In our previous message we saw that the Lord visited Abraham as three men. Jesus, as the Angel of the Lord (note it doesn’t say ‘an angel’), dealt mostly with the people of the Old Testament, so it appeared to be the Lord and two angels if we also look at chapter 19 (Genesis 18 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2018&version=NIV1984). This indicates that it had to be an important visit.
When the men had eaten, two important things happened. Firstly they gave the date of the promised child and secondly they announced the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the latter of which has an important message for our next article.
They promised that Sarah would have a child in a year’s time, but “Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?’
“Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.’
Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, ‘I did not laugh.’
But he said, ‘Yes, you did laugh,’” (Genesis 18:12-15).
So far Abraham has lied to the Egyptians and Sarah has lied to the Lord and on both occasions the Lord has done nothing about it. About the Egyptian incident I said in a previous message that God probably dealt with Abraham privately, which was not recorded, but as I prayed about this passage it occurred to me that there was no law yet. “To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law,” (Romans 5:13). The Lord couldn’t judge their sins against any law, so He simply reprimanded Sarah – pointing out her sin.
The same applies to us. Although we have the law and know what is right and wrong, we don’t live by the law anymore, but by grace. Jesus has died for our sins once and for all. “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace,” (Romans 6:13-14). When we sin the Holy Spirit simply convicts us and we confess our sins for “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and his word is not in us,” (1 John 1:9-10).
This seems to be common sense and not revelation, but how many of our sins do we confess the moment we do it? We tend to go through a whole day sinning without confessing and when we get on our knees at night we pray ‘Lord, please forgive me my sins’. Through the day we expect the Lord to be with us, to bless and support us, but we keep building a barrier of unconfessed sin between Him and us all day long (Isaiah 59:1-2 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2059:1-2&version=NIV1984). If we don’t acknowledge that we have sinned, the moment conviction comes, we effectively claim we have not sinned and make Him, who convicted us, a liar because we ignored the conviction. Maybe we are not tuned in to hear the conviction?
I try to realise every time I have sinned and then say ‘sorry Jesus’ or something similar, and when I continue sinning in an area of weakness I plead for grace every time I stumble and for a way out, praying 1 Corinthians 10:13 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2010:13&version=NIV1984.
Do we then have to confess our sins? Is our sins not automatically forgiven when we are in Christ? Our sins are pardoned, so we don’t have to bring the sin offering anymore, but the Bible is very clear about continuous confession.
Lord, please make me sensitive for your conviction of my sins.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.
No comments:
Post a Comment