Acts 3:26

"To you first, God, having raised up 

His Servant Jesus, sent Him to 

bless you, in turning away every 

one of you from your iniquities."

   To whom be all the glory, for our Lord Jesus lives, and is seated at the right hand of Almighty God.

Actions of Sin (pt 2 of 2)

 

Actions of Sin

 (pt 2 of 2)

Prayer:

Heavenly father thank you for saving us, as we embark on the second part of your word may you show us through your tender mercies how lucky we are to made righteous in you. Bless you word to our hearts, in Christ Jesus name, amen.

   I know we are all Human and will miss the mark. That is if your still having your life ruled/controlled by sin. Then you are not only putting your Salvation in jeopardy, but also your life too.

Romans 6:14 . . Because we . . “for you are not under law” . . sin cannot any longer control your fate. When you don’t obey the Law of Moses, sin cannot dominate. Sin can only control you, when you try and keep the Law. Know this, that Satan's power is wrapped up in the Law. For where ever the Law is, it can only add strength to sin.

   The first came in the ‘Garden of Eden’. For god told Adam & Eve that there is only 1 (one) rule/Law .. in that you must not eat from the tree of Life. . . Genesis 2:17 “ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”. . . the Law show a clear Action – Reaction, so simple, and was easy to keep. Though God has set us free from sin by doing away with the law, and it’s restrictions and has now given us ‘Grace’.

Question:

“Was sin (Satan) a verb or noun?

IE ~ Is it an action of sin, but will never dominate your life?

OR

“Was it meant to be a noun, a person ~ place ~ thing?

The Prison of Sin [a place]

The Prison of Righteousness [a place]

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall” [noun] . . “For [the prison] sin shall not have dominion over you”

   With the Law now removed, metaphorically speaking, the walls of the prison are down, and you have been given a pardon (don’t squanderer it). In other words “there will no longer be actions of sin”, Wrong you have been delivered from the ‘sin prison’, now your out from under the prison so Satan can no longer rule/control or have hold of you any more , don’t live there no longer.

Question:- “What was the doctrine/ obedience that was delivered to us from the Apostle Paul?” when he preached the following message of grace ..

Hebrews 8:12 “ For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

… What Paul refers to here is the teaching of the ‘New Covenant’. Where god had said .. I will .. I will .. I will. I feel this one of the most important point to get across, Jesus Christ said “most assuredly” to get over His point that was important. It’s like saying today ..’Honestly or I’m telling you truth’. If you believe in God, and you’ll be obedient too God, who have been merciful unto your righteousness, your sin’s and iniquities He’ll remember your sins NO more. You used to be a slave in your prison of sin, but the teaching has come and decided to receive what the blood has done for you, and now that you have received the teaching of Grace. So what the blood has & will do for you.

   This blood, is what has sprung you out of prison, that was the ransom, your now no longer being held a slave/captive in prison any more. You have now moved from the prison of Sin, now your the prisoner of righteousness, if you want to call it that ... Romans 6:18 “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” … we are all sinner because of ‘one man’s’ actions [Adam] to be sinners no longer, all we need to do is .. be born-again’

   It is so unfair that we are all sinners, the moment we leave our mother womb, band draw our first breath. We are tarnished with the same brush, even though we weren’t there when Adam ate from the tree of life.

# I’m the Righteousness of God #

Question:-”Just as we are born in to sin because of Adam,

so have we been made righteous because of one man?” [Jesus].

   His name of cause … Jesus Christ … (The same thing happened here as it did because of Adam). We did nothing when ‘Born-again’ to become righteous. I have now freely; Willingly become a prisoner of Righteousness, through what one man did [for me]. I am now the Righteousness of God, I did nothing (Earthly) to be righteous, but I was ‘made’ Righteous’ because of Christ Jesus actions, glory be to God, for His goodness & mercies. 

Romans 6:19 “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness”

   When you were in the prison of sin do you remember doing ‘Righteous’ things like giving money to the ‘poor; homeless or needy?’ Even doing good deeds for the less fortunate? Do you think doing any of these good deeds got you out of the prison of Sin? There is, and will always be only one way out, that is to be ‘born-again’. From one man we have received, for what he did (Jesus) did through His blood, then be delivered from Sin and unto righteousness.

   All it seems throughout this is ask questions after questions, so as not to disappoint, ‘If you Sin whilst in the prison of Righteousness, will it not result in you being dismissed? and our Heavenly Father letting it be known His displeasure in you? We are not taught to fear the Lord for nothing …

Deuteronomy 6:2 “that you may fear the Lord your God”

Psalms 33:8 “Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him”

Proverbs 3:7 “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil”

… you have been established in the righteousness of God for all those who believe. You now know that you now no longer want to keep sinning. Because God is going to help you, reach in and change those [sin] desires, so that you no longer have the urge to sin anymore. . .

• God knows the best way to help you become clean ..

• Only God knows how to make you Holy ..

• Only God can help you to doing it right ..

… because once you become the Righteousness of God, after time you will start doing things right without giving it a second thought.

   In the prison of Righteousness, it’s the ‘Change-Chamber’, that will change your heart from old sin nature, and bring you out of being addicted to your old self, to one of only want to doing things right. Now don’t let sin convict or condemn you. Instead now all your heart wants is continue to be obedient to your faith and that God has been merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sin and iniquity, He remembers not one. He our Father God in Heaven has taken care of the Sin factor/actions/problems, and never stops taking care of our sin.

NB: Right Believing = Right Living

# Once you wake up, and smell the coffee, as it were, you will see things in a whole new way. 

You won’t want to sin anymore, and (here’s the best bit) you’ll find you don’t

want to either #

Seeing & Believing

 

John 4 v48    Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see

 signs and wonders, you will by no means 

believe.”

 

   This verse is part of a tale about a man’s son who is critically ill. And has travelled some distance, in order to try and meet a guy who creates miracles. It’s a long shot, this is the last he has, (The distance, he had walked, means nothing compared to his son’s wellbeing). Making this journey today is nothing as in a car it would only take 15/20 minutes.

 

   Bare with me if will, but, imagine driving this distance to a Hospital, because you heard of a surgeon who can cure your son. Only to be met such a rebuff. You would be staggered to, and probably you would be angered even frustrated. There’s you who has unlimited riches, but would give it all away to have your son made well-made well again. Because of the station in life your wealth has brought, and am used to people saying ‘yes’ to. So how knocked back you would be to have been me by such a rebuff.

 

   All be it was a boy who was sick and knocking on death door. Illness has no respect for persons of wealth or station.  

 

 Isaiah 55 v11   Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you 

people see signs and wonders, you will by no means 

believe.”

 

   Yet there is no doubt there is a little explanation, such is our Lords anxiety to purify and strengthen our faith in Him. The rich man’s faith was such that his faith was rested on the miraculous. In this very moment our Lord Jesus wanted show that His ‘word’ carried the same weight as if He was praying over his son back at home. Today we just call home on the mobile to find out there and then if his son had been cured, instead he had to walk/run home if faith that his son was well made so by Jesus. Wandering all the time is he or not well again, it must have been torture.

“If God wanted me to believe, why does He not put a sign

in the sky?”

 

   Faith is a matter of the heart and not merely of the mind. Real faith though is called into being not by an miraculous sign by the word of our Lord Jesus. For if faith was to depend on the visible sign in the sky, though there is great doubt it would accomplish it’s objective.

 

If the hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they

be persuaded that He rose from the dead.

 

   How precious is Faith in the estimation of our Lord and what pain He must have took to produce ~ purify & strengthen it. What may one explanation of many of His strange dealings with the son of man. His great longing is to lead us into the life of Faith. But what is Faith? Even though most exercise faith in our lives, in various degrees, what we are conscience of or not.

 

Have Faith and believe

 

The first time we see the word believe used is in . .

Genesis 15 v6    “. .And he believed in the Lord, and

He accounted it to him for righteousness. .”

. .according to the literal meaning of the time ‘Believe’ was to mean ~ to stand one self, by leaning on someone or something ~ this being so we lay our weak and changeable selves on Gods strength.

 

   At this point I must bring 2 things to your attention. .

1.     True faith will have God as its Origin & Objective. Remember ‘Abraham believed God’. In John 6 our Lord Jesus refers to it as ‘Work of God’. Hinting that it is God who give the true inclination of mind in complete trust.

2.   Our Faith in God is an act and NOT a mere sentiment. It is not something that easily or simply comes to a man. He must believe in something or someone other than himself.

 

. . I would be a miss if I did not point out that there is a close relationship between Faith & Will. Observe here, that, in the literal and strictest of senses of the word Faith ~ is that we must use effort. Whereas Will ~ is to make it so. My summation comes but in 3 stages, which I hope will cement what Seeing & Believing has been about.. ..

Stage 1 : Belief in Him our Lord

Stage 2 : The Saving belief

Stage 3 : Believing in the Lord

 

Stage 1 : Belief in Him our Lord

…To begin with this would lead us to an acceptance of His Revelation. All be it that it shows us, not, tells us how to be saved. Though many Christians can testify, that the book of Revelation paints a more vivid picture than Michael Angelo’s cysteine chapels ceiling. Of what will happen during the end times. Whilst it is possible for someone to have faith, yet still be lost? I say yes. True faith is something far far more than this. Therefore the 2^nd stage it is far more imperative that this next stage be reached . . via . . simple belief in Him our Lord Christ Jesus our saviour

Stage 2 : The Saving belief . .

Hebrews 10 v39  “. . But we are not of those who

draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the 

saving of the soul. .”

. .This is where the saving comes in. When I go out and by a chair, I have faith without doubt, that when I come in weary from the day it will hold my weight. Merely believing that the chair will not give on me will give peace of mind, but, ‘believing ‘on’ it, that it will bear my weight gives me peace of mind. This is just one of many instances that we show in our modern living that an unconscious belief in . . the cars we drive . . the coats we wear will keep us dry and warm . . or even this very pen . . that they will do what it says on the tin, to coin a phrase here.

 

Stage 3 : Believing in the Lord . .

   I may believe in the chair to help me become rested and restored. Also as I believe in my car and the pen I write, the same way. But still the car pen and I remain separated and distant, though not so with Christ and my Soul. Believing  . . on . . Him will lead to . . believing . . into . . Him. Becoming one with Him, united to Him be ties of Love & life. What a blessed union this has become.

 

Words will forever fall short and are unable

to describe the union fully

 

 

   Lets say a short prayer I have come across to describe my feeling…

“My faith looks up to thee, thou Lamb of Calvary

Saviour divine”

Divinely Touched ....

Divinely Touched

   As, from my own belief, I am a good driver. Also felt that God was alive in my heart and life. Each night I pray over my wife, her mother whom we look after, whilst she lives in an 'fold'. (sheltered living) Not a nursing home a step down from this. Any how I also pray for my parents and my brother. Not forgetting our dog.

   Last Monday 9th February I was involved in a car crash, to look at as my wife did on her way past the crushed mangled cars, to meet me in the Hospital. The was guy was also taken to the same Hospital. My wife worried what state I was in let alone the other driver. She thought I was going to badly hurt, which could in turn lead to my death.

   Such was the state of the cars. Both of us drivers were strapped down to the trolleys so as that we could not move as well as have neck collars on. This all took place at around the 10.45/11am. As time went on the collars around our necks came off. Then all the other restraints were taken away.  To the point, after X-rays & CT scans, we could sit up eat and drink. 

   Here's the shocker, by 2.30pm we were both able walk home. Yes you read right, WALK home with out aids given by the Hospital. Now I have a busted spin anyway. So this could have put me in a wheel chair for the rest of my life, needing a lot care for my basic needs.

   God is so good, it defies belief. How we were able get up and walk away from this was a true miracle. God was looking out for me (us), also the fact no one else was in the car which happens very rare as I would have at least my wife in the car.

So a big fat thankyou Lord Jesus, you truly are an awesome God.