“Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalms 19:12-14 ESV)
As followers of Jesus Christ we are to be those who have died to sin, who are daily dying to sin, and who are walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living. But as long as we live in flesh bodies, we will not be perfect (complete). And we won’t be perfect until Jesus returns and he takes his faithful bride to be with him for eternity, which is when our salvation will be complete, and not until then. But lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for continued, deliberate, and habitual sin against the Lord.
Now David had two categories here, one of hidden faults, and the other of presumptuous (willful, audacious) sins. The former he asked the Lord to declare him innocent of, so he was not talking about willful and secretive sins, but of things perhaps that he didn’t do so well at, and of which he was unaware. And they could be areas of our lives where we could stand some improvement. But the other category is definitely describing sin which you know you are committing, and it is blatant, deliberate, and usually habitual.
But what the Lord wants me to talk about today is the discerning of errors – of wanderings, going astray, transgressions, sins, and departures from our Lord’s commandments. And to discern is to detect, to recognize, i.e. perhaps to be able to tell the difference between errors and hidden faults. For many people today are redefining the word “sin” and they are calling it something much less offensive like, “I messed up,” like you spilled a glass of milk on the table or something that minor. And they are not calling for death to sin.
These who are redefining what sin is are usually those who are morally impure, who are deceivers and manipulators, who are not trustworthy people, but who are opposite of good, who fake their Christianity, and in order to appease their own consciences so that they can continue living in deliberate and habitual sin. But this isn’t just a few people we are speaking of here. This appears to be the majority of those who are teaching or who are sharing what they call “the gospel,” who are watering down the truth.
Now, I live in the USA, so I am speaking of what I have seen and heard with my own ears and eyes over a very long period of time within the gatherings of “churches” here in America. So I speak from that perspective. And what I have observed as happening across my nation is a massive movement to dilute and to alter the character of God/Christ, of his church (his body), and of his gospel message. They have not only redefined sin, but “church” and God/Christ, and the gospel message of our salvation from sin.
And now the most popular gospel being taught and accepted is one in which the “believer” makes a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and is now promised that all his sins are forgiven, even future sins, and so heaven is now guaranteed him when he dies, and it cannot be taken away from him, regardless of how he lives from that moment forward. And so if someone does continue in deliberate and habitual sin they will often be consoled to claim who they are “in Christ” in order to alleviate their guilt and shame.
So what these self-indulgent promoters of a cheapened form of God’s gospel message are doing is that they are lessening the offense of sin to the point to where those who are still living in addiction to sin are not being urged to stop sinning and to now obey God. Instead they are often being coddled in their sins. And they are, thus, not teaching the critical nature of dying daily to sin and of walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands as necessary elements of genuine believing faith which saves the sinner from his sins.
Even though God and his word are teaching the critical nature of death to sin and walks of obedience to our Lord, many are teaching the opposite. And when called upon to repent of their sins and to put sin to death in their lives, and to obey God, instead, many are not responding, for they are still engrossed in their sinful practices and in wickedness, corruption, sexual immorality, adultery, and lying and cheating and hiding what they are doing from others, including from their spouses. So someone has to kill the lies!
And even those who may be teaching the need to repent may be diluting that word. And if they are teaching walks of obedience, they may make these more optional, as something we should do, but not as something that is required, and not as something that if we do not do, that it might impact where we spend eternity. For most preachers that I have heard are not teaching that if sin is what we practice, and not walks of obedience to God, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what we profess.
But if we are teaching what Jesus taught and what his NT apostles taught, then we will be teaching the necessity of us denying self, dying daily to sin, and walking in obedience to our Lord, in practice, by the grace of God, and in the power of God. And we will be warning our readers and listeners that if they should refuse those commands of God, and that if they should deliberately and habitually continue in their sinful practices (addictions), and if they do not change course, they will NOT inherit eternal life with God.
So, please understand that not everything called “the gospel” is the gospel of Christ and of our salvation from sin. And not everyone who calls himself a prophet, an apostle, an evangelist, a teacher of the Word, a preacher, a pastor, or an elder, etc. is of God and is teaching the truth of God’s word. Many of them are deliberately teaching the Scriptures out of context and are making them say what they do not say if taught in context, and for the full purpose to deceive and to turn many away from the truth of the gospel.
So, if you are someone who is relying on a profession of faith in Jesus Christ to get you into heaven, but regardless of how you live, think again. If you are someone who is redefining sin for yourself, who is willfully shutting out the truth so that you can keep on in your sinful addiction, take another look. You can read the Scriptures out of context all you want, and you can twist them to say whatever you want them to say so that you do not feel guilty about your sinful addiction, but that does not change God’s Word!
You can live in your own dream world all you want and make up your own gospel and your own version of God, but that does not erase the truth of who God is and what his word teaches. And you are still responsible for what it teaches, too, in relation to the gospel message. So you are not someone who is discerning good from evil, because you are self-deceived deliberately. Just because you embrace a diluted gospel message it does not change who God is and what he said he would do if you kept on in deliberate sin.
So, stop fooling yourselves into believing that just because you give lip service to God that you are guaranteed entry into heaven but while you refuse to die with Christ to your sin and to walk in holiness and in purity of devotion to the Lord in walks of obedience to his commands. Many are going to stand before Christ on the day of judgement claiming who they are in Christ and he will say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” because you refused to bow to God and obey him.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Broken Cord
An Original Work / August 29, 2018
Your bond is broken with your Lord and Savior
And your testimony is separate from Him.
Your words not matching your actions today.
Repent of your sin and bow down and pray.
Live what you testify in truth always.
Purity’s lacking in your life and witness,
For you profess one thing, but other you do.
Not moral, spiritual. Still of the flesh.
Not living in truth to what you confess.
Lying about it puts you in a mess.
Living a lie is your practice, ‘tis true of you.
Masquerade righteousness – none of it true.
Your heart is not given to your Lord God.
Because of how you live, you are a fraud.
Turn from your sin and give your life to God.
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P.S. The Lord had me write this on the morning of October 16, 2024. That same day I got word that a good friend of mine, age 73, had died suddenly. On the morning of October 17, 2024 another good friend of mine died. She had just turned 43 years old. So, please know that not one of us knows if we have tomorrow. Get right with God today.
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