Hebrews
12:14 “Strive for peace
with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the
Lord.”
I
read where one writer asks: “How would you describe the age in which we Life?
Do you ever wonder how historians will characterize our age? Would you say that
it is the ‘Information Age’, the ‘Nuclear Age’, the ‘Technical Age’, or the ‘Space
Age’?” Interestingly enough, we have agencies
fighting the air and water, water and atmosphere pollution the threaten the
environment, yet he suggested another term for this age in which we live: a Dirty
age. Why … what is his point? He is afraid that too little is being done to
clean up society’s moral impurity, which affects us far more than we know. He
contends that ours is the age of Uncleanness. We see it everywhere.
Galatians
5:19-21 “Now the works of the
flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lewdness, idolatry, drug abuse, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts
of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness,
revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in
time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God.”
People
say that we have always had some form of bullying, violence, death, physical
and mental abuse, terror, lying, cheating, stealing, extortion, sensual sexually
immorality, malice, laziness, egocentric, irresponsibility, covetousness, vulgarity,
hatred and wrath. But, statistics reveal that the numbers are escalating and
the effect is affecting the entire culture. “F-bombs” and insults are flying
everywhere. Sex outside the context of marriage is skyrocketing. Atheistic
worldviews propagated and indoctrinated as truth. Radical pleasure/entertainment
and materialism, by any means, seem to be the primary goal of life, while world
terrorism and threats of annihilation at our bounders are reality. Uncleanness
abounds more today than yesterday. The moral code given to humanity through God’s
Holy Scriptures are the Creator’s mandate for watch over His creation. They give
us the knowledge of “right” and “wrong”, and a set of written commandments to
tell us the difference between “good” and “evil”. Tom DeRosa, the director of
the Creation Science Institute, points out that “without the immutable stand of God’s Word and the light and truth
emanating from the Almighty Creator for Heaven and Earth, fallen mankind is
left to their own devices. And, as it can be readily observed, when your moral
code is relative, everything becomes relatively moral.” Seriously, where is
ethics, honor, loyalty, manners, morals, politeness, and respect today? Have we
lost or moral compass or just misplaced it?
1
Corinthians 6:9-11 “Do you not know
that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor
sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists
will inherit the kingdom of God. And
such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
All
have sinned and need the Savior; to be justified and sanctified by the blood of
Jesus Christ, with the regeneration of the spirit, born anew from above with a new
heavenly-minded heart. We live in a fallen world, but are called to repentance,
holiness and purity and we can do so only through the pure and spotless atoning
redemption and forgiveness found in the Lamb of God. In order to get and stay “right”
with God, we need to have a “right” understanding of what sin is. We need to
see it for the dirty, repulsive, devilish and destructive thing that it really is.
Our sin is against God himself. Sin is evil.
Psalm
97:10 “Let those who love
the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful
ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.”
Thomas
Carlyle wrote: The greatest security against sin is to be shocked at its
presence.” Darkness despises light. Unbelief demands belief to cease because
the light of truth exposes their uncleanness. Defend the faith and stand firm for
the biblical truth of God’s holy Word, Will and Way. Hebrews 9:27-28 says: “And as
it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so
Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for
Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” How can
we keep our ways pure in an unclean age? By living according to God’s Holy and
Righteous Word and reach the non-believer who is seeking for a new perspective
of God, peacefully speaking the truth in love. We can never eradicate and rid this
God-rejecting world of sin, self or hate this side of heaven, but we can reach
all we can for Christ. God is still in the transformation of the heart service.
In
Christ, Brian
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