Oh Christless sinners
Can we tell the difference anymore between that which is sacred and that which is profane?
We’ve spoken in the past about the importance of sight, especially how gracious it is for God to grant us a revelation of the end, a singular focus and a fascination which breaks through our indifference.
Today we speak of another revelation - the ability to see sin as sin and to be moved by the gravity of it.
With a topic this sensitive, we tread carefully, so as not to heap undue condemnation. Rather than make statements, below you’ll find questions. Read each of these slowly, carefully, and consider them. I pray that the Holy Spirit would be gracious in guiding you into answers of truth.
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Do we hate and abhor sin as God does?
Does it break our heart when we see it? Does it move us to anguish, tears, and agony at the complete and utter depravity of it all?
Are we moved to anger at the presence of sin, to the point where it would be said of us, “Zeal for your house consumes me!” John 2:17
Can we tell the difference anymore between that which is sacred and that which is profane? Or, are we, “so like the world that we cannot be distinguished from it.” -Art Katz
Have we wept bitterly before the house of God over the sin of the people, as Ezra did? “Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God…the people wept bitterly.” Ezra 10:1
Have we wept and mourned for days, confessing the sins of the people before the great and awesome God of heaven as Nehemiah did? “As soon as I (Nehemiah) heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven…O Lord God of heaven…I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel…confessing the sins of the people…which we have sinned against you.” Nehemiah 1:4-6
Have we wept for those who will not weep for themselves, as George Whitefield did? “You blame me for weeping, but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourselves, though your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction?” His sermons were littered with these types of desperate pleas:
Alas, my heart almost bleeds! What a multitude of precious souls are now before me!
O Christless sinners, I am distressed for you!
O gray-headed sinner, I could weep over you! Your gray hairs, which ought to be your crown, and in which perhaps you glory, are now your shame. You know not that the Lord is your righteousness: O haste then, haste ye, aged sinners, and seek an interest in redeeming love!
Can you bear to hear the Lord Jesus say to you, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Can you live, think you, in everlasting burnings? And can you bear to depart from Christ? O that heart-piercing thought!
Have we seen the awesome majesty of the holiness of God to such a degree that it has filled us with woe, causing us to cry out, “I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…for my eyes have seen the King!” Isaiah 6:5
Are we able to see sin as sin, to call it sin, and are we moved to anguish over the sight of it?
These are questions we all must consider carefully. May God be gracious to you this week, guiding you into “the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,” as you seek answers. Colossians 1:9
In love,
Derek