Say the title of this series to a room filled with church people and the laughter, derision and, yes, hatred will be immediately forthcoming.  The most often heard epithet will involve “falling from grace,” of which I have been accused.  The Biblical fact of the matter is that sin is a choice–the most idiotic choice a human being can make.  Sin is a preventable mistake made by billions of people who claim that they have no choice in the matter, that they must sin because they were hardwired to do so at conception.  I don’t remember ever believing that, but everyone I knew or knew of believed it.  God shows us that “Adam made  me do it” is a ruse used by Satan to keep the masses securely trapped in “the church.”  It is my hope that the reader will approach the Lord’s holy Word with zeal accompanied by a mind open to His Truth.  Jesus declared that His Father’s Word was Truth (Jn. 17:17).   Because Jesus described Himself as “the way, the Truth the life,” and because He said, “I am the Lord, I change not” I assume that the Words He had recorded in the Bible are what He said they are–TRUTH.  Therefore I will take Him at His Word concerning this extremely important, life and death Biblical concept.  I trust the reader will also.

Sin, I am told by those who claim to be saved in spite of their continuous involvement in it, is “in.”  One of the reasons sin so popular is that it produces a short-term, flesh-pleasing effect.  What is momentarily ignored while sin is in progress is the fact that it also carries an eternal, soul-destroying penalty which is spelled out in Romans 6:23: “For the wages (effect/penalty) of sin is death.”  Note the word “is” in both of the Apostle Paul’s statements.  In Biblical context, “is” means without exception.  The word is also presented in the present-perfect tense, meaning that it is in effect permanently.   It was in effect and without exception in the past; it is also in the present and will continue to be in the future.  God’s Word is eternal, as is the Godhead, one half of Whom is actually called “the Word” in John 1:1-4,14.  Christ is “the Word,” Who is also “the Truth” which, if believed and obeyed, will show “the way” to salvation (Jn. 14:6).  What more do we need to know?  The Truth stated above, though often voiced within church circles, is believed by very few of those who voice it and obeyed by even fewer.  This ministry is dedicated to those people.  My mission field is professing Christendom–Satan’s most cherished possession.

It is impossible to discuss sin without discussing holiness, which is the absence and opposite of sin.  Note that, “the end (result/effect) of holiness is eternal life” (Rom. 6:22).  Holiness is 100% pure.  Nowhere in Scripture does the Almighty allow His people to mix holiness and sin (Rev. 3:14-20).  God’s saints (“holy ones”) choose Him over Satan, right over wrong, holiness over sin–GOD’S BIBLICAL DOCTRINES OVER SATAN’S CHURCH DOCTRINES.  This characteristic creates a profound difference between saints and those around them.  Biblically, words such as “peculiar,” “strange,” “remnant,” “elect,” “jewels” and “treasures” are used in describing God’s people.  Human beings automatically reject those unlike themselves.  We like to be with our own kind who make us feel comfortable.  Not surprisingly, one of the characteristics of holiness is rejection.  Darkness hates light because it reveals what has been hidden.  See the series titled Persecution.  There one will find that the holy one (saint) is, without exception, persecuted by the religious descendants of the people who persecuted and killed Jesus, His apostles and millions more saints throughout the centuries.  Beginning with Cain’s killing of “righteous Abel,”  the murderers of God’s people have always been the most religious.  Only our civil laws keep religious people from killing God’s people today.  I have found that the higher one’s church status, the deeper is one’s rejection of God’s Word and its speaker.  Though the Word rejecters will not admit their attitude, it comes out when they are confronted by one who speaks Truth.  That God guarantees persecution for His people is rejected by the religious elite.  The reason is simple: THEY are true Christians; THEY are not persecuted; therefore God is wrong.  The Biblical Truth is that obedience brings on persecution from family, friends, former churchmates, etc.  So says God, the same God Who defines sin as the transgressing of His Law (the Bible from Genesis to Revelation which He summarized in the Ten Commandments)–1 John 3:4.  This is the same Law that was supposedly “nailed to the cross” at Christ’s crucifixion.  The Almighty states it plainly.  If one is not persecuted by people around him because of his holiness (obedience to God’s Word), then one does not belong to God.  One need only study the life of the Apostle Paul, the other apostles, the heroes of Hebrews 11:32-40 and the victims of the Catholic Inquisition to see that obedience to God and rejection by the church go hand-in-hand.  The “wages” of righteousness can be most unpleasant.  Both Bible and secular history reveal that in many cases one of those “wages” is death at the hands of those who, by killing the righteous among them, believe that they are “doing God a service” (Jn. 16:2).

But those who obey God aren’t the only ones who earn “wages.”  Just as the Lord’s saints are persecuted for their obedience to Him, those who refuse to obey Him are also persecuted–BY THE LORD HIMSELF.  He warns us in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 that sin brings on HIS wrath.  History backs Him up.   The sordid history of mankind is rife with suffering, destruction and death, which is the exact opposite for what God planned for mankind.  God exacts the “wages” of sin on both individuals and nations in such forms as physical and mental illness, failure, defeat, accidents, financial calamities, floods, droughts, wars, pandemics, earthquakes, temperature extremes, tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis,  etc.  Recall that after healing the man at the Bethesda Pool Jesus told him: “Sin no more, LEST A WORSE THING COME UPON YOU” (Jn. 5:14).  His wording reveals that the man’s original sickness was caused by sin, and that if he continued to sin God would put on him an even worse sickness.  We must remember that the One who spoke the Words found in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 is the same One who healed the man at the pool at Bethesda.  See The God of the Old Testament.  Let us also remember that what happened to the Old Testament church in the wilderness (Acts 7:38) was recorded and preserved for instructing the end-time church (1 Cor. 10:11), and that  holy men (prophets) of old spoke and wrote as they were led by God’s Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21).  Let us also remember that Jesus told the rich man that ONE SIN would keep him from inheriting eternal life (Mk. 10:17-21).  GOD DOES NOT CHANGE.  He means business, and we must be about His business if we are to have any chance for salvation.  His business is holiness whose END (result) is eternal life (Rom. 6:22).  Jesus said that only those who endured persecution because of their holiness to the end of their lives SHALL BE  SAVED (upon His return).

Sin (disobedience of God’s Word) separates man from God (spiritual death) now (Isa. 59:2) and results in eternal death later (Rom. 6:23).  So why do those who call themselves God’s people and claim to believe His Word choose to sin?   This series will answer that question.  The choice between righteousness (life) and sin (death) is man’s to make.  Moses made this clear in Deuteronomy 30:19 when he told the nation of Israel that he had laid out for them two choices: life and death.  “Therefore, choose life ….”  The choice between life and death is a personal matter.  GOD DOES NOT CHANGE,  neither do His rules of engagement.  Therefore nothing has changed relative to man’s choice between obedience (life) and disobedience (death).  But as is always the case when the subject of holiness and sin are involved, Satan muddies the water to the point that the vast majority of church people do not know what the Biblical God says concerning the relationship among holiness, sin and choice.  This series will clear those waters for anyone interested in God’s Truth and is willing to put in the time to search it out.

I have been asked why God makes man work so hard to learn His Truth?   Why is His Word so complicated?   I believe this is His way of separating sheep from goats.  He has made the Bible like a puzzle.  One must search out, find and place the correct parts in the correct locations in order to reproduce the image on the box.  By the same token, we must search for and find all of the Scriptures that pertain to a particular subject and place them in the correct contexts in order to understand what He is telling us.  Sheep choose to do this at great expense of effort and time.  Goats, on the other hand, choose to believe what they are told by their hirelings (Jn. 10:12,13) whom they pay to scratch their itching ears (2 Tim. 4:3).  I know this is hard spiritual medicine to swallow.  But if one wants to hear “smooth things, lies and deceits” (Isa. 30:10), one needs to go back to church.  God appointed me to speak and write His Truth.  L.J.