Turning Away From Sin And Its Enslavement

Do you really love God? REPEAT. We need to be sure if we really love God the way God expects. And I have to ask the question “Do you consistently turn from sin or do you find that you have some little habits that are sinful and you just can’t seem to break away from them? Are you enslaved by these sinful habits?

I ask these questions because when we really love someone we want to please them. It’s the same with God. If we really love Him we want to please Him. We know that God is holy and pure. We know that there is no sin in Him at all. So the person who loves God cannot live in sin, you shouldn’t practice sinful ways.

The fact is if you are enslaved by some habit of sin, and you knowingly continue in that sin, you cannot truly love God. If you did, you would work at getting through that sinful habit. PRAYER

Read 1 John 3:4. Now let’s stop right there for a moment. Because this verse stresses the fact that man is, by nature, sinful. Man has a need and that need is to be delivered from sin. Few people like to be called a sinner. In fact, some react harshly when they are told they are a sinner.

Do you know why most of us react negatively when we are told we are a sinner? It’s because we all have a tendency to rank sin. We feel that the sins that we hear on the news or read in the newspapers are the ones that the Bible is talking about. Murder, burglary, rape, incest, adultery. Surely those sins are a lot worse than telling a lie, gossiping, looking lustfully at someone.

The fact is, in God’s eyes, a sin is a sin is a sin. To God sin is lawlessness. It is violating the law of God. Spreading a tidbit of gossip about someone is just as bad as shooting him or her through the heart and killing them. If we are going to be pure in heart, we need to know how God looks at sin. FOR INSTANCE, TO GOD:

• Sin is choosing to go your own way instead of doing what God says.

• Sin is living like YOU want instead of living as God says.

• Sin is not doing what God says to do.

• Sin is disbelieving what God says.

• Sin is ignoring God instead of following and worshipping Him as He says.

• Sin is denying that God wants you to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life.

So we need to first face the fact that every one of us needs to be delivered from sin. Man comes short of God’s glory. Remember what glory means. It means to come to a perfect state of being.

And I hate to burst your bubble, but no one here is sinless. No one is righteous. We work toward that goal and we strive to be as much like God as we can but we have not reached that goal. The Bible says, “10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Romans 3: 10-12)

“For all have sinned and come short of God’s glory.” (Rom. 3:23)

Remember what we studied back in 1 John 1:8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Now once we finally accept the fact that we do need to be delivered from sin then we understand more fully the provision for that deliverance. We understand more clearly that Christ took away our sins. READ VERSE 5. Now let’s review for a moment.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to take away our sins. That means that when Jesus Christ died, His death was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. God accepted Jesus’ death as the perfect sacrifice for sins.

And what that means is that when we really believe in Jesus Christ, God counts Jesus’ sacrifice for us. God doesn’t require that each of us be executed for our sins. Christ paid that price for us. All we have to do now is accept Jesus Christ and our sinful ways are covered.

“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”(2 Cor. 5:21)

This is the great love of God for man—the giving of His Son to die for the sins of man. If a person truly loves God, then that person will bow humbly before God’s Son in adoration. That means that if you truly love God you will NEVER: