Sin

Sin » Unpardonable

Question:

Can people today commit the unforgivable sin, and if so, what is it?

Answered on 04/12/06:

When you reject Jesus Christ, you are blaspheming the most important thing that the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you. And the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you to accept Him. If you reject the blood, then there is nothing that can stand between you and God as an appeal to Him for your forgiveness. The blood is our only appeal . . . not our good works, not our doing better, not our promises to God.

Now, I didn’t receive Jesus’ blood when I was a kid, but when I was 17 I finally understood and received it. If I would have rejected it then, could I have later received His forgiveness years later? Theoretically I could have, but who knows. Maybe that was my last chance to really respond to God; maybe I wouldn’t have responded to God after that. So if you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart.

Sin » General

Question:

Answered on 05/11/06:

So, in that sense, from God’s point of view, one sin is all it takes to be a sinner. How many murders does it take for you to be considered a murderer? Well, it only takes one. How many rapes to be considered a rapist? It only takes one. How many banks do you have to rob to be considered a bank robber? Usually only one.

In the same way, it only takes one sin to be considered a sinner as far as God’s concerned. In fact, it wasn’t even your one sin that made you a sinner. It was Adam’s sin that made every one of us sinners and that’s why we need to be born again. That’s why we need to be saved. That’s why we need Jesus Christ to come into our life and to give us a brand new heart.

So, is all sin the same? No. But does all of it have the same consequence where our eternal salvation is concerned? Absolutely. Whether you smoked a cigarette or whether you killed somebody, the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23 says.

Now, most people really misunderstand this because they think, "Well, I’m not as bad as so-and-so or I might not be as good as Mary Poppins but I’m certainly not as bad Adolph Hitler". The fact is that on man’s scale, you might be right; you’re not as bad as the worst criminal and you’re not as good as the best saint.

But the fact is that every one of us are lost and going to hell without Jesus Christ and every one of us are a sinner because of Adam, our forefather, who sinned. And according to Romans chapter 5, “Through one man’s sin, all of us are made sinners.” The better news, thought, is, “Through one Man’s act of righteousness, we are all made righteous.” We’re not made righteous because of what we do; we’re made righteous because of what Jesus did. Just as we’re not sinners because of what we did; we’re made sinners because of what Adam did.

You are not a sinner because of your sin; you are a sinner because of Adam’s sin. And that’s why you need to be born again, whether you were Mother Theresa, whether you were the Pope, whether you were Adolph Hitler or some other mass murderer, you must be born again. That’s why Jesus said, “You cannot enter the kingdom of God without being born again.”

That doesn’t mean that in this life, sins don’t have different consequences. It certainly does mean that. In this earth, in this life, to man, for stealing a pencil, there is going to be much more lenience than stealing a car or stealing some other significant possession.

Well, which sin will send us to hell? Adam’s sin will send us all to hell and only the blood of Jesus can save us. So call on the name of Jesus today and receive Him as your Lord and Savior into your life and into your heart. You can do that right now, without our help. Just ask Him to be your Lord and Savior and you’ll be saved.

Question:

Answered on 05/09/06:

The only way to really control our thought life is to train ourselves to think the way that God thinks and to think along the lines of the Bible; to meditate on the Word of God. That’s how we’re going to do the right things. That’s how we’re going to live right. As we think right, we’re going to live right. We need to meditate on God’s Word and we need to think about God’s Word and good things will begin to emerge from our lives.

Now, to be specific about your question, “Is it sin to masturbate?” Well, is it sin to get angry? Yes. Is it sin to be afraid? Yes. Is it sin to be mad at somebody and chew them out? Is it a sin to get drunk? I mean, all of these are sins. Is it a sin to masturbate? Yes. Does God forgive? Yes, but is there a place where you draw the line? Yes, I believe that where you draw the line is you draw the line on valuing yourself and having a sense of value and knowing who you are and that God loves you and knowing that you’re approved and accepted by Him. And when you understand the love that God has for you and you understand the approval that God has for you, then you cease to look for gratification with yourself and you get it from God.

The answer to your question is that it is inappropriate. We’ve got to get to the root of why one does that and that is because often people have low self-esteem and people have a low sense of self-worth and they feel a deep sense of guilt and they feel a deep sense of hurt in their life and they withdraw into themselves and then they look for gratification from themselves. What we need to do is look to God and find our freedom, find our forgiveness, find our deliverance from His love and His mercy.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

Now, having said that, we need to understand the root to a thing, not just the fruit. The fruit is that a lot of people put tattoos on their body. But why do they do it? What is the root? I believe anything we do to draw attention to ourselves is usually a mistake and is usually out of insecurity. If I put anything on my body to draw attention to myself… a tattoo is no different than a woman putting something really tight on her body to draw attention to herself , that’s wrong.

And somebody who puts a tattoo on himself or herself to draw attention to themselves, that’s wrong. All attention and glory in our lives should go to God and we should not be drawing attention to ourselves. So anything that honors something above God on our skin is wrong because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and we should glorify God in our body and with our body.

The next thing I’d say about tattoos is that from what I’ve heard, 85% or so of the people that get tattoos wish a couple of years later they would not have done it. So, there is a case to be made for that. So, you’re not under a curse to put a tattoo on your body, but let’s look at the underlying reasons why people do that and get to the root of it and realize that a lot of it is attention-getting and we need to give our attention and our glory to God, not to ourselves.

Question:

I would like to know how God feels about me altering my body. I am thinking about having a breast reduction and I want to do what is right and what God wants me to do.

Answered on 04/12/06:

You see, external struggles are the result of internal struggles. And the reason why people get cosmetic surgery is often because they don’t like or love themselves so they try to do something to make themselves feel better. Whenever somebody is getting any sort of surgery or work on their body physically or cosmetically for the purpose of feeling better about themselves, then that person is doing it for the wrong reasons.

However, if you simply want to enhance yourself, your health, and your appearance in a safe way and to present yourself for other people in a way that removes obstacles that are always getting in the way of your communication and relationship with people, then there is nothing wrong with that.

The Bible says that our bodies are our stewardship; they are temples of God, and we need to glorify God with our bodies. You should want your body to be at its absolute best, but not out of vanity, pride, or insecurity. Definitely consult a doctor, and be sure that the procedure is safe. And pray about it. If you feel in your heart that it’s OK, it won’t be a problem.

Question:

Is it OK for a man to wear an earring?

Answered on 04/12/06:

We need to get our self-esteem or worth from our fellowship with God and His approval of us. When we do, we don’t need to do certain things just to win approval or get attention. If you’re satisfied with your relationship with the Lord – and still want to wear an earring but not to get attention or deal with some ego problem – then I don’t see anything wrong with it.

The external things that people do are rooted in internal things. To create laws that eradicate those external things, without dealing with the hard issue of why a person finds them necessary, is really just “religion,” and I’m not into that at all. You need to go to the root of why a person does something and that, in and of itself, determines right or wrong.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

A woman and a man should carry themselves in a modest fashion. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t wear makeup or earrings, or stuff like that. But if you’re wearing that in order to be seen by people, doing that in order to get the attention and the love and affection of other people, then you obviously have a problem.

But no, people who say there’s something wrong with women wearing pants, that’s legalism. Women should be able to wear pants. And if they wear dresses, they should be cut in such a way so they are not promiscuous. There has to be modesty.

Dress as sexy as you want when you’re with your husband, but don’t dress that way in public where you’re going to be a stumbling block to people. That’s the spirit of it. But as far as the pants, it’s no problem.

Question:

I have a relative who is planning to get married next year. But she has already had a baby with the man she intends to marry. I’m wondering whether if, by going to the wedding, I’ll be supporting this behavior and how she’s living her life.

Answered on 04/12/06:

Is it wrong for you to go to the wedding? No. But you should let her know your feelings in a nonjudgmental way. Truth makes people free, but when you use it to judge other people, when you come across as though you’re better than they are, people just can’t handle it.

Proverbs 15 says that wisdom makes knowledge acceptable. Go to you your relative, tell her how much you love her, and then begin to share with her your concerns. Tell her you want her to avoid the heartache that is sure to happen when people don’t do things God’s way. And remember, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

Outside of that, they didn’t prohibit people from eating pork. In the Old Testament it was prohibited. In the Old Testament, shrimp was prohibited. But Jesus declared all foods clean. And Paul said in 1 Timothy 4 that all things are sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer. And Jesus declared that all foods are clean. He said that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but it is what comes out of his mouth that defiles him.

And so we don’t need to be as concerned about “is it lawful?” “Is it legal for us to eat the right or wrong foods?” But what we do need to be concerned about is, “Is it healthy?” Again, one of the cornerstone Scriptures of this program and this broadcast is 1 Corinthians 10 and 6 where Paul said, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by any. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.”

So is it lawful, is it okay, is it biblical for you to eat pork? Yes. Is it biblical for you to eat shrimp? Yes. Is it biblical for you to eat potato chips? Yes. Yes, it’s biblical for you to eat anything, but it’s not necessarily healthy for you. And what you have to do is you have to establish whether it is profitable? Is this going to be good for my body?

It’s not going to send you to hell, number one. It’s not going to make God leave you, number two. It’s not going to cause the Holy Spirit to jump out of your body and say, “Well, I’m not staying in that body any more because he ate some bacon.” No, it’s perfectly okay to eat bacon. It’s perfectly okay to eat an Egg McMuffin. But it’s okay to eat stuff like that from a biblical standpoint, lawfully. But it’s not necessarily good for you. It’s not necessarily healthy for you.

And therefore I want you to encourage you to do what is good for your body. Don’t do what feels good, do what produces good. Don’t do what’s going to feel good, do what’s going to produce good in your body and in your relationships and in your life. That’s how I respond to questions like that. But certainly you’re not breaking God’s Word by eating any food. There’s no food that you’re breaking God’s Word eating unless it’s sacrificed to idols.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

Obeying those commandments doesn’t save us. What saves us is believing in Jesus Christ. But those commandments reveal to our heart and reveal to our conscience that we need a savior. So the Ten Commandments were given to restrain society so that society had boundaries and society had morals by which to live.

And secondly, and not necessarily in this order, the Ten Commandments were given to expose the sin inside of men’s hearts and to reveal to men that they couldn’t keep the commandments. The commandments force men to recognize their own frailty and their own weakness and their own sin so that they would then look to God and look to a Savior to save them from that sin.

That’s why God gave us the Ten Commandments. Because living by those commandments will always bring greater joy and greater fruitfulness in our lives. Recognizing those commandments exposed our utter weakness and our utter sinfulness, therefore putting a demand on us to call out and to cry out for a savior and recognize our need for a savior. Everybody knows they have sinned. Why does everybody know they’ve sinned? Because we have the Ten Commandments. That’s why everybody knows that they have sinned.

What about Venial sin and Mortal sin? I don’t believe that there is a difference between any kind of sin. To God, sin is sin. It all was paid for through the blood of Jesus. And only our faith in Jesus Christ and in His blood will save us from sin, whether it’s Venial or whether it’s Mortal or whether it’s immortal. Jesus’ blood will cleanse us and forgive us from all unrighteousness according to 1 John 1:9.

And the only sin that we cannot be cleansed from is the unpardonable sin, which is to reject Jesus Christ. That’s the only thing that cannot be pardoned. You cannot be pardoned for rejecting the only sacrifice for our sins.

Question:

Does the Bible forbid us from eating pork?

Answered on 04/07/06: