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THE WORLD'S SIN
By
Lawrence Walkup
Jesus said the world's sin is unbelief in him (John 16:9). Jesus was never a politician. He never skirted around an issue. He always got to the very root of an issue. He never set foot on earth in order to become popular to win a vote. He came and he spoke absolute truth. That cannot be said of anyone else...ever! The very root of sin is not believing in him. All other sins spring forth from that to become the fruit of sin.
As human beings whether saved or not we all see about ourselves that we are dependent creatures. We're not self-sustaining. God who created us, created us to be dependent upon him. And as dependent creatures, if we do not put dependency in God then we are going to find something else in life to put dependency in. That will end up being what controls our life. God is the one who was meant to control our life. Being dependent upon God is the same thing as believing in God. Belief in God means having a relationship with him that is based on us trusting him always. This trusting relationship began at the moment we became 'born again' of his Spirit. The fruit that will come from this as we grow is more and more the love of God. This is what God is ultimately after in our lives...love. Love is the fruit of the Spirit and/or the fruit that comes from believing in Jesus.
The very exact opposite of love...is not hate...but pride. Pride means a person has made the choice to put his dependency in himself instead of God. Pride does not believe in God; it believes in the self. Jesus himself has told us, and also the Apostles that the only thing that comes from pride is a bunch of yuck in all its various forms (Matt. 15:19); (Gal 5: 19-21). All these individual acts of sin come from the one sin of not believing. This is the fruit of not believing in God. The result of most of mankind being this way is what you see in the world today. The reason why we have all the injustices in the world is because of people refusing to believe in God...and more specifically...to believe in Jesus...who is God. Wow! that statement right there in itself is a huge problem for most people, and especially for all the religions of the world. Processing that through in your mind leaves you with only two options: Either get on board with that, or make the choice to fight against that. You could be like Sweden and remain nuetral, but don't forget; Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me" (Matt. 12:30). Jesus is too confronting for people...too offensive. It's much much easier to just dismiss him.
I use the word injustice because the world doesn't recognize words, like sin and evil anymore. Those are words from a different era in human history that man has moved on from. In his mind, man has grown up so to speak and has moved on from using religion to define his problematic nature. Of course that is the way the world looks at it because they don't know of any other way. Anything having to do with God is automatically placed into the category of religion, instead of the category of practicality where God is really coming from. Everybody knows that religion is the real bases for man's problems in the world. Lost man says: "If man can get away from religion then he can get away from his problems." And I agree whole heartedly with that statement. If man can get away from religion...by discovering the truth...then he can start his exciting journey of being set free from his problems. The truth will set you free (John 8:32); whereas religion can only bind you up.
Have you ever noticed how the world knows nothing different but to deal with the fruit of sin, instead of the root. You can never deal with any problem until you deal with the root of it. If you only keep chopping off the top of the weeds from ground level and never dig down to get to the root, the weeds keep coming back. And it's especially really hard to deal with a root when you believe it doesn't exist. This is key. This is where man has gotten of course. This is where the misdiagnosis has taken place. A doctor can't fix the problem if he doesn't get the diagnosis right. The correct diagnosis for man's behavior is not found in the theories of Psychology; it's found in Romans chapter seven. Think about that. I said theories as in plural. First of all a theory is something that hasn't been proven. And if you have a bunch of them, then what exactly do you have? You have nothing more than opinions. The fathers of Psychology couldn't even agree amongst themselves. And yet the world is going to cling to these as their standard by which to live. As man continues to exist and the further he gets away from the truth, the more sophisticated he becomes in his futility. In his mind he sees himself as making advancements for mankind; when really it's the opposite. This is why God, the one who created us, is the one who determines right and wrong...not man.
When man is left to his own to determine right and wrong, all he can accomplish is to get himself into one snare after another. 'Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive.' This is called the world of politics. The world in which everybody owes everybody a favor. Out of one side of his mouth man says to get rid of religion, but out the other side he says to respect all religions. Folks, always remember this fundamental truth: Man without God is absolutely always about man controlling man. And this would also apply to the religious who live under law instead of living in the freedom that God has called us to. Man apart from God does not have the capacity to look out for man's best interests. It's just all a show presented over and over again to get you to believe that he does. He wants all religions respected because that means man doesn't have to work at dividing man into more groups, when they're already existing as groups as a religion. Dividing people up into groups is how you control people. Then once you've done that, you pit one group against the other. That's Socialism 101. You see, if people became united with one mind, think how powerful they could become. What a threat that is to a government.
We have elected a black President, so you would think that has to mean racism is on the decline. Nope, not so! What could possibly be a better tool to keep people divided than to keep the coals of racism stoked. This is why you see a new story every week in the news that has to do with racism. This is why you see any criticism brought against Obama and his administration, will never have any legitimacy to it...it's always because of racism. Just recently you see accusations that have been brought against Bill Cosby...a black man. However, in Bill Cosby's case you don't see any of the regular race baiters coming to his defense. Even the celebrity President does not defend the celebrity. After all, how many white women have accused him? Where are the protesters in front of their houses? White accusing black is never about an actual crime taking place. It's always only because of racism. The reason why Bill Cosby does not get the benefit of the race card is because he doesn't drink the cool-aide. He doesn't fit in with the agenda. He actually wants to do something about racism. He actually wants to do something about the black leadership of this country that keeps the black people of this country in a welfare state. Bill Cosby is too much of a threat and so send out the liberal media attack dogs to destroy. If he is guilty then great for the socialists; and if he is innocent, well they could care less; all that matters to them is taking this opportunity to destroy an enemy.
You see the same effort put forth in regards to gun control. Every week a new story. Take away the people's guns and then how easy it is to control them. That's a no-brainer! Is it really that more shootings are happening, or is it becauset they're being reported more in order to misrepresent? I don't know if people realize this, but the 2nd amendment was primarily put in the Constitution, not to necessarily defend ourselves from one other, but to defend ourselves from a tyrannical government that wants to take over. Isn't that exactly what is trying to be accomplished here? Do you really think global warming is about global warming? Think of all that could be implemented in the name of global warming. If global warming were to work, it would have to involve all the countries of the world...not just here. The main push is done here...why is that?
Do you really think Obamacare is about caring for our heath? Socialists don't care about your health. How could they possibly care about your health when they set the standard of caring at abortion? Yea, let's keep instilled in the adults of this Country, the belief that they have the right to live as reckless teenagers all their lives. Forget about dealing with the real root of the issue...having sexual desire fulfilled at all costs...even if it involves taking a life. 'Political correctness' is all about controlling man by shutting him up...through the means of labeling him. There is never another side to the issue of homosexuality. If you are not for it, it's because you are a homophobe. That has to mean God is a homophobe. I bet every now and then God has to pick himself up off the floor of heaven from laughing so hard. Even God himself has to be amazed in how man can continue to out do himself in his ridiculousness. Man apart from God is about man controling man and falling into one snare after another.
One major reason that keeps people from believing in the God of the Bible is because of the apparent contradictions of the Bible. It's hard for them to understand how we preach that God is a God of love, but when you read the Old Testament, all you see is a God of vengence. When Jesus started his ministry the very first thing he did was validate the Old Testament as the word of God. He did this many times throughout the gospels. That Old Testament stands as it is. The harshness of it is a reality. One of the incidents that Jesus refers to is what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 10:15). The mere fact that he mentions this means that this event happened. In the Old Testament God dealt with sin directly and quickly. In the book of Romans it tells us that everything that was written in the Old Testament was written for our instruction so that through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope (Rom 15:4). How does what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah give us hope? What is the instruction he wants us to receive from that?
The way that God dealt with sin over and over again is really a revelation of God himself and of the fact that we don't really understand the devastation of sin. God giving us the gift of free choice is a wonderful thing but what is the result of us abusing that free choice? The result of that is our devastation...not God's. We're the ones reaping the miserableness of that. We as humans really don't want to understand sin, because we like doing sin (John 3:19). Isn't that really God's point? I don't know about you, but I am so glad that there is a righteous God who stands for completely destroying sin, instead of tolerating it. It is us who he tolerates because he loves us so much. His history with us has always been him reaching out to us. But God has to remain true to who he is. Not only do we like doing sin, but we also like to publicly celebrate it. We like to take it into the street and have parades. And again, this is mankind advancing. Not really! In fact it's mankind going back about 4000 years ago. The attitude of today is the same attitude back then (Gen. 19:9). There is no advancement taking place.
As stated in Romans chapter seven, the accurate diagnosis for man's behavior comes from a sinful nature. Homosexuality just happens to be one of many sins that comes from a sinful nature. It's no better or worse than any of the other sins. The homosexual always defends himself by saying that he was born that way. Yea...big deal...so what...join the crowd. Everybody's born that way. The choice still has to be made to carry out the act. Nobody's forcing you. Just because you have those feelings doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Everybody has their own predispositions and enviromental factors that can set them down a certain path, but you still have to make the choice to take that path. In the Book of Romans when talking about homosexuality, it uses the word abandoned (Rom. 1:27). In order to abandon something you first have to have been in the place you abanoned. In other words, in regards to the point that is being made here; you first have to have known what the right place was before you could abandon it to go to the wrong place. It's talking about making a willful choice. Do you know that point in your life when you did that?
And what's with this aggressive overkill of imposing an agenda on a society that knows better? Why the act of desperation? What are you afraid of? Do you really think the more people you get on board is going to cause God to change his position? Google ex-homosexuals for Christ and watch and listen to hundreds of testimonies of homosexuals that have genuinely come out of the lifestyle...just like Christ has done for millions and millions of others coming out of whatever particular sin was controlling their life.
The root of all sins is the sinful nature. But again, this root is believed to be non existent by most. The sins that are wanting to come from that nature are not to be nurtured, but are to be resisted. Trying to resist them by keeping a law that says: "thou shalt not" is only going to increase the desire to do it. That really has always been the purpose of the law...to reveal sin. Remember that pride thing? "Thou shalt not" is put forth in the negative in order to attack pride...and thus reveal it. However, the only way to be successful at resisting sin is to come into the understanding that God...since Jesus...is not dealing with us on that issue anymore.
The world does not really understand what Jesus has done for them. I could also say the same thing for Christians. Jesus' death on the cross took away all of mankind's sins for all time. The punishment for all sins for all mankind for all time was placed on Jesus. That is really good news. However, that is only 1/2 of the good news. God is not dealing with us on the issue of sin anymore, but on the issue of life. Jesus took all those sins to a cross and died. But after three days he rose to life again. His life that exists today is the issue now. The question is: What are we to do with that life? The other 1/2 of the good news is to receive that life in the form of the Holy Spirit. That's what it means to be 'born again' of God's Spirit. Upon receiving the life of Jesus is the moment of all our sins being forgiven for all time. It's also the moment we are in right standing with God. Get your focus off your sins now. They've been dealt with. Now focus on the 'new life' that lives in you. This is the only way you can successfully resist sin. But you have to understand...resisting sin...is not to be your concern. Your concern is to stay in relationship with that new life that is in you. When you do that, the sinful nature is automatically taken care of. This is called 'walking in the Spirit.' Go back to Galatians again and read Gal. 5:16.
And also 'walking in the Spirit' is what it means to believe in Jesus. In the New Testament there is much terminology used in describing belief in Jesus: believe in Jesus, have faith in Jesus, trust in Jesus, the obdience of faith, abide in the vine, fix our eyes on Jesus, keep in step with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, present your body a living sacrifice, diligent to enter his rest, hold fast the confession of our hope, put on the new self, be strong in the Lord. The reason for all these many differnt ways to encourage us to believe is because it is hard for us to get there. Many lessons are needed in order to get us to the understanding. These are all directed to people that are already Christians.
When the crowd asked Jesus: "What are the works of God?" Jesus replied emphatically: "The work (singular) of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Jesus' point to them was not to be concerned about works, but be concerned about the one work of believing in him. In other words the one work will automatically produce the other works. They will actually be the works of God because it is God who is actually doing the work. Remember, Jesus did not perform any miracles. God the Father performed all the miracles through him. We don't even need to be concerned with what those actual works are. That really is God's business anyway what he chooses to do through us. Our part is to believe.
Jesus says exactly the same thing again but in a different way in John 15. He is the vine and we are the branches attached to the vine. The life of the branch is in the vine. The vine does the actual work and we the branches simply bear the fruit of that work. Look at verse five. "for apart from me you can do nothing." He means nothing that is going to count, nothing that is going to matter, nothing that is going to mean anything. There are all kinds of things we can do apart from God; and what they end up being are nothing more than works of the flesh. Remember, the righteousness of man is as filthy rags in the eyes of God (Isa. 64:6). The world's sin is unbelief in Jesus, but that also applies to the Christians in the world who are not getting the understanding of what it means to beleive in the way Jesus wants us to understand. The fact that man's tendency to produce a lot more works of the flesh than of the Spirit is proof of that. Men have gone out on what they thought were noble causes in the name of God, and yet God was no where in the picture...just flesh.
The crowd Jesus was addressing knew nothing of a Spirit that would shortly be coming in the very near future to indwell believers. It would be from this indwelling Spirit and only from this indwelling Spirit would come the works that count. This is Jesus' meaning in his answer back to the crowd when he said: "believe in the one he has sent." Maintain your relationship with me. Continue to abide. And it's also the same meaning for Christians who do have the indwelling Spirit, but instead...they fail to maintain...they fail to abide. They prefer the works of the flesh over the Spirit. Jesus said: "The world's sin is unbelief in me."
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