World Christian Leadership And Training Ministry

"Sin"

"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." - James 1:12-15

When I had returned from a ministry trip, I was asked what I thought was the prevailing problem in the Church? I did not have to think long about the answer. The prevailing problem in churches today is Sin. I think that our exposure to sin in the news media, on television, on the job, in our neighborhoods, and even in our personal lives has made us numb to the seriousness of Sin. Even children's books and cartoons have sexual overtones as well as homosexual ovetones ("Shark Tale" the movie). Exposing society to a constant barrage of sinful acts and behavior is no accident. We were warned long ago about the coming of this day and time.

The warning was given to the Church, in the Gospel of Matthew 25:1-13. He tells us to keep the anointed "oil" of our righteous in Christ Jesus with us at all times. You cannot ride on the coattails of your pastor or another brother or sister in Christ. No one knows the day or the hour when the Messiah will return. You cannot act like a Christian on Sunday and live like "hell" the rest of the week. If you do, you are setting yourself up for a fatal fall. You cannot live a life of sin and expect anything from God, because you are being double minded. If you continue to sin, your sin will become "full grown" and death will catch up with you. It is useless to cry out to God for healing or help, but refuse to stop sinning. If you won't repent of your sinful lifestyle, then don't be angry at God for not healing or helping you.

Pursue Holiness through Christ Jesus
Christianity is a lifestyle, a culture, not a religion. Religions bring God down to the level of man, while Christianity brings man up to the level of God. I understand it is difficult to live the Christian life according the Word of God, but no one can do it on their own power. It takes a personal Relationships with the Holy Spirit in order to live like Jesus Christ. Your pursuit is for excellence and not perfection in Christ Jesus. (You have to know Jesus in order to be like Him.) As it is stated in the opening scripture, "we are drawn away by our own desires and enticed." God has already provided a way out of every temptation that will surely come against you. I Corinthians 10:13 says,
13 "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

In spite of all of the preparations that God has made to keep the Church from evil, there will come a time when many "believers" in the Church will turn their backs on God and walk away. They will begin to justify their behavior because of their FEELINGS, EMOTIONS and the LIES of false ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible warns the Church in the Book of Jude, "For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ," Jude 4. False leaders will come, but the Body of Christ is expected to "discern the spirits" of false teachings, I John 4:1 and Hebrews 5:14.

Many "believers" will ignore the Word of God because they are already saved. They will say, once saved always saved and therefore, continue to sin and deny the truth of the Word of God. It is not about loosing their salvation, but about if they were ever saved in the first place. If you continue in your sin(s), are you saved?

Being saved also requires obedience to he Commands of God. How can you obey what you truly do not believe? What are you really saved into, is it Jesus or is it your own form of godliness? Jude 5 says, "But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe." Are you telling people that you are saved and therefore, a Christian, but you do not believe the Word of God as it pertains to your way of life? If so, then you will be destroyed, if you do not repent. If you are truly saved, then transform and renew your mind to the Culture of Christianity. The Word of God, Jesus, will never change to accomodate your lifestyle. Stop willfully sinning!

God is Not Blind to Sin
In the Book of Genesis, chapter 6, Noah and his sons and their wives lived among a wicked generation whose thoughts were "only evil continually." God warned them that their days were numbered, one hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3). Noah was 500 years old when God spoke those words. No one listened, even when they saw Noah building the Ark. They laughed and ridiculed him and his family for the next one hundred years. However, when Noah was 600 years, two months and seventeen days old, the Lord closed the door of the Ark. The rest of the world was caught up in their sin life and left behind to perish in their wickedness. They had been warned.

In the Book of Genesis, chapter 19, Lot lived among the people of Sodom. God called the inhabitants of Sodom exceedingly wicked and sinful (Genesis 13:13 ). If you spend time around the wicked and sinful, you will become just like them in time. (Life is an enrollment game; you are either enrolling someone in your beliefs or they are enrolling you in theirs.) Lot offered his virgin daughters to a crowd of males who embraced the sin of homosexuality. How could any father do that to his daughters? (Evil is pervasive and perverse. If not dealt with immediately, people will begin to call evil, good and good, evil.) God said there was not even one righteous man in Sodom, but He spared Lot because of Abraham. Do not be deceived, if you hang around evil long enough, you will certainly be corrupted in due season.

Again, the warning has been given to the world. Prophecy for the final days has been given. God has written down exactly what will happen and yet, just as the inhabitants of the world in Noah's day and the inhabitants of Sodom in Lot's day did not listen, today, the Church is not listening. People with all kinds of beliefs are calling themselves Christians and yet they deny that Jesus is Lord. They are living in sin and declaring that it is righteous in the eyes of the Lord. They even admit their sin , but say that it is okay because they are "good" people. They pray to God and call on the name of Christ (but not the name of Jesus), and support the people who promote:
• abortion, murdering their babies as a means of birth control • the homosexual lifestyle, including same sex marriage • the removal of Christian values in education and in government • males and females who openly practice homosexuality while calling themselves ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

You cannot serve two masters, Luke 16:13 and you cannot be unequally yoked together with a non-believer, II Corinthians 6:14. Make a choice, the end-times is closer than you think. The end-times are already here!

If the New World Order began to arrest Christians tomorrow, would you be arrested? Would anyone on your job or in your neighborhood even know that you are a Christian? Christianity is not just personal, it is also relational. Let someone else know about your Jesus and see the Jesus in you.

The Church has been Warned
The days are numbered and the time is near for the coming of the Lord Jesus once again. This time He will return for His Church. Not just any Church, but the Body of believers that He calls His Disciples. There will be a great falling away, but it will be necessary in order to separate the wheat from the tares. God is always pruning His Vine. His warnings are clear and spoken of often throughout the Bible. The falling away is planned and it will happen just as it is stated in the following scripture: "Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." - II Thessalonians 2:4

The falling away has already begun, you have a choice to participate or not. On that final day, when Jesus returns, it will be too late to make a choice. Like the day the door of the Ark was shut, or the day that fire and brimstone rained down from heaven on Sodom, it was too late to change or repent. Do not be like the five virgins who were caught without any oil. The time to buy, use, and store up the oil is Now. The time to stop living your old sin life is right now. The time to choose who you will serve is Now. Don't be left behind.

Given the choice of life or death, what do you choose? The Bible tells us to "choose life," Deuteronomy 30:19. God had it written down for us, so we would not make a mistake and choose death. Look at your life and weigh the evidence. Does your life resemble the blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 or the curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-68? Choose to know the Word of God; choose to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ; choose to obey the Commands of God; choose to stand against the lies of Satan and the deceit of the world; choose to stop living a life of Sin. Given the choice of life or death, CHOOSE LIFE!