WORSHIP AND DESPISING PERSISTENT SINNERS
Psalm 15:1,4a Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who despise persistent sinners…… NLT
How do you feel about those who blatantly sin against the Lord and don’t seem to care? Do they bother you at all? We are told to love the sinner and hate the sin. The Psalmist doesn’t take that approach. He suggests that we should despise those who persistently sin. Why? I believe that one of the reasons is that sin is an abomination and insult to God. It is everything that God isn’t and it’s the reason why hell exists. God loves us and doesn’t want any of us to go to hell, but He knows we must and will if we insist on living in sin. It grieves His heart. It is why He had to go to the cross. We should, no, we must, have a hatred for sin wherever it is found. We must not tolerate it in our lives or in the lives of others. A persistent sinner is one who refuses to stop sinning, He sins with no remorse, He rejects the Gospel message that He is a sinner in need of Christ’s forgiveness.
Food for thought: When was the last time you watched someone on TV say or do things that were obviously sinful in nature and stopped to pray for them? They are people in need of a Savior. Instead of lavishing praise on them, we should instead lavish prayer on them. We tend to glorify sin and the sinner, instead of beseeching the Lord on their behalf.
Those who would worship the Lord must take sin seriously. We must not cuddle up to it, excuse it, or be indifferent to it. God is holy and commands us to be holy as well. Holiness and sin are like oil and water, they don’t mix. We cannot worship the Lord in spirit and truth and be okay with sin in our lives. We cannot be pure in heart while embracing those around us who blatantly sin against God. We must take a stand against sin and sinful behavior. We cannot eradicate all sinners from our lives, we all are guilty of sin, but we can be careful with how much we allow them to influence our souls.
You cannot truly worship the Lord without a holy heart and mind.
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