THE EXHORTATION THREAD (For Christians Who Love Jesus)

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

On 3/4/2018 at 9:51 AM, Wayne222 said:

    If we walk in the spirit we will not live by the flesh. The only way to not live in sin is to walk in the spirit. The things of the spirit are love kindness long suffering  goodness knowledge godliness.  If we live by the spirit we will bear fruit.  The new nature in us is of the spirit. Put on the new man. And walk in him. Put off the old man the things of the flesh. Keep the commandment we had from the beginning to love one another. Put on love and walk in the light. If you say you have no sin you are a liar. Confess your sin and the blood of Jesus will cleanse you.  This is how you walk with GOd. No one does it perfect. When you stumble confess right away. We are righteous to God because of Jesus sacrifice . Not because of our works. Our works are because he gave us a new life in christ.

Yes, if we walk by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. But it's not automatic; we do have to make that choice. God gives us the desire to do what pleases Him, and the knowledge of what that is as we seek Him for it and put into practice what He has already shown us and commanded us; but we still have to deny ourselves daily in order to follow Jesus, choosing to do His will with our free will, and not to serve the sinful nature and have our own way instead.

This is the daily and moment by moment choice and commitment Christians have to make throughout their lives, and at any time we can choose to do so no longer. We may start the race well, but that doesn't necessarily mean we will finish it well---or at all. So we must be wise, vigilant, and faithful. Throw off everything that hinders. Keep our eyes on Jesus and our hearts set on doing what is pleasing to Him. Keep ourselves pure. And when we stumble, repent, and keep going forward, rather than rationalizing or attempting to hide our sin.

The Holy Spirit will convict the Christian, but that doesn't mean that the Christian will always choose to respond. We can choose to harden our hearts against Him, ignore His voice, and do what we please anyway; and many Christians do. Never underestimate the power of the sinful nature. God's grace is greater, but only if we choose to use it.

A Christian who makes the wrong choice, and chooses to serve his sinful nature and disregard the commandments and will of the Lord, will bear bad fruit, and will also not bear good fruit. But those who choose to put to death the desires of that nature and to obey the Lord, and whose will is to do God's will, will bear good fruit.

The unsaved have no such choice to make, as they do not have the Holy Spirit living in them; only Christians can make this choice. The man without the Spirit cannot please God in any way; he must be born-again before he can do any good work, and he must have the Spirit before he can walk by Him.

What happens to Christians when they choose not to obey the Lord and keep in step with the Spirit? They become:

...Lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of Godliness, but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:2-5)

Not much if any better than those who have never known God and who have always been this way.

"And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." (Matthew 24:12)

Christians who cast off Christ's law do not love Him, but themselves, no matter what they say. (Unsaved people who have never known God have never had any love for Him in the first place, that it could grow cold.)

As Jesus said to the Christians of the church at Ephesus:

"...I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent." (Revelation 2:4,5)

 

If it could happen to them, it can happen to you.

 

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

 

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:8,9)

Edited March 6, 2018 by LightShinesInTheDarkness

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

Grace is:

The God-given power and desire to do God's will, including keeping the commandments of the New Testament (not of the law of Moses)

Freedom from the dominion of sin and the ability to choose what pleases God

Freedom from the Law of Moses if you were a Jew before you got saved

 

Grace is not:

Freedom from the commandments and teachings of the New Testament (the law of Christ)

God's blessing to do whatever you please

The unconditional guarantee of salvation, no matter what you choose to do after being saved

 

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." (John 15:10)

 

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world---our faith. 

Who is that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:2-5)

And it is through this faith that we have access to the grace of God which enables us to put to death the desires of our sinful nature and to obey Him, which is the purpose for which it was given to us. The Christian who thinks that grace means that God's commandments are optional and that he doesn't have to keep them because God doesn't expect him to is a fool (that is, one who is foolish, like those five foolish virgins). He most certainly does expect us to.

If you're one of those Christians who has been so misled, I recommend that you re-read the New Testament and starting doing what it says, rather than receiving God's grace in vain.

The Holy Spirit guides Christians in the keeping of God's written word, and knowing and doing whatever is pleasing to Him in personal matters (personal faith). He does not approve of or lead into sin. So if you think you're walking by the Spirit, just because He's in you, and you're living however you please, you're a fool.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by LightShinesInTheDarkness
type-o

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words...

They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray...

For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved...

(Freedom to sin and to do whatever you please is not the freedom of Jesus Christ.)

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire." (2 Peter 2:1-3, 14,15, 18-22)

Don't let this be you.

 

The woman Folly is loud;

she is seductive and knows nothing.

She sits at the door of her house;

she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,

calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,

"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!"

And to him who lacks sense she says,

"Stolen water is sweet,

and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."

But he does not know that the dead are there,

that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

(Proverbs 9:13-18)

Folly is always more popular than wisdom. Don't be dazzled by big crowds.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3,4)

Are you one of them?

Myth: A widely held but false belief or idea. 

[simplejeff]

1 Samuel 15:22 [Full Chapter]

Samuel: Does the Eternal One delight in sacrifices and burnt offerings as much as in perfect obedience to His voice? Be certain of this: that obedience is better than sacrifice; to heed His voice is better than offering the fat of rams.

[simplejeff]

Acts 5:29

Peter and the Apostles: If we have to choose between obedience to God and obedience to any human authority, then we must obey God.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

[simplejeff]

Romans 6:1

How should we respond to all of this? Is it good to persist in a life of sin so that grace may multiply even more?

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

 

Romans 6:16

Doesn’t it make sense that if you sign yourself over as a slave, you will have to obey your master? The question before you is, What will be your master? Will it be sin—which will lead to certain death—or obedience—which will lead to a right and reconciled life?

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

(2 Corinthians 9:8)

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

NOTHING BETWEEN MY SOUL AND THE SAVIOR

Charles Albert Tindley

 

1. Nothing between my soul and the Savior,
Naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.

Refrain:
Nothing between my soul and the Savior,
So that His blessed face may be seen;
Nothing preventing the least of His favor,
Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

2. Nothing between, like worldly pleasure;
Habits of life, though harmless they seem,
Must not my heart from Him e’er sever;
He is my all, there’s nothing between.

3. Nothing between, like pride or station;
Self-life or friends shall not intervene;
Though it may cost me much tribulation,
I am resolved; there’s nothing between.

4. Nothing between, e’en many hard trials,
Though the whole world against me convene;
Watching with prayer and much self-denial,
I’ll triumph at last, with nothing between.
 

(Source: hymnal.net)

[frienduff thaylorde]

On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 6:39 AM, simplejeff said:

Romans 6:1

How should we respond to all of this? Is it good to persist in a life of sin so that grace may multiply even more?

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

 

Romans 6:16

Doesn’t it make sense that if you sign yourself over as a slave, you will have to obey your master? The question before you is, What will be your master? Will it be sin—which will lead to certain death—or obedience—which will lead to a right and reconciled life?

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Paul knew that we are the servants of whom we obey ,

Christ said it first .     And He came to set the captives free.      Just as many jews misunderstood in that day what the saying of THE TRUTH shall make you free

so to today many do not grasp this .   Their idea of being set free is the easy life and big money desires .

Being made free,   means being made dead to sin that we should live unto righteousness.   Not the concept of FEELING free while in sin  , but being made FREE FROM SIN .

And their is a major difference .   Their is POWER in the blood.    And that purges right into the inner most conscious .      AWAKE to righteousness and sin not.  

[4LdKHVCzRDj2]

5 minutes ago, frienduff thaylorde said:

Not the concept of FEELING free while in sin  , but being made FREE FROM SIN .

Exactly.

"as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things,
    in which are some things hard to understand,
which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction,
    as they do also the rest of the Scriptures." - 2 Peter 3:16

Edited March 6, 2018 by 4LdKHVCzRDj2