Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

sin

Salvation

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Reading through the “MacArthur New Testament Commentary” on Philippians, I came across this comment from Pastor MacArthur: “Tragically, evangelicalism today seeks to remove the effects of preaching on sin and repentance, holiness and humility, in an effort to make the message more acceptable to fallen, depraved human nature. A growing number of churches intentionally play down the biblical elements of salvation and the demands of true discipleship.”

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Tragic indeed. Even more frightening is the fact I have witnessed this trend in churches over the past 20-30 years. No longer do you hear the old “fire and brimstone messages”. Is it because we are better off now and less in need of a Savior than in the days past? Far from it, I would say. The need has not waned, but the conviction has.

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Black and White

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God’s Word is not ambiguous. Humans add ambiguity when they don’t like what it says, so they try to twist it to mean what they want it to say. Reading the Bible should make you feel a little uncomfortable. It’s called the conviction of sin. When reading God’s Word, we instinctively know what is wrong in our life. If we keep reading, we will see God has the solution for everything wrong inside us — His Son Jesus.

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But following Jesus isn’t easy in this world. It’s not because He imposes a lot of rules and requirements on us, but because we want to hold on to what the world offers. We want to fit in, to belong. The Word of God is clear on this. You will either serve God or you will serve the things of this world (Matthew 6:24). It’s black and white, with no gray around the edges.

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The Practice of Sin

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You can’t be a disciple of Jesus and willfully continue to live in sin. Sin will repulse a regenerated heart. The apostle John had much to say about this in his first epistle. He defined sin as practicing lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Another way to say this might be that we sin whenever we rebel against God’s laws. Continuing on a few verses later, John makes it clear if we are born again (born of God), we will not make a practice of sinning (1 John 3:9).

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We can’t do that because God abides in us and sin is abhorrent to Him. As human beings, we will sin. We’re not perfect. But as followers of Jesus, we won’t make a habit of sinning. When we sin, we will immediately be horrified by our failure and repent of it.

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True Repentance

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True repentance will drive you to your knees and onto your face. It’s not just being sorry about what you’ve done, it’s about being mortified that you have grieved the Holy Spirit of God. Too much is being preached from pulpits today about repentance being about saying you’re sorry.

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I’d like to think many pastors mean well when they give their explanations of repentance, likening it to a turning away from something to walk in the opposite direction. And there is truth in what they say. The reality is, though, true repentance is realizing that you have grieved the heart of the holy God. And that thought should absolutely wreck you.

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Personal Holiness

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God calls each of us to live a life of personal holiness. This goes much deeper than having a daily prayer time or attending a service on the weekend. Personal holiness is more than what we do. It’s also about what we don’t do. It’s what we choose to think about, and what we refuse to dwell on. Personal holiness will affect the words we say and those we don’t speak.

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It’s all-consuming. When we allow the holiness of God to permeate our entire being, everything changes. Everything looks different. We cannot afford to let even the smallest hint of sin take up residence in our hearts because it will eventually infect our entire body.

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