Box of Sin-Free, Anyone?

 Fat free, carb free, sugar free, flour free, grain free, egg free, milk free, nut free….    SIN FREE.

We can pull a fat free item off a grocery store shelf, but we can't grab something sin free with the intent of it keeping sin from us. How many of us would raid the grocery store shelves if they had an item that could make us sin free? Sin is heavy, it has a weight to it that goes spirit deep. When we are convicted of sin we feel that tremendous weight and Satan stops at nothing to make it seem crushing, as if there was no way we could ever be free from such an awful heaviness. We can feel the sin like a heavy burden upon us and with each passing day the burden grows heavier and heavier. Falling to our knees under that weight, we despair of ever being able to rise up again. We recognize the sin and cry out against its existence in our lives. We tear at it, trying to rid ourselves of the weight all the while loathed to give up the cherished satisfaction it strangely offers to us even while we know it is killing us. Caught in this evil web we feel like a helpless fly awaiting destruction at the attack of a spider, and yet we keep running into web after web. We feel as if we are surrounded by nothing but webs with no way out, so we live the life of prey, hating it but unable to stop. So, yes, if there were a box of Sin Free on a shelf promising an easy fix to a terrible problem, we'd take it. If I eat a bit of sin free and no longer feel inclined to yield to the temptation, how amazing would that be! I'm seeking a power that keeps me from giving into temptation. I'm wanting to no longer be affected by temptation. Ou, I just ate a bowl of Sin Free and now I no longer feel inclined to curse at that driver who just cut me off, I no longer covet a better house, a new car, I don't have any desire towards lustful thoughts, insert any and all temptations towards sin you may possess. 

Sin Free- the power to face temptations - because they will always surround us - and not yield to those temptations. 

But there is nothing we can take, no power we possess, to make ourselves sin free. If I could make myself sin free would I need a Savior? It's because I can't make myself sin free that I need a Savior. 

I need to BELIEVE in HIS POWER to save me!

The conviction of sin is necessary, the knowledge of sin is necessary, yielding completely to being saved is also completely necessary. To yield completely to being saved is to seek forgiveness daily- 'Forgive me my trespasses' 

It's an abhorrence of sin, and it's NOT telling ourselves - tomorrow I won't yield to that sin any longer- only to yield the very next day once again on an endless cycle of dirty (sin), wash (forgiveness), rinse (live sinless for bit) and REPEAT.  Soon it becomes dirty (sin) ….for one whole day… two days… three… and the washing and rinsing fade away until we are a pile of depressed, despairing filth who doesn't even want to look at the washing machine.  If we tell ourselves over and over tomorrow we won't do this thing we focus on the US not doing part. We have to tell ourselves we are forgiven and Christ will keep me from sin, He will do this! We have to tell ourselves this even if we hear Satan screaming that we are going to do it, as we speak the words - Christ will keep me from sin. 

That is Satan convincing us we are too filthy to go into the washing machine, that we'll only ruin the washer somehow. We don't want to go into the washing machine for fear it won't be able to clean us, we are too dirty for it. 

We need to be washed no matter how filthy we believe we are- because believe it or not- a person with a tiny stain of a simply sin is just as filthy as the one deeply drenched in a pool of sin- it's all the same to the washing machine. That tiny stain needs removing just as much as the sin soaked. 

We ALL, no matter if we jumped into a pool of sin, or just dipped a toe, or even if we look at ourselves and pronounce ourselves sin free, we STILL need to be washed daily! In fact, often those who can't recognize any sin in themselves because they aren't beset by the biggies that are blatant and loud for all to see, are in worse shape than those dressed in a scarlet letter five feet high. We ALL need a daily washing because we ALL need to recognize our need of being washed. We will be made white as snow, even if we are blood red with sin, but only if we let ourselves be washed. 

We can't GIVE UP! We have to depend on our WASHER! We don't have what it takes to wash ourselves! We have to trust our washer will wash us white as snow! Jump (believe) into the Washer (our Savior Jesus) He will wash us- EVERY SINGLE DAY! 

Can't stop your addiction… JUMP IN THE WASHER, you are filthy! Still can't stop your addiction… JUMP IN THE WASHER, there is no other way to be cleaned! Still addicted? JUMP IN THE WASHER! Over and over, and over, keep jumping in that washer every time you recognize the filth, and just as you may wash a sheet on your bed that appears very clean- because you know it has unseen filth- JUMP IN THE WASHER EVERY DAY! 

Go to Christ Jesus, seek His forgiveness, believe that He died for you to be able to come to Him, do this EVERYDAY no matter what! He is the way! It doesn't say… you are your own way, HE IS THE WAY. He WILL make a way for you to escape… it might not be the way of escape you're planning for yourself… but it will be His way for you to escape. Some escapes aren't instantaneous, but are long and arduous. Some escapes are intricate and take time because they are molding and making, fixing and refining along the way. We have to TRUST our SAVIOR WILL SAVE US even when we can't imagine we are worth saving in any way. 

May the LORD bless and keep us, forgive us, and keep us from evil, save us to the uttermost all through HIS glory, through HIS power, through HIS LOVE! All by HIS mercy and grace! AMEN!

Excerpt A.T. Jones- 

August 29, 1899

"Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins,  that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

"Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ." Such is the salutation in every epistle by Paul, except that to the Hebrews; and, slightly varied, in both by Peter.

Yet it is not by any means a mere form. These epistles have come to us as the word of God, which they are in truth. This salutation, then, though often repeated--yea, even because often repeated---comes to us as the word of God in greeting and full assurance of His favor and peace everlastingly held forth to every soul.

Grace is favor. This word of God, then, extends His favor to every soul who ever reads it or who hears it.

His very name is Gracious--extending grace. His name is only what He is. And what He is, He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." With Him is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Therefore by Him grace, boundless favor, is always extended to every soul. Oh, that all would only believe it!

"And peace." He is the "God of peace." There is no true peace, but that of God. And "there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." "The wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest."

But all the world lieth in wickedness, yet the God of peace speaks peace to every soul. For Christ, the Prince of peace, "our peace," hath made both God and man one, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, to make in Himself of two--God and man--one new man, so making peace--"making peace through the blood of his cross."  Eph. 2:14, 15; Col. 1:20. "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross," He "came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh," peace to you all. Therefore, always and forevermore, His salutation to every soul is, Peace to thee. And all from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ!

Oh, that every one would believe it; so that the peace of God which passeth all understanding could keep his heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." Let it; that is all He asks of you. Don't refuse it and beat it back; let it.

"Who gave himself for our sins." O brother, sister, sinner, whosoever you be, laden with sins through you be,  Christ gave Himself for your sins. Let Him have them. He bought them--your sins--with the awful price of His crucified self. Let Him have them.

He does not ask you to put all your sins away before you can come to Him and be wholly His. He asks you to come, sins and all, and be wholly His, sins and all; and He will take away from you, and put away forever, all your sins. He gave Himself for you, sins and all; He bought you, sins and all; let Him have what He bought; let Him have His own; let Him have you, sins and all.

He "gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world." Notice that to deliver us from this present evil world He gave Himself for our sins. That shows that all that there is of this present evil world to each one of us, is in our sins.

And they were "our sins." They belonged to us. We were responsible for them. And so far as we were concerned, this present evil world lay in our own personal selves, in our sins. But, bless the Lord, He gave Himself for us, sins and all; He gave Himself for our sins, ourselves and all, and this He did in order that He might deliver us from this present evil world.

Would you like to be delivered from this present evil world? Let Him have yourself, sins and all, which He bought and which therefore by full right belong to Him. Please do not rob Him of what is His own and so still remain in this present evil world when at the same time you would like to be delivered from this present evil world. Please do not commit the additional sin of keeping what does not belong to you.

As they were our sins and He gave Himself for them, it follows plainly enough that He gave Himself to us for our sins. Then when He gave Himself for your sins, your sins became His, and when He gave Himself to you for your sins, He became yours. Let Him have your sins, which are His, and take for them Him, who is yours. Blessed exchange, for in him you have, as your very own, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and all "according to the will of God." Thank the Lord.

Why should there not be to Him "glory forever and ever"? and why should not you and all people say, Amen?