Good trees cannot bear bad fruit. When we live in sin, we are bearing bad fruit. If we are bearing bad fruit, consequently, we are bad trees. God has no bad trees in His garden. When we live in sin, we are likely to stay away from church because we will be convicted of our sinfulness. We feel uncomfortable. Jesus said it like this, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed (John 3:19-20).” This exposure is not so much to the church but to the one committing the sin. They don’t want to see themselves for what they are.
What are they? They are insurrectionists, rebels, those who practice lawlessness. They don’t see themselves as such but they are. They are because they are disobedient to the commands of the Lawgiver. Yet, they are expecting this Lawgiver to allow them, these insurrectionists, into Heaven. There was already one insurrection in Heaven and it was dealt with. Why would God bring in more insurrectionists to allow another uprising? When a person lives in sin, they are living in rebellion because sin is rebellion. Sin is doing what God either told us not to do or not doing what God has told us to do. If that is not the definition of rebellion, what is?
So, hopefully, you can see why those of us who live in sin and who do not do the will of God are just fooling themselves. Being baptized and a church member who lives is sin is no different than a sinner who has never entered a church. I don’t know if it is because we just haven’t taken stock of our lives or if it is because we are really just fooling ourselves, but one day we will stand before Jesus Christ. He will either be our Lord and Master, or our God and Judge. If we haven’t lived right, on that day, He is going to tell us that since we wanted to live their lives apart from a relationship with Him, we can just keep doing so and He is going to banish us to the only place in the universe where His presence will not be—the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15).
Why did Jesus say that He never knew these rebels if He knows everything? It was not that He did not know who they were but that He had no relationship with them. It is like people know about God but they don’t know God. God created man for a relationship. He created man so man could worship Him. He gave man a spirit so man could relate to Him. His desire was to walk with man and man with Him (Genesis 1: 28-30).
That is what Heaven is for. It is a place for people who have been made perfect by Jesus Christ. It is a place where we will worship and commune with God for all eternity. God is not mocked, whatever a person sows, that will he or she also reap If we do not have time for Him now, do not expect to spend eternity with Him later. If we do not do His will now, do not expect to be rewarded for it later. If this is our expectation, we are just fooling ourselves. We simply cannot live anyway we want to now and expect to live with God later. It is foolishness.
What is the solution? Turn to Christ and live. We are to repent of our sins and submit our lives to God. Repent means to turn our backs on. Turn away from our sins (and we know what they are) and live in obedience to God. We can do this because Christ came to die in order to pay our sin debt to God. God placed upon Him our sin and He died in our place. When we put our trust in Him, God will give to us Christ’s perfection (righteousness). He will also send His Spirit to live in us to empower us to live right and to understand God’s love letter to us—the Bible. Let’s make today the day we secure our reservation for Heaven.
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