Against You Only

If revival comes to your church and to your Sunday school class, expect people to leave. If revival comes to your heart, expect to lose “friends.” Right before I quit writing this devotional in the summer and just in the last two days since I began writing on revival, 8 people have asked to be removed from this devotional list. All of them had asked to be added; they were not in the original group.

That is to be expected because the gospel is offensive. Now I am not to be offensive, but the truth of God’s Word offends. And when people fall away it is not a separation of the wheat from the tares; that will only come when Jesus returns. It is more like in John 6:66:

    “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”

From what time? Go back and read John 6:41-71 to see what it was Jesus preached, but suffice it to say that He was preaching on the exclusivity and sufficiency of His coming sacrifice on the cross.

Today’s church trout swim from church to church looking for a pastor that will preach from the NTFV Bible (New Touchy Feely Version) and they don’t have far to swim to find one. The vast majority of Christians when looking for a church look to see what type of worship music, children’s ministry, and fellowship they have to offer rather than looking to see if this is the church God would have me serve Him.

Beloved as long as we have a consumerism Christianity we will not see revival come to America.

So what do we do?

We deal with our sin the way David dealt with his; he got down to the root of it all. That’s how you pull weeds out of your garden!

    “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:3-4)

This question will no doubt cause more of you to ask to be removed from this list, but I’m curious as to how bad you think your sin is? That’s what God asked me this morning: “David, how bad is your sin?” Thankfully I overcame the urge to say, “What sin Lord?”

But like David when I stand before the Holy God I must acknowledge my transgressions because my sin is always before me, no matter how much I try to pretend. It may be the sin of self-righteousness, haughtiness…regardless the sin of my heart it is always before me. That means it is always on my mind. A truly saved person cannot live with a guilty conscience. If you’re okay with your sin you’re probably not really saved, or you have strayed dangerously far from Jesus. The Prophet Isaiah tells us that we cannot run from our sins:

    “For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them…” (Isaiah 59:12)

You see that? I know my sins and I can try to pretend that I don’t but the bottom line is that against God, God only, have I sinned and done this evil in His sight. I can try to justify it, ignore it, water it down, but it is still a violation of God’s law and wanton disobedience to His commandments and I have sinned against God.

Embrace that truth because there is liberty for your soul in it! Don’t run from it; don’t hide from it; don’t deny it; EMBRACE IT!

When you do then you acknowledge God’s righteousness and His justice in showing my sinfulness. Beloved that is what confession is; it is agreeing with God and admitting that He is right and I am wrong. That is no great feat but sometimes I act as though I have found the Holy Grail when I admit this. Shame on me!

Look again at what David said when Nathan confronted him:

    “So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’” (2 Samuel 12:13a)

I have sinned against the LORD. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.

May my heart willingly, gladly confess my sin in such a way, and may I acknowledge my sinful nature before God.

Beloved that is the Truth and God desires Truth to be anchored to our souls.

More on that tomorrow.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2010 David Jeffers

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