jas 1:21-25; Matt
7:21-23]
But in order for us to fear the Lord and to serve him with
all faithfulness, which is what the New Testament teaches, too, we must first
of all throw away (cast off, put to death) the gods of this world and of our
ancestors. And the main “god” of this world that the Lord is wanting me to
address today is that of slavery to sin, but more specifically addiction to
sexual sin which works just like drug addiction and alcohol addiction, for it
is all about getting that feeling of exhilaration (intoxication) that addicts
crave.
So, it becomes a god to them, for they keep choosing it over
God and over their spouses and over other relationships, and over godliness and
righteousness and holiness. And for many of them their god is really
themselves, for they serve themselves and their wants and cravings and desires
in place of serving God and his desires and requirements for our lives which
are for our good. His moral boundaries are for our protection, in other words,
not to spoil all our fun. We can live holy lives and still enjoy life.
Anyway, the person who chooses sinful addiction, especially sexual
addiction, over and above God and spouse and all other relationships is a
person who is morally depraved and cruel and hateful. For it isn’t love if you are
sexually immoral and if committing adultery against your spouse is your addiction.
And it isn’t a disease or a sickness, either, that people can’t help. They can
indeed help! The Bible never gives excuses for addictive sin – for deliberately
and habitually doing what is evil, which includes sinning against God and
others, which then also causes deliberate harm to others.
So, if this is where you are, addicted to any sin, but
especially those kinds of sins which stimulate the senses and which give you a
physical and/or emotional high, then please know that you are not choosing God.
You are choosing self. God is not your Lord. You are your own god and/or you
are serving the gods of the flesh and of this world. And so God is calling out
to you to choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your
ancestors or the one and only true God of the universe who created us.
But if you choose to love and to serve God with your life,
then you must give up those gods of the world and of the flesh that you are
addicted to so that you can serve the Lord and honor him as Lord of your life.
But if you choose to remain in your addiction, and to keep on in your sinful
practices, then please know that heaven is not your eternal destiny, God is not
your Lord, and hell is what awaits you. At the end of the road, death
(spiritually) will be what you will face, not life eternal. So, please take
this seriously.
[Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal
5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn
2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
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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