This is a brief article on a subject which I have been pondering of late.
I trust that it will be a blessing and help to you all.
Our heart is deceitful, even as Jeremiah stated (Jeremiah 17:9) and we must ever guard against its deceptions.
How we need to be on guard against deception of every form!
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
TRUE REPENTANCE – A DEEP GRIEF AT THE OFFENCE TO GOD THAT OUR SIN CAUSES
“How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9.
Bartolome Esteban Perez Murillo
1640–1645
Oftentimes I fear that our repentance is more a case of being vexed at the grief that sin brings to us — our loss of a quiet conscience and our sense of God’s presence — but such feelings fall far short of true repentance. Sin injures us but that ought not to be our chief concern when we have sadly yielded to temptation.
The words of Joseph on this occasion serve to show us what our attitude to sin and our response when faced by it, ought to be.
1. Joseph considered that what faced him in this wicked temptation was chiefly to act against the Lord.
Had he responded to this woman’s demands, he would have sinned against her and he would have sinned against her husband. As he says: “But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness?”
Yes, what she was demanding entailed injury to herself and her husband by Joseph should he have yielded to her.
He knew also that it would injure himself. He does not mention himself here because he is chiefly occupied by thoughts of others who would be hurt by his wrong-doing. But let us ever be aware that sin is a great self-inflicted wound, oftentimes, so great we never really get over it!
Be that as it may, it is clear that Joseph realised that his yielding to this temptation would be CHIEFLY a sin against God!
When we sin we strike against the heart of God. He loves His people with an immeasurable love. Sin requires us forgetting that love and treating God as if He doesn’t care about us. Please remember what we read in Genesis 6. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart,” verses 5-6.
The actions of the population of the earth back then was to forget that God was their Creator and they owed allegiance to Him alone. Failure to do so struck against the affection He had for His own creatures.
When we sin we strike against the knowledge of God. To act in defiance and disobedience is to act as if God cannot see us and does not know what we do! That is a great insult directed against Him. (more…)
This BBC news report below tells of the Church of England engaging in further wicked ‘semantics’!