Day 12/30 – Sin Separates

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter Henrichsen
Sin Separates
Day Three Hundred Sixty-four

“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” Ephesians 4:18

Physical death is the separation of the body from the soul; spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. All acknowledge that death is separation. In an auto accident, if the person is thrown from the vehicle and killed, the newspaper reports that the body was found on the side of the road. If, however, the person does not die, the paper says Mr. Jones was found on the side of the road. The reporter understands that at death Mr. Jones is no longer in his body.

God is perfect holiness and when you sin against Him, separation results. This the Bible calls spiritual death. Sin separates; it always has and always will. Two men are in a partnership where one steals from the other. The result is separation. A husband is unfaithful to his wife and separation occurs. When you sense that your friend has lied to you, an environment of alienation results.

Because of the sin of Adam, you were born dead in your sin.468 In Christ, when you were converted, you were made spiritually alive. You will never be any more spiritually alive than you were when you became a follower of Christ. The only death left for you is physical, and you will receive a new body at the resurrection.

Although death is separation, not all separation is death. Thus, as a child of God, when you sin you do not spiritually die, but you are separated from the Lord. You cannot be knowingly disobedient to Jesus and experience fellowship with Him. Your prayer for forgiveness, after salvation, is not to be saved again, but for restoring the relationship. Your sin has separated you from Him and you must repent for restoration.

468 cf. Ephesians 2:1

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Zechariah 13-14 Revelation 21 (New King James Version)

Zechariah 13-14
Idolatry Cut Off
13 “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
2 “It shall be in that day,” says the Lord of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. 3 It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies.
4 “And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive. 5 But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’ 6 And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your [a]arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’
The Shepherd Savior
7
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,
Against the Man who is My Companion,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered;
Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.
8
And it shall come to pass in all the land,”
Says the Lord,
“That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die,
But one-third shall be left in it:
9
I will bring the one-third through the fire,
Will refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them.
I will say, ‘This is My people’;
And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
The Day of the Lord
14
Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
And your [b]spoil will be divided in your midst.
2
For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken,
The houses [c]rifled,
And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity,
But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3
Then the Lord will go forth
And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
4
And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.
5
Then you shall flee through My mountain valley,
For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal.
Yes, you shall flee
As you fled from the earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.
Thus the Lord my God will come,
And all the saints with [d]You.
6
It shall come to pass in that day
That there will be no light;
The [e]lights will diminish.
7
It shall be one day
Which is known to the Lord—
Neither day nor night.
But at evening time it shall happen
That it will be light.
8
And in that day it shall be
That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,
Half of them toward [f]the eastern sea
And half of them toward [g]the western sea;
In both summer and winter it shall occur.
9
And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
“The Lord is one,”
And His name one.
10 All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. [h]Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.
11
The people shall dwell in it;
And no longer shall there be utter destruction,
But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:
Their flesh shall [i]dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
13
It shall come to pass in that day
That a great panic from the Lord will be among them.
Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor,
And raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand;
14
Judah also will fight at Jerusalem.
And the wealth of all the surrounding nations
Shall be gathered together:
Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.
15
Such also shall be the plague
On the horse and the mule,
On the camel and the donkey,
And on all the cattle that will be in those camps.
So shall this plague be.
The Nations Worship the King
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the [j]punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, [k]every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
Footnotes:
• Zechariah 13:6 Or hands
• Zechariah 14:1 plunder or booty
• Zechariah 14:2 Or plundered
• Zechariah 14:5 Or you; LXX, Tg., Vg. Him
• Zechariah 14:6 Lit. glorious ones
• Zechariah 14:8 The Dead Sea
• Zechariah 14:8 The Mediterranean Sea
• Zechariah 14:10 Lit. She
• Zechariah 14:12 Lit. decay
• Zechariah 14:19 Lit. sin
• Zechariah 14:21 Or on every pot . . . shall be engraved “HOLINESS TO THE LORD OF HOSTS”

Revelation 21
All Things Made New
21 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, [a]John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said [b]to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
6 And He said to me, “It[c] is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes [d]shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 But the cowardly, [e]unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
The New Jerusalem
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came [f]to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the [g]bride, the Lamb’s wife.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the [h]great city, the [i]holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
14 Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the [j]names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand [k]furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. 17 Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. 18 The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
The Glory of the New Jerusalem
22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine [l]in it, for the [m]glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations [n]of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor [o]into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into [p]it. 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything [q]that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Footnotes:
• Revelation 21:2 NU, M omit John
• Revelation 21:5 NU, M omit to me
• Revelation 21:6 M omits It is done
• Revelation 21:7 M I shall give him these things
• Revelation 21:8 M adds and sinners,
• Revelation 21:9 NU, M omit to me
• Revelation 21:9 M woman, the Lamb’s bride
• Revelation 21:10 NU, M omit great
• Revelation 21:10 NU, M holy city, Jerusalem
• Revelation 21:14 NU, M twelve names
• Revelation 21:16 Lit. stadia, about 1,380 miles in all
• Revelation 21:23 NU, M omit in it
• Revelation 21:23 M very glory
• Revelation 21:24 NU, M omit of those who are saved
• Revelation 21:24 M of the nations to Him
• Revelation 21:26 M adds that they may enter in.
• Revelation 21:27 NU, M profane, nor one who causes