Summary: Part 3 continues with a Christian who has sinned and fallen into sin. What is the way of restoration to God? Does a Christian lose salvation for sinning? We look at David, at a poem, at man’s belief in grading the intensity of sin. What about disobedience and sins bypassed?

A PROBLEM THAT HAPPENED - IS SALVATION SOMETHING TO BE LOST BECAUSE OF SIN? (PART 3 of 3)

[10]. INTRODUCTION

This is the last part in the series that looks at the belief by some that we lose salvation through sin, or grievous sin, or by wilful sin. The idea is based on the fifth tenet of Arminianism that says we can fall from grace; that there is conditional security and we must persevere until the end. It is almost a gospel of works.

In Part 1 that concept was examined and then we moved to a Christian in sin, or a Christian who has sinned. We looked at the path back to God from that sin. We saw that a son in the family is a family member and if he sins or goes off the rails, he is still a member of that family. The parable of the Prodigal Son demonstrates that very well.

This time we continue looking at the matter of a Christian overtaken in a sin or by sin. We look into David’s experience. These are serious issues and it is so sad that people want to cut believers off from salvation when they sin. To do so is not to understand the love and compassion of God and to reduce belief to man keeping a ritual or way of life, doing so in his ability, not God’s.

All this originated from a matter I had to deal with in a church. I hope it is a help to people, especially to those who have sinned and let the Lord down. It is best you read all three messages to follow the argument right through.

[11]. THE GRADING OF SIN – IS ONE WORSE THAN ANOTHER ? ULTIMATELY?

Does our mind consider lying, stealing, being proud, hurting another Christian, as lesser sins than murder and adultery? Which sin does not condemn you? None! If a man was perfect and committed only one sin e.g. lost his temper and swore (James has specific things to say about the tongue), would God overlook that because it is not one of those “major sins”?

The rich young ruler came to Christ and he was self-righteously perfect but there was one thing - - - that is all it takes. Adam was a perfect man even though he had no knowledge of good and evil, but he slipped up in one act, and that was all it took. He was disobedient, yet so many Christians are disobedient all the time, and barely gets any consideration.

I truly think we don’t understand (appreciate) the deep significance of what sin does. How much can we appreciate the holiness of God? We speak about it, pontificate about it, but to plumb its depths would be life changing for many Christians. God is holy, and sin is an absolute wickedness that opposes God’s righteousness and holiness. Without holiness one can not see God.

I believe the more we appreciate the holiness of God, the more concerned we would be about our own condition; the way we live carelessly before our God; we drink at muddy fountains and not even realise it.

{{1 Corinthians 6:8-10 “On the contrary, you yourselves WRONG AND DEFRAUD, and that your brethren, or do you not know that THE UNRIGHTEOUS SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God,”}}

Note how this list begins. It starts with defrauding/cheating a fellow believer; doing wrong to a brother. Then Paul lists another 10 sins that debar one from the kingdom of God. They are listed together because just one of them will condemn a person to be excluded from the kingdom. In this regard all are equal because all will destroy inheritance in the kingdom of God.

Man would scale those sins but God does not in the ultimate outcome. What is idolatry? It is what replaces the one true God. Is that television rather than being with God’s people? Is that strong support of a football or baseball team, and matched by very weak support for fellow Christians? Is that devoting Sundays to personal passions and not to Christ’s passion for salvation, or being with God’s people?

[12]. DO WE FOLLOW THE INCORRECT STANCE?

One definition of sin is “missing the mark”, and the illustration of an archer is sometimes given. The archer keeps shooting his arrows but every one of them falls short of the target. How often do we apply sin to the outside world and to sinners, BUT rarely to ourselves?

I am sure those in the church at Laodicea never considered themselves as being sinful. Such was the delusion. Christians can easily fool themselves. The devil is the master of deception.

Consider a person who is depressed or elderly where it takes too much effort to keep their house/apartment spick and span. Slowly they just can’t manage the effort needed for cleanliness, and so the place smells and becomes dirty but the person just lives with that mess and comes to accept it as normal.

Do we have spiritual lives like that? Would you be a careless Christian? Is sin eating away at your righteous living?

[13]. DAVID AND HIS SIN

I do not want to pursue this matter too much, but much can be drawn from the incident with Bathsheba. Firstly, the cause. Secondly the secrecy. Thirdly, the guilt. Fourthly the conviction and repentance. Apart from the chapters dealing with David’s sin we have the very important Psalm 51.

This is the critical standard for all who have fallen into sin, and the steps there leading to restoration are very precious. To be convicted about one’s deep sin, is to realise with cutting guilt that we have sinned against God. Confession leads to repentance and in the end all is connected with restoration.

The opening verse is very deep - {{Psalm 51:1 “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness, according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.”}} It wraps up LOVE, COMPASSION and GRACE. God did not cast David away. He strove with him to bring God’s choice one to restoration. He does the same with us.

In the first message I remarked on the attitude many Christians have in condemning a Christian who has sinned, even grievously. I want to take that up a bit later on.

A person what has sinned and comes into conviction will fall on the truth of this verse - {{Psalm 51:2 “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”}}. That is what conviction does. It wants cleansing! It desires it!

This verse that follows shows the one-on-one focus of sin. A Christian may sin against another believer, but “I HAVE SINNED AGAINST GOD. {{Psalm 51:4 “Against You, You only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight so that You are justified when You speak, and blameless when You judge.”}}

The next two verses need an explanation - {{Psalm 51:10-11 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”}}

Verse 10 is a request for cleansing for a born again believer (even if fallen into sin) who desires the cleansing of the Lord. Verse 11 does not apply to the New Covenant of the cross. God does not remove His Holy Spirit or throw a repentant Christian away. That goes back to the very start of the first message.

There is one last verse I want to mention in Psalm 51 - {{Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.”}}. A Christian out of step with the Lord is a very unhappy person. Guilt consumes him/her and there is a reluctance to be with other Christians in case someone asks a revealing question. Praise God that when proper confession of sin happens under conviction, then restoration leads to joy. Joy is God’s gift in salvation.

Years ago I wrote a poem that would apply to the case of a Christian falling into sin and coming back to the Lord. Psalm 51 was in my focus when writing the poem. Here is that poem -

BEAUTY FROM ASHES

Beauty from ashes; a flower from failure,

The Lord has His field, and the plough’s in his hand.

What can He grow in a life that denied Him?

And what can He fashion from dry, barren sand?

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Mine is the grief and the life that’s been ruptured;

That flowed out its soul in a haemorrhaging shame.

Sin’s strong deceit - it severed God’s awesomeness,

And shut down the life links that connected His Name.

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Relieve me, Lord; in my distress, now listen.

Be gracious to me, and for You, set apart.

Wash me to cleanse all those hidden recesses.

Now wash me with hyssop applied to my heart.

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Lift up with light, your countenance upon me.

Now let the daystar of love conquer darkness.

Create in me a clean heart and right spirit,

The joy of salvation in clear, pure starkness.

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Beauty from ashes; God’s masterpiece perform.

And He will transform me and He won’t despise.

From failure grow strength; from denial’s trough, praise,

Then fully in God my salvation relies.

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R Ferguson First quarter of 2006 11-11-11-11 ABCB

One of the deepest emotions we have is shame. Shame happens when sin has caused havoc in a person’s life, and the realisation of it bursts like a cloud over the person.

Shame brings guilt, and guilt can affect a person greatly, even causing one to do irrational things, especially if they are not Christians. Guilt comes from conviction if the person is a Christian, for the Holy Spirit sets out to lead an erring saint back to God. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and the purpose of that is to turn us back to the correct way from which we strayed. These verses are strategic in this operation –

{{1 John 1:7-9 “but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND RIGHTEOUS TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. “}}

This poem was written for anyone who has been through the trauma of sinning against the Lord, and is strongly based on Psalm 51. That Psalm is David’s repentance after the sins of adultery and murder in the Bathsheba incident. There is so much involved here that I can’t cover, but out of that sordid incident, God brought mercy and grace. The grace of God was overwhelming. Bathsheba was in the ancestral line of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I called the poem, “Beauty from Ashes,” for when a fire burns something down, all that is left is ashes, then we think nothing can ever come of it, but the Lord can bring beauty from that pile of ashes. A person’s life can be ruined or marred by sin, but God can restore beauty from failure.

In our human minds we can’t see that, but God works miracles. Some Christians are so judgemental of Christians who sin, and become like Pharisees, but take a look at David. He was raised up by God and was so strong for the Lord.

It might seem a warped thing to say but in a way I am glad David’s sin is recorded because it can give hope to so many of us who fall along the way. God waits for you, reader, if you have sinned and need to return to Him in repentance. Then the gracious Lord will restore beauty from ashes. This poem is for all.

{{Psalm 51:1-2 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness, according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin,

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.}}

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Previously I mentioned the problem a person has when the devil keep coming along reminding the person of their sin even though that sin is under the blood, forgiven and forgotten. When we confess our sin He is faithful and righteous to CLEANSE us from ALL sin and put it away forever.

[14]. CLOSING REMARKS

LOOKING AT GALATIANS 6:1

I have a whole message on this verse if you want to reference that -

https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/21-the-book-of-galatians-chapter-6-1-message-21-the-responsibility-in-your-high-calling-a-fallen-christian-ron-ferguson-sermon-on-sin-289238

Christians can be very cannibalistic towards another Christian who has sinned. They chew them up and reject them and avoid them. Does my Saviour do that to me? As the Shepherd of the sheep, He goes out in the night searching for that one sheep that became lost and in the night. There is a great hymn of the past that spells out God’s attitude to a Christian fallen into sin and here are the first two stanzas and Refrain -

Great God of wonders, all thy ways

Are matchless, God-like and divine;

But the fair glories of thy grace

More God-like and unrivaled shine:

Refrain:

WHO IS A PARDONING GOD LIKE THEE,

OR WHO HAS GRACE SO RICH AND FREE?

Such dire offences to forgive,

Such guilty rebel souls to spare;

This is thy grand prerogative,

And none shall in the honour share: [Refrain]

(Samuel Davies)

A pardoning God so full of grace. That is wonderful. AND as far as it lies in you, get alongside a fallen xn and not condemn that one. The self-righteous will condemn a fallen Christian and shuns that person even after the Lord has forgiven and restored that one.

Are these self-righteous ones saying that a person who has fallen in adultery, say, are rejected from personal fellowship? It is interesting that David continues in Psalm 51 to say this - {{Psalm 51:12-13 “RESTORE to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I WILL TEACH transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.”}}

He knew that once restoration took place, then he had a ministry before him. Tap into the grace of God. Tap into the forgiveness of God. Here is a most beautiful passage in the whole bible -

{{Exodus 34:6-7 “Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, COMPASSIONATE AND GRACIOUS, SLOW TO ANGER, AND ABOUNDING IN LOVINGKINDNESS and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”}}

In my flesh dwells no good thing. God knows that. I know that. The flesh is so sinful but Christ has overcome sin through the blood of the cross. Avail yourselves of the blood of the Lamb to keep you; to forgive and restore you. Amen.

In these three messages we began with the terrible idea that a Christian who sins (wilfully) is cut off from God’s grace. That is a horrible doctrine. All sin is wilful as we are not mindless robots.

Then we spent time looking at sin in a Christian’s life – the fact of it, the result of it, the provision for it and restoration. Our God is gracious towards His believers and cares for them, even when they slip up. BUT when they do slip up, He gently convicts with the aim of repentance and confession and forgiveness.

God does not strike with the sledgehammer and cut this person off from salvation. Those who think so are in great error and do not appreciate the depth of God’s salvation.

May the Lord help us all to walk aright. Amen.