In my last post I wrote about "the trap". It is a scheme of the evil one that ensnares many believers. He tempts the believer and seductively lures us into sin and then viciously attacks us when we sin. It is a strategy designed to keep the believer from from following after God. There were two reactions to the article. Some people thanked me for exposing the trap. They realised that they had experienced this same thing themselves. One person even realised that the trap described exactly what they were experiencing. The image helped them get back on their feet spiritually and start walking with Jesus again. There was grace and forgiveness to be found in Christ. Others were concerned that I was somehow condoning sin in the life of the follower of Christ. They reasoned that people would understand my article to think that sin was somehow okay and we should tolerate it in our lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth. "Sin is okay" is yet another trap of the enemy. It's a lie that he whispers to keep us from experiencing the freedom of a holy life. Two Key Truths There are two key truths that Paul says make up a "sure foundation". They are both extremely important. The first is this: the Lord knows who are his. The mystery of God's choosing is shrouded in his will. We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (Eph 1). Jesus said that he knows his sheep and that his sheep know the sound of his voice. When we come to faith in Christ we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance. If you have been born again by the Spirit of God, you have been adopted by Him. You are a son or daughter of the Most High. You don't become a Christian by being born into a Christian family. You become a Chrisitan, in the biblical sense, by regeneration. You have to be born again. We experience several things as we are born again: repentance and faith. We repent of our sins and we believe the gospel. Jesus, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose from the dead. You will never be more "his" than when you were born again. However, we need to remember that regeneration (being born again) is, like physical birth, only the first step of a life with the Lord. And just as a baby grows and becomes like their parents, we are to grow and become more like Jesus. That brings us to the second key truth: Those who call on the Lord must turn away from wickedness. We are called to live holy lives. Sin and rebellion against God are never okay. They diminish our fellowship with God, rob us of joy and peace, spoil our spiritual fruit, and damage relationships. We are called to be holy. We must remember that! We are to put off the old man and put on the new. We are to get rid of sinful attitudes and actions. We are to learn to live lives of love. Read Colossians 3:1-14; Ephesians 4-5; 1 Peter 1:13-16. There is a great deception in the land: salvation without holiness. There are people who point to some past event and say to themselves, "I've got that heaven thing taken care of so I don't have to worry about that. I might as well 'enjoy life' and live like the devil!" Some point to their infant baptism and others to a "salvation prayer" at a crusade as their "get out of hell free" card. But in either, their true hearts are exposed: they are not saved. The redeemed desire to live lives of holiness! Don't be deceived: Those who call on the Lord must turn away from wickedness! For those that build their lives on these truths the transformation can be amazing. Drugs and alcohol lose their grip. Greed turns into generosity. Anger into patience and gentleness. Despair turns to hope. But sometimes we fall. When we do, the enemy wants us to believe that our sin has ruined our hope of heaven. That's the trap I wrote about. But heaven was never based on our performance. We are saved by grace through faith. Our relationship with God is based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. He died for our sins. He offers us grace and mercy. From beginning to end, our salvation is based on grace. When we sin, we need to repent, receive forgiveness, and and continue to walk the highway of holiness. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2) Note: This article was originally posted on pastorkarlsblog.blogspot.com on November 4, 2016
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This post was originally posted on Pastor Karl's old blog. You can find that blog here. It is an insidious trap built by Satan himself. He dangles temptation in front of us and fans the smouldering embers of our fallen nature with a sweet hypnotic voice. Like Eve of old, we see the forbidden fruit and it appears pleasant and good. The ancient serpent, having stoked our fallen nature to a brilliant blaze, whispers encouragement and so we partake...again. There is a moment of pleasure followed by searing guilt. The voice that was so sweetly encouraging us to sin becomes the voice of the accuser. "Guilty! Filthy! Failure! You claim to be a Christian but you are not! A Christian would never do that! It's too late...there will be no forgiveness this time!" It all sounds true. You feel so alone. So terribly horribly alone. Somehow another voice begins to whisper that the pleasure of sin will make the loneliness more tolerable. Another forbidden fruit appears, more tantalising than the last. In your loneliness it seems like an oasis. And the cycle plunges you ever deeper and feelings of loneliness separated by fleeting moments of pleasure seem to become your way of life. The cycle is a trap all too familiar to the followers of Christ. How do you move on? Of course the best was to get out of any trap is to avoid it altogether, but I want to address those who are in the trap. You are in the quicksand. You feel like an athlete who is about to be cut from the team for making too many bad plays. Are you there? I've been there. Let me share a secret with you: The ending of the story is glorious. You think that story began with a decision to follow Christ and is ending with your failure. But the story didn't begin with you. It began with Him. He called you. He picked you. The One who sees the end from the beginning chose you to belong to him. Look at the ground, then look at the sky. He chose you before those things even existed. He knew all about your weaknesses and your failings and he chose you in spite of them. He wants you. He desires you. You feel lonely. The Lord of the Universe loves you. He overwhelmed your defences and you said yes to him. But he did the overwhelming. He knew what you had done and he wanted you. He also knew that you would fail. More than once. He called you anyway. It really is incredible, isn't it? The story is about him. You are involved, but the hero isn't you. It's him. Paul tells us in the first chapter of Ephesians that God lavished on you the riches of his grace. Grace is something that you don't deserve, cannot earn, and can never repay. Where you sit right now, feeling alone and guilty, is the exact moment that you need to know his grace. He knows that. He understands that and in his wisdom he gives you his grace. He isn't a miser who looks at you and tries to figure our just how much grace you need. "Let's see, yesterday he needed 14 millilitres of grace but today he really screwed up so I guess we'll have to give him 27." No, he is lavishing it on you. He is opening the floodgates of heaven and pouring his grace and forgiveness on you. You are standing under the Niagara Falls of his grace. Right now. Before the foundation of the world he knew that this moment was coming, and he wants you to know know that your cries for forgiveness have been heard. You have been forgiven. John writes, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). His grace is poured out because of his wisdom and understanding. He knew and knows and he loved you and loves you still. His grace joyously flows over you abundantly. And the greatness of the grace poured out on you causes angels to worship in awestruck wonder. The story ends in a wedding. Remember that. You are the bride of Christ. He has chosen you. In spite of what you feel at the moment, you have an engagement ring on your finger. You are his. You are on your way to a glorious wedding: yours (Eph 1:13-14; 5:25-32). The story is not about how well you perform. It is about his grace. You love him. He knows that. And the story is about his love and his lavish grace. So put the focus back where it belongs: on Jesus. So what next? Here are some things that you can do:
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