Continuing In Him

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