“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23 NASB1995)
Imagine with me that you are married to someone. And one day,
when you went to sit down on a chair, this person pulled the chair out from
underneath you so that you fell to the floor and you hurt yourself. And then
suppose that this person then said, “I am sorry!” Would you believe they were
really sorry? And what if a week later, they did it again, with the same
result, and again they said, “I’m sorry!” Would you believe they were really
sorry? And what if this continued for months or even years with the same
result? Would you believe that they were really sorry for their actions against
you?
Lip service is not enough to prove your love for anyone,
including for God. We prove our love by our actions, not just by words. And if
we deliberately and habitually do what we know is harmful to others, that is
not love. That is hate which comes from what is stored up in the hearts of
those who choose to do what is harmful (sinful) to others, and which is against
God and against his Word. So we can declare with our lips all we want that
Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, but if we deliberately and habitually sin
against him, and if we do not change course, we will not inherit eternal life
with God.
So all those people who are telling you that all you have to
do is give lip service to the Lord, but that you don’t have to obey his
commands, and you do not have to forsake your sins, they are lying to you. Even
if they teach the importance of dying to sin and obeying God, but they teach
them as optional, i.e. as something we should do, but that if we don’t do, that
it won’t impact our eternal security, they are not speaking the truth to you,
whether willfully or not. For God requires self-denial, death to sin, and walks
of obedience to his commands in surrender to his will and purpose.
Now this is not saying that God demands absolute sinless
perfection and that if we make one error then “bam!” we are out! See 1 John
2:1-2. But he does “draw a line in the sand,” so to speak. He does set a limit
for what he will allow (not sanction) and what he will not allow. And the
standard he has set for us all is that if we die to sin, not just once, but in
practice, and if we walk in obedience to his commands, in practice, we have
salvation and eternal life with him. But if sin is what we practice, and not
obedience to God, then we do not have salvation from sin, and heaven is not our
eternal destiny.
For if we deliberately and habitually do what is evil in the
sight of the Lord, and obedience to his commands is not what we practice, it is
the same as someone who is married to someone who is a practicing adulterer or
adulteress who willfully and habitually chooses their sexual sinful practices
over love and fidelity to their spouse. And saying, “I am sorry,” where there
is no change of heart or behavior or life direction, does not cut it. And the
same applies in our relationship with God. If all we do is say “I am sorry” but
we keep repeating the same sinful practices, that is not biblical repentance.
And in the Bible, our relationship with Jesus Christ is
compared to the marriage between a husband and a wife. For we who believe in
Jesus, in truth and in righteousness, are his bride, and he is our husband. And
we are to honor our Lord and obey his commands and not deliberately and
habitually sin against him anymore than we should deliberately and habitually
sin against our spouses by cheating on them with sexually immoral practices.
For the marriage bed is to be undefiled, and we are to be united as one flesh,
showing equal love and concern for one another.
And we are to be united with our Lord, all of us as one
body, with him as the head, with him as our husband, and with us as his bride.
And we are to be faithful to him, and live in moral purity, and do what is
pleasing to him, and not deliberately and habitually sin against him while
professing with our lips that he is Lord of our lives. That would be like a person
saying “I love you” to their spouse while they are knowingly committing
adultery against them, in practice. So lip service only will not cut it. We
must deny self, die to sin, and walk in obedience to our Lord, in practice,
then we will see heaven.
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn
10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co
6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph
2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb
12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
An
Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s
Free Servant, Sue J Love
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
Saying What You Don’t Mean
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