["Exhort one another DAILY, while it is called 'Today,' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." - Heb. 3:13] ....Sooo....here we go, again....

God: “Don’t eat off this one tree or you will surely die!” (Gen. 2:17)

Serpent: “Did God really say you couldn’t eat off that tree? That’s not what He really meant...in fact He knows when you do eat off that tree that you will be like Him…so you surely will not die.” (Gen. 3:1-5)

Jesus: “Go and sin no more!” (John 5:14; 8:11)

Nearly every church pulpit across the country: “God knows it’s impossible for you to do that so don’t worry…He loves you and just wants you to try harder to do better next time.“

Friends…in the words of the late James Lovell, (Apollo 13 astronaut)…”We have a problem.”

What part about ‘go and sin no more’ do we not understand? Is God that warped, bored, or pathological where He has nothing better to do than to continue issuing demands that can never be obeyed by His people…and then ‘threatening’ them with wrath and judgment when they fail to follow through?

“Sin no more or something worse will happen to you” (John 5:14). “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:20). “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23). “Depart from me you who continue to sin.” (Matt. 7:23). “Unless you repent, you shall all perish.” (Luke 13:3,5)

When you read back in the OT, we see where God repeatedly implores His people…”Keep my commands so it will go well with you and your children. Break my commands…and these things will happen to you.” I mean…He’s not changed from the very beginning…’eat off this tree and you will surely die!’. And what do we read at the very ‘end of the book’? “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life.” (Rev. 22:14)

Oh, but your pastor or SS teacher told you that nobody can actually ‘go and sin no more’; only Jesus could do that? Excuse me…but are we not told by Jesus to ‘abide in Him’ (John 15:1-8) and ‘anyone who professes to abide in Him ought himself to walk just as He did’? (1 John 2:6).

Oh, but you don’t know anyone who does that? So therefore, based on your personal experience and what you have seen with your limited knowledge…then God’s word clearly does not mean what it says?

“Let God be true and every man a liar!” (Rom. 3:4)

Oh…you want to ask me if I live a sinless life? With all due respect, it doesn’t matter what I do…or don’t do; what does God’s word say?  (I'm really not trying to sound snarky here, but wanting to confront what I am convinced is a massive lie that the enemy has propagated among God's people)

Do you know what has changed…from back in the OT days and today (since Jesus came to earth to call all people to repentance)? God promised to do something…that included not only ‘writing his law into our hearts and minds’….but then He was going…He was going…He was going to “put His Spirit in us and cause us to walk in them and keep His commandment.” (Ezek. 36:27) And those who do actually follow the leading of His Spirit…they fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law because they no longer walk after the flesh, but the Spirit. (Rom. 8:4,14). These…are the ones who will be ‘justified’ (Rom. 2:13).

Consider this: Why does God remain unchanged with His expectations to ‘obey Him’ if He thinks we were incapable of doing that (Heb. 5:9; Luke 6:46)? Would that not be similar to climbing up on the roof of a tall building and repeatedly throwing your cat off…as you ‘commanded it to fly’? Do you think that cat will ever ‘get it together’ and finally begin to fly? I hardly think so! Oh, but now it is a ‘new testament cat’, which means you strapped a ‘Jesus parachute’ on its back so when it goes airborne again, it will have a softer landing; how convenient.

Can we all simply agree that cats don’t fly, nor ever will…unless it becomes a …’new creation’…like a ‘bird’ perhaps? (2 Cor. 5:17). Oh…but that is ‘impossible’ you say? Hmmm, maybe in our minds, it is…but not with God. (Matt. 19:26) What do you think He came to do according to Romans 8:29?

So how does a ‘cat become a bird’? Or better yet…how does a ‘sinner’ (one who breaks God’s laws- 1 John 3:4) become a ‘new creation’ so they can ‘go and sin no more’? Well, for starters...one has to be ‘born again’ (John 3:3,5). And “we know whoever is born of God no longer sins” (1 John 5:18).  Friends- what are we supposed to do with that verse...cut it out? ...black it out with a Sharpie?

“Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” (1 John 3:9)

IF…you find yourself getting irritated with reading this, not wanting to accept or embrace it, please note that it is not my words that are stirring up those things in you…because all I am doing here is telling you what God’s word states…loud and clear. So try this: Ask yourself why you are resisting or responding to God’s word in this manner? And may I advise you to not try and ‘walk this walk’ until you come to a place of ‘surrender’…and just agree that despite your constant failures to ‘do this’ (obey God)…it might help to first believe His word, admit & confess you have failed miserably to do what He asks of you…and then humble yourself before Him and ask Him to show you ‘how these things can be’. (Luke 1:34; John 3:9).

And I have good news for you- He will…if you are serious about following Him. How much longer are you going to ‘halt between two opinions’? (1 Kings 18:21). We have a lot more studying to do…and I pray you join me back here tomorrow.