I felt a need to clarify what I believe about the status of believers in particular situations. Sin is Sin!!!!! No exceptions to that! If I never listened to any preachers who believed in exceptions for divorce, I wouldnt listen to anyone. I dont agree with almost everyone on that subject, many very good preachers are deceived about this matter. Our culture has been brain washed to believe that divorce and remarriage is perfectly alright, and that the second marriage is an actual marriage, I do not agree with this position, however, I do not say that someone is necessarily not born again because they are in this condition. I know this will send up red flags for some who believe that this particular sin is deal breaker for their salvation. I do not subscribe to this position. Every single person I know and have ever known other than facebook friends are lax on divorce and remarriage. There are many people who believe you can lose your salvation or staunch Calvinists who think you dont choose to be born again. I do not count all these people as unsaved because they hold wrong doctrine. Sadly there are those who are teaching salvation by works, when they say if you are divorced or remarried, you cannot be saved. I do not subscribe to that, for sure it is sin and God will discipline His children when they will not do as they should. I see the divorce and remarriage among believers the same way I see the patriarchs of the Bible having several wives. They were godly men based on their faith, but they violated the Levitical laws by heaping up for themselves many wives. Solomon was saved and a man of God but had 300 wives, he disobediently allowed those wives to engage in pagan worship and even joined them. At the end of his life he admitted his foolishness and taught against the very things that he did. God blessed him because of his faith, but his flesh was weak. God knows that often we go with our flesh and the sin of the culture around us, but our standing with the Lord remains, we are His children. We fail, we fall, we stumble, all the while God is training and chastising us. When we realize that God never goes back on His promises, even when we do, we see His loving character. 2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Most divorced and remarried people are not born again, just as most people who say they are believers are not born again. But some of those we see sinning are born again, they will be chastised and eventually turn from their sin. 1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: Hebrews 12:6 “For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be committed and repent. “ Heberews 12:6-7 “6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” The mistake some believers make is that the believe that God bases our salvation on our works, so they conclude that we can lose by committing sin what we did not earn by obedience. Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Too many people are attempting to figure out who is saved and who is not, it is not our job to do that. Romans 10:6 “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)” When someone claims to be a believer then we are to speak to them, going through the steps laid out in the Bible for church discipline. We do not discipline non-believers, we leave them to the Lord. We give the gospel to those who do not claim to be a Christian, and we chastise, rebuke and discipline those who claim to be believers. Matthew 18:15 “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” Matthew 18:17 “And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” We might want to challenge a believer with Matthew 7:21-23, to see if they were ever really born again. But we cannot always know for sure who is saved and who is not. Matthew 7:21-23 “21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Preach the gospel and against sin and leave the final judgment about a person’s salvation to the Lord. For those who fear that knowing God remains faithful will cause believer to use these facts as excuses to sin, are forgetting that what is in a man’s heart will come out, we do not change the condition of a man’s heart by intimidating them into obedience. Everyone that chooses to sin as an excuse are not seeking the heart of God and are very likely not saved. Let God show them their own heart, through their response to correction. We cannot manipulate others into a right heart. We can tell them the truth, what comes out will show others and them their own heart. Those who are born again will not fight and argue to justify sin, they will search God for the truth and eventually turn from their sin. They will be ashamed until they repent. 1 John 3:9 “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 23:38:55 +0000
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