Sugar Coated FALSE Christianity

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying...

 

Mat 5:29  And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Mat 5:30  And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

 

Truthfully our Savior is NOT telling us to mutilate our bodies. If He were advocating this drastic measure don't you think we'd hear of many cases of it occurring from then on? Wouldn't Paul have cut off parts of his body that caused Him to say -

 

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

The point being emphasized here is how important it is to CONTROL all the we CAN control, without making up excuses for ourselves. Jesus HIMSELF is teaching us, telling us that we must at great sacrifice to our flesh desires cast out all that would become the seeds of lust in ourselves, seeds that will germinate and grow into full blown sin. 

 

The gravity of the situation being -that it would be better to blind ourselves than give into the lust our sight is tempting us towards. It would be better to cut off our hands rather than let the sins produced by our actions remain.  Unchecked temptation leads to lust and lust once it has been allowed to conceive in our hearts is sin, and sin leads to death- everlasting death- permanent annihilation.

 

Rev_20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

It is better for us to SUFFER now than suffer the loss of eternity.

 

We don't want that though. We don't want to suffer. It's as if we don't truly believe in eternity, because if we truly believed in eternity wouldn't it be worth suffering ANY deprivation here and now in order to receive eternity? Seriously, wouldn't it?

 

Doesn't it all come down to whether or not we believe in the Gospel of Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven?

 

How often do people suffer for things they truly believe in?

 

Your paycheck is a reality to you so you suffer the work necessary to receive the paycheck.

 

While you are working you usually don't see the money you'll receive, but you have faith that you will get a paycheck after you work. Would you work for very long if you weren't receiving the paycheck? No. At some point you'd most likely stop working because why suffer to do the work when you get nothing from it, no money and therefore no compensation for your time, no earning to make your living and keep you in your necessities in which to live.

 

So it comes down to FAITH.

 

Do we BELIEVE in CHRIST'S MESSAGE?  Watch out, if you say yes then you are agreeing that you must suffer, truly suffer here and now in this world if you want the next world.  Are you prepared to SUFFER now?

 

You might not be suffering under the physical abuse from a group of non-believers threatening your very life because of what you believe, but you will be called to suffer to NOT give into lusting whatever lust you are tempted towards. And ask almost anyone trying to abstain from giving into sin- IT'S NOT EASY! IT IS SUFFERING! REAL, REAL SUFFERING that we are called to suffer!

 

Our SAVIOR tells us to CUT OFF a body part! To PLUCK OUT and eye!  No, He isn't telling us to do that literally, He is stressing just  how extremely important it is that we KEEP from allowing lust have it's way in us!

 

We just shrug it off so much, we just say- oh well, I'm human and He knows that. We love to make excuses for ourselves so that we CANNOT SUFFER what it would take to keep from indulging our lusts.

 

We don't want to suffer and that's the bottom line.

 

Would Jesus have spoken these words-

 

Joh_5:14  Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

 

Joh_8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

 

Sin no more.

 

Would He have said those words if He didn't mean them?

 

Jesus was telling the man in the temple that his sins have consequences. Jesus was telling the adulteress that she shouldn't continue in her sinful behavior that resulted in the condemnation of her. She was forgiven but that was not a license to continue in her sin.

 

Jesus knows what it means to suffer.

Jesus know what it means to be tempted.

 

Heb_4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

 

Jokingly one of my sisters replied that Jesus didn't have to resist chocolate cake.  She's right. But He had things equivalent to chocolate cake that tempted Him just as much as that chocolate cake is tempting us. 

 

We have trained ourselves to be indulgent, especially those of us who live in countries filled with encouragement to excess, to indulgence under the guise of labeling it prosperity, or labeling it our due because we are not prosperous, either way we've got it covered- the rich and poor. We believe we are OWED self-indulgence and because of this we have trained ourselves to sin willfully and NOT to call it sin, NOT to call it everlasting death, NOT to call it loss of salvation,  NOT to call it the loss of eternity, NOT to call it the loss of LOVE, NOT to call it the loss of JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR! We label it under so many different names and believe it to be so many things other than what it really is!  We do that so we can indulge without repentance, so that we can pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves it's okay.

 

Why, tell me WHY, Jesus would speak these very HARSH truths to us if we were not supposed to LEARN from  them?! If we were NOT supposed to think about the outcome, the results of our sinning then WHY, again I ask, tell me WHY Jesus is teaching this way?!

 

You want soft sugar coated Christianity, I tell you there is NO SUCH THING as soft sugar coated Christianity, but there IS such a thing as soft sugar coated FALSE Christianity and many, many love that sweet, soothing, indulgent religion.

 

Please LORD, please teach us Your TRUTHS! Help us LORD to LEARN Your TRUTHS! Please LORD be with us, let the HOLY SPIRIT keep us in YOU! Forgive us LORD, forgive us! Help us! SAVE US!

 

All in YOUR LOVE! YOUR AMAZING LOVE!

 

Amen.