No Tolerance For Sin!

OUR CALLING:

It is true that we all fall short of the glory of God, and that everyday the mercies of God are new. But as followers of Christ we must realize our true calling in God’s vast kingdom. It is all summed up in these verses:

1 Peter 2:9

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

1 Thessalonians 4:7

“For God has not called us to live in sin. He has called us to live a holy life.”

So what are these verses saying?

We are God’s chosen people! We are called into his royal family, we live under who our God is and we live by his word. As people of God we are to be holy, why? Because He is holy!

A HOLY GOD:

God is holy! His hands have never partaken in sin, in fact he can’t even look upon it. Jesus lived a life without sin, yet he took our sin upon himself at the cross, and because of that we too are able to live holy lives. Our God shows his holiness all throughout his word. He was holy when Moses had to take his sandals off in his great presence. He was holy when the tabernacle was built. He was holy when he was healing the blind and walking on water. And he is holy now, and forever. The moment we made the decision to follow God, we also decided to live a life pleasing to him, a life without sin. A life of holiness.

SIN:

When I think about sin, one word always come to mind along with it, DEATH. The bible even speaks of this. (Romans 6:23)

If we were to fully see the outcomes of what sin does in all truth, the way God sees it, we would never sin! Sin is ugly and grotesque, I envision it like that of a disease or cancer. SO, how does sin enter our lives?, how do we avoid sin?, and what happens when we slip?

I'm going to use King David as a great answer for these questions.

Who was David?

Before we get into that, let me give you a little back ground to David. David was a man known as " a man after God's own heart." He was anointed King and was very obedient to God. He loved God dearly and followed his laws, unlike the King before him. (Saul) Yet, even this same man, who loved and followed God slipped up one day, or was it just that one day that caused him to sin against the Lord?

DAVID & BATHSHEBA:

Lets take a look at 2 Samuel 11.

In 2 Samuel 11, a story of the outcome sin brings unfolds in David’s life.

The verse starts out by stating an interesting thought, it says:

“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.” (v.1)

Now David was known as a great fighter, that’s how he got his start after all. (David and Goliath) Yet, for some reason during a time when Kings were known to go off to war with their army, David stayed behind and sent someone else in his place? Out of characteristic of David for sure.

Long story short, David walked around his palace and from his view, saw a women bathing on a roof. He became filled with lust (is that too much of an assumption really?) and had her brought to him, he then slept with her. Now this women not only happened to be married, but to a man in David's own army. The women later sent word to David and said she was pregnant, and David began acting on impulse and guilt (again not too much of an assumption based on his actions) David then tries to make sure that Bathsheba’s husband comes home and goes home to be with her, so it would look as if he got her pregnant, but Uriah's (Bathsheba's husband) loyalty (ironically) to God and his fellow soldiers made him feel guilty to go home during such a time. Skip to David’s persistence to have her husband go home, and his failings at doing so, David eventually had her husband put in the front lines of the battle (knowing he'd be killed) and he in end dies.

So what in the world happened to David? The very same David who was known as a man after God's own heart.

Surely he didn’t wake up one day close to God, and the next end up in a pit of sin.