Contending For The Faith Once Delivered

Separating The Sin From The Sinner

 

"God loves the sinner, but he hates his sin." We've all heard that a lot, haven't we? It is one of the things that has weakened the church and the preaching of the Gospel. It has taken away any need for men to be broken in repentance and sorrow for their sin. Their sin is something apart from them. God hates their sin, but not them. He is angry with sin, but not with the sinner. It is as if God has a book where He keeps a running account of your sins and He is mad at the book, but loves the sinner. We can't preach about SINNERS in the hands of an angry God anymore, because He isn't angry with THEM, He is angry with their sin. The sinner says in his heart: "My sin is evil, my sin is wicked, but I'm not really that bad of a guy." He also thinks in his heart that his sin is not a part of himself. His sin is something independent of him; sort of like something that has happened, but not something he caused, or is responsible for.

This is a false teaching that needs to be thrown in the trash and not taught anymore. My sin is because of me - it is ME! I am the SINNER. It isn't something apart from my will and consciousness, it comes from an evil heart! I am the problem. God is NOT angry with sin, but with the SINNER. He is angry with the wicked every day! God is not going to put SIN in Hell - He is going to put the SINNER in Hell! God is going to judge the SINNER - NOT SIN! You cannot separate sin from the sinner.

It is not an account separate from the sinner that must be wiped clean, or balanced out, and he will then be a good man. It is his wicked heart that must be repented of. It isn't a matter of a "problem" that the sinner has that needs to be taken care of - HE is the problem HIMSELF.

Separating Salvation From The Saint

Salvation means "deliverance." When you save someone from a burning building, you get them out of the building. When you save someone from drowning, you pull them from the water. When God saves a sinner, He saves him FROM his sin. He gets him out of sin! The saved person doesn't continue in sin any longer. A saved person cannot live in habitual sin! Yet that is the teaching in most churches today - especially in Baptist Churches. A person is left in the same state as he was before he was saved. He has the flesh, and a sinful nature that he just can't conquer, and he is told that if he thinks he is living without known sin in his life he is fool, a liar, and he has deceived himself. Everyone sins every moment of every day in thought, word, and deed. Under that kind of teaching it is impossible for anyone to ever be right with God. Salvation, then, becomes something apart from the person; something really irrelevant to this life. It only comes to mean that we "are going to heaven when we die." But until then we must go on sinning and sinning every day because we just can't help it. If I were drowning I wouldn't want that kind of deliverance. Imagine yourself drowning and someone grabs your arm and lifts you out of the water for a moment, then drops you back in and leaves you there. What kind of rescue is that? Or you are in a burning building with no way out, when the firemen reach you and drag you to safety, then throw you back in the window into the fire. God doesn't deliver us from sin that way either! When God saves, HE SAVES TO THE UTTERMOST!

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Cor 10:13)

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: (2 Pet 2:9)

Separating Grace From The Lord Jesus Christ

We have sat by and let the sovereign grace teachers, such as Augustine and Calvin, make a science out of the study of God. They have turned grace into a doctrine, or study, separate from the person of God. It is no longer the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, instead it is a theological idea, or teaching. But the fact is that grace is God's kindness, God's love, God's mercy, God's forgiveness, God's character, God's power, God's presence. It is a manifestation of God! Grace is the direct influence of God upon the mind and life of a person!

If it is possible to separate God's grace from his person and make it simply a study of God, or a systematic theology, then it would be possible for a person to be "in" that grace and at the same time live in sin. Now no one could possibly say that God walks in sin. 1 John 1:6 says that if we walk in darkness and say we have fellowship with Him we are liars! God doesn't walk in darkness. But if you can just separate his grace from his person, then you could say you are in grace and yet continue in your sin.

Have you ever wondered why Baptists have the name "a sinning religion?" If you have tried to witness to very many people you have heard this response upon telling them that you are a Baptist: "Well, you people believe you can get saved and then live any way you want to." The reason for that is that it has been taught that grace is such that we can have the favor and blessings of God and still wallow in sin. "Even though I sin, God still blesses me. In spite of my sin, God is still 'on' me, and on my life. I have 'no condemnation'." They have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. Let's CONTEND FOR THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS. After all, that is the only way into the real Grace of God.

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