Dearest Dave, I went to church today & my pastor's words rang clear & true to what I've been trying to say. After hearing his message, I feel more encouraged to speak to you truthfully. The Holy Spirit is really convicting me to say this to you. I think that after this message, I've said enough. I will say no more & I will just listen to how you respond to my statements. This will be my last appeal because in scripture, it says not to argue too much and I would like to obey that. I do not agree that salvation consists of willful sin. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that salvation frees you to sin as you please or that Christ died to let you sin without fear of Judgement. It says quite the opposite. Beware of false teachers who preach this sort of Gospel! (2 Peter 2:1-22) So please consider this, if not anything else I've said. Christ bought us with his blood, yes? Before he came into our lives, we were sinners, we were wolves with no righteousness in our hearts whatsoever (Romans 8:7-8, Romans 3:10-18). All you have to do is look at the world around us to truly appreciate my statement. America has left God behind & I think as scripture says, He has left Americans to fulfill their evil lusts. Romans 1:24 For this reason God allowed their lusts to control them. Romans 1:26 For this reason God allowed their shameful passions to control them. Romans 1:28 And because they thought it was worthless to acknowledge God, God allowed their own immoral minds to control them. **Take for example, the Catholic priests who one after another have molested young boys. It's despicable, and it’s really sad. But I believe that that this is a judgment from God. In the past, God protected priests from their wicked hearts, as he protects us, and he kept them from sinning so gravely, however, today, God has let them go to fill their shameful lusts. **One Old Testament example is Exodus 9:12 of how God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Do you remember that story? God hardened his heart so that He would receive glory. He does everything for his Glory of course. Romans 9:9-16 He did that so that the Egyptians would know that the God of Israel is not a god to be messed with. He meant business, so he hardened Pharaoh's heart so that Moses would go to him day after day and plagues would hit Egypt day after day. So we know that God can to this and has done this before. Now, God has hardened the hearts of many today, I believe. Because as they refuse Him, their hearts grow colder and harder yet. This is so sad, but how else would people allow the massacring of children? The genocide of infants? 4000 infants are aborted everyday!! It's so sickening, and I weep for those children! But this is America today.
Revelation 22:11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.” As I said, (and we both know), Christ bought us with his blood. He cleansed us in it, that we might be His and no one else's. He bought us out of bondage and out of the addiction we have to sin. He came to simply cure our diseased bodies of sin. Now how can you or anyone say, in knowledge of this, that one can still be infected of grave, grave sin and know Christ? It doesn't make any sense to me and maybe you can explain this to me. The Bible says choose this day whom you will serve. (Joshua 24:15) We are servants, but more accurately we are slaves. (John 8:34, 2 Peter 2:19, Romans 6:20) Additionally, we have two choices. Christ or sin/the enemy. The Bible says that you cannot serve two masters. (Matthew 6:24) I know that it is talking about money, but indirectly it means that you cannot love God & love the things of this world - the biggest of which is sin! We must hate sin now that we belong to Christ. He bought us out of slavery to sin, and brought us into slavery to HIM. We are slaves to Him & His righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18) We must allow Him into our hearts so that He might cleanse us since we cannot cleanse ourselves (Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). THIS IS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. That He died on that cross to save us from sin, not so that we could go back to it! 2 Peter 2:20 People can know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and escape the world’s filth. But if they get involved in this filth again and give in to it, they are worse off than they were before. It would have been better off for them never to have known the way of life that God approves of than to know it and turn their backs on the holy life God told them to live. (Because on the Judgement Seat, they cannot say that they didn’t know. So they are judged more severely by God.) Verse 22: These proverbs have come true for them: “A dog goes back to its vomit”, and “A sow that has been washed goes back to roll around in the mud.” (The dog goes back to its own vomit because that is it’s nature and the person who goes back to sin after hearing the Gospel is like a dog who goes back to its own vomit because they never changed their nature, and perhaps they never knew Jesus and his salvation from the start). ** Take, for example that Jesus enters a prison in which you sit, filling your sentence. He pays your bail of $1,000,000,000,000,000,000 and then you are free! Great, right? But the one exception is that you are now a prisoner of Christ instead. Not a bad deal. When you are out, how can you go back into that prison of sin? How can you dare go in there if you know that your new Master hates sin? Even more, He hates that prison! He loveees you soooooooo much that He went & paid your debt, free of charge!! How can you turn your back & go back into the prison of sin? This is the meaning of Matthew 7:21-23. Those who know Christ, know righteousness. Not good works, but righteousness. So if you don’t know righteousness, then you don’t know Christ and most importantly, he does not know you. Matthew 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Psalms 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. In the same way, those who know God, know His love and know Him as a loving Father who disciplines us when we go astray! And he leads us in straight, righteous paths. Hebrews 12:4-11 I mean, my mom spanked me as a child, she really did. And I hated it. But now I'm grown up and I realize that she did this in love. If I had never known my mom and her patience and discipline, I would be arrogant, rude, selfish...etc. Hebrews 12:4-6 God is a loving Father who disciplines us when we sin. This is how we know that we can't get away with it! Hebrew 12:1 Since we are surrounded by so many examples of faith, we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up. God hates sin! I cannot underscore that enough! Anyone who says he loves it is gravely, gravely mistaken, and my heart aches for them because they do not know Him. Anyone who says he approves of it cannot be right or the whole Old Testament is a lie. My dearest friend, you cannot cherry pick verses to suit yourself or to feel better inside about your sin. This is not what Christ came to do. Look at the entire Bible (not just the Gospel of John) but all of it. God is a god with really high standards. Just look at the Laws of Moses in Leviticus. Our God is a Holy God and He is still the same god. (Hebrews 13:8) Because we could not meet them, He sent His Son to HELP us meet those high standards. (Romans 3:23-25) That is what scripture means when it says that Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17) He paid the debt for us and freed us from slavery to sin so that we could meet God’s standards and be right with Him. Without Christ, we are animals. Without Christ, we are capable of aborting 4000 babies a day without any hesitation or guilt! I'm so fired up about this through the Holy Spirit!! I hope you can sense the passion in my words. When I think about the many who are going to Hell, my heart weeps and I really hope you are seeing my love for you. I do not know you but I LOVE YOU. You are a brother to me! We are brother & sister in Christ. The Christian life is not meant to be easy, this is why the gate is described as being narrow and few will find it. (Matthew 7: 13-14) This is why 2 Corinthians was written by Paul. It was because the Corinthians were going back to their old ways, ways that Jesus died on the cross to conquer! He did not die so that we can live in sin & have salvation. He died so that we could live FREE of sin AND have salvation!! This is such great news, right? This is why they call it the Good News! Dave, this is not a gospel of good works. It is a gospel of an ever changing heart and an ever growing likeness to God. Do you know why God calls us His children? Because we ARE LIKE HIM in Christ. And who is He? WHAT is He? Read the Old Testament & you will get a very good idea of who He is. Read Proverbs especially because that is wisdom from God! Listen to Christ's words and that understanding will become complete. We are His Children because we are becoming more righteous each day like Him. (Romans 8:14-16) Hebrews 12:7-8 Endure your discipline. God corrects you as a father corrects his children. All children are disciplined by their fathers. If you aren’t disciplined like the other children, you aren’t part of the family Example: My grandpa who was a very very tough man, who was very unforgiving, melted when he came to Christ. Christ really had to shake him up before he surrendered to him. After he surrendered, he became so different, so kind, so timid and humble. My mom always talks about it, shaking her head, marveling at the change even after 20 years. Both her parents changed dramatically due to Christ. My grandma was an alcoholic and she was abusive to my mom, but she completely changed when she came to Christ. My mom is so amazed because she received the mom she always wanted as a child; someone who is kind, gentle, and supportive. This occurred because of supernatural workings of the Holy Spirit, which is called sanctification; this occurred when they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. My mom received new parents, who were born again and were new people after accepting Jesus Christ and repenting of their sins. This example isn't the same for every believer who accepts Christ, of course, but that's how it was for my grandparents. When we come to Christ, we come to know God as a Father. Did you know that Jews do not call God, Father or Abba? It is only in the NT that God comes to be known as a Father to us and this is through His Son. Through His Son we are redeemed and reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) and we become His Children through Jesus Christ who washes our sins away and because through His death, we, too, die to sin's power over us (Romans 6:3-8). Romans 8:14-16 Certainly, all who are guided by God’s Spirit are God’s children. You haven’t received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God’s adopted children by which we call out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now what makes people a family? What visible characteristics makes you distinguish two people and say that “Wow! Are those two related?” It is their PHYSICAL looks!! There are some things that are seen, and cannot be denied no matter what because they are on display for the world to see, such as the resemblance between me and my earthly father. You cannot deny it. Though my father abandoned me as a child, if he saw me today, there is no way that he could deny that I was his child. We look like the same person! (Only with different genders lol) So again, why are we God's children? And how? It is because we physically look like Him in a way that the Old Testament Jews did not and could not. We have come to know righteousness in a way they did not, and this is because of Jesus! He has reconciled us to our Father so now it is possible to LOOK like him. Through salvation, through Christ, we take on his traits & characteristics as our old selves die away (sanctification). This happens to the extent that Christ cannot say "away from me, I never knew you". He says this when we bear no resemblance to Him. That resemblance is righteousness, my dear friend. When one is born again, a righteous heart is born in them! It is for the very same reason that me and you, strangers, now call each other brother and sister! It is simply because we have a trait in common and that trait is righteousness at heart and this comes from OUR Father and this is all possible through Christ who died for me and for you! In other words, in Christ we are able to have a chance at eternity, to FIGHT the shackles of sin and break free. Jesus showed us this through his life and by dying on the cross and rising again. He defeated sin and he defeated death, then He rose again a new man with new skin! Do you remember how his disciples couldn't recognize him??? (John 20:14 John 20:20, John 20:27-28, John 21:4) THIS IS WHY! They didn't recognize Him because he was a new man! So in Jesus we become New as well (2 Corinthians 5:17) and we come to know righteousness with His help and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance and conviction. We become more and more holy like our Holy Father, God Almighty in Heaven!! This is the Good News!! We now have a Heavenly Father, we can now defeat sin, but the best part is that we can even conquer death because we gain eternal life!! (Romans 6:3-13) How do we know this? Through Jesus and the example he set for us by dying and rising again after three days!! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ. We conquer sin such that death is no longer the end!! We can live eternal and sinless!! Rejoice in this! To conclude: 1) Jesus did not die for us to return to sin, he died so that we could be free from it. (Romans 6:8-11) 2) We are God's children because we are born anew in His likeness through our Lord Jesus Christ. We now, in the New Testament call God, Abba, or Father because of this. Jesus showed this to us. (Romans 8:15) 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships. 3) Our God is a Holy God who hates sin so it is contradictory for Him to allow us to sin freely. Jesus died to save us from sin. 4) We are slaves when we practice sin. (John 8:34) This is a fact, but we have to choose who we will serve today. We are either slaves to sin or slaves of righteousness, we either serve God or we serve the world. Jesus came & gave us a choice. He held out His Hand & bought us with His life - his blood. Through Him we are NOW able to conquer sin forevermore after we believe in Him & after we repent of our sins! But without Him, we cannot reach God's standards. But He is our Master, not sin. So we serve Him in righteousness not in sin, my dear friend. 5) We cannot be saved without Him, but through Him we are saved from wrath & condemnation because He saves us from sin. This occurs through the Holy Spirit which disciplines & reprimands us (repentance) simply because we are like spoilt children in need of a good spanking! Haha 6) Therefore, if we turn back to our sinful ways, His work has not been done simply because His death was to accomplish righteousness! Hebrews 10:26-27 If we go on sinning after we have learned the truth, no sacrifice can take away our sins. All that is left is a terrifying wait for judgment and a raging fire that will consume God’s enemies. He died to turn us to God & away from the devil. Sin is our first nature, we love it, we relish in it, we are comfortable with it, like a pig in mud (John 8:44). But Christ washed that sin away! He came to make us new so that we can be with God in Heaven someday. God could not be with us in our filth because He hates it! Again, look at the Old Testament & how angry God is! Please look at the Bible as a whole because the whole Bible was inspired by God. Not just a few verses here and there. 7) We need to endure in repentance of our sins. Paul preaches for endurance because a Christian life is hard; striving to be away from our old & comfortable sinful nature is hard at times. (Hebrews 10:35-36 ) We are prone to sin & prone to wander, of course but through Christ, we can overcome!!! Though the wages of sin is death, this is not the case for us because Christ pays that price for us and frees us of sin, simultaneously giving us eternal life!! I recommend you read Romans 6:1-23, 7:1-25, 8:1-27, 12:1-21, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, 13:1-13, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, 12:9-10, Galatians 5:13-26, Ephesians 6:10-20, Philippians 3:7-15, Colossians 3:12-17, Hebrews 3:12-13, 10:8-10, 10:26-39, 12:1-29, 13:1-21, Matthew 7:13-29,13:1-53, 19:16-26, 20:1-16, 25:31-46 and there are many more! I have testimonies in my life of how I've overcome some sin & how I'm still struggling with others. If you want to hear them, just let me know and anytime you need encouragement, please feel free to message me, brother. God Bless You my friend. I will be praying for you every day because I care about you! I think God placed us in this conversation for a reason, and my prayer is that He is glorified through our conversations! Peace & Grace, Evangeline
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