The blood , repentance and forgiveness- When is continual sin just too much for God? Because Satan hates what Jesus did to make salvation possible for sinners, he has always focused his assault on the gospel on ways to trick people into a false sense of security with “another gospel” and “another Jesus” to go with that. In Matthew 24 Jesus warns about these fake “Jesus’” Verse 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. Most of us are familiar with the form of attack he used from about the 4th century until the tide started shifting in the 1500’s. This was where he infiltrated the church with Pagan beliefs and doctrines that came thru the Roman empire when about the 4th Century Emperor Constantine , a follower of the demonic entity known as Mithras, famously saw a sign of the cross in the sky and heard a voice say “in this sigh conquer” just before going into a battle. He won that battle and not only converted to Christianity but ordered the whole Roman empire convert. The problem was he didn’t have the gospel and he simply assumed Jesus was more or less an incarnation of Mithras and the changes he forced on the church to satisfy what he felt should be (since in his heart he was never really repentant of following Mithras) and this gave birth to what we know as the Roman Catholic church, the Pope and all its antichrist teachings. Of interest here is the idea they had that you had to still pay for your sin in (a non-existent) place called purgatory and that by works and paying tithes to the church you could if you were lucky, make Jesus happy enough to let you into heaven, the earthly priest claiming the power to decide who was saved and who wasn’t. That system remains spiritually shipwrecked to this day but by the reformation in the 1500’s God reopened men’s eyes to the doctrine of grace. For all their many faults, men like Luther and Calvin at least understood from the scripture that the catholic doctrine was satanically inspired (not surprising since it started with Mithras, a demon god) keeping people enslaved to the church and its self-appointed priests and blocked from seeing the way of salvation by their insistence that ordinary people should not read the scripture for themselves. Unfortunately like a pendulum that was swung one way then let go, the church swung so far away from these errors that it swung right past the narrow way Jesus said “only a few find” into new error around a misunderstanding of the place that Grace, the cross, the blood , repentance and obedience all play in genuine salvation. This happened because Constantine hated the Jews so he deliberately insisted on any connection to the church’s roots being Jewish (as the roots of the genuine church were and remain) being covered up and lost. The outcome of this was that the reformers having started Catholic, did not understand these things from their Jewish origins and so came to their own conclusions so as to make their new way seem to fit scripture. Satan was unbothered, the scripture plainly says that the nature of the spirit at work in the last days (antichrist) is not one that tries to drag us back under the law (hence not back under the Pope) but a spirit of lawlessness (2 Thes.) which in practice works by taking the idea of grace so far past the truth that people can think they are saved while remaining sinful worldly souls unaffected by the work of the cross. These are the sorry people of Matthew 7 who Jesus says “I never knew you” to. The current move of God’s Holy Spirit for those who are listening to him is very clear. He is pointing us to the Jewish root, the root of Jessie (Rom15 and Isaiah 11) to come back to right foundations and make sure the roots of what we believe and teach are all the way down to the Patriarchs and the Prophets, not only down as far as the reformers or some teacher from the USA etc. With this in view, let us turn to a real question put to me. We all know that the blood of the lamb deals with the debt created to God by my sin. Jesus is the Passover lamb chosen by God and he is Azazel the scapegoat of Yom Kippur on whom the high priest lays hands to impart the sins of the nation (Isaiah 53v6) before being driven out of the city ( God said “as far as east is from west so far will I remove your iniquity from you” Psalm 103v12). These are big subjects by themselves which there isn’t room to cover here but most of you have enough understanding already for today’s purpose. Now the question was, “if someone keeps on sinning and keeps on asking God for forgiveness but keeps on sinning, is there a point at which God will not anymore forgive them?” Gen 6v3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Had been raised, the correct notion that God is patient but not stupid. Eventually he does stop appealing to a sinner and instead consequences follow. He is always wanting to save but in the end if a person will not listen, consequences follow. 2 Thes is actually an example of this.. God sending a strong delusion ( a demon spirit of deception) on them to enslave them to the world (Satan’s domain) because they have stubbornly refused his correction. But a pastor replied that as often as we ask forgiveness God forgives. No scripture was quoted but I will give one.. Mathew 18 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” which is a reference to the extraordinary sin of Lamech the son of Cain. Cain murdered his brother yet God said that anyone who took justice into their own hands to kill Cain would suffer seven times over for his death. Lamech boasted to his wives that if he killed a man as his father had, God would punish anyone who killed Lamech not just 7 times over but 77 times as if being more evil than his Father would get him even more protection from God (another lesson here but no time to add it) Speaking to Jews Jesus knows they understand the context is Genesis 4. He is saying in effect, even one like Lamech if they seek forgiveness, we must forgive. Read the rest of Matthew 18 now as it has a vital message for us about the need to forgive others, for if you refuse, neither will your own sin be forgiven- that is the connection to God forbidding anyone to take justice into their own hands concerning Cain, Cain would be judged in the end by God alone and God preserved that unique right to save or condemn to himself in Jesus. How about this one since the first is about forgiveness between humans as opposed to forgiveness between God and man. 1 John1 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. And from this comes the idea that so long as I just ask God to forgive me he will regardless of how I live. But verse 9 in preceded by, 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Can you see that it takes more than just confession. How we walk matters more than how we talk, action speaks with far more authority than words. That is why Jesus came preaching the same as John the Baptist .. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near”.. “repent” was the main message, it is about action , “believe” being just thoughts and words was its mate but worthless without action. Not sure about that? Matthew 15 (Jesus quoting Isaiah 29) 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 “‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules James 2 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds You see God does not change (Mal3) and he spoke to Samuel when Samuel was to anoint a new King for Israel (David) and said, 1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” What does all this mean here? Simply this. God is not fooled by outward appearances nor by words of praise or people asking forgiveness when in their hearts they have no real intention of stopping that sin because they don’t really accept that it is sin in the first place.. they are taking God lightly, taking him for a fool as if he can’t see what is the real state of a person’s heart. Such a person usually shows no fear of God and turns the idea that asking for forgiveness really means we can go on sinning and God will just forgive so long as we ask. Get real friend.. God hates sin! Sin is the reason you need salvation and if we treat the suffering of Jesus on a cross as no more than a ticket to do as we please we are worse than those who do not believe in him at all. At least they have the excuse of ignorance but we, if we do this, are deliberately abusing the one who suffered to save us and what then should God do with us? The entire scripture makes it plain that repentance is a necessary step before forgiveness can follow. To make this even plainer we read here: Hebrews 10 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, [ In other words the blood of Jesus has no effect here] 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? [What we spoke of above]30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. SO: FORGIVENESS requires confession to God AND Repentance in the heart but is that all? Well no, it’s not all, Remember I started by warning you that in these days Satan is trying to bring in lawlessness and is succeeding thanks to the errors the shift to extreme “grace” beliefs bring with them, the idea Jesus did everything so I really don’t have any part in my own salvation [A huge error] Do you say “I love Jesus” at all? OK, you may even think you mean it but now sit in light of this word and examine yourself. John 14 23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. So since we will all be judged not by each other but by Jesus alone as to whether or not we are really saved (remember the poor people of Matthew 7 rejected) doesn’t it matter a huge amount that we measure up to be those that he says here are in fact the ones who love him? And who is that? He says it plainly, those that obey his teaching [both word and example] and no one else as vs. 24 makes plain. SO Forgiveness requires 1. Confession 2. Repentance 3. That repentance being real by turning to obey Jesus rather than whatever we were doing. Remember that the scripture says the righteous stumble but don’t fall altogether because the Lord picks them up. The reality is that those who do love Jesus still stumble, still take time to get rid of sin, some sin more times than others but here is the BIG DIFFERENCE between a real disciple and a false one. 1. The Holy Spirit always brings conviction of Sin, Righteousness and Judgement [ or the fear of God if you prefer] as Jesus promises in John 16 7-11 2. The real disciples embraces that conviction as Gods correction, a real sign of Gods love for you if indeed you are his. Understand Proverbs 3 v12 and Hebrews 12. If God doesn’t bother correcting your sin- Worry! 3. The real disciple obeys a direct command of Jesus to take up OUR OWN Cross DAILY [Matthew 16v24] because daily God wants to kill off the old you a bit more [only the new creation can enter the kingdom, the old you has to be put to death- with your active daily cooperation via confession, repentance and obedience as God teaches you more and more] and so repentance isn’t just once. The need for forgiveness is always “daily” because the work of the Spirit to transform you will daily reveal sin that needs to go and the old you that needs to die so that the christlike you can take its place. All this is Gods powerful grace at work in you IF you are really his. 4. The real disciple will agree with God about sin and hate it in themselves. Cor13 tells us that Love [which is the character of God] HATES EVIL and delights in the truth. Therefore if we say we are about “Love” we will never be happy about sin in our lives nor will we hide from the truth about ourselves. With confidence the real disciple brings sin into the light before God to be dealt with by confession and repentance DAILY. You will know when that process has finished.. you will have died and gone home to him. Remember I spoke of what God said to Samuel? God knows and judges us by the thought and intention of our hearts, not by outward appearances, We can fool others with lots of correct church talk but God knows our hearts. He is not fooled by someone who wants to be popular in church but inwardly likes the sin in their lives and secretly doesn’t really take the requirement to obey the example and teaching seriously. Such a person can ask God’s forgiveness all they like but if they do so as an excuse to go on sinning, making Jesus an excuse to be able to sin and get away with it.. they are fooling themselves more than anyone else. Their sin remains since they have treated Jesus lightly and dismissed the terms God established for his forgiveness to be provided, the blood of his sacrifice to be effective- all of confess, repent [turn from that wrong way to the right way] obey Jesus [which is the right way] If someone is forever asking forgiveness for the same sin but in their hearts God [ and him only- we are not able to judge] knows they are not actually sorry or repentant and so are just paying him lip service so as to be seen by others as “Christian” then God will usually send disaster and trials on them to get them to be real. This is after he sends real Christians to warn, teach and correct them if that doesn’t work. If severe trials don’t work either, then in the end he will hand them over to what they really love since they have refused him- that’s what is happening in 2 Thes. They are then forever lost and will end in Hell because they refused everything he did to correct their wickedness. The fact they used the name of his Son as an excuse to do as they pleased only makes it worse for them! Final Warning: God says in Malachi3 “I the Lord do not change so that you oh remnant of Judah [that is those who will be saved including we gentiles] do not perish”- God is himself! His character is already perfect, he is not maturing, he is already finished! So, as he was, he still is. Take notice of what God says when he was renewing the covenant with Israel. Remember ALL the covenants belong to Israel [Romans 9v4] , we gentiles are just wild branches grafted in alongside the Jewish branches, there is no separate covenant with we non-Jews, we are just added. So look carefully at the curse God attached to the covenant because many today are under it as are many nations thanks to the church being guilty as a whole to such a great extent [ at least that is the case here in NZ] Deut 29 19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the LORD will blot out their names from under heaven. 21 The LORD will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. Now in God’s grace he makes a way thru repentance and the cross for those guilty to be restored but make no mistake. Those who say they know the Gospel and know Jesus and therefore claim the blessings promised in the covenant Jesus made better [ the right name for the new testament is B’rit Hadasah in Hebrew, the better or improved covenant meaning the old covenant made better. Made better means made possible for us to obey since none can possibly comply with the old one] yet do not do what the covenant requires, invoke on themselves and the land this same curse. Today many churches don’t even preach repentance let alone obedience to Jesus, they just offer the blessings without the need to carry the cross, die to self or obey. And look what has become of the lands these churches dominate, like New Zealand… spiritually and morally bankrupt! Those who never repent of it will have their names blotted out by God.. don’t let that be you. Finally, this is a big topic and while you might think this is a big writing understand that it takes time to mature. To have the right to feel safe in your faith, embrace Gods correction when convicted of sin. Deal truthfully before God about it and repent by turning deliberately to obey what Jesus says about that subject [remembering Jesus didn’t alter the Moral law, he just fulfilled the Temple law’s requirements to atone for your sin and taught us how to live and “be” so as to be included in the covenant] – that is the person Jesus will defend before his Father and the person who, if they stumble seven or seventy seven times a day even over the same thing, will pick them up until they can walk straight in that area of life- if their hearts are grieved about the sin and their repentance is real. May the Lord himself instruct you about all these things as he finishes what he has begun in you if indeed you have really come to him and taken up your own cross as he commanded.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 05:11:39 +0000
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