There is something that has been bothering me as of late and up until now I haven’t put it into words or rather the Lord has not granted it. In my daily bible reading I have been reading “The Gospel According to Matthew”. The greatest sermon ever preached is in Matthew 5-7, “The Sermon on the Mount” by God incarnate Jesus Christ. There is so much in this message that it just boggles the mind, I have been particularly drawn to chapter 7. The other night I was reading and Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23) Now lawlessness is defined in scripture as sin, to be lawless is to be one who is not following the law specifically in this case the laws of God. So lawlessness is doing what you want despite what the law says. “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)
While I was reading this passage and meditating on it the Lord drew me to another passage, this one an Epistle written by Brother Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the church at Corinth. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) Do this passage in 1 Corinthians and the passage in Matthew chapter 7 go together? I think so and that is very frightening indeed. Now let’s go back a little further in Matthew 7 to verses 13 & 14. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) The narrow gate has been accepted throughout church history as faith in the Son of God Jesus Christ, and the narrow way as an obedient life. That being said, can you be lawless and obedient at the same time? The two are opposed to one another.
There is a system that has cropped up in our culture and I believe that it has come out of American indulgence. Have you ever heard the term, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”? But this system that has cropped up says that you can. Often times it is not outwardly spoken but has become common practice. The system that I speak of is the thought that you can live like the world, indulge yourself in sin, but if you ever at one time in your life said a prayer asking Jesus into your heart you have eternal life. That my friend is a lie from Satan, who cannot tell the truth, he has never told the truth. He lied to our Father Adam and our Mother Eve in the garden and has been lying to their children ever since. The bible does not say that. What does the bible say, what did the Apostle Paul say he preached? “Solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) Before ascending to the Father He said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46-47) Isn’t that what Brother Paul did and said as we saw in Acts 20:21?
So what am I saying? There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent (turn from their sin and turn to God) and, by faith alone receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. My friends you don’t get to keep your sins and have eternal life too. Sin is death, Jesus is life. The sins listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 are very specific and anyone practicing those will not inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 6 tells us what the Corinthians did to be saved. It says, “Such were some of you”, meaning they had stopped doing those sins, “but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” So they stopped doing those sins and put their faith alone in Jesus Christ, His shed blood on the cross paid for their crimes and they were justified before God, and you can be too. The author of the book of Hebrews tells us, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, 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.” (Hebrews 10:26-27) Is this to say that a Christian does not sin? No this is not to say that a Christian does not sin, unfortunately a Christian does sin. So what is the difference? The difference as stated in Hebrews 10:26 to “go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth.” The true believer from time to time falls into sin but cannot stay in a continual state of carnality, the Father will not allow him to. As a loving Father he disciplines his children, if the child of God falls off the narrow path the Father God disciplines him and directs him back onto the narrow path. The true believer cannot and will not remain willfully in sin because the pressure from God will be more than he is able to bear. The false convert can and will remain in a continued state of carnality. How many people do you know that say they are Christians but are living in fornication (sex outside of marriage), Adultery, drunkards, or thieves, and yet the bible tells us that anyone practicing these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So what are you to do? Repent (turn from your sins and turn to God) and, by faith alone receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and you will be washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Now I realize that this makes people mad for one if two reasons; either they themselves are willfully sinning or they have a family member or friend who is willfully sinning. For them they know that what I and the word of God are saying is true, but they love their sin, so this angers them. For others, they would rather remain deluded that their carnate family members and friends are saved than face the fact that they may be headed to hell. But remember these words of our Lord, “If you 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.” (Matthew 5:29) Do you think Jesus regarded sin as serious? So why talk about this? What do I care? I care because I was one of those people who said he was a Christian and lived in a continual state of carnality sinning willfully but by the grace of God he saved me, I was born again, receiving His Spirit, repenting from my sins, and trusting alone in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I was truly dead in my sins and He gave me life. Also I know that the majority of people around me; family, friends, coworkers, my community, my country, and the world will die separated from God for all eternity unless they repent (turn from sin and turn to God) and by faith alone receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That is the motivating factor for writing this blog and for going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature. I cannot save anyone but God has chosen to use preaching as the means to bring people to faith. “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14) “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
