Friday, April 8, 2011

Sin is a choice

“Your own wickedness will correct you,
      And your backslidings will rebuke you.
      Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing
      That you have forsaken the LORD your God,
      And the fear of Me is not in you,”
      Says the Lord GOD of hosts.”    Jer. 2:19  NKJV

In II Peter 2:20-22 Peter is teaching us about those who appeared to be following Christ, but then turned back to the world.  Verse 22 says, “Of them the proverbs are true; “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
The dog and the pig are simply doing what is natural for them.  No matter how you dress them up, they are still just a dog and a pig.  The same is true concerning an unsaved person.  They can wash and dress up for church, they can even join the church, sing in the choir, be on the worship team, they can be an usher, they can carry a bible and look religious, but unless they get born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus, there will be no true change in who or what they are.
The leopard cannot change its spots, nor can the zebra change its stripes.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.  Old things passed away.  Behold all things become new.”  II Cor 5:17
It all comes down to a simple heart change.  The desire to change calls forth a decision.  Then a decision requires a choice to be made to walk in the new opportunity salvation has provided and develop a relationship with Jesus OR choose to return to the vomit and the muddy pig pen you were once saved out of.
No matter how clean we try to appear on the outside, if the inside----the heart---remains unchanged or if we return again to habitual sin, we will return to what we came from and once more be filthy both inside and out.
The dog returns to its vomit and the pig returns to the muddy pen.  This signifies the filthy nature of sin and how natural it is to return to it again.  Such apostates will return to what they were before, to their former principles and practices, unless their nature is changed and altered.
Their irrecoverable state and condition will not change until they have had enough of their sin and sincerely repent with a true heart change.
God does extend mercy but He does not delight in mercy so we can continue to sin.  He gives mercy to all who will receive it, but those who will not receive His mercy can only blame themselves.
God’s judgments are in themselves an expression of mercy but there comes a time when the guilty must be punished.  There are consequences for our sinful actions and words.
“Does God pervert justice?
   Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
 When your children sinned against him,
   he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.”   Job 8:3-4  NIV

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