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2 Timothy 2:19 – God knows those who are his own. He will never make a mistake. This is a comfort to the children of God while at the same time being something that should be terrifying to those who don’t know God as their father.
Two Things We Should Be Thankful For
- There is an open door. Wouldn’t it be awful to not have the ability to go through the door from darkness to light. To not even have an option?
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The Holy Spirit is actively pursuing men and guiding them from one side of this door to the other side.
John 16:7-8 – When Jesus was on the earth the Spirit was not poured out. Jesus was a constant and visible example of what righteousness looks like. When Jesus left the earth the Spirit came and is continuing to remind people of what that righteousness and holiness looks like.
A Pure and Holy God
We as people cannot understand mercy unless we understand justice. It is difficult to understand the love of God unless we have some idea of the alternative.
Romans 11:22 – We like the goodness of God, but the justice/holiness part of him is just as real as his goodness. We can’t accept only some aspects of who God is and not the others.
Revelation 4:8 – This is a picture of worship and holiness being offered to a worthy God.
Scripture describes God as holy, righteous, just, perfect, supreme, etc. We are not used to looking at something as perfect as God. The things that we see here on earth as “perfect” are nowhere near as perfect as God is.
Romans 7 – When God gave us laws he wasn’t making suggestions for the way we should live. These laws are like an extension of his nature, rooted in the very core of who he is.
Anyone who thinks that their own goodness is “enough” needs to take a serious look at the measuring stick they are really going to be measured with.
God isn’t just concerned about our actions… he shows us this by giving the last of the ten commandments, after all the ones that have to do with things that we can commit physically he says “thou shalt not covet.”
Mathew 5: 21 – God sees the problem that is deeper than the actual act of murder, he sees and condemns hatred, a thing of the heart. Both the physical act and the spiritual act are condemned by God.
Mathew 5:27 – Immorality can be seen all around us in all kinds of ways. It isn’t just a moral law, it’s also a spiritual law. God’s law not only covers the physical law, it goes much deeper – to holiness of the heart.
Romans 3:10-17 – Paul talks about the sinfulness of man in his unredeemed state, this describes something about ourselves. There are two extremes here… either end of the spectrum is dangerous, believing that we can do anything we want to and not be held accountable or on the other end feeling like we have gone too far and there is no hope for us.
Something about sin hardens the conscience. We can always come back and repent after sinning, but the more times we do that the harder it becomes to repent and regain what we had before.
Sin looks so easy to retreat and back up from, but it never is as easy as it seems. God will see to it that we cannot sin without there being consequences.
True holiness is when our hearts and the attitudes line up with the heart and the attitudes of the Father.
Romans 6:17 – This thing of a loving God punishing sin and sinners so severely is a difficult thing. As God looks at people, the more he loves the people the more he is going to hate the sin that damages those people.
The longer that we live in sin… the more the basic programming of our soul is marred by this problem of sin.
Revelation 14:10 John 3:16 – The most beautiful thing of this entire discussion about sin and God’s holiness is that there is a way, there is a cross – a message to all in darkness about how God see’s them, he loves them and wants them to be part of his kingdom. It is a message about God’s justice. It is a message as well of God’s love.
Colossians 1:12 – Sin is like quicksand, the more we struggle without help the deeper we go. It is like a spider web, built for entanglement.
Revelation 21:7 – Some people think that heaven will be boring. David tells us that nothing that would delight us will be held back from us… If God has already given his son for us, the best and greatest thing that he has, what would he hold back from us?
We are each faced with a choice. We can either accept the remedy that God has provided in Jesus… or we can reject it. It is a choice that we each have to make.