Tag Archives: sin

September 24, 2009 · 11:00 am

God’s Spiritual Life Cycle–Babes in Christ and What Stunts Their Growth

To fully understand the profundity of the Creator’s eternal purpose in “bringing many sons [and daughters] unto glory,” we must learn of the spiritual life cycle of God’s Spirit in us–how it grows unto full maturity.

This is a great mystery that has been “kept secret from the foundation of the world” (1). This mystery of the growth of the Spirit within us has been carefully guarded, couched in the criptic words of the parables of the kingdom. These are the very secrets of the kingdom of God, how He rules and reigns both in His children’s hearts and throughout the earth and universe.

These parables are not nice little stories to make it easier for all to understand what the Master is teaching us, but to prevent interlopers from receiving it. They are secrets, after all, and are hidden in plain sight.

Why Parables?

The disciples asked Christ why He spoke to the crowds in parables. “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand” (2). They may hear the words, but they won’t understand what they mean. Those who do not have “ears to hear” will just not get it.

The Seed Is the Word

In the parables, Christ likened this spiritual growth unto a seed that grows. He refers to a natural seed. And He explains that this seed in His parables represents the word of God. He said, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (3). A seed must die in the ground; it must lose its original identity as a lonely grain of wheat, for instance. It takes in moisture, which corresponds to the “water of the Word,” and then, as it dies, new life springs out of it, and a blade of grass rises “from the dead” and vaults out into the sunlight.

First Stage of Growth–Babes in Christ

This answers to newborn “babes in Christ,” spiritual infants, who have not matured or grown. They are like natural children–mostly alive for what they can receive from their parents. A little child receives nourishment from their parents and grows. There is nothing wrong with this, for all new children of God must receive spiritual food from God’s word in order to grow. Truth plus study and prayer is the recipe for spiritual growth.

The problem lies in the fact that most Christians stay in this growth as babes and children. They do not mature, for they are fed with teachings tainted with error. Even with much study in false doctrines, the child of God cannot grow. “We are not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching and the jockeying of men who are expert in the crafty presentation of lies” (4). The truth is that “certain men have crept in unnoticed,” (5) and they are teaching lies to the new Christians who are desiring to have their lives changed from darkness to light.

For we are warned of this very thing. “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies”. “Many will follow their shameful ways…and in their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up” (6).

Thus we see that a newborn babe in Christ is in peril because of false teachers and preachers. As disease and malnutrition stalks natural babies, false teachings and lies stunt and threaten the lives of the children of God.

So Which Are the Lies About God That Stunt the Growth of Babes in Christ?

How can we tell the false teachings from the true teachings? Christ gave us the answer. “By their fruits you shall know them” (7). Look around and observe the fruits of the various ministries and denominations. Are the people growing? Are the flocks changing, or are they still trapped in sin and sinning? Are the people still mostly alive for what they can receive of God, or are they unselfish? If they are not changing and growing “up into Him,” if they are remaining selfish, desiring to be blessed and not yearning to be a channel of blessings unto others, then it is safe to say that the teachings they are fed with are tainted. KWH

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Matt. 13: 35
Mark 4: 11-12
Luke 8: 11
Eph. 4: 14 (Phillips)
Jude 1: 4 (NKJV)
II Peter 2: 1-3
Matt. 7: 20

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Filed under children of God, false teachers, Parables, Spiritual Life Cycle

Tagged as babes in Christ, faith, false prophets, Parables, sin

August 25, 2009 · 12:19 pm

Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please God–But How Do You Walk in It?

Faith. Belief. Without it, we will never please the Creator, which should be our foremost thought.

If we are only alive to please our selves, then which god are we serving? For make no mistake about it, to quote Dylan, “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

And the only way to serve the Creator is by faith. We are shut up to it. Why? Because God is invisible, and since He is an invisible Spirit, we must believe Him, having never seen Him with our eyes. And that takes faith.

And then someone will say, “Well, I believe in God. I must have faith and am all right, then.” Not exactly. For even the devils believe in one God and tremble (1). The prophets tell us that we must believe on Him “as the scripture has said.” The “rivers of living water,” which is His Spirit, will only flow out of those who believe on Him the way the scripture has actually portrayed God (2).

How to walk with God by faith

Every step we take on our spiritual pilgrimage back to our Father is done through faith. The first step is the renunciation of our old sinful life. God commands that we put it to death on the cross with Christ–not literally, but spiritually. We have to let it die in order to receive a new life and a new heart. “We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him” (3).

The scenario goes like this. Some will get sick and tired of doing bad things (sinning) and can’t in their own power stop. Their conscience bothers them. They want to stop sinning, which is breaking the ten commandments, but an evil unseen force overtakes them, and the good they want to do, they cannot do. And the evil things they don’t want to do, they can’t stop doing (4). This is the state of an unregenerated human being prior to the cross experience. His old nature is still present. So how does one put the old sinful heart on the cross to die with Christ and then to be “raised to walk in a newness of life”?

The Reckoning

How do we do it? How do we let the old self die and our new life in Christ begin? We reckon it done by faith/belief. We have to “reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ” (5). We’ve got to reckon it done! The word “reckon” is #3049 in Strong’s. It means “to account it, to count it as such.”

God wants us to reckon it so, but He does it first! He has already reckoned our change done. When we believe Him, then He counts us righteous in His eyes even in our imperfect state. It is His nature to “call those things that do not exist as though they did” (6). If He is this positive, then He would want His children to be the same.

He wants us to follow in His footsteps! God “accounted” righteousness to Abraham because of his belief—before Abraham was righteous! “Accounted” here is the same word as the one translated “reckon.” We are commanded to RECKON some things done. Now we have to reckon our sinful self gone—by belief—as though it were already done—for that is how God looks at it! By belief! Reckon it done through Him and His faith. He said it. Let it be done. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Rom. 4:3. Yahweh imputed or reckoned to Abraham the ability to live in a upright manner, keeping Yahweh’s laws and not sinning, by just believing that Yahweh had done it! We make it so hard through our hard heart of unbelief. He is looking for childlike faith, the belief of a small child. All we have to do is just believe that Yahweh has provided a way for us to actually put the old life to death and start living a new life in Him.

The Churches Won’t Touch This

But the “Christian” denominations don’t believe it is possible. The pastors won’t touch this, for it will get them fired. The people in the pews don’t believe it, for they have been told all their life by those very pastors that they are sinners and that they will die a sinner. The pulpits present no hope of ever really changing the heart. The “deliverance” they preach is window dressing. Just come to church, pay your tithes and offerings, and don’t rock the boat. But the people in the pews still sit there in their private sins, undelivered. But the future sons and daughters of God will long for more and will come out of her.

They will take this first step by faith, by reckoning it done. Then, by faith, they will take the next step, and the next, and they will begin to walk in the Spirit.

But someone will say, “But we just can’t live without sin.” Of course , we can’t. That’s why we have to die on the cross with Christ and by faith receive a new heart, His heart, His Spirit. We who do this have the victory–victory over sin and sinning. For if we are still sinning, where is the victory? Our faith is our victory (7).

But we have to want this new life. We have to pant after it like a desperately thisty deer. We have to throw ourselves upon His mercy and break–break our hard hearts, and so He will come and comfort and heal us by giving His very Spirit into us, giving us a new heart.

Our part is to believe that “with God [in us] all things are possible.” Even to live a life without sin and sinning. Impossible, you say? Not with Christ, for He said, “And nothing shall be impossible to you…All things are possible to him that believes” (8). And again, “The things that are impossible with men are possible with God” (9).

Somebody is going to pick up the Book, believe its contents, and change the world. By faith. And He wants it to be us. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

James 2: 19
John 7: 38
Romans 6: 6-8
Romans 7: 15-20
Romans 6: 11
Romans 4: 7
I John 5: 4
Mark 9: 23
Luke 18: 27

{You can read more on this in my book, here: http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/yahch30.htm

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Tagged as belief, cross, faith, new heart, sin

July 20, 2009 · 1:11 am

“Thou Shalt Not Kill”–Usurping God’s Authority in Taking Life

The commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” really should read, “Thou shalt not murder.” “Murder” denotes malice aforethought, a deliberately selfish act in taking a life.

“Hands that shed innocent blood” is one of the seven things that the LORD (Yahweh) hates and is an abomination to Him (1).

At the core of this commandment lies a spiritual seed. For “the law is spiritual” (2). The Ten Commandment Law comes out of the heart of the eternal Spirit’s. He is the Giver of life, and He is the Taker (3)

When someone takes a life, he has exalted himself into God’s position of being the Taker of life. God creates life, and He is the one to take life back. When one takes life, he usurps God’s position and authority and essentially thumbs his nose at God.

Homicide, suicide, and abortion then fall into this category. For who gave any of us authority to be the taker of life? That is God’s role. And make no mistake. Abortion is a premeditated act to “shed innocent blood.” For although the fetus is not breathing, it is alive. It has life. It is a living organism. God has given it life. And nobody has the right to take life, especially the innocent, helpless unborn.

But isn’t this the spiritual battle that’s been raging in the heavens since the beginning, and now rages here on earth? Satan, that wicked spirit, is now sent down here to earth to deceive and tempt mankind into doing what he did when he said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…I will be like the most High” (4).

There it is. Satan’s heart dictates usurping God’s authority and, consequently, his laws.

When humans commit murder, suicide, or abortion, they yield to temptation to usurp God’s power of life and death. It is a wickedly subtle move, but at its core, this is what is spiritually happening.

It takes a hard heart to commit these acts. This hardening is a spiritual shift from the tender faith of the innocent child to one so lifted up that they presume to dictate the lifespan of another human being. How haughty can you get?

And what will ultimately become of Satan, the usurper and those that follow his ways? “Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (5). An inglorious yet appropriate fate awaits. KWH

Proverbs 6: 17
Romans 7: 14
Job 1: 21
Isaiah 14: 13-14
Isaiah 14: 15

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Tagged as abortion, murder, sin, suicide, Ten commandments

June 26, 2009 · 11:52 pm

The Manifested Sons of God–Overcoming the Law of Sin and Death

The scriptures speak of a special destiny for certain human beings who overcome the pitfalls of their carnal mind. And the world is waiting breathlessly, waiting for these rare individuals to appear on the scene (1).

They are called the sons and daughters of God, for God is their spiritual Father–not in word only, but in power. For they will have changed at their core; “old things are passed away” in their new shining life. They will have picked up The Book and just believed it and walked in it, and they will change history.

The End of the Carnal Mind

The apostle Paul saw their day, which all signs tell us is our day–the latter days. He saw a group of individuals who through faith would walk the way Christ walked this earth–in purity of purpose, in honor and integrity. The way they would do this is by receiving a new spirit–God’s Spirit into their hearts. God’s Spirit will lead and guide them. Consequently, they will be called the true children of God, for those “who are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (2).

These offspring of the Most High, who dwell on earth today, will overcome being carnally minded, which is death. For “the wages of sin is death” (3). Therefore, the carnal mind stems from a heart that sins.

The Old Heart

This old heart is the spiritual condition that a person is born with. It is the core center of natural man Adam and all his earthly offspring. This old heart is the well from which the mind draws up evil selfish thoughts by the bucket fulls.

Without a spiritual heart transplant, one will continue sinning. Temptation arises, and like a bull led by a nose ring, the natural carnal minded man and woman succumbs to the temptation.

The Law of Sin and Death

And hereby hangs a law, as inexorable as the law of gravity. It is called “the law of sin and death.” It is quite simple to understand. If you continue in sin and sinning, you will die.

But someone will say, “Well, we are all going to die eventually anyway, so what is the difference?”

Yes, “it is appointed unto man once to die.” The first death will come for the vast majority–the death of our physical bodies (unless we are alive in Christ when He returns and we are changed). But it is the “second death” that we need to be concerned with. For it is the snuffing out of any memory of us and the hope of life in the next dimension–the era of the immortal ones walking on this earth.

So natural man is strapped with his old sinful nature, and try as he might, he cannot rid himself of it in his own strength.

But God has provided a way to escape this hellish condition–a way to be freed from the inevitability of this “law of sin and death” (4).

There is another Law that negates the sin and death law. It is called “The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.” Receiving His Spirit “makes us free from the law of sin and death” (5).

The children of God will go through the “cross experience” whereby the old heart we are born with will be surrendered up. A spiritual death will occur as they identify their old self with Christ, who was sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,” through which God “condemned sin in the flesh” (6).

And all this is done in us when we just believe it. This spiritual state of being “right with God” is when He dwells in us and keeps His own laws in us. When we walk in accordance with His Spirit, we do not break His Ten Commandment Law (7).

A chosen few, the future manifested sons and daughters of God, called the elect, will experience the above. They will go deep and answer the “high calling” and make their election sure (8).

These are the sons of God, shining as lights in a dark and “crooked and perverse nation.” Again, we must ask ourselves, Are we one of them? Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Rom. 8: 17-19
Rom. 8: 14
Rom. 6:23
Rom. 8: 1-5
Rom. 8: 2
Rom. 8: 3
Rom. 8: 4
Phil. 3: 14; II Peter 1: 10

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Tagged as christianity, death, faith, religion, sin

May 30, 2009 · 10:17 am

“He Who Commits Sin Is a Slave to Sin”–Part II, or How to Be Free from Sin

Man comes into existence with the old nature, the old self, and he is a slave to sin and its carnal fleshly lustful desires. God bids us to come to the cross to let that old sinful spirit within us die a sacrificial death with the Savior. This is our repentance from sin and the washing of regeneration in which our old sinful self dies and we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and given a new spirit from the heart of God.

Then we will desire to come to the light so that the world will know that the good clean deeds we do now are actions derived from His spirit within us. We will know that He is the one actually doing this miracle of change within us. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God (John 3: 19-21).

Condemnation Comes by Not Believing in His Name

The truth is that God has provided a way for man to change his ways, and that way is Jesus (Yahshua), the Son of God. When one persists in living in the darkness of sin, then that person is “condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

A person is condemned because he hasn’t believed in His name? Yes, for they have not believed in the meaning of His name. And His Hebrew name Yahshua means “Yah, the Self-Existent One, is the Savior.” His name says it all in the Hebrew.

How He Saves

He saves His people by first coming down in human flesh and being Emmanuel, God with us. Then He takes that Lamb to the sacrificial altar (the cross) where all of our sin was placed, and when He died on the cross, then our sin died. When He was buried, our old nature was buried. And when He was resurrected, then we were also raised to walk in a newness of life.

From the very beginning of God being with us in human form, it was all about Him saving us from our sins. Yah says that He alone is the Savior many times in the prophets. “You shall call His name Yahshua, for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1: 21).

The word about this is the truth that makes us free from sin and sinning. He says that He will save us from our sins. He says it by His word and His word is truth. And this is the light that shines into the darkness. This light is His Life that He desires to give His people. He plans to give His Life to them. It is His Life coming into us through faith in His resurrection in us that dispels the darkness of sin in one’s life.

When someone shrieks away from this light, they are denying His name and what it means: Yah is the Savior. “I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43: 11). Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{For more on this see my books online here: http://YahwehIstheSavior.com Please forward this to someone who needs this truth. Make a comment. Share your thoughts with the world. God bless…}

Dear Prodigal Son (with Problems with Sexual Lust)

Dear prodigal son,

This is in answer to the problems you are facing in finding the line between being fleshly minded and spiritually minded in your life. You mentioned that you had problems with urges of a sexual nature and couldn’t see that one could really be totally successful in combating those urges.

You wanted some help concerning this. I did too many years ago, when a wise man shared with me this truth. In fact, this truth was life-changing, initiating a personal transformation of a miraculous nature.

He told me that my old self, the old nature that I was born with–it had to die. “Wayne, you’ve got to voluntarily surrender it and place that old selfish heart on the cross and let it die there with Christ. When He, the sin sacrifice died, your old self died; when He was buried, your old nature was buried; when He was raised from the dead, you were raised from the dead, too.”

Although I wanted to get power over the flesh and the sin driving my actions, this truth hit me hard. I knew that it was game, set, match. It was over. God won. There was no excuse for me to continue the selfish sinful way I was living. “How do you do it?” I asked him.

“It all boils down to belief in the resurrection. Not that just Christ was raised from the dead. Many believe that fact of history. No, you are the one that needs to be raised from the dead along with Christ. You must believe that Christ is raised in you, in your body! By faith in the operation of God who raised Christ from the dead, you, too, can walk in a newness of life {Col. 2:11}.”

It was not the easiest thing to do, but I had a great support system to help the new “babe in Christ”–me. It was a life-changer, and I’ve walked on from there those many years ago.”

I hope this helps. This is what you need–to get it settled, where you can confess, “I am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God.”

I’ve written more about this on my blog, “Immortality Road.” Check it out at https://ImmortalityRoad.wordpress.com or check out my books at http://yahwehisthesavior.com/ God bless you in your search, Kenneth Wayne Hancock

“He Who Commits Sin Is a Slave to Sin”

It always comes down to the sin question. The Savior is not going to let us slide on this point.

“Sin is the transgression of the law.” Breaking one of the Ten Commandments is the scriptural definition (I John 3: 4). We all have in the past broken them, but are we still breaking them?

For Christ “shall save His people from their sins.” For “He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin” (Matthew 1: 21; I John 3: 5). Are we professing Christians “in Him” or not?

The True Light is come now. We have no excuse for our sin today. If we do not believe in the Light, we reject what the Light can do in our lives. Man is already condemned if this is the case.

Loving Darkness More than Light

Most human beings reject or do not believe in the Light because they love the dark deeds that they get to do, and they do not want to give them up. These actions are evil. And if man is doing evil things, things against God and man–sin, in other words–then he is going to hate the Light that exposes that evil action. That person will not come to the light because he is afraid that his actions will be discovered. Most adulteries, fornications, thefts, murders, and evil in general occur at night.

It is only when a person is truly and completely fed up with being a slave to sin–only then will they welcome the cleansing light of His truth.

A Slave to Sin? Really?

But, a slave to sin? Is man with his old nature in bondage to sin? Is sin his master? The scriptures of truth say, Yes.

Christ was speaking to some who were gathered. “And you shall kow the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 32-34). The pricked them, for they responded indignantly, “We have never been in bondage to any man. We have never been slaves. How then is the truth going to free us from anything?’

He then told them just what kind of bondage He was talking about. “Everyone that commits sin is a slave to sin. And the slave does not continue in the house forever: the son continues forever.” In the KJV, it says “servant.” But this is rendered from the Greek word G1401 meaning “a slave or bondman.” Its root word (G1210) means “to bind with chains.”

The apostle Paul wrote about this bondage to sin in Romans 6: 16. If you yield yourselves to obey the old master Sin in your life, then you are a slave to sin. You won’t be able to stop. You will obey sins dictates and holds and demands on you. But if you obey God in putting that old sinful nature to death, then you will become a servant unto the righteous Spirit of God that He will place inside you through belief in His resurrection.

God has provided a way for the bondage of sin and sinning to be broken. It is at the cross. To be free, we must surrender and place our old sinful hearts on the cross. It’s the only way to freedom from sin and sinning. KWH

{Check out “He Who Commits Sin Is a Slave to Sin–Part II for more. If this has been helpful, forward it to others; bookmark this site, and please come visit again and share comments on your experiences. God bless.}

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Tagged as bondage, christianity, religion, sin, slavery

April 20, 2009 · 1:59 am

Taking the LORD’s Name in Vain–What Does It Really Mean?

One of the Ten Commandments reads, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain” (Exodus 20:16). We were taught that this meant to not curse out someone using the phrase “G—d— you.” That is a sound teaching for all of us to follow. However, upon further investigation, this commandment really does not mean this.

First of all, we now know that the King James translators substituted the title “the LORD” for the Hebrew name of God, YHWH, or Yahweh. So it should read, “Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh in vain.” “God” is a title and not His name.

But to “take” the name Yahweh—what does that mean? Looking up the word “take” in Strong’s Concordance, we see that it is translated from the Hebrew word nasaw, #5375, meaning “to lift up, to extol.” In too many references to mention, it is translated “to lift up,” as in, to lift up voices to heaven, to lift up hands, eyes, hearts, etc. In one place it is translated “extol.”

So, with this in mind, we can now read the commandment, “Thou shalt not lift up the name of Yahweh in vain.” Looking up the phrase “in vain” in Strong’s, we see that it means, “false, falsely.” The same Hebrew word is translated “falsely” in many passages.

The More Correct Meaning of This Commandment

Putting this knowledge into the commandment, we now can read it with true meaning: “Thou shalt not lift up and extol the name of Yahweh falsely.” His name is holy—“hallowed be thy name.” So, using His name in a false way, for false purposes, is breaking that commandment and is a sin against Him. His name is to be praised, for our very lives and salvation are coded into His name. Consequently, knowing how precious and powerful His name is, for us to invoke His name for selfish reasons would be breaking this commandment.

A blatant scriptural example of this comes to mind. Someone once said that no man’s life is absolutely worthless; it can always serve as a horrible example. Such is the case of Simon the sorcerer. Simon, who had bewitched the people into thinking that he was a “the great power of God” was witnessing the true ministry of Philip. Philip preached “the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Yahshua, the Messiah” (Acts 8:12). Simon’s followers believed Philip’s message, along with Simon himself, who was baptized, and followed Philip, “beholding the miracles and signs which were done.” The apostles in Jerusalem “heard that Samaria had received the word of God,” and they sent Peter and John, who prayed for the new believers, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. When Simon saw that the people received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, he offered the apostles money to buy this power. Of course, they rejected and rebuked him for his sin and folly. The point here is that he was lifting up Yah’s name in a false manner, for false pretenses and purposes, and it was sin.

I have to ask this question: Seeing that the phrase “taking the Lord’s name in vain” does not mean what we were taught growing up, how many other things about God have been erroneous? Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{You may read more about the Sacred Names in my online books found here: http://yahwehisthesavior.com/ or click on “My books online” on the Blogroll in the right hand column. Make a comment; share your thoughts with thousands worldwide. If this has been helpful to you, book mark it and share it with others}

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Tagged as christianity, religion, Sacred Names, sin, Yahweh

March 30, 2009 · 12:54 pm

Overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb

People are pressed down by this old world system. The world’s economies are skidding down into a gigantic depression. People are under extreme pressure, some even going crazy, killing their families and themselves. They are losing their jobs, their homes, cars, their lives as they know it.

In lieu of all this, Christ’s words ring with the crystal clarity of truth: “In the world, you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

But here is a newsflash: We shall overcome also! But how do we overcome the world and all of its tribulation, trouble, and anguish?

The First Overcoming

The first overcoming, which leads to all of the overcomings, or victories in Christ, is the victory over sin in our lives. It is a direct victory of the power of the devil in our lives, for “he that commits sin is of the devil.” But to get rid of sin in our lives was the “purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3: 8).

How is this done? “They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12: 11). Our victory over the evil comes through these two things.

Many talk a good Christian ballgame, but few deliver through the lives that they lead. Many claim to follow Christ, yet they still do secret sins, which emanate from the dark recesses of an unregenerated heart–a heart that is old and carnal–a heart that has not climbed Calvary’s hill to submit to the death of the cross along with Christ.

By the Blood of Christ the Sacrificial Lamb

He is the sin sacrifice–the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” He takes away the sin of the world. When He gets through, we don’t have it anymore. But we must identify our old sinful heart with Him that day of the Lamb’s death some 2,000 years ago. This is how the Lamb’s blood cleanses us. When it drained out of Him, the life and energy and power of sin died out. When His blood was all spilled out, then the lifeforce of sin in us drained out as well. This is how we overcame the devil. It is from this cleansing of sin through the death of our old nature, of our old spirit, of our old heart.

Yet, sadly, chances are very slim that you will hear this in today’s church houses and Sunday schools. It is “too strong, too harsh.” It is not politically correct and is a sure fire way for the hired preacher to lose his pastorship. But the old preachers of past centuries taught these very things I have shared here. John Wesley taught it, yet you won’t hear this in a modern Methodist church. Martin Luther taught it, but today’s Lutherans won’t hear it in church. Spurgeon taught it, but most Baptists won’t hear this stark message in their churches.

But this is how we repent from sin. The very first apostles’ doctrine was “repentance from dead works.” Sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandments, is a “dead work,” for it leads to death. And getting rid of sin in our lives is the very cornerstone in the sure foundation Christ talked about. Without this start in Christ, the foundation is shaky, and the house will fall when the devil winds blow. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under apostles' doctrine, cross, crucified with Christ, death of self, repentance

Tagged as christianity, new heart, religion, repentance, sin

December 3, 2008 · 7:20 pm

Conversations With the Seer–What Is Sin in God’s Eyes?

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the Seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)

“Just what is sin then?” I asked the Seer. We had been talking about the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the “sin” question had come up.

“Sin is the breaking of the law,” he said (1).

“Which law?”

“The Ten Commandments. If you are breaking one of them, then you are in a sinful state. The apostle Paul of Tarsus proves this when he wrote, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (2). Here he equates sin with breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Coveting or desiring your neighbor’s possessions or wife is a sin, prohibited by the Ten Commandments. There are nine others. Breaking any of them is sinning.”

“But I’ve been taught that sin can be anything from dancing to drinking wine, from getting angry to not doing something that I am supposed to do.”

“Shuffling one’s feet on a hardwood floor does not necessarily mean one is sinning. Remember King David, flooded with complete joy, danced in the streets; he did not sin. The Savior Himself drank wine in the homes of sinners and publicans (3), yet He committed no sin. He also got angry at the moneychangers at the temple, yet without sin.”

“Why don’t the preachers teach this?”

“They either do not know the truth, or they have turned from the truth and continued on in man’s traditions. I do not judge them. We all have a Judge who will examine us in light of the knowledge given us by Him.”

“You mentioned dancing and drinking wine. Why would that not be sinning?”

“God looks on the intents of the heart (4). If dancing is used for sinful and lustful purposes, then it is suspect. Same goes for drinking a glass of fermented grape juice. Righteous indignation is not the same as selfish anger.”

“Sin then is a spiritual condition.”

“Yes. It is a spiritual condition of the heart, of the core of a person. But sin does not have to be permanent in the human being. A ‘new heart’ composed of His Spirit can be transplanted into the human being through repentance and faith toward God (5).” He saw that I had enough to chew on, so he stopped speaking.

I thanked him for the visit and walked away with some answers, but they seemed to germinate and sprout into more questions–questions for another day. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. I John 3:4

2. Romans 7: 7

3. Luke 19: 2

4. Hebrew 4:12

5. Ezekiel 36: 26-27

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Tagged as Christ, christianity, religion, repentance, sin