True repentance is changed behaviour. Then we realize that it is of no use to be in a richly decorated cabin if the ship is sinking. None of us, no matter how religious we appear to be; none of us hits a bull’s eye when it comes to pleasing God. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Personal Size, Red Letter Edition: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture. God first loved and sought the sinner, not contrariwise. John 3:18 “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”. 1. But even this grim prospect does not deter them from repenting. True repentance accepts the consequences. There are sins of the spirit which bring none of these, and yet which put men and women at even a farther distance from God. St. Paul lays it to the charge of all alike. Are they all equally guilty before God?" His "grace" is the fountain of redemption. 4. THIS DEGENERATION IS TOTAL. Just like surgery, true repentance brings us closer to what really ails us. Mark 1:15 puts it all in a very simple little nutshell, “The time has come,” he said. 1. That in us which accuses us when we do wrong and commends us when we do right cannot be sinful, but must be holy. If we’re really Christian, we don’t smoke or chew or date the girls that do. ( Log Out / 1. The capacity of trusting is possessed by every man; the remedy is not remote, therefore, from the reach of any of the sin-sick race. Scripture, history, and conscience testify to this fact. Sinners sin. Having been unwilling to glorify God, he could no longer expect to be glorified with God. Peter Pilt’s Trip to Israel and the West Bank with World Vision. You and I have been given a gift far greater than a set of candlesticks. 2. I want you to feel "the exceeding sinfulness of sin," for only then will you be able to appreciate the exceeding goodness of God who "willeth not the death of a sinner, but that all should come to repentance." Adam's "tree of knowledge of good and evil" tested his obedience. And yet we are not so depraved as not to know that we are depraved. Why do we value the most trivial gift, the act of a moment, a smile, a glance of the eye, more than all the treasures of substance? Isaiah 14:12-14 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Dictionary – “Sin is a transgression, evil, a violation of accepted moral, religious code.” all threatening to devour us This is not to be taken to signify that all men are equally sinful, that there are no degrees of enormity, and that all are equidistant from the kingdom of God. ", 4. But man as man has had his probation and has fallen. A Meditation On The Story of Jonah–From A Recent Sermon I Preached. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! The same human mode of entrance into the kingdom is open to all, viz. Justification comes in every case as a gift, all men the kindness of God is the source of their salvation. Along this line, Rev Gordon MacDonald has this to say: There is there now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And, inheriting this disposition, but with it inheriting also the great inward law of conscience warning us against evil, we have again and again followed, not the good law, but the evil propensity. It is crisis management. TRY SERMONWRITER! 8 Powerful Lists from the Compelling Story of the Good Samaritan. And this idea does not account for our sense of guilt. Romans 3:23. no difference between righteous Abel and wicked Cain? Everyone has defects and infirmities. When a man lives such a course he is disobeying that great first law of our being by which we choose the good and abhor the evil. 2. 2. GOD MEASURES SIN BY THE DEGREE IN WHICH THE ACT, OR THE WORD, OR THE THOUGHT, INJURES OR GRIEVES HIM. I. I. Forgiven. THE VIEW WE TAKE OF THIS FACT OF SINFULNESS WILL INFLUENCE OUR ESTIMATE OF EVERY OTHER VITAL TRUTH. No sprinkling of rose-water can purge away the evil; it can be cleansed only by the blood of the Lamb. For one of its most dangerous symptoms is, that it makes men insensible of it. IV. III. “Who knows?” said their king when he commanded his subjects to repent. Shall we complain that we are so high in the creation, or complacently stoop down from it and forfeit the crown held out for us to take, like Bunyan's man with the muck rake? II. Now, if we can manage to flee away from them, we thereby get rid of them. I was afraid to ask for help, but my friend Dave knew me well. 1. 2. You need to be willing to say with Paul, "I am the worst of sinners" (1 Tim 1:16). And, seeing that the remedy is not one which can be simply taken once for all, but requires long application, a man must be very thoroughly persuaded that he has the disease before he will take the necessary trouble to be cured of it. 100 fights and he never lost one. 3. We were God’s enemy! The Way Sin Began III. Childern’s Sermons how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! We should not like to meet the exposure of such a shame. 3. Dictionary – “Sin is a transgression, evil, a violation of accepted moral, religious code.” 2. John Piper Jun 13, 1999 82 Shares God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him Learn more about Desiring God True repentance abhors sin. 2. Free. Here there is a wide difference between them. Those words of Luther paint a picture of a powerful and righteous protector standing up against the bullies of this world. THERE IS NO DISTINCTION IN RESPECT OF THE MEANS OF SALVATION. 5. between impenitent Saul and contrite David? Romans 3:23. And each time we find it, we repent of it, and the process continues. When he was with the North Stars, even though he was 5’ 10” tall, he never lost a fight. Sin is the opposite of holiness, of God, and of morality.