Quote:
Originally Posted by scgraham
Friend - sin will indeed shut you out of Heaven. When people really get saved, they stop all their willful sinning. If one is struggling with a certain sin, then they have to yield to the Lord to be released from that bondage, as you can't take it into Heaven. The highway of holiness makes no room for sin, and it's the only highway into Heaven. The reason people sin is because they are not yielding to the Lord, but rather their flesh. But, the Word makes it clear that yielding to the flesh is death.
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Your post entirely ignores two things, the process of sanctification and the judgment of the church.
For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? - 1 Peter 4:17
Church leadership rarely addresses this most important point. Those who are saved, who are sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, will not be UNsealed. That does not, however, excuse them to do whatever they want. This licentious attitude is popular among church leaders today both in Catholicism and Protestantism.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LICENSE TO SIN.
I once heard a Baptist preacher, who also held high office in a local Bible college, conclude his sermon on grace by saying, "
go out and sin this week that grace may abound." May it never be and may God have mercy upon the ears and hearts of those who heard this most grievous doctrine of demons.
"
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. - Jesus as quoted by Mathew 5:17
The cornerstone dogma of present Christian licentiousness asserts the Law has been destroyed or nullified.(*)
NOT SO. May it never be!!! No one, saved or unsaved, is allowed to live lawlessly. This means that flirtations with sin, or willful sin as the lead post calls it, WILL BE PUNISHED. Such judgment and such punishment is swift and sure. Sinners have been given a very little time to repent, but for those who've been saved and who've been taught to know better - there is a swift and painful and permanent judgment coming upon them. Be not deceived, He who holds the keys of life and death and blessing and curses will not be slack in His enforcement of the Law.
Are you saved and justified by faith in the blood of Jesus so as to have escaped punishment according to the Law? THEN LIVE LIKE IT.....else you shall surely learn a sad and hard lesson at the very hand of God. No one is allowed to sin and get away with it.
The purpose of the Law is to lead us to repentance.
Repentance is an attitude of complete and total abandonment of sin. Read the Old Testament. Once the Hebrews were delivered from Egypt and became God's people, THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO RETURN TO EGYPT. Though they sinned and fumed against the very God of heaven they were not allowed to return. THEY WERE PUNISHED and many of them died in the desert because of their rebellion against God. Saved or not, licentiousness will not be tolerated in the Kingdom of God. Those who are in Christ and who continue to sin will be punished - perhaps even by an early death.
Once led unto repentance the process of sanctification is meant to make us separate unto God. The blood of Christ redeems us from the punishment of the Law SO THAT
we may begin again with a clean slate and live our lives under the Law as pleasing to God and man. As it is written in Galatians 3:24 the Law becomes our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. The faithful are not justified by the Law, but saved by grace SO THAT they may live pleasingly before God according to the Law but not condemned by it.
When Jesus met the woman caught in adultery He forgave her. Then He told her to "go out and sin no more". He didn't give her permission to open a brothel, yet this very thing is the hellish doctrine promulgated in our churches today. Is it any wonder that Christendom has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the world?
Hear this O disbelieving people and all Christians who flirt with sin.
Our hope of eternal place and peace with God is certain and is not made or unmade with human hands, YET KNOW that immediate and earthly judgment will come swiftly upon those who commit willful sin. You will indeed reach heaven if you're saved, but you will be bloodied and beaten when you get there if you continue your lawless ways. It is even possible that God may execute death earlier than He had planned for you.
Jacob may have wrestled with the angel and won, but no man or woman living today can hope to sin and get away with it. Time is short and judgment is swift. Do you really want to chance it?
Jesus said, "
Do NOT put the Lord your God to the test." - Luke 4:12
Do you really want to find out what happens if you do?
Be wise and repent of flirtations with sin.......you won't get away with it and it will surely bite you.
Abandon sin and learn the great secret of ages past, that there is a boldness and confidence that comes with righteous living WITH God that cannot be defeated by the world.
Learn also that the axiom, 'nobody's perfect everybody makes mistakes' is of the pit of hell. Mistakes are not the same thing as sin. If a little girl falls while learning to ride a bicycle, did she sin or did she merely make a mistake? Jesus was a carpenter in His youth. I imagine He smashed his finger with a hammer a time or two. When He did was it a mistake or did He take the Lord's name in vain and sin? Jesus probably yelled in pain at His mistake, yet was not angry and didn't sin.
We learn from our mistakes, but sins destroy us.
It is possible to live one day without sinning.
If we can live one day why not two or three or a week? Make mistakes, but don't sin when you do.
that's me, hollering from the choir loft.....
(*)
Does the reader still think the Law is dead? Really? Which part, which one?. Examine the Ten Commandments, the Law. Is one who is saved allowed to lie cheat and steal? Is such a person allowed to take the Lord's good Name in vain? Are we all allowed to murder our neighbor, steal his goods and justify ourselves in the process? The Law stands. It is not destroyed, but will destroy those who break it.
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