FALSE TEETH AND SIN???


Steve was a homeless fellow at Myrtle Beach when one of the hurricanes came through a few years ago. Huddled in a corner alone and frightened he cried out to the Lord for mercy and said, "Oh God, if you will bring me through this thing safely, I will get rid of my cigarettes and my false teeth!” Then having made it safely through the storm, he got rid of his false teeth and went around toothless, but hung on to his cigarettes, profanity and whoremongering. When I asked him about his logic in the matter, he told me that it is a sin to wear false teeth because the Bible warns us about things that are false. He told one of his friends, “You don’t want to be wearing false teeth when Jesus comes back. But then again, you just as well go ahead and smile and look pretty because it will be too late then.”
This story is true, and we smile at the ridiculous logic involved. How is it that Steve could think he was doing God a service by laying down his teeth while holding on to his lifestyle of real sins. Jesus rebuked the pharisees for “straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel,” for being legalistic in trivial things while omitting the weightier matters of the law. This is “the doctrine of the Pharisees.” When we stand before the Lord, He is not going to say, “You were very disobedient and stubborn in your refusal to walk with me as a true disciple, but you did lay down your false teeth. So come on into heaven.”
Have you ever obeyed when it cost you something?
Did you ever offer up to God anything you actually treasured?
Have you given to God only those things you never wanted or cared for to begin with?
Jesus is not asking you to “give up a few things.” He is asking for your life. He wants you. Salvation is a gift of grace and is free. We cannot buy it or work for it. But nevertheless, to be a true disciple costs us everything. David told Ornan, “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing,” 1 Chronicles 21: 24.
“So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14: 33

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