Part III

God does not tolerate sin.  Jesus will not tolerate a church married to the world.   That will bring a terrifying picture of judgment.

One of the most frightening passages in the Bible is found in Hebrews 10:26-31.

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.  

Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.   How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?  

 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. “

Christ will come in serious judgment.   God deals with sin even among His own people. He has provided an escape from sin’s power and penalty.  But if a person refuses the way of escape then they will be caught in God’s judgment on sin.  God may have to punish some people up to the point of losing their lives. (1Jn 5:16).   He may have to remove them because they have become a stumbling block to others.

Of the seven churches Christ addressed in Rev. 2 and 3, Thyatira was the only one He had commended for love.  Yet it had a serious sin problem.  The church had love, but it also had an abundance of sin.  The church did not have a sound doctrine. The balance that God demands of His Church is love and a sound doctrine.

If the church is going to be what Christ wants it to be, it must expose and eliminate sin.   Sin cannot be tolerated, hidden and compromised within the Church.  If it is allowed to remain then church will eventually die without God’s presence. 

The Bible is absolutely intolerant of sin in the Church.   It is also intolerant of sin in our lives.   If the Church is not pure, it does not have a message for the world.

Christ is talking to professing Christians who are living in sin.  If you call yourself a Christian but are married to the world, living in sin, harboring hidden sins, and defiling your covenant with God then repent before Christ judgment falls upon you or removes you. 

Christ wants a pure Church, a spotless Bride, without blemish or wrinkle. (Eph. 5:27)  It is possible or He would not have instructed us to be pure if it was impossible.  The Holy Spirit within us will empower us to overcome sin and temptation.

There is no place for worldliness or compromise in the Church. Sin must be dealt with in order for the revival of God’s presence to fall upon the Church once again.