The second Sunday of July will mark the 38th anniversary of my entry into full-time Christian ministry. That Sunday morning, so many years ago, I stood before a dozen people in a tiny Grange hall in rural Illinois. I’d been married about two weeks.

Over the years of planting, pastoring, and youth ministry, one of the areas that intrigued me and which I actively pursued, was counseling. Sometimes I believe I’ve heard it all. I’ve had people confess to murder, adultery, spousal and child abuse, theft, and many other sins. I also hear a lot of “he said/she said” complaints. In fact, sometimes I think I’ll just gag and throw up if I hear about one more husband who leaves his socks on the floor or one more wife who hangs her pantyhose over the shower curtain rod!

I want to tell you a rather sad, but fairly common story. In visiting with a young man who claimed to know Jesus personally, but whose lifestyle seemed to decry that profession of faith, I heard him say, “I am a Christian, and I don’t feel any conviction about not doing what some of you Christians call sin. Not only that, but just look at how I am blessed with so many material blessings.” Not all are so blatant in word, but many seem to be in attitude. A number of things come to mind when this attitude is expressed:

Is a person really regenerate who has this attitude? Although I’m not allowed to pronounce judgement on this man, I am allowed to inspect the fruit of on his tree. People do not merely turn from hell to Heaven in salvation, but they turn to God from sin.

Take a look at Hebrews 12:8. “If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.” How plainly can God put it? When a person professes to be a child of God and goes without chastening (child-training), the Scripture says they are “illegitimate children.” One who sins without restraint needs not to talk of his Heavenly birthright, but to take a hard, long look at his birth certificate.

God deals so patiently with all of us. He accepts us in whatever condition we find ourselves. It is of utmost importance, however, that we don’t assume that His patience and acceptance is the equivalence of His approval.

Romans 2:4 states, “Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” The goodness of God should lead us to repentance and not to indulgence. To treat God’s goodness as permission to sin is to despise His goodness and to incur His judgment.

For a person to assume that because life is filled with natural or material blessings that all is well in his/her spiritual walk with the Lord, is to be a thorough-going materialist. This also reduces our lives to the animal level. A paramount purpose of God in designing salvation is to bring us into fellowship with Himself, not merely make the material things of life flow abundantly into our hands. The Apostle John tells us explicitly, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” (I John 1:6)

Next, we must recognize that the absence of restraining Grace can be a judgment in itself. God often judges sin with sin. The Apostle Paul sets forth this principle, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” (Romans 1:24) If one senses a lack of restraining grace in one’s life, he/she needs to desperately cry out to God.

Our self-assurance is not always God’s assurance. John the revelator wrote in Revelation 3:17, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” It is to these Christ-excluding people He writes, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Christ wants to and will invade our lives with the reality and glory of His presence if we but open the door.

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