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"Sinners Condemned: Doomed Because of Sins!"

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8).

In the last issue of the Newsletter I spoke of the ordained destiny of all reprobate sinners. But what is sin? When sin is mentioned people often respond in various ways about the meaning of sin. The background of these various people has a lot to do with how they respond to the subject of sin.

Some view sin as an archaic phrase of unsophisticated people used to describe their superstitious and religious taboos.

Some view sin as a mere list of what to do and what not to do, whether by acts of omission or by acts of commission.

Some view sin as something akin to #2 above but they feel it to only exist in people other than themselves.

Some view sin as a breaking of one of the Ten Commandments, and they rarely mention (if indeed they are even aware of) the hundreds of other commandments given in the Law of Moses.

Of course, the list could probably go on and on, but there are those who see sin for what it really is – sin is a crime against the thrice-holy God. Moreover, there is sin: fallen, utterly depraved, spiritually powerless human nature; and sins: all conduct (from inward, secret thoughts to overt deeds) which falls short of the absolute holiness and righteousness of God.

Great diligence should be given to the fact that the judgement of sin is based upon the holiness and righteousness of the offended party, that is, The LORD God; the judgement is not based upon the intensity or extensity of the acts of the offending party, that is, mankind. In other words, sin is severely judged because, as viewed by God, it is an attack against God; the judgement is not based upon the size or duration of the sin as viewed by men. There is certainly scriptural reason to believe that the actual punishment of individual offenders does (as to temporal punishment) and will (as to everlasting punishment) vary, according to the actual nature of sins committed in view of the spiritual light presented to them (cf. Matt. 10:15; 11:20-24). Nevertheless, every sin against God will be severely punished. There is severe and greater punishment; there is no such thing as severe and lesser punishment! A sin, though it even be but a temporal act by a man or women, it is, nevertheless, an offence against the eternal God, thus even a temporal act is an eternal offence seeing that God is eternal and thus eternally offended.

In spite of all the facts given about sins in the scriptures there is a very common misconception among the so-called Christian "fundamentalists" of today. Even this writer, around twenty years ago, was subject to this severe error, so it is a first hand knowledge I have of this and not hearsay. The teaching goes something along this line, "Today salvation is a Son question and not a sin question." In other words, what is actually being taught by some who say this is that all men and women of this dispensation are condemned based only upon whether or not they believe in Jesus Christ and not because of any individual sins they have committed. Simply stated, you go to hell because of unbelief only and no actual sin can condemn you. To jump ahead of myself let us ask ourselves one question: Is this what our text from The Revelation teaches? Of course not! Neither is this the teaching of the New Testament epistles, even for this dispensation (I Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5). While there are many holes in the purely human "Son not Sin" theory it is actually based upon one false premise. The false premise is that Jesus Christ died for the sins of all mankind without exception. According to these false teachers all the sins of all without exception have been suffered for by Christ and therefore cannot be the bases of judgement, save possibly the sin of unbelief. The opinions vary here. Some teach that the unbelief, which exists before faith, is atoned for by blood, and faith itself, if it ever happens, "makes up for" the rest. These have men and women being condemned only for their latter lack of "accepting Jesus." Others have unbelief negated only by one coming to believe, and they teach no actual atonement for unbelief itself, at least by blood. According to these, faith actually atones for, or makes up for a person’s prior lack of faith. Those who hold to either side of this error suppose themselves to have found a clever way to cover their own sin against the truth by appearing to place Jesus Christ in a place of great preeminence. After all, what greater height could one place on the importance of Christ than having Him "believed" being the most and all important issue for the whole human race by which they can have their sins atoned? However, the rhetoric and human rationalism of this teaching, even it’s supposed universal, spiritual compassion does not atone for the abandonment of the truth! Nor does it answer the truth of scripture that all sins that have been atoned for have been atoned for by Christ’s blood. Nothing else has ever nor can ever atone for one sin, even the sin of unbelief, save the blood of Christ. Telling men and women the truth as it is to them as they are, even if they are left under judgement, is far more compassionate, yea even honest, to them than altering the facts for the sake of gaining more numbers of professions of faith. I know by experience that it is far easier to gain numbers by getting people to make professions of faith in Jesus as their personal saviour, especially when they think that "this profession" (their so-called faith) saves them from hell, than proclaiming to them that Christ has saved His people from their sins, and ultimately from hell, and they will either trust Him to have done it or they will not. Religianity (false Christian religion) wants mere numbers who make professions but believers in the gospel of Christ want genuine conversions to Christ as Lord.

So then, what does even our text say? The text is clear that sinners are condemned and their doom is sure because of their sins, and the sins vary by person.

The fearful and the unbelieving.

The abominable.

Murderers.

Whoremongers.

Sorcerers.

Idolaters.

All liars.

The reader has probably noticed that I have placed the first two together and I will explain why. But first, let us take notice of the fact that not only unbelievers are condemned, as some "fundamentalists" teach, but various other sinners are condemned as well. The list is revealing. The fearful mentioned here is a particular group. The condemnation is certainly not for the mere emotion of fear caused by say, a fear of heights, or vicious dogs, or snakes etc. However, there are those who are, while not outright unbelievers, as some mentioned here, they are fearful to actually commit to what they secretly know to be the truth (Jn. 7: 10-13). There are also those who, through fear of men, they refuse to do what they claim would be the truth (cf. Matt. 21:23-26, 46). This second group of men believed the Messiah would come, thus they were not outright unbelievers, but they did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, and they were even fearful to truly act upon what they claimed to be Jesus’ false claim. They were indeed loud-mouthed cowards, that is, until God Himself by His own sovereign purpose gave them enough rope with which to hang themselves, metaphorically speaking, of course. We certainly also have the unbelieving themselves, that is, those who have heard of Jesus Christ the Lord, but who refuse to believe. We also read of other condemning sins, but let us not be carried away by the fanciful "symbolic" interpretations of some but take a straightforward look:

Abomination: Things that are a stench in God’s sight, yet which are often highly esteemed among men, such as self-righteous religion (Lk. 16:15; Tit. 1:16; Matt. 24:15 cf. Rev. 17:1-5). Also, the lewd practices associated with idolatry (I Pet. 4:3). In other words, everything morally foul and unclean in God’s sight.

Murder: To slay another person by homicide. Mainly of what we call premeditated murders not accidents or self defense.

Whoremongers: In the Greek it is por’nos from which we derive our English word pornography. Sexual misconduct, which is all sexual activity outside of the marriage of one man and one woman.

Sorcerer: A person who uses spells, potions, drugs, and enchantments for themselves or upon others.

Idolater: A worshipper or server of an image, whether actual or imagined. Also used to describe any person who worships anything other than the LORD God Himself and coveteousness.

All liars: Any person who tells, spreads, and/or holds to things, which are untrue, erroneous, deceitful, and false, whether the lie is religious in nature or otherwise. As a prefix this word is used to describe false brethren, false apostles, false christs, false prophets, false teachers, and false witnesses.

It is enough for any sound minded person to conclude that men and women will find their place in the lake of fire because they will find their place to be midst the sins of the flesh or maybe midst the sins of the spirit, or both. Any person who sees themselves and wonders whether or not they have a place there, there is but one other place for any person to be else they have a place in that lake – that other place is IN CHRIST. Outside of Christ there is but judgement and condemnation. A person cannot just "get" in Christ; God must place them in Christ. Scripture says to those who are in Christ: "But of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus" and let us take great diligence to see "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (I Cor. 1:30-31). To those who desire to know if this is true of them I counsel you to seek Christ, look to Christ, long for Christ, and turn to Christ crying out for the mercy of God in Christ. If you can, and only if you can, then you will in God’s good time find comfort in Christ as well, finding that having been able to so seek, look, long and turn is proof that God had placed you in Christ at the very first. To Him truly goes all the glory.

 

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