Can Sin get Saved? The Deception of Misdirection

Should the new motto of the Church now be “Hate the sin…but never confront the sinner!”?

As the Church has embarked down a road which rallies around a “Scripture” which is nonexistent…”Hate the sin, but love the Sinner.”…the TRUTH of that motto has become so skewed and distorted that its basis in Scripture is only noted BEFORE it is viewed in its present application within ministry. Let me be clear: there is DEFINITE Scriptural truth in saying “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” Jesus died for SINNERS…of which we are ALL included! Jesus loves EVERYONE…whether good or bad, obedient or disobedient, holy or hateful, saint or sinner. The same Jesus Who gave His life as a sacrifice for YOUR sins also gave His life as a sacrifice for HITLER’S sins. God’s love for us is never in question!

The problem with the motto “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” is not one of TRUTH…it is a problem of APPLICATION. So…with that said…let me begin here with a simple truth:

You can only confront the SIN if you are willing to confront the SINNER. SIN does not exist absent of a SINNER!

In most cases...the Church claims it is confronting sin while never confronting sinners. But that is impossible! SIN does not REPENT...SINNERS do! Can we EVANGELIZE sin?! Can sin become a "new creation?!" Can sin "get saved?!" Can LUST repent, being miraculously transformed into LOVE?! Can MURDER change its ways?!

Sinners can repent. The lost can be evangelized. Sinners can become “new creations” in Christ Jesus. Sinners can get saved. Those who lust can cease to lust. Murderers can cease to be murderers.

John 1:9 (KJV) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In my blog “The Sound of Silence: The Church of Laryngitis”, I asked the question: Why has the actual spiritual application of the motto “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” led to SILENCE in the Church? Here was my answer: “Because many people are only COMFORTABLE dealing with the SIN…but they do not actually want to deal with SINNERS!” In the motto “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.”, the Church has found the words to express and excuse the very thing it has been doing so well for so long, as Christians have long made excuses for why they never tell anyone about Jesus. “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” allowed many Christians to breath a BIG SIGH OF RELIEF as they sink down into their Lazy Boy Recliner, turn on the television, pop the top on a “cold one”, and relax to the soothing scenes of DAYS OF OUR LIVES and DANCING WITH THE STARS and AMERICAN IDOL and GREY’S ANATOMY and THE BIGGEST LOSER.

SIN is easy to “deal with”…just let the pastor preach a sermon on it. But…“Don’t you dare make someone feel bad about their sin! We don’t want anyone uncomfortable in church, you know! They might get mad and never come back to church! How could you drive someone away like that!?! Do you not know that the Bible says we are not to judge!?!”

“Whew! I do not want to make the people who give me my paycheck mad! I had better find a BETTER WAY to deal with this ‘sin’ issue!”

And…boy oh boy…how the leaders have listened to the demands of the people! Maybe those ears were itching BEFORE, but the leadership has so catered to the masses that every ear from Hollywood to Hanoi should be ITCH FREE by now!

2 Timothy 4:1-4 KJV “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove , rebuke , exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

So how can we “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” and do it in a BIBLICAL way? What happens when we are SO worried about offending PEOPLE that we actually begin to offend GOD?

If ANYTHING causes us to be SILENT about sin, then it CANNOT be God behind it! As I said on my blog yesterday: “You cannot preach a SAVIOR if you do not preach a SINNER! The truth of the Gospel is the existence of BOTH!” In truth, any thought which says that we can preach a POSITIVE MESSAGE ONLY (while still remaining Biblical) is simply a LIE! We are just never commanded in Scripture to preach POSITIVE: but we are told to preach TRUTH! Just like with a battery, power is only available if both the positive AND the negative are properly connected!

The misapplications of the overwhelmingly popular “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” are being played out in church after church across America and around the world. One such popular "spiritual principle" in the Church today...a false one, I may add...is the practice of "rebuking" sin in someone as "anointed prayer warriors" lay hands on the people. This is a practice born out of an erroneous twist of truth which says we can somehow SEPARATE the sin from the sinner…and this is just not possible.

Let's use wisdom here...instead of mangling Scripture to give credence to a doctrine which HYPES what is HOLY. The realization that we CANNOT "rebuke" sin in someone's life SHOULD BE...as they say...ELEMENTARY. So...let me prove it to you. Tell me...who can repent of YOUR sins?? Who is responsible for YOU accepting Jesus...or, for that matter, REJECTING Jesus?? Who will go to Heaven or Hell for YOUR sins?? Who will live YOUR life...whether in OBEDIENCE to Christ or in DISOBEDIENCE to Christ??

You see...we are all responsible for our OWN sin! No...we cannot SAVE ourselves: that only comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But...if we are going to RECEIVE that "free gift"...the Bible says we must CONFESS our sins...and REPENT of our sins. Any thought that I can rebuke YOUR sins…or that YOU can rebuke MY sins…is simply ABSURD! In Jude, we see that any declaration saying WE can rebuke sin…or Satan…is nothing more than FALSE DOCTRINE.

Jude 1:9 KJV “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said , The Lord rebuke thee.”

What was Jude discussing here? Go read it for yourself. You will see…IN CONTEXT…that Jude is discussing the FALSE TEACHERS who had “crept in unawares” (verse 4)…or, as the NKJV words it, they had “crept in unnoticed.” Jude calls these false teachers “ungodly men” (verse 4) as they speak “great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” (verse 16 - NKJV) Here (and in MANY other verses of Scripture!), we find that it is NOT those who dare to speak AGAINST the false teachers to whom Jude is referring, but it is those who are speaking the POSITIVE, “flattering” message to the people which Jude is inspired by God to REVEAL and REBUKE.

But…it is in verse 9 that we can come to fully understand that Jude is describing the false teachers of today…specifically the doctrine of “rebuking” in its erroneous application. In careful study, you will find that what is occurring is this: these men are attempting to enter a realm…and proclaiming it as possible…that is reserved only for the Lord! Oh…be sure…the Bible says that we have the OBLIGATION to rebuke individuals for such things as: Sin (1 Timothy 5:20); false teaching (Titus 1:13); personal wrong (Luke 17:3). And Jesus rebuked the cities in which He had performed most of His miracles, as they refused to repent (which defies EVERY claim that it only refers to those who are SAVED in speaking or “rebuke“ or “correction“ and the life!)! (Matthew 11:20)

The focus of Jude 1:9, we then discover, is this: false teachers who attribute to THEMSELVES, and to those they are TEACHING, the attributes and powers which are ONLY held by God Himself! And…what do we find that these false teachers were trying to rebuke? SATAN and SIN!

Now…FOLLOW ME VERY CLOSELY HERE! What I am about to say is what I am SURE the Holy Spirit has REVEALED and CONFIRMED to me THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD!

Why are false teachers entering into false teaching which purports that we can rebuke sin?? What is REALLY behind these types of teachings?? You see…the Word of God says that false teachers will infiltrate the Church with “secretly” introduced “heresies.” (2 Peter 2:1) When their false teaching is introduced in the Church, we see that there is a HIDDEN AGENDA which is “destructive. (2 Peter 2:1) Applying this (and many other passages) in context, we find that there is a GRADUAL shift in doctrine…a shift that is so gradual that it might not even be discovered. Yet, over time, it is akin to moving the continents just one inch a day from the time of Adam and Eve. What seems to be such a small SHIFTING would one day be CATACLYSMIC!

With that shift in DOCTRINE…many of these false teachings lead to a shift in SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY!

Look again at Jude 1:9: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said , The Lord rebuke thee.”

Jude makes it clear: when it comes to Satan and sin, we are to leave the REBUKING up to the Lord! Who is the ONLY One Who has the power to DEFEAT and CONQUER sin?? Who is the ONLY One Who can simply SPEAK things into creation (to the renouncing of false teachers who claim otherwise!)?? Who is the ONLY One Who is “worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals??" (Revelation 5:1-5)

Some power is reserved for GOD and GOD ALONE!!

(If you have never read God’s responses to Job in the Book of Job in the Bible, I would URGE you to do so. It is so powerful in its presentation of GOD as GOD…and that WE are NOT God!)

So let us now apply this one example of false teaching to the subject at hand: Why would false teachers begin to teach that it is SIN that we are to focus on…that we are to REBUKE?? Maybe you haven’t caught on yet…so let me help you. Notice the subtle shift over the last few decades within the Church. The false teachings and the false manifestations have become more bizarre day by day. But they all actually connect together as in an intricate puzzle…a puzzle into which the one, final remaining piece must be inserted so the picture becomes clear.

How could Satan stop the PRIMARY PURPOSE of the Church from being carried out?? You ask…well, what IS that primary purpose?? Now THAT is simple: to spread the Gospel to everyone possible. But as I said before…“You cannot preach a SAVIOR if you do not preach a SINNER! The truth of the Gospel is the existence of BOTH!” So…false teachers have ACTUALLY followed the proverbial “path of least resistance.” The doctrines of the false teachers are NECESSITATED by the fact that they are bowing to “itching ears.” Thus, if a leader does not want to “offend” anyone…or “hurt” anyone…or “judge” anyone…then that leader must search for that “path of least resistance.”

Where does that “path of least resistance” lie? Simply put…in a NON-CONFRONTATIONAL Gospel. Do they cease to USE words like “confronting” and other similar expressions? No. But the FOCUS of the “rebuke” and “confronting” has to be changed! Thus…the gradual shift from SINNER to SIN! Hey…if you want to keep the crowds happy, you had BETTER find a way to NOT call them SINNERS…and you had BETTER find a way to tell them ABOUT their SIN while never DENOTING them as SINNERS! Now…as this subtle shift has come into FULL BLOOM…we see the ULTIMATE shift of all…as false teachers proclaim to the masses that their sins are not their fault! You see…”You didn’t have a CHOICE to sin or not! It was the demon of COCAINE that made you do it! It was that demon of SMOKING that made you do it! It was that demon of POVERTY that led to your financial situation! It was that demon of GLUTTONY that made you obese and unhealthy! It was that demon of HOMOSEXUALITY that made you gay! So you must REBUKE that foul demon! And make sure you do it IN THE NAME OF JESUS!”

Alas…not only have we removed the RESPONSIBILITY for sin from the SINNER…we have given them all “authority” to “rebuke” sin out of someone’s life…CONFESSION and REPENTANCE be damned!!

Amazingly…the HUGE FLAW in this DELUSIONAL teaching is somehow BYPASSING the minds and discernment of the vast majority of the Church today. Without confronting SINNERS, most of these “saints” are actually still SINNERS! So, what we see occurring is a mass of SINNERS being REASSURED in their sin…and these SINNERS are being told they not only have power…but they have power that is EQUAL to GOD! The scenario becomes: “Do you want to be free from your sin? Then you need to REBUKE that demon of PICK-YOUR-FAVORITE-SIN and command him to GO…in Jesus Name!” And not ONE PERSON in what we call the “Pentecostal/Charismatic” branch of the Church can HONESTLY deny that those words are INDEED being spoken by every prominent “minister” who presently finds his “home” on “Christian Television Networks.” In all of this, the wide variations in styles, and the fluctuations between the mix of false teachings, may give each ministry a different flair and “flavor”, but…in the end…they are all simply following the “path of least resistance.”

The key in all of this is something I have spoken often: Satan wants TRUTH silenced…and he wants SINNERS to stop being CONFRONTED.

I say today what I spoke yesterday: Jesus did not confront VERBS in most cases…Jesus most often confronted NOUNS. When we see Scripture dealing with people who lie, we seldom see examples of where the focus is on the ACTION. (There ARE some examples…but those are during general teachings, as God the Father or Jesus or even the Disciples/Apostles were establishing the “ground rules”, so to speak.) You see…the Church LOVES to tout the fact that “Jesus ate with sinners.” as some MANTRA by which we are to assume that that fact means Jesus stayed among the sinners, yet He never even confronted them about their sin. No…that Biblical analysis simply doesn’t “wash!” The examples in Scripture are simply OVERWHELMING in number where we find God/Jesus (and you CANNOT even BEGIN to try to separate the two!) confronting SINNERS. God does not speak to adultery…He speaks to the “adulterer.” God does not speak to lying…He speaks to the “liar.” God does not speak to murder…He speaks to the murderer.

And…Jesus did not spend time with INDIVIDUALS and speak to SIN…He spoke to INDIVIDUALS. And if that individual was a sinner…Jesus “labeled” them by their sin. Did that mean it was…or that it has to be…in some angry, sinister address which wreaks of cruelty? No. But…in today’s Church, you can be WEEPING over what you are having to say…yet the “itching ears” will STILL cry, “Bigot!” and “You are judging!” and “Stop condemning!”…and so on and so on and so on.

Church…SIN is NOT going to change. Sin will be sin until the fullness of time has come…and until all creation sits at that moment in time which the Bible calls “the end of the age.” You can speak to it…you can rebuke it…you can “claim” it as “gone”…you can dance in the Holy Ghost and roll on the floor until you are blue in the face…but SIN is going NOWHERE. You will have to live a life which FIGHTS and RESISTS sin. As we live this walk of FAITH, we will one day be noted as “Overcomers!” On that day…what will we have OVERCOME?? Sin!

So…what are we to do with all of this? Where do we go from here?

We have to begin to address SINNERS. In doing so…we must tell them the REASON that THEY (NOT humanity…but THEM…the person who sits or stands before us!) need a SAVIOR. We MUST NOT be afraid to TELL them of their sin. We ALL are told to “search our hearts”…and that is NOT just at the moment of decision regarding SALVATION! We must be HONEST…and tell them the TRUTH! This Christian walk is NOT the life of “favor” and “financial blessings” and all of the OTHER mumbo jumbo, out-of-context, Scripture-twisting claims by the false teachers of the day! I like what I heard by a minister recently, as he said, “If THIS is Your Best Life Now…” as he made reference to the ear-tickling, error-filled, positive-only message of Joel Osteen’s best-selling book..."...then you are going to HELL!” Our "best life" is promised in HEAVEN...not here on earth!

The promises of what we ARE to receive are not some universal promise by God to the believer of WEALTH and RICHES here on earth! And ANY decent study of God’s Word WILL reveal that the basis for ANY and ALL teachings by the false teachers which make such claims are based ONLY on Scripture REMOVED from its PROPER CONTEXT! There truly is NOT ONE Scripture which is used in their erroneous teachings which is TRULY found to declare what these charlatans claim...when FULLY studied and FULLY evaluated IN CONTEXT!

And…those are the EXACT SAME methods being used to espouse the POSITIVE-ONLY, seeker-sensitive, non-offensive “gospel” which is so prevalent today within the Church. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an OFFENSE to those who are perishing: THAT is the truth of the Word of God. If you can make the Gospel inoffensive, then you have NOT preached the TRUE Gospel. The Word of God DOES NOT LIE! So…if the Bible says it will OFFEND…and the “gospel” you preach is cheered and applauded and easily accepted by the masses…be sure: YOU HAVE CEASED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!

The Church MUST confront SINNERS…because SIN isn’t going to change! Go confront SIN all you want…but SINNERS will never flinch! I have often said: You will not change the ACTIONS of man until you can change the HEART of man.

Now…who wants or NEEDS proof of all that I have said?? Well…here you go!

2 Corinthians 7:1-2 (NKJV)

1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. 5 For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. 6 Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. 8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. 12 Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

Can you see what Paul was saying? Paul is telling the Corinthian church that he has never spoken the truth for the express purpose of hurting ANYONE. In verse 2, he begins to tell them that all that has been said to them was out of LOVE…even if the truth HURT a bit. Did Paul LEAVE them with rebuke? No. But did he FAIL or REFUSE to rebuke? No! (Go read 1 Corinthians. WOW! I bet there were some in that congregation who were FURIOUS with Paul after that letter!) But then Paul reveals how confronting SINNERS works for good! (Do not be fooled if you think the letter was “general”, and that it did NOT confront INDIVIDUALS. Paul didn’t write to EVERY Christian EVERYWHERE. He wrote to ONE CHURCH. And that church knew EXACTLY who was GUILTY of the sins which Paul had mentioned! Some may have DENIED it, but Paul specifically TOLD THEM that they were to handle the situations and deal with those who were guilty. In other words: deal with the SINNERS so the SIN will cease!) The RESULTS from confronting SINNERS led to “godly sorrow” which brought about “repentance”…which led to “salvation!” Now THAT is the way it is supposed to happen!!!

Everyone wants to win the masses…but few want to win the individual. Why? That FEAR of CONFRONTATION. But…simply ask yourself this question:

If it would mean Heaven or Hell for my own child…would it make a difference? I have NEVER witnessed ANYONE getting SAVED when nothing or nobody ever told them that they were a SINNER.