Sin is not something man does by accident. It is something man does or allows based upon an unwillingness to stop an act before it becomes sin.
The world is full of religion, but this religion bears little to no resemblance to the truth of the scriptures. Why? Because man-made religion is vain.
The Sabbath was a sign between the Lord and Israel, but it also demonstrates a principle that man needs a period set aside to rest.
A man’s body is the house or dwelling place for his soul and his spirit. Since this dwelling is merely temporary, the scripture likens it to a tabernacle.
Men tend to fret over the motives behind others’ actions. Instead, men should trust the Lord to deal with the motives at the judgment seat of Christ.
There is one murder that far surpasses every other murder ever committed. That particular murder occurred when Jesus Christ was crucified.
A man who loses hope loses his primary motivation for doing right and living holy. The Bible reveals what men do when they have no hope: “let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). If there is no hope in a resurrection, man sees no reason to cease to go after his strange gods (Jeremiah 2:25) or follow “the imagination of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:12). If there is no judgment after death, or if the Lord is not soon returning, then the greatest impetus for living the Christian life is lost. Man needs a special motivation to help him to live a life of purity. He should live in purity because He loves the Lord. Yet, the answer lies in the fact that the Lord is coming soon, and man will stand before Him to give an account, and all those who have this particular hope will purify themselves, “even as he [Jesus] is pure.” Hope makes all the difference!
An assault upon the conscience of man is indicative of the “latter times.” As men depart from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, their consciences become so weak that they show very little sign of life. The Bible describes it as a searing of their consciences with a hot iron. Initially, there is great pain in the sin and the conscience feels the pain. Yet, eventually, the conscience becomes so seared that it is numb. At that point, the conscience loses its ability to warn the believer of sin. It further loses the ability to get the believer’s attention when he is on the verge of danger. Eventually, men speak lies in hypocrisy and do not care or feel any remorse for their wickedness.
Some people incorrectly conclude that someone is blameless only when he does nothing wrong, but the scripture teaches that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Bible continues by stating that “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). In other words, no one ever born upon the earth, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, has ever been sinless. This includes people like Zacharias and Elisabeth although the Bible does say that they were “blameless” concerning the commandments and ordinances of the law. How could someone be blameless and not be sinless? To be blamed suggests a failure to make wrongs right. As such, one can deduce that when Zacharias and Elisabeth sinned against the Lord, they did what the law required to make things right with God. They were blameless in the law.
Believers are not to speak, look, think, or act like the world. In every way possible, believers are to remain separate and distinct. Believers saved for any length of time have noticed the drastic shift in what the world defines as acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. For instance, man in general once disdained the idea of tattoos, body piercings, and cuttings in the flesh (Leviticus 19:28). Yet, now these things are not only acceptable but even practiced by believers. The world used to distinguish between men and women, even taking note of one’s hair length (1 Corinthians 11:14-15). Yet these distinctions have been blurred and in some cases eliminated with men attempting to become women and women men. The people of God are not to follow along with cultural shifts, but abide rather in the unchangeable words of God.
