Christian Morality
Christian Morality
Titus 3: 3-7
“Welcome, friend, to our Bible study program ‘In Search of the Lord’s Way.’ I’m Mack Lyon. A recent Gallup Poll found three-fourths of Americans saying that moral values in the United States are getting worse. Why are we becoming more immoral? Well, Phil Sanders has been studying some of these things and he wants to explore with you the causes of America’s moral decline; what we can do about it, too. You won’t want to miss this!
Thank you, Mack! Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and this is In Search of the Lord’s Way, where we search the Holy Scriptures to find God’s will about salvation and the Christian life. Thanks for spending time with us. We love hearing that you are watching or listening to this program; and we want to study God’s Holy Word with you each week.
When people said the moral values of America are declining, the Gallup researchers asked them why. People offered a lot of reasons: lack of respect, poor parenting, scandals of politicians and celebrities, increased crime and violence, and the breakdown of the typical two-parent home. Well, all of these certainly contribute to declining moral values, but many of them are symptoms of the problem and not the causes.
Why is it that 41 percent of children born in America are born out of wedlock? Why? The National Cultural Values Survey recently found that 16 percent of Americans say that sex between unmarried adults is never wrong; 49 percent say it depends on the situation; and 65 percent say that they can excuse sex outside of marriage. Well, some say the sin of fornication is wrong but many excuse it as no big deal. And I think what confusion! We live in a world where our young people are afraid to say anything is wrong or sinful. And no wonder so many people think little of doing whatever they please.
Our moral confusion comes from the fact that many Americans no longer give God the fear and the respect that He deserves. In many ways our culture has told God to just be quiet and to leave us alone. The worst thing that we can do is to abandon God and His ways. The consequences of abandoning God are beginning to show themselves in our land. We have sown to the wind and now we are reaping a whirlwind.
For thirty years Mack Lyon has offered the information on this program free; and if you’d like a printed copy, a CD or tape of today’s study, mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or e-mail us at searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you like, you can call our toll-free telephone number. Now, we’ll pay for the call. That number is 1 (800) 321-8633 . Now, we also stream this program on our website at http://www.searchtv.org/.
Ken Helterbrand, who has been leading the Edmond Church for nearly 40 years, will be leading them in song; and you might want to sing along with them. And then we’ll read from the Word of God, from Titus 3, verses 3 to 7.
Our reading today from the Scriptures comes from Titus chapter 3, verses 3 to 7. ‘For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’ And may God bless the reading of His Word! Let’s pray. O Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the grace and the mercy that You have showed us through Jesus Christ, our Lord; and in the shedding of His blood. Father, we know we didn’t deserve that love but we are so thankful that You were willing to give it. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
What wonderful singing and praise to the Lord! I love a cappella, congregational singing. And that’s the way that God intended our Christian worship in song to be. In the 1800s millions of children in America learned to read from a McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader. In the 1836 edition the author published this paragraph that seems prophetic. He said: ‘If you can induce a community to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of the Scriptures; to question the reality and obligations of religion; to hesitate, undeciding, whether there be any such thing as virtue or vice; whether there be an eternal state of retribution beyond the grave; or whether there exists any such thing as a God, then you have broken down the barriers of moral virtue and hoisted the flood gates of immorality and crime. . . .’ He continues: ‘Every bond that holds society together would be ruptured; fraud and treachery would take the place of confidence between man and man; the tribunals would be scenes of bribery and injustice; avarice, perjury, ambition and revenge would walk through the land and render it more like the dwelling of savage beasts than the tranquil abode of civilized and Christianized men.’ The National Cultural Values survey also found that America is losing its fear of God. According to the survey, 87 percent of Americans say they believe in God; yet 52 percent say they believe the Bible is God’s authoritative word. But only 36 percent believe people should live by God’s principles; 15 percent say they will live by their own principles even if they conflict with God’s principles; and 45 percent prefer to combine God’s teachings and their own values. They’ve replaced the God of Heaven with their own thinking.
Now, many people live in immorality or, if not immorality, in amorality. One is amoral when he does not care about right and wrong or moral behavior. Amoral people live their lives never feeling accountable to God. Many people today do not know the God of the Bible, so they make up a god after their own desires. They imagine what they want God to be like. And when they find the God of the Bible doesn’t match their imagined ideas, they immediately exchange the God of Heaven, the real God, for the god that’s in their imagination. But we need to remember the god that we make up in our minds can never replace the God of Heaven.
You see, the god people create in their minds is only an imaginary god. He doesn’t require anything of them morally or spiritually, so they’re happy with this god. But the God of the Bible, the God of Heaven, is not like man-made gods. He is utterly holy, utterly righteous, and utterly moral. He doesn’t tolerate sin, but He was willing to send His Son Jesus to die for our sins.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 1, verses 14 to 19 that, ‘As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, (that is, back when you were Gentiles and didn’t know the Lord) but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’
A famous preacher today says that Jesus never referred to anyone as a sinner, but that preacher needs to read the New Testament more closely. At various times, Jesus publicly denounced sinners as snakes, dogs, foxes, hypocrites, corrupted tombs, and unwashed dishes. Jesus didn’t want His hearers to miss the point. Jesus does not leave us the way He finds us. He’s filled with grace and He wants to wash the sins away from our souls. But Jesus did not save us so that we could keep on practicing sin.
The love of God does not bless and appreciate sin or sinners; but it does bless and appreciate the repentant, the people who will change their hearts and lives. Repentant people hate their sins; they forsake them, and they begin living righteously for God. After David sinned against God by committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband Uriah, he sought forgiveness. He wrote in Psalm 51, verse 17, ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’ Again Psalm 34, verse 18 says that, ‘The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.’
People rarely mourn over their sins anymore. Instead they excuse them or justify them. They love to blame someone else or even blame God for their sins. When have you, my friend, been broken-hearted and contrite over your personal sins, the things that you have done that are wrong? When have you accepted responsibility for your sins? When have you, my friend, confessed your sin and your sorrow for having committed that sin?
The apostle Paul rebuked the church in Corinth for letting sin go on. He also rebuked them for their attitude about sin. God’s Word says in 1 Corinthians 5, verses 1 and 2, ‘It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has (that is, living with) his father’s wife.’ Then he says, ‘And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.’ Paul rebuked them for tolerating the sin instead of taking action against the man who committed it.
The inspired apostle then takes action. He writes in verses 3 to 5, ‘For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.’
But many are shocked to hear such harsh language coming from the Bible, because they think Christ never judges any sin. But, you see, Jesus called for people to repent so they would not be lost. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 13: 5, ‘No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’ The Lord Jesus will not continue to extend His grace to those who refuse to repent.
Many people presume upon the patience and the grace of God. They honestly believe God would never condemn anyone. But God’s grace and forgiveness do have limits. The Bible says in Galatians 5, verses 19 to 21, ‘Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.’ Then Paul says, ‘I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ My friend, you can’t live the sinful lifestyle and expect to go to heaven. God is serious about sin.
The Bible warns in Hebrews 10, verses 26 to 31, ‘For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains, (listen to me, there no longer remains), a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay. And again, The Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’
Christ is not content to leave us where He found us. The Lord Jesus takes a man where He finds him and helps him to become what he wants him to be. A Christian is a person Christ has transformed. He takes us out of sin into a life that is clean and righteous. He wants to transform your life. But Christ cannot help us out of sin if we’re unwilling to see that sin in our lives. We don’t have to keep on living in sin. We can forsake our sins.
Titus 3, verses 3 to 7 says, ‘For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’
Christians don’t see themselves as better than others. The ones I know realize they were once lost in sin but saved by the grace of God. They live grateful lives for what God has done for them. My favorite saying is, ‘I’m not all I ought to be; I’m not all I want to be; I’m not all I’m going to be; but thank God that by His grace I’m not what I used to be.” We are all strugglers in this life to become the kind of people that God glorifies and lives for the glory of Jesus.
A person who loves God will not be content to keep on committing sin. The Bible says in 1 John 3, verses 1 to 3, ‘Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world doesn’t know us is because it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears (that is, Christ appears) that we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.’
Love and faith lead a Christian to please the Lord in every respect. Christians who love the Lord are not content to lead average lives. They want to grow in their faith, in their holiness, and their love for God and man. The apostle Paul told the young preacher Timothy, ‘Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.’
Some preachers are unwilling to speak against any sin these days. And when Christians fail to set an example of holiness or excuse sin as if it were not wrong, they confuse the generation that follows. It’s no wonder that many young adults fail to see anything sinful with sex outside marriage or having a baby out of wedlock. This is no small matter, my friend! Not only is fornication a violation of God’s law, it’s also a major cause of children growing up in a single-parent home and poverty.
Someone says, ‘Phil, you’re being awfully hard on people.’ No, I’m not being hard. I’m being honest and loving. Now, a cruel person would never tell you sin is wrong or ask you to repent. (Think of all the appeasers of homosexual behavior. There support for this SIN condemns the practitioner unless he or she repents and condemns the supporter unless he or she repents. Think of all the appeasers of the MURDER of unborn babies. There support for this SIN condemns the practitioner unless he or she repents and condemns the supporter unless he or she repents—my addition.) A cruel person would laugh at sin and tell you to forget it. Now that may seem tolerant, until we realize this truth, that God doesn’t forget unresolved sin, He punishes it. Friend, God still says ‘the wages of sin is death.’ (Romans 6 and verse 23)
Our tolerant culture may overlook your sins but God will not overlook unresolved sin. God wants to cleanse you of sin by the blood of Jesus. He loves you and sent His Son Jesus to the cross to forgive you. Why not come to Him for cleansing? Let’s pray. Father, we are thankful for Your love, and we are thankful for the grace that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Help us to leave our sins and come to You. In Jesus name, Amen!
‘The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour. To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed. To lose one’s health is more. To lose one’s soul is such a loss that no man can restore.’ Somewhere in the world thirty people died while I was reading this short poem. One hundred twenty people will die every minute. Their spirits will go back to God to be judged for the lives they’ve lived.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5, verses 29 to 30, ‘If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.’
You might ignore the sin in your life today, but you can’t ignore it forever. God expects you to turn your life around and put your trust in Christ Jesus. When you believe with all your heart, repent of your sins, confess the name of Jesus Christ before others, and are baptized, you will find God’s grace and forgiveness. At the time of baptism, God washes away all our sins (Acts 22 and verse 16), and it’s done through the blood of Christ. He adds us to His church and He makes us His child. Baptism is an immersion in water of a penitent person who professes his faith. And that’s why we shouldn’t wait another day to come to Christ in true repentance and to be baptized, just as Peter taught in Acts 2 and verse 38. (And then for the rest of your natural, bodily life, you must live that life in obedience to GOD and HIS will, repenting when you sin against GOD—my addition.) And if you are a Christian who has fallen away, why not come back to the Lord today? There’s no better time!
We hope you’ve been blessed by today’s study. And if you want a free printed copy, a CD, or a tape of this message, ‘Christian Morality,’ mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or e-mail us; that’s searchtv@searchtv.org.
Or, you can call the Search office toll-free at 1 (800) 321-8633. Now, all our programs also appear on our website at www.searchtv.org. You can access them; download them in a printed, audio, or video format. And we also now offer free study sheets to go along with our programs. You can download them free as well. They’ll help you study God’s Word with us.
Please visit one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station. The church of Christ loves guests, and you’ll be glad you came. Well, Mack and I will be back next week, Lord willing. Keep searching God’s Word with us and tell a friend. God bless you and we love you from all of us at In Search of the Lord’s Way.”
We MUST return to GOD and HIS will! If not, all the following of the Constitution, although desirable, will be of little long term benefit. We MUST return to GOD and HIS will! If not, all the following of fiscal responsibility, although desirable, will be of little long term benefit. We MUST return to GOD and HIS will! If not, all the elections of conservative members in government at any level, although desirable, will be of little long term benefit.
If we reject GOD, the CREATOR of the universe, at some point we, individually and as a nation, will receive what we have asked for. GOD does not force anyone to be faithful to HIS will or to accept HIM as LORD and SAVIOR. However, GOD does NOT accept those into his kingdom who have ultimately rejected HIM.
It is our individual choice and our individual responsibility. This is the choice that matters. Making the correct choice is of utmost importance to each of us personally and to the nation collectively. Why would anyone NOT choose GOD?
Christian Morality
Titus 3: 3-7
“Welcome, friend, to our Bible study program ‘In Search of the Lord’s Way.’ I’m Mack Lyon. A recent Gallup Poll found three-fourths of Americans saying that moral values in the United States are getting worse. Why are we becoming more immoral? Well, Phil Sanders has been studying some of these things and he wants to explore with you the causes of America’s moral decline; what we can do about it, too. You won’t want to miss this!
Thank you, Mack! Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and this is In Search of the Lord’s Way, where we search the Holy Scriptures to find God’s will about salvation and the Christian life. Thanks for spending time with us. We love hearing that you are watching or listening to this program; and we want to study God’s Holy Word with you each week.
When people said the moral values of America are declining, the Gallup researchers asked them why. People offered a lot of reasons: lack of respect, poor parenting, scandals of politicians and celebrities, increased crime and violence, and the breakdown of the typical two-parent home. Well, all of these certainly contribute to declining moral values, but many of them are symptoms of the problem and not the causes.
Why is it that 41 percent of children born in America are born out of wedlock? Why? The National Cultural Values Survey recently found that 16 percent of Americans say that sex between unmarried adults is never wrong; 49 percent say it depends on the situation; and 65 percent say that they can excuse sex outside of marriage. Well, some say the sin of fornication is wrong but many excuse it as no big deal. And I think what confusion! We live in a world where our young people are afraid to say anything is wrong or sinful. And no wonder so many people think little of doing whatever they please.
Our moral confusion comes from the fact that many Americans no longer give God the fear and the respect that He deserves. In many ways our culture has told God to just be quiet and to leave us alone. The worst thing that we can do is to abandon God and His ways. The consequences of abandoning God are beginning to show themselves in our land. We have sown to the wind and now we are reaping a whirlwind.
For thirty years Mack Lyon has offered the information on this program free; and if you’d like a printed copy, a CD or tape of today’s study, mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or e-mail us at searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you like, you can call our toll-free telephone number. Now, we’ll pay for the call. That number is 1 (800) 321-8633 . Now, we also stream this program on our website at http://www.searchtv.org/.
Ken Helterbrand, who has been leading the Edmond Church for nearly 40 years, will be leading them in song; and you might want to sing along with them. And then we’ll read from the Word of God, from Titus 3, verses 3 to 7.
Our reading today from the Scriptures comes from Titus chapter 3, verses 3 to 7. ‘For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’ And may God bless the reading of His Word! Let’s pray. O Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the grace and the mercy that You have showed us through Jesus Christ, our Lord; and in the shedding of His blood. Father, we know we didn’t deserve that love but we are so thankful that You were willing to give it. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
What wonderful singing and praise to the Lord! I love a cappella, congregational singing. And that’s the way that God intended our Christian worship in song to be. In the 1800s millions of children in America learned to read from a McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader. In the 1836 edition the author published this paragraph that seems prophetic. He said: ‘If you can induce a community to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of the Scriptures; to question the reality and obligations of religion; to hesitate, undeciding, whether there be any such thing as virtue or vice; whether there be an eternal state of retribution beyond the grave; or whether there exists any such thing as a God, then you have broken down the barriers of moral virtue and hoisted the flood gates of immorality and crime. . . .’ He continues: ‘Every bond that holds society together would be ruptured; fraud and treachery would take the place of confidence between man and man; the tribunals would be scenes of bribery and injustice; avarice, perjury, ambition and revenge would walk through the land and render it more like the dwelling of savage beasts than the tranquil abode of civilized and Christianized men.’ The National Cultural Values survey also found that America is losing its fear of God. According to the survey, 87 percent of Americans say they believe in God; yet 52 percent say they believe the Bible is God’s authoritative word. But only 36 percent believe people should live by God’s principles; 15 percent say they will live by their own principles even if they conflict with God’s principles; and 45 percent prefer to combine God’s teachings and their own values. They’ve replaced the God of Heaven with their own thinking.
Now, many people live in immorality or, if not immorality, in amorality. One is amoral when he does not care about right and wrong or moral behavior. Amoral people live their lives never feeling accountable to God. Many people today do not know the God of the Bible, so they make up a god after their own desires. They imagine what they want God to be like. And when they find the God of the Bible doesn’t match their imagined ideas, they immediately exchange the God of Heaven, the real God, for the god that’s in their imagination. But we need to remember the god that we make up in our minds can never replace the God of Heaven.
You see, the god people create in their minds is only an imaginary god. He doesn’t require anything of them morally or spiritually, so they’re happy with this god. But the God of the Bible, the God of Heaven, is not like man-made gods. He is utterly holy, utterly righteous, and utterly moral. He doesn’t tolerate sin, but He was willing to send His Son Jesus to die for our sins.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 1, verses 14 to 19 that, ‘As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, (that is, back when you were Gentiles and didn’t know the Lord) but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’
A famous preacher today says that Jesus never referred to anyone as a sinner, but that preacher needs to read the New Testament more closely. At various times, Jesus publicly denounced sinners as snakes, dogs, foxes, hypocrites, corrupted tombs, and unwashed dishes. Jesus didn’t want His hearers to miss the point. Jesus does not leave us the way He finds us. He’s filled with grace and He wants to wash the sins away from our souls. But Jesus did not save us so that we could keep on practicing sin.
The love of God does not bless and appreciate sin or sinners; but it does bless and appreciate the repentant, the people who will change their hearts and lives. Repentant people hate their sins; they forsake them, and they begin living righteously for God. After David sinned against God by committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband Uriah, he sought forgiveness. He wrote in Psalm 51, verse 17, ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’ Again Psalm 34, verse 18 says that, ‘The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.’
People rarely mourn over their sins anymore. Instead they excuse them or justify them. They love to blame someone else or even blame God for their sins. When have you, my friend, been broken-hearted and contrite over your personal sins, the things that you have done that are wrong? When have you accepted responsibility for your sins? When have you, my friend, confessed your sin and your sorrow for having committed that sin?
The apostle Paul rebuked the church in Corinth for letting sin go on. He also rebuked them for their attitude about sin. God’s Word says in 1 Corinthians 5, verses 1 and 2, ‘It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has (that is, living with) his father’s wife.’ Then he says, ‘And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.’ Paul rebuked them for tolerating the sin instead of taking action against the man who committed it.
The inspired apostle then takes action. He writes in verses 3 to 5, ‘For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.’
But many are shocked to hear such harsh language coming from the Bible, because they think Christ never judges any sin. But, you see, Jesus called for people to repent so they would not be lost. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 13: 5, ‘No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’ The Lord Jesus will not continue to extend His grace to those who refuse to repent.
Many people presume upon the patience and the grace of God. They honestly believe God would never condemn anyone. But God’s grace and forgiveness do have limits. The Bible says in Galatians 5, verses 19 to 21, ‘Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.’ Then Paul says, ‘I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ My friend, you can’t live the sinful lifestyle and expect to go to heaven. God is serious about sin.
The Bible warns in Hebrews 10, verses 26 to 31, ‘For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains, (listen to me, there no longer remains), a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay. And again, The Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’
Christ is not content to leave us where He found us. The Lord Jesus takes a man where He finds him and helps him to become what he wants him to be. A Christian is a person Christ has transformed. He takes us out of sin into a life that is clean and righteous. He wants to transform your life. But Christ cannot help us out of sin if we’re unwilling to see that sin in our lives. We don’t have to keep on living in sin. We can forsake our sins.
Titus 3, verses 3 to 7 says, ‘For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’
Christians don’t see themselves as better than others. The ones I know realize they were once lost in sin but saved by the grace of God. They live grateful lives for what God has done for them. My favorite saying is, ‘I’m not all I ought to be; I’m not all I want to be; I’m not all I’m going to be; but thank God that by His grace I’m not what I used to be.” We are all strugglers in this life to become the kind of people that God glorifies and lives for the glory of Jesus.
A person who loves God will not be content to keep on committing sin. The Bible says in 1 John 3, verses 1 to 3, ‘Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world doesn’t know us is because it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears (that is, Christ appears) that we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.’
Love and faith lead a Christian to please the Lord in every respect. Christians who love the Lord are not content to lead average lives. They want to grow in their faith, in their holiness, and their love for God and man. The apostle Paul told the young preacher Timothy, ‘Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.’
Some preachers are unwilling to speak against any sin these days. And when Christians fail to set an example of holiness or excuse sin as if it were not wrong, they confuse the generation that follows. It’s no wonder that many young adults fail to see anything sinful with sex outside marriage or having a baby out of wedlock. This is no small matter, my friend! Not only is fornication a violation of God’s law, it’s also a major cause of children growing up in a single-parent home and poverty.
Someone says, ‘Phil, you’re being awfully hard on people.’ No, I’m not being hard. I’m being honest and loving. Now, a cruel person would never tell you sin is wrong or ask you to repent. (Think of all the appeasers of homosexual behavior. There support for this SIN condemns the practitioner unless he or she repents and condemns the supporter unless he or she repents. Think of all the appeasers of the MURDER of unborn babies. There support for this SIN condemns the practitioner unless he or she repents and condemns the supporter unless he or she repents—my addition.) A cruel person would laugh at sin and tell you to forget it. Now that may seem tolerant, until we realize this truth, that God doesn’t forget unresolved sin, He punishes it. Friend, God still says ‘the wages of sin is death.’ (Romans 6 and verse 23)
Our tolerant culture may overlook your sins but God will not overlook unresolved sin. God wants to cleanse you of sin by the blood of Jesus. He loves you and sent His Son Jesus to the cross to forgive you. Why not come to Him for cleansing? Let’s pray. Father, we are thankful for Your love, and we are thankful for the grace that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Help us to leave our sins and come to You. In Jesus name, Amen!
‘The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour. To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed. To lose one’s health is more. To lose one’s soul is such a loss that no man can restore.’ Somewhere in the world thirty people died while I was reading this short poem. One hundred twenty people will die every minute. Their spirits will go back to God to be judged for the lives they’ve lived.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5, verses 29 to 30, ‘If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.’
You might ignore the sin in your life today, but you can’t ignore it forever. God expects you to turn your life around and put your trust in Christ Jesus. When you believe with all your heart, repent of your sins, confess the name of Jesus Christ before others, and are baptized, you will find God’s grace and forgiveness. At the time of baptism, God washes away all our sins (Acts 22 and verse 16), and it’s done through the blood of Christ. He adds us to His church and He makes us His child. Baptism is an immersion in water of a penitent person who professes his faith. And that’s why we shouldn’t wait another day to come to Christ in true repentance and to be baptized, just as Peter taught in Acts 2 and verse 38. (And then for the rest of your natural, bodily life, you must live that life in obedience to GOD and HIS will, repenting when you sin against GOD—my addition.) And if you are a Christian who has fallen away, why not come back to the Lord today? There’s no better time!
We hope you’ve been blessed by today’s study. And if you want a free printed copy, a CD, or a tape of this message, ‘Christian Morality,’ mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or e-mail us; that’s searchtv@searchtv.org.
Or, you can call the Search office toll-free at 1 (800) 321-8633. Now, all our programs also appear on our website at www.searchtv.org. You can access them; download them in a printed, audio, or video format. And we also now offer free study sheets to go along with our programs. You can download them free as well. They’ll help you study God’s Word with us.
Please visit one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station. The church of Christ loves guests, and you’ll be glad you came. Well, Mack and I will be back next week, Lord willing. Keep searching God’s Word with us and tell a friend. God bless you and we love you from all of us at In Search of the Lord’s Way.”
We MUST return to GOD and HIS will! If not, all the following of the Constitution, although desirable, will be of little long term benefit. We MUST return to GOD and HIS will! If not, all the following of fiscal responsibility, although desirable, will be of little long term benefit. We MUST return to GOD and HIS will! If not, all the elections of conservative members in government at any level, although desirable, will be of little long term benefit.
If we reject GOD, the CREATOR of the universe, at some point we, individually and as a nation, will receive what we have asked for. GOD does not force anyone to be faithful to HIS will or to accept HIM as LORD and SAVIOR. However, GOD does NOT accept those into his kingdom who have ultimately rejected HIM.
It is our individual choice and our individual responsibility. This is the choice that matters. Making the correct choice is of utmost importance to each of us personally and to the nation collectively. Why would anyone NOT choose GOD?
posted by Christian Gunslinger at 5:49 AM
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