It is Time to be Honest!
If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Psalms 130:3-4 NKJV)
We Know ALL have Sinned
Romans 3:23 makes it very clear that all have sinned and come short of God’s glory. That is we haven’t represented Him very well here on planet earth. We find it easy to preach this when we are presenting the Gospel, but I suspect most of us are really saying all YOU have sinned when we preach this. However, this includes all of us and unfortunately most of the epistles would not have been written if professing Christians didn’t have problems with this issue of sin after we are saved. We often say that we who are saved are not sinless, but we should sin less. I do believe that after we are saved we have a conscience about sin that we didn’t have before. I like the way the Contemporary English Version translates our verse for today. It says, “If you kept record of our sins, no one could last long. But you forgive us, and so we will worship you. (Psalms 130:3-4 CEV).” In the Old Testament those who worshiped the Lord called upon Him (that is they prayed to Him) and they feared Him (that is they realized they were accountable to Him). Forgiveness that is offered by the one offended and that is accepted by the one doing the offending leads to reconciliation. When we are truly reconciled we can truly worship. That is what happens when we are first saved and that is why we worship.
But What About Today?
This Psalm is a reminder of the sin of the Jewish nation who was saved from the bondage of Egypt to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and to finally cross the Jordan River into the promised land. But no matter what part of their journey they were on they kept turning aside to call upon and to fear idols. They found the pagan worship that they were supposed to destroy to be “fun” and enjoyable and they tended to turn away from faithfulness to the LORD. As a result they ended up in captivity, but now a faithful remnant is headed back to the land as ones that have once again been forgiven. They are truly worshiping as they ascend back to Jerusalem and the worship of the One true God.
We find it easy to point out the sins of others but do we really understand our own sin? I remember talking to a very wealthy farmer in my visits years ago. He claimed to be agnostic, he didn’t know and didn’t care if there was a God because his life had been a paradise on earth as far as he was concerned. He also felt that he was a very good person and told me that he was never tempted to sin. I often wondered just what his definition of sin was. It obviously didn’t include pride. It seemed to me that he was worshiping himself and his own intellect rather than the God who created him. In his defense, I think everyone would have loved to have had him for a neighbor. He was by the standards of the world a very good man. But I know that his heart was no different than mine and the Lord says that mine is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9).
There are Sins and then there are Sins
I realize that murder and stealing and immorality are treated differently by the law of the land than is gossip and lies. And they rightly should be, however, gossip and lies are sins even though they might be more socially acceptable. As a matter of fact the Devil is the “Father of Lies”. John 8:44 says, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44 NKJV)” It is interesting that the Lord seems to link lies and murder but we accept lies but not murder. We obviously do not understand sin the way God understands it.
Today, lying and fact checking the lying, is a constant occupation of some. I find myself being quite critical of those who I believe are lying and I find myself being critical of those who are loyal to known liars. Telling the truth was not as important as loyalty to my boss in the corporate world and it seems to have become that way in the political world. And while I get all distraught because of the contention and division involved because of these lies, I have to remember that if the Lord should keep track of my own iniquities or wickedness (not just the acts of sin but the motives behind them), I would be in deep trouble. But He has offered forgiveness and I have been reconciled to Him and now I am declared righteous even if I don’t always act that way.
Conclusion
Even though it is easy to get upset with others who are sinning, maybe we should get more upset with our own failures. We need to remember that we who are saved are a forgiven people. We have no right to condemn, only God has that right. However, that does not mean that we should justify sin nor should we justify those who blatantly sin, and we should not be among those who commit sin without having a conscience about it.
Lord help me to be what you want me to be and help me to avoid associations with those who would tempt me to sin.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of August 26, 2018