sin

Take A Stand 

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Nehemiah 13:8
“And it grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room.”

Jesus, speaking figuratively, said if our hand causes us to sin we should cut it off, and If our eye causes us to sin we should pluck it out (Matthew 18:8-9). Essentially, He was saying we should take radical action against personal sin. As the book of Nehemiah comes to a close, we see Nehemiah doing just that. He has seen the devastating effects sin has on an individual and a nation, and decides it is time to take a radical stance against sin.

The people had begun to compromise their relationship with the Lord by getting involved with the “mixed multitudes.” These were people who pretended to be committed to the Lord, but lived after the standards of the world. They would show up at the feasts and Sabbath days, but during the rest of the week they behaved like the pagan nations that surrounded Israel. Some of their actions included violating the Sabbath, living for the values of this world, and committing sexual sins. Those who associated with them, soon became like them.

Knowing the dangers of compromise, Nehemiah took some pretty serious actions. We read, he threw Tobiah out of the Temple mount, he contended with the rulers, shut the gates of the city on the Sabbath, and even pulled the hair out the beards and heads of those who withstood him.

I am not suggesting that we go on a rampage ripping the hair out of those who refuse to walk with the Lord. However, I do think it is a good idea to examine our relationship with Christ, discover the factors which keep us from following and serving Him, and remove them. As each day passes, our salvation draws nearer and nearer. It is time we took our Christianity seriously by taking a radical stance against sin.

Pastor Jim

 

Time To Wake Up

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Romans 13:11
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”

I can remember times, as a child, when I had to wake up very early for an event I was looking forward to. I would set my alarm, and a backup, then wake up over and over again through the night to check the time. I did not want to sleep in and miss out. I recall, one morning, hearing the alarm go off, getting out of bed, getting dressed and walking out to the living room, where I put on my shoes. After a few moments, I heard my mom’s voice asking me what I was doing. As I began to answer, I noticed all the lights were on and my parents were watching television. It was eleven p.m., I had only been asleep for about an hour, and had dreamt I heard the sound of my alarm clock.

Paul is writing about the most important of all events, encouraging us not to sleep in and miss out. He writes concerning Salvation, reminding us, we are nearer to the return of Christ than any other time in human history. Just as there are signs that morning is approaching, so there are signs that Christ is coming. It is foolish to ignore the warnings and continue on in our spiritual slumber. Instead, we must live life prepared to face eternity. Paul tells us three necessary things to do in order to be prepared when the trumpet sounds and Christ calls us home.

First, we are to cast off the works of darkness. After Lazarus was resurrected, Jesus commanded that his burial clothes be removed. Those clothes were fitting for a dead man, but not for the living. They would stink of death and restrict life. In the same way, there are behaviors that might have ‘fit’ us before we came to Christ, but we must be cast aside. Paul mentions partying, drinking, sexual sin, lust, envy and strife. These things should remain in our past.

Second, we are to put on Christ. Christianity is not all about what we don’t do. Instead, it is about living for Jesus and becoming like Him. As we focus on growing in Him, we find His character traits become a part of us. We become more loving, merciful, kind, giving, compassionate and selfless. Paul referred to these as the fruit of the Spirit. It is important, at times, to do a Spiritual checkup to see if those traits are developing in our lives.

Finally, we are told not to make provision for the flesh. In other words, we must be careful not to make it easy to sin. If you are on a diet, it is probably not a great idea to watch “Cup Cake Wars”, or hang out at a bakery. In the same way, we all know the temptations we face and must remove ourselves as far from them as possible. Christians who live near the fence are the ones who are constantly falling in and out of sin.

Jesus is coming back! Let’s be ready when He comes. Let’s live so that we hear Him say, “Well Done!”

Pastor Jim

 

Dark Days 

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Nehemiah 1:4
“So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

Nehemiah received word concerning conditions in Jerusalem. No doubt, he hoped to hear the work of God was being accomplished, and the people were living righteous and holy lives. Instead, he heard of how the people had let the sin of discouragement keep them from serving the Lord, and the city walls remained a pile of rubble.

The news Nehemiah received is all too common. The conditions of the world and the church are often much less than we hope. Believers commonly allow things to hinder them from serving Christ, and the world is constantly being devastated by the effects of rebellion against a holy and loving God. The uncommon element to this story is not the condition of things, as much as it is the response of the man. Instead of allowing these things to discourage him, Nehemiah determined to make a difference. His reaction to the news is one that is not only telling of his character, but should stir each of us to emulate his actions, and make a difference in our world.

We read, Nehemiah sought the Lord. As the story unfolds, we find Nehemiah’s efforts to seek God include, confession for personal sin, prayer that God would accomplish His work, and diligent, targeted ministry to see the kingdom of God furthered on earth.

There is no doubt, we are living in dark days. Man’s moral compass has been compromised. It seems almost every sinful action is being espoused as a right and a freedom. Anyone who would even suggest certain behaviors are sinful, is immediately tagged as being intolerant, judgmental, and a threat to the common good. How is the Christian to respond to this? I believe it is time to take a page from Nehemiah’s book. I think we need to seek the face of God. We should confess any personal sin and get rid of it, while at the same time, praying on behalf of those who are caught up in immoral living. We should also seek every way possible to bring the light of the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a confused a dying world.

Will you pray today that God would give us an open door to take the truth to the world like never before?

Pastor Jim

 

Drowning

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Ezra 9:6
“And I said: ‘O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.’”

After some initial reforms, the remnant, who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity, soon began to drift from the Lord. The ways of the world are always tempting for the child of God; as such, many of the people began to pick up the customs of the day. Soon, it was difficult to see any difference between believer and unbeliever. News of the people’s behavior devastated Ezra, and he began to cry out to the Lord. His prayer reveals what to do when we find ourselves overwhelmed by our own failures.

There are times in the life of many believers when we are drawn away from the Lord, and find ourselves caught up in sin. Tangled like Jonah in seaweed, we find ourselves caught in sin, with seemingly no way to escape. The guilt can be so great we are ashamed to even begin steps of repentance. I think Ezra was experiencing this. He realized how they had taken advantage of the goodness of God by pursuing the ways of the world. Instead of remaining in his failure, Ezra reminded himself of the grace of God, and His desire to restore the fallen saint. It was the grace of God that caused Ezra to seek forgiveness, even when he was neck deep in the guilt of sin.

Perhaps you have failed in a big way. Perhaps the guilt of past, present, or continual sin, is keeping you from moving away from it, and toward the Lord. Can I encourage you to do what Ezra did? He went before the Lord, confessed his sin, trusted in grace, and made the appropriate changes in his life. God is willing to forgive. Are you willing to return, receive and repent?

Pastor Jim

 

The Verdict 

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Ezra 3:2
“Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.”

Central to returning to the Lord, was the Altar. With it, sacrifices could be offered in accordance with the Law of God. Without it, man would still be striving on his own, attempting to build his way to God. The altar, tragically, involved the sacrifice of the innocent in place of the guilty. This method of atonement was offensive to some; not because of the death of the innocent, but because of the declaration that those offering the sacrifice are guilty.

Long ago, the Cross replaced the altar as the means by which man could access God. The method changed, but the statement it makes remains the same. Man is guilty before God and sacrifice must be made on his behalf. Jesus, Himself, became the sacrifice for us. His blood was shed on our behalf so every guilty sinner might have access to God through Him. Rather than being offended by the fact that you are called a sinner, why not accept the pardon He provides. After all, if you don’t think you are a sinner, you are the only one who believes that.

Pastor Jim

 

Free From Sin’s Control

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Romans 8:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

As we read through the Word, it is important to remember the chapter breaks were added later to make it easier to find specific passages. At times, they can create a break in thought not intended by the author. This often causes us to miss something vital in the text. The thoughts of Romans 8 are an obvious conclusion of what Paul declared in Chapter 7. He referred to himself as carnal, a word meaning worldly; and wretched, meaning deeply afflicted, or extremely bad. The reason for his dire view is that he found himself incapable of living a proper Christian life. The Word of God clearly expresses the kind of life which pleases God, and the particular behaviors, thoughts, desires and actions that are regarded as sinful. By his own admission, Paul knew what was right, but lacked the power to accomplish these things. He writes,

“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” Romans 7:19

Have you ever been sitting in a church service, hearing a particularly convicting message, knowing that you come short, desiring with all your heart to live up to it, yet walking out the door and failing again? Understand, you are not alone in this, even Paul faced the same struggles. While it is encouraging to know we are not alone in this battle, Paul did not write about his experience in order to make us feel better when we fail. Instead, he is writing his story to offer us help. He goes on to give the secret of his success; “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” While Chapter 7 describes the struggle Paul faced attempting to live for Christ, Chapter 8 gives the secret behind his victory.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

The life of victory over sin, results in a life filled with the fruit of the spirit, has impact upon others, and produces treasures stored up in Heaven; this is the life empowered by the Spirit of God. The Christian life was never meant to be lived in the energy of human strength. God requires that we learn to depend upon His Spirit for our strength. It is the one who sits daily before the throne of grace who will be filled with the Spirit of Christ. He will find himself with an increased ability to conquer personal sin and live well pleasing to the Lord. STOP trying to win the battle against the flesh with will power and human strategy. Instead, sit daily at the feet of Jesus, in the Word of God, and ask Him, nay, plead with Him, to fill you beyond capacity, with the Spirit of holiness that raised Christ from the dead.

Take a few minutes to ask God to baptize you with His Spirit. Ask Him to give you power to set down the sins you keep picking up, and to give you spiritual gifts that you might be useful for His Kingdom purposes. Then, read through the rest of Romans 8 to find insights into how to walk in the Spirit. Especially note what Paul says about the mind.

Pastor Jim

 

Life In Christ 

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Romans 7:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Much of what the Bible says is revolutionary. There are statements, not just shocking to us, but to every generation that ever lived. Jesus spoke to his disciples saying, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24

Perhaps the strongest drive within the human body is the drive for survival. Yet we hear Jesus say, if we try to save our lives we will lose them. Life, according to Jesus, is found in death. On another occasion He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” ( John 12:24) The death Jesus is speaking of is the death that takes place when we come to Christ. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of us being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). The old life, lived for self and sinful pleasure, is laid down when we come to Christ and we begin to live with a new-found desire to please God. I spent 18 years of my life without Christ, during that time I never once considered if my behavior was pleasing to the Lord. Since the time of meeting Christ, pleasing Him has been my first priority. My old life died the day I met Christ. The benefits of that death are what Paul is speaking of here. He declares,

Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Three amazing things happen when we die to the self life and live to please the Lord. First, we are released from the power sin holds over us. We were held captive by it because we saw sin as a means to a happy and full life. When we came to Christ, we realized the destructive nature of sin. When this happened, we began to be repulsed by the very things we once lived for. Solomon wrote, ” . . . the fear of the Lord is to hate evil . . .” (Proverbs 8:13), meaning, when we seek to please God, we will begin to despise sin. Second, death to the self-life will result in bearing fruit to God. The height of life is described by Paul as the fruit of the Spirit. This fruit is born when we leave behind the desire to put ourselves first, and we seek to live for the glory of God. Finally, Paul speaks of our serving in the Spirit. The one who leaves the ‘me first,’ sinful life behind, replacing it with seeking to live well pleasing to Jesus, will find a an enabling from the Lord to serve Him.

Pastor Jim

 

Striving Against Sin

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Romans 6:1
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

Paul boldly declares, because of the manifold grace of God, it is unreasonable for a Christian to continue living in sin. He explains why we should put our old lives behind us, and also gives practical steps on how that is to be accomplished. Notice, he explains what happened to us when we received Jesus Christ. Declaring, we were buried with Him through baptism into death.

We have seen, over and over, as we journey through the Bible, the result of receiving Christ is life. We become the partakers of eternal life as we follow Christ; we begin to experience abundant life. Here, Paul speaks of another truth. In addition to being made alive, he explains that coming to Christ also involves dying. The life lived for self, in pursuit of sin, and driven by fleshly desires, is crucified when we receive Christ. Paul declares, since we died to sin, it is unreasonable for us to live in sin. After laying down the doctrinal aspect of this truth, Paul gives some practical insights in how to lay sin aside, and live a righteous life.

He writes, “Reckon yourself dead Indeed to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:11).  The word reckon is a thinking word, meaning to consider. Since you are dead to sin, consider yourself dead to sin. Treat sin the way a dead man treats food. It is no long driving him. Dieting is difficult, it seems the moment we decide not to eat something, it is the moment we find ourselves surrounded by it. Our senses step into hyper mode, and we can smell sweets from a mile away. The battle rages within us, like a soldier fighting off an enemy invasion. We battle against the sights, smells, and memories of the delicacies we are trying to avoid. But truth be told, the moment we die, that battle will be over. Dead men don’t diet, they don’t need to, because the cravings of the flesh are gone. In the same way, if we consider that we are dead to sin, it is something of the past life, then we have taken the first step toward overcoming it’s hold on our lives.

Next Paul writes, “don’t let sin reign in your life.” Reign means to rule. Sin has a way of getting a hold of us and forcing us to do its bidding. When we first begin to toy with sin, we think we are the master, and it serves our desire. But it does not take long before the roles are reversed, and we realize we are under the control of sin. Paul is warning of that danger, but also instructing us on how to overcome sin’s hold on us.

He goes on to say, “do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:13).” Our members are our body parts. Before coming to Christ, we used them to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. We used our minds to think of clever ways to sin and avoid getting in trouble for it. We used our eyes to look at sin, our ears to listen to it, our feet to lead us into it, and our hands to accomplish it. Now that we have come to Christ, we should use our members as instruments for righteousness. How have you been using yours? In what way have you used your mind, eyes, ears, feet and hands for the Kingdom of God?

Practically speaking, there is only so much time in the day. If we are giving ourselves over to the service of the Lord, we are going to have less time to give to sinful folly. In addition, we will find, the grip sin’s hold on us begins to weaken, and we, like Paul, will be able to speak of many of our struggles as victories.

Pastor Jim

 

Set That Aside 

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2 Chronicles 34:31
“Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.”

Josiah’s story is a common one. While few have ever been king of a country, everyone who has responded to the Lord has walked a similar path as he did. First, Josiah made a decision to follow the Lord. This decision soon led him to a discovery of the Word of God, which in turn led him to make dramatic changes in his personal life, and his sphere of influence. We read that after he made a stand for the Lord, he called others to stand with him and,

“Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers.”  2 Chronicles 34:33

A true commitment to Christ will always result in a change of lifestyle.

This was true of Asa,
2 Chronicles 14:2-3 “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images.”

It was true of Jehoshaphat,
2 Chronicles 17:6 “And his heart took delight in the ways of the Lord; moreover he removed the high places and wooden images from Judah.”

And it must be true of us. When Jesus called people to follow Him, it was necessary for them to leave their past lives behind. He made abundantly clear that following Him meant denying self, taking up our cross, and going in a new direction in life. During his short ministry, he encountered many who took Him up on this offer and left all to follow. Tragically however, He also encountered many who refused to follow, because they refused to give up certain lifestyles, beliefs, or practices. Most of us are familiar with the Rich, Young Ruler, who, although he recognized who Jesus was, refused to give up what was necessary, in order to follow Him.

Paul made it clear that laying aside past behaviors continues to be a requirement for following Christ. He wrote, Romans 6:1 ” What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

Romans 6:12-14 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

One of the evidences of true conversion, is that we are willing to lay down our old life to follow Christ. Are you clinging to anything that Christ is calling you to lay aside? The solution to finding freedom begins with confession. If we confess our sin He will both forgive us and cleanse us (1 John 1:9)

Pastor Jim

 

Turn Around 

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2 Chronicles 33:12
“Now when he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,”

Hands down, Manasseh was the worse king to ever reign in Judah. In a few short years, he undid all the reforms his father had effected, and seduced the people into sins they had never dreamed of committing. The spiritual climate in the nation was at an all time low, and the morality of the people followed suit. It is not surprising to read the Assyrians defeated Judah, and carried the king off captive to Babylon. What is surprising to read is, during his affliction, he not only cried out to God for help, but he truly committed his life to the Lord. This turn around forever changed life and eternity for Manasseh. Through his downfall, he came to realize the Lord was God, and he began to make great reforms within his life and the nation. Altars, which had previously led him into sin, were removed. Repairs were made to the Temple of God; making worship and sacrifice easier and more appealing.

I wonder, have you failed in the past? Is the road you have travelled, marked with times of failure, and days where you have walked away from the Lord? If so, be encouraged by the story of Manasseh. No matter how badly you have fallen, you can turn around and be restored. The problem is, while most come to realize their failure, too many never make the turn. It is common to hear of someone who faces affliction, because of the path they have chosen to walk. Sadly, it is uncommon to hear of people making real and lasting decisions to turn from their sinful ways, and be committed to following the Lord. It is not that God cannot clean up, transform and change a life, it is that we are unwilling to let go of certain behaviors.

Don’t be like the rich, young Ruler, who, unwilling to change his ways, missed out on all the Lord had for him (Luke 18:18-23). Instead, be like Manasseh, make a complete turn around, giving all to the Lord.

Pastor Jim