CONTINUING IN HIM
INTRODUCTION:
Today some of you will not like the sermon. I know that because I have preached it before and some people did not like it.
Some will call it mean-spirited, unloving or even un-Christian.
Sometimes, in trying to teach a positive lesson we need to use negative words.
When you are dealing with your kids sometimes you can say “Play nice.” But sometimes you have to say “It Oprah show.
Ellen was the guest on a talk show. A person in the audience stood up and quoted scriptures that prove that homosexuality is a sin and no homosexual will go to heaven [1 Cor. 6:9]... and he proclaimed that homosexuality was a sin and God hates sin. That man was booed and heckled by the audience. To which the host of the show said, "My God loves homosexuals." And the audience cheered for her.
My gripe is not with Ellen. I understand why she acts like she does. Ellen is not a Christian and she is lost.
My gripe is not with the media because we all know they are primarily a bunch of liberal, God hating, decadent minded sinners.
My gripe is with those who believe that they can be Christians and at the same time wallow in sin and live with the pigs and believe that God is bound to forgive them and receive them into heaven just because they made some kind of decision in the past.
And… My gripe is with people like Oprah who epitomizes the attitude of liberalism… the belief that scripture cannot be trusted and we must discover for ourselves what is right, what pleases God and what God is like.
These people feel that they can make God in their image, to be whatever fits their needs, just a deification of their own beliefs... their god likes what they like and acts the way they would act.
God has told us what he is like, he has told us what he does like, what He expects, what pleases him and what displeases him. He did it through prophets, parables, stories, direct commandments, and by teachings. He expressed it over centuries and even thousands of years. And it is all right here. It is spelled out in plain English in His Word... The Bible.
And you don't have to figure it out for yourself... just read it for yourself.
Though I will use homosexuality as the example in my sermon, I could have used many others.
There is what our society calls "living together", or my generation calls "Shackin1 up" but what the Bible calls "Fornication."
And there are those who have decided to find happiness outside the bonds of their marriage... they call it "an affair", but God calls it Adultery!!
And there are those who cheat on their taxes, or file erroneous insurance claims, or keep what is gotten through mistake, or make illegal copies of videos or tapes, or CDs... but God calls it stealing.
And you will notice the scripture tells us… NO HOMOSEXUAL.... NO FORNICATOR.... NO ADULTERER.... NO THIEF... along with other specified sinners… WILL GO TO HEAVEN.
Why?
THEY ARE NOT SAVED!!!
NO SAVED PERSON CAN GO TO HELL THEY ARE IN THE HAND OF GOD AND NO ONE CAN SNATCH THEM AWAY [John 10:28-29]
Am I saying that God hates homosexuals and adulterers and fornicators and liars? NO!!!
I am saying that God loves everyone... John 3:16
But God loving a person does not mean that person will go to heaven.
God will not say, “Depart from me, I never loved you.”
The scripture is clear that God loves 100% of people.... however.... Scripture is also clear [in Matthew 7] that MOST of those people He loves WILL NOT GO TO HEAVEN... they will go to Hell… eternally!!!
God loves homosexuals and adulterers but 100% of them will go to hell because the scripture says NO homosexual or adulterer will go to heaven.
And there is only one other place to go... HELL!!!
For this discussion I direct you to 1 John 2:28f.
28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Why does God single out certain sins? Are they the worst ones?
NO! He just uses examples.
Homosexuals, adulterers, idolators, thieves, and the others named here are examples of a certain type of sin…
UNCONFESSED, UNACKNOWLEDGED, UNREPENTED SIN
Listen to Paul in verse 11… “and that is what some of you WERE”
So what is the difference between the people in verses 9 and 10 and those in verse 11?
Those in verses 9 and 10 are lost, going to hell
Those in verse 11 are saved and going to heaven
Were they not both guilty of the same sins?
Those in 9&10 were guilty of homosexual sin… so were those in verse 11.
Those in 9&10 were guilty of adultery… so were those in verse 11.
Those in 9&10 were guilty of fornication… so were those in verse 11.
Then what is the difference?
One word… that is implied but not written… CONTINUE
The sinners in verses 9 and 10 CONTINUE in their sin…
Unconvicted, Unbroken, UNconfessed, Unchanged
Those in verse 11 CONTINUE IN CHRIST
Convicted, broken, confessed, changed
The scripture makes a great distinction between a Christian who occasionally commits sin and a lost person who lives a lifestyle of sin.
All have sinned Romans 3:23
All will sin again 1 John 2:1
That is not what separates the children of God from the children of Satan… the lost from the saved.
One word in this section clears it all up... CONTINUE!!!
In 1 John 2:28 says all God's children continue in Him
3:6 says no one who lives in Him keeps on sinning
3:9 says no one who is born of God [child] will continue to sin,
he cannot go on [continue] sinning
3:6 says no one who continues to sin has a relationship with him
3:10, " This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God..."
If a man loves me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him... and we will make our abode in him" John 14:23
"If you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love." John 15:10
Hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, "I know him " and keepeth not his commandments is a liar... But whosoever keepeth His word, in him is the love of God perfected." 1 Jn 2:3-5
This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and the commandments of the Lord are not grievous. 1 Jn 5:3
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. 2 Jn 9
It is the continuation that marks us, that reveals our father.
NO PRACTICING HOMOSEXUAL will go to heaven
NO PRACTICING ADULTERER
NO CONTINUING LIAR
NO THIEF WHO CONTINUES TO STEAL
There will be repentant, changed, forgiven, regenerated, delivered, transformed FORMER homosexuals FORMER ADULTERERS, FORMER FORNICATORS, FORMER LIARS, FORMER THIEVES, EVEN FORMER MURDERERS there...
but the scripture is clear that NO PRACTICING, UN-REPENTANT, UN-BROKEN, UN-SORROWFUL, UN-CONFESSED, UN-CHANGED SINNER WILL GO TO HEAVEN.
NO MATTER WHAT DECISION HE THINKS HE MADE EARLIER!
The emphasis is on lifestyle... if you live a lifestyle of obedience to God broken by an occasional sin.... followed immediately by a broken heart over you sin and confession to God... then you are a child of God.
If you live a lifestyle of disobedience broken occasionally by good deeds and when you sin you do not feel the need to repent, change or to be forgiven… you are a child of Satan.
Many people claim to be Christians but are living in sin. We call the back sliders or say that they are wayward. The scripture, GOD, says they are lost as a goose and headed for hell if they do not get saved.
Basically, I can sum it up this way....
If you can live in sin, wallow in your sin, continue in a lifestyle that God says is sinful, wrong, according to the scripture... YOU ARE LOST!!!!!!
"
If you can do it with no broken-ness, no regret, no nagging, joy-robbing guilt… YOU ARE LOST!
If you can live with that sin and still have joy, still go through your daily routine and be happy... YOU ARE LOST!!!!!
That is why I can say to you that…Ellen is going to hell.
((You can insert any other name or sin))
God loves Ellen.... he loves everyone
Ellen is a sinner everyone is
Homosexuality is a sin scripture says so
Ellen is practicing homosexual she continues in her sin, unrepentant
She is not a child of God
She is a child of Satan
She cannot go to heaven unless she repents
She is going to hell
Same for all PRACTICING... CONTINUING... UNREPENTANT ... sinners… regardless of the sin
This is not a sermon on Ellen going to hell.
I get no satisfaction out of that... God does not.
This is a sermon on un-confessed, un-repented, un-changed patterns of sinfulness.
APPLICATION:
I want you to take these two verses from 1 John 3.... verses 5 and 6.... read them, and lay them beside your lifestyle.... see how your lifestyle adds up.
>>"And in him is no [continuing] sin"
Is there continuing, on-going, unconfessed, un-repented sin?????
>>No one who lives in him keeps on sinning"
Are you continuing IN Christ… or IN Sin
I will be happy to send the Powerpoint for this sermon. Contact me at rhpendleton57@gmail.com
