DO YOU FEAR GOD?

DO YOU FEAR GOD?

“Christians” find excuses to worship outside of the Church, live in adultery year after year, they go to bars and drunken parties, support the murder of innocent children in the womb, laugh at ungodly humor so they don’t “stand out” and even support sexual abomination like homosexuality (which before long will include bestiality and child abuse like “man-boy-love”). Our refusal to obey God is a real concern. Christians today have no fear of God.

We don’t fear God. There is more concern for being politically correct or losing current friendships and relationships than there is of opposing the sovereign God of this universe. Those calling themselves “Christian” must begin to ask, “Am I saved?” Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” When fear of standing out or not being politically correct or even losing a relationship or a longtime friendship causes us to continue in sin, then God has become 2^nd place. That position in society, or relationship/friendship, has become more important than our relationship with God. In which case we must again ask, “Am I saved?” Or, am I living in false hope?

 Mark 12:29-30 “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: (v.30) And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” Jesus made it very clear our first priority in this life is our love of God. That would clearly entail compliance with His laws in our daily lives. If we love God, we obey God. Loving others, which is the second, would never necessitate openly rebelling against God’s commands. Loving others would mean warning them of God’s divine judgment, not allowing them to face eternity in hell so that we can maintain a peaceful relationship with them today. Living in sin with them here, today, helps to secure their eternal condemnation and places us in a continuous state of disobedience with God. Can we knowingly disobey God without any real fear, if we are saved? Paul’s statement above (II Cor. 13:5) suggests that it is more likely that we have never truly been born again. When we truly get saved, we depart from sin. Jesus said in Luke 13:3 “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” We make a conscious effort to stop sinning when Jesus lives within us, Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

If there is no example of Jesus Christ living within us (“..how that Jesus Christ is in you…”) then Paul is saying we are likely still reprobate. Does sin offend you? Sin is the very cause of God having to allow His Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die on the cross, to be separated from God during that moment (“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”) so that he could redeem us. How horrible must sin be? Yet, to retain popularity, friendship/relationships many calling themselves Christian willing live in sin with no real fear of God. Does sin offend you? Do you fear God?

Jesus said that at the final judgment, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-23)