Two Reasons a Believer Must Forsake Sin

First of all let us define sin. The word of God defines sin as Lawlessness (transgression of the law), knowing the right thing to do and not doing it, and whatever is not from faith is sin (1 John 3:4, James 4:17, and Romans 14:23). God has given us a Holy law a standard by which we are to live life; and we know what His law is, and it is not burdensome. God has written His laws on our heart, the Holy Ten Commandments, and transgression of these laws is lawlessness. We know what the right things are to do, if you pass someone in true need and do nothing that is sin. And whatever is done without faith is sin, without faith in Christ even taking in a breath of air is sin because it is done without faith. This brings me to the first reason that we as believers must forsake sin.

Christ died for our sins so we must hate sin because our sins killed our Lord; He suffered and was forsaken of the Father because of our sins. “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. 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 underfoot 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.” ~Hebrews 10:26-31

Sin is offensive to God. If you love God then you do not want to offend Him. You do not purposely offend the one you love. If you love your husband or wife and you know that something offends them you stop doing it; to purposely continue doing so would show that you truly don’t love them, that in fact you hate them. It is the same way with God if you continue to purposely do what is offensive to God (sin), you are showing your true heart, a hater of God. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Since God showed such incredible love for us should we not love Him and stop doing what offends Him? Is sin truly offensive to God? You know that it is; sin is in fact so offensive to God that the Father forsook the Son who had been with Him before time began when Jesus took upon Himself the sins of men.

This is in no way exhaustive in the least, but simply the truth. Christ was killed for our sins so a true believer hates sin because our Lord died because of sin. Sin is offensive to God, if you love God you turn from sin to God. What are you doing when you go on sinning willfully after coming to the knowledge of the truth?
Two things:

1. You are displaying a disdain for Christ and His sacrifice. By willfully continuing to sin after knowing that it is a crime before God and that Christ died for it, you are displaying a hatred for Christ.

2. You are displaying a love of sin and a disdain for God the Father. Sin is offensive to God. If you willfully sin after receiving that knowledge, it is in a sense taunting God. An in your face action. You are saying by your actions; “I don’t care that it bothers you, I like it so I’m going to do it anyway.”

If you are willfully sinning you should be very afraid. God is not like us and is no pushover. Don’t make the mistake of regarding His slowness to act as His being passive. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) Do Christians sin? Yes, Christians sin but a true follower of Christ does not make a habit of living a sinful lifestyle. He is a follower of Christ and it would break the true believers heart to trample the blood of his Lord. The true believer loves God the Father and fears Him; his desire is to live a life pleasing to the Lord. True believers sin, but the main difference is this; a true believer falls into sin while the false dives in head first. The true believer hungers and thirst for righteousness while the false seeks to cool his thirst for sin. “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” (1 Peter 2:16)

Though you have sinned against God He has provided a way for you to be made right with Him. God the Son, Jesus Christ came in human flesh and lived a righteous life, He never once sinned. The punishment for sin is death, the death of your soul being forsaken of God in hell. Jesus took upon Himself the punishment that you rightly deserve; a perfect sin sacrifice before God. He died, was buried and on the third day arose from the grave defeating sin and death; appearing to several people over a 40 day period. He ascend into heaven in bodily form and sat down at the right hand of God the Father making intercession on behalf of all who come to God through faith in Him. His sacrifice for sin is applicable to you if you repent and believe in Him. So what must you do? Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ and you will be saved from the wrath of God against sin, through faith in Jesus alone. “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)


In Christ alone,
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

What Is Your Will?

I’ve been thinking about repentance lately; what does it mean to repent? The literal translation is to change one’s heart. What exactly is the heart? The heart in scripture is not the blood pumping organ that resides in ones chest; this organ received its name because of its centrality in the body. The heart in scripture is the core, the center of ones being; the heart is the bare essence of who we really are. So when Christ told us to repent and believe, He in essence told us to do something that we are incapable of doing. He told us to change ourselves into a different creature all together. Can an old woman turn herself into a young woman? The answer is no; she cannot, no matter how much she would like to be a young woman she is who she is. So why would the Lord tell us to do the impossible? To change who we are, because He had the authority to do so. “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man.” (John 5:24-27 NKJV)

Jesus told Nicodemus; “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 NKJV) To be born again is to be changed; if you were born again of the spirit you have been changed. The Apostle Paul said, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB) This happens because God by the Spirit makes it happen; He has the authority to do so. “Now all these things are from God” (2 Corinthians 5:18 NASB) The word of the Lord God said to the prophet Ezekiel; “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26 NASB)

So the question is; should we, like Jesus, tell people to repent and believe in the gospel? The answer; “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? “So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:14 & 17) Jesus could tell people to repent and believe because He is the word and He had the authority to do so, it is His word the Spirit uses to transform a heart and it is His word that He said to preach. The apostle Paul said; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16 NASB)

In Christ alone,
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

The Word of God in Open-Air

I declare to you the Word; The Lord Jesus, Immanuel, the Christ of God! The Alpha & the Omega, the First & the Last, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only begotten Son of the Living God; God incarnate, God in human flesh, the sinless Lamb of God. The living One; He was dead, and now is alive forevermore, and He has the keys of death and of Hades. I declare to you the gospel; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”

The word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel and said; “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die. “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. "But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness, if he walks in My statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully-he is righteous and will surely live," declares the Lord God. “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” Sin is lawlessness it is living life in such away as if there were no moral Law to keep and no moral Law giver; but you know that there is a creator because creation itself is evidence of a creator and you know that there is a moral Law because He has given you a conscience. (Con-Science) Two Latin words; Con means (with) Science means (knowledge) so when you sin, when you break God’s law, you do it with knowledge that it is wrong. And “the soul who sins shall die” the second death, the lake of fire, Hell! The apostle Paul said; “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law.”

• “You shall have no other gods before Me.
• “You shall not make for yourself an idol— You shall not worship them or serve them.
• “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
• “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
• “Honor your father and your mother.
• “You shall not murder.
• “You shall not commit adultery.
• “You shall not steal.
• “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
• “You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.”

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. “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. “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, “While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be to you." But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them. Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "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. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus said; “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe." “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

“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.” Repent of your sins trusting in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior, and you will be saved from the wrath of God against sin through Him. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

In Christ alone;
Mike peek a slave of Jesus Christ


(Quotes in order of appearance: Romans 1:16-17 NASB, John 1:1-18 NKJV, (Remainder in NASB) Ezekiel 18:4, Revelations 21:8, Ezekiel 18:5&9, Hebrews 9:27, 1 John 3:4, Romans 7:7, Exodus 20: 1-17, James 2:10, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Mark 1:14-15, 1 Corinthians 15:1-6, Luke 24:36-51, Hebrews 10:11-12, Hebrews 7:25, Mark 1:15, John 6:63-64, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Hebrews 10:26-27, Romans 5:8-9)