Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
If I was going to take a look inside of your car, would I find some coins in the ashtray? It seems like whenever any of us pick up a pop or a snack at the gas station, we will take the extra coins and store them up somewhere in our vehicles. After many months, all those coins eventually began to add up.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
When someone sins against the will of God, but then refuses to turn from their sin, they continue to add coins to their ashtray. Impenitence is a refusal to reconcile to the truth of scripture, and those who abide like that are only storing up God’s wrath.
Romans 2:5-8 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
First of all, the church is a place that is filled up with Christians who are at different levels of maturity. Some are considered baby Christians, who might only know a few passages of the Bible, while others have been faithfully abiding in the truth for a long time. The issue at hand is their level of ignorance. When you are reared for many years in the teachings of scripture, you are no longer in a state of ignorance because you know what you are supposed to be doing.
There is also a difference between inadvertent sin and willful sin. Inadvertent sin is making a mistake that was not purposeful, which means that it was not intended. It was not achieved nor resulted by deliberate planning and effort. On the other hand, wilful sin is purposeful, intentional, and planned out, without any thought or concern for the consequences for your actions. I would call it the sin of rebellion, because you know what the scriptures teach, but then you make the choice to willfully reject them. Instead of walking in the will of God you reject it, and do your own thing instead. This is highly offensive to God.
We have a God who cares for us so much that Jesus died to take our sins away. Love for Christ and what He did for us at the cross, dictates obedience to His will. To flat out rebel against His wishes is to deny the purpose for which He came, and violate the first commandment. As an example, Judas purposely rebelled against Christ and betrayed him.
Hebrews 10:26-31 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
God has grace available in our time of need, but this type of wilful and impenitent behavior can highly affect your senses and permanently burn the conscience to the point that someone no longer cares about reconciliation, or even repentance.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Some people will receive the gift of God’s mercy, even possessing the Holy Spirit, but because of willful disobedience to the truth of the faith, they will be incapable of repenting of sin anymore. Although our God is merciful and gracious, these people willfully choose to go in direct contravention to the will of God. Pride will set in, and the heart will become hardened, incapable of admitting fault. They won’t change what they’re doing, and they won’t reconcile with scriptural truth or with others whom they have wronged.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
So again, we can receive grace in our time of need, but certain people cannot find a place of forgiveness with God because their sin is willful and purposeful. Someone might go through the actions and even cry crocodile tears, but they really have no desire inwardly to repent or humbly accept the truth. God sees inside of a person’s heart. He knows if they are sincere or not because there is no fooling God. In that state their prayers are an abomination because they adamantly refuse to change and amend the things that they do wrong. There’s no Godly sorrow or contrition for what they have done, because of which God will punish that behavior here on Earth and that judgment Day. Even though Esau tried to get forgiven with God, he couldn’t.
Hebrews 12:16-17 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
We can find forgiveness with God through contrition, but when somebody adamantly and rebelliously refuses to humble themselves and accept the truth of the error of their way, then they are involved with the sin that leads to death. This is a perpetual sin because it is a stubborn refusal to repent and do the will of God from their heart. We are not even to pray for these types of people.
1 John 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
When you are raised in God’s will, but you don’t feel regret when you do something wrong, that is the first step down a spiraling staircase that only leads to death and damnation. It should send up a warning signal in one’s life. The heart becomes hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Those who contentiously choose to walk contrary to the will of God have no fear of the manifold repercussions that will come to pass because of their actions.
Grace is given to us so we can do the right thing and humbly become obedient to the will of God. Those who knowingly and willfully choose to go against God’s Word are only storing up another coin in…..
….The Ashtray
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 