Sin & the Strait and Narrow Way

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

Sin Is Falling Short Of The Glory Of God, The Glory That God Planned For You.

The Strait (that is, constrained) and Narrow path is simply this: When the Bible says, "Whatever is not of faith is sin, it means that whatever God has not led you into and performed through you is sin. That means that anything that you do by your own will and power is sin. That means that anything that God did not ask you to think, say, or do is sin. That means that anything that God did not think, say, or do within you is sin. That is very narrow.

Proverbs 21:4 An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. (note that even the work that the wicked person does is sin. Whatever is not of faith is sin.)

God has a good plan for you, to attain to God’s glory. You and I were created to be filled with the glory of God. Our minds only work correctly when the Holy Spirit is flowing through them and we willingly submit. And this flow is what creates a clean heart in us. In this way God's purpose is that we go from light to greater light, from faith to deeper faith, and from glory to ever increasing glory until we all come to total unity with Christ. Christ divided Himself among the members of His Body so that no member would be complete in himself or herself. Then, He ordered the Body (in Scripture) and asked us to follow that pattern. Since we could not, He works through each member to restore the Body of Christ to the pattern that is found in Scripture. This is why he restored apostles to the Church in 1948, and it is also why Satan raised up false apostles right after God set the genuine apostles. This Church is not only the method by which the Manifestation of the Sons of God will take place, but it also will be that Manifestation when God finishes His work. He will then present the Church to Christ as a glorious Bride without spot or wrinkle. All of the details are recorded in Scripture, and God is now performing these things in those who are walking in obedience to this truth.

God’s glory is very high. The glory that God has planned for us is beyond our ability to imagine or reach for. God is Love, and the world has rebelled against Love. God's glory is true love. We aren't talking about the counterfeit love, the snake oil that cannot satisfy, which Hollywood and hedonism is selling. God's glory is full of real love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, humility, strength, and faith, and some people are missing out on purpose. They are purposefully missing out, and that is sin.

... sin is missing the mark. Sin is failure. This is the sin that Jesus came to overcome. Jesus came to set us free from sin, from continually missing the mark. Jesus removes the stain and guilt. Jesus forgives. Jesus gives the Holy Spirit so we can begin to be led by the Spirit. Jesus gives power to walk in the Spirit and do what is right and good--to overcome SIN.

If we disobey the laws of God, this is sin--it is either slipping across a line or stepping across a line. The Spirit of God will never lead you to slip or step across the line. God's Spirit cannot be tempted with sin and cannot sin. Missing the mark can happen in any part of the sequence of the righteousness of God that is apart from the works of the law. Real righteousness is by grace through faith.

Sin is failing to walk into the glory that God has planned for us. All disobedience is rebellion. Rebellion separates us from God. When we are separated from God, we cannot be godly--how would it be possible to be godly? When we are separated from God, we miss out on His leading and His power. When we are joined to God, we have His leading and power. His leading always leads us into righteousness. His power is power to do righteousness.

The lack of love is also known as sin. Jesus said that if you love Him, you will keep His commandments. His commandment is to love. Adultery, Fornication, Stealing, Lying, Cheating, Envying, Killing; these are all examples of a lack of love.

This sin is rebellion against God, which results in missing the mark. Sin is failing to attain to the glory of God. It is a desire to NOT commune with God. It is a desire to NOT glorify and respect God and NOT hold Him in holy reverence. It is a desire to add to and take away from God's Word and to follow one's own mind and will, which leads to spiritual death and is the cause of physical misery, sickness, and death.

Sin & the Strait and Narrow Way

How can we know anything about anything

Sin

Righteousness by Grace through Faith

The Strait and Narrow Way

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