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.
When our children were very young, they always asked for a special treat in the winter time. We didn’t have to go to the grocery store, or even spend any money. All we had to do was walk outside and grab some icicles that were hanging from the eve of the house. We always seem to have a ready supply of them. When I looked up at the roof, you could see how the warmth of the house had melted all of the snow into water. But as it slowly ran down the roof, the further it got away from the warmth, until it finally began to freeze, trickling down the eve of the house and becoming a frozen piece of ice.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Isn’t it something, what the effects of the cold can have on water? Sin can do the same thing inside somebody’s heart, as the mercury begins to plunge to forty below. The coldness of sin can turn something that was once soft, pliable and submissive, into something that is cold, hard and disobedient.
Hebrews 3 ⁷ Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, ⁸ Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
⁹ When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. ¹⁰ Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. ¹¹ So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
¹² Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; ¹⁵ While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. ¹⁶ For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
¹⁷ But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? ¹⁹ So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Sin can have devastating effects on a person’s life. Although you might not notice it right away, it slowly begins to harden the heart. It’s kind of like a Minnesota lake in November, that freezes over with a thin layer of ice, but the longer the cold air persists, the thicker the ice will become. The lakes will freeze so hard that you can drive a semi across them, and the ice will not give an inch. The human heart can become just as hard, deceived by iniquity and becoming impervious to the truth. When you get involved with sin, it will cause somebody to believe a lie, and close their ears to the things of the Holy Spirit. Their hearts become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and their ears become dull of hearing, resulting in spiritual blindness and impenitence.
Matthew 13 ¹⁴ And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: ¹⁵ For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
The refusal to hear and accept the truth of God’s Word causes one to err. Many people who profess Christianity can hear God’s Word preached, but that in and of itself is not enough to obtain eternal life. Salvation is about hearing with your heart, and becoming a loving and obedient servant of God.
James 1. ²¹ Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. ²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. ²³ For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: ²⁴ For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. ²⁵ But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Sin is a state of unbelief. To overcome sin we must be filled with faith. Genuine faith will result in a humble and obedient heart towards God. When we hear God’s Word, faith is what causes you to put it into action. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and although we have the promise of eternal life, we must faithfully apply the scriptures to our lives to eventually obtain salvation.
Hebrews 4..¹ Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
² For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Our hearts need to be soft and submissive, turning away from sin to become new creatures of holiness.
“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 2 Timothy 2:19
Ephesians 4 ²² That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
When people get involved with sin, the temperature will begin to drop in their heart, and without repentance, it will only get colder. The wages of sin is death, and when humans get cold, they can slowly die. So can their hope of eternal life if they allow their heart to freeze up. You have to be very careful in the cold up here in Northern Minnesota, which is a solemn reminder to each of us to keep our distance from sin, and never allow it to ice up the heart, by hitting….
……..Forty Below Zero
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 all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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