Making Sure You Have Repented And Believed

The devil likes to fill a church up with those who have crept in unawares, unaware to themselves and others that they are not really saved. In the end, this will make them two-fold more the child of hell, as it leads to a disastrous result to themselves and the church.

In the interest of getting numbers and boasting of success, carnal ministries have forsaken the route of genuine repentance and heart belief, unto accepting people as they are with an induced profession of faith. While this appeals to the natural man, it does nothing to convert people to the real kingdom of God.

Consequently, churches are having to revamp their positions from teaching sound doctrine, which unsaved members cannot endure, unto offering all kinds of activities that satisfy the flesh, with a dash of religion to sear the conscience.

God’s will for mankind is that they be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He has designed the new birth to bring forth a spiritual nature that is of God, loves God, and finds its satisfaction in doing the will of God. Just as sin and error grieves the Holy Spirit, it also vexes the soul of a righteous person. The soul of a Christian is made lean and weary, apart from walking in the fellowship of God’s will and way. A Christian is not at home in the midst of religious error, nor do they find inner peace apart from obedience to God’s Word.

God’s children grow weak where the truth is being diluted with compromise. They only feel full and strong through being fed the meat of God’s Word. God’s Spirit bears witness within of the vanity of a religious worship that is not in spirit and in truth. They are aware that the only way to reap of the Spirit is to sow to the Spirit. They hearken to the fact that it’s not what man approves of, but what is approved of by God, that shall be accounted as faith.

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Sunday Sins

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day…” Revelation 1:10

There seem to be few and little left that are in and of the Holy Spirit on the Lord’s day. God has always had a 6 and 1 pattern for man’s week. The Old Testament Sabbath (Saturday) commemorated God’s finished work of creation–“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:3 Under the Mosaic Law (the Ten Commandments,) “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” Exodus 20:8 Sunday, The Lord’s Day, the resurrection day, commemorates the finished work of redemption, which is of greater significance, not less, than the finished work of creation. To not regard this ordination of God, is a transgression of God’s law = sin.

The Holy Spirit inspired the written Word of God in both the Old and New Testaments. Rather than re-write every principle found in the Old Testament, the New Testament (2 Timothy 3:15-17) binds both Testaments in principle and doctrine, by declaring that the text of the New Testament is found in the context of the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians 10:11 and Romans 15:4 refer to that which is written in the Old Testament as being “written for our learning” for our “ensample.” Since none of God’s Word ever passes away, but is settled forever, we know God hasn’t reversed Himself on any issue of His Holy Word.

Christ, Himself, (the author of true Christian faith and living) declared that he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil–Matthew 5:17. “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19 If the principles set forth in the Old Testament have been reversed by God, then God cannot judge anyone of the Old Testament time for having broken them, and He would be a debtor to those He punished in the past for the breaking of them.

The right-and-wrong of the Old Testament provides the context for the right-and-wrong of the New Testament. Notice a few:
(1) Not to use the Sabbath for secular work – Exodus 20:9-11
(2) Not to buy and sell on the Sabbath day – Nehemiah 13:15-22 – called the profaning of the sabbath
(3) Not to be used as a day for secular pleasure, but a day to be dedicated unto the worship and honor of God – Isaiah 58:13-14

WHO IS OF THIS SPIRIT TODAY?

While there have always been many professors, there have been but few believers of God’s Word. Exodus 31:13-17 declares that those who keep God’s Word on His day, and the sanctity thereof, are doing so as a sign between God and His people. THUS SAITH THE SCRIPTURES.

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God And His Children

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Romans 6:1-2

It is the sinful nature of man that desires not to do the will of God: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:7-8

When a person is truly saved: “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Romans 8:9 To have been born again, makes one a dual creature, i.e., “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:6

These two natures are at conflict with each other: “…for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:17 The flesh prevents the Christian from being sinlessly perfect; and the Spirit of God within prevents a Christian from being sold out to sin.

When God saves a sinner, He not only gives them a new creature within by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, but He also sets the sinner free, to where they are no longer held as a servant to sin: “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18

Also, God chastens His own children: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Hebrews 12:6-8

For a person to claim to be saved, and yet continue to live in sin, is the best evidence that they are not really saved, just deceived. All whom God saves become what His salvation produces. Let no man deceive himself. Salvation involves repentance, i.e., turning from sin, unto God. Thus, there is no mind to continue in sin that grace may abound, but to be saved from sin.

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In Short Supply

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” Ezekiel 22:30

In Noah’s day, there was but one, Noah. Abraham rose to the occasion, but Lot failed. Though despised and rejected, Joseph fulfilled God’s plan and purpose. In spite of overwhelming circumstances, God raised Moses up. When the whole generation of Israelites failed, that God brought up out of Egypt, Joshua and Caleb’s faith remained steadfast.

The book of Judges records several instances of God plucking certain ones out of the state of spiritual apostasy, and raising them up to lead the nation to victory. God took a shepherd boy and made him into mighty King David.

The Lord called fishermen, etc., and made them His apostles, pillars in the church He built. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-27

When God seeks out a man to make up the hedge and stand in the gap, it is not about looking for those who possess superior qualities in and of themselves. It is rather about God looking on the heart, and seeing one who will hearken to, and follow the bidding of the Holy Spirit, so as to be made the vessel of God, through the strength of God’s grace and power.

“Many are called, but few are chosen.”

God is looking for men who will seek their vision about life from heaven above, with eternities values in view. Men who understand that upholding the truth and honoring God, are how they fulfill their life’s duty now, and will rejoice in that which is to come.

The call of God is unto fathers to declare unto their children the testimonies of God through training and example, “That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.” Psalm 78:7

Have you made your calling and election sure, so that you shall never fall, so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord? 2 Peter 1:10-11

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God’s Rule For Study

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

We must not throw a “monkey wrench” into our spiritual lives by violating God’s basic rule for a true understanding of His Word. Study, as God prescribes it, is from where true Christian knowledge, understanding, and wisdom develops.

We must first study the Word, rather than what someone else says about the Word. Psalm 1:2-3: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

In all good, honest, and truthful studies, the text is first studied to get the full and complete message of what is really being said. In judicial matters, the judge does not go by what some “experts” say about the law, but by the context of what the law reads. We must believe in and uphold God’s law regarding His inspired Word: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” 2 Peter 1:20 It should be carefully noted that a person will not get the wrong understanding about Christianity by having only God’s input!!!

Someone may say, “Why should I go through the struggle of studying the Bible itself, when there are so many ‘good’ Bible study courses and books available?” But is that not like saying, “Why should we concern ourselves with the constitution, and/or the written laws since there are so many ‘good’ lawyers and legal commentaries available?”

Yes, you can go for the “ready-made” so-called Bible studies. They are geared to be interesting to human intellect. They seem to advance one beyond the labors of one’s own study of the Bible only. Today, ministers are avoiding what must be endured to study the Bible verse by verse, and instead are presenting so-called Bible studies that give people “an interesting overview” of the scriptures in a short amount of time. People are “oohing” and “aahing” at what they are learning so fast from these studies, which are presented on the intellectual level.

If we go to the ready made study, what do we really have? We have nothing more than man’s interpretation of the way he wants us to perceive the scriptures. This is the means that all man made religions use to derive their doctrines from the Bible.

Faith is not developed from the intellectual discourses set forth by men, but from direct study of the Bible, Romans 10:17. The whole counsel of God comes from the direct study of all of God’s Word, without the prejudice or omission of the study courses of men.

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