STEPS of Sin: Part 2 of Abandonment
The patterns of rejecting God
In my study of how God abandons people, I saw that everyone is given a conscience. We have been aware of conscience and have heard it discussed throughout our lives. Somehow, it comes across a little more understandable when you put it where it belongs. Where did it originate, and how did we all acquire it?
Since God is the Creator and created all things, He also made the conscience. It seems to have much greater importance when one realizes that it was given an essential purpose. We go along in our lives, and we hear about it, and we say how serial killers or the worst kind of people scar their conscience. But we failed to realize that anyone and everyone could see it. I always found the conscience interesting, even before I fell at the Cross before Jesus. But now, after that, the conscience comes to life. It helps us understand how God, in His mercy and brilliance, went to every depth and height to ensure that He is just. Before creation, His plans were laid out to encompass everything that we have seen throughout the history of the world as it was being created. Down to the gift of conscience. What a beautiful God!
Isn’t it beautiful that the more you get to know God, the more you fall deeper into a love you have never known? After the fall in the garden, He already planned how to receive us back unto Him. God is Holy, Righteous, Love, Merciful, and hates sin. His hate and His love are a match. He hates and He loves. This is holiness. It is a love story that cannot be created here on earth.
We are born with a conscience, which serves as a guide and warning system, leading us to do what is right. But we also still have free will. So, we can ignore that conscience or heed it. Each time we have a thought, the conscience will speak.
It will tell us not to do something, and yet, if we choose, we can ignore that and do it anyway. It makes you wonder how many times a person ignores their conscience for 24 hours! We probably could never count how many times we have done that.
We can look at a nation, a state, or even a city and see it being ignored regularly. All kinds of crimes everywhere you look. Among those crimes, we also see that some seem to have seared their conscience. Conscience is the knowledge of God. If I have a conscience, then something or someone has planted it in me to lead me in the right direction. So, we know that there is a lawmaker out there. That also tells us that there is a higher being out there. People have always ignored their conscience.
A second gift has been given. It is given to those who do fall at the cross and fall for Jesus. They have chosen to believe when He is shown to them. They receive the Holy Spirit. We still have a conscience because we all have that. It stays there. But we, as children of God, are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to direct us and to change us. To change our thoughts to become like God’s. To change our hearts, from hard to soft. To help us come to know the Lord in all ways. So much more than that, but this is a true gift. We receive that gift when we become saved. “We must be born again of the Spirit”, as Jesus told Nicodemus. Beautiful conversation in the Word. One of my favorites. Before we are saved, we are just living to die; but after we are saved, we live to live for eternity and to be changed into the image of God. To change our characters.
Revelation
God reveals Himself to every person born. He does this by planting knowledge of Him in the conscience. He has written the Ten Commandments (The Law) on our hearts and in our minds. It is there. As I said in part one of the study, the conscience also serves as a witness against us on that last day. Even if it has been seared, that person may be living in delusions and a reprobate mind, but they still have that conscience inside of them.
It will come back to haunt them, and they will know that they knew there was God all along, and they will know that they are guilty. They will have no excuse for rejecting Christ or God.
Not Wanting to Know Him
One who turns away from the Truth does not want to know Him and wants to go on about their lives, driving in the driver’s seat. They have no interest in glorifying God, and they shove Him away. Then they end up lying to themselves about God, and they reject Him. They start believing that they have reasons to reject Him. Over time, their own beliefs become their religion. This is the lowest point to which man can descend. This will be worship of anything and himself. He is running away from God as fast as he can. So, they become empty. Empty of the Divine Truth and being human, they will find something else to take its place. Every person must believe in something, and so they find another belief. They love their sins, and they love the sin of being separated from God. They might be lucky enough to live a whole life, or they will see death early on. But they have lived life their way. They asked for their punishment for rejecting God.
Sin and What is it?
Sin degrades men. It debases the image of God. Distorts it. It strips man of dignity, and it rots them to the core. They will choose to live with their guilt for years, and they will decide how to react to that guilt. They will ignore the conscience, which tells them they are guilty. Each time they do something and feel guilty, they will ignore it again and try to push it away from them. Through the years of doing this, it has made their whole bodies sick. They may appear fine, but they are not. His continued sins, whether it be lying, cheating, being unfaithful, or hurting others, will drive him deeper into darkness. His lust will continue and will never be satisfied. God lets these sins take their full course. This is when He finally abandons them because they reject Him. If they get with others to fill those lusts, they are all contributing to each other’s fallenness and decay. It simply becomes natural to them to stay in sin.
Satan is at work in each person who chooses this life path, always offering them more. He knows what they like and what they want, and he is quick to keep them fed. They are given up to vile affections. There is no limit to how far sin can take a person. No limit. Their lust level will swell to an unbelievable level. With Satan leading them, there is a level of lust that is not normal and burns within them. Punishments for sins of the flesh come from within. A heart is a wicked thing, and it can create and latch onto the most perverted things.
They found God worthless, and then God finds them worthless. They will lose knowledge over time, and their wants and cravings will absorb their lives. Hiding behind veils at first and then finally, out in the open. Like Judas, when Satan entered him, he immediately went out and betrayed Christ. It happened immediately when God finally turned him over. The same happens when a person repeatedly rejects God. One day, there will be no way of coming back. That is because their minds have fallen so far into a state of defilement. They fill up entirely on unrighteousness. They become full.
God spells this out to us when He lists sins.
He describes wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, strife, deceit, backbiters, haters of God, being proud, no grace in them, lack of affections, and more.
These all take man where he should not want to go. But he does know. He knows the consequences because he knows there is a God and His Law. They know they will be judged, and they do not care. This will make them angrier and push them to seek revenge and act out even more.
And among themselves, they tease each other even more. “Let us” is their slogan. They have pleasure in their deeds and love when others join in. This is even worse, showing they do not care about anyone else’s souls either. Sounds like Satan.
He delights in the fall of man. He loves the destruction of souls. There is no difference between the man who does these things and thinks this way and the way Satan thinks. The same. Satan knows his future, and he still delights in the end of all things.
In the end of time, sin will reveal itself in horrible ways that we have never seen. It will be unleashed without restraint. They will have one last escapade of their sinful selves. They will not be restrained anymore.
The Holy Spirit will not step in then to restrain anything. It is the ultimate climax of sin breathed out. Demons will take total control of the souls they have affected.
Glory to God for His love for humanity. He has gone to every length to assure man his chance at eternal life and righteousness. He has done His part, and He has children who love Him and yearn to be reunited with Him. Isn’t it wonderful that we can be in the world, but not of the world? Our home is Heaven, and it is our delight.